[fanfic] 30 First Kisses - Kiss #28 (G)
Title:30 First Kisses - Kiss #28
Author: tiptoe39
Rating: G. Appropriate for all audiences!
Summary: A bedtime story for little princes and princesses everywhere. Guest-starring Ando the Elf!
This is the 28th of 30 possible ways Matt and Mohinder could share their first kiss, written for the 30_kisses challenge. The theme was Wada Calcium CD3. Previous kisses are here.
Once upon a time, in a far-off kingdom, there lived a damsel in quite a bit of distress.
First, she'd been hunted by the evil boogeyman, and as she hid in the dwarves' cottage, her poor unsuspecting parents had fallen prey to the monster. Then, she'd been locked in a high tower far away from the world, where she was put under an evil spell that bid her sleep for a hundred years. Surely no damsel had suffered more than poor Princess Molly of the Walker Kingdom.
Luckily enough, though, in both cases she was saved by handsome princes. A Prince of Strength had come to her rescue in her hidden cottage, saving her from solitude and fear with firm hands and a steely resolve. And later, a Prince of Magic had cured her of the curse that had been laid upon her with a magic potion drawn of his own blood.
Yes, surely Princess Molly had the sole distinction of being both the unluckiest and the luckiest damsel on earth, at the same time.
But just as the Princes of Magic and Strength were about to take her back home, the boogeyman reappeared. Before she knew it, the Prince of Strength had been wounded and was now in grave danger...
--
"The bullets missed his spine, but they shattered some of his ribs," the Prince of Magic said over the telephone to the Prince of Strength's wicked stepwife. "They did what reconstruction they could. It's now a question of whether his bone strength will be sufficient that his ribs will be able to heal."
Princess Molly entreated him. "Please," she said, tears in her eyes. "He's so strong. Won't his bones heal?"
"I don't know, Princess," the magical prince said, holding her tight. "Sometimes we seem stronger than we are, because others can't see our weaknesses."
"Then there must be some way we can make him stronger," she decided. And that very day, Princess Molly determined that she would find a magic spell or secret charm to bring the Prince of Strength back to health again.
But who did she know, besides the Prince of Magic himself, who had any knowledge of magic?
The boogeyman knew all kinds of black magic, but he was gone, slain by a Fairy Godmother who had appeared and disappeared in the space of a few seconds.
Perhaps if she sought him out...! Surely if anyone knew how to restore her prince, it would be the hero who slew the boogeyman!
Closing her eyes, she tried to picture him in her mind: short black hair, squinting eyes beneath glasses. But she could not find him. Was he gone? No. She knew he was still alive. And yet he was in some place where she could not find him.
She would need more help. Perhaps she could enlist the aid of a forest imp she'd met that fateful night. He was a mischievous sort, always making things come and go in the strangest ways, and she knew just where to find him. His father had been wounded by the white mountain goat on the hill, and now he and his mother, a cunning tree spirit with two faces, were awaiting the healers' word on his fate.
"Micah." She called his name as she ran to him. "I need to find the man with the sword. But I can't. Can you help me find him?"
"I thought you could find anyone," he said.
"I can. But he's somewhere I can't reach him."
The distress on her face moved the mischievous imp. "All right," he agreed. "I can put a message up on the Net. Someone must have seen a man with a sword."
-
As Micah the imp sent out his message to all the creatures of the forest, Princess Molly went to the throne room where her Prince was lying in bed. The Prince of Magic was there. She stayed outside and listened.
"How is Molly?" the Prince of Strength asked, in a voice so weak she could hardly believe it was him.
"She's very worried about you. As are we all." The Prince of Magic had a soothing voice. Whenever he spoke, it was like a spell.
"Hey, I'm worried about me!" The Prince of Strength tried to laugh, but it hurt.
"Don't strain yourself," the magical prince said. "You need to concentrate on regrowing those ribs."
"Trust me, I'm trying." Princess Molly didn't have to look to know the rueful smile that surely graced her prince's face. It made her heart hurt. "Is she still staying at your place?"
"Yes. For the time being. I've been unable to locate any relatives, and..."
"Don't waste your time. I've seen the FBI file on her. Parents were only children, all grandparents are dead. She'll go into foster care unless I..."
He stopped. The princess held her breath.
"Unless you adopt her," the Prince of Magic said sadly. "Yes, that would be the best outcome. I don't believe I have the legal status to make any such claim in this country. As much as I would love to..."
