lucadansembourg:

“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. 

“as if you haven’t used simone against me,” he replied, and being with luca again was as easy as breathing. “i can think of three times that you’ve scared me half to death because simone told you exactly when and how to catch me off guard.” and that was just off the top of his head. “i wish you could’ve come with me,” he admitted, sheepish, his thumb working its way in a light path over luca’s cheek. “i needed a break from the program, but not from you.” a pause. “I don’t think i’ll ever need a break from you.” which was exactly what had given him the idea. he leaned in for a kiss, chaste and light, gentle. easy as breathing.  “someday you’ll have to come with me. when things have settled down and an escape to the french countryside will be acceptable, we’ll go away together. just the two of us.”

lucadansembourg:

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.” 

“that’s me,” he said, and stepped through the door into luca’s apartment. he observed everything in front of him, the lived-in feeling that seemed to follow luca everywhere. it was cozy, as it always was. he turned to face luca and shook his head. “this is all i want,” he said. he’d seen luca’s living quarters in far worse condition than this, anyway. “i just got back earlier today. i colluded with angela to get you alone.” he stepped into luca’s space and splayed a hand out over his cheek, soft and familiar. “i missed you, too. i was tired of facetime.”

vrnvuld:

“ 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 ? ” 

he chuckled and offered the gifts he’d brought, an array of the finest foods that france had to offer. “she was less than pleased. but i reminded her that we’ll all be home for christmas, and promised to bully you into returning her calls, and promised pictures of margaux, and suddenly all was well.” he sat across from his brother and shrugged. “it was fine. i had some engagements in brittany. they’re skittish, given... everything, but i think having one of us home and smiling helped calm them down a bit.”

@vrnvuld​

“i brought wine and cheese from home.” a peace offering, sort of. payment for leaving when he did. “and mother’s well wishes, but i’m sure you’d prefer the wine.”

giselledorleans:

“ 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. ”

“ah,” he said. it gave him pause; didn’t he have, sort of, two children already? and wasn’t one of them more than eager to rule? here was the perfect opportunity to share those particular facts, but anxiety held him back. they were getting along so well. he feared her reaction to the news too much to share it just now. “maybe someday. i’d need a spouse first, wouldn’t i?” spouse, not wife. baby steps. “excellent point. maybe i will bring her up, just to see.” he wasn’t above rubbing arnauld’s failures in his face, not after the events of the last year. and then a laugh was startled out of him, sharp and surprised. “i’m sure brother dearest has found freja useful for a number of sensitive things.” they had the bastard son to prove it. “but i’m sorry i left you alone with him. i’d say you should’ve just gone home as well, but he might have burned down all of tokyo if he’d been left without supervision.” a pause. “i’ll make you a deal: when the next crisis occurs, you can take a vacation and i’ll stay back to watch him. we can trade.”

giselledorleans:

“ 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. ”

he made a considering sound, somewhere between a grunt and a hum. “it’s a shame,” he said. “fanni seemed so well suited for him.” even if he had his own sense of schadenfreude. henri had tried to warn his brother that his actions would have consequences, and those warnings fell on deaf ears. and now... “i wasn’t planning to bring her up around him. at least not directly; i have some sense of self preservation.” a pause. “anyway, it’s for the best i went home.” he’d been miserable, utterly. “arnauld is an adult, i’m sure he managed without me.”

@giselledorleans​

“alright, out with it. tell me what i’ve missed” if anyone could give him an idea of everything that had gone on in his absence, it would be his sister. “have you spoken to arnauld? i’m almost afraid to ask him about... everything.”

@lucadansembourg​

it had taken coordination with angela (and begging her to keep his return quiet) in order to bring henri to this point. he was standing in front of luca’s door, hand falling down after the three quick knocks on the wood. if angela was to be believed, the girls should be out with wendy for the rest of the afternoon, and luca should be alone in the apartment with only paperwork to keep him company, completely unsuspecting of henri’s return. sure enough, when the door opened, there was the man he hadn’t seen face-to-face in months. henri grinned, his heart thundering in his chest at the sight of him. “bonjour, mon ange,” he murmured, voice soft. “may i come in?”

lucadansembourg:

“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.

the words made him feel even worse. he turned his head away and squeezed his eyes shut, willing himself not to cry. god, why did he have to be so pathetic? but then, it wasn’t all his fault; luca just kept finding all the right buttons to press. and that last comment, which henri knew was an innocent attempt at saying i understand, only felt like luca rubbing salt into the wound. it felt like he was throwing the invasion back in henri’s face, and he wasn’t, henri knew he wasn’t, but that was how it felt and henri wasn’t feeling strong enough in that moment to rationalize his way out of that feeling. “okay,” he said, the word a little raspy. “thank you, i – i’ll make sure everything’s in order, just in case.” he sat there and stared at the floor for a long moment, willing himself not to cry. it was a battle he could feel himself losing, because now all he could picture was that he’d never be allowed home again. his apartment flashed through his mind; the view of the eiffel tower at sunset, the custom steinway model o, the keepsakes and trinkets that he kept in the closet because he was too embarrassed to display them in the open. he took a shaky, shuddering breath and stood up, moved to the nightstand, rooted around for a box of cigarettes. “i’m going out on the balcony. i’ll be in... sometime. don’t wait up for me, please.” and he moved toward the sliding door, knowing that luca would follow but wishing he wouldn’t. he was so tired of feeling, and it was always easier not to when luca wasn’t with him.

fannicroy:

“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.  

