A/N: All of the wonderful characters I extorted (and am continuing to extort) belong to the ever envied Martin Baynton

Waking

Jane? Are you waking?

Jane, if you're faking to get out of training, this is ridiculous.

Jane? Oh, please wake up, Jane! The last voice was fervent. All three of the voices were loud; then a voice she had not had before- her mother's shrill but loving voice.

"Jane, my dearest, you must wake up." Funny, it sounded as though these were right next to her ear, none of the hollow voices had sounded like that before… Wait, before what, exactly?

Jane peeled her eyes open, seeing two faces above her, both pale and feminine, one lined in a short fringe of dull hair then an orange glowing circle, the other framed in loose dark hair. Pepper and Mother! Jane blinked, clearing the blur out of her eyes. At the foot of her bed was Gunther, arms crossed and eyes narrowed as though suspicious. Suddenly Jane realized the voices she had heard just recently were exactly that- the voices of her mother, her two best human friends, and that of her rival squire.

A blue clad, thin young man rushed to the foot of her bed. Apollo! Wait, no…. Jester. Here, they had company; here, he was Jester. Whatever she was to call him, his stormy blue grey eyes were shining in an odd way and his composure thrown to the wind. A deep frown decorated his face until he saw her eyes wide with concern for him. His features formed a smile, but unlike the night before-it was the night before, correct? She had not been asleep longer, had she? - he was truly smiling, not hiding behind a mask.

Scared of asking but even more afraid of being told with no warning, Jane allows the question to burst from her lips "What happened?"

While Pepper and her mother exchanged worried glances and Gunther left the room with a sigh of exasperation, Apollo/Jester filled her in. "I cannot be entirely sure myself. I was returning from the privy and I saw a candle through your window, not 3 hours before sunrise. I decided you had most likely left it on after your own trip to the privy, so I just went to my own room. I was getting settled when I heard a loud crash then a thump. I got up to your quarters; saw you lying on the floor, beside your bed, with multiple items strewn across the floor from your desk. You did not awaken when I called your name so I brought you down to Pepper and she sent me to fetch your mother. You have been asleep for almost a day and a half." Jane could only hope that her shocked expression was attributed to the surprising story, not how adept the deceptive skills of herlove BEST FRIEND were becoming. (At this traitorous thought, Jane wondered if perhaps she was a lunatic. Because Jane did not feel that way, correct? ... Where were the voices to agree with her? This could not mean.. She could not.. She did not.. Did she?)

"Poor boy was worried sick when he came down. Both of you in your respective night clothes too! Really, Jane, you tell me not to work myself to death but you allow yourself to try?" Pepper admonished. Jane tried to ignore the look her mother gave her when Pepper mentioned night clothes, though Jane felt that of anyone, her mother should be the most delighted to hear of Jane's comfort in a gown, of the night variety or otherwise, as opposed to sleeping in the exact same clothes she had worn training as Jane was wont to do as a 12 year old squire. Jane focused on Pepper rather than Lady Adeline and realized the just-turned-18-year-old chef was speaking "- and you might have gotten delusions! To think, all the horrors that come to pass when one is tired. It is a good thing you are not prone to poor decision making Jane or something terrible could have happened!"

Delusions? "Delusions, Pepper?" Jane asked, suddenly scared that her entire encounter with Apollo/Jester had been conjured up in exhaustion. She did not want to think of why that would bother her.

"Yes, like imagining you were flying or some nonsense while you were trying to study. Could explain the loud crash that Jester heard; the stones usually do not allow for much noise." Pepper said. Jane stole a furtive glance at Apollo/Jester, only to see a tightening at the corners of his mouth; the left side twitched and in that moment Jane knew without a doubt that her late night encounter had been completely real.

"I do not think I was delusional, Pepper," Jane started, knowing she had most certainly not imagined the feeling of Apollo/Jester's hand on her face.

"Well, that is very good. OH! The delusions can include imagining you hear voices that are not actually there. But I am quite glad that delusions did not affect you Jane; I hear they can be quite awful." At that, the women flounced out of the room, braid bouncing off of her rear end- it had gotten much longer in the past years, just as Jane's had, though Jane simply braided hers into a severe braid after wetting it so it would be tight, long, and out of the way.

