Title: The Sound of Change
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Warnings Apply
Fandom: 9-1-1
Relationships: Eddie Diaz/Evan Buckley
Tags: Magical AU, Fae Buck, Dragon Eddie,
Summary: Buck's life changed with finding a dragonling in the bushes near the village.
Word Count: 5,234
Author Notes: Written for the Writing Time Friday prompt from 03-03-2023 of "When the fae told me the potion would make me brave, they forgot to mention it would also turn me into a dragon."
Beta: Grammarly



"Did you hear that?" Buck asked as he parted the branches of the bush. He looked back at the rest of the hunting party from the village.

"We are looking for food, not whatever that is," Chim said.

Buck rolled his eyes and headed to where he heard the noise from. He stopped and looked into the bush that had been moving. He wasn't sure that it was where the sound came from. He just hoped it was since it was moving. Buck also hoped that whatever was in the bush wasn't going got jump out and kill him. He had met with a lot of things that liked to kill him.

It was rare that Buck was allowed to go hunting because it seemed that nearly everything did want to kill him. They were the kinds of creatures that never wanted to kill anyone else but did him. He was bad luck, so going hunting was never really allowed, except for the fact that the hunting teams were low on people due to the sickness going around the humans. Since the village was half human, half of the workforce was down. It wasn't the best, but they were making it work. Food was being prioritized since it was needed to make sure that the humans didn't die.

"Buck, if you go in that bush and get attacked, I'm not saving your ass," Hen said.

"I won't need saving." Buck parted the bush, and he saw a baby dragon. He turned his head to the side and tried to see if the baby dragon had disappeared or if the magic around it showed it was some kind of illusion. He turned back to look at Chim, who liked to fuck with him. Most of them like to mess with him. He didn't like it, but others laughed it off when he brought it up. So he just did what he needed to do and kept his head down.

"Well, we are leaving you here. The animals are being processed, and Karen's got to have dinner on the table by now."

Buck didn't even look at Hen as she spoke. He kept his eyes on the dragon, who was looking up at him like it was trying to read his face.

Dragons were dangerous when this small. All dragons had a human form, and they stayed in that form until their teenage years when they shifted for the first time, outside of situations that were dangerous. They were not shifters like Werewolves or other shifters like that. The human form was wholly magic and just an outward look. Their minds were wholly the same, though. There was no difference between them.

Still, Dragons were dying out, and it was not understood why. A Dragon this young and out like this wasn't good.

Once the others were clear, Buck dropped to his haunches to make himself as small as possible and look at the dragon better. He wasn't sure if the Dragon was going to attack him. As soon as he was down and settled, the Dragon inched closer to him, making an inquisitive noise.

"Well, look at you. You are very pretty. Purple, and if you were human, I would say you were royalty. I never looked into what scale color meant for dragons." Buck wasn't sure if he wanted to reach his hand out and pick up the Dragon or not. Hell, it could just be some kind of magic manifestation. It might not be a true Dragon at all or have any kind of higher thinking beyond wanting to find its next meal.

The Dragon got closer to him. It was looking at him like he would solve all of the problems it had. Which no one had ever looked at Buck like before. He hadn't thought he was worth anything to anyone for a long time.

"What is going on?" Bobby asked before he moved parts of the bush to see.

The Dragon moved back to where it was away from Buck.

"That's a Dragon, Buck."

"I know. It's way too small to be anywhere without their parents. I was trying to coax it out, then you came and scared it."

"I'll keep the others back, you coax it out, and we can see if it's injured. We can try and coax them back into a form that would be best for talking."

The Dragon looked at Bobby like they understood the entire talk. Buck held out this hand.

"I'll not hurt you, I promise. Now, how about we get out of this bush before I get more bloody."

The Dragon shot forward and climbed onto Buck's knee before starting to lick at the few cuts on Buck's arm.

Buck laughed, and he picked up the little thing to cuddle it close so that he couldn't knock it off while he got up. He didn't want to hurt the Dragon.

"Make a friend?" Chim asked.

Buck rolled his eyes as Chim thought that Buck could only make friends with kids. Buck liked kids because they just liked to have fun with him, and he never had to worry about being sad around them. They would love him for who he was and how he acted instead of the other adults who didn't like him to be himself.

"Chim, go back to the village and tell Hen we have a magic accident here of some kind."

"Why?" Buck asked.

"Purple Dragons are royalty, much like human royalty wears purple. This is someone's idea of a joke."

Buck wasn't sure about that. He felt like the Dragon was someone important to someone else, and he needed to make sure they were safe until such a time that things were able to be figured out. He wasn't sure that handing the Dragon over to Hen was going to go over well.

