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Chapter Text

Wilhelm absolutely, positively hated being a prince.

It was funny, really. Most people would bend over backwards to be in his position. And he’d gladly let them take it.

They’d just have to face the wrath of Queen Kristina like he did.

He stopped referring to her as his mother a long time ago, at least when he wasn’t around her. 

She was just Kristina to him now.

His childhood was fairly easy. He got whatever he wanted, at least the materialistic things. But as he got older, he realized that neither parents ever spent quality time with him. They were always busy with ‘royal duties’, and when they weren’t, they spent time with his older brother Erik, who was their heir.

He was just the spare. And they treated him like one in every possible way.

Despite their parents’ favoritism towards him, Erik always gave Wille attention. They were best friends growing up, always going into the Royal Garden to play tag and climb trees when it was nice out. Other times, they played multiplayer video games on the giant TV in their sitting area. They liked playing Super Smash Bros. and Call of Duty. Erik always beat him at first, but Wilhelm started getting better and better as time went on.

Erik started having less and less time to spend with him as they grew up. He went to Hillerska for three years, leaving Wille alone with their parents during the school year. After that, he started university in Uppsala, and came home on some weekends.

By the age of 12, Wilhelm realized that his parents didn’t care too much about him. Or at least, not as much as they cared about the monarchy. So he decided to just focus on what made him happy. And that was video games. 

Wille told himself that he’d beat Erik every time they played once he got back. That was his motivation to keep going.

He got better and better, spending most of his free time in-between school and mandatory royal appearances grinding out the latest Call of Duty. He eventually convinced his parents to get him a decked out PC setup at the age of 14.

His mother didn’t like how much he played video games. But she was either too busy or lazy to get him to stop. It’s not as if he neglected school. His grades were fairly decent. Nothing to ride home about, but good enough for his mother to be pleased with.

Last year, an online acquaintance of his introduced him to a game called Overwatch. It was a first-person shooter like Call of Duty, but that was just about the only similarity. 

Overwatch put you on a team of 5 people and you selected a character to play. Each character had a different gun and set of abilities that they used to damage and kill enemies. The goal was to capture or push an objective better than the enemy team, and whoever did that won the game.

There were three different classes of heroes to choose from. There were tanks, who led the fight and took a majority of incoming damage. There were DPS, which stood for ‘damage per second’, who did a majority of the damage and whose job was just to kill the enemy team. And there were supports, who offered utility to other teammates such as healing and other power buffs in order to stay in the fight. 

Wille started playing DPS, learning the basics of the hitscan heroes fairly quickly. There were two types of DPS heroes: hitscan and projectile. The difference was that the weapons of hitscan characters were simply based on aim. If you had your crosshair on the enemy, your shot would hit. Projectile characters were a bit different. You had to aim your weapon in a certain way to hit shots, and they didn’t hit the enemy straight away; there was a travel time. 

His best hitscan heroes were probably Cassidy, Ashe and Widowmaker, but he could play the rest of them as well.

As he kept grinding the game daily, he became more and more passionate about it, devoting all of his time outside school and “royal duties” to playing it. He started out in Platinum and climbed all the way to the highest rank in the game, Grandmaster, in the matter of half a year.

He really loved his in-game name. It had always been the same ever since he started playing games with Erik when he was younger.

It was lilfrogprince.

His brother was known just as frogprince when he used to play.

He got along well with the teammates at his rank. Well, most of the time. People were bound to be toxic in an online environment where they hid behind their keyboard. He’d gotten into it a few times with random teammates, but only when they were saying disgusting things to him or someone else.

He didn’t use voice chat much. Even though he knew it was likely impossible, he was still scared that someone would recognize him from his voice. He didn’t want to lose the only thing he was passionate about, and he knew it would cause a massive headache for not only him, but the entire Royal Court.

So he resorted to text chat for most things. Since he played DPS, it didn’t really matter all that much, since shotcalling was the responsibility of the tank. He just needed to kill things.

However, when he got in a game with fvckthemonarchy one late night, things took a turn.

fvckthemonarchy was the other DPS on his team. He chuckled at the name, the irony not going past him.

Their hero pools worked out, so that wasn’t an issue. The player locked Genji, while Wille locked Sojourn since she was very overpowered at the time. However, when the game actually started, that’s when things took a turn.

