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Alex would have argued no room could be as aggressively pink as the Queen’s Room in the White House. Check mate, he thought, standing in front of a bunch of photographers in a very pink room of Kensington Palace. He stood next to Henry in a dark blue suit, white shirt and light pink tie. Henry was wearing a black suit, white shirt and a light blue tie. They were matching without shoving the couple-y feelings down on others’ throats. Courtesy of June.
He stopped inspecting the very pink drapes of the room and looked back at Henry. The smile on his face was real, genuine. It was the smile Alex’s been seeing for the last couple years at their home – when they watch reruns of The Great British Bake Off and Chopped, or when Henry wakes up and sees Alex already up and watching him, when they dance in their kitchen. Alex could feel that his smile was just as real and genuine as Henry’s as he looked down at their hands – joined between them, Alex’s hand on top of Henry’s showing the ring to the photographers.
It had to be the most boring engagement ring in the history of British monarch. A plain, thin gold band. No diamonds or unnecessarily big stones that cost as much as Alex’s law school tuition. Boring or not, it was also the most loved engagement ring in the history of British monarch. Henry’s relatives married their cousins for politics a century ago. He had to be right. He talked about this idea so much so that June hanged up the phone on him several times. On top of that, he received a mail of things he isn’t allowed to say in the interview, the argument sits proudly on the top of the list.
Their mail sex scandal came second. Maybe June was right to hang up on him.
A small detail, hidden from everyone else but them made the ring even more special for Alex. A simple engraving in Henry’s neat handwriting.
yrs.
“Thank you!” Alex snapped out of his thoughts hearing Henry’s voice.
They were ready to go and give the interview then. Alex was not looking forward to that. He cast his signature First Son Smile at the camera and waved them before they started to walk into another – hopefully not pink – room.
“You did good, sweetheart.”
Alex snorted “Just you wait ‘til I start talking at the interview.”
“Lucky for us, it is not live.” Henry said fondly.
“Then why the hell did I get a mail of things I shouldn’t talk about?” Alex had nightmares about blurting out the Queen’s hatred of her ring and facing her wrath again.
“We don’t need a footage of you talking about my ancestors marrying their cousins now do we?” Henry chuckled. “On top of that, it was tremendously fun to watch your face when you received the email.”
“They were right.” Alex said dramatically. “Marriage kills romance.”
“We aren’t married.” Henry pointed out. “Yet.”
Alex was about to make a smart comment when Henry pulled him into a green room. Aggressively green. The room had light green wallpaper with dark green flower prints on it. The drapes were green velvet with golden tassels. Every painting and mirror frame were also the same shade of golden. In the corner, there were uncomfortable looking green velvet covered chairs. ‘Huh.’ Alex thought. ‘Someone was obsessed with green.’
There was a man standing in the center of the room with a stack of papers in his hands, commenting on how the red couch created a delicious contrast with green walls.
“Artie!” Henry called into the room. The man turned to them with a reporter’s practiced smile. Alex knew those smiles very well.
“Your Royal Highness, Mr. Claremont – Diaz.” He greeted them with a professional bow of his head.
“Oh come on now.” Henry laughed and the smile on Artie’s face turned into something real. “Stop the nonsense would you?”
“How do you do Henry?” Artie asked as the two hugged.
“Very well.” Henry turned to Alex. “Alex, this is Arthur Oliver Jones. A close friend of Pez’s and he will do the interview today.”
Jackpot, Alex thought. Three most common British names in one man.
“Nice to meet you.” Alex shook his hand.
“I have to go straight down to business I’m afraid. Limited time schedule and all.” He waved his hand around. “You two are very familiar with the process. It might be a tad too personal than what you are used to, though.”
“I thought there were banned topics and all.” Alex said. He was determined to see if he was the only one to receive that mail.
“Yes, of course. We don’t wish to harm your appearance on public. Every question and topic had been looked over and meet with the approval of your teams. Now shall we start?”
Henry looked at him to see if he was ready. When he nodded they went to the center of the room and sat in the ancient, uncomfortable couch. They just watched the people walking around with clipboards and hurrying to check the monitors and microphones before the interview begin. He saw a young woman giving the thumbs up to Arthur and instinctually he straightened his back.
