AN: Watched 'The Prince & Me' on Netflix the other day and this chapter was the result. Figure I owe this to the DenAme fans who follow my other story centered on this pairing. I swear to finish this one! That being said, this story will be quick paced and somewhat short. If I don't update several times a week then I give you permission to spam me with complaints and help me stay on track.
Just a heads up that APH fem!Finland and Sweden are going to be Denmark's parents. And this story is an AU.
Chapter: En
The small crowd of the select few drew closer, cheering and applauding wildly despite their hands already being preoccupied with the handling of expensive drinks. It was very late into the night; the only light that guided and kept these drinkers from tripping over one another was the headlights of their parked, modified cars.
The group huddled into the middle of the secluded street and chatted excitedly as the front lights of a motorcycle advanced towards them. The motorcycle came to a smooth halt before revving the motor and sending the chatty crowd into another animated uproar.
The rider gently leant the red bike to the right where it rested securely on its kickstand before swinging one leather clad leg around and standing, two girls already throwing themselves onto him before properly upright.
"You did it, Your Royal Highness! You've won!" the pretty female on his right congratulated him, pushing herself even closer into his side.
The female on his left did the same but was even bolder by wrapping her arms around his middle. "You are an unbeatable man, Your Royal Highness. Not a single man in Denmark would be a fool to challenge you."
The rider laughed good-heartedly, sliding his arms around both their waists and pulling them closer. They grinned and gladly let themselves be drawn in, itching to reach up and remove his shaded helmet.
"Its not like they have much of a choice when I summons them. Though I admire each and every one of their more than eager compliances." he grinned and the girls laughed as expected. They settled down when a pair of men, one being the rider he had just beaten, parted the crowd and joined their little winning circle.
"You race as swift and smart as the rumors implied. You made a compelling race, Your Highness." the man smiled, not all put off by his recent loss.
The rider removed his arms from his admirers and unbuckled the clasp under his chin, lifting the heavy helmet from his head and settling it under an arm. Pale, blonde hair spiked up in all directions, but instead of fixing it he surprised the group by sticking it out in between them. The other racer stared at him in silent surprise before grasping it in a sturdy clasp.
"You're not so bad yourself. Work on your timing when switching gears and I'm sure you'll be almost as good as me someday. When that happens, get in touch with my people." he gave the guy a quick, firm shake before letting go.
The man was immobile for a bit longer than necessary before he came to and gave a bow, the man beside him following suit. "I would be honored to race, Your Royal Highness, again. Thank you for the generous suggestions and future invitation."
"Everyone needs a few pointers every now and then so don't worry about it. As the Prince it's the least I can do for my people." he shrugged and the women at his sides cooed to him about how much of a good man he was.
The other rider gave a forced smile before retreating away, disappearing back into the excited crowd who had come to celebrate with their champion of a Prince.
"Hey!" he shouted, grinning gleefully when all the eyes fell on him. "Who wants to get their Prince something strong to drink? Let us celebrate my victory to our fullest!"
The group cheered and naturally many bottles of different alcohols were shoved forward, each partaker eager to have the royal take the bottle that they've offered. Not to anyone's surprise, he grabbed the handle of an unopened bottle that a beautiful woman had offered. He winked and gave her his thanks before having one of the girls at his side open it for him.
"Here's to you, the lovely people of Denmark!" he hoisted the bottle up into the air, its contents sloshing about and small bits splashing out. The crowd hollered in approval. "And to me!" he grinned madly, too absorbed in the high of one of his many triumphs. "Your most victorious-"
"-and handsomest!"
"What the lady says!" he smiled and pointed at her as the crowd laughed along. "Your most victorious and handsomest Prince that has ever graced these wonderful lands of ours! To Prince Mathias!"
"To Prince Mathias!" they responded and there was a silent pause as they all took a swing of their drinks.
Mathias grinned self-righteously, watching his people drink to his victory and chant his name in appraisal. "All hail the Prince," he muttered to himself, basking in the moment and thinking how amazing his life was. There wasn't a thing in the world that he loved more than racing, partying, drinking and beautiful women at his side.
He turned to the left when the woman there, whose name he had no clue, started to slide her fingers into his air. "Can I give you my congratulation gift now, Your Highness?"
"Who am I to turn a free gift away?" he laughed softly and leaned down as she leaned up, closing his eyes just as their lips touched. He pulled her in closer to deepen their kiss, which she moaned in approval.
"Prince Mathias!" someone shouted and he broke away just an inch to tell them, 'one moment' before returning his lips on the girls.
"Your Royal Highness!"
Mathias groaned in annoyance and pulled away, the girl pouting as he did so. He turned to where he assumed the shouting was coming from. Somewhere he heard a few cars start up but he didn't register it. Instead he searched for who had been rudely calling him.
"Over here!"
