Being a certified fairy godmother was harder than it looked.

There were certain regulations, for example, that any fairy godmother was spellbound to follow:

The first, to serve as counselor and advisor for the King and Queen.

The second, to provide direction and guidance to the Prince or Princess should they need it.

And on a related note, the third - to come at the Prince or Princess's beckoning at all times of the day, no excuses.

"Rub-a-dub-dub, two men in a tub!"

"A-ahh...don't do that!"

Minseok was shying away from the grasping hands and the equally erted gaze of his husband, sinking further into the water as he held shy hands over his body.

The other man giggled at the innocent behavior, letting Minseok off the hook temporarily as he uncapped a bottle full of bubble bath, pouring it directly over the spout and watching as it began to create a frothy mixture over the surface of the water.

The bath was soon full, water sloshing out of the golden, claw-footed tub as pink bubbles foamed up protectively around the body within it.

A hand reached out, scooping up a handful of bubbles only playfully swipe it across a cute, button nose.

"Looks like you've got something on your face, my love."

A flush that matched the pink color of the bubbles soon appeared on the fair face.

"That's your fault.  Why... why don't you do something about it!"

Eyes lit up in excitement at the invitation, and soon clothes were eagerly thrown to corners of the room, leaving the man standing in all of his glory.

He picked up the loofah from where it sat on the edge of the tub, wriggling his eyebrows suggestively at the man in front of him.

"Oh, don't you worry Minseok - I'll make sure to clean every inch of your body."

He was able to get into the warm, inviting water of the bath, about to sink into the open arms of his lovely Minseok - when he disappeared in a flashbang of pink smoke and floating bubbles.

Minseok jerked back in surprise, staring with wide eyes at the empty space that his husband had once occupied.

After a moment of silence, he looked around, slowly reaching for the fallen loofah.

Kris hardly ever called for his fairy godmother.  He had always been a stoic, proud character, and that had only lended itself to his need for self-sufficiency. 

Still, dire situations called for dire actions - which is why he had finally decided to call for his fairy godmother in the first place.

What he was not expecting however, was the very wet, very male who came crashing down from the sky screeching like a banshee.

Kris had shrieked in equal horror when, as he turned into the noise, he'd been slapped directly in the face by a flying as it soared through the air like the majestic flight of an eagle. 

At the moment, Kris was bending over his basin, screaming obscenities and curses as he scrubbed at his face intensely with soap and water.

The man, on the other hand, was screaming back at him with equal intensity, gracefully worded messages like 'you motherf- ing hell- worst ing timing' and 'do-you-have-any-idea-how-long-it-took-me-to-get-Minseok-to-agree-to-take-a-bubble-bath-with-me', all the while using his magic to cut up Kris' sheets, wrapping it around him as best as he could in a kind of crudely fashioned toga.

It took another five minutes of mutual ing and groaning before they finally wound up where they were - sitting with folded arms across from each other, one making damp the bedding beneath him, and the other sitting stiffly on a wooden chair.

"This better be important, Kris, for you to have called me away without warning.  You haven't done that since you were a child."
The man crossed his legs, and Kris flickered his eyes downward at the movement, suddenly remembering what had been shoved in his face a few minutes before.

Suppressing last night's meal that threatened to make its way back up his throat, Kris looked away, shuddering just once more before clearing his throat.

"It is, Luhan."

"I don't make mistakes, Kris."

Luhan stood, pressing the worn prophecy back into Kris' unwilling hands.

"We've known each other for such a long time now that I've grown comfortable with showing this side of you.  Because I might act like this in front of you, it might not seem like I know what I'm doing - but trust me on this, Kris.  This is not a decision I, nor your parents, made lightly.  Your Sleeping Beauty exists, and you are destined for one another and one another only."

Kris let the worn paper slip through his fingers, running tired hands over his face. 

Luhan watched with increasingly concerned eyes.

"What's this?  What's got you so upset?  When you were a child - I can remember how happy you were when I first gave you this sheet of paper - and now you're throwing it away like you don't want it anymore."

