daydreams slide to colour from shadow

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/56785447.

Rating: General Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: M/M
Fandom: 9-1-1 (TV)
Relationship: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Characters: Evan "Buck" Buckley, Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Alternate Universe - Rapunzel Fusion,
Childhood Friends
Language: English
Stats: Published: 2024-06-20 Words: 9,112 Chapters: 1/1
 daydreams slide to colour from shadow
by Chash

Summary

For the first twelve years of his life, Buck is a servant to a sorceress and her family, which
isn't the best. But on his twelfth birthday, he gets locked in a tower, and that's definitely
worse.

Notes

This is another fill for 911 Gotcha For Gaza! The donation period is now over for the event,
but please consider giving anyway.

This is a fill for an anonymous donator, who wanted a Buddie Rapunzel AU. We're in
nebulous fairytale times for this one, don't worry about it.
The morning of Evan's twelfth birthday is the same as every other morning: he wakes up at
dawn, has a small breakfast, and gets to work. He starts with tending the animals, first the
cows and chickens, and then the horses, his favorite. He takes his time with them, grooming
and cooing at them, and then he goes inside to help make breakfast for the family.

Cook slips him a muffin with a wink, so that's one person who at least remembers his
birthday, but he's out of the house again before he finds out if anyone else does. There's the
garden to be tended before the sun gets too hot, and clothes to be washed, a thousand little
tasks to keep him occupied.

He's working on the mending in the shade of his favorite tree when Eddie finds him, sitting in
the grass by Evan's side, close enough their knees knock.

"Hey, Buck."

Evan tries his best to scowl, but doesn't manage very well. "Don't call me that." He doesn't
even remember where the nickname came from anymore, nor does he hate it. But tradition is
tradition.

Eddie's grin widens. "Sorry, it's my friend Buck's birthday. If you're not him, you're not
getting your present."

"I keep telling you, you don't have to get me presents."

"You got me a present for my birthday," Eddie says, and Evan flushes.

"Not a good one."

Eddie holds up his wrist, as if the fact that he's still wearing the bracelet Buck made for him
is proof of its worthiness, not just evidence that Eddie is a good friend. "I love it, actually."

"Yeah, but I bet you got me a book."

"I did get you a book," Eddie confirms, handing him a neatly wrapped package. "What, you
don't like books anymore?"

Evan turns the package over in his hands, not ready to open it just yet. He has a line of books
Eddie has given him propped up by his bed, his most treasured possessions, and every time
he gets another one, it feels like one more thing he can't ever make up for.

"I like books," he says. "Thanks."

Eddie leans against the tree. "You don't even know what book it is."

"I still appreciate it."

Eddie nudges him with his foot. "Open it."

Buck unwraps it carefully, preserving the paper as best he can. He'll use it for Eddie's
midwinter gift, as is tradition. It's a handsome volume, bound in red: World Mythology.

"I read it for school this year," Eddie explains. "I thought you'd like it."

"I will," says Evan, because of course he does. Eddie could give him an almanac and Buck
would read it cover to cover. But Eddie's good at picking great books, too. "How long are you
going to be home?"

Eddie grins. "Until the fall. Maybe even longer."

"Really?" Evan asks, unable to keep the excitement out of his tone. Eddie is his best friend,
somehow, but he's gone most of the year, either away at school or spending time with
relatives. A whole summer together feels incredible, the best birthday present ever.

"Really."

"Then you really didn't have to get me the book."

"I want you to read it," Eddie says. "I want to talk to you about it."

Evan runs his fingers over the embossed cover. "Okay, I will."

"How much more work do you have to do?"

"I never run out of work," Evan says. "You know that."

Eddie frowns, and Evan feels fleetingly guilty. It's not Eddie's fault, really. He's the family's
eldest and only son, and Evan is a servant. Evan still can't explain why they're friends at all,
why Eddie looked at him one day and decided to talk to him. But he did, and he keeps on
doing it, and he's the only thing that Buck really has to look forward to. The best thing in his
life.

But he knows it can't last. Because Eddie is the eldest son of a powerful family, his father a
loyal knight, his mother a powerful sorceress, he has nothing but opportunity ahead of him,
and Evan will always just be here, a serving boy with no family at all. The best future he can
hope for is that Eddie will bring him along when he moves away from his parents' home, and
he'll give Evan a better position and more time off. It doesn't feel impossible, but it's not what
he wants, either.

He doesn't know what he wants, not really. But he knows that there has to be more to life
than just this.

"How much work do you have to do that has to be done today?" Eddie corrects.

"I'm done with everything that has to be done today."

"Okay, so let's go riding. I'll take the blame if you get in trouble."
Eddie always says that, and Evan's sure that Eddie always thinks he does take the blame. He
certainly tells his parents that he took Buck away from work, and he's probably disciplined
accordingly. It's just that whatever happens to Eddie doesn't stop Evan from being punished
as well.

Not that he'd ever say that. The last thing Evan wants is for Eddie to stop luring him away
from his duties. It's always worth whatever trouble they get in.

"Okay," he says, and Eddie grins.

It's a nice afternoon. They ride to the river, and Eddie dozes on the shore while Evan starts to
read his book. There's a note scrawled in the front--To BUCK, Happy birthday! Your friend,
Eddie--and he keeps turning back to it, running his fingers over the words.

He's never going to tell Eddie, but he likes being Buck. He likes having a nickname.

Once the sun starts getting low, Evan shakes Eddie awake and they ride back to the Diaz
estate. Eddie's parents aren't waiting, but Evan knows they know with a certainty he can't
explain.

