Chapter Text
When Alex and Henry pulled up to the mansion, Alex couldn’t help but marvel at its size and splendor. Of course, he had lived at the White House, but this was an old-money-rich-estate kind of house that the White House’s stately and historical appearance didn’t compare to. He never could have imagined living in a place like this before Henry came into his life.
He put the car in park and turned to Henry. “Here we are.”
“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” Henry asked. He was eyes Alex warily. “I know how much you loved the city.”
“I did,” Alex admitted, being very careful how he responded, “but let’s be honest, there's no way we can afford to live in New York right now, and this is a perfect opportunity to get on our feet.”
Alex looked up at the house through the windshield. “Besides,” he continued, “there's worse things in the world than a mansion we get to live in for free.”
“My mom did say it would probably need some work.” Henry reminded him. “It hasn’t been used in over 40 years and nobody has actually lived here in even longer.”
Alex shrugged. “It seems like a fair agreement. We get to live here but we are in charge of any improvements ourselves.”
When he looked back at Henry, his husband was gazing at the house with an apprehensive frown.
Alex reached across the center console and took Henry’s hand. They met eyes and Alex offered him a supportive smile.
“The pictures we saw didn’t look too bad.” Alex gave Henry’s hand a squeeze. “It actually looked pretty charming on the inside.”
Unbeknownst to them, inside the house, the property’s ghosts were getting their first bit of excitement in a long time.
“Land ship! Land ship!” Thorfin, the Viking, yelled as the car pulled up.
The other ghosts crowded around the window and peered out.
“That’s no ship,” Hetti replied, straightening her petticoat. “That’s a horseless carriage.”
“Who are those guys?” Flower asked, in a rare moment of lucidity.
Isaac marched over and peered over the hippie’s shoulder. “Who indeed?”
As all the other ghosts nudged and pressed together trying to peer out the window, Alex and Henry got out of the car and started walking toward the house.
Another ghost, Trevor, sighed, “Why is it never a hot chick who comes here?”
“They look friendly,” Pete chimed in cheerily. “I wonder if we’re finally gonna get new tenants! Its been forever since we had any livings move in.”
“Well lets not just stand here,” Alberta pressed. She straightened her back and started moving toward the door, “I'm gonna go down and see them!”
Without hesitating, everyone followed Alberta downstairs. When they got down to the foot of the staircase the front door opened.
Alex and Henry walked in. Alex dropped their two duffle bags by the door and Henry stepped forward.
"Wow," Alex said, "This place is huge. It’s definitely old-money rich. I can see your family owning it."
Henry's back was to Alex as he glanced around, so only the ghosts saw his expression fall to dread. "It has definitely seen better days."
Alex could hear his husband's apprehension and stepped up next to him, slipping his hand into Henry's, intertwining their fingers.
"We can fix it up." He squeezed Henry’s hand and smiled. "There's an inspector coming Monday and we'll figure out what needs fixing, and we'll just tackle it a little bit at a time based on what we can afford."
Henry looked unsure. "It will take a lot of work. Are you sure you’re gonna be happy living here?"
Alex smiled. "New York was fun, but it’s so crowded and we had to work insane hours just to afford a shoebox. We never got to see each other. Now is the perfect chance to breathe. We can finally have some time alone.”
While Alex spoke, the ghosts crowded around them.
Alex pulled Henry into a kiss. When they pulled apart, Henry smiled softly at Alex, who continued,
“I'm sure there's nothing here we can't handle. Besides, it's a house that's been here for over a century. It must have good bones. How bad could it be?"
"This guy is very 'can-do'" Pete praised approvingly.
Hetti huffed. "This couple is a bit... modern, don't you think?"
"Come on Hetti," Flower groaned. "What could be wrong with love?"
"I suppose," Hetti resigned. She huffed but let it go.
"A young couple could be fun to watch," Pete pointed out.
"Yeah they would," Trevor agreed with a mischievous smirk, his voice dripping with innuendo.
Pete rolled his eyes. "Okay Trevor."
