Perchance to Wake [Oneshot, W-Atsu]
Title: Perchance to Wake
Pairing: Arai Atsushi/Shiramata Atsushi and a bunch of background pairing thingies. Mostly the usual suspects.
Rating/Warnings: G/RPS.
Word Count: 9318
Summary: Arai, a young fairy, must take responsibility for the curse he places on his bondbrother's husband, in more ways than one.
Notes: For Nickyyy ♥ The fic was inspired by a conversation we had on twitter and iirc sleepymatas was originally her idea and then I got really into it and. wrote 9k of fic hahaha.
Just a note about the very stupid world this takes place in. um. So. There are actually no girls in this world, it's all dudes all the time. But. There is not any mpreg or anything, only mystical fairy magic. So that's okay.
--
Perchance to Wake
Once upon a time, there was a young fairy boy named Arai who lived in the small kingdom of Hilbrook. He had been bonded to the kingdom's lone heir, Prince Takahisa, from a young age, and they had grown up together. It was hard to believe that the little boy he'd made about a hundred thousand flower crowns for was now standing before him a full-grown man, a fresh wreath of lilies and camellias winding through his auburn hair and his new royal spouse, Prince Shiramata of Whitehall, by his side.
It was even harder to believe that he, Arai, the prince's closest friend, the kingdom's most loyal ally, and at least the ninth most important person in the room, was stuck sitting at the kids table. And yet, there he was, sitting next to Prince Shiramata's little brother, Prince Shintarou, who was either the eighth most important person at the wedding or the least important person in the entire world. He kept pulling his hair and demanding he perform magic tricks and trying to kiss him. Gross. He sipped his grape juice and tried to ignore him.
Once the final course had been served, the newlyweds got up and began to mingle with the guests. Arai got up too, trying to catch Prince Takahisa's eye. For a while the only eye he managed to catch was little Shin's, and he started squealing over his newly unfurled wings and trying to touch them. At last His Royal Marriedness deigned to notice his poor neglected and ill-used fairy and flounced over, husband in tow.
“Hey. Congratulations,” Arai said, playing it cool. He nodded to Prince Shiramata, who nodded back.
“My prince, this is my fairy, Arai. He's the one responsible for the decorations tonight,” Takahisa said, hanging off of the prince's arm. He was doing that cutesy-cute “look at me, I'm adorable, make out with me” act that annoyed Arai so much. It annoyed him especially now. He was married to this guy, after all. He shouldn't have to beg for attention like that. Worse still, his husband didn't even seem to notice how annoying he was. At this rate he was going to be stuck living with these two and they'd probably spend the rest of his life making googly romance eyes at each other and demand he make them a hundred babies.
But maybe he was getting ahead of himself. Prince Shiramata shook his hand warmly. “I love the flowers. They're beautiful! You did an amazing job.” He ran a hand over the peony in his buttonhole and smiled, a little self-consciously, Arai thought. He kept his eyes on Arai and looked like he was going to say something else, but then Shintarou gave up on Arai's wings in favor of attacking his older brother. He started lecturing Shiramata on all the things he had done wrong in this wedding, which gave Arai the chance to talk to Takahisa alone. It was for the best. He couldn't explain why, but there was something about Shiramata that was making him strangely uneasy.
He plucked a wilting lily from Takahisa's hair and breathed new life and color into it before tucking it behind his ear again. “So you think it's gonna work out?”
Takahisa shrugged. “Dunno yet. But he's cute at least.” Arai looked back at Shiramata, who had his hands clasped in front of him and was looking suitably chastened as Shin continued telling him off. This time he took in the details of his face - his soft eyes, his regal nose, his full lips. He allowed that he had certainly seen less attractive humans in his lifetime. Takahisa giggled. “He's also really good at kissing,” he whispered.
A faint blush stained Arai's cheeks. “Why would you tell me that? I don't even care. I don't wanna know. That's gross. You're gross,” he said, to cover it up. It worked perfectly, and Takahisa changed the subject.
“You know he shares your given name?” he said in a lower tone, and Arai's wings fluttered nervously.
“Don't say that out loud! Someone'll hear you and then they'll know my true name and they'll control me forever. Knowing my luck, it'll probably be that Shintarou kid.” He was about to launch into a recitation of all the injustices he had suffered at the young prince's hands throughout the course of the dinner, but Takahisa just waved all his problems aside and went to cling to Shiramata's arm again and talk to little Shin. Traitor. Probably going to give his name away on purpose.
Arai refused to resign himself to a life of wing-pulling and sticky grape juice kisses and stalked out of the room. He found an unoccupied parlor a little away from the dining room and, with the grace and elegance of a fairy, threw himself onto the floor and sulked.
He continued to sulk until he could hear music pouring under the door and knew the dancing had begun. That didn't inspire him to rejoin the party - fairies danced alone, unless baby-making was involved - but he felt he owed it to Takahisa and the rest of the royal family to be seen for the festivities, at least. He got to his feet and folded his wings back as the door opened and Prince Shiramata walked in. "There you are," the prince said. "Takahisa asked me to try and find you."
The way he said Takahisa's name irritated him somehow, and he tried to conceal it. Had to be nice to princes, even - no, especially the ones that you feel uncomfortable around and that irritate you for no reason. "He sent you? Not someone less important?" He preened a little bit, happy that they were starting to treat him with the respect he deserved.
"I'm not that important really," the prince said shyly, then grinned. "And I wanted to talk to you some more anyway! I think it's so cool that you're a fairy. We don't have any fairies here at all. I've never even met my brother's wife. Do you mind if I..." He trailed off and began circling Arai, looking him up and down admiringly. Honestly, it was a bit flattering at first, but on the third or fourth go around Arai started to get uncomfortable.
"We're not all that different from humans," he said a little sharply.
Shiramata stopped behind him. "Yeah, I'm a little surprised. But you smell like flowers."
“Uh, I'm a flower fairy. You might not have noticed, but I made you guys a ton of flowers.” Arai was about to tell him exactly how many he had made, which was every single bouquet, wreath, and centerpiece at a garden-themed wedding, but before he could, Shiramata started touching his wings, just lightly on the edges at first, then lower and lower and more confidently until he was rubbing the joints where they attached to his back through his tunic.
"And you have these," he said, wonder in his voice.
"Nnghh," Arai said, and then "Hnngh." He felt lightheaded and vaguely boneless, and if he didn't possess the immense willpower he did, would probably have collapsed. As it was, he could feel his knees buckling and was on the verge of falling despite himself when Shiramata finally stopped. When he found his tongue again, he started by yelling "Idiot!" at the top of his lungs. He was breathing heavily and his face felt flushed. "You can't... you just... stupid! You're so stupid! You can't just go around touching people's wings!" Shiramata's eyes went wide and he tried to say something. "No! I don't care! How would you like if if I started poking you in the eyes and knocking on your head because, oh, I've never met a human before, I didn't realize they had no brain." He pushed the prince away and stalked towards the door, but was stopped by a tug on his wing. "NNGH," he said.
“I'm so sorry! I don't know what came over me. I just- you- they were so beautiful and I... Ah!” Shiramata let go of Arai's wing and the air flooded back into his lungs all at once. “There is no excuse for my actions,” he said, ducking his head sheepishly. He peered up at Arai with a worried expression on his face. “Whoa, dude, you look super sick. Are you okay? Did I hurt you?” Embarrassment bloomed on Arai's face and in the pit of his stomach. “I was hoping you could do a little magic for me, but you seriously look like you're going to die. Here, I'll help you lie down and call a healer.” This time Shiramata took him by the arm rather than the wing. Arai's embarrassment grew even more acute and he pushed it back with the only other emotion he was capable of at the moment - hot, dark anger.
He grabbed the prince and spun a black rose into existence. “You want magic? Here. Here's a spell just for you.” He forced Shiramata's hand open and jabbed one of the rose's thorns into the tip of his finger. Shiramata gave a small whimper and collapsed onto the ground. Arai banished the rose and stood over the prince's crumpled form triumphantly, breathing heavily.
And then realized what he had done. “Oh. Shit.” After a few seconds' thought, he scooped the prince into his arms and took off running down the hall toward the ballroom, yelling all the way. “Help, help! The prince has been cursed!” He burst through the ballroom doors just as a dance was ending, ensuring that all eyes were on him. Normally he would have been proud of his dramatic timing, but with Prince Shiramata's head lolling against his shoulder, all he could do was repeat himself. “The prince has been cursed!”
Immediately he was surrounded by yelling people, all asking questions and trying to get a good look at the prince. Arai backed away, holding Shiramata protectively close until Takahisa and the kings of Whitehall managed to push through the crowd. They led Arai out of the room, down a secret staircase and into a small bedroom. He was directed to lay the prince down on the bed, and then the questions began again. “What happened? Who did this?”
“He just... collapsed! When we were leaving the room... There was no one else around, but I can read the magic on him and it's definitely a curse.” An idea occurred. “Do you know of anyone who could have done this? It seems the curse was triggered by the wedding, so if there was anyone who had wished him harm... any villains from his past....”
King Takuya frowned. “Honestly, I don't think anyone's ever cared enough to try and curse our son. He generally doesn't inspire that much passion in people.”
“Not to mention, there is no magic in Whitehall strong enough to cast a curse,” King Shoutarou added. He shifted his piercing gaze from his son's still body to Arai. “Unless it belongs to you,” he said meaningfully.
“Whoa. Whoa whoa whoa. This is freaking me out too, okay? And, I mean, Prince Takahisa's my bro, right? Why the heck would I want to go around cursing his new husband, especially after he said he was totally hot or whatever? Duh. I'm not stupid, thank you.” Arai folded his arms and turned away, mostly so the king couldn't stare at him anymore.
Takahisa put on a totally princely look that managed to convey sympathy, concern, and the confidence that this was all a big mistake that would all be cleared up before anyone would have to worry about returning dowries or expensive wedding gifts. “Don't worry, your Majesties, my fairy and I will research this curse and figure out how to lift it. Why don't you head back and explain to the guests that this is all just a Hilbrook wedding tradition and that there's no cause for alarm?” he said pleasantly, guiding the two kings to the door. When it closed behind them, his face turned murderous. “Why the heck would you want to go around cursing my new husband, especially after I said he was totally hot or whatever,” he growled, pinching Arai's wing.
“Hnngh,” Arai said.
Takahisa pinched him again and dropped into the chair beside the bed, scanning Shiramata with unfocused eyes. “At least these people don't know anything about magic. Otherwise they would have known straight off that- Please tell me you didn't bind it to love. Please tell me this isn't a true love curse.”
“Is it?” Arai said weakly, and went to look. Sure enough, the lines of the curse were clear. This creature shall sleep until true love's kiss awakens him. “Oh. Um.”
“You know that, regardless of how hot he is, this is just a political marriage, right?” Takahisa hissed. “You know I'm like 97% sure that the Duke of Moonpeaks's son is my true love, right?”
“I just- You know how fairy magic works! True love is the default! And he was even worse than his little brother the five-year-old, all staring and demanding magic and grabbing my wings. He was touching them for like, ten years, for real.” He was getting worked up again, all self-righteously defensive, convinced that the prince had deserved to be hit with a spell like this... until he glanced down at him and saw the look on his face and remembered how light he had been in his arms. His shoulders slumped. “And then I just got mad and cursed him.”
