And now the Wishfulshippiness begins!

Iris had thought that that dealing with Ash would be simple. Supply him with food, follow him, and get entertainment that she couldn't find back home. But his top secret mission and friendship with that lunatic with the Haunter was just the beginning of this insanity, and she was growing steadily more concerned for him as they got lost for the third time that day.

She was staring at the hammer as Ash and Pikachu searched for fruit for their dinner. They'd been on the road for a while now, all of them starting to get hungry, and when Ash had volunteered to find them something to eat, she'd decided to let him go until he came back, begging for her help. It had been five minutes since then, and so far, no begging.

"Why would Sabrina give me a hammer?" she asked herself, to which Axew made a clueless noise. "I'll use it when I need it...seriously, if that's her way of giving an ominous prophecy, the least she could do was tell me when I'd need to use it."

"Talking to yourself, Your Irisness?"

She felt her patience slipping before she'd even turned around, but managed to force a smile in Ash's direction. "Nope. Just opening my mouth for the fun of it."

"I do that too, sometimes." Ash dropped the armload of fruit into a bowl he'd found somewhere. It was hard to tell if he was joking or not. "So, figure out what Sabrina meant?"

"Not even close." The confused princess whacked the ground with the tool, unsurprised when nothing happened. "I just think she's out of her mind."

Pikachu and Axew both made agreeing sounds, but Ash just pushed the fruit toward Iris. "Look, whether or not the hammer will be useful, she had a map to Striaton."

"A map that you can't read."

"But you could," Ash reminded her. "Besides, if you get lost, Pikachu's sixth sense is still active. We'll make it." And he took a big bite of an apple, confident that his mission to get his magic back would be a success. Of course, he had no idea how to wake the sleeping prince, only that Iris was the key. She must have thought she had some kind of magic power that could bring him back to life or something, judging by how few questions she'd asked.

Iris's only response was to pull out the map, scanning the routes carefully. She didn't mention to Ash that she'd only had a few lessons in how to read maps, instead choosing to use her own sixth sense to navigate. She did dimly remember a few bits, but nothing that would help her if she had no idea where she was.

Of course, she'd forgotten that the lunatic was a psychic. A small circle caught her eye, so tiny that Ash had missed it on his own search. Sending a mental thank-you to Sabrina, she proceeded to try to find a path from here. She got mentally lost after about two minutes of staring, and gave up. "Why can't we use Pikachu's so-called sixth sense? He found me, right? Maybe he can find the lightning residue in the prince's skull."

Ash looked down at Pikachu, who met his eyes with his adorable red cheeks stuffed with the chewed-up mush of an entire apple. "Think you can do it?"

Pikachu had to swallow to keep from spitting out whatever he had in his mouth, and then he had to stop choking before he smiled and nodded. "Pika, pikachu!"

"Thanks. You might be the only one capable of doing this." Ash passed the fruit bowl to Iris. "Here. I don't want you starving to death before we complete our mission."

Despite Pikachu's fairy navigation leading the way, it took the group a day and a half to reach Striaton. It was once a happy, bustling place, but ever since the royal trio had lost one of their own, things had gotten a bit dark. Everyone loved the princes, especially teenage girls, and no one knew if the green-haired one would ever wake up. That would be depressing, all right. Still, everything seemed to be the same, just less bright.

It was the redhead who saw them first. Hair like fire with eyes to match, he approached them with eager anticipation. "Traveling through, are we?" he asked, grinning widely. "What brings you here to our charming little country?"

"We're looking for a prince," Iris explained before Ash could. "Unless you can take us to him, please don't disturb us."

The young man laughed out loud. "But which prince, dear lady, are you and your friend searching for? There are three of them, you see. There is Cress, who is stuck at the palace doing royal work because his brothers couldn't handle it. There is Cilan, who..." he paused, his excitement fading fast, and Iris seized the name. But, before she could continue, the boy sprang right back into his previous enthusiasm. "If you search for Cress, I can help you. And if you're looking for the youngest, most fun, not the smartest but definitely the sexiest of the three," he swept down into a bow, startling them both. "I am he. My name is Chili, and I will be forever at the service of such a beautiful woman."

Axew grumbled something in Iris's hair. She didn't understand it, but Pikachu hissed a "Chu!" at him, so she assumed it was something related to the redhead and his intelligence levels.

"Actually, Chili, we came to see your brother. What was it? Cilan?"

"Cress," Chili corrected, enthusiasm gone. "Cress and I are the only ones left. Cilan had a little accident."

"So I've heard," Iris said simply. "You see, I'm the princess of the dragon kingdom. This is Ash, my bodyguard."

"I am not a bodyguard!" Ash protested. "I organized this mission!"

Iris closed her eyes to avoid scolding him. "Right," she sighed. "Anyway, he seems to think I can be the one to break the spell the lightning put on your brother."

Chili stared. First at the princess with the puffy hair, then at the strange boy who had led her here, and then at the small yellow creature standing between them. "We've had plenty of girls claiming the same," he finally said. "What makes you any different?"

Ash stepped forward. "Because I'm a fairy," he announced, "and it is my assigned mission to help your brother. Iris was the solution the Court came up with, so you should at least try it."

