Work Text:
At the crack of dawn, with the sky still, a soft blue, Simon and Wille sleep soundly in between soft satin sheets and colorful knitted blankets. Life as new dads has been very busy for the royal couple and they're only a year in. Many sleepless nights, constant nagging worries and so, so many pediatrician calls.
Wille's pretty sure there's a pacifier under his pillow and Simon's got a tiny sock practically glued to his cheek from how long he slept over it, but they couldn't be happier.
The crown prince carefully peels off the tiny sock from his cheek and sighs as he looks at his husband. Sleeping on his stomach, dark curls frame his handsome face and his back’s illuminated by the rising morning sun. Wille gently kisses his shoulder, thinking of how he could just stay there for hours looking at him, wondering what he's dreaming about.
"Morning" - Wilhelm traces Simon's forehead gently with his fingers - "Hi" - Simon smiles and Wilhelm moves closer to him, looking for cuddles. Simmon laughs as he hugs him back, burying his nose in his brown blondish hair. It's funny, they do this almost every day but it never feels like it's enough time. When Wille's away in boring meetings or excruciating galas, he daydreams of coming back to this. Where everything is warm and comfy, and he just wants to stay here forever.
Wilhelm's about to fall asleep to the soft thud of his love's heartbeat when a loud baby cry is heard through the monitor that's on his side of the bed and since Wilhelm put it on the highest level setting, it resonated all over the room and inside their heads.
"Well, at least it's not three am anymore" - Simon rubs his eyes tiredly, and Wilhelm stands up, putting on his slippers, which have little frog heads in them.
"Clara just gave us two more hours of sleep today" - Wille says as a matter of factly, with a fond smile on his face.
"hmm, how kind of her" - Simon chuckles, as he stretches his arms, what he usually does before getting out of bed for the day.
"Don't worry, I'll go get her"
Wille walks up to the crib in the middle of the nursery to find their little daughter crying, she raises her little hands waiting for her dad to lift her up. Wille carries her out of her crib to check the motives of her desperate crying, and since there's no diaper duty in sight, he guesses she might be hungry.
"Ohh, it's okay little one" - Wilhelm gently smooths over her curly chestnut hair, as he carries the baby out of the nursery and in the direction of the kitchen. He heats up a bottle of formula and in the meantime he softly sways around the room, smiling triumphantly as the crying finally comes to an end. Wille pats her back gently, and holds her close to his chest, breathing in the scent of baby shampoo.
Once the bottle is evenly warm, Wille feeds Clara, who holds the bottle with little hands and looks up at him waiting to hear him talk to her. It's something he does all the time, he talks to Clara about everything even when she only answers with toothless smiles and baby words. He read in some parenting books you should always talk back to babies, and he happily does so. Which most of the time is just him gushing over Simon.
Once back at the nursery, Wille sits on the rocking chair and gently tells her all about a visit to a local kindergarten they went to yesterday for a children's trust they started a few years ago. They meet the kids every few months to see the progress of their arts program. Many familiar little faces greeted the pair with lots of drawings of their baby daughter. Later in the day, the children were very curious about the new princess, probably from hearing so much about her on the news and they asked Wilhelm everything they wanted to know.
Wille didn't want to give too much info especially since there were photographers in the back of the classroom, and he didn’t want to share his personal life with the rest of the world just yet, but he surrendered to the children's puppy eyes. And answered all the questions with the most detail. Simon always says Wille can't stop when he starts to gush about Clara, and he's right. At the end of the day, the tiny students got their answers and the prince got various drawings of the princess that are framed on the nursery walls.
Wille traces the baby's cheek with his finger. It feels as if it was yesterday that they first brought Clara home from the adoption agency. A tiny little human wrapped up in a yellow blanket appeared in all of Sweden's news for a whole week. Back then she relied on them for everything, and Wille was obsessed with carrying her on him at all times of the day. Now she's already crawling and they're 90% sure she's gonna start talking soon from how much she talks in baby words.
Needless to say, Wilhelm's really not ready to see her grow so fast, but he’s looking forward to seeing Clara's personality develop. He wonders what kind of kid she's gonna be. Is she gonna be an artistic child like Simon? Or an adventurous kid like her uncle Erik? at least he's sure she's not gonna be a lonely kid like himself. He'll make sure Clara knows how much they all love her so she never feels alone.
When Clara has made it clear that she's tired of eating, he stands up again and carries her through the nursery, that's now being illuminated by the morning sun. And all the little decorations leave their former blue coloring. Teddy bears, picture books, and the dozens of cloud-shaped animals Wille and Simon painted on the walls make themselves present. The little girl's eyes go directly to the new addition to the room. About seven paintings framed on one of the walls.
"The kids made all these of you" - He gives her a tour through the small gallery her room now has. Colorful splashes of paint and glitter along with wild paint strokes captivate the small princess.
Most of them show a baby made out of two circles wearing a distinct yellow crown "That's you, Clara, look!" - Wille points at one of the drawings.
One shows a little girl holding the hands of two men, Wille and Simon, on a green hill filled with flowers with a bright rainbow over them.
"Well, they must think you can walk already" - He looks at the baby in his arms, who looks at the painting and then back at him - "Kids, huh?" they both giggle.
"What are you two doing?" - Wille and Clara both turn to see Simon, sleepy, yet lovely as always, leaning against the yellow door frame. Wilhelm's heart skips a beat when he sees him. Sometimes it's hard to believe all of this is real, and not just a dream, that he gets to have this life with the man he's been devastatingly in love with since he was sixteen.
"I'm showing Clara the drawings we got yesterday" - Wilhelm says as he plants a kiss on their daughter's head. Simon rushes to Wille's side and lays his chin on his husband's shoulder. As the three of them admire the drawings.
"Ohh, that one's pretty" - Simon points to one he helped a kid make. Wilhelm can still picture purple painting all over Simon's hands and forearms as he laughed with a little boy.
"Hmm, I wonder why" - Wille laughs
Clara points at one particular framed drawing. The paper's pink and the trio's heads are three times bigger than the rest, even so, she recognizes her parents by their distinctive features: Simon's curls and Wilhelm's open book hairstyle made in crayons. Her tiny finger points to the middle of the picture as she says:
'baba' - her first word ever.
Simon and Wille look at each other, not believing what they've just heard. The baby just giggles.
"Oh my God" - Wille grins at the little girl.
"Clarita! Your first word!" - Simon cheers as he takes the little girl in his open arms. He kisses her tiny face like there's no tomorrow. Clara in return cups his face with her tiny hands, giggling. She probably wonders why they're so happy.
Seeing his two favorite people being so happy makes his heart wanna burst with happiness.
"Wille, are you crying?" - Simon asks softly
"Maybe"