[closed] stay green a little while

[ordinar]

Who: Wilhelm & miscellaneous
When: throughout July and August
Where: Horizon, Thorne
What: Catchall for sad boy summer
Warnings: will be updated as needed


Closed starters to follow. Maybe some open ones if I'm feeling saucy. :)

Comments

[londonbound]

Rhy looks a bit like he's been struck.

It takes him a minute to parse what Wilhelm says next -- about his brother, the way he uses past tense, the realization that Wilhelm wasn't raised to be crown prince at all, and then a moment later the explanation that it doesn't even matter, or so he seems to say.

The words stick in Rhy's throat. How even a figurehead can inspire. How people need hope. How that's the whole point of a prince. Already, he knows that anything he says will be struck down -- and, worse, that here it's all merely words. Devoid of context. The same way prince means only his past here, and nothing more.

He withdraws. Leaves the conversation where it lies, and grabs his cup again to drink until it's gone.

"I'm sorry," he says suddenly, pained.

"About your brother."

[ordinar]

The thing is, neither of them are wrong. It's just that what's true for one doesn't have to be true for the other.

In the silence that follows, Wilhelm fights the feeling that he's disappointed Rhy. He'd already decided that he wasn't going to let anyone dictate his life for him, and he wasn't going to feel bad for prioritizing himself. That Wilhelm was gone, burned to the ground. Someone else had risen from the ashes. With a tight jaw he waits for whatever argument Rhy is preparing.

It never comes. Just condolences for Erik, which pulls the tension out of him. Suddenly, he wonders if Rhy is disappointed in himself.

"Thanks."

He never did figure out what you're supposed to say to that.

"Sorry about your brother too," Wilhelm jokes clumsily after a pause. He lifts his cup in a toast. "To brothers, right?"

An olive branch of sorts. A truce, burying the subject there.