Buck was sitting up, leaning against the pillow arranged behind him when Eddie re-entered the room. He had the blankets on Eddie's side of the bed drawn back and pillow propped against the wall next to his so the other man could easily slide back in and resume their lazy do-nothing morning.

Eddie carefully handed one of the mugs to Buck and sat down next to him. "I hope it's good," He said through a long yawn. "Sorry it's three months late."

"If it tastes good enough, I'll let it slide." Buck took a cautious sip of coffee as Eddie settled into place, pulling the blankets over his legs and arranging himself just so.

"And . . . ?" Eddie raised an eyebrow. "Do I get a pass?"

The other man pretended to ponder the question for a moment before breaking into an impish smile. "What three months?"

Eddie chuckled through a series of light kisses before taking a sip of his own beverage. "Not bad," he decided. "Not my best, but not bad. So . . . we're agreed, then? We are officially doing this?"

"Obviously." Buck rolled his eyes. "But you're cute when you ask dumb questions, so by all means-"

"Oh, shoot, I almost forgot!" Eddie sucked in a sharp breath, tensed and bracing himself for an annoyed Buck. "I do have one condition."

"You're exhausting!"

"Sorry," Eddie shrugged helplessly. "But I still have my kid to consider, and do I need to think about how it'll affect him if we don't work out in the long run." He paused in case Buck had something to say, but was met with only silence. "Okay. So. Here's the condition," Eddie cleared his throat. "We don't tell him we're dating right away. Not until we've been together for a while. Y'know, like . . . we're really established as a couple."

Buck leaned back, examining the look on his friend and/or boyfriend's face with a mix of concern and uncertainty.

Eddie went on explaining his logic. "The thing is, Shannon and I were like . . . wildly in love when we got married. We were solid, and I mean solid as a couple. But at the end of the day . . ." He couldn't think of a quick way to encapsulate everything that had gone wrong in his marriage. "Things got messed up. We both messed up. But right up 'til the day she died I kept hoping we could make it work, maybe, someday down the road. And I just . . ." again he paused, keenly aware he couldn't afford anything less than a perfect choice of words at that moment. "I can't tell Chrisopher we're together until I'm certain-or at least reasonably sure-that I won't have to sit him down for a 'why Daddy and Buck broke up' conversation someday."

"Okaaaaaay . . ." Buck drew out the word. He wasn't exactly thrilled with Eddie's lingering hesitation, but from a dad's point of view it did make sense. "Can I add a caveat?"

Eddie nodded yes.

"You get to decide when and how Chris finds out if I get to decide the same thing for our friends."

"Sure. But . . . why?" A crease appeared on Eddie's forehead. "They won't even care, so isn't a bunch of covert sneaking around and hiding just a pointless annoying waste of-" he stopped himself mid sentence. "Annoying me is the point, isn't it?"

"Three months!" Buck held up three fingers, his voice stern and resolute. "Three freakin' months I spent trying-really working-to get over what happened so we could be back to normal," he enunciated the word with air-quotes, "and move on, and I did all that for what turns out to be no reason at all!"

"Okay, deal." Eddie agreed to Buck's terms with no more hesitation or counterargument. "Annoy me."

"Great." Buck responded with a smart nod, and the two shared a business-like handshake before resuming their morning coffee-and-snuggle.

Buck slid down the mattress a bit and nestled himself against Eddie. "I think I'll come up with, like . . . a super huge spectacle," he mused. "Yeah. Make the whole thing one heeeeeeell of an announcement." He craned his neck to smirk up at Eddie. "Loud. Gaudy."

"Oh god," Eddie let out a long groan. "Please tell me it won't be in someplace public. Or involve an actual bullhorn. Or microphone. Or any kind of rainbow theme."

"I make no promises." The other man grinned.

Eddie was on the verge of trying to bargain Buck down to something only mildly embarrassing when he reminded himself how lucky he was that the guy had even considered giving him another chance in the first place.

He's here. He's in your freakin' BED! Eddie thought. You put him through so much, who the hell cares if he wants a little payback?

And thus Eddie Diaz accepted the next weeks of his life. Each day plagued by waking nightmares of what Buck might have planned. How ridiculous? How cringey?

The only thing that made it worthwhile was, as it turned out, sneaking around was kinda fun. A little thrill. A stealthy thing all their own.

