A CUSPIDE CORONA

Leonardo Emile Matteo Savoy | Crown Prince of Italy

[leonardosavoy-blog]

ANAIS GRIMALDI

From where she stood, she still could see their beady little eyes through their mask, burning through her dress as if they were ready to pounce any second they found her alone. Anais was infamous for wounding herself in all sorts of trouble. Within the span of an hour, she managed to enter the ballroom, catch the attention of a tall stranger, talk to said stranger, then realize they were danger – and not the kind she oh-so-loved – after they kept insisting she was their wife behind the mask. She knew she had to get away that instant. In her beautiful tight dress with a decolette that left close-to-nothing to the imagination, she frantically shimmied legs as she wove through the crowd, only to end up bumping chest first into yet another masked person. Deciding they had a pair of eyes that could be trusted, she stopped in front of them. “There’s a creep who can’t stop looking at me like a… like a creep.” In her distress, her French accent grew thicker than she usually liked it to be. “Pretend you and I are engaging in the best conversation of your entire life, and I’ll owe you any reasonable thing you want.”

Scanning the crowd for any sign of his best friend, Leon didn’t pay much attention to where he was going. He had only gone momentarily to the lavatory, and when he returned, she was nowhere to be found. He was slipping past a few people, craning his neck around when someone bumped into him. “Mi dispiace, signorina,” he apologized. The pair of eyes that met his seemed familiar, but the room was a little dimly lit to be certain. Both her tone and her eyes gave away her distress. As much as he had wanted to go back to his own business and refuse, he knew he couldn’t deny someone in need of his help. He only nodded slightly before wrapping an arm around her waist, and speaking rather loudly, “Amore, there you are! I’ve been looking everywhere for you. Shall we dance?” Casting a quick glance behind her to spot the said creep, he led her the other way towards the dance floor, just as the music began playing. “An elbow strike or a throat punch would’ve saved your life.” Leon kept his eyes locked on hers, careful not to wander anywhere lower than her chin, as they both moved slowly to the music. He didn’t want to come off as another creep. “Are you alright, though? He didn’t do anything to you, did he?” 

[leonardosavoy-blog]

“This seems fun and all,” Leon, not even a few minutes into the ball, was already feeling skeptical about the whole thing. Yet it was only after a few drinks that he was able to voice out his concern. “But after everything that’s happened, it also seems a little suspicious, don’t you think? What’s next? Will they announce that we’ll have to fight to the death tonight? Weeding out the weak and such?” After what they’ve been through, being suspicious was one thing you couldn’t take away from anyone. Or maybe that was just Leon. Leon who loved order. Leon who just can’t stand surprises. He held his fourth glass of wine in his hand as he stood at the back of the room, watching everyone else dance and mill about. “Between you and me, I think it’s that Indian Princess who’ll go first.”

[leonardosavoy-blog]

ALEXANDRINE BELVEDERE

“You are not the bad guy here you know I would never paint you in that light don’t do that to me.” She couldn’t explain herself there she didn’t have to. He’d been there when some archaic comments were said to her not even related to dating but how she’d lived. Watching as he spoke, Lex didn’t let her face break, she wanted to keep it in how much she wanted to scream. They both were tapped. Trapped in their world, trapped escaping death, trapped with the crowns hovering above their head. It’s weight close to crushing them. “Do you think I want to be queen? Or even a princess the way I’ve been ‘marketed’ as? No, I don’t I’d love nothing more than to disappear into nothingness, not be important. I love helping people, yeah, but I don’t want to be Queen or a Princess. I just wanna be Lex. I’ve accepted that there’s no getting another chance though, I know it’s a lot of pressure and I’m terrified of it to. We can’t change it though, not unless you abdicate.” Every fiber of her being told her to reach out to comfort him, but she didn’t her stubbornness from how he hurt her echoing instead. 

“How can you love me and I only be a reminder of your pain?” Alexandrine might have well as whispered stepping back again. Blinking away tears she turned on her heels just desperately booking it towards the other direction of the beach feeling herself start to sob harder. She could barely even concentrate on his other question. It couldn’t be enough it really couldn’t. Going through her whole life knowing her husband had never been in love with her. That he loved her but she was just what made him stuck and miserable. She walked a bit farther before just collapsing on towards the edge of the water letting it hit the edge of her feet. She’d never hated herself for being drunk more in her life. Seeing him out of the corner of her eye she shook her head. “I love you but broke my heart more than I ever knew possible or you’ve ever done with a single sentence.”

