A Fairy Tale 2
Mar. 18th, 2007 11:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tygati^^; I think I must apologize that I didn't make it clear that A Fairy Tale had two parts... I meant to finish part 2 yesterday, but I did yardwork and my hands weren't working right. x.x; But I finished today! ^.^
So... Part One here... aaannd onward to part two!
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If anyone noticed that their Queen was a bit more subdued than usual the following week, they politely didn't mention it. Rain went through the motions with only a fraction of his usual cheer and determination, as even the slightest glimpse of blue, be it blue wings, blue eyes, or blue hair, threatened to send him into tears. All he could cling to to survive the day was the unwavering belief that the Faerie Queen didn't cry. No matter how much he wanted to.
It was late, the last of the day's supplicants having just been dealt with when the very last person he wanted to see walked through the open doors into the Audience Hall. It hurt to watch as that handsome figure strode gracefully closer, bowing and kneeling at the foot of the dais. At first glance Hyacinth appeared the same as he always had, strong and confident and perfect. It wasn't until he raised his head that Rain could see the misery deep in his eyes, a painful echo of his own.
"My Queen."
After a moment to compose himself, Rain nodded. "Hyacinth. What news do you bring of the Blue Lands?"
Hyacinth shook his head slowly, his usual smile only a shadow of itself. "All is peaceful, my Queen. Today... Today I come to you only as myself, and not as the Guardian of Blue. It is... personal."
Rain's heart felt like it would hammer through his chest. Surely Hyacinth wouldn't come to the Queen about what had happened between them! Would he? Would Rain, if their positions were reversed and he had been rejected with such a strange, confusing excuse? Rain was a servant in the Faerie Queen's palace. Surely, to Hyacinth's mind, Queen Amaryllis would know him better than anyone.
And she did, but not for the reasons that Hyacinth would be thinking.
"What is the problem?" Rain managed to ask, finally, hoping that he didn't sound as trapped as he felt.
There was a brief hesitation, and Rain could see the way Hyacinth set his shoulders as he drew in a breath. This was as hard on him as it was on Rain, it seemed, though for vastly different reasons.
"For the past several years I have been courting a young fairy in your service by the name of Rain," Hyacinth explained. "I... He seemed to welcome my attentions, and I certainly enjoyed his company. A week ago I thought to see if perhaps there was more between us than simple friendship, but..." He trailed off, several emotions flickering across his face faster than Rain could identify them. Except for the pain. That one he knew all too well. "He did not tell me 'no' my Queen, he told me that he could not." He made a sound of pained frustration, looking up at Rain beseechingly. "I have thought and thought and I cannot understand what there could be to pain him so. Certainly there is no curse nor dark magic that could harm him, here in the sanctity of your own palace. Had he a love already I would like to believe he would have told me, and I just cannot understand..."
What could he say? Was there anything? No one but Hyacinth ever noticed Rain, which had worked to his advantage in perpetrating the ruse, but it also meant he'd never before had to come up with any excuses for why Rain and Queen Amaryllis couldn't be parted. Or had to explain one from the viewpoint of the other. This was even harder than trying to explain to Hyacinth the first time had been.
"Rain is... currently tied up in a project for me," he managed at last, grasping on the only thing he could think of that Hyacinth couldn't question. "I am sorry that this has created problems for you, but secrecy is essential or the results will be disastrous for Tia-na-Niara."
Hyacinth swallowed once, then nodded, disappointment clear in his eyes. "I understand, my Queen. Might I ask... how long until this secret project is finished?"
If only he knew how badly Rain wished it was already over. Half hidden in the folds of his dress, Rain's entire hand had gone numb from how tightly he was clenching Amaryllis's scepter. "I wish I knew," he said honestly. "It was never meant to last as long as it has..."
Stiffly, sadly, Hyacinth nodded again. He rose, bowing again, and turned to go. Rain watched him for a moment, refusing to give into tears again, and whispered, "I'm so sorry, Hyacinth..." He hadn't thought he'd spoken loud enough to be heard, but the man paused briefly before continuing on out of the Audience Hall.
It was so hard not to break down crying right then. Rain took several deep, unsteady breaths before rising slowly to his feet. There was a sharp pain in his hand as it abruptly protested being clenched so tightly, cramping and rendering his fingers numb enough that the scepter slipped from their nerveless grasp and crashed to the floor, rolling down the dais steps to the floor below. Rain grimaced and stepped carefully down, kneeling to reach for the object with the hand that wasn't shooting pains up his arm.
Something shot over his head, tingling faintly in the manner he'd come to associate with the Faerie Queen's crown nullifying hazardous magic. He looked up quickly, spotting a curvaceous woman standing near the open doors and staring at him coldly. She seemed somewhat familiar, but Rain saw so many people every day that it was hard to remember a particular face. Dark gold hair to frame a heart-shaped face, red-brown eyes and wings that gave the impression of a slightly imperfect ruby, and a gown of a matching color that hugged every single generous curve of her body.
"Who...?" he asked, grasping blindly for his scepter.
The lovely woman scowled at him. "Oh come now, Amaryllis. Don't be stupid," she spat. "Or is this more of your stupid games? Pretending you're better than the rest of us? Not given to the same base desires and all?"
Rain stared at her blankly. "What?"
It took a moment, during which she glared at him in furious disbelief, before he realized that this woman must be someone that the real Faerie Queen Amaryllis knew. Or had known. More than ten years ago...
"I'm tired of your games, Amaryllis," the woman continued icily, pointing one jewel-bedecked finger at him. "And I'm tired of hearing 'Amaryllis this' and 'Amaryllis that' from Coriander. I don't know why you didn't just disappear the first time, but this time I'm making sure you vanish for good!"
There was a flash of crimson light, and Rain only barely managed to dodge in time. If what she was saying was true, that she'd been the one to make Amaryllis vanish ten years ago, then Rain doubted the magic of the Queen's crown would be able to protect him. Or would it? He'd found it sitting on Amaryllis's dresser right where it belonged that first morning after she'd gone missing, so maybe she hadn't been wearing it when this woman, whoever she was, had done whatever it was that she had.
All this not knowing was driving him crazy!
He ducked another spell, feeling the tingle as it got far too close for comfort's sake, and blinked as something finally registered with him. A name the woman had spoken. Coriander... He did know that name. A letter that had come a few months after he'd begun the ruse, one he hadn't been able to make heads or tails of and had simply set aside to give to the real Amaryllis when she returned.
Only she hadn't, and the letter had been forgotten for ten long years. The letter from someone named Coriander.
"I got a letter from Coriander," he offered, grateful when the hurled magic ceased for the moment. "I... I didn't answer it. I didn't know how to answer it. I'm sorry..."
It was the wrong thing to say. With a scream of rage the woman hurled the strongest spell yet at him, one he couldn't dodge entirely. The crown he still wore managed to take the brunt of it, but enough still got through to knock him backwards onto the floor, shredding a good part of his dress and lining his chest and arms with welts that slowly began to seep blood. He struggled to sit up, getting tangled up in the strips of fabric that had once been one of his favorites of Amaryllis's gowns.
"Ow..." he mumbled, gingerly touching one of the worst of the scratches and quickly rolling out of the way as she threw something else at him. Something glinted nearby and he jerked his gaze toward it, tensing as he realized he was looking at the Queen's scepter, still lying on the floor where it had fallen. If he could get to that, he'd have the power he needed to protect himself.
"I see you've learned a few tricks," the woman spat. "But so have I. I've spent a long time planning how to get you out of our lives for good. I don't know how you managed to escape the binding spell I sent, but it won't do you any good this time, Amaryllis."
Binding spell? Was that what had happened to Queen Amaryllis, Rain wondered. But even with Amaryllis's crown and scepter he hadn't been able to sense anything...
He yelped as another spell came perilously close, scrambling on his hands and knees to try to reach the scepter, so tantalizingly close. He'd almost reached it when the woman flung something else at him, no, at the scepter! It shuddered and crackled, then shattered into a fine dust that rained down upon the Audience Hall floor.
Rain stared in disbelief. The Queen's scepter, gone. And with it, all the power to protect and defend his people. What was he going to do now?
"Aw, did you lose your favorite pretty toy?" the woman taunted cruelly. "You always were entirely too obsessed with your jewelry and gowns. The vain, arrogant queen, so much better than the rest of us..."
"I'm not!" Rain shouted in frustration, hugging the tatters of his clothing to him. "I'm not any better than anyone else. All I have is a little bit of power... to protect my people..." he finished weakly.
"Yes," the woman spat. "Your precious people. Your precious lands. So much more important to you than the people who loved you! Arrogant, selfish Amaryllis!"
"You don't understand!" Rain cried, frustrated, her words cutting sharper than they had any right to. This woman had no idea what it took to be the Queen of Tia-na-Niara. What he had to give up for the sake of the people. She had no right to speak of the Faerie Queen that way.
He struggled slowly to his feet, tears beginning to fall at last. "You don't understand anything. What it means to be Queen, what it means to put the lives and happiness of everyone else before your own. Never having a single moment to yourself, always giving everything you have and taking nothing for your own, giving up your one chance at happiness because you can't... you can't..."
A sob choked off his voice and he shuddered, arms wrapped tightly around himself in a pale imitation of the embrace he really wanted to feel. It shouldn't hurt. She wasn't talking about him. And yet it felt so very much like she was, and he couldn't stand the pain it caused. His vision blurred, making everything a wash of indistinct colors through the tears that flowed hotly down his cheeks. He could feel gathering magic, though he couldn't see clearly enough to pinpoint exactly where the woman was now, and then footsteps...
"My Queen?" A low, musical, painfully familiar voice called out, making Rain's head snap around toward its source. "I apologize again for the intrusion, but I just wanted to..." Hyacinth trailed off, no doubt taking in Rain's disheveled state and the presence of the woman whose magic Rain could still feel like an itch in the back of his head.
No... Hyacinth was far too close to the woman and her magic. If he closed his eyes he could still see the Queen's scepter shattering into dust. If a spell like that came too close to Hyacinth...
"Hyacinth," he croaked around his tear-closed throat. "You can't... go, leave! Quickly! Before you get hurt!"
Rain blinked away his tears as swiftly as he could, desperate to be able to see what was happening. There were no sounds, no voices, no footsteps. And that magic was still buzzing, so strong he could practically taste it.
