make my wish come true

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/35475112.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Category: M/M
Fandom: 9-1-1 (TV)
Relationship: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Character: Evan "Buck" Buckley, Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV), Christopher Diaz (9-1-1
TV), Background & Cameo Characters
Additional Tags: The118Advent2021, Letters to Santa, Evan "Buck" Buckley is Good
With Kids, Christopher Diaz is a National Treasure, Getting Together,
First Kiss
Language: English
Series: Part 2 of festive advent collection
Stats: Published: 2021-12-03 Words: 1649

make my wish come true

by chromatophorica

Summary

“Did you read Chris’ letter?”

“Oh, um, no. They were all super secretive about them, I figured that’s like part of the
magic or something?” Buck shrugged lightly, moving to the kitchen to get a drink, starting
to get plates and cutlery out for dinner. “Why, he didn’t ask for the impossible, did he?”

---
The kids write their letters to Santa and there's just one thing Chris wants. Time to see if
Santa can do Christopher Diaz a solid and go four for four.

Notes

title from All I Want For Christmas is You by (the legend) Mariah Carey

See the end of the work for more notes

“Buck, I need a red pen.” There’s some chaos among the crafts before Buck is plucking one of the
red marker pens from the pile and passing it along.

“There we go, can you manage the cap?” Biting her lip, little face scrunched up in concentration,
Nia pulls the cap off, getting red ink over her palm as she does it, “Great job, princess.” There’s a
soft ‘ta’ as Nia goes back to drawing a little Santa at the bottom of the page. “How’re you getting
on Denny?”

“Great!” Denny is just a flurry of movements, swapping out pens and colours so he can write his
name in curly letters. Beside him, Harry has carefully finished his letter with a look of
determination as he looks it over, folding it in half and putting it into the envelopes that Buck had
already laid out for them all.

There’s glitter and stars and different stickers for putting on their letters, Chris already having gone
a little crazy with the glitter around his envelope.

“Okay, so now we’ve got the letters done, are we ready for some cookie decorating?” Bobby had
made the cookies early, before the parents dropped off their kids at Buck’s place, supplies already
gathered, so that all the adults with children could get their shopping and wrapping done, and hide
their presents without worrying that curious little kids would wander in.

It’s not like Buck minds; they decorate cookies, let them dry and then sit in front of Buck’s
television watching Klaus on Netflix. They’re engrossed enough that Buck can clean up the craft
bomb that went off at his dining table, he doesn’t even care that he’s going to be finding glitter for
months at this rate, just the fact that the kids had fun.

Hen and Karen arrive first to pick up Denny and Nia, both their letters carefully handed over while
Nia babbles to Karen about what they were doing and Denny shouts his goodbyes to Harry and
Chris. Bobby shows up for Harry, since Athena and Michael were still carefully hiding Harry and
May’s presents at Michael’s apartment.

“You survive it all, then?” Bobby claps a hand on his shoulder, pocketing Harry’s letter and the
tupperware he’d brought with the cookies in his other hand.

“Yeah, I mean, they were great and I probably made more mess than they did.” Buck was the one
who bought the glitter and the icing pens for the cookies after all, it’s not like he didn’t know he
was going to have smears of icing on his couch and pen marks on his table. It wasn’t like he even
cared that much given how happy the kids were.

Harry gives him a high five on the way out, leaving just Buck and Chris now, and Eddie isn’t
coming over until later anyway which means Buck can flop himself down on the couch with Chris,
sparking countless giggles and flip the television to Muppet Christmas Carol for them both to sit
and watch while snuggled under a blanket.

It’s definitely why he wakes up later, as Eddie tries to quietly shuffle around the loft, Chris huffing
little breaths and drooling on Buck’s arm where they’ve fallen asleep. “Hey,” Eddie’s tone is soft,
voice low, trying not to disturb Chris despite the fact that he absolutely needs to wake up to eat
dinner.

Still, Buck manages to carefully manoeuvre until Chris is nestled in blankets, safely on the couch,
wriggling himself out to stretch the kinks from his back and cross the floor, meeting Eddie by the
dining table. “You okay? You get everything you wanted?” Eddie had taken Abuela with him to
get things for Chris, Buck knew that Eddie was partially doing it to stop Abuela just spoiling Chris
and partly to make sure she had company while out shopping.

“Yeah, um… I put a few things up in your bathroom, that’s okay, right?” Buck just waves him off,
because of course it is, he just doesn’t think that’s what it is that Eddie’s really being weird about.
The raised eyebrows and his expression likely clue Eddie in that he needs more to go on. “Did you
read Chris’ letter?”
“Oh, um, no. They were all super secretive about them, I figured that’s like part of the magic or
something?” Buck shrugged lightly, moving to the kitchen to get a drink, starting to get plates and
cutlery out for dinner. “Why, he didn’t ask for the impossible, did he?”