Kris stood from the chair, walking over to the small window of his and Tao's shared room, peering out from behind warped glass at the man that stood outside in the cold.

Tao was wrapped up in furs, his breath coming out in white puffs as he bent over Pearl, her coat with a brush.  Around his neck, was the scarf Kris had bought him, tightly wound around him to protect him from the cold winds.

Kris felt warmth at his side as Luhan sidled up to the window next to him.

"...this is the one you've been telling me about?  Your friend Tao?"

There was a note of disturbed interest that had Kris turning to the other with furrowed eyebrows.

"Has he always looked like that?"

Kris whipped his head back to Tao, noticing for the first time how his hair was a deep, dark brown now. 

When had he...?

The further north they traveled, the colder it became.  The soft flurries became white storms, and soon they were plodding knee-deep through miles of snow.

"Just a little bit further," Kris encouraged Tao, holding the man up with a comforting arm around his waist.

As if his inevitable change didn't frighten Tao enough already, the tolls it was beginning to take on his body had begun to become a concern.

As each day passed and the magic that pulsed through his veins grew stronger and stronger, Tao found himself physically weaker in comparison, often resting on Pearl as Kris led them through the snows, too tired to walk on by himself.

But for as silently accomodating as Kris had been about the whole thing, he had still insisted they travel onward, chasing each rumor with desperation - for now they were chasing Prince Charmings, a chase that proved much more difficult than the damsels who were usually so hard to miss.

Tao wasn't sure what had incited the change - he hadn't said a word to Kris about what had happened in Nava's Archipelago, but for whatever reason, for the next weeks that had followed, Kris seemed to flip between desperately pushing Tao towards each prince they had met - and then, at night, when Tao returned with his spell unbroken, throwing him down onto the bed, holding him close and begging him to 'stay, just a little while longer'.

And in the end, Kris worried more about Tao than Tao did himself anymore. 

At this point, Tao no longer cared what they did or who they met anymore. 

He'd stopped looking for Prince Charming long ago.

When they had finally broken through the snowstorm, they found a tiny village hidden in the snow and ice, in a perpetual state of frozen winter.

Somehow miraculously missing all the terrible blizzards that plagued the lands surrounding it, Lunestia's Drift was an undeniably charming winter wonderland. 

At night, it was lit softly with the warm lights of candles and lanterns, illuminating the beautiful patterns of ice that hung from rooftops, the frozen lake that the local children skated upon with grace, the wreaths of evergreen and red bows that hung from each streetlamp and from every door.

Now that they were out of the blizzard and Pearl would be able to handle the extra burden, Kris added his own scarf to the growing pile of clothing that he had bundled Tao in and pushed the exhausted man toward horse's saddle, urging him to get on.  Tao struggled valiantly, arms shaking visibly as he tried to climb up.  After a few seconds of watching him strain, warm arms wrapped around him, a hand on his hip pushing him up and onto the leather seat.  Finally settling into the saddle, Tao panted into his scarf, eyes closed as he wiped the sweat off his brow.  

Kris's mouth fell into a grim line.  He said nothing as forced himself to look away from the sight, silently taking up the reins and pulling Pearl along as he led them into the village.

Curious eyes met them, glancing over the exhausted looking trio as they stumbled in, avoiding the glances of the man at the front who began to implore their attention.

Kris caught a passerby by the arm, forcing the man and his family to stop as they all turned to him in shy apprehension.

"Excuse me - I'm so sorry to disturb you - we heard of a Prince Charming who had come through here a while ago and we were wondering if you knew - "

Silently, a finger stretched out past him to point at a large house in the middle of the square.

Both princes turned to look in its direction. 

Tao stared down into the steam rising out of his mug, warming his hands as he only half-listened to the conversation floating around him.

The mayor, an older man in his forties, was giving distracted answers to Kris' questions, constantly pulling open the curtains drawn over the windows to stare out into the night.

