Archive of Our Own

“You ‘sleep yet, sugah?”

Princess Tiana reached her hand out from under the sheets toward her husband where he lay beside her in bed and lightly shook his shoulder.

Drowsy and ready to be dreaming, Prince Naveen pulled the covers over his head.

“Ah! Dez menutzos máz…” he groaned. A phrase Tiana had come to learn meant ten more minutes in Maldonian.

“Forgive me, shug. I didn’t think you were all the way asleep yet,” she said. “I didn’t hear you snorin’...” 

“I do not snore!” Funny. All traces of grogginess had vanished from his voice. 

He threw the covers off of his head to find a smug looking Tiana staring back at him. A gotcha look spread across her face.

“Fine… I am awake,” the prince admitted. “But I must say that if you had waited another moment or two, miamoza, I would have been a log.”

Tiana giggled. “A what?” 

“A log,” he said again. “Is this not the phrase you say when you are tired?”

The princess snorted. “You mean, ‘sleepin’ like a log’?”

Naveen furrowed his thick brows together, confused by the nuance. “But I am trying to sleep. How is that not the same thing?” 

He grumbled. He was much too tired for a lesson in English language idioms right now. He started to pull the bed sheets over his head again. But Tiana caught him before he could.

“Aw, I’m sorry…” she cooed soothingly. “I shouldn’ta laughed. I want your company.”

The prince’s grip on the covers softened as his focus shifted onto his wife. He watched in the darkness at how she pulled the sheets around her dainty form, and he smelled her warm, homey scent as she nestled closer into him. He was tired, yes, but not so much that he would ignore her. He lifted his head off his pillow and propped himself up on an elbow so he could listen to her better. His gaze pierced hers in the darkness. 

“You have my company then, princess,” he said, throaty and sincere. “What is on your mind?”

Tiana shivered a little, a chill running up her spine. Her husband’s amber eyes and gravelly voice always had such an effect on her. But she had more pressing concerns keeping her awake at present.

“Well…” she started, “you know me… I’m thinkin’ ‘bout the restaurant.”

“As always,” Naveen chuckled sweetly.

She rolled onto her back and threw her arms out to her sides in an act of pure surrender. “It’s just… come tomorrow, the Palace’ll have been open a whole month…”

She huffed in exasperation and stared up at the ceiling. Her husband reached out to her to hold one of her hands in his. 

“It has been a month already?!” he asked.

“Crazy, ain’t it?”

He shook his head with a smile. “Feels like just yesterday we were still renovating the old sugar mill,” he said, reminiscing. “So why do you seem so upset about it? This is a good milestone, no?”

When she closed her eyes and didn’t answer right away, the prince squeezed her hand a little, coaxing her to open up.

“I guess I’m just nervous…” Tiana admitted.

“Nervous?” Naveen paused. “About what exactly?”

Tiana turned onto her side to face her husband. She propped herself up on her elbow, too, and their bodies mirrored each other under the rumpled sheets. She drew listless circles on the mattress between them, unable to meet his eyes.

“I’m nervous that once the Palace isn’t all shiny and new anymore, no one will bother comin’.”

The prince placed his palm on the slope of her waist and pulled her close. 

“Tiana… we have been booked for weeks on end. And we already have quite a few regulars,” he said. “Sure, things may change a little in time. But to think that no one will come to the Palace anymore? Why is that where your mind goes?”

“I… I don’t know, sugah.” She shook her satin-bonneted head and offered him a weak smile. “I’ve just never done anythin’ so big before.” Her gaze stayed glued to the mattress. “I know I’m a good cook—”

“I think you mean great chef,” the prince corrected proudly.

Tiana looked up, cheeks heating as her husband’s praise washed over her. But she had a point to make.

“That’s the thing though, Naveen. This ain’t just cookin’ anymore. It’s a whole business! And I’ve worked so hard for it. I don’t wanna fail in front of all of New Orleans.”

She sighed deeply, and Naveen felt her breath flutter his chest hair at the neckline of the his undershirt. He squeezed her tighter subconsciously before running the wide span of his hand up and down her side in a slow, comforting path.

“We have both worked hard for it, remember?” he said. “You are not alone in this, Tiana. If you want business advice, we can find it for you. Mr. La Bouff has offered. And I know people, too, you know. Receiving help with your dream doesn’t make it any less your own.”

