Autumn Kisses in the Eye of the Storm

by Moonpearl

 

 

Premise Tags: Slice of Life,

Heartwarming, Family Gathering,

Story Within a Story, Friends to Lovers,

Fantasy, Magic, Fairytale,

Transformation, Wishing.

Content Warnings:

a more detailed Author's Description here¹This story focuses on a cross-generational friends-to-lovers (becoming lovers as adults) pairing after their marriage. There are NSFW elements in some scenes and implications of male pregnancy. There are also fairytale-like descriptions of (non-romantic/non-sexual) forced physical transformation and brainwashing, and brief mentions of traumatic character death in the past.,

or in less detail -- age gap, some NSFW,

hints of mpreg, mentions of death,

brainwashing.

 

 

Dawn broke over Taskriel like the relieved sigh of a lover, kissing the sleepy streets of the capital with the sun’s soft rays. Though it arrived later and later this time of year, the people never spurned it. Before long, smoke curled out the chimneys, stores threw open their doors, and workmen wheeled out carts groaning under the weight of the bountiful harvest.

Llew watched over this scene from his bedroom window, as he did most mornings. He had finished approving the exports yesterday and had distributed the protocol for disasters occurring while they were at his sister’s the day before. There had been no trouble, and nor did the sunrise illuminate any signs of one today.

A creak from the bed drew his attention back to the room. His husband, never an early riser, had rolled over in his sleep, exposing the access hole they’d torn in the back of his costume. Impressively, the blush bunny outfit still clung to his muscles, and his white skin highlighted dark, greedy trails of lovebites blooming across his neck and chest.

Definitely the same timeline as last night.

“Good morning, Master.”

A familiar white cat rubbed herself against Llew’s ankles with a purr. There had been no click of the door opening or closing – she must have teleported in.

“Good morning, Fate.” He bent to stroke her head. “How are the children?”

“Sleeping like mice in the morning. I checked on the other little ones on my way over, and all is well.”

“Thank you.”

He finally let himself fully relax.

“Would you ask the children’s maids to get them ready for an outdoor adventure? I’d like to take them out for the day.”

Her ears pricked. “You’re taking them out? By yourself?”

“Well, maybe… I don’t know if Ankh will be too tired.”

“I think you’re overestimating your abilities, Master.”

He shot her a look, chuckling. “I mean he spends the most time with the children, so maybe he wants to let me give him a break.”

“Perhaps…” She licked her paw noncommittally. “But you had best go prepared.”

“Of course. Let’s see… We’ll need a certain little apprentice of mine, to begin with. Kisura won’t be happy playing anywhere without him.”

“True.”

“It’s only right to invite Rose, too.”

“I’ll make a swift trip to Ruriko’s and a call to Lady Fairclaw, but aren’t you forgetting something?”

“Hm…” He tapped his chin in thought. “Mai? It has been a while since she played with someone her own age, but I was hoping for a peaceful day. Oh - and if Ruby mentions any new financial items to sign off, can you ask her to drop them in my study? I’ll see to it before bed.”

Her tail flicked with irritation.

“Master, what about your other preparations?”

“I’ll personally arrange a hot bath and breakfast in bed for Ankh.”

His familiar had the cheek to groan.

 

🍁🍁🍁

 

A splendid autumn day required a splendid autumn dress. With a few notes of magic, Llew conjured a ballgown of the finest silk in ruby red, to match the season and complement his brown skin. An off-the-shoulder neckline and goldleaf leaves winding across the skirt provided glamour. With his long hair skilfully worked into a ruby-studded bun and the royal goldwear settled on his arms and forehead, he couldn’t help but give a twirl to show it off.

“How do I look?”

“Beautiful,” said Ankh, who had finished throwing on a leather jacket and arranging his half-head of curls fifteen minutes ago. He crossed the room to pull Llew into a kiss. “Like always.”

