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The infirmary was completely silent as the Librarians hovered over their Head and Guardian. There was not a single injury on either of them, but they were as still as if death had overcome them. They didn’t breathe and no pulse could be felt, but there was warmth to their skin that assured them they were only in a stasis.
After defeating the sorceress that had placed the curse, they’d pried from her the way to break it and dismayed at their poor luck. Had one or the other been spared the curse, they wouldn’t be anxiously waiting for their Caretaker to return from his negotiations with the Fae.
Ezekiel’s leg had been bouncing rapidly for the past hour, paired with a pensive expression as he stared at the sleeping pair. When it suddenly stopped, neither of his compatriots looked at him, but they did when he leapt to his feet.
“What’re you thinking?” Jacob asked warily while watching the thief pace.
“There’s always a work around,” Ezekiel replied without sparing a glance as he turned and resumed the same twelve paces he’d just traversed. “Question is: what’s the trick?”
“Do you see any other candidates for true love’s kiss?” It was said in a sarcastic quip and accompanied by an exasperated wave about the room.
Cassandra perked up. “No one said true love had to be romantic. One of us could break the curse!”
Ezekiel stopped his pacing and looked at her contemplatively. “You really think?”
“We love them—or at least I acknowledge I do,” Cassandra replied. “I don’t see why it wouldn’t work.”
“Well, it all lies in the definition of ‘true love,’” Jacob muttered, finger coming to press against his lips (a habit he couldn’t be certain he had before or picked up from Jenkins). “If it is romantic, then only they could wake one another up.”
“I’ve got an idea for that,” their thief stated and then quickly waved it off, “but let’s try for platonic first.”
Both men looked to their redheaded compatriot.
She crossed her arms over her chest. “Why me?!”
“Pretty sure if anyone can break the curse platonically, it’d be you,” Jacob shrugged.
“And you are the one that suggested it.”
She rolled her eyes but conceded. “Fine, but if it doesn’t work with me, you both have to do it, too.”
When they didn’t agree immediately, she narrowed her eyes at them until she received a chorus of “fine.” Satisfied, she turned and went first to their Guardian’s bed, sitting at her side to look down at her. She focused on the love she held in her heart—how she trusted this woman with more than just her life but also her secrets.
“Come back,” she whispered as she lowered herself to kiss Eve’s cheek.
She lifted slightly and stared expectantly at Eve, hoping with every fiber of her being to see those powder blue eyes open and look at her with that proud gleam they sometimes held. To her dismay, they remained closed.
With a fortifying breath, she repeated the process with Flynn, this time concentrating on how dear he was to her. He was willing to sacrifice his life to allow her to live a full life without death hovering over her shoulder after only knowing her for merely a day. If there was anyone in this Library she loved more than Eve, it was Flynn.
She kissed his cheek softly and waited with the same bated breath as she had for Eve, but once again there was nothing.
Dejected, she stood and walked over to stand between her boys with a muttered, “Your turn…”
Jacob rolled his shoulders as if preparing for a fight and moved forward with little (additional) prompting. He didn’t sit on the beds as Cassandra had done but had knelt beside the bed and taken Eve’s hand.
He hated how pale and unnaturally still their Guardian was. He found himself hard pressed to think of what he wasn’t willing to do to hear her snickering over a quip he’d made in regard to Ezekiel and his antics. It was with this in mind that he placed a chaste but lingering kiss to her cheek. He didn’t wait nearly as long as Cassandra, knowing if there was no breath there was no hope. Thinking, perhaps, it would work better with Flynn (he doubted it because he admired Flynn but loved Eve), he went to the man’s bedside and placed a kiss to his cheek, lingering just as long as he had for Eve.
It was with a sigh that he straightened up and returned to Cassandra’s side. “You’re up, Ezekiel.”
“As usual, it’s up to the thief to save the day,” Ezekiel said with faux confidence.
He walked over to Eve’s bed and felt doubt creep into his heart. If Cassandra and Jacob couldn’t break the curse, who was to say he would be able to? He cared about his Guardian, wanted to see her awake and safe and happy, but he was reluctant to label that feeling as ‘love.’ Still, it wasn’t dissimilar a feeling to that which he felt for his mother and sisters—fairly close to it actually, almost indiscernible. He wanted, more than anything, for this to work. He wanted Eve to scold him and roll her eyes at his antics. He even thought he’d genuinely miss being dragged by the collar if she never woke up.