He focused on the spot and took one look at the person who looked like they definitely didn't belong before a blinding flash went off. Mathias blinked and shook his head, his eyesight full of black blobs and other interesting colors.
The excitement in the atmosphere quickly shifted to a whole new level of exhilaration in that single moment. Constant clicking sounds filled the air along with shouts of many different demanding comments and rude slurs.
"Look over here, Your Highness!"
"Who are your lady friends?"
"Do you have any comments on your recent act of illegal street racing?"
"Will the drinking and partying ever end?"
Mathias ducked his head and held a hand over his face to block out the constant flashes. He knew that there was little point to covering his face and attempting to save his image. The paparazzi already had his photo and they knew that they've caught him. It wouldn't' be a first that they've captured in such a situation. The tabloids have always loved him in all the wrong reasons.
Personally he didn't care about finding himself on the cover of the paper the following morning, but he knew two certain people who most undoubtedly would.
The two women at his side didn't seem to race off like the others when the paparazzi arrived, because he found them posing and smiling at the cameras as though they were there for them. Mathias didn't care though, since most of the women that he hung around with were only eager to be caught and have their little moments of fame.
Mathias placed his helmet back over his head and stretched a long leg around his bike, the girls not seeming to notice or care for his soon departure. Just to amuse himself though, he did let them know when he revved the engine and caused both of them to jump along with a few cameramen.
He laughed and shook his head, the amusing stunt never seeming to fail in making him laugh.
The paparazzi parted generously for him when he crept through the crowd. Just as he was in the clear he quickly exhilarated and sped down the empty road, the flashing lights fading away to nothing in his rearview mirrors.
-o.O.o-
Mathis didn't flinch when the morning's daily newspaper was slammed down onto the coffee table. The two teacups along with their little plates rattled but at least didn't capsize. Wouldn't have been a first if the paper had been thrown right on top of them. He'd been in this situation way to many times to count.
"I feel as though I should scold you but I doubt that would make any difference like it has in the past. Will you ever learn, Mathias? How many more mistakes must you make before you see that what you're doing is unethical? Or worse," he held up the other tabloid that was on the set rest nest to him. "life threatening."
His father tossed the paper of him speeding off on his motorcycle onto the pile of others with his face on them on the coffee table.
"Are you honestly trying to get yourself killed? Is that what you want? For us along with our country to mourn your death?"
"Berwald…"
The King stopped and turned to his Queen who was staring at him appallingly, clearing upset with his words. Berwald took a deep breath and reached a hand out towards his Queen who quickly yet softly clasped hers in his.
"Your father and I are worried about you, love." Queen Tina turned to her eldest son who was slouched in the chair across from them. "We keep reaching out to you and you refuse to let us help you."
"I don't need your help because there's nothing wrong." Mathias insisted but the look in his mother's eyes didn't seem to believe him. He groaned and let his head fall back, regretting the action immediately when it slammed into the hard, gold design that framed the chair. He reached back to rub it.
"Did you hit your head? Are you alright?" his mother asked just as he expected she would. If she saw it then he was sure that his father did too. Really didn't help that he'd been trying to look more mature in his father's eyes and he was banging himself up on the furniture.
"No." he lied and removed his hand from massaging the sore spot. "I'm fine."
"Are you sure? Because it wouldn't be the first time that you've-"
"I said I'm fine! Just let it go, will you?"
"Mathais." his father spoke up in that threatening tone and Mathias knew by the look in his cold blue eyes that he was being scolded for how he responded to his mother.
"Ah jeez," Mathias shot up from his chair and paced the length of the coffee table once before turning to face his parents. "I don't need you guys babying me all the time about everything. I'm twenty-one years old and should be living in my own place instead of here with you guys. I just want more freedom."
Berwald gave him a look that…looked pretty much like every other look of his his. His father was dangerously short on facial expressions. Mathias could only tell his fathers mood by his tone or the subtle look in his matching blue eyes.
"Ja, because reckless street racing and partying are the wise ways that you spend that freedom. If anything you need less of it and more supervision."
"Stuff like that is normal for those my age, father. I'm doing what everyone else in this country are doing."
"Except you aren't like those your age in this country, Mathias." Kind Berwald stood up despite his wife's grasping hand that tried to keep him down. "They don't one day have to worry about leading a country and becoming its King. You have a responsibility that no once else has and it is about time that you live up to it."
Mathias narrowed his eyes at his father as he tried his hardest to focus on him and not the many eyes of the servants that were around them, silently listening and watching keenly.
"Well maybe I don't want that kind of responsibility. Maybe I want an entirely different future for myself that I get to choose."
Did he mean that? Heck, he didn't really know. He was just too fed up and angry at his father to think about the true meaning of his words. It just felt too good to be speaking his mind for once to his father.
