Chapter Text
Wille pulls out his laptop as he sits on the abandoned top floor of the coffee shop. It’s been a month since he’s been able to join the weekly Lift Every Voice meeting and he’s excited to help. Slouching a bit in his seat he’s able to consider how far he’s come and that this was one of the first projects that made him think that he might be cut out to take on the role of King.
“Wow, not at all eager, are you?” Felice asks, smiling as she steps up the last stair, eyes landing on Wille.
“What? Can’t I be on time for our meeting?” Wille asks, standing to hug her as she sets her bag on the seat next to his.
“Can you be? Sure. Are you generally? No, but that’s probably to be expected from our King to be, a full-time student, my best friend’s boyfriend, and Principal Donor for Lift Every Voice” Shaking her head as she takes a seat, she continues, “Honestly, I’m not sure how you’re doing it.”
“One day at a time.”
“Wait, did I miss something?” Felice sips her coffee.
“What do you mean?”
“I said, boyfriend, and no correction was given.”
“You also said best friend, which was weird.”
Felice laughs as she pulls out her laptop, “When I’m talking to you, I call him my best friend and when I’m talking to him, I call you my best friend. It creates balance.”
“What do you say when you’re talking to Madison?”
“I call Madison my best friend, obviously. Now don’t try to distract me. Did I miss something, are you a boyfriend?”
Wille rolls his eyes, “No, you didn’t miss anything, I haven’t asked him yet. I was going to before Christmas, but it seemed crazy to do that and then disappear for a month to do state visits.”
Felice makes a face as he finishes, “Ew, are we back to “I hope you have a nice Christmas?”
“No, we are not back to that. I just, things have been going really well, and I don’t want to screw anything up and I know he doesn’t want to rush anything.”
“Right.”
“I am right.”
“Wille you’re so weird. You’ve been ready to be back with him for months.”
“Ok, but he wasn’t, and as much as you enjoy my impulsive thoughts, he doesn’t.”
Felice smiles, nodding, “This is true. Damn, these sessions with Boris are really working. I’m proud of you Wille.”
Wille feels his cheeks go pink as he basks in the compliment. He’s been meeting with Boris once a week for the last seven months and while there are still moments when things have felt overwhelming, he’s been so much more empowered to be gentle with himself. It also helped that his new medication has made him feel less like he’s avoiding a problem and more like he’s utilizing a tool to help him the same way someone might use a ladder to reach something high or goggles to swim underwater.
“A month really is too long to go without feeling superior to everyone else.” Madison takes a deep breath as she walks towards the table, “You know when I was here last week, I had to sit downstairs with all the commoners, and it just didn’t feel the same.”
“Madison, you are a commoner.” Felice deadpans.
“Yes, but actually having to feel like one, when I’ve felt better, was a shock.”
Smiling, Wille asks, “How was New York?”
“Far. I feel very American here and I feel very Swedish there, does that make sense?”
“No.” Wille and Felice answer at the same time.
Wille lets his eyes drift to the stairs thinking he’d heard someone climbing and Madison catches him as she takes her backpack off, “Where is the future King Consort?”. Wille’s eyes dart to Madison’s and she smiles teasingly at him while she starts to pull her notebook out.
Felice answers, taking pressure off Wille, “He’s finishing up a group study session for school and then he’s coming over. He’s been rippin' and runnin' all morning; he gave a music lesson before his study group” Her focus moving to Wille, “Did you guys get to meet up last night?”
Wille shakes his head, “My flight didn’t get in until late, and he had to get up early so we didn’t get a chance. We –“
“Sorry guys, our meeting ran over.”
Wille looks up smiling as Simon interrupts him, without thinking he moves to his feet walking towards him, feeling the weight of the month-long absence. When he’s within a few feet he sees another person step onto the floor and stalls. Simon looks at him confused, closing the gap between them, and giving Wille an awkward hug, “Elias and I are working on the grant together, when he heard we were all meeting up he wanted to come to say hello.”
Madison jumps up from her chair, runs over to Elias, and jumps into his arms. He laughs as he catches her, taking a few more steps into the room to move away from the stairs, “You have no idea how many times I’ve done that, and it hasn’t worked out.” She says as he sets her down.