Abdicate. Leon couldn’t even count the times he lied on his bed, staring up at the ceiling and thinking about abandoning this life, about revoking the throne. But despite his selfish desires, he understood that his country needed him, that there was no room for anything else but ruling and leading, and taking those 60 million lives in his hands and making sure they were cared for. 

One look at Alexandrine and Leon knew she was about to break. She was merely choking down the pain he had inflicted. Leon was at a loss for words. He knew anything that he would say would only hurt her more. And he didn’t want any more of that. He had given her more than his heart. He had given her everything that he could. Alexandrine has practically owned him all his life. It was difficult for him to understand how that wasn’t enough for her. Taking his best friend in his arms, he scooped her up from the sand and pulled her close. It hurt him to see her this way -- a drunken, crying mess. And knowing that it was because of him that she hurt, was a pain that wrecked his heart. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, barely audible.

Once back at their room, he gently put her down on the bed, took her face in his hands and looked at her with earnesty brimming in his eyes. “You’re the only thing that keeps me here, Lex. You’re the only thing that makes this whole thing bearable. You’ve always had more than my heart, and nobody could ever take that away from you.” 

[leonardosavoy-blog]

EILEANÓRA O’CALLAGHAN

Her head shook frantically as she made a single attempt to back away and out from Leon’s hold. She didn’t want to hear Leon rationalise violence. All she wanted was to get away from this place, off this whole damned Island if it was only possible, because with every passing day it seemed that everything was slowly but surely becoming more and more real and impossible to push to the side. But the pressure of his hands against her upper arms and the calmness of his voice washing over her, even if she didn’t want to hear the words he spoke, settled her enough to take in a deep breath in an attempt to settle herself further. But his question only hitched her breath as her eyes snapped to his, “Do you really think I’ll even get a chance to do anything? Knowing how to shoot a gun isn’t going to stop a sniper, Leon! I won’t even know I’m a target until I’m dead and if that’s not the way they choose, maybe there would be time to disarm them and survive. No one really knows anything.”  

Her rushed, frenzied words came to an abrupt halt as she had to take a double take. Her whole body froze, only her eyes moved as they flickered between his before beginning to studying the entirety of his features. She’d seen concern in his eyes before but the fact she knew the severity of the cause behind it only seemed to amplify the meaning of the concern. “I know that.” The words were far softer than the ones she’d spoken only moments before, but there was still a sharpness present. “I know what they’ve done and what they’ll continue to do without even a second thought but I’m not them. I’m not like the agents here, I’m not even like you—I don’t want to learn because even picking up that gun means that I can’t figure this out without violence being involved and that means they’ve won because I may not be dead but they’ve managed to change who I am.”

I’m not even like you. The words struck him like a hard blow to the gut. Did being able to fight make him just as bad as the extremists? It took him a while to respond, eyes shifting from hers to the ground and back again. “Nora, who we are, and who we need to be to survive are two very, very different things. That doesn’t make us bad people.” Does it? If killing was the only way to survive, would it truly make you evil? Morality was never black and white, but Leon’s tone sounded confident and reassuring. “You can’t be who you are if you’re dead. You can’t serve your country and your people if you’re a lifeless body drowning in a pool of blood.” He knew Nora well enough to know that she was as dedicated to serving her country as he was. “You can’t leave behind a great legacy if you’re gone too soon.”

His hands left a final squeeze on her arms before dropping to his sides. He could only do so much to convince her that it was the only way. But Nora had her own beliefs, and Leon wasn’t so sure he had convinced her enough. “Listen, I know you’re full of love, Nora, and you’d rather find a way for everything to happen without violence. But-” The earnesty and sincerity never faltered in his eyes. “How do you expect to be able to protect your people if you don’t even know how to protect yourself?”

[leonardosavoy-blog]

ALEXANDRINE BELVEDERE

It takes only a moment for what he said to hit her. He doesn’t love her like that, he doesn’t think he could. She doesn’t move just letting herself sway with him. He loves her but he’s not in love with her. He’ll sleep with her, but only when he’s drunk. He’ll kiss her, but it doesn’t mean anything. He’ll hold her and cuddle her, make her feel like everything is alright but it won’t be anything real. “Being in love and getting married versus what we’re doing are not the same.” It’s all she gets out before meeting his eyes her own starting to tear up. She didn’t feel a single once of alcohol now, se knew it was still there. Alexandrine felt her hands start to shake out of nerves. It didn’t take a genius to see how much asking that had been a fuck up. 