“Your Royal Highness, Mr. Claremont – Diaz” He started with an energetic voice. “I want to start with saying congratulations.”
Both Henry and Alex murmured a silent but happy ‘Thank you.’ at him and waited for the first question to hit them. ‘Don’t let it be about the ring.’ Alex pleaded silently. Anything but the ring would be awesome. He couldn’t start his engagement interview to the Prince by talking about incestuous political marriages.
“You have been together for almost five years now.” Arthur said. “The people were getting antsy waiting for the engagement news. Shall we start with the engagement? Who proposed to who and the details if you don’t mind to share them?”
“Both of us having the same ring don’t give y’all any clue about who proposed, huh?” Alex chuckled. He loved to mess with the magazine, if only he could do it in that moment too. “Henry proposed first.”
“Only because I asked him to wait.” Henry stated.
“You asked him to wait so that you could propose to Mr. Claremont – Diaz?” Arthur intervened. “What a romantic gesture.”
“I reckon it was.” Henry said. “I have to admit my intention of asking him to wait had nothing to do with being a romantic. Before this relationship, I would not, never in my wildest dreams, thought I would get to propose to the man I love. I asked him to wait years ago and, thankfully he did.”
“Years ago you say?” Arthur had that predator look of a reporter who had caught a good story.
“Almost three years ago. We were asked not to risk anything if we weren’t completely sure about each other many times. When we started dating, we both knew it was for the long run.” Alex said. “Though his little request still didn’t stop me from getting him a ring. I just had to get creative with hiding places.”
Alex looked down once again. Eyes dancing over the almost identical gold ring on Henry’s finger. It was a bit matte than his ring, a bit thicker than the thin one on his finger. It too had an engraving inside.
I love you on purpose.
“An adorable insight to your relationship.” Arthur interrupted his thoughts. “Now, we were talking about the engagement?”
“We were at the White House, not anything formal just a family dinner.” Alex started. “I have this favorite corner somewhere around the House. We were just talking about how far we got in life and walking down the memory line. Then I looked to my left and Henry was holding onto the ring box for his dear life and he asked me if I would do the honor of being his husband. Very traditional but I said yes, of course. Then I proposed back at him when we got home that night.”
“My original plan was to ‘wine and dine’ him as Americans say. There would be candles, music, and good desert maybe.”
“But the moment felt right?” Arthur asked.
“The moment never felt more right than that second.” Henry smiled. “I had the ring on me by accident. I was going to loan it to June because I ran out of places to hide it. Then Alex said ‘remember when we ruined Pip’s wedding?’ and I just realized how far we have really came.”
“Ah, His Royal Highness’s wedding cake.” Arthur chuckled at the memory. “Is it safe to think there will be no such cake at your wedding?”
“I’m all in favor for cupcakes actually.” Alex shrugged.
“That sounds like a wise choice.” Arthur shuffled his papers and read the topics they should cover. “It also reminds the fact that, from the very beginning your friendship and then relationship has been a popular topic of magazines. Negative or positive. Had it affected you in any way?”
“It was hard right after we got outed.” Henry said carefully. Not a mention of the sex scandal. “After I moved to America, British media, thankfully, got a more kind approach.”
“Yeah.” Alex agreed. “Those first couple months were hard. Our friends almost got rid of our phones. Alongside with the negative reactions, we did receive lots of positive press and comebacks too. It made things easier.”
“And now, it’s mostly one article a month about how we had broken up.” Henry laughed. “I wake up to texts from Pez, saying he had a whole best man speech prepared and it better be just lies.”
“Mr. Okonjo must be delighted his speech will not go to waste.” Arthur smiled at them. “Now that the topic of the wedding came out, there has been many speculations about your surnames rather than the any other detail of the wedding.”
“I have three.” Henry said. “And Alex has two last names. There is no way we could use them all.”
“Can you imagine the pain of introducing yourself?” Alex asked, horrified. “Hello, I’m Alexander Gabriel Claremont – Diaz – Fox – Mountchristen – Windsor This is my husband, His Royal Highness Prince Henry George Edward James Claremont – Diaz – Fox – Mountchristen – Windsor.”
