NOTICE: this story does contain a leetle tiny bit of sex. It's not graphic, I don't describe it, but it is alluded too. This story is rated probably PG-13, so if you are a total innocent and wish to remain so, please don't read this. But, again, it isn't bad or graphic, and yes, they are in love when it happens. It's OKAY. Breathe, people.

The Fairyfairy Tale

Once upon a time, it all began with the Lady.

Many things begin and end with a lady, and this tale certainly did.

There was, as there often is in these cases, a King. He had fallen madly in love with this lady, who was called by all the Lady Liinyarael. No one knew where she had received such an odd name, not even her lord and lady parents.

The lady was beautiful, several degrees beyond ordinary loveliness.

The King was named Senneth, and he sighed whenever the Lady passed by. Not because she made him feel wistful; far from it. She made him frustrated.

He had tried to win her in all the usual ways. He had tried flowers, rides by moonlight, grand balls with hundreds of people, but she never given so much as the tiniest hint of interest in his suit. Each time after he tried again to win over the vision of charm, she was just as aloof, just as polite, and just as radiantly desirable as she had been before, but with no sign of giving in.

The King was at his wits' end. She was the most perfect woman in the entire kingdom, of that he was certain. Her father was rich and powerful, she was courtly and an excellent politician, she was, on a good day, a better chess player even than his Grand Vizier (who was the most brilliant man Senneth knew, not to mention the best conversationalist), she was even and quiet of temperament, not froward or offensive....

..and yet....

She was utterly out of his reach.

Which he felt was odd, because he could have had any other woman in the kingdom, if he so chose.

But he didn't. He had thought long and hard, considered all possibilities, and she was the best match for him. It was obvious.

After a particularly stinging session of polite disinterest from Liinyarael (he had tried taking her out to see a play; she had enjoyed the performance immensely, but had been just as bland with him the next day as ever) Senneth was ready to throw the towel in and give up. He sat in his carriage, riding out to one of his provinces to speak to the lord there (who had been growing illegal magic beanstalks; goodness knew he was having enough trouble from Liinyarael to have to deal with another complaint of theft from the cloud giants. There had been all that awful business with some idiot named Jack last year....) and tried desperately to think what else he could possibly do to get his ideal bride to only see the light.

When the carriage rolled to a halt inside the Lord's stables, the King decided to go for broke and simply ask her what the matter was.

Which is exactly what he did. The next day he approached her in the evening court (court was held every night, to allow new gossip to circulate and let grudges fester-the courtiers practically lived off of intrigue) and was extremely blunt.

"Why won't you marry me? I've tried everything to win you, but nothing has the slightest effect! Please, Lady, tell me why!"

She raised one delicate blond eyebrow at him, a small smile quirking her dainty rosebud lips.

"I should think it was obvious," she said, sounding as if she was near laughter. Senneth was hurt. Now she was laughing at him!

"No, it is not obvious, and I should very much like to know!" He was as near to pouting as a fully-grown and manners-trained king could come. Her smile only broadened, showing him a magnificent view of startlingly white teeth.

"You don't love me."

He was shocked. He'd ardently pursued her for well over a month! They made the perfect couple! He was very romantic! How could she believe what she said? He was about to give her a reproving response, but she held up a finger for silence, and moved into a more deserted corner of the Great Hall so that the two of them were hidden behind a curtain. He followed out of sheer frustration.

"I repeat, you do not love me. You wish to marry me, which is not at all the same. If you consider your emotions, you will find that they are not love." She paused, and looked down so that she appeared to be addressing his belt buckle. "I do not think they are even attraction."

The King screwed up his eyebrows in distress. It was the first even vaguely indecent thing he'd ever heard her utter.

"But--" She held her finger up again, cutting him off.

"Do you truly wish to continue courting me?"

"Yes!"

"Then you will have a task from me. When you accomplish it, if you still want me, I will gladly wed you."

"How could any task make me possibly not want you? You are perfect in every way! Name your quest, and I will do it!" (This was a very foolish thing for him to say; she might have named jumping over the moon or something equally impossible. For indeed, he believed that he did love her, even if he truly did not.)

"Romance and fall in love with someone of my choosing." His eyes went wide with shock at the very audacity of the idea. Again she silenced him with a finger. "Yes, truly fall in love with. And they MUST love you back, or romancing this person is of no consequence. And you will know when you are truly in love. It will come to you." There was a long pause, in which Senneth stared at Liinyarael in disbelief, mouth slightly open. "Will you do this?" He realized that the truth of his word of love was at stake, so he shut his mouth, sighed heavily, and nodded.