Takahisa groaned. “I told him to get you so you could fix that trellis out in the garden with romantic roses and stuff. We were going to sneak out there during the dance. If that's what you mean by demanding magic.”
“Um. He didn't specify that exactly. Anyway, it wouldn't have bothered me if he hadn't been all touchy-touch before that,” Arai said. He was aware he sounded whiny, but couldn't seem to stop.
Takahisa buried his face in his hands. “Okay. That's probably my fault. I'm sorry.”
“Why? What did you do?”
“I may have, um, told him that it was good luck to rub the wings of a fairy on your wedding night.” Takahisa looked up just long enough for Arai to see that his face was red as a rose, then sunk back down.
“Are you serious? You know people get weird about my wings. You know I hate when people get weird about my wings.” Arai smacked Takahisa. Takahisa hit him back.
“Okay, you were the one who ran out on my wedding party. And he kept going on and on about how pretty your wings were, wow, fairies, whatever. I just thought it would make you mad and get him to shut up. I didn't think you'd curse him over something that stupid!”
They glared at each other until Arai drooped. “Okay. I'm the worst fairy. I'm sorry.”
“That's right.” Takahisa rubbed the very tip of a wing and Arai managed the hint of a smile. “But you're my terrible fairy, and he's my terrible husband, so we'll figure out something.”
Takahisa then flung himself on top of Shiramata and began kissing him passionately, ruining the touching moment they had been having. Arai turned away. “You are so gross.”
“Grow up and find a boy to kiss,” Takahisa retorted when he was done with his one-sided sloppy makeout display. “You could start with this one. Maybe you cursing him was all just a ploy so you could steal him away from me.”
“Um, earth to Prince Stupid, I have negative one billion interest in anything you've been drooling over. Literally,” Arai said, eying Shiramata's suddenly moist lips. Takahisa blushed and wiped them with his sleeve.
“Whatever. It's not me. What now?”
Arai was going to say something super helpful about how they should probably just leave forever and pretend there had never been a wedding or a Prince Shiramata or any of that at all, but before he could, the door opened and the Kings of Whitehall, their other two sons, and Takahisa's parents entered.
“Oh, your royal majesties. I'm afraid I must report that the curse is going to be more difficult to lift than we had hoped.” Takahisa started babbling something about ley lines and equinoxes and completely irrelevant things that probably sounded good if you didn't know anything about magic. It was obvious that Takahisa's parents realized what was going on after a glance at the prince. King Kamitsuru fixed Arai with a glare that meant he was in for the pinching of his life once this was all cleared up, and his partner, High Chancellor Shion, added his voice to the chatter, talking so loudly and quickly that hopefully the others wouldn't notice that Takahisa had already run out of lies. At last they both paused for breath, leaving their Shiramata majesties looking dumbfounded.
“Excuse me, what are you talking about?” Prince Shiramata's older brother asked. It occurred to Arai that this brother was the one who had been made the Royal Consort to the Queen of Fairies a few years back, and therefore he realized they were totally full of crap. He all but threw himself on him.
“Oh, your most divine consortliness, brightest and best-loved of all the creatures in all the realm, I did not see you there,” he twittered, wings fluttering a few shades too fast. “Please allow me to make my greetings aaaaaaaahhhh look at how crowded the room is please allow me to make my greetings outside perhaps and I'd be happy to explain how our rustic Hilbrook magics may differ from the sophisticated ones you are used to seeing at court,” he said. He pushed him out the door, winking at Takahisa so he'd know to be impressed by how well and how subtly he was handling the situation. Takahisa rolled his eyes.
As the doors shut behind them and he pulled him into a very spacious closet nearby, he stopped babbling pleasantries about His Royal Highness Queen Mitsuya's glorious reign and dropped to his knees to grovel. “I'm sorry! I'm so sorry.”
He peeked up. The confusion on Lord Kenki's face was being replaced by anger. “So, it was you,” he said quietly. “What. Did you do. To my baby brother.”
Arai cowered. “I, um. Accidentally kinda maybe cursed him. And I'm sorry, I'm truly sorry! I know that what I did to your brother was unforgivable and when this is resolved you can have your wife punish me however you want, I deserve it! But please don't say anything yet. My brother's involved in this too, and I don't want anything bad to happen to him just because I'm a huge idiot.” He ducked his head again, fully expecting to get kicked. Instead, Kenki lifted him to his feet.
“I'm not happy about this,” he warned. “I don't know what you think I can do to help you and I don't know how you plan to fix this, but for Atsushi's sake, you had better.” Arai quivered at the use of his name. Kenki misunderstood. “Look, I don't want to hurt you or anything really, it's just... He's my brother. I would do anything for him. So...” He ran a hand through his hair. “I don't know.”
“It's a true love curse,” Arai said. Lord Kenki's face was unreadable. Arai recalled rumors that the first and only official consort the Queen had named was his true love, and felt his face burn. “I... The Queen has a spell you can use to find someone's true love without having to make everyone in the world kiss him. I think we're going to need it.”
“I will ask him for it when I return.” Kenki shook his head, then shook it again, slower and more sadly. “And then... we shall have to hope that Atsushi is loved.”
They returned to Prince Shiramata's room to find both sets of parents talking over each other in what Takahisa would call “diplomatically heated tones.” Takahisa himself was making himself useful clinging to Shiramata's unconscious body. They all turned to look when they came in, Takahisa looking a bit surprised Arai was alive.
“Whatever they've told you, the facts are these,” Lord Kenki addressed his parents, with a sureness Arai envied. “My brother is cursed, and the nature of the curse is such that even my wife will most likely be unable to lift it.” Everyone groaned except for little Shintarou, who nodded like it was about what he had expected. “I am no expert and the magic is foreign to me, but I believe it says the enchantment will last one year.”
“Not one hundred?” Arai asked in a small voice.
“One year,” Kenki repeated, staring him down until he whimpered softly, wings folding around himself in an attempt to look smaller.
“And there's no way to break it other than to wait?” King Shoutarou asked.
“Not that I can see. Of course, I'll look into it more when I return to the Fairy Lands.”
King Shoutarou clapped his hands, suddenly all business. “Right. You, fairy. You will have to impersonate our son until the party ends. After that, we will meet again to discuss what this will mean for our trade negotiations.” He bent over to kiss his unconscious son on the forehead, then straightened and swept out of the room, the other king in tow.
Lord Shion went after them, but instead of following, King Kamitsuru picked Shintarou up. He gestured for Arai to stand in front of them. “You haven't seen many fairies before, have you, kiddo?”
“Only this one!” He reached out and pulled on Arai's cheek. Arai winced, knowing this was far from the worst thing that was going to happen to him.
“Then you won't know what their wings feel like, huh?” Shintarou's eyes went wide and he shook his head. “You're one lucky kiddo, because this particular fairy has the nicest feeling wings in the world, second only to the Fairy Queen himself. Go ahead and touch them, I'm sure he won't mind.” Kamitsuru gestured for him to turn around and he did so reluctantly. The little prince was surprisingly gentle, though he did start pulling a bit harder when he discovered the interesting sounds Arai made as a result. Still, at least it didn't make him feel all weak and helpless like it had when his brother had been doing it. Eventually Kamitsuru set the boy down and pinched Arai. “All right, time to get copying.”
Arai looked at Prince Shiramata, taking in his appearance afresh. And then stared at Takahisa. “Were you seriously making out with this guy again while this brat was pulling on my wings?” he asked. “No offense,” he said to Shintarou, who shrugged.
Takahisa went a little red. “I just wanted to double check, okay?”
“That's my boy,” Kamitsuru said proudly, and Takahisa grinned.
Arai ignored them and focused on transforming into Shiramata. “How's that?” he asked after he'd shrunk to the appropriate height and rearranged his face to match Shiramata's features.
“Wow!” said Shintarou. “But you need to make the nose a bit bigger.”
“And more kissable lips,” King Kamitsuru and Takahisa said at the same time. They high-fived. “You might also consider losing the wings, but I don't think that's as important,” Kamitsuru added.
“Oh, huh.” Arai vanished his wings and tucked them close to his back so nobody would crash into them. After a series of small cosmetic changes, they deemed him “as good as he was going to get” and set back out for the ballroom. Takahisa clung to him disconcertingly.
He stopped outside the doors. “Am I going to have to dance?”
“Just one, I think,” Takahisa said, “with me. It's probably almost over anyway.”
“Fine. It's totally fine.” Arai fluffed his wings out one last time before tucking them in again. “We will just do this and it will be fine.”
And it was, mostly. Even the dancing was fine, mostly because he had long ago resigned himself to having to do baby dances with Takahisa and whoever else. The part that wasn't really fine was when all the stupid Whitehall people made them kiss, because they clearly hadn't gotten enough hot prince-on-prince smooching action during the wedding ceremony, but whatever. He dealt with it appropriately.
Mostly by complaining afterward when they were in private again. “I can't believe you stuck your tongue in my mouth. Gross.”
“I have a reputation to keep up, you know.”
“A totally undeserved reputation. I would not call you the best kisser in the western kingdoms ever, for sure.”
“I didn't exactly use my best and most seductive techniques on you.”
“Yuck. Anyway, what do you need a reputation for? You're married, dude.”
“Shut up.”
“I think that's the first argument my brother's ever won,” Prince Shintarou said, and Arai was confused for a second before he laughed and dropped the illusion.
“Don't worry, kiddo. After we wake him up, I'll teach him how to beat this guy every time.” He patted him on the head. Maybe he wasn't really a plague on existence. It wasn't his fault he was five, after all.
“Maybe. If they're even still married.”
“Hey! They're not going to unmarry just because-” Arai remembered just in time “-someone who is clearly terrible and unnecessarily mean put a curse on one of them for a bit.”
“But you put a true love curse on him, so he's gonna want to marry whoever wakes him up instead,” Shintarou said.
Arai's jaw dropped in horror. Takahisa's did the same, but since he was regal and majestic he managed to get a few words out. “What? No. Wrong. Not Arai. Not true love.”
“Just because my parents don't read magic doesn't mean I can't,” Shin said. He clung to Arai's leg. “It was very bad of you to curse my brother, even if he is dumb. But you're a good fairy with really good wings, so I'll forgive you just this once.”
“Thank you,” Arai said. He looked at Takahisa. “He does have a point.”
“But he could still keep the marriage. He could just have the other guy on the side, or whatever! I wouldn't mind!”
“Atsushi would. I think he was happy about this marriage because he didn't think he'd ever find a true love. But if he did, that person would be the only one in the world to him.” Shin shrugged.
“Guess I should start looking for a new husband.”
Arai laughed. “Not like you don't already have a dozen possibilities lined up.” Takahisa got all flustered and tried to argue that there were only five, six tops, but that just made him laugh harder.
Takahisa's parents entered the room, Shion looking hot and flustered and Kamitsuru irritated. Shion made a move to shoo Shintarou out of the room, but Arai stopped him. “He knows everything already.”
“Does he know how annoying his parents are?” Kamitsuru grumbled. He grabbed a bottle of wine Arai and Takahisa hadn't touched, popping the top off and not bothering with a glass.
