Wilmon

"I want to be with you. If it has to be a secret, then... it has to be one."

- Simon to Wilhelm

Wilmon is the slash ship between Prince Wilhelm and Simon Eriksson from the Young Royals fandom.

Season 1
Crown Prince Wilhelm of Sweden takes notice of Simon on his first day of school at Hillerska Boarding School, where Simon is singing in the choir as part of his welcome. He is visibly fond of the boy’s singing, but the pair do not talk until after class one day when Wilhelm strikes up a conversation with Simon to introduce himself and compliment his contribution to a discussion on politics. August calls Wilhelm away from Simon and tells him to sit at the head of the table with the third years. Later, Simon goes to his dad’s apartment to ask for help acquiring booze, and when his father suggests that he’s trying to impress “a cute boy,” he doesn’t deny it and smiles. Wilhelm once again approaches Simon while drunk at his initiation party, and invites him to hang out outside, where they discuss the choir performance from earlier and Hillerska. When August comes looking for Wilhelm, the prince tells Simon to hide because he doesn’t want to talk to his cousin. Simon begins to mimic August’s calls, and Wilhelm covers his mouth so he doesn’t reveal their location. Episode 1 ends with them staring at each other.

In the next episode, the two have started a friendship. They are shown sitting by each other in meals and classes, and because Simon is trying out for the rowing team, Wilhelm offers him advice. They are interrupted once again by August. A few days later, Wilhelm is reluctant to go to morning rowing practice and lays in bed scrolling through Simon’s Instagram profile. August comes to fetch him, but Wilhelm doesn’t make any move to go until he looks out the window and sees Simon, to which he starts rushing to get ready and cuts off a phone conversation with his brother Erik. They interact a little during practice in the form of laughs and smiles. They are also later shown to study together after school, although August once again comes and makes Simon uncomfortable when he shifts the conversation to their differing class and ethnicities, and Simon leaves with Sara.

Later, Simon invites Wilhelm to skip rowing practice and go watch Rosh’s soccer game, and Wilhelm agrees. He fakes feeling under the weather to August, sneaks out of his dorm room, and takes a bus to meet up in Simon’s hometown Bjärstad. Wilhelm goes to get hotdogs for Simon and him, and Ayub teases Simon for like-liking Wilhelm and getting flustered. The three stand side by side watching the game and Simon records some of Wilhelm’s reactions.

After the game, they drive home on the back of Ayub and Rosh’s motorbikes. Wilhelm attempts to sneak back into school undetected, but August intercepts and reprimands him because he saw his cousin on Simon’s Instagram story. August gives him Alexander’s dinner duty for sneaking out without permission and warns him against his association with Simon, saying that he may just be using Wilhelm for popularity.

Meanwhile, Simon returns home and finds Sara sitting at the kitchen table drawing. She tells him he missed dinner, and he says he was showing Wilhelm around Bjärstad. Sara asks what happened to him not wanting to make any friends at Hillerska, and he says people change. To which she replies, “Isn’t that the thing about the royal family? That they never change?” Simon doesn’t reply, and he gets a text from Wilhelm asking him to take down the story showing him.

The final scene of episode 2 occurs at a horror movie screening in school. Wilhelm and Simon are sitting next to each other, and Wilhelm lays his hand on his knee with his pinky finger overlapping on Simon's leg. Slowly, Simon starts to interlock their fingers more. Wilhelm looks at him with a straight face, before holding Simon’s hand tighter and starting to smile, but when he sees Sara glance down at their hands, he panics and leaves the room. He hurries down the hallway and pauses at a school plaque reading, “You own the school. You are responsible for its legacy.” At this point, he is also biting his nails, breathing heavily, and holding his hand up to his chest, which are all indicators of his anxiety. Wilhelm sits on the windowsill and opens the window for fresh air, and Simon starts coming down the hallway after him to make sure he’s okay. Wilhelm tries to play off his exit as due to the temperature of the room, and Simon kisses him. When Wilhelm doesn’t react, he kisses him again, and Wilhelm breaks away after hearing the students in the other room scream at the movie. He begins to say, "I'm not..." but never finishes his sentence. Simon turns to leave, but Wilhelm grabs him by the sleeve and finally kisses him back.

Episode 3 starts with Wilhelm approaching Simon in the school’s music room, where Simon is attempting to play the school song on the piano but reveals that he can’t read sheet music. Wilhelm quickly teaches Simon how to play the short song and Simon then brings up the events of last Friday, being their kiss. Wilhelm asks Simon to forget about it and tries to deny his feelings. A girl tells them that their time in the room is over and they need to leave to make room for other people, but Wilhelm stays for a few more seconds to tell Simon that he still wants to be friends. Simon drops the subject and heads to class. Later, they stand near each other in the changing room and Wilhelm stares at Simon while Simon tries to look away. Before Wilhelm gets to say anything to Simon, August steals his attention. Over the next span of clips, Wilhelm is seen looking at Simon conflicted and scrolling through his social media.