The children were waiting for them outside the nursery: eight little princes and princesses wrapped in colourful jackets, with tufts of snowy white hair and uncooperative scales and feathers sticking out; one not-quite-as-little apprentice, with messy blonde hair tucked under an oversized sorcerer’s hat and large green eyes swimming in a pale white face; and Rose, whose frilly embroidered top and practical trousers were a matching set, complemented by the pink roses in her blonde hair.

Their faces lit up as they saw him.

“Daddy’s gorgeous!” cried Kisura.

He bent down to meet them as they swarmed around him, oohing and ahhing and giggling over his dress. They turned over the details with their little hands and begged him to twirl for them.

In the end, it was another half hour before they were able to set out.

Their destination was the nearby woods, which was part of the riding trail the castle inhabitants favoured. Though the journey from the wall to its protective edge took but a blink on a horse, children were considerably slower, and they had to endure the crisp, powerful wind whipping at their clothes for at least ten minutes.

All according to Llew’s plan. The first gust lifted his many petticoats and billowed them out in a sea of ever-moving, ever-shimmering golden frills. For a few moments, his vision was obscured by a torrent of gold leaves swirling around him – when it dipped, his gaze landed on the awe-struck expressions of the children.

Ankh’s strong, sturdy hands caught him by the waist.

“Careful. Don’t get blown away.”

There was no chance of it, of course – he was the master of life in a ballgown. Still, he leant gratefully into the support. His husband’s strong chest shielded his face from the elements, just as it always had.

“Mummy, daddy! Come on!” cried Kisura, already running ahead.

The trees were fully aflame with red and yellow, and the lack of shelter had torn off enough leaves to carpet the ground and give that endlessly satisfying crunch underfoot. With the castle shut behind the woodland entrance, this humble patch of trees might have been an enchanted forest in a child’s eyes.

“Okay, darlings – I have a mission for you today!”

He didn’t have to call very loudly to bring the ten children scrabbling to stand in front of him.

“We’re going to have a competition to see who can collect the most chestnuts and pinecones. The winner gets to choose what dessert is served tonight, and what bedtime story I tell.”

Daia’s hand shot up.

“Yes?”

“But Jade and Rose won’t be here for the story?”

“Ah, right… Well, why don’t we have a sleepover tonight so they can be?”

The giggles and jumping told him this was very much appreciated.

“Also, we’ll play this game Sanctuary-style – so all ‘fair play’.”

The groans told him this wasn’t.

“Fair-play’s no fair!” complained Libella loudly. “Faid has the sharpest eyes, and Daia has wings.”

He smiled, leaning over to fix her hood. Its half-attached style was the latest design by the country’s top tailors, intended to keep out chills without trapping her head feathers.

“There will always be times in life where you have to play by someone else’s rules, and even to your disadvantage. A great ruler – even a great warrior – will find a way to exploit what’s available to them to compensate.”

She pouted.

“Auntie Brigite would be so impressed if you won this way, too,” he added, knowing any mention of his little sister was Libella’s greatest weakness.

Naturally, she lit up with excitement.

At last, all but one child ran off into the woods to hunt and scheme. He looked down at the girl still clinging to his skirt. One of the many spells he’d cast on it protected it from her pin-like talons.

“You’re not going, Cateia?”

She shook her head, curls flying wildly.

“Want to stay with daddy…”

He lifted her into his arms, settling her between the two of them. Ankh stroked her head.

“She’s not hot,” he said.

“I feel fine. But want daddy…”

Cateia rarely wanted to play outside, so they didn’t push her. While the woods rang with battle cries, ecstatic laughter, and the inevitable screams of siblings bickering, Llew chatted with her about the books she was reading and the games they’d been playing lately. She was so engrossed describing the beautiful dress of one heroine, she didn’t notice when the arms holding her in place switched from Llew’s to Ankh’s.

He only needed to keep a cursory eye on the others. Ankh’s sharp golden eyes raked the trees constantly for trouble and would find mischief or intruders long before he did.