Tiana thought her husband’s words over for a few moments. The way he had phrased them made so much sense to her now. Was she being too precious with how she ran the Palace? How many nights would she be willing to lose sleep over her restaurant? And most importantly, when would she accept that she couldn’t run it all by herself? 

She exhaled.

“You’re right, sugah. First thing tomorrow, I’m gonna ring up Mr. La Bouff.”

“I’m happy to hear that!” the prince said with a chuckle. “Besides, that man would do anything to keep your beignets in business.” 

They fell against the pillows in a fit of laughter, and Tiana couldn’t help but smile at her husband, full and deep-dimpled, as she wiped a joyful tear from the corner of her eye.

She inched a hair’s breadth away from him where they lay together, and gave him a quick peck of a kiss. “Thanks for always being there for me, Naveen,” she said softly against his mouth. “I know I’ve been takin’ my bad nerves out on you a lot lately.”

Naveen kissed her back, too. “Oh, I plan to return the favor one day. Royally, if you catch my drift.”

A smirk crossed her face. “You mean in Maldonia?”

“Mhm. Do not assume that this prince knows how to be a king. I’ll need your restaurant running skills to help me run the country.”

They both laughed again, shaking with joy against each other in the darkness. 

After a moment, however, the princess spoke candidly. “Aww, shug… You’ve been doin’ so much work with me to get the Palace open. I never even stopped to ask if you were homesick. But you must be!”

Prince Naveen gazed wistfully off into the distance for a while. “Only a little bit...”

She raised a prying eyebrow at him.

He relented. “Alright, perhaps more than a little bit. But we will visit soon, miamoza. And that gives me strength.” He paused for a tender moment before stroking her cheek with the back of his hand. “There is so much there that I want to show you…”

That gave the princess an idea.

“Tell me another story about Maldonia,” she said. “I bet it’d help me stop worryin’ about the Palace. And maybe it’d help you feel less homesick, too.”

That sounded like a good idea to Naveen.

“Well, princess, what would you like to know this time?” He started to offer a few options. “More about the castle grounds?”

“Hmm...” she hummed, tapping a finger to her lips. “You’ve told me a lot about the castle already. Plus, I wanna save a few surprises for when you show it to me in person,” she added giddily.

“Alright then. What about the spices? Or the styles of cooking? Have I told you all of my favorite desserts yet?!”

“Don’t bring up food this late at night, sugah!" She laughed and swatted him teasingly. “That’ll just make me hungry!”

“Me too, come to think of it,” the prince realized, happy that Tiana had spared them both. “Oh, I know!”

“What?”

“I haven’t told you any of our fairy tales yet, no?”

Tiana beamed at that suggestion. “Don’t reckon you have. Any good ones?”

“Quite a few! But one that everybody in Maldonia knows is the legend of ‘The Seven Brothers.’”

“‘The Seven Brothers’?” Tiana said, intrigued. “How does it go?”

Naveen gave her a crooked, boyish grin and kissed her cheek. “Close your eyes first, miamoza.”

She made a protesting sound. “Wait, how come?”

Leaning close to her once more, he rasped delicately into her ear, “I want you to focus on picturing this."

A hot, uncontrollable current sizzled beneath Tiana’s skin. And she made a concerted effort to keep her breathing even. 

“Alright,” she sighed a little too huskily. 

She gave into his request, rolling over onto her back and closing her eyes. She folded her hands across her stomach and snuggled into the pillows. 

“Is your imagination ready?” he asked.

“Mhm!” the princess hummed.

“Alright then."

And so Prince Naveen began: 

“Once upon a time, there were seven brothers. All of noble, warrior blood. But all with different strengths and skills. To add to their renown, their village priestess received a prophecy of seven claps of thunder, but only one flash of lightning. The priestess told their mother that this meant all of her sons were destined for greatness, but one would be the greatest of them all.”

The princess interrupted. “Do these seven brothers look like you? ‘Cuz if that’s the case—”

“Tiana!” Naveen bellowed, stressing every syllable of her name.

She gracefully bit back a laugh. “Keep goin’, shug. What happens next?”

Naveen huffed dramatically before picking up where he left off.