"Yes. Whom will you have me love?" She glanced around for a moment before her eyes finally settled on someone. She pointed her perfect white finger at his Grand Vizier, and said, "Him." Before he could respond, she swept off into the crowd, which closed behind her, and she was lost.

King Senneth's mind whirled. His Grand Vizier! A man! O, horror of horrors! It were better for her to have chosen the ugliest stable-maid in the palace than him!

He believed, in that moment, that Liinyarael must have truly wished him to be miserable.

He stared at the Vizier.

Sir Gernon Thaddeus, as was his name, was the same age as the King himself, or older. Late twenties to early thirties, Senneth guessed. He'd never considered it before. Now that he looked, the man was certainly very handsome, in a sober, serious sort of way, and obviously very intelligent, but he was, after all was said and done, his Vizier.....He'd heard once that it simply didn't Do to become romantically involved with those in one's employ.

He sighed. The day was not a beneficent one.

At dinner that evening, the King watched the Vizier very closely. The man's intelligence showed in everything he did; he was the keenest mind in the land, it was often said. It was, after all, why Senneth had hired him. The only person to ever beat Sir Gernon at chess was Liinyarael, which had caused a great ripple of gossip in the court and had been what had set Senneth onto the idea of courting her. He'd considered her comely before; afterwards, she was his goal.

Well, now he still had the same goal. He just had to go about it in an entirely different way.

As happens so often, those who set out on a quest are not the same person at the end of it as they were at the beginning, and this was certainly true of King Senneth.

Senneth, even if he couldn't recognize love when he felt it, was no fool in other matters. He realized that courting a man, much less one so intelligent as the Grand Vizier, would take a much different tactic than he had employed with Liinyarael. He would have to assess the situation, then take action.

For that evening, he contented himself with watching Sir Gernon, who was engaged in lively conversation with the High Duchess of Quirm about the intricacies of castle construction. Senneth had never actually considered his advisor in such a way.

Nor anyone else, for that matter.

His father had told him the women were there to be courted, married, and raise children. Men were there to figure out everything else. And men, until he had met Liinyarael, had been much more intelligent, on the whole. Perhaps that was why he was so interested in her. No one had told him that men were the alternate option.

The idea was....shocking. Like anything else of interest, and like the finest of gossip, it made one tingle in anticipation.

He mentally slapped himself on the wrist for being so shameless, even in his own head. Then he noticed that Sir Gernon was delicately eating quail. He took each piece of bird with great care, manipulated the flesh from the bone with precision, and finally released the bone from his teeth with a look of a job well done. Senneth had never witnessed anyone eat anything quite like Sir Gernon had just eaten quail. For some obscure reason, it made him feel tingly.

He also felt curiously out of his depth. Liinyarael had been the first time he had been this confused since he had been named king eight years before. How on earth did you court the Grand Vizier?

With care, a voice inside himself said. And precision.

Senneth's head whirled that night. He was vastly confused. As the meal had proceeded, Sir Gernon had noticed him staring, and had lifted his eyebrow questioningly at Senneth. He hadn't known what to do, so he simply gave the man a regal nod, and turned to address the Lady Jessaline. He had actually blushed. It was the first time he had blushed since he had gotten heatstroke during the last tourney. He hoped Gernon didn't see.

Senneth had turned too early to notice that the Vizier was blushing, too. He would have found it gave the pale cheeks a lively pink color that was quite pleasing, particularly in contrast to the dark hair. As the King was undressed for bed by several menservants (none of which is even close to being as handsome as Gernon, he caught himself thinking, and then thought, why on earth did I think that?) his mind turned over various options of courtship.

He could give the job a direct rush, like he had done with Liinyarael. Since that had not worked with her, and Gernon was even more intelligent, not to mention that sending the man flowers would just look plain silly, Senneth decided resolutely against it.

He could try the sly, cunning seduction approach of assessing what the person's weaknesses were and doing precisely what they secretly wanted done, which he had heard was amazingly successful. He wasn't totally sure he had the audacity or the skill for that one, so he passed it over. It took a skilled lovesmith to accomplish that one.

He could just go for the straight-out ravishing of the party involved, which was apparently quite common and popular in rural areas.....

This thought made him blush for the second time in the day, and one of the menservants asked him if he were feeling well.

