Chapter Text
It was 10am when Eric woke up. He rolled over in bed to check his phone, seeing a couple texts on the front screen from his sister Stephanie.
From Steffi: Mum has called a family meeting today at noon.
From Steffi: At the palace.
Family meetings that took place at the palace tended to mean one of two things: either a new public-royal engagement had been arranged or Eric had fucked up. Again. As far as he was aware, he hadn’t done anything against the “royal rules” for a while so assumed he was being called in to be told when he would next be engaging with the public at some charity event.
However, meetings at the palace always required putting on the best clothing you had. Eric was most definitely not in the mood for sitting around in a uncomfortable suit discussing something he was pretending to be interested in for the sake of appearances.
He still had 2 hours until he had to be at the palace, and his flat in Knightsbridge was only a short drive away so Eric decided to spending a few minutes scrolling through his secret, private social media accounts seeing what his friends were up to. It was completely against all the rules of being a member of the royal family to have a personal social media and if some of the content from his account ever got leaked his family would be ruined. However, Eric knew he could trust the friends who had access to this account as they had almost as much to lose as he did.
After mindlessly scrolling through clips of his friends nights out for a while, Eric decided he should probably get out of bed and started getting ready for his meeting. After carrying out his shower and skin care regime, he styles his floppy blond hair into a presentable side-parted style and puts on a white shirt, black tie accompanied by a light grey blazer and light grey trousers.
Once the time reached, 11:30am, Eric called his driver to come take him to the palace. Even though it was only a 10 minute drive approximately, Eric knew better than leaving royalty waiting.
15 minutes before the meeting was due to start, Eric had arrived at the palace and was making his way towards the drawing room they regularly held their family meetings in. When Eric entered the drawing room, the family meeting instantly seemed a lot more serious than he initially thought. His whole family had turned out for this one and had also already arrived before him, despite his own early arrival. His mother and father were seated on one of the sofa’s alongside his eldest brother with his eldest sister seated opposite them on the other sofa. His two sisters and other brother were seated around a small table behind where his parents were seated, making it clear the obvious space left next to his sister Francesca was for him. So, it was one of them meetings.
“Right, what have I done this time?”
“Eric, don’t talk to your mother like that.”
He could only roll his eyes in response. Eric looked over to his mum, who very clearly had something she needed to say, and slightly raised his eyebrows as if to say “well, what is it?”
“Eric, dear, it’s just that you’re in your mid-twenties now and you’re still acting up and it’s beginning to tarnish the family’s reputation.”
Oh. Okay. Now he was annoyed.
“In what way mother am I tarnishing the family’s reputation?”
“Well, for one you have refused to engage in any military service –“
“Oh I’m so sorry I don’t want to be shot in the face.”
“ - Which as you well and truly know, is expected of any heir to the throne. You’re very rarely seen by the public and don’t think your blatant refusal to settle down with anyone has gone unnoticed amongst our peers.”
“I haven’t found the right person yet mum. I can’t just bring anyone into this family, it’s not safe, you know that.”
“What about Maria? You’ve been close with her since school, she accompanies you to social events so it wouldn’t come as a shock to the public nor the media and her family are very well respected. She’d be the perfect girlfriend, and possibly even a wife, for you. The public would view you as teenage sweethearts, it would be perfect for both of your images. I don’t understand the problem Eric.”
Of course his mother wouldn’t understand. He’d never told anyone about his preferences. Not even Harry Kane who had been his best friend since they were both 13 and in their first year at Eton, nervous young boys away from their family for the first time. Generally, they told each other everything. But this, this was something Eric has never even been able to say out loud, not even to himself.
Then there was Maria. Eric had met Maria while they were both studying History of Art at Cambridge. They immediately realised how much they had in common, from their favourite foods to their favourite artistic styles. Throughout their university careers, they stayed close, along with Harry and his girlfriend Kate. Of course, to the media, they seemed like a budding couple and Eric saw it in his best interest to not correct them. After graduation, Eric had stayed in close contact with Maria, regularly attending social events with her, spurring more media frenzy about their relationship. There had been many articles written overtime about how they would ‘have the perfect children’ due to them both possessing blue eyes and blond hair. Again, it was in both of their best interests to never correct the media and just let it run its course.