Shin jumped up next to him. “They like making each other mad. But they like making other people mad more.” He patted Kamitsuru's shoulder.
“They're good at it,” Shion said, stealing the bottle from Kamitsuru. He fell onto the sofa as well and they fought over the wine until Kamitsuru gave up and pulled Shion into his lap.
“Anyway,” he said, “kiddo's big brother convinced them not to do anything for a year. Finally. After two million years of blah blah contracts and this means war and having to strain my neck looking up at the tall one. I wanted to chop his legs off. Um, don't tell him that.”
“He wouldn't be shocked or anything. My other dad threatens him with that all the time.”
“Huh. Anyway, they're basically sending Takahisa away for a long 'honeymoon' so it won't be obvious the prince isn't around. Arai, you'll have to go with him and make occasional public appearances as the prince. You'll also have to search for his true love on your travels.”
“Any idea what kind of guy it is?” Takahisa asked Shin. “I know you said he wasn't expecting to find one, but...”
“Dunno. I'd think someone who would laugh at all his dumb jokes even though they aren't funny, and stuff, but, like, true love stuff is weird apparently. Like, my brother Kenki and the Fairy Queen? Weird, right?”
“Hmm,” Arai said. “Well, I am personally acquainted with the Fairy Queen and-”
Kamitsuru cut him off. “I dunno. I can see it.”
Shin looked unconvinced. “He didn't know anything about fairies, though! He didn't even know where babies come from! And then all of a sudden he's married to the Fairy Queen? I'm just saying, it's probably someone you'd never think of.”
They processed this. “It's probably me then,” Shion said grimly, taking a long drink of wine and setting the bottle down with a thump. “I'm so sorry, my king, but destiny calls.”
“The hell it does,” Kamitsuru said, wrapping his arms protectively around him. They started making out and Arai made a gagging sound. Takahisa just smiled fondly at them. It was no wonder he had turned out the way he had, with parents like these.
“I guess we should get packing, then,” Arai said, loudly, to cover up the smoochy sounds. Shintarou was the only one who nodded in acknowledgment of this.
Maybe it wasn't that they'd put him at the kids table. Maybe they'd conscientiously put him with the only human that was capable of paying attention to him when he was trying to be useful and helpful and not just when he'd done something wrong. Arai sighed and left the room. He wasn't looking forward to the upcoming months of pretending.
-
“Congratulations, this is the worst place we've been to yet. Good job.”
“You've said that about literally every place we've been to since we left Hilbrook. And I thought you liked Moonpeaks! That's why I saved it for last!”
“I mean, I like the foothills of Moonpeaks, in the warmer months. But we're at the peak of the highest mountain in midwinter. And the reason you saved it for last is because you want to marry their kid, but only if no one else made you a better offer first.”
“Nuh-uh,” Takahisa said, but didn't argue the point. Possibly because he knew Arai was right, and more likely because they had just stepped out of the carriage and into the full force of the raging blizzard. Despite being wrapped in about ten layers of fur, Takahisa started shivering immediately.
“You think this is bad? Never come to the Fairy Lands in winter,” Arai said, but wasn't sure he heard him over the wind. They approached the castle doors, which swung open before them. A boy in a comfy-looking sweater greeted them, speaking in precise, formal language, but before he could finish, Takahisa was running toward him.
“Yuuki!” Yuuki caught him and twirled him around in the air. They leaned in for a kiss, but remembered themselves in time. “Your hair's gotten longer,” Takahisa said softly, running his fingers through Yuuki's black hair, which was streaked with sparkling strands of magic.
Yuuki slowly unwound the scarf from around Takahisa's neck. “So has yours,” he said tenderly.
Okay. It wasn't that Arai didn't realize that true love generally made you all stupid like this, particularly after long separations. He'd learned to understand that they couldn't help it, really. And, yes, over the years he'd gotten pretty accustomed to the pair's staring-into-each-other's-eyes routine and rarely ever even thought about cursing them for it. But after the better part of a year traveling through everywhere and checking every single person they came across for the true love potential that Prince Shiramata was in such desperate need of, he wasn't really in the mood to deal with it. So he didn't. He traced a circle of magic on the ground and teleported himself to Whitehall and the prince's bedroom.
He hadn't been able to visit for a while, and he felt slightly guilty along with the usual anger when he saw that once again, a fine layer of dust had been allowed to settle upon the prince's still form. You'd think that loving parents would take the time to care for their enchanted son, but Arai didn't think anyone else had been in the room since about a month after the incident. He hadn't thought anything good would come of the curse, of course, but he hadn't been expecting everyone to forget it so soon.
He replaced the wilting flowers he had left last time with new ones, bright and cheerful to drive away the winter cold, then found a cloth and dusted off the prince's face as best he could. A number of dust particles remained trapped in Shiramata's dark eyelashes. Arai suddenly felt very, very sorry for the prince, and although he had been trying to hold it back, he also felt sorry for himself. He sat down on the bed and hugged his knees to his chest and wondered why any of this had happened. He couldn't figure out why he hadn't been able to control himself. He didn't know why he couldn't make amends by finding Shiramata's true love, even though he'd searched almost everywhere. He didn't understand why he was the only one, Takahisa and the Shiramata royal family included, that still seemed to care about saving him. But he knew that it hurt.
He looked down at the prince, once again taking in the face he had come to know so well: the dark eyelashes, the slight downturn of the lips, the furrow in his brow. “Sorry,” he said, but it came out sounding sarcastic. “I'm sorry,” he repeated, but it still didn't sound right. “I'm sorry... Atsushi.”
The door opened and Arai spun around, ready to deny everything and blast someone with a (non-true love-related) forgetfulness curse. Seeing only an empty doorway, he paused, confused, until his eyes traveled downwards and he saw Prince Shintarou. “Oh. It's just you. That's okay then.”
Shin's expression went from confused to ecstatic. “Arai, what are you doing here? Are you going to wake my brother up?” He slammed the door and scrambled up onto the bed to give Arai a kiss on the cheek. Arai reflected that he'd gotten less sticky, at least.
“Sorry, kiddo. Haven't found the guy yet. I'm only here because...” He found that all of his reasons sounded stupid now. “Just checking?” he finished.
“Kenki's been trying, but he hasn't found him yet either.” They were silent for a minute, Shin swinging his legs in the air and kicking his heels against the mattress. “So why'd you curse him?”
Arai stared at the wall. “He was touching my wings,” he said dully.
“What?” Shin gave one of his wings an experimental pat. “But I touched your wings too, and you didn't curse me.” He patted it again, and Arai tensed, then relaxed.
“It was different though, the way he did it. More... personal?” A shiver ran through him and he shook off the memory. “I don't know. Whenever he was around it just made me really nervous and uncomfortable for some reason.”
Shin gave him a look that he didn't quite understand. He knew it wasn't good, though. “So you've checked everywhere for his true love?” he said at last.
“Pretty much. We're wintering in Moonpeaks and we're not finished there yet, but we've been through every other kingdom, checked everyone in every little village we passed through, and nothing.” He crushed the impulse to bring up Takahisa and Yuuki, which would only make him start whining even more than he already had.
“You know... Kenki's true love ended up being the Fairy Queen. So maybe Atsushi's is a fairy too,” Shin said, giving Arai that look again.
“Huh. I guess I hadn't really thought of that. I dunno if your brother's already looked there, but I guess I should check it out too.” It would give him a reason to get out of the castle, too, and between the infamous Fairy Land winters and the famed Moonpeaks hot chocolate that always tasted better when Yuuki made it, Takahisa would never want to come along. “I should get going now, but I'll be back later, I promise.” He got up, taking one last look at Prince Shiramata. “I won't let you down.”
-
Arai made several journeys to the Fairy Lands that winter, usually when the incessant flirting and increasingly serious jokes about elopement started to get to him. The first time, he visited the palace to find Lord Kenki in bed with a cold and the Queen fussing over him. He managed to grasp that they had been searching for Prince Shiramata's true love in the territories just outside Fairy when Kenki had come down with a winter flu and that the Queen had subsequently banned him from searching further until winter was over. Neither of them had thought to look within Fairy itself, and so Arai spent some time with them coming up with a plan to search the territory. After that, he started covering small parts just within the borders when he had the time and inclination to deal with fairies (who he generally liked better than humans, but were notoriously difficult when it came to matters of true love). Mostly he hoped that if it was a fairy, they'd make it easy by randomly heading to court for whatever reason and submitting to the now-mandatory true love test the Queen had kindly agreed to institute.
It was almost spring now, and it was easy to tell where the fairy realm with its self-perpetuating weather began, because the ground went from a thin layer of dirty ice to nearly a foot and a half of enchanted, shimmering snow. Arai spread his wings and took off, skimming just above the top layer.
Although he had been planning to go to a nearby village, he decided to go visit a friend who lived a little way out first. Ikeoka claimed he liked the solitude, but Arai suspected that he'd built his house in the out of the way valley because it was the only place he could reliably find again without getting lost. When he got there... well, there was a soft shower of falling snow that was obviously there for the ambiance, and he figured the icicles were just some sort of fashion statement, but the ice sculpture right next to the door gave him pause. He knocked on the door and it swung open. “Over here,” Ikeoka called.
Arai carefully took off his shoes and floated into the room, careful not to brush against any of the multitude of fairy lights. He found Ikeoka in the next room watching a fire dance in the hearth, his arm around another fairy. “Hey.”
Ikeoka turned around, looking not in the least bit excited to see a good friend he hadn't met in years. “Oh. I thought you were the takeout guy. Oh well.” He fished a hand out from under the blankets and waved at a nearby stool. “You might as well sit down. Shison, this is Arai, an old friend of mine. Arai, Shison.”
“Nice to meet you.” Arai sat, and thought about stealing a blanket from the stack they had on top of them, then decided it would be for the best if he didn't. “So, the sculpture out front...”
“I made it,” Shison said. “What do you think?”
“It's... impressive,” Arai said, and regretted it as their faces split into identical smirks.
“'son's an artist,” Ikeoka said proudly.
“IkeP's been teaching me how to work with water. I'm more of a fire guy usually.” The fire roared hotter. Ikeoka rubbed his nose against Shison's and they both giggled. Although still gross, they weren't as cloyingly sweet as Yuuki and Takahisa, so Arai decided not to bail yet.
“That's cool. I do flowers mostly,” he contributed, digging out a pair of seeds. He bloomed them into a snowdrop and a fireflower and offered them to the two.
“Oh, cool. Can you go into the kitchen and put them in a vase?” Ikeoka asked, not taking his eyes off Shison. Arai grumped away into the kitchen and carefully arranged the two flowers, whispering words of encouragement so they'd keep blooming even though they were bound to be unappreciated for the entirety of their short lives. He brought it back into the other room.
“So are you guys...” Arai grimaced and made a fairy-specific hand gesture. “Or are you just...?”
“Does it matter?”
“Well. I mean. So. Maybe there's a cute prince with a curse who could really do with having it broken by someone who isn't otherwise... committed. Or something. I dunno. Whatever.”
Ikeoka finally dragged his eyes away from Shison and looked at him properly for the first time. “Okay, what have you gotten yourself into this time? And... did you actually describe someone as cute?”
