Henry Hale is not your average teenager.

Sure, he has had his moments in school whether that was being chosen as homecoming king for one year or remaining the top athlete in his class for the last few years. And let's not forget his grades are tremendously top of the class like winning the debate tournament through his exceptional research and argumentative skills or winning chess tournaments due to his quick intellect with strategy. But, it's not even that big of a deal right?

Well, there's also the fact that he is the son and sole heir to the throne of the kingdom. Dorothea Hale has been its sole ruler for the last five decades and, if you ask any of its inhabitants how she is faring across the land, they'd let you know she is doing mighty fine. She has not had a husband by her side for the last eighteen years and, while it was rough being a single mother to Henry, she has turned out to be one of the strongest women in the history of existence or so the news outlets claimed.

"Mom, where's dad?" Henry asked her one time when he was younger. Of course, those weren't actually his first words, but give or take a year after he started speaking, he was wondering about his father. His mother tried to lie to him like most parents would to try and mitigate the sadness that one child might experience by saying he had gone an extremely long voyage in the seas, mapping out the uncharted lands, but in reality, she had already proclaimed his expiration on the shelf many moons ago. At year two, Henry did not think more thoroughly about it and continued playing with his toys and by toys, he had already been learning chess at an extremely young age and mastering it by the time he headed to his first year of school. So, Henry was not your average child either, but not a big deal right?

Today, Henry is celebrating year eighteen of his birth, so the invitations had been sent out to the neighboring cities of the capital as the big fiesta will be hosted at the palace later that evening. The servants had already begun decorating the chandeliers and curtains with banners of his coming of age and the gardeners and landscapers are almost finished with the labyrinth garden that will host his statue just as his mother and father had instructed for themselves.

Also, that day, Henry will be going through his crowning ceremony officially to be the crowned prince of the kingdom in line for the throne after Dorothea. While for most people he knew are excited about this event to finally occur, Henry is at most terrified about leading an entire kingdom that has prosperously grown significantly due to his mother's outstanding leadership as queen and stepping in her shoes would not be the easiest feat for him. I will never live up to my mother shoes he thought to himself all week.

In an extremely princely fashion, he stays hidden in the secret corridors which only he knew about. It was already noon as his dressers are all continuously looking and searching for the young man to get him prepared for the big day. Stress and anxiety expressively take over the faces of them. "My lord, where IS that child?!" his mother upsettingly says as she paces around the corridors of the palaces back and forth from his bedroom to the foyer along with the servants.

"Cecilia, would you know where would I find my annoyingly, but lovable son?" she asks the one person who might know. She responds with a silent shrug.

Cecilia Nadir has been Henry's best friend as her family has long served the crown since before Dorothea was even born. Her family are powerful spellcasters who can materialize just about anything that each individual specializes. Cecilia's specialty has yet shown even though her big sister and her father had their powers show up at year 12, but at year 17, she continues to struggle finding hers. Despite silently shrugging to the queen, she also is the only person who can find Henry. It's probably her only power at this point as they have been best friends since their birth.

"What do you think you're doing?" she whispers scaring Henry as she comes up behind him in the secret passage way.

Henry tells her that he indeed is not ready to take the thrown from his mother yet as while he's mastered all the intelligence you can gain from school and books, he has no experience with politics let alone leading an entire nation to even greater prosperity. She reassures him that all will be fine and that he has his mother's wisdom to assist and guide him to be a better ruler, if feasible, than his own mother, but he continuously refuses to return to his chambers and prepare for the night ahead.

"How are you so stubborn?!" she tells him as she smacks his head with her palms leaving Henry to yell an extremely low OUCH to prevent from anyone discovering their whereabouts, but alas, Abdul opens the door down the corridor, peaks to their direction, and finds them not so stealthily hiding anymore.

"Get out of there now!" Abdul demands.

Henry groans as he slowly walks to the opened door, hearing Abdul calls out his mother from the foyer of the palace and him thinking Can today be over yet? all while still wobbling lazily towards the opening.

Abdul walks him back to his bedroom as if he was handcuffed like one of the prisoners in the dungeon alongside Cecilia and assist him getting in his fancy button up that his great grandfather who he never met worn on his coronation. "It's tradition, dear," his mom tells him the week before when they were discussing the coronation ceremony and preparing for tonight. He mimics this in the mirror as he stares at the ugliest clothing he's ever worn before, "can I wear something more comfortable?" he inquires to Abdul, but he ignores and continues fitting him with an upset expression painted on his face.

