Chapter Text
He could host a dinner, ensuring that some of the more prestigious students of Hillerska (who he would disguise as his ‘friends’ to his parents) were invited to come and dine at the palace.
Wilhelm’s birthday dinner was actually turning out to be quite a complicated affair. His advisors had dubbed it ‘reintroducing the Crown Prince into society’, which proposed the idea that he had forgotten to be a person. Granted, it would take a lot for Wilhelm not to smack August on his arrival, but he had to at least pretend to be civil. That was the plan he’d settled on: forcing August to take him to Hillerska. It did mean he’d have to look at that smug face, but hopefully it would mean that August would get in some trouble with the Crown for causing a security breach.
He’d gone for a visit to the tailor, who of course was sworn to secrecy about the whole ordeal. He was the only one in the store, and they’d travelled in a black out car, The press were dying for a glimpse of Wilhelm, who they hadn’t seen. It was suspicious that he’d denied the rumours and then had disappeared for a whole month. At the tailor, he’d tried on about 20 suits before the Queen settled on a plain white shirt and a black blazer. Simple, but expensive. Wilhelm ached even thinking of Simon’s £10 purple hoodie, the one that Wilhelm could wear and make sweater paws with. However many thousands of pounds his new suit would cost, there was no way it would ever be in any way as comfortable as that hoodie. Soon, perhaps, he’d get to wear it once again.
After a painstakingly long week, the day for the dinner finally, finally came. Wilhelm had sampled morsels of steak, different types of potato, the vegetarian options, varying mocktails, and he was fed up with all of the preparations. He’d scoured over the list to check that his Hillerska associates would be invited. He’d had little say on the invitees, because there were customary invites that had to be sent, and ones that would have been vetoed, but he’d double and triple checked that both August and Felice would be there.
So it begun: the cacophony of flashes from photographers as the doors to the Swedish palace opened for the first public event since Erik’s death and since the scandal. Desperate to catch a glimpse of Wilhelm and the Queen, they peered into the windows, held back by a large proportion of the security that the monarchy held at the castle.
Wilhelm shook the hand of everyone who came through the doors, smiling lightly at Felice, one of the first arrivals. There were endless questions he silently tried to ask her: had she seen Simon since term had started? Was he okay? Was she still talking to Sara? But she curtsied instead, at the queen, and engaged in a few words with her.
“Felice is nice,” the Queen nudged him. She only made that kind of comment about a girl she wanted him to date. He bit his lip, nodding. She just didn’t get it, did she? Being….liking guys, it wasn’t a choice. He thought about saying something, but thought better of it. Not tonight, not when the stakes were so high. The cameras, although he couldn’t see them, started clicking rapidly, people clamouring for the attention of their newest arrival.
“Wilhelm,” an English voice chuckled, pulling him back to the greeting, “What a pleasure to see you again.”
You’d have thought, that with how many times Wilhelm scanned the list of people coming to this dinner, he’d have noticed that one of the Princes of England was on the list. But now Prince Henry was holding out his hand in a welcoming gesture, like a Prince should, and Wilhelm was gaping like a fish. He moved into autopilot, shaking Henry’s hand.
“Henry….I…congratulations on the engagement,” Yes, of course. Henry and Alex had recently announced that they were tying the knot. Thank god some subconscious part of him remembered that.
“Thank you. I expect we’ll talk later,” Henry smirked. He was actually here, standing in the flesh, wearing a blue suit and (Wilhelm noticed immediately), a pocket square in the colours of the gay flag - not the rainbow one, but the one for men loving men, the one Wilhelm had researched after finding a photo of himself with the flag in the background. He wasn’t sure it entirely fitted his sexuality, as it was still so unknown, but he thought it best to at least be educated on what it meant. Wilhelm turned abruptly as the Prince moved onto Queen Kristina, and she smiled at him frostily.
“Wille,” Enthusiastic, posh, and sounding like a prick: there was only one option for who that could be, and he turned back to stare into August’s face, “It’s been a while!”
“August,” Wilhelm choked up the word, having to keep everything within him not to reach out and strangle the son of a bitch. He had two hands after all, even if one was being trapped by August’s tight grip. Still slightly stunned from seeing Henry, Wilhelm didn’t articulate further and simply glared into the face of his cousin. As the next guest approached, he could hear the suck up chuckling with Wilhelm’s mother, as though August hadn’t betrayed her son and caused his life to go to hell. But the next guest….
Generally speaking, there were few people who Wilhelm would consider friends, especially in the crowd of the children of nobles and royalty. But there had always been Elias Joskwood, the son of the previous Minister for Education in the Swedish government, Marcus Joskwood. The boy, who at age nine, had convinced him to pull a prank which had led to the Actual Prime Minister of Sweden having a hissy fit and leaving after a very well-placed cup of water fell on his head when he went to the bathroom.
“Elias,” Wilhelm grinned, for the first time in a long time. It had been months since he’d seen the joker, and he’d missed him.
“Will,” Elias, the only one to call him Will, not Wilhelm, not any royal title, not that fucking ‘Wille’, simply Will, as though he is normal. “Any people on the hit list tonight?”
Wilhelm nodded to August, who glanced around the castle, eying up the chandeliers. “That’s the son of a bitch who leaked the tape of my boyfriend and I to the whole world, and got me into this mess.”
