VELVETEEN vs. True Love’s Kiss #4
Vel did open her eyes at that, blinking repeatedly as she turned toward the golden-haired goddess who called herself the Princess.
As always when she was at home, she was wearing a gorgeous, glamorous ball gown, this one pink and blue, trimmed with unseasonal but breathtakingly lovely crystal snowflakes. “What do you mean?” Vel asked.
“I mean that after that little dinosaur adventure we just got out of, it feels like Jack’s story is in flux somehow.
I keep forgetting things I ought to know, and remembering things that just don’t fit right with the rest. I can’t find her.
I can’t find her, and I’m worried that she’s stuck somewhere, scared and waiting for us to save her. ”
“So why didn’t you ask the rest of us for help?”
“Because I’m also worried that she’s not out there to be found.” The Princess sighed heavily. “She’s a Spirit of the Season. Maybe her part in the holiday is finished. It’s happened before.”
“I hope not. I love her too.”
“I know you do, Vel. But back to the reason you’re here. You gonna kiss that boy today?”
“I don’t know,” Vel admitted. “I want to kiss that boy. I want to kiss him so badly it burns. But part of me is scared that I only want to kiss him because I remember how much the dinosaur version of me loved the dinosaur version of him, and what if that’s not good enough?
You said I only get one chance. What if I waste it because I want someone who doesn’t exist? ”
“I like girls,” said the Princess, with a bluntness that startled Vel momentarily into silence.
“I like boys, too, but not as much as I like girls. And even setting aside the PR nightmare I would cause if I went public about it, Jack never liked girls the way I do. It wasn’t about the trans thing.
It was about not wanting to be with a girl that way.
Or a boy, or anyone else. Jack just doesn’t like people like that. ”
Vel blinked. “I…okay?”
“No matter what, she’s never going to be with me the way Torrey is with Lena, or the way you could be with Tag, but she loves me all the same, and I love her, and if that’s not true love, I don’t know my stories the way I thought I did.
True love takes a lot of shapes. If you think you love the boy because part of you loves another version of him, well, that’s worked out all right for Lena and Torrey, hasn’t it? ”
Vel nodded, very slowly, and turned so that she was facing the coffin. She reached up to rest a hand against the lid, then pushed, as gently as she could.
It slid easily, like it had just been waiting for this moment. Too easily; it kept sliding long past the point where it should have stopped, slipping right off the rest of the coffin and shattering on the floor on the other side. Vel gasped, recoiling. The Princess laughed.
“Can’t change the world without breaking something,” she said. “It’s all right, Vel. I’ll get some squirrels in here to clean that all up when you’re done.”
“All…all right,” said Vel, attention going back to Tad. She leaned closer, until she could smell the apple juice on his lips. Not on his breath. He didn’t have any breath for her to smell.
The reality of what she was about to do crested and broke over her like a wave.
He was a dead man. He was a corpse, a literal corpse, and she was about to kiss him.
That wasn’t sanitary. It wasn’t healthy.
It wasn’t all that different from the four months when she’d been using her powers to animate his body and push it through the motions of a normal life.
They’d done more than kiss during that time. Could she really be revolted now?
She could feel her powers gathering, trying to push forward and reestablish the link between herself and Tad.
This would be so much easier if he could look at her, if he could smile, if he could consent.
But he had consented, when he ate the apple.
He’d agreed she could bring him here, to this liminal slice of the living fairy tale that was the Princess’s proximity, and use fairy tale rules to bring him home.
He wanted her here. He loved her enough to believe she could do this.
He loved her. And she wanted him to be here with her so much that it hurt. She leaned farther forward, closing the last of the distance between them, and pressed her lips to his own.
The apple juice was still sweet. And nothing happened.
Vel gasped as she pulled back and slumped beside the coffin, still on her knees, resting most of her weight on the knuckles of one hand, the other hand starfished against the side of the coffin.
The Princess sighed. “Oh, honey,” she said, heels clicking on the floor as she moved closer.
Her hand settled on Vel’s shoulder, and the bunny-eared heroine turned toward her, starting to sob.
“I thought you had it, honey,” said the Princess. “I really thought this was going to be the kiss that changed the world. I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry, for the both of you.”
Vel clung to the side of her dress and kept sobbing, burying her face in the scratchy, crystal-covered fabric.
“Velveteen?” Tad’s voice was rough, barely louder than a croak. It wasn’t really a surprise that Vel didn’t hear it above her own sobs. “Honey, what’s going on?”
Slowly, the Princess turned. He was sitting up in the coffin, clutching the side with one hand, using the other to wipe his eyes.
They couldn’t be very moist at the moment, not with as long as he’d been dead before the coffin put him into functional stasis.
But those eyes were open, and he was looking at the pair of them with confusion, his chest moving easily as he breathed.
“Vel, darlin’, you should stop crying now,” said the Princess, running her hand down Velveteen’s hair. “There’s somebody who wants to talk to you.”
“It didn’t work,” wailed Velveteen. “It’s just my powers reaching out and reanimating him again.”
“Didn’t you tell me you went to Spring, and they taught you how to keep yourself contained? Try and stop animating anything your powers currently have ahold of.”
Velveteen paused in her sobbing. Then she hiccupped, pulling her face away from the Princess’s dress. “It’s done,” she said.
The Princess smiled. “Now look.”
Velveteen turned to face the coffin. Tad, still sitting up and rubbing his eyes, mustered a small smile. “Hi,” he said.
“Tad? You’re—you were—you can’t be—”
“I died,” said Tad. “I remember that. I died, and you kept me moving for months before we found out. Then you brought me here, to wait for true love’s kiss. I guess I got it, because I feel like myself again. Are you all right? What happened?”
Velveteen all but launched herself from the ground into the coffin, landing on top of Tad, who let out a startled grunt of pain at the collision.
Then he wrapped his arms around her and held her close while she cried, letting her tears soak into his shirt.
He looked past her to the Princess. “What happened?” he repeated.
“More than I think it’s my business to tell you,” said the Princess.
“Where’s everybody else?” he asked. “Where’s Sparkle Bright? Or Jackie? Did they get hurt?”
“They’ll be along shortly,” said the Princess, trying not to show the jolt she felt when he asked for Jackie rather than Jack. “For now, I’ll let the two of you have some peace.”
She turned and left the room, glitter trailing behind her. Tad kept his arms tight around Velveteen, holding her while she cried, until finally her tears ran out and she leaned back to look at him.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hi,” he replied.
This time, he was the one to kiss her, and no one came back from the dead, but neither of them seemed to mind.