Henry was about to lead Alex deeper in the house when Alex stopped him, reaching into his messenger bag, still slung over one shoulder. He pulled out a bundle of sage and a lighter.
“What’s that?” Pete asked as Alex lit one end of the sage on fire.
“What are you doing?” Henry asked.
“I'm cleansing the space,” Alex answered, “June gave this to me. She said that it’s old house 101. Apparently, burning sage wards off spirits.”
Around them, all the ghosts gasped and backed away at once.
“Does that work?” Hetti exclaimed, horrified.
Henry scoffed. “Do you really believe that?”
“June did this to our rooms when we moved to DC.” Alex shrugged. “Better safe than sorry.”
Skeptically, Pete leaned in, smelling the sage smoke. “It’s actually delightful.”
“That is divine,” Thorfin commented, and suddenly all the ghosts started racing forward to smell it as well as the livings carried it from room to room.
“Lemme hit that!” Flower exclaimed excitedly.
“I wouldn’t mind a whiff.” Crash added.
“Okay, people! People!” Pete called out, trailing behind the crowd. “There’s enough spirit repellent for all of us!”
Alex and Henry explored the house, unaware of the pack of ghosts at their heels. They scoped out the master bedroom, the library, guest rooms, and they talked of various ideas on what to do with so much space.
They brought their bags up and started unpacking the small amount of stuff they brought with them in their room.
"So, how long has your family owned this house?" Alex asked, as he disappeared into the walk-in closet.
"Since the 50s I think," Henry replied. He started unpacking their clothes and laying them on the bed. "The previous owners were robber barons I believe."
"Hey! They're talking about you Hetti!" Flower said enthusiastically.
“Hmph,” Hetti huffed pretentiously as she listened.
"Wait," Alex said peeking back around the closet door. "Real robber barons? Like, cartoon evil, slept-on-a-bed-of-gold types?"
Hetti scoffed. "We did that once. Although, I have been curious who my grandson sold our house to."
Henry chuckled. “Yes, I think so.”
“They actually seem really nice,” Pete said.
“There were robber barons in the 50s?” Alex asked.
Henry shrugged. “I think the family who built it were robber barons and then passed the house down. I don’t know what they did for a living when my family bought it.”
Flower commented, “They remind me of this couple I was married to when I was on the commune.” Her voice trailed away as her mind grew hazy. “And a little of this couple I was married to when I was in the cult.”
"Your family never took you here?" Alex asked Henry.
Henry shook his head. "Actually, my parents never came here at all. This was going to be a vacation estate, but they never used it. It just sat here unused except for when it was rented out for events. It has been more of a burden than an asset."
"Wait," Trevor said, "Some random British family bought this place and just abandoned it like it was nothing? How much money has this guy got?"
"Nice to know my beloved home was just left to rot," Hetti scowled. "What disrespect!"
"Honestly," Henry continued, "I think that's the only reason my grandmother was okay giving this house to me when I left. I lost my rights to everything else. She seemed so angry. It was my mother that pushed for this."
Alex's face fell. He walked over to Henry and planted a soft kiss on Henry's temple. "I know how hard this has been for you. Leaving couldn’t have been easy.”
Henry wrapped his arms around Alex and Alex hugged him back tightly.
"It was the right thing to do," he said softly into Alex's shoulder. "I want you to know I don't have any regrets. I chose you, but I am worried that accepting this house will just give my grandmother something to hold over my head later. That's just how things work in my family."
They pulled apart and Alex leaned up to kiss Henry passionately. "I love you. I hope that doesn’t happen, but if it does, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. I don’t think your mom would let that slide though.”
Henry thought about what Alex said. “I suppose you’re right. Maybe I’m overthinking things.”
"Look at these two," Pete said, hands on his hips. "I know we just met, but I'm rooting for these crazy kids."
"They're passion and love for each other is definitely apparent," Isaac said, almost wistfully.
"There's some drama associated with these two," Alberta said excitedly, "I don’t know about y’all, but I hope we learn more about what all went down for them to get here. It sounds like a story ."