“I only said it to try and make you more interested, ugh. I'm so not into humans or romance or any of that. And it's... a mission from the Queen himself!”
The pair was silent. At last Shison said, “I'll take the test. But I don't intend to do anything more than break the curse if it does indicate me.”
Ikeoka had been frowning, but his expression changed to a goofy grin. “That's right. 'son may or may not be the best one for me, but right now he's the only one for me.” The slightly wet sounds that followed might have indicated that they were expressing their ambiguously true/ordinary love by kissing a lot, but as Arai had turned away in order to prepare the materials, he couldn't possibly confirm this and decided to assume they were just taking a second to practice some water magic techniques. He kept his head turned until the sounds died away, just in case he was wrong. Takahisa with his tongue down some boy's throat was a fact of life. Ikeoka in the same situation was just gross.
He handed them each a strand of willowgrass with a hair tied around it. Concentrating on Shiramata's image, he infused both with magic. Although they glowed faintly at first, they quickly dulled. Arai sighed. “Oh well.”
“Look on the bright side,” Ikeoka advised. “If it really had been one of us, you'd have been responsible for convincing him not to pursue us. You probably would've had to pretend it was you instead. Which means...” He puckered his lips and made a kissy sound. Shison clearly found this wasteful and went to make better use of his lips.
Arai ignored that stuff and thought about pretending to be in love with Prince Shiramata. His wings twinged with the same tactile sensation they had when Shiramata had touched them so long ago, as intense and vivid as if he was touching them again now. If they had to get married or whatever, would he be permanently stuck in that state of weakness and uneasiness? Worse, or maybe not but maybe equally bad, would the prince spend the whole time kissing him instead? Takahisa had said he was a good kisser, and unfortunately Arai had a pretty good idea of what Takahisa thought that entailed.
He decided he wasn't going to think about it anymore. “Well, normally I'd pretend I came here for more than that and stay to chat some more but you two seem really... occupied, so I guess I'll head out. Bye, Ikeoka. It was nice meeting you, Shison.” He waited for them to break apart long enough to say goodbye, but it quickly became apparent that that wasn't going to happen, so he sighed, put his shoes back on, and left. After that, he wasn't really in the mood to try the village, so he decided to go home instead. He was so absorbed in glaring at the ice sculpture out front and hoping that they never got their takeout that it took him a second to realize he wasn't in the Moonpeaks castle but in Whitehall.
He conjured up a yellow daisy, but instead of putting it with the other flowers, he slid it behind the prince's ear. It made him look brighter somehow, less cursed and more natural, and Arai found himself bending closer and closer in order to get a better look, wondering how the addition of a single plain flower could seem to change the sad expression the boy had worn for so long. He straightened up with a wry grin. “I should have saved the flowers I made for you, since you seem so into them. I bet you've never seen a fireflower or a snowdrop before. I'll show you when you wake up. Unless you're too busy making out with some rando and don't have time for flowers anymore either.” He sighed and stopped caressing the flower's petals reluctantly, telling himself that for now, it was enough.
-
Two days left. No... at this point it had to be one. He should be... somewhere, anywhere else, looking for the prince's unfindable true love, but with a week to go, the Kings of Whitehall suddenly remembered that they had a middle son and demanded ceremony and grandeur for his great awakening. Not that he was going to wake up, at this rate. Takahisa and Lord Kenki were scouring the Fairy Lands while Yuuki and Takahisa's parents were searching all over the human realm, testing everyone they came across with the help of the Queen's magic. Even Yuuki's parents had issued a proclamation saying that every village that submitted to a full testing would be exempt from taxes for the year. And it was all in vain. Arai wondered how that was possible - they'd looked everywhere. A lot of people had more than one true love, if you kept looking hard enough. Why didn't Prince Shiramata have even a single one? Was he really going to have to sleep for a hundred years, until the kingdom fell into ruin and all that remained of the castle was the crumbling room that he slept in? Would he sleep forever until some soulmate born a century later stole in to wake him? Was there some great destiny awaiting him, an unchangeable destiny brought about by fate's unwitting pawn, an idiot fairy with a temper? From what he knew about the prince, he kinda doubted that, but still. He had a hard time believing that there was no one anywhere ever who was willing to give a cute (shut up, he was objectively hot) prince the dedication and love he deserved.
He coerced the last sprigs of baby's breath into existence and set the flower crown down on the prince's head, smoothing down his black hair and letting his fingers trail down the side of his face and curl under his jaw, lifting his face toward him ever so slightly. He really was beautiful...
A thought occurred.
He sat down heavily. He did not move for a long time.
He absolutely could not be right about this. It didn't make sense. Someone would have noticed by now. Besides, who had ever heard of someone...
“Cursing his own true love,” he whispered.
He stood back up and bit his lip. Then he thought of Takahisa and stopped, swiping the back of his hand against his mouth. It was a lose-lose situation. If he failed, well, obviously he was still doomed; he'd be found guilty of cursing an innocent boy and sent to fairy jail, plus he'd feel really stupid afterward. If he didn't fail... he was in for the pinching of a lifetime. And he'd probably bankrupt the kingdom trying to pay back the debt incurred from the unnecessary Moonpeaks tax cuts. He'd undoubtedly turn into a true love zombie and want to do nothing but make kissy faces all day. And Prince Shiramata would probably want to marry him.
Somehow that last thing didn't sound as bad as it should have.
He looked down at the prince - ugh, he was so attractive - and let out a loud wail. He bloomed the entirety of the bed into a riot of flowers, pulling the fibers of the fabric back to life and into new, colorful forms. Then he made flowers spring out of the furniture, the paintings on the wall, the wall itself. The floor was a clover patch and a steady shower of flower petals was drifting from the ceiling by the time he decided he didn't even care anymore and bent down to kiss the prince.
After a second, he became aware that the prince was kissing him back. It was a second more before their lips separated. “Thank you,” Prince Shiramata said. Arai had no idea why he was thanking him, so he laughed. He continued to laugh until the prince got flustered. “What? Why are you- What's so funny?”
“You,” Arai told him, hearing a strange note in his voice as he said it. It felt like normally it would be totally embarrassing but he still didn't care. It occurred to him that maybe this kissing stuff wasn't as bad as it seemed, in moderation, anyway. To test this hypothesis, he leaned down and kissed him again.
Shiramata kissed him back eagerly and somehow Arai ended up on the bed, on top of him, the kiss deepening. It was as if Shiramata was touching his entire body the way he had touched his wings, only now Arai recognized that the tingling sensation wasn't the least bit unpleasant. He decided, yes, kissing. Not bad at all.
“You smell like flowers,” Shiramata whispered.
Arai got up and helped him to his feet. “I'm a flower fairy. I made you a lot of flowers.” He indicated the room and shrugged. “Sorry?”
Shiramata started walking around the room, mouth hanging open, staring at the different flowers, touching some, smelling a few. Arai trailed after him, and when he saw him looking at one in particular, he told him what it was. After that, Prince Shiramata started to ask him when he saw one he didn't know, and with as much magic as Arai had poured into the room, there were a lot he didn't know. But he never stopped asking and Arai never stopped answering. At last he turned around, a smile lighting his face. “They're so beautiful. Everything... it's so beautiful!”
For some reason it looked like there were tears in his eyes. But then again, as Arai took a step forward and hugged him as fiercely as he could, for some reason he had tears in his eyes too.
“I don't want to go back to the wedding,” Shiramata said. “Do you think Prince Takahisa would mind if... I married you instead?”
Arai blushed, but didn't even feel the need to get defensive about it. He answered honestly. “Actually, I think he'd prefer it.”
“Would you mind if I married you instead?”
Arai's face fell. “So. Here's the thing. I don't mind. In fact, I pretty much don't want to marry anyone but you ever. But. Um. It's actually been a year since the wedding. I. Uh. Kinda. Cursed you. Sorry. I'm stupid.”
“Oh.” Shiramata was silent for a moment. He sat down on the clover and patted the spot across from him. Arai sat down nervously. “I am so confused about what happened, but... can you tell me why?”
Arai tried to explain. At first he just meant to tell him why he'd lost his temper, but then it was important that he didn't think he was crazy and went around cursing people all the time, so he had to explain that he was a little emotional that day, so he had to talk about Takahisa a lot, and then how it hadn't even occurred to him that he might be attracted to his brother's new husband, because he was never really attracted to anyone before and anyway that's kinda weird, right, crushin' on your brother's husband, and eventually more or less the full story of the last twelve months came out. Shiramata didn't interrupt him to yell at him or pinch him or anything. “So... yeah. I was just sitting here thinking about how everything was terrible, especially me. And then I thought, well, this guy isn't terrible, and then I thought about how nobody ever bothered to check if I was your true love, since I'm the idiot who cursed you in the first place, like what kind of moron curses their own true love, and then I kissed you. And you woke up. So. It turns out I'm that kind of moron,” he finished, hanging his head.
“Dude. That's so romantic.”
“What? Really?”
“Totally! It's the most romantic thing that's ever happened to me. Instead of just running away, you were there for me the whole time, right?” Shiramata smiled at him, and Arai's heart started aching a little bit. He was so focused on that adorable smile that he hardly even thought about how it was probably the first sign of love zombification. “You're thoughtful, dedicated, and super sweet. And you're really funny, and also really hot. So that settles it.” He pulled a golden ring from his pocket and slid it onto Arai's finger. “Marry me?”
Arai took Shiramata's hand - ugh, even his fingers were beautiful - and spun a loop of vine topped with an unopened bud onto his ring finger. “Marry me?” he echoed.
“Yes,” they said together, and then they laughed, and then they kissed, and then Prince Shiramata very shyly asked if Arai minded if he touched his wings just a little bit, and Arai blushed but spread his wings as wide as they would go and boldly declared that he could touch them as much as he wanted, and by the time the prince was finished, Arai had melted into a very happy puddle of goo in his lap.
“There's lots of stuff you don't know about fairies, right?” he said, when he could speak again. “One thing is - we have names just like you, a last name and a given name - but people who know our full names have power over us. So we only tell our true names to the people we are closest to - family.” He took a deep breath. “Your given name is Atsushi, right? Well... so is mine.”
For some reason that made the prince laugh, and his long, beautiful fingers tangled in his hair. “Are you serious? That's gonna get super confusing for you, huh?” Almost to himself, he whispered “Atsushi...” and ran his hands through Arai's hair again. “Hmm, can fairies change their names? Human princes can't.”
“Nope. And I wouldn't change it even if I could. Atsushi,” Arai said, very seriously, “is the best and most beautiful name in the entire universe.”
“Super agreed.”
They sat together, and they talked a bit sometimes, about fairies and families and Whitehall, and sometimes they admired the flowers that filled the room, and sometimes, very occasionally, because Arai still thought doing it in moderation was the key to not ending up like Takahisa and Yuuki, or even Ikeoka and Shison, they kissed. Eventually Arai had to explain to Shiramata's parents why their son was awake a day early, and as the news trickled out to everyone else, he received quite a few angry lectures and wing pinches. But then again, he didn't even mind that too much, because for every wing pinch, there was a soft wing rub and a kiss from a prince, and in Arai's mind, that more than made up for it.
