Archive of Our Own ^beta

The school for Metahumans that Eddie Diaz had attended in El Paso had looked nothing like the building that they were parked outside now. When Eddie had been a teenager, his school had been a squat, ugly building that felt more like a military installation than a school. This new school in LA looked... nice. Effort had been put into its appearance, the murals and open front yard making it look more inviting than he had expected.

And yet, he was still lingering in the parking lot.

“Alright then! Do you have everything you need?” He turned in his seat to look at Chris in the back, forcing himself to smile even as the buzzing behind his ears intensified. Chris took a moment to check his backpack and crutches, and even his pockets, before he gave his dad a big thumbs up. It was his last attempt at slowing things down, but clearly, his son was more prepared for this than he was. “You need a minute? I know there’s a lot of people out there.”

“Dad,” Chris groaned, but it did nothing to hide the excited smile he had been wearing ever since he woke up that morning. “I’m going to be late.”

“I won’t let you be late,” Eddie promised, his chest aching with the idea of leaving his son here. “And if anyone has a problem with when you show up, then they can talk to me about it. We’re meeting your teacher, right?”

Chris was nodding, but his attention was drawn back outside the boundaries of the car, taking in the school again. “I think that girl was flying.”

Eddie turned to see what he was looking at and nodded as a girl with pigtails appeared over the top of the wall for a moment before vanishing out of sight. He wasn’t sure she was flying so much as jumping, but a ten-foot vertical leap on a nine-year-old wasn’t anything to mock. It wasn’t as though every person on Earth had metahuman powers, but there was enough that Eddie had seen real flight before.

“You’re going to be around kids with all kinds of different powers,” he advised, drawing Chris’s attention back to him. “Kids who can fly, or turn invisible. There might even be kids who can pick up this whole car.”

“That’s so cool,” Chris said, settling back in his seat with a smile before a look of deep focus suddenly came over his expression. A chill ran through the air, and Eddie saw a puff of his own breath and gamely held out his hand. The snowflakes melted before they ever touched his skin, but they still looked beautiful. “Get it?” Chris added helpfully, “Because we’re going so slow that we’re practically frozen?”

“Alright, alright, you made your point,” Eddie chuckled, and the temperature in the car warmed ever so slightly. “Let’s go meet your teacher.”

He didn’t rush around the car to open the door for Chris, but he kept his eyes on his son the entire time. He wished he had the confidence that Chris had on his first day at a school like this, and he would do anything to make sure that the bright, sunny optimism wasn’t punctured by anything.

Chris didn’t wait for Eddie to give him permission to approach the school, he was already moving toward the entrance and taking it all in. Eddie resisted the urge to tower over him like a guard dog, giving him his space as he watched the other families drop off their kids or linger around talking. The documents they had received with Chris’s acceptance had laid out the rules and expectations, but Eddie had no idea what Chris’s teacher was supposed to look like.

He was about to bite the bullet and speak to one of the parents who were curiously watching him and Chris, when another voice called out. “Mr. Diaz!”

Eddie turned toward the sound, and the buzzing behind his ears became almost painful as he saw a man in a cream button-up shirt and a pair of slacks carefully slip through a small pack of parents as he made his way toward them. His smile was almost as bright and warm as Chris’s had been, and taking in the rest of him only made Eddie more distracted. The way he filled out his clothes, the curls that ruffled as he ran his hand through them, the sparkling blue eyes that turned from Eddie to Chris without hesitation.

“Mr. Diaz,” he repeated, holding out a hand formally to Chris, “it’s an honor to meet you, sir. My name is Buck, and I’m going to be your son’s teacher. Is he around here somewhere? We’re all excited to meet him.”

Chris giggled at the obvious joke, reaching out to shake Buck’s hand. There was a flicker of something iridescent, and Chris quickly pulled his hand back with a gasp as a bubble engulfed Buck’s hand.

“Whoa! You must have a really strong handshake, sir. I bubbled up before you even touched my hand,” Buck turned his attention to his hand, his brow furrowed seriously as he stared at the almost translucent surface of the bubble. It quickly started to recede back into the palm of his hand, and Eddie got the feeling that he was playing it up for Chris's benefit, but then Chris didn’t seem to mind. “Alright, we can try again, but you’ve got to promise to be gentle, Mr. Diaz.”

“I’m Chris,” Chris announced, his eyes focused on Buck’s hand as he reached for it and took it gently. Buck shook his hand back firmly, and Chris gestured over his shoulder. “Mr. Diaz is my dad.”

“Oh, so this must be—”

Buck turned toward Eddie, but Eddie had barely lifted his hand to shake the one offered in greeting, when a bubble burst into existence a hundred times more quickly than it had with Chris, wrapping around Buck’s body like a suit of armor. Buck blinked and seemed to catch himself, the bubble collapsing back into itself and vanishing beneath his skin.

Eddie couldn’t help but grin at the show, letting his hand fall to his side. “I promise, I’m not that bad at shaking hands. Eddie Diaz.”

“Buck. Evan Buckley. I mean, Mr. Buck—” Buck stammered over his introduction for a moment, and then quickly shoved his hands into his pocket, his cheeks flushed. “I’m Chris’s teacher. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to... Eddie Diaz.”

“Is my name,” Eddie agreed, putting his hand on Chris’s back when he noticed his son was losing a little interest in the adults getting to know one another. He was ready to catch him if he tried to make a run for it, but it was hard to stop staring at the handsome teacher in front of him. “Thank you for finding space for Chris at the last minute. I know that people probably had to do a lot of work to get him this spot.”

“Hey, we’re happy to have him,” Buck relaxed at that, as though Eddie had said the right thing to unlock the tense muscles of his body. “Principal Nash always says that the most important thing is making sure every kid has a safe place to discover themselves, and you won’t find a safer school in the country for people like us. I thought we could walk to the classroom, and let Chris ask any questions he might have?”

Chris looked thoughtful as they started to walk, an adult on either side of him. “Do you think there’s ever going to be a point where there’s more people with powers, than without them?”

The echo of Eddie’s father were so clear in the question, that Eddie had to fight not to flinch. Ramon Diaz wouldn’t have asked it so obviously, but it was the same kind of thought that had quietly infected every corner of their house growing up. Even if he didn’t flinch, his smile grew wooden, and he prayed that Buck wouldn’t look at him.

“Because my mom didn’t have any powers,” Chris continued, completely blind to the undercurrent of his question. “But my dad does, and then I had powers. So, if everyone gets powers from their parents, what’s going to happen in thousands of years?”

Eddie braced for the uncomfortable silence, but Buck hummed thoughtfully, nodding. “You know, a lot of people have been thinking about that question for a really long time? I have a sister who doesn’t have any powers.”

“Oh,” Chris slowed down, looking guiltily at Eddie, and then back to Buck. “I’m sorry.”

“Hey, that’s okay. Maddie is, like, the coolest big sister ever,” Buck insisted, with a big smile. “I’m just using it as an example. The reason the question is so tough is because people still don’t know for sure why some people have powers, and some people don’t. A lot of smart people think that it has to be genetic, so passed down by your parents, but then sometimes two parents with powers can have a kid without powers. And two people without powers can have a kid with powers.” He shrugged helplessly, “So maybe one day, everyone will have powers. Maybe one day, nobody will get any powers and they’ll all go away for a while. The future is really a mystery.”

“That’s so cool,” Chris looked impressed by Buck’s explanation, turning to Eddie to see his reaction. Eddie could feel Buck’s attention on him too, and he made sure he smiled and nodded encouragingly, even if the whole topic made his stomach clench uncomfortably. Chris didn’t notice, he was already turning back to Buck. “My dad said that we get to do classes about our powers too!”

“That’s right. We all know how important it is to learn how to use your powers without hurting yourself or other people. The first time I bubbled, I knocked myself off my bike,” Buck reached the doors to the school and pulled them open. He flicked his fingers, tiny marble-like bubbles flicking off his fingers and hanging in the air in front of the door, holding them open. He turned toward Eddie and shrugged casually, “I’ve come a long way since then.”

“How big can you make your bubbles?” Chris asked curiously as he slipped past Buck and stepped into the wide hallway. Eddie followed close behind, taking in the decoration here too. The brightly painted walls were a far cry from the peeling beige paint he’d grown up surrounded by. “Does it make you bulletproof? Why aren’t you a superhero?”

“I don’t know how big of a bubble I could make. I made one big enough to cover the whole school last year,” Buck admitted, smiling and waving back when another student noticed him. “We were having a picnic day, and there was a big storm.”

“You could cover the whole school?” Eddie asked curiously, “That’s pretty impressive.”

“It wasn’t exactly bulletproof. It was just to keep the rain away,” Buck admitted, ducking his head with another blush. Clearly, the guy wasn’t used to being complimented. “When I’m making a bubble, I need to focus on the size and how tough it is, and that can change how long I can keep it up, you know?”

“I could help,” Chris insisted, “When’s the next picnic? I can control the weather, so I could make it super sunny and awesome”

“Whoa, really? That’s so awesome,” Buck made it sound as though he didn’t already know it from the paperwork. Or, perhaps he was genuinely curious to hear how Chris explained it. Eddie couldn’t help but hope it was the latter, because Chris was clearly enamored by his new teacher. “Our science teacher, Mrs. Wilson? She’s going to want to hear all about the weather, and teach you about climates and patterns and stuff. You know, she told me that the sun kind of has weather too, if you think about it a certain way.”

“Maybe we perfect ‘light showers’ before we move onto ‘solar flares,’” Eddie suggested, making Buck chuckle. The noise made him feel warm, and he added, “This whole school looks amazing. The facilities back in Texas were... They weren’t so—”

“I did a couple of months in a school in Austin,” Buck paused, clearly picking his words, “It all felt a little... militaristic?”

“That’s probably the nicest way of putting it. But this looks like a good place to learn,” he glanced around again, looking for any sign that the school was too good to be true. “It’s nice to see there are teachers who still care.”

“I promise, Chris is going to have an awesome time,” Buck sounded incredibly sincere, making sure to meet Eddie’s eyes, and for a moment, the buzzing behind Eddie’s ears faded to nothing. He watched Buck reach into his pocket and pull out a small card, offering it to Eddie. “Here, you can take this. If you get worried about anything in the middle of the day, you can text me, and I’ll answer as soon as I can.”

“Oh, that’s a big mistake,” Chris whispered, nudging Eddie’s foot with his crutch when Eddie took the card. “My dad is always worried.”

“Oh, am I just sticking around to be the butt of the joke?” Eddie rolled his eyes fondly, putting his hand on his son’s back. Buck’s expression softened at the gesture, and Eddie gestured with the card, “I’ll keep it in mind, and... I’ll be here for pick-up.”

“I’ll look forward to seeing you then,” Buck lingered for a moment, and then cleared his throat, “I mean, in case you want to ask about— I should get to my class. It was really good to talk to you, Mr. Diaz.”

Eddie watched as Chris slipped out from underneath his hand, right by Buck’s side with every step. It was only when the door closed behind them that Eddie was able to take a breath.

But without the distraction of conversation, the buzzing was so much worse. The smile faded quickly, and he turned on his heels, walking as quickly as he could for the entrance. He had enough time to get home and deal with it before he set off for his first day at work, so long as everything went right, and he knew he wouldn’t make it through his shift with the buzzing drilling down to his nerves.

Everything was fine. It had to be.

The soundproofing was rough under his fingertips as he tried to catch his breath, the sound of his own screams ringing in his ears as the buzzing faded back into the background. Eddie didn’t know how long he had been standing in the small, sound-proofed booth in his bedroom closet; it felt like it could have been minutes or hours.

His phone was sitting on the end of his bed as he carefully stepped out of the closet, and he rubbed his ears vigorously as he reached for it to check the time. It was a little later than he would have hoped, but he had already expected that he would run into trouble leaving Chris behind at school, so he was pretty sure he could make it to his first day before the tour was supposed to start.

He also could feel deep in his chest that he was going to end up back in his booth before the end of the day.

There wasn’t time to take in much of the dispatch center as he rushed into the building, but it all seemed pretty modern. He quickly straightened his hair and shirt as he rode the elevator up to the correct floor and then joined the back of the group that was waiting.

“Good morning, everyone,” a woman announced as she stepped out in front of the group, holding a tablet in one hand. “Thank you so much for joining us today. My name is Maddie Han, and I’m one of the dispatchers here. I’m also going to be in charge of your orientation, and helping you through the induction period. I’m here to answer any questions and make sure you all settle in okay. I hope you all got a chance to meet one another, but if you didn’t, we’re about to go and enjoy coffee and pastries in the kitchen, so... let’s get to it.”

Coffee and pastries sounded amazing, but Eddie still lingered behind everyone else, taking in more of the room. The dispatch center was in motion all around them, and Eddie was surprised by how many different kinds of people were here. Some clearly had metahuman abilities, like the woman whose hair moved around her head like serpents or the man whose eyes were glowing behind her glasses, but there were just as many people who were either blending in perfectly or who didn’t have powers at all.

He made eye contact with one man who looked supremely bored at the call he was answering, and he must have stared a moment too long because there was a sudden tickle at the back of his mind before a dry voice filled his head. ‘Can I help you?’

The touch of someone with psychic powers had Eddie almost leaping out of his skin, even if the connection snapped shut the moment he broke eye contact with the man. He stumbled a step and almost ran straight into Maddie who was watching him with a small smile.

“So,” she said lightly, “you’ve met Josh then?”

“I didn’t— I’m sorry,” Eddie forced himself to take a deep breath and calm down, ignoring the self-recrimination that was building in the back of his mind. He’d been here less than ten minutes, and he was already acting weird and being a distraction. He needed this job.

“You don’t have to apologize. I just wanted to make sure we didn’t lose you. You’re... Edmundo Diaz?” She looked at her tablet and then back to him curiously.

“Eddie.”

“Eddie,” her smile broadened as she lowered the tablet. “Sue mentioned that you have a son? How did you find drop off this morning?”

“It was fine, Chris is— I mean, it’s good,” Eddie nodded firmly, trying not to feel weird about the fact she already knew about Chris. He hadn’t intended to share that with anyone for a while. He already had two people with a lot of opinions on his parenting, he didn’t need more. “The school is great, and his teacher seemed like a good fit. Did Mrs. Blevins tell you...”

“That you’re on shorter shift patterns until everything is settled. We worked out a way to do that,” Maddie assured him, tapping something on the tablet and then turning it toward him so he could see his shifts in the system. “I thought you could shadow me today, and once you go to pick up your son, I can use that time to check in with everyone else. It might just mean I have to go and answer some questions at some points.”

“That's totally fine.” It was more than fine, really. Eddie couldn’t help but feel relieved to have it in black and white in front of him again. He could do this. Look after Chris, have his job, and prove to everyone that he was capable. “And I’m looking for someone to help. It’s just been a little hard to find someone who can help Chris specifically with his medical condition.”

“You know, my brother works with kids,” Maddie offered, “I could ask him if he has any suggestions.”

“I appreciate the offer, but... I don’t want you to go out of your way if you don’t want to,” Eddie could almost see his father standing over Maddie’s shoulder, looking at him with disappointment as someone else had to sweep in and deal with his mess. “I should go and grab a pastry before everything gets started.”

“You go, I’ll be in in a minute,” Maddie turned back toward Josh, the telepath from earlier, the two of them making faces at each other which Eddie took to mean that they were talking in their heads. He slipped into the break room and started to make himself a coffee, rubbing at the spot right behind his ear where the buzzing had already started up again. He’d been right about needing more time in the booth.

He was picking out a croissant when his phone buzzed in his pocket, and he quickly grabbed a pastry before he stepped away for a private corner, checking who was trying to get hold of him.

Hey, Mr. Diaz. We just started my free period, and I thought I’d send you an update since we had your number on file. Chris is already fitting in great. We were talking about powers and consent, and he started this really interesting discussion about whether telepaths can read animals’ thoughts, and if that meant animals have language. And he showed everyone how he can make it snow, which had a lot of kids really excited for Christmas. I just wanted to let you know, you’ve raised a really awesome kid.

Eddie was pretty sure that Buck wasn’t supposed to have taken his number from the school systems for something like this, but any weirdness about that was tempered by the smile he had hearing about how Chris was fitting in. He knew his son was amazing, but he always worried about the way other children would treat him for being different.

Thanks for the update, Mr. Buck. I’m glad he’s doing well, and I can’t wait to hear all about his day when I pick him up. He wrote, and then paused, before he added a little more. I wish I’d had teachers that were so invested in kids when I went through this process.

He hit send, and then quickly hid his phone when Maddie stepped into the room. The explanation for how the day would run had already been in the emails they had been sent, but Eddie appreciated the reminder to ground himself back in his work.

“Does anyone have any questions about the online training?” Maddie asked when she was done announcing who everyone would be shadowing, and almost immediately a young woman at the back of the room raised her hand, bracelets all clattering together in a way that made the buzzing pitch higher in Eddie’s ears.. “Cleo?”

“Do people use their metahuman powers here?” The girl asked, dropping her hand again with another set of collisions. “I heard there’s a guy who works in Chicago who’s precognitive. He sends crews out to accidents before they’ve even happened. Do we have something like that?”

“Well, the quick answer to that is; No. We don’t have anyone with precognitive powers on the staff,” Maddie didn’t seem surprised by the question, but her smile was a little more guarded now. “The longer answer is that we try to be careful about relying on powers that presuppose something. For example, you can’t arrest someone for a crime they’re thinking about committing, or that they haven’t committed yet. And when we’re talking about services like fire and rescue, I’ll admit that there have been some positive examples of precognitive powers helping people, but those are usually surrounding things like natural disasters and other ‘important’ events. The smaller emergencies, they tend to get drowned out. And for the people who are calling us, who need us, every call is important.”

“But didn’t the mayor reveal that whole ‘Metahuman Disaster Group’ last year?” Someone else asked, “You know, using people with movement powers to evacuate natural disasters, all those kinds of things. How do we know we’re not going to be replaced by someone with powers when things get tough?”

“Because there’s a lot of people with powers that would be perfect for Dispatch, who don’t want to work in dispatch. And there’s lots of people with powers that would be perfect for a thousand other jobs, who do want to work here,” Maddie said firmly, “We want people here who want to help people. That’s the only prerequisite. Alright, let’s all go find our partners, and get started on the day.”

The murmured conversation got a little quieter as the group stepped out of the break room, and Eddie quickly drank as much of his coffee as he could, before pouring the rest away and slipping the cup into the dishwasher. He was pretty sure he’d burnt his tongue, but he was already falling behind again. He had to make a good first impression. He had to prove he could do it all.

The buzzing had been with Eddie for a decade now, so he knew how to deal with it. It was triggered by strong emotions, and it would only grow the more he focused on it and worked himself up. The best thing to do was ignore it and make sure he remained calm, but he found himself looking at his phone and waiting for some kind of dire message, which was the opposite of calming.

He still managed to smile genuinely at Maddie as he left, feeling a little more confident about how the next shift would go. The headache from the buzzing was easy to handle with some painkillers, and when he got home, he could let it all out. He had everything under control. He’d even arrived a little early to pick Chris up, so he wasn’t fighting anyone for the parking spot he had used the morning before.