“Faid, put that boot back on right now!”

The curly-haired boy was perched on a rock up ahead. Frozen by his mother’s voice, with wide yellow eyes and his little tongue sticking out, he was the perfect imitation of an owl. Slowly, he slid his boot back onto his foot and stood up.

“Did you think I wouldn’t see you? No stripping! We’re going to deduct points for every bit of clothing you come back without.”

There was some shuffling and whining at that, but no real protest. Cateia sighed dramatically as he ran off.

“Stupid Faid…”

“Hey,” scolded Llew gently. “Be nice to your siblings. They’ll be your closest allies if you treat them well.”

Still, he petted her soft hair. She was beautiful, as they all were. Although it was inevitable that they would have his brown skin, white hair and – bar the mysterious being that was Faid – red eyes, they had each inherited some part of Ankh’s true form, whether his exquisite feathers or razor-sharp talons.

Ankh would argue that it was Llew’s features that made them so beautiful.

Before long, a loud argument interrupted them again. The twins – Kisura, for the most part – were in a shouting contest with Kei, Daia and Libella. And again, mostly Libella.

“It’s cheating!” she cried. “Using magic is cheating!”

“Daddy says magic is a tool – and tools are fair-play! If Jade-Rapier-Chevalkitty can’t use magic, nobody can use fire.”

“Nobody was using it!”

“Then Daia can’t use his wings!”

Llew and Ankh chose to pivot towards the older boy, who was standing nervously off to the side with a stick.

“Sorry, Master… I didn’t want him to hurt himself climbing.”

“Has everyone formed teams?”

He nodded.

“My parry²One gender neutral term for a parent, used instead of daddy/mummy. Since Ruriko is agender, Jade uses this for them. (Author's Note) lets me pick my story every night, so I don’t need to win. But once I joined Kisura and Zadia, they all said it wasn’t fair and grouped together.”

Llew tutted. “Alliances are perfectly fair-play.”

“What about magic?” urged Kisura, finally overhearing them.

“Well, I think so, but…”

“Brigite always says you’re a cheat?” Ankh finished for him.

“I think her big muscles are a cheat,” he muttered. “Not to mention her height. She might be adorable, but she’s ruthless…”

“Not her fault you’re so short.”

Now all the little faces were turned to him expectantly, eagerly awaiting his verdict.

His sister would give him hell to pay if he taught them to use magic at every opportunity. Besides, she and her wives had children on the way – this argument would last forever if they couldn’t forge peace now.

“How about a middle ground, then?” he tried. “Jade can only use simple spells, and only from the list of spells we’ve already cleared for safety.”

“What about levitation?” Jade asked.

“Only to catch someone if they fall. I haven’t assessed your aim yet.”

A chorus of awws confirmed that this threw a wrench into the Jade-twins’ initial team-up plans. Libella harrumphed smugly.

“Daddy, it’s Auntie Prowl!”

He turned just as Asiel thrust a panting, shellshocked fox towards his face.

“Sweetheart, no!”

With a burst of song, he lifted the poor creature from her hands and set it loose in the bushes.

“Not every animal is a shapeshifter. Auntie Prowl would let you know immediately if it was her.”

“Leave the woodland creatures alone,” agreed Ankh, mostly for support. Llew could see the snicker he was fighting to keep down.

“But Faid is playing with the squirrels?”

That warranted a speedy trip across the wood. Hoisting Asiel into his arms, and with Ankh firmly holding Cateia, they arrived swiftly to find their son crawling around on all fours after various squirrels – boots and scarf nowhere to be seen.

Unfortunately, he was able to justify this as “following the squirrels to find pinecones”, so they could only dress him, warn him to respect the animals’ personal space, and step aside.

In the end, Rose was the winner – closely followed by Faid, who only lost because he returned without his hat, shirt and socks.