Iris and Chili were both wearing identical expressions of utter disbelief, more than a little concerned now. Iris didn't believe him. Sure, he'd said he came from "pretty far away," and had halfway admitted to causing Sabrina's mixed personality, but a fairy? He probably just knew the psychic from a loony bin where they'd both been held hostage. Fairies wouldn't have admitted to being so unless there was an emergency.

Chili, on the other hand, was more uncertain about the boy's claim itself, rather than the sanity going with it. He'd known of fairies, sure. There had been one of the creatures guarding the kingdom for fifteen years, ever since his brother was cursed. None that could reverse it, unfortunately, but they could stop the sorcerer if he tried to curse Cress or Chili, too. His own comment was simple: "Prove it, then."

Ash blinked. He'd expected Chili and Iris to accept this new revelation without anything tying them to rationality, but now he realized that such a reaction was impossible without his magic to help them understand the truth. He probably should have thought it through.

"Here's the thing. I messed up one too many times for the Court to handle, so they kicked me out of the fairy world and told me to do this without my magic. I couldn't do a trick if I tried."

Chili and Iris were silent. Finally, the red-haired prince spoke, almost as if Ash had gotten supernatural assistance of his own.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt to try. Follow me."

The first thing Iris was aware of in the Striaton palace was a Pansage, curled up in a tiny little Ball of Despair, and a Crustle that watched Iris pass as if afraid to hope that she'd be the one. These were probably Cilan's pets.

"Sorry for flirting with you, Iris," Chili was saying, not bothering to use her royal title. "I usually don't do that."

"Lies!" a new voice hissed, and the boy Iris and friends assumed to be Cress was suddenly there, hand on his brother's shoulder as if to stop him from going anywhere. Chili cleared his throat nervously and gave his blue-haired brother a smile. Cress ignored it and turned his perfectly expressionless face toward the group. "Has Chili been bothering you?"

Iris shook her head. "Not at all," she lied, hoping that it would take her to Cilan faster. She was starting to miss home. "He was just showing us around."

Chili wiggled free of his brother's grip. "Cress, you're not going to believe this, but the boy thinks he's a fairy, and the girl...well, he thinks she can wake up Cilan."

The other's one visible eye flicked between the two, and even Ash could tell that Cress was doubting the statement. But, instead, he focused only on Iris. "Has Chili told you what must be done to break the curse?"

The princess's eyes widened. "I won't have to take his place, will I?"

"Not at all." Chili took her hand and led her away, attempting to corner her in Cilan's room before Cress could say it. His brother, however, wasn't going to let her go on without the knowledge of how to succeed in her mission.

"You're going to have to kiss him. I hope you're prepared."

"Kiss him?" she squeaked, attempting to shake Chili off of her. "This is not what Ash told me would have to happen!"

"Misty didn't tell me!" Ash objected, though he understood why. Kissing was something couples did. Iris and Cilan hadn't even met. But, as Iris had promised that she'd do whatever she could, and her people all swore to never back out of a promise to a fairy, she found herself stuck.

Besides, she couldn't let two nice but clueless boys live without their brother. Who knows, Cilan might actually be the smart one.

Chili opened a door, and led Iris inside, where the body of the third brother rested. As Axew poked his head out of her hair to look, Iris took a mental picture of the scene. There was no visible sign of his injury, and it looked like he was only sleeping instead of being all but dead. Not quite as cute as she'd expected, but definitely not bad-looking. She wasn't entirely sure if she wanted to actually kiss him, though.

"If I'm going to do this," she said to Chili, who had been waiting for her to try, "I'm going to need privacy. I don't want you mocking me."

Chili's response, to back off, was completely unexpected, but she and Axew both believed he was waiting just outside the door. Reaching into her traveling bag, Iris pulled out the magic hammer, wondering if this was the use Sabrina had foreseen. Holding it by the head, she poked Cilan with its handle, hoping it would wake him up without physical contact. Unfortunately not - the hammer was useless.

Axew suddenly jumped out of Iris's hair and started motioning, talking quickly in Axew-speak that she didn't fully understand. She understood enough, however. "You're saying that he never specified that the kiss had to be on the mouth?" Axew nodded, pleased with himself. Iris was pretty pleased with him, too. "All right. Let's see if this works."

One split-second kiss on the cheek later, Iris found herself looking into the prince's dazed green eyes. For a moment, the two were alone in silence, each trying to anticipate the other's reaction.

And then Chili practically broke the door down to check on them, and seeing his brother alive, brought in Pansage and Crustle, both of whom turned and glomped the prince. Iris and Axew thought they had a chance to sneak away, but they were only halfway to the door when Chili, giving his best attempt at an official Royal Decree but so clearly doing it just to make his brother uncomfortable, made the announcement:

"True love's kiss has broken the curse. And, just like our parents planned, you two will be married as soon as they return from Nacrene."

Married? True love? I don't even know this guy!

In Iris's defense, Cilan didn't seem too eager, either, but he forced a smile and turned to his rescuer. "Thank you, for doing what you did. May I at least have your name?"

She had so many conflicting instincts. The first and foremost was to run, of course, but the second was to stay and try to sweet-talk her way out of the marriage. Then came the unexplainable urge to stay and not sweet-talk her way out of the marriage, instead getting to know the guy until his parents returned from whatever business they had.

In the end, though, she decided on the fourth course of action.

"Iris," she replied, and then she ran.