Disclaimer: Oh, come on, Disney. Ya know I dun't own your wonderful movies. Must I admit it in every chapter?!

"So what happened?" Charlie looked at his old friend with great concern.

"What DIDN'T happen?" Bernard leaned on the railing overlooking the main floor of the Workshop, exhausted with the whole affair. "If you found out you had a daughter in the future with a girl you're not even seriously seeing, you might freak out too."

"So are you and April officially through?"

"We were never officially anything to begin with." The Head Elf sighed loudly and resisted the urge to bang his head against something.

Charlie hesitated. "Have you even talked to her since then?"

"No. I'm too afraid to approach her, lest I screw up again." He crossed his arms, finally looked Charlie in the eye and demanded, "Why must this be so complicated?"

"Love is never easy, Bernard. That's why they call it the most dangerous game of all." He smiled like the hopeless romantic he was.

"Bah, humbug. I don't believe in love."

Charlie gave him a double-take. He looked at the elf like he'd lost his mind. "What do you mean, you don't believe in love? Everyone loves something."

He shrugged. "Okay, I love my job."

The young man rolled his eyes and exhaled loudly. "That's not what I mean, and you know it. Love is...Love is so beautiful...Such a-a wonderful thing...Once you give into it, you'll wonder why you ever resisted."

Bernard raised an eyebrow. "You really ought to pull your head out of the clouds, there Charlie, because you're hovering about three feet off the ground. I've heard of marital bliss, but you've got it bad."

"I'm serious, Bernard." Suddenly, he looked gravely so. The look didn't fit him well. "You should just stop running away from it and except the fact that you love her. Before you loose her completely."

Charlie started to walk off.

"Hey, I am NOT in love! Especially not with HER!" He shouted after the human, who ignored him. He snorted and mumbled, defeated, "Really. I'm not." His eyes wondered to a bunch of huddled workers, whispering and throwing odd glances in his direction. He frowned. "If you take a picture, I'll autograph it for you."

They giggled and scattered in all directions.

He should have been used to the whispers by then...They had just died down from the big 'incident'. Did he hafta go and blow it again? At least he hadn't hit anyone this time; though he wanted to...Maigri was, of course, behind ALL the rumors...His rival's ego had at least doubled, if not tripled in size, making him down right unbearable. And in turn, making Bernard absolutely miserable. Oops, there goes his reputation...Right down the drain... Again. Still, when it came down to things, he only had himself to blame. Even though it was so easy to blame Maigri. Too easy. "Focus, Bernard, focus. Don't think about it."

In that far off dimension, the robed figure still sat, watching the unfolding events in his crystal ball. Suddenly, another being joined him. This one was a youngish, yet tall elf with yellow eyes, nasty pointed teeth that stuck out even when he closed his mouth, peircings everywhere, and a fruit-punch colored mohawk. He bowed curtly and asked in a lispy British accent, "Sir...May I voice my opinion?"

The man waved consent.

"I think it best if we attack now, while they're all rather vulnerable." He stared at Bernard in obvious disgust. "While they're weak..."

"Patience, my dark elf. Have patience." More than just a little annoyance creeped into his creepy voice. "Are the Legions ready?"

"Almost. They should be ready to strike in two, three days tops."

"Good. All goes according to schedule. You may leave me now."

Again, the elf bowed. "As you wish, Your Highness."

The figure chuckled deeply, greatly amused by the sound of his title. "Yes, I do wish. Go."

While Merope polished her sword in the corner, she glanced up from time to time and couldn't help but smile sadly. April brushed Destiny's dark hair while they talked, as they normally did before turning in at night. But ever since the truth got out, their relationship had changed ever so slightly. April's actions became softer, gentler toward the girl. And Destiny had opened up emotionally, spilling her guts until she had no more guts to spill. They both had cried their eyes out that day and had since accepted the terrible fact that their time together was limited.

Destiny twirled her curly locks between her fingers. "Could you do it up like you always-" She cut herself off.

"Huh?" April rested her chin on the girl's shoulder.

"N-nothing...It's just, I...You remind me too much of my mom. Act just like her." She bit her lip, knowing very well she shouldn't have brought it up again. "I forgot."

"I am your mother, aren't I?"

"Not yet...Maybe not ever now."

April dropped the brush in her lap and scratched the side of her nose. "Well, you haven't disappeared yet so maybe things will still work out."

Destiny turned around slowly. "Do you still love him?"

She nodded, and smiled shamefully. Her eyes teared up and she finally dared to ask the question that had plagued her for days. "Are your p-parents in love?"

"Madly." The other girl also became misty eyed. She blurted, "April, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to ruin it for the two of you! You would have been so happy..."

"I guess it just wasn't meant to be-ee..." They both broke down crying. AGAIN.

Merope rolled her eyes. Those two were too much alike. Too emotional, that is. Oy, would that Destiny were more like her father...Or not. The jerk. She polished the golden sword a little more vigorously, fuming. How? How could he say that in front of everyone? The whole wide world knew he didn't really mean it, for Christmas sake! And yet, three days and no apology, the stubborn little-

The obnoxious organ music blared in the room, startling all three of them out of their thoughts.

