The Three Good Faeries stood guard outside of the prince's door, each fuming in their own way. Kiku sat quietly, face only slightly creased in irritation. Arthur paced and Francis seemed to mope. It was the Frenchman who broke the silence, "I don't see why notre petite fleur has to marry any stupid princess if it makes him unhappy! Marriage is about love and there is obviously no love lost should this not go on." He crossed his arms and moped some more.

"We owe loyalty to the King," Arthur argued reasonably, "It's not our place to step in."

"We also owe loyalty to our son," the other two stared at the Japanese man as if he'd grown a second head. Kiku sighed, "Don't look at me like that, you know it might as well be true. Perhaps if we could manage to find some middle ground—"

"Hush!" Arthur held up his hand and silence surrounded them, "Listen!"

Francis strained to hear, "But, I hear nothing…"

"Exactly." Feliciano had gone quiet.

The three took up alarm and burst down the door. The cloak the prince was wrapped in lay discarded on the floor. A green glow caught their attention and drew it to the fireplace. Where once a back wall had been, the fireplace was now a doorway to a corridor where Feliciano was now slowly walking down. He seemed to be following some sort of green light. Giving a shout, they ran only to be stopped as the wall sprang back up. Desperately they pounded on the brickwork until Arthur had enough sense to magick it away.

They lit their wands for light and called Feliciano's name frantically looking for the young prince. It was like some horrible M. C. Esher maze. Stairs lead everywhere and no where. Every now and then they would catch glimpses of a green glow or of Feliciano himself but they'd always be rounding the next corner as they gave chase. And, in the rare moments that they'd all ceased yelling, silence engulfed them like a serpent's maw. Feliciano never made a sound.

The prince was lead up a final set of stairs until he was placed at a table. As the dazed look slowly faded from his face he noticed two things at the same time. One, the scent of absolutely erotic pasta molested his senses. And two, that he must be sitting in front of a mirror. Except he most certainly wasn't wearing dark, fitted pants and shirt, nor was he wearing a scowl. "Perverted bastards made you wear a fucking dress."

Feliciano, used to one or two of his caretakers swearing during drunken fits, flinched slightly. His doppelganger's voice was deeper than his but kept the same Italian sound, albeit darker. "Ve, no. I like wearing dresses…"

The other stared at him as if he'd started speaking Chinese, "You… like wearing dresses?"

Feliciano nodded, "Si, they're freeing~" The other dragged a hand down his face. "V-Ve, who are you?"

Hazel eyes stared at him, slightly amused, "You can't tell?"

"You… You look like me."

"And who are you?"

Unexpectedly, Feliciano hung his head, "I thought I knew. But something changed recently and now I'm not quiet sure."

"Who do you think you are?"

"A peasant living in the woods with my adoptive parents."

The doppelganger suppressed a facepalm, "Who do they say you are?"

Feliciano fidgeted, "They say I'm the Italian prince."

"Exactly. What do you know about the Italian prince?"

Feliciano thought, "Er… He was cursed and… he had… a…" Wide caramel eyes met happy hazel, "Twin."

He chuckled, "Si. Pleased to meet you Feliciano, I'm Lovino."

The prince stuttered, "B-But you, you were—"

"The witch is dead," Lovino waved his hand dismissively, "She has been for a while. You have nothing to fear. I just wanted to talk to you." He smiled. It was actually a rather kind smile. "I was wondering if you would like to come live with me."

Feliciano froze, "Live…? Where?"

"Wherever you wish. Just the two of us."

"…Just the two of us? No one else?"

Lovino shrugged, "Who else would we need?"

Feliciano bit his lip, "I would love to, but…."

"….But? It's not the Faerie bastards is it? You'd most likely leave them anyway once you're married. I figure this to be a much more pleasant proposal."

"But there's someone I need to find. Someone I can't live without even if I can't be directly with him. Just… I just need to be near him."

Feliciano stared at his hands so he didn't see Lovino's eyes steel over, "I see. Who is this lucky someone? Perhaps I could make an exception."

The prince's face flushed, "I-I don't know who it was exactly. But he was big and strong and awkward. He blushes easily so I know he's nice and soft under the tough outside. Ve, his face is strong too, with strong blue eyes and sunny hair, very Germanian…. He was supposed to meet me at the cottage tonight but…" Tears formed at the corners of his eyes.

"…. Eat your pasta. It'll make you feel better."

Blinking, Feli looked down at the steaming plate in front of him, heaped with the food, "Who made this?"

"I did, of course."

"You did? With magic?" Feli always disapproved of heavenly pasta being made artificially. Even without magic, Arthur has experimented far too much.

Lovino scoffed, "Of course not, idiot! Just eat it."

Feli reached for the customary chopsticks the Kingdom used only to see that it had been replaced with a strange metal utensil. It looked like it could have been a rectangular spoon but had prongs like a pitch fork. Actually, "Ve, what's this? It looks like a mini pitch fork."

Lovino chuckled, "A long time ago the Kingdom used to use these to eat with but they became unpopular. I, for one, find that they're much better to eat any type of pasta with than those ridiculous sticks."

"But… How?"

"You twirl it." Lovino air demonstrated.

Feliciano picked the strange item up and examined it, "Ve, it looks really sharp."

"Does it? That's to help pick things up. You can touch it, it won't kill you."

Gingerly, he did so. As skin barely touched the sharpened prong Lovino kicked him under the table in the shin. Feliciano jerked and stared at the sudden drop of ruby on his skin. With the sun just inches over the horizon Feliciano fell to the floor in sleep. Lovino stood up to arrange his brother in a more comfortable position, "Those three idiots will find him soon enough." He stood to leave. Only thing left to do is to get rid of the antidote. "If I can't be with my own brother, no one can." He vanished in a green fire.

Notre petite fleur-Our little flower