Lovino burst through the courtyard door. "You idiot!" he screamed as Feliciano lifted his paintbrush from the canvas, "Shirking your duties again?
"I was inspired," he whined, "and you can't order me around! I'm the king, remember?"
"You're a terrible one. You've missed three appointments just so you could go out in the garden and paint. I don't know what Grandfather was thinking."
"It's too nice a day to be stuck indoors," he muttered as he dabbed a spot of grey on the tree he was depicting.
"And Feli," he continued, "this is gonna sound weird, but I think you should go talk to Prince Ludwig. I don't know why, but he always seems to be happier when you're around.
"Okay, why?" He stared into Lovino's cold green eyes. "I'd love to talk to Ludwig."
Feliciano sealed shut his jars of paints and left the elaborate tree to dry as his brother walked back inside. He followed, but broke off at the main corridor. One way led to the throne room, the other to the guest wing. His heart pounded at the idea of this mysterious turn of events, and fear for what could be wrong spread, acidic, through his veins. The twittering of birds outside did nothing to ease his troubled mind.
"Your Highness?" he called, knocking on his door. There was silence. He opened the door to see Prince Ludwig wearing a hooded black cloak, standing at the bay window. He was still as a statue. "What is it?" he said, voice hoarse.
"Your Royal Majesty," his voice came, "I do not doubt you know the reason of my, er, suffering."
"No." His heartbeat quickened.
"My grandfather," he said, choking on the words, "never got to read that letter I sent him."
It was as if the world stopped turning, the birds froze in the sunshine-filled sky, and the wind in the trees jolted to a halt. "I'm so sorry," Feliciano whispered. And then the grief he had endured in the days following his own grandfather's death came hurtling back to him like an avalanche. The pain, the tears, the anger at the world all trapped him beneath their mighty weight. "Long live the king," he rasped.
YOU ARE READING
His Royal Majesty
FanfictionHere is a Kingdom!AU GerIta story. It contains a little bit of Spamano and SebMona as well. Feliciano is the newly coronated King of Roma. His late grandfather, by whose wish Feliciano became king, had previously neglected an epidemic in the neighbo...
