Start a Riot, Chapter 2. 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.
Note 2: TW— Kristina PoV. (I tried to make her tolerable/somewhat understandable... but we'll see. See note at the end.)
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Kristina and Ludvig were having dinner in the private kitchen of the royal residence when Wilhelm burst in. She'd already been informed he was on the way, so his sudden appearance didn't startle her, but she did wonder what on earth had him so agitated. He hadn't even bothered taking off his coat.
"Was it you?" he asked sharply in place of a greeting.
Kristina swallowed the bite of salmon she'd just put in her mouth a minute ago, carefully put her fork down on her plate, picked up her serviette to wipe at her mouth, set it back down on the table beside her plate, and then looked up at her son. "Good evening to you, too," she said pointedly, her mouth pressing into a tight line. "Though I guess it already is, clearly, as you've somehow managed to leave school premises without my permission."
"It's good to see you, son," Ludvig intervened affably, ever the mediator. "Will you be having dinner with us? I can throw a fillet on the pan for you; it shouldn't take more than a few minutes." He made to stand as if intending to do just that. When it was just the family, Ludvig quite enjoyed cooking, even though he didn't have to. He said the methodical yet creative nature of it helped him relax, and Kristina encouraged the hobby. He was quite good at it, in fact; Lord knew Kristina couldn't boil an egg if she tried.
Wilhelm silently shook his head in response to Ludvig's question, prompting Ludvig to stay seated. The gesture was softer than when he turned back to look at her, Kristina noticed. As Wilhelm looked at her expectantly, his gaze was like steel. A loaded weapon just waiting for her to give him the wrong answer.
Well, what else is new, Kristina thought, finally deciding to bite the bullet. She laced her hands together in her lap and met her son's gaze. "Was what me?" she asked tersely. If he was going to accuse her of something, he was going to have to say it explicitly.
"Simon's been suspended for the video," he shot back curtly, straight to the point and without vacillation. "Was it your idea?"
Kristina held back an irked sound with practiced ease. Simon, of course. Given all the moping Wilhelm had done during the Christmas break, Kristina had an inkling that he was still angry about the way things had been handled at the end of the last term, but she thought that was more about her than it was about the boy, which was how she preferred it. She thought the weeks apart might've given Wilhelm's infatuation some time to simmer down. Clearly, she'd been wrong.
She allowed herself a small huff of displeasure. "That boy again?" She pushed her chair back and got to her feet. At her side, Ludvig finished his last bite of dinner and wiped his mouth as well. "Honestly," she continued speaking to her son, "I can't believe you would have your CPOs drive you all the way here for this. Wilhelm, that matter has been settled—"
"Just because it's settled for me doesn't mean that it's been settled for him," Wilhelm cut her off, his resolve hardening with every tense retort. "Was. It. You?" he insisted, demanding an answer for the question Kristina wouldn't dignify earlier.
Beside her, Ludvig pushed himself to his feet as well, extending a hand to her so she would pass him her empty plate. She picked it up and handed it to him without a word, and he took the dishes back to the sink so he could rinse them before loading them in the dishwasher.
As much as she loved her son, Kristina and Wilhelm had always butted heads, even before the sex tape incident. Wilhelm was a sensitive boy; being the second in line had put him in a position where the pressures of the public eye on him were less restrictive, and he had clung to that for dear life, grasping for every bit of normalcy he could have. It had been harmless enough to indulge him when he was a small child, but he refused to let go of that lifeline even now that he was nearly an adult.
For Kristina, it was a difficult mentality to wrap her head around, to empathize with. She'd been raised within the monarchy and the expectations the Crown and her country had of her had been a voice in the back of her head since before she could even remember. There was no dislodging a happy, fulfilled life from her position as Queen. She'd cut Ludvig a lot of slack at the beginning of their relationship because while he was of noble birth, the intricacies of living as a royal were a step beyond that. He got used to it soon enough. But Wilhelm had grown up in the palace, too, and should be used to those intricacies by now, first-born or not. She didn't know how to shake him from his reticence and resentment. Didn't know how to talk to him, how to make him see what was so clear to her, what she knew would be better for him in the long run. But someone had to be the disciplinarian, regardless. And so they fought. A lot.
