Regards, Haplessly Romantic Heretic Prince Henry

Henry always thought marriage would be another duty forced upon him that he could not escape from. Many terrible imaginings about his future marriage occurred before he met Alex and learned to believe he could write his own history. His future seemed headed toward him living in an entirely different, nightmarish alternate universe Henry is grateful not to be in. After meeting Alex, his future irrevocably changed. Then, after their proposals had cemented that the future he had never allowed himself to think about would become a reality, Henry found his mind barren of dreams for their ceremony. He just didn’t have much to add to the specifics of their wedding day when they started planning it. 

Henry’s wants were simple, translating into his desires for their wedding day. He wanted the ceremony to be private, a secret from those not attending. He wanted the same people who knew of their engagement and the person marrying them to be the only ones in attendance. Most of all, he wanted to be the one to walk up the aisle toward Alex, toward his future. It would never have been allowed for a Prince of England. Even though Henry would always hold the title of Prince of England, he was no longer a royal trapped in the traditions of the Church and the Crown’s regulations. The Church of England wouldn’t have allowed him to marry Alex. Still, even if they had decided to make that concession, the church would insist upon practicing ceremonial traditions, and Henry would have been positioned in the church as they saw fit. There would be nothing that Henry would have a say in about the ceremony and how he spent the days leading up to it. The wedding would become a spectacle reflecting very little of his and Alex’s wants.

Henry knew much more about what he didn’t want his wedding day to be like than how he did. Alex, as often was the case, was the total opposite of him. Henry gave his opinions on things once Alex brought them up, but it was almost always him who had a new idea or suggestion. Alex had become worried that he was taking over and making it too much about what he wanted. He spiraled a bit and said that he was unsure if Henry had doubts about marrying him because it was weird that Henry, who he said had an opinion on everything, was stepping back, letting him make the decisions. Alex wondered if Henry not having many opinions about their ceremony meant that he wasn’t excited about getting married to him. Henry fucked those thoughts right out of Alex’s head and assured him, with whispers against the sweaty nape of his neck, that he was very excited to marry him. He trusted Alex would ensure their day was perfect for them, but he allowed himself to dream about it and eventually asked for more.

*

Henry knows they could have chosen a different day to marry. He and Alex are aware that it might have made things easier, but they couldn’t help but fall for the romance of the idea and choose New Year’s Day.

The choice of the day also came with some advantages. They plan every detail meticulously and covertly, disguised as part of the New Year’s Eve party that Nora and June have thrown in New York for the last two years. Their suits are bought months in advance, looking nothing alike, and easily passed off as their attire for the party. The flowers and food are looped into the order for that event, too. They browsed for wedding bands online after Pez offered to order them in his name. They chose bands that were not initially part of a wedding set, but once they sat snugly together in the box Pez had acquired for them, they appeared like they belonged together.

His mum, the Queen of England, and his brother, the heir apparent, caused a little turmoil for the Crown and their security teams. Neither liked the idea of the royal family congregating in one place for an event that was not private. Still, Catherine insisted on being a ruling Monarch, not sitting back and allowing the Crown to decide what was important to her family. Eventually, she got them to agree to visit Henry and Alex’s home, not the party, which benefited their plan.

There were plans for everyone, timetables that Nora scrutinized to give them all the best possible options of leaving the New Year’s Eve party early and not being found out or followed by the press. Everything leading up to the week of the wedding was going well. Henry enjoyed Christmas more than he had in years, and he was so incredibly excited about his upcoming marriage that the sadness that usually walked beside him during the holidays hadn’t shadowed him at all.

Oscar had invited them to spend Christmas with him in California, which Alex had initially hesitated to agree to. He had told Henry that he understood that the holidays were a hard time for him, and he knew that sometimes, when Oscar called Henry ‘son,’ it unintentionally caused him pain. He was afraid that so much ‘dad time’ would make what for Henry was already a hard time of year for him even worse. But Henry wanted to go. He had grown close to Oscar over the years. Though it was true that sometimes Oscar being around reminded Henry that his father wasn’t, the sharp pain and longing for his father during those times felt not so debilitating, soothed by Oscar’s love and acceptance.

All the plans were in place for the wedding, and June and Pez decided that they could handle the last of the details and encouraged them to go to California to spend their last days before the wedding, letting Oscar dote on them, as they knew he would. So Alex and Henry went and had a great Christmas with Oscar. After nearly a week of being immersed in the holiday merriment, they boarded a private jet in the early morning of New Year’s Eve to take them back to New York. Oscar was flying to New York separately that evening and would see them at their brownstone for the ceremony.

Fifteen minutes into the flight, right after they both fell asleep, Cash informed them that air traffic control advised their pilot to divert land in Las Vegas. The winter storm that had unexpectedly ravaged the South over the last week had changed course and was heading directly in their flight path. Due to the holiday, the busy skies, and security protocols, they had to land and wait.