There was a silence. Molly peered over the bottom rim of the window. The strong prince had folded his hands over the hands of the magical prince. "You think you have a child and then she's taken from you," he said gravely. "I know what that's like. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy."
"I appreciate that thought, really I do. But in the end, you'll be going back to California--"
"Oh, what's left there for me now? Seriously. Doctor Suresh--"
"Mohinder."
"--Right, I have to get used to calling you that. Sorry. Mohinder. The point is, I'm not going to take her away from you. I can see how much you love her. I feel the same way. So if I can find a place to stay in New York--"
"Stay with us." The magical prince looked surprised to hear himself say it so quickly. As for Princess Molly, she nearly jumped out of her skin. Was it possible that she'd be able to live happily ever after with both her princes?
"Aw. No, I couldn't. I don't know how long I'm gonna be in here, and my career's still up in the air. I couldn't pay you rent, I have to pay alimony, and..."
The Prince of Magic was weaving a magic spell again. Molly could tell by the way he leaned in, by the way the Prince of Strength couldn't look away. She'd often herself been hypnotized by his tales. "You don't need to worry about that. Molly needs you. And I..." He stopped and started again. "I think you're one of the better men I've ever met. Truly." They gazed at each other. The princess thought she saw a magical spark fly like a golden fairy between their eyes.
After a moment, the Prince of Magic stood up, looking startled. "Anyhow. Once you're well, come stay with us. Please."
Please, echoed Princess Molly in her head.
--
The imp found her the next day. "Molly! Molly! I just got an e-mail from a guy who says he knows the man with the sword!"
"Really?" She ran to meet him. "What does he say?"
"He says we should call him if we want to talk." He handed her a sheet of parchment scroll. "Here, look, his name is Ando."
"He's in Japan!" Molly said with dismay.
"That's OK. I can make that call. It should be pretty late at night right now, but let's call him!"
The forest imp led her to the mouth of a magical stream, and when he put his hand on the rock at its base, his magic opened up a channel to the other side of the world. "Hai, Masahashi desu," said a voice. Micah held up the rock between them.
"Um, hello? Is this Mr. Ando?" Molly asked in a trembling voice
"Oh yes! You left message on mailing listo!" He must have been an elf, because he spoke a different language, and Princess Molly could barely understand him. "You are looking for Hiro. Right?"
"Yes, hero! The hero who killed the boogeyman. Have you seen him?"
"I have not seen Hiro. I think he has gone far away. But maybe I can help. What do you need?"
Princess Molly told him the story of how her Prince of Strength had been hurt, and how she needed his bones to grow back. "I want to give him something that will make him stronger, and I have never seen anyone as strong as the hero!"
At this, the elf chuckled. "Hiro not always strong. Before, he was very weak. But then one day he found his power and become strong and brave."
"Yes, yes he was!" Molly agreed, her eyes full of tears. "But if he's not here, what can we do?"
"Hiro say to me long time ago," the elf said pensively, "you do not need powers to be a hero. Maybe I will send you something to help. What your address? I send express mail."
Princess Molly hesitated. She knew better than to tell strange elves where she lived.
But the imp Micah stepped in. He whispered to the elf too quietly for Molly to hear, and the strange voice disappeared. "I gave him a post office box I keep at home," he grinned. "I'll set up a box here in New York and ask the Nevada office to forward it here. Then I can go pick it up for you."
The young princess almost asked him how his parents would let him do such things, but the imp was very, very clever, and she thought that he probably had his ways.
--
Later that evening, she walked with the Prince of Magic back to his castle.
"Is he really going to move in with us?" she asked him.
"I don't know. I hope so. For your sake," he said, his eyes gazing at someplace far away.
"But doesn't he have a wicked stepwife?"
"Molly! Don't call her that!"
"Sorrrrry." Molly rolled her eyes.
"They're getting a divorce. So she's not going to be his... wicked stepwife... much longer." The prince's smile was full of amusement. For a moment, he looked almost like the imp.
A few steps later and the prince turned around to see Princess Molly standing still in the street, her head down.
"Can he divorce you, too?"
He rushed back to her. "No, darling, it's not like that."
"But what if you meet some nice lady and want to move away?"
His lips twitched again with amusement. "In the first place, it's not likely to be a young lady."
"Huh?"
He gathered Molly up in his arms and carried her down the street. She giggled and clung tight to him. Her prince, full of magic, always giving her wings to fly.