Still, Buck headed back to the village. They were until the rule of the Buckley family, which wasn't a big thing to Buck. He picked here because it was the one place where the royal family never came, even to look for the son that they supposedly were looking for. Buck had been away for over a decade, and thankfully, before that, he had been seen in public too much. Even the birthmark on his face had not been seen since his mother had made him cover it up when they were out and being seen by the masses.

He had fled when his family tried to marry him off to the next closest area's son, Edmundo.

"Well, that's a spell and a half," Karen said as she opened the door when Buck got close.

"So the Dragon is under a spell."

"Not in the way you are thinking, Bobby," Karen said.

"What do you mean?"

"The spell isn't on this child but the parent, and it's because they are Dragons, locked away into human form, and this is now pushed the opposite."

"The Diazes are the last of the Royal Dragon family anywhere near here," Buck said.

"Yes, they are, and the current head of that family has been proclaimed as having gotten rid of the Dragon bloodline with his children, so I would say that this is the son of Prince Edmundo." Karen reached out and touched the Dragon's head. "This isn't good, and I would not tell anyone. Buck, go ahead in and play with Denny and your new friend."

"Why can't we tell anyone?"

"Why would a spell make a child be affected the same as the parent unless there was something else going on? This is massive. We need to find Edmundo before we do a damned thing. He never leaves his son for long at all, so he's got to be near as well."

"We never found a Dragon beyond this on the hunt," Buck said.

"Then you have to think about why that is. Go, Buck."

Buck looked at Bobby to confirm it was okay. Despite this not being work, Buck still didn't want to upset Bobby at all. Bobby nodded.

---

The sound of a door opening had Buck grabbing the blade he kept near his bed for when a wild animal would sneak into his rooms, and he needed to protect himself. He stopped when he saw the face looking at him from the doorway. Buck dropped the blade, and he wouldn't move at all. The Dragon that was looking through his doorway at him was massive. He knew that he could die in seconds if the Dragon thought he would harm his son.

"Prince Edmundo?" Buck asked.

Chris was still asleep on the pile of bedding Buck had set up for him. It hadn't been hard to confirm Chris' name once Buck stopped being freaked out and thinking Chris would hurt Denny while they played.

The Prince growled at him for that, but Buck wasn't sure why. It wasn't like this could be anyone but Prince Edmundo. Buck was trying to figure out what to do when he remembered the one fact he got from the Pricne the one time they had met as children. He hated Edmundo and liked to be called Eddie, even if his mother hated calling him anything else.

"He's fine, Eddie. Just sleeping. Denny and I wore him out all day long to stop him from worrying about you. He's eaten pretty well, and if you just calm down, you might fit through the door." Buck got up and grabbed his shirt to shrug it on. He didn't even worry about buttoning it. He walked over to Eddie, held his hand, and let him smell him. While Eddie wasn't an animal, there was still scent that mattered. There was so much in a person's scent, even to Fae like Buck.

Eddie licked Buck's hand, just like Chris had done over and over. It was strange but not something that Buck really cared about. he just cared about Chris being safe and getting the pair of royals out of there before the Buckleys took an interest in the area. He had not want to see Maddie or his parents ever again.

"See, safe."

Eddie huffed, and as he did, his body started to glow. Then he was standing there in front of Buck naked. Buck grabbed his shirt off and handed it over so Eddie could at least cover himself up.

"Prince Eddie, I have clothes over there," Buck waved toward the chest where most of his clothes were. He didn't have a lot of furniture in the place; there was no reason to settle down roots when he might have to run again. Of course, the moment he got settled, he'd have to leave again; it was the way of life for him.

"You never acted like this before," Eddie said.

"Before? I'm sorry, my Prince, I do not think you have ever been here while I've been here."

"Evan, I would know that birthmark anywhere."

Evan. The name Buck had shed when he had fled. He had not wanted to use the name Buck, but he was injured, and it was the only part of giving his name that had been understood when he had been high with fever. That had been three moves ag, but the name was settled on him, so he kept it.

"Please, don't. I don't want to leave again."

"I won't. Don't worry. Not many ever saw the birthmark, but you always washed the makeup off to show it off when we played that summer. I wondered what happened to you, but I see you just ran."

"I've seen that the week of mourning my disappearance didn't happen in the last five years. I didn't expect it to go on as long as it had."

"Despite the issues with my own parents that haven't changed, they still hate your parents for what they did about Daniel. I never knew you didn't know about him, so I never said anything. I'm sorry about that."

