Chapter Text
Henry knows he has made mistakes in his life, but none of them was as mortifying as the moment he looks up to see the man standing in front of him.
Sharp jawline, impeccable posture, striking–familiar brown eyes.
Alex.
There is no explanation as to why he is standing in Kensington Palace other than it just being a vile twist of fate. Like the universe must really, really hate him to put him in such circumstances.
“Prince Henry, meet Mr. Alex Claremont-Diaz, the newly appointed head of your security team,” Shaan introduces.
Henry blinks. It takes him a second to register the scene through the fuzz of heat rising up to his face and the whistling in his ears. He stands up as professionally as he could, though deep inside his stomach is churning and he is starting to feel the back of his white shirt stick to his skin under his navy blue suit. He raises his eyes to meet Alex’s, and it’s like a punch to the gut.
God, of course it’s him. Out of all the people in the world, of course it has to be him.
There is no way he hasn’t seen the sheer shock on Henry’s face, because his mouth twists into a half smile. “Your Royal Highness,” Alex says formally, and Henry doesn’t know what comes over him.
He opens his mouth and very clearly says, “no.”
Alex smirks.
Shaan makes a sound that’s neither a cough nor a “what the fuck?” as Henry takes him by the elbow and shoves both of them outside of the royal hall and into a smaller room where they’re alone.
“He can’t work here,” Henry blurts out.
To say that Shaan looks berated is an understatement, yet when he speaks his next words, his years of training and self-discipline put into his job show evidently. “What do you mean he can’t work here?”
Henry’s face is still heating up; he can feel the sides of his head about to explode. “I mean exactly what I said. I don’t want him here.”
Shaan closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. “Let me say this in other words,” he starts. “My wedding is in three days, he passed all his tests and proved himself more than perfect for this job, his records are clean, and quite frankly, he is already approved by the Crown and ordered to start working today, so there’s not much you can do about it.”
Henry’s eyes widen. “Ordered? I give the orders in this palace!” his voice grows louder yet still careful so Alex can’t hear him.
“This is an emergency, Henry,” Shaan says a little resignedly. “I had to find someone I could trust to leave you with at all times, and I can assure you he is.”
Henry swallows hard. This can’t be happening.
“What if he’s hiding something? Like he could be a– a–”
“Henry,” Shaan interrupts. “I ran his security check myself. I told you he is clean. Top notch of his class, middle class family, I could go on and you’ll still have to accept the fact that he is going to be responsible for your safety around the clock.”
“Alright, fine.” Henry finally gives in, accepting his ironic fate.
“Are you alright to come back outside again?” Shaan double checks as he stands by the door.
Henry nods once. This is happening either way, so might as well get it over with.
When they come out of the room, they find Alex still standing in the royal hall, a little more relaxed than before, and from the look on his face, it almost looks like he is bored. Well, Henry can’t blame him.
Once he sees them, the right corner of his mouth lifts up in a one-sided smile. He straightens his back and says, “everything alright, Your Highness?”
Henry doesn’t answer. Instead, Shaan quickly saves the scene. “Apologies for that, Mr. Claremont-Diaz. His Royal Highness isn’t feeling his best today.”
“Shame,” Alex says, and Henry’s stomach churns with the sarcasm dripping from Alex’s voice that he is sure only he can hear. Every word that’s coming out of his mouth, every move he is making only screams one thing: I’m here for payback, asshole.
And well, Henry has nothing else to do but to pay back for his shitty act from three years ago.
“Mr. Claremont-Diaz, I’ll be with you on your first day to walk you through everything. I’m sure you’ve already been given a clear orientation of the premises?” Shaan asks.
“Sure.” He nods. “And please, call me Alex,” he adds.
“Excellent. Alright, Alex, why don’t we start with His Royal Highness’s schedule for today?” Shaan suggests, pulling up his tablet and opening it.
“Finally,” Alex jokes. “Something other than signing papers all morning.” He glances at Henry, his brown eyes bright.
Henry feels like he is going to combust under the weight of his gaze everytime Alex looks at him. He feels the need to cling to Shaan for as long as he can. He really, really doesn’t want to find out what it would be like to be left alone with Alex.
Except that is inevitable, and it’s only a matter of very short time before he is forced to find out.
Shaan chuckles. “It’s good to know you’re excited for your first day.”
“Oh, you have no idea.”
Henry is doomed.
An hour later Henry finds himself in the backseat of a Bentley with Shaan next to him and Alex in the front passenger seat on their way to Henry’s fitting for the suit he is going to be wearing at Shaan’s wedding.
“Stop squirming.”
Henry doesn’t realise he is squirming until Shaan, annoyed, points it out. He looks at his almost former equerry and displays his best (worst) pleading look.
“Shaan, I’m begging you,” Henry whispers. “It can’t happen. There must be someone else for this job.”
