Wille and Simon are at the castle their final night before returning to Hillerska after the Jubilee day speech and Wille takes Simon's hand and starts to direct him to a wing they haven't been to yet. Simon follows along a little bemused because Wille seems so intent, but they reach a door that Wille pushes open to reveal a beautiful Fazioli grand piano in an airy sitting room. Wille tugs Simon over to the piano stool and they sit together. Wille's gaze darts around before settling on Simon's gaze and asking "will you play the song for me?" And Simon says "you mean the one from the ball?" And Wille nods his head and Simon huffs out a little laugh and says "it's not very happy Wille" and he replies "I don't care, you wrote it about me. No one's ever done that before" so Simon sings it for him while Wille closes his eyes and gently sways. When he finishes Wille opens his eyes and grins, clapping for Simon who laughs and hides his head in Wille's shoulder. He sits up and looks at Wille and says "now you play something for me." And Wille groans a little and says "but you're so much better than me, I was just made to learn for ages because apparently that's something a prince has to do." And Simon says "well at least you can read music! Surely you can still remember something" and Wille looks a little nervous but nods and settled his hands over the keys. He plays Simon Poulenc, and his fingers are sure in the movement. Simon almost stops breathing from concentrating on the sound Wille makes. When the piece finishes he just turns to Wille and stares before gently shoving him and saying "what the fuck Wille I thought you said you weren't very good!" And Wille goes pink and says "I'm not, I don't have the music... In me like you do. I mean 11 years of learning and that's all I've got to show for it? You've never had one lesson and you write these incredible songs!" And Simon just has to laugh because he knows Wille won't change his mind. Instead, he turns and says "maybe we could write a song together? With your theory and my so called innate talent, we could be the new Leonard and McCartney!" And Wille just barks out a laugh and says "oh yeah, you really think so? Well guess we better get started!"
As they laugh and make up silly lyrics and melodies together, Kristina walks by and stops when she hears them. She pokes her head around to glance at Wille and Simon at the piano, smiling and teasing each other. Her façade drops slightly, seeing for the first time her son interacting with someone who wasn't Erik so carefree and brightly. Something clicks inside her, and she realises that Simon isn't going anywhere. This isn't some little sexual exploration that Wille would eventually grow out of. Her son was in love, and nothing would change that.
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The Wheel - Umemiya Hajime
(From my earlier post this morning about how Umemiya would do the voices from his kid's bed time stories. I don't think there's any CWs. It's SFW and a x reader? but that's all i think)
Umemiya’s always been a reader. Whether it was his parents reading to him when he was young, him reading to his siblings in the group home, or just the gardening books he began to read as he started taking an interest in it, books were always a staple to him. It’s no surprise when your first child’s room ends up having a huge bookcase full of books, along with a few scattered toys and a piggy bank placed high enough that your three year old can’t reach it. Every night before bed, your daughter picks an armful of books out before waddling over and throwing them down. To her, this is one or two books, even though it’s actually around ten if you counted. She never stays awake long enough to get through all of them, but her efforts are nothing if not valiant.
The three of you squish up on her small bed while her pudgy fingers grab the first book on the pile. You start the narration, and she’s running her hands on the pages, tracing little goats as they’re frolicking through the pages. Just as the troll begins to speak, your husband takes over the dialogue after slipping on his reading glasses.
“Who’s that going across my bridge?” Hajime grumbles in a deep voice, and you can see your daughter visibly perk up. As the little goat gets past the troll, he gets more dramatic, and at the climax, he pauses the story.
“Is he gonna hurt the big billy goat, daddy?” Your little girl asks, bottom lip trembling in upset.
“I’m not sure, little star. Do you want me to keep reading?” He brushes her hair back out of her face as she thinks about it. She looks at the big billy goat, hand passing over the picture again, and even though she’s about to tear up with worry, she grabs your fingers and squeezes them tight before telling him yes, she does want to hear it.
