Taemin stood on the front steps of the palace waiting for the palace servants to finish loading his luggage onto the dragon fly carriage. His last day at the palace had been well spent by eating Key’s cooking, laughing as his Appa tripped while flying (something only the really talented can do), playing with the dog version of Jonghyun, and saying goodbye to his favorite people and places within the palace. By the time night had fallen the reality of the situation still hadn’t completely sunk in for Taemin. He was leaving his home to go marry someone he didn’t know to save his kingdom from war. It was all happening rather quickly.

“Taemin.... Taebaby..... Tae!” Taemin jerked from his thoughts to find Key waving a hand in front of him and Jonghyun his hand. “I know we spend most of our day in the sky, but really stop, floating in the clouds. We have to get in the carriage now.”

Taemin jerked his head around almost in a panic, “Where’s Appa?”

Key scoffed and pointed towards the palace doors, “His over there, giving last minute instructions to Joon. Honestly, I won’t be surprised if the place is completely burned down by the time we return.”

“Remind me again why you or Appa aren’t staying here,” Taemin inquired as he stared over at his Uncle Joon who was explaining that he had everything under control and that Onew had nothing to worry about. Honestly, Taemin really liked his Uncle, but the guy was a complete idiot.

“As if your Appa or I could miss your wedding!” Key hit Taemin’s shoulder slightly offended that Taemin would even suggest such a thing. “Now come on, we better get going. Your father already sent a message ahead saying we would accept the terms but we should probably get within the Swamp Kingdom's boarders before tomorrow morning. Although, if I had my way you wouldn’t be going at all.”

“I know Umma,” Taemin said getting into the carriage as Key went to extract the understandably anxious Onew from Joon. Once everyone was in the carriage the dragon flies took off. Since they were going to be traveling through the night, the passengers of the carriage decided they might as well get comfortable and try and get some sleep. Taemin curled up on the bench seat with his head in Onew lap as Onew rested his head against the wall of the carriage. Key had Jonghyun jump up on the bench seat next to him so he could us the dog as a pillow. Soon all the passengers were asleep.

The way to the Swamp Kingdom wasn’t very dangerous or hard, but it did take three days to get to the heart of it where the castle lay. To keep from boredom the fairies would periodically fly alongside the coach to stretch their wings and decrease the weight for the dragon flies. Key and Onew also gave Taemin lessons on politics, history, accounting, magical spells and whatever else they deemed useful. After two days of the non-stop, often times two on one lessons, Taemin wanted to chuck his crown out of the carriage window and give up his position as crown prince.

“Appa,” Taemin whined on the third morning of their journey, “can we please stop?”

“Sure, we can take a break.” the King said a joyful smile across his face. “Why don’t you go stretch your wings and fly with Key for a bit?”

“No, Appa, I mean stop with the last minute lectures,” Taemin leaned back to look out the carriage window. “It’s not like I’m going to never see you again.”

“I know, I just can’t stand the thought of leaving you in someone else’s care so, I want to prepare you as much as I can before I have to do that.” Taemin looked at his father’s sad eyes and then crawled into his lap for a hug.

“I love you, Appa.”

“I love you too, Taeminnie.” Onew voice shook as he tried not to cry.

“Appa?”

“Yes, Taeminnie?” Taemin could tell that Onew was still trying not to cry and wanted to lighten the mood.

“Want to play a prank on Keyumma?”

The King chuckled at the gleam of mischief in his son’s eye, “What do you have in mind, my son?”

~

Key was enjoying the fresh air as he flew next to the carriage with Jonghyun. He could feel his mate somewhere behind him and was, as always, comforted by his presence. At some point his lover was called into the carriage by Taemin. Thinking nothing of it Key kept flying.

“Okay boy, go give Umma a kiss,” Was all the warning Key got before Jonghyun’s wet tongue slobbered all over his face.

“Ugh, Jjong!” Key pushed Jonghyun away and flew into the carriage so he could wipe off his face.

