A Prince's Guide to Love and Regicide [M/M, Original]

[Sevenpercentsolution]

A king is dead.

A prince has a new crown and he means to wield it better than his father before him, to stop using fear and terror and violence to run a country, to rule with kindness, a task that is far more difficult than he ever predicted.  With his family to contend with, sticky politics, and his father's bad works to undo, the new king is rapidly finding himself in over his head, a matter that worsens when someone makes an attempt on his life only months into his new reign. 

In the dungeons, in the basement, in the black where his kin were never meant to be, he finds himself talking with a prisoner in the darkness, finding the man dark-humoured and clever.  He returns to speak to him again and again, thinking of him often, until the day the man is set to be executed, an order from the prince's mother, who discovered where he had been going all those nights.  Suddenly desperate, the prince has prisoners switched, giving his favourite a stay of execution while another takes his place at the chopping block - with his mother satisfied that the problem is gone, the prince proceeds to steal the prisoner, seeing him for the first time by the candle light of his own room. 

This is going to be a problem.

The Story

I'm looking for a darkly funny story in which a newly-crowned king realizes a political prisoner is more educated in the matters of his country than he is.  He falls in love with the prisoner during their discussions in the dark, a matter that worsens when he actually sees the other man for the first time.  I'm looking for an M/M story where the characters have a bizarre dynamic - the prisoner is very opposed to the current state of politics, opposed to monarchies, and has a particular hatred for the new king's family, but begrudgingly likes the other man. 

The prince, in turn, knows to be wary of the prisoner, of the fact that he's taken on the equivalent of a ticking time bomb as an assistant, but appreciates the prisoner's intellect and is swiftly and painfully falling in love with him.  I'm looking for these characters to bitch at each other, to end up in arguments about politics and manners, for their vastly different worlds to be a subject of contention, for them to get into very physical rows with each other while hiding the fact that the prisoner is, in fact, a prisoner.

Seeking someone to play the Prince.