They were on Esperança, a Push map, and the enemy team had just reached the first checkpoint, while their barricade was only pushed about 23 meters.

fvckthemonarchy asked into his mic, “Dude, you’re playing Sojourn, how do I have more damage than you?”

Wille rolled his eyes. He got that often, as if damage meant everything . The enemy Sojourn was out-damaging both of them, so it didn’t really matter in the end. They just needed to do better.

So Wille just ignored it. 

They started winning a few fights, mostly due to their ultimate usage and their tank sweeping the floor with the enemy tank player. 

But fvckthemonarchy still had to find a way to complain.

“Sojourn, you’re so lucky we won that fight. Your positioning was awful.”

That comment alone pissed him off to no end. He wasn’t sure why it did so much, but the unnecessary attitude actually pushed him to click the unmute button.

“Dude, can you shut the fuck up and focus on winning? This isn’t a professional match.” Wille snapped.

“Wow, you actually used your mic, shocking.”

“Do you ever have anything positive to say? We literally won the last three fights.”

“You’re just dogshit, man.”

“Says the one that has only gotten one kill with Dragonblade this entire match.”

They spent the rest of the match bickering back and forth. Wille didn’t know where this anger came from, but something about the ego and snarkiness from his teammate brought it out in him.

It didn’t stop after that match ended. Since they were in the highest rank, there weren’t many players to match up against, so they got into each other’s games fairly often.

They tried keeping each other avoided as teammates, but since the list refreshed every week, there were unfortunate moments where they got on the same team. And that wasn’t fun for anyone involved.

When they were on opposite teams, however, they both tryharded, arguing back and forth in match chat whenever one of them killed the other. 

They gained a bit of a reputation. Everyone playing on the European ranked ladder knew it was going to be an interesting match when they saw lilfrogprince and fvckthemonarchy in their game.

And the funniest part? They ended up winning that first match they had together.

On a late September morning a few months after the rivalry started, Kristina summoned him into a meeting with the PR team. He knew whatever she was planning on saying was going to piss him off, so he sighed as he dressed in a suit-and-tie that was laid out for him. 

Why did he need to dress so fancily anyway? He wasn’t even leaving the building, and no one was going to see him besides them anyway.

When he walked in the meeting room, he was met with a cold stare from Kristina and a few fake smiles from Minou and the rest of the team. He was used to this, so it didn’t faze him. He just sat down where he was told.

“So, Wilhelm, we’ve noticed you’ve been slacking off in terms of what you do in your freetime,” Kristina started.

Wille had to hold back from rolling his eyes. Wasn’t freetime supposed to be spent however you wanted?

“People are seeming to notice you aren’t making appearances outside of school and royal duties. Some are even going as far as saying you’re antisocial or don’t like the general public. Because of this, we’ve decided you will be transferring to Hillerska Skolan in order to repair your image and socialize. You’ll be starting on Monday.”

Well, she got right to the point.

“What the fuck, why?” he yelled, his voice trembling at the last word, “Who cares if the public thinks that of me? I’m not even Crown Prince, so why does it matter? I go to all the events you make me go to. I have good grades in school, and the year has started already. Also, why can’t I spend my alone time the way I want to?”

Kristina didn’t react. Instead, she simply replied, “You are spending way too much time on that video game instead of going out and socializing. I’m starting to get worried about you.”

“You? Worried about me? That’s a load of bullshit,” Wille scoffed, grinning slightly at the absurdity.

“Wilhelm!” Kristina finally raised her voice, scolding him, “You will be going, and that is final. The school is already aware and is excited to welcome you. Erik greatly enjoyed his time there. You should talk to him.”

Wille bit the nail of his thumb out of habit, upset at the fact that she brought up Erik. Of course she would. There was always a comparison between the two, and she expected Wille to be a carbon copy of his brother.

He wasn’t, but why was that a bad thing? 

“Is there anything else you would like to say, or is this discussion over?” she questioned.

He glared at his mother before getting up and walking out of the room. As he walked back towards their private quarters, only a few staff members stopped to greet him. Most seemed to pick up on how angry he was, probably already aware of his transfer, so they ignored him.

Once he got to his room, he angrily took off the suit he was wearing and changed into a hoodie and sweatpants, logging into his PC and putting on his headset. 