“Leon,” She started again clearing her throat, “could you ever be in love with me?” Taking a step back just afraid to be as close as they were with her heart racing that fast. “Or do you resent it so much that we’re both gonna enter a marriage with no hope of ever being in love? Oh, forgive me, I’ll be entering it never being in love, we both know you’ve experienced more than just me when if I did, it’d be Henry VIII chopping off his wives heads off from our families.” Taking a deep breath she ran her hand through her hair. “That doesn’t matter though, I’ve known that prat of my life for years. I just I guess I always had hope because we are literally together in every way but you giving me your heart, we fuck, we kiss, we cuddle, we share everything, we’re literally every single aspect of being together minus the heart, have you ever just once thought what that could do to me? We’ve basically been conditioned to be with each other our whole lives but you don’t want me in the way you have me do you?”

You’ll inherit the throne. You’ll someday rule Italy. You’ll be king. Not a single day has passed that Leon was not reminded what his future was going to be. He was fine with it, growing up. After all, who didn’t want a life of luxury? Being sick and tired of all of it was something he did not expect. One day, the weight of it all was too heavy, and Leon just wanted a break. He wanted to escape. 

The look on Alexandrine’s face was breaking his heart and Leon had to tear his gaze away. Could you ever be in love with me? She has been his best friend, his refuge, his joy, his everything all his life, and her importance in the prince’s life could not be denied. But she will always be part of the life he hated. “Why are you making me sound like the bad guy?” He couldn’t miss her accusatory tone. “Is it really so bad to want a life far different from this one? What if I don’t want to be king? What if I don’t want 60 million lives in my hands? I don’t want the throne. I don’t the whole damn country." Never has Leon been honest about it, even to Alexandrine. He knew it would hurt her to know that the life with her was not the life he wanted. And though the guilt was slowly eating him away, there was also a slight relief in saying the words out loud.

“Lex, I love you. There’s no doubt about that.” Wasn’t there? Leon was choking on his words. Hurting the most important person in his life was a thing he never dreamed of doing. But something inside him was already clawing its way out of him, wanting to break free, wanting for once to see the light. “But you, you’re just- You’re always going to be the reminder that this is the only life I’ll ever get to have.” And he didn’t want that life. She will always be the one thing that kept him there, the one thing he could never let go even if he so desperately wanted to escape. “Isn’t this enough for you? Whatever this is we have?”

[leonardosavoy-blog]

EILEANORA O’CALLAGHAN

As soon as the gun was fired, Nóra’s hands instantly flew up to cover her already ear-muff covered ears. “No—Nope—No—Not going to happen!” The words fell out in an uncharacteristic rushed manner as she instinctively took a few steps backwards away from the shooting station. She’d managed to avoid the shooting range for the first few days of training and if it had been up to her, she would have continued to avoid it. It was bad enough having to learn self-defense one on one, but she’d been able to at least rationalise that learning how to defend herself at close range was useful in dire situations. But she refused to allow herself to rationalise being able to use a gun. It went against everything she stood for, everything she believed in. 

Pulling the earmuffs roughly from her ears, Nóra let out a breath as her head shook. Usually she was so calm and collected, but this was one situation that it was impossible for her to dampen the emotions within. “I understand that it’s part of the training but I can’t. I won’t. I’ll learn how to disarm someone but I don’t need to know how to shoot a gun.”

Leon was in the middle of firing bullets through the target when he noticed the girl fleeing from her post. He immediately “Nora- Nora, hey,” his hazel eyes took her in. She was an agitated mess. Leon brought comforting hands over her arms and gave her a light squeeze. “I’m not one to contradict you or force you to do something you don’t want to, you know that. But do you really think you’ll be able to survive just by disarming people or-or punching them in the face?” His voice was calm and sound, trying to convince her that there was simply no other way. Because there wasn’t. Even if he hated training to fight for his life, Leon trusted that all of this was well-thought of. And that if things weren’t as dire as they were, there would have been another way.

“These people murdered whole families, Nora.” He paused, taking a moment to breathe. The idea still made him shudder. “I mean I’m hoping we won’t have to fight them firsthand. But by how things are looking, I wouldn’t count on it.” There was genuine concern in his eyes, one that he knew Nora would hint at easily. “I could teach you if you want me to.” 

