Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

His Father would often tell him that one day, the Kingdom would be his, but Alex would always find it hard to believe.

They would sit on the palace balcony on the third floor, on lush red cushioned chairs and surrounded by plants shielding them from plain view, and look out at the sprawling gardens and the town square in the distance. Over some tea, Father would tell him about the upcoming receptions and visits he had to make, and sometimes he would tell Alex about finances and charities. 

Alex knew all of it – he was the eldest son, the Crown Prince of the Kingdom, and he had grown up with all of it, groomed to take over since he had been a child. But sometimes, it was just hard to think about being in charge of anything, much less an entire Kingdom. Some days, he even loathed the idea of it.

He was only sixteen that year, anyway.

Alex liked to think he took after his Mother when it came to charity. Father was hard, strict, and stoic at times, although Alex knew he loved his children dearly, and he cared deeply for his Kingdom. Mother was kind and never hesitated to show her soft side. She loved people, and she was the one who introduced Alex to volunteering.

Charity work was always seen as a publicity stunt when it came to the Royal Family, but Alex really did enjoy it. When he was five years old, Mother brought him to the orphanage for the first time, and Alex had the best day of his life, playing with all the children who lived there. When he was eight, Mother brought him to the next county over from the main town, and they spent three days on a nice farm and attended a dinner for the Farmers’ Union, and Alex fell in love with the beauty of the countryside. 

So when Alex turned twelve and Father and Mother let him choose one charity he could volunteer for once a week when he was done with schoolwork, he chose the Agricultural Society, and every weekend he would visit the nearest farm, the agricultural research facility at the edge of town. He would toil on the plot of land or he would help them to take measurements, but what he enjoyed the most was the relationship he had with the people there and the warmth they always had towards him even though he was a Royal. 

When night fell, he would wander the little countryside roads alone on his bicycle; he rarely ever felt so free, what with being confined within the palace walls for most of his life, so it was only on those nights, when he was alone without his usual Royal Brigade and with only the darkness a blanket around him and the wind whistling through his ears, that he actually felt like a normal person. 

Sometimes, Alex just wanted to be that – a normal person.

At sixteen years old, when he had finished most of his basic education, he was allowed to go into town and distribute food to the people, food that he had grown himself, with the farmers, on their little efficient plot of research land. He helped promote the idea of sustainable, technology-based farming. He spent time with different people in different parts of town, and over time they began to anticipate and look forward to his visits and the bags of rice or vegetables he brought.

“You have to show the people you’re assertive,” Father would tell him. “Be firm with your words and do not waver, and your people will always listen to you.”

Mother taught him differently. She taught him to be kind and understanding and humble, and Alex always honoured her by going out of his way to listen to the commoners’ concerns so he could try and solve their problems. It was his responsibility, after all.

Alex loved his Father, he really did. He had always given Alex and his siblings everything they ever wanted or needed. But Alex just knew that when he inevitably became the Ruler of the Kingdom, he would not rule it the same way his Father did.

Until then, all Alex wanted to do was try and cherish the slivers of normal life he had left.

------

Pierre didn’t really get why he had to go to school for what he wanted to do with his life.

He figured he only needed simple addition and multiplication to work out the basic stock-taking at the food distribution centre he worked at in the evenings. Science didn’t slot in very much into that sort of work. And for the love of him, Pierre couldn’t figure out how history could help him with his weekend job at the beach. 

He cursed the education system and all the classes he was failing. Pierre very much preferred it when he was far from it, helping other people. 

The food distribution centre he worked shifts at gave out packets of cooked meals to poor families around town. When Pierre went by after school, it would be time to prepare and cook the next day’s breakfast and lunch packets. Sometimes, it would be late in the night before they could even start packing, and the sense of fulfillment Pierre had when they sent out the food the next morning would be worth the sleepless nights and being chastised by his English teacher for falling asleep on his desk.

It was usually quite peaceful, and Pierre was used to the orderly rhythm to which they worked, but one day he arrived at the centre and it was filled with a nervous mood. Pierre just busied himself with chopping ten kilos of carrots until he heard someone mention that one of the Royal Family’s men were going to visit them the following week.

“The King, or the Prince?” Pierre asked around.

“The Prince,” he was told. “Prince Alexander.”

“Hmm.” Like everyone else, Pierre had seen the Prince on TV, but he had never met him before. What he had done, though, was roll his eyes more than once when the Royal Procession passed by on the streets and everyone in the proximity had to pause what they were doing for five minutes until they got out of the way.

But Pierre wasn’t one to judge anyone, even the Royals, at face value, so he welcomed this chance to actually meet someone from the Royal Family.

The distribution centre was dressed nicely for the visit, with all the usual mess shoved behind where it couldn’t be seen. Things were usually already pretty organized, and everyone still had meal times to adhere to, so everything was moving along normally when the Prince and his entire escort arrived that Thursday evening. 

Being the Prince’s age and the youngest of the lot, Pierre was assigned the task of showing the Prince around. He prepared himself for a large troupe of people, not just the Prince but his vast accessory of men – but when he greeted them at the door, he only saw a single SUV and one man accompanying the Prince. Instead of any fancy garb, the Prince was wearing a simple blue shirt and dark jeans.

“Hello.” The Prince walked with his hand extended, and Pierre couldn’t think of anything ruder than to reject it, so he grasped it in a firm handshake. “How are you? How can I address you?”

Pierre didn’t really know how to act around the Prince. He felt like maybe he was supposed to salute, or something. It just didn’t feel right to simply stand there. 

The Prince was tall but his presence was comforting rather than terrifying, and he smiled politely at Pierre. 

“Um...I’m Pierre.” Pierre stumbled to find the words to say. “Good afternoon, Prince Alexander.”

“Just call me Alex,” he said.

Pierre couldn’t say he felt comfortable doing that. The Prince seemed to be able to tell.

“Prince Alex, then,” he suggested, with another smile. He gestured to the man standing next to him. “This is Daniel.”

“Hi, Pierre.” Daniel was a smaller presence, but he had a bigger smile and flowing, curly hair. “Don’t mind me. I’m just here to help the Prince.”

Pierre hadn’t expected a lowly assistant to be worthy of a personal introduction by the Prince, so he was frankly a bit surprised at how the Prince seemed to treat him as an equal.

He brought Prince Alex into the facility, where everyone was hard at work. He introduced Prince Alex to the different meals they prepared according to a big menu that was plastered on the wall of the main hall, and the several different types of mealboxes they cycled through in a week. Prince Alex seemed to be the most fascinated by the pantry, where they kept all of their chopped and whole ingredients. 

“I’m not sure if you were told why I was dropping by today,” he said. Pierre thought it sounded absurd, the thought that people wouldn’t be briefed about the Prince’s visit, but he was beginning to realise how humble the Prince was. “But I just wanted to take a look at the types of ingredients you use. I volunteer at the agriculture research farm, and we’ve been distributing home-grown produce to some needy families. It’s a more sustainable way of growing and harvesting, and we’re still doing more research to see how we can improve it, but everyone seems pleased with the goods they’ve gotten from us so far. I just wanted to see if you would be interested to use some of our food in your meals? It would be nice to transition this place, or even this town, to a more sustainable way of living.”

“That sounds very interesting, thank you, Prince,” Pierre said. He was usually in charge of the stock taking, anyway. He guessed the math he was made to sit through in school was finally going to pay off here. “I’m sure it’s of very good quality and we could start trying some of it in a portion of our meals before we fully transition to it. But I will have to calculate the prices and see if they fit in our budget, do you have a chart for that?”

“Oh, don’t worry about it.” Prince Alex waved his hand. “I can get some rice, vegetables, and fruits for you. Maybe even some poultry from the neighbours. Just let me know how much you want to sample. As much as you want.”

“That’s not very nice of us, we can try to pay, Prince.”

“No, I’ll settle it. Don’t worry, the farmers are definitely going to get paid for this.”

“Okay then, Prince Alex, thank you very much.”

Prince Alex waved him off again, but in a friendly way. “Do you have any way that I can contact you?” he asked. “So we can arrange for the delivery. Maybe an email address, or something?”

Pierre gave him his email address, figuring there was nothing wrong with it. Daniel took it down in the tablet he was holding, the same one he’d been quickly typing little notes in as Pierre had explained the ins and outs of the centre to Prince Alex.

Pierre trailed behind Prince Alex as he walked them back out towards their SUV, but Prince Alex didn’t seem to pay heed to any of these traditions, and instead stopped so he could walk next to Pierre and talk to him. 

“I think we’re about the same age,” he said to Pierre. “Are you still schooling?”

Pierre nodded. “I’m a Year 11, Prince.”

“You don’t have to keep calling me Prince,” Prince Alex said, his voice soft but earnest. “I’m just a normal person.”

Pierre shrugged. “I’m a Year 11,” he said.

Prince Alex smiled proudly. “Mhm. I am, too.” He stopped next to where the SUV had stopped, waiting for him and Daniel, and he extended his hand again. “Nice to meet you, Pierre.”

“Thank you for stopping by, Prince Alex,” Pierre said, taking his hand again. “And thank you for your offer to provide food stock.”

“I’ll email you soon. See you around. Thank you for showing me the place.”

Pierre watched the black SUV disappear discreetly down the road. Had it passed him along the street, Pierre wouldn’t even have batted an eye. He wouldn’t even have known that Crown Prince Alexander, heir to the throne and the Kingdom, was sitting inside. 

Pierre truly didn’t know what he’d expected from any member of the Royal Family, but it certainly wasn’t...this.

He headed back inside, where he was ambushed by everyone else, requesting for details. He occupied himself with that for the rest of the day, and he was soon too busy to ponder over his intriguing encounter with Prince Alex.

*

When Pierre had given his email address to Prince Alex, he’d expected that maybe one of the lowly palace staff would be the one contacting him. 

But much to his surprise, he received an email from the Crown Prince himself, with a chart proposing the sample amount of each food they could provide and the rough amount of meals it could make, and requesting Pierre to change the numbers as he wished. Instead of any long fancy rank or signature at the end, it was signed off with a simple Alex.

Pierre replied with a short courteous paragraph explaining how he had to discuss with a few other senior workers at the facility before getting back to him, and he received another friendly reply.

> Dear Pierre,

> Sure, thank you for your help!

> Alex

Pierre thought about that email all throughout dinner. He didn’t mention his meeting with the Prince to his parents. He had never even imagined ever being in contact with a member of the Royal Family on a personal level. If he told his parents, they would be sure to laugh at him, albeit affectionately. 

It just all seemed so absurd.

So Pierre pushed it to the back of his mind; it was just another volunteering task for him, just another usual day at the food distribution centre trying to settle the logistics, so that was what Pierre was going to take it as.

------

His parents were immigrants, so everything Pierre learned about the Royal Family, he learned in school. But all the history and political affairs classes that he took hadn’t prepared him for Prince Alex.

He exchanged a few emails with Prince Alex to arrange the delivery of produce to the meal facility. That Tuesday afternoon after school, he headed excitedly over in anticipation of all the fresh goods that were to arrive that afternoon. He waited near the back with a few other people, anticipating just a regular food delivery truck like those that delivered their weekly produce.

Instead, what came was a refrigerated truck followed by the same black SUV that Pierre had seen the previous week. Out of it hopped Prince Alex, who bounded so excitedly up to Pierre that for a moment he looked nothing like the quiet, regal Prince that Pierre so often saw on TV.

“Hi, Pierre,” he said.

“Good afternoon, Prince Alex.”

“I brought fresh vegetables,” Prince Alex said. “I helped harvest them yesterday. There’s also tomatoes and some rice from our stock, and some flour if you guys are into making bread or noodles. Oh, and I got you some pork from the neighbours.”

Pierre smiled. “Thank you, Prince. You didn’t have to come down here yourself.”

“I had a question to ask you.” The Prince grabbed Pierre by the elbow, startling Pierre with the touch. He let go, sensing Pierre’s discomfort. “Sorry. I wanted to ask if you would have an opening for me to help out in the kitchen? Or anywhere you need help with? And if you want, you can follow me to hand out some food and produce to the families. Maybe that will be a fair exchange?”

“Sure, if you really want, I can take you around for one day, Prince,” Pierre said, feeling brave. He was quickly beginning to warm up to this Prince, now that he knew how friendly and genuine he was. “And I’d love to join you on your trips to town, if that’s really okay.”

“Of course that’s okay. Let’s discuss this later,” the Prince said. “I’ll go and help everyone unload the things.”

Pierre followed to help, too. It only took about twenty minutes for them to get everything into the pantry and freezers, and Pierre brought the Prince to take a look at the schedule so he could decide when he wanted to drop by. 

“When are you around?” he asked Pierre. “I’ll come by when you’re here.”

Pierre chose a Saturday when he wasn’t at the beach doing lifeguard duties, so he could help the Prince out for the whole day, because the Prince simply refused to be led around by anyone other than Pierre. 

“You work weekends too?” the Prince asked him. “How do you have time for school?”

“I just don’t really like school.” Pierre shrugged. He felt a bit embarrassed saying it. He was sure the Prince was homeschooled in a really fancy way and aced all his classes. “I’m not that good at it.”

“I can get you a tutor,” the Prince offered. “Oh, or we could study together. Wouldn’t that be fun?”

Prince Alex just...wouldn’t stop surprising Pierre.

He didn’t even know Pierre. And yet he immediately jumped into it, immediately offered to help Pierre. He immediately treated Pierre as his longtime friend. Pierre didn’t even know what to say.

“I’ll have to think about that, Prince Alex, but thank you very much.”

The Prince smiled. He didn’t look offended. He just looked kind and genuine, and that hadn’t changed since the first time Pierre had officially met him. 

They started walking back to the waiting SUV, Pierre trailing slightly behind the Prince but the Prince slowing down for him again. “What job do you work besides this one?” he asked Pierre.

It wasn’t really a job. It only paid him a bit more than the zero dollars he earned at the food distribution facility. Pierre was only a lifeguard because he loved to swim and his lifeguard license was his only worthy possession.

“It’s just something fun at the beach,” Pierre said. “You know, normal school life is just so boring. I like to have something to break out of it.”

Prince Alex smiled. “Yeah. That’s why I like coming out of the palace to volunteer, too. I like seeing people and being close to all of them.”

Pierre opened the SUV door for him, and he climbed inside. “Thank you for dropping by, Prince Alex. I’ll see you next Saturday.”

“See you!” Prince Alex said happily as he closed the door.

Pierre watched the SUV go down the road again, wondering if he could be considered the Prince’s friend now.

------

Pierre was quiet around Alex, although Alex wasn’t sure if it was because he was a Prince, or if it was just how Pierre was. 

Besides handling the logistics, Pierre also handled the preparation of food; he chopped vegetables and set out big bowls of ingredients that the others could use to cook. He let Alex help him do the chopping, and then brought Alex to the kitchen where he let someone else teach Alex one of the dishes. In the afternoon, they packed the dinner boxes together to be sent out for delivery.

“Am I doing alright?” Alex asked Pierre.

“You’re doing great, Prince.”

Alex wished he would stop calling him Prince. He just wanted to be Pierre’s friend. 

That night for dinner, they sat down with a few of the leftover dinner boxes and ate together with the rest of the volunteers. Everyone else was equally friendly, and Alex had a great time getting to know everyone, but at the end of the night it was Pierre who walked him to the car where Daniel and the chauffeur were waiting. 

“So I’ll see you on Thursday, yeah?” Alex said. “To distribute the produce.”

“Sure. I’ll go by after school, Prince, just let me know where to go.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll pick you up from your school.”

“I don’t want to trouble you, Prince.”

“You’re not troubling me.” Alex opened the door to the car. “Pierre, thank you for taking me around today. I learned so much and I really enjoyed myself. I hope that Thursday will be as fun for you as today was for me.”

Pierre smiled. “Good night, Prince Alex.”

“Good night, Pierre.”

Alex could see Pierre when he turned around in the car to look out the back window. He was just standing there, looking tense and pensive, before he eventually walked back inside.

When Alex turned to Daniel, Daniel was giving him an encouraging smile.

“Do you still trust him?” he asked Alex.

“More than ever,” Alex said.

*

Sometimes, Alex enjoyed how bewildered Pierre looked when Alex behaved like a commoner. 

Of course, not everyone had the opportunity to interact so closely so many times with any member of his family, so Alex understood Pierre’s hesitance. Still, that didn’t stop him from snickering at the look of pure shock and confusion on Pierre’s face when Alex’s chauffeur pulled up outside his school and Alex rolled down the window to wave Pierre into the car.

Daniel sat in the front seat, so Pierre and Alex shared the back with the empty middle seat between them. Besides a slightly awkward smile that Pierre afforded Alex as he climbed into the car, he was quiet for the journey, and sat as if he didn’t know what he was supposed to do. 

He seemed to relax a bit, though, once they started getting into the groove of things. They followed the farm’s big produce van around the neighbourhood, stopping once every few blocks. He helped Alex to haul the bags of produce to families’ doorsteps, his biceps straining at the effort, and Alex wondered what kind of job he did at the beach that gave him strength like that. It certainly seemed to involve a lot of hauling stuff around.

He would stand quietly with Daniel, in his simple blue and white school outfit, as Alex greeted each family and asked about their latest comings and goings. There were a lot of families, but it really wasn’t so hard to remember each one, given how long Alex had been visiting all of them. He introduced Pierre to each one as his friend, and everyone seemed quite happy to meet him.

“Prince Alex, how are you able to remember so many details of each family?” Pierre asked as they stopped at the end of the day and were standing next to the car drinking water. “It seems like a lot to remember. You’re really dedicated.”

Alex smiled. “I think it wouldn’t be hard for anyone if they cared enough. And I care enough.”

“I think that’s amazing, Prince.”

Pierre lived in an apartment block that was on the other side of town, so it was quite a long journey back. Alex spent the entire time telling him about all the activities on the farm and how he was helping out, and what crops they were harvesting that season. He was afraid Pierre would get bored or even annoyed, but it seemed like he genuinely wanted to hear about it, and he asked enough questions for Alex to feel comfortable about continuing to speak. 

“Maybe you can drop by sometime for tea,” Alex told him as he got out of the car outside his apartment block.

“Me?” Pierre looked baffled again. “Like...to the palace?”

“Yeah. Mother would love to meet you. She’s been encouraging me to volunteer since I was a child, and she’ll be so happy to see that I’ve made a volunteer friend.”

The confused look on Pierre’s face morphed into a small smile. “Um...I’ll have to think about that, Prince. Thank you for offering.”

“Don’t worry about it. Mother makes wonderful scones. You’ll love them. I hope you can come by.”

“Sure, Prince Alex. Thank you. And thank you for taking me around today. I really had fun meeting everyone and learning about your farm.”

“See you, Pierre.”

“See you, Prince Alex.” The exhaustion of the day was beginning to show on Pierre’s face, manifesting as a redness on Pierre’s cheeks that hadn’t disappeared throughout the journey. But he smiled at Alex, and suddenly Alex thought he looked quite adorable. 

He watched Pierre disappear inside the building before he told the driver to head back. 

------

Tea time with the Royals started out more stressful than fun. 