“So, as the sons grew into men,” the prince said, “each attempted to make his odds more favorable to become the hero of the prophecy. One after the other, they became strong and self-reliant. Eventually, all the brothers founded villages of their own, each one deliberately set in a different part of the land. And each brother thought his own village was best.

“When it was time for the youngest brother to form his own village, though, he didn’t know where he should build it. He wasn’t as mighty or knowledgeable as his older brothers. So he didn’t know what part of their land he’d be most suited to lead.”

“Awww, poor thing. So what did he do?” a rapt Tiana asked, her brows raised above her dutifully closed eyelids.

“He set off on a journey to each of his brothers’ villages,” the prince answered.

She gasped. “By himself?!”

“Well…” Naveen thought for a moment. “He might have had a donkey or something to help him carry his things.”

“Can you give him a donkey this time? So he’s not so lonely.” Tiana begged. “Please, sugah?”

Naveen gave in. “Alright… he can have a donkey, just this once.”

“Good,” she sighed in relief, before adding, “Oh, but now the donkey needs a name, doesn’t it?”

“Tiana, no one in this story has names! We will never get to finish it at this rate.”

“How ‘bout… Dolores!” She fanned her fingers in the air for emphasis.

The prince choked on a laugh. “Dolores?! That is what you name the donkey of an epic quest?”

“So where are Dolores the Donkey and Baby Boy headed first?” She reached out blindly for her husband, and tapped his arm as a signal for him to continue the story.

“Faldi Faldonza…” Naveen chuckled under his breath. “Are you going to let me tell it?”

“Mhm!” Tiana nodded.

“And your eyes are still closed, yes?”

“Sealed tight, shug.”

The prince propped himself up again and leaned over his wife. Quietly, he waved a hand over her face. It was clear she couldn’t see. Their bedroom was dark, but not completely. And for this next part of his tale, he would need another one of her senses heightened. 

Without a sound, and with barely a flutter of his fingers, Naveen deftly undid the top buttons of Tiana’s nightgown. 

He started telling the fairy tale once more. 

“The first stop took him to—”

“Him and Dolores,” Tiana butted in.

“The first stop took him and Dolores…” Naveen said appeasingly, “to the eldest brother’s village in the highest mountains of the land. Once there, the youngest brother asked the eldest one, ‘Why did you build your village here?’”

With that, the prince peeled back the top halves of his princess’s nightgown, exposing her to the night air. Slowly, he traced a finger from the sharp length of her collarbone up the mound of her bare breast. His finger found its way to the hot pinnacle of her nipple, and he circled his fingertip around it until it was stiff and swollen with need.

Princess Tiana’s eyes shot open.

“Naveen!” She gasped up at her husband in the darkness.

His goldenrod gaze burned mischievously down at her where she lay.

“Close your eyes, miamoza,” he rasped to her. “I am taking you on a journey…” He lowered his face to hers. Nose to nose with her. Both of them peering at each other through lasciviously slitted eyes. “Let me take you on this journey with me, yes?”

Again, he swirled his fingertip roughly against Tiana’s taut nipple, and she arched at the feel of him, still holding his gaze. 

“You ain’t nothin’ but trouble, Prince Charmin’...” She shook her head, bemused.

“That would seem to make you very lucky then, princess.” The whispered words heaved against her lips.

Closing the space between them, Naveen brought his open mouth to hers for a few searing, sinful seconds, expertly pinching her nipple all the while. Tiana closed her eyes out of habit the instant she felt his kiss. She mewled into his mouth, and Naveen swallowed every one of her delicious little moans. Sweat beaded at Tiana’s temples, and the prince used what good sense he could still muster to remove her bonnet so she wouldn’t overheat as they hot-bloodedly lapped at each other. They parted breathlessly a moment later, a command already forming on Naveen’s tongue.

“Unbutton the rest of your nightgown for me, miamoza… ” he huffed. “And keep those pretty eyes closed just a little longer.”

Princess Tiana nearly ripped the buttons off of her pajamas in an attempt to obey her man’s royal request. His naughty finger was still toying with her. And it was all she could do not to say to hell with this story and pounce on him outright. The wait would be worth it though. That she knew too well. So she managed to make it through what seemed like entirely too many buttons, and cast her nightgown fully open to him.

“Those will have to come off, too,” the prince said. And though her eyes were closed, Tiana immediately knew what he meant. She lifted her hips from the bed at breakneck speed to pull her knickers down to her knees, then gracelessly shimmied the rest of the way out of them.

