William-28 / Richard-26 / Hans-24

"I used to hate you, mainly because mother died giving birth to you… but now that I think about it, that was really unfair from me since you actually couldn't do anything about that" Explained Richard, Hans smiled at him; it was nice to talk like this since he had never sorted thing out with Richard, so when William forced him to join them by the fireplace for some drinks, Hans took his opportunity

"I remember I used to hate Hans for the exact same reason, your mother was the only adult that actually accepted me as the son of the king, regardless of me being a bastard" added William with a laugh, Richard chuckled

"I guess we where both in the wrong, since you were the last one to be born and mother gave her life to bring you to this world, it was pretty obvious… but I guess I just took too much time to notice that you and Dimitri were actually the last thing I had to remember her"

"We all took too much time to realise what it meant to be brothers" muttered the youngest

The three brothers remained in silence for a moment

Richard face lit up "If… If anyone had told me five years ago that Gérard, of all people, would be the one to bring us all together I would've laughed" the other two nodded in agreement

"Gérard was a surprise, I would've never guessed that he would end up being a great king after all… I still remember the time when he literally stopped acknowledging my existence" commented Richard

The other two brothers looked at him "I remember that too!-" said Hans with a smile "-It was Lance, Damian and Gérard, I hated it" William nodded chuckling

"I know, I know, those were some weird years, with the whole 'Lance leaving home' drama"

"Wow you're right! I never thought about it like that, I only thought that they were just being jerks" frowned Hans

"They were being jerks, that Lance was leaving doesn't justify their treatment" laughed Richard.

After a couple of minutes the laughs died out, the three brothers had their gaze lost on the fireplace

"For what is worth…-" began Richard, thinking about the right words to use "-I'm glad that I was brother of all twelve of you, even if there was a time when I hated all of you… I now regret that we lost so much time fighting"

Hans smiled at Richard and patted his shoulder, offering to refill his glass with wine "Well, let's leave that on the past… we're not fighting now. And Westertyde has never seen better days"