Having some experience on the other side of the royal machine, Ludvig often positioned himself as a mediator between the two, trying to soften their arguments and help both of them see where the other was coming from. Erik had been that way, too, mostly out of a desire to keep the peace, as well as protect his younger brother's feelings and spare him from being overburdened. He'd been such a good brother. But one thing Ludvig understood that Erik hadn't was that some arguments needed to be had; that's how people grow and change. So in some instances, like now, he knew well enough to stand on the sidelines and watch, only intervening when necessary.
As her husband walked away from the table, she fixed her gaze on Wilhelm, finally answering the question that had brought him here. "No. I did not suggest anything of the sort," she declared, which was the pure truth. Wilhelm may think her the bad guy in all of this, but she had better things to do than machinate behind the scenes against the boy her son was apparently so enamored with.
"But you knew." It was a statement, more than a question.
And he was correct, of course. Kristina made it a point of keeping informed of any situation that arose that could affect the Crown, particularly if it involved her willful son. The school was also not about to risk her displeasure after everything that happened at the end of the year, so they jumped at the chance to keep her in the loop. "Well, we had to remind the school that your official position is that it's not you in the video, and it would be ill-advised to involve you in any way based on pure conjecture."
"And you think it's fine for them to turn on Simon?" Wilhelm asked, a flash of blatant incredulity breaking his previously adamantine expression. "His privacy was invaded just like mine was, and now he's getting punished for it on top of everything! They could've just as easily done that to me. What if it had been me?"
"They wouldn't have done that to you," Kristina reiterated.
"And you're okay with that?" He rubbed at his eyes with one hand, as if he were developing a headache. "I've got the entire weight of the Swedish monarchy getting me out of any situation that might make me look bad, but Simon's got no one. You think that's okay?"
"Of course not," Kristina threw back incisively. She knew that Wilhelm probably held a very low opinion of her at the moment, and that was her burden to carry, but for all of that, she wasn't heartless. She knew what it was to want to help people and be held back by optics and nebulous norms. She'd grappled with it as Princess, as Queen. It was a hard lesson to learn, but there was a good reason for it: it wasn't fair. The monarch couldn't put their thumb on the scale to help one specific individual above all others, and it was Wilhelm's turn to understand that. "I can intervene on your behalf because I'm your mother, but I can't very well tell the school how to impart discipline on their own students, can I?"
"Yes, you can!" Wilhelm shot back, just as she'd expected he would. He ran a hand through his hair, then hurried to shrug off his coat, almost like he was suddenly overheating. "I mean, you can't order them to do anything, obviously," he added as he slapped the offending garment on top of the backrest of the empty dining chair in front of him, "but if you make a suggestion, they're gonna listen to you! You're the damn queen!"
"Wilhelm, please. No need to get agitated," Ludvig intervened from the side. Kristina wasn't sure if he was objecting to Wilhelm's language or his tone.
Wilhelm continued his diatribe without really adjusting either. "Don't you see? This is why people resent the monarchy! What's the point of being given all this power if we can't use it to help people?"
"I understand why you're upset," she told her son, trying to give him something to stand on. She knew what it was to be young and idealistic. She didn't blame him for it; she just wanted him to understand. "I do. But you know that's not how it works. We can't just go around fixing everybody's problems for them—"
"No, just mine. And August's. And those of anyone with royal blood. Yeah, I get how it works." He sounded so perfectly bitter, it made her wonder if maybe there was more of a danger to his dalliance with the Eriksson boy than just the possible public reveal of the relationship. She held that thought back for now, however. "Do you not see how messed up that is? What kind of king am I going to be if I have to step on people— good people who have done nothing wrong— on my way to the throne?"
Kristina shook her head, exasperated. What else could she possibly say to make him see that it would be better for him to stay out of it entirely? No good would come of him intervening in any of this. "Not everything is that simple, Wilhelm. Sometimes it's not so clear how you get to the better outcome. You will be king; it is your birthright, and so you must understand this. You have to own it. It is the monarch's job to make difficult decisions—"
"Even if it costs your own children's happiness? Yeah, I get that, too," he threw back at her harshly.
