(The Queen has a change of heart)
The room was abuzz with low murmurs and quiet conversations. It was hard to distinguish the words that were being uttered around them as she tried to focus on her son and his panicked eyes that were searching for a way out. He was clearly distressed and in all the years since she has had him, she has never really found a way to deal with this side of him. Erik learned what Willhem needed pretty early on. On those days where he got quiet or started fidgeting or biting his nails or taking deeps breaths seemingly out of nowhere. Erik knew and she felt comforted by the fact that Wilhem would always have his big brother in those moments when she did not know what to do. But that was not the case anymore. Erik was gone. And she was on her own.
He was bent over the desk, hands placed on the ends of it, head lowered, his ribs expanding in quick movements.
The others were trying to give them privacy, she knew, but there was only so much privacy to be had when you were the Queen and Crown Prince of a monarchy.
"You need to talk to me, Wilhelm."
He glanced up at her and his eyes told her all she needed to know. He was closing himself off. He was putting up the walls that protected him for so long. The walls that kept him safe from her and the people inside the room. The same ones that kept him isolated and lonely, yet served as a way of keeping him sane. It was not easy, she knew, being him, her lonely boy, and she searched for the words that could offer him a way out.
The door behind them opened and in came a boy. Simon, she reminded herself. A head full of curls and two glinting, brown eyes. His gaze was questioning as he was stopped by security. Searching for something, or someone, that is.
Wilhelm noticed the commotion and looked up once again. Yet, this time his gaze was no longer wary. His expression softened and he exhaled, straightening himself up as he stepped away from the table and towards the boy.
The room quietened as his footsteps brought him closer to Simon. The guards stepped away and the two younglings met eachother halfway as the shorter one let out a concerned "What is going on?".
Wilhelm kept his distance as he responded with a "Everything is fine", in an attempt to calm himself and the other boy down.
It was instant. The change in his body, the way it was no longer hunched or tense, but open as if it knew that solace was near and easy to attain.
Kristina was no stranger to love. She loved her husband, and her family, her living son and her burried one. But even she could admit that her heir was drowning in the depths of a love true and plentiful. A strong love, fierce and protective, kind and gentle. She did not know how she ever had it in her to try and take that away from him.
The two boys were silent, their eyes speaking words none of them wanted to utter in the crowded room. She imagined it was difficult, trying to keep some pieces of them to themselves when the whole world had seen the whole picture they did not want to share. She had seen the video, she had to, there was no escaping it. Just as they were never going to be able to escape all that came after it. And in that had always laid her biggest concern.
Wilhelm reached out and caressed Simon's fingers with his own. A simple, innocent touch, yet louder than any other sound that could be heard in the room.
"Will you stay and wait?", soft words, meant for only one to hear. The intent clear in them. The yearning, as well. It was heartbreaking, even to her, who has fought against them for so long, to hear the uncertainty hiding in her son's words. As if he was aware that he was asking too much and would be rejected. Never fully sure of the one thing he should never have doubted in the first place. She knew she was to blame for that, but the queen always had to be one step ahead of the mother. And that was the cruel truth she had always had to live with.
To her amazement, Simon did not look wary or scared as everyone awaited his answer. She could see why her son was enamored with the boy. He stood proud, as if bulletproof, as if nothing could break him apart. It was hard to admit it to herself, but she was glad that the boy her son chose was strong enough to take it all and not crumble beneath the pressure. Real strength was something that was rare in her world and she was quietly amazed at how the small, brown haired boy did not waver as he stood there, on the other side of them all, as alone as her own boy, looking for a way out yet making himself stay, day after day.
"Yeah", he said. A simple word, almost a breath of air. But the intent behind it clear to her. He would stay, not just today, but every day. He would stay for her son, he would wait for him. For however long it took.
Her heart stumbled as she beheld the pure relief on Wilhelm's face. The small upturn of his lips and the soft glimmer in his golden eyes.
She has been searching for a way to bring him comfort ever since his brother died. Tried to help him in which ever way she knew best. She knew he did not trust her anymore, it broke her a bit more, day by day. But she was willing to be the villain if it meant protecting him against the tides that wanted to take him under. But now she realised that the only thing that could keep him afloat was the very thing that she tried to take away from him. It once may have been Erik that reached out a helping hand, but it was Simon who brought him true peace. A vision of better days and clearer skies and fresh air. A promise of never being alone again, of someone holding his hand as he searched for a way out. And find it he would, of this she was sure, and it finally brought her joy to see the two lonely boys standing there, hands touching, fighting to make it out together, knowing that the only thing they would ever really need, was eachother.