His equerry turns to him incredulously. “What is going on with you?” He whispers back, agitated. “There’s nothing wrong with the fellow–”
“Everything is wrong about him! Have you seen him?!” Henry whisper-yells.
“Alright, what is it that you don’t like about him?” Shaan asks blankly.
Henry opens his mouth, clamps it shut, opens it again, and nothing comes out of him.
The car comes to a halt, and everyone starts unbuckling their seatbelts.
“With all due respect, Your Royal Highness, you’re being insufferable,” Shaan says before he elbows his door open and gets out.
Alex hops out of the car as well and is quick to round it and get to Henry’s door, though the prince is quicker. He gets on his feet and is closing the door when another hand slams it shut behind him.
“That, I agree with.”
Henry’s face fumes in all shades of red.
They go into the tailor’s shop and Henry tries his suit on, a classic black with a white dress shirt underneath it. All the while he catches glimpses of Alex’s reflection in the fitting mirror. He stands with his arms crossed over his chest, his figure leaning against the door frame to one of the smaller fitting rooms. Henry feels a strange tingle at the edges of his skin, like there’s a feather chasing along the planes of his body underneath his clothes.
He tries not to focus on it, keeping his eyes as away from the mirror as he can. It works until the fitting is over, and Shaan and Alex are chatting aside with Alex looking too fucking beautiful with his eyebrows a little pinched in focus. The image disappears when Henry goes back into the smaller fitting room to put his own clothes back on.
Henry hasn’t got a clue how he is going to survive this.
“Congrats on your wedding,” Alex is saying when Henry emerges from the fitting room.
“It seems Alex is getting the hang of it,” Shaan grins at Henry. “Are you good to go back to the palace while I run a couple of errands for the wedding?” He asks.
Henry glares at him as if silently screaming please don’t leave. “I don’t recall you telling me about any errands…?”
“Oh, come on, the man deserves some time off before his own wedding?” Alex says cheerfully, then he looks at Shaan. “Don’t worry. The prince is in safe hands.” His eyes shift to Henry for a split second.
Shaan is silent for a bit, and Henry wishes he’d stayed that way. “I don’t doubt it.”
He walks up to Henry and pats his back. “You’ll be fine. Use this time to get to know him. Maybe you’ll change your mind,” he says quietly before leaving.
“Come along, Your Majesty, we’ve got places to be,” Alex says tauntingly, taking over Shaan’s smart tablet.
“It’s Your Royal Highness.” He grits his teeth.
“Right, where have my manners gone?” Alex says dramatically, but in a low voice so the working tailor won’t hear him.
Henry rolls his eyes and follows him as they make their way out of the shop and towards the car. Alex gets the door for him, and Henry stands a couple of steps away, physically unable to get closer to Alex. He feels like he is going to burn up into flames if he gets one step closer.
“I don’t bite, you know,” Alex says, standing by the open car door. “Unless you want me to.” He grins afterwards, his teeth sparkling.
“Jesus Christ,” Henry mutters and hurries into the car.
“Yeah, right. Pray all you want. You’re gonna need it,” Alex says under his breath as he slides into the front passenger seat.
They arrive shortly to the palace, and Henry changes into a pair of black blue pants topped with a rose button up shirt. He nearly jumps out of his skin when he finds Alex standing not too far from his bedroom’s door. “You have a meeting with Philip in thirty minutes.”
“Christ. Don’t you have somewhere else to be? Aren’t you supposed to be securing the parameters or something?” Henry tries not to look as shaken as he felt the moment he was startled by Alex’s presence.
“First, I’m here to secure you not just the parameters. Besides, everything is well under control, don’t you worry, Your Majesty. You’re not getting rid of me any time soon.” Alex grins smugly.
“How fortunate I am.” Henry plasters a fake smile on his face.
“How are you here?” He asks a few seconds later.
“I graduated my training, passed my tests and applied for the job.” Alex shrugs one shoulder.
That’s not what Henry means, and Alex looks like he also knows that this isn’t what Henry means. Alex is playing a low game, and Henry is nowhere near prepared to play.
“Oh, Hen! Where have you been?” Bea pops out from the hallway, scaring Henry. Again.
Do people just appear out of nowhere these days?
“Bea,” he says, trying to calm down his racing heart. “I was at my suit’s fitting for Shaan’s wedding.”
“Who’s the gentleman?” She looks next to him before her face brightens in recognition. “You must be the new head of security!”
“None other than him, Your Highness.” Alex smiles.
“Oh, please, call me Bea.” She waves him off. She then looks at Henry and her eyes fill with concern. “Are you quite alright, Henry? You look a little pale.”
Henry swallows, and he can swear he hears Alex almost laugh next to him. “I’m fine.”