Pierre really hadn’t been planning on taking up the offer, but Prince Alex emailed him twice, and Pierre didn’t feel like it was right not to reply. He told his maman that he needed nice clothes because he was going somewhere fancy with one of his friends, and they spent the entire day looking for a nice shirt in Pierre’s closet, and Pierre was almost embarrassed at all the lame t-shirts he had in comparison to what he was sure Prince Alex wore around in the palace.

Maman picked out one of his nicest shirts, a dark red polo tee, but Pierre was convinced it wasn’t formal enough, so he took out a little of his meagre savings and went into town to get himself a nice, smart-looking blue button-up shirt and some light trousers.

He took a bus towards the palace, and found himself arriving way too early for teatime. So he wandered outside the gates for a while, hoping he wouldn’t look suspicious, until someone beeped a little horn at him from behind.

It was Prince Alex and Daniel, driving a little golf buggy. “Get in,” Prince Alex called as it screeched to a halt. He was wearing a nice flowy silk shirt, and Pierre felt relieved that he’d gone out to buy his new outfit.

Pierre got in, barely having any time to process anything that was happening. The wind obliterated all his efforts to make his hair look presentable as they whooshed through the palace’s front gardens and stopped near the looming front doors.

The inside of the palace was overwhelmingly spacious. There were doors and arching doorways in all directions, and the ceilings were high and ornately decorated. There were paintings on every available wall, lining the hallways between each door. Where the floor wasn’t covered with smooth velvet rugs or dark coloured Himalaya rugs, it was blocks of heavy marble that squeaked beneath their feet. Every room Pierre managed to peek into was organised and clean, with wooden dado rails around the perimeter. The corridors were an endless maze, and Pierre was so afraid he would lose Prince Alex and never be able to get out of this palace.

Prince Alex led Pierre up some burgundy-carpeted curved stairs lined by polished wood banisters. The second floor was quieter, with fewer palace staff bustling around, and Prince Alex brought him outside, where there was the biggest stone balcony Pierre had ever seen, with big red cushioned chairs, and a table full of food and tea, and – 

And the King and Queen. 

Pierre really hadn’t been expecting to see them, which he retrospectively thought was silly, because it wasn’t like this wasn’t their literal home. He ran a hand nervously through his hair, regretting the little buggy trip that had messed it all up. 

“Father, Mother, this is my friend Pierre,” Prince Alex said. “Pierre, this is my Father and Mother.”

Pierre wasn’t sure what to do. Maybe he was supposed to curtsy, or something. Or maybe that was for girls. Either way, Pierre was frozen in place. 

“Hi, Pierre,” the Queen said, her voice soft but reaffirming. She extended a hand, and Pierre took it. He realised that bowing was probably the right move, so that was what he did. “It’s nice to meet you. Alex has told us a lot about you.”

The King stood up, too, and Pierre bowed to him and shook his hand. “We hear you love to volunteer, too.”

“Yes, Your Highnesses, I’ve been volunteering for a few years now.”

“That’s very nice,” the Queen said. “It’s no wonder Alex gets along well with you.”

They all sat down and started eating. The King and Queen were dressed casually, just in their linen trousers and loose shirts, and they were friendly when they asked Pierre about all his volunteering experiences. Meanwhile, Pierre just tried his best to remember how to eat his scones without the crumbs falling everywhere and sip his tea without dribbling all over himself. 

Prince Alex had been right, and the scones were delicious. Pierre almost felt embarrassed stuffing his mouth with them, but they were simply irresistible, and no one else seemed to mind. In fact, they were all so welcoming towards him and they listened to him talk about his years and years of volunteering and they seemed happy that Prince Alex had met him. 

After tea, the King and Queen retreated to somewhere within the vast palace, and Prince Alex brought Pierre back downstairs to the back garden. It was a big space, almost five times the size of Pierre’s apartment, if he were to be honest. Pierre noticed Daniel sitting on a swing at the far corner of the garden, under the shade of a small tree, and it was only then did he realise that Daniel hadn’t been with them for tea.

Pierre followed Prince Alex all the way to the back gate, which was a big, several metres-wide metal gate that could easily be the front gate of an apartment complex in town. It led out to a small road that Pierre assumed was where people usually got dropped off or picked up. Prince Alex keyed in a code that unlocked a small side portion of the gate, and Pierre wondered why until a few moments later, when a group of cats came trotting up from either end of the gate, three from one end and two from the other. 

“You have cats?” Pierre asked him. 

“These are just strays. They like coming here because I feed them a lot,” Prince Alex said. He held the gate open until the last cat made it inside, then headed towards a small hut near the garden wall, where he got out a few tins of cat food. He opened them for the cats and sat on the ground watching them eat, the tiniest adoring smile on his face.

Prince Alex wasn’t just kind to Pierre, and he wasn’t just kind to people in general. He was also kind to animals. 

He was quite literally perfect. He was a perfect Prince.

Pierre sat across from him, listening as the cats made little slurping noises while they ate. There were two grey cats, one a solid brownish grey and the other with a lighter, tabby grey coat. There was a white cat with black spots that made it look like a tiny cow, and tired little eyes that made it look sleepy. There was also a lazy calico cat that lazed around in front of its tin instead of gobbling it up like the others. The last cat had a solid white coat with a tabby brown pattern on its face and down its back, and it liked Prince Alex the most, climbing into his lap the moment it finished its food. Prince Alex gave it a little smooch on the head.

“Sometimes they ruin the flower bushes and I get scolded by Mother when the gardener comes by and sees the mess,” Prince Alex said with a laugh. “But I like them. They’re cute and they have no place to stay and it’s hard to find people who’ll feed them in these parts.”

“Do you think they know they’re in the King’s palace?” Pierre asked.

Prince Alex burst into laughter, and it was such a happy sound. “I don’t think so. They’d probably be more appreciative of the flowers if they did.”

The cats followed them around as Prince Alex led Pierre around the garden and introduced all the different plants and bushes to him. There was a little gazebo in the middle of it, surrounded by fresh-smelling jasmine bushes, and they sat in it for a while, away from the late summer sun. 

“Thank you for taking me around the palace, Prince Alex,” Pierre told the Prince. 

“You’re welcome. Maybe next time, we can study together, like I told you.”

“Will that be okay? I feel like I’m intruding.”

“Father and Mother are quite chill most of the time. They like it when I make friends or when I introduce them to my friends. It just makes everyone feel a bit more normal, you know? Just because we rule this Kingdom and we live in a palace doesn’t mean we can’t be a bit normal.”

The fact that Prince Alex had literally just called the King and Queen, the rulers of this Kingdom, ‘quite chill,’ almost made Pierre burst into giggles.

“I just thought that the security would be a bit tighter,” he said. “Like, I thought Daniel wouldn’t let you out of his sight.”

“Inside the palace, it’s okay,” Prince Alex said. “Everybody that works and lives here knows that anyone who’s brought into the grounds can be trusted. No one would bring anyone here if they didn’t trust them. I guess it’s a system we’re all used to by now.”

“Thank you for trusting me, Prince Alex.”

Prince Alex smiled. “Of course I trust you. Thank you for hanging out with me. It’s nice because I’m usually all alone. I hope you’re having a good time with just me.”

“I like that it’s just you, Prince,” Pierre said softly. “I don’t think I would know how to behave around the King and Queen if they were around all the time. I mean, I was almost hyperventilating earlier during tea time.”

Prince Alex laughed. “Yeah. I could tell, a bit.”

“I’ve just...never really – I’ve never really mingled with the upper class a lot, you know, Prince? I’m...I’m a completely different class.”

“It’s fine. It doesn’t matter.” Prince Alex stood up and gestured for Pierre to follow him. The little cats trailed behind them again, as if they thought Prince Alex would offer them more food. Prince Alex didn’t seem to mind.

“Why are you so trusting of everyone?” Pierre asked, slightly afraid that he was treading across an invisible boundary. “I mean...aren’t you afraid someone would be out to harm you? I just didn’t really expect that you’d be allowed to go around by yourself without Daniel with you. Like that day at the meal facility.”

“I’m not. We have a deal and Daniel won’t tell Mother and Father that he leaves me alone, as long as he knows where I am at any point of time. He just has to trust me not to run away and that I know what I’m doing and I’m in a good place, but he’s been my babysitter and then my Royal Assistant since I was a child, so he knows I’m trustworthy.”

Pierre smiled. “Yeah, I mean, you’ve also always been a really good Prince, so no one should be out against you.”

“Daniel worries a lot all the time, though. He’s more relaxed when I’m in a small space where he knows the people I’m with. And he trusts you, so that’s good. I trust you, too.”

“Thank you, Prince.”

“You really don’t have to keep calling me Prince.” Prince Alex stopped at the end of the garden, where Daniel was, still sitting on that swing, poring over his tablet. “You’re my friend now. Just call me Alex.”

“I don’t feel very respectful calling you Alex, Prince,” Pierre said. 

“It doesn’t matter to me. You’re my friend. I don’t have many friends because I’m always trapped here,” Prince Alex said. “Daniel is my only friend. That’s kinda sad.”

Pierre burst into laughter, but realised that it might have been a bit inappropriate. “Sorry,” he said, stifling his giggles.

“I’m used to it,” Daniel said, deadpan. “And don’t worry about calling him Alex. He makes me call him Alex, too.”

“Only my friends get to call me Alex,” Prince Alex said, nudging Daniel in the arm. 

“Mhm.” Daniel pretended not to acknowledge it, but the little smirk on his face told Pierre he was just teasing.

“He loves me.” Prince Alex gave Daniel another playful nudge. “C’mon,” he said to Pierre. “I’ll show you more of what’s inside.”

The cats were let back outside, where they stayed obediently, thanks to some kibble that Prince Alex placed on the sidewalk. And Pierre was led back inside, up the ornate stairs again and towards a deeper part of the palace. Towering arches separated different corridors, and it was all a maze to Pierre but Prince Alex knew his way around them like the back of his hand. He briefly mentioned each room to Pierre as they passed, and Pierre honestly hadn’t known that anyone actually needed an entire room for some of these things. 

The study was an airy, spacious room at the end of one of the corridors. It was divided into two parts, separated by a dark red wall and a wide golden archway linking the two parts. 

“My siblings and I take our classes here,” Prince Alex said. “The other side of this wall is a bigger space where we each have a desk we can study at. This room is where our teachers come to. Next time, when you come by, we can study together.”

Pierre wandered into the other half of the room; there were five big wooden desks, each decorated in a different style, probably reflecting each of the Princes’ and Princesses’ study area. The entire room put together was probably about three quarters the size of Pierre’s apartment.

Prince Alex’s desk was the neatest of all of them; he had books and papers neatly stacked on one side, a closed laptop, and a small pencil holder, and the rest of the workspace was empty. 

“Would I be intruding? If I...if we study together?” Pierre asked.

“Not at all. I can tutor you, like I said.”

“That’s – that wouldn’t be very nice of me.”

“I really don’t mind,” Prince Alex said softly. “Pierre. Can I ask something from you?”

“Yes, Prince Alex?”

“Will you just treat me like a friend?”

Pierre cleared his throat. The Prince’s presence was – it was still comforting and calm and not intimidating at all, but for some reason it made Pierre’s heart beat a little bit faster. 

“I’ll try, Prince.”

“I know it’s not easy. Yeah?” Prince Alex’s voice was still soft. “A lot of people think that we’re very cold towards outsiders. But you can start by calling me Alex. Is that okay?”

Pierre nodded. “Okay.”

There was a little smile on Prince Alex’s face then, and it didn’t go away as he continued taking Pierre around the palace, stopping to show him their sleeping quarters and to peek into the kitchen. It all felt so surreal, and slightly forbidden. Besides school, Pierre wasn’t sure he had ever been in a place so big before. In fact, he was beginning to think that even his school was smaller than this.

Prince Alex made Pierre exchange numbers with him while they were waiting for the car, which he had insisted on arranging so Pierre would get a ride home. 

“Thank you for taking me around, Pri –” Pierre stopped mid-sentence when Prince Alex furrowed his brow. “Um...Alex.”

Pierre thought that in some way, even if he never called Prince Alex by ‘Prince’ again, he would still always be Prince Alex in Pierre’s mind. He smiled at Pierre, and he got into the car with Pierre so he could talk to Pierre on the way home. 

“I’ll see you, yeah?” he called out the door as Pierre stepped out of the car. “We’ll text. See you, Pierre.”

“See you, Pr –” Pierre stopped himself this time. “See you, Alex.”

Pierre only caught a glimpse of the big happy grin on Alex’s face as the car door closed, but the image of it stayed in Pierre’s mind for the rest of the night, and the warmth of it in Pierre’s heart.

------

The tutoring sessions that Prince Alex offered seemed like a good idea once Pierre started falling behind on his history classes again. 

It had never been a strong subject of Pierre’s, and it wasn’t helped by the fact that his parents hadn’t grown up in this country, and knew nothing enough to help him with political and diplomatic history. A few weeks of communicating over text later, Pierre was finally convinced he needed Prince Alex’s help enough to accept stepping into that looming, elaborate study room again.

Prince Alex brought a car to get Pierre, because of course he did. He got the driver to give a little honk when he was downstairs, and Pierre looked out the window and saw him standing outside the car, waving eagerly. 

Pierre went downstairs with his textbooks in his book bag and some notes in his hand, wearing his new blue shirt again because it was the only nice one he had. “Hi, Prince Alex,” he blurted the moment the door to the apartment complex was opened. He sighed as Prince Alex gave a bewildered chuckle. “Sorry. I think I had to get that out of my system.”

“You only get to call me Prince Alex once a day,” Prince Alex said, hooking his arm in Pierre’s and dragging him towards the car. “Hey, what do you have me saved as in your phone? Is it Alex, or Prince Alex?”

Pierre couldn’t stop him from taking Pierre’s phone and scrolling through his contacts until he found his own number saved under ‘Prince Alex’. Then he pondered over it for a while over the journey to the palace, pursing his lips, until he eventually changed it and returned it to Pierre.

He’d changed his own contact name to ‘Alex’ followed by a crown emoji, and he looked so proud of it that Pierre couldn’t help but smile.

“Compromise,” he said. “It’s Alex, remember that.”

The study was as big as Pierre remembered it, even though Alex’s sisters were sharing the space, having some math lessons with their personal tutor. Alex brought Pierre straight to his desk, where there was already an extra chair for him. 

They then spent that entire afternoon cramming history, and though Pierre had learned most of this in his classes, it had all made no sense to him before he heard it in Alex’s voice that day. 

The way Alex talked about history was fascinating. Of course, he’d grown up in the middle of it all, in the middle of stories told to him from his parents, who’d heard them from his grandparents, and his great-grandparents, and so on. Alex’s family had been the pillar of their country’s political history. Alex probably knew it better than he knew any other story.

But still, the way he explained it, the way he looked so eager as he drew out maps and charts for Pierre, was...really captivating. Pierre would have gotten completely lost in Alex’s voice had Alex not paused once every few minutes to ask Pierre if he was coping well. 

They took a break about two hours into studying, and honestly Pierre’s brain was completely fried, but he felt quite accomplished. One of the palace servants brought them a jug of fruit punch and some biscuits, and they shared them quietly over the hush of Alex’s sisters’ lessons in the neighbouring room.

“I have a history text next week,” Pierre told Alex. “I’ll tell you how it goes.”

“That’s great. Good luck.” Alex shoved another cookie into his mouth, then dusted his hands off. “I’m gonna do some math next. What about you?”

Pierre decided to join him in math, though it seemed to distract Alex a bit, because he drifted over to Pierre’s side to peek at the problems Pierre was trying to solve. He helped Pierre with them when Pierre got stuck. He seemed good at math, the same way he was good at history.

Pierre wondered what other subjects he was good at. He suspected many of them.

He got lost in the way Alex was talking, the way he was pressing closer to Pierre so he could scribble little math formulas in the margins of Pierre’s workbook. The way his lips moved, so quickly and excitedly even though the sound of his voice was muted to Pierre’s ears. The way his curls fell over on his forehead when he leaned over the book. The way his eyebrows raised when he turned to Pierre to ask a question Pierre hadn’t been listening to.

“Hmm?” he asked, snapping out of his daydream.

“I asked if you get a formula book during your tests or if you have to memorise the formulas,” Alex said.

“We get certain formulas provided to us.” Pierre pulled out the worn out sample formula book from his book bag and handed it to Alex.

Alex pored over it for a minute. “Okay. You can easily derive the others.”

He then launched into a long lecture about math formulas that Pierre tried his best to pay attention to. He continued scribbling in Pierre’s book, and Pierre hoped he wouldn’t flip the page and see that someone had already written in it before because Pierre had gotten it secondhand. His handwriting was small and neat and even the way he held his pencil was soft and elegant, and Pierre just.

Pierre just couldn’t look away.

When Alex finally looked up at him again, Pierre couldn’t help but follow, their eyes meeting across the three-inch space between them.

“Understand?” Alex asked softly.

Pierre nodded, and it was only half a lie.

He spent the rest of the session secretly watching Alex try to solve some math problems, wishing he could smoothen the furrow between Alex’s brows with his finger. 

Alex invited him to stay for dinner, but the anticipation of sitting at that big wooden dining table in that enormous dining room with the chandelier, with the King and Queen and all the other royal children across from him, scared Pierre enough to reject him. 

So what Alex did was get the kitchen staff to pack up some food enough for three people, and he sent Pierre back home to share it with his parents. 

“We usually have too much left over for my liking, anyway,” he told Pierre. 

The food was still warm when Pierre got home, and maman was delighted that she didn’t have to cook that night. They sat around their small dining table, a quarter of the size of Alex’s, and ate their dinner over hearty laughter and lively stories.

“Where did you get this food?” papa asked Pierre.

“One of my friends had some leftovers,” Pierre said.

“It’s a lot of leftovers,” maman said. “Are you sure it’s okay that you took it from them?”

“It’s okay.” Pierre still hesitated to tell his parents that he knew Prince Alex and had hung out with him multiple times and could now pretty much figure out the way from the palace’s front door to the big study. But he realised they would probably find out eventually, anyway. “Uh...papa, maman. I have this friend...he lives in the palace. The Royal Palace.”

There was a long pause from Pierre’s parents, and for a moment he thought they were going to touch his forehead to see if he had a fever and then send him to the hospital to get him checked. 

“A Prince?” papa finally asked.

Pierre nodded. “Prince Alexander. Alex. I met him while volunteering and he said we’re friends and we’ve been hanging out a few times. I know it’s hard to believe and it’s silly but he’s my friend and he gave me this food and –”

“We believe you, Pierre,” maman said kindly. “It’s very nice of him to make friends with you.”

“He’s a very good person, maman. He’s so kind to everybody and he’s so caring and he helps me a lot. He’s so nice and humble, and he just wants to be a normal person and I’m glad that I can be his normal friend.”

“Pierre, baby, I don’t know how to put this in a nicer way, but – make sure he knows that you’re not trying to take advantage of him or his money. Okay?” maman said. “I know you’re not. I’m glad that you’re friends with the Crown Prince and I’m sure he’s a very good person like you said. And I hope you have a nice friendship with him. Just – you know what I’m trying to say, yeah?”

“I know, maman.” Even before meeting Alex, Pierre had always thought that if he ever tried to make friends with anyone outside of his social class, it would always be perceived as if he was trying to take advantage of them. Sometimes, he thought it was ingrained into him by his parents, because they hadn’t grown up rich, either. “I’ll be careful. But I just want to tell you that Prince Alex isn’t that kind of person. He won’t think that about me.”