Well. Now she was angry. Who did he think he was to talk to her that way? Kristina knew she wasn't the most effusive of mothers, but everything she did, she did for him. So he was ready for what was to come, what would be expected of him. Was she happy that he would have to hide a part of himself for the rest of his life? Of course not. If it were up to her, it wouldn't be an issue. But the weight of the crown was heavy, and it was hard enough to carry all on its own. No need to give its detractors any more ammunition.
"Wilhelm! That was uncalled for," Ludvig said, done with the dishes now and approaching the kitchen table once again, perpendicular to both Kristina and their son, who were facing each other across the table as if in a standoff. "Can we please just sit down and talk about this calmly?"
Neither moved, but in an attempt to honor her husband's request, Kristina tried to rein in her temper and addressed her son as soberly as she could. "Wilhelm, I don't think you understand the position you've put us—"
Her son clearly wasn't having it. "You know, Mamma, I did everything you wanted me to do," he declared. "I kept my head down, I transferred to Hillerska—"
"Really? You call what happened 'keeping your head down' now?" she threw back as snidely as Wilhelm himself had just minutes before. She really tried to keep a cool head about this, but she hated being interrupted, and he had already gotten away with it a couple of times throughout this argument. If her voice started getting louder, it was because he was deliberately provoking her.
He heard her but was too riled up to halt the tirade he'd already started on. "—I even denied it was me in that video. Just like you wanted! And now Simon won't even look at me and it kills me every day." Kristina bit her tongue. Young people— always such drama. "But it's fine! It's fine because I believed it would be the best thing for everyone, and if that was true, then it was worth it," he added, with such force to his words that she could've sworn she heard the crunch of his teeth as he clenched his jaw.
He closed his eyes tightly, took a deep breath, and ran both hands through his hair— back and forth so that not only did he mess it up completely, but it also stuck up in the back. He was sweating. When he opened his eyes again, he fixed Kristina with a glare the likes of which she hadn't seen since he was a little kid. Since he'd learned that when it came to his princely duties, it was easier to choose the path of least resistance.
"But if it turns out that's not making things better, then I'm done," he proclaimed, enunciating his words clearly and without a hint of hesitation in his tone, and Kristina's heart momentarily stopped inside her chest. Throughout all of this, she'd still been certain, one way or the other, that Wilhelm would uphold his birthright. It might take some growing pains, and perhaps his reputation might take a few hits along the way, but he would take the throne after her, in Erik's place, come what may. Even if he was reluctant, even if it took some concessions on her part, he would fulfill his duty in the end.
But now, seeing him like this, hearing him say that— it was the first time Kristina genuinely feared the word "abdication" might have crossed her son's mind already.
There was a moment she could not speak, frozen in place by that terrible thought. And then her heart resumed beating, furiously, as she let breath into her lungs in a loud gasp. "Wilhelm! Surely you don't mean—"
"I am done playing this... PR game, okay?" he kept speaking like he hadn't just dropped a bomb on her, and Kristina felt her soul slowly return to her body, leaving her wondering if maybe she'd just read too much into improvised sentences. Maybe her son and heir was not delivering quite the ultimatum she thought he was delivering. Maybe she'd jumped to conclusions, and his ascension to the throne was not on the line.
He leaned his entire weight against the chair in front of him, grip tight on the backrest over the thick fabric of his coat. "I don't care what I have to put up with, but I draw the line at Simon. If he gets hurt in any way... if any of this is going to affect his future, then it's not worth it anymore." He paused momentarily, leaning forward to rest his head against the back of his hands. Then he pulled back to look straight at her again. "I am asking you to do one thing for me, Mother. One thing. So. Can you make this go away?"
Silence reigned as Wilhelm's question hung heavy in the air. He held her gaze steadily— a purposeful effort to demonstrate how serious he was about this issue, coming from her son whom she knew to always be the first to duck his gaze away when the pressure got overwhelming— and Kristina considered how far she could push. He might not have contemplated abdication yet, but she certainly didn't want to give him the idea.
Ludvig looked between the two of them, correctly identifying that the ball was now in her court. "Kristina?" he prompted, keeping his expression neutral. He usually deferred to her on issues like this, as he understood she was acting both in her capacity as Wilhelm's mother and also as Queen, and so he knew that they needed to present a united front. He couldn't undermine her authority in these matters. But she was sure she'd hear his honest opinion later on.