--
I'm thinking a sequel might need to happen. Maybe a side story or two. idk. I hope you enjoyed it and I would love to hear what you thought about it :D
Pairing: Arai Atsushi/Shiramata Atsushi and a bunch of background pairing thingies. Mostly the usual suspects.
Rating/Warnings: G/RPS.
Word Count: 9318
Summary: Arai, a young fairy, must take responsibility for the curse he places on his bondbrother's husband, in more ways than one.
Notes: For Nickyyy ♥ The fic was inspired by a conversation we had on twitter and iirc sleepymatas was originally her idea and then I got really into it and. wrote 9k of fic hahaha.
Just a note about the very stupid world this takes place in. um. So. There are actually no girls in this world, it's all dudes all the time. But. There is not any mpreg or anything, only mystical fairy magic. So that's okay.
--
Perchance to Wake
Once upon a time, there was a young fairy boy named Arai who lived in the small kingdom of Hilbrook. He had been bonded to the kingdom's lone heir, Prince Takahisa, from a young age, and they had grown up together. It was hard to believe that the little boy he'd made about a hundred thousand flower crowns for was now standing before him a full-grown man, a fresh wreath of lilies and camellias winding through his auburn hair and his new royal spouse, Prince Shiramata of Whitehall, by his side.
It was even harder to believe that he, Arai, the prince's closest friend, the kingdom's most loyal ally, and at least the ninth most important person in the room, was stuck sitting at the kids table. And yet, there he was, sitting next to Prince Shiramata's little brother, Prince Shintarou, who was either the eighth most important person at the wedding or the least important person in the entire world. He kept pulling his hair and demanding he perform magic tricks and trying to kiss him. Gross. He sipped his grape juice and tried to ignore him.
Once the final course had been served, the newlyweds got up and began to mingle with the guests. Arai got up too, trying to catch Prince Takahisa's eye. For a while the only eye he managed to catch was little Shin's, and he started squealing over his newly unfurled wings and trying to touch them. At last His Royal Marriedness deigned to notice his poor neglected and ill-used fairy and flounced over, husband in tow.
“Hey. Congratulations,” Arai said, playing it cool. He nodded to Prince Shiramata, who nodded back.
“My prince, this is my fairy, Arai. He's the one responsible for the decorations tonight,” Takahisa said, hanging off of the prince's arm. He was doing that cutesy-cute “look at me, I'm adorable, make out with me” act that annoyed Arai so much. It annoyed him especially now. He was married to this guy, after all. He shouldn't have to beg for attention like that. Worse still, his husband didn't even seem to notice how annoying he was. At this rate he was going to be stuck living with these two and they'd probably spend the rest of his life making googly romance eyes at each other and demand he make them a hundred babies.
But maybe he was getting ahead of himself. Prince Shiramata shook his hand warmly. “I love the flowers. They're beautiful! You did an amazing job.” He ran a hand over the peony in his buttonhole and smiled, a little self-consciously, Arai thought. He kept his eyes on Arai and looked like he was going to say something else, but then Shintarou gave up on Arai's wings in favor of attacking his older brother. He started lecturing Shiramata on all the things he had done wrong in this wedding, which gave Arai the chance to talk to Takahisa alone. It was for the best. He couldn't explain why, but there was something about Shiramata that was making him strangely uneasy.
He plucked a wilting lily from Takahisa's hair and breathed new life and color into it before tucking it behind his ear again. “So you think it's gonna work out?”
Takahisa shrugged. “Dunno yet. But he's cute at least.” Arai looked back at Shiramata, who had his hands clasped in front of him and was looking suitably chastened as Shin continued telling him off. This time he took in the details of his face - his soft eyes, his regal nose, his full lips. He allowed that he had certainly seen less attractive humans in his lifetime. Takahisa giggled. “He's also really good at kissing,” he whispered.
A faint blush stained Arai's cheeks. “Why would you tell me that? I don't even care. I don't wanna know. That's gross. You're gross,” he said, to cover it up. It worked perfectly, and Takahisa changed the subject.
“You know he shares your given name?” he said in a lower tone, and Arai's wings fluttered nervously.
“Don't say that out loud! Someone'll hear you and then they'll know my true name and they'll control me forever. Knowing my luck, it'll probably be that Shintarou kid.” He was about to launch into a recitation of all the injustices he had suffered at the young prince's hands throughout the course of the dinner, but Takahisa just waved all his problems aside and went to cling to Shiramata's arm again and talk to little Shin. Traitor. Probably going to give his name away on purpose.
Arai refused to resign himself to a life of wing-pulling and sticky grape juice kisses and stalked out of the room. He found an unoccupied parlor a little away from the dining room and, with the grace and elegance of a fairy, threw himself onto the floor and sulked.
He continued to sulk until he could hear music pouring under the door and knew the dancing had begun. That didn't inspire him to rejoin the party - fairies danced alone, unless baby-making was involved - but he felt he owed it to Takahisa and the rest of the royal family to be seen for the festivities, at least. He got to his feet and folded his wings back as the door opened and Prince Shiramata walked in. "There you are," the prince said. "Takahisa asked me to try and find you."
The way he said Takahisa's name irritated him somehow, and he tried to conceal it. Had to be nice to princes, even - no, especially the ones that you feel uncomfortable around and that irritate you for no reason. "He sent you? Not someone less important?" He preened a little bit, happy that they were starting to treat him with the respect he deserved.
"I'm not that important really," the prince said shyly, then grinned. "And I wanted to talk to you some more anyway! I think it's so cool that you're a fairy. We don't have any fairies here at all. I've never even met my brother's wife. Do you mind if I..." He trailed off and began circling Arai, looking him up and down admiringly. Honestly, it was a bit flattering at first, but on the third or fourth go around Arai started to get uncomfortable.
"We're not all that different from humans," he said a little sharply.
Shiramata stopped behind him. "Yeah, I'm a little surprised. But you smell like flowers."
“Uh, I'm a flower fairy. You might not have noticed, but I made you guys a ton of flowers.” Arai was about to tell him exactly how many he had made, which was every single bouquet, wreath, and centerpiece at a garden-themed wedding, but before he could, Shiramata started touching his wings, just lightly on the edges at first, then lower and lower and more confidently until he was rubbing the joints where they attached to his back through his tunic.
"And you have these," he said, wonder in his voice.
"Nnghh," Arai said, and then "Hnngh." He felt lightheaded and vaguely boneless, and if he didn't possess the immense willpower he did, would probably have collapsed. As it was, he could feel his knees buckling and was on the verge of falling despite himself when Shiramata finally stopped. When he found his tongue again, he started by yelling "Idiot!" at the top of his lungs. He was breathing heavily and his face felt flushed. "You can't... you just... stupid! You're so stupid! You can't just go around touching people's wings!" Shiramata's eyes went wide and he tried to say something. "No! I don't care! How would you like if if I started poking you in the eyes and knocking on your head because, oh, I've never met a human before, I didn't realize they had no brain." He pushed the prince away and stalked towards the door, but was stopped by a tug on his wing. "NNGH," he said.
“I'm so sorry! I don't know what came over me. I just- you- they were so beautiful and I... Ah!” Shiramata let go of Arai's wing and the air flooded back into his lungs all at once. “There is no excuse for my actions,” he said, ducking his head sheepishly. He peered up at Arai with a worried expression on his face. “Whoa, dude, you look super sick. Are you okay? Did I hurt you?” Embarrassment bloomed on Arai's face and in the pit of his stomach. “I was hoping you could do a little magic for me, but you seriously look like you're going to die. Here, I'll help you lie down and call a healer.” This time Shiramata took him by the arm rather than the wing. Arai's embarrassment grew even more acute and he pushed it back with the only other emotion he was capable of at the moment - hot, dark anger.
He grabbed the prince and spun a black rose into existence. “You want magic? Here. Here's a spell just for you.” He forced Shiramata's hand open and jabbed one of the rose's thorns into the tip of his finger. Shiramata gave a small whimper and collapsed onto the ground. Arai banished the rose and stood over the prince's crumpled form triumphantly, breathing heavily.
And then realized what he had done. “Oh. Shit.” After a few seconds' thought, he scooped the prince into his arms and took off running down the hall toward the ballroom, yelling all the way. “Help, help! The prince has been cursed!” He burst through the ballroom doors just as a dance was ending, ensuring that all eyes were on him. Normally he would have been proud of his dramatic timing, but with Prince Shiramata's head lolling against his shoulder, all he could do was repeat himself. “The prince has been cursed!”
Immediately he was surrounded by yelling people, all asking questions and trying to get a good look at the prince. Arai backed away, holding Shiramata protectively close until Takahisa and the kings of Whitehall managed to push through the crowd. They led Arai out of the room, down a secret staircase and into a small bedroom. He was directed to lay the prince down on the bed, and then the questions began again. “What happened? Who did this?”
“He just... collapsed! When we were leaving the room... There was no one else around, but I can read the magic on him and it's definitely a curse.” An idea occurred. “Do you know of anyone who could have done this? It seems the curse was triggered by the wedding, so if there was anyone who had wished him harm... any villains from his past....”
King Takuya frowned. “Honestly, I don't think anyone's ever cared enough to try and curse our son. He generally doesn't inspire that much passion in people.”
“Not to mention, there is no magic in Whitehall strong enough to cast a curse,” King Shoutarou added. He shifted his piercing gaze from his son's still body to Arai. “Unless it belongs to you,” he said meaningfully.
“Whoa. Whoa whoa whoa. This is freaking me out too, okay? And, I mean, Prince Takahisa's my bro, right? Why the heck would I want to go around cursing his new husband, especially after he said he was totally hot or whatever? Duh. I'm not stupid, thank you.” Arai folded his arms and turned away, mostly so the king couldn't stare at him anymore.
Takahisa put on a totally princely look that managed to convey sympathy, concern, and the confidence that this was all a big mistake that would all be cleared up before anyone would have to worry about returning dowries or expensive wedding gifts. “Don't worry, your Majesties, my fairy and I will research this curse and figure out how to lift it. Why don't you head back and explain to the guests that this is all just a Hilbrook wedding tradition and that there's no cause for alarm?” he said pleasantly, guiding the two kings to the door. When it closed behind them, his face turned murderous. “Why the heck would you want to go around cursing my new husband, especially after I said he was totally hot or whatever,” he growled, pinching Arai's wing.
“Hnngh,” Arai said.
Takahisa pinched him again and dropped into the chair beside the bed, scanning Shiramata with unfocused eyes. “At least these people don't know anything about magic. Otherwise they would have known straight off that- Please tell me you didn't bind it to love. Please tell me this isn't a true love curse.”
“Is it?” Arai said weakly, and went to look. Sure enough, the lines of the curse were clear. This creature shall sleep until true love's kiss awakens him. “Oh. Um.”
“You know that, regardless of how hot he is, this is just a political marriage, right?” Takahisa hissed. “You know I'm like 97% sure that the Duke of Moonpeaks's son is my true love, right?”
“I just- You know how fairy magic works! True love is the default! And he was even worse than his little brother the five-year-old, all staring and demanding magic and grabbing my wings. He was touching them for like, ten years, for real.” He was getting worked up again, all self-righteously defensive, convinced that the prince had deserved to be hit with a spell like this... until he glanced down at him and saw the look on his face and remembered how light he had been in his arms. His shoulders slumped. “And then I just got mad and cursed him.”