And then the phone rang.

He was still smiling to himself when he looked at it, half-hopeful that it would be another message from Buck to let him know that Chris had done something else impressive. And then he saw his dad’s name on the screen, and the smile fell away in an instant. For a moment, he had the childish thought that he could pretend to have not seen it, but he knew that would only make the call worse later. He hit the button, raising his phone to his ear and sinking lower in his seat. “Hi, Dad.”

“Edmundo,” Ramon Diaz sounded tired. He always sounded tired when Eddie spoke to him, and Eddie had wondered for years if that was his fault. “Where are you?”

“I’m waiting to pick Chris up from school,” Eddie remembered one of the tips that Maddie had given during training, about how the person on the other end could hear if you were smiling. He forgot the context; probably that it was a bad idea to be bright and bubbly while somebody has a knife through their hand, but he could turn it around now to try and keep the conversation positive. He forced a smile onto his face, even if it made the buzzing worse. “Is everything okay? You don’t usually call around this time.”

“I thought that you started your new job today.”

“I did,” Eddie’s smile faltered as his dad ignored the question and barrelled on with his own train of thought. “They’ve let me take some shorter shifts this week while I’m getting everything settled with Chris at the new school. How’s mom?”

“Your mother is fine. We’re coming to your house tonight for a nice family meal,” His dad paused, but it wasn’t a question. He was just letting absorb the new reality of how the day was going to go for a moment. “We were going to pick Chris up whilst you were working so that you didn’t have to drive so far, and then we would have dinner ready when you got home from work. Clearly, there’s no need now.”

The smile was fading fast, his face aching with the effort to try and hold onto it. “You don’t need to do that. We could do something this weekend instead if you’d like? I just think we’re both going to be pretty—”

“We won’t be available this weekend,” Ramon said firmly, and then sighed, “Don’t be difficult about this, Edmundo. When we let you take Chris out of Texas, you promised your mother that we would still be a part of his life. You know that she worries about him. Have you set up an empty space in your apartment for us to arrive in?”

“No.” It was a bare-faced lie, but Eddie couldn’t deal with the idea of his parents getting there before him and judging every inch of the home while he wasn’t there to defend it. “I mean, I’ve picked it out, but I didn’t take any pictures for mom to aim with, and I don’t know if anything is in the way. Let me get Chris home and settled, and then I’ll send you a picture.”

“Fine. The last thing we need is your mother injuring herself because you’ve been untidy,” Ramon paused again, and Eddie waited for the other shoe to drop, only to be surprised when his dad asked; “The new job, is it good?”

“It’s... yeah, it’s good work,” Eddie softened a little, nodding to himself. “Working for the dispatchers, I can help people.”

“Good,” his dad huffed, and then added more firmly, “Don’t spoil the opportunity by asking for too much. There are people out there who could use their powers to do your job ten times over. You have to make sure you’re making yourself useful, not a distraction.”

“Yes, Dad,” Eddie nodded and sat up straighter. His dad wasn’t wrong. The kindness about his shifts wouldn’t last forever. He had to work hard to make sure they wanted to keep him. “I should go, they’re opening the gates now.”

“Send Chris our love.”

There was no goodbye for Eddie, the call just ended abruptly. It was a good thing that his parents loved Chris with all their hearts. He was an adult, he shouldn’t need to hear those words anyway. He didn’t have time to focus on the way the buzzing in his ears practically deafened him, Chris would be stepping out of the school at any minute, and he needed to be there for him.

It was hard to work out where it was appropriate to wait though. There was a steady stream of people leaving through the front gate, and he wanted Chris to be able to see him, so it made sense to stand in the yard. But both sides of the yard were filled with parents waiting for their own children, and the idea of having to pretend to be a normal well adjusted father after everything else made his teeth ache.

He picked the group that looked more interested in the front of the school than gossiping with each other and approached casually, trying to keep his distance without it being obvious. One of the mothers noticed him and smiled politely, but they seemed content to watch the doors.

“You don’t have to forgive them,” a small voice came from nearby, and Eddie turned curiously to the boy who was staring at him solemnly. “But when you need them, they’ll come. Just like you would.”

And then, before Eddie could question what that was about, the boy had turned and vanished into the sea of children.

“He’s a creepy one,” one of the women he was standing with murmured, and Eddie glanced at her unimpressed expression. “Ryan... something. Psychic. I heard his mom—”

“Shh! Shut up, Janice. He’s here,” another woman hissed, and ‘Janice’ turned so quickly toward the front of the school that Eddie’s neck ached in sympathy. He would have turned to see what they were staring at too, but he was distracted by a familiar voice calling out.

“Mr. Diaz!”

Someone in the little group gasped, the attention turning back to him, but Eddie ignored them and smiled as he saw Buck and Chris trying to make their way towards him.

“You know Mr. Buckley?” Janice asked, her tone caught between accusation and interest, “Are you new? I don’t think we’ve seen you before.”

“My son started in Buck’s class today,” Eddie said, his focus mainly on trying to keep his eyes on Chris.

“Lucky you,” one of the other men in the group said, but it didn’t sound congratulatory. It sounded jealous. “My daughter loved being in his class last year. It was the first time my husband and I argued over who got to come and do pick-ups. I won, obviously—”

“Mr. Buckley is a sweetheart,” The woman who had silenced everyone cut in, nodding toward Buck and Chris with a twinkle in her eye. “You shouldn’t keep them waiting.”

It was as polite of an exit as he would get from the group, so Eddie stepped away with a brief smile and started to make his way toward Buck and Chris. The buzzing in his ears was drowning out most of the noise of the children, but he felt like he could still hear the whispers behind him, the eyes on him.

The reason wasn’t some unknowable thing, Eddie thought he had a pretty solid grip on it because he had the same thought. Buck was a very handsome man. He was broad and strong and tall, but he also seemed funny and kind from Eddie’s brief interaction with him. And when he smiled at Eddie, it made Eddie’s cheeks flush with heat and the buzzing do something odd in his ears.

“Dad!” Chris reached him first, managing to get ahead of Buck and run into Eddie’s waiting arms, hugging him tight. “School is so cool.”

“Did anyone get that on tape for when you’re a teenager?” Eddie laughed, squeezing Chris tighter. Buck stopped a few steps away, watching them with a soft smile, and Eddie nodded at him. “Thank you. For everything.”

“I should be thanking you! We had an awesome time, right, Chris?” Buck asked, and Chris nodded so enthusiastically that his glasses almost fell off. There was a beat of quiet, and then Buck added, “Will you be dropping him off tomorrow, as well? Or do you have a partner who...?”

“It’ll be me,” Eddie explained, standing up properly, and putting a hand on Chris’s back. The reminder of Shannon still ached, but he pushed past it. “I’m trying to get some help with childcare, but it’s just me and Chris.”

“Well, you know, we’re always going to be glad to see you here. And Chris did awesome today. He’s going to fit in perfectly.”

“I’m really glad to hear—” Eddie paused as Buck’s attention suddenly shifted, his eyes turning up toward the sky, and turned to look in the same direction as a shadow passed over the school. The source of the shadow was obvious, but Eddie couldn’t look directly at the figure that was silhouetted by the sun. Buck’s jaw tightened, his smile gone entirely, and the figure suddenly turned in midair and shot off deeper into the city.

Buck didn’t stop watching until the figure was out of sight, and then turned back to Eddie, trying to force a smile. “Sorry, you... You asked me something?”

“Is everything okay?” Eddie saw the smile falter at the question, and when he took Buck in again, there was a slight translucent sheen emerging from beneath his shirt. A bubble, half formed.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m great,” Buck put a hand over his chest like he could force the bubble back inside, and then gestured over his shoulder. “I need to go get started on some lesson plans, but... you have my number if you have any questions, right?” He didn’t give Eddie the chance to answer, turning to Chris. “Chris, I’ll see you in the morning.”

Chris waved enthusiastically to his teacher, and Eddie did his best not to worry as he saw the tension in Buck’s body as the other man walked back toward the school. He paused in the now much emptier doorway, turning back and waving in return before he stepped inside. Eddie lingered for another moment as Chris started to turn back to the parking lot, and then moved to follow him, listening to Chris talk about all the different teachers and people in his classes.

It was only once they were inside the car that Eddie remembered the other thing he needed to tell his son. He knew he needed to warn Chris sooner rather than later, but he held it back until they were pulling up to the house. “Hey,” he turned to Chris with a smile that he could only pray looked more natural than it felt, “You’ll never guess who I heard from today.”

“Buck?” Chris guessed, looking confused, “He said that he was going to tell you how everything was going.”

“Yeah, he did. But I’m talking about your grandparents. They called to let us know they’re going to come over and have dinner with us tonight.” The buzzing was almost unbearable as Chris’s brow furrowed, and he tried to find a better way of explaining himself. “They missed you already, Chris. They want to see you.”

“But...” Chris’s voice got quieter, and the softly betrayed look in his eyes made Eddie’s chest hurt. “I thought we’d get to talk about my day?”

“I want to hear all about your day,” Eddie promised, “this way, you can tell us all about it, huh?”

“No, I— I want to tell them about it, but—” Chris’s expression got a little more frustrated, and he reached out to touch Eddie’s arm. “I wanted to hear about your day as well, Dad. Sometimes, they make you sad, and you don’t want to talk. I don’t like that.”

“Chris, you don’t—”

The sound of something impacting the windshield cut into Eddie’s attempt to reassure his son, and he turned to see another collection of hailstones the size of his thumb hammer against the front of the car. Each impact came quicker, and when Eddie turned back to Chris, his son was scowling and clenching his hand into a fist.

“Hey. Hey, Chris,” he said softly, reaching to touch his son’s clenched fist. “It's all okay, I promise. They don’t... They don’t make me sad.”

It was a lie, and for a moment, Eddie was sure Chris had seen right through it. He looked up at Eddie with a crackle of something around his eyes that made Eddie’s mouth fill with the taste of something metallic. But then he watched Chris close his eyes, his lips moving silently as he counted back from ten. The sound of the hail on the door started to get quieter and then faded entirely. Chris slumped back against his seat, breathing heavily. Eddie felt like he needed a moment to steady himself as well, but his first priority had to be Chris, so he stepped out of the car and crunched through the remaining hailstones that littered the floor to reach him.

He opened the door closest to Chris and crouched to be closer to his eye level, watching as Chris turned to look at him with a guilty expression. “Hey,” he kept his voice soft, understanding. “How are you doing? That was a pretty intense one, huh?”

“I didn’t mean to get so mad,” Chris admitted, flexing his hands. “I’m sorry.”

“You never have to apologize for being upset,” Eddie reached out and brushed his hair out of his face, taking in his son’s face and looking for any sign of the rage from before. “If I didn’t want to see your grandparents, I’d tell them. I promise, Chris. But you don’t have to take any responsibility for what happens there. It’s my job to take care of you, and it’s the best job in the world.”

He watched Chris chew over the thought for a moment and then sighed wearily. “Can you tell them that I’m too tired today? Maybe they can come tomorrow, but I’m... I’m tired now.”

“Yeah,” Eddie didn’t hesitate to agree, even as the buzzing made his jaw ache. It didn’t matter what Chris said, his parents would accuse him of trying to keep Chris from them. They’d blame the school that Eddie had chosen for exhausting him or the classes that he’d signed off on to let Chris get a better grasp of his powers. They’d ask if he was really giving Chris the attention he needed, working at dispatch. Tomorrow, they would come and tell Chris how glad they were to see him and ask him all about his day, but they’d look at Eddie like he was a disappointment, or not look at him at all. But none of that was Chris’s fault, and Eddie would bear it all for his son. “Yeah, we’ll invite them to come over tomorrow. Let’s get inside, huh?”

Chris nodded, letting Eddie help him out of the car. He didn’t let Eddie carry him to the house, he struggled with his crutches and the ice on the floor for a moment and then took off toward the house. Eddie watched him go, and then turned back to the outline of melted ice around his car, soaking into the driveway. He ran his hand over the top of the car, feeling the tingle of built up static until he shook it out of his hand.

It was fine. Everything had to be fine.

On the same day that Maddie handed over the list of names her brother had put together to help look after Chris, Buck met him after school with a list of his own.

“I had to help make a list for someone else, and I thought it might help,” he had explained, looking guilty for even suggesting that Eddie might need it. “You’re doing an amazing job with Chris, everyone who sees him knows it, but I know how hard it can be to do a full-time job, and make sure your kid gets where they need to get, even when there’s two parents. So, I thought this might help.”

There was a lot of overlap between the two lists, with some of the names on Maddie’s list missing from Buck’s, and one suggestion from Buck that Maddie hadn’t offered. Carla Price. He should have probably focused on the people who had two people suggesting them, but he couldn’t help but defer to Buck, and he knew from the first interview that he’d made the right choice. Carla was kind and enthusiastic, but also highly capable and understanding about anything that Eddie asked about.

With Carla around to pick Chris up after school when Eddie was at work, it meant that he could work full shifts for the Dispatch center finally, and pick up the occasional extra shift to put money back into his savings. She didn’t make him ask for favors either. When he mentioned his parents were coming for dinner after work, she helped Chris tidy up the house ahead of their arrival. And Chris adored her, which was always going to be the most important thing to Eddie.

It finally felt as though life in LA wasn’t only possible, but it was working.

Then, a couple of weeks after he had hired Carla, he received a phone call in the middle of a shift. Eddie was halfway through talking to a caller who had trapped their arm in a vending machine, trying to convince them not to try and remove it until the firefighters arrived when his phone started buzzing on his desk. He frowned at it, leaning over to check the number and feeling his chest tighten when he saw it was from Chris’s school. He forced himself to stay focused on keeping the caller calm until the firefighters arrived and then stepped away from the call as gracefully as he could.

He had missed the first call, but it was already buzzing with a second call before he could reach for the phone. He quickly stepped away from the desks, moving to a quieter corner and answering the call, trying not to jump to the worst case scenario. “Hello?”

“Mr. Diaz?”

Eddie didn’t recognize the voice on the other end of the line, but then he only ever really spoke to Buck and the receptionist who he’d set up Carla’s permissions with. “That’s me. Eddie Diaz.”

“Mr. Diaz, my name is Ravi Pannikar, I’m one of the administrators at your son’s school. We’ve had an incident. Nobody was hurt, but it’s important that you come as soon as you can.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I...” Eddie started to repeat, and then quickly shook his head, trying to get rid of the thousand thoughts of what could be so important if nobody was injured. “I’m on my way.”

He ended the call and turned back to the room, trying to find Sue or Maddie amid the bustle of people working. The images of what could have happened continued to play in his mind, and despite all the work he’d put into dulling the buzzing behind his ears over the past couple of weeks, it was suddenly all-encompassing. He rubbed at his ear frustratedly as he finally saw Maddie, and started to walk toward her.

“Eddie,” another voice slid into his mind, more familiar than it had been the last time he’d encountered it. Josh was standing at a desk behind Maddie, watching him with a furrowed brow. “You’re... buzzing.”

It felt like such an insane thing to say that Eddie wondered for a moment if he had snapped. But looking around, it wasn’t just Josh who was looking at him oddly. He moved his hand from his ear to the spot just behind it that usually constantly vibrated with the buzz that he was containing.

His skin wasn’t vibrating at all. The buzzing wasn’t contained inside his own head, it had escaped again.

“Come on. Meet me in the quiet room,” Josh’s voice echoed in his mind as he stepped back into Eddie’s line of sight, and Eddie nodded once before he marched his way toward the quiet room. He fought to try and pull the buzzing back into himself, but it just rose and fell with each attempt until Eddie was almost too exhausted to try again. He closed the door behind him in the quiet room and took a deep breath, ready to try and scream it away before it got worse, only for the buzzing to finally swell and slow from the frantic, indistinguishable noise into real music.

It was loud and sinister, like the music that would play in a movie as the main character was stalked through the woods by some dangerous entity. He didn’t even have the energy to try and control it, he felt completely helpless and adrift as he sank into one of the chairs, covering his face. The door opened again, and Eddie looked up in time to see Josh wince at the volume before he quickly stepped inside and shut the door behind himself.

“Can I...” He tried, stepping toward Eddie, and then pausing. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you had a metahuman ability.”

It was hard to make out his words over the music, and feeling someone else’s disapproval helped him find some inner well of energy to bring down the volume at least. “It’s just music, it’s not useful,” he admitted, gesturing to the room and sighing when the music moved with the gesture like he was orchestrating it. He needed to get this under control so he could get to the school. “Something happened at my kid’s school. I need to go.”

“Your son,” Josh murmured, his brow furrowing deeper as he reached into his pocket. “Let me get you a Super.”

“No, I—” Eddie shook his head firmly, trying not to think about his dad’s face when Adrianna brought up getting a Super from the airport. He always said it was so wasteful, to rely on someone else’s gift for something so trivial. But right now, Eddie couldn’t bring himself to turn down anything that would get him to Chris’s side sooner. “I still need to tell Maddie, or Sue, or—”

“Eddie, I’m telling you right now that they would say the exact same thing that I’m about to say,” Josh said firmly, reaching over and squeezing his bicep. “We can cover you, and if you need the house, we can make them up later. The important thing is to get you to your son. Now; I can’t get reception here, so I’m going to go and call the Super from outside. You take a second, reign in the orchestra, and then we’ll get you where you need to go.”

Eddie nodded, dropping his head back into his hands and trying to focus again. He heard Josh leave, and he made sure that the door was closed before he reached for one of the cushions. It felt like he was a teenager again, with no control over his powers and disappointed eyes looking at him from every angle, but this had always worked for him. He pressed the cushion over his face and then let out a scream that felt like it was ripped right out of his lungs. The music continued for a moment, but then it began to stutter and fall out of rhythm with itself. He kept screaming for as long as he could, until his head felt light and his lungs were burning, until finally there was a sensation like something had snapped into place, and the music turned back to buzzing.

He let go of one side of the pillow and reached behind his ear, letting out a relieved sigh when he felt the buzzing behind his ear, vibrating with unheard music. It had been years since he had lost control like that. He’d managed to hold it together through Shannon’s funeral, through so many arguments with his parents and medical appointments with Chris, and then...

He looked down at the pillow, and the speckled red across the cover, before he carefully stripped it of the outer cover and put the rest to one side. He would wash it and bring it back tomorrow. It wasn’t anyone else’s job to clean up his mess.

Josh was waiting for him in the hall, and he didn’t mention the lack of music, he just nodded in understanding. Eddie tried not to feel like he was doing something wrong as he was guided from the office back to the elevator. “We’ll meet them in the lobby,” he explained, as he stepped into the elevator with Eddie, hitting the button himself. “We all hope your son is going to be okay.”

“I do too,” Eddie said, looking down at his shoes for a moment as the elevator started to descend. Neither of them spoke until they were walking out of the front doors to the woman waiting with a small badge attached to her chest. His Super. “Thanks, Josh. For everything.”

“Hey, what are colleagues for, huh?” Josh said, displaying the code on his phone to the woman, and then turning back to Eddie. “Text us if you need anything, Eddie. And be safe.”

