Max wasn’t sure exactly when things had started to shift. It wasn’t some dramatic epiphany or a single moment of clarity—it was more like a series of small, ridiculous moments that added up until one day he woke up and realized he was in trouble.
Serious trouble.
It started innocently enough.
The next morning, Charles had bounced back to his usual self—too energetic for Max’s liking, as if their heartfelt chat the night before had never happened. Max had hoped for a low-key day after all the emotional turmoil, but no, that wasn’t Charles’ style.
“You know what we need?” Charles had said over breakfast, dramatically waving his croissant in the air like it was a scepter. “An adventure.”
Max blinked at him, his coffee mug paused halfway to his mouth. “No.”
Charles didn’t even flinch. “Yes.”
“I said no,” Max repeated, setting the mug down and glaring at him across the table.
Charles leaned in, eyes sparkling with mischief. “And I said yes.”
Max groaned, already sensing he was going to lose this battle. “Charles, last time you said we needed an adventure, I almost got fired. Remember?”
Charles waved a hand dismissively. “That was just a misunderstanding. This time, it’ll be low-key. Super chill. No near-arrests, I promise.”
Max rubbed his temples. “Define ‘low-key.’”
Charles grinned, leaning back in his chair. “Well, I was thinking… ice skating.”
Max stared at him. “You… want to go ice skating?”
Charles nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, why not? It’s fun, it’s harmless, and it’s basically impossible to get into trouble on an ice rink.”
Max raised an eyebrow. “I feel like you underestimate your ability to turn literally anything into trouble.”
Charles laughed. “Come on, Max, live a little. I’ll even let you pick the playlist for the drive there.”
“That’s not a selling point,” Max muttered, but he could already feel himself caving.
---
An hour later, they were at the palace’s private ice rink—a place Max didn’t even know existed until that morning. And of course, Charles was terrible at ice skating.
Horrible, actually.
“Whoops—Max!” Charles yelped as he wobbled dangerously on his skates, arms flailing like a windmill in a hurricane. Max rushed forward just in time to catch him before he face-planted.
“Why are you like this?” Max grumbled, half-laughing, as he steadied Charles.
“I’m graceful!” Charles insisted, still clutching onto Max’s arms. “I’m just… warming up.”
Max raised an eyebrow, his hands lingering on Charles’ waist longer than necessary. “Right. Sure. Let’s go with that.”
Charles finally found his balance—or at least some approximation of it—and beamed at Max. “See? I’ve got it now.”
As if on cue, his foot slipped again, and Max had to grab him, pulling him back upright. “Yeah, totally got it.”
“You know,” Charles said breathlessly, clinging to Max’s shoulders for dear life, “if you weren’t so busy complaining, you’d notice that this is kind of fun.”
YOU ARE READING
𝑅𝑂𝑌𝐴𝐿 𝑆𝑇𝐴𝑁𝐷𝐴𝑅𝐷𝑆 ~𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑛
Fanfiction(A Lestappen story) A royal prince and a former f1 driver who now is a bodyguard. What could happen ~ -English is not my first language,so ignore the errors♡
