*ON HOLD* Solangelo Royalty AU

One

Books surrounded the prince from all angles. The shelves reached up almost all the way to the 15 foot ceiling. Ladders were pushed up against each of the tall shelving units for access. Will walked down one of the aisles, his fingers lightly rubbing over each spine his passed.

After a short while, he reached his favourite section of the library: the fiction section. When Will was really young, his mother would bring him here and read him stories of great heroes who defeated all the villains, slayed every single one of the evil dragons, and saved the day then ran off into the sunsets with their lady loves. At that age, all Prince William wanted to do was be like them. Now all he wanted to do was break down the stereotypes, not run away with a lady love but with the boy he loved with all his heart. He was determined to do just that!

He grabbed one of the books off the shelves, one he had read so long ago, and settled down at one of the desks to read.

A good few hours later, Will looked up from the book he had been engrossed in when he heard a shout: "Prince William?"

Oh no - Will thought. He hadn't intended to stay out here in the library for so long, but he had and now servants were out looking for him.

After slotting the book back in it's place on the shelf, Will made his way back to the doors of the library. When he got there, he saw a pair of servants pulling them shut. "Wait! Wait, don't lock me in!" Will cried out and started running towards the doors. The servants stopped shutting them and bowed their heads.

"Apologies, Prince William. We didn't realised you were in here." One said, the other remained silent. They both kept their eyes fixed on the ground.

"You don't have to be like that. It's alright. Don't worry, I'm not mad at you." He said. This was the one thing that pissed Will off the most, his servants constantly thinking that they'd done something wrong and that Will was mad at them. He wasn't that sort of ruler, neither was his father yet the servants didn't seem to understand that.

He passed through the doors and started heading back to the newer part of the castle, the group of servants trailing behind him.

When the prince arrived back to his quarters, a servant went to tell King Apollo that his son was alright, and Will threw himself down on his bed. What was he supposed to do now? He had dinner with his mother and father in an hour so he couldn't go out anywhere, and there was no one in the castle around his age that wasn't afraid of him.

The young prince let out a sigh and continued to stare up at the ceiling absentmindedly.

An hour later, a servant knocked on the prince's door informing him that dinner was ready and that he needed to head to the dining hall. Will pushed himself to his feet and swung his door open.

He followed the long, twisting corridors to get to the dining hall. His parents were already seated, his father at the head of the table, his mother in the first chair on the king's left-hand side. Will took his seat on his fathers right.

The food was already laid out in front of the family, and as soon as the prince had sat down, they all began their meal.

After a few moments of awkward silence, the king cleared his throat. "William, your mother and I were thinking that we should arrange for some of the neighbouring kingdoms to present their daughters to you, so you can chose your own bride. We thought that would be better than us forcing a woman on you, considering your... circumstance. Would you prefer that?"

Will took as much time as possible to swallow his mouthful before replying. He was annoyed at his father for calling him being gay a 'circumstance' but he couldn't show his irritation. "That would be preferable, thank you father."