Motion | Prince!Harry Holland au
Requested: yep
Rating: PG
Summary: Prince Harry is essentially having an identity crisis until you show up and give him something to fight for.
Tbh I wouldn’t be surprised if I re-write this at some point but I liked the concept and really wanted to get it out quickly so yeah I hope this isn’t too bad!
A/N: yes this is 100% loosely connected to the prince!tom writing called garden :) also requests are open!! Please don’t let my inbox be dry! Happy reading!
They always say that strict parents create sneaky kids. Well, Harry imagines this must be true, especially in his case. He had strict parents, strict advisors, strict teachers and strict tutors and strict drivers, all on top of a strict team of body guards on him at all times.
Everyone seemed to have a say on what he should do, where he should be, what he should wear, what he should say, what he should read, who he should talk to, when he should wave to everyone outside of his home the palace, what parties he could attend and most importantly, everyone seemed to have an opinion on when he should step up to replace his parents on the throne.
It wasn’t that Harry was ungrateful, it was just that with being a prince, it was hard to figure out who he was beneath the title. He tried to spend time alone, tried to reflect on his life, and his choices and everything else he could possibly go off of to figure out who he really was, but that was hard considering the fact that he was rarely alone and even more rarely made his own decisions.
Still, he knew things could be much worse. He had seen the children of commoners running around with torn clothes and bare feet on the other side of the bridge to the castle and he knew how privileged he was that he would most likely never want for anything in his entire life.
Ever since he was a child, he’d been doted on every moment of every day. He was always at least relatively clean, always well fed, educated by the best instructors money could buy, and never told no directly by anyone other than his family.
He was particularly grateful for his brothers, one of which, Tom, had recently fallen madly with some girl from a train and had left on a long trip to meet her family before officially announcing their engagement to the public.
Harry longed to be more like his brother, who was more free spirited than he was, Tom was the type to talk to a stranger on a train whereas Harry was the one who’d do his best not to rock any metaphorical boats, especially where his parents were concerned.
He was sick of it, but he never broke the habit of quietly going along with all of the plans his parents, the king and queen, had mapped out for him. He wished he could do something that mattered, he constantly heard talk of some new rebel leader in the village, somebody always sparking hints of rebellion and organizing rallies and other things his parents found to be dangerous nuisances.
He had always been told that the village was exquisite, and his constant desire to please his parents drew him to never ask the questions he really wanted answered.
This included allowing them to assign more people than necessary to take care of them. Harry had tried to respectfully reject their decision to assign a maid specifically to respond to his every need but he couldn’t bring himself to exaplain another time that he could take care of himself now, considering he was essentially an adult.
So here he was, opening his chamber doors to a girl in a pale dress that matched the uniform every worker in the palace wore.
“Hello, your highness,” you spoke to him for the first time from the opposite side of the door, not meeting his eyes. The last thing you wanted to do was get into trouble with the prince who seemed to be about your age.
You slid into a deep curtsy before standing back up, your hands clasping each other in front of you and your eyes down as you’d been instructed to do for years now. Your hair was tucked into a simple bonnet aside from a few stray hairs that fell to frame your face.
“Hello, you must be the help that my parents assigned for me?” He questioned, you nodded slightly, keeping your head slightly bowed all the while. “I see,” he replied quietly, and you wondered if he always sounded so unenthused.
“Well, come in, if you’d like, I can show you around,” you nodded and followed the prince into his room. You’d never been so close to one of the royal family before.
Usually, the other workers kept you far from those in power because they all knew that you strongly disapproved of the monarchy, or at least how it was currently performing.
Your anger was specifically directed at the king and Queen, and while you tried not to let it show, you couldn’t help but bristle whenever they ordered their staff to throw away money on another ball to marry off another of their sons. Money that could be spent feeding the poor or reducing taxation on the villagers, you always thought to yourself while paying for decorations and helping to dress the many visiting princesses.
But when the king and Queen requested a girl to assist their son in every day tasks, you were the first to be volunteered, everyone in the kitchen wanted you to progress as far as you could, so out of love for you they elected you to fill the position, hoping that maybe it would help you out or increase your pay. You assumed neither would occur but you were thankful for their efforts.