"... my Queen?" Hyacinth asked at last, the confusion and surprise in his voice impossible to miss.
Equally impossible to ignore was the hatred in the woman's voice when she spoke again. "So, that's how it is... you went and found yourself a new toy, did you Amaryllis?"
Rain felt his stomach turn. She thought that Amaryllis and Hyacinth... she couldn't... But the magic shifted, and he knew exactly what the woman intended. Through the blur he saw Hyacinth take a step back as the woman swung around to face him, felt the spell take shape in her hands.
"No!" he screamed, launching himself across the room as fast as he could fly, crashing into the woman and feeling the burn of the spell as it enveloped him before the magic of the crown managed to dispel it. Rain balled up his hand into a fist and swung hard, sending them both crashing to the floor from the force of the blow.
He lay still, hand throbbing, welts burning, but alive. Still alive. And so was the woman, though she appeared to be unconscious. Rain wasn't sure if it had happened when he'd hit or when she'd struck the floor, but either way meant she couldn't cause any more damage. To him, or to...
"Hyacinth!" he exclaimed, getting to his knees and twisting around to stare up at the tall Guardian. The man looked unharmed, to Rain's immense relief, but he had a strange expression on his face again. As Rain watched, his lips parted.
"... Rain?"
Rain felt his face drain of color, realizing belatedly that with his gown in tatters and the corset not much better, his true gender had to be obvious at this distance. It was over. Hyacinth knew. Not that he'd have been able to continue on without the scepter anyway, as his own meager magical power stood no chance of solving even one of the myriad of problems brought before the Faerie Queen.
"Hyacinth." Even to his own ears, he could barely hear himself. "I... I..."
There was a faint rustling as Hyacinth knelt, then the vague impression of warmth on his arms and abruptly he was being pulled into Hyacinth's lap and held close. His injuries stung, but the tears in his eyes stung more as they began flowing again. He buried his face in Hyacinth's shoulder and gave up entirely, sobbing out ten years of worry and fear and anxiety into the soft blue fabric.
When there were no more tears left to cry Rain slowly became aware of Hyacinth's hands gently stroking down his bare back and realized that the corset had been removed at some point, leaving him clad only in a ripped skirt and a few tattered bits of cloth. He flushed, trying to pull away, though Hyacinth didn't release him from the circle of his arms.
"Hyacinth..."
"Well, that explains a lot of things," Hyacinth said, smiling softly, almost whimsically as he brushed a few strands of hair out of Rain's face.
Rain knew he was staring and couldn't manage to summon up any other emotion but shock. "I... you... what?" That wasn't what Hyacinth was supposed to say at all! Not even close!
Hyacinth's smile warmed. "I'll explain anything I can, though I think you might want to change your clothes first and heal those wounds..."
"I can't," Rain said miserably. "She destroyed the scepter."
"Scepter?" Hyacinth blinked. "What scepter?"
"The Queen's scepter," Rain explained, reaching up gingerly and pulling the tiara down off his head. "As long as I had it, and this, I could use the Queen's power. But now... now it's gone."
Hyacinth frowned down at the tiara, freeing one hand from Rain's waist to run a finger along the edge of the delicate item. "There's magic in it, but it's not Amaryllis's," he said slowly. "It's yours."
Rain blinked and shook his head. "You're wrong. It's the Queen's. My magic isn't strong at all. I'm the weakest water fairy ever born."
Gentle laughter met his protests and a warm hand ran down his face, cupping his jaw and tilting his head up so that their eyes met. "That's because you're not a water fairy," Hyacinth said, amused.
"I... what?" Rain stared, unable to process what he'd been told, and Hyacinth took the opportunity to lean down and touch his lips to Rain's. They were still warm, and soft, and absolutely perfect, and Rain was helpless to do anything but melt into the kiss. He'd wanted it so badly for so long, and now there was no terrible secret to get in the way.
"You," Hyacinth said when they parted, still close enough that Rain could feel his breath, "Are a wish fairy."
Rain blinked again. "A what?" he asked. "What's a wish fairy? I've never even heard of one before..."
Hyacinth laughed. "That's because they're very, very rare. For as long as I can remember, Amaryllis was the only one, and she's older than me. I have no idea if there was more than one when she was born."
"So I'm... the same sort of fairy as the Queen?" Rain asked doubtfully.
Hyacinth grinned. "Exactly. I always wondered why she brought you to the palace as a servant when she'd never needed one before, but I never imagined you might be a wish fairy until today... only another wish fairy could have done what you did. How long have you been pretending to be the Queen?"
Rain flushed and looked down, which changed his view from Hyacinth's face to Hyacinth's chest. Not exactly helpful. "About ten years," he muttered.
Dark blue eyes widened in surprise and no small amount of shock. "Ten years?" Hyacinth exclaimed. "That's... you..." He stopped, tilting his head and looking rather thoughtful when Rain snuck a quick look. "Actually, that makes a lot of sense..."
Rain's doubtful frown must have been obvious, because Hyacinth laughed again. "It may not have been obvious to you because you lived with her, but Amaryllis was getting increasingly unhappy somewhere between ten and fifteen years ago. Then one day whatever was bothering her just seemed to go away and everything was fine." He smiled faintly. "But apparently that's because she was actually you." Hyacinth frowned. "What happened to the real Amaryllis?"
"I don't know," Rain admitted softly. "When I went to bring her breakfast that morning, she just wasn't there. I thought, if the people knew, there'd be a panic, so..."
Hyacinth nodded slowly. "Yes, I can see that. Without the Queen to protect us, the Faerie Lands would be easily overrun by the dark creatures. And without even knowing it, you were the only one capable of taking her place..." He laughed. "Dresses and all. I prefer you in your regular clothing, though."
Rain scowled. "So do I. Sitting all day in a corset is really uncomfortable. Not to mention breathing is next to impossible."
Smiling, Hyacinth kissed his forehead and stood him up slowly, neither of them seeing any reason to mention it when Rain continued to cling to him for 'support'. "So, you need to heal yourself, and figure out what you're going to do with Lucerne, and change clothing, in more or less that order."
Rain blinked. "Lucerne?" He looked down at the unconscious woman on the floor. "Is that her name?"
"Yes. She used to come by the palace rather frequently, sometimes in the company of a shorter, green-haired fairy. I think they were friends of Amaryllis."
Rain stared down at the golden-haired fairy for a long moment, then murmured softly to himself, "I think maybe they were more than just friends..."
"Hmm?" Hyacinth asked, peering down at him.
Rain shook his head, dredging up a faint smile. "Never mind. But you're going to have to explain this whole wish fairy thing to me. I've never been able to use magic very well without Amaryllis's scepter."
Hyacinth laughed again. "Wish fairy magic relies heavily on the strength of the fairy's will. On belief, in your case, I think. You were convinced that Amaryllis's crown and scepter had power, and so they did. If you believe that your injuries are gone, then they will be."
Frowning doubtfully, Rain stared intently at the welts criss-crossing his arms, sighing when they didn't change a bit. "I think this is going to take some getting used to," he muttered.
"Probably," Hyacinth agreed. "How about this - pretend you're the Queen, and that you have the Queen's power in your hands, and order the injuries to heal."
Drawing in a slow breath, Rain closed his eyes and summoned up the calm, confident mask he wore when in his role as the Faerie Queen. He pictured what the magic felt like when he was using it to break a curse or reverse a transformation, that wild, dizzying rush of power flowing through his entire body. Like kissing Hyacinth. Only kissing Hyacinth was even better.
He smiled as that gave him an idea. Tilting his head up, he stood on his toes and pressed his lips to Hyacinth's, pleased when the man immediately responded. He ran his tongue along the part and Hyacinth's mouth opened to him a moment later, giving him access to that delicious taste that was better even than hot tea and sweet rolls. Heady, consuming, and warm. Always so wonderfully warm, Hyacinth was.
When they finally parted for breath, Rain glanced down at his arms and smiled to find that there was no sign that he'd ever been hurt. Eventually he'd have to figure out how to use his magic without a crutch, but for the time being he had an extremely pleasant way to summon it.
"Hmm, that did work," he observed cheerfully.
Hyacinth looked from Rain's face to his arms and back again, laughing at something he saw there. "I don't think I want to ask why kissing me works as well as a few pieces of gaudy crystal to focus your power." He grinned. "Are you going to change clothes now? You have no idea how hard it is to touch you when you're half nude and not give in to the temptation to make it all nude."
Rain looked at Hyacinth for a long moment, then to the still-open Audience Hall doors, then down at Lucerne's unconscious body on the floor. "Technically, I stop being the Queen and go back to just Rain when audiences are over for the day," he stated slowly. "So, if you still want to divest me of my clothing after I get her bound so she can't do any more damage, I wouldn't mind at all."
With a rather strangled noise that sounded suspiciously like a moan, Hyacinth kissed him again.
It was both strange and pleasant to wake up in the morning and realize he was not alone. There was an arm draped over him, holding him snug against a warm, broad chest, and a leg flung over his, pinning him in place. It was, Rain decided, the very best morning of his entire life.
Then the soft sound of chimes cut into his blissful moment, making Rain jerk and wince as the movement yanked on where his wing was pinned underneath Hyacinth's body. He shoved at the larger fairy, getting a sleepy murmur for his trouble. "Hyacinth, move over. I have to get up!" Rain whispered, poking him again. "I'm late!"
There was another sleepy mumble, then Rain yelped as he abruptly found himself on his back, pinned beneath the other fairy's weight. "Hyac-" His protests were cut off as a hot mouth descended to cover his, melting away his words in the dizzying sensation of mouths and tongues and lips and that wonderful flavour that was Hyacinth's own. When the man finally let him breath again they were both panting, and Rain struggled to remember what he'd been fussing about before his wits had gotten scattered so pleasantly.
"Good morning, Rain," Hyacinth murmured, bushing his lips over Rain's again for the brief moment it took for Rain to associate 'morning' with 'duty'.
"I have to get up!" Rain exclaimed again, trying and failing to move Hyacinth from atop him. "Hyacinth!"
"You don't need to go anywhere," Hyacinth objected cheerfully, snuggling close and sprawling out on top of Rain so that Rain hadn't even a hope of escaping.
