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Buck has big hands. This isn’t a surprise to anyone, he’s a big guy. And they’re warm too. Almost like his love of life and people fills his body, making it impossibly warm even on the coldest nights.
During the war with the horrors they witnessed, the kinds of things that make you hate the world for its coldness and curse every deity you have ever heard of regardless of belief, because somethings should never happen. On the days where the terror of the world pulled every ounce of warmth from Chris’ body, Buck would hold his hands, gently rubbing, ostensibly to generate warmth. Or he’d throw an arm around Chris’ shoulders holding him close and Chris would swear the could still feel that hand on his shoulder pulling him in close days later.
Buck is a big guy, bigger than Chris who is on the big end of average, so it comes as no surprise when he’s helping Sarah off a horse for the first time he just grabs her waist and lifts her down like it’s nothing. And she just knows she’s safe, he won’t let her fall. And if she still feels his hands on her waist, the heat like a brand, hours later, we’ll that’s nobody’s business but hers.
Both the Larabees have it bad for that lanky mustache man with a heart bigger than the mountains.
They never talk about how much they feel for him until the time Chris got hurt on a trip with just him and Buck. The horses got spooked and bolted and Chris ended up with a concussion and an injured leg. Buck carried Chris the whole way back to the ranch and provided as much medical care as he could on the way. Chris doesn’t remember much but when he finally properly woke up he remembered gentle warm hands soothing his hurts and keeping him safe. Once he’s fully healed he mentions it to Sarah and she says she understands, how could she not when she feels the same.
And Buck loves both of them so much but he is such an idiot in love because he has no idea about either of them liking him.
He literally lives with them (“to help Chris with the ranch”) and sometimes when he’s washing dishes Sarah will just hug him from behind and he just thinks how nice it is and just ignores how when Adam was learning how to talk he would call Chris Pa and Buck Poppy. This man loves Chris and Sarah so much that he is afraid he will ruin their relationship
Eventually they convince him that love can only make their relationship better and he makes sure that neither of them ever have any reason to feel unsafe in his hands.
One of Buck’s most cherished memories is when he held Adam for the first time. Adam was so tiny that Buck just held him in two hands rather than shifting his arms into a cradle for the baby. He sang ‘He’s got the whole world in his hands’ but he changed it so he could sing one verse about each family member and how he could hold them in his hands. Adam grew up knowing that he was safe in Buck’s hands, whenever he was screaming as a baby or having a rough day as a toddler he would be held by Buck, and Buck would sing the song, everytime.
Chris, like many who fought in the war, wakes up mean. (He woke up mean before the war, but Buck knows better than to ask questions when Chris has that look on his face). But no matter how bad the nightmares get, or how sick and delirious he gets, when he feels bucks hands, shaking him awake or holding him down, he doesn’t need to know when or where he is, he knows he’s safe, because Buck has him.
After the war, after the fire, when Chris had driven Buck away in his anger, in those moments when it felt like the fire had sucked all the warmth from him he swore he could still feel Bucks hands on him, like a brand reminding Chris that Buck wasn’t actually gone, that he would never stay gone, that there was some good, some warmth left in the world.