The Crown: Alternate Ending

Part Two

A/N: Any parts in this chapter in italics I took from Kiera Cass's The Crown to fit it in with the whole story better. The stuff in italics is not my own words or work but hers.
My mother left as quickly as she came, closing the door softly behind her. I sat on my bed to do what she told me and I began to work my way through the boys that I cared about.
Henri was still here, and while I didn't know for sure, it seemed as though he was completely devoted to me. I liked him a lot with his ever-present smile and his endless optimism. He made me laugh, and I loved that he could make me happy. It would be a while until we could truly speak to one another, but I knew he would still make a great prince despite his short comings. However, I wasn't in love with him. I just didn't know him well enough to say that yet.
But thinking about Henri only brought my attention back to Eikko. The thought of him gave me a rush of excitement, and my heart screamed his name. Still I paused. I tried to fit together the bits and pieces of him I knew. He was sweet, and definitely good. I liked the clarity of his eyes and the caring that always softened his gaze. He could be funny, and he could protect me. He was close to his parents, and I wished I could meet them someday.
After that though, there was nothing.
The realization came upon me fast, like a gust of wind had just blown it over me. This love I felt for Eikko, it was too fast, too instant to really be love. All I really knew of him with me were the kisses in the Women's Room and the evening we had in the giant safe room. What I felt for him suddenly seemed sickly sweet, like the kind of gushy love you might find in a romance novel, and that was not me. No, this was me wanting the one thing I couldn't have. This wasn't my heart, it was my adrenaline.
I felt awful, criminal. How could I have told someone I had known for only two months and only talked to on occasion that I loved him? Now I would lose a loyal friendship to my spoiled wanting. How could I ever forgive myself for this? How could Eikko ever forgive me for this?
There was one boy left, and he was hard too. Kile was a friend I never knew I would have, and now I couldn't imagine living without him. There was no one I liked talking to more. He cared about his people, and his housing design would be a brilliant project. He said he was falling for me. There was something there for me too. When I looked inside though, I saw it was an ember, a red hot coal. It was buried beneath whirling thoughts and responsibilities, but it was constant and true. When I prodded it every sweet moment between us came back to me. How we had said we had feelings for each other but admitted it wasn't quite love. How he had told me he wanted to build me things. How he had picked me up and spun me around after my coronation. How he always listened to me. How kissing him made me feel so different than I ever had before. I couldn't give up on him so easily. There was too much history between us to leave him behind.
One thing was sure though. I still didn't really know what love was.
I had about ten minutes of solid processing time before a knock came at my door, which I tried to dismiss, but then the phone in my room started ringing and didn't stop. It seemed being queen and stopping for several minutes to think about suitors did not really go hand-in-hand.
Even if I wanted to see where my relationship with Eikko might go in the light of day, even if I liked Henri and wanted to try to learn Finnish so I could talk to him more, even if I wasn't sure that I was in love with Kile, I didn't have any more time to give this internal debate. I needed to propose and I needed to stop Marid. My country meant more to me than anything else. I just wished they could see that for themselves.
I souldn't figure out what to do with my hands as I made my way to Kile's room.

---Skip to Eadlyn's Proposal (Actual parts of The Crown up to this point insert here)---

"So let's do it."
"Do What?"
"Get married. Eadlyn I'd marry you tonight. Between the two of us and our families, there's no way he'd survive. People have been pulling for us from the start. Marry me Eadlyn."
I looked into the sweet and worried face of Kile Woodwork and my heart lit up.
"Look," it said. "You've found it."
I shook my head and quieted my heart. It had already steered me wrong. "Kile, I... I don't think I can. I was going to, but now..." I looked at what he had been sanding minutes before. He deserved to work with his people.
His hopeful face drooped. "Why? Is it because I didn't get down on one knee?" He dropped instantly, gripping my hands. "Or wait, is it because you're supposed to ask?"
"Look," my heart whispered again. "He knows you. He knows you like to be in charge. He knows what you need and he wants to give it to you. He's willing to sacrifice his lifelong passion for you. And it's not just him knowing you. You know him too."
My heart was right. I did know Kile Woodwork. I knew his amazing mother and caring father, I knew how much he loved his architecture, how much he wanted to get out of the palace, how him being willing to give it up made my eyes well with tears. I knew about his terrible taste in ties, his smile that seemed to shine brighter now when he smiled at me. A smile that always made me want to smile too. Still...
I got down on the floor with him. "Kile, I don't want to take away what you love most in the world. You should be able to build things for others. They need you."
He smiled his goofy grin at me, as if I was offering him a problem he already had the answer to. "I've actually been thinking about that Eady. You know how the winners of the selection used to have service projects when they became queen? Like your grandmother? She worked really hard to improve school districts. And your mom's idea was too eliminate the castes! Of course, she didn't think it all the way through,"
He got a little more serious seeming to prepare himself. "Eadlyn Helena Margarette Schreave, if you would have me, it would be my greatest honor to be your husband. As prince consort I could start a service project overseeing my designs built in industrial cities all over Illea. Think about it, we could travel together and you could meet with your people and show them how much you care about them, and my dream of seeing my designs built could come true."
I settled into the thought. He had come up with a way to be with me without giving up his architecture. He wanted to be with me.
He wasn't finished though. "And, Eady, you were wrong earlier when you said architecture was what I loved most in the world. That's not true anymore."
My heart was screaming so loud that I almost didn't catch what he said then. "The thing I love most in this world is you."
"I know we said just a little while ago that it was too soon to say something like that, but I feel like through seeing you become queen I've really seen you, and I still fell for you. I would take the responsibilities of being prince any day if it meant you would be my wife. It wasn't just that I wanted to build you things anymore. I didn't want to design anything if it meant I couldn't talk to you about it or share it with you. That's when I knew. I meant what I said Eadlyn. I would marry you tonight, or I would wait a hundred years for you. I love you."
I was stunned. I took his hand, trying to process everything he just said to me. This wasn't like Fox because Kile actually knew me, not his idea of me. This wasn't like Eikko because Kile had known me my whole life. He'd seen every single part of me, not just the black in white of me falling apart and me put together. Kile loved me. All of me.
"You love him too," my heart insisted. "Who else could you have a day's long conversation with? Who else could make you laugh without fail. Who else would you rather kiss into oblivion? Who else do you feel so comfortable with? Who else is anything but a glorified stranger to you but this boy who knows your whole heart despite your best efforts to keep it hidden?"
An unbreakable friendship. A passionate commitment.
I reached up and felt the dampness of my cheek, though I didn't remember starting to cry. Kile came over and wrapped me up in his arms. He cupped my cheek and wiped away my tears with his finger tips.
"I understand if you'd rather be with someone else Eadlyn..."
"Just promise me two things," I said looking him in the eyes.
"Anything."
"You have to tell me your middle name."
"It's Tames, a mother's maiden name thing."
I smiled. He did too.
"And your other request?"
"Build me the beach house for when we retire?"
"You ask for such simple things. Eadlyn, I'd give you anything."
I kissed him then. Our first real kiss since before I had dismissed all the other suitors. I was glad we had waited because these kisses felt much more special. He was so right. It wasn't about first kisses. It was the last ones that truly mattered. And so help me, my last kiss with Kile would not be for a long, long time.