"That is not your decision to make, son. You have a duty-"
"No! I do have a choice!" Mathias snapped back and for once in his life he actually swore that his father seemed surprised by his outburst. "All my life I have been living and silently going along based on the decisions that you and mother have made for me! I don't know why it's taken me so long to realize this but I can do what I want now! I have a say what's to become of my future, not you two! And if you don't agree with me then too bad because I'm not letting anyone else hold me back."
Mathias spun from his shell-shocked father and stormed across the room, his shoes loudly echoing in the vast space. The servants at the double doors opened them quickly but before Mathias excited through them, he turned to look back at his parents one last time.
"I can't grow up in a home that doesn't feel like one to me anymore."
At that his father turned his head to look at his son.
"I've felt like that for a long time, and now I finally have the nerve to do something about it and figure things out. Sticking around here isn't doing either of us any good, so what's the point?" He turned away when the hurt look in his father's eyes was starting to wither on the courage he'd built up.
He rushed out the doors and down the hall, knowing that what he said was something that had to be said because it felt right. He felt like a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders and he could breathe a little more freely. Suddenly he could see so many opportunities in his future that he always had such a difficult time imagining.
So what now?
Mathias ran down the steps and halfway across the palace to the security hall where all the indoor and out door guardsmen would often pass through in between shifts. The surprised looks on all the service members faces when he opened every door when he went to room would have been enjoyable if he weren't in such a hurry. Eventually he opened the right one and found just who he'd been looking for.
"Lukas!"
Sitting in a swivel chair facing multiple screens of different parts of the palace was a young man with pale, blonde hand and perfect posture. The man turned to his name being called yet didn't seem surprised in the slightest to see the young Prince.
He gave a bow of the head. "Your Highness."
"I've been looking for you!" Mathias exclaimed and shut the door behind him.
Lukas nodded and tuned back to the camera display. "I know."
Seeming to know what the Prince would ask of him next, the man pointed to a screen in the middle row near the left the end. "I've been watching your trek all the way from the third floor on the west wing." he paused, his grey eyes sweeping the Prince once up and down. "You fell going down the second story steps, are you injured?"
"Whoa, you've been watching me this whole time?" Mathias raised an eyebrow, joking with the security member as he lowered himself into a seat next to him.
Lukas turned to look at him, his gaze serious as he spoke. "I took an oath to protect the royal family, but assigned to supervise you particularly. It is my job to watch and insure your safety at all times."
"I swear you have to lighten up whenever your recite that speech of yours, pal. It just gets creepier and creepier the more you say it."
"I take my job very seriously, Your Royal Highness."
Lukas let out a slow breath and turned his attention back to the monitors. "Was there a specific reason that you sought me out, Your Highness?" he asked while he typed away on the keyboard, pausing and shooting Mathias a disagreeable look when the Prince tried to lean closer to see the security detail.
Mathias was quiet and slouched forward in his chair in a very un-Prince like position. "I'm leaving the palace." he admitted at last.
Lukas's fingers froze over the keyboard.
"My parents think I need to grow up but won't treat me like one. I need space to grow, and lately I've been feeling like I've been suffocating to death here at the palace."
Lukas was silent as he listened to his Prince's admittance about wanting to leave home. Sure, the young Prince had suggested running away when he was a child, but never had he brought it up now and at such an imperative time in his life. If Prince Mathias was to one day rule his country from his palace then he must remain at the palace.
"You don't agree with me." Mathias spoke up. "You think that this decision is just as immature as everything else I've ever done." he turned his head to the side and muttered lowly to himself. "Just like my parents."
Lukas's eyes flickered back to his Prince. He knew that this was all somehow related to his parents, specifically His Majesty King Berwald. Lukas sighed and turned in his chair to face the young man next to him.
He had a feeling he'd regret this but what little choice did he have? He swore to protect His Royal Highness and he wasn't about to break that oath.
"Wherever you think it best to go," he took a deep breath, mentally scolding himself for what ever may happen as a result in the future. "I will follow."
Mathias's head snapped up, his blue eyes full of shock and exhilaration. "You really mean that, Lukas? You support my decision?"
Lukas resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Honestly, no. I believe you are making a terrible decision that will effect more than you're aware."
"Oh…" the Prince's face started to drop.
"But," Lukas held up a finger. "As the Royal Family's security staff and your assigned bodyguard, I have no other choice but to follow Your Royal Highness wherever that may be."
Lukas nearly fell out of his chair when his Prince slapped him heavily on the side of the arm. "Great! Because His Royal Highness," Mathias imitated his favorite security staff's different accent. "knows exactly where he wants to go and what to do when he gets there. But I admit that I need a little help filling out the forums and making sense of the ridiculous extra expenditures."
Lukas felt like a heavy weight had been dropped in his stomach. He did his best to conceal his true emotions in front of his Prince but they were just too intense.
"Lukas, pal!" Mathias shot up from his chair and stood behind the shorter man and slapped his hands on his shoulders. "We're going to college!"