He wanted to grind out for the weekend, hoping to climb from Grandmaster 2 to Grandmaster 1 again after a series of unlucky matches before he…

Fuck, he only had the weekend to hit Grandmaster 1 again.

He didn’t even think about that. He wouldn’t be able to play Overwatch while he was away at school.

He sighed in frustration as he loaded into a match, ready to take his anger out on the game.

fvckthemonarchy was on his team.

//

Simon absolutely, positively hated his new classmates.

The only reason he agreed to transfer from Marieberg to Hillerska was for his sister’s sake. Sara had been getting bullied by people in their year for being autistic, and it got to the point where she had to be held back due to skipping school because of it.

He knew most of the students at Hillerska were privileged and wealthy, but Sara really needed a change of scenery, so he agreed. 

The students at Hillerska were assholes. He knew that would be the case, and that they wouldn’t exactly “fit in”, but at least they wouldn’t be directly mean to them. They just giggled and talked behind their backs most of the time. At least, they did to him.

But Sara had actually made a friend within their first few weeks of school. She made friends with Felice, who was pretty liked by other students. Sara started helping out with her horse Rousseau at the stables, and they eventually became friends. 

Simon, on the other hand, had no one at Hillerska. Thankfully he and his sister didn’t board, so they were able to go home and he was able to see his two best friends, Rosh and Ayub. 

In his free time, he hung out with them and played video games. Ayub introduced him to a game called Overwatch a year or so ago, and the two of them grinded it often. However, Simon soon got very good at it and climbed the ranks when he was playing solo, so he had to make a new account to play with Ayub. 

He enjoyed playing projectile DPS, his favorite heroes being Genji, Hanzo and Pharah. It took him a while, but he finally hit Grandmaster playing solo. Ayub was diamond, so he was around that rank on his alternate account.

He was sitting in his room on a Saturday morning, opening up Overwatch, when his sister walked in and seemed excited.

“What’s up, Sar?”

“Felice just told me Prince Wilhelm is starting at Hillerska next week!”

"Prince Wilhelm is starting at Hillerska next week?” he asked, making sure he didn’t hear wrong.

“Mhm!” she hummed, before turning around and leaving. 

He leaned back in his chair and groaned. Of course the Prince was starting at Hillerska. That probably meant the choir was performing, and that they all had to suck up to him as if he was better than the rest of them. 

Simon hated the monarchy. He hated every member of the Royal Family, since they all contributed to the wealth inequality and other injustices in Sweden. His family had struggled ever since his dad left, and his mom had to work long shifts at the hospital to make ends meet.

He queued for a DPS game and braced himself for the long queue, watching a YouTube video in the meantime. When he heard the noise signaling that he found a match, he tabbed back in and groaned even louder than before.

lilfrogprince was on his team.

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” he heard lilfrogprince say through the mic once he joined team chat.

He seemed angrier than usual. Simon didn’t say anything back, not wanting to get into it.

Another teammate of theirs sighed, knowing that the match probably wouldn’t go well and said, “Can someone dodge?”

No one took one for the team, so they had to play the game.

As soon as Simon died in a teamfight, lilfrogprince said, “How do you die there? Are you just throwing now?”

Oh, so he’s gonna be like that today.

“Can you shut the fuck up?” Simon spat.

“I seriously don’t get how you’re still at this rank.”

“I beat you in a game yesterday.”

“My tank was throwing, that doesn’t count.”

“Yeah, sure dude. You’re actually just shit. Can we just focus and try to win?”

“Nah, I actually might just throw. You don’t deserve the carry,” lilfrogprince responded.

Simon actually laughed out of disbelief. They’d fought often, but neither one of them had straight up thrown a match before.

“I dare you. It’s your account, not mine.”

lilfrogprince didn’t end up throwing, but that didn’t stop their bickering throughout the entire match. Their team couldn’t focus, causing them to lose multiple teamfights in a row and get full held on the first point.

They lost the match pretty soon after, but little did Simon know that would be the last match he had with lilfrogprince for a long time.

Chapter Text

The only thing Wille was happy about on Monday morning was seeing Erik, who came home to the palace Sunday afternoon to accompany Wille to Hillerska. He hated having to sit in a black SUV with bodyguards surrounding him, and even though Erik’s guards would be following them on their journey, he couldn’t think of a better way of traveling than with his brother behind the wheel of his black convertible.