 

🍁🍁🍁

 

One hectic mass-bath and noisy dinner later, every member of the expedition was settled into a bed in the royal nursery. Rose was handed back to Ruby to bathe and dress, to minimise dysphoria – and Llew was able to confirm that she hadn’t placed any work on his desk.

During this, Jade decided that he’d rather sleep with his parry after all, prompting such bitter sobbing and begging from Kisura that Ruriko joined the sleepover to keep the peace.

And upon seeing the gallant International Advisor, the rest of the children sprung up to badger them for stories of far-away countries.

“Some other time!” Ruriko finally succeeded in saying after five minutes, throwing their head back laughing. “You know, your mummy and daddy have tales of great adventure too. Maybe they’ll tell us one tonight?”

At last, all eyes turned back to Llew and Ankh. Or back to Llew, at least. Ankh never told stories.

“Well… Tonight’s story is Rose’s choice. What kind would you like?”

“Hm…”

She twisted her newly-formed braid in her hands while she thought.

“How about a story about when you were a child?”

“One with great feats?” added Daia hopefully.

“One about love?” tried Cateia.

“One with mummy in it?” asked Libella.

He chuckled.

“Any story about me is going to have mummy in it. But this is Rose’s decision.”

She thought for a moment before nodding.

“Then your wish is my command – once you’re all back in bed.”

The time it took them to crawl back under the covers and sort their pillows and toys again bought him time to think. Not many events from his childhood were child-friendly. Those featuring love were the worst offenders of all.

But with ten hopeful faces peering up at him, he had only one choice.

“Once upon a time, there lived a little prince. He was about your age, and also lived in a castle with all his friends and family, where everyone loved each other very much.

But, since the castle was often attacked by evildoers, the prince had decided at a young age to become a sorcerer, and he sought to become strong enough to protect everyone.

One day, the royal family of a distant country came to pay their respects. They brought a great many gifts to give to the prince’s family – and, for him, they had a strange cube.

“It will make you very powerful,” they told him.

But they didn’t explain anything else before departing with his father.

The prince brought the cube to his favourite person and greatest friend: the bird knight.”

He didn’t miss the slightly judgemental look his husband shot him. He smoothly ignored it.

“Many thousands of years ago, an alchemist had created the knight to uphold the laws of an ancient kingdom.

When he had come to Sanctuary, the prince had helped him to become an organic being, and the knight settled down as one of his dad’s knights.

The prince loved and trusted him so much, he said he wanted to marry him when he grew up – and always promised to ask him when he became an adult.

Of course, the upstanding knight always replied: “Change your mind!”

On this day, the two of them worked together to test the cube, trying to press or turn the corners, look for hidden compartments, expose it to elements and magic… But, no matter what they tried, they couldn’t make it respond.

Eventually the prince put the cube in his toy box and forgot all about it.

It wasn’t until several months later, when the prince had tired himself almost to tears trying to improve his magic, that he took it out to try again. This time, without doing anything at all, one corner of the cube lit up in a bright pink.

The prince watched in amazement as the light shot out and turned into the figure of a little girl with pale white skin and a frilly pink dress, floating daintily down to the ground.

“Hello, Your Highness,” she said with a smile, “My name is Mai.””

The children gasped in amazement.

“It’s Aunt Mai!?” asked Daia excitedly.

“It is. This is the story of our first meeting and how we became friends.”

They scooted closer, ready to climb out of bed and gather around him – but he quickly shot them a look.

“I’ll only tell this story if you all stay in bed.”

They reluctantly plopped back down again.

“Now, where was I? The girl said: “My name is Mai, and I’m here to help you.”

She was one of the nine strongest sorcerers to have ever lived. She and seven of the others had been sealed in the cube after their deaths – the ninth, and last, was Lusonia, our guardian ancestor.

The eight sealed in the cube were tasked with mentoring the sorcerer who activated the cube, but they had been waiting for a long, long time. Now that the little prince had set them free, Mai was raring to teach him.

First, though, she promised to give him a gift.

