𝒶𝓃𝑔𝑒 / diable

“ah, you used my own assistant against me,” luca jokes, the smile stuck on his face. he isn’t sure he’ll ever manage to get rid of it. god, it was really good to see henri in person. facetime wasn’t quite enough, especially not with the timezone difference. luca wasn’t that great at staying up late… or waking up early. “me, too. i was going to try to talk you into coming back, soon. i just wanted to, um, give you some time. you needed a break.” he smiles at henri, his face softer than it usually is. 

he’d had a bad morning. anna and liza had caused enough chaos to last a normal week - glitter bombing their room and costing luca a ridiculous tip to the cleaning staff he’d hired. and then it had taken an hour to wash the green glitter out of anna’s hair, while liza mysteriously escaped scot-free. he’d sent them off with wendy the second she arrived, pushing them out the door and hoping for a quiet, peaceful, evening in. the knock at the door interrupts that, only a half glass of wine in. he’s annoyed for the entire walk, sure it’s going to be angela with some sort of work he needs to get done, but he swings it open, his jaw drops, “henri?” he says, as if it’s not obvious who’s right in front of him. he has to confirm, before he steps aside and lets him in, still a bit stunned, “when did - when did you get here? you should have called - i would have planned something more than just… this.” he gestures towards the mess that is his living room and the bottle of wine left open on the table next to a familiar copy of wuthering heights. he brain finally catches up to the moment, “it’s - i just - i missed you, darling. i thought you’d take another month before you came all the way back out here.” 

“ finally. something i can eat. ” he wasn’t completely sure what henri had gone to deal with in france but arnauld had been glad to avoid another argument with him. the disappearance had been easier to deal with than the alternative. “ she didn’t seem too upset when you left ? i have three missed calls from her, i’m hoping my favourite excuse will be enough to have her forgive me. ” je suis désolée, maman. je t’aime. might not cut it this time. “ how was home ? ” 

“ it’s a shame, i’ve been getting concerned over margaux future. have you, by any chance thought about having children sooner rather than later ? ” the last thing she wanted was for her daughter to carry the burden of the crown. giselle was partly hoping roman would settle down with some lovely belorussian lady who’d birth him another heir and margaux could remain home for good. “ you have to admit, it would be interesting to see his reaction. ” perhaps not the reaction per say, but to experience the lovely feeling of getting under arnauld’s skin. over something so unimportant ! … in the grand scheme of things at least. one failed courtship, whatever. worst case in scenario arnauld could pick some pretty marchioness to fill the hole fanni had left. it wouldn’t be the same but it would be close enough. “ OH NO, i don’t mean for arnauld’s sake. for my sake. ” her palm slammed against her chest. “ it was all on me to keep him from getting more lost from himself than he already was. you know freja — absolutely useless when it comes to sensitive things. i BET she’s pleased that fanni’s out of the picture. ”

“ WELL, it’s not too good. BETTER than i originally expected but much worse than how he’d be if he hadn’t got dumped. ” as much as she felt empathy for their brother, she was a bit overtaken by schadenfreude. at least giselle had managed to get married. arnauld hadn’t even made it to the church. “ you picked a TERRIBLE time to leave. he was a bit of a wreck the day it came to an end. the week was bad too. this month has been alright already. but i still wouldn’t bring her up around him. a warning for you. ”

“that’s -” he pauses, watching as henri’s posture changes. he knows, somewhere along the way, that the answer isn’t what henri wanted to hear. he’s not quite sure where it went wrong, it was the best luca could do, under the circumstances. “you - i’m sorry, that i can’t do more. i’m - i’m backed into a corner. i know it’s - i know how it feels, to have things like this out of your hands,” he looks down at his own hands for a few seconds, “it will be okay - i’ll do everything i can, i promise.” he nods along, knowing that meeting will probably go poorly - luca’s not a man built for negotiating, and he wouldn’t dare ask lara’s help. if anything, he’d hope that he could keep the entire thing under wraps, and not alert his family of it. that was wishful thinking, though - he thought it better to ask forgiveness than permission, in this instance. at the question he stops, staring at henri for longer than he needs to and letting the words actually process. “you didn’t - that won’t happen. you won’t -” he realizes suddenly that he can’t promise that. if they decide to do something about it, henri will be towards the top of the list. the idea makes him nauseous, so he tries to push it down as far as he can. “you don’t even need to ask,” luca says, trying to steady his voice. he’s nervous, now, about it. questions like that made things even more real, they didn’t allow luca to detach himself from it, like he preferred, “you’re always welcome in my home, but i - i would hope it doesn’t come to that.” he hoped he could take henri home to meet his family when they decided the timing was right, not when an international court did.

