“All I’m saying is…if you tell someone ‘please don’t do this, it hurts me,’ and they turn around and do it-“

“It wasn’t him-“

“Or someone around him feels secure enough with him to spit in your face and do the thing, without any reprimand coming from him-”  the Prince listened to his friend groan, even made space for it.

“Even if you put it out there as a fleece in the first place, or chum in the water, you are being shown what they think of you-“

“Like I give a fuck what they think of me-” she scoffed.

“AND THAT…he doesn’t. Think.  Of you, anywhere near the caliber you deserve and-“

She started to interrupt him but he cut off her cutting him off. “And which I’ve not ever seen you demand, on threat of death, which is disorienting as fuck!” He yelled. “I don’t understand what you are doing!And I-I always understand what you’re doing- but this ? THIS shit?! What in the ever loving fuck is going on with you?”

“I deserve love-” she muttered.
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you!” The Prince yelled, bewildered.  “If you know that, why the fuck-“

“I am not Going to fight for love. ” she said simply. “I’ve fought enough. That’s why we’re- “

“This is about you being tired?”The Prince hesitated. “Does he even know?”

“Should he know if he doesn’t care?”she asked her dearest guy friend who was the spitting image of the man she’d married lifetimes ago. “I don’t want… that to be his why, she said softly.  “If he wasn’t moved without the-“

“This has to be exacerbating the entire-“the Prince said through grief and gritted teeth.

“If it is, then maybe it’s meant to-” she shrugged. She hugged her best friend.  “I gotta go,”

“I know, I just don’t understand-” he whispered into her hair. She laughed, tears in her eyes as she squeezed the Prince.

“No, I mean it’s almost 6pm, I’m gonna be-“

“Oh!!! OH yeah! SORRY,I- come on, let’s go.” He grinned and whisked her off to her destination.

---

“I love you-” he whispered as they walked.
“Duh,” she giggled.
“I mean it,” The Prince laughed.
“I know!”she laughed back.  “You’re a fucking genius, of course you love me-” she stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and turned towards him.  “And you know I  love you back-“

“Why can’t we just-” the Prince sighed.

“Because you wanted to be a Prince this time-” she blushed and he grinned.

“You’re a fucking Queen to me- watching you-just …put up with this-” he hissed.

“Not here. Not here I’m not. Not this time. Look at me-” she grabbed his chin. “Look at me-” she ordered. He sheepishly locked eyes with his best friend, many lives deep.

“You’re the only one… that wasn’t…assigned.” she whispered as this and every life their souls had crossed in whirled around them, unnoticed. “The only one that picked me, to the chagrin of all around us-“

“Because you’re fucking-” the Prince howled in exasperation. “Why him?” he asked.

For the first time in all of this she saw the hurt in his eyes over how what she was in was actually hurting him. The recognition made her wince.

“Because…I think… he’s… him. Listen to me-” she admonished her best friend. “And if he’s him- then she’s-“

Feeling misunderstood to the depths of his soul, the Prince roared in frustration. “I don’t care if she-“

“That’s because you won’t let you remember- but I do- I’ve not ever seen you or me as happy as we were in love with them-“

“That’d be because you’re not paying attention to me in the here  and now! Jesus!”

The Prince ducked in and kissed her.

Everything around them froze and began to flake away like old billboards shellacked to fences after the rain. The pristine sidewalks crumbled to dust under their feet, then cobblestones, to sand and dust once again.

They stood, frozen in time and outside of it simultaneously. Empires rose and fell beyond them as, locked lip to lip and life to life yet again Aleph and Omega burnt out the panel powering their deck. Her eyes fluttered open in recognition and both of them exploded into showers of pyrotechnic light that would’ve taken out twelve city blocks, if city blocks existed where they’d thrown themselves back to.

---

The spontaneous  combustion knocked them out of the simulation and onto the floor of the shared deck.

She came to under a pile of cords to the smell of seared flesh, sat up, yowled insanely and swung on him.

“Ya can’t hide IN my best friend!” she yelled as he covered his head from her slaps.”That’s NOT friction’ allowed, man! I told you Nothing was going on between him and I ever! For fuck’s sake! Fuck is wrong with you? Ya crazy person! Stop fn testing me!”

“That territorial demarcation was not in the- protocols we agreed to! Ow! Hey!! Watch the pretty! Ow! Ow- fuck! Okay-” he laughed. “Okay!! But-” he shoved the love of so many “lives” that he’d lost count back down into the detritus of the deck their illicit kiss had all but destroyed. “ADMIT it! It was a good one-“

“In tha next life I’m going to fackin kill you!” she roared like a madwoman.

“Ha! you’d hafta find me first- and after that showing- OW! Come on!sore loser! Sheesh-come on! Give me that at least, knowing full well you’re gonna make me repair all this,” he motioned around to the carnage, “by myself-“

She growled, then instantly calmed down because it had indeed been … a good kiss. “the best one of that life…possibly-” she acquiesced.

“See! I knew it! You liked kissing him~! I knew there was-“

She playfully punched him in the stomach, “It was because it was you, ya moron-” she grinned and shyly hopped on top of him. “How long is it gonna take for you to rebuild the world?” she murmured.

He shrugged casually. “eh, who knows? maybe five, six days-“

“You should probably get started then, huh?” she purred.

“If only I wasn’t weighed down by the embodiment of wisdom- OW! You’re really getting into this hitting me thing, aren’t you?” he chuckled.

She swatted him again.

© AngelBrynner 2025