"I'm sorry you came out all this way, but I'm afraid I'm the only prince charming for miles.  ...or, I was, until I married the local Snow Queen." 

Kris sighed, leaning forward onto his knees and running his hands through his hair. 

From his side, he felt a familiar weight settle closer, a warm hand appearing to pat his knee comfortingly.

The mayor turned back to them, staring at the two princes in front of him with hesitation and worry mixed in his eyes.

"I'm sorry I can't help any more, I'm just so terribly worried.  You see -"

Kris shook his head, anticipating some sort of request, standing up and gesturing for Tao to do the same.

"I'm afraid we're short on time as it is.  We'll need to take our leave as soon as we can."

"But- please, hear me out!  It has to do with my children."

A hand on his arm forced Kris to stop.

"What about your children?"  Tao asked, speaking for the first time in hours in a hoarse and quiet voice.

The mayor wrung his hands, turning to stare back toward the window.

"They went to go build snowmen in the snow an hour ago.  I told them to be back in half an hour - and I'm just so terribly afraid that they've gotten lost.  What if they've been caught in the blizzard?"

Kris scowled.

"So?  Why don't you go look for them yourself?"

The mayor nodded, gesturing down at his leg.

"Fell and slipped on some ice a few years ago.  Never been the same since.  What with my wife gone now, if I wander out into the blizzard, I might not end up coming back.  And then who will the village turn to?  Please... please, I beg of you."

Kris opened his mouth, about to deny the man once again, but Tao cut in first.

"We'll bring them back.  Don't worry."

'Don't worry'?!  You can hardly walk yourself, and you're offering to help someone else?

They had been following the trail for close to an hour now, and Kris was beginning to get irritable, and cold. 

Tao snuffled loudly behind his back and Kris sighed, forgetting his anger in place of concern.  Pulling the other's arms tighter around his waist to allow the man to share in his warmth, he felt Tao press in closer, resting his head against Kris' back as they plodded through the softly drifting snow.

At least it hadn't been hard so far - the mayor had apparently taught his children well - they'd been smart enough to leave them a trail of black stones to follow, scattered as they were between fading imprints of tiny feet across the snow.

The only question had been why - why had they left the safety of their village, to travel out this far into the cold?

Soon enough, they began to form some semblance of an answer, when the smell of fresh gingerbread drifted in from afar, followed closely by the sight of a plume of grey smoke, rising from the otherwise white landscape.

As the trail led them closer and closer to both the smoke, the smell of candied sweets only grew stronger.

And then suddenly, the sight of a lone cabin in the middle of nowhere emerged through the white snow.

A look to the man seated behind him revealed an expression as confused as his own.

The cabin was stuffed to the brim with curious objects. 

Looking closer at the jars of unknown substance, Tao wasn't sure what he was staring at, nor was he sure he wanted to know.

It was undoubtedly the house of a witch, and that fact alone had Kris reaching a hand out behind him that Tao took.

Knowing that Tao was safe behind him, Kris began to move cautiously forward through the cabin, making sure to step quietly on the wood floor, trying to avoid making noise when they could.

Thankfully though, although the lights had been on, smoke blazing in the chimney, it hadn't seemed like the witch was at home.  In fact, from the eerie quiet, it seemed as if nobody was in the cabin at all - until they reached the kitchen. 

There, in the dark, unlit room, they could see the outline of a large bird cage from where it was hanging from the ceiling.  The chains that attached the cage to the ceiling were rattling noisily as it swayed side to side.  Between each jostle of the chains, Tao thought he could hear the faint sounds of sniveling cries.

"...kids?"

Suddenly, small hands shot out, clutching tightly to the cage as tiny, tear-stained faces pressed themselves close, peering out at them from between the bars.

Tao felt his heart leap from his chest and he hurried over, running his hands over the bars as he desperately shook the metal, trying to find the latch.  Kris brought a lantern in from the other room to provide Tao more light - only to nearly drop it in shock as he spun around, horrified to see the sight of questionable sweets in different stages of completion, small human bones and limbs laying scattered on the tables.  Red, meaty substances were sticking out of dough.

