Edward smiled widely when he heard the question. Sebastian was right, they had messily snogged in the grass and were going to marry, yet neither of them had asked the other out.
“I’ll go out with you,” he said. “I’ll let you be my boyfriend.”
Sebastian responded with a quick kiss on the lips.
“Thank you for letting me be your boyfriend.”
Edward linked hands with his new boyfriend and looked up at the sky. Everything was perfect today. The sun was shining, there wasn’t a cloud to be seen and he had gained a boyfriend who he would later marry.
Then he remembered that this was the last time they would be in a free setting like this. Their meetings would be moving to the palace.
“What’s the palace like?” he asked.
“It’s very big and easy to get lost in. It’s also hard to do anything without someone interrupting. There’s more staff there than he
The building was very grand on every scale and living in a mansion hadn’t prepared him for it. Unlike the castle, the palace was crawling with security. Standing outside the entrance were two guards with visible guns. Edward found himself wondering how Sebastian had managed to sneak out unnoticed.“Someone is coming towards us,” his father whispered to him.Edward stood up straight and self consciously adjusted his suit. The invitation had stated formal dress so he was wearing his best suit that had been a present for his 18th birthday. He felt like he was going to be sick if the person approaching them turned out to be Camilla.The person became more visible and he saw it wasn’t Camilla. It was a much older grey haired woman wearing a brown suit and glasses on a chain.“Good afternoon, Lord Grey and Edward Grey. The prince is waiting for you in the second sitting room,” she said. “My name is Bernadette Berkley and I am the lead royal advisor in this operation. It is nice to meet you t
Edward took the innuendo in his stride. He couldn’t let Sebastian always have the upper hand when it came to teasing.“Please make it interesting,” he said.“I’ll make sure to,” his boyfriend replied with an even saucier wink.He opened the door and they walked down a narrow corridor to another door which had Sebastian’s full name and title written on it and the royal family crest.The first part of Sebastian’s bedroom was like an entranceway. It was just an area with a painting of flowers and a table with a vase on. Sebastian walked straight through into the main area.Edward was impressed with the scale of the bedroom. There was a seating area with sofas and a large television screen. There was a desk and high class computer by the window and the bed was at the other end of the room.The bed did look very comfortable but he didn’t pay much attention to it. He walked over to the computer
Sebastian made his way back to his study after Edward left. He was annoyed that they hadn’t been able to have much privacy.He was also annoyed that Bernadette had been watching them over the palace CCTV and had been monitoring where they went and how long they spent in rooms.The control wasn’t going to last forever. When they were married and had their own house, things would be very different. He just had to keep that in mind to get through this difficult period. They would be able to do what they wanted at any time. At least he had permission to visit Edward now. He would need to make arrangements with him in case Edward had a match to play.He had been embarrassed when Edward had found he liked watching videos of him online. He enjoyed watching Edward in action. It had probably seemed like he was watching the videos with a dirtier purpose in mind, but he really wasn’t.He sat down at his desk and looked over his schedule for the next 7 days. He had another speech to give, a new bu
Edward opened the door and let Sebastian into his bedroom. He had tidied up in the morning so Sebastian wouldn’t see any of the dirty clothes that were normally thrown on the desk chair or his underwear on the floor.Sebastian looked carefully over his trophies first. Edward was proud of his collection so he was happy to see his boyfriend admiring them.“I definitely picked the right person,” he commented. “I can’t believe you have this many sports trophies.”Edward pointed to his most recent trophy.“This is the one I won on the day I first met you.”“Let’s try to forget how badly that went,” Sebastian replied and turned around. “I like the bean bag corner. It looks cosy.”The bean bag corner had been something from his childhood and he had kept it despite the updates made to his room. He felt nostalgic when he sat there and had done a lot of his exam revision the
Edward looked fondly at his boyfriend and noticed his mother was staring at him with a curious look on her face. He took action to distract her. “Can we play it again so it’s a best of three?” he asked. As he predicted, his request drew his mother’s attention to his father. Lord Grey was the one who made the game playing decisions. “We can play again, then no more Cluedo- I know what you’re like when you lose, Edward,” he said. The game started again and Edward knew he had lost twenty minutes later when Sebastian announced he was ready to guess the cards. As he had expected, Sebastian was right and he was the winner again. “How do you get good so quickly?” he asked in admiration. He had seen it happen once before. When they had played Monopoly, Sebastian had started the game as a standard player and had been an expert by the end. With Cluedo which was a shorter game to play, he had lost the first game and sharpened up dramatically to s