Eventually, he comes to a new decision and finds Simon after a workout in the gym. He begins telling Simon about the schedule for parents day which allows the boarding students to head home for the weekend. Unsure about where the conversation is going, Simon jokingly thanks him for explaining the schedule and heads to leave, but Wilhelm quickly continues and explains that no one else is going to be at the school and finally works up the nerve to ask if Simon would keep him company over the weekend if he were to remain at Hillerska instead of heading back to the castle. Simon asks what happened to “We should forget about it,” and Wilhelm tells him that he takes it back. Simon smiles and agrees to the plans.

Wilhelm briefly makes an appearance at parent’s day to watch the opening song performed by a choir, where he and Simon grin at each other, and greet some of the guests, but quickly retreats into his room and calls Erik. Eventually, the topic shifts towards the weekend plans when Erik says they’ll be seeing each other soon. Wilhelm tells Erik that he had actually decided to stay at school and tries to pass it off as if he was just going to study, and Erik quickly calls him out for the lie and guesses that he was actually staying because he met someone at school. When Wilhelm doesn’t deny it, Erik urges him to talk and Wilhlem admits that it’s true, but he doesn’t know if the two of them are actually a couple or not. Erik tells him to enjoy himself because sooner or later people are going to start having opinions about his life, and Wilhelm tells his brother that people don’t care about him because he’s not the crown prince. Erik urges him to head back to the festivities and hang out with his crush, and Wilhelm hangs up.

"Fuck you. It’s not a crush."

- Wilhelm to Erik.

At the family day lunch, Wilhelm ignores his planned seat next to August in favor of sitting at Simon’s table. Simon notices this and smiles. Simon introduces Wilhelm to his mother Linda, but the scene is cut short when Felice exits the meal upset and Wilhelm follows after her to make sure she’s okay.

When Simon returns home late, Sara is waiting on Simon’s bed to ask about his whereabouts. She tells him that she’s seen the way they look at each other and asks why they’re sneaking around. Simon tells her that it's complicated, and she chides him for keeping the relationship a secret from her. He asks Sara not to tell anyone and she promises not to, and then begs for more information. Simon promises to tell her everything… tomorrow.

After finding out that August is no longer planning on going home for the weekend, Wilhelm realizes that he’s going to be bothering him all weekend and pulls Simon aside to tell him that they can’t hang out at school anymore. Instead of cancelling entirely and going back to Stockholm for the weekend, Wilhelm suggests that he goes to Simon’s house in Bjärstad, and Simon agrees. They exit the school excitedly, but Wilhelm becomes confused upon noticing that all the students outside are whispering and looking at him. The school psychiatrist exits after them and asks Wilhelm to come with him back into the building, where he is led to an office and given a phone. It is here that Wilhelm finds out that Erik has died in a car crash, leaving him as first in line to the throne.

While back home for Erik's funeral service, Wilhelm doesn't reply to any of Simon's texts checking in on him. Simon watches the public funeral on television as he reads through the messages, but doesn't press any further. After Wilhelm returns back to school and gives a speech at his brother's memorial, Simon finds him sitting in the room and checks in on him, only for Wilhelm to ask him to delete their message history. He tells Simon that he can't do this anymore, believing that their relationship is incompatible with his new position as Crown Prince, where he expected to grow up, follow centuries of tradition, and produce heirs.

Despite his decision, Wilhelm calls Simon while drunk and high on the football field they watch Rosh's game at. He begins rambling about how everything is fake, and Simon figures out his location and comes to pick him up. Although he is upset with him, Simon brings him back to Hillerska and stays with him all night to make sure he's okay.

"All the people are fake. They're made out of metal. But I like you, and that is not fake."

- Wilhelm to Simon. The next morning, Simon wakes up before Wilhelm and goes to leave, but the noise wakes Wilhelm up too and he asks Simon to stay. He apologizes for the night before and asks Simon to hold him. Simon asks if Wilhelm remembers what he said to him, and when Wilhelm starts to get nervous, assures him that it's okay and he feels the same way. The interaction eventually escalates to the pair being intimate. Unbeknownst to them, August was outside Wilhelm's room-- he wasn't able to get back into the school after staying out at night-- and filmed the two.

Fanon
Despite the show having only been released recently, there is a large fandom surrounding it already. As Wilhelm is the protagonist of Young Royals and his relationship with Simon, who is also a main character, plays a major part in his story, Wilmon is the most popular ship in the Young Royals fandom. Majority of the fanfictions so far are based around resolving the conflict that season 1 leaves off on, which is where Wilhelm and Simon break up due to Wilhelm's wish to remain closeted and the public denial of their relationship. There are also many crossovers that deal with Wilhelm seeking guidance from Henry of Red White and Royal Blue, as that series is also about a queer romance between a prince and someone not of aristocratic blood. In these fanfictions, Wilhelm publicly comes out against the wishes of his family and his want to keep his life private and attempts to rekindle the relationship with Simon.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

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