They left pretty early. He woke up at around 5 a.m. and was forced into a dark, navy blue colored suit with an orange sweater covering a light blue dress shirt underneath. The palace stylists also insisted on perfecting his hair, even though he combed the floppy, dirty blonde strands just moments earlier. They also applied a touch of makeup, stating that they were doing a welcome ceremony for him, and his mom wanted pictures to be sent to the press.

He already knew it would be a long and dreadful day, on top of him being nervous about the unknown and knowing he’d be away from home for so long.

The ride with Erik was enjoyable, but he dreaded every second that passed, knowing that it brought him closer to his doom. He knew he was being a bit dramatic. Still, his one comfort was being taken away from him, and he was being shipped away to a fancy and prestigious boarding school where he knew absolutely no one besides his arrogant second cousin.

Speaking of said cousin, Erik informed him as they got closer that August would be greeting them and helping Wille move in. 

He groaned in response, “Can’t you and I just do it together?”

“I can’t stay that long, Wille.”

“Why not?”

“Mamma wants me back at the palace for a meeting in the afternoon. I can only stay until after your ceremony.”

“Can’t you reschedule it?” he complained.

“I can’t, unfortunately. She said it’s important.”

Wille looked over to his brother to see the genuineness behind his eyes, and he leaned his head onto the passenger seat headrest in response. There’s no way his mother was forcing him away from the palace for the next three years and he couldn’t even have his brother walk him through his first day.

But then again, it’s Kristina he’s talking about. Of course she would refuse to let Erik out of anything. As soon as he graduated from university in the spring, Erik barely had any free time, immediately being forced to take on royal duties. Wille still barely had time to see Erik despite him being home for the last few months.

His brother gave him a bro tap on his shoulder with his free hand as they pulled into a driveway surrounded only by trees, “I’m sorry, Wille, but I know you’ve got this. It could be a good opportunity for you to make some friends.”

Wille bit back his reply about making friends, knowing Erik wouldn’t understand anyway. How could he, when Erik always had it easy making friends? 

No one in school ever seemed to have the same interests Wille did or even wanted to speak to him in the first place. All they cared about was that he was the prince, which was one of the many reasons he hated his position.

He was also perfectly fine not having friends. His mother mocked him for it, but he honestly was content playing video games with the few online friends he’d made throughout the years, even if he didn’t know much about him. They had no idea who he truly was.

Way too quickly for his liking, Erik’s convertible pulled to a halt in front of a white building. He could already see cameras, so he knew to plaster on his fake smile and hope no one saw through it. No one ever did, but his mother usually berated him for seeming too stiff and insincere anyway.

He and Erik were met by the devil himself (August), another student, and an older lady who appeared to be the headmistress. He could already tell August would do nothing but get on his nerves by the shit-eating grin on his face, and the fact that he immediately crushed Erik in what he’d consider a bro hug didn’t make him feel much better.

“Wille, it’s been too long!” August finally looked his way and gave him a harsh tap on the shoulder that was meant to be friendly but just made Wille fight the urge to flinch away and tell his cousin to address him properly. Instead, he just continued to force a grin and replied, “Likewise.”

August introduced the other student as Alexander. Wille could tell immediately that his cousin was using this student to do his dirty work. Headmistress Lilja then introduced herself and explained how his welcoming ceremony and day would go.

Alexander went to pick up the suitcase that Wille had placed at his side, but Wille insisted on carrying it in himself, even after protests from August. He rolled his eyes once he was out of view.

Once he entered the historic-looking building, he was met by an array of Hillerska staff lined up to shake his hand and welcome him. He despised the formalities and attention but kept his princely facade up and greeted them, paying attention as they introduced themselves and explained who they were. A lady with a camera insisted on a photo op, so he bit back his groan and smiled as he was instructed to pose next to different staff members.

After that, he was told to place his belongings down, and he and Erik were led back outside and towards the church where his welcoming ceremony would take place. He knew that this was where he’d be perceived by his classmates for the first time, so he took a deep breath to combat the swelling anxiety building in his chest.

