Royal Prick

The cold empty halls felt weird walking through. A guy, late 20’s, roamed through the palace halls with a tray of food and drink. His name was Evan Buckley. Most people called him Buck.

Buck looked around as he held the tray carefully in his hands. His hands were a little shaky as this was his first time he had properly interacted with any of these royals. He was always fine with being cooped up in the kitchen. The royals seemed…picky. Buck was friends with some of the higher up assistants, but they were always busy with whatever the Royals wanted. Buck’s main people, the people he trusted in this place, Bobby Nash and Henrietta Wilson. 

Henrietta likes to be called Hen by her friends in the kitchen and the fellow servants. She had a very ‘keep low’ attitude but a very passionate attitude as well. She worked as the Queen and King’s food servant, meaning she delivered food to the two whenever they wanted it and most of the time, helping to cater events. 

Bobby was head chef. He was also a father figure to Buck. Always had been. Ever since Buck settled down as a chef, instead of constantly switching jobs, Bobby had always been there to put him in his place and tell him what he’s doing wrong. But along the way, he also showed love and care. So now when they were alone and talking, Buck would call him dad. 

Recently, Buck had been promoted. One of the food servants had quit their job because of how stuck-up the royal family was. Apparently, the royals were given a list of people who could become the replacement. They chose someone random. And that someone random, ended up being Buck.

He had started the job today. The prince’s food servant. 

Prince Eddie. Stuck up prick that made most of the staff quit. Buck wasn’t too fond of him, but only ever did he see him in large photos hung up on the walls. What he had heard from co-workers was what he got. Apparently he was a stuck up, royal prick who cared only about himself. He was 30. He should be mature but he never was.

Buck turned down the hall where Eddie’s room was. He stood there for a minute before taking a big deep breath in. He started to walk down the hall and stopped at the door to the prince’s room. He took another deep breath before raising his hand and knockin on the door.

“Come in.” There was a voice from inside the room and Buck pulled the handle down to enter. He took in the room, looking around at everything. There was a massive desk in the far corner, stacked with bookshelves. Books and books and books, as far as the eye could see. There was a large bed in the middle of the room with navy blue sheets. There was another shelf on the right side of the room, filled with books. 

There was no sign of the prince though. “Hello?” Buck called out, trying to find where this guy was. He finally appeared in front of Buck’s eyes. He came out of a door on the left side of the room with a towel wrapped around his waist.

The prince looked Buck up and down before speaking. “Who are you?” He asked, walking over to his bed that had a stack of clothes on it. 

“Evan, your highness.” Buck replied with a forced smile. He looked Eddie up and down, the same as he had done to him. Eddie nodded at him, picking up a shirt and pulling it over his head. Buck stared at him for a second before asking. “Where would you like-”

“On the desk.” The prince answered, turning away to put on some pants. Buck looked away as he did so, walking over to the desk to put the tray of food down. 

After doing so, he stepped back, the prince inspecting the food. When Buck thought everything was all good he turned to leave. Then-

“Sorry, my chips aren’t here?” The prince asked before Buck could reach the door. Buck scrunched his nose before putting on a forced smile and turning back around. 

“You ordered chips?” Buck asked. “I’m pretty sure we only got a burger order for you, your highness.” Buck stated the facts. Bobby had said ‘Just a burger guys, Buck, get a glass of coke, this is your first order to the prince.’ Buck remembered specifically.

“Did I not say chips?” Eddie asked with a groan, burying his face in his hands. “Sorry, do you think you’d be able to get me some?” He asked looking back up to Buck.

Eddie wasn’t being mean or a prick. Maybe the staff got it all wrong. They didn’t spend every single second with him. It was just word of the mouth. Buck stared at him for a moment before Eddie waved a hand in front of his face.

“Sorry, yeah. Let me get those for you.” Buck put a thumbs up before turning and leaving the room. Buck let out a sigh when he finally left. He had never been that close to the prince. He had never actually seen him before. 

Buck pulled out his phone and dialed Bobby’s number. He answered shortly after. “Does his highness want something else?” Bobby asked, sounding a little annoyed. “Kinda making dinner for the King and Queen.” 

