Summary:
If there was one thing Harry didn't expect the day before his uni graduation, it was for his long lost grandmother to show up and tell him he's actually a prince thats next in line to rule Genovia. He also didn't expect to fall for his royal advisor, who happens to hate his guts. A Princess Diaries AU.
Notes:
Hi, all! Thanks to the mod for running this and letting me switch my prompt last minute hehe and thanks to my usual betas for the help! Title comes from Orville Peck's "Roses Are Falling".
(See the end of the work for .)
Chapter Text
"So what are you doing after graduation, Harry?"
If that wasn't the dreaded question of the century. But he had to attend a mandatory "goodbye" meeting with his advisor to graduate, so here he was. In one of the administrative buildings on campus, sitting in an uncomfortable wooden chair, the day before his uni graduation. Well, college, as Americans liked to say. He's spent four years here and still never got used to their lingo.
Four years ago, he hopped off the plane at LAX and settled into life as an economics student at UCLA. At least the weather was nice, with him being able to wear his vintage band shirts when and where he pleased. Going to the beach when he had some down time was also a plus, the sunshine feeling good on his skin. And attending pride in San Francisco was definitely a career defining moment in his gay life. So really, California wasn't all that bad.
But he still felt homesick every once in a while, so making friends that were also European definitely helped fill that void. Niall, for instance, was in a lot of his introductory classes for some reason, and their friendship flourished over their mutual love of Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles, jamming with their vinyl collection late at night during study breaks.
He met a few others through different classes and sometimes social events that he was dragged to by Niall. Sarah was also from England and was a sick drummer for a local band that Harry knew was going to make it big soon. She also happened to be dating Mitch, another mutual friend of Niall's. He was American, but that could be overlooked for the sake of their friendship and Sarah. And along the way Harry also managed to meet Bebe, an aspiring fashion designer with a women's studies degree, and Kacey, a business major that kind of scared him sometimes but was still a lovely friend to have around. So really, Harry was able to be alone when he needed to and found company if he wanted. He liked his life like that.
Harry even adopted a cat from a local shelter within a year of being in LA, and named her Rose, after his favorite flower. She was picky on food and clearly made it known that she should be the one and only cat of his life, making sure to groom Harry whenever he was laying down and assert her dominance. There wasn't a day that went by where Harry wasn't happy to see her greyish brown lump of a body prance about his home.
In all, he made a nice life for himself in Los Angeles. That didn't mean he wasn't looking forward to going back home.
"I have a job offer in London that I'll be looking into," he answered simply, watching as the older lady's red nails typed away on her laptop.
"I can see that you're one of the top students in economics! You're going to do very well in that field, Harry," she said.
"But it's not what I want," he wanted to say. If he had it his way, he'd be studying film making and hoping to make independent films in the future. But no. After discovering that he had a knack for math, his advisors decided that he should not waste his talent on a silly arts degree. So he majored in economics and minored in business. No room for film studies in his future.