He wasn't even quite certain he knew HOW to ravish a man. The more he pondered the anatomy of the situation, the worse his blush got, till the servant offered to send for a doctor and wondered if he had a fever. Senneth dropped the idea as simply terrifying.

Besides, kings didn't ravish. They swept people off their feet. Well, he corrected himself, most kings didn't ravish. Not the better class ones, anyway.

Senneth sighed, and dismissed the servants. He'd just have to do whatever came to him.

He had a conference with Sir Gernon the very next morning on what points he should ask for in the upcoming treaty with the neighboring tribes of Lake-Elves. They were blastedly cunning creatures, and wanted exclusive rights to all of the waterways in the kingdom, which was frankly ludicrous.

The Vizier knew exactly what had to be said and conceded, whereas Senneth was less sure.

It was for brains like this that he had knighted the man and brought him to the court after the battle with the Anarchists from Darkwold four years ago. Sir Gernon had practically fought the entire battle, for it was his tactics that had won the war. The kingdom was content, prosperous, and well-fed now, with little threat from any side. Sir Gernon's part in this was not small. And to think, the man had been the son of some petty landholder in the eastern reaches of the kingdom before that battle.

Now he was more courtly than all of the princes of the world.

How on earth did you court someone like that?

I go totally on instinct.

After a few moments of discussion of the importance of not looking water-elves in the eyes for too long (they were liable to charm you into selling your most personal undergarments without a thought, or worse) Gernon placed his hand flat upon the table for emphasis of a point he was making. Senneth regarded it, putting a complete stall on the conversation, and then carefully inserted a fingertip into the spaces between each of the Vizier's. The contact was oddly personal, and it was, Senneth thought, extremely forward of him. He didn't care. The Vizier was staring at his own knuckles while the King continued to extrapolate the idea of restricting the Elves to only the greatest lakes.

Senneth saw Gernon swallow, one eyebrow raised, before the King removed his hand.

The expression on the knight's face could have been anything. Senneth finished the conversation with a final remark of understanding his task now, rose, and departed.

It was because his back was turned that he didn't see Sir Gernon Thaddeus, his normally sober face quite shocked, staring at his own knuckles.

That first tentative contact was, in fact, the true beginning of the courtship. It was extremely slow and careful at its commencement, involving mostly Senneth brushing a finger seemingly carelessly across Gernon's hand, or sitting next to him at meals at the court table, talking animatedly of increasingly bizarre subjects (which included such things as the draftiness of robes, the name of the particular shade of blue of a Weaver's eyes, the legend of Ganymede and some god or other, and anything else that was available), and feeling his face warm faintly every time a calculated touch brought a curious glance from Sir Gernon.

Both parties gradually became aware that each was inconspicuously watching the other. While neither did anything so uncouth as stammering or really blushing in the presence of the other, there was a distinct sensation of abashed pleasure at the attentions, and both felt more silly than they had for a long time and yet at the same time happier.

Finally, King Senneth made a more decisive move. He asked Sir Gernon to accompany him to see the most recent play on the stages of the great city. Not so much asking the Vizier out to see the play as suggesting that he might like the performance more if he were with the King, it was the first actual approach either had made.

The play was a comedy. The religious sects of the city disapproved of it highly, on the ground that it was immoral for anyone to discuss any of the themes presented, or for men to dress as they did and parade about on the stage like cockerels. Since there were no women allowed on stage (it would clearly have been a breach of their honor to play romances with any new men cast into the parts), young, short men took the female roles. Senneth, in his own mind, felt that they looked not wholly terrible in their dresses but knew, from the complaining of the court ladies, that the corsets were quite uncomfortable. He briefly considered the idea of passing a law against the things, then discarded it at the thought of the expression on Gernon's face if he proposed such an article.

In the second act, Senneth, feeling bold, reached out and took Gernon's hand. The king squeezed gently.

The pressure was returned. Fingers were woven through those of the king's. Long, thin, graceful fingers.

Both sat in the royal box by the stage, feeling as though they were glowing white hot and absolutely charged. When an actor said something particularly droll, Gernon doubled up with laughter, leaning over onto Senneth's shoulder. Senneth watched with avid rapture the joyful lines creasing the normally serious face as their hands still held each other contentedly. Senneth's shoulder tingled with excitement at the touch.

When the play ended, they reluctantly relinquished one another's fingers to stand and clap. Though the day was warm, and the King's leather jerkin was quite heavy, his hand felt cold without Gernon's.