Edward walked into the room that was going to be used for his training with a heavy heart. Sebastian was sitting at the table and waved when he saw him. At least his boyfriend would be there to watch him embarrass himself. Edward couldn’t see that he was going to pass his royal training with flying colours.“Please sit down,” Sebastian said.Edward took a seat next to his boyfriend. Bernadette, who had shown him to the meeting room, took a seat at the head of the table.“We are going to cover posture first,” she announced. “It really makes a difference.”Edward hastily sat up in the chair and lifted his head higher. Sebastian snickered quietly and Edward resisted the urge to elbow him in the side.“That’s the correct position to be in. Good posture needs to come to you naturally, you can’t just suddenly remember to sit straighter,” Bernadette told him with a glare. “Look at Pri
“Are you allowed to go anywhere on your own?” Edward asked a moment later.From what he knew Sebastian always had someone protecting him, even if it was from a distance for security reasons.“Not normally, I was promised I could have a week to go somewhere on my own with precautions of course, if I got the exam grades the royal advisors wanted,” Sebastian explained.Edward squinted at him. Exam results were announced in late August in Albion so Sebastian couldn’t already know that he could go on a holiday.“Did you get those results?” he asked. “I won’t get my results for another month.”Sebastian winked at him and Edward had a feeling Sebastian was going to one up him.“I took the same exams as you, just in a different setting. As I am a royal, the results were sent through as soon as my papers were marked, which was yesterday. I did get the results, by the skin of my teeth.”Edward had a strong desire to ask if Sebastian could find out his exam results ahead of the August announcemen
Edward bit his lip. He struggled with dance lessons. They had been compulsory at his school for the first three years and he had muddled his way through them with a passing grade. He had never thought about dance lessons since his last one several years ago.“You look nervous,” Sebastian observed with a smirk.Bernadette looked at him analytically and Edward shifted under her gaze.“You’re right. Edward, does the idea of dancing make you nervous?” she asked.“It’s not my strong subject,” he admitted. “I’m more of an sports player.”The royal advisor looked sympathetic for once.“I understand. Unfortunately it’s a requirement. All royals have to know how to dance formally because it is important socially. You can refuse to dance with other people, but you will need to dance with Prince Sebastian at least once every time there is a social function with dancing.&rdquo
Edward reached out and moved a stray hair on Sebastian's head back into place and looked around them in contentment.It was now June and the sun was shining in the sky. It felt everything had aligned for the perfect wedding. The gardens looked beautiful in the sunlight and it brought back his happy memories of frolicking around in the gardens with Sebastian during their courting days.“Let’s get married,” he said.They walked down the aisle slowly. The aisle was one of the stone pathways in the garden that had been lined with arches of flowers. Their guests were sitting on chairs on either side of the archways and there were not many of them.On Edward’s side there were his parents and his bodyguards. Sebastian’s side consisted of royal staff and the prime minister as he didn’t have any relations that would be invited to the wedding.They reached the archbishop as the music stopped. Unlike the heavy and tense mood in the cathedral, the mood was light in the gardens and Edward didn’t fe
Edward tried to hide his shock. He had never expected this to be Sebastian’s surprise for him.It added up with the clues he had been given. Abolishing the marriage match tradition was a major change as the tradition was so synonymous with Albion. It was no wonder Sebastian had needed to negotiate with the prime minister.“It’s a tradition that has become less necessary over the years,” Sebastian said. “After meeting my fiancé, I came to realise that the marriage tradition only benefits the royal family and it’s wholly unfair for the matched person to never have a say in the marriage.”Edward kept his face in check as there were cameras filming him at the moment. He wanted to smile widely, but he restrained himself. He could express his gratitude later on in private.“I understand that it is a tradition that has been going on for a long time and the country is proud of its traditions, but I think this
Their second holiday together considerably had less problems than the first one. Edward didn’t wear out Sebastian by dragging him out on exhausting hikes, he didn’t have enough stamina for a hike himself.Instead of long hikes, they went on short walks and watched the sunset every afternoon. It was a very serene holiday.They also didn’t get married in secret again.The days slowly drifted by and then it was their last night. Edward took the bowl of popcorn out of the microwave and carried it to the living room where Sebastian was waiting on the sofa.“What are we watching tonight?” Edward asked and sat down with the bowl of popcorn.Sebastian took a piece before answering.“I found this badly reviewed film about a prince marrying a normal citizen. It’s considered to be bad in a legendary way. I thought it would be fun for us to watch as we know how royal things work.”“It will als