Eddie didn’t have the words to reply so he just nodded and then turned back to the woman, quickly showing her a picture of the school why she asked. She took hold of his bicep in a firm grip, and he closed his eyes like he did every time his mother teleported them somewhere else. A moment later, the grip on his arm released and he opened his eyes to find himself standing outside the school gates.

“Don’t forget to leave a positive rating,” the Super said, the request coming out more like a threat, and Eddie nodded once before she vanished. He still didn’t know if it was teleportation or superspeed, but he couldn’t bring himself to care as he turned back to the school and started to make his way toward the front doors.

It didn’t take much to work out that something had happened. A few of the dumpsters that were usually kept out of the way to one side had slid across the yard, and a janitor was trying to push them back into position. Tiles were missing from the room, and one of the areas where they had planted flowers had been recently overturned. The part that scared him the most though was the scorch mark tucked away in a corner, deep and angry, carved into the ground.

The buzzing got worse, and Eddie kept one finger against the vibration as he continued onward, trying to make sure that it hadn’t escaped. He wasn’t sure if he was supposed to walk right in or knock and wait to be noticed, but before he tried to make the choice, the doors suddenly opened to reveal a woman waiting for him.

“Mr. Diaz?” she waited for him to nod, before she continued. “My name is Hen. Henrietta Wilson, I’m a teacher at the school. We have Chris in an office now, would you follow me?”

She sounded frustrated, but it didn’t seem to be at him. Eddie took a step to follow her, trying to make sense of what was happening. “Is Buck with him?” He asked and then frowned when her jaw tightened.

“Mr. Buckley isn’t working today. Chris is with another teacher and one of our administrators, while our principal finishes speaking to someone else.” Hen paused as a student stepped out of a classroom, blinking owlishly at them before she shot off toward what looked to be a restroom. Hen turned to look at him, and then sighed, “I can’t explain everything, but there was an incident during lunch.”

“Is Chris okay?”

“Chris is... Mr. Diaz,” Hen stopped, turning to face him properly. “We all love Chris here. I don’t think there’s a single one of his teachers who would consider the incident his fault—”

“Mrs. Wilson,” Eddie interrupted, “I just want to know what happened. Is my son okay?”

“The story that the kids are telling is that some of the other students were trying to get Chris to show off the limits of his power,” Hen folded her arms across her chest, “For obvious reasons, we try to make sure that there’s always an adult present if a child is doing something like that, but this happened at lunchtime, out in the front yard, out of sight. It’s not against the rules for Chris to be practicing here, but... Chris ended up creating a tornado.”

“A tornado,” Eddie repeated, the word sounding just as ridiculous when he said it. “He couldn’t... he’s not old enough to be...”

“Chris’s powers are well developed for his age, but they rely on emotional triggers. That’s entirely normal for his age, but it means that when things start to go wrong, they quickly spiral out of control.” Hen gestured for him to keep walking, and Eddie followed as she picked her next words carefully. “The problem is that with Chris’s level of power, things spiraling out of control can end up causing weather events like a tornado. We were able to get everyone inside the school where it was safe, but one of the kids who had been encouraging Chris panicked and tried to stop him using their own powers. Nobody was hurt, but Chris was shaken up.”

Of course he had been. Eddie didn’t want to imagine how terrified his son must have been in that moment, and to have another kid ‘try to stop him’... Eddie could imagine what that must have meant, from the scorch mark in the front yard. “There’s something else though,” he said, watching her jaw tighten, “that’s why you needed me here as soon as I could be.”

“There is. In general, the school has a lot of authority over what happens regarding students and their powers, Mr. Diaz, but only if things occur inside the school. A weather event like a tornado sent off alarms for a bunch of different jurisdictions. Although Chris was using his powers inside the school, the weather pattern formed outside of the school.” Hen turned a corner, shaking her head, “A unit was dispatched from the metahuman division of the LAPD to investigate and take statements. She— The officer is a good woman, Mr. Diaz. She’s not here to arrest Chris, or—”

“That’s an option?” Eddie almost stumbled, the idea hitting him like a physical blow. “He’s a kid. The school just lets these other kids gang up on my son, push him into doing something he knows is wrong because he wants friends, and then he’s the one who has to deal with the consequences on his own? Where were you? Where were any of the teachers? Where was—”

He caught himself before he said it out loud, but he could see that Hen knew who he was about to bring up. The unfairness of it all hit him all at once, and he turned away from Hen to continue on toward the office in silence. Buck wasn’t to blame for what had happened. He was Chris’s teacher, and he was a fantastic teacher, but Chris couldn’t be the center of his world. Buck could have a hundred different things happening that needed his attention. It was Eddie’s job to teach Chris right from wrong and to make sure he didn’t do things like this.

“It’s this door,” Hen called out, just as he realized he had no idea where he was going. She gestured to a door that led to an office “Mr. Diaz, it’s going to be okay. Athena is here because it’s policy, that’s all.”

The door crashed open before Eddie could even begin to respond, making him jump back a step. A family shoved their way out into the hallway, the mother vaguely familiar in the way that told Eddie he had probably seen her in passing. She had her son’s arm in a tight grip, practically dragging him behind her, and Hen took a step forward with a furrowed brow, only to run right into the father’s pointed finger.

“And I don’t care what you say!” He snarled, “My son was a hero today. He tried to protect you all from some out-of-control lunatic, but he’s the one getting suspended? You’ve got a lawsuit coming. You’ve all got a lawsuit coming!”

Eddie didn’t turn his back on the other family, but he wasn’t focused on them. He was already trying to slip into the office, his eyes searching the room for Chris, but it was hard to focus on anything other than the giant man who was stooping in the middle of the room, his shoulders scraping the ceiling. His hand was outstretched protectively, but he moved it when he saw Eddie, and Eddie was finally able to take a breath when he finally saw Chris.

“Dad!” Chris was already struggling to his feet, pushing past the other teacher to get to him, and Eddie dropped to his knees so he could hug him closer. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay. Everything is going to be okay,” Eddie promised, pulling back and taking him in. There weren't any obvious injuries or damage, but he could tell from Chris’s weak grip that he was exhausted again. “Are you okay?”

Chris just nodded, wrapping his arms around Eddie’s neck and clinging to him tightly. Eddie didn’t hesitate to hold him close and stand with him on his hip, looking around the room for any sign of the police officer.

“If you’d like to take a seat, Bobby— Principal Nash will be out in a minute,” Hen explained from the doorway, her brow furrowing as she looked around, “Chimney, will you come with me to make sure the other family has actually left?”

“I can do that,” The man shrunk down to a much shorter stature, rubbing his face before he turned back to Chris with a wry smile. “Alright, kid. No rain of toads tonight, alright? One apocalypse at a time.”

“I promise, Mr. Han,” Chris’s smile was weak, but it was there for a moment before he buried his face in Eddie’s shoulder. Eddie carried him over to the chairs and adjusted his position until Chris was sat next to him, his arm around his shoulders holding him close. The only noise in the office was the ticking of a clock, offering the relentless reminder of time passing. Finally Chris looked up at him, “I’m sorry, dad.”

How could you be so ridiculous, Edmundo? You’re here to learn, not to show off for your little friends. Nobody wants to hear that when they’re supposed to be studying!

“It’s okay, Chris,” Eddie pushed the memory away, trying to breathe through the tight feeling in his chest. “I know it was a mistake. You didn’t mean to do it.”

I can’t help it, Dad! It just happens!

“I meant to do it.”

“What?” Eddie turned to look down at Chris, who was looking down at his knees. He glanced around again for any sign that the conversation was being listened to before he turned back to Chris. “You meant to cause a tornado?”

“Just a dust devil,” Chris murmured, and then gestured with his hands, “just a little one. Everyone was talking about how I was going to end up being a weatherman, and I don’t want to be a weatherman. I want to be... a superhero or something. I wanted to prove I could do something cooler than just snow.”

“Chris,” Eddie slipped out of his seat to kneel in front of his son again, forcing him to meet his eyes. “Chris, you know that you can be whatever you want to be, and that doesn’t have to have anything to do with your powers. It doesn’t matter what anyone else says. The only thing more important than that is that you have to be safe. You could have been really hurt.”

“It was only supposed to be a little one,” Chris turned his head away, and Eddie sighed before he straightened up and kissed the top of his head. He was about to get his phone out of his pocket, but the door that led deeper into the office opened, and Eddie couldn’t help but shift his body between it and Chris. The first person to step out was the police officer, who looked frustrated and severe. Behind her was the principal, Nash. Eddie had met him briefly when he was setting Chris up with the school, but never for very long.

The third person was unfamiliar to Eddie though. Usually, he would have said she was pretty, but there was a guilty look on her face that made Eddie’s stomach curdle.

“Mr. Diaz,” Principal Nash stepped around the police officer to shake Eddie’s hand firmly. “Thank you for coming so quickly. This is Sergeant Grant, with the Metahuman division of LAPD, and this is one of our administrators, Ana Flores.”

“Nice to meet you,” Eddie was polite by rote, but he couldn’t take his eyes off Sergeant Grant, “I think the other family already left.”

“We don’t need to speak to them,” Sergeant Grant gestured for him to take one of the other chairs and grabbed another, turning it around to face them. She smiled reassuringly at Chris and then turned her attention back to Eddie. “We just need to have a brief discussion about some concerns that were brought up.”

“Yeah, that’s fine, but I don’t...” Eddie glanced at everyone else in the room, and then back to Sergeant Grant, “I don’t know what kind of issues you mean. Chris has never done anything like this before—”

“Mr. Diaz, we’ve already discussed the events from lunch, and Sergeant Grant has agreed that no further action needs to be taken,” Principal Nash stepped in, “Nobody was hurt, there was significant, lasting damage, we’re happy to put that behind us.”

“Chris isn’t in any trouble,” Sergeant Grant continued and then turned her head slightly toward the Administrator, a flicker of frustration in her eyes before she turned back to Eddie, “however, someone voiced their concern during the interviews, and now we need to address it briefly for the report. They suggested that there was evidence that you haven’t been adequately supporting your son with the development of his powers. So, I need to—”

“I’m sorry, what?” Eddie blinked, the words settling in his chest like the sharp point of a knife. Chris shifted closer, clinging to him, and Eddie tried to push the hurt and frustration down so he didn’t scare him. “What kind of evidence? What are they actually accusing me of?”

Ana Flores stepped forward, her lips pressed into a thin line. “One of the homework tasks that we send home every week is that the children talk to a parent who has powers, and practice activating and deactivating their abilities. We provide games and activities that would fulfill the instruction.” Sergeant Grant looked like she was trying to burn a hole in the wall above Eddie’s head with her eyes, but Ana continued, “I was filling in for Mr. Buckley this morning, and when I asked Chris about his needs and how he handled the homework without support, he explained that he doesn’t do these tasks with you. That he never sees you use your powers in the home.”

If you just practiced, you could be amazing! You could replace an entire orchestra if you just practiced controlling your powers. Can’t you turn it off while we’re talking? I can barely hear myself think!

“He practices,” Eddie felt the shame curling in his chest. “He practices with Carla, with other members of our family, with— And how is this a prerequisite? What do you do when a kid’s family doesn’t have powers?”

“Mr. Diaz, we’ve already spoken to a few of Chris’s teachers, and we know that you’re taking very good care of him,” Sergeant Grant said, as Ana took a step back. “These are routine questions, and I’m sure that Mr. Buckley will be happy to back up that Chris has been meeting the criteria required by state law.”

“You know,” Ana said, offering a reassuring smile, “Lots of adults have issues with their powers. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

“I don’t have any issues controlling my—” Eddie’s mind reached for the buzzing sensation, ready to let it loose and prove that his powers worked just fine. It felt like it should have been easy to flick the switch, to release the stranglehold he’d had over his powers since he was a teenager, and let the music flow out of him, but... nothing happened. He tried to relax, to tense up, to summon up every emotion he could think of, and nothing happened.

“Nobody's accusing you of anything, Mr. Diaz,” Sergeant Grant said firmly, and Eddie tried to look as neutral as he could, not to let any of the fear or shame he was feeling show on his face. They didn’t know he had tried. That was the only saving grace. “Miss. Flores, thank you for your... help, but we have this in hand. Why don’t you run along now.”

The three of them exchanged looks, and then Ana stepped out of the room, closing the door behind her. The room was quiet, Sergeant Grant and Principal Nash sharing another set of incomprehensible looks. It started to itch beneath his skin, until he finally huffed, “Are we done?”

“Almost,” Sergeant Grant turned back to him, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a few leaflets. “I’m sure that you’re going to talk to Chris about what happened today, but I still have to give you these. And I need to inform you that the incident has been logged as a warning. They believe that the tornado that Chris formed caused a secondary weather pattern a few miles off the coast that had to be handled, with his power signature. There won’t be any repercussions, but it’s important that it doesn’t happen again.”

Eddie accepted the leaflet, talking about the environmental repercussions of metahuman powers, and shoved them in his pocket. Maybe he would sit down with Chris later and go through them all, but right now, he just wanted to go home.

Principal Nash gave it a moment, and then cleared his throat, nodding to Sergeant Grant. The woman nodded to them both, and then let herself out of the office waiting room, leaving Principal Nash alone with them. He looked apologetic as he smiled, moving Sergeant Grant’s chair back into place. “I know that a lot has already happened here today, and your first priority has to be taking care of Chris, so I won’t ask anything else right now. I’ll have Buck reach out about any next steps that need to be taken, and I’ll offer my sincere apology that everything escalated to this point.”

“I look after my son,” Eddie tried to sound as sure and firm as he could, holding Chris tighter to him. “I’m not neglecting him, or anything—”

“Mr. Diaz, I don’t think a single teacher who has spent time with Chris would believe that you are. It’s clear how much your son loves you. Miss. Flores was acting on an... overabundance of caution after the incident, and we’ll be having a discussion about the right ways to express that concern.”

“Do we need to be practicing more?” Eddie asked, reaching for the buzzing in his head helplessly and feeling it slip through his fingers. If he could just prove that he could help, maybe he could put it behind him. “I can look at hiring someone if you don’t think—”

“Usually, I would tell a parent that it never hurts to practice safely, but in this case, I think it’s going to be more detrimental than helpful,” Principal Nash shook his head, “A healthy relationship with your abilities is essential. Trying to obsessively control yourself when your powers are so tied to your emotions can be deeply damaging. Chris is doing fine, and there’s nothing I would change.”

You’re just not trying hard enough, Edmundo. What kind of example are you setting for your sisters? I don’t know where we went wrong with you.

“We should go,” Eddie stood, helping Chris to his feet and handing him his crutches. “Is Chris okay to come to school tomorrow? I know the other boy got suspended?”

“Chris isn’t suspended, but he will have to have lunch with Mr. Buckley for the rest of the week,” Principal Nash smiled, patting Chris on the shoulder. “That should be enough punishment. But if he doesn’t feel up to it, he should rest and recover tomorrow. Thank you for coming, Mr. Diaz.”

“Thank you,” Eddie murmured, directing Chris toward the door, and trying to pull together the shredded remains of his dignity as he reminded himself about what would come next.

“Mr. Diaz, I wanted to apologize about yesterday.”

Eddie tried not to look as exhausted as he felt as Buck met him at the gate with Chris. It was the first time he was seeing the teacher since everything that had occurred, Carla having dropped Chris off this morning so Eddie could get to his shift on time, and Eddie had to wonder if he had looked as guilty and exhausted then as he did now. His hair was gelled back instead of in the loose curls he’d worn before, and the darker spots under his eyes mixed with the stubble made it look like he hadn’t slept well at all.

“Why do you need to apologize?” Eddie accepted Chris’s backpack when Buck offered it to him, slipping it over his shoulder. “You weren’t here, you couldn’t—”

“Exactly,” Buck huffed, ducking his head guiltily. “I wasn’t here. Maybe if I’d been here, I could have kept a closer eye on everything. I could have made sure Flores didn’t start stirring up more trouble. I already told Bobby that it was... That Chris is good.”

How could you let this happen? Are you not giving Chris the attention he needs, is that why he’s acting out? This is why we told you to stay in Texas, where we could help. Now Chris is alone in a strange state, while you work a full-time job, with no family to support him. No wonder he’s lonely and breaking the rules for attention. You’re failing him, Edmundo.

“I’m sure you had a good reason for why you weren’t here,” Eddie said quietly, “and you can’t take responsibility for everything, Mr. Buckley.”

“Buck,” Buck said, managing a small smile as he looked up to meet Eddie’s eyes. “Everyone who really knows me, they call me Buck.”

“Buck, then,” Eddie smiled back, only to hesitate when he noticed one of the other parents behind Buck, watching them curiously. He couldn’t help but look around, wrapping an arm around Chris’s shoulder when he noticed how many people were watching them. “We went over the leaflet last night, didn’t we, Chris?”

“Yeah,” Chris said firmly, “I know I shouldn’t mess with the weather like that. I won’t do it again.”

“Hey, you can mess with the weather a little,” Buck winked, pinching his fingers together before he turned back to Eddie. “It’s the big, flashy things we need to hold off on.”

“Maybe we can try to avoid natural disasters altogether, huh?” Eddie suggested, and Chris blushed and nodded. An oddly familiar kid walking by paused, and then scoffed loudly before he kept walking. Eddie was about to ask Buck about it when he noticed that Buck’s eyes had turned up to the sky, just as a now familiar shadow passed over the school. It happened every time that Eddie came to pick up Chris, that someone would fly over the school and pause for a moment before continuing on. He had wanted to ask Buck about it, but he could never find a polite way to do so. This time though, he didn’t bite his tongue when Buck looked back down to the ground. “Everything okay?”

Buck looked surprised that Eddie had asked, glancing up again as the shadow took off againbefore he forced a weak smile. “Yeah. Yeah, it’s— It’s kind of the reason that I took the day off yesterday.”

Eddie couldn’t help but frown, shifting the backpack on his shoulder. “Is someone causing you any trouble?”

“No, he’s just...” Buck paused and then gave a sharp, mirthless laugh. “I can definitely say this now; He’s my ex-boyfriend.”

It sounded incredibly casual, but Eddie could see the way that Buck was watching his reaction. “That doesn’t stop him from causing you trouble, Buck. I’ve noticed him flying by a lot.”

“He works for the LAFD. It’s part of his route.” Buck hesitated and then gestured toward the parking lot. “Let me walk you to your car?”

It was further than Buck would have usually walked them, but it wasn’t too out of the way. Besides, Eddie wasn’t sure he would ever turn down the opportunity to spend time with him. He gestured for Buck to come with them, letting Chris take the lead, watching his son like a hawk. He had been so quiet since the day before, and Eddie couldn’t help but second guess the way he had handled it. Chris had practically talked Eddie into grounding him and had admitted his wrongdoing to Carla to make sure she held him to the same standards, but... perhaps he’d been too harsh when he laid out the information in the leaflet, or he hadn’t made it clear enough that he didn’t blame Chris for what had happened.

