Another way (Young Royals)

The Queen's request

"Please Wilhelm. We need you. The country needs you," Queen Kristina begged her son, who sat next to me in a chair behind the Queen's desk. "You need to take Erik's place as Crown prince. He won't be fit for the throne." Wille looked down at our feet. He did not want it. I knew so.

"Erik has barely been awake for a week. You have not even given him a chance to recover," he replied. "And I am not even a prince anymore. You can beg August instead. He has not given up his royal position, right?" August was a mess. Both Wille and his mother knew that. If Erik was not fit for the throne after his accident, August was directly inappropriate for the throne. His addiction had not become any better, I had heard. It was sad in some way, even if I had a hard time feeling empathy for him.

"You know as much as I do that August is unfit for the throne. His mental health would not manage it," Kristina said.

"But mine would? Do you even know or care about my mental health?" Wilhelm snarled. He looked his mother right in the eye now. I knew Wilhelm would be miserable if he agreed to his mother's requests. It would chain him to a life he did not want anything to do with again. He would never have the freedom he so badly wanted. Needed.

"Erik can't have children anymore. The accident made him infertile, Wilhelm. And he is too sick to ever be able to take the crown," his mother said. "We have a duty as a family to serve our people. That includes you." It did not. He had directly rejected the title he was born into.

"You can't make me, mother," he said. "I don't want that life and you know that. And it is actually sad that you care more about Erik's ability to have children than you care about him." He said some true words right there. Erik had been close to death, but survived. And all she could think of was the future of the royal family. Not how her sons were doing, right now. Somehow she lived in the future already. A future she likely would not be able to make into reality.

"Of course I care about Erik, Wilhelm," she said.

"Then show it. How many times have you been to the hospital to see him? Simon, who is not even related to him, has been there more than you, and you are his own mother," Wille said. He was red in the face from anger. I had been with Wille at the hospital to see Erik several times a week. I needed to be there for them. Erik needed people he recognized to come and see him. To show that we cared about him. That we wanted him to get better. And his little brother, the rebel sitting in the chair beside me, also needed me to be there for him. And I wanted to be there for him. It was the least I could do.

"I have a country to take care of," his mother said strictly.

"How did you become so cold, mom? I won't tell Erik you said that, because that is just cruel. At the end of the day he will remember who was there for him at his weakest. And that won't be you," Wille said. If I did not know she deserved it, I would have thought he was rude and disrespectful. But she actually deserved to hear it. I knew so.

"How dare you disrespect me, your own mother?" she replied. She seemed upset.

"When did you last behave like my mother, huh? Maybe when you forced me to a boarding school and left me there feeling abandoned? Or maybe when you told me I could not see Simon anymore? When you protected August instead of me when he released our sextape?" Wille spat at his mother. "Did you even want me, or did you have me to be the spare heir to the throne? You know what? Spare me the answer to that." Wille was upset. He stood up, ready to leave. I stood up with him and before he did anything he would regret later I led him outside his mother's office. I took him in my arms and hugged him tightly. He cried and I patted his back gently.

"I love you, Wille," I said. "Just the way you are. I hope you know that. Never change who you are because of some stupid tradition, okay?" He nodded against my shoulder.

"Thank you Simon. I love you too," he said. Our lips met and I had no plans of letting him go. He was stuck with me. There were people working for the royal court walking around us, but I couldn't care less. It was an act of rebellion to kiss in the hallway in the palace. It should not be. Our love should not have to be an act of rebellion, but it was. Because the world was still prejudiced and cruel. And yet, we were the lucky ones. In other parts of the world we would have been jailed. Killed. Just for being who we were. For loving each other. I wondered if there would ever be a world where love was not a crime. Where the prince could come home with his new boyfriend without causing a scandal. Where everyone was free. Where your gender identity or sexual orientation did not matter. But there was still a long way to go. One day, maybe we would wake up in another world. In a world where everyone was allowed to love whoever they loved. In a world where children felt loved by their parents. And where children were not a duty, but a choice. Maybe a lot of problems would be solved by that.