Of course he realized that not long ago this sort of secrecy wouldn't have been an amusing, flippant, 'just for funzies' thing, but a necessary tool of survival.

But a lot of people-big damn heroes as far as he was concerned-had worked really hard to provide a different situation for himself and Buck. One where their intentional secrecy could just be a light, mischievous game.

And Eddie would have to wait a full five weeks for that game to end.

It happened on a mundane night when the while gang was gathered at Bobby and Athena's place for dinner. Eddie was mid gulp on a beer when Buck announced with a total lack of ceremony: "Oh by the way guys, I've been sleeping with Eddie for weeks."

Eddie doubled over, red faced and coughing as cold, fizzy liquid invaded his sinuses. "Alc-alcohol!" he sputtered. "Carbonated alcohol! It's in my brain!"

"YES!" Buck flung back in his chair with a victorious clap, genuinely trying not to laugh too hard at Eddie's suffering. " That was glorious. Now we're even!"

"Huh," Chim clinked his glass against Maddie's. "Actual boy-crush. You were right."

"Y'okay?" Bobby chuckled, reaching out to give Eddie's shoulder a teasing shake. "Gonna live?"

"Seriously, Buck?" Eddie wheezed, his composure still in no hurry to return.

"Sorry," Buck shrugged. "But oooooooooh man that was perfect!"

"I thought the idea was some kind of ridiculous production, Buck! I had literal nightmares!"

"I know!" Buck giggled, then addressed the whole group. "I've had him convinced for weeks that I was gonna make him march through the station in like a full-on freakin' pride shirt shouting 'I HAVE A BOYFRIEND!"

"So . . . wait, that kinda thing was never the real plan?" Eddie asked as the last of his beer-choked cough subsided.

"Nope." Buck shook his head. "It was aaaaaaaalllllllllll about watching you squirm. It's been fun."

Hen, meanwhile, sat with a frown on her usually serene face, deep in thought. "How did I not spot this?" She asked, indicating the two men. "I'm gay, I'm supposed to be able to smell other gay!"

"Bi," Buck and Eddie said in unison.

"Semantics!" the woman shot back.

"If it makes you feel better, I had no idea either," Bobby assured her.

"Oh great," Hen cringed. "I have the relative awareness of a straight white man!"

Bobby gave her a soft smile and sympathetic pat on the back before returning his attention to the new(ish) couple. "So it's going good, I take it?"

Eddie nodded. "Really good."

"Uh-huh," Buck echoed.

"We haven't told Christopher yet, though," Eddie continued. "I mean, we are doing awesome, I just wanna be really careful about bringing big changes into his life." He stopped and broke out in a huge smile. "But when we do tell him-"

"Oh, he'll be thrilled," Bobby assured them both with the confidence of a man who could see the future. "Everyone knows how much that kid loves his Buck!"

"Oh my god!" Maddie let out a high pitched squeal, clapping softly and wiggling with excitement. "If you two get married I'll be his Aunt!"

"Slow down, Big Sister!" Buck insisted. "Eddie and I aren't even thinking about that right now."

"Oooooooooh, and you can adopt, too!" The woman crooned, more to tease her brother than anything else. "I vote girl! Adopt a girl! And can I be your Maid of Honor?!"

"Will you shut up?" Buck whined, then turned to Chimney. "Can you shut her up?"

"You vastly overestimate my power here, friend," was Chim's shrugging response.

Not long after that night, Eddie noticed his son had transitioned from drawing giraffes and tigers to sharks and sea lions, so he and Buck decided to surprise the kid with a weekend trip to a research and rehabilitation aquarium that had just recently opened up to the public.

It was about a 90 minute drive to get there, and the whole time Christopher could barely contain his excitement. Hence the question 'how much longer?' was asked, by Eddie's estimation, roughly a thousand times.

"I don't think he's ever moved this fast in his life!" He whispered in Buck's ear while the kid charged ahead as fast as his legs and crutches could carry him.

Buck chuckled quietly. "If we're not careful he may outrun us."

The massive facility turned out to be a perfect blend of entertaining and educational.

Most of their marine animals, a wandering staff member explained, were rescued from illegal and/or abusive aquariums (or ultra-rich private owners) all over the world.

