Thursday, November 24th:
"Looking forward to seeing the Queen again. It's been awhile," August commented, not at all breathless as the scull skimmed over the lake.
"They're not coming," Wille got out, panting.
August turned his head towards Wille in surprise. "What? But it's Parents' Day."
Wille let out a grunt, partially in response, but mostly from trying to keep his rowing motions in sync with August's. "Yeah, but they're on some kind of state trip."
It was an excuse Wille defaulted to every time his parents didn't show up for events in his life. School plays, concerts, sporting events. It stopped people questioning him further.
"OK," August replied, accepting the excuse. "Well, give them my best."
Wille let it go, concentrating on keeping his strokes near the surface of the water. The rhythmic motions were soothing, almost hypnotic.
But once they were back on shore, August pulled Wille to the side as the rest headed back to the school. "My mother and step-father are coming up," he confided, his hair messy from the wind.
Wille nodded. He vaguely remembered meeting August's parents years ago at some Royal event. He'd never met his step-father. "That's nice."
August gave a grin that Wille had come to think of as his 'older family member' one, and braced himself. "You should come back with us for the weekend. I can show you Årnäs. It will be fun."
Wille tried to keep his face neutral as he scrambled for an excuse, a polite way to decline. But nothing came to mind. "Um, oh," Wille said, brushing his hair back from his face. "Are you sure your mother won't mind? It's rather short notice."
August's grin stretched wider, and he clasped an arm around Wille's shoulders, guiding him back towards the school. "Of course not. She doesn't officially own it, of course. It's mine now. But she'll be delighted to have you around."
Wille sighed. Fuck fuck fuck. A whole fucking weekend with August. Maybe he'd get lucky and catch the bubonic plague by Friday and get hospitalized instead.
...
"I'm so nervous," Felice admitted to Wille, clutching his hand tightly.
Glancing her way, he could tell she had taken extra care with her hair today, every strand smooth and a pretty headband keeping it off her face. "Relax, it's just your parents."
But her hand tightened on his even more as a beautiful woman in a dove grey wool coat strode towards them, pulling off her oversized designer sunglasses, and smiling widely. "My darling," she murmured fondly, hugging Felice close.
"Mama, you remember Wilhelm," Felice said, pulling out of the embrace to glance over at him.
He nodded in greeting. "Smysan, good to see you again."
Felice's mother beamed back at him, shaking his hand. "This is wonderful, having you at Hillerska now. I love seeing all the Instagram photos of you two together."
"Papa," Felice said, hugging an handsome black man, dressed in a bespoke suit with a mustard silk scarf.
Wille barely had time to greet Poppe, before August was pulling him away, leading him over to his mother.
"Louise, good to see you," Wille got out, glad he checked everyone's names with Erik over the phone last night. He had the worst memory for names.
She smiled at him warmly. "I don't think you've met Rickard before," waving towards the older blond man at her side.
Wille shook his hand. "Are you sure it's OK I stay with you this weekend? I don't want to be any trouble," he said, glancing at Louise as well. Hoping for a last minute escape.
"No, no," Louise shook her head. "It's no trouble at all. We are quite looking forward to having you."
Wille scanned over the schools's front yard, seeing parents hugging and chatting with the students all around him. Events like this make him feel lonelier than ever. He wanted to escape to his room, but Erik's words echoed in his mind.
You have to be able to keep up appearances.
Everything you do reflects back on our family.
It's not that hard...
So, he sucked it up, stepping into his Prince role. Smiling and greeting everyone. Shaking hands. Posing for selfies... so, so many selfies. Suddenly every student was claiming him as a close friend to their parents.
Eventually, everyone headed towards the chapel, for some speeches from the Headmistress and a performance by the choir.
...
It was a bit easier after that, socializing while drinking wine and eating appetizers. Wille was chatting with Felice and her parents.
He noticed August striding purposefully over to Simon and Sara. Curious, he watched the exchange. Sara looked disappointed and waved towards a woman about ten feet away. Wille recognized her from Simon's Instagram photos, knowing she must be their mother. Simon looked irritated, like he usually did around August.
