Key washed Taemin’s hair roughly as he shouted at Onew, “You, stupid King! First you decide to let your son get married to a complete stranger and now, without any negotiations or argument, you’re just going to stand there as he’s forced to marry said stranger without even meeting him!”

Onew looked at his advisor, “It’s not like I have much choice. There’s only the three of us and a couple of hand servants against an entire fortress. What would you have me do Kibum?”

“I don’t know! Something!” Taemin shuddered as Key dumped a bucket of water on his head to rinse out the soap. “For all we know he could be marring a complete frog!”

“The Swamp Kingdom’s royalty are frogs?!” Taemin asked suddenly alarmed.

“Kibum be reasonable and Taemin don’t fret, he only meant it figuratively,” Onew soothed his son. “Listen, the best thing to do right now is go through with the wedding. Even if Taemin is married right away we still have to negotiate and sign the final documents before the Kingdoms are joined. Which means, Key, you’re going to have to stay here with Taemin for a couple of months.”

“What?! But I didn’t bring enough clothes for that!” Jonghyun, who had been guarding the door, definitely let out a doggy chortle to Key’s declaration.

Onew chuckled under his breath, “I’ll send you more clothes or just leave you an allowance to buy some.”

“Don’t you dare make me buy swamp clothes! Besides why am I staying?”

“I need you to comb through and negotiate the terms for the kingdoms combining. With the marriage being so rushed something feels fishy.”

“Now something feels fishy to you?” Key rolled his eyes. “That still doesn’t explain why I’m staying here?”

“I can’t exactly leave the throne to Joon for as long as I need to look over everything here carefully. And while I could send you back, you know that makes the Fairy Kingdom look vulnerable with both the King and the Heir not in it for a long period of time. On top of that you are my top advisor for a reason, I trust you to keep a level head and negotiate what will be best for our Kingdom,” Onew said in his no nonsense, I’m King’s voice. For once Key just nodded without argument seeing the reason behind the King’s words.

“Um, can I get out?” Taemin asked starting to shiver as the bath water became colder.

Key turned his attention back to the boy in the tub, “Did you wash behind your ears?”

“You did that for me, remember?” Taemin crossed his arms and pouted.

“Oh, that’s right,” Key extended his hands to the prince, “Up you get then.” Kibum helped Taemin out of the tub and dried him off. After doing so, Key went to Taemin’s trunks and sighed, “I guess there nothing else we can do. Time to get you ready for your wedding,” he said pulling out a white ceremonial robe.

An hour later Key was putting the final touches on Taemin’s hair, after he had dressed himself, straightened out Onew, and even washed up Jonghyun. When he was done he told Taemin to stand up and stepped back. Taemin looked handsome as his light brown hair framed his face and the white robes fell gracefully from his shoulders. “Oh, Onew look, our little Taebaby is all grown up.” Onew looked proudly at his son as Key started to sniffle but before he could start really crying Jonghyun barked a warning that someone was approaching. Sure enough a minute later there was a knock on the door.

“Enter!” Onew called.

Thunder opened the door, “If you are ready, please follow me.” The three followed the bird down the hallway until they came to the throne room doors. “Your advisor will proceed first and then Your Highness shall follow with your heir to hand him off to My Lord. When you get to the end there are seats off to the left side for you.” The three, plus dog, arranged themselves appropriately and Thunder motioned for the guards to open the doors. As the doors opened a hush fell on the room within.

“Appa,” Taemin’s voice quavered, “I’m nervous and scared.” Onew gave his son’s arm a reassuring pat but it was all he could do before they entered the room. The hall was filled to the prim with swamp animals and insects all staring down the center aisle at Taemin. Taemin, however, was looking straight ahead trying to spot his soon to be spouse over Key’s head. He nearly tripped both himself and Onew when he got a clear view (that he didn’t was a miracle). “Appa, I thought you said Key was speaking figuratively,” the prince said clutching at his father’s arm because at the alter waiting for him was a frog with a too small crown seated on his head.

“Well, last time I was here, the Swamp royalty were a little less amphibious,” Onew said slightly shocked himself. He couldn’t believe he was literally marring his son off to a frog. Something was definitely wrong in the Swamp Kingdom and Onew wasn’t happy that they were dragging the Fairy Kingdom into it. When they got to the end of the aisle, Onew hugged his son whispering into his ear, “Bear with this until I can figure out what is going on.” Taemin hugged his Appa back nodding into his shoulder. Onew went to sit on a small throne off to the side where Key was already seated, a quietly growling Jonghyun next to him.

Taemin walked up to the alter, feeling like he was walking to his doom, and faced his frog of a spouse. The wedding went by in a blur for Taemin. He said all the right things and went through the motions all the while saying in his head, ‘I do this is for the Fairy Kingdom, I do this for the Fairy Kingdom, I do this for the Fairy Kingdom.’ It was the end that that Taemin feared the most and that time came all too quickly in his mind.