“He says that he likes to use the school as a landmark,” Buck explained after a moment, walking so closely that his shoulder would brush against Eddie’s every few steps. “He uses it to reorientate himself and then keeps going, but it always feels like he’s doing it to check on me. It used to be sweet, like he wanted to see me, but now...”

“It stopped feeling sweet after you broke up?” Eddie suggested, and Buck made a face as he nodded. “Look, Buck, I don’t want to sound like I’m prying—”

“No, please, pry away,” Buck managed another sad smile, gesturing to himself. “I’m an open book, Mr. Diaz.”

“I’ve just noticed...” Eddie considered his words for a moment before he sighed, “I’ve noticed you looking up when he flies overhead, and you don’t look happy to see him. You don’t want him there. I know you said you broke up yesterday—”

“No, we— Just before you and Chris joined the school, we had a fight. We decided to take a break for a month, and yesterday...” Buck paused as another family came close enough to listen, smiling politely until they were gone, “Yesterday, we met up to discuss what would happen next. It turns out, I liked being on a break, more than I liked being with him.”

“Sometimes you need that space to realize it,” Eddie suggested, and Buck shrugged helplessly. They were almost at the car now, Chris leaning against the door, so Eddie stopped where he was and turned to Buck. “If you don’t want to be outside when he flies overhead, I could always meet you and Chris at the doors? Or in your classroom? Wait until he’s gone and text you the all-clear.”

“Those are all great ideas, but I already told myself, I’m not going to hide from him,” Buck shrugged, “Life goes on, you know?”

“I could make it really cloudy,” Chris offered, speaking up for the first time in a while. “Maybe then he wouldn’t be able to see anything.”

“I think that would be some kind of child labor violation,” Buck chuckled, and then gestured to the car, “Do you want to get inside, Superman? I need to ask your dad something private.”

Chris sighed at the idea of being excluded, but he still let Eddie open the door and get him settled in the back. Eddie took an extra moment fastening the buckles and trying to prepare himself for what he knew was to come, but he still felt tense as he straightened up and turned back to Buck.

“I’m sorry that I wasn’t here when you needed me,” Buck said. Eddie tried to interrupt, but Buck held up his hand and pushed on. “I know that you said it wasn’t my responsibility, but it was. I took time off for personal reasons, and so I wasn’t here to help. I promised to look after your son, and—”

“No, Buck, you— You’re allowed to have time off,” Eddie finally got a word in, feeling the tension release when the blow never came. “I should have taught Chris better. Mrs. Flores made it pretty clear that I haven’t been living up to the school’s expectations—”

“The school’s only expectation for parents is that they love and support their son,” Buck put his hand on Eddie’s bicep, squeezing firmly. “And Ana doesn’t know what she’s talking about. I’ve talked about it with Bobby, but she— That’s not the point. I just want to offer— I mean, if you wanted some extra help, that isn’t required at all, then I would be open to doing some tutoring outside of school hours too. When I was growing up, I had to put a lot of work into getting control of my metahuman powers, and I thought it might help Chris to practice with someone who knows that struggle.”

Eddie waited for some memory of recrimination to hit him, but all he felt was a vague sense of relief and the buzzing lessen behind his ears. “I can’t ask you to do that,” he said quietly, “you probably have a lot going on.”

“I mean, I just broke up with my boyfriend, so I have a lot less than usual going on,” Buck pointed out, smiling when Eddie tilted his head and nodded in acknowledgment. It was a nice smile, Eddie thought as Buck continued, “It’s not fair that anyone at this school would make up some kind of problem and not offer a solution. I hope you know how amazing I think Chris is. If you think it’ll help, then I can think of much worse ways that I could spend a few hours.”

“If you wanted to do that, then that would be great,” Eddie admitted, and then felt a little flash of guilt, “but seriously, Buck—”

“Ah-Ah!” Buck cut him off, wagging a finger in his face with a grin, “No takebacks. I’ll text you and we can plan something. It’s going to be awesome.”

Eddie was pretty sure that he was right.

Leaning against the wall near the kitchen, watching Buck and Chris talk to one another about school, and life, and a thousand interesting questions, Eddie could have easily believed he was watching a pair of best friends instead of a teacher and a student. He’d seen how well they got along when he dropped Chris off and picked him up, and Chris had a thousand stories a day to tell Eddie about what Buck had done, but it was another thing to witness it firsthand.

“And thanks to this one guy, there was actually a medical surplus of O-Negative blood for a while in California,” Buck continued to explain, “There had to be a federal response, having his duplicates flown all over the country and even the world, because the city he lived in just didn’t have the logistics to support how much he was donating.”

“That’s so cool,” Chris looked amazed by the idea, turning to face Eddie when he straightened up, “Did you hear that, Dad? Did you know about this guy?”

“I didn’t,” Eddie admitted, carrying the drinks to the living room and putting them down on the coffee table. He offered Buck’s to him, watching his cheeks flush as their fingers brushed against one another. “Your grandpa always said that people with useful powers could change the world. You could change the world if you decided that you wanted to.”

“What about you, dad?” Chris asked curiously, picking up his drink and sipping through the straw. “Haven’t you ever thought about changing the world?”

“The only way I can change the world with my power would be to give everyone a headache,” Eddie tried to joke, ignoring the tightening feeling in his chest.”

“I’ve never thought to ask,” Buck gave him a curious look, “And, you know, don’t answer if I’m prying too much, but... “

“My dad makes music!” Chris announced before the question could even be asked, and Eddie almost looked away until he saw the smile on Buck’s face. Was he amused? Curious? Trying to be polite? “I only get to hear it sometimes, but it’s beautiful.”

“It’s not—” The words caught in Eddie’s throat as they both turned to look at him, feeling dizzy and a little nauseous under the attention. He tried to find something he could say, and finally settled on, “It’s not useful.”

That should have been the end of it. It was true. He could play music loudly, without any control over the genre, the volume, or the ability to stop it naturally. It was annoying and distracting, it made everyone look at him with pity in their eyes and—

“Why does it have to be useful?” Buck asked, his voice soft and curious, and Eddie looked away before he said something he didn’t mean.

“My dad doesn’t do it anyway,” Chris said quietly after a moment, “not if he can stop it.”

Buck looked at Chris for a moment and then turned back to Eddie with a furrow in his brow as if he was about to ask something. And then, in the space of a breath, he was smiling and holding out his hand to the group. “So, Chris. You remember that we did the class on different triggers for powers.”

“Yeah! Like Yasmin uses her words, and Paul does it physically?” Chris seemed excited to talk about it, and it meant Eddie could try to catch his breath without everyone looking at him.

“That’s right. And even when it’s an emotional reaction, different emotions can trigger your powers in different ways.” Buck looked at his palm, and a bubble appeared from the palm, pulsing ever so slightly in a double beat. It took Eddie a moment to work out what it reminded him of. A heartbeat.

“What emotion do you use to make bubbles?” Chris asked curiously, leaning in to look at the iridescent surface.

“Well, these days I don’t need to feel any particular way to make them. But when I was younger, I made bubbles when I needed to protect myself,” Buck plucked the bubble from his hand, holding it between his fingers. “I used to think they came from my knee for a little while.”

“Your knee?” Chris grinned, “That’d be weird, Buck.”

“I know! But, I think everyone’s powers are a little weird, if you really think about it,” Buck chuckled, running the bubble between his fingers as he spoke. Eddie couldn’t tear his eyes away from the show of dexterity, listening to Buck continue. “I fell off my bike and hurt my knee, and suddenly there was this bubble wrapped all around my knee. Maddie was so upset, and I couldn’t make it go away, so we had to go to the hospital. They had to—” It was only there that Buck hesitated, his smile faltering as he seemed to remember something, “They had to get through the bubble to make sure I hadn’t hurt my leg worse than they thought.”

“But how is that like my power?” Chris asked, his brow furrowing, “I don’t make it rain from my knee.”

“How do you know, huh?” Buck teased and then flicked the bubble onto the back of his hand and then let it roll down the length of his arm. Eddie wasn’t sure if it was just skill, or if it was some extension of his ability, but it was very distracting to watch Buck contact juggle the bubble. “While I was scared and upset, I couldn’t control my bubbles at all. It was super easy to make them, but I couldn’t choose how big they were or where they came from, or anything like that. When I’m nice and calm, I can do all kinds of cool things with them.”

He extended his other hand toward Eddie, and the bubble traveled along his fingers to lightly tap the edge of Eddie’s bottle before Buck caught it with a charming wink.

“But when I get emotional...” He held out the bubble, and Eddie watched as the gentle pulsing started to pick up, compounding on itself as Buck’s expression tightened. His eyes drifted, becoming unfocused and distant as he seemed to lose himself in memory, and Eddie watched as his breathing and the orb started to get shakier.

He was about to suggest they stop when the bubble suddenly exploded outward. Eddie flinched, but when it brushed against his face, it was more like a warm breeze than an actual impact. Buck already had a new bubble in his fingers by the time Eddie turned back to him, the bubble pulsing again with a calmer heartbeat.

“How do you stop it?” Chris asked, looking at the bubble with a little more trepidation than last time, “When it starts to go out of control, how do you stop it from hurting people?”

“Well, the first step is to not panic,” Buck explained, expanding the bubble until it was about the size of a beach ball, and then offered it toward Eddie. “Can you hold this for me?”

“Yeah,” Eddie took the bubble carefully, half expecting it to be heavy. Instead, it was light and even a little warm to the touch, the pulsing of Buck’s heartbeat even more pronounced in his hands. “Is this part of the exercise, or do you just like making me hold things for you?”

“Maybe both,” Buck grinned and then turned back to Chris, “Alright, so we’re going to start with something that I know you can do. Can you make it snow, inside my bubble?”

Chris quickly shuffled closer to the bubble, giving it an intense look as his hands curled into fists. It didn’t take long for the bubble to start to cool underneath Eddie’s fingertips, and when he looked up at Buck, the other man was wrapping his arms around himself as if to ward off the cold. There was the sudden urge to hug the bubble closer, to try and wrap it up in his own warmth, but already snowflakes were starting to fall inside the bubble.

“I did it!” Chris turned to Buck with a bright smile. “Look!”

“That’s awesome,” Buck didn’t even hesitate to praise him, even if there was a subtle shivering that Eddie couldn’t help but notice. “I want you to keep pushing though. Make it a real flurry in there.”

Chris leaned in even closer, his brow furrowing as he tightened his fists until the knuckles were pale. Eddie almost wanted to tell him to relax, but the snow was falling even quicker now, piling up in the bottom of the bubble which was now cool enough that they didn’t melt. Soon there was at least an inch of snow, but there were also wet flecks on Eddie’s wrists and forearms and a little chill in the air of the living room. He turned to Buck, who nodded in understanding but still held off commenting until the snow was coming down outside the bubble more obviously.

“Alright, Chris. You’re doing great, but it looks like we’re overshooting a little,” he spoke gently, but Chris still jerked at the sound of his voice, and the outside of the bubble suddenly frosted over. Eddie’s knuckles ached, but he still cradled the bubble carefully. “It’s okay. The first thing is to acknowledge how you’re feeling right now. Feel where the energy is in your body, and what emotions are behind it. Hold the moment, and don’t let it escalate.”

Chris’s brow furrowed, and he glanced between Buck and Eddie, the snow now falling hard enough that it was settling on the carpet. “I guess... I guess I feel a little scared?”

“That’s totally okay,” Buck assured him, smiling. “I think everyone gets a little scared when things get out of their control. But you can still take it back if you want to. I know when I get scared, it feels like my chest gets really tight. Do you feel that too?” Chris nodded hesitantly, and Buck put a hand on his own chest. “Why don’t we take a couple of deep breaths together, huh? Deal with that tight feeling.”

Eddie watched Buck guide Chris through some relaxation and breathing techniques, adjusting his grip on the bubble that was now heavier with the weight of the snow. The pulse was slower, more controlled as Buck walked Chris back from the brink of his panic, and Eddie watched as the last snowflake fell and landed on his finger before melting away.

“Alright, that’s good. See?” Buck gestured to the bubble, and Eddie held it out obediently for Chris to examine, “You managed to slow it right down. I bet your chest is feeling a little less tight now, too, huh?”

“Yeah,” Chris touched his chest, copying Buck’s gesture from earlier and taking another deep breath. “It’s... It’s that easy?”

“You know, in theory? Totally,” Buck shrugged, “but in the real world, it’ll depend on how upset you are, and what else is going on. Those are some good basic steps to follow. Try to pause, reflect on how you’re feeling and what’s making you feel that way, and then take back control.”

“What if my powers go wild because I’m too happy?” Chris stared at the orb, his shoulders sinking as he continued, “I need to... learn how to stop being happy?”

“Do you think you’re going to do something terrible to the weather if you’re smiling too much?” Buck asked, and Chris shrugged helplessly, “It sucks to say, but I don’t think that’s going to be a problem. I think if you were making the weather do something because you were happy, and you found out that it was causing a problem? You’re the kind of person who would stop being so happy.”

“Why does that suck to say?” Eddie couldn’t help but ask, and Buck gave him a sad smile.

“Because people deserve to be happy, even if it inconveniences other people,” Buck paused and then poked Chris in the knee. “Now, laughter? That’s harder to pull back on. But we already practiced the basic steps for that too. Let me deal with my bubble.”

He plucked it from Eddie’s hands, and for a moment, Eddie swore that the bubble didn’t want to leave. It felt like it stuck to his fingers, like the bubble stretched to try and hold onto him, before Buck managed to grab it and carry it into the kitchen. There was a soft grunt, and then a thud as the snow landed in the sink before Buck made his way back to the living room.

“Can we try again?” Chris asked, looking down at his hands and slowly unclenching them. “Please?”

“Sure,” Buck smiled indulgently, producing another bubble from his hand and handing it to Eddie once it had grown enough. “What weather do you want to try next, huh?”

They practiced for a while longer, occasionally pausing to talk about different ideas that came to mind, and Eddie just settled in on his seat holding the different balls for them. By the end, it almost felt like the buzzing behind his ears had started to rise and fall in time with the pulsing from the bubbles, but he was sure that was just his imagination. He still hadn’t been able to summon up the music again, even in the privacy of the soundproofed booth.

When it was finally time for Chris to go to bed, Buck lingered in the living room as Eddie walked Chris through his nighttime routine, looking like a dog that had done something wrong and was waiting to be yelled at. Eddie took a moment to settle himself before he gestured to the kitchen. “Do you want a drink? I don’t know if you’ve got somewhere else to be...?”

Buck looked surprised at the offer, and then a hesitant smile spread across his face as he nodded, “A drink sounds nice. I’ve got nowhere else to be.”

Eddie collected a couple of beers from the fridge and joined Buck on the couch, sliding into the spot that Chris had left. Buck took his bottle and then gave it an intense look until the lid suddenly bounced off as a bubble formed inside the neck. Eddie almost felt like he was supposed to applaud, but he just smiled, “I guess you were popular in college.”

“Yeah,” Buck murmured and then cleared his throat as he straightened up. “I guess I probably shouldn’t be telling Chris about restraint and showing off for you, huh? I know this is all stuff you’ve probably taught Chris, but—”

“Not... I mean, I’ve taught him that it’s okay to feel things and how to deal with big feelings, but I’m pretty in the dark about how to apply that to using his powers,” Eddie admitted and then held his bottle out toward Buck hopefully. Buck grinned and stared at the neck again until Eddie’s cap popped off too. He caught it in the air, looking at where the mettle had been pushed outwards. “This was never the way my parents taught me.”

“What did they teach you?” Buck asked curiously, sipping his beer and watching Eddie with those curious, knowing eyes.

“They taught me I shouldn’t start something if I didn’t know how to control it,” Eddie admitted, but that felt... It felt more like an accusation, and he shrugged as he added, “It was more about shutting things down than trying to gently walk them back.”

“I know that works for some people,” Buck said, in the most pained, diplomatic tone Eddie had ever heard. He snorted, and Buck tilted his head. “How do you control your power then?”

“I don’t.” It slipped out so easily, and it felt like a noose around his neck the next moment. He stared at the bottle in his hand, waiting for Buck to ask another question, but it was just quiet until he spoke again. “My power isn’t useful. It isn’t something that I need. I used to get sent to the principal all the time because it annoyed people. I guess I learned how to keep it inside, and then... that was enough.”

“All the time?” Buck asked, his brow furrowing a little. “There’s a lot of medical evidence that—”

“Yeah, when I was younger, it... I had to see a doctor. We worked out an alternative,” Eddie shrugged, trying to make it see light and unaffected, “I have a space I use, where I can let the control slip for a while. It’s not perfect, but at least it doesn’t ruin anyone else’s day.”

There was another moment of pause, the two of them drinking their beer in silence, except for the buzzing. He shouldn’t be admitting any of this. Maybe he was entirely within his legal rights to treat his own metahuman ability how he liked, but wasn’t this just going to strengthen Ana’s case? Was Buck going to have to advise Principal Nash—

“Can I hear it?”

The question caught Eddie off guard, and he turned to Buck to see him smiling encouragingly, the bottle pressed against his lower lip as though he’d been about to drink and got distracted by the thought. Eddie frowned, and then shook his head, “I shouldn’t. Chris just went to bed, and— It’s late for my neighbors too. It can get loud and it’s not exactly... you know, pop music or anything, It’s—”

“Mr... Eddie,” Buck spread his arm along the back of the couch, shaking his head softly. “I won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to. I just... I hate the idea that you’re walking around, thinking that everyone is going to find it annoying. I don’t know if there’s any part of you I find annoying, and if your powers are a part of you, that includes them. But—” He held up a finger when Eddie tried to interrupt, “Even if it was something I didn’t enjoy? I’d be excited to find out more about you anyway.”

Buck sounded so sure that Eddie honestly considered giving in for a moment. He closed his eyes for a moment, reaching for the buzzing sensation just to see if anything had changed since last time, and felt it slip through his fingers. The music just wouldn’t come.

“Everything okay?” Buck’s question made Eddie open his eyes again, and he immediately felt like he’d been caught doing something wrong. He didn’t look disapproving, he looked concerned, but Eddie immediately looked away and put his arm on the back of the couch so he could pick at the fabric and distract himself. “Eddie?”

“Yeah, I just...” Eddie shrugged again, trying to find the words to explain. “It was stupid. I can’t control my powers, I never could. That’s why Chris has so much trouble with this kind of stuff. His grandparents were always way more—”

He almost missed the swell of orchestral music, the gentle piano, and artful violins. It all felt secondary to the feeling of fingers brushing against his forearm, warm and solid. It made him catch his breath, the praise he’d been about to lay on his parents vanishing as he looked up at the wonder in Buck’s eyes.

“Whoa,” Buck’s voice was barely a breath, looking around the room as if he might find the source of the music before he turned back to Eddie and smiled. “It’s beautiful.”

He felt like he should deny it. It was too loud, it was distracting, it was everything that his parents had always accused it of being and it filled every corner of the room. But when he looked at Buck, who looked at him like he was doing something miraculous, it made his heart beat faster and the embarrassment of the situation fade into the background. “I mean, maybe?”