He couldn’t recall the next few moments. One moment, he was led through the church doors, and the next, he was sat in one of the front rows beside Erik and August. He tended to zone out when met with a ton of attention at once. He knew that attention was still on him, but at least he could pretend it wasn’t since most of his classmates were behind him.

His brother and cousin were bantering about who knows what, and he pretended to be interested, but he was really just trying to calm his mind down. 

Headmistress Lilja took the stage after a moment, and she began by welcoming him to the school, saying it was an honor for him to be among the students attending the school. She announced a few more things about how the school day would go before introducing the choir and letting them take the stage.

A bunch of students took formation on the stage, all wearing the same burgundy uniforms that the people surrounding him were. A girl in the top row waved at him, and he recognized her as Felice Ehrencrona, a girl he went to primary school with. He awkwardly waved back with a smile, hoping his anxiety wasn’t overwhelmingly obvious.

He noticed no one around him stopped whispering, even after they started performing. He would shush the people around him if he was braver, and also not forced to make a good impression on everyone he’s ever met. However, the thought of drawing more attention to himself was terrifying, so he looked down at his lap and fiddled with the buttons on his suit, trying to focus on the hums coming from the stage.

Despite that, the whispers wouldn’t stop, and he even heard some giggles behind him. It angered him that people could be so mean, especially to those putting themselves out there.

Suddenly, one voice in the choir overpowered the others, singing a song he hadn’t heard before. The whispers around him immediately stopped, and Wille couldn’t contain his smirk.

What ever happened to the funky race?

A generation lost in pace.

Wasn’t life supposed to be more than this?

In this kiss, I’ll change your bore for my bliss.

The boy’s voice was stunning, and everyone in the room knew it.

Somehow, he was able to completely lose himself in the melody, the soloist’s voice making him feel the most calm he’d felt all day.

He’d never heard a voice as lovely as this before. He’d been to countless operas and sat in the audience for more professional choir performances than he could count.

But the most beautiful voice in the world belonged to a boy in Hillerska’s student choir. His voice was soft, light, and full of emotion, making Wille feel something light in his chest that he’d never felt before, that he couldn’t quite name.

And then he looked up and realized that voice also belonged to the most beautiful human being he’d ever seen.

The light from the church windows cast a glow on the student choir, but it seemed to center on the curly-haired singer, making him stand out from the rest. He could see the passion in the boy’s face just as well as he heard the emotion in his voice.

He was singing from the heart. Wille couldn’t contain his smile, let alone look away.

But the boy wouldn’t look at him. In fact, he seemed to look everywhere but in his direction.

After the performance was over, he was actually thankful that the boy hadn’t acknowledged him. Not only was that stupid grin still on his face, but he knew he was blushing, so who knows what would’ve happened if the boy’s eyes met his.

Nevertheless, he hoped they eventually would.

//

Wille only had to wait a day for his wish to be granted.

After his welcome ceremony was over, the headmistress showed him to his room; a single room the size of a shoebox. Erik tried to give him more of a pep talk as soon as they were alone, but Wille clung to his brother, begging him not to go or at least to bring him back to Stockholm with him.

His last-ditch effort did not go as planned, so that’s why he sat at the back of a Hillerska classroom the following morning, listening as his classmates argued over tax evasion.

The boy that plagued his dreams the night before berated a redheaded boy sitting across the aisle from him, saying that his father’s company was evading taxes despite being able to afford it.

Wille watched with admiration as the singer continued, “Why is it called tax ‘evasion’ but welfare ‘scam’? It’s all right that rich people cheat, but when poor people do it, it’s messed up. For rich people, it’s not even called ‘welfare’; it’s called ‘deduction.’ Like your dad,” he turned to look at the redhead again, “How much EU subsidies does he get?”

“And what the fuck does your dad do?” the redhead spouted.

“Language!” the teacher finally cut in.

The curly-haired boy seemed to take a deep breath before turning to - wait, he’s looking directly at Wille.

“You wanna know who’s actually the biggest welfare receiver of all? He’s sitting right there,” the boy spoke, venom lining his voice as he stared straight at Wille.

“Simon!”

Wille’s first thought? His name is Simon.

His second? He doesn’t seem to like me…

And his third? Why was that kinda hot?

The hushed murmurs going on during the debate only got louder after Simon’s comment towards Wille, but all he was focused on was trying to get rid of the blush on his cheeks.