[leonardosavoy-blog]

ALEXANDRINE BELVEDERE

Dragging her finger along his cheek lazily with a little sigh, she moved her head to rest against his. “Of course I can handle dancing, da vinci, do you really doubt me i was just dancing alone before I sat on your lap.” Moving back a bit again she took another sip of wine as if to prove a point to him. Not that she needed to, if anyone besides herself knew how much wine she could handle it was him. “I really hope it doesn’t but you never know. We all aren’t exactly our normal selves on this island.” Pressing her lips to the side of his cheek lightly, Alexandrine let him assist her up. SHe’d never complain about the close contact. As an individual she loved being held and hugged, to be shown affection. Letting her feet soak in the sand she grinned from ear to ear soaking up the feeling of the water lightly hitting their feet. “I’m always ready.” Wrapping her arms around him she swayed lightly, humming softly just for the two of them to here. It was like they were home and everything was okay. That she wasn’t drinking her fears away. Looking up at him, she pressed her lips to his, not thinking about any consequences. She was drunk and they’d done worse things than have a kiss when the other or both were drunk. Gently pulling back she moved to rest her head against his shoulder as they swayed. She couldn’t even tell you how long it was but as she felt like she was humming for a 10th minute, Lex stopped staring out into the sea from where she was pressed against him. “Do you think that we’ll ever be in love with each other? Actually be two people married who are in love?” It came out soft, probably softer than she even expected. Even drunk she knew it was a big deal that something on her mind for years finally was spoken aloud.

Her words spoke truth. None of them were their genuine selves in this blasted island. But then again, Leon never truly knew what and who he truly is. He has worn the mask of a perfect son without cease that it felt as though it was the only thing he was and could be. “Don’t worry. I promise I haven’t forgotten.”

Take your time, make it slow. Andante, andante. Just let the feeling grow. The words to the song played in his head as they swayed to her humming. For a split second, he was home. He wasn’t in an island being trained to fight for his life. There were no extremists out to murder royalty. The only thing that mattered was her arms around his and the rhythm that flowed out of her mouth. Then suddenly, her lips met his and they were kissing like it was the most mundane thing in the world. There was an insistent tugging at his chest. 

Leon held her close, arms wrapped tightly around her waist. He felt at peace in that very moment, like nothing could ever go wrong. Until her voice broke the silence and an unreadable expression dawned on his features. It took him a while to find the right words to say. “Well, you love me, and I certainly do love you. No doubt about that. And we’re getting married. That pretty much fits the bill, doesn’t it?” He spoke of it as if it were two very different things that were put together. Leon very well knew the love that Lex spoke of was far different from the love he had just mentioned. He loved his best friend, that much he knew was true. But the kind of love she yearned for was something he wasn’t sure he could give.

[leonardosavoy-blog]

ALEXANDRINE BELVEDERE

alexandrine was drunk, that much she knew. too many glasses of white wine, her fifth, or was it her sixth, glass in her hand now. she swayed along to a song inside her head, humming a few notes out loud. spinning a bit towards leonardo, she set her glass down letting out a carefree laugh. wrapping her arms around his shoulders, she delicately, as if she were as sober as can be, set herself on his lap. “leon, my schat, best friend, future husband, will you dance with me tonight by the water like we used to?” she asked an excited giggle escaping her lips. “i’ve just felt so carefree, maybe it’s the wine but i want nothing more than to just dance around with my favorite person.” moving an arm over she took another sip of her wine. “that and i have to make sure all this training doesn’t make you forget how to dance. i still want us to have a gorgeous andante dance at our wedding.” @leonardosavoy​

As much as Leon would have wanted to be the one to drink himself blind tonight, Lex went ahead and beat him to it. There have been far too many nights where both of them had too much to drink, and needless to say, it was a disaster. Now, Leon knew better than to have a few glasses of wine. Tonight, he was, sadly, going to be the sober friend. 

It was an amusing little thing -- watching her drunken antics, and it was fairly evident in the smile that never left his features. He wrapped an arm around her waist and tilted his head up a little to look his best friend in the eyes. “Amore, that’s your seventh glass tonight. Are you sure you can dance?” Their faces were far too close for anyone else to consider this a platonic thing. But the world didn’t matter. To them, it was. “Do you really think a few weeks of training is going to make me forget two and a half decades worth of dancing with you?”