He latched onto that feeling without a name and held it tightly in his center—in his heart and soul and mind—and kissed her cheek. Before he fully pulled away, he found himself quietly begging in her ear, “Please don’t leave.”
His chest felt hollow when she remained sleeping. He wanted to shake her, to force her awake but he knew better. It would not wake her from her curse.
He stood back up and rolled his shoulders. “No problem. Maybe it’ll work for Flynn.”
There was more doubt with Flynn than there had been for Eve. He had never been particularly fond of Flynn save for the fact that he was the one that introduced him to this wonderous world of magic and adventure. He owed the man at least an attempt to awaken him. So, in a perfunctory manner, he knelt beside Flynn’s bed and placed a kiss on his stubbled cheek.
Despite not expecting it to work, there was still a gaping hole in his chest at the realization it didn’t work. His mind ran rampant over the possibility of his next idea not working, but he didn’t give himself any room to doubt. He was going to break this curse.
Ezekiel finally rose from his place beside Flynn and went over to Eve’s bed with determination. He shoved the bed until it was flushed with Flynn’s and then sat on the bed beside Eve where he shoved his hand under her shoulder and lifted her torso up until her head fell against his shoulder.
“What’re you doing?!” Cassandra hissed.
“If platonic love won’t work, then true love will,” Ezekiel said with determination and then used his free hand to gesture for Jacob to come closer. “Get Flynn up.”
Jacob hesitated a second before walking forward. “Don’t tell me you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking.”
Cassandra’s eyebrows furrowed in frustration. “What is he thinking?”
“We’re gonna make them kiss, of course. Has to be a loophole.” Ezekiel scooted closer to Flynn and Jacob where the conscious man mirrored his actions. “Here, push his lips out.”
He scowled but did as ordered. “What makes you think this’ll work?”
A raised eyebrow. “What makes you think it won’t?”
Jacob struggled for a few seconds but found that trying and failing was better than not trying at all. It was with a deep sigh that he gave in with a gruff, “Alright, man. Let’s try it.”
They brought the sleeping pair closer together and only when confident they wouldn’t end up accidentally slamming their foreheads together did both men use their hands to squeeze the cheeks of their respective unconscious person to pucker their lips and make them kiss.
To their collective dismay it didn’t work, but there was a howling laughter that came from the entrance of the room.
When they turned, they found Jenkins leaning against the doorframe to keep upright as he hugged himself to hold his aching sides as he laughed. His face was red, and he had tears in his eyes. It was not the reaction they would have expected from their normally stoic Caretaker.
“Wh—what are you doing?” He finally managed after his laughter abated into sporadic chuckles.
“True love’s kiss?” Ezekiel said with uncertainty as he cringed. “Figured since they fancied each other it would work."
A burst of chuckling as the man shook his head. “One of the parties has to do so from the heart with pure intentions.”
“Well we had pure intentions,” Cassandra argued.
“Told you this wouldn’t work,” Jacob grumbled as Cassandra argued. While doing so, he gently replaced Flynn on his side of the makeshift king sized bed.
Ezekiel narrowed his eyes at him as he carefully replaced Eve on her side of the bed. “It was worth a shot.”
“You tried to break the curse yourselves?” Jenkins asked in surprise.
“Yeah. The sorceress never said that it would have to be a romantic love, just… true.”
“Normally that loophole would work—after all mothers, fathers, siblings and friends have broken such a curse just as easily as a romantic partner,” Jenkins muttered thoughtfully. He raised his head slightly and narrowed his eyes. “What was the name of this sorceress?”
“She didn’t give a name,” Ezekiel answered while walking closer.
Jenkins’ nose scrunched. “I see… Fae.”
Jacob shook his head. “Wait, wait… didn’t you just get back from negotiations with the Fae?”
“I did and we came to an amicable agreement. This was likely done by a third party to halt negotiations with the Library—they would have assumed none of you would be up to the task and targeted our Head Librarian and his Guardian.”
“Did they not know you worked for the Library?” Cassandra asked.
“If it’s a third party? Unlikely. I’ve not hidden the fact I work for the Library, but I’ve rarely had the need to go out on missions until recently, so I tend to remain in obscurity in that regard.” His smile turned sharp. “Luckily, this tactic didn’t work.”
“But what about Flynn and the Colonel? How can we break the curse if they can’t wake each other up?” Ezekiel demanded hotly.