In fact, the closer he gets, the more certain Evan is that something terrible is going to happen.
It doesn't even make sense, the pit in his stomach, the certainty of approaching doom. For a
wild second, he thinks about saying they should keep going. That they should just run away
and not look back.

But he doesn't. Even if he could explain it, it's just not possible. They couldn't run off on their
own. They'd never make it.

So they go back to the stables to find both of Eddie's parents waiting for them, their
expressions grim. Evan's only real comfort is that he was right, and things are about to go
very badly.

As comforts go, it's not much.

Eddie dismounts, his confused frown quickly covered with an overly bright smile. "I didn't
expect to see the two of you here. What is it?"

"Where were you, Edmundo?" asks Sir Ramon. "We were looking for you."

"Bu--Evan and I went riding," says Eddie. "I didn't want to ride alone."

"You shouldn't have left without telling us. We were worried!"

"We didn't go far."

"And you," says Ramon, whirling on Buck. "You have duties. What were you--"

Eddie steps in front of him. "I told him to come with me. You know he couldn't say no. Not to
a direct order from a member of the family."
Evan gets it, he does, but the words still land like a blow. He does say no to Eddie, never
thinks twice about it, but he only gets away with it because Eddie lets him. It's never pleasant
to be reminded of it.

"Go inside, Edmundo," says Ramon. "We have business with Evan."

"No," says Eddie. "You're not going to hurt him."

Lady Helena rolls her eyes. "Of course we're not going to hurt him. He's being reassigned."

Evan's stomach drops, but the words don't come. Eddie's the one to say, "Reassigned? What
does that mean?"

"It's nothing you need to worry about, Edmundo," says Helena. "He's a servant. Servants are
traded all the time, from house to house. All you need to know is that he'll no longer be
working here. You won't see him again."

"I want to see him again," says Eddie, his jaw set, and Evan knows it's not going to make a
difference, not in the end. Eddie won't be able to keep him from being sent away.

But it still means something that he's trying.

"May I go and pack my things?" Evan asks.

Eddie turns on him. "Buck, you're not--"

"I am, though," he says, with a little smile, and Eddie's shoulders slump, all the fight going
out of him at once.

"I'll help you pack."

He doesn't have enough possessions that he needs help, but he's not going to say no to more
of Eddie's company. This is the last time they're ever going to see each other. It's not as if he
loves working for the Diazes, not most of the time, but they had Eddie. Evan's going to miss
him.

"I'll find out where they send you," Eddie says. "I'll come and find you."

"Yeah?" says Evan, letting out a long sigh. "And then what? You're going to come and steal
someone else's servant to go riding with you?"

"Buck…"

Evan scrubs his hand over his face, trying not to cry. "It's--I'm really going to miss you. And I
wish you could come find me. But--"

Eddie leans in and presses his lips against Evan's, just for a second, just the smallest, quickest
kiss. Evan's--Buck's first kiss.

"I'm going to find you," he promises. "Trust me."

And all Buck can say is, "Okay."

"Okay?"

"I trust you."

Eddie smiles. "Okay, good. And, uh. Sorry about your birthday?"

Buck has to laugh. "Yeah, not my best one."

"Maybe next year," says Eddie, but even he doesn't sound like he believes that.

"Yeah, maybe."

They leave the servant quarters together to find Helena waiting with horses. It's getting dark,
but apparently that doesn't matter. They want Buck gone now.

Considering the heir just kissed him, it's probably fair.

"I'll be taking you," says Helena. "Edmundo, you'll go to dinner."

"Yeah." He gives Buck a sad smile, but doesn't touch him, not out here. "Bye, Evan."

Buck smiles back. "It's Buck, actually."

That gets a real smile, and Buck tucks it away, to tide him over until Eddie finds him. "Bye,
Buck."

And then they're riding away, leaving Eddie to watch them go.

Eddie is not going to find Buck. Eddie is going to be looking for Buck in all the wrong
places, namely, other estates and castles and noble houses, and Buck is going to be locked in
a tower.

It takes them a night and a day to get there on horseback, and Buck tries to enjoy himself.
He's never been much farther from the house than the river, and he likes seeing new things,
even just in passing. Maybe, he thinks, before he knows where he's going, the new family he
serves will want him to do errands in the town. Maybe he'll be apprenticed somewhere.
Maybe he'll get to see new things. That would be something.

They leave the road and go through the forest, following a floating light that knows exactly
where it's going. It doesn't feel like the kind of place people live, but if Helena just wanted to
kill him for some strange sorceress ritual or something, she probably could have done it
closer to home.

The tower rises in front of them as the sun starts to set, a needle against the horizon. At the
first sight of it, Buck's stomach clenches with the same nervous, awful feeling he got when he
and Eddie were riding home only yesterday. He knows, deep in his gut, that this is their
destination. And there's nothing there, no family to serve, no animals to tend, no sign of
anything but trees for miles.

"You'll be living here from now on," Helena says, coming to a stop at the base of the tower.
It's thinner down here with a large room on top; Buck can't help wondering who built it and
why. It doesn't seem like it has any reason to exist, except to be a prison.

"Why?" he asks.

Helena regards him coolly. Aside from Eddie, Buck wouldn't have said he was close to any of
the Diaz family, but he knows that he is, in some strange way, Helena's responsibility. That
she's the reason he serves the house.

"To keep you safe," she says at last. "And to keep you away from my son. He has a greater
destiny ahead of him than chasing after serving boys."