*

“It’s only going to be for a few hours,” Cash assured them. “As soon as the storm passes, we’ll get back in the air. We shouldn’t even have to deplane.”

Henry felt content, but Alex hadn’t been. He started to list all the things they still had to do before that evening, began making a series of phone calls and texts to their friends and family, and by the time they landed, had worked himself into a panic. Henry did what he could to distract and eventually calm Alex. He dragged him into the small cabin bathroom as soon as they landed, and they exchanged blowjobs that left the both of them tired enough to fall back asleep as soon as they went back to their seats.

The next time they woke up, Amy gave them the bad news. “We’ve got to deplane,” she said, resigned. “The storm’s gotten worse in the East, and air traffic control wants us parked and disembarked to make room for more diverting aircraft.”

“But…” Alex’s lip wobbled, breaking Henry’s heart to see it. He had lowered his voice to a whisper, even though it was only their trusted security in the cabin. “We’re supposed to get married in…” he paused and looked at his watch, “in sixteen hours.”

“And we still will,” Henry promised. It was sixteen hours from now, and though they were likely not to finish everything they had planned before the ceremony, there was still time for most of it.

Alex reached over and gripped his hand tightly. “We will?” he asked, staring at Henry with wide, hopeful eyes.

“Of course, love,” Henry promised.

Except for their closest family, friends, and security, which amounts to fourteen people, they’ve managed to keep it a secret from the public for a whole year. It would be twelve people in the know, but Philip figured it out, and that meant Martha had to be looped in, too. Somehow they’ve all done it, they managed to go a full year without the press finding out. Most of them have dodged questions about it, and they have never deviated from their prepared responses. Alex and Henry have worn their engagement rings since they simultaneously proposed last New Year’s Eve. Henry wore his engagement ring on a necklace that also had the key to the brownstone on it. Alex wore his ring on his necklace beside the key to his childhood home. 

Back in May, Alex slipped up and forgot to take off the engagement ring when he left the privacy of their home. He had been in a rush to get out of the car waiting to take him to the airport because his dad had been in a minor car accident. Even though he had spoken to Oscar himself, and his dad had assured him he was fine, Alex was shaken and not thinking clearly. Thankfully the back of their brownstone had a private car entrance and Cash, sitting in the back of the car beside him, casually covered Alex’s hand with his own and tapped the ring to remind him of it. 

Henry’s slip-up happened back in March when Alex and Henry were staying the week at Kensington to attend Martha’s birthday party. This led to Philip figuring out the status of his and Alex’s relationship. They were in the music room, and Henry was playing a song that one of his favorite composers had written for his girlfriend. He told Alex the story of Rumahn spending months perfecting it, only for Helena to refuse his offer of marriage after he played it for her. Henry confessed to Alex that he had been working on a piece for him and was nervous to show him, but joked that Alex hadn’t refused him, so it was probably safe to let him hear it. At that moment, Philip had cleared his throat, alerting them both to his presence, and asked when they planned to inform the Crown.

Henry was no longer a working member of the royal family, and informing the Crown, if he chose to, would be a courtesy, not a requirement. Once Philip was reminded of this, surprisingly, he had been on board with keeping the secret on the condition that he was allowed to include Martha. He and Martha’s daughter, Sara, was born last year, and becoming a father softened Philip and helped bring the royal siblings closer. They were trying to have an open, honest relationship, and this meant that Henry had to trust his brother not to tell anyone else.

Initially, they hadn’t intended to keep their engagement a secret for as long as they had. They wanted to wait a little while, to have a wedding date and a general plan in place before the Crown, the Whitehouse staff, other than Zahra, and the rest of the world found out about it. But every time they planned to announce it, something got in the way that would make such an announcement seem like it was in poor taste.

It was Alex’s mom’s last term as President, and she was doing everything she could to tie up loose ends and leave the country better off than she had found it. After nearly two years of negotiations and strategic planning, Ellen secured a landmark trade agreement with Canada that would provide hundreds of thousands of American jobs. It happened to come through the same week Alex and Henry planned to announce their engagement. As soon as Alex heard the news, he knew there was no way they could go public and risk the President’s amazing win being buried under the insane amount of press he and Henry’s engagement would garner. 

Alex honestly didn’t care that their next planned announcement date happened to be three days before the first anniversary of the previous monarch’s death. Henry’s mom had been concerned with backlash from the British public when they told her the planned date. Even though Alex and Henry both secretly liked the idea even more when they realized this, they agreed that it was best for Catherine if they chose another date.

The next date, the next, and then the next were thwarted for various reasons. By September, they had gotten used to shoving their rings onto their necklaces, avoiding questions about the future of their relationship, and never referring to the other as their fiance in a public setting. Alex and Henry concluded that they were fine with not ever making their engagement public.

They were also fine with never making their wedding date public, too.