She took a deep breath and crossed her arms tightly. "I'm afraid I can't tell a private institution how to conduct their internal business, no."
Wilhelm's impenetrable expression did not change in the slightest, almost like he'd been expecting that to be her answer. Kristina felt a pang in her heart. She could hardly recognize the young man in front of her— so different from her sweet, soft, darling boy, her baby— and as proud as she was that her son had somehow finally found his footing, she couldn't help but wonder if this was what their relationship was going to be from now on. It hurt. It hurt to know that she may have driven him past his limit, and she wasn't sure there was any way to come back from that. This might be the moment she lost her son for good, and she'd have no choice but to live with it.
And yet, she wouldn't do anything differently. She couldn't.
Wilhelm let go of the chair, still fully inscrutable. "Okay. Fine. Don't help me. But then you don't get to complain when I do things my own way." He grabbed his coat off the backrest, holding it in the crook of his elbow.
"Is that a threat?" Kristina asked in a low, dry, weary tone.
"It's a notice. Your people might want to keep an eye out," Wilhelm replied, fully serious. He turned to Ludvig and nodded at him as if saying goodbye. "I'll be going back to school now." With one last look in Kristina's direction, he spun on his heel and strode out of the kitchen just as hastily as he had come in.
"Don't be ridi— Wilhelm!" Kristina tried to call him back, but he was already out of the room and stomping down the hallway. Frustrated, she turned to Ludvig. "Call security and tell them not to let the car leave. There's no reason for him to make the trip back tonight; this is all just a waste of his CPOs' time on a whim—"
"Let him go, dear," Ludvig intervened, catching her arm softly before she could reach for the nearest phone. "It might be for the best; the distance might help him cool off. He's angry, and I dare say he has a right to be."
Kristina bristled, throwing him a piercing, defensive glance. "Excuse me?"
He only gave her a knowing smile, pulling her by the arm back toward the table and pulling her chair out so she could sit. "We're in our private kitchen, my love, not in your throne room," he reminded her, as he often did when they were alone. It was difficult for her, sometimes, to switch hats between her two titles— that of Queen and wife/mother. She knew without a shadow of a doubt that Ludvig would have her back whenever it came to the former, but when it came to private family matters, they were on equal footing, and he would not hold back on his opinions. Which she preferred, usually; it just particularly stung today.
"You believe I have not handled this well, then?" she asked as he took hold of both their now-empty wine glasses to refill them.
"I believe you did what you could to ensure our son's reputation as future king is not marred before he even takes the throne," Ludvig said as he poured wine into her glass. "I think what you've overlooked in this situation is that he is a teenager. The more you tell him he can't have something, the more he's going to want it."
Kristina scoffed— a thoroughly unladylike gesture that she would never allow herself to make around anyone other than her husband— and picked up the glass once he was done pouring. "Erik was never like this."
He gave her an amused smile again as he poured the second glass. "It should not come as a surprise, Kristina, that our sons are two very different people." He moved to cork the bottle but he paused as if realizing something. He cleared his throat. "Were."
Kristina pressed her lips together, willing herself not to cry. Ludvig sat down in his seat beside her and took a sip of his wine. He took her hand and squeezed it as if in silent apology. Kristina sighed. "Do you think he will ever forgive me?" she asked, going back to the topic of her youngest. She missed Erik every second of the day, but there was nothing she could do for him now except ensure his legacy persisted. Wilhelm had to be her focus now.
Ludvig patted her hand lightly. "I'm sure he will," he assured her, sounding very confident of it. He'd always been the optimist between the two of them. Kristina's mind always went straight for the worst-case scenario. "He's got a big heart. And that's not a bad thing."
"No, but it gets him in trouble," Kristina retorted, shaking her head as she swirled the wine in her glass. "Did you hear what he said about people resenting us? Someone's putting ideas into his head. I might as well have been arguing with a republican!"
That last sentence made her husband laugh. "He just wants to help his boyfriend, not bring down the monarchy." He shook his head in an amused fashion.
"What do you think he's going to do?" she asked, still worried. She understood what Wilhelm meant when he said he was giving her a notice, not a threat— a threat would imply he wanted something from her in return. He clearly didn't. That fact made this situation all the more concerning to her.