Then the courtship began in earnest.

The two were almost never seen out of each other's company. When one had to leave for political or business reasons, the other found a similar task to occupy him. Both went out frequently, either to plays (the theaters were benefitting from the patronage, and there was a rumor in the court of a new playhouse being built by a group supposedly calling themselves the King's Men), or on hunting trips, or whatever struck each at the moment. The hunts rarely brought anything back, as both King and Counselor found more pleasure in riding fast and leaving the hounds and brush-beaters behind than in actually looking for game. Once they had left, they rode in the hills, racing one another. The hunters began to gripe to the stable-hands in the evenings about the lack of interest from the royalty, but the two leaders were happier than ever.

After a period in which it was understood by Sir Gernon and King Senneth that each was ready and willing to be pursued by the other, there came a time of expectation. Senneth, in his own private mind, could not have said what it was he was waiting for, exactly. It seemed more of an inclination to believe that something would happen soon.

Senneth, undressed every night by the menservants, pondered the day's accomplishments with care. He considered those moments with Gernon first, as he deemed them far more interesting than those of state importance. However, since Gernon was part of the state, he thought that technically, if he thought of Gernon, he was thinking of the state.....

Though Senneth did not realize it, there was a space widening within him that had been growing for the past four months. If he had known it even existed, he would have found that Gernon fit into it perfectly.

The King had to call the Council together the next day for their ruling on a trade agreement with a neighboring kingdom. The Council was made up of the lords and chief representatives of each of the major holdings in the kingdom, and one of the great Round Tables from the Elder Days was used to seat all of the people. Their numbers were large, and because of this, the meeting was slow and ponderous and took a great deal of time to come to any sort of decision. It was late in the evening before the council concluded with the King standing and bowing to dismiss the great men and women.

At last, when the great rustling of starched satin and brocade had faded away, only Sir Gernon and King Senneth remained. Senneth slumped into his chair the instant the last lord had departed.

"By the heavens above, what a load of argumentatives we have in this land....." Senneth sighed, trying to massage away the stress headache that was threatening him. Gernon looked just as put-upon as he felt, his serious face at its most brutally regal. Senneth, despite his tiredness, took a moment to give the handsome features the visual attention they deserved. He never tired of that face, no matter how long he looked at it, and its striking features seemed to grow on him. He liked it far more now than he had four months ago. Gernon noticed the watching eyes of the king, and gave a weak smile in response. The king quirked his own lips in return. It always made him smile to think that Gernon was much more kingly in appearance than he himself was. His own features were honest and open, with a constant presence of pale stubble that seemed to generate immediately after he shaved every morning. He had curling blondish hair that got tangled the minute he stopped combing it and was overall quite unsuited, facially, to be king. He had had it pointed out to him many times by his ruder courtiers that he would make a fine farmer with a face like his. But his decorum teacher from his younger days had been incredibly good, and had taught Senneth to Draw Himself Up, a movement which suddenly made clear to all present that the maker was, in fact, King, and could, in fact, have you beheaded if he was in the mood. It made full use of his proud height (he stood over most people, including even Gernon by a small margin) and the fact that he was, if he tried, quite handsome. Even when he wasn't wearing at least a circlet to proclaim himself Majesty, he could, in a corner, Draw Himself Up. Even Gernon couldn't do it. Senneth had persuaded him to try, but perhaps it was directly related to being king, for the Grand Vizier simply could not accomplish quite the same expression.

Gernon's face had quite another kind of royalty to it. It suggested that, were he king, he would be the sort to restructure the kingdom to suit an internal idea of correctness, or perhaps just demote all the lords and make it illegal to wear more than four pounds of gold at any one time. The only jewelry Gernon wore was his signet ring, which was silver, not gold, at his specific request. Senneth still remembered his thinking it was odd for a newly-made knight not to desire a gold signet ring, but the man had been adamant.

He was still smiling faintly now, and seemed to be watching Senneth's mouth. Moving as though he were about to adjust a lapel of the King's jerkin, Gernon in stead took Senneth's face in his hands and kissed him.

No one was more surprised by this than Senneth. Gernon's hands were warm as was his mouth, and Senneth found, after the first moment of shock, that he quite liked it. Warm and soft. And moved nicely. It was the first time he'd actually been kissed; he'd certainly done it before (there had even been a nice lady brought quietly to the palace all those years ago, along with the decorum teacher, who had instructed him on manners to a lady and precisely how one was to go about in kissing one, and there had been several amorous ladies who had felt the need for some contact; they had been so desperate that he had complied out of pity for the poor things) but not by anyone like Gernon. Certainly not anyone as insistent. Or anyone who made him feel tingly.

