can't start a fire without a spark

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/55138594.

Rating: General Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: M/M
Fandom: 9-1-1 (TV)
Relationship: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Characters: Evan "Buck" Buckley, Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV), Howie "Chimney" Han,
Ravi Panikkar, Henrietta "Hen" Wilson, Bobby Nash
Additional Tags: Buddie Week (9-1-1 TV), Buddie Week 2024 (9-1-1 TV), Didn't Know
They Were Dating, Oblivious Evan "Buck" Buckley, Eddie Diaz in Love
(9-1-1 TV), Domestic Fluff, they were dating you don't understand
Language: English
Collections: Buddie Week 2024
Stats: Published: 2024-04-12 Words: 2,365 Chapters: 1/1
 can't start a fire without a spark
by heir2slytherin

Summary

He knew, of course, that he and Eddie were not dating. But were these dates? Was it not
normal to spend every free weekend together? Was it not platonic to just assume that he was
going to follow Eddie home, or drive him home even, after every shift? Was it considered
romantic to know exactly what someone would order from their favorite restaurant? Because
Eddie just called their usual Thai restaurant and didn’t even have to ask what Buck wanted.

So, sure, Buck knew that they weren’t dating. He knew that the past few Fridays, weekend,
hell even years weren’t dates, but what if Buck wanted them to be? What if Buck would be
happy thinking that every hangout they had was actually a date? What if Buck wanted to ask
Eddie on a real date?

...

Or, Buddie Week 2024 Day 5: didn't know they were dating

Notes

hi again! i actually recently discovered that "didn't know they were dating" is one of my
favorite tropes, so i had so much fun writing this and i hope i did it justice!

See the end of the work for more notes

It was a Friday afternoon at the end of a very “q word” shift, and everyone (besides Eddie
who was on bathroom duty) was sitting around the kitchen table talking about their plans for
the weekend. It wasn’t often that they had time to relax like this, but there wasn’t anything
for them to do. There was only so much Bobby could do to keep these teenagers at bay at the
end of a long school day. At least, that’s what it felt like.

“So, what is everyone doing this weekend?” Ravi asked happily.

”Me and Maddie convinced Albert to watch Jee tonight, so we’ve got a big date night,” Chim
answered excitedly. “Which probably means we’ll be asleep by 7 tonight, but honestly that
still sounds fun to me.”

“Karen and I are also childfree tonight, and we will not be going to sleep early,” Hen
disagreed. “We like to make sure we have an actual date at least every other month.”

Chim hummed. “I think falling asleep on the couch is an actual date.”

“Listen, when you and Maddie have been married for as long as Karen and I have, then we
can talk,” Hen told him, causing Chimney to roll his eyes.

“Cap, how about you and Athena? What are you doing tonight?” Ravi asked, turning
everyone’s attention toward Bobby.

“I don’t mean to sound like a broken record, but we also have a date. It’s our anniversary,”
Bobby explained.

Hen furrowed her eyebrows. “No it isn’t.”

Bobby smirked into his coffee cup. “A different kind of anniversary.”

“Ew, ew, ew,” Buck grumbled, covering his ears. “I did not need to hear that.”

“It’s payback for Buck 1.0,” Chimney joked and Buck kicked him under the table.

“If anyone cares, Christopher has a sleepover tonight, so I’m going to Eddie’s for pizza and
Succession . We want to finish season three tonight,” Buck informed.

“Ugh,” Ravi groaned. “So, I’m the only one who doesn’t have a date tonight. I shouldn’t have
even asked.”

“I wouldn’t call what me and Eddie are doing a date,” Buck laughed, putting his hands in the
air in mock surrender.

“Like, Chim said, falling asleep on the couch can be a date. You just have to have someone to
do it with,” Ravi explained. “You guys all have someone to go on dates with, and I am going
to die alone.”

“Me and Eddie aren’t—”

“You’re not going to die alone, Ravi,” Hen said, putting a hand on his thigh. “You’re way less
annoying than Buck was at your age and look at him.”

“Wait–”

“Buck!” Eddie announced, walking up the stairs into the kitchen. “Can we get Thai instead of
pizza tonight? I know I said I was getting fine with getting pizza two times in a row, but I
think I lied.”

“And you were reminded of that while cleaning the bathroom?” Chimney questioned,
eyebrows raised.
Eddie glared at him. “No, when I saw we only had a minute left of shift, I realized I wasn’t
dying to go home and eat pizza.”

“But you were dying to go home and get Thai?” Chimney asked, and Eddie was beginning to
wonder why he was so curious about this. “Or were you dying to go home with Buck?”

“I mean, yeah, I love going home with Buck,” Eddie replied, not thinking anything of what
he was saying. “Am I missing something?”