“Definitely,” Buck insisted, and then gestured to the world around them, rubbing his chin as he listened. If he noticed that the music dimmed when he stopped touching Eddie’s arm, he didn’t comment on it. It was best not to interrogate why it might do that. He smiled hesitantly when Buck turned back to him, “You don’t hear it? It’s like... It’s like the music is talking to me, right here—” he reached over and put his hand on Eddie’s chest, over his heart. “You know?”

“Maybe,” Eddie repeated, not sure if he was strong enough to lean into or away from the touch. “It’s not so great for trying to focus. Or when you’re trying to watch or listen to something else—”

“But what about when you’re reading a book, or doing chores, or working out,” Buck insisted, pulling his hand back as he sipped his beer again, “You never have to be in a quiet house again, you’ve always got the music to keep you company.”

The way he said it sounded so wistful, like he couldn’t help but imagine the scenario, and had found it was everything he had ever wanted. Eddie had never worried about a quiet house before. Maybe when he was really young, but his sisters were in all of his memories. His mom, and Shannon. The house was always alive with sound. And maybe that was why his music hadn’t been welcome there, that it was trying to impose itself into a place that didn’t need it.

“So, your job wouldn’t benefit from some amazing music?” Buck teased softly, and Eddie shook his head, not trusting his voice for a moment. “I don’t think I ever asked, what do you do? For work, I mean?”

“I’m a dispatcher with 9-1-1,” Eddie was ready to give more of an explanation, but Buck made a soft, surprised noise and then snorted. “What?”

“Nothing, I just—” Buck straightened up, grinning widely, “My sister works there. Maddie? Maddie Han?”

“Maddie is your sister?” Eddie paused, trying to work out if Buck had ever mentioned her before in passing. “I didn’t— The different surnames, I never thought—”

“That’s because she betrayed me, and married my co-worker,” Buck scoffed, rolling his eyes, but there was a soft fondness to it that undercut any frustration. “I think you met him, Chimney? He said he was with Chris when you got there.”

“Right, he was the... He could change his size,” Eddie waited for Buck to acknowledge he had the right guy before he shrugged. “That’s... I guess it really is a small world, huh?”

“I think that really awesome people have a way of finding one another,” Buck suggested, and Eddie couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “What? You don’t believe in fate? Or you don’t believe that you’re an awesome person?”

“I’m not— I’m just doing my best. There’s a difference.”

“I’m not going to back down on this,” Buck warned him, leaning in to prod him lightly when Eddie tried to look away. “You are awesome. And I’m a teacher, which makes me, like, the authority on what’s cool these days.”

“That wasn’t how I remembered my teachers,” Eddie teased right back, laughing when Buck gasped and pulled away. “But I’m pretty sure Chris would agree with you, if that helps.”

“It does,” Buck chuckled, and the two of them fell quiet for a moment. The music had faded, the buzzing too, and there was a moment of silence where Buck seemed to be thinking about something.

“I could try and play more?”

The offer made Buck smile softly, “You sure?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I’m a human CD player, right?” He paused before he held out his hand, “I think touch helps?”

Buck didn’t make a joke or hesitate, or even rush Eddie. He just held out his own hand in return, waiting for Eddie to take it. The orchestral music started up again the moment their hands touched, and Buck’s other hand was surrounded by a bubble that seemed to pulse in time with the instruments.

It was only when he was saying goodbye, that he realized that it was the first time that he didn’t feel as though the music was annoying anyone.

Eddie had done a report on his mother’s power when he was fourteen, all carefully written out on cue cards before he gave his speech. His mom could teleport anywhere in the world. Technically, she could teleport anywhere, but there were some incredibly dangerous caveats. She wasn’t invulnerable, so if she teleported into life-threatening danger, then that was that. If she tried to teleport to a place that didn’t exist, scientists had theorized that people with her power would simply cease to exist as well. And—

“Honestly! If you’re going to invite us to dinner, then the least that you could do is ensure that the teleportation space is clear!”

If she were to teleport into a space with another physical objects, it could result in her being severely injured as her body and the obstruction jockeyed for space. It was why he was always expected to send a photo of a place he wanted her to teleport to, and then keep the space free of obstruction. He didn’t want his mom to get injured.

“I’m sorry,” He said quietly, glancing over his shoulder to the kitchen where Chris was setting the table. “Chris must have—”

“You are the adult in this house,” Ramon’s voice was firm and disappointed, and Eddie wilted at the sound. “You shouldn’t blame your son.”

“I made dinner,” Eddie knew it was a weak attempt at changing the subject, but he didn’t have the energy after a long day at work to stand and bite his tongue while they tore into him about an accident. “Chris has homework he needs to finish tonight, so we have to be done earlier.”

“You arranged a dinner when you knew Chris wouldn’t be able to give us his full attention?” Helena looked at Ramon, the two of them sharing some kind of silent conversation before she turned back. “Ask his teacher for an extension. We only get so much time to spend with him—”

“You insisted we needed to have dinner before the end of the week, Mom, and like I explained on the phone, Chris has a field trip tomorrow.” Eddie took a step back toward the kitchen as if he could lure them in with a few steps. “He’ll be too tired to focus on it when he gets home, and he has to hand it in on Friday.”

He didn’t give them a chance to continue arguing, he stepped into the kitchen and put his hand on Chris’s shoulder. He could feel how tense Chris was, but his son still smiled and exchanged polite, warm greetings when they followed Eddie into the kitchen. While they all made themselves comfortable around the table, Eddie took the lasagne and garlic bread out of the oven and set them on the table, trying to look confident in the cooking. It looked good, and it had tasted good at every step he could try, but he knew his parents would find something to critique.

“Christopher,” Ramon didn’t even look at the food, he was focused on Chris with an encouraging smile. “We’ve been talking, and we have a surprise for you.”

“A surprise?” Eddie looked up from where he’d been cutting the lasagne, “You didn’t mention anything about a surprise over the phone.”

“Well, it would be a surprise if we were just telling anyone about it,” Helena looked at him as though he had said something ridiculous, and Eddie wanted to throw back at her that he wasn’t just anyone. He was Chris’s father, and he had a right to know before they were ambushed at the dinner table, but she was already pushing forward with Chris, “Did you know that the city government in El Paso offers internships for people whose metahuman powers would serve the public good?”

“Internships?” Eddie folded his arms across his chest, but nobody was looking at him other than Chris. “Chris isn’t— I mean, the first issue is that we live in Los Angeles, not El Paso. And both cities have child labor laws, last time I checked.”

“There’s no need to be so dramatic, Edmundo,” Ramon turned to give him a hard look, “This is a multi-year program. It would give Chris access to the finest teachers and tutors, taking classes on the climate, agriculture, and all the kinds of things that a ‘climate influencer’ needs to know. There’s a guaranteed job at the—”

“A ‘climate influencer?’ Is that like... A weatherman?” Chris waited until Ramon nodded before he frowned and turned to Eddie, “I don’t want that.”

“If Chris doesn’t want to do it, then the conversation is over,” Eddie said firmly, but neither of his parents seemed to care.

“Your metahuman abilities are an incredible gift, Chris,” Helena reached out to touch Chris’s forearm, nodding encouragingly. “This would be a guaranteed career path for you. You’d never have to worry about finding work, no matter what happened in your life. Don’t you want to use your power to make the world better?”

“Yeah, but— I can do that in a bunch of ways,” Chris insisted, starting to squirm uncomfortably, “Buck was telling me about people with powers like mine who travel the world, helping people recovering from droughts, or— Who help the fire department, during wildfire season and even during the year to—”

“A firefighter?” Ramon asked, and there was such an obvious frustration in his voice that Eddie had to fight the urge not to apologize. “Why does this teacher think he can fill Chris’s head with ridiculous ideas? Why does he get to dictate what Chris is doing with his—”

“Buck is not dictating anything,” Eddie muttered, “he’s just showing—”

“You know, back in my day, I would have never thought of calling my teacher by a nickname,” Helena scoffed, adjusting her table setting, “It’s incredibly disrespectful.”

“It’s not,” Chris’s hands had curled into fists now, and Eddie wished he was closer to try and reassure him, but Helena and Ramon were between them like an impenetrable wall of parental disappointment. “Buck likes to be called Buck.”

“Of course he does, Christopher,” Ramon reached over and squeezed one of Chris’s fists, but he was still scowling at Eddie, focusing so intensely that Eddie thought he might have actually been trying to drill into his skull with his mind. “We are offering the kind of opportunity that most people would kill for, and you are letting your son squander it. Why are you not trying to support him?”

“I’m listening to what my son says he wants, and supporting him with that,” Eddie ignored the way his mom rolled her eyes, trying to stay strong for Chris’s benefit. They could cow him into silence when it came to himself, but not when it was on Chris’s behalf. “Chris’s power is amazing, but it’s not the only thing about him that’s amazing. He can do anything he sets his mind to.”

“Just because you chose to waste your potential, doesn’t mean that you should encourage him to do the same!”

Eddie felt his mom’s accusation like a slap across the face, and it started a laugh out of him as he stepped back from the table. “You— I’m sorry, but did you raise another Eddie and get me mixed up with him?”

“Edmundo, there’s no need to be dramatic,” Ramon lifted one of his hands, covering his ear as if he was preparing himself, and Eddie flushed with embarrassment. It was like he’d completely missed the last decade where Eddie hadn’t made a single note in his presence.

“You don’t have to worry. I’m not going to cause you a headache. I don’t want to distract you,” he spat the words, the buzzing building behind his ears until it hurt. “You don’t have to tell me to turn off that racket.”

“Good! Then you finally showed you have some kind of control over it!” Ramon grabbed the garlic bread, scraping the tray across the table so he could grab a furious handful to throw on his plate. “I assumed you just gave up on it, like you—”

“I gave up on trying to control it because there was nobody there to help me,” Eddie insisted, rubbing aggressively at the buzzing and trying to remember Buck’s advice to Chris on how to control their powers. “I had this ability, this... this music inside of me, and all you could ever seem to do was tell me that I had to be quiet so you could work, and mom—” he turned toward her, her unmoving face meeting his frustration like a brick wall. “The moment you realized that I wasn’t going to be some kind of musical prodigy, it was just a headache for you.”

“You were always so loud,” Helena shook her head, the words spilling over her without a twitch in her expression. “You never wanted to practice, you just played the music that you wanted to play.”

“I’m not a human jukebox,” Eddie threw his hands in the air, “I wasn’t composing the music, or picking what would play. The music is me. It’s who I am, how I’m feeling, what’s going on in my life. And whenever I tried to explain that, you would just say that it was ‘too much.’ Too loud. Too uncontrolled. Useless. You know, I tried to run away? I tried to join the army when Shannon got pregnant, to get some space from the two of you, to make something of myself. They wouldn’t take me.”

There was a beat of silence, Helena’s expression cracking ever so slightly into horror. Eddie had never told them that before, and the reason why was dripping from every word that Ramon said next.

“Of course they wouldn’t, Edmundo. Your power isn’t useful.”

Eddie wasn’t good enough to die for his country. Wasn’t good enough for an internship. Wasn’t good enough for Chris. Eddie was a broken CD player, and he was dragging Chris down with him.

“I’m too useless to be a metahuman,” he said quietly, turning to look at his dad’s perplexed face, “and I’m too metahuman to be a normal person.”

“Why would you want to be normal?” Ramon asked, shaking his head slightly. “You’re—”

“I’m not letting you do what you did to me to Chris too. He’s enough. He’s more than enough, whether he’s using his powers or not.” Eddie leaned on the chair, his fingers aching as they tried to dig into the wood. “I don’t care what he decides to do with his life, so long as he’s happy. And the people who know him agree. Buck agrees.”

His dad reared back, looking like Eddie had wounded him, “And who is this ‘Buck’ that you—”

The crack of thunder in the enclosed space was almost deafening, and it was the only warning before a bolt of searing white light shot from the outlet above them, hitting the tray of lasagne. For a moment, Eddie couldn’t see anything, blinking away the dark spots in his eyes. The tray was shattered into several pieces of pottery, and scorched remnants of pasta and meat were littered across the table, thrown by the impact.

It was silent. No buzzing, no breathing, just the smell of burning and the tingle of electricity in the air. It was only when a chair shifted that Eddie could turn his eyes away from the damage, and watch as Chris got to his feet.

“May I be excused,” he said, his voice dull and disinterested. He wasn’t meeting Eddie’s gaze, his head ducked and hands tight around the handles of his crutches. “Please?”

“Yeah,” Eddie cleared his throat, his voice feeling weak and rough all at the same time. “Yeah, you head to your room, Chris. I’ll be in soon, okay?”

There was no reply. Chris turned on the spot and made his way out of the kitchen, leaving all three adults standing in the kitchen. Eddie waited until he heard the door to Chris’s room close before he let go of the chair, his hands shaking.

“What—” Helena reached out, tapping one of the pieces of pottery out of the way to reveal a blackened mark where the bolt of lightning had hit. “What was that?”

“Chris got upset.”

“So he tried to destroy the meal?” Helena turned to look at him, shaking almost as badly as he was. Eddie had to bite down on the sarcastic correction that sprung to the forefront of his mind. Chris had succeeded in destroying the meal.

“His powers are tied to his emotions. When he’s upset, it’s harder to control.” Eddie held up his hand when his dad opened his mouth, his jaw tightening. “I’m not blaming Chris for anything, I’m trying to explain. He’s following his tutor’s advice now, removing himself from the situation. Us fighting in front of him, it’s not helping.”

“And what are you doing to stop it?” Helena insisted sharply, shifting around the table to get closer to Ramon. A combined front, as always. “You’re not trying to teach him how to control his— No. Of course not. How could you? We couldn’t teach you how to do it, could we? So this is our fault?”

“I’m not having this argument,” Eddie turned away, running his hand through his hair. He didn’t care what they wanted to say now, he needed them to leave. “There are other people in Chris’s life who think the world of him. They’re willing to help too.”

“Like his teacher?” Ramon’s voice was curiously flat, and for once, Eddie couldn’t work out a single thing about how he actually felt. It didn’t even sound disappointed, which had become so common that Eddie couldn’t imagine his voice without it. “Why is Mr. Buckley so—”

“You don’t know anything about Buck,” Eddie murmured and then repeated it with more confidence. “You don’t know anything. He’s been nothing but kind and helpful. He’s a good guy. And... I think it’s time that you two go home.”

“You’re kicking us out of your house?” Helena looked lost at the idea. Had she honestly thought that it would never reach this point? That she’d be allowed to say whatever she wanted for as long as she wanted to, and never face consequences? “We’ve come all the way from Texas to—”

“You teleported here, Mom!” Eddie slammed his hand on the counter and turned to face them again. “You can be anywhere in the world in a second, but you’re here. You love to take every opportunity to prove that I can’t escape you!”

“You want to escape us?”

Eddie wasn’t sure the last time he’d heard his dad’s voice sound so small, and he could only glance at him and see the hurt on his face for a moment before he had to avert his eyes. “I just want to be my own man,” he said just as quietly. “I want to raise my son the best way I know how.”

“And we want to help,” Helena sounded unsure now, looking between the two of them. “Why do you want Chris to grow up without his family?”

“That’s not what I want, mom. I want Chris to grow up to be happy. Everything else comes in a distant second to that,” Eddie looked at the table for a moment, and then shook his head. “I’m going to go check on my son now. I’d appreciate it if you weren’t here when I come to clean up.”

He didn’t see them leave, but they were gone by the time he reached Chris’s bedroom.

Eddie had a new understanding of the thing Buck had said during their tutoring session about silence. It felt like it had been smothering him all night, like he was walking through a minefield every time he and Chris were in the same room. It wasn’t that Chris hadn’t spoken. He’d apologized for the lightning bolt, but he refused to talk about the things that had been said at the dinner table. He answered any direct question, but not with any detail or extra questions or anything that propelled the conversation forward.

By the time Eddie was dropping him off at school, ready for the field trip, he felt like he was starting to go mad. He told it all to Buck, every single thing his parents had said, that he had said, that Chris hadn’t said. He wasn’t sure what he wanted from it, if he wanted Buck to absolve him of the blame or if he was hoping there’d be a solution, but saying it out loud made it feel a little more manageable.

“I won’t lie to you, Eddie,” Buck admitted, his voice apologetic as he watched the kids with eagle eyes. “It’s never a good thing when a kid retreats into themselves, but... Chris is a good kid. You are a good dad. I know it’s hard, but you can’t force him to talk about it. All you can do is make sure he knows you love him and you’re ready for when he does want to talk.”

“I know you’re right, but—” Eddie paused as another family approached, and Buck gently directed them towards the waiting bus. “I don’t want to ignore the problem either, you know? I don’t want Chris to feel like it’s the kind of thing he’s supposed to handle alone or... or not at all.”

Buck nodded, considering the kids again for a moment before he turned back to Eddie. “Do you have work today?”

“No, it’s my day off,” Eddie sighed, imagining for a moment how it would feel to go back to his empty, silent house. “I have laundry to do. Buy a new lasagne tray...”

“Well, as fun as that sounds...” Buck teased, and Eddie rolled his eyes fondly. “I wondered if I could ask you for a favor? A couple of the parents pulled out of chaperoning. There was a big lightning storm in the area last night, and... I mean, they had excuses, but I think they didn’t want to chance the weather.”

“I would, but—” Eddie turned to look at the bus, where Chris was sitting in one of the windows, staring into the middle distance. “Do you think Chris would appreciate that? I mean, I can’t imagine having my dad along on a field trip. Won’t it get him teased?”

“No way,” Buck scoffed and then paused as he considered again for a moment, before he shrugged, “Just give him some space, let him come to you. Try to match his energy.”

“I don’t know about that. Today, his energy is pretty dark,” Eddie muttered, scratching the back of his neck, “I don’t think I ever had one of those dark, goth phases.”

“You’d have probably rocked the eyeliner,” Buck nudged him, and they both managed a small smile despite everything else. “Please come? You get to spend the day on the pier, and I’d feel better knowing you’re not home alone, thinking about everything.”

Eddie considered it for a moment and then let out a soft sigh. “Alright, sure,” he murmured and tried not to be charmed by the way that Buck immediately smiled and relaxed. It felt good to be wanted, even if it was just for chaperoning purposes. “But seriously, I’ll need all the tips you can give me on dealing with kids. The fact that Chris turned out even halfway normal is a small miracle.”

“Don’t sell yourself short,” Buck nudged him again, leaning in as though they were conspiring. Buck’s breath was warm on his ear, and it made him want to shiver and lean in all at the same time. “You’ve just got to meet the kids where they’re at. The thing everyone forgets is that, if they’re talking to you, then it means they already want something from you. Listen to what they’re asking for, and try to give it to them if you can. They want you to like them.”

“It’s easy for you to say that,” Eddie watched as the last couple of kids climbed onto the bus, one of the other chaperones gesturing for Buck to join them, and started to walk with him. “Obviously the kids want you to like them, but that might not be true for everyone.”

“Oh?” Buck looked confused and surprised by the idea. “Why?”

“Because you’re a very likable guy, Mr. Buckley.” They paused at the door to the bus, and Eddie took a moment to take in the delighted smile and the blush on Buck’s cheeks before he added, “I like you.”

