Start a Riot, Chapter 1. PG-13, Wille/Simon, romance/drama, directly post-S1.
On his first day back to school after the Christmas break, Simon is informed that he's been suspended for two weeks because of his involvement in the video making the rounds on the internet. Now it's up to Wille and his few allies to recruit as many out of the entire population of entitled rich kids at Hillerska as they can to go full Greta to try and pressure the school to reverse this decision before it ruins Simon's future.
Note: Inspired, most recently, by Netflix's Moxie and Sex Education, and a bajillion other teen movies and TV shows out there where high schoolers stage a school strike/walkout/protest against their school.
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I will burn this city down for a diamond in the dust.
I will keep you safe and sound when there's no one left to trust.
Will you take my hand? We can make our stand.
~BANNERS, "Start a Riot."
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The most aggravating part of this, Simon thought, was that they waited until the end of the school day to do it. He'd gone his entire first day back after Christmas break, attended all his classes, and submitted all the pending assignments he'd been working on for weeks, and he'd thought the worst part of coming back to Hillerska would be the pain of seeing Wille again.
But no, of course things couldn't be that easy for him. Just as he was leaving his last class and getting ready to go back home for the day, that's when he got called to the headmistress's office. Because these rich assholes just loved rubbing salt into the wound.
"Suspended?!" Simon exclaimed as soon as the words were out of Headmistress Lilja's mouth.
"Yes, for two weeks, starting tomorrow." She pursed her lips, pausing. To her credit, the woman did look like she wanted to be doing anything but telling him this. "I'm sorry, Simon, but you did get caught on tape having broken into Forest Ridge House—"
"I did not break in, I was let inside," he corrected angrily. Well, technically Wille's window had been left unlocked and so he had let himself inside with a mostly incoherent Prince of Sweden in tow, but that was close enough. "Breaking in" made him sound like a goddamn criminal.
"—to engage in inappropriate behavior with another student," she continued as if Simon hadn't spoken. "The board deliberated on this... situation over the break, and they have decided that the rules must be enforced if we are to encourage discipline amongst the student body."
Simon scoffed. "Really? Then why am I the only one here?" he retorted. "Someone recorded that video and uploaded it for the entire world to see without my consent. And I'm certainly not the only person in the video," he added. "Where are they, then? Why are they not getting suspended as well?"
"We are unaware of the identity of the person or persons who recorded or uploaded the video," she said, sounding very much like she was speaking from a prepared PR response. "We simply do not have the technical capabilities to figure it out on our own."
Simon had to bite his lip to keep himself from blurting it out. He was aware it had been August who filmed it. Felice had visited Sara over the break, and she'd informed both Eriksson siblings of her discovery. She said she had told Wilhelm. Simon had assumed the Crown was quietly taking care of it, so he hadn't asked. Imagine his shock when he came back to school that day and saw August still hanging around like nothing had happened. Unfortunately, he didn't even have time to process this information before he was ambushed with this suspension, but that didn't mean he wasn't out-of-his-mind enraged about it.
"As for the other student in the video," the headmistress added, still very matter-of-factly, "they are not clearly identifiable from the video alone, and although we believe the rules should be enforced, I'm afraid we can't suspend a student without concrete proof."
"You mean you can't punish the Crown Prince after he's already publicly denied it's him in the video," he retorted harshly. It's not that he wanted to rat Wille out or anything; there was just no point in playing dumb. The headmistress knew very well it was Wilhelm in the video; the Queen herself had come all the way to Hillerska to deal with the aftermath, after all. The staff and the students all knew: everybody could recognize Wille's room at Forest Ridge. The only reason he was getting shit about it and Wille wasn't was that Wille was a royal.
He couldn't fucking believe it. If anything, the school should be thanking him for getting Wille back to his dorm safely. It wouldn't bring them any good press to have the damn Crown Prince choke on his own vomit in the middle of the night with his bodyguards being none the wiser. And what kind of safety guarantee could Hillerska even offer the Crown, anyway, if they allowed their residents to routinely sneak out of their rooms to party and easily leave school property in the middle of the damn night to go roll around in the artificial turf of a random football field in Bjärstad while being completely high off their asses? Where was their stupid enforcement then?
The headmistress had enough decency to not deny it. "I'm very sorry, Simon," she repeated, this time sounding fully sincere. "If it were up to me, I wouldn't have done this. You're a good student, and I think you have more than enough to deal with already, what with the video itself. Unfortunately, I cannot overrule the board on this one, so I'm going to have to ask you to please leave the premises of Hillerska School for the next two weeks."