“Much better,” the prince declared with an impish grin. “Now, where were we?”

“M-mountains,” Tiana panted. “S-somewhere in th-the m-mountains…” 

“Ah, yes,” Naveen recalled aloud. “The youngest brother asked, ‘Why did you build your village here?’” He teased her nipple for emphasis. “And the eldest brother said that the mountains were the best part of their land because they were closest to the heavens.” 

“You can say that again…”

Prince Naveen continued. “Unfortunately, the youngest brother was not cut out to live in the mountaintops. So, he journeyed to see his next brother in the valleys below.” 

He drew his finger down from the peak of his wife’s breast to her breastbone, and left a series of invisible, doting doodles there to pique her senses. The princess bit her bottom lip. The fine hairs of her arms stood on end.

“At the valley village, the young one asked his brother, ‘Why did you build your village here?’ And his brother said that valleys lay at the heart of their land.” He pressed his finger lovingly into the flesh above Tiana’s pounding heart. “But, the youngest brother did not want to live there either. So next, he went to his brother in the flatlands.”

Naveen trailed a line straight down Tiana’s torso and tickled the top of her stomach. Her breathing was shallow with anticipation, making her even more aware of his fingertip against her skin.

“So why did that brother make his village there?” the princess asked through a strained, quivering voice.

“He said that the flatlands were best because there the earth and the sky were equal, taking up the same amount of space, and meeting in every direction with a kiss.” Naveen leaned his face over the princess’s midsection and began leaving a slow barrage of hot, silky kisses across the top of her stomach. She heard herself cry out before she realized the sound was her own.

Recovering enough to speak, she asked, “Baby Boy didn’t care for that either, huh?” 

“You catch on quickly, miamoza.”

A closed-eyed Tiana accurately guessed where her husband’s shoulder was and gave it a light thwack, which only seemed to further amuse him. Though, she giggled, too.

“So where did Dolores and him go next?” Interest and pout equally tinged her question.

Prince Naveen throbbed at his wife’s lust-laced voice, nearly forgetting what part came next and struggling to keep from coming himself. Who had given this story so many brothers in the first place?! Although in hindsight, he understood that this sort of proverb had probably never been intended to be used as foreplay. It took him an Olympic amount of willpower and teeth-gritting to pick up the tale where he’d left off.

“Next, the youngest brother—and his donkey—went to find the brother who had built a village near the coast.” He let his finger meander to the side of her body, leaving wave after wave of goosebumps from her underarm to her hip. “Once there, he asked his brother, ‘Why did you build your village here, so close to the sea?’”

“And why did he?” Tiana panted.

“His brother said that the sea provides the perfect rhythm to live to… to dance to… to love to…” 

The princess gasped at that last part. 

“I thought you said this was a children’s story, Naveen!” Nevertheless, she pictured the rhythmic loving she hoped to receive very soon herself. 

The prince tittered with laughter. “Clearly, I have taken a few liberties, Tiana. You have been undressed for nearly half of this tale." He squeezed her naked hip to make his point. "But ‘rhythm to love to’ is where you draw the line?”

Princess Tiana had to give him that. 

“Oh, fine!” she giggled. “So then what happens?”

“The youngest brother did not think he could handle the unruliness of the sea,” Prince Naveen told Tiana, tracing his finger from her hip to her low belly. “So he took his donkey—”

“Good ol’ Dolores.”

“—to visit his brother whose village was deep in the forest.” At that, Naveen twined his fingertip through the soft curls above her feminine cleft.

On contact, Princess Tiana grabbed blindly for her man. Eventually, she caught the neck of his undershirt. She balled up the fabric of it in a trembling hand and pulled him close.

“In the forest,” the prince continued, inching his rogue finger lower and lower still, “the young one asked this brother, ‘Why did you build your village here, amongst the trees?’ And do you know what that brother said, miamoza?”

Tiana’s fist tightened around her husband’s undershirt. She shook her head so forcefully her plaited hair thumped against her pillow. 

“Tell me…” she huffed. “Tell me…”

Her husband smiled down at her body, tense with desire. A gorgeous obsidian glow lit her night-shrouded skin. God, the way she writhed for him. Back arching. Face twisting. Cunt perfuming the air. He could already imagine his cock splitting her in two, and the thought alone made him twitch inside his pajama bottoms.