"I think he likes serving boys," says Buck. She's already locking him away in a tower; he
doesn't have a lot of motivation to be polite now.

Helena's mouth twists. "He'll forget about you in time."

Buck doesn't actually believe it, which is nice. He doesn't think Eddie will find him here, but
Eddie won't forget him either. Even if he gives up searching, he'll remember his friend, and
he'll never forgive his parents for taking Buck away. Of that much, Buck is certain.

Helena knocks on the side of the tower three times, a slightly uneven beat, and a door opens
in the tower, emerging from the stone by magic.

A prison, like he thought.

"Go ahead," says Helena.

She follows him up, which he wasn't expecting. He had sort of assumed she was just going to
leave him to die here. Then again, if she was just going to leave him to die, she could have
done it anywhere. He didn't need to come to a tower in the middle of nowhere for that. A
locked shack would do.

"Do you really need me safe?" he asks.

"What?"

"You said you were keeping me safe here. Do you have to?"

"Would you prefer I put you in danger?"

"I don't think you care."

She doesn't respond to that, but there's something meaningful about that too. She wants him
safe, and she's a sorceress. So someone probably traded him to her for a gift or a boon. It's
always been a possibility, but it's nice to know for sure. Nice to know she had to promise he'd
be safe, too. They don't always make that promise. And Sir Ramon and Lady Helena hadn't
been particularly kind to him, but he knew that it could have been much worse. Fellow
servants who'd come from other households talked of beatings and cruelty, but there was
none of that with Ramon and Helena. At worst, they were indifferent and mostly seemed to
regard their servants as furniture that needed food and housing. But that wasn't so bad, really.

And the room at the top of the tower is actually kind of nice. There's a big window with a
nice view over the forest, a fireplace for heating and cooking, and an oven too. As prisons go,
it could be much worse.

But the door disappears behind Helena, and Buck doesn't know how to get it back.

"There's a pump here for water, and a pulley here," says Helena, as if she's explaining a new
task she wants him to take over. "Someone will bring you supplies every few days, food and
such. And you'll get tasks as well, mostly mending, I think. The rest of your time is your
own."

She says it like it's a great gift, but Buck has no idea how he's going to fill his days in here.
He has the books Eddie gave him, but nothing else to occupy his time.

"Very generous," he mutters, and Helena either doesn't hear him or pretends not to.

"There's a bell," she says, gesturing to the window. "When you hear it, lower the rope for the
basket. If you don't, don't expect food for a few more days."

She does the same three-knock pattern on one of the bricks and the door opens up again. She
leaves without another word, the door closing behind her, and Buck rushes over, trying the
same thing, the same brick, the same rhythm, but no door appears. Nothing happens at all.

He keeps trying it, over and over, long after he knows it's useless.

After all, he's got nothing but time.

Buck's new routine is much worse than his old routine. Every morning, he wakes up and does
exercises from one of the books Eddie gave him--midwinter, age ten, Manual For Aspiring
Squires--because after a few days of being trapped, he realizes how much energy he has and
how little he uses now. Once he's done with his exercises, he'll have something for breakfast,
and then he'll work on any tasks he has from Helena.

Every time he gets food, he gets something to do with it. Mending is the most common, but
as he gets better at that, he starts to get more fabric, dresses to be made, instead of simply
repaired, more complex needlework. He gets a few more supplies for that, a dress form and a
loom, and that feels like a little bit of a victory, even if it's a pathetic one.

He doesn't get many real victories.

He always works until lunch, and then he has to evaluate. He gets his deliveries every two or
three days, and he has to time it pretty much perfectly. If he finishes too early, he feels itchy
and anxious, hating the feeling of having nothing to do. But if he doesn't return all his work,
completed, when he gets his delivery, he won't be given his new mending, and then he'll want
to climb the walls with boredom.

When he doesn't have more work to do, he rereads the books Eddie gave him. Every
midwinter, he'll get a new one, but they're never wrapped, and there's never any inscription.
There's no indication Eddie is in any way involved in selecting the books, but Buck likes to
pretend that he is. That Eddie gives suggestions, at least.

He doesn't get anything for his birthdays. He doesn't think Helena knows when his birthday
is.

Helena herself comes every few months, which Buck honestly hadn't been expecting. When
she left for the first time, he'd assumed that it would be the last time he ever saw her. But she
does check on him. He even starts to look forward to her visits, because if he does get
something new, it's from her. It's never very much, and often it's practical, like the dress form
or the loom, but at least it's something. He'll ask for things he thinks she might grant--paint
for the walls, new pots or pans, fabric for his own new clothing--and often she'll let him have
them.

He doesn't exactly think she wants to torture him. Just that she doesn't know what to do with
him, and somehow letting him go to lead his own life isn't an option.

It could be worse, he reminds himself. He could be starving. He could be alone in the cold.
He could be dead. He has things to do and a place to live. He bakes himself bread and scatters
crumbs for the birds, and the birds like him. He has a window he can look out and a nicer bed
than he had when he was a servant. His life could be so much worse.

But then he'll remember the afternoon of his twelfth birthday, sitting by the river reading as
Eddie dozed by his side, and he'll know it could be so much better, too.

The morning Buck's life completely changes for the second time is absolutely nothing
special. He's twenty-five, which he mostly remembers as trivia; it's good to know things like
his age and his name and that he's still a person. That time still means something and the
world outside still exists.