"I will tell you a secret," he said, "if you promise not to tell anyone, even Matt. OK?"
"I promise," she whispered in his ear.
"Sometimes," he said, "not a lot, but just sometimes, a man can grow to love another man. And instead of getting married, they will just live happily ever after. And sometimes they will even take care of a little girl like you."
"So you want to live happily ever after with...?"
He touched his forehead to hers gently as they climbed the steps to the castle gate. "It's our secret."
--
Princess Molly kept her prince's secret, of course, but she also had a secret of her own. And that was that the next day, instead of going to school, she went to visit the Prince of Strength. He scolded her, of course, but in the end he was happy to see her.
"Will you come live with us?" she asked.
"I really hope I can," he said. "Would you like that?" She nodded vigorously.
His face turned serious. "Molly, if I can get well again... and if I can go back to work... they don't pay very much, but it's enough, and..." He turned red, and Molly wondered if he'd been cursed with an inability to ever finish a sentence again. "I know I can't ever be your dad, but I'd really like it if..."
Molly got tired of waiting. "Of course you can," she said impatiently. "You can both be my dads."
The strong prince looked at her as though he were about to say something very important. Then he gave up, slumped back against his pillow, sighed, and fell silent.
The princess herself, of course, wasn't nearly done. "You want to come live with us, right? Because I'd love it if my two handsome princes would live happily ever after."
He coughed, then rubbed his chest in pain. "You mean, with you, right?"
"With me," she chirped. "And each other."
His eyes softened. "That's... not usually how it works, you know."
"But sometimes it is," she insisted. "Besides, you don't need another lady. You've already got me." And she folded her arms in a way that clearly said, I've decided the matter.
The Prince of Strength chuckled. "Well, that much is true." He grinned, and his eyes gained the same faraway glitter that the Prince of Magic's eyes had held the day before. "I'll tell you something, cutie... that'd actually be OK with me. But let's not tell him that, all right? I don't want to scare him."
"He won't be scared!"
He stopped. "Molly? Honey? Did Mohinder say something to you?"
Molly turned bright red. Not knowing what else to say, she fled the room.
--
It was three long days of waiting for Princess Molly before the magical creatures she'd befriended brought her the gift she'd been waiting for. When she opened it and read the note from the curious little elf, her heart swelled with delight. Surely this would help restore the Prince of Strength to health!
--
As the princess approached the throne room, she saw that once again, the two princes were deep in conversation. Once again, the hand of the Prince of Strength was on that of the Prince of Magic. And once again, that golden fairy was flitting between them, giggling her invisible giggle and sprinkling dust into their shining eyes.
But Princess Molly couldn't wait one more second. "Your Majesties!" she shouted, curtseying deeply.
The princes looked at each other, then smiled at her with twin delighted grins. "What did we do to deserve the royal treatment?" asked the Prince of Strength.
Molly just giggled. "I brought you a present," she said, running up to his royal bed.
"A present?" He looked at the other prince, who just shrugged. "What kind of present?"
"A magical one," Molly exclaimed. "Something to help your bones grow back!" And from her little pocket she produced a small, slim vial of yellow-white pills.
"What are these?" the prince asked, turning them over with a puzzled look on his face. The only writing not in the elf's mysterious language was the letters CA.
"It's calcium," she explained with glee. "It will help your bones grow back."
"Did she get these at that Oriental grocery around the corner?" the Prince of Strength asked his counterpart, who shrugged again.
"I did not!" insisted Molly, stomping her foot.
"Well, how did you get them, then?"
"If you must know..." Molly took a long breath.
"I went to the forest to ask the spirits there to help me find my fairy godmother. The imp took me to a magic river where I talked through a rock to an elf, who sent me that to make you better so we could go home and live happily ever after. The end."
"She must have gone to the grocery," said the Prince of Strength under his breath.
The princess decided to ignore him. "So now that you have them, you're going to get better, right?" she demanded.
The princes looked at each other again. They were doing that a lot, which made her very happy. "Yes," said the Prince of Magic, standing up and walking to her. "He's going to get better."
"Good. Because we're going to live happily ever after now."
A funny hiccuping noise caught her attention, and she looked over at the Prince of Strength. He had tears in his eyes, and at the same time he was halfway laughing. "Sorry--" he said, sniffling. The tears spilled over onto his cheeks. "It's just-- I didn't think I could--"
"Well, you have to," she frowned. "Princess Molly of the Walker Kingdom is giving you a royal command. Live happily ever after with me, you two. Right now."