Takahisa groaned. “I told him to get you so you could fix that trellis out in the garden with romantic roses and stuff. We were going to sneak out there during the dance. If that's what you mean by demanding magic.”
“Um. He didn't specify that exactly. Anyway, it wouldn't have bothered me if he hadn't been all touchy-touch before that,” Arai said. He was aware he sounded whiny, but couldn't seem to stop.
Takahisa buried his face in his hands. “Okay. That's probably my fault. I'm sorry.”
“Why? What did you do?”
“I may have, um, told him that it was good luck to rub the wings of a fairy on your wedding night.” Takahisa looked up just long enough for Arai to see that his face was red as a rose, then sunk back down.
“Are you serious? You know people get weird about my wings. You know I hate when people get weird about my wings.” Arai smacked Takahisa. Takahisa hit him back.
“Okay, you were the one who ran out on my wedding party. And he kept going on and on about how pretty your wings were, wow, fairies, whatever. I just thought it would make you mad and get him to shut up. I didn't think you'd curse him over something that stupid!”
They glared at each other until Arai drooped. “Okay. I'm the worst fairy. I'm sorry.”
“That's right.” Takahisa rubbed the very tip of a wing and Arai managed the hint of a smile. “But you're my terrible fairy, and he's my terrible husband, so we'll figure out something.”
Takahisa then flung himself on top of Shiramata and began kissing him passionately, ruining the touching moment they had been having. Arai turned away. “You are so gross.”
“Grow up and find a boy to kiss,” Takahisa retorted when he was done with his one-sided sloppy makeout display. “You could start with this one. Maybe you cursing him was all just a ploy so you could steal him away from me.”
“Um, earth to Prince Stupid, I have negative one billion interest in anything you've been drooling over. Literally,” Arai said, eying Shiramata's suddenly moist lips. Takahisa blushed and wiped them with his sleeve.
“Whatever. It's not me. What now?”
Arai was going to say something super helpful about how they should probably just leave forever and pretend there had never been a wedding or a Prince Shiramata or any of that at all, but before he could, the door opened and the Kings of Whitehall, their other two sons, and Takahisa's parents entered.
“Oh, your royal majesties. I'm afraid I must report that the curse is going to be more difficult to lift than we had hoped.” Takahisa started babbling something about ley lines and equinoxes and completely irrelevant things that probably sounded good if you didn't know anything about magic. It was obvious that Takahisa's parents realized what was going on after a glance at the prince. King Kamitsuru fixed Arai with a glare that meant he was in for the pinching of his life once this was all cleared up, and his partner, High Chancellor Shion, added his voice to the chatter, talking so loudly and quickly that hopefully the others wouldn't notice that Takahisa had already run out of lies. At last they both paused for breath, leaving their Shiramata majesties looking dumbfounded.
“Excuse me, what are you talking about?” Prince Shiramata's older brother asked. It occurred to Arai that this brother was the one who had been made the Royal Consort to the Queen of Fairies a few years back, and therefore he realized they were totally full of crap. He all but threw himself on him.
“Oh, your most divine consortliness, brightest and best-loved of all the creatures in all the realm, I did not see you there,” he twittered, wings fluttering a few shades too fast. “Please allow me to make my greetings aaaaaaaahhhh look at how crowded the room is please allow me to make my greetings outside perhaps and I'd be happy to explain how our rustic Hilbrook magics may differ from the sophisticated ones you are used to seeing at court,” he said. He pushed him out the door, winking at Takahisa so he'd know to be impressed by how well and how subtly he was handling the situation. Takahisa rolled his eyes.
As the doors shut behind them and he pulled him into a very spacious closet nearby, he stopped babbling pleasantries about His Royal Highness Queen Mitsuya's glorious reign and dropped to his knees to grovel. “I'm sorry! I'm so sorry.”
He peeked up. The confusion on Lord Kenki's face was being replaced by anger. “So, it was you,” he said quietly. “What. Did you do. To my baby brother.”
Arai cowered. “I, um. Accidentally kinda maybe cursed him. And I'm sorry, I'm truly sorry! I know that what I did to your brother was unforgivable and when this is resolved you can have your wife punish me however you want, I deserve it! But please don't say anything yet. My brother's involved in this too, and I don't want anything bad to happen to him just because I'm a huge idiot.” He ducked his head again, fully expecting to get kicked. Instead, Kenki lifted him to his feet.
“I'm not happy about this,” he warned. “I don't know what you think I can do to help you and I don't know how you plan to fix this, but for Atsushi's sake, you had better.” Arai quivered at the use of his name. Kenki misunderstood. “Look, I don't want to hurt you or anything really, it's just... He's my brother. I would do anything for him. So...” He ran a hand through his hair. “I don't know.”
“It's a true love curse,” Arai said. Lord Kenki's face was unreadable. Arai recalled rumors that the first and only official consort the Queen had named was his true love, and felt his face burn. “I... The Queen has a spell you can use to find someone's true love without having to make everyone in the world kiss him. I think we're going to need it.”
“I will ask him for it when I return.” Kenki shook his head, then shook it again, slower and more sadly. “And then... we shall have to hope that Atsushi is loved.”
They returned to Prince Shiramata's room to find both sets of parents talking over each other in what Takahisa would call “diplomatically heated tones.” Takahisa himself was making himself useful clinging to Shiramata's unconscious body. They all turned to look when they came in, Takahisa looking a bit surprised Arai was alive.
“Whatever they've told you, the facts are these,” Lord Kenki addressed his parents, with a sureness Arai envied. “My brother is cursed, and the nature of the curse is such that even my wife will most likely be unable to lift it.” Everyone groaned except for little Shintarou, who nodded like it was about what he had expected. “I am no expert and the magic is foreign to me, but I believe it says the enchantment will last one year.”
“Not one hundred?” Arai asked in a small voice.
“One year,” Kenki repeated, staring him down until he whimpered softly, wings folding around himself in an attempt to look smaller.
“And there's no way to break it other than to wait?” King Shoutarou asked.
“Not that I can see. Of course, I'll look into it more when I return to the Fairy Lands.”
King Shoutarou clapped his hands, suddenly all business. “Right. You, fairy. You will have to impersonate our son until the party ends. After that, we will meet again to discuss what this will mean for our trade negotiations.” He bent over to kiss his unconscious son on the forehead, then straightened and swept out of the room, the other king in tow.
Lord Shion went after them, but instead of following, King Kamitsuru picked Shintarou up. He gestured for Arai to stand in front of them. “You haven't seen many fairies before, have you, kiddo?”
“Only this one!” He reached out and pulled on Arai's cheek. Arai winced, knowing this was far from the worst thing that was going to happen to him.
“Then you won't know what their wings feel like, huh?” Shintarou's eyes went wide and he shook his head. “You're one lucky kiddo, because this particular fairy has the nicest feeling wings in the world, second only to the Fairy Queen himself. Go ahead and touch them, I'm sure he won't mind.” Kamitsuru gestured for him to turn around and he did so reluctantly. The little prince was surprisingly gentle, though he did start pulling a bit harder when he discovered the interesting sounds Arai made as a result. Still, at least it didn't make him feel all weak and helpless like it had when his brother had been doing it. Eventually Kamitsuru set the boy down and pinched Arai. “All right, time to get copying.”
Arai looked at Prince Shiramata, taking in his appearance afresh. And then stared at Takahisa. “Were you seriously making out with this guy again while this brat was pulling on my wings?” he asked. “No offense,” he said to Shintarou, who shrugged.
Takahisa went a little red. “I just wanted to double check, okay?”
“That's my boy,” Kamitsuru said proudly, and Takahisa grinned.
Arai ignored them and focused on transforming into Shiramata. “How's that?” he asked after he'd shrunk to the appropriate height and rearranged his face to match Shiramata's features.
“Wow!” said Shintarou. “But you need to make the nose a bit bigger.”
“And more kissable lips,” King Kamitsuru and Takahisa said at the same time. They high-fived. “You might also consider losing the wings, but I don't think that's as important,” Kamitsuru added.
“Oh, huh.” Arai vanished his wings and tucked them close to his back so nobody would crash into them. After a series of small cosmetic changes, they deemed him “as good as he was going to get” and set back out for the ballroom. Takahisa clung to him disconcertingly.
He stopped outside the doors. “Am I going to have to dance?”
“Just one, I think,” Takahisa said, “with me. It's probably almost over anyway.”
“Fine. It's totally fine.” Arai fluffed his wings out one last time before tucking them in again. “We will just do this and it will be fine.”
And it was, mostly. Even the dancing was fine, mostly because he had long ago resigned himself to having to do baby dances with Takahisa and whoever else. The part that wasn't really fine was when all the stupid Whitehall people made them kiss, because they clearly hadn't gotten enough hot prince-on-prince smooching action during the wedding ceremony, but whatever. He dealt with it appropriately.
Mostly by complaining afterward when they were in private again. “I can't believe you stuck your tongue in my mouth. Gross.”
“I have a reputation to keep up, you know.”
“A totally undeserved reputation. I would not call you the best kisser in the western kingdoms ever, for sure.”
“I didn't exactly use my best and most seductive techniques on you.”
“Yuck. Anyway, what do you need a reputation for? You're married, dude.”
“Shut up.”
“I think that's the first argument my brother's ever won,” Prince Shintarou said, and Arai was confused for a second before he laughed and dropped the illusion.
“Don't worry, kiddo. After we wake him up, I'll teach him how to beat this guy every time.” He patted him on the head. Maybe he wasn't really a plague on existence. It wasn't his fault he was five, after all.
“Maybe. If they're even still married.”
“Hey! They're not going to unmarry just because-” Arai remembered just in time “-someone who is clearly terrible and unnecessarily mean put a curse on one of them for a bit.”
“But you put a true love curse on him, so he's gonna want to marry whoever wakes him up instead,” Shintarou said.
Arai's jaw dropped in horror. Takahisa's did the same, but since he was regal and majestic he managed to get a few words out. “What? No. Wrong. Not Arai. Not true love.”
“Just because my parents don't read magic doesn't mean I can't,” Shin said. He clung to Arai's leg. “It was very bad of you to curse my brother, even if he is dumb. But you're a good fairy with really good wings, so I'll forgive you just this once.”
“Thank you,” Arai said. He looked at Takahisa. “He does have a point.”
“But he could still keep the marriage. He could just have the other guy on the side, or whatever! I wouldn't mind!”
“Atsushi would. I think he was happy about this marriage because he didn't think he'd ever find a true love. But if he did, that person would be the only one in the world to him.” Shin shrugged.
“Guess I should start looking for a new husband.”
Arai laughed. “Not like you don't already have a dozen possibilities lined up.” Takahisa got all flustered and tried to argue that there were only five, six tops, but that just made him laugh harder.
Takahisa's parents entered the room, Shion looking hot and flustered and Kamitsuru irritated. Shion made a move to shoo Shintarou out of the room, but Arai stopped him. “He knows everything already.”
“Does he know how annoying his parents are?” Kamitsuru grumbled. He grabbed a bottle of wine Arai and Takahisa hadn't touched, popping the top off and not bothering with a glass.