“So this is my bed, there’s the window, careful over there, sometimes the latch gets loose and the panes swing open, yeah?” You nodded diligently, returning back in your mind to the present. “There’s the closet, and the dressing table,” he trailed off, realizing how uninteresting the tour probably was to you.
“Everything is pretty straightforward, if you have questions don’t be afraid to ask,” he offered a stiff smile and you nodded curtly in response. He nodded his own head slowly, turning and walking away to sit on the bench of his bay window.
“Do you need anything from me, your highness?” You questioned, trying to sound more meek than you knew you were. He would never see you on top of a barrel in the town square speaking passionately about social justice to anyone who would listen. He would never come to a meeting to organize one of your rallies that you knew bothered his parents and their advisors.
You were sure you’d be fired- or much worse, if he caught wind of what you spent your time away from the palace doing, you reminded yourself. You’d had this job since you were a child, and it was the only logical way you could think of to support your ailing family at home in the village.
Prince Harry was only an employer to you, no matter how many times you’d stolen glances at him while you worked around the castle. You tried to ignore the feelings of melting when the two of you looked each other in the eyes.
“No, no, I’m alright, thank you, love,” the name slipped from his tongue without him thinking of it, and the two of you shared a pause, letting his slip sink in.
He had forgotten for a moment- just for a second, that you had no interest in being his friend, that he was pathetic for even letting himself think that you were here for anything more than to do your work and go home at the end did the day. He had seen you around often and couldn’t help but be intrigued by you, he refused to admit to anyone, even himself that he’d developed a crush on you, but he couldn’t fight the feelings of butterflies in his stomach when he saw you at his door.
“Right, well, I was told to just stay nearby in case you need anything, so, should I stay here, your highness? Or would you rather I go?” You inquired, lifting your eyes to meet his slowly, trying to gauge if he would mind. His eyes were so much kinder up close, you thought, if close meant across a room.
“Would you like to go?” He offered a small, lopsided smile with a slightly lifted brow. You inhaled, trying to think what you really wanted. “Well, I don’t have much else to be doing,” you spoke slowly, walking forward a few steps to stand near a large wooden trunk at the foot of his giant bed. “May I, your highness?” You motioned curiously to the trunk. He nodded instantly in approval. “Oh, yes, of course, make yourself at home,” he smiled gently. You nodded slightly and sat down on the trunk.
“So, if you don’t have any thing more pressing to be done, would you like to get to know each other a bit?” He was dying for you to say yes. He’d seen you so many times around the palace and he wouldn’t speak of it out loud to anyone, but he loved to see you, face contorted in concentration on whatever you were doing.
He had never been so happy before you had met his eyes voluntarily, your eyes were gorgeous, you were absolutely gorgeous.
You were everything the castle and his life all around, were not. You were warm, and natural, you were fiery and genuine. Harry knew he had never been so interested in one person in his entire life before you.
“Sure, if that’s what you’d prefer, sire,”
“Please, just call me Harry, if you don’t mind, at least when it’s just us?”
You took in his words and drew your eyes away from your hands that were folded on your lap to glance up at him again. He was already looking at you and you couldn’t help but be even more smitten when you saw him again.
“So, what’s your name, love?” This time the nickname felt slightly more natural.
“YN,”
He nodded, he could barely stop himself from repeating the name over and over. He wanted to keep speaking your name over and over again- it suited you, and he loved it.
“So, where do you live?” You explained you lived in the palace with the other servants most of the time, and every once in a while on holidays you visited your family.
You chose to keep your nightly escapes to the village to yourself. Harry could never know that you were the rebel leader everyone mumbled about in the palace. He was a prince and there was no doubt in your mind he wouldn’t understand your efforts to create reforms.
Harry nodded thoughtfully, “you must miss them?” You nodded again quickly and stoped yourself just as suddenly. “I mean, I love working, I’m so grateful for this please don’t think ’m not, it’s just,” Harry’s soft, understanding smile halted your words.
“It’s alright, I’m not like my parents, I won’t get cross with you, or anything, dear,” you could get used to his constant reassurance. Harry could only hope he wasn’t coming off too strong.
