Buck/Eddie

Pairing
Pairing:	Evan "Buck" Buckley/Edmundo "Eddie" Diaz
Alternative name(s):	Buddie
Gender category:	Slash
Fandom:	9-1-1
Canonical?:	No
Prevalence:	Main fandom pairing
Archives:
Other:	Home With You by schweet-arts (2021)
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Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz, or Buddie, is the juggernaut slash pairing in the 9-1-1 fandom. As of November 2023, it is the most prevalent 9-1-1 pairing on Archive of Our Own.

Canon

Buck and Eddie first interacted in episode one of season two when Eddie joined the 118. They had a very brief animosity arc, fueled by Buck's jealousy over the admiration and attention Eddie received, before developing a mutual respect for each other.

Over the following seasons, they became close friends, with Buck becoming important to both Eddie and Eddie's son, Chris.

There are a number of story-lines and beats throughout the show as of March 2024 that fans of the Buddie ship believe indicate that they are an endgame couple, drawing parallels with het slow burn pairings which went canon.

The slash pairing is not currently canon in the show as of April 2024. However, on the 14th of October 2022 the FOX Spanish Instagram account posted an edited picture of the two. Some fans interpret this as a confirmation of canon while others consider it a form of queerbaiting.

Fandom

The pairing of Buck/Eddie became popular almost as soon as Eddie debuted as a character and their popularity seemed to increase year-on-year in transformative spaces. As of March 2024, of the 32,290 works in the 9-1-1 tag on AO3, 24,218 of those works (75%) are tagged with Buck/Eddie. 15,082 of those works were otp:true (the only pairing tagged on the work). In addition to the pairing's popularity in transformative fandom spaces, discussions of the show on social media platforms, including spaces where shipping is often less accepted than others such as Reddit, frequently discuss the potential pairing.

Common Tropes and Storylines in Fanworks

• First Kiss: showing the lead up, and aftermath, of their first kiss together.
• Getting Together: fanworks focused on Buck and Eddie coming together as a couple. These may be canon divergent with fans crafting stories where they get together after certain canon events.
• Hurt/Comfort: most commonly with Buck being hurt and Eddie providing the comfort. These works might also be tagged "Evan "Buck" Buckley Needs A Hug".
• Episode Tag: because Eddie and Buck are firefighters it is not unusual to write stories that deal with the aftermath of traumatic canon events.
• Protective Eddie: works in which Eddie is protective of and defends Buck
• Established Relationship: fanworks where Buck and Eddie are already in a relationship, this can go hand in hand with domestic fluff, and may also be tagged "Soft Buck/Eddie".
• Christopher Diaz Has Two Dads: these fanworks may include found family elements with Buck helping to raise Eddie's child Christopher.

Queerbaiting Controversy

Up to the end of season six, fans of the pairing and the show in general were divided over whether queerbaiting was occurring with Buck/Eddie. Some fans felt that the show runners had no intention of making the pair canon but were happy to market to fans of the pairing, others argued that the pairing were a slow burn couple who would become canon by the series end, while others argued that the pair were just friends and that fans of the pairing were just seeing them through slash goggles, and that no queer-baiting was taking place.

In early April 2024, an episode aired in which Buck kissed and arranged a date with another male character, Tommy. Buddie fans rejoiced at this apparent confirmation of Buck's bisexuality, and a popular post on Tumblr from someone who was not a fan of the show humorously addressed this plot development in relation to the queerbaiting controversy:

911 fans i must offer my sincerest apologies. I did not think your little wee-woo show had it in him. I mocked your dedication, belittled your sincerely held beliefs simply because it seemed so blatantly obvious that you were being played. But you held firm in your faith and have been eternally rewarded. I know I can never join your paradise, nor would I try to achieve that which I do not deserve. But know that when I toil in the fields outside your Eden I feel no bitterness or resentment, as I have naught to blame but my own hubris and decades of queerbaiting precedent for my predicament. Go ye in peace.

powerbottombrucespringsteen 

Example Fanworks

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

Fanfiction

• Part of the (Fire)Family by an_alternate_world - Bobby's on a mission to spread goodwill through the community, which leads to a chance encounter between Buck and a curly-haired boy who wears red glasses. And that leads to an opportunity to meet his LAFD-in-training father and lure him towards joining the 118. (An alternate take on S2A)
• I, Hildy by red_to_black - It's not often that Buck is the sensible one in their little fire family - but seriously, someone has to let Eddie know that Hildy isn't taking over the world. That is, if Eddie would stop panicking about sentient technology long enough to listen to him. (or - the many ways in which Hildy interfered with Eddie and Buck's life, until they got the picture.)
• A Christmas Miracle by tawaifeddiediaz - The 118 are discussing their plans for the holidays, but Eddie's plan has Buck reeling with hurt.
• A leaf falls on loneliness by iimpossible_things
• Leave the Light On (I'll Be Coming Home) by HMSLusitania
• sharing different heartbeats in one night by chromatophorica - Eddie inadvertently stops Buck from calling Mackey, taking them both down an entirely different path. With Carla out of commission for a while, Buck steps in to take care of Chris while Eddie works, altering their dynamic significantly.

Fan vids

• Buck & Eddie | Between by santiagonex
• Buck & Eddie | Flares by santiagonex
• buck & eddie | we're slowly becoming lovers by Wolflynn98
• buck & eddie | everything is blue by who cares

Fan art

• buck kissing eddie on the kitchen counter, ^{Archived version} by demonmojo
• lazy mornings buddie <33, ^{Archived version} by loserdiaz
• and i love you to the core, ^{Archived version} by warren-keplers-funk-band

Meta

• The Buddie Couch Theory

Archives & Links

• Buck/Eddie works at AO3