He does his exercises and makes his breakfast, listening idly for the sound of the bell. He
didn't get anything yesterday, so he should today. Sometimes, he has to wait four days, but
that's rare, and he thinks it only happens because the servant who does his deliveries is
getting older. Sometimes, he wonders what will happen when she passes someday, and his
throat gets tight. He doesn't know her or anything, but he likes her. She brings him little cakes
and treats sometimes, other presents he's sure that she decided to give him, not a directive
from Helena. He thinks she worries about him.

Buck gives back when he can. If he has spare fabric, he makes her gifts. Sometimes, he'll
paint things and give them to her, and when she realized he liked painting, she gave him a
journal full of blank pages and some ink.
They're not friends, really. But she's about as close as he gets.

The bell rings as he's finishing off his breakfast, and he runs over to the window to wave at
the woman waiting below. "Good morning!" he calls as he lowers the basket.

She waves back, grinning up at him. She never speaks to him, but she smiles, and that's
something. She's kinder to him than Helena is.

As soon as she's switched her basket with his, she waves again and starts walking off, and
Buck watches her go as he pulls the basket back up. He doesn't really know where she lives,
where she comes from. Is it a long walk for her? Where does she get the supplies she brings
him? Is there a town somewhere close that he can't see for the trees? If he ever figures out
how to get out of this tower, he'll walk into the woods the same way she goes, and part of him
hopes that he'll find her. That he can thank her for taking care of him all these years before he
finds something else to do.

He shakes his head, smiling a little as he unpacks his basket.

Like he's ever getting out of here.

He's finished off his breakfast and is about to start on the mending that came with his new
delivery when, for the first time ever, the bell rings a second time.

Buck's first wild thought is that something happened. She got attacked, maybe, or she hurt
herself, had to drag herself back to Buck. All he can think is that he's going to see her,
struggling and alone, maybe dying, and he'll be stuck up here, unable to do anything but
watch.

But when he looks out the window, he doesn't see his usual delivery woman. There's a boy
there, small and thin, looking up the height of the tower from behind a pair of glasses.

"Hi!" the boy calls, waving.

Buck waves back, his mind somehow simultaneously blank and racing. There's a boy here.
An unfamiliar boy. The first new person Buck has seen in thirteen years.

"Hi," he echoes.

"Why are you up there?"

Buck leans on the ledge, looking down at the kid as he thinks over the answer. There doesn't
really seem to be a reason to lie. "I'm trapped up here," he says.

"Trapped?"

"Yeah. Do you see a door?"

The kid goes around the base of the tower, checking for an entrance. Now that he's moving,
Buck can see that he has walking sticks, that his gait is a little uneven and his legs aren't quite
straight.
Where did he come from? They can't live that far away, not if the delivery woman and this
boy are both walking here. Can they see his tower from their house? Is it just that no one
knows there's anyone in here? For the first few weeks of his imprisonment, he'd yelled out
the window, hoping someone would hear, but when no one came, he assumed it was useless.

Maybe he should have tried longer.

"How did you get up there?" the boy asks, having completed his survey of the tower.

"There's a magic door," Buck says. "The sorceress who put me here can open it, but I can't."

"Are you a princess?" the boy asks.

Buck has to laugh. "No, I'm not a princess. Why would I be a princess?"

"Princesses are always getting stuck places. And you have a lot of hair."

"Anyone can have a lot of hair," Buck points out. "All you have to do is not cut it."

"How much hair do you have?"

"A lot."

"Could it reach all the way to the ground?"

Buck thinks it over. His hair is something he thinks about once a week, when he lets it out of
the complicated braid he keeps it in to keep it out of the way. At this point, it is a whole day
affair to deal with it, washing it with the pump as best he can, brushing it out, and then
getting it out of the way. He's thought about hacking it off, from time to time, over the years,
but at this point, it's a matter of pride that he hasn't. He wants to see how long it can get
before he can't deal with it.

"I don't know," he tells the kid.

"You should try!"

"Why would I want to get my hair on the dirty ground?" Buck asks, hopelessly charmed. He's
a cute kid.

"To see if you can!"

"It's going to take a while," Buck says, carefully starting to unwind his braid. "How did you
get here?"

"I followed Abuelita!"

"Abuelita, huh? Is that her name? The lady with the basket."

"That's what I call her. She's my great grandmother."

"And you live with her?"

"Not always. We move around a lot. Dad is still looking for a good place for us."

"What's your name?"

"Chris!"

"Nice to meet you, Chris. I'm Buck."

"Hi, Buck! How long have you been up there?"

"How old are you?"

"Eight."

"I've been up here since five years before you were even born."

"Doesn't it get boring?"

Buck has to laugh. "It really, really does." He shakes his hair out, cracks his neck, and leans
back over. "Okay, let's see how long this hair really is."

He throws it down and Chris actually steps back, like he's afraid the spill of hair might crush
him. Not that he was in any real danger of that--Buck's hair isn't quite long enough to hit the
ground--but Buck gets the impulse. It must be pretty overwhelming to see all at once.

"Wow," says Chris. He pats the hair a little, which Buck feels as a very light pressure. It's the
first time anyone has touched him since…

Since Eddie kissed him, probably. That actually was the last time.

Then, there's a much greater pressure.

"Ow, ow, ow," Buck says, trying to yank his head up, but it's heavier than he's expecting.
"What are you doing?"

"You can pull me up!"

"Why?"

"I want to see what it's like up there!"

"How are you going to get down?"

"Same way. Slide down your hair!"