"Great. Thanks," Simon muttered bitterly. He pushed himself to his feet and grabbed his backpack, which he had dropped on the ground beside his chair when he came in, shouldering it crossly. Then he stomped out the door.
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To say that Wilhelm wasn't expecting Simon to approach him at all would be the understatement of the century.
They hadn't talked at all during the break, save for two errant texts Wilhelm had sent before he could change his mind, wishing Simon and his family a happy Christmas and New Year respectively. Simon had replied to both texts with a quick "Thanks, you too" and nothing else, and that was the extent of their communication since they last saw each other.
So Wilhelm had spent most of the break locked in his room. He did need to step out a couple of times for the royal end-of-the-year formalities, but even those were reduced this year, as the entire nation recognized that, as a family, they were still grieving. So the invitations that would usually come from old classmates or other high-society peers didn't come this time around, and that was just fine with Wilhelm. He just wanted to be alone and wallow.
The holidays were not the same without Erik. He missed Simon with almost physical pain. And he especially did not have the slightest intention of seeing or talking to his mother unless absolutely necessary.
As the first day of the term grew closer, Wilhelm felt the tight coil of desperation inside him tense up more and more. It felt good and bad at the same time. Bad because he knew it was going to hurt so much to have Simon near and not be able to talk to him, touch him, be with him. But it was also good because even though they couldn't be together, he thought at least being near him could fill in a little bit of the huge void he felt inside his chest. To know that he was real, that he existed, that what they had was not just a figment of Wilhelm's fevered imagination trying to make up for his brother's absence. It would hurt, seeing him every day, but he'd rather it hurt than be numb all the time.
And now they were back in school, and they were... not exactly avoiding each other. Well, Wilhelm wasn't, at least. It would be hard to completely avoid someone you shared most classes with. If anything, he felt he was hyperaware of where Simon was at all times. If Erik had been around to see, he'd have teased him that he was pining like a Jane Austen character. It was really rather pathetic, and it had only been half a day.
But it didn't matter what he was feeling, anyway. Simon had asked him for space, and Wilhelm would be damned if he didn't do exactly what he asked for. He wasn't going to hurt Simon any more than he already had. Every interaction they had from now on was going to be on Simon's terms, even if that meant no interaction.
So it came as a surprise when, just as he was pulling his maths notebook out of his locker after his last class of the day, Simon came up behind him, backpack on as if getting ready to go back home, and tapped his shoulder. "Can I talk to you for a second?" he asked in a low tone like he didn't want anybody around them to hear. As if them just standing that close wasn't enough to grab the attention of everybody in that hallway.
He seemed tense. Wille noticed, but even that couldn't stop his heart from going nuts inside his chest with the tiniest spark of hope. He cleared his throat and tried to school his expression into a neutral one. "Hey! Uh, sure," he said, and he'd barely gotten the last word out when Simon was already pulling him by the arm into the music room. It was empty; classes were over for the day and choir practice hadn't restarted yet after the break. Wilhelm made sure to close the door behind him.
"Are you okay?" Wilhelm asked once Simon let go of his arm and turned to him. He seemed really agitated.
"I just got suspended," Simon stated, bluntly, in a way that reminded Wilhelm a lot of Sara, but in Simon's case, it was clearly because he was barely restraining his anger. Simon was a very chill person, and he didn't like yelling at people, but that didn't mean he didn't have a temper, even if it poured out of him freezing cold rather than blazing hot most of the time. He could still burn if pushed. Wilhelm knew that very well.
The revelation caught him unaware. "Wait— what? Why?" Wilhelm asked, immediately worried. Had something happened over the break? Had August done something, said something? He couldn't imagine anything Simon could've done to merit suspension while they weren't even at school.
"Why do you think? Because of that stupid video!" Simon retorted, losing his battle with his frustration. He was looking at Wilhelm like he should've known this was coming, and it made Wilhelm feel like he was suddenly standing on uneven ground.
"What? But—" Wilhelm stammered. "I thought— I thought the thing with the video was settled."
Simon scoffed, a sardonic sound with not an ounce of mirth in it. "Yeah, maybe for you," he threw at him, and Wilhelm's heart constricted painfully. Fuck. He really should've seen this coming, shouldn't he? "Clearly, the school's getting bad press and they needed to do something to save face. But they can't do anything to you, and fucking August is also untouchable, apparently, so I guess I have to be the scapegoat."
The mention of August made Wilhelm's stomach lurch. "Wait, how did you—" He hadn't told Simon that August was the one who caught them on video and uploaded it to the internet; Simon didn't want to hear from him anyway, and the idea of even saying the words out loud to Simon made him fill up with shame in the knowledge that the institution he'd given the boy he loved up for— hell, that Wilhelm's own mother— would choose to cover up for someone who did that rather than do the right thing, and there was nothing Wilhelm could do about it.