“I can confirm, she’s done it to me multiple times and without fail we both end up on the ground.” Felice stands, hugging Elias. Simon sneaks a glance at Wille and sees his lips move, knowing he’s biting the inside of his cheek. He loops his pinky with Wille’s and smiles as Wille looks at him, both a bit shy even though they’ve spoken on the phone almost every day since he’s been gone.
Pulling Wille in, Simon whispers, “I missed you” and Wille releases a heavy breath as they stand together, their arms wrapped around each other. When Simon pulls away, a bit sooner than Wille would have liked, Wille’s eyes meet Elias’s for the first time and Elias extends his hand. Wille keeps one arm wrapped around Simon as he extends his hand toward Elias.
“It’s good to see you, how have you been?”
“Good, went home for the holiday, just got back into town a few days ago and our professor thinks that we should have a proposal outline ready to go the first day after the break.”
“Oh right, Professor Svensson?” Wille looks to Simon, and he nods to confirm.
“Well, I won’t keep you all, I just wanted to swing by,” Elias says as he smiles at everyone before turning towards the stairs.
“Oh wait, Elias! How many tickets did you need for the benefit?” Felice asks, walking back over to the table and lifting a pen and paper as she waits for him to respond.
“I don’t know how you all expect to make money when you’re giving seats away.”
“It was a part of the deal!”
“Fine fine, two? I guess?”
“Oooh, bringing someone special?” Madison asks, eyebrow raised.
“Very, my mom is easily the most special person I know.” Elias smiles before he waves goodbye, disappearing down the stairs.
“Ugh, how cute is he?” Madison asks, taking her seat again.
“So cute,” Wille says, rolling his eyes. Simon smiles up at him, pulling him over to the table and they both take a seat.
“Reminder that we adore Elias,” Felice says as she jots down another note.
“Mmhmm. What deal was he talking about?” Wille asks.
“I told you; he’s keeping an eye on our accounts and balancing our budget for the fundraiser.” Simon reminds Wille as he starts to pull his laptop and notebook out of his backpack.
“Oh, I thought that was just a one-time thing.”
“It was, but he can get school credit for doing an internship with us, so it seemed like a no-brainer to have him stay on.” Felice continues, “He doesn’t have a title or anything, and he only comes to the meetings once a month.”
Wille nods and Simon kicks his foot softly under the table.
“Great. Good, I’m glad that you all have someone keeping track of the money.” A few awkward seconds pass and Madison clicks into her presentation.
“Should we go ahead and get started?”
“Please,” Felice says with a tense smile.
“For the next meeting, we need to start to talk through scaling this. We’ve already sold 90% of our tickets and we still have a month to go. So, let’s consider options. Two nights next time? Online silent auction, Stream the event for a lower ticket price, raise overall ticket prices? I want to make sure that we’re doing as much as possible and that way we can continue to add more schools.” Felice lets her eyes slide between Madison, Simon, and Wille as she finishes, seeing a nod from each of them.
“Ok, have we finished business? Can we move on to other topics?” Madison asks, dancing in her seat.
Felice glances down at her phone, “I have five minutes for other topics before I have to leave to get to my hair appointment.”
“Ok, I just want to know what’s going on with Mattias.”
Simon muffles a laugh, smiling leaning back in his chair.
“What? No updates? You can’t be serious.” Madison asks Simon.
“It’s not that there’s no updates, there’s just nothing new that has happened.”
“Right,” Wille says with a nod.
Felice glares at him, “Careful” and Wille raises his hands in surrender while smiling at her, knowing that since he has yet to move things forward with Simon, he doesn’t have much room to talk.
“So, what’s the deal? We like him, or we don’t? I thought we liked him.” Madison zips her backpack, holding it to her stomach as she waits for a response.
“I do like him, but he’s really busy being a musical genius, and I’m really busy running the foundation and going to school and –“
“He’s oblivious and she won’t just tell him how she feels.” Simon finishes.
“Got it.” Madison nods, standing and sliding her backpack over her shoulder.
Felice shakes her head, annoyed as she packs up her things, “I cannot just walk up to him and say – Hey I think you’re really cute and talented, and interesting, and perhaps we could spend the rest of our lives together.”
“Whoa…” “Yea no…” “Oh, my god…” The group answers all at once as they look up at her, concerned.
“See.” Felice shrugs as she zips her bag.
“Ok, you shouldn’t say THAT. But maybe we could talk through some options.” Wille says.