It's such a bad idea. It's risky and stupid and pointless. But this kid is so bright and
enthusiastic, and Buck is lonely. He hasn't talked to anyone other than Lady Helena in so
long. He's never had anyone else up here. And even if all he gets is one afternoon of this
curious, cheerful boy looking around, it'll keep him going for a long time.
"Okay," says Buck, and starts to pull the kid up. Once Chris gets to the windowsill, Buck lifts
him in. He's small for eight, which is probably good; otherwise, Buck would have had a lot
more trouble hauling him up.

Chris beams at him. "Hi!"

Buck can't help smiling back. "Hi."

"Wow, this is really cool!" says Chris, looking around.

Buck's never really seen his space through anyone else's eyes, mostly because he's never
cared what Helena thought of it. He's made it as nice as he can, painting the walls, putting up
decorations. It's worlds nicer than when he came, but a well-decorated prison is still a prison.

Still, he's glad Chris likes it.

"Honestly, I'm getting pretty tired of it," Buck says. "How long have you been living with
Abuelita?"

"A few weeks. I wake up earlier than Dad sometimes, and I see her leaving with her basket. I
wanted to know where she went. And then she rang the bell and you came out, so I thought if
I rang the bell, you might come out too."

"That's very smart. You probably shouldn't go around letting strangers pull you up into their
houses, though," he feels compelled to add. "That could be dangerous."

"Are you dangerous?" Chris asks, investigating the new coat Buck is working on for the
winter.

"You can't really trust if people tell you they're not dangerous. I could be lying."

"Yeah. But I think you're a good guy. I think you need to get rescued."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. That's what's supposed to happen when you're locked in a tower by an evil witch."

"Not a witch. A sorceress. And I don't really know if she's evil."

"She locked you up!"

"Yeah," Buck grants. "I'm not saying she's a hero. Just, you know. There's a lot of room
between pure good and pure evil. But she's probably closer to the evil side than the good
side," he feels compelled to add. She did lock him up.

"What do you do all day?" Chris asks, apparently done with questions of morality and ready
to move on.

"Well, I exercise in the mornings. I bake sometimes, if Abuelita brings me the stuff I need for
baking. I like to draw and paint. I read. And I have work to do. Mending and making clothes
and stuff. I'm not going to say I love it, but I manage to keep busy."

"But you never get to go outside," says Chris. "Or ride a horse or go and watch the jousts or
anything."

"Nope," Buck agrees. "I never get to do any of that."

"Where were you before you lived here?"

"I was a servant," says Buck. "So I really didn't get to do a lot of fun stuff anyway."

"Wow. You haven't had a great life, huh?"

He has to laugh. "Ouch. Couldn't you sugar coat it a little?"

"It's going to get better! My dad isn't a prince, but he is a knight."

"A knight, huh? That's pretty cool."

"Uh huh. So he can save you."

"Honestly, all I really need is a carpenter. One very tall ladder and I am all set."

"You can't just rescue a princess from a tower with a ladder," says Chris, with genuine horror.

"Maybe not a princess," Buck grants. "But a servant? Yeah, I think we can just use a ladder
for me."

"But my dad's not a carpenter," Chris says. "He's a knight."

"Well, you can ask if he knows a carpenter."

While Chris explores, Buck takes the chance to get a little more information about the
surrounding area. Chris is a nice kid, maybe a little too nice, but it's not like he's giving Buck
very dangerous intel here. Abuelita's house is near a small village, and Chris says it was a
long walk, probably more than an hour, so Buck figures it's at least a couple of miles. This is
the third place that Chris and his dad have lived since they left his grandfather's estate, and
Buck has to admit he finds that part a little weird. If Chris's dad is really a knight, and his
grandfather has an estate, what's his grandmother doing working as a glorified servant?

Then again, Chris wouldn't be the first kid who thought his father was a bigger deal than he
was. Dad could just be a soldier, or a man at arms. Knights have all sorts of lower-class
people who work with them. Chris might have just given his father a promotion.

"What about your mom?" Buck asks, as Chris flips through one of Buck's books.

"Oh, she died," Chris says. "When I was born. It's just me and Dad. Do you have a dad?"

"Everyone has a dad. But I never met my parents. As far as I know, they're dead, but
honestly, I don't really know. Have you ever heard of someone making a deal with a
sorceress?"

"No. But I know about deals with witches."

If Lady Helena wasn't married to a knight from a respectable family, she probably would be a
witch. It might be entirely a matter of branding. "Okay, well, what do you know about deals
with witches?"

"If you need something from a witch, you have to pay a price," Chris says, like he's
memorized it. "The price will always be more than you want to pay, and you will always
have to pay it."

"Your dad doesn't want you making any deals, huh?"

"He says it's not a good idea."

"He's probably right. But I ended up with a sorceress, so I might have a family somewhere
who had to give me up. I don't really know."

"They made a deal and the witch took you?"

"She had to get me somehow, right?"

"I guess. So when you get rescued, you can find them!"

"Maybe, yeah. It's been a long time, they probably don't remember me."

If Buck does get out, he's honestly not sure what he'll do. Even if he wanted to find his
family, he wouldn't know where to start. He doesn't even know if he's from this kingdom.

What he really wants to do is look for Eddie, but he can't be sure about that either. He does
believe, still, that Eddie remembers him. But after thirteen years, he's almost certainly given
up actively looking for Buck. And the truth is, Buck doesn't blame him. He's sure Eddie puts
in some effort sometimes, probably asks around when he visits a new place, but he shouldn't
be scouring the kingdom looking for Buck.