“And remember to always be respectful, yeah?” papa said. “When you go to the palace, be polite to everyone.”

“I will, papa.” Honestly, Pierre didn’t mind getting these lectures from his parents. He was just glad that they believed him and didn’t think he was just being delusional about befriending a Prince. “Maybe one day, you guys can meet Alex, too. He’s really nice and he volunteers a lot and now he’s helping me with schoolwork.”

“What’s he like? Tell us more about him,” maman suggested. “What’s the palace like? I’ve never been in one.”

Pierre was so thankful to his parents for being so supportive that he couldn’t think of keeping anything from them. He told them everything he could, even though he had never told anyone about his friendship with the Prince before. His classmates would probably laugh at him or get him to ask for favours. Pierre’s parents were the only ones who could know. 

After dinner, after helping maman wash up, Pierre went back to his room and emptied his book bag on his bed. 

On his phone screen was a singular text from Alex.

> Let me know when you want to study together again. 

Pierre got into bed with his math textbook.

He spent the rest of the night admiring the curve of Alex’s handwriting, imprinted like personal works of art in the margins of Pierre’s book.

------

Over the months, their study sessions became more frequent, and even the palace guards knew to open the back gate when they saw Pierre marching up to it with his book bag. Pierre would come by in his free time between taking up shifts at the meal facility or the beach, whenever it coincided with days Alex wasn’t away on royal duties. Other times, when they weren’t at the palace, they went out to volunteer together, giving out fresh produce to the community or cooking up a feast at the meal facility.

Every time he dropped by the palace, Pierre would either wear that blue shirt he’d worn that first day he’d come by for tea, or a red polo shirt, or another white buttoned shirt that looked like it had belonged to his father at one point. It was as if he thought the palace had some strict dress code that only those three pieces of clothing would match.

Well, the palace did have a dress code, but it was mostly only for official events. It wasn’t like Father and Mother didn’t walk around in their flimsy linen pants all the time, anyway. Alex didn’t see why Pierre had to dress so uncomfortably.

“You can just come by in normal clothes, you know?” Alex asked him one day; it was the spring term at school, and it was only starting to get warm again, so Pierre was putting on a black wool jacket over his blue shirt before he left for home. “You don’t have to wear your nicest clothes all the time.”

“It feels weird if I were to just rock up in a random t-shirt,” Pierre said.

“I’m wearing a random t-shirt,” Alex said.

“You’re the Prince,” Pierre pointed out.

Alex narrowed his eyes and pressed his mouth into a line, an expression he always gave Pierre when Pierre said something silly, and an expression which never failed to make Pierre laugh cheekily. 

“I’m working the whole of next weekend at the beach,” he told Alex. “All day. So we can’t study. But it seems like you’ve been spending all your free time with me, so maybe you’d like some time away.”

Alex really didn’t. Not even one bit. His days were just so much more colourful, so much more interesting, with Pierre around talking to him about meal plans and listening to him talk about farms.

“Can I go visit you?” Alex asked him. “At the beach. If that’s cool.”

Pierre seemed surprised, but he said, “Yeah, sure. It’s nothing much, though.”

“I think it’ll be interesting,” Alex said. He still didn’t really know what Pierre did at the beach or if it indeed involved hauling stuff around.

Pierre grinned at him. “You’re always so eager to see and learn new things.” He punched Alex softly in the shoulder, and Alex honestly was more relieved that Pierre had opened up to him so much than he was willing to question, even teasingly, Pierre punching a Prince in the shoulder. “That’s really nice. Yeah. Drop by the beach next weekend. I’ll take you around.”

“We can have a beach day. That’ll be cool. The weather’s getting warmer, too.”

The smile Pierre gave him told Alex he appreciated Alex trying to learn more about his life. “Cool. See ya, Prince Alex.”

Alex was beginning to regret saying that Pierre could call him ‘Prince Alex’ once every day, because Pierre liked to drop it on him when he was leaving so Alex couldn’t formulate a proper response. 

But sometimes, just seeing that shit-eating grin on Pierre’s face was enough for Alex to forget everything else.

Daniel drove Alex down to the beach that weekend, having been able to convince Alex’s two bodyguards and his driver that he would be safe. Daniel was kind of Alex’s bodyguard, anyway, even though his job was only to be Alex’s assistant. He parked the car and went down with Alex, saying he would recce the place before deciding whether to leave Alex alone with Pierre.

They were halfway down the path to the beach when they saw Pierre come running up to them, dressed in an oversized white singlet and a pair of blue beach shorts with beach umbrellas printed all over them. 

“Hey!” he called, waving excitedly, even though they could clearly see him clambering his way through the sand to reach them. “Hi, Alex. Hi, Daniel.”

“Hi,” Daniel said quietly. “Don’t mind me. I’m just looking around.”

“It’s okay. You can come with us.” Pierre hooked one arm in Alex’s and the other in Daniel’s, and began dragging them down towards the beach. 

There was a wooden hut at one end of the beach with the words ‘lifeguard centre’ printed on the door in bold letters. It was pretty much deserted when they got there, and the two or three people present didn’t take too much heed to Alex. Pierre opened the door, and when Alex peeked inside, it was nothing much besides a storage shed with high visibility vests, whistles and flags, first-aid kits, and cleaning supplies. Pierre headed inside for a bit and re-emerged wearing a yellow vest and holding a whistle. He put on a white cap and handed Alex another one with a blue brim.

“Here, in case you don’t want to be recognised,” he said.

Alex put it on gratefully. He and Daniel trailed behind Pierre as he made his way through the beach, through the maze of people lying down tanning or picnicking under their umbrellas. He went out towards the water to warn little kids not to get out too far, and even swam out a bit to remind the braver swimmers to stay within the buoys. There was already someone else on duty in the lifeguard tower, so Pierre only waved at them before continuing his rounds. 

So he was a lifeguard.

That explained his tan and his toned muscles, and Alex felt embarrassed that he hadn’t put it together earlier. It probably also explained his biceps, from training to haul literal people around. 

They stopped by the surf shop, where Pierre seemed to be very familiar with the staff. He helped out there for a while as Alex and Daniel sat down on a little tree stump bench outside the shop to wait for him, carrying surfboards for customers and dragging kayaks down the beach. 

So he did haul stuff around.

When Alex turned to Daniel, Daniel had a thoroughly amused look on his face. “What?” Alex asked him. 

“You’re just smiling to yourself,” Daniel noted.

“No, I’m not.”

“Sure.”

After he was convinced he’d helped enough of the surf shop’s customers, Pierre returned to Alex and Daniel with two bottles of water. “Sorry,” he said. “It’s quite busy on the weekends.”

He was a little out of breath, and there was a deep pink blush on his cheeks, but he was looking eagerly at Alex, waiting for him to open the bottle and drink some water.

“I’ll head back to the car,” Daniel said, standing up. “Looks alright. You guys have fun.”

“He’s very chill,” Pierre said as Daniel walked out of earshot.

“You just think so because you don’t realise he can literally press one button and have security come down in five minutes.”

Pierre laughed. “C’mon,” he said, pulling on Alex’s arm so he’d stand up. Alex didn’t remember him being this touchy before. “Let’s make another round. Then my shift will be almost over and I’ll show you someplace nice.”

So Alex followed him back up the beach, following the path he made in the sand with his footprints. Pierre had his cap turned backwards now, so there was a tuft of hair sticking out the front. He didn’t seem to care, instead letting it flop around in the wind. He stopped in the middle of the beach to attend to a little child who had fallen over and grazed her knee, giving her a little piggyback to the lifeguard tower, where he got some paper towels, antiseptic, and a band-aid with red hearts all over it, and kept her entertained until she stopped crying and her mother could take her away.

Then he immediately distracted himself by helping someone chase after a beach ball that was blowing away in the wind, leaving Alex to laugh at how he was scrambling and sending sand flying everywhere. He came back to Alex by the lifeguard tower with a huge grin, running his hand through his hair before putting his backwards cap back on.

Pierre had always told Alex that he was selfless. That he gave people more than he should, he gave people more than he took back. 

But what Pierre didn’t see was...he was pretty selfless himself. 

“Are you alright?” he asked Alex. “Do you have enough water? I can get you some more.”

“I’m alright.” Alex smiled. “Your job’s cool.”

“Thanks.” Pierre looked extraordinarily happy to have Alex’s approval, for some reason. He left his yellow vest and his whistle in the lifeguard tower, then gestured for Alex to follow him down the beach again. “C’mon. I’ll show you someplace cool.”

Beyond the small lifeguard shed that Pierre had brought Alex to earlier was a shallow stream that flowed into the sea. The water only covered their feet as they crossed it, and it was a refreshing sort of cold in the sunny weather that day. They had to clamber over some tall rocks that made up part of a natural rock pier, and Alex wondered for a moment where Pierre was taking him and if he should’ve asked Daniel to stay, before looking up to see the most wonderful thing.

On the other side of the stream and the rocks was another smaller, almost completely secluded beach, with darker sand and bigger waves, and a tall, looming cliff at the end of it. Alex could see the edge of the carpark up the little hill that Daniel had parked in earlier, and there was still a sandy, grassy path up to it, but beyond the carpark, the slope curved further upwards around the back of the beach, into a meadow that extended to the edge of the cliff.

Pierre stopped at the edge of the waves, and Alex followed suit. The water was foamy at their feet, a deeper blue than the water at the main beach. When Alex looked out, he could see that they were much closer to the ocean in this part compared to the more enclosed beach earlier.

The wind whipped Pierre’s hair as he took his cap off and sighed. He hooked the cap around his wrist and turned to Alex with a proud smile.

“So?” he asked.

“It looks beautiful over here,” Alex said.

“Yeah.” Pierre’s smile subsided into a mild, thoughtful one. “I like to come over to this side when I have time. Not a lot of people know that you can get over here. It’s nice and quiet and I just like to be alone here.”

“Thank you for taking me to your space.”

“You’re always welcome, Alex.” Pierre leaned over and nudged him softly with his shoulder. “Come here. There’s more cool stuff over on this end.”

Pierre looked so much more comfortable now that he was out of the palace, in his normal clothes, and being himself. He looked so relaxed and calm that it made Alex smile. Watching him bound along the shore, hopping to avoid lumps in the sand, looking so carefree – it just seemed so long ago that Alex had first met him, when he was just a timid, quiet boy who was too afraid to leave the ‘Prince’ out of Alex’s name.

It had only been less than a year, barely six or seven months – but Alex could safely say that Pierre was one of the closest friends he’d ever had. 

The cliff was a tall, wide slab of greyish brown rock with a grassy top. The end of it stretched far along the shoreline, but where they were at the beach, tucked underneath it was a shallow little nook that Pierre and Alex crawled into. It faced directly out at the ocean, and Alex was momentarily stunned by the view.

“I found this little cave when I started coming over to this side,” he told Alex. The nook had just enough space for the two of them to lean back on the cliff wall, slightly sheltered overhead from the sun and the wind but still with enough sunlight entering for them to properly see each other, with the waves lapping softly at their outstretched feet. “It’s really nice. When the sun sets over the water, it’s really pretty.”

The waves seemed to echo more loudly in the enclosed space, though they were calmed by the shore by their feet. Through it, Alex could see the bluest water and the bluest sky, and when he turned to Pierre, his eyes were the exact same colour.

Pierre sighed again as he leaned further back, almost horizontal, his arm under his head for support. He looked a little tired, but happy.

Alex was suddenly so grateful to have him by his side.

“Pierre.”

“Yeah?” Pierre was staring out at the ocean, hitting the walls of the cave and the cliff in a soothing melody.

“Thank you for letting me be your friend.”

Pierre turned to him, resting his cheek on his arm. He smiled encouragingly at Alex. “What’s going on?” he asked.

“Nothing, you just...make me feel normal. That’s all I’ve ever wanted to feel.”

Pierre’s smile grew. “I’m glad,” he whispered.

Pierre was…

He was so handsome, and he didn’t even know it himself.

He was so handsome, and Alex berated himself for only noticing it now.

Pierre seemed so comfortable around Alex, he didn’t even notice Alex watching him. He just gazed out at the little slab of horizon they could see where the cave opened up to the ocean, his eyes half-closed as if he was starting to get sleepy.

He’d been right, and the sunset was stunning. The sky turned a swirl of coral and orange as the sun ducked beneath the horizon beyond the cliff behind them. Right before it became completely dark, just as their surroundings were bathed in a blue hue not unlike the one in Pierre’s eyes, Pierre crawled out of the cave and pulled Alex along.

“We have to go back before it gets completely dark and the tide rises,” he said.

They walked quickly along the beach, Alex scrambling to catch up with Pierre for a while before yelling, “Wait for me!”

Pierre waited, and hooked their arms together with a grin. “Are you scared of the dark?” he asked, teasingly. 

“No,” Alex retorted. “I just don’t want to get lost and die on this beach where no one will find me.”

Pierre chuckled. “Well, let’s get going then. Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.” 

They skipped their way back to the main beach, guiding them ahead with its warm orange lights and general liveliness of people heading home after the sunset – and though Alex was tired and sticky from the salty air, he knew this day out with his best friend Pierre would be a day he would always remember.

------

Pierre’s maman decided that she wanted to meet Alex after a while to see exactly what was up with Pierre’s fancy friend. Pierre had expected her to ask eventually, but she seemed a bit embarrassed about it, which Pierre attributed to their shared family value of being afraid to touch the upper class people.

“My mum wants to meet you,” Pierre told Alex one day after their study session. 

“Really?” Alex sounded so eager to please. “Tell her she can come by the palace for dinner. We’ll get the kitchen staff to cook her something nice. What does she like to eat?”

“She doesn’t want to come to the palace,” Pierre said. “She doesn’t want to put anyone out.”

“Should I go out to meet her, then?” Alex asked. 

“She wants you to come to our place for dinner,” Pierre said. “But I get it if you don’t want to. It’s a little weird. I mean, we live in a tiny apartment, and she wants to cook for you, but it definitely won’t be as lavish as the dinners you have here, and it’s really small, and –”

“I’ll go.” Alex interrupted Pierre in the middle of his sentence. He gave Pierre a smile. “Yeah. I’ll go to your place for dinner. I think it’ll be fun.”

“Really? I mean, you really don’t have to. I just wanted to tell you because she asked me.”

“No, I want to go. Promise. I don’t care that it’s an apartment or that it’s small. It doesn’t matter to me where you live.”

Sometimes, Pierre was...so overwhelmed at how big Alex’s heart was. 

He was going out with Alex to the outskirts of town the next Saturday morning, to the farm Alex usually volunteered at, for a tree-planting event. Pierre had never been there in the whole ten months they’d known each other, instead only helping Alex out with volunteering locally by giving food out, and he was quite excited about visiting and learning more about the new farming methods that Alex was always going on about.

Anyway, the event started early in the morning, so the plan was for Pierre to stay over in the palace so they could head out the earliest they could the next morning. They decided to schedule dinner with Pierre’s family the night before, and then Pierre could go to the palace with Alex for the stayover for the next morning’s event.

Alex arrived at Pierre’s apartment more dressed down than Pierre was used to seeing him outside the palace. Instead of any shirt with a collar, he was only wearing a nice loose sky blue t-shirt and some black jeans, as if he wanted to let Pierre and his family know that it really wasn’t a big deal he was here. 

Pierre went downstairs to get him and Daniel, whom Pierre and his family felt bad leaving out of dinner. The first thing Alex said when he entered the apartment was, “Hi, Mr and Mrs Gasly, do you need help in the kitchen?”

Maman stared at him for a while, shocked, while Pierre only dragged him towards the living room. “Don’t be silly, Alex,” he said.

“I just want to help. I don’t want to put anyone out.”

Like Pierre had the first time he’d met the King and Queen, his dad thought it would be appropriate to bow to Alex, an action that Alex took with grace. He sat on the couch, which was smaller than the smallest one Pierre had seen in the palace, and talked to papa about politics and the economy. Daniel sat beside him, looking at Pierre until he caught Pierre’s eye so he could give Pierre a smile.

“Prince Alex.” Maman didn’t bow, but she shook Alex’s hand. “Good evening. It’s very nice to meet you. Pierre has told us a lot about you.”

“Good evening, Mrs Gasly,” Alex said, taking her hand. “Thank you for having me over for dinner. It all smells really good.”

The formality of it all amused Pierre. It was funny to him how far he had come with Alex; it still seemed like not too long ago when he was hesitant to call Alex just ‘Alex.’

Dinner was a spread, with steak and roasted potatoes for each one of them, and a salad and pasta to share. Daniel looked a bit left out, and although Pierre knew he was used to these things by now, used to just being there to fulfil his responsibility to look after Alex, he couldn’t help but feel for Daniel, so he spent most of the dinner trying to include Daniel in the conversation. 

True to character, Alex spent most of the night educating everybody about farming. But thankfully, papa and maman seemed delighted to listen to everything he said, and they asked him so many questions and Alex just had this enormous smile on his face as he spoke to them. There was a bit of wine poured out and lots of hearty stories and laughter, and Pierre admired Alex for his ability to hold a conversation like that without boring anybody and at the same time just showing everyone how amazing of a character he was.

“Thank you for coming by,” maman said after dinner. “I hope dinner was okay for you. It’s not as big as what you usually have but I didn’t want to trouble anyone to make dinner for us.”

“I had a really great time,” Alex reassured her. “Really. I’m so glad to meet you guys. Thank you for the food.”

Maman had packed a little backpack for Pierre to take to the palace, so Pierre hopped into the car with Alex and Daniel and was driven back to the palace quietly. The guest quarters were separate from the main sleeping quarters, and Alex brought Pierre to a very fancy looking guestroom with a heavy door that somehow didn’t make a single noise when it was opened. 

There were two queen-sized beds in the room, one near the window and the other nearer to the door. There was also an attached bathroom and a small closet for Pierre to hang his things. Pierre really didn’t want to keep comparing the size of the palace to his family’s little apartment, but he felt like that was simply the scale of everything here, and this room alone was the size of his parents’ room and his own put together.

“Make yourself comfortable, yeah?” Alex said. “I’ll go wash up, then I’ll come back.”

“You’re sleeping here, too?” Pierre asked. “Don’t you have your own bedroom?”

“I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable. So I’ll be here, in the other bed. You can choose which bed you want.”

He left before Pierre could respond. Pierre brushed his teeth and got into his pyjamas, then chose the bed near the window. The gold-coloured duvet was heavy but suitably warm as he got under it, and it had flowers embroidered all over it. The sheets were silk so they were super fancy, and Pierre couldn’t stop running his hands along them, fascinated by how smooth and soft they were. The pillowcases were the same material, and the pillows were high and fluffy, and Pierre sunk comfortably into them.

Alex returned a while later, holding a folder and his phone. He smiled when he saw Pierre buried in all the fancy bedding. He put his phone on the bedside table of his own bed and brought the folder over to Pierre.

“I got the schedule and plan for tomorrow,” he told Pierre as he shoved Pierre aside so he could climb in with him. “Let me show you.”