It was bad enough that he knew and still had to see August at school, even if the older student had enough sense in him to know to stay the fuck away. It still made his skin crawl every time he accidentally caught sight of his cousin, even all these weeks later. He didn't want Simon to feel that way, too, but apparently someone else thought Simon deserved to know. Honestly, he couldn't blame them. Wilhelm had taken the coward's way out. More than once.
"It doesn't matter!" Simon threw back in an exasperated tone, making Wilhelm realize that he was focusing on the wrong part of what Simon had just told him. "Wille, don't you get it? I can't be suspended! It's bad enough that a goddamn sex tape is the first link that comes up when someone fucking Googles my name. No music school is going to even consider me for a scholarship if I have a suspension for inappropriate behavior on my permanent record!"
Fuck. Fuck. Simon was right; none of this had even occurred to him when he denied it was him in the damn video. He'd thought the noise would die down eventually, and people would just forget, and everything would be just fine. Simon wasn't a public personality, after all, so if he wasn't sleeping with Wilhelm, then there really was no reason for the video to make the rounds forever. But he'd been wrong. Fuck, he'd been wrong, and this could ruin Simon's entire life, and it was all his fault.
"I mean—" He faltered because, fuck, what could he even possibly say to that? He could barely put together his own thoughts underneath the thundering beating of his heart in his ears. "Maybe I could— The Royal College of Music—"
He knew it was the wrong thing to say as soon as the words came out of his mouth, but Simon's incredulous expression confirmed it a second later. "Seriously?" Simon asked, though his absolutely aghast intonation made it clear that it was a rhetorical question. "Wilhelm, I'm not asking you to help me cut in line. What I want is for this world to be fucking fair!"
Simon looked for a second like he had more to say along the same vein, but instead ran a hand over his face and turned around so that his back was to Wilhelm. Wilhelm heard him take a couple of deep breaths and saw the tension in his shoulders lessen. "I'm sorry," he said, calmer this time, though still careful. He turned back around. "That's not on you."
"No, no, that's—" Wilhelm shook his head. "That's fair. I shouldn't have—" He cut himself off again, still not quite sure what to say, but knowing that he didn't want to say the wrong thing again. He was just sorry for being insensitive, is what he wanted Simon to know, but Simon was already nodding his head like he understood even though he hadn't actually said it yet.
"I know. It's fine," he said easily. He took another deep breath. "I'm just... upset."
"They can't do this to you, Simon," Wilhelm declared, every single cell in his body screaming at him to reach out and comfort the boy he loved, but knowing it was not his place. Not unless Simon asked for it. "I mean, it's not like half the fucking students here don't just straight-up walk into each other's dorm rooms every given night, anyway. Everybody knows. Bet they don't do anything about that, do they?"
Simon scoffed again, and Wilhelm swore he never wanted to hear that sound come from him ever again. "Well, they didn't get caught on video with the Crown Prince of Sweden," he muttered. He didn't sound accusatory, just resigned. It still cut Wilhelm like a knife to the gut.
"But there's got to be some recourse you can access, right?" Wilhelm tried again, pausing only to bite at his nails, nervous. "I mean— like, there's gotta be a way to appeal their decision, isn't there? They can't just ruin your entire academic record without letting you defend yourself."
Simon crossed his arms and shrugged. "Maybe if I had someone who could corroborate my story." He gave Wilhelm a pointed look. "But I guess I don't."
Wilhelm groaned and ran both hands through his hair, tugging frustratedly. Shit, he thought as he started to pace. He knew Simon was at a financial and class disadvantage with the rest of the students, and he knew the other kids looked down on him because of it. But he'd thought the school, at least, would be fair. And Wilhelm thought he himself could see past that, see past the lack of money and status and see Simon as the person he was, because Simon saw who he was beyond the blue blood and the royal title. Because that was all he wanted: for someone to look at him and not see the Prince, but rather just see Wille.
What he'd overlooked was that Simon couldn't just... divest himself of the circumstances that determined his life any more than Wilhelm himself could. Whether they acknowledged it or not, those circumstances were always there, in the background, weighing in on their thoughts and their actions and the opportunities they had open to them. And Wilhelm had never acknowledged that. Simon had risked everything for him, but Wilhelm's actions had only factored in his own circumstances, because unknowingly, unwillingly, he'd fallen prey to the same bias his classmates had: that his problems were somehow more important because of his title, or his position, or his duty to the country. And now it was all blowing up in Simon's face, and it was all his fault.