"Yes, I do," Rain protested. "I have to get up and get ready for audiences and that takes forever and I'm already late and-"
Hyacinth cut him off with a finger to the lips. "When's the last time you took a day off?" he asked.
Rain frowned and pushed the finger away. "Last week, after you called me out to deal with those kobolds. The day you... kissed me." His cheeks felt hot.
Hyacinth arched a brow. "That hardly counts as a day off. You were cleaning."
"Of course I was cleaning. I was trying to catch up; I'd gotten so far behind." Rain scowled.
"When is the last time the Queen and Rain got a day off?" Hyacinth pressed.
Rain stared at him rather blankly. "Do nothing all day? Why would I want to do nothing all day? There's too much to be done."
Hyacinth sighed and kissed his forehead, then his cheeks, and finally his lips. "You work too much." Then, before Rain could protest further, he added, "And you're taking the day off. Both of you."
"But-" That was as far as he got before another of those wild, whirlwind kisses scrambled his thoughts and left him hard and aching for another touch. "Hyacinth..."
The blue-haired fairy smiled. "You don't want to stay in bed all day?" he asked cheerfully, then shrugged with a calculated ease and rolled off Rain to land gracefully on his feet on the floor. "As you wish."
Rain stared at him for a moment in disbelief, then scowled and flung a pillow at Hyacinth's head before sliding out of bed himself and storming off to the bathroom. Soft footsteps let him know that Hyacinth was following and he smiled as he activated the magic that worked the shower, stepping beneath the warm spray and letting it drench him before he turned to smile invitingly to Hyacinth.
The man needed no second invitation, sliding beneath the water and wrapping his arms around Rain, the slide of skin upon skin slickened by the liquid. Rain snuggled into his arms, breathing a soft sigh of contentment that turned swiftly into a squeak as Hyacinth's hands began to roam a little lower than Rain had been expecting.
"Behave!" Rain chided, swatting him and getting kissed again for his trouble.
"No," Hyacinth returned cheerfully, trailing a series of kisses down the side of Rain's face and neck, lapping at the water that clung to the hollows of his throat and collarbone. Only the strong arms around him kept Rain on his feet, and nothing could prevent the helpless moan that escaped his lips.
"Hyacinth..."
"Hmm?" Hyacinth murmured, one hand seeking out and kneading one side of Rain's butt.
"Ah... clean..." Rain managed faintly. "Supposed to... get clean..."
Hyacinth smiled, pulling Rain flat against him so that their groins met, water-slick, and Rain shuddered. "Of course. Eventually."
Some time later, once his legs were working properly again, Rain wandered out into the bedroom drying himself off with one of Amaryllis's obnoxiously pink towels. He added that shower to his 'best ever' list, as well as 'longest ever' though he supposed that was only to be expected given they hadn't exactly been doing the usual 'jump in, get clean' sorts of things he normally associated with showers. Not that he'd mind repeating the experience. Preferably soon.
He fetched out a pair of pants from the bottom drawer he'd used to store his own paltry collection of clothing and slipped them on, prodding halfheartedly at the assortment of plain, functional, completely utilitarian tunics folded neatly in the drawer. It had never bothered him before that his personal clothing was so boring - it was easier to wash. But it was a little frustrating that when he actually wanted to dress up to look nice for someone, he couldn't.
Unless he wanted to wear a dress again, and there was no way he was squeezing into a corset on his 'day off' that Hyacinth had insisted upon rather persuasively.
"Problem?" Hyacinth asked, and Rain jumped as he hadn't heard the man slip up behind him. Warm hands snaked around his waist and toyed with the ties of his pants; Rain batted them away tolerantly.
"I have very boring clothing," Rain explained, snagging one of Hyacinth's wrists before that hand could slide down the front of his waistband. "You behave."
"Yes, my Queen," Hyacinth quipped, jumping quickly backwards as Rain rounded on him threateningly. "Princess?"
Rain grabbed a silver hairbrush off the top of a dresser and chucked it at his head, then followed it up with several hair ornaments. He grabbed a bejeweled hand mirror with the thought of throwing that as well, then decided better of it and simply chased him, brandishing the mirror. Hyacinth dodged rather well, flying over the bed and evading Rain with considerable skill before getting cornered in the big closet where Rain took the opportunity to pelt him with shoes.
"All right, all right, I surrender!" Hyacinth protested, shielding his face with his arms. "You're just my beautiful, incredibly stubborn Rain."
"Hmph," Rain muttered, crossing his arms and glaring in what he'd hoped was a threatening manner, but given that Hyacinth pulled him close and kissed him soundly it obviously hadn't come anywhere close to what he'd intended. Though, given how delicious Hyacinth's kisses were, he found himself preferring the accidental result.
"So," Hyacinth murmured, sneaking his hands down the back of Rain's pants again, "You went to bring Amaryllis her breakfast and she wasn't here. There was nothing at all unusual around?"
After taking a moment to process the leap from 'teasing Rain' to 'kissing Rain' to 'talking about the Queen', Rain found himself frowning. "Not that I could tell, but Amaryllis... wasn't very tidy. Her bedclothes and covers were on the floor... half her wardrobe was on the floor, actually... there was jewelry everywhere... hair things... shoes..."
Hyacinth winced. "Plenty of things that could have had a hand in her disappearance," he concluded. "You tested them?"
Rain shrugged. "As well as I could. I'm just a... was just a weak water fairy. I used the crown later and tested everything I could think of... jewelry and dresses and things..."
Thoughtfully, Hyacinth looked around and the plethora of color in the wide closet. "And now?"
Shooting Hyacinth a brief, surprised look, Rain shifted his attention to Amaryllis's sparkling clothing. It felt... like him, actually, with a faint echo of Amaryllis underneath. But it was only a memory, magic seeped into the fabric simply by proximity to the wearer and nothing more.
"Nothing here..." he murmured, kneeling to inspect the shoes the same way, with the same results. He freed himself from Hyacinth's grasp (with not-inconsiderable difficulty and several exchanged kisses) and wandered his way back into the room, drifting from chest to dresser to bed, contemplating the contents of the room with newly awakened senses. Everything felt much the same as the clothing had - overtones of himself, particularly on those that he'd spent the most time wearing or touching, and lesser traces of Amaryllis. But nothing that suggested any sort of powerful magic.
Frustrated, he stormed into the bathroom and examined the things there, coming up with the same result. In a fit, he flung the silver hand mirror he was still holding across the room, forgetting for the moment that it contained glass that was sure to shatter upon striking the wall.
Only it didn't. It bounced off the wall and tumbled to the floor, the impact leaving a strange, painful ringing in Rain's head. He wasn't aware that he'd dropped to his knees until Hyacinth's arms wrapped around him, his voice framing the syllables of Rain's name with worry laced through it. With effort, he struggled out of the daze he'd found himself in and stared at the mirror.
"There's... something strange about that mirror," he managed to gasp out, grateful as Hyacinth helped him to his feet. "It... didn't break."
"Isn't that a good thing?" Hyacinth asked. "Cleaning up glass can be dangerous."
"No, I mean... It did something. Protected itself. The magic made my head hurt."
"Oh." Hyacinth released him and walked over to retrieve the object from the floor, studying it carefully before turning it over to view the opposite side. "It doesn't feel particularly unusual... Just a faint hum of magic that could be a spell, but it certainly doesn't feel powerful enough to have affected the Queen..."
"No," Rain agreed, coming up beside him and peering at the mirror. "And I don't really feel it now, but I know I did when I threw it at the wall. There's a lot more magic in there than it feels like is there."
Hyacinth flipped the mirror over a few more times, then shrugged helplessly. "I don't know how to undo a spell I can't even sense..."
Rain stared at it for another minute, then said softly, "I think I may know who can..." He returned to the dresser and pulled out the first shirt he saw, tugging it on before turning back to Hyacinth. "Get dressed. We need to go talk to Lucerne."
"Lucerne!?" Hyacinth stared at him. "She tried to kill you."
"No," Rain corrected with a faint smile, "She tried to kill Amaryllis. If my guess is right, it's not the first time she's done it either."
Hyacinth stared, gesturing with the mirror. "You think she cast this spell?"
"It makes sense," Rain replied with a shrug. "Now go put your clothes on. I'm the only one that gets to see you naked."
Hyacinth stared for a few more moments, then his lips quirked up and he laughed before going to do as ordered.
Rain decided he really couldn't blame Lucerne for staring at him like that. He was wearing his servant clothes (the third pair he'd put on that morning, after Hyacinth had all too cheerfully removed the first two attempts) and no makeup, but his eyes and wings were still rainbow-hued and not their more familiar silver color. Hyacinth said it was because he was using his magic more, and the magic drew out the true color.
That didn't explain why he and Amaryllis were the only fairies in all of Tia-na-Niara to have wings and eyes colored thus, much less the odd rainbow sheen to their hair, but he was fairly certain if asked Hyacinth would simply pass it off as something else unique to wish faeries. He really couldn't wait to get Amaryllis back so that he could, hopefully, get a concrete answer about everything. All of what Hyacinth knew was based on half-remembered rumors at best. Not very reassuring.
"Lucerne," Rain called gently, and the woman started. "Lucerne, my name is Rain."
Lucerne frowned, fear showing in her large red-brown eyes. "Who are you?"
Rain smiled, taking a step forward and kneeling next to the bound woman. "I was a servant to the Faerie Queen Amaryllis, but for the past ten years I have also been Amaryllis herself after she mysteriously vanished one night. I think, perhaps, you know what happened to her." He held out the mirror, watching as Lucerne's face drained of color.
"You... that... Where did you..." she stammered.
"From Amaryllis's room," Rain answered easily, taking comfort in the fact that he could feel Hyacinth's presence just behind him. "I'm guessing that this is what you used to make her disappear, though the magic in it is unfamiliar to me..."
"Of course not," Lucerne returned, a frown creasing her forehead. "You're not a chaos fairy."
Rain blinked. "Chaos fairy?" Behind him, he could hear Hyacinth draw in a sharp breath and he scowled. "Why is it that everyone else knows about these weird obscure faeries and I don't?" he demanded crossly.
"Chaos faeries," Hyacinth explained softly, "Are the opposite of wish faeries in a way. Whereas wish faeries can generate magic from the strength of their will, chaos faeries have no magic of their own. Instead, they... manipulate the magic of others. Warp it in strange ways. Most faeries won't tolerate a chaos fairy living near them..."