Alex leaned his shoulder on Pierre’s as he showed Pierre a few sheets of paper listing the schedule of the day by hour, and the protocols both Alex and his travelling party had to adhere to. It all seemed very official and rigid and there were so many security instructions in place that Pierre had to ask Alex if he really thought it was suitable for Pierre to join him. 

“Of course it is,” Alex told him. “Don’t be silly. You have to come.”

Then he immediately re-launched into his breakdown of the next day’s festivities, and Pierre – 

Pierre was just so engrossed in how focused and eager Alex always looked when he was trying to teach or explain something to Pierre. He’d seen it many times, every time he studied with Alex in the big quiet study or when they were in the mood to take their books out into the back garden. Many times when Alex was sitting so close to him, Pierre could almost feel the warmth of Alex’s breath on his cheeks.

And every time, when he was pressed so close to Alex, when he could see every curve of his jaw and the rise of his cheeks and the furrow in his brow as he excitedly explained something – Pierre increasingly felt the need to move his head just that inch closer and press his lips against Alex’s.

“Is there anything you don’t understand?” The sound of Alex’s voice rudely jolted Pierre back into reality, and he felt his chance slip away. Alex was still only a few inches away, peering eagerly at Pierre, his eyes searching for Pierre’s attention.

Pierre shook his head, a sudden panic and insecurity taking over him. He pulled a bit away from Alex, and Alex released him from his hot gaze. 

“So breakfast is around half past five, and we’ll try to leave by half past six so we can get there by eight-thirty,” Alex said. “That okay?”

Pierre didn’t know what else to do but nod. He was sure that Alex had already said that before, but Pierre had been too distracted to notice.

“You look tired.” Alex got off the bed and tucked the sheets around Pierre. Pierre wasn’t so much tired as he was just quiet because he was embarrassed that being close to Alex made him react in this way, but it was probably time to sleep, anyway. “Good night. If you need anything, I’m right here, you’re not alone, yeah?”

It was only past nine at night, so it was much earlier than Pierre was used to, but the bed was so comfortable that Pierre was beginning to get sleepy really quickly. He watched Alex climb into the other bed with the blue duvet, then turn off the lights with a switch next to the headboard.

“Good night, Prince Alex,” Pierre called.

Alex gave an adorable chuckle. “Good night, Pierre.”

Pierre had a dreamless sleep, cocooned in the fancy golden bedding.

*

Pierre woke up the next morning ten minutes before his alarm rang to the sun just starting to rise outside the window behind him. 

The sheets were still so comfortable, and Pierre felt like he was floating in a cloud. The sun bathed the room in a golden light as it rose, and unlike the way it looked under the dimmer lighting the previous night, Pierre could finally see the room decor in all its glory.

Each bed sat in a little enclave of its own, with tall wooden bed posts that met the ceiling. The bed sat on a slightly raised platform, and the ceiling above Pierre’s bed had ornate cornices carved into its perimeter. There was a simple abstract painting taking up almost the entire wall next to Pierre, and on the wall above Alex’s head hung a painting of a peacock. Pierre couldn’t hear anything through the walls, which he thought was good, anyway, because he was suitably distracted by how nicely decorated the room was, down to every detail, every dresser, every small table, and every bedpost. It was all so fancy and clean and enormous , and – 

As Pierre looked around from his throne of fluffy blankets and pillows, he couldn’t help but think, “Hmm, I could get used to this.” 

His eyes fell on Alex still fast asleep, so deeply buried under the sheets that only his head was visible, facing towards Pierre. The duvet was rising and falling with his breaths, the signature adorable curls of his hair were falling over his forehead, and his mouth was slightly open, and he looked more peaceful than Pierre had ever seen him. 

Pierre just couldn’t look away.

Alex looked so beautiful when he was sleeping, when he didn’t know Pierre was watching, when he didn’t know how quickly he made Pierre’s heart beat.

Pierre watched him until he was awoken by Pierre’s alarm, blaring out embarrassingly loud from his bedside table. He opened his eyes slowly until his gaze fully landed on Pierre, at which point he smiled.

“Good morning, Prince Alex,” Pierre said.

Alex laughed as he stretched, and Pierre tried and failed to avert his gaze from the little patch of skin he showed when his shirt rode up as he kicked the duvet off himself. “So you’re using your ‘Prince Alex’ quota up first thing in the morning, huh?” His voice was thick with sleep, and it was so endearing, and Pierre didn’t know if he was simply this smitten with Alex or if it was just the time of day that was making his mind go all wonky. 

They headed into the big dining room for breakfast, and although it wasn’t even six in the morning yet, there were already a lot of palace staff up, having breakfast of their own or just helping Alex to set things up. Alex sat down next to Pierre, a plate of full English breakfast in front of each of them. 

Throughout the morning, through breakfast and short briefings and heading outside in the cold morning air to get in their black SUV, Alex never left Pierre’s side. In fact, he went out of his way to ensure that Pierre was never alone for any second. 

Alex never failed to make Pierre feel like although he was nothing but a mere commoner, there was really no need for him to feel uncomfortable in the palace. He never failed to make Pierre feel like in some way, he belonged there just as much as Alex did.

On that day, it was more evident than any other.

Even in the back of the car, as they made the long journey across town and out the other side into the countryside, Alex slid closer to Pierre and asked, “Is everything going okay for you?” 

“Yeah.” Pierre smiled at him. “Everything’s going great. Thank you.”

“What’s gonna happen is that we’ll each have a little plot of land to put a small plant in,” Alex said. “There’ll be someone there to help each of us. There’s about ten, one for you, one for me, and some others for a few other volunteers. They’ll give us instructions and hand us the little plants and they’ll help us if we don’t know how to plant it. Yeah? Later, there’s gonna be cameras and lots of people asking questions, but you’ll stick with me, okay? You don’t have to say anything. Just stick with me.”

Pierre was sure he’d already been told this last night when he hadn’t been listening and had instead been thinking about kissing Alex’s lips, but he was glad Alex was repeating it for him. “Thank you, Alex,” he said.

Alex smiled. He shifted back to his own window and watched the scenery pass as they made their journey out of town; he watched his future Kingdom pass him by.

Pierre did, too, from the other side, feeling so peaceful in the quiet car and the surroundings slowly turning a deeper gold as the sun rose and the buildings gave way to tall grass and small trees. Before he knew it, the paved road they were on was branching out into a dirt road, and Pierre could see the farm in the distance, with its fancy tent and greenhouse.

He was put in front of a small soil plot in the middle of the field neighbouring the farm, with Alex next to him. Each person was given a different tree to transplant from a pot, and Pierre was handed a pot with a small fig tree.

He tried not to let himself get distracted by all the snapping and flashing of the cameras, instead focusing on shifting the lump of tree roots into the hole in the ground. Alex was next to him, some distance away, planting a little apple tree.

Pierre had some trouble getting his tree deep enough into the ground, and struggled to get the tree to stand upright. He was one of the last ones to get his tree in, and Alex came up to him, helping him to heap the soil back on the tree roots and patting it into place. As they worked around the trunk, their arms crossing in every which direction, Alex’s hand eventually landed on top of Pierre’s.

It wasn’t as if Pierre hadn’t touched Alex before, so he was momentarily stunned by the shiver that ran up his spine at the feeling of Alex’s soil-stained, grainy hand on his. Alex didn’t move his hand, as if it was the most natural thing to do, to hold Pierre’s hand like that; and when Pierre finally gathered enough courage to turn to look at him, he was already looking over at Pierre, his eyes bright.

Pierre felt a heavy blush descend on his cheeks, and he smiled a smile at Alex that was shaky at best, but Alex didn’t seem to mind. When he moved his hand away, it was only to hook his pinky with Pierre’s.

Pierre swallowed. If he had to admit, the sight of his and Alex’s hands together like that was…lovely.

Alex handed Pierre the little sign to stick in the ground, with the description of the tree. After Pierre put it in place, they headed to wash their hands, and then were surrounded by people holding up cameras and voice recorders. 

Pierre stuck by Alex’s side like he’d been told to, not because he was afraid of answering a question or two, but just because Alex’s presence – ironically, given how it had made Pierre’s heart skip so many times since the previous night – calmed him. He waited for Alex to fend off the local news station, standing close behind him and jumping when Alex reached for his hand to hook their pinkies together again. 

“Are you okay with a few questions?” he asked Pierre, softly, as the attention was shifted to him. “It’s okay if you don’t want to talk to anybody.”

“I can deal with it,” Pierre said. The other volunteers had already done their media obligations, so Pierre figured it was his basic responsibility. He answered a few easy questions, just about how long he’d been volunteering and what he thought about the initiative, and then Alex brought him on a tour around the whole farm and all its facilities, followed by Daniel and one of the staff, so he could tell Pierre everything about what they did there. 

There were rows and rows of crops, arranged neatly in small sections, some outdoor and some in tents with fancy equipment. There was a small hydroponic greenhouse, and Alex told Pierre about the extra plot of land from next door that the farm had newly acquired and was going to set up more research stations and mini farms on. He pointed out to the horse stables in the distance and told Pierre that he used to take horse riding lessons there with his siblings, and sometimes he would come by and they’d let him ride horses for a few hours in exchange for him helping to clean them. Pierre didn’t think he had ever learned so much in one day.

They headed to a little tent that was set up with food for all the visitors, and sat down together with a plate of rice and vegetables that were apparently fully harvested from this very farm. “Alex. Thank you for sticking with me. You can go hang out with other people during lunch, if you want.”

“It’s okay,” Alex said. “I don’t have anyone else I want to hang out with.”

Daniel sat across from them, quietly, eating from his own plate. Occasionally, someone would stop by to talk to Alex or thank him or just to say hello, but the rest of the time, Alex filled the silence by telling Pierre about the rice and veggies he was eating.

Alex’s voice was just...so soothing. 

His voice, and his presence, and his – his everything.

It had been a surreal day; although Pierre had been volunteering almost all his life, he had never been at an event of this scale, with someone of Alex’s stature. And he wasn’t sure that he would’ve had such a smooth ride if it weren’t for Alex, sticking by his side for the four or so hours, making sure he was comfortable.

In fact, Pierre was beginning to realise he could no longer imagine his life without Alex.

“Alex,” Pierre said, hating how small his voice was, but wanting to say the words before he became too scared to. “Do you...would you like to go out with me sometime?”

Alex raised his eyebrows slightly, but his expression quickly softened again as he smiled. “You mean like a date?”

Pierre nodded, an inexplicable sort of fear so suddenly taking over him that he couldn’t find a word to say. He was suddenly so afraid that he had ruined the amazing friendship he had with Alex. And on top of that, Daniel would be right there to hear it happen, and Pierre didn’t think he’d ever live down the embarrassment. 

“Sure,” Alex said, and it felt like a sigh of relief to Pierre’s soul. Alex moved his hand closer to Pierre’s, still lying palm down on the table between their plates, and hooked their pinkies together just like earlier. “I’d love to.”

“Yeah?” Pierre smiled. “Really?”

Alex nodded. “Yeah. I’ll take you somewhere nice.”

It just seemed so in character of Alex, again, to say he’d take Pierre someplace nice, even though Pierre was the one who was asking him out. But Pierre rode with it, and he finished his lunch and got back into the SUV with Alex and Daniel and their driver.

“Did you have fun?” Alex was in the middle of the backseat this time, his shoulder pressed tight against Pierre’s, completely oblivious to the fact that he was taking Pierre’s breath away. “I hope everything was okay.”

“Everything was okay,” Pierre whispered, unable to find his voice.

Alex didn’t back off towards his own window. Instead, he stayed where he was, and he placed his hand over Pierre’s again, wrapping his fingers around it.

Pierre spent the whole journey back to the palace smiling and blushing, and when he glanced at Alex, Alex was doing the same.

He packed up his things and found that the guestroom was still uncleaned, so he tried to make the bed he’d slept in, but was caught by Alex, who giggled at his efforts and said he didn’t need to bother. 

“Are you sure you don’t need a ride home?” Alex asked as they trodded across the back garden to the gate, Daniel following behind them. 

“Yeah, it’s alright, I’ll just catch the bus.”

Alex opened the gate for Pierre and stepped outside with him. “Dan, could you leave us alone for a bit, please?”

“Sure thing, Your Highness.” Daniel gave a little salute, then headed further into the garden.

“I just wanted to say thank you for going down to the farm with me.” Alex’s voice was low, it was soft, but it was sincere. “It means a lot to me, because volunteering was how we met, and...yeah.”

“I really had fun, Alex. I really did.” Pierre looked down at Alex’s hands, and the urge to hold them again was almost overwhelming. “I learned so many things. Thank you for taking me.”

“Of course. We’ll...we’ll go out soon. Yeah? It’s a date.”

Pierre smiled. “It’s a date.”

“Bye, Pierre.”

Pierre felt another urge, this time to kiss Alex, and he chose to give in. 

Alex’s cheek dimpled with a smile when Pierre tiptoed to press his lips on it. He hugged Pierre close for a second, and Pierre stayed, wishing he could freeze this moment in time, freeze his little kiss on Alex’s cheek, and save it in a snow globe.

They were both blushing again when Pierre finally pulled away. “Bye,” he whispered.

He made it halfway down that back road before turning around, only to see Alex still standing there quietly, his hands in his pockets and the shy smile still on his face. He waved at Pierre, and Pierre jokingly dismissed it, which made him laugh so loudly Pierre could hear it across the space between them.

He hoped no one on the bus was going to notice him smiling stupidly to himself throughout the whole journey, and when he got home he immediately went to his room and buried his face in his pillow so he could scream.

If the thought of Alex alone could bring him such ecstasy – then Pierre really couldn’t wait to see what lay ahead of them.

------

Alex thought long and hard about where to take Pierre on their first date. 

He was more excited about it than he thought he’d be. For a long time, he’d known that the feelings he had towards Pierre were more than warranted just being friends with him. He’d just never been brave enough to make the first move. He blamed the way his life was as a Royal, having everything fed to him on a plate and every invitation be someone else’s decision. Alex barely had to ask for anything, ever.

He was just too afraid that this would go wrong and he would lose Pierre forever.

After all, he had never even dated anyone before. He was far too busy with his normal life, and his parents were far too wary of anyone trying to take advantage of him. Alex knew Pierre was different, and he knew his parents definitely felt the same after getting to know him over his numerous visits to the palace, but Alex didn’t even know yet what he was going to do for his date with Pierre. 

Alex eventually decided to take Pierre out for a really nice meal at a big restaurant, and Pierre seemed content with that. He got his driver and Daniel to drive him to Pierre’s apartment in a Mercedes CLA45, and Pierre greeted him in a brand new dark blue button-up that brought out his eyes.

The restaurant was pretty high-end, so there weren’t many people there, anyway, but Alex had booked out the whole verandah so he could sit outside with Pierre and have the whole space to themselves. Daniel found himself a table inside, where he could watch them both while still giving them enough privacy.

Pierre seemed surprised when he discovered the whole verandah was just for them both, but he quickly eased into it, relaxing into his chair and pondering over the menu. And then he became nervous again when he saw the prices, before Alex told him that he needn’t worry about anything. 

“I just feel bad because I’m the one who asked you out,” he said. 

“But I’m the one who brought you here,” Alex pointed out. “So don’t worry about it.”

They eventually settled on a three-course dinner, and finished it slowly over about two hours. It was quiet and no one could hear them, no one was around, and they talked about everything and nothing at all; Alex had imagined that they’d exhausted every topic they could possibly talk about, but that day he was proven wrong. Pierre told him about his family, about his parents’ hometowns in France and how they’d met and moved to England. He told Alex about his cousins and how he only got to see them once a year. Alex told him about all his siblings and what their plans were, and he told Pierre about his cousins and how even though they were Princes and Princesses by their own right, they lived a far more normal life because none of them belonged to the ruling family, and sometimes Alex wished he could live more like them. 

The slight blush that hung on Pierre’s cheeks throughout dinner was endearing, and Alex thought many times about trying to kiss it away. His best chance came during dessert, when the sun was setting and the two of them moved their chairs closer together so they could watch the pink sky. Pierre finished his chocolate lava cake, almost licking the plate clean, then settled back on his chair with a contented sigh. He seemed to hesitate a bit, but then eventually leaned closer so he could rest his head on Alex’s shoulder.

Everything else seemed to fade away then; all the soft bustling noises from the interior of the restaurant and its kitchen, the chirping of the last of the birds on the lawn in front of them, and the distant rumbling of cars passing by on the road – it was all replaced by the sound of Alex’s heart beating and the rustling of Pierre’s hair against his ear. 

Pierre seemed comfortable, and it made all of Alex’s nervousness disappear. He tucked himself more tightly into Alex’s shoulder as Alex opened his arm. The sun quickly disappeared behind the horizon, and the fairy lights decorating the verandah turned on as the pink sky transformed into a deep purple. They lit up their little table with the empty plates, and they lit up Pierre’s quietly satisfied face.

It was just all so peaceful.

“Pierre,” Alex whispered. 

“Hmm?” Pierre lifted his head off Alex’s shoulder and turned to him, and his face was an inch away from Alex’s, and Alex –

Alex suddenly forgot everything he’d wanted to say. 

Before he could persuade himself out of it, he was leaning forward slowly, and he felt Pierre shifting slightly in his seat until he was twisted to face Alex. His lips fell open and his eyes fluttered shut, and in that moment, time completely stopped for Alex.

Time stopped until Alex’s lips were on Pierre’s, and his heart started beating quicker than the seconds on the clock, ticking more loudly in Alex’s ear than a second hand. Pierre leaned into the kiss gratefully, and Alex hooked a palm below his ear, cupping his face.

Alex had never kissed anyone before, but he was quite sure Pierre had; either way, the feeling of Pierre’s lips on his, soft and tasting slightly like chocolate and vanilla ice cream, sent a shiver up his spine, and he found himself instinctively deepening the kiss. Pierre leaned further forward in his chair, his hand sliding over Alex’s waist and making Alex keen towards him. 

They pulled apart quickly when the door to the verandah rattled, thinking someone was coming outside, but it turned out to just be the wind. Pierre was peering shyly at Alex when Alex turned back to him, and he chuckled softly when Alex took his hand and gave it a squeeze.

“Can I kiss you again?” he asked Alex. 

Alex nodded, and this time when Pierre’s lips landed on his, they felt familiar, and they felt calm and sweet and Alex just never wanted to pull away ever again.

“How was dinner?” he whispered.

Pierre smiled. His eyes were still hooded, as if he was still staring at Alex’s lips. “It was a bit fancy. But I really liked it.”

“Do you want to head back to the palace? We can hang out for a bit. I’ll show you my bedroom for real.”

“Our first date and you’re already bringing me to your bedroom?” Pierre teased.

“And what about it?”

Pierre’s giggles travelled like a melody through the still night air. He took one last gulp from his glass of water and stood up, pulling on Alex’s hand. 

They spent the journey home hand in hand in the backseat of the Merc, trading occasional kisses despite the presence of Daniel and the driver. When they got to the palace, Alex led Pierre through the winding carpeted hallways straight to his bedroom, where they could have more privacy.

Alex’s bedroom was even bigger than the guestroom that he’d shared with Pierre, though it was decorated in a more modern style. The walls were all off-white save for the one above his bed, which was a prussian blue. He had a king-sized bed that faced a TV mounted on the wall, a table with a gaming computer, a walk-in wardrobe, several dressers, and an attached bathroom. He also had a bay window packed with cushions and a stack of books he was reading. There was a little couch near the entrance, which Pierre sat on warily.