"It's fine." Buck peeked to see that Eddie was dressed. Chris was still asleep and still in dragon form. "What happened?"

"You are going to laugh," Eddie said.

Buck raised an eyebrow at him, which made Eddie laugh. "Let's move to the kitchen. I'll get some kind of meal started. Chris is eating a lot of food."

"He's been doing that before he shifted." Eddie stepped up and waved for Buck to go first.

Buck didn't worry when Eddie didn't follow him into the kitchen for a few minutes. It was understandable he would want to see his son.

"I took a potion from a Fae in the capital. I asked for one to help make me braver. I didn't realize that it would turn me into a dragon or that it would affect Chris as well." Eddie stepped over to pick up the kettle and get it on the fire that was still burning in the hearth. It was one that Buck made sure was fed all the time. There were spells that as long as wood was in a pile outside, it would feed the fire. He had filled the wood the day before.

"And the potion turned you...oh, it unlocked whatever horrible spell your family placed on you and your siblings to block the dragon heritage and make sure that you never fully became what you were supposed to. It's the kind of thing my kind would do. It was an epic-level prank on your parents."

"I didn't take it until we were four days from your home city."

"Which is about a day from here. And now they are looking for you?"

"I think so. I assume so. The fact you found a dragonling wouldn't be hard to track down."

"You never wanted to be the heir, but your parents are still pushing that aren't they?"

"Yes. I would rather have one of my sisters do it. They want it. They are happy with being in the spotlight. It's part of why you ran, right?"

"A little bit, yes. Maddie's well equipped to take over the crown and be the simpering idiot that my people want. I'd rather stay here."

"If anyone sees you, they are going to know."

"Well, not really." Buck touched his brow, and the mark faded out of sight as soon as he did. "I made sure I could hide. Last time troops came through, as they were swapping out guards, none of your people knew me. If we have Chris disappear in the night and you and Chris just hide away for now, everything will be fine. No one here is going to say anything." Buck handed over two cups filled with leaves to make tea for them for the morning.

"You have made a quick plan."

"I'm good at that. Many don't always understand what I mean, but I do well by making sure that people are safe and everything is protected."

"You've changed," Eddie said.

"So have you. We had a lot of years where we didn't have too much to do with each other. We only spent one summer together."

"You ran as soon as you were supposed to marry me."

"No, I ran as soon as I could get away. Neither of us wanted to be married to the other back then. Even as kids, we didn't want it."

Claws on wood had Buck turning to look at the doorway seconds before Chris burst through and went right to his father's legs tangling around them. Eddie smiled and reached down to pick up his kid.

Despite his words, Buck knew that as soon as Eddie and Chris were gone, he was going to feel like there was something missing.

---

The press of something cold and sharp under his chin had Buck stopping his movements as he sharpened the blade he would use before heading out to hunt again. He tried not to swallow but was unable to stop himself. He felt blood starting to drip down his neck as he glanced up at the guard who was holding the sword tip at his throat.

"Where is the dragon?" the guard asked.

"He fled in the night three days ago. I have been looking for it for days." Buck glanced at the insignia on the gear the guard was wearing. One of the castle guards for Eddie's realm.

"You are lying," the guard said.

"You are really going to accuse me of that?" Buck waited for the guard to step back before he stood up.

Eddie and Chris had ended up fleeing when the guards had come around and nearly ransacked the village, looking for them. Buck had stayed where he was to make sure that no one linked him with Eddie and that he could throw them off.

"You are nothing."

Buck laughed. He reached up and wiped at the blood, only to find it wasn't stopping. "Well, you might want to rethink that, guard. Now, pray that the other guards who have come don't decide to kill you for poisoning me."

The guard laughed before taking a step toward him, putting the sword at Buck's throat again. He pressed it in harder. "No one is going to miss you."

"Oh, they will. You paired up with someone from the Buckley court, didn't you?"

"Yes, I told him to stay out there, and I would deal with you and find my prince."

Buck pulled a small stiletto out of his pants and tossed it at the guard's ankle. His boots were good but not that high, and therefore, it cut him. Buck ducked out of the way of the flailing sword tip before he brought up his sword. The scream of the guard brought in someone else, and Buck was very, very happy to see Tommy.

"No wonder this village was part of the group who wanted to go to Buckley lands. I mean, this guy already poisoned me when I had told the truth that the Prince and his son had left already, Tommy."

"My Prince," Tommy said before he ducked down to bow and went after the Diaz guard.

"Prince?" The guard was on his back and looked up at Buck with wide eyes.