She used her magic to scan the deepest corners of his mind. Realising that the little prince was besotted with the knight, she brought the prince to him, and then read his mind too.

“Aha!” she cried. “I see the problem here!”

With a twirl of her skirt, light span off it and swarmed the knight, and turned him into a completely human child in a big dress and a tiara.

“Tada! Now all the reasons he has for not returning your love are gone,” she announced proudly. “He wouldn’t develop feelings for a child? Now you’re the same age. He says he’s unsuitable because he’s a ‘monster’? Now he’s human. It would be better if you married royalty? Now he’s a princess!”

They were terrified. Even the little prince knew that wasn’t the solution to any of that!

“Please, turn him back,” begged the prince. “There’s nothing wrong with Ankh. I would never want him to be unhappy, and this will definitely make him unhappy.”

“Nonsense!” she answered. “I’ve read his mind, and all he wants is for you to be happy and safe. If you’re happy, he’s happy. Then this should be fine, right?”

Absolutely wrong, they said!

“Please turn Ankh back,” repeated the prince. “Things like hoping for him to love me back can wait until I’m an adult. Right now, it’s enough that he’s my friend.”

But Mai still wouldn’t believe it. Besides, she saw the knight was burning with fury, and she had no desire to empower him by turning him back into an adult.

“Just give it a try! If you complete my training and still don’t want it, then I’ll turn him back.”

 So saying that, she created a shackle that chained them together and disappeared into thin air.”

“Aunt Mai was very naughty…” muttered Libella.

“‘Naughty’ is an understatement,” Ankh agreed, visibly seething.

Llew quickly cleared his throat and carried on.

“Mai was indeed very, very naughty – and her naughtiness had only just begun. When she disappeared, it was only to reappear in another part of the castle. She believed that she had the answers to all love’s problems, you see, and was determined to play fairy godmother to everyone.

She went, for example, to visit the religious advisor and the knight he loved. He was in the bad habit of keeping secrets from her, which always troubled her.

“Easy-peasy, here’s a fix!” cried Mai, and made it so that he had to tell her every secret he had.

To the knightess’ horror, her boyfriend began to recite every secret he had ever had – from childhood white lies, traumas he wished to leave behind, people’s worries that had been entrusted to him because he was their priest… No matter how he tried to cover his mouth or how she clamped her ears, both the mundane and the terrifying spilled from his lips, and they were stuck for hours.

“You’re welcome~!” cried the little girl.

At another point, she visited the kings and saw how culture clash and secret anxieties troubled their marriage. After reading both their minds thoroughly, she concluded that it was King Rurri’s witty, scheming mind that was to blame – and, though both politely asked her not to do anything, she struck him witless.

The prince shuddered to see how empty and zombie-like his papa had become. 

“We need to put a stop to all this,” he concluded. His knight agreed.

Unfortunately, the only way to overturn Mai’s magic was for the prince to learn her spells.

With the knight’s permission and utmost trust, the prince secluded them both in his magical workshop. There, they used trial and error to transform him into a cat in both mind and body.

This was truly no easy task. A spell that influences the mind or physical form can be incredibly dangerous – one mistake, and the mind can shatter or the body tear. The prince was forced to practice on caged spiders first, with his Master, Lusonia, summoned to protect them from harm.

After endless days of research, practice, and communing with raw magic… With little food or sleep, the prince at last succeeded in finding the correct method. With only a few more hours of work, the knight was a cat – and the sorceress satisfied.

After a full day of rest, the prince was able to undo the spells she had left around the castle. This left everyone to heal the greater damage with love, forgiveness and communication.

Everything was as it should be.

Except for the knight, who mysteriously turned back into a cat at the last moment, and with such powerful magic that the prince couldn’t undo it no matter what he tried.

“Consider it a gift!” called the voice of the sorceress in his head.

It was several months before the spell wore off.”

Concluding the tale, he looked to his audience for their final verdict. They stared in wonder-struck silence.

“Wait… That’s the end?” asked Daia.

