Young Royals: What...now?

One by One.

Wilhelm

Wilhelm knocked on the first door. Helenna & her roommate, Julia. 

"Who is it?" he heard Helenna call. 

"It's Wilhelm." He heard some quick-tempoed murmurs and giggles from the other side of the door.

"Um, one minute. Let us, um, just finished getting dressed!" he heard Julia call over.

Shit. He hadn't thought of that. He'd text ahead of time for the next one. Who was next? Ah, Elsa. He texted her now.

Wilhelm: Hey, can I stop by in 10 minutes?

Elsa: Yeah, sure. What for?

Wilhelm didn't answer, because at that moment Helenna whipped open the door, dressed in leopard print pajama bottoms, a purple t-shirt that had got to have been 3 sizes too large, and fuzzy slippers. "Hey, come in." 

Wilhelm picked up his enormous basket of pastries and walked it in with him. Note to self: Next time, bring just 3-4 pastries, on a plate. He looked ridiculous carrying this monstrosity. It looked like he thought they were anorexic and he was going to fix the issue in one fell swoop.

"Ooh, éclairs. My favorite," cried Julia, as she picked one off the top delicately. 

"So, are you just, um, delivering pastries to everyone today?" asked Helenna, obviously (and rightly) confused.

"Sorta, I guess? No, I mean that was Felice's idea. I actually just came because I needed to talk to you guys about something that's sort of, like, personal." 

The girls' eyes expanded, and their ears perked up. "Sure. What's up?"

Wilhelm took a deep breath and sat down on Helenna's unmade bed beside the two girls. God, what have I done? he thought, as he started in on his monologue.

"It's about me and Simon. I don't know how much everybody knows, but we were, uh, seeing each other?  Last semester?"

Helenna laughed. "Yeah, everyone knows. What about it?"

Helenna's laugh actually relaxed him more than he expected, and he just let loose. "Ok, here's the deal. We ended it because the pressure was just too much, with the press and my parents and everything with school. It was easier to just let it go than to be together, in hiding all the time. After the whole tape, I just couldn't take the risk of a photo leaking of us holding hands even." 

Wilhelm was talking at about 60 miles a minute. He knew he was getting off-message. He needed to rein it in. "So, basically, we were hoping for your support. We want to be able to be public at school. We just need people to not post anything to social media, don't take pictures, don't write about it on Twitter. You know, keep it inside the school. W-would you, c-could you help us? I just want have a normal relationship with my boyfriend without having to be the Crown Prince every minute of my life."

Wilhelm stopped and looked up for the first time during his rapid-fire monologue.

Helenna spoke quickly, "Yeah, sure, Wilhelm. No problem."

"And can you tell your friends?" Wilhelm asked, his cheeks turning a dark pink.

"Yeah, 'course." Helenna caught Wilhelm's gaze for a second. "Wilhelm, this isn't like a big ask or anything. You know that, right?"

Wilhelm didn't answer. He just sat there as if paralyzed.

"Anything else?," asked Julia as she took a bite out of her fruit cup.

Wilhelm stood up hastily. "Nope. No. That's it. Um, thanks. And yeah, um, thanks," he sputtered as he backed out of the room. 

The girls giggled at each other. "See you later, Wilhelm. And thanks for the pastries!"

"Yeah," he muttered.

That was horrible. At least it'd gone better than he thought it would.

One down, only eleven more to go. 

--

Two hours later, he'd scratched everyone off Felice's list. It's not that he'd expected anyone to be openly hostile, but this had just been too easy. Every person had been super taken aback when he'd knocked on their door, even with text message a few minutes before no less, and they had been doubly taken aback when he walked in carrying snacks. That'd probably been a weird thing to show up with. People really don't expect the Crown Prince to come to their room with almost no warning on a Sunday morning, and they especially don't expect croissants to come with him.

After the first three or four times giving his spiel, he kind of got into a rhythm. And it seemed like a lot of people were really touched that he'd come by, that he trusted them with the information. 

He hoped this didn't bite him in the ass.

He'd asked all of the "delegates" (he didn't tell them that's what he was calling them, that would've been weird) to talk to their friends that night in preparation for Monday. 

He hoped this would work. It had to work. He just couldn't think of anything else. He needed to call Simon.

---

Simon's phone rung 3 times before he finally picked up.

"Hey!" exclaimed Simon.

"Um, hey, sorry about this morning, it's just --" 

"No, that was the right call. It needed to come from you and only you. If I'd been there, people might have felt like they were being ganged up on, and Felice and I talked. This is the best option. It's what she said she would've suggested in the first place, but she thought you wouldn't do it."

"No way, really?" replied Wilhelm. 

"Yeah, totally. She's cool. Don't worry about her. Also, those pains au chocolat were freakin' amazing. I think I ate like five of them."

Wilhelm chuckled, "Yeah, now imagine me walking around with a basket full of pastries. I felt like the fucking pied piper. It was ridiculous."

Simon let out a raucous laugh. "I can't even fathom. Did people just go nuts?"

"If by nuts you mean concerned for my sanity, then sure. Nuts." 

Wilhelm heard the phone rustle against Simon's ear as he convulsed in laughter. 

"Hey, where are you now?" Wilhelm asked. 

"Um, at home, cooking dinner."

"You're cooking dinner, or you're cutting a tomato for a salad?" Wilhelm questioned suspiciously.

"No, seriously, I'm cooking dinner! I'm cooking bollos pelones. They're really good. I've been practicing. Wanna come over and eat with us?"

Wilhelm paused, trying to calculate how awkward of a meal this would be. Well, he decided, he needed to bite the bullet and get on good terms with Simon's family eventually.

"Yeah, that'd be great. You sure your mom won't mind? I can't believe she's exactly in love with me, after everything."

"She's over it. Might be worth an apology, but she's pretty quick to forgive and forget, as long as we're good," Simon replied.

"You're stupidly lucky, Simon, you know that?" 

Simon's voice cracked slightly. "Yeah, I know. See you in 30 minutes?"

"Yeah, can't wait."