“Well... I like you too, Mr. Diaz,” Buck gestured for Eddie to go first, waiting until Eddie had one foot on the step before he leaned in and added, “and not just because you’re the parent of my favorite student.”

Eddie was still thinking about the admission as he sat near the front of the bus, watching Los Angeles slip past him and trying not to check and see if Chris had noticed him yet. Buck was in the seat ahead of him, twisted around so that he could tell him all about the history of the Santa Monica pier and what the kids had done to win a day away from the school. It was easy to get swept away in Buck’s storytelling and enthusiasm, to forget everything that had happened the night before in the face of a cute smile and gentle teasing.

He gave in to the temptation when they came into view of the ocean, turning to check on Chris. He was sitting on his own, still staring out of the window with a furrowed brow. Out at sea, there were dark clouds building, and Eddie couldn’t help but wonder if Chris was causing them on the otherwise perfect day. It felt like an accusation to even wonder that, and he turned guiltily back to Buck for the rest of the journey.

Soon, they were all gathered outside the pier, and Eddie watched Buck finish his count of the children before he clapped his hands. “Alright! So, there are only so many adults with us, so we can’t split up in too many directions. We’ve got two options for how we want to start the day. So, the first option is the game booths, and the second one is the Merry-go-round and the rides near that.”

Everyone started to separate into the two groups, but Eddie’s eyes focused on Chris, waiting to see which way he would go. He expected Chris to be more drawn in by the carnival games, he knew how much his son loved to win the toys and stuff, but Chris suddenly shifted toward the Merry-go-round group. Eddie shifted over with him, trying to stay out of his line of sight, but he couldn’t avoid Buck and the knowing look he shot in Eddie’s direction.

He didn’t stop Eddie though. Eddie wondered what Buck was thinking, if he’d decided Eddie had to make the mistake for himself, or if he didn’t want to overstep between Eddie and his son. Either way, he turned back to both groups with a big smile. “Alright, we’re going to spend an hour on this, and then we’ll meet at the end of the pier to work out next steps. Remember to stick to the buddy system, guys.”

Eddie had half-hoped that Buck would join their group, but he watched as Buck moved to the other set of children to balance out the chaperones and let out a soft sigh. The other chaperones started to lead their group toward the rides, but he lurked at the back, watching Chris as the other kids paired up into their ‘buddies.’ He remembered this process from when he was a kid, but he’d always had a friend to pair up with when he needed to. Maybe it was his bad mood, or the tornado, or the fact that Eddie was here, but Chris ended up alone near the back of the group and Eddie couldn’t help but move to walk with him, to keep him company.

“It’s a nice day,” he said after a few moments of silence, nodding to the storm out at sea. “I don’t think it’s going to make—”

“I didn’t do it,” Chris grunted, turning away from the ocean.

“I didn’t mean— I was just saying, it’s a pretty nice day to go on a field trip,” Eddie tried to explain, but the moment just lapsed into silence again. “I hope it’s okay that I tagged along to help Buck.”

A shrug, more silence. If Chris had any kind of opinion on the fact that Eddie was here, he wasn’t willing to share it. Eddie wondered if he should try to explain more about why he had agreed to come today. Or maybe he should try to talk about what had happened the night before, instead. He turned to Chris, who wouldn’t even look at him.

“The merry-go-round sounds like fun,” He finally settled on, the words feeling weak in his mouth. “I mean, if it’s near the front, you’ll probably get some awesome views of—”

“It’s a historic ride,” Chris interrupted and then shrugged. “Buck told me about it.”

“Right, yeah,” Eddie swallowed and looked around as if there might be some clue on how to survive this conversation just lurking in the corner. Small talk wasn’t working, silence was killing him, so it only left one option. “Chris, I’m sorry about last night, I—”

“You don’t need to be sorry,” Chris shook his head, and then picked up speed, “My friends are leaving me behind.”

Eddie couldn’t force his son to stay, and any excuses to stay with him felt like ash on his tongue. His son didn’t want to be around him. It was a bitter kind of karma, that Eddie had pushed away his parents and been pushed away by his son in the same breath. He tried to reorientate himself, to shut down those feelings and instead focus on what he needed to do. Buck might have brought him out of pity, but he was still here to do a job.

It still hurt that Chris waited until the chaperones had decided who would go to which ride before he decided where he would go, avoiding Eddie entirely.

Eddie watched as the four or five kids at the merry-go-round got onto the saddles, trying not to look like his life was falling apart, only to notice someone standing beside him and staring up at him. He turned to look at the vaguely familiar child who was looking up at him with owl-like eyes. “Hey, you want to get on the ride?”

“No,” The kid shook his head and then tilted it curiously. “You’re Chris’s dad, right? You know that he’s upset today.”

“I noticed,” Eddie murmured, turning back to the ride and trying not to feel judged by a pre-teen. “It happens sometimes. Everyone gets upset. It’s important to have friends with you when you get sad though. Are you and Chris friends?”

“No,” The kid looked offended by the suggestion, and Eddie tried not to immediately dislike this child. The kid pointed out toward the ocean, shaking his head. “He’s going to ruin today, you know?”

“Hey, that’s not fair,” Eddie didn’t have to turn to know that he was talking about the storm clouds on the horizon. “You don’t know that he’s causing that.”

“Yeah, I do,” The kid looked at him like he was an idiot and then started to turn away, before he swung back to face Eddie aggressively, his eyes narrowing. “It is him, Mr. Diaz. And if you pop his bubble, it’s going to be really, really bad.”

Then the kid was gone, rushing over to one of the other groups, leaving Eddie to grapple with the weird interaction for the rest of the time with the different rides. The two groups came together at the tip of the pier, the kids mingling to talk about what happened while they were separated, and Eddie carefully slipped into place next to Buck.

“So,” he said, as diplomatically as he could, “I totally ignored your advice. My bad.”

That managed to pull a laugh out of Buck, and he shook his head as he nudged his shoulder against Eddie’s. “I think it’s good that you’re worried about him. He’s your kid.”

They stood quietly for a moment, and then Eddie sighed and shook his head, “Maybe you could try to talk to him? I just— I remember growing up, feeling like I wasn’t allowed to talk about these kinds of things. I didn’t talk about them until Shannon made me. I don’t want my son to grow up feeling the same way, like there’s nobody who will listen to him or ask if he’s okay.”

“Eddie, I’m not...” Buck trailed off, searching his face for a moment before he sighed and nodded. “Alright. I’ll keep him here, and I’ll try to talk to him about everything. But I can’t make him talk.”

“You’re pretty much the only person who he might talk to. The only person I’d trust about this,” Eddie said softly, “He trusts you, Buck.”

Buck looked caught off guard, and he almost smiled for a moment. Eddie could see it at the corner of his lips, the trust meant a lot to him, and Eddie felt like he could give it so easily. And then the smile faded as Buck thought for a moment more, turning back to the group. He announced the next set of choices, and Eddie found himself moving toward the groups that were going to go up on the Ferris wheel. It would be easier not to linger or interrupt if he was trapped in a metal cage high above the ground for a while.

The kid from earlier was in his group again, looking incredibly bored about the whole situation. He made sure that he was sitting closest to the door to the gondola, and watched in confusion as the kid settled in opposite him, crossing his arms across his chest like he was being buried. The other kids glanced at him and then did the same gesture, and Eddie wondered if he should ask them about whatever... meme they were doing. But his focus was on Buck and Chris who had lingered on a bench close to the edge of the pier.

They were almost at the apex of the wheel when the kid cleared his throat, “Mr. Diaz? You should unlock the door.”

“That would be dangerous,” Eddie frowned as he watched Buck reach out and put his hand on Chris’s back, talking slowly. What were they saying to one another? How was Chris taking it? Was he upset that—

“Mr. Diaz, you should really listen to Ryan,” one of the other kids insisted, the gondola rocking slightly in its moorings. “He knows things.”

Eddie felt like the name should have rattled something loose, a memory from when Chris first started or a conversation he had overheard, but he was distracted by Chris turning away from Buck and standing, putting space between them. It was too far to really see his expression, but his posture didn’t look happy.

“Mr. Diaz,” The third kid, the one who was sitting next to him, tugged his sleeve lightly. “Where did the ocean go?”

That caught Eddie off guard, and he turned to look at the third kid before turning back toward the seafront. The water did seem lower than before, and his eyes followed it back out to the ocean itself, his blood growing cold in his veins. Out in the ocean, where the storm had been before, there was now a wave that looked as though it dwarfed the entire pier.

He turned back as he heard a bolt being slid across metal, watching as Ryan sat back again and crossed his arms across his chest. “He’ll thank us.”

Eddie wasn’t sure what was happening. Ryan seemed so calm about the whole situation, and even the people down below didn’t seem to have noticed they were in danger. The gondola rocked as he turned in his seat, kneeling on the bench and clutching onto the wire windows. He yelled for Buck, for Chris, but his voice must have been swallowed but the sound of the pier beneath him. One yelling person against a crowd of loud, excited tourists. He wasn’t sure he’d even be able to get his phone out of his pocket in time, if Buck would answer it, but there was something else he could reach for instead.

The buzzing was distant, like it had been every time that he had reached for it. He knew he should be focusing on some kind of control, but his mind was just filled with images of his son standing in the path of the wave that was coming. The tsunami that was coming. Buck was right there next to him, and he hadn’t even seen what was about to happen. He wished he could throw himself between them and the danger, but he was trapped here, and—

He remembered the brush of Buck’s fingers against his arm, the way he had held his hand as music filled the living room. It had felt right, safe, good. None of those emotions came to mind now, the emotion he was feeling was bone-deep terror as the wave moved toward the shore, but it was still an emotion. And when that emotion reached the buzzing in his ears—

It roared out of him like an emergency siren, violin strings shrieking and oscillating up and down, loud enough that everyone in the gondola covered their ears as quickly as they could. The whole pier turned to look around for the source of the sound, but Buck’s eye immediately turned toward him at the top of the wheel. He couldn’t make out Buck’s face, but he had his attention, and he pushed open the door of the gondola so he could point as emphatically as he could out to the ocean. Buck turned to see what he was gesturing to—

And the wave rushed in.

Everything happened all at once. The third kid grabbed the back of his shirt, pulling him with Metahuman strength back inside the gondola as everything started to shake. One of the buoys out past the edge of the pier was swallowed by the wave, and the sound of Eddie’s siren was joined by other, more official ones. Bodies began to vanish from the ground below, blurring trails of color filling the pier as people were removed at incredible speed.

And standing in the path of destruction, Buck threw out both of his hands, surrounding him and Chris in the largest bubble that Eddie had ever seen, and then pushing it even further to grab more people who were too close to the edge.

The whole structure of the gondola shook, and Eddie put his arm out to try and close the door. But the metal was yanked out of his reach, and Eddie looked up to find another figure floating right outside of their gondola, wearing a firefighting uniform and a harness covered in connection points. He looked almost heroic, a square jaw and serious concerned eyes, but Eddie wanted to scream at him to get to Buck and Chris.

And then there was a flicker of movement, and two of the kids had been pulled from the gondola, connected to the man’s harness. He held them both close and then the whole Ferris wheel seemed to shake as he vanished in a sonic boom. Eddie grabbed Ryan, even if the other boy seemed completely steady, and looked back to the bubble that had almost reached the Ferris wheel.

There was another boom, the gondola shaking again before the man grabbed the frame and held it still. “Sir, we need to go.”

“No—” Eddie struggled as the man tried to grab for him, turning to look out at the front of the pier. “My son, I can’t—”

The grip on his arm was painfully tight, and he felt something wrapped around his chest and heard the click of a clasp before he was pulled out into the open air in the man’s arms. Ryan was there too, clutching onto the man’s shirt and Eddie’s arm. Eddie could see the wave now, watching as it crashed against the front of Buck’s bubble, the spray erupting high in the air. The wall of energy held firm against it, but even through the iridescent surface, Eddie could see Buck suddenly be launched backward with all the force as if he had been hit by the wave himself. He was thrown into one of the booths, the wood exploding into splinters and rubble—

And then he was standing in the playground at Chris’s school.

He heard the click of the clasp and stumbled a few steps away from the firefighter who was still hovering in the air above them, holding both hands over his ears as he looked at Eddie. He wasn’t the only one, everyone was turning to look at him, and he realized that the sirens were still playing. He had lost control of it altogether, and he couldn’t even think about hiding it, as he tried to find Chris and Buck in the crowd. The rest of the field trip looked to be here, chaperones and all, but not—

“Tommy?” Hen’s voice managed to cut through the music, and Eddie collapsed onto his ass as he turned to look at her exiting the front door. “We heard— What happened?”

“There’s been a tsunami,” Tommy, the flying man, seemed to recognize her, but Eddie couldn’t begin to unpack that as the man continued, “I saw Evan with the kids, I remember him mentioning the field trip, so I brought them all back here.”

“Where is he?” Hen asked, her tone careful as she looked around.

“He put himself in a bubble before we could reach him,” Tommy shook his head, reaching for a small earpiece and listening for a moment, “The bubble is still there. We can’t begin recovery.”

“You’re just going to leave him?” Hen sounded horrified at the idea, “Tommy—”

“There is a tsunami flooding through Los Angeles, Hen,” Tommy’s voice got sharper as he lifted higher into the air, “We can’t get to him, so we have to focus on helping people we can help. You have powers. If you want to help him, go ahead, but I need to save people’s lives.”

Eddie flinched as another sonic boom rattled every window in the area, and ‘Tommy’ was gone by the time he looked up. He just stared into the open air, his chest tight as he tried to work out the next step. Hen was trying to talk to him, kneeling at his side, but it all felt like buzzing in his ears. Chris was with Buck at the end of the pier. Buck was injured. He couldn’t not be hurt after that wave hit the bubble and Buck had crashed into the stall. Tommy had said that the bubble was still there, so they were safe from the water for now, but—

“Mr. Diaz,” another voice cut through the buzzing, and Eddie blinked as Principal Nash knelt in his line of sight, “Chris is with Buck?”

Eddie tried to speak, but words didn’t leave his mouth. He just nodded slightly, trying not to feel like he would throw up.

“We’re going to go get them,” Principal Nash offered his hand, every word firm and resolute, “Do you want to come with us?”

His power wouldn’t help. He didn’t have any training that would help. But there wasn’t a word where Eddie refused. He let Principal Nash pull him to his feet, and nodded sharply.

“Let’s go.”

It would have taken hours for them to make their way to the pier again on foot. Eddie hadn’t realized how far the water had carried inland, but they couldn’t even see the ocean by the time it became too difficult to wade through. That was when Chimney had grown to the size of a small office building and gathered them up in his hands, the water rushing around his feet and later his shin as he moved them through the water at a quicker pace. Hen guided them, occasionally pointing out areas that wouldn’t support Chimney’s increased weight or that had dangers that they hadn’t noticed. When a decision had to be made, Principal Nash was the one who decided, who kept the team together and calm.

Eddie clung to Chimney’s thumb and prayed that his son and Buck were okay.

“Honestly, it’s a miracle there weren’t more injuries,” Chimney’s voice carried way further at his size, even when he tried to keep it down. “I know they put a lot of effort into that ‘Metahuman Disaster Group’ but it was worth it.”

“It saved a lot of lives,” Hen agreed, shaking her head, “but it was pretty much off the table now. Most of the civilians they co-opted will be exhausted, maybe even injured themselves. Now it’s down to people to do their actual jobs.”

“Still, can you imagine what it would have been like without them? People could have—” Chimney paused, coming to a stop as he turned the corner. Eddie could see the reason for the hesitation, and he couldn’t help but squeeze Chimney’s thumb a little tighter as he saw the top of Buck’s iridescent bubble in the distance, and the pier within. They were still too far to make out any details, but they both looked intact, like a moment caught in time.

The Ferris Wheel was only halfway into the bubble, and Eddie could see that it was practically bent in half. Eddie had a lot of thoughts about Tommy, especially since he’d started to put together who Tommy was, but he had to admit that he would probably be dead if Tommy hadn’t dragged him out of the gondola.

“You’re telling me that there are pre-cogs all over the world, and not one of them thought that they should give us a heads up about this?” Chimney asked, sounding suddenly frustrated.

“Nobody died,” Hen pointed out, and Eddie wished he didn’t hear a silent ‘yet’. “The Metahuman Disaster Group did its job. Maybe that meant there was no reason for people with psychic powers to get involved.”

“Ryan warned me,” Eddie didn’t even realize he was saying it out loud until Hen and Bobby turned to look at me. “One of the kids, he...I heard one of the parents say he’s psychic but I forgot about it. He said that Chris would—”

“A tsunami is a natural disaster, Mr. Diaz,” Principal Nash’s voice was firm. Not unfriendly, but it didn’t offer Eddie any opportunity to disagree. “There’s no proof that Chris was involved. Ryan is young. He has been known to predict things, but a power like this requires a lot of training to interpret what he sees correctly.”

“We should talk about what the plan is when we reach the bubble,” Hen easily shifted the topic, but Eddie’s thoughts were still on the realization that he could have done something about this. “We’ll need to get inside the bubble.”

“I hate to play the ‘big guy’ card, but I’m pretty sure I can punch through Buckaroo’s bubble with enough size and time,” Chimney shrugged, the gesture making the whole world bob around them for a moment before Chimney caught himself. “Sorry. Anyway, if Hen points out the weak point—”

“Let’s see what the situation at the bubble is first,” Captain Nash interrupted, letting them fall back into silence. Eddie couldn’t help but agree. There were a dozen reasons why Buck might still be keeping the bubble up, a dozen more dangers that could be threatening to overtake them.

“How do we deal with the water?” He asked after a moment and felt the attention shift back to him. “The water is rushing back out to sea where it can. So, if we convince Buck to drop the bubble or we... shatter it, it’s still going to come flooding back in. It could still take out the pier.”

“We’d have to be careful,” Hen’s eyes narrowed as she looked out at the pier, tilting her head. “If we can find heavier vehicles, maybe we could divert the water away from the pier a little.”

Eddie looked around for any sign of a vehicle that had been heavy enough not to be moved by the original wave, but he couldn’t see any. It felt like wishful thinking rather than a plan. Chimney had brought them close enough now that he could have stepped onto the shattered end of the pier, but instead, he stepped out into the ocean, the water rising another few feet until the waves were lapping around his knees. He moved more carefully now, and Eddie understood why. Wreckage had accumulated around the bubble and in the water, burying itself in the softer ground and sticking up like spikes.

They circled the edge of the bubble, the sound of water crashing against it and Chimney’s footsteps through the water joined by the screech of metal as the Ferris wheel continued to bend under its own weight. It made him feel restless, like he should be doing something instead of just being carried in Chimney’s hands, until Hen suddenly slapped his arm with the back of her hand and gestured. “There.”

It took a moment for him to focus through the sheen of the bubble, to make out the figures gathered at the front of the pier. To make out the one figure that he was sure Hen was pointing him toward.

“Chris.”