“He said we forgot his chips.” Buck sighed as he walked down the first flight of stairs to the kitchen. 

“What is he talking about?” Bobby asked like he was more annoyed. “Jake, I need a bowl of chips!” Bobby yelled to one of the fellow chefs. “He never ordered chips.” Bobby huffed before hanging up the phone. Buck sighed as he put his phone back into his pocket, reaching the next set of stairs. 

Buck got to the kitchen soon after and he was immediately shoved back out with a bowl of chips in his hands. He sighed as he started to walk up the stairs once again. 

Buck got to the prince’s room and knocked on the door for the second time today, “Come in.” followed afterward. Buck entered the room to see a kid cuddled up to the Prince’s side as he read him a story.

The prince made a gesture to put the ball of chips on the side table next to him. Buck didn’t realise, but there was a pair of crutches leaning against the wall and he tripped over them. 

“Shit.” Buck mumbled. Some of the chips had spilled out but definitely not all of them. 

“I’m sorry…” The kid mumbled digging into his dad’s side. The prince patted him on the head before getting off the bed and offering a hand to Buck. Buck looked up at him for a moment. He was confused at the least. 

Buck reached up and took the prince’s hand, pulling himself up. Once he was back on his feet, the two hands together lingered for a moment. Prince Eddie’s hands were soft, like he’d never had a day of hard work in his life, which is probably true. His eyes were a shade of brown that Buck had never seen before, his facial features were so pretty. 

Before Buck could get carried away, he let go of the Prince’s hand. He picked up the bowl of chips and put them on the bookshelf next to him, also picking up the crutches and leaning them against the wall. 

“I’m so sorry, your highness.” Buck said, bowing his head a little. He picked up the bowl of chips and scooted past the prince, putting it on the side table. 

“I’m sorry dad.” The kid said, loud enough for Buck to hear. The prince turned around, looking at Buck then to his kid.

“No, it's alright buddy.” The prince smiled at him before looking back at Buck. Buck was staring. The prince was more handsome than he realised and the fact that he had a kid? Fuck…

“Sorry for the mess.” Buck apologised, gesturing to the few chips on the floor. “I’ll clean that up for you…” Buck sighed, looking around the room to see if there was a broom anywhere. 

“Are you all good? Are you hurt?” The prince asked, looking Buck up and down to make sure there were no visible bruises or scratches. 

“Yeah, I'll be fine.” Buck gave a small smile to the prince, leaning down to pick up the few pieces of chips he had dropped. Buck could feel the guy's shadow tower over him as he did so. It wasn’t a ‘I’m in charge of you’ kind of towering though. It was more of a ‘I want you…’ 

Buck thought he must be misreading this situation. The prince had a wife for fucks sake. 

He had a child with his wife. He was a prick according to literally everyone. Buck couldn’t be thinking these things, he could literally be fired for it. 

Buck stood up, coming face to face with the prince. He had at least 7 hot chips in his hand and they were burning his skin a little. 

“Sorry about this, your highness.” Buck apologised once again. The prince nodded looking towards his son for a second.

“Sorry…” He mumbled again, looking to his dad for Buck’s name.

“Evan…right?” The prince looked to his son, saying the name before looking at Buck, who nodded. 

“Sorry Evan.” The kid apologised. Buck smiled at him, looking at the prince for a second. 

“Don’t worry buddy, you’re all good.” Buck reassured, before walking back past the prince to exit out the door. “You two have a good night.” 

Buck nodded at the prince and nodded before exiting the room. He sighed as he left, walking back down the huge lonely halls. Buck felt as if he was letting his own feelings get to his head and maybe he was slightly physically attracted to the prince. It was too much for Buck’s brain though. He was attracted to the prince…?

— 

“I think you all have it wrong.” Buck stated as he sat on top of the end counter, his legs were crossed and he was watching as Bobby cleaned the kitchen

“Have what wrong, Buck?” Bobby asked, looking back to him as he wiped down the stove. Buck shrugged, not wanting to get in between what everyone else’s thoughts were. 

