A/N: A multipart Red Notebook fairy tale. Evilly fun to write, mind you, so beware the boys' love and abundance of cheap laughs. -^__^- Also, I was trying out a more fairy-story writing style when I started this fic, so I won't be using anyone's names. Don't worry, they're easy enough to figure out.









"The King and the Pretty Boy"









Once upon a time, there was a frail but lovely princess with a warm heart and gentle smile who saw mysterious things and knew their secrets. She was the sister of a wild-haired king with a once-irrepressible grin that had faded to but a faint shadow of itself ever since the evening of the masquerade ball held on the eve of the winter solstice, and as she loved him dearly, he tried to hide this from her.

But the frail/lovely princess saw this with her young/old eyes and wondered. She summoned her loyal feline servant and ordered her to seek out the counsel of the brave young dragon who breathed fire and guarded the king with his life, hoping he might know what so troubled her brother.

In time, the faithful servant returned to her princess with shocking news. "My lady, I have learnt the cause of your brother's sorrow!" she cried.

The princess begged her servant to speak, desperate to uncover the truth of the matter at last.

"My, lady, the king has told his dragon that he is in LOVE!" the faithful servant whispered conspiratorially.

The frail-but-lovely princess fell off her throne. "Is that all?" she demanded.

"But my lady . . . " The servant leaned close to again whisper into her mistress's ear. "It is one of the servants that he loves!"

The princess rolled her eyes. "Leave it to my brother to kick up a fuss about something so stupid," she muttered, flopping back into her throne.

Her servant blinked. "You're taking this rather well," she observed dryly.

"Shouldn't I be?" the princess asked with a slight shrug. "He is my brother, after all; I desire his happiness as must as I desire my own. So which is it that he is in love with? Has he confessed to the servant?" She looked to her companion, eager curiosity sparking in her eyes.

"I do not think so, my lady," the faithful servant replied. "Or if he has, he has not told the dragon."

The princess frowned thoughtfully, then finally decided. "I want to see this servant- bring me the one who dares claim rule over my brother's heart!" she commanded, getting to her feet and pointing to the door.

"Yes, my lady!" Her servant quickly scampered off to do as instructed.

"Big brother's in love!" the princess murmured gleefully as soon as she was alone, clasping her hands together in sheer delight. "Oh, I can't WAIT to see her!" She was already fantasizing about the pretty little servant girl that she expected to be meeting.









~`~@~`~









Outside the castle walls, the oblivious object of the wild- haired king's affections, who was indeed very pretty but not all that little and most definitely NOT a girl sat with his younger brother, avidly sulking and looking very fine.

"Cheer up, big brother!" the younger boy begged. "You've been down ever since the solstice!"

"I'm fine," the oblivious object of the king's affections lied, pulling his harmonica from his pocket and beginning to play. He had no desire to initiate further conversation, wanting only to be left alone with his grief for the remainder of the afternoon.

Yes, well . . . It's nice to want things.









~`~@~`~









"The dragon said that the one the king loved was a pretty blond boy with blue eyes- but they both fit the description!" the princess's faithful feline servant agonized from her hiding place amidst the nearby trees. "How will I discover which is which?!"

As she watched and worried, the taller of the two cast a wistful glance towards the turret of the castle that held the king's chambers. Her eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"Don't tell me . . . " she muttered. "He COULDN'T be . . . "

"I wish . . . " the pretty-boy servant whispered, suddenly lowering his harmonica. "I wish that he could love me back." The faithful feline servant nearly passed out upon hearing that.

His little brother's eyes softened and he leaned over to hug the older boy around the waist. "Don't think about him so much, big brother," he said quietly. "It's not good for you."

"I know." The pretty-boy closed his eyes and flopped back into the grassy hillside. "But . . . I just can't help myself."

"Well, THAT'S kinda obvious."

"Eh?" The pretty-boy cracked an eye open at the unfamiliar voice. "Who the hell- ?"

"Ah-ah-ah!" Language, please," their unexpected guest scolded. A boy with spiky burgundy hair and a fur-trimmed coat stood before the siblings, smirking smugly and fluttering his glittering gold wings.

"Oh my GOD!" the younger brother yelped, jumping to his feet and backpedaling, unknowingly mimicking the movements of the feline servant concealed in the shrubbery a few meters away.

"A- A- A fairy?!" the elder sputtered in disbelief, scarcely able to believe his eyes.

"Oi, look who's talking," the fairy retorted, rapping the pretty- boy's head with a suddenly-present sparkly magic wand.

"Yeah, and here we are trying to be nice and help you out!" a second voice added, clearly irritated.

"What- ?!" The brothers spun around to find another fairy with long purple hair, glittery green wings, and large round glasses standing there, a fuzzy pink creature with birdlike attributes nestled in her arms- a baby harpy, perhaps?- and a little blue dragon perched on her shoulder.

"Damn, what was in the porridge this morning?" the elder brother muttered, clutching the side of his head. The spiky-haired fey whacked him again. "Hey! Stop DOING that! Why are you even bothering us?!"

"Dummy," the female fairy muttered. "We're your fairy godparents! We're here to get you your true heart's desire!"

The pretty-boy went blinkety-blink. " . . . eh?" he asked finally.

"We're gonna get you with your Prince Charming," the spiky- haired fairy translated, and his grin turned sly. "Or should I say 'King' Charming?"

The pretty-boy servant turned an interesting shade of pink.









* tbc . . . *









. : review or daisuke turns you into a toad! : .