She looks at him a little longer before she shrugs. “If you say so. You’re coming to the meeting, right? Philip’s been eating my ear off about…”
The rest of his sister’s words turn to a blur as his mind finally wraps itself around what’s happening. His new head of security team, his personal bodyguard is the worst yet best mistake of Henry’s life.
The wedding comes in no time, and Henry is sipping onto his champagne when Alex saunters in his way. He hasn’t been seeing much of him yet in the past couple of days as he was more busy acquainting himself with the rest of the security team members and doing whatever it is that thankfully keeps him away from Henry.
But now that everything is settled and Shaan is officially out of Henry’s service, Alex seems much more giddy about ‘his new job’—getting under Henry’s skin. He looks excellent in his black suit that’s fitted with a white shirt unbuttoned all the way to the middle of his chest. He’s not strictly ‘on duty’, meaning he doesn’t need to wear a full suit and tie, and Henry doesn’t know if it’s the champagne or the overall vibe of people around them but Alex smells exquisite.
Nothing like the sweet, spicy smell of cinnamon Henry had first smelled on him. Even better. You’d think his brain would have forgotten such a detail, what kind of person recalls the way his senses stirred and shifted, the way something had pulled tight in his chest when that scent was everything Henry could smell on his own skin.
“Aren’t you going to grace the dancefloor with your presence, Your Majesty?” Alex asks, shoving his hands in his pockets.
“They’re doing just fine,” Henry replies, training his eyes to the bride and groom dancing together and their friends equally happy around them.
The reception isn’t something huge, but big enough for Henry to know that Alex carries his own pistol under his suit, and that their team of PPOs are spread everywhere around the place, all of them reporting to Alex. Henry can see the earpiece in Alex’s ear, and every now and then he sees him muttering something quietly.
“Besides,” Henry adds. “I don’t really dance.”
Alex turns to look at him. “Didn’t look like it three years ago.” Henry physically flinches under the impertinent flick of Alex’s eyes over him.
“What’s wrong, sweetheart? Was it something I said?” Alex smirks, shifting on his foot ever so slightly so he’s leaning a little into Henry’s space.
Henry tenses, his hand tightening around his champagne flute. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?” Alex asks innocently.
“Don’t do this, Alex.” Henry nearly begs. He’s certain his glass is about to pop in his hand.
“I haven’t done anything,” he says. “Yet.” He winks at Henry and strides away at the same time Henry looks down at his hand and finds drops of blood blooming on different spots in the palm of his hand.
He rushes to the bathroom and discards the broken champagne glass into the garbage bin, immediately getting his actively bleeding hand under cold, running water. The fact that he doesn’t even remember when it broke scares Henry, because this is how it’s going to be for… forever now?
Henry’s train of thought is broken when someone walks in and when he looks into the mirror, he is shocked to see that it’s Shaan.
“Shaan, wha—”
“Are you alright?” Shaan asks, and there’s a tone to his voice that’s more serious than their usual.
“I’m fine, don’t worry about me. Please, go back to your bride, this is ridiculous,” Henry is quick to argue.
Shaan raises an eyebrow, looks into the sink where Henry’s hand had been dripping blood when he absentmindedly removed it from under the water, then looks back at Henry demandingly.
“Whatever it is that’s going on with you, it’s not just you unaccepting of Alex, so tell me what’s going on, Henry?”
Henry closes his eyes and wraps his hand in a paper tissue, keeping pressure on it.
“Nothing that you have to worry about. It’s stupid.”
“Has he hurt you?” Shaan asks with urgency.
“It’s the other way around, actually.” Henry bitterly chuckles.
“What happened?”
“Alex and I, we’ve met before.”
“That’s impossible, I would’ve—”
“Three years ago.” Henry clarifies.
Shaan falls silent for a few moments while he remembers, and Henry sees it on his face when he does. “Is he…”
“The one from Mexico. Very much, yes.”
“Fucking hell, why didn’t you tell me?” Shaan almost shouts.
“Trust me, I’ve been trying,” Henry hisses back.
“Anyway,” he sighs. “There’s nothing to do about it now.”
Shaan’s face fills with guilt, which makes Henry feel even worse.
“Hey, none of this is your fault,” Henry reassures. “Well, partly because you’re leaving in the first place.” He grins, lightly shoving at his former equerry’s shoulder, earning himself a smile.
“But purely, you wouldn’t have known,” he repeats. “You did your job, it’s just my awful luck reminding me of the stupid decisions I’ve made.”
Shaan doesn’t argue back, because he has nothing to say to that since Henry mostly keeps this matter to himself. None of the details of what happened have extended beyond the walls of Henry’s own memories.
“It’s best that no one else knows about this,” Shaan warns quietly. “No one, Henry.”
Henry firmly nods.
He knows exactly what Shaan means.
The Crown can’t know about any of this for his and Alex’s sake. Mostly for Alex’s sake. It’s already enough Henry has done him damage once. He can’t afford to do it again.