Once his suit was tied together, they moved on to his hair that were curtains hanging on his head and dropping like a waterfall to his shoulders. They tie it in a simple knot behind his head and finish it with a pin as tradition also says he must wear for coronation.

"Oh my don't you look handsome," his mom peeking in through chamber doors as she enters with a crescent moon on her face stretching enough to show craters on her cheeks. She's the most excited about this coronation because she knows that Henry would make an outstanding ruler to the kingdom regardless of what he thinks.

As soon as Abdul finishes, his mother commanded him to leave her and Henry alone, "would you be a dear and help Cecilia with her fitting?" as her father was busy with preparations with the cathedral and the ceremony. She places both her palms on his cheeks and stares at him with the same smile she had earlier for what seemed like an entire lifetime as the curtains somehow slowed dancing with the breeze coming from the outside patio and kisses his forehead before returning to a gaze again.

"Mom," Henry starts, but she interrupts him, saying she wants another minute to look at her adoring young man soon to be the ruler of her kingdom.

She walks him outside through a passageway with railing on the side where to his right he can see the gardener finishing up the labyrinth that would soon house his statue and to his left the gates of the palace seeing the common folk awaiting to see the queen and reporters reporting the news of the upcoming ceremony to parts of the kingdom that are quite remote.

Henry quickly shifts his perspective back to the long hallway rather than the plethora of people as his mother continues on and on about his big responsibility after he graduates school and how she plans to schedule sessions with her team and herself to begin his formal training as king and hope to step into the position by the following year.

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ONE YEAR?! he thinks to himself, chest pulsing as if it were ready to burst, cheeks and hands numbing as if he was becoming a statue and unable to move, and eyes twitching back and forth from ear to ear as he looks down at his shaking palms. ONE YEAR?! he thinks to himself again like it would make a difference if he would continue repeating it and erase it from memory that she had just previously said that maybe it would not be at the least be true.

"I'm NOT ready!" he interrupts her train of thought, shocking her mostly now with one palm to her chest, but she tries to keep her composure for the people watching across the yard. Her other arm travels around his neck and parks on his chest and leans closer.

"What do you mean you're not ready?" she whispers as she continues to guide him to the massive doors up ahead, speeding up a little bit in hopes to prevent the people watching from noticing anything wrong could happen. Perception is important for people like them and they can't afford anyone knowing there is a rupture in the perfect bubble she had created all these years. After all, she takes the stress herself to ensure the kingdom stresses less during their day-to-day lives. And, perhaps, that's one thing they differ in perspective.

Henry Hale is perceived as this charismatic and charming young royal, friend, and classmate, but there is one thing no one else knows about him. Henry is gay.

Of course, aside from Cecilia knowing as his best friend for the longest time, nobody including his own mother had been allowed to enter this world of his that was far different than others. And this comes as an issue during his coronation because his mother and the crown's advisors had prepared all week to invite several suitors for him to marry and produce an heir just as his mother did with him. The only problem? They were all women.

They finally arrive in front of the massive doors, but before they enter, his mother grabs him by the arms, looks him in the eyes, and utters the word, "you are more than ready than ever, my darling," and finishes with a caring hug. Henry thinks this is just again her way to ensure perception of the royal family from the general public remains intact, so he remains puzzled and challenged at the night to come.

The evening arrives and he walks through the same corridor only this time the labyrinth garden to the right is now finished and the crowd has since been dismissed from the gates. The sunset is beautifully quiet as he stares at it behind the garden and takes a breathe in and holds it as long as possible before breathing it out. "You got this!" he inspires himself or at least tries to fake it.

He finally enters the massive doors, leading to the palace ballroom where his party is being held. Caterers from the local restaurants on one side and visitors socializing with each on the other wall across from the table with food with a crystallized chandelier materialized by ice made by Cecilia's mother finishing the room along with the several bouquets decorating by the windows.

Dorothea spots Henry as he enters and announces to the crowd as she stands at the top center where the two staircases on the side at the end of the room intertwine, "my darling son has graciously honored us with his presence," she holds her glass in the air and cheers to all.

The crowd erupts with joy and smiles as Henry walks straight down the middle, waving charismatically with one hand to the visitors and forcing a smile just enough to let people know he is content and not at all awkward by the feeling of strangers at his birthday festivities because after all, this is mostly for the crowning ceremony.