It didn’t take long to unpack what they brought. They were going to rent a truck to move all their things after the inspection in few days. The ghosts eventually got bored and left the young couple to mill about the rest of the house.
Later that night, there was a shout from the bathroom.
"Sweetheart?" Alex called, stepping into the hall. "Are you alright?"
"There's no hot water!" Henry called back.
Henry finished as quickly as possible and practically leaped out of the shower and into a towel, shivering.
"That was the most egregious shower I've ever had," Henry said as he walked through their bedroom door.
Alex was sitting up on the bed, legs outstretched, with his laptop. He looked up when Henry walked in.
"I called a professional water heater repair guy,” he said, “And I'm looking online but it looks like we wouldn’t be able to get a repair man here for at least a week.”
Henry sighed and hastily dried off. He dropped the towel and started to get dressed. Alex watched with a mischievous glint in his eye.
When Henry turned back around, Alex raised his eyebrows and smirked.
Henry didn’t return his smile. “I don’t think I’m in the mood right now.” He tugged his underwear on and reached for his sweats.
Alex’s expression twisted into concern, and he set his laptop aside. “Are you alright? You’ve been off ever since we got here.”
Henry pulled his t-shirt on and shook his head. “I don’t know. This whole house thing... I don’t know.”
Alex got up and closed the distance between them. He placed his hands on Henry’s arms and rubbed them up and down soothingly.
“Does this, maybe, have to do with more than just the house?” he asked carefully. He could see Henry clamming up and he knew he had to tread carefully so Henry doesn’t shut him out. “Henry?”
Henry took a deep breath. “I suppose.... it maybe has been a bit harder to adjust to leaving than I expected.”
Alex sighed. He had been worried about this. Henry abdicated from the royal family so they could get married. While the queen had barely accepted them enough to allow them to date after the email leaks, there was a great amount of push-back when the subject of marriage came up. Even if they did allow the two of them to get married, it was made clear that Alex would have to leave his law career aside completely in order to join the royal family, since royals were not allowed to have any legal or political affiliations.
Even though Henry assured Alex that this was what he had wanted, he knew it was Henry’s whole way of life he was leaving behind, and Alex was secretly worried that he wouldn’t be enough for him, and Henry would start to resent him if he ever started to regret giving up his title.
“Sweetheart,” Alex said softly. “I understand, and I told you that I’m here for you. This is a huge adjustment and it’s going to take time. Whatever happens, we’ll figure it out together.”
Henry didn’t say anything. After an agonizing minute of silence for Alex, he decided not to push Henry for more right now. Giving Henry’s arm a comforting squeeze, he let go. He walked back to the bed and grabbed his phone, then walked to the door.
“Where are you going?” Henry asked.
Alex turned back to Henry and gave him a smug smile. “We don’t need a repair man. I’m going to fix the water heater myself.”
Henry stepped forward warily. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
“No,” Alex said bluntly, then waved his phone at Henry, “But the internet does.”
As Alex trotted down the stairs, the ghosts, who were conversing in the living room, paused and looked over.
“It’s the positive one,” Thorfin observed.
“Where is he off to so determined?” Isaac asked, curious.
They all got up to follow until Alex got to the basement door.
“I am not going down there,” Hetti said at the top of the stairs.
“Nope!” Alberta chimed in and turned away. “I’m out!”
“They are terrifying,” Thorfin agreed, and followed Alberta.
“I’m going to go spy on the other one upstairs,” Sasappis said. As he turned around, the feather in his hair whipped Isaac in the face. He rolled his eyes and walked decisively back to the living room.
Alex spent quite a bit of time tinkering around with the water heater, watching several YouTube tutorials, getting more and more frustrated. Little did he realize, that he was surrounded by a hoard of basement-dwelling ghosts who were trying uselessly to give Alex directions.
After a while, he heard footsteps come down the stairs. Henry found Alex hunched over his phone next to the water heater.
“How’s it going down here?” Henry asked and he stepped next to Alex.
Alex sighed, “All these videos make it look simple: just turn the pilot on, but this thing is just not cooperating.”