"Yes, Prince Evan, if you must know."

"I didn't know."

"And it's okay to poison if you didn't know I was a royal. The blood isn't clotting, so it's nothing too much. He barely got me. I still want him to be charged not with hurting me but with going after someone who was just going about their life. He needs to learn that harming people who have done nothing is not something one should do."

"These aren't even your people; what do you care?" the guard asked.

"Well, I care about everyone. This entire world needs to have good people in it who don't allow those in power to hurt others for no reason. The world would be better if more people stepped up to say it's wrong to hurt people."

The guard huffed and tried to get away from Tommy, but Tommy wouldn't let the man go. Buck tossed a pair of cuffs at Tommy. Buck always had them on hand in case someone came after him. He would leave them chained up as he fled.

"I cannot keep this to myself," Tommy said.

"I didn't think you would keep it. I just ask you to give me time to get away."

"I cannot do that either. I was sent out to find you. Your sister has thought you were in Diaz lands for a long time. We were dispatched out to find you, and with Prince Edmundo disappearing with his son after they turned into dragons. Your sister and her crew are a day behind. There was talk of a man with a heart of gold who was here, so she was coming here no matter what. She thought I could easily slip into these lands and find you."

Buck didn't like it. He didn't like that his sister was so close to him and he wouldn't get to run. He didn't want to deal with his family at all.

"I'll deal with this guy; you stay right here. Promise me, Prince Evan."

"I'll stay, and please, call me Buck."

"I'm calling you Prince Buck then because we both know what I will and won't do."

Buck bowed his head slightly, and headed to his bedroom to get a few things together. He didn't want to deal with anyone in what he was wearing. There was not a lot to do as he tried to get his head around being found. He would run again as soon as he could. He wasn't going back to court where he was born. The ruling wasn't the issue, he didn't want it, but he would do it if Maddie didn't want him to, but he would move the court to the summer court. He hated the castle he grew up in and how it made him feel constricted.

"Your sister wants to talk to you," Tommy said.

"I figured that she would. How is she doing?"

"That is something I cannot answer, Prince Buck. That's something that needs to come from her and not someone else. I will tell you that she is well and healthy."

"That's good. I'm glad that she's doing well. My parents?"

Tommy shook his head at that. It was not good as Tommy was always willing to talk about things that would affect him. So this meant that it was big. Which was another reason to run for the hills for Buck. He didn't want to be here when his family arrived. Tommy only mentioned Maddie, but where she was, their parents were.

Buck settled in by the fire, tossing a log into it even if it didn't need it.

"You look lonely," Tommy said.

"I'm fine. I'm working on it, and I think that I can find happiness."

"Can you and them not know who you are? Did you really entertain Prince Edmundo before getting him out of here as word started to spread?"

Buck shrugged as he wasn't answering that. He had held that he didn't know who the guy was to everyone in the village, which had fit with him not being part of the politics of the area too much.

"You could look less like you are going to your death."

"Not really."

---

"Did you hear that?" Buck asked as he looked at his guard, who was stationed inside his rooms.

The only good thing about the man was that he didn't sleep in the same room as Buck, trusting that Buck couldn't slip through and escape the rooms if he was asleep in the outer room since Buck's windows were smaller than him and he would never ben able to slip through them.

"I'm not going and looking," the guard said.

Buck rolled his eyes as the sound happened again, this time a lot closer to the bedroom.

"I'm not going to fall for this. Tell whoever it is that is trying to come and rescue you that I'll not let it happen. I'll kill them."

"Bucky!" a kid yelled before there was banging on the door. "Come and play, Buck!"

Buck looked at his guard, but he wasn't sure who was outside the door, but many of the kids in the castle loved playing with him; it was just super early in the morning for most of them. He wasn't sure what the thing was that had caused the knocking on the door until the name registered. Bucky. Only Chris called him that in the brief time, he had turned back to human after figuring out he was safe with Buck and his father.

Chris shouldn't be there, though. Eddie shouldn't either.

"Who is that?"

"I think that's Prince Christopher Diaz," Buck said.

The guard looked at him like he was a little afraid, but the guard opened the door. It was indeed Chris standing there on the other side of the door with a grin on his face.

"Oh, you have a guard now? Yeah, Daddy did for a while as well, but then he really pissed off the guard, and the guy attacked him, and now we are allowed to do what we want. Which is why we are here. Daddy said it was time to come and rescue you."

Buck laughed, and he crouched down to allow the boy to wrap his arms around him, and he stood up with Chris still in his arms. He looked at his guard, and the man only nodded before Buck walked out of the rooms. Eddie was standing at the far end of the hall with a pair of guards behind him.