“It’s very nice,” he said softly. “It’s very big. It’s like, more than half of my apartment.”

“Do you like the way I’ve made it up? Mother and Father let me do it on my own.”

Pierre nodded. “It’s very bright and beautiful. You have – you have a lot of things.”

Alex brought him to the walk-in closet. “This didn’t use to be so organised,” he told Pierre. “When I met you and I got to know you and I learned about how you loved things that were organised, I came back and put everything in order. Now we have formal stuff on one side and casual stuff on the other, and they’re all organised by colour.”

Pierre nodded, though he gulped loudly and he suddenly looked really nervous. “That’s – that’s nice, Alex. It’s very nicely organised.”

“Is there anything wrong?” Alex asked.

“I just…” Pierre’s voice trailed off as he did a semi-turn to look around again.

“What’s going on?” 

“Are you sure about this?” Pierre asked. “Us?”

Alex nodded. “Of course. Why?”

“I’m just a normal person,” Pierre whispered.

“So am I,” Alex said.

“I just…” Pierre sighed. He gestured at the wide array of clothes around him. “I’m not worthy. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked you out. It wasn’t my place. I’m sorry, Prince Alex.”

“Don’t say that.” Alex grasped on to Pierre’s elbow as Pierre tried to pull away. “Pierre. Don’t call me that. Just call me Alex. Call me Alex.”

“I…” Pierre swallowed, and it looked like he was swallowing tears. 

Alex slid his hands up the sides of Pierre’s neck, pulling him back closer. He cupped Pierre’s cheeks, his soft cheeks that were decorated with the slightest, shyest blush, and pushed his head against Pierre’s.

“Call me Alex, please,” he whispered.

Pierre’s eyes were a piercing blue as Alex looked into them. They were a tense, nervous blue, and Alex got lost in them for a moment, realising they were the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

“Alex,” Pierre said, softly.

Out of every single person in the world, Alex loved hearing his name from Pierre’s lips the most.

He gave Pierre a smile, and the tension in his eyes disappeared. They looked like two drops from the ocean, scooped up personally by God’s hand. He pressed another kiss to Pierre’s lips, then pulled him into a hug, which he leaned into gratefully.

“Don’t say you’re not worthy ever again, okay?” 

“I’m just a bit overwhelmed,” Pierre whispered. “Sorry.”

Alex began to realise that the entire day – from picking Pierre up in a nice car and nice clothes, to bringing him to a restaurant where Alex had booked out the entire verandah just for the two of them to spend two hours on, to taking him back to the palace and showing him Alex’s excessively flashy bedroom – only served to remind Pierre over and over again of the gulf between them in terms of what they could afford.

Alex had always been more down-to-earth than his family background afforded him to be; he had always hoped to be humble, to be understanding, to give back to society, and never to flaunt too much of his wealth and how he could simply snap a finger and get anything he wanted. That day, just by wanting to give Pierre a nice day and everything he wished, Alex had inadvertently stepped over that boundary that he had set for himself.

“If you don’t like big things or extravagant things – if you didn’t like that I booked the verandah, then next time I won’t,” Alex said. “Okay? I’m sorry I made you uncomfortable.”

“It’s okay.” Pierre’s voice was muffled in Alex’s shoulder. “I just...I’m not used to things like this.”

“I just want to give you everything you want,” Alex said softly. “Anything you want, I’ll try to give it to you. I – I took it overboard and I’m sorry.”

“No, I...I just need some time to come to terms with it. Alex. It’s not your fault. I just really, really like you, but we’re so different, and I just...yeah.”

He didn’t think he would ever match up to Alex. He didn’t think he could give Alex the same things Alex could give him. 

Alex understood. But Alex didn’t care . 

He just wanted to spend time with Pierre because Pierre made him so happy, and they could always talk about so many things, and when Pierre laughed it made Alex happier than anything else ever had.

“We’re not different,” he told Pierre. “We really aren’t.”

Pierre pulled away from the hug to peer up at him, and he had the tiniest smile hanging on his lips, and a wave of relief rushed over Alex, because he realised that Pierre understood. He understood that besides the fact that Alex was a Prince and he wasn’t – they weren’t different at all. 

“I don’t care about what you can give me,” Alex whispered. “Because by being with me, by being here, you’re already giving me everything I’ve ever wanted. And I’m so happy that you asked me out. I’m so happy.”

Pierre nodded. His hands slipped around Alex’s waist. “Okay,” he said softly. “Me, too.”

“Did you – did you have a nice day? You know, besides...right now.”

“I did. I really did.” Pierre’s smile grew, and it felt like a flower of relief was blooming in Alex’s heart, replacing the earlier fear that he was about to lose Pierre. “I kinda liked that you booked that entire place. I didn’t expect it. I’ve never done something like that. It’s quite sexy.”

Alex burst into laughter. “Yeah. I like to treat myself sometimes.”

“You should. I’ve known you for so long and you’ve always dedicated your attention to other people and never yourself.” Pierre ran his thumbs over Alex’s cheeks, his touch soft as a feather. “You just...don’t have to do that for me all the time. Okay? I don’t need all of that. I just want to be with you.”

“Okay. We’ll just be sexy occasionally.”

Sometimes, when Pierre laughed, he threw his entire body into it.

It would catch Alex off guard, but the sound of it was so loud and enchanting and comforting that it would also make Alex laugh. 

“I really had a great time,” Pierre said. “It was really nice. Thank you.”

“So...does this mean we get to go out again?” Alex asked.

Pierre’s laughter had subsided into a soft giggle. “Yeah.”

“Next time, you get to plan where we go, okay?”

“Okay.” Pierre hooked his arms over Alex’s shoulders and pressed their noses together. “I’ll draw up a plan and submit it to you for approval, my Prince.”

“Hmm.” Alex kissed him again, and his lips were upturned, and it just placed a warmth in Alex’s heart. “No. Surprise me.”

“Deal.”

“Do you want to go home?” Alex gently swept Pierre’s hair off his forehead. “I’ll take you home. We can walk.”

“Are you allowed to walk home with me?”

“I’ll just get Daniel to drive behind us like our own personal security guard.”

The way Pierre laughed was so genuine and joyful that Alex couldn’t risk disappointing him and had to ask poor Daniel to drive at a snail’s pace behind them as they took a leisurely stroll halfway through town to Pierre’s apartment block. But it really was the best kind of ending to their date, just them both, hand in hand, their voices ringing in the night, as if the town belonged to them both. 

“I’ll text you about next time, yeah?” Pierre said as they stopped at his doorstep.

“Okay.” Alex kissed him again, and they got lost in it for a few moments before Daniel gave a kind honk of his horn. “Mm. Go inside. I won’t leave until you’re inside.”

Alex waited until Pierre was upstairs and stuck his head out the window to wave at him before he got into the car and let Daniel drive him home.

“Are you happy?” Daniel asked as they cruised the empty streets.

Alex caught his eye in the rearview mirror. Sometimes, he thought that he was closer to Daniel than he was to any other member of his own family. Daniel had heard conversations that no one else did, that no one else was supposed to, and he had kept them secret. He understood Alex in a way no one else did, probably because he shared every minute of Alex’s daily life.

“I think I’ll be happy with Pierre,” Alex said.

Daniel smiled. “Good.”

The ride back home was short and quiet, and Alex spent the entirety of it smiling to himself.

------

Pierre had always thought it was super lame that he was seventeen and he hadn’t even had his first kiss. 

But he didn’t care anymore, because now he’d kissed Alex, and he could kiss Alex every day, and that was worth more than the wait.

Alex seemed to think Pierre had dated before; he seemed to think that Pierre was quite popular with the men and the ladies, despite Pierre obviously being the most dorky person he knew himself. He giggled a whole lot when he found out that they were each other’s first kiss, and then made a big whiny deal about how he wanted Pierre to be the only person he’d ever kiss.

Pierre attributed his clinginess and how comfortable he was around Pierre to the fact that they’d been such close friends before they’d started dating, and sometimes, he just had to sit back and marvel at how the universe had worked things out for them.

For their second date, Pierre got Alex to come down to the beach after one of his morning shifts. He was changing out of his sweaty singlet into a nicer black t-shirt when he saw Alex running down the slope from the carpark to meet him, his long arms flailing in all directions. 

“Hey,” Pierre managed to say after Alex had finished showering him with kisses. “I think someone misses me.”

“Nope,” Alex said happily. He grabbed Pierre’s hand. “C’mon. Where are you taking me? To the beach?”

“Somewhere special.” Pierre picked up the picnic basket he’d prepared and set by the corner of the lifeguard shed. “I hope you’ll like it.”

“I’ll like it.”

They passed Daniel, who was sitting in the car with all the windows down so the wind blew through his curls. He was reading something on his tablet again, and he waved at Pierre and Alex as they walked by.

“Take care of him,” he called. “I trust you.”

Behind the carpark was an obscure dirt path that led into the meadow that could be seen from the beach below. The path upwards was gently sloping, although there wasn’t a trail through it. No one really knew it was accessible up here because it all looked so overgrown and wild, but Pierre loved exploring and he had been up here many times just to escape the buzz of the beach, so he knew the way up. He liked going up there alone, especially when the moon was full and the tide got high at night.

The clifftop was about as wide as the length of a football pitch, and it rose twenty or so meters above the water. Pierre’s favourite corner was the one furthest from the beach, where it faced the west and directly where the sun would go down. The sea met the ocean right below this side, and the waves roared more loudly. There were little yellow wildflowers blooming in the sun near the edges of the cliff, and Alex wandered over to the side closer to the beach to look down at the secluded beach below and the crowded beach further in the distance. Pierre opened the picnic basket and started laying out the sandwiches, fruits, and iced tea that he’d prepared just for this occasion.

“It’s really nice up here,” he said, running his hand through his hair, which the wind was slightly whipping around, as he walked back towards where Pierre was.

“Yeah.” Pierre smiled. “C’mon. Sit down, I made you some food.”

They shared the sandwiches and the tea over some casual conversation, the kind of casual conversation that Pierre so often enjoyed with Alex. The wind blew their laughter away, but it didn’t matter to them, because as soon as their laughter drifted away, it was quickly replenished with more laughter.

After finishing off the food by feeding each other strawberries under the pleasantly warm sun, they lay down on the picnic blanket and watched the clouds float by against the stark blue sky. 

“The sky is the same colour as your eyes,” Alex said.

Pierre smiled. He loved the way Alex said it. The sky is the same colour as your eyes . Not your eyes are the same colour as the sky. 

He turned his head towards Alex, and Alex was already smiling at him. “And yours are liquid gold,” Pierre told him, shifting his slight curls out of his eyes. 

Alex’s kiss was warm and welcoming and soothing like the summer wind. The way he held Pierre was so soft, as if Pierre was a jewel Alex was afraid to break. Yet, he moved so eagerly against Pierre, and he enveloped Pierre in so much love and passion that Pierre didn’t really know what to do with all of it.

“The sunset is really spectacular from up here,” Pierre told him once they’d settled on their backs again, Pierre snuggled up in Alex’s shoulder.

“How will we get down in the dark?”

“It’s a full moon tonight. I only stay up here till dark when it’s the full moon, because it’ll light the way back down. But I also brought a torch in case it’s cloudy.” Pierre poked Alex on the nose. “You just hold my hand. Don’t be scared.”

“I’m not scared.”

“Mhm. Don’t worry. I’ll keep you safe, my Prince.”

Alex tutted, and turned himself into Pierre’s side. They lay there, snoozing and laughing and kissing, as the clouds swirled above them. They only got up to watch the sun dip down below the horizon, which was something they couldn’t see from the beach due to the cliff’s obstruction. 

“I love this,” Alex told Pierre as they were navigating the fifteen-minute route back down to the carpark, hand in hand. “It’s very simple but I had a really good time. I don’t need anything more than this. Thank you, Pierre. For always making me feel normal like I’ve always wanted.”

Pierre smooched him on the nose. As they emerged back into civilisation under a streetlight, he could see Alex was a little sunburnt on his cheeks and the tip of his nose, and it was so endearing it made Pierre laugh.

He sat in the backseat with Alex as Daniel drove him to his apartment, thinking about how lucky he was that his Prince Alex, his best friend and his first love, loved the simple things like he did.

------

As winter descended on them that year, the research farm Alex volunteered at had their annual charity drive, sponsored by the Royal Family. That year, they were distributing bags of produce to the surrounding estates, which littered the vast fields and meadows further out of town. Some of them were their own farms, but others were merely old couples or small families living quietly on their own who could really use some of the produce for winter.

Alex decided to take Pierre along with him that year. They had another sleepover in the palace, this time in Alex’s own room, and Alex really was so proud of Pierre for getting comfortable with being in the palace after all this time.

They were to stay over at the farm for a weekend, and early that Saturday morning they were bundled in thick sweatshirts into a car to be driven there. They spent the journey huddled asleep for warmth, and it was strange to Alex sometimes, but Pierre smelled the best when he was asleep.

It was exhausting even to Alex himself, going around in a van all day hauling bag after bag, box after box of groceries up other people’s driveways; but at the end of the day they had travelled over fifty kilometers and helped almost thirty families, talking to each of them personally, and it was the sense of accomplishment Alex felt that overpowered any other feeling.

They had some time that evening for themselves, so they took their rice and beans dinner and went out further into the land surrounding the main farming area. They found their transplanted fig and apple trees where they’d left them, now a little bigger, and sat in front of Pierre’s fig tree until the sun went down and all they could see were the farmhouse lights in the distance guiding them home.

“This tree was the start of our relationship,” Pierre said. “Maybe our relationship will grow with this tree.”

Alex was convinced it would.

On Sunday they headed out bright and early again to deliver breakfast to the same families, prepared by a small army of cooks at the farm and Pierre and Alex, who’d gotten up at ungodly hours to help out. While the big van headed out to the houses further out on the main road, Alex and Pierre got on bikes with five meal packages each and cycled to the nearest properties on the more inaccessible dirt roads.

The trip was quick, and they hit each house just as the families were waking up, so it was perfect timing. The countryside dirt road was quiet as they stopped at the side of it, in the acres of land between two farm properties, to share the one remaining package for breakfast.

It was there, huddled with Pierre on the side of the empty road, with the low late morning sun turning the drab winter farmland golden around them, laughing as they dug into a single packet of food – that Alex really realised how deeply in love he was with Pierre.

“Hey,” he said to Pierre, who was gathering all their garbage into a bag because there was no bin nearby. “I think we’re done for the day. You wanna just wander around for a bit?”

“Okay.” Pierre grinned at him. To be fair, he always looked eager whenever Alex suggested something, as if he was happy enough to just go along with whatever Alex wanted to do and didn’t care so much about the activity. “Where should we go?”

They got back on their bikes with their big bottles of water and their rubbish, and they continued cycling on that dirt path that Alex had cycled along alone so many times before when he came to the farm. It was quite a straight, sandy road, and they had no problem cycling down it, racing each other and giggling as the wind blew through their hair. 

Alex let Pierre go ahead a few times, simply because he was just so mesmerised by how peaceful Pierre looked, in his sky blue hoodie that complimented his eyes, and his grey sweatpants, and his hair swirling in all directions on his head. He stood up on his bike as he pedaled along excitedly, leaning forward in search of their next adventure. In the barren landscape surrounding them, the brown meadows and empty farmland, and the boring white sky, Pierre was the only thing that stood out in Alex’s eyes, and he looked so beautiful when he smiled.

They had to stop midway through so Alex could call Daniel and tell him he was safe and just exploring with Pierre. The countryside being so sparsely populated made it both safer and more dangerous in different ways, so Alex promised to give Daniel a call at least once every hour and keep his phone’s GPS on so Daniel could track him. 

Meanwhile, Alex just rode along leisurely and appreciated the way Pierre looked, like a piece of art deserving of a spot on the wall of a museum, as he paddled along eagerly. 

It was right before they turned around to go back to their farm when they chanced upon a field of white winter wildflowers that intrigued Pierre so much, they had to stop and prance through it like they were in a movie. 

But it was wintertime after all, so the sun began setting early, and they had to reluctantly begin their journey back to the farm. 

“Do you come out here often when you’re on the farm?” Pierre asked as they headed back, the sun setting behind them and turning the sky a muted orange ahead of them.

“Yeah,” Alex said. The wind through his hair, the silence of the countryside, and the complete lack of people – it had never failed to make Alex feel like he was just some normal kid instead of someone who had been trained his whole life to one day take over the Kingdom. 

“Makes you feel normal?”

“Mhm.”

The trip back was quieter than it was out, with just the sound of their wheels on the sandy road and the gears of their bikes rattling softly, and the whoosh of air in Alex’s ears. Their front lights dimly lit up the way in front of them after the darkness descended, and Pierre was quiet, as if he knew Alex just wanted to savour these precious moments.

Wandering the countryside late at night alone on his bike might’ve never failed to make Alex feel normal, but – wandering the countryside late at night on his bike with Pierre made Alex feel like this was real, and not just a temporary escape.

They were over halfway back, and they’d just made a brief stop so Alex could call Daniel, when Alex decided to say, “Race you back.”

Pierre accepted the challenge, rearing his head forward again as he cycled, not knowing that Alex was deliberately letting him ahead so he could watch him again. Pierre looked like he was in a film. He looked so carefree and so enchanting and when he turned back and smiled at Alex, his face was lit up by Alex’s front light, and he looked like an angel. 

“Come on, my Prince, you can’t lose to a commoner like me,” he said, his voice so happy as it rang out towards the almost pitch black grasslands on either side of them that it almost seemed to light them back up again.

Alex just wanted to keep this memory forever.

This memory of just them, just two normal kids in love, exploring the countryside together on their bikes. Without any burdens. Without any responsibilities to return to.

He caught up to Pierre, and they cycled back side by side, Alex telling stories only so he could hear Pierre’s laughter like music in the otherwise silent night.

They were both understandably exhausted by the time they’d showered and climbed into bed in the guesthouse, but they decided that they would take out their phones and compare the candid photos that they’d taken of each other throughout the day. There were many, some of them pure works of art and others no more than accidental snaps of blurry grass, but Alex loved all of them, and he kept all of his and told Pierre to keep all of his, hoping that one day he could perhaps have everything printed out in a photo album.

Alex’s favourite was one he’d taken of Pierre, in the rush of cycling one-handed; Pierre was in focus in his sky blue, in contrast to the plain grassland that was only a blur in the background as they whooshed past. He was cycling next to Alex, and had turned to give him a big, happy smile, his hair blowing in all directions in the wind.

He looked so peaceful and free, and Alex wanted him to always be that happy.

Alex wondered when would be the next time he would be allowed to feel so normal again. 

He held that photo against his chest until they both fell asleep, their fingers intertwined.

------

Alex loved going to the beach to surprise Pierre so much that Daniel eventually caught on to it.

Whenever Alex had some free time in his schedule, he would simply ask, “Beach time?”

“Beach time,” Alex would say, and be driven to the beach in a little less than twenty minutes.