Henry finally reaches the top and the crowd chants for a speech from him. He looks at his mom and finds her already staring at him and nodding as to signal him to speak to the crowd.

He scans around the room and sees a plethora of strangers, with a few reporters that have been invited at the corner, the staff at the other corner, and finally finds Cecillia already with a crescent moon on her lips stretching from cheek to cheek holding a thumbs up mouthing the words, "good luck," but as charismatic as Henry is, he stumbles, but quickly gets back up.

He proceeds on thanking everyone for their precious time spending most their evening there to celebrate his coming-of-age and hope to talk to them all soon. His speech is quick and concise, but is good enough for the crowd to give him an applause and throwing their glasses in the air to cheers.

"Go on, have fun, my darling," his mother says to him as she smooches his cheek and walks over to the politicians downstairs.

Henry follows along but as he comes to the end of the staircase, he finds Cecilia meeting him halfway, "that was a good speech!" she exclaims to him, giving him the biggest hug to reassure him, and wishing him a happiest of birthday. Henry replies with a thank you and Cecilia proceeds to ask, "want to get some food? I'm STARVE!"

As they devour the four course meal they call a buffet, Dorothea returns to the center of the staircase where they intertwine at the top and announces the dance of the evening can now begin, but to start it, Henry is to choose one of the several young women the advisors and his mother have carefully chosen from the kingdom and dance in the middle of the dancefloor and with it, a domino effect will follow with the visitors.

Dorothea instructs the young women to stand along the staircases and gives the go to Henry to choose amongst them. UGH! he groans inside his head. While they are all undeniably gorgeous and undoubtedly intelligent as his mother expects no less, there was no one else he would rather dance with than a young man who he has had the biggest crush for years and every year he would try to ensure he has classes with him and his name is Theodore West.

He finally chooses someone to dance with. She carries a flush on her face, radiating golden with her blueberry eyes, and a smell of lilies from his mother's garden. He guides her down the stairs from where she stood and walks towards the middle of the ballroom right under the crystallized chandelier and the music begins to play.

He bows to her as she responds with a curtsy and he holds out his hand to invite her to dance in which she smilingly accepts. He wraps his other wand above her waist and guides them both around the dancefloor. The crowd watching them erupt in applause and he finds his mother still standing smiling at them both.

All is going well and smooth as if the feathers were slowly and gracefully falls to the ground, but never reaches the floor, swaying everlasting and as the mood and music comes to a halt, he bows to her like in the start and she responds with a curtsy. Thus, the beginning of the party truly begins as the music shifts to a more non-traditional composition and he walks with her to his mother up the stairs.

His mother and the young woman talk amongst another as he scans the room for Cecilia, hoping to getaway from his royal duties with his mother one day, but alas, he fails to find her and returns his focus to the two of them as they continue to socialize, but he remembers spotting a familiar figure amongst the crowd and cannot help but think it is the shadow playing tricks with him.

He thinks to himself Cecilia must have finally found her powers while he and the young woman danced earlier for the crowd in which then he thinks to himself that would be inappropriate behavior by her and by that, he knows it in a jokingly manner because there is no way his father is still currently alive and returned from his long voyage although he still wishes it to be true as his mother still continues to lie to him that he is in fact alive even though he had been previously pronounced otherwise years ago as Henry found out from Abdul.

With him being a curious lad though, he decides to scan the room once more, hoping to find Cecilia and not a shadow of his deceased father. Fortunately, he spots her by the food devouring more and more of their lovely rabbit stew while talking to Abdul. Oh how I know he is currently dreading having to listen to her chat about probably the latest scoop in the entertainment media, her favorite bard.

Cecilia and Abdul notices him gazing at them conversing and she throws a thumbs up as she is sipping the last of the noodle she had picked up right before she looks at Henry. Abdul on the other hand has the same depressing expression he wears continuously as if he dreads working everyday, taking care of Henry and Cecilia which can be absolutely tiresome actually, but he rarely complains because he knows he needs the money to feed and keep shelter for his family and his boss is one of the best. And by boss, it is the queen herself despite having to be assigned as Henry's personal butler.

Henry chuckles at the sight and returns his focus towards his mother, but before he parks it fully, he stops his head halfway to see on the other side of the room is him was the shadow had seen previously during his last scan was a familiar man, but when he squints his eyes, it is not his father.

It is Theodore West.