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“I told you so.”
Eddie withholds a grimace, but only just barely, especially with the two empty syringes of emergency suppressants on the kitchen island they’re sitting at. Buck has no luck, looking very embarrassed and like he would like to be anywhere but here.
“You two are lucky I placed these here,” Hen seethes at them. “Because what did you two say when we got quarantined together? ‘We’ll be fine.’ ‘We have surpressants.’ ‘We can share a bed.’”
She breathes out a sigh, calming down. “Now look where we are!”
“Hen,” Chimney reminds her. “We don’t have much time.”
Yeah, they don’t. Emergency suppressants were only made to suppress an alpha or omega’s onset of their cycle for 30 minutes max, taken to get said alpha or omega out of an unwanted situation. Unfortunately, every person is different. They’ve seen alphas and omega throw off the emergency suppressants in less than ten minutes.
And considering both his and Buck’s body negated their usual suppressants…
“Five minutes,” Hen tells them. “You’ve got five minutes to talk it out while Chim and I pack our stuff to get out of here. You know what it means when an alpha and omega’s suppressants fail at the same time, but I don't need to tell you to not force anything to happen because of your nature. If you decide to ride this through separately, Buck is staying, and we’ll figure out where to situate Eddie.”
Hen and Chim immediately go off to pack because, however this conversation goes, they have to find another place to quarantine.
Eddie doesn’t know where to start though.
Their suppressants failed. The only reasons they would both fail at the same time are because he and Buck are a fated pair and/or they both have strong romantic feelings for each other.
Dios, he hopes it's the latter if not both. He always thought fated relationships were superficial. Why let the universe pick for you? You can't even guarantee it'll work out! There are plenty who don’t!
His relationship with Buck is everything but superficial. He doesn't want something like being fated to pull them together only for it all to fall apart.
He can’t deny that he’s always wanted Buck though. Eddie’s wanted- no needed him at first sight. It was an instantaneous feeling, a feeling that he had pushed down and shoved in a box because he could not do that to a coworker and would not succumb to his instincts.
Sure, he was intrigued by the other man. Eddie has always felt sickened seeing omegas bend over to other people's whims because of their nature but Buck was different. While he knew the LAFD had omegas in their ranks (1 out of 20, the guidebooks had said), it was an entirely different thing to meet one. At first glance, he would have thought Buck was an alpha, and Eddie would have continued to have thought so with Buck’s attitude towards him. The scent gave him away, though, and it intrigued him that an omega would not wear scent blockers at work and stand up against an alpha.
Buck was completely unlike any omega he had met.
Then he got to know the man, and Eddie was quickly pulled into Buck’s orbit. He couldn’t get enough of Buck. Buck is unyielding when there are people to save. Unyielding against remarks about his secondary gender. Unyielding against alphas who are rude, sexist, elitist, etc.. Unyielding when his family is harmed.
But Buckck is also so soft and kind and loving and caring and loves Eddie’s pup like his own.
Buck is everything Eddie wants in an omega.
What if those feelings are reciprocated? What if that's the reason why their bodies are gearing up to mate with each other?
Their close proximity to each other these days could have been the straw that broke the camel's back. Not that they weren't always close, but the pandemic really brought them together with them having to live together. They basically see each other 24/7 unless their shifts don't line up, but that's less common now that Bobby and the other captains decided to try to keep groups living together on the same shifts. They also sleep together because Buck has a big enough bed for two and the only two comfortable enough to share were him and Buck.
All of that accumulated to the events that led them here.
They had gotten off a tough shift, an apartment fire started by a cooking mishap. They lost one person and had to send dozens of others to already crammed hospitals.
By the time they got back to the station, it was 2 hours after their shift had ended, and they were all exhausted by the time they got back to the loft, cleaned up, and in bed.
Exhausted enough that both Buck and Eddie forgot to erect the small blanket and pillow barrier that had kept them physically separated.
Eddie remembers vaguely waking up once in the middle of the night to find Buck cuddled up against him. As tired as he was and content with the proximity though, he had only thrown an arm over Buck and went back to sleep. It did make it the best sleep of his life, but he also woke up to them humping each other, their cycles setting in, syncing for the first time since they'd known each other
The rather sudden onset of pheromones in the air had alerted and woken Hen who rushed up to them to administer the emergency suppressants before it got out of hand.
