On the job, 1987

The other guy in the top photo is my long-time bud, Greg DeRuiter, a former photographer at the Lansing State Journal. He and I often teamed up on stories .

(And no, I'm not wearing a Halloween costume; that's now newspaper reporters actually dressed in 1987).

Greg texted me a copy of the photo Saturday. He came upon it on the "memories" table at a memorial service for his friend, Bessie Rey. (You can see it near the middle of table in the bottom photo).

The picture was taken at Eddie's Restaurant in Lansing, where Bessie waited tables for 42 years. I don't remember why we were there, or who took the photo, or how it landed among Bessie's memories.

Buck’s either the unluckiest mf in LA (where there are over 26k+ restaurants) or Eddie has been dressing in tactical gear and hiding behind trees with Marisol on his backpack like a ready made beard

Feral linecook Eddie Munson shamelessly flirting with brand new never worked in a kitchen before in his life server Steve Harrington

Makes a point to fuck up dishes for his tables so they get returned and he gets to see the embarrassed blush across his freckled cheeks when he brings them back, and so he has to spend more time at the window where Eddie can say raunchy things to him

Eddie showing him diligently how to do his side work before he can leave, so he can walk out with him and offer him a hit of his joint when they’re done

Steve scared to put in his tickets for his own meals because then Eddie will know he’s on break and take his own break, sprawled out on a folding chair in the back room, shamelessly staring at him

Steve staring back at his tattoos and piercings and the little tendrils of hair that fall out of his updo

Gareth beside him on the line snickering into his shoulder at the absolutely unhinged things Eddie gets away with saying and doing

Hazel posts a tiktok that starts with her elbowing her way between her dads where they sit on the couch watching the evening news.

“The people want to know how your Valentine’s Day was,” she says, holding her phone out at arms-length so all three of them are in frame.

“We’re boring old guys, Hazy-Jay,” Eddie reminds her, “Go ask Moe or Robbie or some other young person.”

“Okay,” Hazel pauses, thinking, “Alright, what do you think is your most iconic Valentine’s Day.”

“Iconic?” Steve repeats tiredly, “Does it have to be for a good reason?”

“Any reason.”

“Uh, then probably the time a florist accused me of having an affair.”

Hazel’s jaw drops open.

“What?”

Beside her, Eddie cackles.

“Holy shit – I totally forgot about that!”

“Wait – storytime,” Hazel said gleefully, “Why did a florist accuse you of having an affair?”

“Well, you know how I always get you and Moe and Robbie each your own bouquet of flowers every year?”

“Yeah.”

“Right, so I went to the florist and–”

“Wait, when was this? Like, what year?”

“Uh, you were probably four or five, so 2011, maybe? Are you gonna interrupt me the whole time?”

“No, just that time,” Hazel shakes her head, “Gotta set the scene, Pop.”

“Sure. Anyways, I went to the florist to place the orders or whatever, and the kid working the register at the time was no older than sixteen, probably, and we got to the part where I add a note to each of the bouquets, and, like, I get it, you know? From her side of this, it was three pretty similar messages to three different girls, and I’m sure they see that kind of thing all the time where it’s actually some idiot buying flowers for their partner and the person they’re cheating on them with, so–”

“Yeah, she’s a real one, honestly,” Hazel giggled, “A little confused, maybe.”

“Right, so this girl starts completely laying into me about how shitty I was, and how could I do that, and don’t I care about people’s feelings, and I think that’s when your dad walked in, and–” he looks at Eddie over Hazel’s head, “Do you remember what you did? You, like, you did something that made it very clear that we were together.”

Eddie laughed, “Yeah, I think I said something like almost done, baby? and stuck my hand in your back pocket.”

Hazel wrinkled her nose, “Ugh, don’t be gross.”

“Well, anyways,” Steve continued, “This poor kid looked so confused, and I remember saying something like, yep, almost done getting the flowers for our daughters – really emphasized the our daughters part. She was mortified.”

“Damn,” Hazel says, “Yeah, that's pretty iconic.”

also sorry we have not talked enough about buck and eddie going to the same restaurant for their dates. like ???? that is 100% one of Their Spots right. like the wait staff are definitely in the back gossiping about the breakup and the new partners right.