"I'm so sorry this is happening," Wilhelm finally got the words out. Too late, he thought, and too useless, anyway, as saying he was sorry was not going to make anything better, but it was the only thing he could say. "There's got to be something we can do," he added, though he didn't know what that something could be. "I-I... I'll fix this, Simon. I promise."
"Like you said you would fix things last time?" The corners of Simon's mouth lifted, but it wasn't a smile— not a real one, at least; not the smile Wilhelm loved so much, the one he dreamed about— but a flat, tired gesture of giving up to the inevitable. It broke Wilhelm's heart all over again. He'd done this. "I'll see you in two weeks, Wille."
He walked out of the room in the ensuing silence, and when the door closed again, leaving Wilhelm alone with his racing thoughts, the Crown Prince made for the window. Not to open it; just to lean against it. He rested his forehead against the cool pane of glass and breathed, going over the entire conversation in his head. It was after a few minutes of quiet and deep breaths that he pulled back, jaw clenched, stride brisk. The hallway outside the music room was now empty as well, only Wilhelm's CPO standing guard a few paces from the door.
"Malin," he addressed her seriously as he walked by her, starting for Headmistress Lilja's office. "Please tell Sören to procure us a car. I have an urgent business I need to attend to at Drottningholm tonight."
He heard her start to walk behind him, trailing him at an appropriate distance as dictated by her job description. "Your Royal Highness," she intervened, "can this business not be taken care of via phone or videoconference? The term has just started and you're not supposed to leave school premises during the week—"
Wilhelm stopped walking abruptly and turned on his heel to look at her— she halted her stride almost immediately as well. "Malin, with all due respect, I appreciate everything you do for me, but you are my bodyguard, not my babysitter," he declared, serious. He was trying really hard not to take his anger out on Malin because she didn't deserve it, but he wasn't in the mood to be treated like he needed a handler.
"Now, I'm going to get to Stockholm tonight even if I have to go by bus. So it's your choice whether we do this the easy way or the hard way." She must've seen something in his expression that told her he wasn't going to back down on this, because she nodded and pulled her phone out of her pocket, intending to follow Wilhelm's order.
"Thank you," Wilhelm said with a nod of his own. He spun in the opposite direction once again, intending to make his way to the headmistress's office to inform her that he had to go back home and would be back sometime later in the night. It was a two-hour drive out to the palace and two more back, but he felt he had to be there in person to make it clear that he was serious about this particular situation.
"And please let the Queen know that I need to see her as soon as I arrive," he added sharply as he started walking.
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Author's notes!—
The Royal College of Music in Stockholm is the oldest music school in Sweden at the higher-education level. It started life in the 18th century as part of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music— an institution founded by the Swedish monarchy to promote the musical arts— before going independent in the 1970s. It is technically not affiliated with the Swedish royal family, but I figure anything with "Royal" in its name is probably still susceptible to some influence from the Crown. I'm not sure what Wilhelm's car situation on the show is; in episode 6 they mention sending a car over to pick him up, so I assume they don't keep a car at Hillerska. Doesn't seem particularly safe to me, but I'll go with it. Poor Sören's going to have to figure out where to rent a car somewhere, I guess.
Sorry this starts with a fight. I made a Wille/Simon video edit last week and in the process of putting it together, I was entranced by Simon/Omar's absolute mastery of the art of angrily shouldering a backpack. That was all it took for this story to manifest in my brain. Angry!Simon is my fave. (That's a lie. Smiling!Simon is my fave, but angry!Simon is up there, too.) If you'd like to see something different, you might want to check out A lovely way to spend an afternoon; that one's pure fluff.
They'll get some good moments eventually in this one, though, I promise, but this is the way it has to start. I'm a bit iffy about it, though. I normally try to stay away from writing canon-compliant stories until the canon is complete because I hate it when new seasons joss my stuff, but this one wouldn't leave me alone. I don't plan on this being terribly long, though; maybe three or four chapters. Don't know how long it's going to take me to write it, but for now I'm chugging along okay. If you like it so far, though, please let me know by commenting or leaving kudos. It would ease my wariness.
Next up: The Crown Prince holds an audience with the Queen. And maybe we get to see the girls? Idk, depends on how long it gets. (That's what she said. Does that joke even apply in this fandom?) Anyway, stay tuned.
In the meantime, how are we all doing after the renewal announcement?! WE'RE GETTING A SECOND SEASON, Y'ALL! Me, I am still so happy I'm nearly vibrating out of my skin, haha. If anyone's interested, I recorded my reaction to the announcement and uploaded it to my fandom vlog. It's very incoherent, but that's what utter joy does to you, I guess, lol. I can't wait to see what they've got in store for us!