Chapter Text
Pov Henry
„God, I hate him so much"
The door slammed close with a bang as Walter burst into their shared room. He threw himself onto his bed, a look of complete exhaustion and discontent on his face. Henry couldn't help but wonder what made the poor guy so miserable. He put down his phone in concern and turned to look at him.
It didn't take a genius to know who Walter was talking about.
"What has Vincent done this time?"
Walter looked at his friend in surprise.
"How did you know it was him?"
Henry rolled his eyes.
"Well, who's the most hateable guy in all of Hillerska at the moment?"
But as soon as he saw his friend's pitiful expression his demeanour softened.
"What happened?", he asked in a comforting tone.
Walter's head sank into his pillow as he murmured: "He used his new position as team captain to make us run against each other. 17 kilometres, straight through the forest. Just to see who gets to make it onto the rowing team for the race against Spruce Wood. And just before we started he insulted me in front of everyone. Said I was "behind", mentally and physically."
"You didn't just put up with it, right?"
Instead of a verbal response Walter just put his head further into the cushion.
Ah. So he didn't have the courage to talk back. Poor Walter... Vincent's behaviour towards the first years wasn't okay. So what if Walter wasn't the best student? You didn't have to go around rubbing it in his face! Besides, Walter had gone through an extreme growth spurt in the past few months. At this point, he was probably taller than Vincent himself.
Henry remembered quite well how he had met Walter for the first time. It had been during open house day at Hillerska and the other boy had looked younger than 16. But his bright smile and the spark of joy in his brown eyes when Henry had made a lame joke instantly made him warm up to Walter. He’d had a bit of a baby face at the time, but still very handsome. They had quickly decided to take a little tour around the campus without their parents. The immense embarrassment when his father and Walter's mother awkwardly introduced themselves as former childhood sweethearts made them both take flight. After that day, they had kept in touch over the summer and were more than happy to find out they would be sharing a dorm at the start of the school year.
And now, Henry just wished he could do something for Walter. Would he find it weird or invasive if he put his arm around him and told him that everything would be all right? It was hard to tell...They'd gotten relatively close in the months they'd shared a dorm room. Close friends. But still, physical contact was something Henry would shy away from. What if he enjoyed it a bit too much? He liked Walter, a lot. Inside and out. Walter certainly liked him too, but not...in that way.
His thoughts went back to the situation at hand. In the past it had always been possible to lighten Walter's mood by offering him something from his secret sweets stash.
Well, it was worth a try. He went to his closet and pulled out a box of Walter's favourite chocolates.
"How 'bout something sweet, Walter? Maybe that'll cheer you up?", he asked with a smile and waved the box in front of his face.
"You still got some?" Walter sat up on his bed in interest, his bright smile adorable as ever.
Henry basically melted at the sight. "I had saved some for special occasions", he said sitting down next to his friend.
Walter sighed. "I thought we'd eaten the last box back when Fredrika rejected my invitation to the ball"
"Mother sent one with the last package"
After finding out sweets could easily lift Walter's mood he always asked his family for
more supplies. Even the embarrassment of seeing his mother's knowing, amused look was worth it in the end when he could make Walter smile. He was a sensitive guy who probably wasn't made for an elite boarding school like Hillerska. Not that Henry would ever say that out loud. Walter was indispensable for him. He would do anything to keep him by his side during those three years. Even for Henry himself, enduring school only seemed bearable with his friend. The two of them could get through everything together.
Pov Walter
Aww, what a sweet thing to do of Henry. Walter put a chocolate into his mouth and closed his eyes enjoying the exquisite taste.
He wondered if Henry's family knew that the sweets they sent their son ended up in his mouth instead. During Christmas break when he had last visited Henry's family estate he had found a box of chocolates on his side of the bed, a sort of bedtime sweet. They had all been so kind to him. Sometimes he had the suspicion that they thought Henry and him were a thing. That wasn't the case. Sure, there had been sympathy from the moment they had met, but they would never be in a romantic relationship of any sorts. Henry was into girls and into girls only.
Sometimes Walter asked himself if he didn't like Henry too much. The physical attraction didn't make it any easier. He'd always try to distract himself from these thoughts, run after some girl just to forget about it, but so far with little to no success. The first years weren't particularly popular with the girls.
"Well, how'd the test go?", Henry asked.
Walter smiled proudly in response. "I got into the racing team." Henry cheered and
impulsively hugged him in his excitement.
"I knew it! You've trained so hard and got a lot stronger." A blush creeped onto Walter's cheeks. So Henry thought he had gained muscles? His stupid heart started racing faster.
"Do you feel better now?"
"Hmmh, thanks for cheering me up," Walter muttered with his mouth still full.
"I'm so glad that I'm not in the rowing team anymore. This Swedish Kim Jong-un is really pissing me off. What he pulled in the common room yesterday was so out of line. Thanks again for defending me."
"No problem"
Somehow he always found the courage to talk back to Vincent when it concerned Henry.
So why couldn't he stand up for himself? His thoughts wandered back to the situation in the common room. Poor Henry had complained about how hard it was to write a sonnet. Vincent's recommendation to send a dick pick so Henry would at least know why he got rejected had been offensive and completely unasked for.
It seemed that Henry too had just been thinking about that moment, from another perspective though.
"Have you ever sent someone a dick pick?" his friend asked all of a sudden. Horrified by the implication Walter buried his head in his hands.