Of those rescued, some could be taught to survive in the wild and released. The rest were kept in environments designed by marine biologists and other experts to replicate, as close as possible, the animal's natural habitat.

Christopher focused mostly on the happy fact that there were so many smart people dedicated to rehab and rescue.

But for the adults in the room, it was hard not to get angry while reading some of the informational plaques peppered throughout the aquarium.

One wealthy jackass had even kept a dolphin by itself in an environment hardly bigger than a backyard swimming pool, and after the raid-and-rescue it took nearly a year to get the poor thing healthy again and teach it to socialize with other dolphins.

Christopher went on observing and learning various (less depressing) facts about each animal and habitat, and Eddie was pretty sure his kid could spend weeks there. Just staring and commenting. Asking staff members a million questions.

We'll have to visit this place again, Eddie promised himself.

"Y'know, up this close their faces look just like dogs!" Buck observed when a seal pup swam close to the glass. "I didn't know that. Look Chris!" He pointed to one of the smaller seals as it swam in loops only inches away from the glass. "Water puppies, right?"

"Water puppies!" Christopher giggled. "Yeah."

As the two continued their animated chat Eddie stood back, taking it all in, so happy he could barely feel his feet on the ground.

Through one dark hallway was a habitat populated by jellyfish. Many of them bioluminescent, and most having damaged tentacles or even (and neither Buck nor Eddie knew this was a thing for jellyfish) nerve damage.

Sad origin stories, yes, but the colorful display did manage hypnotize all three of them.

"It's like . . . they're not even from earth . . . " Eddie whispered dreamily. "Or they came to life straight outta someone's imagination . . ."

"Yeeeeaaaaaaah," Buck litled the single word, barely aware of anything else as they went on staring at the strange, graceful creatures.

The next day at their favorite park, Christopher knelt on a picnic bench between the two men and tapped on his dad's shoulder. "Hey . . . hey dad . . . ?"

"What's up, little man?"

"When can My Buck move in with us?"

Buck and Eddie exchanged confused looks and Buck leaned closer, placing a gentle hand on Christopher's back. "Um, whaaaaaaat makes you think I'm moving in?"

"You held hands at the aquarium."

Eddie's eyes darted back and forth between Buck's and Christopher's, certain the kid was wrong. They'd been fastidious about maintaining a lack of any romantic-type PDA when he was around.

For the time being, at least, Eddie opted for gaslighting. "I, uh, I think you might be seeing things, pal."

"Nope," Chris chirped, shaking his head as he squirmed off the bench and gathered his crutches. "At the glowing jellyfish place. You held hands a few minutes. I think My Buck should move in someday."

Before either man could say anything, the boy walked off toward the play equipment.

Buck and Eddie remained seated.

Gaping at one another.

At a complete loss for words.

"Well," Eddie finally spoke up, "Christopher just blew up my timeline, so I guess that's done."

"Technically a bunch of glowing sea aliens blew up your timeline," said Buck with a tiny grin.

Eddie just chuckled and slid closer to him. With their whole reason for avoiding displays of affection having been obliterated, Buck decided to take things a step further, threading his fingers through Eddie's and resting their joined hands on the table.

The silence between them was relaxed and cozy for a long while, until Eddie broke it with what he felt was an important question:

"You do know they're not actually aliens, right?"

Buck's only response was to give the man a playful shoulder bump.

They went on watching Christopher while a few of his usual park friends helped him to climb various structures. It could be quite a process at times, but through trial and error they'd collectively figured out ways of keeping Chris involved in all the fun.

There was the odd topple or bruise at times, of course-even a sprained wrist once.

But since his son considered it all worth the price of admission into Regular World, Eddie had long since trained himself to sit back and just let things happen.

At least where parenting was concerned.

In other areas 'just letting things happen' was not Eddie's strong suit.

So how long should we wait before you move in? He wondered, casting sidelong glances at Buck as he mulled over the question. Anything less than a year is too soon, right? Yeah, we should wait at least a year. Maybe a year and a half. That's it, a year and half.

Eight months later he, Christopher, and Buck were wrapping Buck's plates and bowls in newspaper and packing them carefully into boxes.

On the side of each box Christopher scrawled in blue and green crayons: 'For Our New House.'

THE END.