“You may now kiss the bride,” said a snake that was preforming the service. The frog leaned in and Teamin cringed, hesitating for a moment, before he quickly pecked the frog’s slimy lips, all the while wondering who the hell the ‘bride’ was.

After the kiss the frog continued to sit with puckered lips as if expecting something else to happen. The rest of the room seemed to be waiting for something too, the anticipation almost palpable. After a few more minutes of this awkwardness the frog finally looked up and over at Thunder, anger clear in his eyes.

“What is going on? You said this would work!” The frog King croaked.

“I’m sorry my liege, I don’t know what the problem is,” the bird hopped over to the King’s side, “all the books said if a princess kissed you, all would be set right.”

Taemin looked at the pair, their words sinking in, “Um, that might be your problem right there; I’m a prince not at princess.”

The frog and the bird looked at him before the frog ordered, “Grab him!” The next thing Taemin knew was he was bouncing through the air being carried by the back of his robes clinched in Thunder’s beak.

“Hey, where do you think you’re going!” Taemin heard Key shout.

“What is the meaning of this!” Came from his Appa.

Taemin was carried off through a door to the side of the Throne room. As he was brought through the door, Taemin could feel one of his wings get tweaked, “Hey, watch it!” Thunder wasn’t paying attention though as he tried to quickly shut the door on the hubbub they had started in the other room. Before he could, however, a snarling Jonghyun followed by two furious fairies forced their way in.

“Let go of my son this instant,” Onew demanded.

“So it’s true, she is a prince!” the frog King croaked in the middle of the room. “You bunch of lying fairies!”

“I’m sorry, What?!” Taemin yelled as he struggled to get out of Thunder’s mouth, “Let me go bird brains!” A sudden flurry of Taemin’s wings had the bird letting him go in surprise. Once he was released he flew at his now husband, furious. “Who lied here! We get a letter from you threating us that if I don’t marry you, you’ll attack our kingdom. We agreed seeing no other choice. Then we show up here and you force me to marry before we’re even properly introduced. Now you’re saying we lied because you thought I was a girl! Who do you think you are…Frog Face!”

“Don’t address His Highness as Frog Face!” Thunder gasped.

“Why not?! He made himself my husband and I don’t even know his name!” Taemin’s voice cracked as his anger started to frizzle into frustration and exhaustion causing tears to prick at his eyes. “This whole situation is your fault, you stupid frog!” Taemin felt familiar arms wrap around him as his Appa pulled him back to the ground and into a comforting hug.

“Why did you agree to my terms if you were a male?” Croaked the frog, starting to feel slightly sorry for the crying fairy.

Taemin glared at the frog, “What does gender have to do with anything?”

“Reproduction?”

Taemin jumped as if he was going to claw out the frog’s eyes but luckily his father stopped him.

Key sneered holding onto a growling Jonghyun, “You just have no tack do you? First you make him marry you and now you’re already asking for kids.”

“What! No! I-” Key had successfully flustered the frog.

Onew handed Taemin over to Key and said, “Alright, that’s enough. You sir are now married to my son, and as much as it pains me to say this, he’s stuck with you for year until an annulment can be made, according inter-kingdom marriage laws. So, since we're going to be family for a while thanks to your hastiness, why don’t we try being civil with each other? My name is Lee Jinki, King of the Fairy Kingdom. My subjects call me King Onew,” he glared at the frog, “and so will you.”

Continuing on with the introductions Onew brought Taemin forward. He had to nudge Taemin before the prince bowed his head and said, “I am Lee Taemin, Crown Prince of the Fairy Kingdom, and now apparently the husband of a fool.” He mumbled the last bit under his breath but his father heard him and gave a ‘behave’ look.

Next Key introduced himself and then the three looked expectantly at Thunder and the King. Thunder began to introduce his king but was stopped as the King gave a slight bow to his head and introduced himself, “I am Choi Minho, King of the Swamp Kingdom. I apologize for my rudeness earlier and would like to formally welcome you to my home.”

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Okay, so I’m sorry this took me longer to update this week. I had to finish unpacking so that walking through my room was no longer a hazard (E/N: Mine still is), and I’ve been working (FOR YOUR FAMILY). Anyway, Yay! We finally meet Minho! Who is literally a frog! But he’s a talking frog and Onew was surprised with it so that means something is up (This fic gets weirder and weirder). And then there’s Taemin who was forced to marry the idiot because the idiot thought he was a girl. (By the way the use of MBLAQ in this story is all Bre's fault becaruse (There is no 'r' in because) she was telling me about them when I needed extra characters. I don't know the band that well so I'm basically just using their names. Sorry to any MBLAQ fans.) Thank you to everyone who has been subscribing and commenting it’s really encouraging. So, please continue to subscribe and comment! Hopefully, my lovely editor will be able to make this authors note better. Until next time, bye.