But after a couple minutes, August nodded at them and left. He talked to some of the staff, and they started shifting some tables around.
Wille was able to pull him to the side. "What's going on?"
"Socce boy thinks he's one of us," August whispered with a conspiratorial smirk. "Didn't anyone explain to him that Parents' Day is for the boarding students, not the non-res? He gets to see his mother every day."
Wille made a non-committal nod, and excused himself to use the washroom. By the time he got back, everyone was seated.
August smiled at him, glancing at the empty place beside him. But luckily Felice gave him a little wave, and he was able to find a spot at her table. He'd be spending tons of time with August's family this weekend, after all.
"Um, Wille, this is our mother, Linda," Sara told him.
Linda gave him a warm, genuine smile. "Oh, you are the boy who is always hanging around the stables with Sara. Do you ride?"
Wille loved her instantly. She treated him like any 16 year old boy, no indications at all that he was a Prince in her tone or manner.
Shaking his head, he grinned back at her. "At home, I ride for fun, but the equestrians here are much more intense. I'm on the rowing team instead."
"With Simon," she added, glancing at her son. "You never mentioned that to me."
Simon just shrugged a shoulder, still looking a bit moody.
"Your daughter is very kind, letting Sara ride her horse so often," Linda commented to Poppe, who was sitting on her left.
"Um, it's not that often," Felice interjected, her eyes flicking nervously to her mother.
Sara looked about to reply to that, so Wille jumped in, facing Smysan. "Felice is so sweet, even letting me come and feed Rousseau treats when I'm feeling homesick. Don't you find being around horses relaxing?"
That got Felice's mother reminiscing about her days at the school. Felice shot him a grateful glance.
After the meal, Felice pulled him into a quiet hallway and gave him an enthusiastic kiss. "My hero," she whispered, and gave him a tight hug.
He sunk right into it, glad he could make things go smoother with her parents. Erik was constantly doing this for him with their family.
"My parents are spending the night in Linköping. Do you want to join us for dinner? There's a wonderful French restaurant there," Felice asked, her eyes twinkling.
Wille tried to think of an excuse. To go to dinner with her parents would be seen as a sign they were a serious couple. That Felice was his girlfriend.
"It's only a 20 minute drive from here," she added, seeing his hesitation. "We'll be back by 8 pm. You'll have time to pack for your weekend with August."
He gave her a playful grin, trying to lighten things up. "It's a nice offer, but I'm concerned that they will think we are a serious couple. I don't want them starting to talk about Royal weddings and-"
"Wille!" Felice said, covering his mouth with her hand, and glaring up at him teasingly. "Shut up! Look, I know my mom is a bit pushy about things like that, but I'm not going to even think of proposing to anybody until I've finished my doctorate at an Ivy League school."
That made him relax a bit, and grin back at her. "You will be the one proposing to your future husband?"
"But of course," Felice said, flipping her hair in a mock-haughty way.
In the past few weeks, he'd gotten to know Felice quite well. Aside from hanging out with her and Sara at the stables, he also studied with her and her friends in the library, and watched movies together. They cuddled and hugged a lot, which Wille loved. On movie nights, they had made out sometimes, but she had been OK when he said he wanted to take things slow. She really felt more like a friend he cuddled with than a girlfriend.
He agreed to the dinner, and headed back to his room to change out of his school uniform.
His door swung open, and August burst right in as he was changing. "Hey! Have you heard of privacy?"
"I've seen you naked in the gym showers tons of times," August said with a shrug, totalling missing the point. He made himself at home, throwing himself on the bed. "My mother is the worst!"
Wille groaned to himself. The whole day was full of teen-parent angst. "What happened?"
"She told me... um, some horrible news. Just now! Right before our weekend together. She can't solve any problems on her own. It pissed me off so much I told her to go home. That we wouldn't be spending the weekend with them."
"Oh really?" Wille said, trying to not sound too happy at the news. "Um, wow. Are you OK?"