"I don't know," Ludvig admitted, and Kristina couldn't help but feel a little disappointed by the response. Wilhelm had always gotten along better with Ludvig, and she'd been hoping he might have some more insight into what was going on inside their son's mind. But of course that was a big ask; at this point, Wilhelm probably saw him as an extension of her, so to speak. "Whatever it is, though, you can't stop it. We'll just have to deal with it when it happens." He took a sip from his glass. "He knows what's expected of him. We have to trust that he'll be smart about it."
"For a moment there I thought he was going to give all of it up," came Kristina's own admission. She didn't like to say it out loud, but Ludvig would tell her if she was overreacting. "I thought he would tell me that if I don't let him have a relationship with this boy, he would announce his abdication right then and there, in the middle of our kitchen."
"I doubt he would do that," he said, lifting a hand to rub at Kristina's shoulder. She took comfort in his words. He might be more optimistic than her, but he also wouldn't lie just to make her feel better. She needed that. "But," he added, giving her shoulder a light squeeze, "you may have to give a little."
"Hmm." She took another sip of her wine. "I guess we'll see."
He shook his head again and finished his drink. "We should go to bed early," he suggested, pushing his chair back and standing up. "The night has been... rather more eventful than originally expected." Kristina nodded and similarly knocked back the last of her wine, handing the empty glass back to her husband.
He went ahead and put both cups into the dishwasher. "I can hear you worrying from here," he said in a teasing tone.
"I can't help it," Kristina replied, getting to her feet as well. She pushed in both her chair and Ludvig's and waited for him to be done with the appliance.
He walked back to where she was standing and ran a hand over her back— an attempt to help her relax. "He'll be fine," he said, dropping a kiss on her cheek. "He's a good kid, and he'll be a good king. If anything, the way he handled you today should be proof of that."
He was right. What she saw in Wilhelm that night was what she wanted, right? For him to step up, learn to assert his authority instead of dodging responsibility every chance he got. Even if she'd only managed it by giving him an enemy to stand against, she should feel proud of him, in some oblique way. Instead, she felt empty, like she'd lost a part of her. Again.
She closed her eyes for a moment, then looked at Ludvig, who waited patiently by her side. "Let's go to bed," she said, and let her husband lead her, an arm around her shoulders, out of the kitchen and toward their bedroom, so they could rest for the day.
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Author's notes!—
For the record, Wilhelm wasn't threatening to abdicate; Kristina just interpreted his words that way. Sorry, y'all, I'm just not on #TeamAbdication lol.
Now, about Kristina... look, listen, I don't like the woman. I don't like her, I hate the way she treats Wilhelm, I hate what she did to him, and overall I think she's a pretty shitty mother. But I also don't think she's... the absolute worst? Like, I don't think she's a monster or anything. In fact, I think she does love Wilhelm in her own way (and by that I mean in that detached, emotionally constipated, raised-by-wolves-so-they-don't-understand-human-feelings way that royal families usually interpret familial love), and I believe everything she does is because she wants what's best for him, she's just... completely wrong about what that is. Because her life and happiness and purpose are so intrinsically intertwined with the monarchy that she can't conceive the idea of it not being the same for Wille. So that's kind of what I was trying to explore here. Not trying to make her likable, or her actions excusable in any way, but just... understandable? I hope that came across. There will be more of her later on, but this should be her only PoV section.
As for Ludvig... he's kind of just there? I wanted him to have a little more input than he did on the show, so I tried to give him something to do. I guess I just want Wille to have at least one adult somewhat in his corner, even if he doesn't realize it.
Hope you enjoyed His Royal Highness Crown Prince Wilhelm of Sweden because... hot damn. *fans self*
No research notes for this chapter, except in the process of writing it, I learned that Sweden is the European country with the second-highest rate of dishwasher usage. (The first one is Germany, which I kinda figured.) Dishwashers are kind of not a thing where I'm from, so that was a fun rabbit hole to go down, haha.
Next up: We go back to Hillerska, Wille goes to Felice and the girls for help, and a plan is concocted. (I'm already starting to realize that this might end up a bit longer than I initially intended. Ha! But of course.)