#prince maxon

[nerdyfangirlmel]

What’s a book quote that you read a long time ago but just randomly think about all the time?

Mine:

“Break my heart, break it a thousand times if you like. It was only ever yours to break anyway.”

[mira-aubade]

The 1st summer since it all...

Link to the Aftermath

[captainsophiestark]

Pranksters

Maxon Schreave x Reader

Masterlist - Join My Taglist!

Written for Fictober 2024!

Fandom: The Selection Series

Day Thirteen Prompt: "That's not the point."

Summary: Maxon and his spouse haven't had a moment to breathe since before the end of the Selection. Now, long after their marriage, they're taking some much needed fun and family time.

Word Count: 1,284

Category: Fluff

A/N: Barely got this one in on the 13th, but barely still counts!

Putting work into an AI program without permission is illegal. You do not have my permission. Do not do it.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Sh!"

I whirled around, finger on my lip to make the point to my husband. King Maxon Schreave crouched behind me, a faint smile on his face as he shook his head at me.

"I'm confident this is a good idea," I whispered, keeping my voice as low as possible. "We both need the fun, and Adele's kids were asking for it when they found a way to sneak in and short sheet our bed."

"Ah," said Maxon, nodding sagely like something had just clicked. "So they pranked us, and we need to prank them for revenge."

"No! That's not the point! It has nothing to do with revenge."

Maxon raised an eyebrow, but I just huffed.

"Maxon, we've had the weight of the kingdom on our shoulders since before we were married. You've had it on yours for your entire life! We're having a truly rare weekend off to spend with family, and we are owed some carefree fun in our twenties, alright?"

Maxon's eyebrows had raised part way through my answer, but now they'd relaxed back into a sweet smile. His eyes got a soft look in them that I truly couldn't get enough of, and he leaned into me a little.

"Have I told you lately that you are absolutely wonderful? And that I love you?" he asked. I matched his smile and leaned back into him.

"About an hour ago, at dinner. But I'm happy to hear it again."

Maxon leaned the rest of the way in and repeated himself, speaking right by my ear. I sighed, letting myself enjoy the rare moment of peace together. Sure, we were about to enact a much-needed pranking operation, but this was our vacation. We could take a moment to ourselves, too.

Since the end of the Selection, things had been stressful and high-stakes for Maxon and I. From learning about the rebels to learning about his father, the two of us had been dealing with heavy things since before our engagement. But with the attack from the Southern Rebels and the deaths of Maxon's parents, we'd been thrown immediately into the role of leading an entire country, the two of us, even before our wedding. We'd managed it just like we managed everything else—together—but it had never been easy, and for Maxon especially, it meant constant responsibility with very little breathing room. So, when we found a few days away from the palace with his Aunt Adele and some of our other closest family and friends, I decided to take the opportunity to give him a truly fun and carefree night like he should've had a long time ago.

And right now, that meant pranking all of our cousins before spending the rest of the night together doing whatever we wanted.

"Okay, come on," I said, leaning back from Maxon and shuffling a little towards the door of the big suite where all of Adele's kids were staying. "The hallway looks clear, let's go."

I rushed forward, staying quiet and low to the ground. Maxon followed right on my heels, practically bouncing and with a big grin on his face. It made my heart do backflips.

"Do you have the key?" I whispered to him. He nodded, slipping the key to the room out of his pocket.

"Perks of being the king," he whispered back with a wink. I took the key, letting my hand linger on his for a moment.

"Alright, let's do this."

I unlocked the door, then passed Maxon back the key. As planned, the room was totally empty. Everyone else was having a movie night downstairs. Maxon and I had excused ourselves with a made-up stomache ache on my part, then headed straight here.

"So what do we do first?" asked Maxon. He hovered right over my shoulder, ready to follow my lead. I smiled and turned around to face him.

"We have to move fast, so we can't do everything we brainstormed last night. But why don't you pick where we start? Dried nail polish puddle that looks like it spilled on their beds? Gelatin in the milk so they can't pour it out or take a drink like normal? Or potato to replace the soap bar?"

Maxon shook his head, but he was also grinning at me.

"Let's... start with the milk?"

"Sounds like a perfect plan to me."

Maxon and I moved through the room with less efficiency than I would've needed for a successful prank on my siblings back home, but this way was also more fun. Maxon was clearly having the time of his life causing a little harmless mischief, possibly because it was the first time in his life he'd been allowed to cause harmless mischief. We managed to set up all of our favorite prank ideas before heading back to the hallway, just a few minutes later than I'd been planning for us to make our escape.

Not a moment sooner than we got the door closed and locked again, we heard voices and footsteps coming our way from down the hall. Maxon whirled to me with wide eyes, and I fought to hold in a laugh as I grabbed his hand and pulled him after me in the opposite direction.