“It would be a political nightmare for anyone involved.” Henry agreed.
“It is indeed a mouthful.” Arthur said. “Oh god please don’t take all those names Henry. I almost got fired when I forgot couple of your names.”
Alex let out a laugh at that. “Best way to memorize all of them is acting like an angry mom.”
“Oh, shush now sweetheart.” Henry said.
“What? It’s true. Artie next time you need to memorize those painfully long names just stand on the top of your stairs and scream it real loud like you gonna scold your kid.” Alex winked at him. “Works like a charm.”
“That could actually work.” Arthur murmured. “Okay, Lila we will cut this part. Henry can you schoot to bit left? Good perfect now we can go on.”
“Let’s hope you will not hyphenate them.” He continued in a professional voice. “How about the reaction of family and friends? You are familiar with one another’s families and are a part of a big friend group.”
“It’s been amazing.” Henry smiled. “We decided not to immediately tell our families and have a little bit of privacy. After we told them, it’s been hectic.”
“June somehow managed to get mom to throw us a little engagement party.” Alex laughed at the memory. “It was just weeks before the election and she had loads of work to do but she still organized it for us and invited our friends and family.
“His Royal Highness’s family was in attendance as well?” Artie asked.
“Everyone but the Queen Mother. She insisted it is not good for her bones.” Alex wished the Queen wouldn’t hunt him for fun after that comment. “When we came here she insisted to throw a little get together on her own. We are thankful for the support of our family and friends.”
“He gets along with my family like house on fire.” Henry laughed. “Bea and Alex together are a force to be reckoned with.”
“As if you are any different with June.” Alex scoffed at him.
“You must miss your family terribly since you moved to the USA four years ago.” Artie changed the subject smoothly. “Do you plan to stay in there or move back to England?”
“We know for sure we will have the wedding in here. Grandmother wouldn’t have it any other way.” Henry said. “Apart from that, we have no certain plans. For now, it’s safe to say we will continue to live in the States. Alex recently graduated from law school and is getting ready for a political career.”
It was remarkable, really. Alex would have never thought the retired Queen would show them any support. After Philip got his head out of his ass, he somehow managed to talk sense into his grandmother. It was the reason Alex still believed in sorcery.
“Congratulations on your graduation.”
“Thanks.” Alex nodded at Arthur. “And as Henry said, we don’t have a five year plan. He’s happy working at the center with the kids. I’m happy I survived law school. We have a beautiful place we call home. It’s enough for now.”
He said the last bit smiling at Henry. His smile grew wider when he felt Henry’s thumb caressing his ring. They were both so gone on each other it was embarrassing.
“That brings us to our last topic of the day.” Arthur pointed to their hands. “Your rings. They seem almost identical but from up close they are a bit different.”
“They are.” Henry laughed, pleading with his eyes to shut Alex up. They could not bring up cousins marrying with cousins. No comment on the size of the stones. Or how those stones could might have solved lots of issues of the country. Nope.
“It’s cause we bought them separately.” Alex said instead of blurting out dirty laundry of the family. He could vision the headlines of Daily Mail.
“And yet, you almost got the same rings.”
“I suppose we both wanted to go with classic designs.” Henry shrugged his shoulder. “Alex is keen on wearing more colourful clothes. I thought a thin gold ring would look good with any colour he puts on.”
“They are classics for a reason.” Alex laughed. “I’m the one with fashion sense in this relationship. Henry wears more boring colors so his ring is not a shiny gold. I didn’t want it to stand out that much but still be shiny enough to let people know this man is off the market.”
“Both are beautiful choices really.” Artie complimented them and they beamed at him. “His Royal Highness is known for being a romantic at heart. Are there any personal touches on your rings? An engraving perhaps?”
“Both our rings have engravings inside.” Henry answered.
“A promise and an agreement, if you want to call it something more romantic than engravings.” A promise to always love and an agreement to always be the other’s home.
“They must be pretty special then.” Arthur smiled.
“Yeah.” Henry said, eyes shining. “And it’s the best agreement I’ve ever done.”