The game ends with the two of them versus Daphne and her Prince, and when Simon catches the ball out Anthony yells for joy and tackles him around the waist. The Lady Bridgerton banishes all the men in exasperation shortly after and Simon runs across the lawn, cravat and waistcoat falling behind him along with the Bridgerton boys’, down and down to the lake at the bottom, to dive into the clear waters and come up sluicing the water from his eyes, Colin and Benedict ducking each other in the shallows, the Prince doing a clean backstroke across the length, and then Anthony resurfacing beside him.
The sunlight is glinting off the lake, off the droplets in Anthony’s water-dark hair and the curve of his neck, and he is smiling, broad and joyous and –
And Simon cannot take his eyes off of him.
Ah. Perhaps a different sort of family than he’d thought.
A delightful canon-divergence that manages to combine perfect Bridgerton family madness and wonderful Simon/Anthony.