Not having been taught how to kiss a Grand Vizier, he made it up as he went along. In the end, when Gernon finally straightened up to look down at the thoroughly happy king, each was distressingly pink of the cheeks, red of the mouth, and had a silly sort of smile on their faces. The Vizier held out his hand in a genteel gesture of helping His Majesty to stand. Senneth found he needed it; he was quite weak in the knees.

Dinner that night was full of glances that caused instant half-blushes in both men.

Another month passed without either noticing its passage. The King and Vizier were so wrapped up in the politics of the treaty and each other that the days sped by.

Any place they met in the palace alone was instantly a trysting ground. There were sweaty palm prints from both all over the palace walls that, though they faded after a few moments, were left in the memory of the stone and wood. Senneth earnestly hoped walls couldn't talk, or if they could that they liked him enough not to tell. He hated to think of the sort of rumors they would spread if they didn't like him.

There were a number of close calls when servants or guests walked by. This resulted in some fast footwork on the part of the King and Counselor, as they hastily ducked into nearby chambers or halls or behind handy curtains. Senneth made a note to have more curtains installed if they were this useful. When he laughingly told this to Gernon later, the man dismissed it out of hand.

"Certainly not, Senneth. If we can use them to hide, so could anyone else." But his forehead creased into a smile the moment before he said it, and so Senneth knew he thought it was funny, too.

After a particularly close shave, (the visiting Duchess of Quirm walked past them, but was too involved in winding her waistcoat-watch to notice) they both stood watching her go, hair standing on end and with gooseflesh all over.

Gernon was particularly mussed; if she had seen , there would have been no way to say they had been conversing in a corridor. Not with his hair going everywhere, lips cherry red from a particularly long and involved bout of kissing, and waistcoat half open with the watch dangling between the two men. Senneth, too, did not look innocent, most notably in the fact that he was still leaning against the man with his fingers in his hair. He could feel Gernon breathing into his ear, fast either from the shock or the recent go at what the country folk quaintly called snogging.

Gernon planted a small kiss on Senneth's ear as the Duchess turned the corner, then whispered, "Shall we retire to my chambers, do you think?"

Senneth slowly turned his head to look at the knight. The King raised one eyebrow questioningly.

Gernon's response was to kiss him again, and the King's hands left, once again, sweaty prints on the wall as he briefly removed them from Gernon's hair to further unfasten the waistcoat. (Actually, the palace walls were quite happy with this; they hadn't seen anything this interesting from a monarch since the Draconian one about a century ago, who had had killings and concubines, alternately and once both at the same time, all throughout the palace. There were still claw-marks on the walls and floor in some places where palace decorators hadn't papered or carpeted over the grooves.)

When the two finally detached themselves from one another, neither was looking very presentable. Senneth led them through back-ways of the palace to Gernon's chambers in the East Wing.

Gernon smiled in a way that ought to be made illegal, thought Senneth. No one should be able to convey that much happiness just by smiling. But then, it wasn't as though the King minded. Far from it.

There followed prose.

Or rather, there followed what would have been technically in the league of prose, had anyone described it, since it certainly wasn't poetry. No poetry anyone in that time had ever heard of included the noises made by Senneth. Or most of the words Gernon used in explaining beforehand what, precisely, Senneth was supposed to do, since the King still wasn't certain on the precise anatomy of being ravished by a man. It wasn't till several centuries later that any poet included the entire range of sounds and words in a single piece of poetry, and that was immediately banned from polite society but read under sheets and tables everywhere.

There was a certain branch of philosophers in Senneth's kingdom that argued about the effects of water in a glass. Some held that saying a glass was half empty changed the nature of the glass. They also argued that if you even put water into the glass, the nature of the glass changed. Half said that it was the same glass, the other said that the glass was different for having held the water, for now the glass had the memory of containing something.

The half that argued that the glass was changed by the substance it contained was right. When one object holds another, its nature is changed by the holding.

This philosophy was never more true than with the King Senneth. The Senneth that had entered the room several hours earlier was not quite the same one that was currently lying in the bed.

