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"If I had to choose, I'd say my favorite fairy is Silvermist" - Wille responds to his four year old as he takes a spoonful of cereal.
They're at the kitchen table while Simon showers, and Clara has all her fairy dolls on the table with them. They're her new obsession and Wille actually vastly prefers Tinkerbell movies over Pocoyo anyday.
"Daddy! That's what everyone says!" - Clara giggles.
"But I really think she's great! What's yours then?" - Wille asks
"Fawn" - she says confidently as she waves her Fawn fairy doll around - "She looks after animals! Like me and auntie Sara"
"Yeah, I can see you being an animal fairy. Would I be an animal fairy? - Wille wonders but his daughter laughs.
“A garden fairy?” - The prince asks.
He had never seen her say no with her head so fast
"Oh, I know! a water fairy" - Wille beams as he points at the Silvermist doll, smiling.
"No daddy!" - she laughs loudly and suddenly the whole kitchen's filled with both of their laughter.
"Then what would I be?" - Wille puts on a pout
"I don't know" - Clara shrugs as she takes a few cereal rings from her bowl and puts them in the hands of the fairies so they can have breakfast. Wille watches, amused.
"Maybe you're a-" - Clara takes the Tinkerbell doll and traces her little fingers through her green leaf dress. She lights up as she gets an idea. "a tinker fairy dad!" - she looks up at him with those big adorable eyes and of course he agrees. Even though his inner voice goes 'Oh, Tinker fairies suck'
"Good morning, my babies" - Simon walks into the kitchen, already in his formal work attire, he holds a pink towel in his hand, as he tries to dry his wet hair.
Both Clara and Wille beam when they see Simon, Clara makes grabby hands at her dad and he rushes to her. "Hello mi amor" - He kisses her forehead and then he kisses Wilhelm’s too.
"What about dad?" - Wille asks Clara. They look at each other, then at the man in front of them, and both say "A light fairy" - at the same time, that one's easy, Simon's warm like the sun, sweet and he should totally have the power to grow sunflowers and create rainbows.
"What are you two talking about?" - Simon asks as he sits with them, Wille's favorite frog cup in his hands.
"Oh just what fairies are we" - Wille answers casually as he grins at Simon, he really looks great in the mornings, and in the afternoons and in the night too-
"Sounds fun” - Simon takes a bite out of toast when he sees all the dolls with froot loops on their laps- “Clara, don't play with your food” - the child swiftly picks up all the cereal rings and pops them inside her mouth - “What food?” - she asks and Simon breaks a smile. "If you're done go dress up honey" - Clara nods and goes off to her room, she's gonna go and hang out with the dogs instead probably.
“Hey, today's the meeting, are you okay? - He turns to his prince husband, who’s spacing out while staring at two soggy cereal rings.
Wille looks up and breathes out deeply, he didn’t want Clara to see him so anxious- "Yes, I'm just very nervous".
Simon gently rubs Wille’s back - "You'll do great today, Wille" - Simon knows this meeting is a very big deal, but if Wilhelm has been able to do speeches and declare his love for him in front of national tv, this is gonna be easy.
“Are you sure?” - Wille asks, puppy eyes and all.
Simon nods, sparkly eyes filled with confidence and Wille allows this to soothe him a little.
When the two of them are finished eating, and Clara is dressed up and ready for school, the only thing left to do is her hair, and since Simon's currently on the phone with someone from work, Wille's the lucky one.
Simon's the one who usually does it, growing up with a sister he knows all about ponytails, pigtails, space buns, braids and other hairstyles. Wille though, he never learned anything like it as a kid. Yet, he's learning through youtube tutorials, Linda's visits, video calls with Felice, Maddie and Sara and of course from his very own husband.
He decides he'll go ambitious today and try to do two braids, one on each side. He gently combs her hair, he finds a sticker on it, then he starts twisting the three strands and after ten minutes one is finally ready. Another ten minutes and the other is also done.
The little child looks up from her coloring book and crayons to see her reflection in the mirror in front of them.
Wille holds his breath as the girl inspects the braids. She gets closer to the mirror and tilts her head to the sides - "I like them!"
" Yes" - Wille's proud
They're about to leave when Clara calls - "Daddy, wait the butterflies!"
Wille bought a bunch of butterfly clips a few months ago in a fair on the little town Sara's farm is in. And since then there's always at least one plastic butterfly in their daughter's hair.
"Oh, How could I forget? How many do you want, Clara?" - Wille asks, taking out the box of clips and setting it on the dresser table.
"All of 'em" - Clara giggles as she looks up at her dad, she's holding at least ten multicolored butterfly clips in her hands.
"Are you sure?" - Wille laughs. The tiny girl nods
Wille complies and he adds the clips into the braid he just made in his daughter's chestnut hair.
At the start he wasn't sure so many clips would even stay put, knowing the cheery and extroverted child they had. But, life's too short to be saving butterfly clips in a box. Yes, most will be lost by the end of the day from the running and jumping, but would that really be a problem? He recalls not being able to run around in the huge garden grounds of the palace because his hair would mess up for the photographs. He really wants his daughter to enjoy being a kid. He doesn't remember a time as a kid when he really felt like one, free, careless and fearless yet this time things will be different.
"It's ready, Clarita. Look how cute!" - They both look into the mirror with matching big smiles.