But maybe, if Buck found him, Eddie would be happy to see him. And maybe he'd have an
idea of what Buck could do for the rest of his life.

It hits Buck suddenly that he's thinking about it as a certainty, not a possibility. Not an idle
fantasy. He's making plans like this will really happen, like he'll really get out. Not because
he has some great faith in Chris's father to come along and save him, but just because Chris is
such a bright, vibrant reminder of everything he's missing out on. There's a whole world
outside, and Buck's barely even been watching it pass.

He feeds Chris lunch, even though it means he'll have less food until Abuelita's next delivery,
and then they figure out how to get him back down. It's a little rocky, Chris mostly using
Buck's hair to slow his descent without any finesse, and Buck's scalp is aching before Chris is
even halfway down, but he lands safely and reclaims his crutches, giving Buck a big wave.
"Bye, Buck! We'll rescue you soon!"

Buck waves back. "Just get home safe, okay?"

"Okay!"

He watches until Chris has disappeared into the woods, and then he evaluates. Because the
thing is, as much as he likes Abuelita, at least in theory, she is one of his captors. She's
somehow working with Lady Helena, because if she wasn't, she wouldn't know to come and
feed him. He doesn't think it was her idea, doesn't think she likes it, but all servants do things
they don't like, and plenty wouldn't risk their positions to change one of those unpleasant
things.

So Buck can believe, completely and with his whole heart, that Chris wants to help him. But
once Chris's dad finds out about him, Chris's great-grandmother might find out too, and if she
does, she might tell Lady Helena that he's trying to escape, and Buck can only assume he'll be
whisked away to some new and probably worse tower, with no bright, sweet kid who just
wants to help him. If Chris tells anyone how he got into the tower, Lady Helena might even
cut his hair.

Not that Buck can climb his own hair down anyway, but now that he's looking at it, he can't
help thinking that it's a resource he's been ignoring. One of his best resources, because it's
strong and there's a lot of it, and it doesn't have to stay attached to his head. It would be much
easier to climb it down if it wasn't. If, for example, he made it into a rope.

Which he would, hypothetically, needs to do before Helena finds out there's a little boy who
wants to save him.

The first step is the hardest, and it's so much harder than he was expecting. He'd really
thought that he didn't care about his hair that much. That it was just something he kept to
keep himself occupied, to amuse himself. But it's been so many years of growing it, and it
will only be seconds to lose it all.

But it'll grow back. And he won't need it to keep himself busy, not if he can get out.

It also doesn't only take seconds, as it turns out. When he was younger, one of the other
servants would cut his hair, and it was usually a fast and fairly painless experience. But they
had scissors, sharp ones. All Buck has is his cooking knife, which is pretty dull by now, and
he's sort of hacking the hair off as best he can, but it's not pretty.

He's going to have to clean it up later. Buck doesn't consider himself terribly vain, but
whatever he looks like now, it can't be good.

But his head is so light. It almost feels like he's floating. It feels amazing. He didn't even
realize how much weight he'd been carrying. He takes a second to close his eyes and just
appreciate it, the freedom, the lack.

Then he grabs three thick clumps of discarded hair and starts braiding.
*

In theory, Buck knows how long he has to escape. He has however long it will take Chris to
tell his family he wants to rescue Buck, plus however long it takes for Abuelita to get in
touch with Lady Helena, and then about twenty-four hours from then before Lady Helena
arrives. But that's assuming that Lady Helena needs to come herself, that Chris's dad isn't
involved in this and won't come over himself to do…something. Stand outside and glare at
Buck to keep him from trying to escape until Helena can get there? Or something worse that
Buck hasn't thought of yet.

So there's really no reason to get complacent. To assume that he has at least a full day before
consequences catch up with him. Things could go wrong very, very quickly.

Even knowing that, he still makes himself eat dinner, get his things carefully packed. He
doesn't bring all of his books--there are too many, and they're too heavy--but he gets his
favorites. His food, his journals, his mostly finished coat. The things he actually likes.

He even makes himself toss the rope up onto the bed canopy to make sure it can hold his
weight, which it can, and then…

And then, there's nothing else to do except leave, unless he wants to spend the night, and he
knows how stupid that would be. He needs to go. He needs to get out. He can spend the night
in the woods, anywhere. He just needs to not be here.

He can leave, right this second, but somehow, he finds himself hesitating. His makeshift
braided rope is tied to the bedpost, his makeshift bag is packed, and he can just…go.

All he has to do is go.

Buck takes a deep breath, picks up his bag, throws his rope out the window, and says, "Okay,
um. Goodbye. You were pretty nice. For a prison."

The room doesn't respond, obviously, but he feels a little better having said it. He wouldn't
have chosen to be here, but he's gotten used to it. It would feel wrong to not acknowledge
that.

But he has better places to be.

Once he's doing it, it's not even hard. The side of the tower is smooth, which Buck
remembers from an early attempt to escape, when he'd tried to find anything like a handhold.
All he really needs to do is hold the rope to keep himself from moving too quickly, but it's
suddenly so easy.

He could have done this years ago, if only he'd thought of it.

His feet hit the ground with a satisfying thump, and he's actually glad that he outgrew his
shoes so long ago. There's something about the feel of grass and earth that makes the freedom
feel so real. He used to love this feeling, the fresh grass between his toes, the slightly chilly
dirt, even the pointy rock under his heel.
He hasn't felt anything but flat stone for so long.

"I'm out," he says, disbelieving, and spins, arms out, reveling in the sky, the grass, the trees,
the--

The person.