“Shift is over,” Bobby stated, clapping his hands together. “Good work today, everyone. And
have fun on your dates.”

“Bobby–”

Bobby fixed Buck with a look. “Buck, have a good night.”

Everyone filed out of the kitchen, all taking turns patting Buck on the back while Eddie just
stood there staring at him.

“What did you do?” Eddie asked, hands on his hips.

Buck shook his head in disbelief. “Can we just go home please?”

“Yeah, you’re driving,” Eddie told him, turning around to walk down the stairs. “I’ll call to
order the food on the way home.”

“I never said I was good with thai,” Buck called after him.
“But could you ever say no to me?” Eddie asked at the bottom of the stairs, shooting Buck a
smile.

The answer was no, which Eddie knew. Buck smiled as they got into the Jeep. His smile
faltered slightly when he remembered the earlier conversation. What was everyone talking
about? Did they seriously think Buck and Eddie were going on a date? Did they think Buck
and Eddie were dating? Or, maybe they were just kidding. That didn’t really matter though
because they got Buck thinking, and now he couldn’t stop thinking.

He knew, of course, that he and Eddie were not dating. But were these dates? Was it not
normal to spend every free weekend together? Was it not platonic to just assume that he was
going to follow Eddie home, or drive him home even, after every shift? Was it considered
romantic to know exactly what someone would order from their favorite restaurant? Because
Eddie just called their usual thai restaurant and didn’t even have to ask what Buck wanted.

So, sure, Buck knew that they weren’t dating. He knew that the past few Fridays, weekend,
hell even years weren’t dates, but what if Buck wanted them to be? What if Buck would be
happy thinking that every hangout they had was actually a date? What if Buck wanted to ask
Eddie on a real date?

But would Buck even need to ask? What if they were so far into this thing that Buck missed
the asking stage? What if they were already years into their relationship but nobody told
them? Buck thoughts were going around and around in circles, and he had no idea what to
make of them.

“Earth to Buck,” Eddie’s voice called out. Buck blinked his eyes and suddenly, they were in
Eddie’s driveway. Buck had driven them there and not even noticed. Like it was the easiest
thing in the world to do. Like his body was hardwired to get to Eddie’s home. “Are we
getting out of the car, or are we just going to keep staring at my garage?”

“Right, sorry,” Buck replied, pulling the keys out of the ignition.

“What exactly did I miss?” Eddie mumbled to himself as they walked into the house. He
went into the kitchen to grab two beers while Buck plopped himself onto the couch.
“Are we starting the show before dinner or after?” Buck asked, propping his feet up and
grabbing the remote.

Eddie handed him the beer. “Food will be here in a few minutes. Don’t see the point of
starting an episode now. Plus, I know that you can’t concentrate on anything else when we’re
eating dinner.”

“That is not true,” Buck scoffed.

“Yes, it is,” Eddie chuckled. “You’re worse than Christopher. You just shovel the food and
don’t even look at me.”

Buck bumped their shoulders together. “I didn’t realize it was such a struggle to eat with me.”

“There’s nobody else I’d rather eat dinner with,” Eddie said, looking Buck in the eye. It
lingered for a second too long, and Buck almost brought up the internal struggle he was
dealing with. Almost. But then the doorbell rang. “Come on, bud, we’re eating in the kitchen
like civilized adults.”

Buck pulled himself off the couch and stalked into the kitchen, setting the table with utensils
and napkins while Eddie got the food. He got both himself and Eddie water in addition to
their beers and sat down. His heart warmed at the smile Eddie had on his face when he
entered with the food.

“I guess you really did want to switch to Thai,” Buck joked.

“Sorry to switch up like that,” Eddie murmured, taking their food out of the bag. “We can get
pizza next time. Promise.”

Buck smiled. “Sure, next time.”

Next weekend. Next date. Next time Buck was in love with Eddie and never realized it. They
ate their dinner and talked about everything and nothing. Christopher’s week at school, what
they were going to do that weekend, how tired they were after work. The whole time Buck
could feel Eddie’s ankle against his under the table. Buck had to steady his breathing so his
heart didn’t beat out of his chest.

If this had been a woman, Buck wouldn’t have thought twice that this was a date. If this had
been a woman, Buck figured they probably would have been officially dating for years. If
this had been a woman, Buck probably would have proposed by now.

Buck just would have been a lot quicker on the uptake if Eddie had been a woman the whole
time. The thing was that it wasn’t that Buck wished Eddie was a girl. He was more than
comfortable with being with a guy. He was more than comfortable not being straight. He just
didn’t realize that until like five minutes ago. He didn’t realize he was dating Eddie until like
five minutes ago.