“The prince.” Buck said, looking at Bobby as he froze up. Buck watched as Bobby sighed. “He’s not as much of a prick as everyone says he is.” Buck shrugs, noticing as Bobby was tense.

“Look, Buck…” Bobby sighed, turning around and leaning his hands on the kitchen counter. “He may seem nice but he’s just trying to manipulate you.” 

Bobby was twisting the truth a bit. He didn’t want Buck hurt. He had too much of a precious soul to be hurt. “It’s happened before.” Bobby said, sighing as he went back to cleaning. “All his food bringers end up quitting, he always gets too much.” 

Again, Bobby twisted the truth, it was a lot more than just quitting. 

Buck nodded, crossing his arms. “Why did I never know he had a kid?” Buck asked with a confused look. “Like I feel like it would be common sense to know, and I didn’t.” Buck jumped off the counter and walked over to the walk-in cupboard, listening to Bobby’s answer.

“Yeah, it’s not really known.” Bobby replied, happy Buck had moved from the previous topic of conversation. “Like, there’s not too much news about it in the kingdom. They know that Prince Eddie has a kid but they don’t hear much about him. I’ve never met the kid personally.” 

“Do you think there’s a reason for that?” Buck asked, coming out of the cupboard with a bag of chips. Bobby shrugged as he wiped down the bench where Buck had been sitting.

“Again, never met the kid so I have no idea.” Bobby said, leaning against the counter while looking at Buck. Buck nodded slightly, remembering tripping over the pair of crutches in Eddie’s room. 

“I’m heading to bed.” Buck said, rolling up the bag of chips and putting them back on the nearest shelf in the cupboard. “I’ll see you tomorrow Bobby.” Buck left through a side door of the kitchen heading down the hallway of dorms. 

Buck laid still, staring at the empty ceiling. He tried to sleep but all he could do was toss and turn, not knowing why. The only thing he was thinking was Maddie. Buck never should’ve left her. Buck always saw the evil look in Doug’s eyes. If Maddie did something wrong he would snap. Do something to her. Buck didn’t want his sister to be hurt. But Maddie was in love. And Buck also wanted his sister to be happy. So he let it go. After Buck snuck out to be at their elopement, he hasn’t seen them. Haven’t heard from them since then.  Buck missed her. He wanted her back. He wanted to be there for someone. Someone to be there for him.

—

The next couple days were simple, the prince didn’t ask for much. He usually ate with his parents so Buck didn’t have much of a job as Hen. Obviously he had orders, the prince didn’t not eat. As the week went on, Buck realised more and more how handsome the prince really was. Especially at the 6pm time when the sun glowed through the large open windows and showed Prince Eddie in a light Buck didn’t think a lot of people saw.

Eddie got to learn that Buck hated the name Evan. Anytime Eddie would say ‘Thank you, Evan’ Buck would have a small grimace on his face. Eddie noticed it and asked why it happened. Buck explained that he really didn’t think the name suited him. So he went by a shortened version of his last name. Eddie didn’t mind. He started to call him Buck. 

That weekend was different though. Buck delivered food to Eddie, seeing his son for the fourth time this week. Obviously, his kid loved hanging out with his dad, which was cool to see. Buck wished he’d had that relationship with his parents. This time though, Chris had seen Buck’s phone screen when he had pulled his phone out to check the notification. The picture was of a model plane Buck had built out of lego. It sat on his bookshelf in his dorm. 

That set Chris off, pointing to the lego pieces in Prince Eddie’s bookshelf, saying that he made them for his dad year after year. Buck looked at the pieces as Eddie apologised for his son rambling. Buck didn’t mind though. Buck slowly took a bus built of lego off the shelf, studying it intently with a small smile on his face. 

“This is pretty cool.” Buck said with a smile as he rested the lego back on the bookshelf. He made sure to be careful with it, suspecting it would have taken hours to make. 

“You should build one with me one time!” Chris exclaimed, leaning forward towards Buck. Buck looked to the prince who had his fingers against the bridge of his nose. 