Lucerne snorted. Rain watched her curiously. "I take it you don't live in Tia-na-Niara."
"None of your little goody-goody faeries would tolerate me anywhere near them," Lucerne sneered. "I live in the Twilight Forest."
Rain considered. "With Coriander?"
Lucerne stiffened. "That's none of your business."
"Actually, I think it very much is. See, I'm not really clear on all the details, but I think Coriander, whoever she is, loved Amaryllis. And you love Coriander. So, if you made Amaryllis go away..."
"It was her fault!" Lucerne hissed, straining against her bonds. "She led Coriander on! Always making empty promises, telling her she loved her and then abandoning her for months at a time! Her stupid crown was more important to her than Coriander's love. I hate her."
Rain blinked. "What? That's not..."
"Being Queen," Hyacinth interrupted, "Means always putting the needs and well-being of your people above your own wants and desires. It is not always a pleasant duty. Indeed, it is often lonely, painful, and unrewarding. And still she smiles and cares for her people, because they are more important to her than she herself is. Amaryllis loved all her people, Lucerne. I do not doubt she loved this Coriander any less."
Lucerne stared at Hyacinth over Rain's shoulder for a long moment, looking very much like he'd struck her. After some time, however, her head bowed and she closed her eyes. "It doesn't matter," Lucerne said quietly. "It took me five years to craft that spell. It's perfect. There's no way to break it."
"None at all?" Hyacinth asked. Rain merely frowned, turning the silver mirror over and over in his hands.
"None," Lucerne confirmed. "It uses her own power to maintain the spell. She generates infinite power, so the spell is infinitely strong. It can't be broken."
Rain's frown deepened and he slowly shook his head. "But when I threw it at the wall, it reacted to protect itself... meaning for that brief moment not all of its power was going toward keeping Amaryllis trapped..."
"But she didn't free herself," Hyacinth pointed out.
"No," Rain agreed, "But she may need some help. I wonder..." He looked around, spotting a small table that looked promising. "Come here," he instructed, maneuvering Hyacinth around until he was standing next to the table. "I need your help."
Hyacinth gave him a rather bewildered look but allowed himself to prodded into position, eyeing both Rain and the table uncertainly. "What are you up to...?"
"I'm going to free Amaryllis," Rain told him, feeling curiously calm. In all logic he should be fretting horribly about whether his idea would at all, but he wasn't. He'd made his decision, and he was going to make it work whether the spell was supposed to behave like that or not. Was this what Hyacinth meant when he said that a wish fairy's power relied on the strength of their will?
Gripping the mirror firmly in his left hand, Rain wrapped his right around Hyacinth's neck and pulled him down to mesh their mouths together in a slow, sweet kiss. When he felt the magic building within him, swirling all around, he raised his arm and brought the mirror down hard against the table's surface. As before, there was a sharp flash of something that made his head throb, but he flung his own power back at it, feeling a highly familiar presence do the same from the other side, then everything went white.
When his vision finally cleared, he was lying on something warm and comfortable and strangely near to the floor. He stared at the strong arm supporting him for several moments before he finally made the logical connection. Twisting around, he blinked up at Hyacinth. "Did it work?"
Without waiting for a reply he swung his gaze around to take in the rest of the room, fixing immediately on a painfully familiar figure standing in her nightdress and looking highly confused.
"Rain?" Amaryllis asked.
With Hyacinth's help, Rain managed to get back to his feet. "Welcome back," he greeted gently, attempting a bow and only spared a painful encounter with the floor by Hyacinth grabbing him again.
"Hyacinth?" Amaryllis continued, blinking slowly and looking around the room. "And Lucerne? What are you doing.... oh. Oh." Her head swung back around to catch Rain's gaze again. "How long?"
Rain winced. "Ten years, more or less."
Amaryllis's rainbow-hued eyes widened, then she sat down heavily on the floor. "Ten years... how..." She stopped, gaze snapping back to Rain again, looking over him slowly. "Oh! You finally came into your power. That's how..."
Between the headache he had from the spell-breaking and the confusing way Amaryllis was talking, Rain wondered if anything was going to make sense. "You knew I was a... wish fairy?" he asked slowly.
Amaryllis laughed softly. "Oh yes. I'd been looking for you for a long time, after all..."
Behind him Rain could feel Hyacinth's surprise and knew his own had to be plainly visible on his face. "... what?" he asked dumbly.
More lilting laughter met his question. "Ah, I suppose I should tell you the whole story, shouldn't I?" Amaryllis said whimsically, getting carefully to her feet and waving a hand at Lucerne. The bound fairy's restraints melted away and Amaryllis stepped up close to her, smiling sadly. "Lucerne. Since you're here, and... caught, as it were, I think it's a fairly good guess that you were the one who trapped me. I'm sorry, Lucerne. I should have told you and Coriander what I was planning, but I didn't know if it was going to work..."
Lucerne gaped, her mouth opening and closing as she blinked in abject bewilderment. "What... what are you talking about?"
Amaryllis smiled and caught one of Lucerne's hands between her own. "Only a wish fairy has the strength of magic to rule the Fairy Lands. For so very long I was the only one, and even when I met Coriander I was still bound by my duty, no matter how much I loved her... I tried for so very long to try to do both, but then you yelled at me and I realized... Well. That's when I started looking for my successor."
Rain felt his jaw hang open. "Your what?"
"And I found him," Amaryllis continued happily, shooting Rain a fond smile. "But he was so fragile, so broken... I thought if I brought him back with me to the palace, gave him a purpose, he might find the strength within him to lead him to his power." She beamed. "And you have, haven't you Rain? Your eyes and wings have their color now, and they didn't before... You look wonderful."
Sometime much later Rain might find it amusing that they were all staring at her in a rather dumbfounded manner, even Lucerne who'd made no move to free her hand after Amaryllis had claimed it. The stunned silence stretched on until finally Hyacinth managed to break it with a cautiously ventured, "So... Rain was supposed to become the Faerie Queen?"
Amaryllis blinked. "Oh no," she said, shaking her head. "He's a boy. He'll be the Faerie King." She stopped, then switched her attention back to Lucerne, expression softening. "That is... if you and Coriander will still have me, Lucerne..."
"You..." Lucerne found her voice at last. "You were going to step down?" She swallowed audibly. "And I... I..."
Amaryllis enfolded her into a gentle embrace. "It's all right," she murmured. "If you hadn't, it's possible that I'd still be waiting for Rain to come into his power. I think, in the end, everything worked out exactly the way it was supposed to." Tilting her head, she placed a soft, easy kiss to Lucerne's lips.
Rain felt himself blushing. He groped blindly for Hyacinth's hand, dragging them both somewhat stumbling out of the room and down two hallways before he allowed them to slow, though he didn't release his grasp on Hyacinth. They walked along in silence for a long moment, then once more it was Hyacinth who broke it.
"Well, the first thing you're going to have to do as King is find someone else to do the cleaning for you."
Rain stopped, looking up at him uncertainly. "I... It doesn't bother you, that I'm always going to put Tia-na-Niara first? I mean, Amaryllis had to step down to be with the ones she loved..."
Hyacinth smiled and pulled Rain into his arms, holding him close. "I don't know about Coriander, but Lucerne is a chaos fairy. She has no love for the Fairy Lands. But I'm a Guardian, and I know all about how duty to your people has to come first. We'll manage."
"Promise?" Rain asked, feeling rather small and foolish, but it had taken him so very long to claim the one he loved, and he wasn't about to give that up now, even for Tia-na-Niara.
"Promise," Hyacinth whispered, and bent his head to take a kiss.
So... Part One here... aaannd onward to part two!
---
If anyone noticed that their Queen was a bit more subdued than usual the following week, they politely didn't mention it. Rain went through the motions with only a fraction of his usual cheer and determination, as even the slightest glimpse of blue, be it blue wings, blue eyes, or blue hair, threatened to send him into tears. All he could cling to to survive the day was the unwavering belief that the Faerie Queen didn't cry. No matter how much he wanted to.
It was late, the last of the day's supplicants having just been dealt with when the very last person he wanted to see walked through the open doors into the Audience Hall. It hurt to watch as that handsome figure strode gracefully closer, bowing and kneeling at the foot of the dais. At first glance Hyacinth appeared the same as he always had, strong and confident and perfect. It wasn't until he raised his head that Rain could see the misery deep in his eyes, a painful echo of his own.
"My Queen."
After a moment to compose himself, Rain nodded. "Hyacinth. What news do you bring of the Blue Lands?"
Hyacinth shook his head slowly, his usual smile only a shadow of itself. "All is peaceful, my Queen. Today... Today I come to you only as myself, and not as the Guardian of Blue. It is... personal."
Rain's heart felt like it would hammer through his chest. Surely Hyacinth wouldn't come to the Queen about what had happened between them! Would he? Would Rain, if their positions were reversed and he had been rejected with such a strange, confusing excuse? Rain was a servant in the Faerie Queen's palace. Surely, to Hyacinth's mind, Queen Amaryllis would know him better than anyone.
And she did, but not for the reasons that Hyacinth would be thinking.
"What is the problem?" Rain managed to ask, finally, hoping that he didn't sound as trapped as he felt.
There was a brief hesitation, and Rain could see the way Hyacinth set his shoulders as he drew in a breath. This was as hard on him as it was on Rain, it seemed, though for vastly different reasons.
"For the past several years I have been courting a young fairy in your service by the name of Rain," Hyacinth explained. "I... He seemed to welcome my attentions, and I certainly enjoyed his company. A week ago I thought to see if perhaps there was more between us than simple friendship, but..." He trailed off, several emotions flickering across his face faster than Rain could identify them. Except for the pain. That one he knew all too well. "He did not tell me 'no' my Queen, he told me that he could not." He made a sound of pained frustration, looking up at Rain beseechingly. "I have thought and thought and I cannot understand what there could be to pain him so. Certainly there is no curse nor dark magic that could harm him, here in the sanctity of your own palace. Had he a love already I would like to believe he would have told me, and I just cannot understand..."
What could he say? Was there anything? No one but Hyacinth ever noticed Rain, which had worked to his advantage in perpetrating the ruse, but it also meant he'd never before had to come up with any excuses for why Rain and Queen Amaryllis couldn't be parted. Or had to explain one from the viewpoint of the other. This was even harder than trying to explain to Hyacinth the first time had been.