They finished dinner, and Buck quickly got to cleaning up. Normally, Eddie would clean up
after Buck made dinner, but Buck had always insisted when they ordered out that he should
be the one to clean up. Eddie had given up fighting it years ago. He clapped Buck on the back
before retreating into the living room while Buck finished.

He was grateful to have a few minutes to think about this. He had just come to the realization
that he and Eddie hadn’t had a platonic relationship in years, and he was totally okay with it.
He was more than okay with it. He was ecstatic. He just needed to know what Eddie thought
of all of this.

Buck walked into the living room and saw Eddie sitting in his designated couch spot. Buck
always sat on the left, and Eddie always sat on the right. If Christopher was there, he would
have sat in the middle. It was just what they did. Buck smiled to himself as he sat in his spot.

“Eddie?”

“Yeah?”
“When did we start dating?”

Eddie choked. “What?”

“When did we start dating?” Buck repeated. “When did it become obvious that I was going to
go home with you? When did Friday nights become date nights? When did we decide to start
living our lives together but never tell each other?”

“Oh my god. Is this what I missed at work? Did someone say something to you?” Eddie
asked. His knee hit Buck’s. “Look, Buck, people don’t get us.”

“Don’t they?”

“What?”

Buck looked Eddie in the eyes. “If you heard about two people who spent as much time as
we do together, wouldn’t you think they were together? If you heard two people fought as
hard to be together, wouldn’t you think they were actually together? If you heard of someone
raising their best friend’s child with said best friend, wouldn’t you think they were at least a
little in love?”

“A little?” Eddie asked with a smirk.

“Okay, a lot, whatever,” Buck admitted, shrugging.

“It’s whatever that you’re ‘a lot in love’ with me?” Eddie questioned.

“Can you please?” Buck begged.

“I would think they were together, Buck,” Eddie responded, grabbing one of Buck’s hands. “I
would know that one of them was a complete idiot who had been in love with his best friend
for years, but he was too scared to say anything so he pretended that it was totally normal that
their relationship was not at all platonic.”

“The whole time?” Buck asked as Eddie rubbed his thumb over Buck’s hand.

Eddie nodded. “The whole time. Well, most of it at least. You know you kind of hated me at
first.”

“Were you ever going to tell me we were dating?”

“I was waiting for you to figure it out,” Eddie told him. “And look at you now. I’m so proud.”

“Don’t be proud of me. The team practically told me,” Buck groaned. “I cannot believe Ravi
thought we were dating, and I couldn’t even figure it out.”

Eddie shifted a little but still held Buck’s hand in his. “This isn’t just because the team told
you, right?”

Buck fixed him with a look. “Did you miss when I said I was in love with you?”

“I just wanted to make sure,” Eddie said, shrugging. “I’ve waited a long time for this. I didn’t
want to get my hopes up or anything.”

“I love you, Eddie. I just needed a little push in the right direction,” Buck admitted. “I just
wish I would’ve known we were dating.”

“We’re not actually dating, bud. It’s just obvious that this is more than friendship,” Eddie
explained, squeezing Buck’s hand. “You and me. It’s always been more than friendship. I
love you to the core, Evan.”
Buck groaned, which was not at all what Eddie was expecting. “You don’t get to be all
romantic like that when you’re the one who’s known the whole time. I’m trying to make up
for lost time here.”

Eddie sat back expectantly. “Go ahead. Romance me, Buckley.” Buck immediately fluttered
his eyelashes, and Eddie regretted his decision. “Oh god, this is already so much better.”

“I didn’t even do anything yet,” Buck frowned, and Eddie wanted to kiss it right off of him,
which he was totally allowed to do now.

“Kiss me, Buck, before I do it first and you get mad that I stole it from you,” Eddie begged.

Buck grinned. “Aye, aye, captain.”

He surged forward and connected their lips, and it was everything. He could not believe that
they could have been doing this the entire time. If only he had known.

“Do we have an anniversary I missed?” Buck asked, breathless.

“We weren’t actually dating, Buck.”

“We were in principle.”

“We were not.”

“But, we are now.”

“Yes, we are.”

“Wait, no let me ask.”

“Buck.”

“Eddie, will you go on a date with me?”

“You name the time and place. I’m there,” Eddie responded.

Buck grinned. “Our first date!”

“Actually, that was–”

“Shut up.”

“I can’t believe you didn’t realize–”

“Shut up.”

“It’s just so–”

“I won’t kiss you again.”

“Shutting up.”
End Notes

thank you for reading! hope you liked it! see you tomorrow!

Please drop by the Archive and comment to let the creator know if you enjoyed their work!