"No, of course not!", he exclaimed, his face burning. He was a bit of a late bloomer and was still fighting a lot of insecurities when it came to his appearance. The porn he watched from time to time had further weakened his confidence even though he knew that statistically he should be happy with his anatomy.
“Did you?”, he asked curiously. Henry giggled. “Yeah, to my girlfriend from summer break…” Whatever they’d had, Walter knew it was all in the past. Henry had said he had offended her by taking Walter home with him over the break and not spending all of his time with her. And as awful and selfish as it made him feel, Walter was secretly happy about that development. Now he had Henry all to himself again. Well, at least until Henry had had the idea to put a sonnet in Stella’s locker.
“How ‘bout Stella, did she accept your invitation to the ball?”, he asked, slightly tense. Henry made a face in response. “She declined. Said she wanted to go with her friends. Apparently it is ‘antifeminist’ that only us dudes can write letters… I’m sure that’s the reason why Fredrika rejected you as well.” Walter let out a pained sigh. “Stupid cow. She should be happy someone invited her at all.”
“Well, if it doesn't work out with the girls the two of us can just go together !”
Walter smiled at him. “I’m sure it’ll be fun.” Although he felt like screaming out of pure happiness, he tried to remain calm. It’s not like Henry actually invited him to the ball. It was just some quality time with a very good friend.
The topic of the invitations didn’t quite leave his mind though. Henry’s neither apparently: “I wonder what kind of an invitation the girls would accept. I mean, I would’ve happily said yes if someone gave me a post-it with a date and time scribbled on it.”
Walter giggled. “Maybe you should have followed Vincent's advice. Doesn’t have to be a full-on nude, but like, that one beach pic you’ve got on insta? There’s no way Stella would’ve said no to that. And if she did, she’d know it was her loss.” Immediately after the words left his mouth he pinched himself. It was kind of a weird thing to say out loud. But it was the truth. Henry was beautiful from head to toes, especially in that picture where he was wearing nothing but his swim shorts… Somehow thinking about that wonderful picture made their conversation a lot less innocent. Walter pulled himself together.
“I bet Vincent wouldn’t have a lot of success with that type of thing, thin as a stick that Mr Pointy Nose,” he joked. Henry burst out laughing. “God, sometimes I just wanna take him by his huge ears and drag his ass out of the dining hall.”
“Hmm, what a shame that his hair’s so short. Can’t pull on that, can you?”, Walter continued that train of thought.
“He should be gagged permanently so he finally stops spitting his bullshit.”
“I just wish he would be completely embarrassed in front of the entire student body, you know? Humiliated like he humiliates others.”
At that Walter sat up. “Exactly!” They high fived grinning mischievously at each other. “Come on, let’s think. How should we go about doing it?” They sat down at their respective desk, almost shaking with the excitement of the task at hand.
They tried to analyse Vincent’s weak points, as difficult as that was. He never ever showed weakness. Neither when doing sports nor when it came to his academic achievements. They’ve never seen him at a loss for words and he didn’t seem to respect anyone, not even Wilhelm’s status intimidated him. If he had a private life he kept it very much private.
“Does he have a date to the ball?” “I’ve heard he tried asking Maria. The girls gossiped about it during workies yesterday. She rejected him though.” “So he doesn’t have a date…” Walter smiled happily. “It happens to the best…”, Henry argued while giggling. “He’s so gonna be pissed ‘bout that.” “ That’s not enough. The same thing happened to literally half the boys after the girls suddenly decided to revolt against an old tradition.”
“Well..maybe we could still use it to our advantage…”, Henry considered. “Put a fake letter with an invitation in his locker. You know, pretend to be a rebellious girl asking out a boy. We’d have to write it in a way that makes him realise who the girl is and then when he accepts the invite he gets rejected in front of everyone.”
“God, that’s so awful, Henry.” Walter embraced him in a fit of spontaneous enthusiasm.
“But who should we take as potential sender? He wouldn’t go out with just any girl, arrogant as he is.” “Hmm, no idea what his type might be.” Walter thought about it some more. “Well, Maria has dark, long hair.” “Hmm..Single with dark, long hair and an attitude…not afraid to bluntly speak her mind in front of a third year…”
“Maddie!”, they exclaimed simultaneously. “Remember how Nils and her hooked up at the start of the year? Didn’t end well for him, did it? Don’t think he ever got a second date.” The two of them giggled. “This is gonna be epic!”
Henry got up and opened his laptop. “We should write something in English, not Swedish. That’d be the first clue.” “She’s obsessed with that whole spiritual, esoteric shit.” “Oh, and we’d have to find something about him that she finds attractive…” Walter sighed. “...that’s it: We failed.” “We’re not gonna give up.”, Henry replied strictly. “What about him is…different?” “His shitty personality?” Henry giggled. “No but seriously.” The two boys thought hard.
“How ‘bout the pictures on the school’s homepage?” Walter took a close look at Vincent’s photo. “His eye colour is unusual… a very light, clear blue. Is there like some gemstone in that colour?”
“Yeah, my mum has a necklace with gemstones of that colour. There’s gotta be a picture of it somewhere, I saw it in a society magazine when she wore it to a state banquet at the palace.” He looked it up on google. “There it is: Aquamarine! See, they even got a description of the stones that we could use.”
Struck by inspiration the two boys wrote a quick letter and decided to put it into Vincent’s locker before dinner. They smiled at each other happily. Revenge is sweet!