When he entered the other two occupants burst out laughing. Key pouted and wiped off his face with a handkerchief but the other two just laughed harder. “I hardly think Jonghyun my face is that funny,” the fairy advisor said in a huff. The King and his son just kept laughing, holding onto their sides, and toppling over each other. Even Jonghyun, who had followed him in, had a grin on his face. Kibum was getting annoyed, “Would someone please clue me into to what’s so funny.”

Onew waved his hand and a reflection droplet appeared before Key’s face. Key squealed, “What did you do?!” A blue substance was smeared all over his face and as he vigorously scrubbed at it with his handkerchief he only managed to spread it more. “It’s not coming off! Get it off! Get it off!” Key’s panic only caused the two fairies and the “dog” to continue dying from laughter. Key had had enough, however, and caused flower petals to blow in the window to gag them, “Get this off my face now.” The death glare was enough for the father son pranksters to nod. Key let the petals fall so they could speak.

“The only thing that can get it off is the thing that applied it in the first place,” Onew informed Key, trying to contain his laughter so as not to be killed by his advisor.

Key’s attention had turned to his dog, however, “Jonghyun,” the dog hid his nose under his paws and whined plaintively at his master’s angry tone. “Fix this now!” Jonghyun sprung up as if something had bit him and placing his front paws on Key’s leg began to the blue off of Key’s face making sure he got all of it. Key mumbled under his breath so only Jonghyun could hear him, “You are so sleeping on the floor tonight.” Jonghyun whined giving Key a last on his nose, trying to express his apology through great big puppy eyes. “Not going to work. Now get down,” the feline eyed fairy shoved the dog off. He then took a clean handkerchief and straightened himself out.

Not long after the little prank the driver announced that they would soon be arriving at the Swamp Kingdom’s castle. Taemin instantly became a bundle of nerves as he would soon be meeting the complete stranger he would be spending the rest of his life with.

When the carriage stopped Taemin got up so fast that he conked his head on the roof. The foot man helped the King down, since he was liable to fall out if not helped, and was followed by Taemin, Jonghyun, and Key. Taemin looked up in awe at the castle that was actually a rather well fortified fortress. He understood now why fighting them had not been an option. A bird, slightly taller than the fairies, fluttered in front of the group, startling Taemin.

“Good afternoon,” the bird chirped, “I’m Thunder, the Swamp King’s advisor. Please follow me.” As the servants got the luggage the fairies followed the bird inside the fortress. Thunder lead them into the castle and down a hallway but passed what Taemin was pretty sure was the throne room. As they passed the giant double doors, Taemin could hear many beings gathered inside talking. He wondered why they were not going to greet the Swamp King directly. Instead, they were led into a preparation chamber several doors down, where a tub and changing screen were set up.

“Um, not to be rude,” Key said turning to Thunder, “But what’s going on?”

“I assumed you would want to get dressed appropriately for the wedding,” the bird chirped.

“Woah!” Onew turned sharply to face the bird, “What wedding?”

“Why, the wedding of your child and my liege, of course.”

“That’s happening right away?” Onew gaped.

“Yes, we’ve been preparing ever since we received your message. So, if you would please begin to wash, your luggage will be here shortly so you can dress afterward. Everything else has been prepared, we were just waiting for your arrival,” with that said Thunder hopped out of the room. The King, the prince, and the advisor stared at the shut door none saying a word.

The silence was broken by Onew, “Well this is unexpected.”

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To celebrate the fact that I'm finally home from college, I thought I'd do an update (E/N: We gradumicated!). It's kind of a filler chapter but seeing as I and my lovely editor were both traveling home I thought it was appropriate (Ugh, packing. Don't remind me. I still have stuff to put away). Anyway Taemin is being thrown into his wedding a lot sooner than he thought and he still hasn’t even met his fiancée! Poor boy. On a side note, when I reread this chapter before putting it up I found that my editor had left it so Key was whipping the blue off his face. I’m not sure if it was on purpose or not, but I’m sure she found it funny (E/N: It was on purpose. Come on, it's funny). Well, that’s all I have. Comment if you like what I’m doing well and subscribe if you want to see more. Bye for now.

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