Senneth lay beside Sir Gernon, who was sleeping quietly, each breath fluffing a strand of the King's hair. He was more comfortable than he could remember being for years. His thighs were rather sore, it was true; he was unused to having his legs spread for quite that long. There was also the general messiness of both men to be considered, as each was thoroughly slimed with sweat, among other substances. The King did not particularly care.

Suddenly, however, he was struck with the remembrance of Liinyarael.

He hadn't thought of her since the first week after he had set out for Gernon. In the heat of the chase and later Gernon himself, he had totally forgotten her.

He immediately felt horrible. The post-coital euphoria vanished like water on a hot stove.

He had lied to Gernon! It had all been for a false love! What could he possibly tell the man? How could he possibly admit that he had only considered him because he had been set on it by the Lady?

Gernon, as if sensing he was being thought about, grunted softly and opened his eyes. Senneth sat up, trying to avoid his gaze.

"Senneth, what on earth is the matter?"

"I....I have lied!"

"About what?"

"When I began courting you, I was merely doing it to attain the favor of the Lady Liinyarael. I have betrayed you."

To the King's surprise, Gernon merely snorted.

"If you've been courting me only for her sake, you've been doing the best impression of besotted lover I've ever seen."

"It's true!" Senneth turned to look at the man, despite the guilt that made his stomach turn. "She told me she would give me a task to complete before I could marry her, and she named the romancing of you! I accepted it thinking only of myself, and I have unfairly played upon both you and her, for I can no longer with honor love you and have no desire to love her."

Senneth was shocked and dismayed to see Gernon smile. The knight was having fun at his expense and pain!

"Good heavens above, Senneth. Liinyarael was right; you are a genius at everything but your own emotions." He sighed and sat up beside the King. Senneth flinched away, not understanding. "Did you ever consider that Liinyarael would tell me?" This shocked the King even more. He turned to regard Gernon with an expression of open disbelief.

"What?" Gernon gave him a patient half-smile.

"Last month, the Lady talked to me personally. She said that if I were approached by you-I think she thought you would wait much longer to take up the suit than you did- that I should be able to gracefully accept. That was the day I kissed you the first time. I finally felt I was allowed."

"But-but...."

"She's known me practically my whole life, Senneth. I grew up as the third son of a tenant on her parents' land. I was the only one who would talk to her without bowing and stammering as a youth, and she's known me since the age of....oh, say fourteen."

Senneth simply stared, amazed, so the Vizier continued.

"When she was sixteen, she figured out that the reason I wasn't as nervous around her was that I had absolutely no interest in romancing her. When she found that out, she wouldn't rest till she discovered why. To her probing mind, the mystery of me was too interesting to be let go. So I told her. Life continued, as she didn't very much care who I was interested in, so long as it wasn't her, and then later I joined the army when you became king. Rose in the ranks, then came the war with Darkwold, you made me Grand Vizier, and several more years passed. It wasn't till last year I found that I was heartily considering you as a fine choice. I immediately told Liinyarael, who was happy that I at least had good taste." The man smiled in recollection, and let out a small laugh. "She said, if I remember correctly, 'Thank heavens you didn't fall for some high-and-mighty gold-wearing fool like what's mostly available in this court.' When you began courting her, this naturally caused her some distress, which is part of the reason she was so very unreachable. She told me that she was desperately trying to avoid you, and that you were unavoidable. Then, five months ago, she abruptly left court, and you suddenly started courting me in stead. I must say, it was quite a shock for me to find that you had so sharply turned about your interests. Then she just recently told me what she had done." Gernon looked directly into Senneth's eyes, and then continued, "She was certain that you could not lie to yourself enough that you could make-believe falling in love with me." He paused, and a slightly worried expression crossed his face. "You haven't pretended, have you?"

Senneth was offended in the extreme. "Certainly not!" Gernon merely lay back into the pillows, and concluded,

"Then I don't see where the problem lies. Come back to bed, my good man, and we can sleep. Because I truly do you love you."

The King felt a huge weight of guilt lift from him. He had betrayed no one except, perhaps, his own idiocy. He lay back, kissed the Vizier on his regal nose, and fell asleep happy.

When he awoke the next morning, he found Gernon still in the land of dreams. He kissed the man till he awoke, with a vaguely startled expression and a questioning hum.

"Good morning to you, too," the Vizier said once the King had let him talk. Then the two rose and washed, since both were quite grubby.

They could not resist the urge to get grubby again, however, so there followed a period in which there were a great deal of interesting proceedings but not much washing. The only thing that stopped them from continuing in the same thread all morning was Gernon's steadfast remark that, if Senneth made merry any more, he would be unable to walk, and it was very unbecoming for a king to be bow-legged.