Most times, he liked to catch Pierre on the beach so he could jump into Pierre’s arms and wrap his legs around him like a koala. After saying hello and giving Pierre a kiss on his stupid surprised face, he would just relax with Daniel under the shade of a tree. He would have a cap pulled over his head to stay unidentified, and they would watch Pierre pitter around doing his selfless job. When Pierre was off his shift, they would head to the secluded beach to watch the sunset from the little cave, except on days when the moon was full, when the tide would flood the cave and cover almost the whole beach.

That Thursday afternoon, it was a bit different. 

Alex went down to greet Pierre as usual, armed with a bottle of rose-flavoured iced tea, Pierre’s favourite, for Pierre to cool down. He found Pierre in the middle of the beach, with a little girl sitting between his legs, immersed in building herself a sandcastle. 

”Alex!” When Pierre was excited, he started to sound more French. “This is my friend Ava.”

The girl was about three or four years old, and she looked up at Alex with big blue eyes. “Are you Prince Alex?” she asked, curiously but politely. 

Alex put a finger to his lips. “Yeah, but it’s a secret,” he pretended to whisper. 

She seemed excited to be let in on the secret, and content enough to go back to building her sandcastle, which Pierre was helping her with. Alex sat watching them for a while, watching Pierre’s hands move flawlessly over the sand as he helped her mould it into a castle. Watching Pierre curl himself over so he could talk to her at eye level. He had a big smile and he was so kind when he spoke and he made her laugh so much. 

Ava’s mother was just relaxing further up the beach, and she let her daughter run around with Pierre, winding around the groups of people as they played catch. Her laughter littered the beach, a high pitched melody accompanied by Pierre’s lower voice as he pretended not to be able to catch her, and then pretended to trip and fall so she could catch him with her little legs. 

When she was tired enough, they settled down in front of her mum, trying to see who could bury the other person deeper in the sand. Alex wandered back to where Daniel was sitting, waiting under their usual tree, watching Alex. 

“I think I wanna have kids with him,” Alex said as he settled down next to Daniel.

Daniel gave an incredulous laugh. “Really?”

Alex watched as Pierre hugged Ava goodbye and kissed her on the head, and she gave him a reciprocal kiss on the cheek. He was – he was just so gentle with kids, and he was so selfless, and he loved helping other people. Alex was convinced he would be a great parent. “Yeah.”

“Don’t you think it’s a bit too early to be thinking about that? You’re seventeen.”

It was just like Daniel to always be the voice of reason for Alex. “I just feel like I see myself with him long enough for us to have kids together.”

Daniel smiled. “Yeah. That’s nice.”

They sat quietly until Pierre came prancing towards them with his empty bottle of iced tea. He sat down next to Alex and gave him a lingering kiss on the lips.

“Hi,” he said.

“Hey, you.” Alex tapped him on the nose.

Daniel took that as a sign to head back to the car, leaving Alex and Pierre alone. Pierre leaned into Alex’s arms, and although it was only the beginning of spring, the top of his head was warm from being in the sun all day.

“Are you tired?” Alex asked him.

Pierre shook his head. “My shift will be over in a bit. Then we can go watch the sunset.”

It was all calm for a while as they watched the beachgoers intermingle in front of them, beyond the grassy slope. Alex wrapped Pierre more tightly against his side, and Pierre chose to hold Alex’s other hand, playing with his fingers and sliding his hand in and out from between them.

And then suddenly, there was a loud scream from the beach.

Pierre’s head whipped towards it immediately, but before Alex could register the pair of short little arms waving in the greyish blue water some distance from the shore, Pierre had already gotten on his feet and was charging straight at it.

Alex ran after him, but Pierre ran so fast , he was diving into the water and swimming out before Alex even got halfway down the beach. He saw Ava’s mum standing along the shore, knee-deep in the water, screaming out towards the sea, and he realised that Ava was the one those little arms belonged to. 

The water was neck-high for Pierre by the time he got out there, so Alex could imagine how terrified Ava must’ve been. He stood some distance away, watching Pierre swim her back to shore with her head above water as she struggled, smacking him several times in the face.

“I’ve got you. I’ve got you,” he was whispering to her as he ran upshore with her, setting her on the ground as the crowd dispersed. He checked in her mouth to see if she was choking on anything, then let her slowly cough up all the water she’d swallowed. “Are you alright?” he asked her, wiping her face with his hands. “Yeah? Do you remember me? You remember your mama? Yeah?”

Ava started crying, and her mum looked so relieved and yet so petrified at the same time, she didn’t hear Pierre asking her to call an ambulance.

“Alex,” Pierre said. “Can you?”

“On it.”

The call for the ambulance was quick, but Alex didn’t want to suffocate Ava by joining the little group on the sand, so instead he just stood by. Another lifeguard came by with some warm blankets to wrap Ava up in as she shivered. Pierre asked her a bunch of questions about herself, and he cooed at her in a baby voice so she would stop crying and they could see if she was breathing properly, and he didn’t let go of her or take one step away from her until the ambulance arrived and bundled her in.

“She looks alright, doesn’t she?” Pierre asked Alex as they stood in the carpark watching the ambulance drive away with Ava and her mum in the back. “I mean, after she’d stopped coughing and started talking to us.”

“Yeah. I hope she’ll be fine.”

“She got washed out by a big wave. It happens a lot.” Pierre sighed. “I hope her mum doesn’t blame herself. The waves are quite unpredictable sometimes.”

Even in such a tense moment, Pierre still refused to assign blame, and he still refused to see the situation as anything other than a problem he would give everything to solve.

Alex turned and wrapped him in a tight hug, in that moment realising that nothing, no words or actions, would ever be able to express to Pierre how Alex felt about him.

“I’m very proud of you,” he whispered. “For staying so calm and for saving a life. I’ve never seen anyone so calm in a situation like this.”

Pierre chuckled. “Thank you.”

Alex could tell that he was pretty shaken by it all, even though he put on a calm facade. At the very least, the adrenaline rush must be subsiding rapidly. “Are you tired? You saved someone’s life. You must be really tired.”

“I’m alright. It’s part of the job.” Pierre sighed against Alex’s shoulder. “Maybe just a bit surprised.”

“Let’s go home after your shift. Forget about the sunset. We’ll have many more of those.”

Pierre got changed into some dry clothes, and they left just as the sky was turning pink. Upon special permission from Father, Alex got two portions of dinner delivered to his bedroom so he could have dinner with Pierre alone in bed.

Dinner was a simple beef stew and drop dumplings, which was perfect for the rattled, starving Pierre. There was a comedy playing on TV, which amused Pierre, and he finally looked warm and satisfied again by the time his bowl was clean. He hadn’t been planning to stay over, but he looked so exhausted that it took practically nothing at all for him to give in to Alex’s request to just brush his teeth and get into bed.

It was dark beyond the translucent curtains of Alex’s room once they turned the lights off, save for the bright half-moon Alex could see hanging low in the sky that bathed the entire room in a gentle blue. He bundled Pierre close to him, instinctively still wanting to keep him warm from his earlier swim, although it didn’t look like he needed it anymore.

“You did well.” Alex pressed a kiss on the top of his head. “I’m so proud of you.”

Pierre smiled as he burrowed deeper beneath the sheets and into Alex’s arms. “I hope she’s alright. She’s my friend.”

How anyone could be so pure and wholesome and yet so headstrong and heedless, Alex could never really understand.

But as he fell asleep that night with Pierre safely in his arms, he realised that was only part of how out of this world Pierre was.

------

Pierre’s favourite evenings were the ones he could spend with Alex on their own beach, in the little sea cave, talking about life to the rhythm of the sea. 

The pink sky started to remind him of Alex, even when he saw it alone from his bedroom window in the morning; the way the pastel colours swirled as the sun went down, coupled with Alex always by his side, whether they got to see the sun disappear behind the horizon from the top of the cliff or just its shadow when they hung out in the cave – it was simple, but it was these moments that Pierre knew he would cherish forever. 

The secluded beach wasn’t as terrifying to Pierre in the dark as it used to be before, now that he could hold Alex’s hand as they navigated it on the way back to the carpark. It was the site of many of their dates, usually in the evening for sunset and lasting way into the night, since it was the time of day Alex was free from his duties. 

On days they didn’t make the excursion all the way to the end for the cave, they would lie down on the sand and look up at the sky, watching it turn slowly from blue to dark purple and every shade in between. They would stay until the tide rose and the waves started to tickle their feet, at which point they would get up for a swim if it wasn’t too cold. 

It was a full moon that night, which usually meant that they’d be on the cliff having a picnic dinner, but summer had just started and it was nice and warm on the beach, so Pierre and Alex decided to spend the late sunset on the sand.

“Do you realise that we’ve known each other for two years?” Alex asked as he heaped a pile of sand into a mound, only for it to be washed away by a wave a few seconds later.

“Yeah?” Pierre smiled. He still remembered the first day he’d met Alex, at the meal distribution facility, like it was only yesterday. “It’s been the best two years of my life.”

“Me, too.” Alex flung a lump of wet sand at Pierre, laughing when it hit him on the shoulder and slid off in little bits.

“That’s not very nice.” Pierre flung a mound back at him. It was dark now, but it was a cloudless night and the moon was big and bright, and it lit up all of Alex’s features, especially his big cheeky smile. 

The waves lapped at their feet again, and the moonlight looked spectacular on their crests, a shining silver. It all looked so serene and quiet, and it felt so peaceful, especially with Alex by his side, the moonlight reflecting off his cheekbones.

“Wanna go for a swim?” he asked Pierre.

The tide was up, so they didn’t have to wade too far out for it to get just above waist level. They dipped into it for a while, so they were just two bobbing heads talking to each other, and the way Alex laughed was soft but it was louder to Pierre’s ears than the waves were.

As they lay on their backs, floating hand in hand in the calmer waves, Pierre was suddenly hyper aware of the fact that it was just the two of them, just him and Alex alone, for at least the two hundred or so meters until the carpark where Daniel waited.

Pierre closed his eyes, wondering how it was possible for one person to feel this much happiness. 

Alex let go of his hand after a while to swim a little further out, and Pierre watched him as he basked in a little patch of moonlight, looking like a statue hand-carved from the finest marble. He tried to lift his feet off the ground to float on his back, but was caught out by a sudden wave that swept him a little further out.

“Oh, no,” he called out to Pierre, calmly and with yet another mischievous smile on his face. He threw his hand out towards Pierre as the bobbing waves slowly carried him further. “Come and save me, Pierre. I’m so scared.”

Pierre burst into laughter, and Alex followed suit, briefly giggling before he resumed his damsel in distress roleplay. “Help me, Pierre!” he yelled dramatically into the night. “Help, I need a lifeguard!”

It wasn’t even that deep; Pierre could still stand on his feet, and Alex was even taller, so Pierre knew he was only trying to have some fun. All Pierre needed to do was follow the grin on Alex’s face and swim out a bit.

He pulled Alex back by the ankles, sliding him across the top of the waves towards Pierre and wrapping his legs around Pierre’s waist in one swift move. Alex was giggling profusely as Pierre pulled him close, looking down at Pierre from a head higher up, his hands cupping Pierre’s cheeks.

Pierre keened upwards to press a brief kiss to his lips. “You’re safe now, my Prince.”

“Thank you, my knight in shining armour.” Alex looked so pleased with himself that Pierre gave in to his teasing, that Pierre indulged his little jokes and his playfulness. He leaned over to kiss Pierre again, his arms hooking over Pierre’s shoulders as he deepened the kiss.

“What?” Pierre asked, smiling. 

“Nothing,” Alex said.

But he didn’t stop giggling, so Pierre tightened his grip around Alex’s waist and dunked him into the water horizontally, leaning over him so they could kiss under the waves. 

Alex flailed for a while before he settled into the kiss, his legs wrapping more tightly around Pierre and his hands finding the sides of Pierre’s head again. It was completely dark and completely silent, and Pierre couldn’t sense anything else except the feeling of Alex’s lips on his. He didn’t need to sense anything else. He was floating in a lightless void with Alex by his side, and it was all that he’d ever needed.

They were both breathless when they resurfaced, grabbing on tightly to each other as the waves nudged them around. Alex’s lips hung open as he tried to catch his breath, but they softened into a smile when he saw Pierre was doing the same. He took Pierre’s nose between his fingers and wiggled it around, and it made the both of them giggle.

“You look very beautiful tonight,” Pierre told him.

“Yeah?” Pierre couldn’t see the blush on Alex’s cheeks, but they were slightly warm when Pierre pressed his thumbs on them. “You look very beautiful, too.”

“It’s the moon.”

“Yeah. She makes everything surreal.”

Pierre smiled. He kissed Alex on his nose, and Alex – Alex just looked so heavenly, the contours of his body bathed in silver, his hair glistening with seawater, and his strong shoulders enveloping Pierre. He was like a god. And he was Pierre’s.

“Hey, Pierre,” he said.

“Hmm?”

“I love you,” Alex whispered.

Just the sound of it – the sound of it, hearing it for the first time, gave Pierre butterflies in his stomach. Alex was peering at him shyly, the moon reflecting as two little halos in his eyes, and Pierre felt an overwhelming wave of love wash over him and he just wanted to save this little moment forever and ever.

“I love you, Alex,” he whispered back.

Alex smiled at him as he pushed the wet strands of Pierre’s hair out of Pierre’s face before kissing Pierre again. “Holy fuck, I’m so in love with you,” he murmured.

It was all Pierre heard before he was submerged in the water again, this time by Alex’s will. He felt like he was floating, free and unbothered, only tethered by Alex’s legs curled around him and their lips moving slowly against each other’s. He lifted his feet off the ground and let him and Alex sink for a bit in the shallow water, until Pierre was sitting on the sand and Alex was in his lap. 

It just felt like when Alex was around, Pierre didn’t even need to breathe.

Alex could have chosen anyone in his Kingdom – Alex could have had anybody he wanted, but he chose Pierre. He chose Pierre.

Pierre just...he had never thought anything like this would happen to him. 

They got out of the sea once all the bobbing and kissing tired them out, deciding it was too dangerous to stay. They dripped off near the grass, then headed back to the car, where there were some warm towels so they wouldn’t catch colds and also so Daniel didn’t have to clean out the backseat every single day.

Pierre spent the journey home holding his Alex’s hand and looking at the moon in the sky, following them, silently watching over them, protecting them. 

------

With summer came the annual summertime festival in town that the Royal Family had to be in attendance for, on giant floats that paraded through town. It was quite a casual affair, according to Alex, because the King and Queen didn’t like things to be too showy. But they at least had to appear in semi-formal Royal attire.

“Why don’t you just ask your siblings what they’re wearing?” Pierre suggested. “You can match with them.”

“I don’t wanna match with them.” Alex pouted at the more formal-looking side of his closet. “They’re so tacky.”

Pierre laughed. “Well, we could just go out shopping and get you some new fancy clothes.”

“I don’t want to.” Alex was so whiny when it came to these kinds of family responsibilities. He sat down on the floor in his walk-in closet and sighed sadly. “Pick something for me, Pierre.”

Pierre browsed the collection of formal wear Alex had. There was a wide range, from simple wool sweaters and collared shirts with nothing but the British crest on them to ruffled blouses and bold blazers. To be fair, it was full of perfectly normal clothes, normal button-up shirts of all sorts of colours, but Pierre was more fascinated with the bizarre styles that looked like they came out of a gothic movie or a baroque painting. Especially one of the cream-coloured silk blouses with a ruffled neck that extended halfway down the length of the shirt, and cuffed wrists – it just looked so extravagant, Pierre couldn’t even imagine a situation that warranted its use.

“This is cool,” he said, pulling it out of the rack to hold it over his chest. He went over to the mirror in the corner of the closet so he could see himself. “I like this.”

“Try it on,” Alex said. 

Pierre had a feeling he was only saying that because he was tired of searching for clothes for himself and wanted to waste time doing other things. But he was sitting cross-legged on the floor with his back hunched over and he was looking up at Pierre with the most adorable puppy eyes and Pierre couldn’t think of anything else to do but to give in. 

The blouse fit him perfectly, and its material was so smooth and comfortable against Pierre’s skin, Pierre barely even felt it. Pierre had never even seen or heard of this material before. He suddenly berated the rough cotton shirts and years-old t-shirts he usually wore. 

He examined himself in front of the mirror, tugging at the wrists of the blouse. “What do you usually wear this for?” he asked Alex.

“This is for the real formal stuff.” Alex didn’t seem to be able to take his eyes off Pierre. “Weddings or solemnisations. But I’ve worn it most at knighting ceremonies. Usually with a blazer or coat on top.”

“Can I try that on, too?”

Alex gestured to the far corner of the formal section, where there was an entire rack of dark-coloured blazers, and the occasional red one. “I usually wear the black ones when Father and Mother are around. When I’m the highest rank in attendance, I wear the red ones.”

“Hmm.” Pierre picked out one of the red ones. It had gold embroidery on the lapels and hems, in delicate, symmetrical patterns. “That’s sexy.”

“Try one on,” Alex urged again.

“Am I allowed to? You said these are formal ones.”

“Yeah. I’m letting you. It doesn’t matter.”

Pierre decided not to try any red ones, out of respect. Instead, he picked out a black one made of the softest velvet, with gold embroidery along every hem and an extra line around each wrist. Detailed gold patterns were sewn into each lapel, and Pierre could make out very vague shapes of regal lions. It was slightly tailed and ended at the back of Pierre’s knees, and it was almost too tight for Pierre’s wide shoulders, but it fit, and Alex looked so pleased about it.

“Twirl for me,” he said.

Pierre turned in a circle, and honestly, just wearing this and doing nothing else really did make him feel quite royal. He realised Alex had just been watching him intently all this while, the smile on his face growing bigger and bigger until it eventually burst into a soft giggle.

“Do I look nice?” Pierre asked him.

“You look very handsome in my clothes,” Alex said. He was propped up backwards on his elbows to watch Pierre prance around in clothes that didn’t suit him

“Hmm.” Pierre twirled in front of the mirror again. “I look so fancy. I could get used to this.”

“You’d look very nice as a Prince,” Alex said admiringly, his gaze so gentle and yet feeling like it penetrated Pierre’s entire soul. He didn’t seem to care that Pierre only had his raggedy pair of black jeans to pair with the extravagant upper parts.

“Yeah?” Pierre giggled. “Well, it’s too bad I’m not one, then.”

“You’ll be one if you marry me.”

“What?” Pierre had whipped himself around before he could process anything he was doing or hearing. “Did you – did you just say I should marry you?”

“I mean…” Alex looked a bit embarrassed at how he’d just let it slip out like that. He sat up fully again and fidgeted with his fingers. “If you...if you want to marry me. I’ll let my parents know. And then I’ll do a really nice proposal for you.”

Pierre couldn’t help but laugh at how silly that sounded. He sat down next to Alex on the floor, careful to flare out the tail of his coat so it wouldn’t wrinkle, and Alex’s eyes followed him worriedly. “I don’t need that,” Pierre told him. “The fact that you’ve even thought of marrying me...that’s just so unbelievable to me.”

“Why?” Alex asked. “I love you very much.”

“I just...you know.” Pierre shrugged. He guessed he just liked letting his social status haunt him. “You could have anyone you wanted. Anyone at all in your Kingdom. But you chose me.”