“You don’t think many people will bother me? Certainly not when…” When Henri and Giselle were in the building. Freja too… François and Lisette… She should have been at the bottom of the list, right? “I can’t really tell. He talked to me at the English party as well. Maybe he’s feeling skittish? I can’t really tell.” She frowned as she sat down. “It was just odd, the way he asked to have lunch with me. Then he proceeded to refer to the situation in Brussels and then asked about my family. I don’t–” She let out a huff and shook her head.  

She gave out a laugh and shook her head. “I’m sure it’ll be fine. Just goulash with a twist. If food tastes good, it is perfect.” Out of curiousity. she peered into the pot to see the bubbling stew. “I’m yet to deal with a backlash. People have left me in peace, save for one odd man.” She slowly, unsure if it was really appropriate to attack the stew immediately after being told to do so, picked up a bowl for herself and even more slowly approached the pot. “It’s really been quite calm. On Thursday I had to endure a long, well it wasn’t that long but it felt incredibly long, lunch with the king of Luxembourg. After that I started ordering in,” she admitted with a laugh.

She hadn’t spent enough time with Henri to know how to interpret his invitation. Part of her was tired hearing a French accent. Now that Arnauld had left for France, she had felt like there was room for her thoughts inside her head. But now, Henri’s invitation had taken up the free space in her mind. The only thing to do was to accept it. 

“Henri.” She pressed a kiss on his cheek before taking a cautious step inside the apartment. It was interesting to see the differences in the brothers’ lifestyles. “Goulash?” She let out a laugh. “Oh, I think you’d be devastated to know just how much more you should have put in paprika.” French cuisine was so stingy with spices, she couldn’t quite imagine Henri being generous with the most important part of the dish. “This is very thoughtful of you, thank you.”

luca stares at his hands for a long second - the worst part about this had to be the fact that he was relieved. god, it was horrible, but he couldn’t help but be grateful that it was happening to belgium, and not luxembourg. a year and a half ago, if france hadn’t run out of money, maybe he would’ve ended up sitting in his own home, listening to bombs go off in the street. it was the stuff of his nightmares, truly, he’d had the same one about his girls dying in a bomb blast ever since the first wave of the invasion. he snaps out of it when henri asks for a favor, and he can’t think of a response for a long moment, “it’s… i can’t do it publicly, not with everything like this. i can’t - i’d be torn to shreds for it.” it’s harsh, but he can’t sit here and lie to henri, “but i - i don’t want to end up surrounded. the bavarians getting closer only makes things worse… especially now that they’re annexing territories. who’s to say i wouldn’t be next, if wiebke got bored one afternoon?” it sunk in then, that he was going to actually do this. he already felt awful for it, “set up a meeting, preferably where we won’t be seen? the worst that can happen is we don’t come to an agreement.” 

“I..” Mimi opened her mouth to protest, but trailed off. He was right, of course. Monaco’s neutrality was in technicalities and fine lines. “…But that’s not why he didn’t invite me,” she said finally. He hadn’t invited her because he didn’t think she had anything to say. –And he was right. But she wished she’d been allowed to attend and say nothing, just listen and learn. 

“…I’ll stop,” she promised, after another beat. She didn’t want him to leave. Arnauld had holed himself up in his office, Giselle was busy soothing Margaux, and Lisette was busy with fashion week preparations. The rest of the programme were studiously avoiding them. It seemed they, at least, saw her as one of the French., even if Arnauld didn’t. –Nor Henri, apparently! “Oh? I knocked at you door a couple of times - “ five times “- I thought you must have gone out…Speaking of, we should probably take my car, shouldn’t we?” She tapped out a message to her driver as she continued, “maybe have them meet us by the delivery entrance. There are always paps hanging around the lobby and I’m not sure either of us are looking our best…” She looked to her cousin, bloodshot eye meeting his, and tried for a smile. Gesturing him to follow her out, she assured him, “nothing the spa can’t fix.” 

