At Your Service- A Royalty Solangelo AU

Chapter 30

TW: Burial, Discussions of Death

It is not until you are standing at the foot of an open grave that you realize how empty death truly is. 

That is what Will determined as he stood among the Aruman people in front of a young girl's grave. There was no body within the hole yet, instead a marble statue towering over it, a man leaning on the ground with his tools at its feet. Each time the metal stuck the stone, Will flinched, as though a part of him was being chipped away by affiliation. And when the job was done, Will was hollow, left staring at the words that now glared back at him. 

Here Lies Her Majesty

Queen Hazel Levesque

473 Monarch of the Aruma Kingdom

He could feel the harsh intake of air from the man standing next to him, turning to see what little colour the Prince had left drain from his face. There were some wounds, Will knew now, that would never fully heal with time. This was one of them. 

The funeral was to be a quiet affair, a gentle send off of the short lived monarch before a new one was to take her place tomorrow. Despite the protests, Will's pleas for a few more days to let the Prince rest, the palace pressed onwards. They needed a king, and that was the only thing Nico could give them. It did not matter that he was broken, the palace was willing to stuff his broken pieces together and sew him up if that meant they could pretend to be a force even in such a dark time. 

"Welcome," A nameless priest had taken to the stand. Why he was there, no one knew, but he just kept talking. "Today, we celebrate the life of Queen Hazel Levesque, who is survived by her brother, His Royal Highness Nico DiAngelo."

The prince beside him stiffened at the mention of his name, and Will could only watch his eyes narrow at the priest as if threatening him to keep his sisters name out of his mouth. But as the priest kept talking, the glare faded softer, more broken, and soon tears came to form at the corners of the Prince's eyes. Will could feel the Prince fidgeting beside him, looking down to see hands picking absentmindedly at the skin on his arms. 

Quietly, without drawing attention to himself, he gently lifted the Prince's fingers away from the slowly tearing skin, slotting his hand in with the cool, delicate one. Beside him, the prince did not flinch away from the touch, instead gripping onto Will's hand like a lifeline. 

"We will now hear a few words from Prince Nico," The priest motioned to where they stood, but the Prince did not seem to hear him. He stayed rooted to the spot, clinging tightly to Will's hand. When he did not respond, the priest said loudly again, "Your highness?" 

Will wanted to snap at the priest, to tell him to leave the prince alone, but he never got the chance. Nico snapped out of whatever trance he had been in, nodding at the priest, but did not move. Eventually, Will squeezed his hand gently, urging him to go, and he felt the hand slip reluctantly out of his grasp. 

The prince took the spot of the priest, turning out to face the crowd with a blank expression. 

"Thank you all for being here today on this incredibly devastating occasion. As you all know the past week at my lovely sister's coronation, she was killed. But what you may not know, as I was recently informed myself, that this was not the work of certain rogue elements in Aruma. It was from our sister kingdom itself." 

A collective gasp rippled through the audience, and Will felt his own breath leave him as well. No. It was not possible that anyone in his kingdom would go as far as murder to succeed in the invasion. He had given them everything they needed, he had given them the information and the sheets, they would not kill her with all that at their hands. They didn't need to. 

He raised his eyes back to where the Prince stood at the top of the grave, staring blankly into the crowd at no one in particular. 

"Known to all as Queen Hazel Levesque, she worked as a philanthropist in the city, aiding with civil projects to help advance the state of Aruma. Many of you worked near her, for her, or even with her. And she never forgot a single face. 

"My sister was an amazing woman, and I know that she did not deserve this at all. For 22 years, I grew up beside her in this palace. She was my only constant in life, she was the only one who never left-" His voice hitched and he rubbed his hands over his face. A couple officials surrounded him, putting their hands on his shoulders and whispering into his ear. Will wanted to shove them away, to tell them to give the Prince a moment, but he didn't need to. The Prince shrugged them off annoyedly, biting something inaudible to his advisor before looking back out evenly at the crowd. 

"Fuck this, I can't be civil anymore. I have been left by my mother, my sister, my father, and now, my last sister. Every piece of my family is in the ground or gone, and I am the only one left to testify to it. To say that I am angry would be to minimize everything I am feeling. It is not fair that I have to stand up here and be paraded around the palace when I have just lost everything that is of importance to me. At 8, I watched my father turn sides on the battlefield, at 10 my sister was slain in front of me in the gardens. I thought this was the end of all the suffering, for how much more could anyone expect me to lose? But that was where I was misjudged. At 22, I have buried my last 2 family members within weeks of one another. They all now Rest In Peace, yet I am left here with anything but that.

"So ask me to be your king, and I will do that. Ask me to keep our state safe, and I will do that. But ask me to forgive? That I will never do. So all that I ask of you is to be patient, and I will do my best for you. By the time tomorrow rolls around for the coronation, I will be everything you need. But as for tonight, I will see no audience, nor help a soul. You may have lost your Queen, but I lost myself. And if you expect me to lead, you should be gracious enough to let me pretend to find what I have lost tonight. Thank you." 

There was no applause or gentle coos of sympathy, only silence as the prince slipped back into his place at Will's side. He said nothing, only staring emptily ahead as his words hung in the air. His body was rigid, as if tucking himself away would allow him not to be hurt anymore. 

The priest had returned, but he had brought a guest. The large wooden box was carried in behind him and set at the side of the grave. A few words were said over the coffin, motions made in the air to bless her transition to the afterlife, and the prince never took his eyes off the box. His lips moved wordlessly, as though muttering his own sorts of wishes for his sister as they prepped the box for burial. 

But as the bearers lifted the box into the air, it became too much for the Prince. Wordlessly, he turned into Will's chest, burying his face so that he could not see anything behind him. He gently wrapped his arms around the prince, letting one hand up to hold his head in place comfortingly while the other rubbed soothing circles on his back. 

He watched the funeral for both of them. The box was lowered into the ground, and he could feel the tears staining his shirt. When the first shovel struck the ground to load the dirt back, he felt hands latch onto his chest tighter. And as the sound of shoveling continued, Nico pressed his face further into Will's chest, as though he could burrow into Will so that he may never have to hear the sounds of metal scraping the dead earth over his sister again.

And when the last words of the funeral were said and last visitors gone, the two remained rooted in place. The prince had such a death grip on will that he could not move away, even if he wanted to. But he didn't want to. 

He would stay in his spot for however long it took for Nico to be okay. If that meant until his body decomposed, then so be it. If all he could do was lend a mostly intact heart to a man who had his unfairly stolen away, then that was the most important job he would ever have in life. 

At that moment, nothing mattered more than keeping the prince safe. The palace would hastily sew him up if that meant they could have a King, but Will would sit with him and care for each wound until it healed. And if that was a week or a lifetime, he did not care. For him, the most beautiful object was the one that got broken, and he would gladly tear himself apart if that meant he could fix him.