He starts again, explaining that the big billy goat rammed into the troll so hard, he flew off the bridge and was swept away by the river. Your daughter smiles, looking at the three billy goats happily munching on the grass, and you can’t stop a giggle from rolling past your lips.
“Daddy’s pretty good at the voices huh?” you ask, booping her nose gently.
“THE BEST!” She yells before picking up the next book from the pile as she explains that you’ll do the same thing as before and Hajime will be doing the high-pitched voice of a baby bird trying to find its mother that has you snorting into your hands.
When she has a play date with some neighborhood kids, her and her friends are enthralled by him reenacting the story of Peter Pan, sword fights, and all while you’re making lunch in the kitchen. Even after you adopt her younger brother, your daughter listens to the same stories he’s told a hundred times before with the same adoration, sometimes jumping in herself to voice the characters she really likes.
Your son, now a teenager in high school, sits at a table in the local library, book open to a page he hasn’t turned in the past 20 minutes. He’s hunched over it as if to study, but his eyes flicker over to the corner of the children’s section every so often. There, a group of younger kids crowd around on a circle carpet for the weekly reading time, hushed in awe of the man reading a story.
“…and the big billy goat winds up to run headfirst into the troll…and he gets eaten!” No longer quiet, the kids are howling and shouting, and your son’s neck snaps in the direction of his father. Shutting his book, he pushes out of his seat, walking to the edge of the carpet.
“Dad!” He blusters, a little too loud to be considered decent in a library. Hajime just tilts his head towards him, eyes locked on with a grin on his face.
“Hey tiger, thought you were studying,” he says, playing at surprise.
“That’s not how the story ends, and you know it,” his son's eyes are serious, his expression bothered. He’s heard this story countless times, and the big billy goat never loses.
“Really now?” Hajime slaps his hands on his thighs before standing up from his chair, holding the book out close enough for him to grab. “Why don’t you show us how it ends then?” He grins, scarred eyebrow cocked in challenge.
His son realizes the trap he’s fallen in, looking at the pairs of eyes now burning into him, urging him to finish the story the right way. “…Fine. But everyone’s gotta listen because I’m not going back and rereading it if you start giggling with your friends,” he says, grabbing the book and flipping its pages, rewinding a bit before the climax so it won’t confuse the ones who were thrown off by the fake ending earlier. Hajime sits down on the carpet with the rest of the kids cross-legged, watching his son start out slow and nervous, but eventually his tone changes and slips into a grumbled voice, the big billy goat about go head to head with the troll again.
By the end of the book, the kids are up and crowding him, asking if he'll pleeeease read another story! Just one more, Nii-san the caterpillar one! No, he's gonna like the one with the bats more-. and the flush on his face rivals Sakura's when he was younger.
You walk in just as the kids start showing your son different books, pulling on his pant legs, and you can't help but laugh. You look at your husband, who's not giving any aid whatsoever.
"So you're pawning off your jobs now? What happened to the reliable Umemiya Hajime?" You tease, giving him one of the drinks from your shopping bag.
Hajime hums at that, a smile on his face. "He just so happens to be equally reliable. I think he's got a knack for it," he whispers, pulling you close so you're hip to hip, his arm wrapped around your waist and pressing a kiss to your jaw.
"Right, and this has nothing to do with the text from our daughter saying she's coming to visit in a few minutes? You told her to come down here, didn't you?" Accusation evident in your voice, as you check the time from the last set of texts in the family group chat.Your son's been talked into reading Paddington as the kids quiet down in rapt attention.
He doesn't notice his big sister coming in and snapping a quick picture of the scene in front of her until his phone goes off, and he's turning pink, fumbling, and trying to make excuses as to why he's reading to a bunch of kids. No matter what, she'll end up teasing him about it, so he's at a loss. It doesn't stop him from coming back next week at the same time, when his dad makes the excuse that he'll have to cancel the reading time this week due to an appointment if he can't get someone to fill in.
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