It doesn't register right away, just another image flashing in front of his eyes, but then his
brain catches up and he snaps back. There's a man watching him, brown hair, brown eyes, his
mouth twitching like he wants to smile but isn't sure he should. Another new person, Buck's
second today.

Which probably isn't a good sign. This must be Chris's dad, who heard Buck was here and
came right away. He's probably here to guard him until Helena shows up, and Buck hadn't
even looked before he jumped out of the tower. He walked right into the enemy.

Said enemy raises one hand. "Hey, Buck."

Buck blinks a few times, the face in front of him rearranging itself. Brown hair, yeah, brown
eyes, yeah, and he's smiling a little, smiling more and more, actually, as Buck keeps staring.
Like he's enjoying it. Like he's just waiting for Buck to catch up.

Buck's bag drops from his limp fingers as he throws himself into Eddie's arms. Eddie catches
him, just barely, laughing, and his arms are firm around Buck's back, hugging him back.

"What are you doing here?" Buck demands. "How did you find me?"

Eddie is still laughing, and it's familiar. Older, deeper, but still Eddie. Somehow, still Eddie.

"My son came home and told me he found a boy princess stuck in a tower. Then we had a
very confusing conversation about the differences between a boy princess and a prince, and
then finally he actually explained what happened, and I can't believe my mother just hid you
in plain sight."

"What do you mean, plain sight?" Buck demands, because everything else about the situation
is too much to process right now. "I was in a tower in the middle of nowhere!"

Eddie pulls back so he can study Buck, and Buck is suddenly aware of his very bad haircut
and the clothes he made himself out of whatever scraps Helena gave him and the way he
never manages to shave very well. And he's even more aware of Eddie, who was always
going to grow up handsome, but who's grown up so much more handsome than Buck thought
he would. Who has a son and a whole life now, but who still looks so happy to see him.

"My grandmother has been feeding you for thirteen years. How much plainer sight can you
get?"

Buck's jaw drops. "That's your grandmother? The one you visit in the summer?"

"No, I used to go see my mom's mom in the summer. This is my dad's mom."
"Why's she doing your mom's dirty work?"

"How about I tell you while we walk back?" Eddie suggests. "Do you need that, uh, bed sheet
full of garbage?"

"It's not garbage! Honestly, like half of it is books you gave me."

Eddie's whole face brightens, and Buck tries not to stare. He's thought about Eddie in the
abstract, Eddie the twelve-year-old best friend, the only person who cared about him. He
hadn't thought about what Eddie would look like all grown up, strong jaw and broad
shoulders and painfully beautiful.

He'd had no idea what he was missing out on.

"Okay, we'll bring the bed sheet full of garbage."

Eddie goes to pick it up and Buck just watches. He was so close, this whole time. Or, well,
not the whole time. Buck guesses he hasn't actually been here for that long, but he gets what
Eddie meant, too. It feels so obvious.

"So, uh, was your grandmother not planning to betray me?"

"No, I don't think so. I'm still kind of learning to communicate with her, honestly. I think
that's probably why she didn't tell me about you sooner."

Buck frowns. "Learning to communicate? With your grandmother?"

"We don't speak the same language," he says, with half a smile. "My dad never bothered
teaching me. Once he married my mom and moved to her family's estate, he figured he'd
never use it again. Chris and I are learning now that we're spending time with her, but…" He
shrugs. "Still figuring it out. Hasn't been that long."

"I didn't know your dad was from another kingdom."

"Yeah, that's where we are now," he adds. "Another reason I wasn't really looking for you
here. Not that I…"

Buck bumps their shoulders together. "Hey, don't worry about it. I know you didn't forget
about me."

"No. But I really didn't think I'd ever find you again."

"I was going to find you," Buck says. "Once I got out."

"And you did," Eddie teases. "First thing."

The truth of it hits him like a stone to the chest. He's out. He's walking through the forest with
Eddie, their shoulders brushing together on every third step. The sun is setting, and he can
turn around and see it, for the first time in thirteen years. His only window faced the sunrise,
and now here he is, watching the sunset.
"You okay?" Eddie asks, when he notices that Buck is walking backwards.

"Yeah. I am absolutely amazing."

"You cut your hair!" says Chris, by way of greeting.

"He rescued himself," says Eddie. "Cut off his hair and climbed down it, just like you did."

Chris frowns. "But you were supposed to rescue him."

"Yeah, I was," says Eddie, kneeling down so he's at Chris's level. His tone is serious, his
expression too. It reminds Buck of the night he left, Eddie's solid determination to keep from
being sent away. To keep him close. "I said I'd rescue him and I didn't. But we're going to
take care of him now, right?"

"Yeah!" says Chris, and Buck's heart flips over.

Buck's saved from trying to find words when the door to the house opens and Eddie's
grandmother comes out. Buck doesn't speak her language either, but he doesn't really need to;
her joy is written all over her face as she comes over, hugging him, tugging on the jagged
ends of his hair, clearly fussing.

At least she really does like him. He was right about that.

She leads him inside and sits him down at her table, giving him some soup from a big pot
over the fire. Buck ate, but not as much as he could have, his stomach too full of nerves, and
she's too friendly to disappoint.

Eddie and Chris follow them in soon after, and Buck is suddenly eating a bowl of soup at a
dinner table surrounded by people. It's like he's in an illustration from a book, like he's living
a life he's never had.

"So, uh, Chris said you're a knight," Buck offers to Eddie, mostly because he doesn't want to
start crying or something.