Buck remembers Chris asking Santa for his mom, hearing about how Chris had asked Santa to
bring back his dad. He knows he played into things a little last year when he’d talked to Athena
about organising a big family Christmas at the station, Chris getting his Christmas wish once
again. He’s going to be crushed if he doesn’t get what he asks for this year.

“That depends.” Eddie is evasive again, glancing at the letter and folding it back up, sliding it into
the envelope and leaving it on the table. “Depends on… well, on what happens next.” Buck didn’t
get the chance to ask Eddie what that meant. He was too busy taking in the determined look on
Eddie’s face, the set to his shoulders, they way he all but marched right into the kitchen, backing
Buck into the counters and—

Kissing him.

Eddie was kissing him.

Not just a soft, quick, careful peck, not even a drunk under the mistletoe smooch. Eddie had a hand
framing Buck’s cheek, tilting his head to get the right angle, pressing his body in close and caging
Buck against the counter, lips pressed to Buck’s, moving with purpose and easily coaxing Buck
into participating. It’s the shock of a tongue slipping into his mouth that has Buck stuttering out a
moan, his hands finally moving to grasp at Eddie’s hips and pull him in closer -not that there’s
much closer they can get without fusing their bodies together.

An inherent need for oxygen is all that pulls them apart, not that either of them go far; Buck’s grip
on Eddie’s hips doesn’t let him step back, Eddie pressing his forehead to Buck’s throat, leaning
into each other to catch their breath and—

“Chris’ letter to Santa was to get you to kiss me?” Buck doubts that makes sense, but it’s not like
much of anything makes sense when his brain just shut off because—

Eddie just kissed him.

“He wants us together, like a family, he wants you to be part of our family.” And that warms
something in Buck’s chest, despite knowing already that Chris loves him, the fact that Chris’ wish
this year is him just settles something that he hasn’t entirely trusted for a long time. “And you are
family, you’ve always been our family, but I just—”

“Want more?” There’s hardly enough space between them to have this conversation, they’re
pressed against one another from hips to chest, lips brushing any time they talk, but Buck feels like
he might die if Eddie pulls away. “Me too.”

It takes very little for Buck to tilt into another kiss, his lips brushing Eddie’s, raising a hand to cup
the back of Eddie’s head and pull him in closer, keeping the kiss light and heartfelt without entirely
meaning it. There’s a chance, right now, that Chris’ wish isn’t the only one coming true, and Buck
gave up on hoping for miracles a long time ago, but the notion that he might actually get exactly
what he wants for Christmas this year is enough to have that little childhood spark coming back.

“I wanna be more than friends,” Eddie says it right into Buck’s mouth, lips catching, their noses
rubbing against one another, Buck absently nuzzling into the motion, “I wanna fall asleep in bed
together because we meant to,” instead of the few awkward times they’d fallen into bed exhausted
and woke up cuddling because, of course, they had, “I wanna take you to PTA things and introduce
 you as my boyfriend or partner or whatever term you want, I just want people to know you’re mine.
That you belong with me and Chris,” Buck doesn’t even try to contain the soft whine in his throat,
both his arms looping around Eddie’s shoulders to tug him in, pressing a series of kisses to Eddie’s
mouth, his cheek, along his jaw.

“Yes, all of that, I want it too.” It’s not like he’s been overly subtle in his thrumming jealousy any
time one of the divorced moms hit on Eddie at Chris’ school events. Like Chris hadn’t vaguely
implied that Buck was his other dad. “I don’t care if it’s too fast or whatever, I’m already so
stupidly in love with you that it’s not even funny, Eddie.” It had been a little sad and pathetic a few
times, he’s not going to lie, but even his sister has stopped teasing him since she knows it’s literally
not even funny anymore.

Eddie hums quietly, burying his face in Buck’s throat, arms wrapped around his waist, “I love you
too, Evan.” And it might be mumbled into his throat, might be hidden from his scrutiny, but Buck’s
not about to ask Eddie to make himself more open than he’s comfortable with. He said it, Buck
heard it, Christmas wish come true.

Tightening his arms around Eddie’s shoulders, hugging him close, Buck figures that even if it took
twenty odd years, Evan’s only letter to Santa finally coming true was definitely worth it; he got to
spend Christmas with a family that loved him.

“Best Christmas ever.” He feels Eddie laugh into his neck, but there’s no movement to put distance
between them; even if they’ll need to wake Chris, get him fed, figure out what they’re doing. It can
wait a while longer.

They’ve got time to savour this.

End Notes

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