The Land of Stories: Gleeful Days Are Here Again

Of Flying Ships, Sealing Wax, Cabbages, and Kings

6. Of Flying Ships, Sealing Wax, Cabbages, and Kings

In which pigs don't have wings, but at least one of them might know how to fly...

After Queen Red got over her initial resistance to the idea of entertaining houseguests (two of them in particular) she proved herself to be a gracious hostess. She called for servants to show Chris, Darren, Kurt, and Blaine to the lavishly appointed guest wing of the castle, and even managed to bite back her obvious disapproval when they assured her that only two rooms would be required, rather than the four she'd planned on.

Chris — suffering from the combined effects of jet lag and inter-dimensional travel — flopped down gratefully on the featherbed he and Darren would be sharing. Looking up at the man who had so recently become something more than a friend, Chris let out a long breath.

"You okay?" Darren asked.

"Yeah, just exhausted. I'll be fine once I get some sleep."

"Well, that's what beds are for," Darren smiled. "Among other things..." he added with a wink.

Chris kicked him half-heartedly. "Other things are going to have to wait. Even if I wasn't totally jet-lagged, you do remember the curse, right?"

"Yeah, yeah — no kissing — I know," Darren grumbled.

"But we can still cuddle," Chris offered.

Darren perked up at that. "Yay!" he cheered, quickly stripping down to his boxer-briefs.

"You'd better be the little spoon," Chris told him, "so you don't forget about the curse in the middle of the night and inadvertently start kissing the back of my neck."

Darren huffed. "What — the back of my neck isn't tempting enough to kiss?"

"Sweetie, I'm so tired my lips can barely even manage to have this conversation right now, let alone do anything else. Just c'mere."

He pulled Darren's back against his chest, wrapping him tightly in his arms. Nuzzling into his boyfriend's (Oh My God! Chris thought, Darren's actually my boyfriend!) soft curls, he murmured, "And for the record, your neck is very tempting. But as good as sleeping forever might sound to me at the moment, it's certainly not something I want you to do, so I'm going to exercise my vast stores of willpower and keep my lips to myself."

Chris felt more than heard Darren's chuckle. "G'night, Chris. I love you."

"I love you, too."

...

Chris awoke to the sound of singing.

Good day sunshine

Good day sunshine

Good day sunshine

Blinking the sleep from his eyes, Chris saw that Darren was already up, dancing around the room.

I need to laugh

And when the sun is out

I've got something I can laugh about

I feel good

In a special way

I'm in love and it's a sunny day

As soon as Darren noticed that Chris was awake, he flung himself down on the bed and sang the chorus directly to him.

Good day sunshine

Good day sunshine

Good day sunshine

Chris laughed. "Well, good day to you, too, sunshine."