A noise from outside of the room drew Kris' attention.  Setting the lantern down on the table, he drew his sword, leaving Tao to take care of the children as he left to investigate the noise.

Tao didn't notice the other's departure, too busy jerking at the padlock that kept the children locked within, trying to keep himself focused even as the two children shouting over each other in panicked tones that had Tao's head spinning.  Their words were blurring over each other, and it wasn't until the fifth time, when they had repeated their statement in unison, that he understood what they had been saying.

"Be careful!  ...the witch, she's still here!"

Tao suddenly froze at their words, turning to face the otherwise empty room.

"Kris...?"

A bright flash of light from the other room had him covering his eyes with an arm.  Right after the flash, he heard a loud crash and a familiar voice crying out in pain.

"Kris!"

Dashing from the kitchen, he almost tripped over the now overturned tables and broken jars that now littered the floor with wood splinters and glass.  To his horror, Kris was lying in the corner of the room, slumped over on top of a broken table, unmoving.

Rushing over to his side, Tao sank to his knees, turning Kris over onto his back as he began to frantically search for any wounds.  He didn't notice the swirling black mass that began to form behind him, a figure stepping out from the void, until a clawed hand reached out toward his shoulder.

Tao found himself suddenly flung across the room by a magical force, tumbling down to the floor hard as he slid to a slow stop.  Groaning as he began to pick himself up from the floor, patting glass shards from his clothes, he turned to see a skeletal figure with sunken eyes stepping toward him, magic swirling in her hands.

Blue lines that sparked up and down her arms for a second gave Tao enough warning to throw out a hand, a plate shooting from the ground to protect him just once from the blast of lightning that came at him, breaking and falling back onto the floor in shattered porcelain pieces. 

The witch took a step back, her eyebrows shooting up in an expression of shock and recognition before spread in an impossibly wide smile.  Rolling up her sleeves slowly, she balled up her fists, jerking her head back in a respectful invitation.

Casting a quick glance toward Kris to make sure that the prince was still unconscious, Tao stood slowly from the ground, pulling the coat off his shoulders as he threw it to the ground beside him.  As trails of fire began to blaze from his arms, a storm forming around him, he felt magical energy begin to spill into his body. 

He met the woman's smirk with a dark smile that spread onto his face like poison. 

Kris awoke to the sounds of terrible screaming and the smell of something horrible burning. 

Gagging and coughing, he forced his eyes open, blearily catching sight of a figure in flames, a darkened body with nearly indistinguishable human features, shrieking as it flung its arms out in pain.  He thought he saw Tao wrapping arms around the figure, throwing her deep into the fireplace and pinning her down further into it, coming back from the flames without a single burn on his body. 

The last image Kris saw before he out again was the sight of Tao standing still, watching the witch burn as she took her last few breaths in squealing hysteria.  The light of the flames danced chaotically in Tao's eyes.

Sometimes, in the absence of tears, Tao could only laugh.

In a terrible way, he felt more alive than he had for the past few weeks.

Kyungsoo came to see him, one last time, while he was human.

"Using your magic has greatly accelerated the process.  You've only got a month left at most, you foolish child."

"Have I?"  Tao said, through a voice thick with tears.

Kyungsoo was pulling him into a hug, holding him close as he sobbed bitter tears into Kyungsoo's shoulder.

"It won't be all that bad, Tao.  The Witch Council - they give us means of employment, allow us to live in relative peace -"

Tao pulled back, taking a firm grip on Kyungsoo's shirt as he jerked it down, revealing the black brand that was burned deep into the witch's chest.

"How much did it hurt to be branded like an animal?  To have a symbol of shame and slavery forced into your skin?"

Kyungsoo pulled away from Tao's grip, suddenly ashamed as he shifted his shirt to cover the tattoo once more.

"Tao..."

"I've been imprisoned all of my life.  By duties, obligations that I never asked for, never wanted.  Trapped in a tower for years, waiting for someone who probably never wanted me.  I'm not doing it again, Kyungsoo!  I'd rather - ...I'd rather live my last moments of clarity in peace."