Shin jumped up next to him. “They like making each other mad. But they like making other people mad more.” He patted Kamitsuru's shoulder.
“They're good at it,” Shion said, stealing the bottle from Kamitsuru. He fell onto the sofa as well and they fought over the wine until Kamitsuru gave up and pulled Shion into his lap.
“Anyway,” he said, “kiddo's big brother convinced them not to do anything for a year. Finally. After two million years of blah blah contracts and this means war and having to strain my neck looking up at the tall one. I wanted to chop his legs off. Um, don't tell him that.”
“He wouldn't be shocked or anything. My other dad threatens him with that all the time.”
“Huh. Anyway, they're basically sending Takahisa away for a long 'honeymoon' so it won't be obvious the prince isn't around. Arai, you'll have to go with him and make occasional public appearances as the prince. You'll also have to search for his true love on your travels.”
“Any idea what kind of guy it is?” Takahisa asked Shin. “I know you said he wasn't expecting to find one, but...”
“Dunno. I'd think someone who would laugh at all his dumb jokes even though they aren't funny, and stuff, but, like, true love stuff is weird apparently. Like, my brother Kenki and the Fairy Queen? Weird, right?”
“Hmm,” Arai said. “Well, I am personally acquainted with the Fairy Queen and-”
Kamitsuru cut him off. “I dunno. I can see it.”
Shin looked unconvinced. “He didn't know anything about fairies, though! He didn't even know where babies come from! And then all of a sudden he's married to the Fairy Queen? I'm just saying, it's probably someone you'd never think of.”
They processed this. “It's probably me then,” Shion said grimly, taking a long drink of wine and setting the bottle down with a thump. “I'm so sorry, my king, but destiny calls.”
“The hell it does,” Kamitsuru said, wrapping his arms protectively around him. They started making out and Arai made a gagging sound. Takahisa just smiled fondly at them. It was no wonder he had turned out the way he had, with parents like these.
“I guess we should get packing, then,” Arai said, loudly, to cover up the smoochy sounds. Shintarou was the only one who nodded in acknowledgment of this.
Maybe it wasn't that they'd put him at the kids table. Maybe they'd conscientiously put him with the only human that was capable of paying attention to him when he was trying to be useful and helpful and not just when he'd done something wrong. Arai sighed and left the room. He wasn't looking forward to the upcoming months of pretending.
-
“Congratulations, this is the worst place we've been to yet. Good job.”
“You've said that about literally every place we've been to since we left Hilbrook. And I thought you liked Moonpeaks! That's why I saved it for last!”
“I mean, I like the foothills of Moonpeaks, in the warmer months. But we're at the peak of the highest mountain in midwinter. And the reason you saved it for last is because you want to marry their kid, but only if no one else made you a better offer first.”
“Nuh-uh,” Takahisa said, but didn't argue the point. Possibly because he knew Arai was right, and more likely because they had just stepped out of the carriage and into the full force of the raging blizzard. Despite being wrapped in about ten layers of fur, Takahisa started shivering immediately.
“You think this is bad? Never come to the Fairy Lands in winter,” Arai said, but wasn't sure he heard him over the wind. They approached the castle doors, which swung open before them. A boy in a comfy-looking sweater greeted them, speaking in precise, formal language, but before he could finish, Takahisa was running toward him.
“Yuuki!” Yuuki caught him and twirled him around in the air. They leaned in for a kiss, but remembered themselves in time. “Your hair's gotten longer,” Takahisa said softly, running his fingers through Yuuki's black hair, which was streaked with sparkling strands of magic.
Yuuki slowly unwound the scarf from around Takahisa's neck. “So has yours,” he said tenderly.
Okay. It wasn't that Arai didn't realize that true love generally made you all stupid like this, particularly after long separations. He'd learned to understand that they couldn't help it, really. And, yes, over the years he'd gotten pretty accustomed to the pair's staring-into-each-other's-eyes routine and rarely ever even thought about cursing them for it. But after the better part of a year traveling through everywhere and checking every single person they came across for the true love potential that Prince Shiramata was in such desperate need of, he wasn't really in the mood to deal with it. So he didn't. He traced a circle of magic on the ground and teleported himself to Whitehall and the prince's bedroom.
He hadn't been able to visit for a while, and he felt slightly guilty along with the usual anger when he saw that once again, a fine layer of dust had been allowed to settle upon the prince's still form. You'd think that loving parents would take the time to care for their enchanted son, but Arai didn't think anyone else had been in the room since about a month after the incident. He hadn't thought anything good would come of the curse, of course, but he hadn't been expecting everyone to forget it so soon.
He replaced the wilting flowers he had left last time with new ones, bright and cheerful to drive away the winter cold, then found a cloth and dusted off the prince's face as best he could. A number of dust particles remained trapped in Shiramata's dark eyelashes. Arai suddenly felt very, very sorry for the prince, and although he had been trying to hold it back, he also felt sorry for himself. He sat down on the bed and hugged his knees to his chest and wondered why any of this had happened. He couldn't figure out why he hadn't been able to control himself. He didn't know why he couldn't make amends by finding Shiramata's true love, even though he'd searched almost everywhere. He didn't understand why he was the only one, Takahisa and the Shiramata royal family included, that still seemed to care about saving him. But he knew that it hurt.
He looked down at the prince, once again taking in the face he had come to know so well: the dark eyelashes, the slight downturn of the lips, the furrow in his brow. “Sorry,” he said, but it came out sounding sarcastic. “I'm sorry,” he repeated, but it still didn't sound right. “I'm sorry... Atsushi.”
The door opened and Arai spun around, ready to deny everything and blast someone with a (non-true love-related) forgetfulness curse. Seeing only an empty doorway, he paused, confused, until his eyes traveled downwards and he saw Prince Shintarou. “Oh. It's just you. That's okay then.”
Shin's expression went from confused to ecstatic. “Arai, what are you doing here? Are you going to wake my brother up?” He slammed the door and scrambled up onto the bed to give Arai a kiss on the cheek. Arai reflected that he'd gotten less sticky, at least.
“Sorry, kiddo. Haven't found the guy yet. I'm only here because...” He found that all of his reasons sounded stupid now. “Just checking?” he finished.
“Kenki's been trying, but he hasn't found him yet either.” They were silent for a minute, Shin swinging his legs in the air and kicking his heels against the mattress. “So why'd you curse him?”
Arai stared at the wall. “He was touching my wings,” he said dully.
“What?” Shin gave one of his wings an experimental pat. “But I touched your wings too, and you didn't curse me.” He patted it again, and Arai tensed, then relaxed.
“It was different though, the way he did it. More... personal?” A shiver ran through him and he shook off the memory. “I don't know. Whenever he was around it just made me really nervous and uncomfortable for some reason.”
Shin gave him a look that he didn't quite understand. He knew it wasn't good, though. “So you've checked everywhere for his true love?” he said at last.
“Pretty much. We're wintering in Moonpeaks and we're not finished there yet, but we've been through every other kingdom, checked everyone in every little village we passed through, and nothing.” He crushed the impulse to bring up Takahisa and Yuuki, which would only make him start whining even more than he already had.
“You know... Kenki's true love ended up being the Fairy Queen. So maybe Atsushi's is a fairy too,” Shin said, giving Arai that look again.
“Huh. I guess I hadn't really thought of that. I dunno if your brother's already looked there, but I guess I should check it out too.” It would give him a reason to get out of the castle, too, and between the infamous Fairy Land winters and the famed Moonpeaks hot chocolate that always tasted better when Yuuki made it, Takahisa would never want to come along. “I should get going now, but I'll be back later, I promise.” He got up, taking one last look at Prince Shiramata. “I won't let you down.”
-
Arai made several journeys to the Fairy Lands that winter, usually when the incessant flirting and increasingly serious jokes about elopement started to get to him. The first time, he visited the palace to find Lord Kenki in bed with a cold and the Queen fussing over him. He managed to grasp that they had been searching for Prince Shiramata's true love in the territories just outside Fairy when Kenki had come down with a winter flu and that the Queen had subsequently banned him from searching further until winter was over. Neither of them had thought to look within Fairy itself, and so Arai spent some time with them coming up with a plan to search the territory. After that, he started covering small parts just within the borders when he had the time and inclination to deal with fairies (who he generally liked better than humans, but were notoriously difficult when it came to matters of true love). Mostly he hoped that if it was a fairy, they'd make it easy by randomly heading to court for whatever reason and submitting to the now-mandatory true love test the Queen had kindly agreed to institute.
It was almost spring now, and it was easy to tell where the fairy realm with its self-perpetuating weather began, because the ground went from a thin layer of dirty ice to nearly a foot and a half of enchanted, shimmering snow. Arai spread his wings and took off, skimming just above the top layer.
Although he had been planning to go to a nearby village, he decided to go visit a friend who lived a little way out first. Ikeoka claimed he liked the solitude, but Arai suspected that he'd built his house in the out of the way valley because it was the only place he could reliably find again without getting lost. When he got there... well, there was a soft shower of falling snow that was obviously there for the ambiance, and he figured the icicles were just some sort of fashion statement, but the ice sculpture right next to the door gave him pause. He knocked on the door and it swung open. “Over here,” Ikeoka called.
Arai carefully took off his shoes and floated into the room, careful not to brush against any of the multitude of fairy lights. He found Ikeoka in the next room watching a fire dance in the hearth, his arm around another fairy. “Hey.”
Ikeoka turned around, looking not in the least bit excited to see a good friend he hadn't met in years. “Oh. I thought you were the takeout guy. Oh well.” He fished a hand out from under the blankets and waved at a nearby stool. “You might as well sit down. Shison, this is Arai, an old friend of mine. Arai, Shison.”
“Nice to meet you.” Arai sat, and thought about stealing a blanket from the stack they had on top of them, then decided it would be for the best if he didn't. “So, the sculpture out front...”
“I made it,” Shison said. “What do you think?”
“It's... impressive,” Arai said, and regretted it as their faces split into identical smirks.
“'son's an artist,” Ikeoka said proudly.
“IkeP's been teaching me how to work with water. I'm more of a fire guy usually.” The fire roared hotter. Ikeoka rubbed his nose against Shison's and they both giggled. Although still gross, they weren't as cloyingly sweet as Yuuki and Takahisa, so Arai decided not to bail yet.
“That's cool. I do flowers mostly,” he contributed, digging out a pair of seeds. He bloomed them into a snowdrop and a fireflower and offered them to the two.
“Oh, cool. Can you go into the kitchen and put them in a vase?” Ikeoka asked, not taking his eyes off Shison. Arai grumped away into the kitchen and carefully arranged the two flowers, whispering words of encouragement so they'd keep blooming even though they were bound to be unappreciated for the entirety of their short lives. He brought it back into the other room.
“So are you guys...” Arai grimaced and made a fairy-specific hand gesture. “Or are you just...?”
“Does it matter?”
“Well. I mean. So. Maybe there's a cute prince with a curse who could really do with having it broken by someone who isn't otherwise... committed. Or something. I dunno. Whatever.”
Ikeoka finally dragged his eyes away from Shison and looked at him properly for the first time. “Okay, what have you gotten yourself into this time? And... did you actually describe someone as cute?”
“I only said it to try and make you more interested, ugh. I'm so not into humans or romance or any of that. And it's... a mission from the Queen himself!”