“when there’s higher-ranking frenchmen to harass?” she hadn’t said the words out loud, but they were implied strongly enough. “i dare say they’ll leave you out of it.” she and arnauld had only just gotten engaged, anyway. surely anyone with half a brain would know that she wasn’t being told about every decision as it was made. he sat across from her and pushed a piece of beef around in his bowl, listening intently, feeling uncomfortable. he hummed. all he had to do was act normal. “luca is my friend,” he said. idiot. “i just mean – we were friends before the invasion of luxembourg, and we still talk, sometimes. we’re not as close as we were.” no, they were significantly closer. “anyway, he’s just awkward. he probably didn’t mean anything by it.” but henri would be having a word with him, anyway. it was like he wanted to give them away. and to fanni croÿ, of all people! “i wouldn’t dwell on it too much, if i were you."

fannicroy:

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.

he nodded, placed the paprika back on the counter, and then watched as she began making herself a bowl. “that’s very good,” henri said, smiling. “one man is a nuisance that’s easily handled, at least. it’s crowds that cause problems.” she shouldn’t have had to deal with it at all, he thought; she was hardly the mastermind behind this. it was arnauld, as it always was, and henri was satisfied that people had left fanni alone. as she explained who the odd man was, though, henri felt himself freeze, his eyes widening for a moment. “oh?” he asked. his voice was notably higher-pitched than it had been before. he cleared his throat. “what did he want to discuss?”

fannicroy:

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.”

“ah,” he said. “well, you can feel free to add more. it probably makes me a terrible host, asking my guest to do the cooking for me, but i wouldn’t want you to be dissatisfied.” he led the way into the kitchen and gestured to the pot on the stove. bowls, spoons, and a few slices of bread ( which had been stress-baked a few days prior ) were set out on the counter beside it. “of course. it’s the least i could do, after everything. i’m sorry you’ve had to deal with all this.” a war crime was certainly a strange engagement present. “but please, help yourself. oh, and –” he rifled around in a drawer and produced a bottle of paprika before passing it to her. “add as much as you’d like.”

lucadansembourg:

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.” 

he nodded, feeling a spark of hope flare up within him. if luca wasn’t immediately saying no, then maybe he’d go for it. “of course. i understand.” he was right, anyway. the public would be merciless. luca’s family would be merciless; henri knew based on conversations alone how they felt about the french. the next words, though, sent disappointment crashing through him. he sat up and drew his arms around himself, frowning and suddenly overwhelmed. it was stupid. luca seemed to be willing to at least try, which was more than henri was even expecting, and henri was disappointed. but luca wasn’t interested in helping france; he was interested in helping himself. and it shouldn’t have mattered, really, what his reasoning was. but it did matter. because luca could feel whatever he way pleased about arnauld, but france was henri’s home. those people in alsace were his people. and it stung to know that luca only cared because of luxembourg. would luca help if he were the king of anywhere else? probably not. and henri wouldn’t have been able to blame him, even though his lack of regard for france felt like a lack of regard for henri himself. “i – okay. i’ll speak with him.” a pause. “well, i’ll speak with his assistant.” he looked down at his lap, trying to ease the queasiness in his stomach. “there was another favor i wanted to ask. you know i had nothing to do with this, but – but you also know that that’s not what the world thinks. and if they come after us, if they start trying people...” he swallowed around a lump in his throat. “they’re already arresting our generals. it may only be a matter of time before they look at arnauld and i. so i was hoping you might, um, let me go to luxembourg? as a last resort, only if things get that bad.”

hshmimi:

“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.

@fannicroy​

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.

he was a little surprised by the knock on the door. a large part of him hadn’t been expecting her to actually show up; his backup plan was taking the stew to luca’s and letting him eat a real meal for once, rather than macaroni and dino nuggets, or whatever it was his children ate. still, he wiped his hands off and went to the door, trying for a smile when he opened it. “fanni,” he said. “come in, please. i made stew. goulash, actually. i’m sure you’ll find that it’s nowhere near perfect; i’m only really an expert at french cuisine.” and french cuisine hadn’t felt exactly appropriate for this occasion.

hshmimi:

“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.

lucadansembourg:

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.”  

henri made a wounded sound in his throat. “he’s really dead, if every news source on the planet is to be believed. they’re all talking about it.” a member of the nobility killed in the streets by french soldiers. it made henri sick to his stomach. “oh, great. i’m sure she’ll have plenty of things to say.” he knew already that luca meant he’d leave it to lara, which was far worse than if he was going to just do it himself. if luca gave the statement, he’d be excluding henri when he said the french, and that would cushion the blow. the princess would mean every word she said, and she’d be fully including henri when she said them. it made his stomach twist with guilt and unease. he moved to wrap both arms around the other’s middle. “i – no, i’m not,” he said, and it was true. "i needed to – i was going to ask a favor of you, about alsace. i told arnauld that i’d ask you for help with the germans, but now it’s... well, i made that suggestion before i knew he was going to destroy brussels.” he squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, trying to calm himself down. so many people had died in one day alone. “i understand if you don’t want to help us, after this.”