It came out like a breath, but it seemed everyone else had noticed it too. Bobby’s shoulders relaxed for a moment, relief clear on his face before it became firm again. “Chimney, get us closer to the front of the bubble. We need to get eyes on Buck too.”

Chimney grunted in acknowledgment and continued to wade through the water, but Eddie’s attention was stuck on his son. He was still too far away to make out his expression, but he looked okay. He was standing with the help of his crutches, watching them as they moved around the bubble and gesturing to something out of their sight. Chimney stepped over something in the water, and Eddie heard Hen inhale sharply as they caught sight of a body in the wreckage of one of the booths. That tight feeling in his chest returned instantly, and he barely even heard Hen announce that Buck was hurt.

“Alright, we need to get inside,” Chimney said, bringing the hand with them all in closer to his chest before he pulled back the other fist. “Sorry, Buck.”

It is him, Mr. Diaz. And if you pop his bubble, it’s going to be really, really bad.

“Wait!” Eddie yelled, Ryan’s words coming back to him in a flash of terror. He’d assumed they were talking about Chris, about forcing him to talk, but— they all lurched as Chimney tried to pull his punch, catching himself on the Ferris wheel instead of toppling on top of the bubble. “Ryan! The kid who sees the future, he said that if we pop the bubble, it’ll be bad.”

“Mr. Diaz,” Hen shook her head slightly, reaching out to touch his arm again. “Buck is hurt. He could be getting worse as we talk. We need to get inside the bubble.”

“Not like this,” Eddie insisted, “I’ve seen it. When Chris was making snow inside one of Buck’s bubbles, Buck got cold. When the wave hit the outside of it, Buck got thrown back into the kiosk. If you punch the bubble, you’re punching Buck with just as much force.”

“Do you have another idea?” Principal Nash asked, and it could have so easily sounded like an accusation, but instead, there was a kind of pleading hope to it. “Anything, Mr. Diaz. Hen’s power lets her see the flaws in things, but we need somewhere to start.”

Eddie had nothing, but everyone was looking at him now, so he tried to think of anything. He went over everything that Buck had told him about himself, everything he had told Chris about his powers, every hint or suggestion. “He said— Buck’s powers first manifested when he got hurt, but they’re also based on his emotional state, right? I mean, if he’s conscious— maybe even semi-conscious —then he’s probably terrified.”

“If we had someone with telepathy or empathic powers, maybe they could calm him down,” Hen suggested, but then just as quickly shook her head, “I don’t even know where we would find someone. Chimney, doesn’t Maddie work with—”

“Josh will be working today, I don’t know if they’d let him leave the desk with everything going on. And I think he needs eye contact to do it,” Eddie interrupted, ignoring the confusion on their faces. “But I’ve seen powers work through the bubble. Chris could make snow inside a bubble when he was practicing, so... So, maybe I can get through to him. Maybe I can make some kind of music that’ll calm him down?”

“Hen?” Bobby asked, “What do you think?”

“In a semi-conscious state, people have reacted to music,” Hen didn’t look convinced, but it was clear that she didn’t have a better suggestion. Eddie already felt like his idea was ridiculous. The most useful his power had ever been had happened maybe half an hour ago when he made the siren, and now he was trying to advocate using it to communicate through an impenetrable barrier? “It wouldn’t hurt to try. I just... I don’t know enough about the variables to give a real guess at if it’ll work.”

“We can try,” Bobby shifted closer, putting his hand on Eddie’s shoulder and squeezing gently. “It’ll help if we’re closer to the bubble. Chimney, bring us to the top, and then you and Hen can go and start moving vehicles. When the bubble comes down, we’re going to need to divert as much of the water as we can.”

“But if the bubble comes down while you’re on top of it—” Chimney shook his head. “We should move the vehicles, then try this.”

“Chimney, if Buck has internal injuries, we might not have time,” Bobby shook his head, “We’re going to have to have faith.”

“Bad plan,” Hen huffed, shaking her head at Bobby, “Do you need me to point out all the problems in a plan that—”

“No. We’re not arguing. Put us down,” Bobby instructed, and Chimney slowly lowered his hand toward the dome with a grumble that sounded more like a low-flying plane than a voice. Eddie slipped off the edge of his hand, making sure he didn’t slip down the side of the dome before letting go. Bobby was right there with him, a hand on his back as Chimney started to make his way back toward the street.

“Do we wait?” He asked quietly, turning to Bobby. “I don’t know... I don’t know if this is going to work.”

“Buck will want to let you in,” Bobby said, his voice a little softer. “He talks about you all the time, you know?”

“Me?” Eddie couldn’t help but pause, turning to the other man. “Why would he talk about me?”

“I think that’s a conversation you might want to have with him when all of this is over.” Bobby watched him for a moment and then turned back to the dome with a focused expression. “I didn’t see any vehicles close by that were heavy enough to divert the water on their own. They’d either crashed into something else, or they’re too far away. I didn’t want Hen and Chimney to be here for what happens next if the bubble bursts.”

Eddie nodded in understanding, looking up at the helicopters that were overhead. Maybe, if they were lucky, the bubble would recede and someone like Tommy would be able to sweep in and grab them, but there was no way to know for sure. It was all based on faith. “My parents were religious,” he admitted, and Bobby smiled and nodded, “I just... Maybe faith isn’t the worst plan.”

“Hen would tell you that faith isn’t a plan, it’s surrender to a higher power,” Bobby gestured for Eddie to go ahead, and Eddie carefully stretched out his hands, placing them on the iridescent bubble. It felt entirely motionless when he had stood and knelt on it, but the moment he touched the surface, he felt a low, deep double beat that echoed through his soul. It almost relieved him, but it felt so slow and weak that Eddie could only hope that it was a sign that he was alive.

“I’m going to try and reach out,” he murmured, turning to give Bobby an apologetic look, “it might get loud. I don’t— I’m not so good at controlling it. I know—”

“Don’t worry about me, focus on Buck,” Principal Nash shook his head, “I’m not even here.”

It was a nice idea, but Eddie couldn’t pretend he was unaware of Buck’s boss crouching next to him on top of the bubble. He tried to find some kind of comfort in the heartbeat running through the dome, letting it run through his whole body and reach to the space in him where the music usually settled and vibrated intensely. Slowly, the sound of the water crashing around the bubble, the news helicopters overhead, the crash of Chimney moving around in the distance, it all faded away.

Then there was another noise, alongside the heartbeat of the bubble. A tentative note on the piano, playing in time with the echo through Eddie’s body. He tried not to question it, to examine it too deeply and scare it away, and instead focused his mind on the bubble’s pulsing. It reminded him of when he held the bubble in his hands, the way the snow had filled it and cooled the surface. The way Buck had looked, focused on teaching Chris and supporting him. That slipped into the memory of sitting on the couch, Buck’s fingers brushing the back of Eddie’s arm.

The piano wasn’t just playing the same note now, it was playing a soft melody, not fast or loud, but familiar. When he thought of the next moment, holding Buck’s hand with the bubble in Buck’s other hand to the music, it grew stronger, other instruments picking up and filling in the space, artful violins and flutes and horns, and maybe even a harp. He let himself be subsumed by the memories that came to him, remembering every time he had picked Chris up from school and the charming smile Buck would send his way. The way his hand would linger as he handed over the backpack, and the pride as he talked about how well Chris had done.

The music was triumphant and hopeful, loud enough that the bubble seemed to vibrate in time with the music instead. Eddie thought he might have been crying, his cheeks felt wet, but he couldn’t stop now. The ground beneath him felt like it was tilting inwards, and Eddie slid with it, feeling the bubble wrap around him on every side. Weightlessness overtook him, he lost all sense of up and down, or anything beyond the song and his own heartbeat.

And then he landed.

The bubble jolted ever so slightly, and then peeled away from him as he opened his eyes, taking in the boardwalk for the first time. From here in the center, it looked unchanged except for the shattered booth, but the further out the bubble went, the more he could see the things people had dropped as they had fled, immortalized now in Buck’s bubble.

“Dad!”

Chris’s voice snapped him out of the dazed moment, and the music stopped sharply as his son threw himself into Eddie’s arms. Eddie squeezed him as tightly as he dared, his whole body shaking in relief.

“I’m so sorry,” Chris’s voice sounded raw, as though he had been yelling for a while. “I didn’t mean to— I didn’t want to be angry at you, Dad. I wasn’t, and—”

“I know. I know, I’m just so glad that you’re safe,” Eddie wasn’t sure he was going to be able to ever let Chris go again. There was no sound of crashing water or helicopters inside the dome, just the murmur of the other people talking and asking questions, but Eddie still couldn’t take it in. “I’m so glad that you’re okay, Chris.”

“But, Buck—” Chris shifted away a little, and Eddie felt like his heart was being torn out of his chest, but he let Chris go enough to look him in the face. “He’s really hurt, Dad. He needs help too.”

“Sir?” One of the other people trapped in the bubble had stepped closer, his voice loud enough to be more of an interruption. “Sir, how did you— Can you get us out?”

“I’m— We’re working on that,” Eddie lied, looking up at the top of the bubble. He could make out Bobby standing on the surface, looking down at the scene, but there was no hole in the dome or any reduction in its size. He turned back to the other trapped people, trying to sound sure. “My friends are working on it. You should all make sure you’re near something solid for when the bubble comes down. The water on the other side of the bubble will try and come through, and we don’t want anyone swept away.”

“Dad,” Chris insisted, and Eddie let himself be pulled away and toward the shattered booth. Chris didn’t give him the chance to hesitate, to ready himself for what he was about to see, he was insistent on Eddie seeing Buck now. It only gave Eddie a moment to survey the injuries. The leg that looked broken, the blood and scrapes and splinters of wood in his skin. “We didn’t move him. One of the adults wanted to, but I remembered what you told me about not moving people. Like when you call 9-1-1.”

“That’s right,” Eddie forced himself not to react to what he was seeing, even if Buck looked cold and pale and—” So long as they’re somewhere safe, you shouldn’t move someone who has been hurt.”

“Good—” Buck’s voice was rough, and immediately turned into a sharp, pained cough, “Good advice.”

Eddie had been so sure that Buck was unconscious that the sound dropped him to his knees, wood giving way underneath him as he landed on the wreckage and then shifted closer to the other man. His hands hovered over the injuries, and he tried to remember any kind of advice he’d ever heard given over the phone. “Hey. Hey, Mr. Buck, how are we doing here, huh?”

“Mr—” Buck had almost laughed, but then he let out a pained groan instead, one of his hands lifting from the rubble and landing on his stomach. “Don’t make me...”

“Don’t worry, I won’t hold your terrible sense of humor against you,” Eddie tried to keep it light for Chris’s sake, for Buck’s sake, even as his own heart ached in his chest. “How are you feeling?”

“Bad.” Buck opened one eye to scowl at him, even as his lips twitched into a smile. “I feel bad, eds.”

“Yeah, I bet,” Eddie wished he had more time to ask questions, to make sure he was okay, but there wasn’t a lot of time. “Can you bring the bubble down slowly? Chimney and Hen are outside, Bobby too. We can get you help?”

“I don’t...” Buck stared at him for a moment, the smile fading away. Eddie leaned in as the moment stretched on, and then jerked back when Buck inhaled sharply. “Eds? When did— You’re here?”

“Yeah, I’m here,” Eddie assured, glancing at Chris in askance.

“It keeps happening, he keeps— He repeats himself, forgets what we were talking about,” Chris shook his head slightly, “I think he hit his head.”

Some kind of brain injury or shock made it hard to imagine that Buck would be able to be convinced to bring down the bubble safely. He rubbed his face before he took Buck’s hand, squeezing it gently. Music started to play softly, sadly, but it wasn’t any help. He wasn’t sure what would happen if he tried to move Buck at this point, either medically or in regards to the bubble.

“I need a plan. It doesn’t have to be a good plan,” he murmured to himself as Buck started to talk to Chris about the field trip they were all going to go on. He had to tune it out, he knew that if he let himself be sucked into that then they would all be here until it was too late. Buck and Chris were relying on him. Chris came first. Then Buck, then everyone else. He’d proved the bubble was malleable to people’s powers, and that information crystallized into a plan in an instant.

He took out his phone, wincing at the single bar of reception, before he took a photo of a patch of ground nearby. His fingers were numb as he typed a simple message and then sent it off, praying that it would get through.

I need your help.

He thought he would have to wait. He thought there would be more messages demanding explanations, or trying to negotiate. But barely a moment later, his mother lurched into place exactly where he had taken the photo, still holding a dish towel in her hand and her phone in the other.

“Eddie?” She looked around quickly, finding him in only a moment and letting the dish towel fall to the ground as she rushed toward them. “Eddie! I was so worried, I— I just turned on the news, and I remembered you said Chris was— Christopher!”

She pulled them both into tight hugs, and Eddie clung to her. Already he felt ashamed about how he had doubted her for a moment. Of course his mom had come when he needed her, when Chris needed her. “Mom, we need your help.”

“Where are we? We’re not—” She turned out toward the ocean, her eyes going wide and then her expression tightening. “Eddie.”

“The bubble is keeping the water back, Buck created it,” Eddie ignored the accusation in her tone, the fear too, and instead tried to focus on what needed to happen. “He saved everyone’s lives, but he’s hurt. He can’t bring the bubble down, so I need you to... I need you to get everyone else out of here.”

“You want me to take Chris out of here?” Helena pulled Chris closer to her, shaking her head. “What about you?”

“I’m going to get the dispatch center to send us a targeting photo,” Eddie was already sending another message to Maddie now, noticing the number of missed calls. He hadn’t thought to check it since the tsunami had hit. “I want you to take everyone out of here, to a hospital, and then bring someone back who can help Buck.”

“Eddie, I’m not a first responder,” Helena frowned deeply, looking at all the people who were slowly coming closer. “And come back— You want me to leave Chris alone in the hospital? You can’t just abandon him, Eddie! How can you be so... so selfish—”

“I’m not being selfish, Mom,” Eddie said sharply, the barely knit wounds from last night already splitting open again. She had come when he needed her, but she didn’t trust him, didn’t believe him. “I know that you love Chris, I know you’ll do anything for him, so I’m trusting you with his safety. Buck needs help too. I’m the only person who’s here for him.”

“You expect me to take Chris away, and then come back?” Her lips were a thin, tight line now. “You expect me to abandon my grandson for a stranger?”

Eddie looked at her, and for a moment, he almost wanted to admit the truth. He didn’t believe she would come back for him. “I don’t have the answers here, Mom,” he said, trying to keep his tone as steady as he could. “I’m here, in a life-or-death situation, and I’m begging you for help. I don’t know if you can do what I need, but you’re the only person I can turn to. You can hold it over my head like you’ve held everything else in my life, but this is me giving up any bit of pride and begging you for help, Mom.”

Helena’s brow furrowed as if she hadn’t understood him for a moment, “I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t do that.”

“I can’t care if you do or don’t,” Eddie said quietly, the phone buzzing in his hand. He checked the photo and then handed it to his mom, hugging Chris one last time before he turned back to her. “I love you, Mom. Please, help these people. Help Chris. And then... beyond that, do what you think is right.”

He turned away as it finally seemed to sink in for Chris what Eddie was saying, and he heard his son start to scream his name, only for the sound to stop sharply. The pier was almost silent without the sound of the other trapped people, just the gentle noise of water lapping against the inside of the bubble where it hadn’t been dragged away by the tsunami.

“Eds?” Buck’s voice called out to him, and Eddie wiped his tears away before he tried to smile and turned back to Buck. The other man looked confused, concerned, and when he reached for Eddie, Eddie took his hand. “What’s going on?”

“It’s okay,” he said softly, rubbing his thumb over the back of Buck’s hand, “Everyone got out now, you’ve saved them all.”

He saw some of the tension start to slip out of Buck’s features, “I saved them?” He asked again, and Eddie nodded, “Chris, too?”

“Chris is with his family,” Eddie waited for the ache to hit him, but it didn’t hurt as much as he expected. Chris would be taken care of, no matter what. “You saved him too.”

“I saved him,” Buck sounded more confident about that, and he smiled softly. “Good.”

Eddie squeezed Buck’s hand and then glanced up as a shadow passed overhead. A familiar, flying shape snatched Bobby from the top of the bubble, but Eddie didn’t have the chance to wonder how Tommy knew to be here, because the bubble suddenly retracted sharply. It jerked twice, progressively smaller, until it smoothly slid back toward him. He quickly threw his body over Buck’s as he heard wood splintering in the distance, the sound of water starting to crash in, his eyes closing tight.

The water sprayed against his face, right as something brushed against his shoulder, and the whole world went dark.

Eddie woke up to the sound of music.

It wasn’t so loud to be uncomfortable, but it wasn’t a song Eddie recognized. He cracked open an eye and then blinked a few times as he tried to clear the blurriness from his eyes. His body felt heavy, or— there was a weight on top of his body. Eddie couldn’t help but smile as he took in the mop of curly hair and the sleeping face of his son, holding him tighter now that he was awake.

“Edmundo,” his father’s gruff voice came from the other side of the bed, and Eddie turned to find him sitting in a chair, watching him with a furrowed brow. “You’re awake.”

“Yeah,” Eddie’s voice felt weak, and he blinked a couple of times as he took in the room again. He was in a hospital room, but he didn’t remember getting there. “What happened?”

“Your mother had to snatch you out of the path of a tsunami,” Ramon said, and Eddie waited for him to say something even harsher, but instead he closed the book in his lap. “The strain knocked the three of you out.”

He was safe, Chris was safe, which was the most important thing, but... He couldn’t relax until he knew. “Buck? Did he...?”

“Your mother wasn’t going to leave a man to die,” Ramon shook his head, and now he looked disappointed. Eddie couldn’t meet his eyes for a moment, trying to focus on Chris instead. Buck had made it to the hospital at least. “You upset her, Edmuno. You told her that you thought that she would hold this over you? You implied she might not come back for you?”

“I didn’t mean to upset her, I just... It was the truth,” Eddie admitted, his voice as quiet as it could be. “You don’t trust me. Neither of you do, not with my own life and definitely not with Chris’s. Sometimes, I think you would have been happier if I’d left with Shannon and left Chris with you. Or if you could have just skipped me.”

The music had gotten so quiet that Eddie swore he could hear his own heartbeat. It had all slipped out of him, and he couldn’t reign it back in now. He was so exhausted that his eyes started to flutter shut again until he felt his dad’s hand on his shoulder.

“We love you,” Ramon’s voice sounded more sure than anything Eddie had ever heard before. “We would never want to... skip you. We just want to help.”

Eddie squeezed Chris tighter and then turned to look at his dad again. “Is Buck okay? If it knocked me and mom out...?”

“They haven’t given us any information, because we’re not related,” His dad paused, and then added in a slightly more begrudging tone, “but the very large man from the news, he’s still in the waiting room. He asked about you too.”

“Oh.” Eddie wasn’t sure how to react to that either. Everything felt too loud, too heavy, too big. “Don’t you want to be with mom? You don’t have to be here.”