And she crossed her arms again in that very decisive way.
"Not much for it, I guess," said the Prince of Strength, wiping away his tears.
"No, I suppose not," smiled the Prince of Magic, patting her head.
But the princess was not amused.
"Go on, then!"
They looked at her blankly. "Go on what?"
"Please!" Her eyes shot up to heaven. "You can't have happy-ever-after without a kiss! Get moving, you two!"
And just like that, she was talking to two princes from the Tomato Kingdom.
"Molly. Darling-- I don't think--" the cherry-red Prince of Magic stuttered.
"You heard Her Majesty," said the equally crimson Prince of Strength.
The magical prince turned in shock.
Now, along with the dried tears and the red flush, there was a lazy, happy grin on the reclining prince's face. "You are not as good at hiding your thoughts as you think. I have to hand it to her, she's the one who gave me the hint. And once I started looking, it was pretty easy to pick up on. Jesus, Mohinder, you could have said something."
The Prince of Magic kept looking from the Prince of Strength to Molly and back again. His jaw was hanging open like it'd been enchanted. Finally, he said, "Sweetheart, could I have a word with Matt alone?"
"No," she pouted. "I want to see it."
"Mohinder."
The voice behind him was insistent. The dumbfounded prince turned.
"Get your royal butt over here, Your Highness, or I will get out of bed and break my ribs again grabbing you and pulling you over here."
The golden fairy was dancing in the Prince of Strength's eyes.
The Prince of Magic came over tentatively. Slowly, still tilting his head to glance at Molly, he bent over the bed. As the Prince of Strength's lips captured his, as their eyes slitted closed and their hands came together in a tight grip, Princess Molly beamed. Her happy-ever-after was here at last.
--
Dear Molly-hime (this mean Princess Molly in Japanese):
Thank you for wonderful letter! I so happy the Calciam help. I do not know why you call me elf, but I am very happy you and two princes are happy and living together now. If there is anything you need, please call again. This Ando will be happy to help you!
from Ando Masahashi (elf?)
P.S. Hiro came back. He says, "Why am I fairy godmother?"
:end:
Author: tiptoe39
Rating: G. Appropriate for all audiences!
Summary: A bedtime story for little princes and princesses everywhere. Guest-starring Ando the Elf!
This is the 28th of 30 possible ways Matt and Mohinder could share their first kiss, written for the 30_kisses challenge. The theme was Wada Calcium CD3. Previous kisses are here.
Once upon a time, in a far-off kingdom, there lived a damsel in quite a bit of distress.
First, she'd been hunted by the evil boogeyman, and as she hid in the dwarves' cottage, her poor unsuspecting parents had fallen prey to the monster. Then, she'd been locked in a high tower far away from the world, where she was put under an evil spell that bid her sleep for a hundred years. Surely no damsel had suffered more than poor Princess Molly of the Walker Kingdom.
Luckily enough, though, in both cases she was saved by handsome princes. A Prince of Strength had come to her rescue in her hidden cottage, saving her from solitude and fear with firm hands and a steely resolve. And later, a Prince of Magic had cured her of the curse that had been laid upon her with a magic potion drawn of his own blood.
Yes, surely Princess Molly had the sole distinction of being both the unluckiest and the luckiest damsel on earth, at the same time.
But just as the Princes of Magic and Strength were about to take her back home, the boogeyman reappeared. Before she knew it, the Prince of Strength had been wounded and was now in grave danger...
--
"The bullets missed his spine, but they shattered some of his ribs," the Prince of Magic said over the telephone to the Prince of Strength's wicked stepwife. "They did what reconstruction they could. It's now a question of whether his bone strength will be sufficient that his ribs will be able to heal."
Princess Molly entreated him. "Please," she said, tears in her eyes. "He's so strong. Won't his bones heal?"
"I don't know, Princess," the magical prince said, holding her tight. "Sometimes we seem stronger than we are, because others can't see our weaknesses."
"Then there must be some way we can make him stronger," she decided. And that very day, Princess Molly determined that she would find a magic spell or secret charm to bring the Prince of Strength back to health again.
But who did she know, besides the Prince of Magic himself, who had any knowledge of magic?
