In a week full of meetings and official business, Alice needed some time to herself, to walk her dog and wander a secluded portion of the grounds in peace. She hadn’t entirely expected to run into someone else, but gave them a friendly smile, greeting them. “Oh, hello.”
birds chirping , the wind caressing the trees and the pebbles beneath the soles of his sneakers – but other than that , silence . max enjoyed the silence , he enjoyed being far away from the busy and hectic interior of the palace behind him . just to have a moment for himself , a moment to breathe . it helped , a lot . so , as his eyes spotted the familiar face , he inhaled sharply . he didn’t want to deal right now . just a few moments to himself , was that too much to ask for ? so instead , max thought about an exit strategy . but , nothing came to his mind . oh well . “ hallo ! na-a-ah , ” max exclaimed , clearly addressing the dog as his voice had a higher pitch than usual , before he greeted her with a soft smile on his lips , “ hey alice . ”
hej , i’m anna , but i bet you are not here to read about me , because this gorgeous man just decided to show up . i have no idea what i’m rambling about – like most of the time , let’s be honest . so , let’s get this over with !
public knowledge :
maximilian johannes ferdinand immanuel prince of germany was born as the second and youngest son of the queen of germany and her husband , the prince of luxenbourg . he has one older brother who is the crown prince of germany . he is also the duke of baden , and since his marriage to alice and the death of his brother , the prince of wales .
he was kicked out of two private schools in the south of germany and was known to be the party prince , a reputation that followed him to university and didn’t die until he completely dropped out of the public eye in his last year of university .
he studied law at heidelberg and cambridge .
a few years later he resurfaced in the media , never alone , always at the side of his mother or his brother at some kind of important event . interest in him didn’t spark up again until engagement to alice was announced two years ago . because royal weddings have the media going crazy .
private knowledge :
max always stood in the shadow of his older brother . his mother expected him to be perfect – or what she defined as perfect . and max apparently never fitted into her perfect image of him , and so , never approved of him or showed any kind of affection towards him . instead , she announced her disapproval with every chance she got and tried her best to force him and push him into the mold that she had prepared for him .
the party prince of germany is putting it mildly . the press was only allowed to publish half of the stories as his mother bought them off most of the time , so that the worst stories didn’t even get published . think prince harry but worse . he eventually switched unis because he was about to get kicked out of heidelberg because he didn’t want to study law and did his best to force his mother’s hand to let him to what he truly wanted to do – study film and make documentaries . but that didn’t work , and she only had him transfer to england as a way to strengthen german and british diplomatic connections . so , he gave in and just kind of … disappeared . at least if he was in england , away from his mother , he could secretly do what he wanted . so , after uni , he traveled a lot and made a lot of documentaries . all of them are super progressive and his mother would have a stroke if she knew that her son made those .
he resurfaced shortly after his father’s death and his cousin’s engagement to alice’s brother , and only because his mother forced him to , to control him even more . his cousin however had other plans and about two years ago , ran away with her horseback riding instructor . scandal . so , his mother and alice’s father had alice and max engaged .
he has developed anxiety with frequent panic attacks from all the pressure that his mother put onto him . he dislikes when people expect him to be a certain way or do something and yet can’t deal with disappointing them either . he never finishes something he starts , he often just says no because he can , but he is also the softest boy who cares too much and wants the world to be a peaceful place . he is not a true rebel for hedonistic reasons , he is a rebel for the act of the rebellion . he is lost , he needs direction . he needs someone to actually appreciate him . also his law degree was bought by his mother , just saying . max is intelligent , but when he doesn’t care about something , he doesn’t invest any energy into it .
the fact that he is even trying to make the marriage work between him and alice is only because of the fact that he still wants to please his mother , poor boy , but having to be the consort to the potential queen of england just scares him a lot .