When the two were finally clean, clothed, and not attached at the lip and thigh, the Vizier went one way to deal with any new political problems that had arisen during the night (and there usually were some) and the King went to visit the Lady Liinyarael.

When the royal coach arrived at her gates, the King was graciously accepted by the Lady herself. She inquired after his health and how the court was faring of late and was generally just as polite and distant as she had been with him while he was courting her. Sensing this, Senneth immediately released the news.

"Gernon and I are in love, milady." She had been walking delicately about the audience chamber, but his comment caused her to stop entirely. There was a moment in which her lovely face displayed shock, then the shock cleared like clouds from the blue sky and her face was full of joy. Liinyarael gave a deep sigh of contentment, and he saw her posture relax noticeably.

"Oh, well that's all right then."

"You thought I had finished with him and had come back to you?" She had the graciousness to look faintly embarrassed.

"Well, I must confess that that was what crossed my mind on seeing you at my estates."

"No. Certainly not. I am officially telling you now that I am breaking off my courtship of you in favor of the.....wonderful....company of my Grand High Vizier."

"I must say I'm quite relieved. I suppose Gernon spoke of what I said?"

"Yes. Last night at about midnight, actually." She raised an eyebrow interestedly at him, and he gave her a feral grin. An obviously false expression of shock crossed her face, overlaid by a broad smile.

"Oh, good heavens. You two are getting along, aren't you?" She gave him a wide grin, slapped him playfully on the shoulder (which was more than she had ever done during their courtship), and sat down on a chair. She beamed up at him. Senneth felt a question enter his mind, sidling in almost ashamed of itself.

"How did you know that....that....." he searched for the words. "That I would....be able to....fall in love with Gernon? I mean, if I had been like most men, I certainly wouldn't have...." to his honest amazement, he found himself blushing. It was the first time in the past half-year that he had done it outside of the knight's presence.

She gave him a strangely candid grin, an expression he had never seen on her before, and leaned forward as if confessing something shocking. Then she raised a delicate eyebrow at him, gave a small laugh, and spoke.

"To be honest? Every time you took me anywhere, I would watch your eyes following the exact same men that I was watching, with an expression identical to mine. And when you ate sausage....I suppose it was mostly unconscious, for you are far too innocent to understand, but....it was educational. And Gernon was in love with you. It was almost too perfect. If you hadn't been such an idiot about it, I would have arranged it long ago."

"But-- I myself did not know until I found myself forced to court Gernon that I entertained any such emotions!"

"That's because you are wonderfully innocent about the oddest things, my dear King. As perfect a ruler as you are, you are very naive. I could honestly sit there and watch you absolutely reveling in the handsome features of a passing man, and sense no such emotions from you towards me."

"Oh." Senneth simply did not know what to say. But she, being a conversationalist, instantly brought the topic to something he was more sure of.

"How is Gernon, milord? I hope you are keeping him happy." It was the King's turn to grin.

"Oh, he was quite content when last I left him." He sighed. "On a more serious note, I am wondering what I am going to tell the people. If I refuse to marry and produce an heir, the people will want to know why." She again raised a surprised eyebrow at him.

"Why, the truth, of course! I shall shortly be making a similar announcement. Perhaps we should proclaim a holiday, call them in, and just get it all over with at once."

Senneth was shocked. Announce to the people that he was desperately in love with his brilliant Grand Vizier? He had never even considered such a thing. Then the other half of what she had said came home.

"A similar announcement? You mean, you are engaged?"

"Oh, yes. And to entirely the wrong sort of person for someone of my caliber and breeding. At least you had the luck to fall in love with someone politically acceptable. I'm getting married to a local farmer."

"When did this happen?"

"Well before you began courting me, if that tells you anything."

"Good heavens. I'm sorry."

"No need to be. No one was injured in the least. It seems to have done some good, actually, your courting me. Look at you now....." she gave another blinding smile. "And as to the problem of an heir.....well, you do have five sisters. They have.....let's see, some eight sons between them now, I believe? You could simply choose the most suitable one to take over when the time comes. Or you could simply adopt a child. Whatever you fancy, dear."

The conversation continued for some time, before he was eventually escorted to his coach by the Lady, given a time and place for the future, and a great deal to think about.

He was calling a holiday for the people quite soon, it seemed.