August rubbed his hand over his face. "Yeah, yeah, but I feel bad for you. Changing plans at the last minute."
Wille shrugged. "It's fine. Actually, I'm going to Linköping for dinner with the Ehrencronas. Maybe I'll just catch a bus to Stockholm afterwards. Get my brother to pick me up." Grabbing his phone, he called Erik.
"Hey! Change of plans! I'm coming home for the weekend after all," Wille said, upon seeing his brother's face. It had been far too long.
Erik grinned back at him. "That's great! Here's to brothers reuniting!" He lifted a glass, and finished off the contents in a couple swallows. "But what about August? Weren't you spending the weekend at Årnäs?"
Wille shook his head, and panned the phone so Erik could see August lying on his bed, dejected. "He had a fight with his mother and cancelled it. He wants to stay at school for the weekend. You know how he loves it here."
"Erik, you should come up here! The three of us would have the school to ourselves," August called out.
Wille turned away, so his back was towards August, and shook his head subtly to his brother, giving him pleading eyes. He knew how sick of August he was.
But Erik just smirked at him. "No, no, I'm comfortable here. Why don't both of you come to the Palace? A cousins' weekend? Our parents are away so we can do whatever the fuck we want."
August immediately brightened up at that. He was off the bed and grabbed the phone from Wille. "That's a fantastic idea! Hey Wille, can you get out of dinner with your girlfriend? We could head to Stockholm now."
"Girlfriend? She has girlfriend status now?" Erik said, and Wille dropped to the bed, groaning to himself as August chatted on with Erik, making all sorts of plans.
...
It was completely dark by the time they pulled into the bus station. This time of year, the days were short, but it wasn't too cold out. Maybe a few degrees below freezing.
"Careful," August said, when Wille slipped on an icy patch on the sidewalk.
Fuck off, Wille thought to himself, already heartedly tired of August, after the three hour bus ride. He had put his AirPods in and pretended to sleep, but August nudged him often to talk.
The sight of Erik in the parking lot, leaning against the back of his black Ferrari, was enough to cheer him up. Not caring how it looked, Wille ran over to him, right into a big, tight hug. It was fantastic.
"August!" Erik said, looking past Wille, and letting him go to grab hold of their second cousin.
They hugged hard, thumping each other on their backs. Some kind of idiotic bro code behaviour. Wille rolled his eyes and climbed into the passenger seat, leaving August to somehow squash his tall body into the small backseat. Fuck him.
Erik smirked at him as he buckled up his seat belt, knowing how annoyed Wille was by August. Likely planning to gang up with him to tease Wille mercilessly all weekend.
"Fuck off," Wille said, looking out of the window. "Let's get home already. I'm starving."
Erik revved the engine, and drove, finally. They were out of the city pretty quickly, and Erik sped up, showing off for August's sake, taking the curves of the road hard so he got thrown around in the back seat. That cheered Wille up a little.
"Fuck!" Erik swore, as the Ferrari fishtailed around a bend, the back wheels spinning out clumps of dirt from the side of the road before he got the car fully back on the pavement. Wille had instinctively grabbed the wheel, helping Erik, stopping him from over-correcting and swerving into a nearby car. It all happened so fast, in just seconds.
"Shit! Slow down!" August yelled from the back. "The road is icy in patches."
Erik decelerated, still breathing hard. He eventually calmed, turning to glance at each of them. "Are you guys OK?"
"I might need a doctor to get my hand free. I imbedded it into the upholstery when you almost killed us back there," August said, making Erik chuckle.
Wille laughed along with them, but kept a close eye on Erik. Was that alcohol on his breath? Had he been already drinking when he called him after lunch? How many drinks had he had today?
...
Sunday, November 27th:
"You are back!" Felice said, jumping up from a picnic table full of her friends to give him a big hug. "Hi August. Fun weekend?" she called out, over Wille's shoulder.
"Two Princes and a Palace to ourselves! What do you think?" August smirked, heading back towards their dorm.