"I think you and your father have some explaining to do."

"We came to rescue you."

Buck understood what Eddie was trying to do, but there was no way his parents would let him out of there. He was the prodigal son who returned after being gone for so long. It was, of course, meaningful that Eddie tried to come in and rescue him, but there was no way he would be able to get out castle alive unless he did what his parents wanted.

"I see that you came to rescue me. I want to know why?"

"A lot f reasons, but mostly because Chris and I missed you. I will be glad for whatever time I can get with you."

"Oh, you'll love this." Eddie held out his hand to Buck, who looked at it for a few seconds before he slipped his free hand into Eddie's hand. He allowed the man to pull him along to where not only Eddie's parents were but Buck's as well.

"Prince Edmundo, this is not something my son needs to be involved in," Buck's father said.

"Oh, I don't agree. I think that you are just blind to what is going on with everything to do with your son. So, I came here to honor the marriage contract between us. However, I want to make sure that Buck and I make it work for us, not the rules you put in about everything before we were old enough to make any decisions for ourselves and our lives."

"You want to marry him?"

Buck wasn't sure he wanted to marry Eddie, but their few conversations had ended up the same. Eddie was there and looked willing to take this all on with Buck right at his side.

"Why would you want him?" Buck's mother asked.

"Why wouldn't I? He cared for my son when others would have left him for dead. He didn't attack me when I came looking for my son either, and he made sure that I knew I was safe. I felt safe there for the first time in years. He is going to come back to my lands with me, and we are going to see about figuring each other out, and then when we are ready, we will marry."

"I'll not have my son live in sin with you!"

"Your Majesty," Eddie said as he stepped up to Buck's mother. "You cannot stop me. I'll invade your lands if you fight me on this."

Eddie breathed out, and smoke came out. The guards didn't know what to do, so Buck stepped up to Eddie, taking the hand that Eddie had dropped when they had gotten into the room.

"You...it was a potion."

"No, a potion unlocked it. The thing is that the rules of my lands that cannot be broken are the Dragons are the rulers. My father was human, born that way, and if one of his children ever manifested, he would give up the throne. Even if I were underage, I would have regents in place that would be pulled from all over to help me. I have already taken control of everything. I'm the King in all but being crowned. I do not even have to be married to be king, I just have to wait for the first new moon, and that's in three weeks now since having the rest of everything else taken care of. Buck will be going back to my lands, and everything will be as I want it to be."

"I wouldn't suggest getting between a Dragon and their mate, Your Majesty," Tommy said.

"Mate? Impossible. No one would ever want Evan that way," Buck's mother said.

"You'll find you are wrong. I would step down if I were you. Give up the throne to your daughter before every neighboring land decides that you are not worth anything as far as treaties go."

Buck was pretty sure that if looks could kill, Eddie would be dead.

"You think that others are going to follow you?"

"Yes. I think so. I mean, everyone knows that your son ran away from you for how he was treated. Your staff talked about how you treated him. You did that to your own son. Your sweet son that everyone in the village I found him in would testify that he would never hurt anyone. They love him and would do anything for him, unlike you. Don't tell me that you would survive that. Your area would lose everyone. You would rule an empty land."

"And you think that people won't be upset with you for making us give up our right to make our son happy."

"Oh, getting him out of here in any way would make him happy. He doesn't care about ruling. I don't care about ruling, but in the end, I have to. If, in the end, he doesn't want me, I'll let him go, and he can be happy. I would never force him to do something he doesn't want. Unlike everyone else in his life."

Buck wanted to get out of there. He looked at Chris, who was grinning at him and seemed to not care about the pissed-off adults all around them. The guard who had come with them from his bedroom had backed off. Walking out of there sounded good.

"My parents are staying to work out a few details of things, but we are going home. I had your place in the village emptied out and brought to my wing of the castle. Things changed, but I wanted to offer you a safe place to land no matter what."

It was more consideration than Buck had gotten from anyone for a very, very long time. It sounded like Eddie had thought of everything to make sure that Buck would be happy when he was there. The spark between them was still there, and Eddie looked a lot more settled into himself now. He looked like a king compared to the prince he had been before.

Buck wasn't sure he would be happy with going with Eddie to his place, but he would try it. He trusted that Eddie would let him go if they didn't work out. Buck looked at Chris, who looked like he was in high heaven in Buck's arms. It was the kind of thing that Buck had always wanted, people who loved him for who he was.

Eddie and Chris seemed like the best chance he had at that, and he wanted, with all he was.

The End