“Oh, Wille, please help me out. What is the best thing to say when you want someone to know that you want the relationship to be more than it is?” Felice asks, almost too calmly.
“I’ll give it some thought and get back to you,” Wille says, lowering his eyes as he feels Simon glance at him. Felice looks satisfied as she smiles at him.
Madison giggles, “I’ll walk you out.”
“Simon, you want to have breakfast before practice tomorrow?” Felice asks, looking back at him as he nods. It’s a flurry of waves and smiles as Felice and Madison head out, leaving Simon and Wille upstairs.
“Hi,” Simon says to Wille, scooting his chair closer to him.
“Hi.”
Simon leans forward and Wille lifts his hands to cup Simon’s face as they both continue to lean in, finally getting the greeting they both wanted earlier as their lips come together. Wille can’t help but smile into the kiss causing Simon to giggle.
“I was hoping that you would come over last night,” Simon says as he leans back in his chair, their fingers still linked.
“You didn’t say anything when I told you I was coming in late.”
Shrugging, Simon looks at him, “I know, I didn’t want to put any pressure on you since you’d been traveling all day.”
“You can’t do that.” Wille says, shaking his head and leaning in again, “You promised that you’d tell me if you felt like I wasn’t doing something you needed.”
Simon moves his chair forward, their legs between each other, holding both of Wille’s hands, “I thought about it, I just know you’ve been so busy the last month. I thought you might want a night in your own bed.”
“Simon.”
“I know, it was silly. That’s why I’m telling you now, and I’m not upset, just kicking myself for not saying anything.”
Wille smiles as he leans forward again, feeling Simon almost move into his lap as they kiss again.
“Oh shit – I…”
Simon and Wille pull apart and both look over to find a nervous barista at the top of the stairs.
“I am so sorry, I – they wanted me to come get the cups out of your way, or see if you needed a refill. I…”
Wille smiles and leans back in his chair, “It’s no problem, thank you for coming up, we were just leaving so we’ll get out of your way.” Simon and Wille scoot their chairs back, smiling at each other as they pack up their things. The barista nervously moves towards the table, cleaning off the cups that were sitting before doing an odd bow and walking back down the stairs.
“I’m guessing…”
“Yes, the entire staff has signed NDAs,” Wille confirms.
“Good.” Simon smiles as he slides his backpack on and Wille looks at him, considering, hearing Simon interrupt his thoughts “What?”
“Nothing.” He responds, shaking his head as he lifts his bag too.
“What?” Simon asks again.
“I mean would it be so bad if they hadn’t signed NDAs?”
“I don’t know if I would say bad, but you know, it probably wouldn’t be good, right?”
“Right.” Wille nods, trying to be convincing.
“Ready to head out?” Simon slips his hand into Wille’s.
“Yea, I was supposed to meet with Minou 30 minutes ago.”
“Wille!”
“I know I know, but I’ve been on my best behavior the last month, it’s best if I don’t let her get used to that.” Simon shakes his head and they both walk towards the stairs, Wille pulls him in for one more kiss as they reach the top step, and they both let their hands fall away from each other before starting to descend.
“Three coffees to start.” Simon smiles as the server moves away from their table, flipping over the menu and considering what he’d like to eat.
“Wow, it’s packed in here!” Felice approaches the table removing her coat and putting it on the back of her chair before kissing Simon on the cheek and taking a seat.
“Hi hi. I’ve heard great things; I went ahead and ordered us coffee.”
“Bless you. I was up late last night practicing for the solo auditions, and then looking for a new apartment.”
“You’re moving?” Simon glances up from the menu, confused.
“Noise complaint,” Felice says, shrugging and Simon laughs. Felice picks up her menu, letting her eyes scroll as the server returns to the table flipping over three of the coffee cups on the table and pouring into Simon's cup, “No bacon?” Felice asks the server.
“Oh, we’re completely vegan.” She answers, filling Felice’s cup next.
Felice looks to Simon, confused but smiling, “Are we vegan now?”
“No, but he is,” Simon answers, his eyes lifting to the front of the restaurant and smiling while the server pours the last cup of coffee and Felice watches confused.
“Who is? Wait, is Wille –“
“Sorry, I’m late.”
Felice looks up as the server moves out of the way, “Mattias. I didn’t know you were joining us.”