This went on for weeks, you even got your own bed in Harry’s quarters, the two of you bonding rather quickly and soon becoming inseparable. While you loved the days you spent at Harry’s side, more as a friend than an assistant, you couldn’t help but hate that sharing a room meant that it was harder to sneak out to the village every night. Especially when Harry had a hard time falling asleep without feeling you next to him in his bed. The two of you had bonded more than anyone expected, nobody knew the true extent of your feelings for each other, neither of you even daring to tell the other.
What you didn’t know, was that Harry had noticed. He’d noticed every night that you’d snuck out of his room and he couldn’t help but be confused as to why you seemed anything but reluctant to come to bed with him to sleep, and why he’d wake up with you once again at his side every morning. He wanted nothing more than to know where you went every night, so one night, he followed you out.
At a safe distance, of course. He waited just long enough not to be caught by anybody as he slipped a jacket over his sleeping clothes.
Following you down the long winding staircases of the palace he knew so well, he loosely trailed you down through the kitchen to the back door. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen the lower levels of the castle. He followed you out of the palace and down a long road to the village. He rarely came to the village, he’d only it with through a heavy team of security blocking his view.
As he followed you deeper into the town, he was shocked by what he saw. Everyone at the palace had told him since he was a child, that the village was prospering.
He now only observed poverty, and he couldn’t believe he had been so naive to the struggles of the people he was supposed to lead his entire life.
He followed you into a clearly abandoned building and was shocked to see you receive a loud, warm welcome from a mass of people on the inside. They all knew your name and clapped you on the back as you rose to stand on a makeshift stage, made out of materials that looked like old barrels and crates. You stood so confidently there in front of the crowd in your nightgown, Harry fell in love with you even more, here, you weren’t the shy, contained person you were at the castle when the two of you weren’t alone. You’d grown comfortable with Harry, he knew that, but here he saw a whole new side to you.
“We need progress, and action, we’ve been trying for years now to reach our goals through discussion, clearly this isn’t working,” you spoke clearly and calmly to the crowd, who replied with affirmative noises.
“We need to strike out with more force. For our families, for our children who are starving because we have no money to feed them, for our brothers and sisters and parents and friends who can’t work or can’t support themselves on their pay,” you spoke again, receiving support from the crowd.
Harry stood towards the back, observing the scene. He noticed that the room quickly filled completely, the longer that you spoke. You called for revolution and reform, for a new start for the working class. Free of overly high taxation and abuse from the royals. He hated how you spat out the word royalty, he’d never loathed himself the way he did when you spoke about the abuse you’d suffered at the hands of people in power. Those people were his family. He’d never felt such loathing for his family before now.
“You know my story, friends, I never wanted to become all of this, but things have to change, I work every day to provide for myself and my family, and even that’s not enough,” you implored passionately, your hands accentuating your points as you spoke.
By now the crowd was growing slightly restless and the energy that spread through the people was electrifying. Harry had never seen so much genuine passion in one room before.
“Now, friends, we need to fight for our right to live freely, we will meet next week at the palace gates to express our needs, I have hope, the prince, he is different from his parents-”
Your eyes scanned through the crowd and you could barely hide your shock at seeing the prince there in the crowd, his informal clothing, messy hair and tired eyes making him seem like one of the villagers. Your eyes widened and you felt as though the breath had been knocked from your chest. You tried not to let it show as you spoke.
“He is kind, and understanding, when he is king I believe we will have a new start, but we cannot wait for that any longer,” your eyes flitted away from him.
“Alright, stay courageous, my friends, we live to fight another day,” you cheered, launching your first into the air. Everyone in the room followed, cheering loudly. You hopped from the barrel and the crowd began to disperse as you walked through the crowd that parted effortlessly for you. You tried to keep yourself from running to the familiar boy in the crowd, the prince.
“Your highness,” you spoke barely above a whisper. “You weren’t supposed to see this, I understand if you want me to go, I know that these rallies upset your parents, but I couldn’t sit idly by while my people suffered, please don’t stop us, you can take me away, to the dungeon, just please leave these people alone, they need to be free for their families to survive, Harry,” you pleaded, just above a whisper, trying not to attract attention as you and Harry walked out of the room, following the crowd.
Once the two of you made it out of the room, Harry had still said nothing. Now both of you were stood away from the crowds.