Eric must have zoned out of the conversation because the next thing he hears is his sister Daisy calling him.
“Eric! Are you even listening to me? Eric? You‘re acting like this elusive wild child and it is impacting the whole family. You need to step up to your role.”
“Eric, your behaviour has started to cause problems with your gran and she has had to ask us to intervene. Do you know how embarrassing that is for us as parents?”
Oh yes. His nan. The literal Queen of the United Kingdom. Staging an intervention because he hadn’t settled down with a girl by the age of 25. Fantastic. He couldn’t take much more of this. He needed to leave this room right away.
“Right, whatever. ‘Prince Eric the family fuck up’ strikes again. Can I leave now?”
Waiting for no response, he walks out the room hearing his family calling his name to his retreating figure.
To Harry K: We’re going out tonight. I need to escape.
From Harry K: Sure. Where? Raffles?
To Harry K: Of course.
From Harry K: I’ll see you at 10 then.
*****
Dead on 10pm, Eric heard a knock at the door of his apartment. Knowing it would be Harry, he quickly took one last look at himself. He’d kept his hair the same as it had been that morning for his meeting but had changed into a pair of plain black fitted trousers along with a simple plain black t-shirt. When he opened the door, Harry’s shocked face greeted him.
“Dier, mate. What are you wearing? Your mums going to have a fit when she sees you go out dressed so casual”
Eric snorted. “Oh well, she can go fuck herself. All of them can. Fuck the lot of them.”
“Do I even want to know what you’ve done this time?”
“Why do you assume it’s me that’s done something wrong? I’m not a complete fuck up!”
“You know what, let’s forget it. Let’s go out, do a load of shots and forget about whatever has got you in this mood. Yeah?”
Eric nodded and headed out the door, grabbing a dark grey overcoat off the rack by the door as he left.
*****
When they arrived at Raffles, it was just after 10:30pm. The club was located in Chelsea therefore only a short distance from his flat. Raffles was his and Harry’s preferred nightclub due to it only accepting membership from the most elite members of society. Inside the was no worry of antics being leaked as everyone was in the same position, no one wanted their behaviour being leaked to the press. This was one of the very few places in the city where Eric knew it was safe for him to let go.
Due to his status, he and Harry were able to bypass the queue of people waiting outside the subtle door to the club, not giving people enough time to register who he was. They quickly slipped in through the front door, dropped their coats off in the cloakroom area and made their way through the main doors of the club. As expected, the music was blasting extremely loudly and Eric could feel his whole body vibrating as they made their way over to their usual booth in the VIP section.
“You cheered up yet mate?”
Eric glanced over at his friend and gave him a quick glare.
“Get a few shots in me and ask me again”
Harry smirked over at him. “Be right back.”
He exited the VIP area and made his way over to the bar. While he was gone, Eric leaned back in his booth chair and was observing the crowd in front of him. His and Harry’s booth had been selected by them purposely. From the main area in the club, it was difficult to see into this booth as it was semi-shaded and under the dark lights of the club, gave Eric the anonymity he craved on nights like these. In the crowd he could pick out a few faces of people he recognised, either from the tabloids or from seeing them in this club previously. Then, in the crowd, Eric spotted what could only be described as the most beautiful man he had ever seen in his life. He was wearing a salmon pink patterned shirt that no one in the world should be able to wear. But this man, this man was looking so wonderful in it. The soft pink complemented his darker complexion perfectly. He was dancing in the crowd with the most carefree look on his face. Eric could feel his heart beating faster and his breath getting caught in his throat. The strobe lighting of the club was dancing over this strangers face and Eric wanted nothing more than to go over there and kiss him until he had no breath left. He couldn’t stop staring at him. He seemed to be in his own little world, like there was no one else around him. At this point, the stranger opened his eyes and looked towards where Eric was sitting. Eric hoped that his darkened corner hid the fact his was completely staring at this random man in a club as he did not want to answer any questions about that. He quickly looked away from the stranger and saw Harry walking back over to him with an entire bottle of vodka.