Wille stepped back. "Do you forgive me for cancelling on that dinner?"
She nodded. "You had lunch with us, after all. And you were right. My mother kept going on and on about you. She thinks we are way more serious than we are."
"Really?" Wille replied, watching her closely.
Felice took his hand, leading him a little further from her friends. "Um, I'm sorry, Wille, but it made me take a deeper look at our relationship, and I realized I don't have those kind of feelings towards you."
"Oh, so you just want to hang out as friends instead?" Wille said, feeling a big sense of relief.
Felice squeezed his hand. "Yes, if that's alright with you. No offence, but I don't think we really have strong chemistry."
Wille nodded. "I think you are right. OK, we can stay friends as long as you promise to keep hugging me. You give the best hugs."
She proceeded to give him another one. "This didn't go so bad. I was kind of dreading it."
"It will probably be harder breaking the news to your mom," Wille joked.
"No shit!" Felice said, and waved as he headed off to his dorm.
It was quite dark now, with the lights along the path not helping much. As he rounded a corner, he heard some raised voices, sounding quite intense. Instinctively, he stepped back into the trees beside the path, shifting to have a better view through the foliage.
"August, transfer the money right now," Simon was braced with his feet wide apart, anger coming off him.
"Oh, so you brought your gangsters with you, huh? Are you threatening me?" August scoffed.
"Give me your phone. Make the transfer now," Simon said, standing his ground.
"Just go home," August said dismissively, turning to head back to his dorm.
"You bastard! What the fuck is your problem!" Simon snapped back at him, running over and pushing hard on August's back, making him fall on to the grass.
August twisted away, trying to evade him. "Huh? What the hell are you doing?!"
"What's your problem? You think it's fun to fuck with people like me? Huh?" Simon stood over him, pushing his head down on to the ground.
"You sick bastard!" August groaned, struggling against him.
"I'm so fucking tired of you!"
"Simon, stop," Rosh said, pulling back on his shoulder.
"I need my money!" Simon let go of August, straightening up.
"Simon, Simon," Rosh said, trying to calm him down.
August had crawled away by then, and he flipped over on to his back, wincing in pain.
Simon glared down at him. "I want my money! Can't you understand that?"
Almost in tears, August looked up at Simon. "If I had it, I would have given it to you! OK?" His voice was loud, practically shouting. "I have no money! My family's broke. I have nothing left."
Simon and his friends were stunned at this admission. But after a few seconds, Simon shook his head. "I don't care. You're gonna pay me," he said, turning and walking away fast, his friends following him, passing close to Wille. Luckily, it was very dark and the foliage hid him well.
After he was sure Simon was gone, Wille stepped out, walking to where August was still lying on the grass.
"What happened , August? Are you OK?" Wille carefully helped his cousin up. "Did you trip and fall down or something? Or are you still drunk?"
It was easier to pretend he hadn't heard the fight, leaving it to August to tell him about it if he wanted to.
"Fuck if I know. Probably both. It was hard keeping up with the Princes all weekend," August said, leaning on Wille as they went into their building. "Don't tell anybody about this OK?"
Wille brushed some grass off his jacket. "You better go into the washroom and clean up before the guys see you. There's mud on your face."
"Thanks Wille," August said, sounding defeated. He shuffled off, down the hallway.
Sighing, Wille went into his room, and wedged the chair against the doorknob. He needed some privacy for this.
Sitting in his bed, he pulled out his phone, and hit a familiar number.
She answered right away. "Hi, honey. How are you doing?"
Wille pushed his hair back with a sigh. "Mom, we've got to talk. It's about Erik...."
...
-A/N: A BIG dramatic chapter. Yay! Erik is still alive! I've been posting chapters daily to give you a good introduction to the story. I'll be posting at least once a week from now on. Thanks again for your support! What a welcoming fandom. 💜
-Some changes to canon here, like Simon attacking August on Sunday evening instead of on Parent's Day. I'm thinking August left with Wille to go to Stockholm in the late afternoon, before Simon could get his friends there, so it got delayed a few days.