"Rain is... currently tied up in a project for me," he managed at last, grasping on the only thing he could think of that Hyacinth couldn't question. "I am sorry that this has created problems for you, but secrecy is essential or the results will be disastrous for Tia-na-Niara."
Hyacinth swallowed once, then nodded, disappointment clear in his eyes. "I understand, my Queen. Might I ask... how long until this secret project is finished?"
If only he knew how badly Rain wished it was already over. Half hidden in the folds of his dress, Rain's entire hand had gone numb from how tightly he was clenching Amaryllis's scepter. "I wish I knew," he said honestly. "It was never meant to last as long as it has..."
Stiffly, sadly, Hyacinth nodded again. He rose, bowing again, and turned to go. Rain watched him for a moment, refusing to give into tears again, and whispered, "I'm so sorry, Hyacinth..." He hadn't thought he'd spoken loud enough to be heard, but the man paused briefly before continuing on out of the Audience Hall.
It was so hard not to break down crying right then. Rain took several deep, unsteady breaths before rising slowly to his feet. There was a sharp pain in his hand as it abruptly protested being clenched so tightly, cramping and rendering his fingers numb enough that the scepter slipped from their nerveless grasp and crashed to the floor, rolling down the dais steps to the floor below. Rain grimaced and stepped carefully down, kneeling to reach for the object with the hand that wasn't shooting pains up his arm.
Something shot over his head, tingling faintly in the manner he'd come to associate with the Faerie Queen's crown nullifying hazardous magic. He looked up quickly, spotting a curvaceous woman standing near the open doors and staring at him coldly. She seemed somewhat familiar, but Rain saw so many people every day that it was hard to remember a particular face. Dark gold hair to frame a heart-shaped face, red-brown eyes and wings that gave the impression of a slightly imperfect ruby, and a gown of a matching color that hugged every single generous curve of her body.
"Who...?" he asked, grasping blindly for his scepter.
The lovely woman scowled at him. "Oh come now, Amaryllis. Don't be stupid," she spat. "Or is this more of your stupid games? Pretending you're better than the rest of us? Not given to the same base desires and all?"
Rain stared at her blankly. "What?"
It took a moment, during which she glared at him in furious disbelief, before he realized that this woman must be someone that the real Faerie Queen Amaryllis knew. Or had known. More than ten years ago...
"I'm tired of your games, Amaryllis," the woman continued icily, pointing one jewel-bedecked finger at him. "And I'm tired of hearing 'Amaryllis this' and 'Amaryllis that' from Coriander. I don't know why you didn't just disappear the first time, but this time I'm making sure you vanish for good!"
There was a flash of crimson light, and Rain only barely managed to dodge in time. If what she was saying was true, that she'd been the one to make Amaryllis vanish ten years ago, then Rain doubted the magic of the Queen's crown would be able to protect him. Or would it? He'd found it sitting on Amaryllis's dresser right where it belonged that first morning after she'd gone missing, so maybe she hadn't been wearing it when this woman, whoever she was, had done whatever it was that she had.
All this not knowing was driving him crazy!
He ducked another spell, feeling the tingle as it got far too close for comfort's sake, and blinked as something finally registered with him. A name the woman had spoken. Coriander... He did know that name. A letter that had come a few months after he'd begun the ruse, one he hadn't been able to make heads or tails of and had simply set aside to give to the real Amaryllis when she returned.
Only she hadn't, and the letter had been forgotten for ten long years. The letter from someone named Coriander.
"I got a letter from Coriander," he offered, grateful when the hurled magic ceased for the moment. "I... I didn't answer it. I didn't know how to answer it. I'm sorry..."
It was the wrong thing to say. With a scream of rage the woman hurled the strongest spell yet at him, one he couldn't dodge entirely. The crown he still wore managed to take the brunt of it, but enough still got through to knock him backwards onto the floor, shredding a good part of his dress and lining his chest and arms with welts that slowly began to seep blood. He struggled to sit up, getting tangled up in the strips of fabric that had once been one of his favorites of Amaryllis's gowns.
"Ow..." he mumbled, gingerly touching one of the worst of the scratches and quickly rolling out of the way as she threw something else at him. Something glinted nearby and he jerked his gaze toward it, tensing as he realized he was looking at the Queen's scepter, still lying on the floor where it had fallen. If he could get to that, he'd have the power he needed to protect himself.
"I see you've learned a few tricks," the woman spat. "But so have I. I've spent a long time planning how to get you out of our lives for good. I don't know how you managed to escape the binding spell I sent, but it won't do you any good this time, Amaryllis."
Binding spell? Was that what had happened to Queen Amaryllis, Rain wondered. But even with Amaryllis's crown and scepter he hadn't been able to sense anything...
He yelped as another spell came perilously close, scrambling on his hands and knees to try to reach the scepter, so tantalizingly close. He'd almost reached it when the woman flung something else at him, no, at the scepter! It shuddered and crackled, then shattered into a fine dust that rained down upon the Audience Hall floor.
Rain stared in disbelief. The Queen's scepter, gone. And with it, all the power to protect and defend his people. What was he going to do now?
"Aw, did you lose your favorite pretty toy?" the woman taunted cruelly. "You always were entirely too obsessed with your jewelry and gowns. The vain, arrogant queen, so much better than the rest of us..."
"I'm not!" Rain shouted in frustration, hugging the tatters of his clothing to him. "I'm not any better than anyone else. All I have is a little bit of power... to protect my people..." he finished weakly.
"Yes," the woman spat. "Your precious people. Your precious lands. So much more important to you than the people who loved you! Arrogant, selfish Amaryllis!"
"You don't understand!" Rain cried, frustrated, her words cutting sharper than they had any right to. This woman had no idea what it took to be the Queen of Tia-na-Niara. What he had to give up for the sake of the people. She had no right to speak of the Faerie Queen that way.
He struggled slowly to his feet, tears beginning to fall at last. "You don't understand anything. What it means to be Queen, what it means to put the lives and happiness of everyone else before your own. Never having a single moment to yourself, always giving everything you have and taking nothing for your own, giving up your one chance at happiness because you can't... you can't..."
A sob choked off his voice and he shuddered, arms wrapped tightly around himself in a pale imitation of the embrace he really wanted to feel. It shouldn't hurt. She wasn't talking about him. And yet it felt so very much like she was, and he couldn't stand the pain it caused. His vision blurred, making everything a wash of indistinct colors through the tears that flowed hotly down his cheeks. He could feel gathering magic, though he couldn't see clearly enough to pinpoint exactly where the woman was now, and then footsteps...
"My Queen?" A low, musical, painfully familiar voice called out, making Rain's head snap around toward its source. "I apologize again for the intrusion, but I just wanted to..." Hyacinth trailed off, no doubt taking in Rain's disheveled state and the presence of the woman whose magic Rain could still feel like an itch in the back of his head.
No... Hyacinth was far too close to the woman and her magic. If he closed his eyes he could still see the Queen's scepter shattering into dust. If a spell like that came too close to Hyacinth...
"Hyacinth," he croaked around his tear-closed throat. "You can't... go, leave! Quickly! Before you get hurt!"
Rain blinked away his tears as swiftly as he could, desperate to be able to see what was happening. There were no sounds, no voices, no footsteps. And that magic was still buzzing, so strong he could practically taste it.
"... my Queen?" Hyacinth asked at last, the confusion and surprise in his voice impossible to miss.
Equally impossible to ignore was the hatred in the woman's voice when she spoke again. "So, that's how it is... you went and found yourself a new toy, did you Amaryllis?"
Rain felt his stomach turn. She thought that Amaryllis and Hyacinth... she couldn't... But the magic shifted, and he knew exactly what the woman intended. Through the blur he saw Hyacinth take a step back as the woman swung around to face him, felt the spell take shape in her hands.
"No!" he screamed, launching himself across the room as fast as he could fly, crashing into the woman and feeling the burn of the spell as it enveloped him before the magic of the crown managed to dispel it. Rain balled up his hand into a fist and swung hard, sending them both crashing to the floor from the force of the blow.
He lay still, hand throbbing, welts burning, but alive. Still alive. And so was the woman, though she appeared to be unconscious. Rain wasn't sure if it had happened when he'd hit or when she'd struck the floor, but either way meant she couldn't cause any more damage. To him, or to...
"Hyacinth!" he exclaimed, getting to his knees and twisting around to stare up at the tall Guardian. The man looked unharmed, to Rain's immense relief, but he had a strange expression on his face again. As Rain watched, his lips parted.
"... Rain?"
Rain felt his face drain of color, realizing belatedly that with his gown in tatters and the corset not much better, his true gender had to be obvious at this distance. It was over. Hyacinth knew. Not that he'd have been able to continue on without the scepter anyway, as his own meager magical power stood no chance of solving even one of the myriad of problems brought before the Faerie Queen.
"Hyacinth." Even to his own ears, he could barely hear himself. "I... I..."
There was a faint rustling as Hyacinth knelt, then the vague impression of warmth on his arms and abruptly he was being pulled into Hyacinth's lap and held close. His injuries stung, but the tears in his eyes stung more as they began flowing again. He buried his face in Hyacinth's shoulder and gave up entirely, sobbing out ten years of worry and fear and anxiety into the soft blue fabric.
When there were no more tears left to cry Rain slowly became aware of Hyacinth's hands gently stroking down his bare back and realized that the corset had been removed at some point, leaving him clad only in a ripped skirt and a few tattered bits of cloth. He flushed, trying to pull away, though Hyacinth didn't release him from the circle of his arms.
"Hyacinth..."
"Well, that explains a lot of things," Hyacinth said, smiling softly, almost whimsically as he brushed a few strands of hair out of Rain's face.
Rain knew he was staring and couldn't manage to summon up any other emotion but shock. "I... you... what?" That wasn't what Hyacinth was supposed to say at all! Not even close!
Hyacinth's smile warmed. "I'll explain anything I can, though I think you might want to change your clothes first and heal those wounds..."
"I can't," Rain said miserably. "She destroyed the scepter."
"Scepter?" Hyacinth blinked. "What scepter?"
"The Queen's scepter," Rain explained, reaching up gingerly and pulling the tiara down off his head. "As long as I had it, and this, I could use the Queen's power. But now... now it's gone."