The next week for Edward was mostly about his physiotherapy sessions in the morning and resting for the rest of the day.His bullet wound was healing up well and the royal doctor had told him that the scar would heal well.He enjoyed his peaceful time, but he was also aware that it was like living in a bubble. He had no idea what was going on outside of the palace.For all he knew the media was trashing the royal family. The arrests of the two princes would not have been good PR for the royal family. He wanted to know what was happening outside of the palace gates. Despite his desire to know, he was deliberately avoiding looking up anything on the internet in case his name was involved.Bernadette walked past the sitting room and he sprang up. She always had answers to all PR related questions.“You want to know about how the royal family is doing in the news?” she asked after he told her his troubles. “But you’re worried about seeing articles about yourself so you’re avoiding taking a
Edward stared at Sebastian in surprise. He hadn’t been expecting this at all.“Why are you giving me this choice?” he questioned.“I drew you into a dangerous and unfair world when I went to the government office to get my match last year,” Sebastian told him. “You’ve been threatened and have received serious injuries because of your association with me. I can’t sit here and let it happen again. You didn’t have a choice last year, but I will give you one now.”The silence between them was long.Edward didn’t know how to answer the question. When he had first been forced into the complicated world of the royal family, he would have loved to have a chance to step away from it. Now that he was much more deeply involved, he wasn’t as willing to leave.He appreciated that Sebastian wanted to give him the choice now. If the situation was reversed, he would have done the same for Sebastian.If he stepped away from royal matters now, he would be leaving Sebastian to steer through any future pr
Edward cleared his throat and managed to speak.“...Don’t cry…”He tried to move his hand and found that there was an IV in his arm that was preventing him from moving his hand without feeling pain.“I’ll stop in a moment,” Sebastian promised him. “I need to tell the doctors that you’ve woken up.”Sebastian pressed the button above his bed and Edward assessed the situation from what he could see. He was hooked up to a heart monitor, there was an IV in his arm and another tube that he was unsure about. He must be in intensive care. That made sense, he had been shot after all.A team of doctors quickly arrived and took control of the situation. Edward lost sight of Sebastian and was poked and prodded by the doctors and was asked a lot of questions that he did his best to answer with his croaky voice.Eventually the examination came to an end and Sebastian was able to sit at his
Sebastian watched in horror as the bullet hit Edward’s chest and his prone body sank against him. Sebastian caught him immediately and laid him on the ground with care. He didn’t care who was watching anymore.He heard lots of shouts and screams that sounded like they were coming from far away. Edward’s eyes were closed and his breathing was laboured. Sebastian feared the worst.Their happiness couldn’t end on their wedding day.Someone in a paramedic uniform moved him gently to the side and a group of paramedics formed a circle around Edward. Sebastian could only stand and watch as Edward was moved to a stretcher and was rushed back up the aisle.This wasn’t how their wedding day was supposed to go.“I’ll take you to the hospital,” a voice at his side said.Sebastian turned to see Bernadette next to him. She always knew what to do so he let her lead him out of the cathedral. There were still crowds of people outside who were now panicking, likely due to the sound of the shot and the s
Edward smiled at his future husband and gave him a light kiss. Sebastian responded quickly.“Did you want to stay for a little longer?” Sebastian asked.“I do want to look like I have had some sleep,” Edward replied. “There’s only so much that makeup can cover up.”He got off the bed and shared a brief kiss with Sebastian. It was tempting to stay, but he knew they could be more open about their relationship after the wedding.He walked back through the secret passageway. Now that he had gone through it so many times, he didn’t pay much attention to what direction he was following. He had always had a rough idea of where he was. Edward came to a stop when he picked up the sounds of someone talking. It was an odd time for people to still be up talking.He put his ear to the wall in an effort to pick something up. It worked to some degree, he was able to hear some words.“....Cathedral… sniper… vows… fire escape… assassination…”Edward frowned. The voice sounded like Vincent. It made sen
Sebastian realised that it would be a good time to let go of Edward. There were plenty of people around and if they remained hugging, it would look suspicious.“I now feel that my present to you isn’t going to live up to the same standard,” he said and let go of him.He took a look at the photo frame again and knew that he could find a good place for it. Christmas was often considered a time for families to gather and knowing that this was his first Christmas without his mother had felt sad.It appeared that Edward had been able to perceive that and had decided to give him a family photo of his new family. It was a perfect present.He put the photo frame down carefully and passed over his present to Edward. It was the camera lens Edward had asked for.“It is still a good present,” Edward told him. “It was what I wanted.”The rest of Christmas day went without any issues. Vincent and Conrad didn&rsquo