The holiday was indeed called, and it approached with increasing disease from the country's king. He had none of the Lady's confidence in his people's acceptance that she did, even though she would be there on the announcement balcony with him and Sir Gernon. He was frankly terrified.

The day arrived, and Gernon, too, seemed a little discomfited. Liinyarael arrived, and a second person climbed out of her coach after her.

It had to be the farmer she loved. He looked even more rural than the king did. Tall, broad, and heavily built, he was one of the larger men Senneth had met in his life. But he walked with an air of gentility. Not nobility, and not the sort of self-confident strut you saw on courtiers, but a soft, quiet, careful walk of someone who was gentle to animals and anyone else smaller than him, which was nearly everyone. It was instantly clear why she loved him, and that he adored her. It was written across every movement she made, and every glance they gave one another. The king was awed. He was also extremely embarrassed. He wasn't sure how to react to someone he had unwittingly tried to cuckold.

He needn't have worried. The instant the man saw the king standing nervously in the gateway to the palace (having just left the stables where the coach they arrived in was held) he took Senneth into an amazingly demure and soft embrace.

"So you're the fairy king, are you? How grand to meet yeh at last." Senneth at first thought he man was calling him Fae, which was a lie, (he had Draconian ancestry, from his grandfather, but no Fae. He did, actually, have a very short tail and his lower back was covered in small, iridescent gold scales that he liked to let Gernon play with) and nearly took offense before he connected the man's words with the odd rural colloquialism he had heard Gernon mention occasionally. The tall fellow looked Senneth up and down after releasing him, and broke into a grin as broad and content as any of Liinyarael's.

"Cor, but you're a good lookin' one. No wonder our Knight Gernon fell for yeh. Fabulous couple you two make. Blimey!" He gave Senneth a sideways smile, and said, "Quite glad to meet yeh-It's good to see the man my dear friend Gernon loves so much. And from what Linny here has been sayin', you're a marvelous gentleman, too. I can't say I can think of a better match." Senneth felt rather elated that he had been marked a "fine match" for Gernon. To him, it was a high compliment.

They proceeded through the palace, caught Sir Gernon on their way, and continued en masse to the balcony above the people's courtyard. The moment they left the doorway and came into sight, applause broke out. The people of Senneth's country loved their king.

Senneth himself felt a bit shaky and nervous. He laid both hands on the broad stone railing that was at waist height partly out of trained royal posturing and mostly out of need for support. He felt Gernon move reassuringly to just behind him, and Liinyarael and her fiancé to his right. He waited for the crowd to quiet (it looked as though the whole dratted city had shown up; they had to be patriotic NOW, for goodness' sake) before speaking.

"Good people--" he broke off as the crowd cheered for itself, "I have two announcements to make. One is a contract and bond of eternal love, and the other is an incipient wedding!" The crowd cheered; Senneth could see them thinking that he was about to announce engagement to Liinyarael. He continued, despite rising terror. "I wish first to announce the wedding. The Lady Liinyarael will wed this man, James Miller!" He held his arm out, gesturing forward the smiling couple, who took one another's hands. The farmer bowed, and Liinyarael gave a deep curtsey to the gathered people.

The applause was loud and enthusiastic, but obviously a little confused. When it quieted, there was much whispering. Senneth could guess most of it; "She's marrying who?" "Dunno, never heard of him." "He looks so common!" "So, who's the King gonna marry?" Senneth took a deep breath, settled himself for whatever was going to come, and concluded.

"I myself have fallen in love. This person is more important to me than anyone I have ever met before, and someone I wish to spend the rest of my life with. That person.....is the Grand High Vizier, Sir Gernon Thaddeus." Gernon stepped forward, took the King's hand, and bowed, bringing Senneth with him.

The crowd remained silent for a moment, and its thoughts were confused for a moment. Then the great mass joined together, and thought, "Well, we did have a Draconian king....and he made the kingdom what it is today through his conquering and bloodshed. Maybe a queer king can make us great in a time of peace."

The applause was slow and scattered for a moment, then it suddenly found its body and Senneth was buried beneath a wall of sound. He felt as though his eardrums would soon protest the mistreatment. He also couldn't keep from smiling, and a huge and very unkingly grin spread itself across his honest face.

The King was truly happy, and he turned to see Gernon looking equally unregal and sanguine.

They bowed again to the joy of the crowd.

Liinyarael came forward, and spoke into his ear.

"True love conquers all, didn't I say?"

And they lived happily ever after.