“He said,” Naveen rasped to her, “the forest was best for his village because it was full of beauty.”

“That so?” the princess purred, breathy and light.

Naveen bent his head to run his lips along her jaw.

He answered her. “Absolutely…” And every syllable of that thickly accented word burned her skin.

“Why wouldn’t he wanna live there?”

“Such beauty can be overwhelming, princess…”

Though her eyes were closed, Tiana could feel her husband’s gaze running up and down her entire body. She fought the urge to shudder.

“So where did he go last?” she asked. “Only one stop left now, right?”

Prince Naveen nodded, petting the curls below her waist. “That’s right. Can you guess where the last part of his journey took him?”

“A girl can only hope…”

“The last brother he visited built his village in the wetlands…”

Princess Tiana choked out a moan the moment Naveen parted her, plunged into her, pumped into her pussy with leisurely control. Her flesh was pliant and buttery around his coarse, knuckled strokes. She could live here. Die here. She wanted this forever. 

“Naveen…” she cooed his name almost inaudibly.

He recited more of his tale despite Tiana’s attention being elsewhere. “The youngest brother asked his last brother, ‘Why did you build your village where the fields so often overflow?’ And his last brother said that where the land overflows, abundance must follow.”

Naveen sank his finger deeper into her. Her cries filled the bedroom. He groaned down at her hungrily.

“Achidanza, Tiana… you are so wet… Let us finish this story later, no?”

She whimpered in helpless agreement.

Naveen pulled his wife upright against the headboard with him, cradling her in his free arm and ready to resume pleasuring her with the other. He pressed the front of his hard body into her side, huffing hotly across her ear, her shoulder, the length of her neck.

Tiana let go of her husband’s undershirt and ran her hand up the side of his head. His unshaven jaw scratched at her palm as she pulled his face against hers. She kissed him like her life depended on it, passion pouring out of all of her pores.  

Their fused mouths broke apart for a moment, leaving Prince Naveen and Princess Tiana trapped in each other’s lidded, lusty gazes for the first time since the night’s story began. 

“I love this…” Tiana admitted on an exhale. “I love you…”

Naveen smiled against her kiss-raw lips. “I love you so much, Tiana… How could I be homesick with you by my side?” Then he smirked like the handsome devil he was and added, “And I love this, too… Spread that pussy wide for me so I can show you just how much…”

The princess flushed at her husband’s filthy words in the best way. She had no choice but to heed them. So she drew her knees into her chest where she sat on the bed next to him, her dripping wet slit open for the taking.

“Like this?” she purred demurely.

“Wider, miamoza… ” Prince Naveen rasped, “Hold your legs back a little more for me… ”

She heeded those words, too, placing her hands in the crooks of her knees and prying herself farther apart.

The prince whimpered as if he were in pain. “Perfect…”  

Then he worked her slow. Sweet nothings in her ear. Skilled fingers in her cunt. He dragged each thorough dip inside her up to slather her engorged, enraptured clit. With the hand that had been wrapped around her shoulders, Naveen gloriously yanked down on his wife’s bedtime braids. Her chin darted upwards, and Naveen took the opportunity to suck at her defenseless neck. 

The princess’s whole body quaked. 

“Naveen...” she panted, “Oh, God, Naveen!”

The viscous, sopping sounds her pussy made under his manipulation were downright improper. But they also made the perfect backdrop for completely letting go. Tiana rolled her body to the tune of their lovemaking, winding her hips into Naveen’s penetrating touch. 

Prince Naveen growled. “Is this what you need, miamoza? ” 

“Yes, sugah! Don’t stop!” 

He looked down at how his fingers disappeared into her and felt faint with desire. For all intents and purposes, he should have been the one in control. But the sight of her juices leaking onto the bed, the feel of her hot and fleshy around him, the thick and inviting sound of her—like a too-damp dough being kneaded just right—was nearly enough to make his heart explode out of his chest. To make matters worse, each time she called out his name, his cock leapt in response as if personally requested. He sped up his tormenting. There was no way he would survive this night if he wasn’t on top of her soon.

“Is my princess going to come for me?” Naveen asked, though it was delivered more as a demand than a question.

