Co-written with miss mika namariya! We own nothing :)

The next day, after waking up the happiest he'd ever been and spending a lovely morning walking together, Kuon found himself the most baffled he'd ever been.

"We shouldn't go in the forest," Kyoko said, balking at the tree line. When Kuon just blinked at her in confusion, she looked off to the side, embarrassed. It was the cutest expression he had ever seen on her. He was so enamored by the light blush on her cheeks that he almost missed her next words. "Weird — weird things happen when I go in forests."

"Like what?" Any Kyoko information was good information, in his mind.

"It doesn't matter. Just — we shouldn't go into the forest."

"But we went hunting before, in a forest," he said, confused.

"That was a manicured royal forest, not a wild forest. This… this is a wild forest." She looked up at the canopy, something shifting in her eyes. "I can tell."

Had her eyes always been so golden? "I'm sure it'll be fine," he said, trying to pay more attention to her words than her eyes. "Besides, you're the one who insisted we come on this adventure."

Kyoko steeled herself. Right. This was for his True Love. She could do this, for his sake. She gripped the straps of Sir Hoppington's traveling tank-backpack tightly and stepped into the trees. A shudder passed over her; her spine straightened.

Kuon stared at her. Granted, he spent a lot of his time staring at Kyoko (or trying not to), but this was different. She was different. The moment she had stepped into the trees, the moment she had shuddered like that — something had changed. He couldn't put his finger on it, not quite, but something was definitely different. Maybe it was just that she seemed so unsettled, instead of her usual calm confidence. Or maybe it was something real — something surreal about her features now, something uncanny. Her eyes looked more golden, but that could also be the quality of the light filtering through the leaves. Her ear — no, it wasn't pointed, that was just the way her hair fell, wasn't it? And when she grit her teeth… had they always been that sharp?

"Ribbit," said Sir Hoppington from his bubble-tank.

"Right. Onward." Kyoko strode into the trees, seemingly back to normal.

Well, as normal as hiking through a forest with your bodyguard and your shared frog can be. Especially if that frog is also (lest we forget) your most trusted knight. Oh, and you're in love with your bodyguard. Who insisted on undergoing this whole mission to find your True Love. Yup, totally normal.

Speaking of normal, Kyoko was acting totally normal in this forest. She was not acting like every single rustling leaf was something coming to get them. Or that any twig snap was the first warning sign of a horde of bandits. Or that she thought that whatever she meant by weird things happening to her in forests was about to happen. Which Kuon wasn't thinking about, either. He definitely was not puzzling over what could make Kyoko want to stray from the path of duty. Especially since this was her idea.

Sir Hoppington stared out at Kuon from his bubble-tank. He knew what was going to happen — of this the prince was sure. The frog definitely knew whatever was unsettling Kyoko so badly. Kuon wished that he could borrow that knowledge to better soothe Kyoko. Or at least reassure her that whatever "weird" thing it was, it wouldn't be enough to make him stray from her side.

Speaking of weird, how was she moving so quietly through the forest? Sure, he was bigger than her (and far less sneaky), but that didn't explain why he was causing a cacophony while she was silent. She stepped on a leaf; it did not so much as crinkle. Experimentally, he stepped on the same leaf, earning a satisfying crunch. That… that was definitely weird. He glanced up at Sir Hoppington, who stared back blandly.

"Ribbit," he offered.

Kyoko tucked some hair behind her ear. Okay, her ears were definitely pointier than the average ear. Kuon was trying not to stare. Maybe, he reasoned to himself, her ears had always been pointy. It wasn't like she often stood still long enough for him to really look at them. But that day in the library, when they'd been looking at fairy tales… he had spent so long looking at her profile then. Wouldn't he have noticed her ears?

"Rib-rib?"

She glanced back at the prince, who did his best to look like he had been staring at the canopy instead of her. "Did you need something?"

"Nope, just um, admiring the trees."

"Ribbit!" Sir Hoppington croaked. "Ribbit-rib roooob."

Kyoko stilled. Kuon almost bumped into her. She was frozen, looking for all the world like a deer caught in the light of a lantern. Slowly, one of her hands came up to touch her ear. She was trying to make it look like a casual action — just brushing her hair back, that's all. Definitely not checking to see if her biological structure had been changed by entering a wild forest.

When her fingertips brushed pointed flesh, she winced. It was quick — so fast he wouldn't have noticed it had he not been staring at her. But she still winced. Then she turned and started walking again, as if nothing had happened.