The boogeyman knew all kinds of black magic, but he was gone, slain by a Fairy Godmother who had appeared and disappeared in the space of a few seconds.
Perhaps if she sought him out...! Surely if anyone knew how to restore her prince, it would be the hero who slew the boogeyman!
Closing her eyes, she tried to picture him in her mind: short black hair, squinting eyes beneath glasses. But she could not find him. Was he gone? No. She knew he was still alive. And yet he was in some place where she could not find him.
She would need more help. Perhaps she could enlist the aid of a forest imp she'd met that fateful night. He was a mischievous sort, always making things come and go in the strangest ways, and she knew just where to find him. His father had been wounded by the white mountain goat on the hill, and now he and his mother, a cunning tree spirit with two faces, were awaiting the healers' word on his fate.
"Micah." She called his name as she ran to him. "I need to find the man with the sword. But I can't. Can you help me find him?"
"I thought you could find anyone," he said.
"I can. But he's somewhere I can't reach him."
The distress on her face moved the mischievous imp. "All right," he agreed. "I can put a message up on the Net. Someone must have seen a man with a sword."
-
As Micah the imp sent out his message to all the creatures of the forest, Princess Molly went to the throne room where her Prince was lying in bed. The Prince of Magic was there. She stayed outside and listened.
"How is Molly?" the Prince of Strength asked, in a voice so weak she could hardly believe it was him.
"She's very worried about you. As are we all." The Prince of Magic had a soothing voice. Whenever he spoke, it was like a spell.
"Hey, I'm worried about me!" The Prince of Strength tried to laugh, but it hurt.
"Don't strain yourself," the magical prince said. "You need to concentrate on regrowing those ribs."
"Trust me, I'm trying." Princess Molly didn't have to look to know the rueful smile that surely graced her prince's face. It made her heart hurt. "Is she still staying at your place?"
"Yes. For the time being. I've been unable to locate any relatives, and..."
"Don't waste your time. I've seen the FBI file on her. Parents were only children, all grandparents are dead. She'll go into foster care unless I..."
He stopped. The princess held her breath.
"Unless you adopt her," the Prince of Magic said sadly. "Yes, that would be the best outcome. I don't believe I have the legal status to make any such claim in this country. As much as I would love to..."
There was a silence. Molly peered over the bottom rim of the window. The strong prince had folded his hands over the hands of the magical prince. "You think you have a child and then she's taken from you," he said gravely. "I know what that's like. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy."
"I appreciate that thought, really I do. But in the end, you'll be going back to California--"
"Oh, what's left there for me now? Seriously. Doctor Suresh--"
"Mohinder."
"--Right, I have to get used to calling you that. Sorry. Mohinder. The point is, I'm not going to take her away from you. I can see how much you love her. I feel the same way. So if I can find a place to stay in New York--"
"Stay with us." The magical prince looked surprised to hear himself say it so quickly. As for Princess Molly, she nearly jumped out of her skin. Was it possible that she'd be able to live happily ever after with both her princes?
"Aw. No, I couldn't. I don't know how long I'm gonna be in here, and my career's still up in the air. I couldn't pay you rent, I have to pay alimony, and..."
The Prince of Magic was weaving a magic spell again. Molly could tell by the way he leaned in, by the way the Prince of Strength couldn't look away. She'd often herself been hypnotized by his tales. "You don't need to worry about that. Molly needs you. And I..." He stopped and started again. "I think you're one of the better men I've ever met. Truly." They gazed at each other. The princess thought she saw a magical spark fly like a golden fairy between their eyes.
After a moment, the Prince of Magic stood up, looking startled. "Anyhow. Once you're well, come stay with us. Please."
Please, echoed Princess Molly in her head.
--
The imp found her the next day. "Molly! Molly! I just got an e-mail from a guy who says he knows the man with the sword!"
"Really?" She ran to meet him. "What does he say?"
"He says we should call him if we want to talk." He handed her a sheet of parchment scroll. "Here, look, his name is Ando."
"He's in Japan!" Molly said with dismay.
"That's OK. I can make that call. It should be pretty late at night right now, but let's call him!"
The forest imp led her to the mouth of a magical stream, and when he put his hand on the rock at its base, his magic opened up a channel to the other side of the world. "Hai, Masahashi desu," said a voice. Micah held up the rock between them.
"Um, hello? Is this Mr. Ando?" Molly asked in a trembling voice
"Oh yes! You left message on mailing listo!" He must have been an elf, because he spoke a different language, and Princess Molly could barely understand him. "You are looking for Hiro. Right?"
