Work Text:
“Hi,” Prince Nace greeted the frankly ridiculously attractive stranger whose door he’d knocked on. “I’m looking for, uh… is this the, um, residence of either Sleeping Beauty and/or Snow White? Is it… both? Sorry, the rumors were a little vague and kinda contradictory.”
“Maybe,” the handsome man answered, crossing his arms and looking rather sour at the question. “Who’s asking?”
“Oh, fuck, sorry - I didn’t mean to be so rude. Prince Nace,” Nace replied, holding out his hand.
“Oh, so he’s a prince,” another voice snickered.
Nace glanced around for its source, doing a double take when he realized where it was coming from. “Is that-“ he started to ask but couldn’t quite bring himself to complete the question. Luckily for him, the other human in the conversation answered anyway.
“You have no problem believing stories of beautiful princesses cursed to sleep until you kiss them or who live with singing little dwarves, but a talking cat is a step too far?” the stranger asked, sharing a judging look with his... pet?
“I’ve simply never met a talking cat before,” Nace explained. “I was just surprised, that’s all! Pleased to meet you, uh…?”
“Igor,” the cat replied, hopping down from his perch in the window to rub his cheek against the prince’s boot. “You may come in.”
“Oh, may he,” the man grumbled, but he stepped aside to allow Nace entry.
“Yes, he may,” Igor imperiously replied. “So, prince - how can we help you?”
“I’m looking for a princess,” Nace began only to be cut off by the other.
“Are you looking for a particular princess or will just any do?” he sneered, obviously forming some erroneous opinions about Nace the prince had to correct immediately.
“Any princess who is in trouble will do,” Nace explained. He took a moment to glance around the small cottage, lamenting the distance to the breakfast table and chairs as his tired feet gave a twinge of protest at continuing to stand. “I am about to turn 30, so my father has sent me on my proving quest. I must find a princess in need of aid and assist her and only then will I be a real man, according to my father. I asked around and everyone pointed me to this house. I heard two very different stories - one was about a great beauty cursed to sleep all the time and the other about another great beauty cursed into a coma from eating a poisoned apple-“
“I choke one time,” the stranger muttered grumpily. “Just one time, and he’ll never let me live it down. I swear, every time he tells that story it gets more dramatic - I didn’t fall into a coma,” he insisted. “I was eating an apple when Bojan made me laugh. I inhaled a little bit and almost choked but he patted me on the back and out came the apple and I was fine! It was a little, tiny incident but he just loves to tell everyone about the time he saved me from certain death.”
“Oh!” Nace blinked in surprise. “So you’re the…”
“Only resident of this house,” the man nodded, amending when the cat cleared his throat. “Well, me and Igor, but he doesn’t eat apples, so…”
“Right. Of course not. He’s a cat,” Nace quickly agreed, earning him an amused look from the other and the first hint of a smile since he’d arrived.
“How observant of you,” the stranger teased, his smile growing at Nace’s answering blush. “So sorry to disappoint you - there’s no princesses in need of saving here.”
“Not even the sleeping beauty?” Nace asked, fully aware he was stalling at this point. He wouldn’t look too closely at why he wanted to keep speaking with the handsome stranger.
“I do like to nap,” the man admitted. “And so does Igor. Someone probably heard Bojan teasingly ask me if I was cursed to be a sleeping beauty like his cousin - she’s cured now by her own prince, before you ask.”
“That’s a pity - not about the naps,” Nace clarified. “But about her being cured.”
“That’s eager to kiss a defenseless woman, are you?” the other asked coldly, and Nace scrambled to reassure him.
“No! I don’t really have any interest in kissing any princesses,” he admitted, elaborating when the other seemed to thaw a little at his declaration, “I just want to finish this quest before my birthday because it means a lot to my mother. I’m starting to think I won’t ever find a princess in distress, though - I’ve been looking for weeks and weeks and my birthday is in three days. I fear I’m going to fail,” he admitted dejectedly.
His words had the opposite of an expected effect as the stranger lit up at them. The prince watched as he ran over to his fireplace, throwing a mysterious powder into the fire and calling out, “Kris Guštin!” Nace barely had time to question what was happening when a face appeared in the flames.
“I hate when you do this,” the fair man greeted. “Do you know how much it disrupts brunch when your face just appears in the fire place in the middle of eating?”
“Hello to you too, Kris,” Nace’s stranger grinned back. “I need your assistance with a most troubling matter.”
“Jan, if you’ve misplaced your bong again, you could just conjure yourself a new one,” the face complained, starting to withdraw.
“Wait! It’s nothing like that,” Jan, Nace now knew, quickly assured him. “I have a prince here, and-“
“Did you call just to brag?” Kris whined, and Nace would swear it wasn’t just his imagination painting a blush on Jan’s cheeks. “Because if you did then I swear-“
“No, no, nothing like that!” Jan interrupted. “Prince Nace here - hold on, let me just…” he waved his hands at the fireplace and it magically expanded, the rest of the items along the wall squeezing down to make room for the now two-person sized portal.
“If you break mom’s china again with your magics, she’ll have your hide,” a young, feminine voice carried through.
“I’m still sorry about that, you know,” Jan insisted. “But this is perfect, actually - Maja is exactly who I was hoping to talk to!”
“Then why did you call me?” Kris whined as another, smaller form appeared in the fire.
“Because you’re less intimidating than your sister,” Jan replied easily, the now obviously a young girl in the fireplace puffing up proudly. “Princess Maja,” he continued, sounding way too proud of himself for this idea. “Prince Nace here has been tasked with assisting a princess in need. Is there anything he can help you with?”
“Well,” Maja hummed. “I don’t suppose you know any German, do you? My tutor gave me an assignment and I’ve been stuck on it.”
“Actually, I do,” Nace said, exchanging an excited grin with Jan. “What’s your assignment?”
He stayed in the fireplace - a bizarre experience, for sure - for over an hour educating Princess Maja on the finer points of German grammar. They were just wrapping up the call when Nace felt a rush of magic surge through him, almost causing him to topple into the flames if it weren’t for Jan’s grabbing onto him. “Did you cast a spell on me?” he asked, straightening. “I’ve figured out you’re a wizard, obviously, so-“
“What clued you in, the talking cat? Speaking across miles through a fire? Your sore feet not bothering you anymore?” Jan smirked as Nace realized the truth of that one. “To answer your question - no, that wasn’t me. My best guess is you had a spell placed on you that would somehow alert your father when you fulfilled your quest, which you’ve now done. Congratulations - you are now free.”
“And it’s all thanks to you,” Nace told him, taking his hands as he sincerely thanked him. “Who knows what that spell would have done to me if I had failed to achieve my father’s demands. Jan, you have saved me. How can I ever repay you?”
“You could take him out to lunch,” Igor suggested and the pair startled, having forgotten for a moment that they were not alone. “There’s a tavern not far down the road from here that makes his favorite beef stew.”
“Igor!” Jan hissed, sounding more like a cat than his companion. “Stop embarrassing me! You don’t have to,” he said, turning back to Nace, but the prince just laughed.
“It would be my honor to take you to lunch, wizard,” Nace said, extending his arm and grinning more widely when Jan finally took it. “Lead the way.”