Sir Hoppington looked at the prince knowingly.

They walked in silence. Kyoko seemed determined to ignore the elephant in the room, while Kuon was just baffled. What did it mean? Was this some sort of weird allergic reaction to forests? He'd heard of allergies making faces swell up; maybe they could make ears turn pointy? No, that was ridiculous. But it wasn't like they had always been pointy; Kyoko's reaction was proof of that. Well, this was definitely something weird happening in a forest. He just wished he knew what it meant.

Sir Hoppington was the one to break the silence. "RIBBIT." Some Guy Ted would have been proud. "Rib-roob croak ribbit."

"I know, I know," Kyoko muttered. She mustered up her determination and turned around to face her charge again. "So."

"So?" He echoed.

"You're, um. Probably wondering about the — the ear thing."

"No!" he said, far too quickly, like a liar. When she just looked at him, he relented. "Okay, yeah. A little."

Her face was doing a great impression of a ripe tomato.

"But you don't have to tell me about it if it makes you uncomfortable." As loath as he was to turn down information about Kyoko — and as cute of a tomato as she made — it wasn't worth it if it upset her. Though he couldn't be seen from this angle, Sir Hoppington nodded approvingly.

"As my… employer, you have a right to know," she insisted. Kuon tried to not read into that pause too much. "Especially considering the circumstances."

"What circumstances?" You can't keep doing this to my heart, Kyoko.

She gestured vaguely at the forest around them. "You know."

"From the bottom of my heart, I really don't."

"Ribbit!"

"Right." Kyoko adjusted the straps on Sir Hoppington's travel tank and muttered to herself, "It makes no sense without context. C'mon, Kyoko." She continued in this vein for a few minutes, urging herself to just get it over with.

Kuon was about to stop her, tell her again that she didn't have to tell him, when she looked up at him. Her expression was so determined, so utterly blazing, that it took all of his brain cells not to kiss her.

"I'm a changeling."

He blinked, and a few spare brain cells tried to make sense of the words. "What?"

"I know, I know, I should have told you sooner, but I thought Duke Takarada had told the palace when I was employed! But then it became obvious that you didn't know, and then it was kind of too late to bring it up. And it's not like it usually interferes with my work because, well, I can hold iron. But now we're off on a grand adventure to find your True Love, because people like you have those, and —"

"Wait, wait, whoa." There was a lot to unpack there, but Kuon was focused on one part specifically. "What do you mean, people like me?"

"Non-changelings?" Kyoko looked back at him oddly. "People who aren't split between worlds?"

Sir Hoppington ribbited disapprovingly.

"What about Princess Rosa?"

Kyoko looked down at the sword strapped to her hip, then pulled her out of the scabbard, thrown by the conversation shift. "What about her?"

"Didn't she give you the sword?" Isn't she your beloved?

"No? Princess Rosa is my sword."

Kuon stared at her blankly as his poor, overworked brain cells tried desperately to make sense of things. Eventually, they gathered the following information:

One: Kyoko was not in love with some mysterious princess from a far-off land.

Two: Princess Rosa was, in fact, the name of her sword (in hindsight, this made a lot of sense. Kyoko would name a sword Princess Rosa).

Three: He had lost sleep arguing with himself about being in love with someone who had someone else for no reason.

Four: He had been jealous of a sword.

Five: Changelings were real, and he was in love with one.

Six, and most importantly: Kyoko thought that changelings didn't have True Loves, so she genuinely had no idea that he was head-over-heels in love with her.

Seven: Kyoko had been rambling at an incredibly high speed for several minutes now, so he should probably stop her before she offered to do some insane self-punishment for keeping this secret from him.

"...and I promise I wasn't trying to infiltrate the palace for nefarious reasons! I just wanted to be a good bodyguard and put my skills to use somewhere that—"

"Hey — hey, it's okay. I'm not mad, I promise. Super confused, but not mad." He wanted to hug her. She just looked so uncertain. "So, forests?"

"Well — changelings don't have much in the way of magic. None, really."

I remember a floating mirror that begs to differ, but go on.

"But when we're in forests, or other Old places, it kind of… activates something in us." She tapped one of her pointed ears. "Makes it obvious that we're not quite human. Like the forest is trying to reclaim its own… or something." Her ears were a lovely shade of pink now. "I don't really know much about it. Moko would be able to explain this better."

"Ribbit."

