A Safe Place - a Heartstopper and RWRB One-Shot

A Royal Visit

This is a silly little idea I got after reading Red, White, and Royal Blue and Heartstopper back-to-back, and it wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it. I know I'm fudging with the timescales of both stories a bit, but whatever. :) For Henry, this takes place after the New Year's kiss with Alex. For Charlie, it's sometime before the kiss with Nick at Harry's birthday. Enjoy!

Henry

"Right because it's so hard to get a date when you're a prince."

Henry rests his head against the cool, tinted glass, barely even taking in the charming scenery of the English countryside as it speeds by. The trees are just starting to show hints of green as winter gradually gives way to early spring. But his mind is firmly stuck in one snowy night months before and thousands of miles away.

"I have...people...who interest me, but I shouldn't pursue them. At least not in my position."

It had been decided in the interest of continuing Henry's image rehabilitation tour, that he should branch out beyond London children's hospitals, and be seen visiting schools outside the city and serving as an inspiration for the nation's youth.

Not that he feels particularly inspiring at the moment.

But he had been told pointedly by Phillip that the press was starting to speculate on the fact that he hadn't been seen in public since New Year's.

New Year's...

He swallows hard as he feels the lump threatening to rise in his throat once again.

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about."

"Christ, you're as thick as it gets."

The kiss. The stupid fucking kiss. The stunned look on Alex's face. The increasingly frantic texts that he tried desperately to ignore for weeks after until they finally stopped. When he closes his eyes, he can see it all as if it has been burned onto the insides of his eyelids.

He could have tried to laugh it off as him being drunk and feeling particularly emotional that night, but the truth was that he had felt an almost irresistible ache to kiss Alexander Claremont-Diaz since the moment he had first laid eyes on him. And if he's being honest with himself, he doesn't think he has it in him to lie about this. Not to Alex. Not anymore. Which is precisely why he has been trying so hard to avoid any interaction with the son of the President of the United States since that night, in spite of the fact that they were supposed to be cultivating a media-friendly bromance.

He knows it won't be possible forever. No matter how many times he has tried to get out of it, he has been told that he WILL be attending the Prime Minister's reception at the White House next week, end of discussion.

"Your Highness?"

Shaan's smooth, crisp voice startles Henry like a gunshot. He clears his throat and unconvincingly tries to play it off. "Y-yes, sorry. What is it?"

"I said we have arrived, sir."

Henry blinks and suddenly registers that the car has stopped. Outside the window, he sees a small crowd of reporters and photographers gathered behind stanchions on either side of the front gate of a school. The sign above the gate reads Truham Grammar School for Boys.

He takes a deep, ragged breath. Shaan's usually cool expression breaks slightly and betrays the smallest hint of the concern. Heny nods. "I'm fine. Really. Let's just...get this over with." Drawing from a lifetime of practice, he summons up his Camera Smile as Shaan steps out and quickly circles the car to open his door.