"Yeah. I went into training a few months after you got taken away. I had a pretty great knight
master, he made sure I got my shield even after…" He glances at Chris. "Chris's mom wasn't
exactly what my parents had in mind for me. They were arranging a marriage for me, and I
got a serving girl pregnant and married her instead. So when my parents found out--"

"They were mad," says Chris, and Eddie laughs.

"Very mad. Disowning me kind of mad. So Chris and I have just been wandering knights ever
since."

Buck has to smile. Despite his parents' best efforts, Eddie has a type, and apparently it's
servants. "So your mom doesn't know you're staying with your grandmother because you
don't talk anymore?"
"Pretty much." He clears his throat. "I did, uh. I found your family."

"You did?"

"I thought if you got away from wherever you were, maybe you would have gone to them."

Buck watches him for a long moment. "I'm guessing you didn't find anything good, huh."

"I liked your sister. But yeah, your parents traded you away, and they're afraid if they ever see
you again, it'll break the deal they made with my mom."

It's not a surprise, really. Buck had figured it was either something like that or they were
dead, and this is probably better. They're alive, at least. He has a family somewhere, even if
they don't want him.

"Do you know what the deal was?" he asks.

"Yeah, your sister told me. I guess your brother was sick, and your mom was pregnant, so it
was a pretty easy deal for my mom to make. Give up the new child to save the old one."

"You never want to pay the price," Chris says. "But you have to."

Eddie ruffles his hair. "Exactly."

"And is he, uh, okay? My brother."

"Last time I saw him, yeah. But that was before Chris was born. I don't really visit them
much."

Buck swallows hard. "And if I…am I going to break the deal? He's not going to keel over and
die if I'm not in the tower, right?"

"Of course not," says Eddie, too quickly. Buck gives him a look, and Eddie corrects to,
"Probably not. I'm pretty sure."

"Eddie."

"Look, even if it did kill him, that's not on you, Buck. You don't have to spend your entire life
locked in a tower because of a deal someone else made."

"Yeah, but he doesn't want to kill someone," says Chris.

"Yes! Thank you, Chris."

Eddie rubs his face. "You two cannot gang up on me already. It hasn't even been a day."

It's a weird thought among many weird thoughts Buck is currently having. Because he really
doesn't want to go back to the tower, but does he hate it so much that he could let someone
die? His own brother, no less.
But it also has been less than a day, barely even an hour, actually, and he's so stupidly,
unbelievably happy sitting here at Eddie's grandmother's table with Eddie and his son. Even
with Abuelita, who's smiling at the conversation she doesn't understand, glowing with love
for her little family.

If he's honest, he doesn't think he should have to give it up either. But there's thinking, and
then there's…

"You can't go back to them, but it's not like you have to stay with my mother," Eddie goes on,
when no one else says anything. "If you had to be close to her, you couldn't have been in the
tower. But you can't ever go back to your parents, I don't think. The price they paid was
giving you up."

It's not a loss, not exactly. This morning, he had a family he knew nothing about and thought
he'd never see again. Now, he has a family he knows very little about and isn't allowed to see.
It's not that different. And he knows they gave him up for something good, something
important. He saved someone's life, his brother's life. And that's worth something.

"Okay," he says. "Then I won't see them. But I probably shouldn't stay here. Once your mom
figures out I'm missing…"

"Yeah," says Eddie. "We shouldn't stick around here."

"Oh, I didn't mean--" Buck starts, but Eddie gives him an unimpressed look. "I'm not asking
you to leave your grandmother behind, Eddie."

"I'm pretty sure you're the only reason she was staying here anyway. Someone had to take
care of you. If we leave, she'll probably come with us."

Buck swallows hard. It's just…it's weird, right? Eddie was his best friend thirteen years ago,
but that doesn't mean they're anything now. Buck was trapped in a tower, he never met
anyone else, but the way Eddie looks at him sometimes, it feels like no time has passed for
him, either. Like he still wants to lean over and kiss Buck.

"I don't know where I'd go."

"My knight master, Lord Robert--Bobby," says Eddie. "After my parents disowned me, he
said I'd always have a home with him. He's not far from your sister, actually."

"And I can see her?" Buck asks. "That won't kill anyone?"

"She didn't make the deal. She said she was the one who named you Evan."

It's been a long time since he thought of himself as Evan, but there's a fondness for the name
somewhere deep in his chest. He always hoped that someone who loved him gave him his
name, and someone who loved him did.

"That sounds nice," he says, and means it.

But once Chris and Abuelita have gone to sleep and it's just him and Eddie sitting outside,
shoulder-to-shoulder, looking up at the stars, he can't keep his doubts in anymore. "You don't
have to stay with me, you know."

"I know," says Eddie, so easily Buck doesn't know what to make of it. "I could stay here and
let you go, or Chris and I could go somewhere else. You could go to Bobby without me and
he'd probably take you in. I could tell you where your sister is and you could find her."

"But?"

Eddie turns to him, his smile almost swallowed up by the night. "But I've been missing you
for thirteen years, Evan. I don't want to miss you anymore."

"Oh," says Buck. "Me too."

"Okay," says Eddie. "Good."

And he leans over, like he did in the servants' quarters years ago, lifetimes ago, and kisses
Buck for the second time, just as soft, just as quick.

This time, Buck pulls him back in, and they kiss for a third time, and a fourth, and a fifth.
They kiss until Buck loses count, and he thinks that's a pretty good start to happily ever after.
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