Ever so gently he pried her off of his lap, an arm around her waist as he led the way to the shore where the ebb and flow of the waves lapped at their feet. He faced Lex, arms slithering around her waist and eyes locked on hers. “Ready?”

[leonardosavoy-blog]

ALEXANDRINE BELVEDERE

At the familiar voice, Alexandrine turned around an exhausted smile on her face. “You’ll get rid of me if I break my wrists? I don’t think we need a war on top of all this chaos.” Ripping off the velcro of the gloves she on she threw them on the ground before stretching her hands out. She wasn’t good at this, everyone who knew her knew that. She was almost notorious around friends and family for not even being able to step on a bug let alone think about hurting another human. “God I hope so, we both know if it came down to it I couldn’t fight for my life even if I wanted to.” Sighing a bit exhausted she rested her head on his shoulder for a split second, diligent enough not to get in trouble. Wrinkling her nose she moved back again. “You’re all sweaty, this is another reason to boycott this all, sweat that isn’t from being on a beach.” 

“No, but I’m sure the extremists will if you punch them like that.” He threw back lightly, knowing full well that Lex wasn’t one to fight. It was one of the things he liked the most about her. Soft and gentle, couldn’t hurt a fly. “I’m really hoping we won’t have to. That’s going to be a disaster. I can’t even imagine how many people will die.” The second she was close enough, Leon wrapped an arm around her waist and pressed a soft kiss on the top of her head, and broke away just as quickly. He didn’t want any of the agents scolding them for doing something that was mundane to the both of them. “But, luckily, you’re not going to be one of them.” Leon stood beside his best friend and taking her hands in his, fixed the way her fists were clenched and the way her arms were raised. “Don’t just use your fists. You have to put all your weight in your punches. Keep tension here,” he pressed a hand against her abdomen, “and lunge forward when you punch. Makes your blows more powerful.”

[amanitacaplan]

[leonardosavoy-blog]

@xfitlay

[soundsofmyuniverse]

[leonardosavoy-blog]

@gabbixp

[roryrps]

[leonardosavoy-blog]

@agrimaldis

[lilyevane]

— perfect by ed sheeran ”but darling, just kiss me slow, your heart is all i own”

[leonardosavoy-blog]

@noraocallaghan

[saralou23]

[leonardosavoy-blog]

@alexcndrine

[onceland]

“When we were kids I loved you, before I even knew what the word love meant.“

[leonardosavoy-blog]

@alexcndrine

[leonardosavoy-blog]

@alexcndrine

Taking a moment to check if the supervising agent had gone, Leon left his post at his own punching bag to walk over to Alexandrine who was doing rather poorly at throwing her hooks. “If you keep punching like that, you’ll never see the day of our wedding, Lex.” His ever-charming smile was warm and unfaltering as he approached, eyes pooling with amusement. Leon was no expert at hand-to-hand combat but he at least knew something about fighting. “But maybe, just maybe, the extremists will find you cute enough and let you off the hook. But I wouldn’t count on it.” 

[leonardosavoy-blog]

ANAIS GRIMALDI

“Aw, if that was an attempt at humiliating me, Savoy, it isn’t working. Try telling that to an ugly virgin next time, and you just might make them cry.” The facilitating agent approached her to hand her a pistol –  a nice 9mm, which was great for practicing beginners since it had mild recoil. “In case you were wondering, you were the drunk I was talking about. That anecdote you told me? Really tugged at my heartstrings. If you were a little less drunk and obnoxious, I would have invited you over for pity sex. You sure do look like you need it. But that’s all in the past now.” The agent was still by her side, as he was teaching her how to properly load her bullets. He seemed to remain to his business, but she was sure he was listening intently, helping himself to his own amusement. Anais didn’t mind – in fact, she found it delightful to have a witness.

“Might not be a virgin, but you are ugly,” Leon muttered under his breath, not quite sure if she heard. He busied himself with filling his gun with bullets and pretending to be disinterested at whatever Anais was saying. There was a slight pause in whatever he was doing when she mentioned that the insanely drunk man was him and Leon had to quickly mask the shame and frustration with the usual boredom. But the tightness in his jaw and the way he cocked his gun rather harshly must have given away how pissed he was. He donned his goggles, assumed a shooting stance, and fired away with utmost precision and accuracy. His bullets burning holes through the target’s bullseye. “What, is there a shortage of people who’d gladly go to bed with you that you resort to having pity sex with drunk men who share sob stories? That’s so sad. Alexa play Despacito.”