“Prince, Harry, please, just say something, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry I understand if you want to turn me in,” you some again, reaching for his hands. The boy was clearly processing a lot. It wasn’t every day you learn your assistant is a rebel leader, after all.
His next actions completely shocked you: his strong arms wrapped around you tightly, kissing the top of your head. “Love, you should have told me,” he cooed. “They told me things were good here, they lied to me,” he spoke again in a more serious voice.
“I want to help, you were right in there when you said that I am not my parents, I won’t allow these people to suffer for no reason any longer,” he spoke again. At this point you had wrapped your arms around him, your head resting on his shoulder.
“You could have told me,” he laughed slightly. You were speechless. “Thank you,” was all you could think to say. “No, I should be saying that to you, you woke me up, YN, made me aware- I know what I can do, now,” he said, pressing another kiss to your head.
“Shall we go home now, love?” He inquired, and you nodded quickly. “Lets go home,” you affirmed. And his arm never left its spot around your shoulders as the two of you walked back to the castle.
After that night, Harry accompanied you to every meeting, every single night, even enlisting his family’s driver, Harrison to bring you to the edge of the village and back. You knew Harrison was a friend to all of the princes, and he didn’t pry for answers as to why the two of you often went on these late night escapades.
Every night, Harry would squeeze your hand and help you become stable on top of your makeshift stage before letting go and standing back to watch you do your thing. Every night, the crowds grew more and more passionate with you, Harry knew that you were a powerful speaker, and a smart planner. He also knew that you were more powerful than to ueven knew, he’d heard his advisors warn him to crush any supportive talk of radicals but his only thought was to support you in any way he could, especially because helping you meant helping his kingdom.
He hadn’t meant to let it spill out, but one day it did. He was in a royal meeting with his parents and advisors, you sat at his side, as he requested as you were his “assistant”. In all honesty he just wanted you around because he knew you made him a better person.
The meeting had been going on for far too long, discussing ways to flush out the “radical leader” that was stirring up resistance in the village.
“I think we need to start interrogations,” his father said, sounding all too confident. “Interrogations to find out what? That people will say anything when they’re in pain?” Harry snapped. Usually he said nothing during these occasions and he knew his words had come out harsher than he thought when you gripped his hand under the table subtly. He took a deep breath.
“Well, how else are we going to go about this, Harry, since you seem to think you have all the answers now?” His father inquired with a raised eyebrow. Harry sighed. “Well, why don’t we just talk to them, the villagers, we could find out what they need and want from us and why they’re angry and we could come to a mutually beneficial compromise-”
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, son, but the common people aren’t interested in our compromises, they want power and don’t think for a minuet they’re after anything else,” his father lectured as though you weren’t even in the room. Harry’s blood felt close to boiling.
“How would you know? Have you gone to the village, dad? Met any of the people you pretend to care about? Things are bad, there, it’s our responsibility to help them, if we won’t, then we don’t deserve to have any power at all, do we?” At this he quickly pushed back his chair and pulled you it of the room behind him, ignoring the calls from the room for him to return to his seat immediately.
“YN, I can’t do this anymore, I can’t just waste my life watching you create a whole new world, tell me what to do,”
And that was how Harry became a new speaker on your stage. At first people were wary of the royal visitor, but with your endorsement, and his clear passion to help them, they came around.
Soon, Harry became the inside man for your cause, he helped to schedule rallies and essentially, was your assistant outside of the palace. He was at your beck and call, and the two of you knew that it wasn’t completely out of him feeling responsible to help, he would do anything for you. The two of you became well known throughout the village as the two who would bring change to the kingdom. And you did. The two of you led marches and rallies, held meetings and proposed solutions.
All of this noise and action became too much for those in the castle, and when guards began showing up to raid your village, Harry would be right there on the front line with you, demanding that they return peacefully to the castle.
His parents, of course, were anything were pleased, but Harry agreed to attend their royal events if they allowed him to continue to participate in village affairs. With Tom off to become the king of another country, he was next in line for the throne, and his parents weren’t willing to risk any issues with succession.
When Harry became king, things truly began to change quickly. The village began to prosper again exponentially, and the two of you were married and continued to be the activists everyone knew you to be. Harry had never felt so complete in his life, doing something good with his life with you at his side.