"Daddy, you should wear them too!" - Clara takes a few butterfly clips and gently adds them in his hair, a blonde strand now set neatly in place.
"Now you look cute too" - Clara giggles and Wille's heart melts.
“Oh thank you baby” - Wille kisses her forehead, and soon enough the three of them are off into the real world for the day. Simon gives Wille three good luck kisses just in case and Clara secretly puts a sticky note in his suit pocket.
Wille and Clara hug Acke, their golden retriever and Leiff, their poodle goodbye and they're ready. Simon and Clara leave in his blue car with star stickers in the back, and Wille is picked up by an all black Royal court limousine.
---
"What was that thing Julie Andrews said? That princes are never late?" - Wille replies to Minou’s question of why he is two minutes late to their very important investors meeting. She walks on his left side all the way up to the second floor of the building where the meeting is gonna take place. It's the headquarters of the mental health charity he set up a few years ago. They do all sorts of efforts to help teens with mental health struggles, just like him when he was younger.
"The investors are already there" - Minou says as she hands him his laptop. He knows he might not be the best person to ask a bunch of businessmen to join them for a new charitable venture. Still, everyone in the team insisted he give them the talk, after all, there's no one more passionate about this project than him, besides the fact that he's also the literal prince and the organization's official spokesperson.
He faces the door, his heart beats fast with unrelentless anxiety. How he wishes Simon was in that room, he would smile at him and he knows everything would be much better.
Wille takes a deep breath and tries to picture the good luck kiss Simon gave him just twenty minutes ago when he left their home. It's a tradition by now, every time Wille's gonna give a speech or is gonna have an important meeting, Like a ritual of sorts, Simon gives him a good luck kiss, sometimes even more than one, if there's time. Wille always jokes saying Simon's kisses have sealed international deals and spared the world from royal disasters.
He opens the door and finds nine men sitting at a long table. Even though the room is quite lively, painted a soft beige and decorated with many colorful art pieces with encouraging messages, the presence of all these men with gray suits is very intimidating to say the least. He immediately notes the lack of women in the room.
"Good morning" - Wille greets the men and they all stand up as he walks in and some even bow to him. He might be riddled with anxiety, but he knows how to command a room like the prince he is. The men look at him expectantly, after all, a deal with the royal house would make wonders for any investment firm or company.
He opens up the presentation on his laptop, which now has a happy face sticker Clara put there days ago. Once the file is open he gestures to his assistant to turn on the board projector yet, he realizes some of the men look at him weirdly. One tilts his head to the side, another bites the inside of his cheek as if stopping himself from laughing and another one snorts, looking away from the prince.
Wille wonders why in the world are all these men laughing. He smiles too, not understanding at all what is happening.
In a second, Minou rushes to his side, the right side this time- "Your highness" - she pulls him aside, and looks at him puzzled.
"What is it?" - Wille asks confused
The royal advisor tries to explain but is cut off by a deep voice coming from the group of men in front of them. It came from the man on the other edge of the table, an old man with gray hair dressed neatly in a dark suit, Jan Elrod, the most important of all the investors.
"Are those plastic butterflies in your hair? - the man asks with a heavy english accent.
Oh.
"Huh?" - Wille grasps for his hair, the right side of his hair, and indeed he counts three plastic butterfly clips. God, this is so not professional.
"Oh, please forgive me. I was playing with my daughter and forgot to take these out" - he quickly takes them off, his face turning red from embarrassment. He shoves the three clips in his pocket. He feels a piece of paper and as he takes it out he sees a little girl's sloppy handwriting.
His little girl.
"You can do it! I love you daddy"
Wille smiles at the note. If Clara only knew what was happening, she'd innocently ask these men if they also want butterflies in their mostly bald heads.
The room becomes silent. The men look at him and at each other not knowing what to say. Even a pin drop would be heard in the room at this point.
Well, he's gonna have to find other investors, much to his team's disappointment.
Until one of the men clears his throat, smiles and says - "That's sweet. I have a five-year-old girl" - Wille looks up at him.
Huh?
"I have two, your highness. We all know how kids are, huh?" - Another man says as he takes out his phone, his background photo displays two little boys holding a cat.
"Don't you have any kids, Mr. Elrod?" - the first man asks and everyone turns to the old man on the other side of the table.
"Two sons and three granddaughters" - the man's scowl morphs into a smile and the air suddenly stops being so tense.
The next half an hour is spent gushing about their kids at the business table. The meeting lasts more than anticipated, so that staff brings them lunch in the form of vending machine sandwiches and by the end of it two hours later, Wille has two signed contracts for the opening of two more offices in the spring and three playdate invitations for Clara.
-----
Later that night, as they watch Secret of the Wings , Wille looks at his two favorite people next to him, they're all tucked in their bed and Clara’s explaining to Simon how fairies are born from the first laugh of a baby. Simon listens attentively.
Clara only has one butterfly clip in her hair by now, the rest probably fell off at the playground or when Simon and her were dancing around in the kitchen to " Walking on Sunshine" , a scene Wille joyfully witnessed as he returned from the meeting.
“I love you two so much” - Wille says. He would do anything just to stay this way forever. With Simon with his head in his arm and a little Clara in between them.
Clara looks up at him and smiles - “I love you too daddy"