Elias smirked, “Wonderful, I’ll go and fuck him up.” And whilst Wilhelm would literally die to see Elias punch August in the face, he knew that Elias was talking about the emotional manipulation that goes hand in hand with the trickster. Possibly the result of being the son of a governmental official, that sly nature and insulting without the person realising until the conversation is over.
—
Wilhelm had spent hours deliberating the seating placements for those around him. There was people who would be offended if they were sat too far away from the birthday boy, but he knew that he had to have August sitting nearby so he could send him the death glare when necessary. Really, Wilhelm would have liked having dinner with a lot of these people, because half of them weren’t insufferable, but he had a plan and needed to stick with it.
But he’d settled on him sitting in the middle of the table, with Elias sat next to him to his left. August sat directly across from Elias, and next to August were Felice and Vincent (who had ended up sitting across from Wilhelm). The Prince of Norway, a stuffy kid called Steffen sat next to Wilhelm on his right, which Wilhelm had allowed on the basis of international relations.
He chatted lightly with Steffen, engaging about a recent climate change decision the country had taken, but the guy was being rather uptight about it all, and quickly turned to speak to the girl sitting next to him. This left Wilhelm to have the conversations he actually wanted to have.
“My friend Elias here is actually interested in Hillerska,” Wilhelm addressed the students across from him. “I was wondering, as I haven’t been there, how has the new term been?”
“Okay, um,” Felice jumped in, “There are a couple of new teachers. A maths test, too, and we had to choose a partner to study with for our English project.”
“And for the third years?” Wilhelm’s eyes landed directly on August. He’d looked a little nervous since sitting down at the table, likely Elias’ doing. Good job, Elias.
“F-Fine.” August’s response was clipped, and he looked down at his steak. No quip, no question back.
“The rowing team isn’t doing so good,” Vincent expanded, a mouthful of steak, “especially as we lost some of its best members.”
“Multiple?” Wilhelm presumed it had just been him that had left, especially during the middle of the schooling year.
“Some of the students uh….left, after…everything. Their parents didn’t like the way Hillerska condoned…fraternising,” Vincent explained, uncomfortable as he swallowed his steak. Thank god for Vincent and his big mouth.
“Sounds like a real fun school, huh?” Elias grinned. “Fraternising, huh? That’s what they’re calling in posh language now?” It was clear from the downturned expression on August’s face that he really, really did not care for Elias.
August reached for some vegetables, trying to grab the spoon that was already in the bowl of broccoli. Elias, too, reached out to grab some. Somehow, (and Wilhelm had no idea how it happened, none at all), Elias managed to stab August’s hand with his fork.
“Ow,” August swore, “Fuck.” There were several glances across the table after that. Generally, it is not considered polite to swear at a royal dinner.
“I am so sorry,” Elias apologised, “Adam, did you say your name was?” Wilhelm had to literally cover his hand with his face to stop himself from laughing. It was a struggle to remain silent.
“August,” He hissed back, still reeling from being stabbed.
“Oh, yes, the guy named after the month. I remember now.” It’s wonderful, having Elias here, because he’s become the substitute for what Wilhelm would really love to do to August himself.
“Please excuse me,” August grimaced as he jumped up from the table to go to the bathroom, not waiting to even be excused. Wilhelm and Elias shared a smirking glance. And now that August was gone…
“I wondered, Felice, whether you’d heard much from Simon in the last month. After the video, of course….”
“Only the information I get from Sara. I gather he’s been teased, because he keeps himself to himself. His mother thought about pulling them from the school, and I think Simon would be better off for it. He seems miserable around Hillerska.” Wilhelm nodded back at her.
“That’s a shame.” He can’t say much more without revealing his affection for the boy, and anyways, he doesn’t want to say it in front of Vincent, not when he’s a close buddy of August. Around Felice, maybe, definitely around Elias and Prince Henry.
Prince Henry, although Wilhelm has been somewhat ignoring him in favour of slating August, seemed relatively content sitting next to Elias. At least, Elias had mouthed the words, “I like that guy,” when Henry turned to talk to the person he’s sat next to on the other side.
“I heard about the incident at Hillerska,” Prince Henry said, “I thought it was awful, the public nature of it all. You’d have thought the media would have learnt by now.”
“Absolutely, it was awful,” Elias agreed, and the others round the table nodded.
“I think the person who leaked the video deserves to be in jail,” Henry said, and the timing was so beautiful that August sat down right when he said it, looking flushed. Both Elias and Wilhelm glared at him again. It must have been quite intimidating.
They finished their steaks, and Wilhelm got the whole charade of a cake and a performative happy birthday song. Naturally, this had to be done three times, with three different cakes, because the official royal photographers needed a good shot to be released to the press. Wilhelm had to look surprised, then happy, then he had to be cutting the cake with a smile. Then they decided the lighting was wrong, and so it continued. It was overwhelmingly fake, but most of the people who sat at the table were quite used to staged photos, so they sat with patience as Wilhelm tried to pretend he was happy. In the end, it was the image of Elias stabbing August with a fork that brought out his smile.
‘Dinner’ is a concept that doesn’t finish, in fact, until the after-party has been held. They’re all supposed to stand and converse awkwardly in little groups whilst they drink cocktails - for there is no alcohol here.
And so the time approached - for Wilhelm to actually talk to August, and put the plan into action.