And here they are.
“I'm sorry.”
Eddie whips around to look at Buck. He looks completely guilt-stricken, and Eddie could not have that.
“There's nothing to be sorry for,” Eddie insists. “This is just how our biology works.”
“I should've put that barrier up. Or kept my hands to myself, but you were right there and I couldn't help myself.”
“Buck.” He puts a hand on the omega's knee, heart thumping in his chest. Was Buck turning to Eddie for comfort or was there something more? “I could say the same thing.”
“I've tried to respect your boundaries,” he mumbles, looking at Eddie's hand on his knee, finger twitching like he wants to hold it.
Eddie wants him to, but it also reminds him they're in a time crunch.
“We can talk it out later, but we need to figure out what we're doing. Do you want to spend our cycles together?”
He wants to remind Buck that it'll be rough for them both without partners for a triggered heat but that feels too much like coercing Buck to choose to spend it together.
Buck licks his lips, and Eddie can’t help but track the motion.
“I do,” Buck tells him, making Eddie’s wolf stand to attention, eager to finally mate the omega he’s wanted for two years. “But Eddie…I don’t know if I can.”
“What do you mean?”
“I-I don’t know if I can spend this heat with you and never do it again. I’d lose my mind wanting it again but not being able to have it.”
Eddie can’t misunderstand that, right? Does Buck want him?!
“Buck-”
“I love you, Eds. You are the kindest, greatest alpha I know, and I want to be able to take your clothes without wondering if it’d be weird. I want to scent you and you to scent me.” Buck blushes, and Eddie is enamored by it. It’s so cute. “I-I want your knot…repeatedly. I want to spend all my heats with you. I want Christopher to officially be my pup.”
Eddie steps closer to Buck, wonderstruck.
“You are the best alpha an omega can ask for. I want to bear your mark. I want to be your mate,” Buck finishes, looking away like he’s afraid of Eddie’s reaction, his rejection. “So I don’t think I can-”
“Buck-” Eddie presses a palm to Buck’s cheek. “I wanted you since I’ve met you.”
Buck locks eyes with him, hope shining bright.
“You’re the sweetest, kindest, most adorable omega I’ve met. But you also stand for what’s right. You don’t let your secondary gender dictate what you do. You don’t let what other people think of your secondary gender dictate what you do.”
“I love you, Buck. I want to spend this cycle with you. I want to spend every heat and rut together. I want to claim you and tell everyone you’re mine. I want you as my mate and parent to our pup.”
Buck looks like Christmas came early, and Eddie is sure he’s the same. He gets to have this. They get to have this.
“So we’re doing this?” Buck inquires, looking at Eddie for confirmation.
“Yes.”
Wait.
There is one issue. “But you know if we do this, you'll probably get…”
“Yeah, if the suppressants failed, the birth control probably did too.”
“And you still want to?” Eddie asks. He has to make sure. Buck loves the job. Being pregnant would put him on light duty and paternity leave would take him out entirely. As much as he wants to have a pup with Buck, he's not going to do that to the other man. “You practically just got back to work.”
Buck gives him a soft look that makes his heart grow big. Buck loves him. Buck loves Eddie. “I've told you. I love kids. That's the most omega thing about me. And to have kids with you? That's a dream come true.”
Eddie can't stand it anymore so he closes the gap between them with one last step, slotting their mouths together. The simmering heat suddenly becomes a raging inferno and it takes everything in him to reign it in. They might have some time left before those emergency suppressants failed. He's going to enjoy Buck every moment he can before their cycles take them under and he can't remember any details of what happens.
Buck seems to have the same idea. “D-do you think we have enough time? I want to actually remember our first time.”
“We’ll make it happen.”
“I like the sound of that.”
“What are we waiting for then?”
He drags his soon-to-be-mate by his hand up the flight of stairs, grinning all the way.
(They forget that other people are in the loft with them, but, fortunately for Hen and Chim, they get out the door before anything too obscene reaches their ears.)