Hyacinth frowned down at the tiara, freeing one hand from Rain's waist to run a finger along the edge of the delicate item. "There's magic in it, but it's not Amaryllis's," he said slowly. "It's yours."
Rain blinked and shook his head. "You're wrong. It's the Queen's. My magic isn't strong at all. I'm the weakest water fairy ever born."
Gentle laughter met his protests and a warm hand ran down his face, cupping his jaw and tilting his head up so that their eyes met. "That's because you're not a water fairy," Hyacinth said, amused.
"I... what?" Rain stared, unable to process what he'd been told, and Hyacinth took the opportunity to lean down and touch his lips to Rain's. They were still warm, and soft, and absolutely perfect, and Rain was helpless to do anything but melt into the kiss. He'd wanted it so badly for so long, and now there was no terrible secret to get in the way.
"You," Hyacinth said when they parted, still close enough that Rain could feel his breath, "Are a wish fairy."
Rain blinked again. "A what?" he asked. "What's a wish fairy? I've never even heard of one before..."
Hyacinth laughed. "That's because they're very, very rare. For as long as I can remember, Amaryllis was the only one, and she's older than me. I have no idea if there was more than one when she was born."
"So I'm... the same sort of fairy as the Queen?" Rain asked doubtfully.
Hyacinth grinned. "Exactly. I always wondered why she brought you to the palace as a servant when she'd never needed one before, but I never imagined you might be a wish fairy until today... only another wish fairy could have done what you did. How long have you been pretending to be the Queen?"
Rain flushed and looked down, which changed his view from Hyacinth's face to Hyacinth's chest. Not exactly helpful. "About ten years," he muttered.
Dark blue eyes widened in surprise and no small amount of shock. "Ten years?" Hyacinth exclaimed. "That's... you..." He stopped, tilting his head and looking rather thoughtful when Rain snuck a quick look. "Actually, that makes a lot of sense..."
Rain's doubtful frown must have been obvious, because Hyacinth laughed again. "It may not have been obvious to you because you lived with her, but Amaryllis was getting increasingly unhappy somewhere between ten and fifteen years ago. Then one day whatever was bothering her just seemed to go away and everything was fine." He smiled faintly. "But apparently that's because she was actually you." Hyacinth frowned. "What happened to the real Amaryllis?"
"I don't know," Rain admitted softly. "When I went to bring her breakfast that morning, she just wasn't there. I thought, if the people knew, there'd be a panic, so..."
Hyacinth nodded slowly. "Yes, I can see that. Without the Queen to protect us, the Faerie Lands would be easily overrun by the dark creatures. And without even knowing it, you were the only one capable of taking her place..." He laughed. "Dresses and all. I prefer you in your regular clothing, though."
Rain scowled. "So do I. Sitting all day in a corset is really uncomfortable. Not to mention breathing is next to impossible."
Smiling, Hyacinth kissed his forehead and stood him up slowly, neither of them seeing any reason to mention it when Rain continued to cling to him for 'support'. "So, you need to heal yourself, and figure out what you're going to do with Lucerne, and change clothing, in more or less that order."
Rain blinked. "Lucerne?" He looked down at the unconscious woman on the floor. "Is that her name?"
"Yes. She used to come by the palace rather frequently, sometimes in the company of a shorter, green-haired fairy. I think they were friends of Amaryllis."
Rain stared down at the golden-haired fairy for a long moment, then murmured softly to himself, "I think maybe they were more than just friends..."
"Hmm?" Hyacinth asked, peering down at him.
Rain shook his head, dredging up a faint smile. "Never mind. But you're going to have to explain this whole wish fairy thing to me. I've never been able to use magic very well without Amaryllis's scepter."
Hyacinth laughed again. "Wish fairy magic relies heavily on the strength of the fairy's will. On belief, in your case, I think. You were convinced that Amaryllis's crown and scepter had power, and so they did. If you believe that your injuries are gone, then they will be."
Frowning doubtfully, Rain stared intently at the welts criss-crossing his arms, sighing when they didn't change a bit. "I think this is going to take some getting used to," he muttered.
"Probably," Hyacinth agreed. "How about this - pretend you're the Queen, and that you have the Queen's power in your hands, and order the injuries to heal."
Drawing in a slow breath, Rain closed his eyes and summoned up the calm, confident mask he wore when in his role as the Faerie Queen. He pictured what the magic felt like when he was using it to break a curse or reverse a transformation, that wild, dizzying rush of power flowing through his entire body. Like kissing Hyacinth. Only kissing Hyacinth was even better.
He smiled as that gave him an idea. Tilting his head up, he stood on his toes and pressed his lips to Hyacinth's, pleased when the man immediately responded. He ran his tongue along the part and Hyacinth's mouth opened to him a moment later, giving him access to that delicious taste that was better even than hot tea and sweet rolls. Heady, consuming, and warm. Always so wonderfully warm, Hyacinth was.
When they finally parted for breath, Rain glanced down at his arms and smiled to find that there was no sign that he'd ever been hurt. Eventually he'd have to figure out how to use his magic without a crutch, but for the time being he had an extremely pleasant way to summon it.
"Hmm, that did work," he observed cheerfully.
Hyacinth looked from Rain's face to his arms and back again, laughing at something he saw there. "I don't think I want to ask why kissing me works as well as a few pieces of gaudy crystal to focus your power." He grinned. "Are you going to change clothes now? You have no idea how hard it is to touch you when you're half nude and not give in to the temptation to make it all nude."
Rain looked at Hyacinth for a long moment, then to the still-open Audience Hall doors, then down at Lucerne's unconscious body on the floor. "Technically, I stop being the Queen and go back to just Rain when audiences are over for the day," he stated slowly. "So, if you still want to divest me of my clothing after I get her bound so she can't do any more damage, I wouldn't mind at all."
With a rather strangled noise that sounded suspiciously like a moan, Hyacinth kissed him again.
It was both strange and pleasant to wake up in the morning and realize he was not alone. There was an arm draped over him, holding him snug against a warm, broad chest, and a leg flung over his, pinning him in place. It was, Rain decided, the very best morning of his entire life.
Then the soft sound of chimes cut into his blissful moment, making Rain jerk and wince as the movement yanked on where his wing was pinned underneath Hyacinth's body. He shoved at the larger fairy, getting a sleepy murmur for his trouble. "Hyacinth, move over. I have to get up!" Rain whispered, poking him again. "I'm late!"
There was another sleepy mumble, then Rain yelped as he abruptly found himself on his back, pinned beneath the other fairy's weight. "Hyac-" His protests were cut off as a hot mouth descended to cover his, melting away his words in the dizzying sensation of mouths and tongues and lips and that wonderful flavour that was Hyacinth's own. When the man finally let him breath again they were both panting, and Rain struggled to remember what he'd been fussing about before his wits had gotten scattered so pleasantly.
"Good morning, Rain," Hyacinth murmured, bushing his lips over Rain's again for the brief moment it took for Rain to associate 'morning' with 'duty'.
"I have to get up!" Rain exclaimed again, trying and failing to move Hyacinth from atop him. "Hyacinth!"
"You don't need to go anywhere," Hyacinth objected cheerfully, snuggling close and sprawling out on top of Rain so that Rain hadn't even a hope of escaping.
"Yes, I do," Rain protested. "I have to get up and get ready for audiences and that takes forever and I'm already late and-"
Hyacinth cut him off with a finger to the lips. "When's the last time you took a day off?" he asked.
Rain frowned and pushed the finger away. "Last week, after you called me out to deal with those kobolds. The day you... kissed me." His cheeks felt hot.
Hyacinth arched a brow. "That hardly counts as a day off. You were cleaning."
"Of course I was cleaning. I was trying to catch up; I'd gotten so far behind." Rain scowled.
"When is the last time the Queen and Rain got a day off?" Hyacinth pressed.
Rain stared at him rather blankly. "Do nothing all day? Why would I want to do nothing all day? There's too much to be done."
Hyacinth sighed and kissed his forehead, then his cheeks, and finally his lips. "You work too much." Then, before Rain could protest further, he added, "And you're taking the day off. Both of you."
"But-" That was as far as he got before another of those wild, whirlwind kisses scrambled his thoughts and left him hard and aching for another touch. "Hyacinth..."
The blue-haired fairy smiled. "You don't want to stay in bed all day?" he asked cheerfully, then shrugged with a calculated ease and rolled off Rain to land gracefully on his feet on the floor. "As you wish."
Rain stared at him for a moment in disbelief, then scowled and flung a pillow at Hyacinth's head before sliding out of bed himself and storming off to the bathroom. Soft footsteps let him know that Hyacinth was following and he smiled as he activated the magic that worked the shower, stepping beneath the warm spray and letting it drench him before he turned to smile invitingly to Hyacinth.
The man needed no second invitation, sliding beneath the water and wrapping his arms around Rain, the slide of skin upon skin slickened by the liquid. Rain snuggled into his arms, breathing a soft sigh of contentment that turned swiftly into a squeak as Hyacinth's hands began to roam a little lower than Rain had been expecting.
"Behave!" Rain chided, swatting him and getting kissed again for his trouble.
"No," Hyacinth returned cheerfully, trailing a series of kisses down the side of Rain's face and neck, lapping at the water that clung to the hollows of his throat and collarbone. Only the strong arms around him kept Rain on his feet, and nothing could prevent the helpless moan that escaped his lips.
"Hyacinth..."
"Hmm?" Hyacinth murmured, one hand seeking out and kneading one side of Rain's butt.
"Ah... clean..." Rain managed faintly. "Supposed to... get clean..."
Hyacinth smiled, pulling Rain flat against him so that their groins met, water-slick, and Rain shuddered. "Of course. Eventually."
Some time later, once his legs were working properly again, Rain wandered out into the bedroom drying himself off with one of Amaryllis's obnoxiously pink towels. He added that shower to his 'best ever' list, as well as 'longest ever' though he supposed that was only to be expected given they hadn't exactly been doing the usual 'jump in, get clean' sorts of things he normally associated with showers. Not that he'd mind repeating the experience. Preferably soon.
He fetched out a pair of pants from the bottom drawer he'd used to store his own paltry collection of clothing and slipped them on, prodding halfheartedly at the assortment of plain, functional, completely utilitarian tunics folded neatly in the drawer. It had never bothered him before that his personal clothing was so boring - it was easier to wash. But it was a little frustrating that when he actually wanted to dress up to look nice for someone, he couldn't.