“Darling, that looks kind of ancient,” Henry said, guiding Alex away from the heater. “Maybe we should just wait for a professional.”
“That’ll take ages,” Alex argued. “There’s going to be a lot of stuff we’ll probably have to do ourselves in this house. I don’t want to just give up like that.”
“You don’t have to prove anything to me,” Henry assured him, “I know how hard you’re trying, but we can’t just jump into something like this without a second thought.”
“Henry,” Alex said seriously, “Me jumping into things without thinking is what our entire relationship is built on.”
Henry laughed. “Let’s get out of this basement. There’s something really creepy down here.”
They walked back up the stairs, unknowingly past the crowd of groaning, sickly ghosts.
Upstairs, Pete was wandering the upstairs and came across Trevor, who had his focus honed in on a vase sitting on the table at the top of the stairs. He had his hand reached out and he was straining to poke it with his finger, but his hand kept gliding right through it. He cursed under his breath.
“What are you doing?” Pete asked.
“I’m practicing my ghost power,” He said, not taking his eyes off the vase. “Thor can flicker any lights at will, Alberta can make her voice travel into the living world, even Isaac can make the gnarliest stink, my thing is almost being able to touch things in the living world at will. I want to home in on it so I can do it whenever I want, so I’m practicing.”
“Well,” Pete said, “Perseverance is the key to mastering any skill. Once, I was leading my pine troop through a knotting lesson and-”
“Shh shh shh!” Trevor waved Pete off with a flick of the wrist. “This is between T-Money and the vahse. It’s personal”
Pete paused before leaning in. “I’ve always said vayse.”
Trevor shot him a stern look and Pete backed off, watching from a distance.
In the bedroom behind them, Henry and Alex were getting into an argument.
“I don’t understand what your insistence on trying to find something positive to say instead of just admitting that we maybe bit off more than we can chew with this house.”
“Because I don’t think that, Henry!”
“How can you not?! The water heater is broken, the electricity only runs through half the house, there are broken windows, a hole in the ceiling, and I’m pretty sure I can hear a pigeon living in the attic. Just admit it! Moving here was a mistake.”
Inside their room, Isaac, Saas, Hetty, and Thor watched Alex and Henry fight with riveted fascination.
Alex huffed, “No! So, we have a little more work to do, but we can’t just give up on this!”
“ Why?!” Henry exploded. “What is making you so attached to this place? It’s been less than a day!”
Alex stopped. His chest rose and fell sharply. Finally, he bit his lip and looked away. “I don’t want to get into this right now.”
Outside, Trevor continued to fight with the vase on the counter. It shook and wobbled on the table as Trevor’s whole body trembled from the effort. With one final cry, he pushed everything he could into it and it finally moved. Ever so gently, the vase tipped over and landed softly on the carpet by the top of the steps.
He and Pete cheered and jumped up and down in victory.
Back in the bedroom, Henry and Alex continued to argue.
“Just make me understand this,” Henry retorted. “Because I can’t see any reason to commit to this.”
Alex took that like a slap in the face. Shaking his head, he huffed, “I can see that.”
He turned and marched out of the room. He couldn’t find the words to explain to Henry how it wasn’t just a house at this point. This house is a challenge, just like their relationship had become. It was going to take work to learn how to live in this new, post-prince life with Alex, and if he was ready to give up on the house after one day, how long before this life with Alex became too challenging and he gave up on that too?
“Alex!” Henry called after him.
Alex stormed out of the bedroom and beelined it for the stairs, not noticing the vase on the ground, but Trevor and Pete did.
“Hey! Woah!”
“Look out!”
Trevor and Pete called out, but it was no use. Alex couldn’t hear them and stepped directly on the vase. It rolled under his foot, and he fell forward.
Alex seemed to hit every step on his topple down the stairs. He landed flat on his back at the bottom. The last thing he saw was Henry rushing down the steps and kneeling next to him, calling his name. He thought he saw two other blurred figures behind Henry, but passed out before he could see anything else.