“You were expecting more?”

“What about the other seven sorcerers?” asked Jade.

“That would be a very, very long story… Why don’t we split it across several nights?”

“But, Master, I won’t be here on other nights,” he whined, “Isn’t this an important story for me to learn from?”

“And there hasn’t been enough adventure yet!” complained Daia.

Rose nodded. “Please continue, Llew?”

“As you wish… The next sorcerer didn’t emerge until several months later. He was the world’s greatest assassin-for-hire: a twisted and dismissive man wrapped from head to toe in black, who was deeply unimpressed to be tutoring a child.

“This is a waste of time,” he said, “Let’s play a game instead. If you can land one spell on me before I kill all your friends and family, I’ll say you passed my lesson.”

Of course, the prince tried to disagree, but…”

Llew carefully re-crafted his memories into something passably child-friendly for them. This meant leaving out how the assassin killed from youngest to oldest, and how Llew collapsed from exhaustion while protecting Brigite and woke to find her half-warm corpse in the stable.

In the end, he left Ankh behind in order to keep his plan a complete secret, in case they were being spied on. He transformed into a tiny mouse and hid beneath the bed of the next target. Right enough, the assassin rose from the shadows – literally – and was caught by a spell of captivation.

“What an evil person…” murmured Ruriko.

“He would have told you he was an assassin, not a person.”

After the goddess resurrected everyone, Garon the Shield-Master emerged. He was a giant of a man, easily pushing 7 feet, who had served as a soldier in an army long ago. As a master of earth magic, he used it primarily as a form of protection, and had defended his colleagues fiercely – right up until they tore him to pieces out of fear.

Llew’s trial was to last a five-minute fight with Garon without ever being hit, and using only earth magic. It was a gargantuan task. He already knew how to use earth, but having enough mental strength to lift it and wielding it quickly was something different altogether. He trained constantly, but was easily brought down time and time again.

Not even a second after he had passed, out came the next one: the so-called “Necromancer”, who was really a soul doctor. With neither willing to kill or hurt someone to create something to practice on, she could only teach him the most basic of her skills – how to swap people’s souls.

There wasn’t much of a tale to this one. Ruriko’s father and uncle were mad enough to agree to being test subjects.

“They weren’t mad!” protested Ruriko. “They were following the spirit of adventure.”

“Well, they were adventurous enough to let a five-year-old use experimental soul magic on them.”

Things took a darker turn with the arrival of the next sorcerer, the “Beast King”. He was a wild and boasting man who specialised in animal-based magic. After leaving Llew with the task of learning to make animals speak, he went on a walk through the castle – where he found Llew’s aunt and her partner play-fighting over which of them was the “beast king”.

He was so insulted, he turned them into animals and kidnapped them.

This was more than Llew could deal with. Not only was Ankh once again stuck as a cat, thanks to more of Mai’s pranks, but he had begun to realise that he was losing the power to use his old spells.

“For, you see, the casting method the prince had been blessed with relied on musical association to control magic. As the prince learned more about the stresses of being a sorcerer, his mind bore the brunt of the pressure, and even his perception of music changed.

Mai heard him crying in his room and came out to see him.

“What’s wrong, little prince?” she asked.

He explained his woes to her.

“Stupid stinky beast!” she cried. “Don’t worry, I’ll make it all better.”

And she gave him her mother’s necklace – the last memento she had of her – as a promise that she would bring the wayward “Beast King” back and help the prince.

But this was not even the beginning of the end for his problems. Only a few days later, the prince discovered the true dark secret of the cube: once he had completed his training, it would destroy the souls trapped within it to grant him any one wish he wanted.

Were the sorcerers tired of an endless not-life? Had they long accepted that they would never see the afterlife? Even Mai shrugged in defeat when he asked her about it.

“I reject this fate,” declared the prince, once again emboldened with cause. “I won’t let anyone disappear.””