“Chris, Buck has work to do, he can’t just build a lego set.” Eddie sighed as he stood up off of the bed. “I’m sorry bud-”

“I would love to build a lego set with you.” Buck cut Eddie off, which was a bit risky, maybe the prince would go off at him for cutting him off, or saying yes to something he was clearly saying no too. “Only if your dad’s okay with it.” Buck looked back to Eddie and Eddie was just staring at Buck with a soft smile. 

Eddie looked between Buck and his son before sighing and agreeing. “ Fine, but only when Buck is free, which might not be for a little while.” Eddie knew the schedule in the castle kitchen was strict and he didn’t want Buck in trouble for not showing up to work. 

“I have my day off on Friday.” Buck smiled at Chris as he slowly sat on the bed in front of him. “What if you pick out a lego set, I’ll go get it in the morning and we can build it in the afternoon. How does that sound?” Chris nodded at Buck with a huge smile on his face and Buck loved the joy Chris gave off. 

“How about you head to your room Chris? I’ll bring your food in soon.” Chris made his way out of the Prince’s bedroom door and Eddie closed it behind him.

Eddie moved towards his side table as Buck got off of his bed. “I hope you’re okay with that…” Buck sighed, realising he had made plans without Eddie’s approval of them. “If not, I’ll break the news to Chris and he can blame me for getting the dates of my day off wrong.” Eddie came around the bed to Buck, handing him a hundred dollar bill. Buck didn’t even reach for the bill as he stared at Eddie, a little taken aback by the gesture. 

“You can use this for maybe two lego sets? And, treat yourself to a coffee or something in the morning.” Eddie explained, picking up Buck’s hand from his side to put the money into.

“Uh, you must not understand, I was planning to buy the set for Chris.” Buck said as he followed Eddie to the other side of the room, holding the bill up for Eddie to take back. 

Eddie didn’t take it back though, he crossed his arms and faced Buck. “I don’t doubt that you were going to pay for it. But you’re saying yes to hanging out with my son, even though you probably don’t want to.” Buck was taken aback by the sentence of course he wanted to hang out with Chris. Why would he have said he wanted to if he didn’t? Buck was about to say something but Eddie kept talking. “Please just take the money. I don’t need the change once you’ve bought the sets. Just… thank you.” 

“You don’t have to thank me.” Buck said quickly, not knowing if Eddie was gonna keep speaking or not. “I love kids.” Buck smiled as he looked to the ground, shifting his weight from foot to foot. “I had every intention of paying for the lego set, so please, take the money back. I want to hang out with the kid, he seems like the sweetest guy.”

Eddie stared at Buck for a second. Buck shifted glances around the room. It felt as if Eddie was studying Buck, looking deep into his soul. “I know how much you guys get paid.” Eddie said with a sigh. “Please, take the money.” Buck felt so bad for taking it. Eddie just seemed like he didn’t want the money back. Buck was a little weirded out about it. How it seemed as if Buck genuinely didn’t want the money. Buck took his wallet out of his back pocket and slid the hundred in there. 

“I feel like I’m just taking your money.” Buck chuckled softly as he slid his wallet back into his pocket. “I feel bad, man.” Eddie gave a small laugh.

“Please don’t.” Eddie smiled as he reached to pat Buck on the shoulder. His hand rested there for a little longer than Buck had thought it was going to rest there. 

Warmth started to spread through Buck’s body from the simple touch of Eddie’s. Buck just stared at the prince. And for the 10 seconds his hand rested there, Buck only felt warmth. It was weird. Like yeah, the human body produces warmth but it was a different kind of warm. He had a warm feeling in his chest. 

“So…Friday?” Buck asks, making sure it was Friday afternoon.

“Yes. Friday.” Eddie replied with a smile on his face, taking his hand away from Buck’s shoulder.

Buck nodded before waving bye and walking out of Eddie’s room, closing the door softly behind him. The feeling in Buck’s chest didn’t disappear… It was weird. He liked the feeling, it was foreign though. He hadn’t felt like this before. Maybe Prince Eddie will bring a certain part out of him…