"Yes, hero! The hero who killed the boogeyman. Have you seen him?"
"I have not seen Hiro. I think he has gone far away. But maybe I can help. What do you need?"
Princess Molly told him the story of how her Prince of Strength had been hurt, and how she needed his bones to grow back. "I want to give him something that will make him stronger, and I have never seen anyone as strong as the hero!"
At this, the elf chuckled. "Hiro not always strong. Before, he was very weak. But then one day he found his power and become strong and brave."
"Yes, yes he was!" Molly agreed, her eyes full of tears. "But if he's not here, what can we do?"
"Hiro say to me long time ago," the elf said pensively, "you do not need powers to be a hero. Maybe I will send you something to help. What your address? I send express mail."
Princess Molly hesitated. She knew better than to tell strange elves where she lived.
But the imp Micah stepped in. He whispered to the elf too quietly for Molly to hear, and the strange voice disappeared. "I gave him a post office box I keep at home," he grinned. "I'll set up a box here in New York and ask the Nevada office to forward it here. Then I can go pick it up for you."
The young princess almost asked him how his parents would let him do such things, but the imp was very, very clever, and she thought that he probably had his ways.
--
Later that evening, she walked with the Prince of Magic back to his castle.
"Is he really going to move in with us?" she asked him.
"I don't know. I hope so. For your sake," he said, his eyes gazing at someplace far away.
"But doesn't he have a wicked stepwife?"
"Molly! Don't call her that!"
"Sorrrrry." Molly rolled her eyes.
"They're getting a divorce. So she's not going to be his... wicked stepwife... much longer." The prince's smile was full of amusement. For a moment, he looked almost like the imp.
A few steps later and the prince turned around to see Princess Molly standing still in the street, her head down.
"Can he divorce you, too?"
He rushed back to her. "No, darling, it's not like that."
"But what if you meet some nice lady and want to move away?"
His lips twitched again with amusement. "In the first place, it's not likely to be a young lady."
"Huh?"
He gathered Molly up in his arms and carried her down the street. She giggled and clung tight to him. Her prince, full of magic, always giving her wings to fly.
"I will tell you a secret," he said, "if you promise not to tell anyone, even Matt. OK?"
"I promise," she whispered in his ear.
"Sometimes," he said, "not a lot, but just sometimes, a man can grow to love another man. And instead of getting married, they will just live happily ever after. And sometimes they will even take care of a little girl like you."
"So you want to live happily ever after with...?"
He touched his forehead to hers gently as they climbed the steps to the castle gate. "It's our secret."
--
Princess Molly kept her prince's secret, of course, but she also had a secret of her own. And that was that the next day, instead of going to school, she went to visit the Prince of Strength. He scolded her, of course, but in the end he was happy to see her.
"Will you come live with us?" she asked.
"I really hope I can," he said. "Would you like that?" She nodded vigorously.
His face turned serious. "Molly, if I can get well again... and if I can go back to work... they don't pay very much, but it's enough, and..." He turned red, and Molly wondered if he'd been cursed with an inability to ever finish a sentence again. "I know I can't ever be your dad, but I'd really like it if..."
Molly got tired of waiting. "Of course you can," she said impatiently. "You can both be my dads."
The strong prince looked at her as though he were about to say something very important. Then he gave up, slumped back against his pillow, sighed, and fell silent.
The princess herself, of course, wasn't nearly done. "You want to come live with us, right? Because I'd love it if my two handsome princes would live happily ever after."
He coughed, then rubbed his chest in pain. "You mean, with you, right?"
"With me," she chirped. "And each other."
His eyes softened. "That's... not usually how it works, you know."
"But sometimes it is," she insisted. "Besides, you don't need another lady. You've already got me." And she folded her arms in a way that clearly said, I've decided the matter.
The Prince of Strength chuckled. "Well, that much is true." He grinned, and his eyes gained the same faraway glitter that the Prince of Magic's eyes had held the day before. "I'll tell you something, cutie... that'd actually be OK with me. But let's not tell him that, all right? I don't want to scare him."
"He won't be scared!"
He stopped. "Molly? Honey? Did Mohinder say something to you?"
Molly turned bright red. Not knowing what else to say, she fled the room.