“Your mother asked me to stay here and make sure that you were okay when you woke up,” Ramon shifted in his chair, opening his book again. “I don’t have to be here, Edmundo. I want to be here.” The page turned and Eddie’s eyes fluttered closed for a moment until his dad added, “The music is nice.”

“The music...?” Eddie forced his eyes open, focusing on the music. It took him a moment to realize the gentle piano and violin weren’t coming from some technology in the room. It was coming from him. “I’m sorry,” he gently touched his ear, feeling for the buzzing. “I know you hate it.”

“I never hated your music,” Ramon’s finger rasped along the edge of the page, “I would have been very sad if I had never had the chance to hear it again. Rest now, Edmundo.”

It wasn’t a command, but Eddie couldn’t help but do just that.

Letting his dad take Chris home with him was perhaps the most terrifying thing Eddie had ever done. The hospital was insisting that he stay overnight for observation, and Carla was with her own family, so there wasn’t really another choice. He hugged Chris for as long as he could and forced himself to smile and reassure him as he left the room, but he couldn’t help but feel like he wouldn’t see them again. That he’d leave the hospital tomorrow and return home to an empty house.

The movement in the hallways never seemed to stop but slowed every time he slipped into sleep and woke up again. The music continued to play, slow and easy in the moments of boredom, with the occasional burst of energy when Eddie’s attention would be grabbed by something. At first, he’d been embarrassed about the fact that the music was playing so openly, but he didn’t have the energy to try and force it down again, and the nurses didn’t seem so bothered when they came to check on him. It made him feel like one of the patients in Adriana’s dramatic medical shows, who had his heart beating outside of his chest.

He’d lost his phone at some point. It was either with his personal effect which didn’t seem to be kept in the room, or it was somewhere at the bottom of the ocean. He wished he could reach out to Chris to make sure he was still okay, or with Maddie at the dispatch center, or—

Or he could check in with the man who was somewhere down the hall.

The idea made his music swell for a moment with piano and violins, and Eddie’s cheeks flushed even as he rolled his eyes. It was a stupid idea, he wasn’t particularly stealthy at the moment with the music playing, and he couldn’t be sure that Buck would actually want to see him. Eddie couldn’t be sure that Buck would be in a condition where he could see him, he didn’t know what happened after they were teleported away.

The music turned a little darker, more sinister, for a moment and he had to pause to try and get control of it. But now that he had thought about all the ways that Buck might be injured, he couldn’t stop thinking about it. He carefully swung his legs over the edge of the bed, taking a moment to check that they could carry his weight before he stood. The last thing he needed was to collapse in the hallway and have everyone worrying about him. As he began to sneak toward the door, the music got quieter, fading into the more suspenseful, quiet rumble of bass as if it was reacting to the moment.

It didn’t take long for him to find Buck’s room, checking through each window as he passed to make sure he didn’t miss him. Nobody had tried to stop him, but he still looked around to make sure nobody was watching, before he slipped through the door. He closed the door behind him, praying it would be enough to stop people from noticing his music. Buck was in the bed, all covered in blankets in odd, lumpy shapes, and Eddie thought he might have been sleeping until his lips curled into a smile.

“You make an entrance, huh?”

Buck’s voice was thick and gravelly, but it was the most beautiful Eddie had heard in a while. The piano and violin started up again, just like they had when Buck had touched him in his living room, and Eddie felt his cheeks flush as Buck carefully turned to look at him with heavily lidded eyes. Eddie focused instead on taking in the rest of Buck, trying not to wince as he worked out what more of the lumps were. One leg was definitely elevated in a cast, and he could see the strap of a sling over one of Buck’s shoulders.

“How’s Chris doing?” Buck asked when Eddie didn’t speak. It was such an innocuous question, but it touched something in Eddie’s chest that that was Buck’s first question.

“He’s with my dad,” he explained, coming to sit on the edge of the bed. Buck smiled at him softly, his eyes unfocused, and Eddie quickly glanced at the IV bag that was feeding something into Buck slowly. “They’ve got you on the good stuff, huh?”

“Yup,” Buck lifted the uninjured arm out from under the blankets, as if Eddie needed more proof, and then scowled at the line. “I don’t like it.”

“I think you might like the situation even less if you didn’t have it,” Eddie pointed out, and Buck scoffed before he groped for Eddie. Eddie took his hand, making sure not to catch any of the lines, and guided it back down to the bed on top of the covers.

“Chris doesn’t like your parents,” Buck mumbled, looking at their joined hands like they were the most important things in the world. “He doesn’t like the way they talk to you.”

“Maybe. But I know they love him,” Eddie ran his thumb over the back of Buck’s hand, “They wouldn’t let me keep it here.”

“He’s pretty tiny, you couldn’t hide him under your bed?” Buck suggested with a small smile before it wilted and he shook his head. “It’s not his fault.”

“That he’s tiny? No, I’m pretty sure that’s an age thing—”

“Shut up, dork,” Buck scoffed, finally looking up and meeting his eyes. “Chris, he... He was upset, and I pushed him, even though I knew better. I caused the tsunami, not him.”

“What?” Eddie’s stomach clenched and he quickly shook his head as he squeezed Buck’s hand. “No, that’s not— I’m the one who told you to talk to him. You told me it was a bad idea, and I told you to do it anyway. I tried to get you to fix something that wasn’t your fault to begin with.”

“You trusted me. I let you down.”

“No way,” Eddie squeezed Buck’s hand again and then shuffled a little closer. “Nobody could have seen this coming, Buck. You saved him. Saved all those people.”

“Was it worth it?” Buck pulled back his hand until it slipped out of Eddie’s grip, looking at the palm. “Did I get to be a hero in the end?”

“What’re you talking about?” Eddie asked, even as the music took on a slightly colder, worrying tone. Buck’s eyes were wet with unshed tears, and Eddie had to fight the urge to wipe them away. “Why would this be the end?”

“‘Cause,” Buck murmured eloquently, and when Eddie sat quietly and waited for a response, he extended his hand again. Eddie watched as his brow furrowed, focusing intensely on his palm, but the reaction happened under the covers instead. The blankets lifted away from his leg and then slid off as gravity tugged the fabric away, revealing a misshapen bubble wrapped around the cast. It flickered for a moment, and then popped violently, ruffling Eddie’s clothes with the breeze. Buck winced, and then refocused again, a marble-sized bubble appearing in the palm of his hand for a breath, before it suddenly collapsed, and another bubble erupted from Buck’s elbow fast enough that it almost caught Eddie in the ribs. Each breeze was still warm and gentle, but it took more and more out of Buck, and when he started to focus a third time, Eddie reached over and covered his hand with his own. Buck blinked as if he had forgotten Eddie was there, and then gave a wry, apologetic smile. “Looks like I broke it.”

“You’re on really strong painkillers right now,” Eddie pointed out, using his other hand to gently drape the blanket over Buck’s leg again. “And this is at least a broken leg, without even going into what you did to your arm. You’re not going to be in complete control of your powers right now—”

“I already spoke to a doctor, and they said I might have...” Buck trailed off and then shrugged again. “Pushed myself too hard, straining my power. And if I don’t have my powers, how am I supposed to teach these kids how to use theirs?”

“You really think you won’t be able to teach without them?” Eddie asked, and Buck turned his head away, the answer written all over his face. Eddie gave it a moment, and then squeezed his hand, “Would you say Maddie can’t do her job because she doesn’t have powers?”

“What?” Buck turned to face him sharply, scowling at the suggestion, “No! Maddie is the... the coolest.”

“I know, she is pretty great,” Eddie agreed, “but do you know who else is pretty great, according to Chris? It’s you. Do you know how jealous my parents are of you?”

“Of me?” Buck pulled a face, “Why me?”

“Because Chris talks about you all the time. He thinks you’re the coolest. Can’t even get through a few minutes without bringing up something that you said, or an idea the two of you talked about, or comparing something that happens to something you did. You’re practically his hero.”

“But he can’t rely on me anymore.” The more insistent he tried to sound, the more petulant it sounded instead, but Eddie wasn’t going to bring that up here and now. “I nearly got him killed, and next time something happens, I won’t be able to protect anyone.”

“I’m going to keep telling you that you did nothing wrong until you believe me. You saved Chris, you didn’t cause anything,” Eddie saw Buck start to turn his head away again, and he reached out to cup his cheek, forcing Buck to meet his eyes gently. “There is nobody in the world I’d trust with my son more than you.”

That brought Buck up short, and he stared at Eddie with wide eyes, his lips moving silently as he tried to find his voice. Eddie’s own breath caught in his throat as he wondered if he had admitted too much, the music that had been gently underscoring their conversation catching as well. The occasional note from the piano punctuated the silence, the same note over and over again, waiting for the chance to continue. Eddie was so focused on Buck’s expression that he almost jumped when Buck reached up and touched the hand on his cheek, the contact pulling a different note out of Eddie’s heart, and then another, until it fell back into the melody.

“Okay.”

“Okay,” Eddie repeated, watching as Buck’s eyes started to droop. He started to pull his hand away, but Buck leaned into the touch with a soft noise. “I should let you sleep—”

“No,” Buck forced his eyes open, the hand on top of Eddie’s holding him firm. “Stay? Please?”

“I can stay,” Eddie folded easily because it felt right. He held Buck’s hand as he slipped off the bed, pulling the chair closer so he could sit and hold Buck’s hand. “I’ll be right here, so you can sleep now. I’ll try to keep it down.”

“Don’t you dare,” Buck murmured, his eyes fluttering shut again as he smiled. “I like the music.”

“—What began as an investigation into faulty power detection equipment was upheaved by the tsunami that struck Los Angeles last weekend, and has now become a much wider spreading investigation into secret, metahuman mercenary groups with ties to the US Government who have been actively training off the coast of California without public awareness.” Taylor Kelly’s voice continued to drift from the TV as Eddie moved around the room with a cloth, making sure everything was presentable. “And now, we can reveal the final nail in the coffin. Exclusive interviews with one of the mercenaries, confessing to the current claim.”

“The thing is that it isn’t illegal,” a new voice announced, the audio shifting in quality obviously. Eddie had already seen the interview in the earlier broadcast, but he still turned to look at the man with a scowl. The chyron below him announced him as ‘Jonah Greenway’, and it didn’t take a great detective to realize that the video had been taken without the man’s knowledge in a crowded bar. “There’s so many global policies on what kind of superpowers can be deployed in active combat, and which ones count as ‘war crimes,’ I know the US Army had a list as long as your legs, Red. But they still haven’t legislated powers like mine, that copy other people’s powers. They call it Empathic Mimicry. I feel like someone else is feeling, and I can copy their power pretty handily. And, you know, so long as the government bigwigs keep finding more ways to categorize and name these powers, then you can be sure there’s some real heroes out there fighting the good fight.”

“Do you know who you’re copying from?” Taylor’s voice sounded curious, and Jonah laughed.

“Yeah, there’s some kid out there? He can change the weather. Can’t wait to go to—” there was a beep and a censor bar for a moment, “—and use his power to—” another censor, that had Eddie practically shaking with rage. The footage cut back to Taylor, who was explaining how Jonah’s unskilled application of ‘this unnamed child’s’ power had caused a simple storm to escalate into a tsunami, and then continued with her hard-hitting expose of government corruption.

Eddie wasn’t listening to any of it. They’d already checked with Sergeant— With Athena, as she’d insisted he call her with a knowing smile, that the police weren’t looking to prosecute his son. It turned out that with the information about where and what Jonah Greenway and his employers were doing, it wasn’t so hard to work out what was Chris and what was a copy of Chris.

The tornado was still on his record though, so Chris was being extra polite around the sergeant when she came to pick up Principal Nash after school.

His phone buzzed, and Eddie only felt a little apprehensive when he saw his dad’s number. It was certainly less exhausting and bone-chilling than it used to be, and both parents had been better about not invading his life without warning, but Eddie was still waiting for the other shoe to drop. And in exchange for not coming to see him, it seemed they expected him to talk to them more about how he was feeling and what he was doing. Eddie could handle updating them on Chris’s situation, and even awkwardly tapping through an answer when they asked how he was doing.

That was what he was in the middle of doing when he heard the knock on the front door, and he quickly finished his report to his dad about what he’d had for lunch before he slipped the phone into his pocket and started toward the door. Even though Eddie knew who was on the other side of the door, his music still seemed to make a point of reacting before he could, swelling into the violins and piano as he straightened his hair and shirt.

“There you go, making a dramatic entrance again,” Buck teased the moment he opened the door, but his smile was warm and gentle. He leaned on his crutch heavily, but he didn’t look as tired as he had earlier in the week. “I need to start carrying around a Bluetooth speaker so I can impress you too.”

“It’s not impressive, it’s just—” Eddie paused as Buck hummed loudly, giving him a pointed look, and then rolled his eyes and stepped out of the way. “Thank you for the compliment. Do you want to come in, or keep embarrassing me on the doorstep?”

“Well, that’s a pretty tough choice,” Buck grinned and stepped through the doorway, only to grin as he leaned back dangerously on his crutch, looking up at Eddie with no care for his own balance, “and I get to decide when I’m impressed.”

“Noted,” Eddie couldn’t help but reach out and put a steadying hand on Buck’s back, guiding him upright and then toward the couch. The music decided that it didn’t care for his fragile ego, swelling and intensifying as Eddie touched him, but neither of them commented on it. “Do you want something to drink? Or— I’m sure I’ve got some snacks in the kitchen if you—”

“Eddie, I’m good,” Buck assured him, patting the couch next to him as if to try and tempt Eddie to sit with him, and Eddie fell for it hook, line, and sinker. “Where’s Chris? I thought he might be here too.”

“He’s doing homework in his room. Turns out that Administrator Flores isn’t half the teacher that his last was.” Eddie saw the bashful look on Buck’s face for a moment and then nudged him. “He misses you.”

“I’m working to get back as soon as I can,” Buck promised quickly, almost desperately as he knocked on his cast. “As soon as this thing comes off.”

“If Chris finds out that you came back to work and hurt yourself more for him?” Eddie reached over, firmly taking Buck’s hand away from the cast. If he let the moment linger with Buck’s hand in his, that was for him to know alone. “I wouldn’t be surprised if his next big weather event was ‘asteroid hitting California.’”

“I mean, even a tsunami was kind of pushing the definition of ‘weather control,’” Buck pointed out absently, looking down at their hands. “I think if he starts summoning space stuff, then he has to get reclassified as a reality warper.”

“Then his grandparents would really see career opportunities for him,” Eddie offered, and Buck snorted. They were quiet for a moment, neither of them taking back their hand even as the music continued to swell and ebb and flow around them. “You’re really in such a rush to get back to school? I mean, I know how you feel about your students, but... Isn’t it nice to have the time off?”

“No?” Buck groaned and let his head fall back against the couch, closing his eyes for a moment. “You have no idea how boring it was in the hospital. How lonely I was at home. I hate sitting around and doing nothing, you know? That’s why I love working at the school, there’s always something going on. I’m always in motion.”

“But you need to rest to recover,” Eddie pointed out, and then paused before he added, “I’m happy to spend time with you.”

“Yeah, because you’re an awesome friend,” Buck turned to look at him, rolling his head like it would take too much effort to lift it from the back of the couch. “You’ll really keep me company?”

“I would,” Eddie wet his lips and then tried to say it more clearly. “We could try and plan a date sometime this week?”

“Yeah, we could totally hang out,” Buck's smile was as bright as the sun, “It’d be good to have a friend I don’t work with, you know?”

“No. I mean—” Eddie flushed as the music suddenly went quiet, waiting for him to try again, waiting on Buck’s response. “I mean, of course I want to be your friend, Buck, no matter what. But when I say I want to ‘plan a date’ with someone, I pretty much always mean it... romantically.”

“Romantically?” Buck repeated, his brow furrowed in confusion as he pulled his hand away. “But— Why?”

“Why?” Eddie asked, trying not to feel the sting of rejection already, “Why do I want to take you on a date?”

“Yeah, I mean, I’m not exactly...” Buck swallowed whatever he’d been about to say, and instead gestured to his leg, “I’m not exactly making a great impression here, am I?”

“You think the injuries you got saving my son from a tsunami are going to make me think less of you?” Eddie asked, and Buck shrugged helplessly. “Buck, you’ve made the best impression on me. You’re good, and you’re kind, and you’re handsome. You helped me realize that my power isn’t some kind of curse I’ve been saddled with and that there are people who think this music is beautiful. You saved Chris, you saved my heart. Kept him safe when I couldn’t.” He held up his hand when Buck started to open his mouth, “I’m not going to be offended if you decide you just want to be friends, but I need you to know that you’re more than—”

“Eddie. Would you go on a date with me?”

The question cut off all of the things that Eddie wanted to say, the music suddenly coming in as a triumphant orchestral piece that filled the room. Buck glanced up as if he would see the music above them, valiantly trying to hide his smile, and Eddie huffed. “Don’t read anything into that.”

“Too late,” Buck snorted, leaning over to prod him gently in the ribs. “You like me. You want to date me.”

“Yeah, you’re making me reconsider,” Eddie squirmed away as he tried not to grin himself, “and I asked first!”

“You’ve got to cut me some slack! I’m on so many painkillers. Seriously, if that Super had been a serial killer, I wouldn’t have noticed and you’d have never seen me again,” Buck pouted a little, and Eddie had the wild urge to kiss the pout from his face. “So... you’re going to plan the date?”

“I’ll plan everything,” Eddie assured him, his heart hammering in his chest at the idea, “You just have to tell me when you’re available. I know Maddie has been talking about coming to see you, and I don’t want to get in the way of that.”

“What about...” Buck glanced the other way, toward the hallway leading to the bedrooms and then back to Eddie. “Chris, are we going to tell him we’re going on dates, or— I mean, I want to follow your lead here, I don’t want to say anything you don’t want me to.”

Eddie paused for a moment, and then nodded, “I think we can try to give it a couple of dates before we do? Just to make sure we’re...”

“Compatible, totally,” Buck agreed, “I can be discreet.”

“I don’t want you to...” Eddie reached over and took his hand, “I just want to make sure I’m not going to disappoint him if I don’t manage to sweep his favorite teacher off his feet.”

“Sweep me off my feet?” Buck laced their fingers together, leaning in a little, “You’re adorable.”

“I mean—”

“No, no, consider me half-swept already,” Buck ignored his weak defense and groan, waggling his eyebrows until the moment got a little quieter before he added, “I’m fine to wait until you’re ready to tell Chris, but I just hope... If it doesn’t work out, if I disappoint you or... or whatever, I hope it won’t affect Chris and the school? He’s really doing amazing work there, Eddie.”

Eddie wasn’t sure that Buck could have said anything else that would have made him feel more sure about his decision. “It won’t,” he stood slowly, the music above him hitching for a moment as though in indecision, before he leaned down and kissed Buck sweetly, gently. “How about I go let Chris know you’re here now.”

“That sounds awesome,” Buck said breathlessly, and Eddie grinned as he stepped around the couch, feeling Buck’s attention on him with every step he took.

The music wasn’t too loud, it wasn’t too fast or too overbearing, but the song filled every inch of the house. And for once, Eddie didn’t feel embarrassed at all to have his heart on show for everyone to see.