Jenkins chuckled quietly. “That, I’m happy to say, is easily rectified.”
Before they could ask how it was so easily rectified, he walked forward and sat on Flynn’s side of the bed where he looked at him with fondness. He lifted the other man’s hand and bent his head to press a soft kiss to his fingers.
The effect was immediate with his audible intake of breath and the color returning to his cheeks. He shot up not a second after, tearing his hand from Jenkins’ grip and swinging it in a first that Jenkins had to jerk back from. When Flynn’s eyes focused, he seemed to realize where he was and immediately looked at Jenkins with unquestionable awe while Jenkins looked back entirely unamused.
Flynn’s lips slowly curled into a grin. “You did it.”
Jenkins huffed. “Had you any doubts?”
“Not really, but it’s a wonderful confirmation,” the man replied with a cheeky grin as he sat up properly and crossed his legs. “Now wake up Eve. She’ll be thrilled.”
“You could very easily do that yourself.” Jenkins rolled his eyes but was unable to deny the warmth building in his chest alongside his amusement.
“What fun would that be?” Flynn teased while doing his best to keep from bouncing where he sat.
Deciding it was better to give into the Head Librarian’s whims, Jenkins rose and walked around to Eve’s side of the bed where the process was repeated, but unlike Flynn he had the opportunity to lower her hand back to its original position as Eve’s awakening was far more peaceful than Flynn’s.
Her bright eyes opened and found Jenkins almost immediately. Her smile was overjoyed, and she didn’t bother sitting up to say, “I knew you loved us.”
An affronted huff. “So you doubted me too?”
She pushed herself up so that their faces were inches apart, a Cheshire grin on her face. “I doubted you’d kiss us in front of witnesses.”
“I think this was a worthy exception. Though, keep in mind, I merely kissed your hands.”
Flynn scooted closer and leaned into Jenkins easily in such a way it belied a familiarity that their young Librarians had never known existed. “Is this your way of finally saying the words ‘I love you’ to us?”
Jenkins easily took the weight as if it were the most natural thing in the world and narrowed his eyes at the man with a huff.
“Don’t tease him or you’ll have us both sleeping on the couch,” Eve hissed quietly so their Librarians wouldn’t hear, though her lips twitched into a smile as if to say she didn’t think it would happen.
“Uh, so—timeout,” Ezekiel said loudly with a clap of his hands and moving them into a ‘T,’ finally having managed to shake himself from his previous stupor. “What just happened?!”
Flynn and Eve turned their eyes to Jenkins expectantly.
Suddenly embarrassed, Jenkins coughed into his fist and refused to make eye contact with either of them—any of them really—as he answered, “I neglected to tell you that these Fae likely knew about the relationship between our Head Librarian and Guardian. They aren’t exactly subtle—” He gave them a sideways look that spoke of many similar conversations taking place over this very topic. “—so they would have assumed only one another could break the curse of true love’s kiss.”
Jacob’s eyebrows rose with realization. “You mean to tell me that ‘romance’ was a condition?”
“Yes, it was.”
Cassandra’s eyes went as wide as saucers. “How long?!”
“Yes, how long, Jenkins?” Flynn purred while resting his chin on the man’s shoulder, dark eyes mischievous.
“Officially? About six months.” He glared at Flynn who smiled back unrepentantly.
Ezekiel gaped for a moment. “And… unofficially?”
For this, he and Flynn turned to Eve with questioning looks.
She rolled her eyes and turned to face the other trio with exasperation. “About a year.”
“And we didn’t know becaaaaauuuuuse?” He prompted while rolling his hands over one another as he leaned forward slightly.
“Well, for one we wanted to keep it under wraps until we knew what this,” she gestured between her and her partners, “was gonna be.”
“For two, I prefer keeping my love life private,” Jenkins added.
Flynn tilted his head and smiled with exasperated fondness at his little Librarians. “And for three, you’re all horrible at noticing these things.”
“No, no. I would’ve noticed it,” Ezekiel insisted.
Flynn spoke slowly, seemingly unable to believe what he was hearing. “Ezekiel, you walked in on Jenkins and I kissing in his lab.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, mate.”
Jenkins sighed heavily and turned to lean back into Eve. “This is going to be a long talk, isn’t it?”
She laid her arms across his shoulders and held one hand in the other on his chest. “Yup.”
Interestingly enough, at the same time as Eve’s answer, Jacob and Cassandra groaned, “yeah” as they settled in the nearest available seats.