“Hey. Couldn’t be arsed fighting through the crowd with shot glasses so just bought the whole bottle. That alright.”
“That is more than alright with me mate, pass it over here.”
Eric lined up all of the shot glasses that were previously placed in the centre of the table and started pouring out drinks for the pair of them.
“Woah. Man. Calm it yeah. Don’t go too overboard too quickly.”
“Piss off mate. You’re not my dad. You can’t tell me what to do.”
Out of spite for Harry, he angrily necked 3 shots of vodka while maintaining eye contact with his friend.
*****
2 hours and 15 drinks later, Eric was battered. Somewhere along the line he’d started drinking cocktails while still doing shots with Harry so it was safe to say he was a mess. He was currently slumped on Harry’s shoulder murmuring a load of nonsense and occasionally singing along to the music playing. Harry had drank nowhere near the amount Eric had and was in a much more sober condition.
“Ready to talk about your mood earlier on big man?” Harry was clearly taking advantage of Eric’s tragic state to try and get him to open up.
“It’s just.. this fucking family you know. I’m… I’m just completely sick of it.. I’m sick of them. Always telling me what to do and shit. I didn’t ask to be born into all this… all this BULLSHIT!”
“Right. So I’m going to assume you had a meeting this morning where they told you to do something and you didn’t like it?”
“CORRECT! They told me that I need to find someone to settle down with! Can you believe that? Apparently my lovely ol’ nan the Queen isn’t happy with my ‘behaviour’. The audacity!”
“Well Eric. I can sort of see their point of view. I mean look at you and look at me. Settling down with Kate has been one of the best thing I’ve ever done. It really matured me as a person whereas you’re currently sat in a club corner, pissed out your head, rambling about how much you hate your family. You’re acting like a teenager.”
“Oh Harry, not you as well? For fucks sake, I’m going for a piss. Why can’t anyone let me live my life?”
With that, Eric left the VIP area and set off across the floor to the toilets. He had to fight through the drunken crowd to get there and he would be lying if he said he wasn’t keeping an eye out for the beautiful stranger he’d seen hours before. Once he’d made it to the toilets, he still hadn’t seen the man and felt a little disheartened about the fact he might have gone home.
Eric was stood at the urinal when he heard the music of the club get louder and the creak of a door indicating someone was coming in. Normally, he wouldn’t look at anyone while he was having a piss as that makes it uncomfortable for all parties but when Eric saw a flash of salmon out the corner of his eye, he couldn’t help but spin his head round to where the stranger from earlier was stood by the sinks.
He was stood in front of the mirror, watching Eric in the reflection and smiled when he saw Eric turn to stare. He was even more beautiful in proper lighting. Eric felt himself instantly sober up. Now there was proper lighting rather than the colourful strobes of the club, Eric could see him properly. He had a sleeve of tattoos littering his right arm and another small one on his left arm. The pink shirt looked so much better in this light. It complemented his darker skin tone beautifully. And the trousers, oh the trousers, were tight black, fitted trousers that hugged every contour on his wonderful skinny legs. Finally, when Eric looked back up at the mirror and saw his smile, he felt his breath get caught and his heart rate speed up again. This man had such a bright white smile and he got the cutest little crinkles next to his eyes. Eric felt woozy, he had never felt this way about anyone before. None of his crushes, none of the boys from his fantasies when he was a teenager coming to terms with his sexuality but now, when he was pissed out of his skull in a club toilet, now he felt these feelings.
“I thought it was you staring at me earlier, couldn’t be sure under the lights though.”
Eric couldn’t form words, he couldn’t move. He was stuck staring at the guy in front of him. The man finally turned away from the sink and looked at Eric and held out his hand towards him.
“Hi. I’m Dele.”