Young Royals: Season 2

Episode 8

It had been a week since the two of them had that talk in the classroom after classes were done for the day, and at first nothing changed. Simon still seemed to avoid Wilhelm, racing off if he ever saw him approaching. That was until today. Wilhelm had gotten to the dining room first, sitting by himself towards the end of the table. Not many people having the courage to talk to him like they used to since the video came out. Though, he couldn't seem to understand why. No one seemed to be afraid of his title as Crown Prince before, and suddenly now people were shying away from him. He didn't want to entertain the idea of it being related to being seen getting intimate with another boy. Everyone at Hillerska knew it was him, he could deny it to the public, but all of the students and teachers knew that was his room. So to think his peers were possibly avoiding him because they believed he was gay made him feel sick. He didn't know what he was, gay, straight, or something in between. Up until he came to Hillerska a relationship of any kind hadn't been his priority much less a common thought. At his old school all he cared about was being a normal kid, which was probably the reason he strayed away from relationships, as most times people were just chasing after him because of his status. He thoughts on the situation were interrupted when he heard the clattering of a plate being set on the table beside him, slowly looking up to see Simon sitting down.

Wilhelm couldn't help but stare as the curly haired boy settled himself into the chair, his rigid movements making it apparent he was a bit uncomfortable with what he was doing, but nonetheless he didn't run away. A quick glance around the room proved that people were in fact watching the two of them, but as soon as they noticed the prince was aware everyone quickly turned away.  A word had yet to be spoken between the two, but for the first time in a while an inkling of a smile was present on Wille's face. He anxiously nibbled at a piece of skin on his lip as he wondered if this was an answer to his question from before. Did this mean they were allowed to talk to each other now? "If you keep doing that you're going to make your lip bleed," Simon mumbled. The prince blinked as he turned his head to see Simon looking over at him, his eyes flicking down to his lip, gesturing to what he was referring to. "Oh uh... yeah," Wille said softly as he stopped, wiping his lip with the back of his hand to see if he actually caused any damage. He quietly pushed around the food on his plate, suddenly nervous to be around Simon. He didn't want to mess up and say something that might create distance between them again. "So uh... that test in math... it was pretty hard, huh?" Wilhelm closed his eyes, pursing his lips together as he shook his head. He felt stupid asking such a basic question question, yet it was the only thing he could think of. Though, Simon seemed to find it rather amusing as he was stifling a laugh behind his hand. It took him a moment to compose himself before speaking up, "You really want to ask me about math class?" The prince couldn't help but let out a relieved sigh at his reaction, not even caring if it was embarrassing. He was worried things would be tense or awkward, and he was certain at some point it might feel that way, but for now it was nice just to be able to talk.

"No,  that's actually the last thing I'd like to talk about," Wilhelm chuckled, Simon doing the same while he nodded his head. "Good," he whispered as continued to eat. They fell into another round of silence, but this one was more comfortable. They knew it was okay to speak, but right now both of them just seemed to enjoy simply being by each other again. However, unlike before the incident, there weren't any stolen glances or cheeky smiles. Wilhelm knew better than to cross that line when he was just given much more than he had asked for. He just wanted to be able to talk to Simon again, even if that meant strictly texting, he would be fine with that. But here the curly haired boy was giving him a foot when he only asked for a inch. Wilhelm glanced over at him, a small smile on his face, not meaning to stare but unable to help it as he wasn't sure he'd ever be this close to him again. Though in fear of getting caught when Simon seemed to turn his head in his direction he quickly directed his eyes to his plate, scratching the back of his neck. He had hoped he hadn't been to obvious. "So... how was your Christmas?" The prince soon asked, wanting to actually make use of the opportunity he was given. Simon wiped the corners of his mouth, turning his head to look at Wille again, "It was nice, we didn't really do much. We never really do, but sometimes that's nice, you know? Just being able to relax." Though he hadn't taken into consideration Wilhelm most likely has never had just a "relaxing" holiday. He always had somewhere to be, standing in the background for his mother's and father's addresses. And now, making addresses himself. Simon wondered if he had ever been able to have a normal Christmas. Where all he had to worry about was being up at the crack of dawn to wake his parents so he could rush to the tree to see what Santa had left. Maybe when he was younger, he hoped. "Yeah that does sound nice... my Christmas was, uh, eventful... I guess you could say," the prince mumbled out, not wanting to dampen the mood. "Oh right. I heard about that, is your mom doing okay?" Simon wasn't sure if this was something he actually wanted to talk about, but he'd feel rude just glossing over it while knowing what happened that day, "Are you okay?" He added on quietly. That one question, those three little words seemed to hit Wille a little harder than he would've expected. No one had really checked on him since everything happened. His dad came and talked to him a bit, but he did it partially because he was trying to convince him to do something so his mother felt better. This was the first someone had actually been concerned about him.