“it doesn’t matter why he didn’t invite you.” the words were a low hiss, his anger and frustration getting the better of him and coming out against the wrong person. “it wasn’t a party. it was the decision to commit yet another atrocity. stop behaving like a petulant child and maybe you’ll receive an invitation to participate in the next one.” a pause. “you weren’t the only person who didn’t know, anyway. do you think i had a vote? you overestimate the power i hold in france.” and the loyalty he felt to arnauld, which had been wearing ever-thinner.

“good.” he didn’t have the energy to argue, really. he’d come hoping for quite the opposite. the next comment caught him a little off guard. “oh. i must not have heard. i haven’t been feeling very sociable.” he thought he might lash out at anyone who wasn’t luca, and given the course of their conversation so far, he’d been right. “we should. i don’t want to be photographed; i look like shit.” he turned to follow her toward the exit, trailing just a step behind her.

it had taken some time before he could face her, but he felt that it had to be done; she was going to be a part of the family. after this, though, he wouldn’t blame her for walking out. he sort of wanted to walk out, himself. but then, that would reflect badly on arnauld, and some part of henri still felt the desperate need for damage control. so he sent a text inviting her to his apartment and threw himself into cooking them a meal – beef stew, based on a goulash recipe he’d tracked down. it was, in essence, a peace offering.

“Well, nobody talked to me about Belgium or Alsace before it happened,” Mimi sniffed, “so why buck the trend, I suppose.” She wasn’t upset about the bombing, only that she’d been left out of the meetings about it. It wasn’t fair. How was she supposed to prove herself if they wouldn’t give her the chance? –How was she even supposed to learn what she needed to, if they wouldn’t teach her? It wasn’t as though she could ask her father.  “I found out in the middle of an interview, Henri. Thank God it wasn’t live.”

“Well, I had us booked in at the Korean bath spa,” Mimi gave her cousin a pointed look, “so maybe we should go to the Four Seasons, instead.” They were usually booked weeks in advance, but would make space for two royals. Even disgraced ones. “–Though we should probably go in the back, there are always paps posted up outside the hotel…Have the press managed to catch you, yet?”

henri’s eyes narrowed. “we didn’t even know about alsace before it happened,” he said. “and as for belgium, it was for the best. be grateful for your plausible deniability. arnauld may have just ruined the rest of us.” the words were short, far shorter than he usually was with mimi. but in this instance, her attitude was unwelcome at best. if they saw international consequences for this, henri’s head would be the second to roll. even giselle would be lucky to escape repercussions, should they come.

he tightened his jaw and looked away at the mention of anything korean, the headlines about their prince dancing immediately through his head. christ, it was like a bad joke. “the four seasons sounds... preferable.” he didn’t know enough about spas to know whether the four seasons was good or bad, but at least there’d be nothing there that would remind him of the previous days’ events. “no. i’ve been hiding in my –” luca’s “– apartment. and i’d like to keep it that way; there’s no statement i could make that would even begin to fix anything.” it was better to just keep his head down and hope for the best.

luca chooses to let the first comment go. he hated this entire situation - his last few days had been more than stressful. god, even wren had called - of all people. that’s how he knew things had truly gone to shit. “yes, i read the speech a few minutes ago,” luca states, running his fingers along his temples, trying to chase away the headache, “did - he’s really dead? i thought that was a rumor, that’s -” awful? terrible? horrifying?  luca had to choose his words carefully, in this situation, and said nothing more at all. he didn’t want to make things worse, for him or for henri. he pauses, “god, i don’t know?” he pauses, “uh- i’ll leave the posturing for the press to my sister this time, i think. look at where the last round of it got us,” the chinese arriving had been a stroke of luck, nothing more. he gestures at the screen, where the germans were back, shouting yet again. he takes his seat next to henri, stopping his incessant pacing for the first time in two hours. he looks down at him for a few seconds, and his voice is soft as he asks, “you’re alright? this is - it can’t be easy. just when we think we’ve figured out some kind of solution, this has to happen.”