—and then falters, a little, because maybe Asher would rather not love him, now that he knows.

"You have such a nice smile."

...he brightens again, though not quite as much as before. "Thanks."

"I love you and if you rape someone again I'm going to disembowel you. Does that sound fair?"

He laughs, snuggling closer. "Yeah. Yeah, it does."

"Personally," he clarifies, "because I love you."

"I'm—"

He struggles with words again for a moment—but this time he can just find the right ones and then say them. Nothing stands in his way. His mind is his own.

"I love you too."

Asher kisses him.

He kisses back, giggle-crying, recklessly enthusiastic despite the fact that every time he tries to move his hands he regrets this decision immediately.

"Should we take you to Fairy Godmother?"

"Yeah that's probably a good plan."

He pulls out his phone and texts Fairy Godmother. 

"Unfortunately, Fairy Godmother is going to think a teleport back is irresponsible use of magic, so you're going to get to learn about another exciting piece of technology. Helicopters!" 

"Why is a teleport back...? Is magic really hard to do or something?"

"The short answer is 'King Beast is dumb' and the long answer is basically that but I elaborate and there's more swearing."

He giggles and kisses Asher on the cheek. "I like it when you get passionate about things."

"You're also probably going to find out about opiates, and I am very much looking forward to what you're like when you're high off your ass."

Giggle. "What's an opiate?"

"You'll find out in"-- he checks his phone-- "ten minutes. --This is a phone, it lets you talk to people from far away and also play stupid games and, like, get people to bring you food or drive you places."

"...Why is that a set of things that one thing does?"

"So there's a thing called a computer-- do you want me to explain computers or do you want me to make out with you?"

"I want you to make out with me. Unless the fact that I keep trying to use my hands like an idiot is going to make them harder to fix, in which case you'd better distract me instead."

"The king's best friend and closest adviser loves you. Even if you somehow managed to hurt yourself badly enough that Fairy Godmother couldn't fix it, you'd just have to be high off your ass for a day or two while we found a genie." He ponders this. "Try not to die, it's hard to fix dead."

"I'll do my best."

He kisses him. Inadvisable attempts to use his hands may be involved.

Both kissing and inadvisable attempts to use his hands are very fun.

Asher may attempt some advisable use of his hands.

Asher is so good. Everything about Asher is very good. What a wonderful thing it is that Asher exists and is kissing him.

He keeps trying to move his hands and hissing briefly with pain but not caring enough to stop.