“Are you gonna take that?” a girl behind him whispered in his direction, somehow not quiet in the slightest.

Wille cleared his throat and looked down, pretending not to hear his classmate.

The rest of their political science class went by quickly. Wille wasn’t actually allowed to talk about politics to anybody because, as his mother described, he would be “making the monarchy take a political stance.” So, he wasn’t allowed to have his own opinions. Because of that, he sat in silence and listened to his teacher and classmates participate in the class.

He only looked in Simon’s direction a few times, not that he was counting or anything. Okay, maybe it was more than a few times, but Simon was sitting in front of him, so where else was he supposed to look?

Wille had questioned his sexuality a few times in the past, but he thought everyone had that experience. He always had trouble with whether he was just admiring the beauty of another guy or if he was actually attracted to men.

But with Simon, there was no question, and that freaked him out a little.

Once they were dismissed, Simon seemed to want to get out of there immediately. Wille didn’t exactly blame him, considering how the entire class treated him the whole session.

He gathered his things and quickly left the classroom despite a classmate calling his name. They’d get the hint that he didn’t want to talk to them eventually.

Once he was in the hallway, he noticed Simon opening his locker. His legs automatically brought him in that direction, and by the time he registered what was happening, it was too late to think twice or back off without it being weird. So, he took a quick breath and said:

“Hi.”

Simon turned around and raised an eyebrow, “Hi?”

“Um, c-can we talk?”

“Why would I want to talk to you?” Simon regarded him with a look of disgust. It made his heart drop.

Nevertheless, he swallowed and continued, “I just wanted to say that I like what you said in class earlier, and that I agree…”

Simon’s look of disgust slowly changed into one mixed with confusion and anger as Wille’s words registered in his brain.

However, he just continued to stare at him, making Wille internally panic and try to salvage the conversation.

“I-I’m Wilhelm, by the way.”

“I’m aware.”

“Right,” he scratched the back of the neck, silently cursing at himself. 

How could he be so stupid? Simon was aware of who he was, and that’s why he was looking at him like that in the first place.

“Well…” Simon spoke up after a moment, “If you like what I said, why didn’t you say anything?”

“I’m… I’m not allowed to speak on political issues,” Wille quickly explained.

Simon let out a laugh, but it seemed to be one of disbelief rather than straight-up amusement, “Of course you’re not.”

Simon began to turn around and walk away, and once again, Wille panicked. He lightly grabbed Simon’s arm, barely ignoring the tingling sensation that shot up his arm when he did so.

“Wait, wait,” he pleaded, thankful all their classmates had left that hallway heading to lunch.

Simon turned around with raised eyebrows and a slightly shocked expression, but silently gestured for him to continue.

“I… I’m not allowed to speak on politics officially, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have my own opinions. I’m sure that if I spoke my mind in there, my mother would have my head,” he grimaced, “And to be honest, I’m not really good at talking or making friends, if that wasn’t obvious by now… A-and I think everyone around here is dreadful to be around, but you… you seem real. I thought that maybe we could be friends, but I understand if you don’t want to be. Actually it makes a lot of sense that you don’t want to be, and-

“Wilhelm.”

“-honestly, I wouldn’t want to be my own friend either if I were someone else. Wait, fuck I’m rambling, aren’t I-”

“Wilhelm.”

Simon placed his hand on Wille’s shoulder with his free arm, and that’s when he noticed he was still gripping his arm. He quickly returned his hand to his side, his face beet red with embarrassment as he realized he had kept talking over the boy.

But Simon was smiling. He didn’t know why Simon was smiling, or which part of his embarrassing monologue could have caused it. Maybe Simon was laughing at him again. That was probably it.

“Yes?” he asked, or, if he was being honest with himself, squeaked. He’s so screwed.

“I have to admit that you’re nothing like I thought you’d be.”

He gulped, “...is that a good thing?”

“A very good thing.”

At that point, he couldn’t stop the grin that took over his features, but he couldn’t help it after Simon said that to him with that smile still on his face.

Silence fell upon them, but it wasn’t awkward like before.

Simon cleared his throat, then asked, “So do you want to sit together at lunch? We’re probably late by now, but…”

“Sure,” Wille instantly agreed, and they headed towards the exit of the building together.