"I just — yeah," she said, looking down at the ground. "You deserved to know in case — well, in case anything weird happens because of… me. Being in a forest."

This is where Kuon would have liked to say something suave, or charming, or really just anything vaguely sweet. Instead, what he said was, "Cool."

Sir Hoppington pulled the privacy curtains on his traveling tank. He could not bear witness to this embarrassment any longer. He simply refused.

So, to honor him, we will have a scene change.

LINE BREAK

Kuon was relieved to learn (among other things, but can we blame the lovesick sap for picking this one out?) that Kyoko was not in love with anyone else, much less a mysterious princess from a faraway land. It honestly took a great weight off of his shoulders. However, this left him with another conundrum: Why did she still not pick up on his advances? Why didn't she see him?

As they set up camp that evening, he found himself staring at his reflection in a little pond. "Was Dad lying?" he murmured. "Did he get the portrait people to lie, too? Am I actually super ugly or something?"

"No, you're quite handsome," Kyoko replied from across the clearing, where she had been preparing their meal.

Not expecting a response (did changelings have super hearing or something?), Kuon startled. And, because he was kneeling over a pond when he startled, comedic rule dictates that he must fall in. And because this is a romantic comedy, the rules of the universe also dictate that he comes out in a clingy wet shirt.

Kyoko stared at him from across the clearing before ordering, "Strip."

His face turned a shade of red that usually only Kyoko's could achieve. "What?"

Kyoko had turned her back and was already rummaging through his pack. "You need to change so you don't catch a cold again. It could be very dangerous to get sick out here." She found a towel (never travel without one!) and a spare set of his traveling clothes. When she straightened up and saw that he hadn't moved, she frowned. "What are you waiting for? Strip. Now."

Blushing, he did as he was bid. Kyoko didn't watch him, and was instead focusing on going through their supplies. At least, she pretended to be. What she was actually doing was stealing glances at his back to get a better grasp on his proportions. After all, she still needed to make more dolls for Maria. Yes. That was the reason. No other reason, no sir. At least, that was what she told herself.

The sun had set and the last bit of light was quickly fading, turning the tall trees into dark silhouettes against a darkening twilight. In the distance, an owl hooted as the air turned chilly. Kyoko built a roaring fire. Of course, they needed a campfire for light and warmth and cooking dinner. But more importantly, Kyoko needed a distraction to keep her brain from thinking about how the Prince had looked with his fine linen shirt drenched, the wet fabric sticking to his chest and the ripple of his abs, all so perfectly sculpted, almost like a marble statue. She fed more and more kindling into the fire, as if trying to burn the image out of her head.

Her eyes snapped up when she heard the Prince's footsteps approaching, and then immediately the guard looked away again. Kuon had put on a dry pair of breeches, but his chest was bare. The towel was draped casually over one shoulder. His hair was still wet, and damp pieces clung to his neck.

"You need to dry off properly," the guard scolded. She made Kuon sit by the fire, taking the damp towel from his shoulder and bundling him in a blanket, clucking her tongue at his still-dripping hair. She ignored his protests that he was fine and his hair was barely wet, and instead fetched a dry towel and began to dry his hair herself.

Kuon's first instinct was to tell her to stop. He got the idea that Kyoko still thought of him as a weak, delicate, princeling, and letting her dry his hair like a child only reinforced her idea. But the words died on his lips as he felt her hands ruffling his hair through the towel. It felt too nice to tell her to stop. Her touch was gentle and affectionate, even if it felt less like a lover's caress and more like how you would pat a large dog (the Prince was pretty sure he heard an involuntary 'so fluffy' slip out under Kyoko's breath). He could have sat there all night, but all too soon for Kuon's liking, Kyoko removed the towel.

"There," Kyoko said, satisfied. She ran a hand through his hair. "All dry now."

Kuon caught her wrist before she could pull back. He stared at her with an intense, almost hungry look that made Kyoko's heart leap into her throat.

"What about the rest of me?" he asked. His voice was low, almost smoky. Kyoko had no idea how to respond. Her incoherence seemed to amuse him, and Kuon smirked. "Aren't you going to offer to warm me up?"

Kyoko was spared from having to formulate a response as just at that moment, there was a soft whoosh and the sound of footsteps as two figures appeared at the edge of their campfire.

"Hello there!" one of them called brightly as she stepped closer, her face lighting up with a friendly smile as she lowered the hood of her cloak.