The pair was silent. At last Shison said, “I'll take the test. But I don't intend to do anything more than break the curse if it does indicate me.”
Ikeoka had been frowning, but his expression changed to a goofy grin. “That's right. 'son may or may not be the best one for me, but right now he's the only one for me.” The slightly wet sounds that followed might have indicated that they were expressing their ambiguously true/ordinary love by kissing a lot, but as Arai had turned away in order to prepare the materials, he couldn't possibly confirm this and decided to assume they were just taking a second to practice some water magic techniques. He kept his head turned until the sounds died away, just in case he was wrong. Takahisa with his tongue down some boy's throat was a fact of life. Ikeoka in the same situation was just gross.
He handed them each a strand of willowgrass with a hair tied around it. Concentrating on Shiramata's image, he infused both with magic. Although they glowed faintly at first, they quickly dulled. Arai sighed. “Oh well.”
“Look on the bright side,” Ikeoka advised. “If it really had been one of us, you'd have been responsible for convincing him not to pursue us. You probably would've had to pretend it was you instead. Which means...” He puckered his lips and made a kissy sound. Shison clearly found this wasteful and went to make better use of his lips.
Arai ignored that stuff and thought about pretending to be in love with Prince Shiramata. His wings twinged with the same tactile sensation they had when Shiramata had touched them so long ago, as intense and vivid as if he was touching them again now. If they had to get married or whatever, would he be permanently stuck in that state of weakness and uneasiness? Worse, or maybe not but maybe equally bad, would the prince spend the whole time kissing him instead? Takahisa had said he was a good kisser, and unfortunately Arai had a pretty good idea of what Takahisa thought that entailed.
He decided he wasn't going to think about it anymore. “Well, normally I'd pretend I came here for more than that and stay to chat some more but you two seem really... occupied, so I guess I'll head out. Bye, Ikeoka. It was nice meeting you, Shison.” He waited for them to break apart long enough to say goodbye, but it quickly became apparent that that wasn't going to happen, so he sighed, put his shoes back on, and left. After that, he wasn't really in the mood to try the village, so he decided to go home instead. He was so absorbed in glaring at the ice sculpture out front and hoping that they never got their takeout that it took him a second to realize he wasn't in the Moonpeaks castle but in Whitehall.
He conjured up a yellow daisy, but instead of putting it with the other flowers, he slid it behind the prince's ear. It made him look brighter somehow, less cursed and more natural, and Arai found himself bending closer and closer in order to get a better look, wondering how the addition of a single plain flower could seem to change the sad expression the boy had worn for so long. He straightened up with a wry grin. “I should have saved the flowers I made for you, since you seem so into them. I bet you've never seen a fireflower or a snowdrop before. I'll show you when you wake up. Unless you're too busy making out with some rando and don't have time for flowers anymore either.” He sighed and stopped caressing the flower's petals reluctantly, telling himself that for now, it was enough.
-
Two days left. No... at this point it had to be one. He should be... somewhere, anywhere else, looking for the prince's unfindable true love, but with a week to go, the Kings of Whitehall suddenly remembered that they had a middle son and demanded ceremony and grandeur for his great awakening. Not that he was going to wake up, at this rate. Takahisa and Lord Kenki were scouring the Fairy Lands while Yuuki and Takahisa's parents were searching all over the human realm, testing everyone they came across with the help of the Queen's magic. Even Yuuki's parents had issued a proclamation saying that every village that submitted to a full testing would be exempt from taxes for the year. And it was all in vain. Arai wondered how that was possible - they'd looked everywhere. A lot of people had more than one true love, if you kept looking hard enough. Why didn't Prince Shiramata have even a single one? Was he really going to have to sleep for a hundred years, until the kingdom fell into ruin and all that remained of the castle was the crumbling room that he slept in? Would he sleep forever until some soulmate born a century later stole in to wake him? Was there some great destiny awaiting him, an unchangeable destiny brought about by fate's unwitting pawn, an idiot fairy with a temper? From what he knew about the prince, he kinda doubted that, but still. He had a hard time believing that there was no one anywhere ever who was willing to give a cute (shut up, he was objectively hot) prince the dedication and love he deserved.
He coerced the last sprigs of baby's breath into existence and set the flower crown down on the prince's head, smoothing down his black hair and letting his fingers trail down the side of his face and curl under his jaw, lifting his face toward him ever so slightly. He really was beautiful...
A thought occurred.
He sat down heavily. He did not move for a long time.
He absolutely could not be right about this. It didn't make sense. Someone would have noticed by now. Besides, who had ever heard of someone...
“Cursing his own true love,” he whispered.
He stood back up and bit his lip. Then he thought of Takahisa and stopped, swiping the back of his hand against his mouth. It was a lose-lose situation. If he failed, well, obviously he was still doomed; he'd be found guilty of cursing an innocent boy and sent to fairy jail, plus he'd feel really stupid afterward. If he didn't fail... he was in for the pinching of a lifetime. And he'd probably bankrupt the kingdom trying to pay back the debt incurred from the unnecessary Moonpeaks tax cuts. He'd undoubtedly turn into a true love zombie and want to do nothing but make kissy faces all day. And Prince Shiramata would probably want to marry him.
Somehow that last thing didn't sound as bad as it should have.
He looked down at the prince - ugh, he was so attractive - and let out a loud wail. He bloomed the entirety of the bed into a riot of flowers, pulling the fibers of the fabric back to life and into new, colorful forms. Then he made flowers spring out of the furniture, the paintings on the wall, the wall itself. The floor was a clover patch and a steady shower of flower petals was drifting from the ceiling by the time he decided he didn't even care anymore and bent down to kiss the prince.
After a second, he became aware that the prince was kissing him back. It was a second more before their lips separated. “Thank you,” Prince Shiramata said. Arai had no idea why he was thanking him, so he laughed. He continued to laugh until the prince got flustered. “What? Why are you- What's so funny?”
“You,” Arai told him, hearing a strange note in his voice as he said it. It felt like normally it would be totally embarrassing but he still didn't care. It occurred to him that maybe this kissing stuff wasn't as bad as it seemed, in moderation, anyway. To test this hypothesis, he leaned down and kissed him again.
Shiramata kissed him back eagerly and somehow Arai ended up on the bed, on top of him, the kiss deepening. It was as if Shiramata was touching his entire body the way he had touched his wings, only now Arai recognized that the tingling sensation wasn't the least bit unpleasant. He decided, yes, kissing. Not bad at all.
“You smell like flowers,” Shiramata whispered.
Arai got up and helped him to his feet. “I'm a flower fairy. I made you a lot of flowers.” He indicated the room and shrugged. “Sorry?”
Shiramata started walking around the room, mouth hanging open, staring at the different flowers, touching some, smelling a few. Arai trailed after him, and when he saw him looking at one in particular, he told him what it was. After that, Prince Shiramata started to ask him when he saw one he didn't know, and with as much magic as Arai had poured into the room, there were a lot he didn't know. But he never stopped asking and Arai never stopped answering. At last he turned around, a smile lighting his face. “They're so beautiful. Everything... it's so beautiful!”
For some reason it looked like there were tears in his eyes. But then again, as Arai took a step forward and hugged him as fiercely as he could, for some reason he had tears in his eyes too.
“I don't want to go back to the wedding,” Shiramata said. “Do you think Prince Takahisa would mind if... I married you instead?”
Arai blushed, but didn't even feel the need to get defensive about it. He answered honestly. “Actually, I think he'd prefer it.”
“Would you mind if I married you instead?”
Arai's face fell. “So. Here's the thing. I don't mind. In fact, I pretty much don't want to marry anyone but you ever. But. Um. It's actually been a year since the wedding. I. Uh. Kinda. Cursed you. Sorry. I'm stupid.”
“Oh.” Shiramata was silent for a moment. He sat down on the clover and patted the spot across from him. Arai sat down nervously. “I am so confused about what happened, but... can you tell me why?”
Arai tried to explain. At first he just meant to tell him why he'd lost his temper, but then it was important that he didn't think he was crazy and went around cursing people all the time, so he had to explain that he was a little emotional that day, so he had to talk about Takahisa a lot, and then how it hadn't even occurred to him that he might be attracted to his brother's new husband, because he was never really attracted to anyone before and anyway that's kinda weird, right, crushin' on your brother's husband, and eventually more or less the full story of the last twelve months came out. Shiramata didn't interrupt him to yell at him or pinch him or anything. “So... yeah. I was just sitting here thinking about how everything was terrible, especially me. And then I thought, well, this guy isn't terrible, and then I thought about how nobody ever bothered to check if I was your true love, since I'm the idiot who cursed you in the first place, like what kind of moron curses their own true love, and then I kissed you. And you woke up. So. It turns out I'm that kind of moron,” he finished, hanging his head.
“Dude. That's so romantic.”
“What? Really?”
“Totally! It's the most romantic thing that's ever happened to me. Instead of just running away, you were there for me the whole time, right?” Shiramata smiled at him, and Arai's heart started aching a little bit. He was so focused on that adorable smile that he hardly even thought about how it was probably the first sign of love zombification. “You're thoughtful, dedicated, and super sweet. And you're really funny, and also really hot. So that settles it.” He pulled a golden ring from his pocket and slid it onto Arai's finger. “Marry me?”
Arai took Shiramata's hand - ugh, even his fingers were beautiful - and spun a loop of vine topped with an unopened bud onto his ring finger. “Marry me?” he echoed.
“Yes,” they said together, and then they laughed, and then they kissed, and then Prince Shiramata very shyly asked if Arai minded if he touched his wings just a little bit, and Arai blushed but spread his wings as wide as they would go and boldly declared that he could touch them as much as he wanted, and by the time the prince was finished, Arai had melted into a very happy puddle of goo in his lap.
“There's lots of stuff you don't know about fairies, right?” he said, when he could speak again. “One thing is - we have names just like you, a last name and a given name - but people who know our full names have power over us. So we only tell our true names to the people we are closest to - family.” He took a deep breath. “Your given name is Atsushi, right? Well... so is mine.”
For some reason that made the prince laugh, and his long, beautiful fingers tangled in his hair. “Are you serious? That's gonna get super confusing for you, huh?” Almost to himself, he whispered “Atsushi...” and ran his hands through Arai's hair again. “Hmm, can fairies change their names? Human princes can't.”
“Nope. And I wouldn't change it even if I could. Atsushi,” Arai said, very seriously, “is the best and most beautiful name in the entire universe.”
“Super agreed.”
They sat together, and they talked a bit sometimes, about fairies and families and Whitehall, and sometimes they admired the flowers that filled the room, and sometimes, very occasionally, because Arai still thought doing it in moderation was the key to not ending up like Takahisa and Yuuki, or even Ikeoka and Shison, they kissed. Eventually Arai had to explain to Shiramata's parents why their son was awake a day early, and as the news trickled out to everyone else, he received quite a few angry lectures and wing pinches. But then again, he didn't even mind that too much, because for every wing pinch, there was a soft wing rub and a kiss from a prince, and in Arai's mind, that more than made up for it.
--
I'm thinking a sequel might need to happen. Maybe a side story or two. idk. I hope you enjoyed it and I would love to hear what you thought about it :D