We made it around two corners before Maxon gave in, laughing as he fell into step beside me and pulled me closer. I shushed him, but it was pretty half-hearted.

"That was so much fun," he breathed when we finally made it back to our room. He slumped against the door, grinning from ear to ear, and I moved to stand in front of him with the same expression.

"I'm glad you thought so. We're probably going to have to be on alert for the rest of our vacation for buckets of water in doorways and similar forms of payback from the kids."

"Worth it," he breathed, reaching out to wrap an arm around my waist. He pulled me into his chest, and I leaned against him, resting my hands on his shoulders. I closed the rest of the distance between us to pull Maxon into a sweet, slow kiss. We took our time, and when we eventually pulled apart, Maxon had a thoughtful expression on his face.

"What's up?" I asked, moving one hand up to play with the hair at the nape of his neck. Maxon's smile took on a softer tone as he met my eyes.

"Nothing. Just... thinking about what it will be like when we get to do things like this with our kids. Someday."

I grinned. "You better start taking notes, sweetheart, because I'm calling team kid now. We're gonna work together to level the playing field against the literal king."

"Hmm, I suppose I'll have to come up with a better proposition for them then, won't I? Thankfully, you have plenty of experience with pranks, so I think I may be able to convince the kids to team up with me to level the playing field against a pranking master."

I laughed, shaking my head and pulling Maxon in for another kiss.

"Well, depending on how many we have, we might not get a choice. They might team up against us, leaving you and I to team up with each other or fall to their pranking power."

"Whichever version we get... I can't wait."

Maxon's eyes shone as he pulled me in for another kiss, and the love seemed to literally make him glow. I hoped he could see I radiated the same happiness. Whether we were dealing with the weight of the world or plotting hypothetical pranks, it always made things a million times better to be doing it with Maxon.

****************

Everything Taglist: @rosecentury @kmc1989 @space-helen

The Selection Taglist: @valkyriepirate

[mellendraws]

I’m a puddle 🫠

[marlinspirkhall]

I watched the unaired Selection pilots so you don't have to

But, if you want to, you can do so here, and here (password: “selection”), credit to Media Garage on YouTube

Edit: links no longer active

The Selection (2012)

Strong Hunger Games vibes throughout, the plain-text opening screen isn't helping

Stock-footage of rolling hills gets replayed way too much

ETHAN PECK?

Unlike in the books, America only finds out she's been entered into The Selection after she gets selected, so the plot point about the photoshoot & her radiant smile being the thing which gets her selected no longer applies, I guess

Everyone in the YouTube comments was saying that Aspen and Maxon were miscast & the actors' roles should have been swapped (... No comment. I believe in you, Mr Peck)

This castle is looks too small to fit 24 TV show contestants in it

Fiona, unprompted: “Can you keep a secret, America?”

America: “I have been known to”

Fiona: “I play the violin”

Okay? (This is actually a very sweet moment and, again, Fiona may be the best actress in this)

This episode covered a significant portion of the first book, out of order, which makes me wonder if the intention was to cover all 3 books in one series.

This almost feels like half of a film, making me wonder if someone adapted a film spec script into a tv show spec script

Apparently, Fiona has a secret child and Celeste knows about it, causing Fiona to drop out on day one and tearfully warn America to “trust no one, there's no such thing as friends here”- which is a fucking wild thing to say when she's probably the only contestant who's been nice to America so far & Celeste didn't even need to get to know her to know her secrets because she has spies anyway 😭

It's worth reminding you that they have been at the palace for one entire day total

You think Queen Amberly is being fleshed out in this version but... Hmm

Amberly appears to be the one pulling the strings from behind the scenes (she confronts Celeste about extorting Fiona, tells her "she would have gone home in due time" and to "leave America to me. Anything we do to try and separate them [her and Maxom] will only make him want her more")

Again: IT HAS BEEN A DAY

America sees her servant gathering all her dresses (none of which she has used yet, bar the yellow and green ones) including the iconic blue one from the book cover. America asks what's happening and the servant replies: “Prince Maxom's orders”

Cut to America's family. They open a box with a glittering pair of high heels inside. I guess this is supposed to mirror the part of the book where Maxom cuts off the stipend for 2's and 3's who are in the selection?

If you think this version feels unfaithful to the book, just wait until you see The CW's pilot

IT HAS BEEN ONE DAY

Runtime: one day 45 minutes

Final rating: 5/10, kinda long and stiff in places and the set design was all over the place. Felt like a Hallmark movie (the set design didn't help). Probably would watch another episode of this if it was a full series or a limited series of 3-6 episodes. A little script-doctoring and a better set would work wonders.

