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The early morning sky was streaked through with soft pink and lavender, the birds just beginning to sing. The simple peace of it all partially made up for being out of bed at half past four in the morning. Getting to spend an hour or two alone with Simon— actually alone —made up for the rest of it.
Wilhelm had been woken up by a news notification about some Moderate MP’s most recent transgression and filed it away in his mind to tell Simon about later, knowing he’d get a good laugh out of it. He’d found himself doing that a lot lately; saving things that Simon would like in order to buy as many smiles from him as could possibly be got. Today, though, he only needed to roll over to see that smile. ‘Hi,’ he whispered.
‘Hi,’ Simon replied, voice still weak with sleep.
‘It’s quiet outside. I don’t think anyone’s up yet.’
Seeing where this was going, Simon closed his warm brown eyes again. ‘For good reason.’
‘Come on,’ Wilhelm said with a soft laugh, ‘We can be, like, normal. Go out and do what we want. We’ll be back before my agents even notice we’re gone.’
‘Too cold.’
‘Put a jumper on and be brave.’
And so, only a few minutes later, they’d climbed as stealthily as they could out of Wilhem’s window and began the short walk down to the lake where they now sat huddled against a tree, watching the water.
‘I could kiss you now, if I wanted.’ Wilhelm said just because he could. The sudden freedom had gone to his head like a strong glass of wine.
Simon snorted. ‘Oh, so you don’t want to?’
‘Shut up,’ Wilhelm laughed, nuzzling his head almost instinctively into Simon’s neck. ‘This is enough for me.’
‘We could’ve done this in your room. Where there is heating. And a bed.’
Wilhelm thought for a moment. ‘Teach me something.’
‘What?’
‘I’m teaching you to read sheet music, teach me something. Something that you can only do out here.’ When there wasn’t an immediate reply, Wilhelm tilted his head up to get a better look at the other boy and was swiftly shoved to the leaf-topped ground. ‘What the fuck?’ he demanded, struggling to look annoyed and not amused.
‘How am I supposed to teach you anything if I can’t move?’ With that, Simon jumped to his feet and made his way to the very edge of the lake.
‘I hope you’re not planning to push me in,’ Wilhelm called as he caught up.
‘And give the prince hypothermia? Wouldn’t dream of it.’
When Wilhelm reached his side, he saw that Simon had picked up a handful of smooth, flat pebbles and was inspecting them intently. ‘I can skim stones,’ Wilhelm said. Simon gave him a sceptical smile.
‘Which are the best ones, then?’
‘Round,’ Wilhelm replied with as much conviction as he could muster. That earned him a bark of laughter.
‘Literally the first rule, Wille. You want the triangular ones. Look.’ With an ease that implied a good deal of practice, Simon flung a stone out and watched as it bounced four times over the tiny waves before finally slipping beneath.
Wilhelm scoffed. ‘Easy!’ He tried to mimic Simon’s smooth movement, but his stone only bounced once. ‘It’s just because that’s the first one,’ he insisted, grateful that the icy air made his flush barely noticeable.
‘Sure.’
‘It is! See, this one will be better.’ This one was not, in fact, better and upon being released plunged straight into the dark water.
Simon threw his head back and laughed. It was a wonderful sight, Wilhelm thought despite his mild embarrassment. His dark hair was threaded through with gold from the rising sun and his eyes were creased with happiness.
Yes, this alone was more than worth braving the early start and the wintery morning. Wilhelm realised that he had been wrong earlier; this was more than enough for him.