"Oh, no..." Destiny whispered, turning deathly pale. "It's HIM!"

"Don't be ridiculous, he's too weak to show his face around here." Still, Merope put the sword aside.

They both looked at April, who cleared her throat. She crept toward the front door. "W-who is it?"

"It's Bernard...Um, could we talk?"

Merope shoved the worried Destiny toward the door leading out into the hallway of the building and whispered, "We'll just show ourselves out. Good luck, girl. If he hurts you again, I'll kick his ya-know to kingdom come! Seriously." She kicked the air to emphasize her point.

She waved them out, then ran her fingers through her hair and hoped she didn't really look as bad as she felt. She opened the door. "You can come in now."

He did.

Painfully, she turned to face him. "So is this the official 'I never want to see you again' talk?"

He winced. "No, this is...My apology. I didn't mean to say that, surely you know I didn't. I...I'm sorry."

"Oh, you meant it, all right. I know you too well by now." She flopped onto the couch, suddenly numb. "It's okay, though...We should really break it off now before we get too serious."

He pulled up a chair. "I think I should make a correction. When I said that I didn't love you, I really meant that I didn't WANT to love you. Not that I don't." He made a face, realizing just how corny those words sounded.

She blinked. "So...You don't NOT love me?"

"That's right." He nodded. "I just don't want to love you..."

"Why not? Am I really that bad?"

"Not to sound cliché, but..." he licked his lips.”It's not you, it's me."

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever...Just, whatever, Bernard."

"Please, listen to me, April. In all honesty, I'm afraid to be in love. Okay? I don't know what to do, or what to say, and can you blame me? Everything I say is wrong when I'm around you. I can't think right, I trip over my words...And then when I do say something, it hurts you." He paused and looked into her eyes. Neither said anything for a long time, so he decided to continue. "Discovering Destiny's identity frightened me, because I felt like I had no control over the situation...Like someone came along and said, 'Bernard, you have a daughter. Get used to it.' And left me standing there with no say in the matter at all. Not being in control makes me very uncomfortable, as you should know very well by now. It frustrates me. And when I reach a certain level of frustration, I tend to...Lash out, at least verbally. So I truly am sorry, April."

She squirmed and looked away. "But I still don't understand why you're afraid to love me."

He took a deep breath. "Do you want the truth?"

"That would be nice, yes, please."

He stared at his hands. "When I was a bit older than Curtis I had a crush on a girl who liked to hit on me...But that didn't work out and I lost her. She was my only friend at the time. I don't want that to happen between us. And, unfortunately, that's probably exactly what will happen."

She sensed something strange in his voice. "What are you talking about?"

"This is going to sound really weird, but I'm actually talking about a bio-chemical...Thing..." He pointed at the hat that covered most of his head and laughed nervously, just realizing that now it was too late to end the conversation there. So he plunged ahead. "Do you know what pair bonding is?"

Her eyes lit up. "Some species of birds do it. It’s where they have one mate for life and never go astray. When their partner dies, they too sometimes die of a broken heart."

Bernard took off his hat and ran a hand through his dark hair. He exhaled loudly and grimaced. "Well, not just some species of birds pair bond...Some species of elves do too."

She stared at him as though he had declared himself a reindeer.

"Here's the heart of the matter, okay? If I were to KISS you, a chemical change would happen in my brain and I would either fall completely in love with you...Or loose all interest in you. Even as a friend. So I'm stuck between the metaphorical rock and hard place. If the latter happens, I don't want to hurt you. You mean too much to me now to risk that. Do you understand now, or am I just flapping my gums?" All this came out extremely fast.

She knew he wasn't just making that up, as hard to believe as it was. At least he was being somewhat honest now.

April ran her shaking hands through her long, strawberry-blond tresses, looking as though she would start crying again. She hung her head and took a deep, painful breath. For a moment they sat suspended in time, about to cross over into a place from which both knew they could not return.

Finally, her head snapped up and she locked him with a steely gaze. She wasn't just hurt, she was ticked off. "I understand, all right. I understand that you're a big coward!"

He reeled from her forcefulness. He hadn't expected that at all. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me, Bernard! I think you're a coward. So what if you loose interest in me? I'll get over it. There are lots of nice guys out there...Human guys, mind you...There's a whole community of former Maigri slaves on the east side of town...But the point is, I CAN move on. Don't worry about hurting me, because once you do you will no longer care. Right?"

He blinked and stuttered, trying to recollect his now shattered thoughts.

She didn't give him the chance to say a word before she continued. "I know what you're really afraid of is change. When I was your slave, I made you nervous because I refused to change and bend to your will. Destiny makes you uneasy because she IS your daughter, and you never even dreamed of having kids before. And I frighten you now because you DO love me but are just too weak to admit it to yourself, let alone anyone else. And another thing, you won't even-"

He cut her off by grabbing her face and giving her the world's shortest, angriest kiss. He stood up and held out his hands in surrender. "There, are you happy?!?"