--
It was three long days of waiting for Princess Molly before the magical creatures she'd befriended brought her the gift she'd been waiting for. When she opened it and read the note from the curious little elf, her heart swelled with delight. Surely this would help restore the Prince of Strength to health!
--
As the princess approached the throne room, she saw that once again, the two princes were deep in conversation. Once again, the hand of the Prince of Strength was on that of the Prince of Magic. And once again, that golden fairy was flitting between them, giggling her invisible giggle and sprinkling dust into their shining eyes.
But Princess Molly couldn't wait one more second. "Your Majesties!" she shouted, curtseying deeply.
The princes looked at each other, then smiled at her with twin delighted grins. "What did we do to deserve the royal treatment?" asked the Prince of Strength.
Molly just giggled. "I brought you a present," she said, running up to his royal bed.
"A present?" He looked at the other prince, who just shrugged. "What kind of present?"
"A magical one," Molly exclaimed. "Something to help your bones grow back!" And from her little pocket she produced a small, slim vial of yellow-white pills.
"What are these?" the prince asked, turning them over with a puzzled look on his face. The only writing not in the elf's mysterious language was the letters CA.
"It's calcium," she explained with glee. "It will help your bones grow back."
"Did she get these at that Oriental grocery around the corner?" the Prince of Strength asked his counterpart, who shrugged again.
"I did not!" insisted Molly, stomping her foot.
"Well, how did you get them, then?"
"If you must know..." Molly took a long breath.
"I went to the forest to ask the spirits there to help me find my fairy godmother. The imp took me to a magic river where I talked through a rock to an elf, who sent me that to make you better so we could go home and live happily ever after. The end."
"She must have gone to the grocery," said the Prince of Strength under his breath.
The princess decided to ignore him. "So now that you have them, you're going to get better, right?" she demanded.
The princes looked at each other again. They were doing that a lot, which made her very happy. "Yes," said the Prince of Magic, standing up and walking to her. "He's going to get better."
"Good. Because we're going to live happily ever after now."
A funny hiccuping noise caught her attention, and she looked over at the Prince of Strength. He had tears in his eyes, and at the same time he was halfway laughing. "Sorry--" he said, sniffling. The tears spilled over onto his cheeks. "It's just-- I didn't think I could--"
"Well, you have to," she frowned. "Princess Molly of the Walker Kingdom is giving you a royal command. Live happily ever after with me, you two. Right now."
And she crossed her arms again in that very decisive way.
"Not much for it, I guess," said the Prince of Strength, wiping away his tears.
"No, I suppose not," smiled the Prince of Magic, patting her head.
But the princess was not amused.
"Go on, then!"
They looked at her blankly. "Go on what?"
"Please!" Her eyes shot up to heaven. "You can't have happy-ever-after without a kiss! Get moving, you two!"
And just like that, she was talking to two princes from the Tomato Kingdom.
"Molly. Darling-- I don't think--" the cherry-red Prince of Magic stuttered.
"You heard Her Majesty," said the equally crimson Prince of Strength.
The magical prince turned in shock.
Now, along with the dried tears and the red flush, there was a lazy, happy grin on the reclining prince's face. "You are not as good at hiding your thoughts as you think. I have to hand it to her, she's the one who gave me the hint. And once I started looking, it was pretty easy to pick up on. Jesus, Mohinder, you could have said something."
The Prince of Magic kept looking from the Prince of Strength to Molly and back again. His jaw was hanging open like it'd been enchanted. Finally, he said, "Sweetheart, could I have a word with Matt alone?"
"No," she pouted. "I want to see it."
"Mohinder."
The voice behind him was insistent. The dumbfounded prince turned.
"Get your royal butt over here, Your Highness, or I will get out of bed and break my ribs again grabbing you and pulling you over here."
The golden fairy was dancing in the Prince of Strength's eyes.
The Prince of Magic came over tentatively. Slowly, still tilting his head to glance at Molly, he bent over the bed. As the Prince of Strength's lips captured his, as their eyes slitted closed and their hands came together in a tight grip, Princess Molly beamed. Her happy-ever-after was here at last.
--
Dear Molly-hime (this mean Princess Molly in Japanese):
Thank you for wonderful letter! I so happy the Calciam help. I do not know why you call me elf, but I am very happy you and two princes are happy and living together now. If there is anything you need, please call again. This Ando will be happy to help you!
from Ando Masahashi (elf?)
P.S. Hiro came back. He says, "Why am I fairy godmother?"
:end: