A Nest
As much as Bubbles enjoyed talking to and hanging out with Blossom and Buttercup, she was eager to get settled with her prince charming. She was a little disappointed that Boomer hadn't been waiting for her at the harbor like he said last night, even though he probably didn't remember half of what he'd spouted while under the influence. Fauns had a high tolerance for alcohol so while Bubbles had drank just as much as him, she remained aware of all that had occurred. Taking the royal stairway back to the king and queen's palace allowed her to survey Hestus. As an ocean breeze blew through all the little apertures dotting the volcanic cone, the steam cleared to reveal two nearly-identical fortresses situated opposite each other along the rim. But there were no stairs leading to either one, so how the heck was she supposed to get up there?
Bubbles wandered into the market and made an inquiry of the first approachable Demon she saw. "Excuse me, can you tell me how to reach Prince Boomer's castle?"
He looked at her chest, then at her face, then back to her chest. "I can for a peek at those hooters."
Never mind him, then. Bubbles went to the next stall and he basically said the same thing: "Lemme see your titties."
The next one said: "I'll tell you anything if you keep standin' there all nice 'n pretty."
And the one after that said: "Forget the prince and come live with me. I'll take good care of you, sweet thing."
Now Bubbles knew why her mother never allowed her to come to Hael by herself. Normally one or two sexual comments didn't bother her, but when a horde of lecherous Demon men was cornering her… "Back off!" she shouted, stamping her foot. "Somebody show me how to reach Boomer's castle right now, or…" She had to make a real threat against them. "I'll throw you into the Void!"
The lechers paused, muttering among themselves. "Can she do that?"
"You don't think… she's his bride?"
"Shit, a princess?!"
As if that were the magic word, several diminutive little creatures pushed through the throng and all went to one knee before her. "We will take you to the Master's castle," they said in unison, which was kind of freaky, but they wore bland expressions so Bubbles got the sense they wouldn't hurt her. And… had she heard right? Did they refer to Boomer as Master? Together they turned and left, the other Demons moving aside. Bubbles followed the quintet along a confusing path that ended at a large triangular etching bordered by glyphs. Her escorts walked into the center, turned to sparkly dust, and disappeared. She gasped.
"What?" said a gruff voice behind her. "You never seen a terminus before?"
She spun around and leapt out of the big Demon's way. He carried her two chests of clothes like they weighed nothing. "As in a teleportation pad?"
"Same thing." He also fizzled into nothingness. Bubbles watched a few more porters go into the triangle and come back empty-handed. So her stuff was going somewhere, that was reassuring, but teleportation was a very difficult spell to get right! One wrong thing, like a terminus point being off by a single degree, and somebody could end up trapped between space and time! But her prince must be waiting in the castle overhead, so she mustered the courage to step inside.
She found herself standing in a simple foyer. The floor and walls were of black granite polished to a shine that let her see her reflection. Most of the Demons came and went from archways leading to rooms branching off a wide hallway. Bubbles poked her head into the nearest one and saw a sitting area, then discovered a study and a guest bedroom. The kitchen and dining room were on the right. The end of the hall offered three directions: left to a ballroom, right to a mysterious curve, and straight up a spiral staircase wrapping around an obsidian pillar. She took the stairs.
They deposited her at another junction, but she had a pretty good idea of the layout now. Before her was a smaller kitchen in which servants bustled about, and the left corridor led to their quarters. Bubbles went right, passing through a brocade curtain. The short hallway had no windows, instead lined with oil lamps mounted in wrought iron sconces. She sniffed, catching essences of pine and cedar. There were no trees to be found around Hestus, so she wondered if Boomer had the oils changed to something that would remind Bubbles of her homeland. The notion made her smile as she stopped outside an ornately-carved wooden door. She ran her hand over it and felt magic buzzing beneath her palm, layers of spells for rest, silence, and protection. But was it locked? She pressed down on the latch and it soundlessly swung inward.
There he was, sprawled out and sleeping off a mean hangover. A surge of giddiness went through Bubbles at the fact that she was in Boomer's room without his awareness. He looked so cute with a pillow partially covering his head and his right arm hanging off the side of the mattress. The blankets revealed his bare back and his breathing had a little rasp to it. A single rug covered most of the floor, leaving space along the edges for furniture. The bed was positioned between floor-to-ceiling windows featuring the same navy blue brocade curtains blotting out the light.
Bubbles tentatively lowered herself onto the farthest corner from Boomer, releasing a little "oh!" when she sunk into the mattress. It was ridiculously soft and had to be stuffed with down of some sort. She pushed herself toward the middle while making happy noises, reveling in the fact that her marriage bed was so comfortable. She rolled around so much that the pile of pillows shifted and fell.
Boomer drew in a deep breath, groaned, and turned his head, peeling his eyes open with great effort. As Bubbles' blurry visage came into focus, the events of yesterday caught up with him. He had met the youngest princess of Fawna, gotten married alongside his brothers, gotten drunk off his ass at the reception, and now… she was in bed with him? "Heeey," he croaked.
"Hi," Bubbles greeted.
"How'd you get here?"
"By boat, of course."
"Oh." He blinked slowly. "What time's it?"
"A little after noon," she provided.
"Really?" Boomer rolled onto his back with an arm across his face. His head was pounding, but at least he didn't feel sick. Nothing would've made Bubbles say "divorce me" faster than watching him spew his guts first thing in the morning. "Did we…" He cleared his throat to banish the phlegm. "Did we, uh, do any consummating last night?"
She tittered and gods, did he adore that sweet sound. "No, silly. Your father basically dragged you home."
"He did?" Boomer groaned again. "I must've been acting really stupid."
"He also put you on probation," she added.
"Fucker." He pulled back the covers and stood up to stretch, all but gagging on his own body odor. "I'm gonna clean up real quick, so will you just… wait here?"
Bubbles raised an eyebrow. "I live here now, silly."
Boomer blinked at her a few times. Oh fuck, his wife was moving in today! All her stuff was waiting downstairs! He rubbed his temples to make his brain start working. "Sorry, I forgot. Umm, okay, this is our bedroom, as you can see…" Their bedroom. "There's an armoire with plenty of room for your clothes…" Her clothes. "The bathroom's through this door here…" Where they could bathe together. He thought about asking her to join him since she followed him inside, running her hands along the stone sinks and lapis tilework.
"I've never seen a bath like this," Bubbles commented. The basin had a deep depression like a regular tub, but the outer edges were squared off and there was a drain in the middle. "Where does the water come from?"
"Overhead." Boomer turned a valve to start the flow and after a brief rattling of pipes, Bubbles gasped as a cascade descended from the ceiling.
"That's amazing! Like standing in the rain!"
"That's why we call it a shower." He started to remove his linen pants, hesitating. Bubbles regarded him rather salaciously like she intended to stay and watch. But he didn't want her to see him naked yet, not until he'd made himself perfect for her. "Can you go tell Laz to make me some eggs?" he requested.
"Who's Laz?"
"My Head of House, and the head chef. His full name is Lazaros Betania and he'll be in the kitchen for sure. This one, not the big one downstairs."
"Alrighty!" Bubbles gave Boomer another once-over and closed the door behind her. At least the thirst was mutual.
She opened the curtains and blissfully sighed at how nice of a space the bedroom was. Boomer had good taste. His entire home had a nice aesthetic, really, but it could do with some more plants in her opinion; only a few window ledges sported flowering cacti in little pots. Among the things she'd brought from home was a selection of seeds, a tiny fraction of the bank in Fawna. Hopefully she could replicate the conditions they required to grow. Bubbles saw that the kitchen was now devoid of small servants like the creatures who had escorted her, and one full-sized Demon had taken their place. "Laz?" she guessed.
He whirled around, spatula in hand, blue-skinned and golden-eyed. Instead of horns he had a bony protrusion emerging from his chin, and his smile was full of shark teeth. "You must be Princess Bubbles!" he exclaimed, giving her air kisses. "Mwah, mwah! I heard so much about you from the Master last night, he just wouldn't shut up! Had to knock him out with a cup of chamomile tea. You're even cuter than he described!"
She blushed. "Oh, thank you. Boomer asked me to ask you to make him some eggs."
"I certainly can!" Bubbles sat down at the nook while he lit a fire in the small hearth and buttered a cast-iron skillet. The window provided an amazing view of upper Hestus, but it reminded her of what had transpired earlier and her smile faded.
"Is every creature that lives here a type of Demon?" she asked.
"Mhm," Laz answered, now cracking the eggs. "We come in three sizes– large, medium, and small. Smaller bodies mean smaller brains, so the little ones take direction from the big ones. In the small category you have familiars that resemble animals like snakes and birds. They're so dumb that they get themselves killed all the time, but they pop out babies like no tomorrow." Bubbles recalled seeing some flapping creatures around the marketplace. "Kobolds, goblins, and trows make up the middle group. Our staff is entirely comprised of goblins since they don't talk back like the other two."
