William James Solace IV, crown prince of Soleil, heir to his father, King Apollo's throne, was the definition of spoiled. He had anything he could ever ask for, being the only child of the richest king in the land. However, there was one thing that the King and Queen could not give to their darling baby boy.
"Father?" Prince Will strode confidently up to the dais in which his father's and the rest of the family's thrones sat. His father was seated in the centre of the dais, Will's mother to his left, William's empty throne to his father's right. "You wanted to see me?"
"Ah yes. William-" Will cringed at his full name. "We, your mother and I that is, wanted to ask you about something very important."
Will's mother cut in. "Marriage."
"Marriage?" Will repeated, unable to comprehend what his mother was asking him about.
They want me to get married? I'm only 18! - Will thought.
"Yes William, marriage. As you know, you will be ascending to my throne in only a few years. You must have a wife, a queen, by your side. The law specifically states this." King Apollo explained.
Will interrupted his father's little speech. "Rewrite the law! You're the king. You can do that."
The king shook his head sadly. "In the eyes of the people, William, you would be considered an illegitimate king if you do not have a wife. Then they may end up plotting against you and having you executed and replaced! I cannot allow that to happen, my son."
Will was furious. He didn't want to get married, especially not to a woman. He was gay for heaven's sake! His parents knew it too. Why would his parents, his mother especially, make him go through this? He felt, in that moment, that the whole world was against him.
Life was so unfair for the young prince, or so he felt. He wanted nothing more than to storm out of the throne room, go back to his chambers and scream. Scream until he could scream no more. Scream until it hurt for him to speak. But he couldn't. He was the crown prince. He couldn't behave so childishly.
"William, we know that you don't want this, but it must be done. You understand, don't you." Will's mother, Queen Naomi, said, a warm smile plastered on her face. Will simply nodded in response. His mother smile dropped and she sighed. "We do love you William. You may feel like we're being horrible and unfair, but we're doing this because we love you."
King Apollo rose from his throne. Queen Naomi stood too. Will stared at his parents. Their marriage had been arranged by Apollo's father, Zeus. They did appear to be happy together, but Will questioned whether or not it was true happiness or relief that they hadn't ended with someone truly unbearable.
Hugs were shared between the prince and his parents then Will was dismissed from the throne room.
What now? - the prince thought to himself as he wandered aimlessly through the masterfully decorated halls of his father's castle.
After wandering for a while, he ended up at the library doors.
The oldest part of the castle was probably Will's favourite place to go. Everything looked so beautiful to him. Not that he felt the other parts of the castle weren't stunning, but those areas looked like they were trying to impress people. These halls were humble about their beauty. They were quiet whereas the other areas were loud, both literally and metaphorically. The old parts of the castle were used less. Few, if any, people visited these halls. It was a place for Will to be alone.
The young prince pushed the heavy oak doors open to reveal the countless rows of old, leather-bond books. He left the doors open since there was no way for him to open them from the inside, then turned to face the shelves.
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."
"We were thinking that we could perhaps have the presentation in a month's time. Does that time suit you, William?" Queen Naomi asked.
Will nodded. "Of course, mother." Even if it wasn't okay, his parents would arrange it for then and make Will change his plans.
There was no more conversation after that moment, just the sound of the three members of the royal family eating filled the dining hall.
~time lapse~
The next day, the king sent out messages to all the neighbouring kingdoms; Amour, Connaissance, Puissance, Pègre and Guerre. Their daughters were to attend a ball on the night of the 22nd June and to stay in the castle with their parents that night for the choosing ceremony on the afternoon of the 23rd June.
King Apollo made an announcement to his kingdom that day too, informing them that his son will be choosing a bride on the 23rd, and announcing the ball. He also extended the invitation of the ball to richer families in his kingdom, to make it more lively and busy for his son.
Will was not happy about the arrangement but there was nothing he could do about it. He was going to have to marry a woman and become another cookie-cutter prince.
The month was going by far too quickly. In the blink of an eye, it was Friday 21st June. Will was not looking forward to tomorrow. He was finding every excuse to sit through boring meetings just so he could force time to go slower. It was working, the prince found himself bored out of is mind, however it was not working well enough because it became the evening all too quickly.
"William, you are excused. You have a big day tomorrow so I implore you to go to bed and rest of for the morning." King Apollo said. The royal family had been sitting together in one of the drawing rooms, questions being asked and answered about the day ahead of them.
"Goodnight William." Queen Naomi called out as Will was shutting the door. Will returned the pleasantry then shut the door fully. He made his was to his chambers.
Once back in his rooms, William made sure to check that everything was ready for tomorrow. It wasn't that he had no trust for his servants, it was because he was so anxious about the ball that he couldn't help it.
After triple checking that everything was ready, the prince settled down in his bed. There was no way he was getting to sleep, but he so desperately tried. He stared up at the ceiling, trying to make himself want to fall asleep but to no avail.
It was well into the night that William finally shut his eyes and drifted off to sleep.
The morning came and Will's most trusted and beloved servant, George, woke the slumbering prince, which did not sit well with Will.
"Come on your highness. You've got a big day today." George was an older man, around the same age as Will's father, although he did look older. He had grey hairs starting to show through his predominantly sandy blond hair around the ears. He was rather an attractive man with full lips, a straight nose and a square jaw. However, his face and body was littered with scars from his time on the streets before coming to work for the royal family around the time of Will's birth.
"Five more minutes, George, please." Will begged.
George laughed. "You know I don't tell the time very well, Will. Now get up."
Will groaned and opened his sleep-filled eye. He rolled over to the edge of the bed and swung his legs over and rested his feet on the floor, his arms stretching over his head as he yawned.
"Up, up, up." George pestered, rushing around the room to grab everything Will needed to bathe. Once he'd grabbed everything he herded the young prince into the bathroom. He closed the door behind the prince and started gathering all of Will's clothes.
The bath was already run so Will stripped and sunk into the hot water and sighed. He sat there for a few moments, enjoying himself before proceeding to wash himself. He couldn't help wondering if this would be the last time he would feel truly relaxed.
After all the wonderful dark thoughts, he climbed out of the tub and dried off. He wrapped the towel around his waist and walked back through his bedroom and into his dressing room.
There was no sign of George, which pleased Will as he hated being babied by his servant, but Will's clothes had been neatly placed on the dresser. Will dropped the towel and dressed himself. He quickly slipped his boots on, fixed his fair then left his rooms and headed towards the throne room.
Will thought as he strode through the halls -Time to choose myself a bride.
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a/n: look guys! New full length fic. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Vote and comment,
Thank you.
~Em