//

Simon wasn’t expecting the prince to be so… average. And not only that, but so awkward, clumsy, and even endearing. Their interactions left Simon with a grin he tried desperately to control, but couldn’t.

Wilhelm - no, Wille, as the boy insisted he call him, saying that was what he let his friends call him  - was unlike anyone else at Hillerska, and that was the most absurd part of it all. The most privileged classmate of his, at the most prestigious private school in the country, was also the most genuine.

He wasn’t sure if Wille’s interaction with him after class the other day was just some weird form of princely charm, so he was initially a bit hesitant to see if the prince was telling the truth about how he felt.

He learned that Wille’s awkwardness wasn’t, in fact, just princely charm when he tripped over his own two feet on the way to get food at lunch on Tuesday. And then again on Wednesday, when he stuttered over his words as he explained to Simon that he didn’t have any friends at his old school because people were too afraid to approach him, and that it just made him more socially anxious than he already was.

Wille completely proved himself on Thursday, however, when his cousin August waltzed up to the two of them at workies, quickly double-taking at Simon’s presence before addressing only Wille and completely ignoring him.

“Hey Wille, we’re planning on throwing you a welcome party tomorrow night after your initiation. Loads of girls will be there; it’ll be a blast.”

Wille seemed uncomfortable, answering, “I don’t want a party.”

August seemed taken aback, but quickly recovered and asked, “What do you mean you don’t want a party? Erik had one.”

“Am I Erik?” Wille asked after rolling his eyes, and Simon had to use all of his strength not to burst out laughing at the gesture.

“No…” August replied, seeming uncomfortable and a little irritated, “but we threw him a party after his initiation, too. It’ll be a great way to have some fun after the stress of initiation.”

“I don’t want an initiation either, actually. I’m busy Friday night. Find something else to do.”

August seemed to be at a loss for words, and Simon couldn’t exactly blame him.

Where was the awkward boy who could barely get a sentence out? This version of Wille seemed confident and almost prince-like.

Not that he was complaining or anything. He had to admit it was kind of hot.

Wait, no. Simon could not thirst over the Prince of Sweden. Being friends with him was already going against everything he stood for.

August finally recovered, scoffing and turning to Simon, finally acknowledging that there was a second person at the table, “You should be careful of the company you keep. It seems to be influencing you, and not in a good way.”

Wille finally looked up at him, anger evident in his features, “The only company influencing me in any way is you. Screw off, maybe?”

August was about to respond when he realized people were beginning to notice the altercation. Instead, he glared at Simon once more before, as Wille put it, screwing off.

Simon looked over to Wille, who was taking deep breaths with his eyes closed.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yeah… sorry about him. He’s gotten on my nerves since we were little. One of the many downsides of being a royal is that your entire family sucks.”

Simon widened his eyes before nodding in understanding, “Don’t apologize. August and his friends have been assholes to me since I started here this year. It isn’t your fault.”

“I’m sorry about them, Simon. Please let me know if he, or any of them, cause you any more problems,” Wille apologized, concern written on his face.

“Didn’t I just say not to apologize?” he teased.

“Shit, sorry,” Wille answered, mirth in his eyes.

“There you go again!”

They both giggled, ignoring the stares they were receiving from other students in the library.

//

Later that afternoon, Simon plopped into his gaming chair, sighing as he relaxed, letting the tension from the week escape him as he sunk into the soft fabric.

His username, fvckthemonarchy, glared back at him from the Overwatch home screen.

It was crazy how much could change in a week. On Monday morning, he was angered that the prince would be coming to Hillerska, and there he sat on Thursday evening, wondering how to respond to Wille’s texts.

Wille

hey, so you know how i told august that i’m busy tomorrow night?

well i’m actually not… so maybe we could hang out and study for next week’s math test?

i didn’t learn some of what’s on the test at my last school and englund is making me take the test anyway

it’s totally ok if you can’t btw, don’t worry

Simon desperately tried to bite back his smile but failed as he typed, deleted, and retyped a message that wouldn’t make him seem too eager.

Wille made all of his morals go out the window for some reason. Being around him made Simon forget that Wille was a primary component of the institution he despised. He felt willfully ignorant.

Despite that, he hit send. Because Wille made him feel other things too; things he was too scared to admit to himself.

Me

sounds good :) see you tmro