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"I see you invited the Bog King to the Elf Festival," Dagda said, probably pretending not to care much about the subject, but his daughter knew him well. She knew when she made the proposal that this conversation was going to happen.

"Yes, I did."

"Did you enjoy his presence on the Spring Ball so much?"

You bet! She thought, but tried to keep it cool.

"I did. He makes good conversation."

"Hm," the fairy didn't answer and instead looked back to his other daughter, who was dancing and out of his reach. He had thought of convincing Marianne to come help him keep her sister in check, but it was then when he found out that he didn't even need to sweet talk her into his plan anymore. Her only condition was to invite the Goblin King to the festival, which in the moment seemed odd to him; but as the time to the celebration got hear and his daughter appeared to be unusually nervous, the pieces of suspicion started to fall into place.

He had never seen her so… happy. Since Violet died, Marianne took upon herself to be the responsible one and even if he encouraged her to find happiness somewhere else (and with someone else), she never looked completely comfortable with the situation. He could see now what a mistake it had been to trust Roland to make his precious daughter happy. Marianne had finally told him, after the events on the Spring Ball, what really happened on the wedding day, and he still couldn't believe it.

"I'm sorry," he suddenly said, making Marianne jump in her place. The fairy looked at him with a confused expression and waited for him to elaborate. "I'm sorry for not believing in you. With Roland, with the peace treaty… I guess I never considered that you had become an adult before my eyes and - and I'm so sorry for pushing you so hard."

"Dad?" she whispered, but he could hear her clearly even with the loud music and Sunny's singing voice on the stage.

"I always wanted what was best for you, and I'll always will, but…," Dagda sighed and looked at the people dancing happily below them, "but I can see now that I had been forcing you to do what I would do and you are your own person. I have been so silly, right?" he chuckled.

Marianne tried not to cry, but tears appeared anyways. This was unexpected, but not unwelcomed. She had never thought that this day would come as her father was a very narrow-minded person; and now he not only considered her point of view, he embraced it. This was -

"Thank you," she managed to say before jumping into his arms.

"Everything okay?" Bog asked once Marianne was ( at last! ) in his arms. They tried to follow the line dancing of the elves around them, but both were failing so hard at it. "I saw you crying before."

"I'm fine," she smiled up at him, knowing very well that her eyes were still a bit red from crying. "My father said some stuff that really moved me. He said that he accepted me," she said at his curious face.

"Oh." Bog said, a lopsided smile worming its way into his face. "That's fantastic news!"

"They are," Marianne smiled too, basking into her happy moment.

They fell into a comfortable silence, just enjoying Sunny's sweet voice as he sang about love and other stuff she would've recoiled from in another time. But not today. She let herself be cheesy for once and thought about the way her stomach felt like a hundred butterflies were trying to get out; the way the words "I love you" made her shiver in all the good ways. She couldn't believe her ears when Bog said it barely a day before, after their confessions. She wanted to be angry at those words, or at least a bit upset; but as she rolled them in her mind she found that them coming from her friend didn't feel wrong at all.

She had been afraid of crossing that bridge with him, that once they started saying big words and making big plans it'd feel wrong and rushed, like something was out of place. She understood that his feelings ran way deeper than hers, and that he sorted them more easily than her; so that's exactly what she said to him back in the cave. Bog listened to her nervous explaining about not wanting to rush things and being scared; and then he nodded, hugged her and told her that it was okay not to rush things. He even laughed saying that it was exactly that what made him fail so much with the love potion!

Since then things had pretty much been like always between them, but the subtle caresses and long looks had a deeper meaning behind them.

"What are you thinking about?" Bog's voice brought her back to the present. Marianne took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment when a spin brought them closer.

"Us."

"And… what are you thinking about?" She could hear the nervousness despite his obvious attempt to hide it.

"That I like being with you," she hummed low enough so no one else but them would hear. "That I want this to last."

"I hope so," he nodded and helped her on another spin. "If I ever make you feel uncomfortable - "

"I'd tell you," the fairy laughed and flicked him in the nose. "Same back at you."

"Sure."

The song ended and Sunny took the instrumental intermission to drink something refreshing and - only to those who knew the plan - retrieve the "Love Potion". It had to look real enough to fool Roland, so even Sugar Plum helped on the condition of being set free. Bog succumbed at the firm glare of his love, but deep down he knew that keeping the fairy locked away was silly. He had kept doing so out of pride and now he had a more dignified opportunity to let her go.

"What are you going do after this is over?" The goblin asked her, both knowing that he was referring to the Roland situation and the impending formal closing of treaty negotiations.

"I'm… I think I'm going to be crowned Queen."