The Shadows of Every Spark

Rating: T Relationships: Evan Buckley/Eddie Diaz, Maddie Buckley/Chimney Han Word count: 22.9k Cover by @ronordmann

Chimney clears his throat lightly. “Uh, Cap? We have a customer who wants to order the daily special.” The daily special that doesn’t exist. Because no one comes into this place to eat because this restaurant isn’t real. Or, the 118 run a front restaurant for money laundering, and accidentally adopt the Buckley siblings

(read on ao3)

"evan, i find you adorable". adorable as in able to be adored. as in capable of being adored. as in i find you worthy of adoration. adorable, from the latin adorare (to worship) to adorabilis (in the sense 'worthy of divine worship') to the current day adorable. as in maybe if we had made it to the movies or if eddie didn't show up, i could've showed you just how much i want to worship you. as in i look at you and there is a font of adoration in my heart for you. adorable as in i flew into a hurricane with you and yet this date is a thousand times more thrilling than that. adorable as in there is a person in your building who saw me jump up and down like a little kid in the lobby after i had kissed you for the first time. adorable as in i kissed you and immediately thought fuck i could do this forever if he lets me. adorable as in i want to press kisses to your birthmark. adorable as in i spent the entirety of the days leading up to our date wondering about you, if you liked your coffee with two sugars or one. if you liked storms or if the lightning strike had put you off on them all together. if you liked cats or dogs or if you were the kind of weirdo who liked goats instead. if you thought about the kiss as often as i did. if your stomach tangled into twisted knots as saturday drew closer. if you would be agreeable to sitting in my lap. if you would blush as prettily as you did the day i kissed you. if your world also realigned when our lips met. if our orbits had matched up now that we flew into a hurricane together. if the gravitational pull between us had finally been too strong for either of us to resist that night in your loft. or maybe, more simply, adorable as in, "evan, i find you adorable."

I have a feeling that when Buck comes out to Chim he will absolutely be shocked but not about Buck being bi, but that *Tommy* is not straight. I'm fully convinced that Chim's world will tilt at its axis after that revelation.

I was gonna write myself a birthday one shot but the world is against me today so have the teaser version I put in the discord chat instead.

Season 4 AU time travel fic where Steve gets thrown back to the moment in family video when Dustin and Max show up demanding the phones. Previously he was 5 years into a grueling apocalypse.

Steve immediately just bolts to the phone in Keith's office and rats Eddie's location out to the police. If the police throw him in a cell and THEN Fred dies, they won't have much to hold Eddie on.

He'll let Vecna kill Patrick, too, if it clears Eddie's name.

I'll write and post eventually but that day is not today.

i love you to the core

After the 7x05 restaurant incident

Buck: he practically fucking screamed my name! It was idiotic!

Maddie: I mean I scream chimneys name during sex? Is that now unusual?

Buck:

Maddie, realizing: OH! we're still talking about the restaurant situation

Buck: this is my first time on a date with a dude :)

Eddie, glaring from the other side of the room: WHAT DO YOU MEAN I TOOK YOU TO POKER!!!! I TOLD YOU TO DRESS UP FOR ME AND I TOOK YOU TO AN UNDERGROUND SPEAK EASY!!! I STARED AT YOU LONGINGLY ALL NIGHT

Tommy: should I go?

Buck: no!

Eddie: YES

everyone keeps saying how crazy it is that buck and eddie run into each other at the restaurant bc there’s like million options in LA so its the universe trying to say something BUT consider this: buck, eddie, and chris go out to that restaurant ALL THE TIME. that’s THEIR place. so when tommy calls buck up before their date to ask where he wants to go buck knows the perfect place; great food, he gets it all the time.

so he’s on the date and it just feels wrong. being there without eddie and chris, bringing someone to their special place. and the WHO walks in but eddie and marisol, eddie no doubt going through the same though process as buck while choosing a date setting. so when they’re having their conversation with buck and tommy before sitting down, in the back of both of their minds is that this is Their Place TM and they can’t believe they would bring a date to Their Place????

and then the whole time they’re just missing each other’s glares across the restaurant bc how dare buck and how dare eddie and then they both think ‘WHAT WOULD CHRIS THINK???’ (as if he really would care like they do) and they both leave the restaurant with their dates pissed the fuck off and neither of them can see past the stupidness to really KNOW why they’re pissed…. i would like to see it

imagine pepa sets eddie up on a date but its truly the worst date of eddie's life like genuinely worse than the date where he proposed and his wife asked for a divorce and eddie can't get out of there quick enough, can barely speak because he's too busy crafting a very long and very angry text message to his aunt, and when he does finally make it home he collapses against the door with a sigh and buck pops out of the kitchen like "hey, eddie, pepa said you might need some company tonight?"

in a sushi bar

how about this sushi-go-round?