The next sorcerer specialised in channelling magic through items – which Llew could already do, and was automatically passed. The next taught him a telekinesis spell that would work on anything.

But he put the final trial on hold and threw himself into his own training instead. Using an enchanted music player, he exposed himself to every genre of music in existence and experimented until he was able to cast again.

Then he devoted months of sleepless nights to research. It led him back to the soul magic the doctor had taught him – but he needed it to be much, much stronger.

So he slipped out one night on a moonless night – followed in the shadows by his ever-watching knight – and summoned forth his own soul. By facing it and bringing it under his command, he gained almost complete control of it, just as he needed for his plan.

The final sorcerer taught him to communicate with plants. And then – 

“When all the trials were passed, the cube glowed brightly with each sorcerer’s assigned colour, and they mixed together to open it. A glowing golden orb rose out.

“Make your wish, my prince,” said the orb.

But he refused. Calling his soul before him, he weaved the best of all spells he had newly perfected, and used his soul as a channel to the afterlife.

While the sorcerers were distracted with their astonishment, the little prince passed Mai a special hand mirror.

“Please take good care of this,” he said, “it’s connected to my soul. With this, you can come back to play with us anytime you want.”

He turned back to the others.

“There are people waiting for you on the other side, aren’t there? If you follow this path all the way, you can be with them again,” he said.

“Are you sure?” asked the Beast King. “You can make any wish in the world, kid.”

“I don’t need any wish made of someone else’s misery,” the prince answered. “You deserve to rest in peace. This is all I want.”

They smiled. One by one, each sorcerer gave him one item of importance to them as a present and walked down the path. Mai’s was but a hug.

He saw them all to the other side safely and then, with one last wave, withdrew his soul. The box was just a box, and the ordeal was over.

Since then, the little prince has grown into a king, and he’s happy to say that he’s never again seen any of the seven. If all holds well, a whole century may pass before he joins them.

But Mai has returned again and again these past two decades, and they remain, as ever, the dearest of friends.”

“And there you have it,” finished Ankh. “One story of the many thousands from daddy’s ridiculously eventful childhood.”

Llew chuckled. “Sorry I kept you so busy…”

He gathered his skirts in his hands so he could rise smoothly.

“Speaking of keeping busy… It’s definitely time for aspiring adventurers to get their beauty sleep, right?”

 

🍁🍁🍁

 

That would never be the end of it, of course. After half a thousand questions about what Mai did when she wasn’t visiting them, a dozen requests for Llew to let them see their own souls, and a brazen declaration from Kisura that he would marry his favourite person when he became an adult, it was a whole hour later when they departed.

“Such beautiful miracles, but they’re the definition of mischief,” Llew sighed affectionately.

“The apples didn’t fall far from the tree,” Ankh agreed. “Better start picking your dress for their wedding now.”

“If it goes the same way, Jade will make him wait an extra seven years, so I won’t rush.”

Deep night kept the world outside shrouded from view, like a black velvet cloak wrapping the castle. The softly glowing lamps cast whispers of light and shadow across the long stone corridors. Though their footsteps echoed, they seemed the only two who could hear them.

“All the best things in life are worth waiting for, though,” he admitted softly.

“True. I’ve been waiting all day to hike up that dress and ride your ass into the sheets.”

Llew shot a flirtatious glance up at his husband. The low light brought out the many shades of gold in his eyes and made that handsome grin all the more enchanting.

“Really? But, thinking back, I had to work hard to win you over. You should do the same.”

“What does my king demand?”

“How about another bet?”

Ankh chuckled.

“Do I have a chance of winning this one?”

“Sure. If you can catch me before I reach our room, you can have me – and I’ll make my skin taste like ice cream tonight.”

“Fair play?”

“The fairest. I’ll only use the power of my feet.”

“You’re on.”

Llew threw himself at the door barely three feet from where they stood – and was snatched up before his foot hit the ground.

 

 

🍁

 

Author's Account:

Moonpearl (SH).