Tiana hissed through gritted teeth. “Yes… yes… yes!”

“Come for me now, sweet princess…” He pressed his groin into her hip so she could feel how hard he was through his pajama bottoms. “My cock has been patiently waiting his turn, but he will not be a good boy much longer…”

The realization that more was on the way when she was already so pleasure-stricken sent Princess Tiana over the edge. She came hard in her husband’s hand, bellowing and bouncing as she rode out the last, inflamed remnants of bliss before slumping against him to catch her breath. 

Naveen didn’t give her much of a breather, though. 

Words failed them in the following moments as they shamelessly fumbled into their next position. The princess’s open nightgown still hung limply from her shoulders, edging up her back as she slid beneath her man. Naveen climbed on top of his wife, licking and sucking her nipples into rigid knobs, fondling her curves in the darkness. He felt Tiana tug up on his undershirt, pulling it up just enough for his hot, hairy chest to press into her. Then she ran one daring hand between them. Pressing down the wall of his stomach. Reaching inside the waistband of his pants to stroke him root to tip until he hissed—until he leaked against her palm. 

The prince wasted no time yanking the knot out of his drawstring. He pried down the loosened top of his pajama bottoms, letting the fabric rest just below his buttocks. He didn’t see a point in being completely nude right now. He just needed to be inside Tiana. When he’d settled himself between her thighs, he realized he wanted her spread wide again, as wide as she’d been during her pleasuring a moment ago. So he lifted one of her legs, and then the other—her knees folded right below her underarms. And he pushed into her pussy inch by inch by inch.

The prince and princess harmonized together on a lengthy groan—part agony, part relief, all entirely overwhelming. It felt too good to be like this. Full and filling. Encasing and encased. Naveen set his hips to stroking his woman. A silky, cycling motion that Tiana couldn’t resist. She scratched her nails down his back and dug them into his ass. Her prince framed one side of her face with a flexed forearm, tenderly petting her braids with his hand. His other hand he nestled in the bend of one of her legs, keeping her sumptuously thick thighs butterflied open like the choicest cut of meat. 

“Feel what you do to me, Tiana…” Naveen gruffed, his half-open eyes gazing into hers. “I can’t get enough of you… I’ll never get enough…”

“Oh, God, sugah… it's too much… it's too much!"

“Ahh… but I know you can take it, Tiana…” 

He punctuated that statement with a particularly deep thrust, and the princess called out his name.

Then the prince smiled a crooked smile. “Touch yourself, miamoza… ” he whispered, the request hot against her mouth.

Tiana thought she had misheard him. She was still so raw from the thorough fingering he had given her earlier that she wasn’t sure she could handle more.

“Touch yourself for me…” 

She couldn’t deny him twice in a row. 

The princess slid a hand between their churning bodies, parting herself at the top of her slit and exposing her sensitive nub. It was so tender to the touch that she barely managed to give herself a few passing flicks. But she panted rapturously from the sensation all the same.

Without warning, Naveen nodded down to where she teased herself. “Let me taste you…”

If shock had warped Princess Tiana’s face, Naveen made no notice of it. He simply kept pumping into her and awaited his reward. So she freed her hand from between her legs as requested, and brought it to her husband’s lips. He sucked her slick fingers into his mouth with a sincerity—a reverence—that made her pussy clench around him in response.

“Again.”

So she touched herself again. Better this time. Working herself from the outside while Naveen worked her from within. Before she could push herself over yet another brink of pleasure, she brought her hand to her husband’s mouth like she had before. And he greedily licked every last drop from her fingers.

“Again.”

Release was imminent now. Building up between them and nearly ready to burst. Naveen and Tiana looked upon each other with so much love and lust and longing it was a wonder they hadn’t erupted already. As the princess caressed herself, the prince rolled his hips purposefully into hers, recalling the virtues of the tale he had told her with each final, emotional thrust. His heaven. His heart. His equal. His rhythm. His beauty. His abundance. 

The ideals of his homeland. He had rediscovered them all in her. 

Naveen felt his woman constrict around him. Felt her speed up her fingers as she chased another release. He locked his lips with hers, and their tongues played together in the intimate room their mouths made. On one last winding stroke—for the seventh virtue—Naveen held himself inside of Tiana. Unmoving and committed. And she rocked and rubbed against him until she was forced to break their kiss with a back-bending wail, the prince moaning his own triumphant cry beside her a few moments later. They both went rigid. They whimpered. They melted into each other. 