Unless he wanted to wear a dress again, and there was no way he was squeezing into a corset on his 'day off' that Hyacinth had insisted upon rather persuasively.
"Problem?" Hyacinth asked, and Rain jumped as he hadn't heard the man slip up behind him. Warm hands snaked around his waist and toyed with the ties of his pants; Rain batted them away tolerantly.
"I have very boring clothing," Rain explained, snagging one of Hyacinth's wrists before that hand could slide down the front of his waistband. "You behave."
"Yes, my Queen," Hyacinth quipped, jumping quickly backwards as Rain rounded on him threateningly. "Princess?"
Rain grabbed a silver hairbrush off the top of a dresser and chucked it at his head, then followed it up with several hair ornaments. He grabbed a bejeweled hand mirror with the thought of throwing that as well, then decided better of it and simply chased him, brandishing the mirror. Hyacinth dodged rather well, flying over the bed and evading Rain with considerable skill before getting cornered in the big closet where Rain took the opportunity to pelt him with shoes.
"All right, all right, I surrender!" Hyacinth protested, shielding his face with his arms. "You're just my beautiful, incredibly stubborn Rain."
"Hmph," Rain muttered, crossing his arms and glaring in what he'd hoped was a threatening manner, but given that Hyacinth pulled him close and kissed him soundly it obviously hadn't come anywhere close to what he'd intended. Though, given how delicious Hyacinth's kisses were, he found himself preferring the accidental result.
"So," Hyacinth murmured, sneaking his hands down the back of Rain's pants again, "You went to bring Amaryllis her breakfast and she wasn't here. There was nothing at all unusual around?"
After taking a moment to process the leap from 'teasing Rain' to 'kissing Rain' to 'talking about the Queen', Rain found himself frowning. "Not that I could tell, but Amaryllis... wasn't very tidy. Her bedclothes and covers were on the floor... half her wardrobe was on the floor, actually... there was jewelry everywhere... hair things... shoes..."
Hyacinth winced. "Plenty of things that could have had a hand in her disappearance," he concluded. "You tested them?"
Rain shrugged. "As well as I could. I'm just a... was just a weak water fairy. I used the crown later and tested everything I could think of... jewelry and dresses and things..."
Thoughtfully, Hyacinth looked around and the plethora of color in the wide closet. "And now?"
Shooting Hyacinth a brief, surprised look, Rain shifted his attention to Amaryllis's sparkling clothing. It felt... like him, actually, with a faint echo of Amaryllis underneath. But it was only a memory, magic seeped into the fabric simply by proximity to the wearer and nothing more.
"Nothing here..." he murmured, kneeling to inspect the shoes the same way, with the same results. He freed himself from Hyacinth's grasp (with not-inconsiderable difficulty and several exchanged kisses) and wandered his way back into the room, drifting from chest to dresser to bed, contemplating the contents of the room with newly awakened senses. Everything felt much the same as the clothing had - overtones of himself, particularly on those that he'd spent the most time wearing or touching, and lesser traces of Amaryllis. But nothing that suggested any sort of powerful magic.
Frustrated, he stormed into the bathroom and examined the things there, coming up with the same result. In a fit, he flung the silver hand mirror he was still holding across the room, forgetting for the moment that it contained glass that was sure to shatter upon striking the wall.
Only it didn't. It bounced off the wall and tumbled to the floor, the impact leaving a strange, painful ringing in Rain's head. He wasn't aware that he'd dropped to his knees until Hyacinth's arms wrapped around him, his voice framing the syllables of Rain's name with worry laced through it. With effort, he struggled out of the daze he'd found himself in and stared at the mirror.
"There's... something strange about that mirror," he managed to gasp out, grateful as Hyacinth helped him to his feet. "It... didn't break."
"Isn't that a good thing?" Hyacinth asked. "Cleaning up glass can be dangerous."
"No, I mean... It did something. Protected itself. The magic made my head hurt."
"Oh." Hyacinth released him and walked over to retrieve the object from the floor, studying it carefully before turning it over to view the opposite side. "It doesn't feel particularly unusual... Just a faint hum of magic that could be a spell, but it certainly doesn't feel powerful enough to have affected the Queen..."
"No," Rain agreed, coming up beside him and peering at the mirror. "And I don't really feel it now, but I know I did when I threw it at the wall. There's a lot more magic in there than it feels like is there."
Hyacinth flipped the mirror over a few more times, then shrugged helplessly. "I don't know how to undo a spell I can't even sense..."
Rain stared at it for another minute, then said softly, "I think I may know who can..." He returned to the dresser and pulled out the first shirt he saw, tugging it on before turning back to Hyacinth. "Get dressed. We need to go talk to Lucerne."
"Lucerne!?" Hyacinth stared at him. "She tried to kill you."
"No," Rain corrected with a faint smile, "She tried to kill Amaryllis. If my guess is right, it's not the first time she's done it either."
Hyacinth stared, gesturing with the mirror. "You think she cast this spell?"
"It makes sense," Rain replied with a shrug. "Now go put your clothes on. I'm the only one that gets to see you naked."
Hyacinth stared for a few more moments, then his lips quirked up and he laughed before going to do as ordered.
Rain decided he really couldn't blame Lucerne for staring at him like that. He was wearing his servant clothes (the third pair he'd put on that morning, after Hyacinth had all too cheerfully removed the first two attempts) and no makeup, but his eyes and wings were still rainbow-hued and not their more familiar silver color. Hyacinth said it was because he was using his magic more, and the magic drew out the true color.
That didn't explain why he and Amaryllis were the only fairies in all of Tia-na-Niara to have wings and eyes colored thus, much less the odd rainbow sheen to their hair, but he was fairly certain if asked Hyacinth would simply pass it off as something else unique to wish faeries. He really couldn't wait to get Amaryllis back so that he could, hopefully, get a concrete answer about everything. All of what Hyacinth knew was based on half-remembered rumors at best. Not very reassuring.
"Lucerne," Rain called gently, and the woman started. "Lucerne, my name is Rain."
Lucerne frowned, fear showing in her large red-brown eyes. "Who are you?"
Rain smiled, taking a step forward and kneeling next to the bound woman. "I was a servant to the Faerie Queen Amaryllis, but for the past ten years I have also been Amaryllis herself after she mysteriously vanished one night. I think, perhaps, you know what happened to her." He held out the mirror, watching as Lucerne's face drained of color.
"You... that... Where did you..." she stammered.
"From Amaryllis's room," Rain answered easily, taking comfort in the fact that he could feel Hyacinth's presence just behind him. "I'm guessing that this is what you used to make her disappear, though the magic in it is unfamiliar to me..."
"Of course not," Lucerne returned, a frown creasing her forehead. "You're not a chaos fairy."
Rain blinked. "Chaos fairy?" Behind him, he could hear Hyacinth draw in a sharp breath and he scowled. "Why is it that everyone else knows about these weird obscure faeries and I don't?" he demanded crossly.
"Chaos faeries," Hyacinth explained softly, "Are the opposite of wish faeries in a way. Whereas wish faeries can generate magic from the strength of their will, chaos faeries have no magic of their own. Instead, they... manipulate the magic of others. Warp it in strange ways. Most faeries won't tolerate a chaos fairy living near them..."
Lucerne snorted. Rain watched her curiously. "I take it you don't live in Tia-na-Niara."
"None of your little goody-goody faeries would tolerate me anywhere near them," Lucerne sneered. "I live in the Twilight Forest."
Rain considered. "With Coriander?"
Lucerne stiffened. "That's none of your business."
"Actually, I think it very much is. See, I'm not really clear on all the details, but I think Coriander, whoever she is, loved Amaryllis. And you love Coriander. So, if you made Amaryllis go away..."
"It was her fault!" Lucerne hissed, straining against her bonds. "She led Coriander on! Always making empty promises, telling her she loved her and then abandoning her for months at a time! Her stupid crown was more important to her than Coriander's love. I hate her."
Rain blinked. "What? That's not..."
"Being Queen," Hyacinth interrupted, "Means always putting the needs and well-being of your people above your own wants and desires. It is not always a pleasant duty. Indeed, it is often lonely, painful, and unrewarding. And still she smiles and cares for her people, because they are more important to her than she herself is. Amaryllis loved all her people, Lucerne. I do not doubt she loved this Coriander any less."
Lucerne stared at Hyacinth over Rain's shoulder for a long moment, looking very much like he'd struck her. After some time, however, her head bowed and she closed her eyes. "It doesn't matter," Lucerne said quietly. "It took me five years to craft that spell. It's perfect. There's no way to break it."
"None at all?" Hyacinth asked. Rain merely frowned, turning the silver mirror over and over in his hands.
"None," Lucerne confirmed. "It uses her own power to maintain the spell. She generates infinite power, so the spell is infinitely strong. It can't be broken."
Rain's frown deepened and he slowly shook his head. "But when I threw it at the wall, it reacted to protect itself... meaning for that brief moment not all of its power was going toward keeping Amaryllis trapped..."
"But she didn't free herself," Hyacinth pointed out.
"No," Rain agreed, "But she may need some help. I wonder..." He looked around, spotting a small table that looked promising. "Come here," he instructed, maneuvering Hyacinth around until he was standing next to the table. "I need your help."
Hyacinth gave him a rather bewildered look but allowed himself to prodded into position, eyeing both Rain and the table uncertainly. "What are you up to...?"
"I'm going to free Amaryllis," Rain told him, feeling curiously calm. In all logic he should be fretting horribly about whether his idea would at all, but he wasn't. He'd made his decision, and he was going to make it work whether the spell was supposed to behave like that or not. Was this what Hyacinth meant when he said that a wish fairy's power relied on the strength of their will?
Gripping the mirror firmly in his left hand, Rain wrapped his right around Hyacinth's neck and pulled him down to mesh their mouths together in a slow, sweet kiss. When he felt the magic building within him, swirling all around, he raised his arm and brought the mirror down hard against the table's surface. As before, there was a sharp flash of something that made his head throb, but he flung his own power back at it, feeling a highly familiar presence do the same from the other side, then everything went white.
When his vision finally cleared, he was lying on something warm and comfortable and strangely near to the floor. He stared at the strong arm supporting him for several moments before he finally made the logical connection. Twisting around, he blinked up at Hyacinth. "Did it work?"
