"Why don't you try to wake him up with a kiss?" Seth asked, noting Kendra's blush at the obvious reference to her kiss with Warren years ago.
"Why don't you kiss him?" She shot back.
"Me? Why would I kiss Bracken?"
"If anyone's kiss could wake him up it would be yours. He'd be so horrified there'd be no choice but for him to get up and wash his mouth."
"Bad logic. You need true love and shit to wake up sleeping princes."
"Bracken and I are not in love."
"Really? You couldn't shut up about him when he first came along."
"I was fifteen!"
"Can't you stick to one guy for like two seconds? I can't even keep track of all your dumb crushes. At least Bracken makes sense. Why'd you stop liking him?"
"I'm not in charge of my feelings, it's not like I chose to stop liking him. And if he's so great why don't you date him?"
"I mean he's a fucking fairy prince. And a unicorn. And an obnoxious goody two shoes. He's so your type it's almost painful."
"Well maybe that's why I don't like him. He's too cookie cutter perfect, too much my ideal type."
"That makes no sense."
"Yeah, well feelings don't make sense. Not that you'd know."
"So how do we deal with this?" Seth gestured to Bracken, sleeping peacefully on his bed.
"Maybe there's nothing to deal with. Maybe he's just being difficult to wake up?" Kendra suggested.
"No way. He's a light sleeper."
"And you know this how?"
"Shut up."
"Are you sure you're not in love with him?"
"You know we hang out. And anyway, you said your fairykind senses were tingling."
"Don't call it that! I sense something's off, but I don't know what. I might be overreacting."
"We should ask the fairy queen, shouldn't we?"
"I don't want to bother her because her son is oversleeping. It's my first time being here since I started college. I don't want to cause a scene."
"Look, you've only slept at Casa de Bracken a few times, but I'm a long time guest. Mrs Queen is actually pretty chill. One time I was making toast at like two in the morning and she came in and we talked about how to perfectly toast toast for almost an hour. She won't be upset if we bother her about Bracken. Hell, she'll be upset if we don't. She's kinda super overprotective of him after he was in prison for a couple centuries and whatnot."
"How is it that I'm fairykind but you're on speaking terms with the Fairy Queen?"
"You talk with her. She really likes you, which is another reason she won't mind us asking her about waking up Bracken."
"Fine."
"Cool. So call her with your fairy mind link or whatever. We don't have all day. I promised to play soccer with the guys at three." Seth prompted, and Kendra closed her eyes, seeming to concentrate. She was calling the Fairy Queen. Seth assumed Kendra got a hold of her, since she started mouthing words after a minute. "So?" He finally asked.
"I told her what happened and she's on her way." Kendra furrowed her brow. "She seems concerned."
"See, I told you she'd want to know."
The Fairy Queen was stunning (there was no question where Bracken got his looks from.) She glided into the room— yes, glided, despite donning her human form (for Seth's comfort, Bracken had told him)— looking troubled.
"Oh dear, I was afraid of this," she said on seeing her son.
"What? Do you know what's the matter with him?" Seth pressed.
"It would seem as though his soul has decided on a mate."
"What does that mean?" Kendra quarried.
"Oh man, don't tell me he really does need to be kissed awake."
"Yes, that is the high and low of it. A unicorn has many potential soul mates—"
"Aren't you only supposed to have one soul mate? Your one true love?"
"Shut it, Kendra."
"It's a common misconception, but unicorns live so long that if we only had one chance at true love we'd surly miss it."
"Are unicorns the only ones with soul mates, then?"
"No, but we are the only ones with set soul mates. Hmm, that is rather hard to comprehend, isn't it? It's like this, Seth, you can find love with anyone you chose. Anyone in the world is your potential soul mate, and yours, too, Kendra. But unicorns have only so many during any given century. Some we never meet. Others we do, but our souls chose not to mate with theirs. Bracken has met a potential and their souls have so deeply connected that his has decided it could not live without theirs."
"So he needs his soul mate to kiss him or he, what, sleeps forever?"
"Right again, Seth. A kiss form his soul mate is a promise from them to stay with him."
"Shit, alright, so who's his soul mate? Let's find them and make them kiss him so he can wake up. I don't want him sleeping through the rest of my life, thanks."
"Seth! You can't swear in front of a unicorn!"
"Nah, we're cool, right Mrs FQ? Anyway, I swear in front of Bracken all the time so your point is invalid."
"Yes, we're cool. But you must understand, we can not force his soul mate to to anything. They must, in turn, chose Bracken for their own soul mate. If they do not, then he will not wake."
"That makes sense. But, in any case, we need to find out who his soul mate is."
"Excellent point. I'll leave you and your brother to figure it out."
"Us?" Seth asked. "But aren't you more…uh, qualified to do it? I mean, he's your son."
"That he is. But he's your friend, and I rather think that you two know better than I who his love may be."
"Well, that was helpful," Seth said once the Fairy Queen had left.
"How would we know who he likes?"
"No clue. Hey, maybe you really should kiss him. You two had a thing, yeah?"
"We just talked about this! There's nothing there anymore."
"Maybe there is. There's no harm in trying, right?"
"What do you mean no harm? If I really am his soulmate, then by kissing him I'd be promising to be his."
"So?"
"So, I don't want to be! Seth, I'm not going to throw away the rest of my life to be with a guy I don't love."