They were home.

Prince Naveen rolled onto his back and pulled his princess on top of him. An exhausted Tiana nuzzled her head under her husband’s scruffy chin, stretching out legs that had been bent for much too long. Sleep would be unavoidable soon. Until then, though, they lay together like this, not bothering to right their clothes. Instead, they chose to keep their bare chests and stomachs pressed together like they had as they’d made love. As far as they were concerned, this was lovemaking, too. The closeness. The vulnerability. It shouldn’t have to end just yet. 

Naveen rubbed Tiana’s back through her nightgown with one hand and held his other out for her to take. She laid her hand in his, palm-to-palm, fingers aligned. No worries would keep her awake the rest of this night. Her eyelids were already so heavy. But before she let herself drift off to dreamland, the princess giggled, recalling Naveen’s tale.

“What is so funny, princess?” the prince asked, sounding a bit sleepy himself.

“Wetlands? Really, shug?” She was unable to control her laughter now.

The prince laughed, too. “Should I have gone with ‘bayous’ then?”

Laughter bubbled up from the both of them in equal amounts.

“If you wake me, miamoza, you must pay the price,” he teased with a pinch of her bottom.

“Hey now! You weren’t even sleepin’ yet!”

“Sleeping… nearly sleeping... You split the hair.” A lesson in English idioms would come another day.

“Well,” Tiana giggled, “You gonna tell me the end of this story or what?”

“You are still up for it?”

She nodded against his chest.

“Are you sure? We can wait until the morning.”

“I gotta know what happens to Baby Boy and Dolores…” she yawned.

Naveen smiled knowingly, but he picked up the story where he left off anyway. “Well… After the youngest of the seven brothers visited all the villages, he realized that his older brothers had all picked places so thoughtfully. He could not outdo them. In truth, he did not want to. What the youngest brother actually wanted was to be a family with them again. They had all taught each other so many things. They had shared memories. They had looked out for each other. And he missed that.”

“Aww…” Tiana cooed, lacing her fingers with Naveen’s. “I knew he was lonely…”

“You were right about that, princess.”

“So what did he do?”

“He found an unremarkable piece of land to build his village upon. It wasn’t near the heavens or the heart of the land. It didn’t foster equality or rhythm. It wasn’t particularly beautiful or abundant either.”

“Then what was it?” the princess asked.

Gently, Prince Naveen scooped his wife into his arms and returned her to her back. After quickly adjusting his own pajamas, he unwrapped Tiana from her nightgown again, exposing her belly to the night air. He traced his index finger to her navel, slow and sure.

“It was the center point between them all.”

“That’s so sweet…” Tiana sighed sleepily.

“It is, no?” Unsurprised, Naveen noticed that the princess had quietly closed her eyes. “Are you finally falling asleep, miamoza?” 

She waved him off. “Just restin’ my eyes, sugah… Did his brothers go to see him?”

“They did. When word reached the six brothers about what he had done in their honor, they put aside their rivalry and traveled to their youngest brother’s humble village,” he said with a press of Tiana’s navel. “For the first time, they all saw that their youngest brother was wise beyond his years. He had brought their family back together. They were united.

“The youngest brother had never been happier. The brothers still maintained their own villages, but they all regularly convened in the young one’s village, too. Eventually, their united lands became Maldonia. And that humble village in the center became a bustling crossroads. Then a city. Then the capital. And with the support of all his brothers, the young one eventually became Maldonia’s first king, fulfilling the prophecy. Together, all the sons had achieved greatness. But bringing them all together had made one the greatest of them all.”

It was Naveen’s turn to be tired now. He eased beside Tiana on the mattress and pulled the covers over them.

“The…end…” he yawned dramatically. Then, groggy and gruff-voiced, he asked her, “So... what did you think, princess? It is a good tale, yes?”

He gazed at her from his pillow, thinking about how decadent she had looked a moment ago and how peaceful she looked now.

“Tiana?" He waited a second. "Tiana?”

She snored in response. Naveen just smiled.

“Good night, my Sleeping Beauty,” he said, kissing her cheek. And before he joined her in dreamland, he softly chuckled, “Who is the log now?”