“I’ll always choose you.” Alex wrapped his arms around Pierre’s waist and pulled him closer. “Always. Over and over and over again. It doesn’t matter which life, or which universe. It’s always going to be me and you.”

Pierre leaned in to press a kiss on Alex’s lips. His soft, sweet lips that still gave Pierre the same butterflies as the first time he’d kissed them. “I love you so much,” he whispered.

“I love you too, Pierre.”

Pierre pulled away and leaned his head on Alex’s shoulder. Alex pulled him even more tightly close, placing his lips on the top of Pierre’s hair like he loved to do.

“I know we’re still young and I know it’s a bit surprising,” he said, softly. “I know you constantly think that you’re not good enough for me. But...you are. You’re too good for me. You make me feel so normal, just like how I’ve always wanted to feel. You love me for me, and not for what I have, and you’ve never asked me for anything or tried to take anything from me. You are everything I’ve ever wanted, and now I want to give you everything you want. I want to give you a good life and I want to give your family a good life. Pierre – if you marry me, you won’t be taking anything from me. I promise you. I’ll be giving it all to you myself. Pierre, my love, will you marry me?”

Pierre smiled. With all his doubts cast aside, he really couldn’t think of anything better than to marry his best friend in the entire world.

“Yes, I will, Prince.”

Alex’s lips landed on Pierre’s temple. “I love you.”

“I love you more, Alex.”

Alex chuckled. “I’ll tell my parents that I’m officially proposing marriage. Then I’ll do something really nice for you, and then we’ll have a big fancy engagement party. Yeah?”

Pierre smiled. In all honesty, he was kinda relieved it wasn’t a whole surprise proposal that seemed to be what everyone else expected proposals to be. Pierre wasn’t a big fan of surprises. He was glad that Alex had outright asked him first.

“Anything you want, Prince Alex.”

“Hmm.” Alex said, sighing as he rose to his feet. “I feel like dancing.”

“You can dance with me, my love.” Pierre took his hand and kissed the back of it. “I’ll change out of this fancy thing.”

“I’ll change into one,” Alex said. “We have to practice for our first dance.”

He put on another less extravagant ruffled blouse, but shrugged on a red blazer at Pierre’s request. He would always be of the highest ranking in Pierre’s eyes, anyway.

They turned on some soft music on Alex’s stereo, and they danced and danced, and they laughed and laughed, and – 

If every day was going to be like this for the rest of Pierre’s life, then Pierre really had nothing to complain about.

------

Pierre didn’t really hesitate telling his maman about Alex proposing, even though Alex hadn’t even asked his parents yet and it wasn’t official. He had never had a reason to keep anything from his parents, especially his mother. He guessed being an only child did that to him. 

When he got home that night, he was still buzzing, even though he thought he’d long spent all his energy prancing around Alex’s room in their fancy clothes pretending they were dancing on their wedding night. Maman was in the living room watching TV, and Pierre hopped on the couch next to her, startling her. 

“Maman,” he cooed, leaning into her arms as she hugged him tightly and pressed her nose into his hair. 

“You smell like cologne,” she told him, sniffing his hair again. “Alex’s?”

Pierre giggled. “Maman, I have something to tell you.”

“Yeah? What is it?”

“Alex told me that he wants to marry me.” Just saying the words made Pierre smile again, and it made him blush, and he just couldn’t stand himself when he went all gooey like this. “And I said yes, and he said he’ll tell his parents and he’ll do a proper proposal and we can have a nice engagement party.”

“Really?” Pierre couldn’t really tell if maman was excited about it. She sounded quite calm. 

“He says that he wants to take care of me, and he wants to take care of you and papa, and he’s going to marry me.”

“That’s very nice, Pierre. I’m happy for you.”

“I know you’re worried because he has so much more than we can ever imagine, but – maman. I’ve never once asked Alex for anything. Just like you told me. I love Alex for him, and not his money or his future Kingdom, and I’ve never once stopped trying to show him that. And everything he’s done for me, he’s done of his own will. I never expected that he’d ever want to marry me, but he keeps giving me and giving me and I – I still can’t believe it. That he wants me.”

“I’m not worried, Pierre. I know you’re a good boy and I know you haven’t tried to take advantage of him.”

“He trusts me, maman,” Pierre whispered. “He trusts me like no one else has ever. And I trust him.”

“Okay.” Maman ruffled Pierre’s hair again. “I know that. I don’t need you to defend yourself to me. I trust you, too.”

“You don’t think it’s too young for me to get married?”

“Nothing in your life has changed since you got to know Alex and you got together with him. You haven’t changed, you haven’t been any greedier or any more entitled. What you like hasn’t changed, and you’ve even been doing better at school. And you’ve told me that all he wants is to be a normal person with you. I know he’s very kind and he loves helping the less fortunate, and that’s what you like to do too. Maybe together, you two can change the world. So if you get married to him, I know it won’t change you. If anything, it’ll just make you more responsible, and I think you’re ready for that.”

Pierre had never really done anything to make his parents proud of him. The three of them lived a simple life, alone in a foreign land, Pierre’s parents having moved before getting married so they could give their children a good life. It turned out to be just Pierre, and it turned out to just be the three of them; but Pierre had never been good at school, and he had never had any special skill or talent or any interest for sport, so he never really thought that he’d ever done anything to truly make his parents proud of him. 

“Maman,” he said softly. “Are you proud of me?”

“Are you happy?” maman asked, gently stroking Pierre’s hair, pushing it out of his face. “Is this what you want?”

“I really am so happy. I’ve never really imagined that – I never imagined that I could live a life like this. But – I want to be with Alex. Just Alex. Not Prince Alex. Not his rule or his money or anything else. And he wants me, too, and I’m...I’m so lucky.”

“Then I’m really proud of you that you’ve found what you want and you’re happy,” maman said. “That’s most important to me. I’m so proud of you.”

“Thank you, maman.” Pierre tucked himself more tightly into her shoulder. “I love you.”

“I love you very much, Pierre. I’m happy as long as you’re happy. And I’ll always be here when you need me.”

Pierre grabbed some snacks and a blanket, and he spent the rest of the night snuggled up with his maman, telling her all the stories he knew about Alex.

------

Alex decided to wait until all the buzz of the summer carnival was over to bring up the topic of marriage to his parents.

It was over a sumptuous roast dinner one night with the entire family present that Alex chose to speak about it.

“Father, Mother,” he said over their half-empty plates. “I have a proposal.”

“What is it?” Father asked.

“I’ve just turned eighteen this year.” It took Alex a few words for him to fully find his voice, that was how nervous he was. “I feel like it’s a suitable age for me to get married and to choose who can lead alongside me now and in the future. I’m very lucky to have already met the person that I want to marry, and he’s Pierre. You’ve met him many times and you already know him, but I’m sure if you want to talk to him and get to know him more he’d be very willing. I’ve already asked for his hand in marriage and he’s agreed. Now I would like to ask you.”

There was a silence across the table that was lengthened by the way Mother and Father turned to exchange a nervous look. 

Then Mother turned back to Alex, and she said, “Alex, we have something we have to tell you.”

Alex was suddenly nervous again. He wiped his sweaty palms on his trousers. “What is it?” he asked. 

“We have plans for you.” Father’s voice was firm, but it was forgiving. “We’ve been speaking to the Earl of Bridgebourne.”

Alex knew immediately what was going on. He’d been studying the history of English provincial rule since he was a child having to learn the ins and outs of being a Royal. He knew there were still provinces and lands that hadn’t been returned to the Royal administration since they were assigned to various nobilities in the past, and Bridgebourne was one of them. It was the biggest province that hadn’t been returned, which made it the most important.

“The Earl has three children,” Father continued. “His two eldest are married. His youngest son is named George, and he turns eighteen next February. We have provisionally set up an agreement with the Earl about a marriage between you and George that will guarantee control of Bridgebourne back to the Royals, and that the Earl’s family will still have Royal ties to their name after giving up their province.”

“We will set up a meeting between the families so you can meet George soon,” Mother added. “But meanwhile, you have to know that this agreement is in place.”

“Okay.” Alex couldn’t even find the words to say. The room, though one of the largest in the palace with its cream-coloured walls, hardwood floor, silver tinted cornices, tall stylish chairs, and the long dining table which they only occupied one half of that night, suddenly seemed so small and suffocating. Alex could feel the eyes of his siblings all on him at the same time, watching and waiting tensely for his response.

He knew this was just one of his responsibilities. Since he was young, Alex had accepted the fact that as a Royal, he would sometimes be forced to do things or make choices that he didn’t want to.

He just wished this didn’t have to be one of them. 

“Father, Mother, I’ve finished dinner,” Alex said, standing up, gritting his teeth hard so he wouldn’t cry. “Thank you. I’ll go back to my room.”

The journey back to Alex’s bed, where he could cry in peace, seemed longer than usual. He seemed to almost get lost along the winding hallways, his head down, his eyes directed at the ground, trying not to let his tears blind him. 

All he wanted to do once he got to his room was to call Pierre – but Alex didn’t even know how to tell Pierre. He didn’t even know what he was going to say to Pierre.

He just sat in bed, staring into space, until Daniel knocked on his door and brought him a large mug of tea. Alex allowed him to come inside, and Daniel sat on the bed after setting the mug on Alex’s bedside table.

“Have you called Pierre?” he asked softly.

Alex shook his head. “I don’t know what to say to him.”

Daniel gently pulled him into a hug. He didn’t say anything. He just held Alex and Alex tried his best not to cry; not because Daniel had never seen him cry, but because he just didn’t know what to say to Daniel if Daniel asked him to talk about it. 

“Do you want to be alone?” he asked Alex.

Since Alex was born, Daniel had seen him in more moments of distress than anyone else. 

But this was just something Alex couldn’t stand to share with anyone. 

He nodded at Daniel, and Daniel left the room quietly. 

Alex went to his walk-in closet, turned on the lights, and sat on the floor, in the very spot he had first asked Pierre to marry him. 

The blouse and blazer Pierre had worn that day were still hanging outside the rack, on their own hangers, just the way Pierre had left them when he’d changed out of them that night. 

Just the sight of it brought back all the memories of that night, and how happy they both were, thinking of what they were going to do on their wedding day. Thinking that everything was going to work out the way they wanted it to. Alex thought of how happy he had been, thinking that he would get to spend the rest of his life with his best friend. 

Not only was that slowly slipping out of his hands, but the rest of Alex’s life also seemed to be slipping through his fingers like grains of sand. 

He hugged his legs to himself, and he started to cry. 

He spent the rest of the night curled up, not knowing how to stop crying or how to stop shaking, and not knowing what else to think about except how he was going to break Pierre’s heart and have to live with it forever.

------

Whenever Alex came to the beach to look for Pierre when he had a shift, he would bound down the little slope from the carpark and jump into Pierre’s arms like a baby bear. He loved being lifted off the ground by Pierre, even though he already had the height advantage, and Pierre loved hearing him giggle, so he always obliged.

That day, as he ended his shift, he saw the familiar black SUV in the carpark and the vague familiar figure of Daniel sitting alone in the driver’s seat. Alex was nowhere to be seen, and he hadn’t come down the beach to find Pierre. 

Pierre scanned the main beach, but didn’t spot Alex. He briefly considered going to ask Daniel, but decided he wouldn’t worry Daniel about something that would likely not be a big deal. He had an idea where he could find Alex, anyway.

It was a clear summer day, one of the last few, and the sun was still a decent way up from the horizon. The sand on their private beach was warm and dry as Pierre ploughed through it, hoping to see Alex’s silhouette. He followed the faint trail of footsteps to the sea cave, where Alex was sitting alone.

He turned to Pierre as Pierre approached, the corners of his lips lifting slightly. His eyes didn’t leave Pierre until Pierre sat down next to him, at which point he leaned his head on Pierre’s shoulder.

“Hey, you,” Pierre said softly. There seemed to be something off about Alex’s behaviour.

“Hi,” Alex whispered.

“Is everything alright?”

Alex hesitated shortly, but nodded. 

Pierre held him close, and they sat quietly until the sun cast long shadows all the way from beyond their view, on the surface of the ocean, to the calmer sea right outside the cave. The sky faded to a dark blue, like the end of a scene in a play.

Alex took Pierre’s hand quietly when the sea cave began to fill up with the tide, and he followed as Pierre made the trek back along the beach to one of its uppermost corners, furthest away from the tide. They sat down in the sand, right where it met the grass on the way to the carpark.

“This little corner doesn’t get touched by the tide,” Pierre told Alex. “Even in spring, when the tide is the highest. We can always come here and the water won’t touch us.”

Alex smiled. He took Pierre’s hand and intertwined their fingers, and he gazed at it, and he didn’t say a single word. 

“Alex,” Pierre whispered.

“Yeah?”

“Do you have anything you wanna talk about?”

Alex hesitated again, but shook his head. He let go of Pierre’s hand so he could drape Pierre’s arm over his shoulder, then leaned in close and placed his hands on Pierre’s thigh.

“I love you,” he said, snuggling his head more tightly under Pierre’s chin.

“I love you, too.” Pierre kissed the top of his head, then rested his chin on it again. “You know you can talk to me about anything, right?”

“Mhm.” Alex’s voice was soft, and Pierre would do anything in that moment to hear what was going on in his head. Anything at all. It didn’t matter if it was just some lame Royal stuff. He just wanted to know. He felt like Alex had suddenly locked him out.

But at the same time, even if Alex had something to tell Pierre, Pierre trusted him to eventually open up. It didn’t matter how long it took. Pierre would wait as long as Alex felt comfortable.

“What do you want to do?” Pierre asked him. 

“Let’s just sit here,” he said. “Where nothing can touch us.”

So they sat there until the crescent moon hung brightly in the sky, slightly yellow but watchful all the same. Alex gazed up at it solemnly, unlike every other time he’d ever looked at the moon with his eyes full of hope and love. 

His features were still lit up under the muted moonlight, and he still looked like the same marble statue Pierre always saw him as. 

The car ride to Pierre’s apartment was completely silent. Even Daniel didn’t say a single word. But when they pulled up in front of Pierre’s apartment complex, Alex got out of the car with him. 

He pulled Pierre into his arms, into the tightest hug Pierre had ever gotten from him. He held Pierre for a long, long time, and Pierre knew that usually Daniel would honk his horn to remind them to move along, but this time, he didn’t. 

Alex could’ve held Pierre until the sun rose again, and Pierre wouldn’t have a single word of complaint. 

“I love you so much,” Alex whispered. “Pierre. Do you know that?”

Pierre smiled. “I love you too, Alex. Is there anything wrong? Talk to me. Please. I’m always here, you know?”

Alex nodded into Pierre’s shoulder. He didn’t say another word, though his arms tightened around Pierre. 

When he finally pulled away, it was only to press the softest, longest kiss on Pierre’s lips. Pierre could feel his reluctance to pull away, as if he thought he would never get to kiss Pierre again. 

It was so silly. Pierre didn’t think he would ever trade being able to hold Alex and kiss Alex and love Alex for anything in the world. 

Pierre insisted on waiting for Daniel to drive away before going up to the apartment this time, wanting Alex to see him as he left so he knew Pierre would always be there. 

When Pierre opened the door to the apartment, papa and maman were in front of the TV, watching the news, looking thoroughly perplexed. 

“Hey, papa, maman,” Pierre greeted them. “I’ll make a little something to eat, do you guys want anything?”

“Pierre,” maman called. “Come here for a minute. We need to ask you something.”

Pierre went over to them and sat on the armrest of the couch. “What is it?” 

“Alex asked you to marry him, right?” maman asked. 

“Yeah,” Pierre said. “Why?”

“You’re sure?”

Pierre remembered that night in Alex’s fancy walk-in closet like it had only happened just now. “Of course I’m sure.”

“The news is saying otherwise,” papa said, pointing at the TV.

Pierre’s heart sank the moment his eyes landed on the TV screen. 

The news was still on, and at the bottom of the screen, below a stock image of Alex standing on the palace’s main balcony, the white headline on the dark red block background read, Crown Prince Alexander Albon to wed George Russell, son of the Earl of Bridgebourne.

Pierre suddenly felt like he was about to puke. 

He read that line over and over again, the newsreader’s voice only a faint buzz in his ears. He willed the words to change, but they didn’t. Pierre stared at them until the commercials came on and the screen was filled with the green of a football pitch.

“What does this mean?” he asked.

“Pierre,” papa said, softly. “Pierre, you have to talk to him.”

It wasn’t really the answer Pierre had wanted to hear. Pierre didn’t even know what he wanted to hear. He pivoted away from the TV and harnessed just enough energy to put one foot in front of the other until he got to his bedroom. All he could think about was how quiet Alex had been, how he had refused to tell Pierre what was wrong, and how he just wanted to sit with Pierre in a place where ‘nothing could touch them.’ 

How he had kissed Pierre like it was going to be the final time.

Suddenly, the way Alex had acted earlier seemed to make perfect sense. He just didn’t know how to tell Pierre that he was going to marry someone else.

Pierre climbed into bed, pulled the covers over himself, and started to cry.

He knew that this probably wasn’t Alex’s choice. He knew that this was just how Royalty worked. 

But he was just so angry. He was angry at the thought that Alex had betrayed him and was going to continue to betray him. He was angry that Alex hadn’t told him and he had to find out himself through the news. He was angry that he had ever been fooled to think that he and Alex would be suitable for each other. He was angry that he was going to lose Alex and he couldn’t even do anything about it. He was angry that he’d ever thought it was going to be this easy to get his happy ending with Alex.

He was so angry that out of everyone in the world, he had to fall in love with the Crown Prince of the British Kingdom.

Pierre was never going to be good enough for him. Never. 

He knew Bridgebourne, and he knew the marriage was for land. Pierre was never going to be able to give Alex anything as worthy as that.

He lay there in the dark, so embarrassed and ashamed of himself, until maman came in a while later with a bowl of oatmeal. She sat down beside Pierre as Pierre tried his hardest to stop crying. 

“Do you want something to eat?” she asked.

Pierre had been almost ravaging when he’d gotten home, but his appetite had flown out the window. He shook his head. 

“I’m sorry, Pierre.” Maman set the bowl down on Pierre’s table and wrapped her arms around Pierre, pushing Pierre’s hair out of his face. Pierre let her hold him, and he curled up in her lap, crying. “Do you want to talk to me about it?” maman asked.

“I love him so much,” Pierre sobbed. “Maman, I love him so much. I’ve never loved anyone in my life but I love him more than anything else. I love him and I trust him and I know this isn’t his fault but I have to blame someone and it has to be myself. Maman, I’m sorry. I thought I could make you proud but I haven’t. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t say that,” maman whispered. “You do make me proud. You make me proud by just being the kind, smart boy that you are.”

“I just want to ask him why he didn’t tell me,” Pierre said. “You know? I just want to know why. I want to know what happened. But I can’t look at him. I can’t even think about him right now.”

“You should talk to him,” maman suggested. “Let him explain. Maybe it’s not the end. Yeah? Maybe you can figure this out together. Just hear him out.”

“I just…” Pierre’s chest began to tighten, and he was suddenly so scared , scared about how empty his life was going to be. “What if it is? What if this is it? I’ve forgotten who I used to be before I met him.”

“It’s okay. It’s okay.” Maman wrapped her arms around Pierre’s head, and it pacified Pierre slightly. He held on tightly to her arm with both hands, trying to stop shaking. “You’ll get it back. You’ll find yourself again. I know that.”