"Tao, if Kris catches you, you know he'll be forced to take you to the Witch Council himself."

It broke his heart to hear someone reconfirm what he had dreaded for so long, but Tao smiled all the same.

"I know.  But until that day, I'll give him all I have left.  Even if it's not much anymore."

Kyungsoo was quiet for a minute, eyes looking down.

"...There's always been another way, Tao."

But it killed Kyungsoo to tell Tao, knowing that it was the last option he knew Tao had.  How many years had he spent watching over the child, only to see him stumble down the same path that he had on his own?  How many years had he spent investing time in Tao, hopeful that he wouldn't suffer as Kyungsoo had?

In many ways, Kyungsoo felt like a failure.

But even if he could have turned back time, Kyungsoo wouldn't have stopped Tao from leaving - he knew all too well how painful it was to be unloved for all those years, and although he had years to dull the pain in his heart, it hadn't meant that it had.

To allow Tao to experience some form of love, even if it wasn't meant to be... it was the only gift Kyungsoo could give him.

"...does it hurt?"

Oh, Tao, in the prime of his youth, strong enough to beat away monsters, to bring down giants - in the end, still a frightened child.

The truth was that it was incredibly painful - burned like flame, filled the heart with poison, crushing it into submission as it forced it to contract. 

"...just briefly.  You might not even notice."  Kyungsoo lied, watching as Tao turned away in consideration, a hand coming up to wipe the tears that continued to drip down from the man's dark eyes.

"Then I guess... that's what I'll have to do."

It's not what you have to do, Kyungsoo thought with a deep sadness, it's what you've chosen to do.

When Kris next awoke, he stared up into inky black eyes. 

They were in an bed, back in the village, and Tao was dabbing at his forehead with a damp cloth, cooing at him as he slowly woke from his sleep.

"You're awake.  Thank goodness - you've got a nasty bump on your head."

Kris slowly pulled away, sitting up in the bed as he leaned back into the headboard. 

"Don't worry - I was able to follow the stone trail back to the village, and the children are safe and sound with their father.  You haven't missed a thing."

He watched silently as Tao wrung the cloth back into the basin, standing from his place by the bed to walk to the center of the room. 

The room was lit by soft candlelight, flickering softly as they cast faint shadows onto Tao's milky white skin and jet black hair. 

Kris stared in silence, mind flashing back to the half-forgotten memory of - Tao embracing a burning figure, chaotic flames and screams, an almost violent look in his eyes. 

The same person - painted in so very different ways by the same flame.

But then again, he supposed it didn't matter anymore how Tao appeared - Kris was not afraid of the Tao that stood before him now, nor of the Tao that had stood before him then. 

Whether he had brown or black hair, tan or white skin, Kris wanted him.  Needed him.

But Luhan's words burned deep into his mind.  He couldn't escape what fate had ordained for him, no matter how much he wanted to escape it.  The sheet of paper which remained forever tucked into his waistband suddenly felt weighty, and Kris wished he could toss it into the fire.

Tao was at his side again, and Kris was only barely conscious of the way he pulled Tao's hand into his own, the smooth, soft skin with the callused fingers of his own.

All he knew was the look in Tao's swirling eyes as he began to speak, finally telling Tao what had been on his mind for so long.

"I would have married you, you know.  The truth is, I lo-"

The hand slipped from his own to press fingers against his mouth, stopping him before he could finish his sentence.

Tao was beginning to make such sad noises again, and Kris felt tears well up in his own eyes at the sound.

"Don't say that - don't tell me that, please."

Kris swallowed heavily, pulling the hand off his mouth to press a long, lingering kiss onto the back of Tao's hand, mimicking the one he had first given Tao, so long ago.

It was the only apology he could give.

Truthfully, although he knew what was happening, Kris refused to say a word.  He kept the knowledge locked deep inside of him, determined to save the man in front of him for as long as he could.