"But if you are his soulmate and you don't kiss him, he won't wake up! He'll be as good as dead!"
"That's not my fault!"
"Uh, yeah, it kinda is."
"I care about Bracken a lot, I don't want him to stay asleep— he's really important to me. But, Seth, I can't give up my life for him."
"Fine. I just really fucking hope that you aren't his soul mate."
"There's no way I am. I mean, we had our chance, right? We both decided that nothing could happen between us. If I was his soul mate, then he'd have fallen asleep years ago."
"I guess. So that means it's someone he's been with lately, doesn't it?"
"That's what I think. Which is also why the Fairy Queen would say we know better than her— we're his friends and would know if he's been talking about someone a lot recently or spent a lot of time with them. I've been away at school though, so mostly it's up to you."
"He doesn't really talk about girls. Or anyone, really. He'll tell me stories about people, but they're all dead by now."
"Come on, Seth. You're the one he spends the most time with, how could you miss him falling in love?"
"Hey, he just doesn't have a life."
"Yeah, not one outside of you, anyway. You're aways together— oh."
"What?"
"You should kiss him."
"Haha, very funny. This is serious."
"And me kissing him is a more plausible solution than you kissing him? And besides, I am serious. Seth, who else could it be? You two are glued together like all the time! Half the time when I talk to him he just tells me about you."
"No way."
"Why not?"
"It just…it can't be. I can't be."
"Why?"
"Because!"
"Don't tell me you're going to say something dumb like 'because we're both boys!' because if you do, I will smack you upside the head with my calc book."
"Do you really think…?"
"I really do. Think about it, Seth. It's the only thing that makes sense. Heck, it's super obvious."
"Fuck."
"I'm right."
"You're right."
"So? Kiss him and wake up your prince charming!"
"I…"
"And you were calling me selfish for not wanting to do it. It's a big commitment. Listen, I get if you can't do it. You shouldn't promise to spend an eternity with someone you don't love."
"I can't just let him be comatose for the rest of forever."
"Can you condemn him to a life loving you when you don't love him back?"
"But I do love him. I'm just not, you know, in love with him."
"It's up to you."
"Ugh. Can you, I don't know, leave or something? I don't want an audience."
"So you're going to do it?"
"Yeah. I couldn't live without him."
"I can't wait for the wedding! Can I be your maid of honor?"
"Get out."
"Touchy."
"Goodbye."
"Fine. Bye."
Seth sat on the bed next to Bracken. He tentatively placed a hand on Bracken's cheek. "Hey, I've never done this shit before so no laughing if I mess up." He leaned over and pressed his lips to Bracken's in rush.
"Seth?"
"Bracken!"
"Wha—? Why are you hugging me?"
~oOo~
"Welcome back, Bracken." Kendra said when Seth and Bracken exited his room minutes after she'd left it.
"I need to tell my mother I'm well. She'll be worried."
"Indeed I was."
"Have you been hanging out here this whole time?" Seth asked the Fairy Queen.
"Yes, she has."
"I wasn't asking you."
"Are you still upset about the wedding comment?"
"Fuck you."
"Seth!"
"Serves you right. Ah, sorry Mrs FQ,, forgot you were here."
"I don't mind, dear boy. Thank you for waking my son."
"Oh, yeah. Right. That. It was, uh, no problem."
"I welcome you into my family with open arms."
"Mother! Nothing's been decided yet."
"Then you'd best go and decide on it. Kendra, let us go to the kitchen and find something to eat."
"Sorry, Seth, she can be…"
"A mom?"
"Yes, that."
"I get that. My mom used to ask every girl I brought home how long we'd been dating, so don't feel too bad."
"I suppose we will have to explain this to your parents."
"Probably. Fuck, that'll be a weird conversation. Mind if I sit down?"
"Of course. We can go back to the bed."
"Usually I'd make a joke about that, but I can't even think of a good one right now.""This is weird, isn't it?"
"No, we always sit on you bed like this."
"You know what I'm talking about."
"Do you love me?"
"What?"
"Are you in love with me? I mean, we're soulmates. Your soul wouldn't have decided on me if you didn't love me, right?"
"Yes and no."
"And that means?"
"I'm as much in love with you as you are with me."
"Then why'd you go all sleeping beauty on us?"
"Because I— I could't live without you, Seth. Right now I love you as much as I've ever loved anything, but I'm not romantically in love with you. Not yet."
"So we will fall in love, then? Eventually?"
"Yes. If every other account of unicorns finding their soul mate is to be believed, then yes. We'll fall in love."
"Fuck, this is weird."
"Yeah."
"It's like, I'm going to fall in love with you, and I know that, but I'm not yet. And we're just supposed to wait around being, what, engaged until we fall in love?"
"Almost. It's tradition for the first one who falls to propose. Then the wedding happens when the love is mutual."
"So, what, are we dating?"
"If you want to be."
"But I can't date anyone else, even if I said we aren't?"
"I— if you want, you are welcome to. I don't mean to keep you from living your life and —"
"I wasn't serious, Bracken. Jeez, don't go all kicked horsey on me. I've never really wanted to date anyone, anyway, so why not just date you?"
"Seth?"
"What?"
"Thank you."
"For what, waking you up? Like I was gonna let you sleep through my life."
"I'm glad it was you."
"Yeah. Yeah, me too."