“It’s true, right? It’s happening.” Pierre felt as if his heart was being dragged out of his chest over and over again. ”It’s on the news. It’s gonna happen. Right? Maman, just tell me that I’m only dreaming.”

“Pierre.” Maman was starting to sound as if she didn’t know what else to say. “Listen to Alex. Listen to what he has to tell you. I know that he loves you and that you mean more to him than for it to end this way. You just have to hear him out. I’m sure there’s more to it than we can see. You have to find out the truth, for yourself, if not for anyone else. And maybe you can fix this, or maybe you won’t. What’s going to matter most is that you tried. Okay? Where’s your phone?”

Pierre got his phone out of his pocket. There were several missed calls from Alex, but not any texts.

Staring at his name on the screen, with its little crown emoji, made Pierre realise just how much he didn’t want to talk to Alex right then.

“Maybe next time,” Pierre whispered. “I can’t – I can’t talk to him. I...my heart hurts so much, maman. I’m so embarrassed.”

“Okay,” maman said. “That’s okay. C’mon. I’ll feed you some oatmeal, yeah? Just like I used to.”

Pierre sat there and let himself be fed like a baby. But he knew he would always be his mum’s baby, and sometimes, Pierre missed the days when it was all simple, and he was just a child sitting in his mum’s lap, without a care in the world.

That night, Pierre fell asleep in his mother’s arms, not convinced enough by her words and her hugs and her kisses that everything was going to turn out alright, but tired enough from his crying to eventually close his eyes.

------

Alex was in no mood to meet his future husband for the first time without having spoken to Pierre first.

He hadn’t expected the news outlets to get hold of the news so quickly. He had wanted more time to talk to Pierre, to explain to him, and to try to make Pierre understand that this wasn’t Alex’s choice. But it was plastered all over the newspapers and TV screens and Alex could only imagine how much it hurt Pierre to see it all the time.

He called Pierre at least three times every day, but each time, Pierre would either let it ring out, or he would cut the call after a few rings. And every day, Alex wished more and more that he’d had the courage to come clean with Pierre that last night they’d spent together at the beach.

Alex was sure that by then, a week after the news had first broken, Pierre already knew that this marriage had been arranged with several conditions. The word Bridgebourne had been thrown around a lot in the news, along with the terms ‘provincial land’ and ‘Royal administration’. They talked about a spring wedding, and they talked about George’s family and how suitable he was to be the next ruler of the Kingdom alongside Alex.

Alex didn’t want a spring wedding. He wanted a summer wedding. And he wanted to marry Pierre, not George.

But he didn’t expect Pierre to understand, or to forgive him. Pierre had every right to be angry with him.

It seemed like the biggest irony now, the number of times Alex and Pierre had gone through the rights of land for nobilities and monarchies during their history study sessions, and the number of times Bridgebourne had come up.

Alex was forced to meet George over a lavish dinner at the palace about a week after he’d seen Pierre at the beach. Alex’s whole family was present again, and George’s entire family came over as guests, including his brother-in-law and his sister-in-law. Alex was placed in a chair next to George, right by Father at the head of the table and Mother across from Alex, and George’s parents next to Mother. Dinner was five courses, and Alex spent most of it listening to George’s parents talk about George.

George seemed like a pretty capable boy. He went to a private school and he got good grades, according to his parents. He was a school councillor, a good leader. He was in the Boy Scouts when he was younger. 

Alex didn’t really understand why George’s parents were pimping him out like that. It wasn’t as if Alex could do anything to reject him. God knew that if Alex had a choice, he would just wave a hand and say George wasn’t good enough for him and he wanted to marry Pierre instead. 

After dessert, while everyone else was mingling in the living room drinking wine and discussing the wedding, Alex went outside to the back garden, followed by George. 

A couple of the cats were waiting outside the back gate, and Alex let them inside so he could feed them. He gave a little whistle, and the other cats appeared, eagerly trotting inside for some food. George appeared perplexed about that for a while, but eventually sat down on the grass across from Alex. 

“Are these your cats?” he asked. 

Alex shook his head. “They’re strays. I feed them.”

“Okay.” George seemed hesitant, but eventually placed his hand on the calico’s back. “That’s cute.”

“Do you like animals?” Alex asked. His heart still hung heavy, but he guessed this was the boy he was going to have to live with for the rest of his life, so he might as well try. 

George peered up at him. He was much taller and much leaner than Pierre, but his features were sharp and distinctive, and his blue eyes resembled Pierre’s. He had soft, light brown hair that ruffled in the slight breeze. He spoke with confidence, and when he smiled, he looked quite handsome, but very typically local. 

“I don’t hate them,” he said. He blinked at Alex, and Alex realised how long his eyelashes were. 

Alex sighed internally. George was really good-looking. He just...wasn’t what Alex wanted. 

He wasn’t really what the cats wanted, either, for they sniffed at him a little bit and hung out around his feet before realising he wasn’t the normal French boy who usually came by with Alex to feed them, and wandered away to look for plants to bother.

They spent a while talking about animals and nature, then Alex let the cats back outside. He brought George around the garden, showing him the different plant sections and the flowers that were blooming that summer. There was even a small vegetable garden in the corner near the swing, thanks to Pierre’s interest in trying to recreate a small farm in Alex’s backyard. 

He didn’t sit with George in the swing, for it was the place where Alex had created countless memories with Pierre, and he wanted to keep that for just them two.

Alex got to hear from George firsthand about himself, instead of the filtered CV that his family was going on about during dinner. It really wasn’t any better; George’s family was very rich, as they all already knew, but he did nothing to even try and hide that, and seemed unbothered about flaunting his wealth and everything his father could and had bought for him. 

He was just...the complete opposite of Alex.

Give him a chance. The words repeated themselves in Alex’s mind throughout the night, like a mantra. Alex was sure the rest of his life was already ruined by this marriage. But he knew part of this was just his bias and his unhappiness with being thrusted into this situation, and George really was quite a decent guy. So he just had to make the best of it.

They went back inside, where their families were still talking about plans for the wedding. Mother mentioned plans for Alex and George to go for ballroom dancing classes in preparation for the big day next spring in early April. George’s mother mentioned a big engagement party to be held in about a month.

Alex just sat there, trying to pay attention but really just wanting all of this to be a prolonged nightmare.

The guest quarters had been prepared for George’s family’s stay that night, and Alex led them towards their rooms at the end of their lively discussion. He caught George attempting to hold his hand a few times on the way there, but as they stopped in the hallway where the rooms were, he eventually settled with just giving Alex a friendly kiss on the cheek.

Alex went back to his room, scrubbed his cheek clean with soap and water, and cried himself to sleep.

*

> Can I talk to you?

> Pierre.

> I just need you to know this isn’t what I want. I want you. I’ve always wanted you and I’ll always want you.

> Please just let me talk to you.

> I’m so sorry.

> I love you so much.

Every day, the wall of messages in Alex’s phone got longer and longer, and whether they were unread or just unreplied to, Alex didn’t know. All he knew was that he missed Pierre.

George stayed over in his own guestroom in the palace after the rest of his family headed back home, as part of the preparations for the engagement party. Alex was made to spend every meal with him, and every free minute of his day. He got to know George more and more, but liked him less and less.

Alex had always prided himself on being kind. And he knew that out of everyone he’d ever been kind to, George was going to be the most important.

So Alex soldiered on.

It was time again that weekend for Alex to go out and distribute fresh produce to the less fortunate, so he decided to take George along. If he was going to marry Alex, then he might as well get used to this early.

They left in the morning, Daniel driving the usual SUV to tail the delivery van all over town. They’d visited about eight or so places before Alex began to catch on that George really wasn’t into it. He didn’t bother helping to carry the groceries up to the houses or apartments, and only stood next to Alex as Alex spoke to the grateful owners. He wasn’t interested in asking Alex anything about what he did, and neither was he in learning more about the families or how Alex remembered them. 

Alex didn’t blame him. Volunteering wasn’t for everyone.

But Alex was just tired of being disappointed every time an additional layer of George’s character was revealed.

“I volunteer a lot.” Alex really hadn’t meant to snap at George, but he just. He was just so tired, and it’d barely been a week and a half. “Not just giving out food. Sometimes I go to the meal distribution place and they let me cook meals. Once every month or two I go out and help out at the farm. Once we’re married, or even now before we’re married, you’re going to have to carry out these responsibilities with me.”

“Why is it so important to you?” George asked. “It’s just public image. You can do other things to keep that up.”

“It means more than public image to me,” Alex said. “But if you want to see it that way, sure. See yourself coming with me as a way to uphold your public image.”

“Our public image. As a couple.”

“Just know that it means more than that to me. We’re going to get married. I’m trying my best to understand you, and what you like, and what you want. It’s unfair if you don’t do the same.”

George shut up about it for the day. They went back to the palace and had some late tea with Father and Mother, then retreated to their own rooms, but as Alex sat within those four white walls, he couldn’t help but feel suffocated.

He had to practically beg Daniel to drive him out into town so he could feel something again. It was the late afternoon, just after Pierre’s schooltime, now that the autumn semester had started, so Alex figured maybe he was at the meal distribution facility like he would so often be after school. 

Alex recognised the lady that was in charge of coordinating delivery vans from the last few times he was there, and she told him that they hadn’t seen Pierre for an entire two weeks. It seemed a little strange to Alex at first, but he decided to head to the beach, thinking that maybe Pierre had taken up more shifts at the lifeguard centre instead. After all, that was the job that actually paid him. 

Alas, the lifeguard on duty told him the same thing the lady at the meal distribution centre did – they hadn’t seen Pierre for two weeks.

Alex had a feeling that Pierre was retreating to somewhere Alex wouldn’t find him. 

He climbed over the rocks to the secluded beach, the public beach that they always regarded as their private haven. It was empty, and though Alex blinked his tears away hoping to see some footsteps in the sand that would give him a clue to where Pierre was, the sand was untouched ahead of him, and the beach made him feel an unfamiliar loneliness in contrast to the happiness it had always brought him before.

The journey to the little sea cave seemed longer than usual. The waves swept at Alex’s feet as he made his way there, closer to the ocean, where the sound of the louder waves would usually drown out everything except Pierre’s voice and Alex’s heartbeat.

The cave was empty, to Alex’s dismay, though he really didn’t know what else he’d been expecting.

He sat there, sheltered from the wind and the sun and the violent ocean waves, and thought about how the sea was the colour of Pierre’s warm eyes, and not George’s cold ones.

The sunset turned the sky purple up top and pink closer to the horizon, and it reminded Alex of cotton candy and summertime, and it reminded him of the freedom he felt when he was with Pierre.

He knew it was selfish, but Alex had a feeling he would cope with all of this better if Pierre was still talking to him. Trying to be civil with a self-centered, snobbish person like George was a mean feat on its own, but now, on top of that, Alex also had to deal with the heartbreak of losing Pierre, and every time Alex looked at George, he would be reminded of it over and over again. Reminded of what could’ve been. Reminded of what George had taken away from him. 

The burden of dealing with George on top of Pierre ignoring him was simply too heavy for Alex to bear. He couldn’t imagine living with this feeling for the rest of his life.

Alex waited until the sun disappeared and his surroundings melted into a calm blue, then he got up and followed the rising tide back up the beach and over the rocks to the carpark, determined to stop sitting around and instead do something to try and make things right.

“Can you take me to Pierre’s apartment?” he asked Daniel.

The journey there was both the longest and the shortest one in Alex’s life. Darkness had descended upon the town by the time Daniel pulled up outside that familiar apartment complex, and right before Alex closed the car door, he heard Daniel say a soft little, “Good luck.”

Alex stood in front of Pierre’s front door for ten minutes, trying his hardest just to breathe. He wanted more than anything else to see Pierre, but the thought of how angry Pierre must’ve been with him thoroughly scared him, and Alex had to gather every last ounce of his courage to finally knock on the door.

When the door opened, the first thing Alex saw was Pierre sitting on the couch, his legs folded close to his chest. His chin was resting on his knees, forcing his lips into a pout. 

Alex just…

Alex missed him so much, seeing him again almost brought Alex to his knees.

“Pierre, you have a guest.” Pierre’s mother’s voice was soft, and she stared at Alex with a steelier gaze than Alex was used to from her, but a part of him was at least glad Pierre’s mum wasn’t giving him special treatment for breaking her son’s heart just because he was a Prince.

Pierre turned around, his eyes narrowing when he saw Alex. He immediately stood up and marched to his room, closing the door loudly without so much as another glance at Alex.

Pierre’s mother let Alex into the apartment without a word. Alex shuffled his way to Pierre’s room, trying not to cry as he knocked on the door.

“Pierre,” he called softly. “Can we talk?”

“I don’t want to talk to you.” Pierre’s voice sounded muffled not only by the door, but also by his pillow.

“Can I talk to you, then?” Alex asked.

Pierre didn’t make a sound then. Alex sat down on the floor and leaned his head against the door, determined to wait until Pierre was ready to listen to him. 

“Please,” he said, trying not to let his tears soften his voice.

There was still silence from the other side of the door. Alex closed his eyes. He missed Pierre. He missed talking to him and laughing with him and he missed Pierre’s smile. He missed holding Pierre and kissing Pierre and falling asleep to Pierre. He missed just being close to Pierre.

Even if there had to be a door between them, Alex was just happy to be near Pierre again.

He didn’t know how long he sat there. He didn’t care.

All he knew was that after a really long time, there was the soft sound of footsteps, and the door Alex was leaning on shifted slightly as Pierre sat down and leaned on the other side. 

He sighed, and Alex burst into tears again.

“Pierre,” he said.

“You’re supposed to be marrying me,” Pierre sobbed. “You’re supposed to be marrying me .”

“I want to,” Alex whispered. “I want to, Pierre, that’s everything I want. But I – this is my responsibility. To my family and to this Kingdom. It’s my responsibility. It’s not my choice.”

“I can’t see you, Alex. I can’t look at you knowing that soon I’m going to lose you. Knowing that I...I’ve already lost you.”

“I…” Alex closed his eyes as tears spilled out of them again. He had so many things to tell Pierre. So many things . He didn’t know where to start. “Pierre, I just really need you to know that this isn’t what I want. Not at all. I just need you to know that. I don’t want this, but I – I have to do it. I just – I hope you understand. I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. I love you, Pierre.”

There was no response from Pierre. The two of them just sat there, their heads separated by a two-inch piece of wood. Alex thought he could hear Pierre cry, but he wasn’t sure if that was just the sound of his own sobs. 

Just being with Pierre, being there with him – it was so peaceful to Alex. He couldn’t see Pierre and he couldn’t touch Pierre, and he could barely even hear Pierre through the wood, but it just felt so peaceful being close to Pierre, leaning against the same door, their heads virtually pressed together.

“I won’t ask you to come to the engagement because I respect you,” Alex said softly. “Okay? And I know that’s not what you want and it’s not what I want. But if for any reason – if for any reason you want to come, or – if you want to be around me, then...just let me know. I want to see you. I always want to see you. Okay, Pierre?”

Pierre sighed. He still didn’t respond. He was quiet for a long, long time.

Then he said, in a shaky whisper, “Go home, Prince Alex.”

Alex’s heart sank. It seemed like such a long time since Pierre had last called Alex by his title; even so, Pierre had fondly and lovingly called him Prince Alex so many times before – but never in this way. Never as if they were back at square one, as if they’d traveled back in time to when Alex was a Prince and Pierre was nothing but Alex’s acquaintance who couldn’t drop the title from his name. 

It had been so hard to make Pierre agree to just call Alex by his name, and now it was like everything they’d had together had never even happened. Alex was just...he was just Prince Alex again.

The gulf between them in that moment was bigger than it had ever been before, exaggerated by how close they had been to their happy ending.

“Take care, Pierre,” Alex whispered. 

Alex fled from the apartment before he could cry. He sat shaking in the backseat of the car all the way back to the palace, and roamed the halls until he found Mother in the living room. 

He crawled into her lap, desperate for her to hold him together, desperate for her to tell him everything was going to be okay. 

“I’m so scared,” he told her. “I don’t love George and I broke Pierre’s heart and I’m so scared that I’ll never get to love Pierre again.”

“I’m sorry, Alex,” Mother whispered, sweeping his hair away from his teary face. 

“I know it’s something I have to do, Mama.” Alex didn’t even remember the last time he was upset enough to call her Mama. “I’m not angry with you. I’m not angry with Father. And I know I should give George a chance. I just – Mama, tell me it’s all going to be alright.”

“You know that I can’t tell you what’s going to happen in the future, Alex.” Mother was always down-to-earth, even if it made her sound harsh at times. “But if you open your heart and you open your mind, anything’s possible.”

“I saw Pierre today,” Alex sobbed. “He’s so angry with me. He’s never been angry with me. He doesn’t want to talk to me, he doesn’t even want to look at me, and I miss him so much. He looked so sad and he’s lost some weight and it’s all my fault.”

“Did you try talking to him?”

Alex nodded. “He doesn’t care. I tried explaining it to him but he wouldn’t listen and he told me to come home and it’s like we’re strangers now. And I miss him so much. Mama, I love him so much. I love him and I just want to be with him. I’m so scared.”

Mother pulled him closer, holding Alex’s head to her chest as Alex shook with sobs. The last time she’d held him this way, the last time Alex had allowed her to hold him this way, was when he was six years old and their pet rabbit died and they had to cremate it because Father wouldn’t allow it to be buried in the back garden. It had been the saddest day of Alex’s life until right then.

“Mother, what do I do?” Alex whispered. “My heart hurts so much. I just – I want to be with Pierre. I don’t love George. I tried, but I don’t. You know that, right, Mother?”

“Alex,” she said. “Whatever you do, remember that it affects the image of this Family and this Kingdom. I won’t stop you from doing what you want and what you think is right for you, because I know we’re already putting you through enough with this marriage. But please – you’re the future King. You have to think about your image. For your own sake.”

Alex got where she was coming from. He really did. He just – in that moment, Alex just wished that he didn’t need to care. 

“I will, Mother.”

“I can’t say that I know what it’s like to be in a marriage I don’t want to be in. But I know that you don’t love George. And I know that this marriage was only arranged because it benefits both families. If you would just talk to George about Pierre, maybe he would understand. Think about it, and don’t do anything on impulse. Just – whatever you do, just be discreet about it in public. Okay?”

Alex figured he was already quite good at that. “Okay, Mother.”

“Let’s not cry anymore. You’re a big boy. I know you’re going to be okay.” Mother wiped Alex’s tears with her gentle hands. “Are you hungry? I’ll get the kitchen to make you something.”

“I’m not hungry. I just want to hang out with you for a bit, Mama.”

Mother started singing a lullaby to him, and gradually, Alex found it easier to stop crying.

This whole thing with George had made Alex feel so distant, like he was unwillingly shrinking away from everybody around him. He knew that he and his family often took opposite sides in various decisions, but ultimately, it was Mother who had taught him to be the strong, caring, humble person that he had become.

So as he fell asleep in Mother’s arms that night to her soothing voice, he remembered that he would always have her, even if the world fell down around him; and for those moments, it was nice to be a child again, and not a brand new adult about to carry out his first responsibility for the Kingdom.