"Princess Lavinia has grace lessons that I must promptly go to," the lady-in-waiting said, looking at Jester instead of Jane, "I trust you will come to me if anything happens?"

"Yes, m'lady" Jester answered respectfully, not tearing his gaze from Jane "You shall know at once." Nodding, the graying woman left the room with only her daughter and the young man- an action usually frowned upon, but neither of these young people was usual, to say the least, so Lady Turnkey had no issues with it. (Not since Milly had had a talk with her, anyhow)

"Apollo?" Jane asked nervously, unsure; was she was trying to get the man's attention, test the name, or request information? Perhaps all three were on her agenda.

"Roman god of the arts, intelligence, the sun... The list goes on and on, really. Apollo is special because he is the only Greek god that was not warped into a new person when the Romans adopted the Greek Pantheon." Apollo said, and Jane could see that he was fighting not to babble continuously. Jane noticed he had become shaky.

She then, of course, admonished him in a way that would have made Pepper proud. "Sit down before your knees give way! How are you supposed to report to my mother if you cannot walk?" As Jane said report to my mother, she had to bite back a scowl. She was 17 years old, a year past adult in the eyes of Kippernium. Her mother did not need to be so protective.

Apollo sat, taking deep breaths, his left forearm splayed over his knees, right hand pulling his heavy hat off of his head. "I was so scared" he whispered, placing his hat on his thighs, running his hands through his hair. The dark gold hair was plastered against his head with a touch of sweat, but the movement dislodged it. It was as long now as the adult men of the court (excluding Sir Ivon, of course, but he kept his hair short due to lack of patience with it. It was not uncommon for Sir Ivon's ruddy locks to appear uneven, as though he had gotten fed up with it while drunk and shorn it off with a broadsword.) "You would not wake up. You were breathing but you had a nasty lump forming on the back of your head. I panicked. It did not even occur to be that we were in our night clothes, or that I was running around the courtyard carrying you as a man would his bride." Apollo blushed furiously at that "I only said it like that because that is how Pepper described it! I did not mean- I would- I…!" Jane saw his apprehension, waiting to receive a verbal lashing.

Jane instead grabbed his closest hand and held it between her coarser, smaller one. "Breathe, Apollo, breathe. I'm not angry. And I was delusional when I fell unconscious, so who knows what could have happened had I not visited you? A tumble down the stairs?" She said, trying to soothe his nerves.

She saw that her plan had worked exactly the opposite of how she had intended, however, whe Jester began to rant again, "A tumble down the stairs; falling over the banister from the third or fourth floor, falling off of Dragon again, getting mmt my oue ummmmy?" This last statement was garbled due to Jane's palm over the young man's mouth. Still, however, he persisted. "mmm mmmph mmmt mmmp!" Jane had no idea what THAT was supposed to mean, and tried to think of how to get her best friend to simply shut his mouth. She pulled her hand away for a second "Or abducted by pirates or…" Though her mind had formed two tracks, both were confused, the second by what pirates had anything to do with exhaustion, the first and foremost by what she was about to do. Stealing a quick look out the window to be sure no one was coming, Jane used the limp hand to pull herself up into a sitting position. Apollo was STILL going, "or run into a tree and have a birds nest fall on your head and the mother bird would have attacked you! Or an eclipse…"

It was at this moment that Jane pressed her slightly chapped lips against the anxious jester's warm, soft ones, and Jane could finally enjoy silence for her splitting headache. Her beating heart, however, decided that it was time to start working at twice its normal pace, especially when the kiss did not end as soon as Jane had intended. That is not to say that anything too much more happened- it was still a chaste kiss, just a little longer, perhaps from the shock of actually KISSING her best friend. Jane backed away with a start.

Apollo blinked, dumbfounded. He tried to get up, but collapsed back onto the straw mattress, arms spread wide, knees bending at the edge of the bed with feet planted firmly on the floor, torso lying perpendicular to Jane's. Jane could never, in a thousand lifetimes, have predicted what the tan blond boy would say next.

"Marry me?"

A/N: I know, another cliffie! Sorry! I had to! Guess this is going to be quite a bit longer than the 2 chapters I originally intended. Oh, and is Apollo/Jester joking (or rather, jesting)? Stay tuned to find out!