𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐧, young royals

Chapter 24: Simon

"Paris it is," he breathed.

✧ ✧ ✧

Wilhelm drank at Vincent's party.

I tasted cranberry vodka on his tongue when he kissed me, and although it bothered me a little, I said nothing.  It was just a few drinks, and it was his birthday, after all. Maybe I should've said something to him, made sure he wasn't drinking for all the wrong reasons, but I said nothing.  I didn't want us to fight again.

We snuck out of the party before midnight even hit the clock.

Too loud, too crowded, and too reminiscent of our last party, we thought.  Sara wasn't in such a mood for a party, either, so the three of us caught the last bus for Bjästad and sidled back into my place, trying not to wake up Mom.

In my room, Wilhelm and I held each other and watched the fish in my tank swim around stupidly.

Olle, Oskie, and Felle. The three stupid names I'd spontaneously come up with for my stupid fish when he'd asked me their names that night.  And now these stupid names held such a stupidly dear meaning to me, so dear that I hadn't even dared to utter them to Markus.

Too personal, too evocative.

"I'm happy I spent my birthday with you," murmured Wilhelm against my nape, squeezing around my waist with his arms.

I turned around to face him, touching up his bicep with the palm of my hand.  His face was lit by the yellowish hue of my fish tank light, eyes half-closed and a woozy smile on his lips.

"I wish I'd gotten you something," I admitted, biting down on my lower lip.  "There's been so much shit going on these past—"

"I already have everything I could possibly want," he interrupted, planting a kiss of my lips to shut me up. "You're every damn thing I could ever wish for."

He was still buzzed; his pupils dilated, cheeks flushed.  He grazed the tip of his fingers along the ends of my curls.

"I didn't even realize you knew when my birthday is," he added, rubbing his thumb on my jaw.

"I looked it up a few months ago."

He smiled childishly.  "And when is your birthday?"

"August 21st."

"17 is such a weird age," he spoke randomly.  "You're not an adult, but you're not a child, either.  And everyone just excepts you to act older and more mature."

"Weren't you always expected to act older and more mature?"

"Yes," he sighed, "but that never stopped me from being a little shit to my family."  Wilhelm seemed pensive for a moment, intoxicated eyes staring into mine while he looked into his past, and he grinned.  "When I was younger, Erik and I used to do all sorts of things to make our parents mad, like pull pranks on the maids at the palace or make funny faces at paparazzis. One afternoon, we snuck out to the garden and climbed so high up a tree that three bodyguards came rushing out of the palace, screaming at us to get down. And we just laughed in their faces."

"You were just kids," I replied, smiling. "I can't even tell you half of the stupid shit I did as a kid."

"Tell me."

"Sara and I set fire to an old shed, one time," I confessed, chuckling. "On accident, of course. And it's not like the shed was still being used. We were just playing with a box of matches we'd found in Mom's drawers, and suddenly we were running out of the shed and screaming our heads off. The owner was so pissed; Mom never let us near a lighter after that."