The Selection (2013)

I cannot stress enough: this version begins with a sex scene between Maxom and a servant

Okay, I got ahead of myself; it actually begins with another hunger-games-esque black screen with text on it, text which reads “Someday, in the future”, which is read aloud by a woman's voice.

We zoom in on a much roomier-looking castle on a hill, as a random whip sound effect plays (leading into the sex scene, in which no whips are present)

All the female servants in the palace are dressed in sexy maid costumes and I wish I was kidding

The world map explaining the history of Illea is CONFUSING AS HELL, but maybe they hadn't nailed down all the details yet. I'm genuinely not sure

ANTONY HEAD?

Aspen is introduced tied to a St Andrew's cross and being watched over by a guard. America asks the guard to free him, he chases her through the streets, she circles back and cuts Aspen down

America's selection is similar to the 2012 pilot, except Aspen is present. America asks her mom why she'd enter her into the selection when “You know I'm with Aspen”, so uh, I guess they're not keeping it a secret here.

There's also no mention of Aspen being of a lower caste than her, nor of America having a job other than the vague title of "laboring class" which hangs over them all, vaguely

This is a masterclass in editing and pacing. The dialogue is okay, but the added geopolitics make no sense. Any issues with this are smoothed over by the fact that the plot keeps moving forwards at a breakneck pace to keep you distracted.

The lack of breathing room would probably be too confusing for an audience who wasn't already familiar with The Selection

The set here is absolutely beautiful but unfortunately it gives me Merlin vibes, and casting Antony Head as the king does not help with this.

Maxon attempts to pull a Mr Darcy. He then tells America that if she runs away with Aspen, the guards will beat him to a pulp and they'll both spend the rest of their lives in prison. America suggests that she make the monarchy look good so the working class don't side with the rebels. Looks like we're going full Hunger Games.

Celeste's handmaiden seems way too devoted to her; they turn out to be lovers

Just when you think Maxon might start redeeming himself, we see the palace guards swarm Aspen and kicking him. Maxom stands nearby on his horse overseeing this so there's no question of whether he did it or not

Final rating: 6/10, I would absolutely watch another episode of this. It was an absolute mess, but I've seen teen wolf, so I'm not gonna pretend I'm above it.

This feels like the kind of pilot which would get greenlit just to attract hateviewers.

Summary:

Neither protagonist had red hair and neither adaptation was trying particularly hard to give it to her (2012: dark red box dye. 2013: blonde!)

These actors are doing their best and some of them even seem to be having fun (good for them)

In the 2013 pilot, the writers lampshade America running around “like an action hero”, but she promptly forgets how to do that by the midpoint of the episode, so w/e

It feels like the 2013 pilot was a reworking of the 2012 pilot, because there were too many similarities carried over from one script to another which weren't present in the original book, like Fiona having a secret relationship.

I forgot to mention that Aspen has a brother in the 2013 pilot. He seems to be adapted from the palace guard who has a relationship with one of the contestants in a later book.

I can't get over how fucking weird of a decision it is to make the kind and likeable love interest into a power-corrupt despot, but it does feel more true to an actual monarchy. I assume they were trying to give Maxon a bad-boy vibe, which doesn't make much sense because that's supposed to be Aspen's whole deal.

There was a whole subplot in both pilots where an advisor character is revealed to be working with the rebels at the end of the episode

Extremely funny to me that the 2012 pilot makes a point of mentioning that sex before marriage is illegal and the 2013 pilot opens with premarital sex with the prince regent

[perfectplacetodie]

if the selection series ever gets made into a movie i want primadonna by marina and jealousy jealousy by olivia rodrigo to be involved

[msshadowqueen]

“Break my heart. Break it a thousand times if you like. It was only ever yours to break anyway. I’ll love you until my very last breath. Every beat of my heart is yours. I don’t want to die without you knowing that.” “I love you,” he whispered in Elide’s ear. “I have loved you from the moment you picked up that axe to slay the ilken.” Her tears flowed past him in the wind. “And I will be with you …” His voice broke, but he made himself say the words, the truth in his heart. “I will be with you always.”

Lines that absolutely broke me The first one is from the Selection series if you haven't read I highly recommend it.

[jadehuntressqueen]

Dreams

Masterlist

The first thing that registered was the bed covers shifting around you, and not by your own doing. Next was the quickened breathing beside you. You sat up and glanced down.

His brow was creased in fear, or sadness. Small whimpers left his lips as he thrashed side to side.

“Baby wake up,” you placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. This action shocked him into wakefulness and he shot upright. “Hey, hey, you’re okay,” you cooed, “It’s okay darling, it was just a dream.” His trembling body curled into your side as you brushed his hair. “Just a dream.”