Without waiting for a reply he swung his gaze around to take in the rest of the room, fixing immediately on a painfully familiar figure standing in her nightdress and looking highly confused.
"Rain?" Amaryllis asked.
With Hyacinth's help, Rain managed to get back to his feet. "Welcome back," he greeted gently, attempting a bow and only spared a painful encounter with the floor by Hyacinth grabbing him again.
"Hyacinth?" Amaryllis continued, blinking slowly and looking around the room. "And Lucerne? What are you doing.... oh. Oh." Her head swung back around to catch Rain's gaze again. "How long?"
Rain winced. "Ten years, more or less."
Amaryllis's rainbow-hued eyes widened, then she sat down heavily on the floor. "Ten years... how..." She stopped, gaze snapping back to Rain again, looking over him slowly. "Oh! You finally came into your power. That's how..."
Between the headache he had from the spell-breaking and the confusing way Amaryllis was talking, Rain wondered if anything was going to make sense. "You knew I was a... wish fairy?" he asked slowly.
Amaryllis laughed softly. "Oh yes. I'd been looking for you for a long time, after all..."
Behind him Rain could feel Hyacinth's surprise and knew his own had to be plainly visible on his face. "... what?" he asked dumbly.
More lilting laughter met his question. "Ah, I suppose I should tell you the whole story, shouldn't I?" Amaryllis said whimsically, getting carefully to her feet and waving a hand at Lucerne. The bound fairy's restraints melted away and Amaryllis stepped up close to her, smiling sadly. "Lucerne. Since you're here, and... caught, as it were, I think it's a fairly good guess that you were the one who trapped me. I'm sorry, Lucerne. I should have told you and Coriander what I was planning, but I didn't know if it was going to work..."
Lucerne gaped, her mouth opening and closing as she blinked in abject bewilderment. "What... what are you talking about?"
Amaryllis smiled and caught one of Lucerne's hands between her own. "Only a wish fairy has the strength of magic to rule the Fairy Lands. For so very long I was the only one, and even when I met Coriander I was still bound by my duty, no matter how much I loved her... I tried for so very long to try to do both, but then you yelled at me and I realized... Well. That's when I started looking for my successor."
Rain felt his jaw hang open. "Your what?"
"And I found him," Amaryllis continued happily, shooting Rain a fond smile. "But he was so fragile, so broken... I thought if I brought him back with me to the palace, gave him a purpose, he might find the strength within him to lead him to his power." She beamed. "And you have, haven't you Rain? Your eyes and wings have their color now, and they didn't before... You look wonderful."
Sometime much later Rain might find it amusing that they were all staring at her in a rather dumbfounded manner, even Lucerne who'd made no move to free her hand after Amaryllis had claimed it. The stunned silence stretched on until finally Hyacinth managed to break it with a cautiously ventured, "So... Rain was supposed to become the Faerie Queen?"
Amaryllis blinked. "Oh no," she said, shaking her head. "He's a boy. He'll be the Faerie King." She stopped, then switched her attention back to Lucerne, expression softening. "That is... if you and Coriander will still have me, Lucerne..."
"You..." Lucerne found her voice at last. "You were going to step down?" She swallowed audibly. "And I... I..."
Amaryllis enfolded her into a gentle embrace. "It's all right," she murmured. "If you hadn't, it's possible that I'd still be waiting for Rain to come into his power. I think, in the end, everything worked out exactly the way it was supposed to." Tilting her head, she placed a soft, easy kiss to Lucerne's lips.
Rain felt himself blushing. He groped blindly for Hyacinth's hand, dragging them both somewhat stumbling out of the room and down two hallways before he allowed them to slow, though he didn't release his grasp on Hyacinth. They walked along in silence for a long moment, then once more it was Hyacinth who broke it.
"Well, the first thing you're going to have to do as King is find someone else to do the cleaning for you."
Rain stopped, looking up at him uncertainly. "I... It doesn't bother you, that I'm always going to put Tia-na-Niara first? I mean, Amaryllis had to step down to be with the ones she loved..."
Hyacinth smiled and pulled Rain into his arms, holding him close. "I don't know about Coriander, but Lucerne is a chaos fairy. She has no love for the Fairy Lands. But I'm a Guardian, and I know all about how duty to your people has to come first. We'll manage."
"Promise?" Rain asked, feeling rather small and foolish, but it had taken him so very long to claim the one he loved, and he wasn't about to give that up now, even for Tia-na-Niara.
"Promise," Hyacinth whispered, and bent his head to take a kiss.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-18 07:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-18 08:37 pm (UTC)I have to stop thinking about this, I'm getting a nasty plot-itch... just think of the angst and confusion when somebody finds themselves unbearably attracted to two different people who are different sexes as well - of course he is really only attracted to one cross-dressing character... the old ones are the best!
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-18 08:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-19 01:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-19 03:50 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-18 09:32 pm (UTC)I think the best part of this story is the category of fairies that exist.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-19 03:51 am (UTC)*laugh* What's funnier is all the fairy categories I thought up and partially ranked without ever using in the story... ^^;
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-18 10:44 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-19 03:52 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-18 11:44 pm (UTC)In any case, this part was just as much love as the first. I'm so glad he got to keep his position as Queen/King! I really love that part of him - his being so caring, and so good at it. The fact that he puts the people first makes me want to hug him madly. And so happy that they ended up together ♥ They're very hot together :D
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-19 03:53 am (UTC)^_____^ Rain is a very good Queen-King. ^.~ And now he has his lovie and his people and he doesn't have to wear a corset anymore! Score!
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-19 12:14 am (UTC)Amaryllis to take over for a few days. *smile* What do you want to bet that the corset and dresses get used occaisonally in private.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-19 12:17 am (UTC)Rain: I am not wearing that thing. *pause* Not unless you wear the dress.
Hyacinth: Rainbow is not my color
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-19 12:53 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-19 01:13 am (UTC)*snorts coke laughing*
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-19 01:32 am (UTC)Rain is absolutely adorable. I love that he ends up being a wish fairy instead of a really bad water fairy. XD And I love that Hyacinth is the one to point that out to him once he figures out that Rain's been impersonating the Queen. And I love that the Queen knew all along what Rain was, but was trying to help him grow into his powers so that he could take over. *snickers* Geez, ten years, and it's a day for him to realize the true extent of what he can do and not what the Queen's septer and crown can do...Poor kid. ^_^
*hearts madly* I love the femmslash threesome that the Queen had going on too. Poor Lucerne. I can understand now why she was so upset about the whole thing.
YAY!! *glomps* You totally rock! ^_^
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-19 03:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-19 02:00 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-19 04:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-19 06:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-19 07:26 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-19 01:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-19 10:44 pm (UTC)Still, I loved it. Rain was so noble and self sacrificing and cuddly...
The only but I didn't really like is that Amaryllis just - forgave Lucerne automatically. I mean, if I'd spent ten years in a magic mirror, I'd be a mite pissed. And how's this Coriander going to react? "Yes, my girlfriend was trapped in a mirror by my other girlfriend, but it's all okay now!" Oddness.
Apart from that, much love.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-20 02:37 am (UTC)And yay yay YAY Rain and Hyacinth. ^____________^ This story made me happy. I like.
Though actually, there were a few left over things I was curious about... like, how/where did Amarylis find Rain, and what was Rain's life like before he came to the palace... I know you alluded to it, or maybe you actually had it there and I'm just forgetting, but yeah ^^;
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-20 03:13 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-27 12:30 am (UTC)I like Amaryllis' story, too, and the reasons behind it - that Lucerne was a chaos fairy, that she couldn't split her loyalties in any way that was good for the land or for her lovers.
Shorter than usual, but the plot was delicious and the Rain-Hyacinth interaction even more so and this is definitely one of my favorites of yours. ^_____^
(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-03 06:10 pm (UTC)I absolutely adored it, though!!! Rain was so squishy!! All working his little butt off for the good of the Kingdom. So pure and good. Gah, no wonder Hyacinth couldn't keep away. And yay for the happy ending! Oh, and the pause in the middle for sex and sleep and sex was so very awesome. Eheheheh, the villian can wait while we indulge. And then we'll all have clearer heads. More action stories should go that route. ^_____^
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-25 02:32 am (UTC)and I just watched Fairytopia and then read this and then read this again and DUDE you are like god. But not god, on account of the blasphemy.
seriously hon, every time I read your stuff I die a little bit harder.
xo
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-25 03:58 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-11-04 03:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-11-04 10:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-28 07:55 pm (UTC):D
Date: 2008-07-11 01:02 am (UTC)Re: :D
Date: 2008-07-12 02:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-17 01:29 am (UTC)I'm so glad it worked out in the end!! Yay to the awesome story and the writer!!
Great job and a side-note
Date: 2008-09-05 12:56 am (UTC)There is a slight typo at the end that's easy to remedy...Amaryllis placed a soft easy kiss, place.
It was a delight, and I was impressed by your accuracy with language; no other typos, misspellations or misuse of words! More than mine can probably say. ;) VERY well done!
Re: Great job and a side-note
Date: 2008-09-05 01:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-28 12:29 pm (UTC)This was a really fun story - although If I'd been rain, I might have been a bit pissed off with the queen.
;-)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-06-13 09:22 pm (UTC)I don't know how you manage it but you never seem to cross the threshold for your stories to become too fluffy.
Hats off!
Your beginning is just great with Rain dressing up as a woman/the Queen and the reader wondering what is going on. Rain really seems to be the perfect ruler. Let's hope he won't get disappointed too often by reality…
What I didn't quite get: Does the colour of a fairy's hair and eyes only indicate their kind for wish fairies or for others, too? (Once they have come into their powers, of course.)
Hm, the chaos fairies intrigue me quite a bit – they never run out of power, do they?
On another thought, did Rain also wish (magically) for the others not to discover his true identity? As even the people knowing the Queen before her disappearance did not notice anything amiss (Rain only "changed" his hair, wing and eye colour after all - and the two probably didn't look that much alike)...
(no subject)
Date: 2009-06-18 04:23 pm (UTC)Chaos faeries never run out of power, no, because they change others' power.
Oh, Rain and Amaryllis do look quite a bit alike, but yes, there probably was some magical influencing going on. ^___^