"Those were the ones that found me earlier?" Bubbles deduced. She'd never seen a goblin before.
"Mhm. You summoned them when you said 'somebody show me how to reach Boomer's castle'. I heard you, by the way. I was buying ingredients for the Master's breakfast across the row."
She faked an indignant gasp. "And you didn't step in?"
"I didn't know you were the princess!" Laz countered. "I thought you were some silly wayward Faun!"
"I was a wayward Faun! Trying to find my way here!" She crossed her arms and legs. Laz peered at her painted hooves.
"Ooo, that color is magnificent! Do you have more?"
Bubbles was about to tell him that she had upwards of thirty bottles of nail lacquer, but then Boomer arrived in just trousers again and claimed her full attention. He dropped into a chair opposite her, fresh and clean and unbearably sexy as water dripped from his damp golden hair onto his neck and shoulders. Bubbles was going to consummate their marriage so hard. "Did I hear you right, Laz?" he asked. "You saw my wife being harassed and didn't help her? Do I need to throw you into the Void?"
"Do it and lose the best chef in Hael," he challenged.
Boomer nodded. "You get a pass. This time."
"Thank you for your mercy, Master."
Some rather burnt eggs joined a hunk of bread and a pat of butter on a plate that Boomer dove into with gusto. Laz stared at him. "What?" he spoke through his food. The yellow eyes shifted to Bubbles and back. They stared at each other some more. Then Boomer swallowed hard and gave her a guilty look. "I'm an ass. Do you want something to eat? Laz, make whatever she wants."
She held up her hands. "I'm fine, I had breakfast on the ship." She wrinkled her nose at his plate. "How can you eat those eggs? They're black."
"I like my eggs like I like my granite," Boomer answered, shrugging.
"I like my eggs like I like my men– dark and mysterious," Laz added.
Bubbles released a high-pitched laugh before clapping her hands over her mouth. "I'm sorry?"
Boomer tried not to grin. "He's gay, by the way."
"Like, joy and gaiety gay?" she tried.
"No, like dick-sucking butt-fucking gay."
Bubbles hoped she didn't appear as scandalized as she had sounded because same-sex couples existed among her people, too. "I supposed I should've known when you noticed my nail polish."
Laz only smiled. "No worries. You'll still let me use it, right?"
First they had to find it among Bubbles' possessions, and they determined the best way to accomplish that was to unpack everything at the same time, nearly overflowing the first floor of the castle. Not all that much was exclusively hers save her clothing and alchemy equipment. Boomer was impressed when he found it in a crate. "You really know how all this stuff works?"
"Yep!" Bubbles chirped. "I'm no good at traditional magic, but I can create a potion, tonic, elixir, or draught to cure pretty much any ailment! With the right ingredients, of course." Ingredients she had to grow herself.
"Where do you want it?" Boomer asked.
"Preferably? A room that gets equal amounts of sunshine and moonlight," she answered.
"Oh, I know just the spot!" Laz beckoned her to follow him from the main hall down the right-hand corridor, which deposited them on the other side of the cone. It looped around to the ballroom in a sort of pseudo balcony, but its main purpose was to brace the sunroom on the backside of the castle.
"This is perfect! " Bubbles exclaimed, spinning in a small circle. Her action kicked up a fair amount of dust that Laz waved away from their noses. "And it even faces west! That'll supercharge my crystals!"
"I'm glad we finally have a use for this area," Laz said. "And, since we're on the subject… Can you make me a love potion when you get set up?"
"There's no such thing as a love potion," Bubbles corrected.
"Then, a lust potion?"
Her eyes narrowed. "Is it for you or someone else?"
Laz looked bashful. "Never mind, forget I asked. I'll have the goblins get this room cleaned up right away." He scurried off, leaving Bubbles in contemplation. Her fertility goddess heritage reared its head at the chance to solve a relationship issue. Normally she didn't meddle in people's love lives, but she liked Lazaros and wanted him to be happy. It might be prudent to figure out whom the target of his affection was first, though, so she could concoct something that would actually help instead of hinder their emotions. There was nothing worse than watching someone obsess over or be in manic love with a person who didn't reciprocate their feelings in the least.