Then his eyes clouded over and he swayed slightly on his feet as though in a trance. She couldn't tell at all by his expression what the outcome of the action was, so she also stood up and gave him a funny look. "Well? Do you still like me?"

He wrapped his arms around her waist and gave her a much gentler, much looonger kiss, then held her at arm's length. A very uncharacteristic grin broke out across his face and he laughed whole-heartedly. "What do you think? I do. I DO! I'm sorry I was...Such an unbelievable idiot. Forgive me!"

She couldn't help but laugh too. "Don't worry about it!"

"I'm not afraid of it anymore, April!" He planted his hands firmly on her shoulders and looked her directly in the eye, suddenly very serious again. "I. Love. You. I love you! Marry me."

She was about half way through responding to the first part of the statement ("Well, Bernard, you know I love you too...") when the second part smacked her across the face. (A/N: Okay, maybe I should restate that...Oh well...) She scrunched up her nose. "Excuse me, but aren't you taking this a little bit quickly?"

He shook his head. "Didn't you get what I said earlier? I have BONDED to you...I'll never leave you. Ever. And you won't be able to ever get rid of me, either. So why don't you save both of us the anguish and please just say yes."

"Yes." She looked into those dark brown eyes, and vaguely recalled them being in that position before...That moment when she first realized she had fallen for him like a ton of granny's old fruit cake. Of course he had been yelling at her at the time, but still... "Yes. But our problems won't go away just like that, you know that don't you?"

"I'll work at it, I promise. Oh, and before I forget..." He reached into his bag and pulled out a round vile filled with a golden, honey-like liquid. "This is for you. It's not a ring, but... At least it’s gold..."

She took it from him and held it up to the light. "What IS it?"

"It's an elixir that will suspend your aging for a month. I, um, practice alchemy as a hobby. How else do you think Sarah could work for me for over three hundred years and never age a day? But drink it right away, because it doesn't have a very long shelf life."

"Well, thank you. I will."

He kissed her again, then blindly walked backwards toward the door and threw it open. "And I'll be right back."

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to put an end to these crazy rumors that have been following us around since the day I brought you here." He grinned again and gestured violently toward the rest of the town outside her door. "The world must know how I wonderful I feel now that I've accepted the truth. That I...That we're getting MARRIED!" He actually skipped away down the street, leaving April torn between being overwhelmingly excited, and terribly disturbed. He wasn't kidding about that change in brain chemistry, was he? She kinda hoped the radical change wasn't permanent, though. Then it hit her.

She was going to get married. To Bernard.

She clutched the vile close to her heart and slid to the floor, her back against the door. What was she getting herself into? At least Merope's prediction had come true after all...

Curtis sat in the Cocoa Café, sipping a piping mug of apple cider (elves don't just drink cocoa, ya know) and trying to relax during his fifteen minute break before getting back to the grindstone. In fact, the café was relatively packed that day, as it had been ever since Judy revised the menu to include things other than cocoa. Soft piano music filtered through the room, soothing and tranquil.

The calm of the shop became sharply interrupted as Bernard burst into the room. "DRINKS FOR EVERYONE, ON ME!"

About a dozen eyes stared at him in disbelief. Judy smiled. "Wow, what's the occasion?"

"I'M GETTING MARRIED!"

The shop became a buzz of congratulations. He went around and shook the hand of every single person in the place. He came to Curtis last, and sat down at the table across from him. "I'm glad I found you."

Curtis put down his newspaper and folded his hands on the table. He told himself not to say I told you so. "I don't know what to say, Bernard. I'm...I'm really, very happy for you."

"Thanks. I want you to be my Best Man."

The younger elf blinked. "Me? Why?"

"You're my best friend."

"I am?" This was news to Curtis, but good news. He'd always looked up to Bernard as something like a role model, almost like the big brother he wished he had instead of Maigri. But he thought Bernard only saw him as a pest. "Really?"

"Of course."

He smiled genuinely. "I would be honored to be your Best Man, Bernard."

"Great! Now, if you'll excuse me..." He stood up, ruffled Curtis' hair and called out to Judy, "Give everybody what they want and I'll pick up the tab later."

She winked at him. "Gotcha! And congrats again!"

Next he decided to make a trip to the Department of Research and Development, where Santa's son and team of twenty elves worked diligently on perfecting those spaceships Destiny ordered. Charlie Calvin greeted Bernard with a warm but weary smile, wiped his greasy hands on a rag, then draped the rag over his shoulder. "What's going on?"

Bernard leaned on a computer console and tried to hide his grin. "Well, you were right."

Charlie's brow furrowed for a moment. Then it dawned on him. "Oh, so you patched things up with April?"

"Yep, now we're official. In fact..." He shook Charlie's hand and slapped him on the back. "I purposed."

Charlie coughed, having had the wind knocked out of his lungs. "Really? That's great!"

There was a pause, and Bernard looked at his boots. The extreme novelty of the situation began to die down just a bit. "You don't think I'm rushing things, do you?"

An elf interrupted their conversation with a question, which the human answered politely. When the worker had scampered off again, he turned back to his friend as though nothing had happened. "Well, if it works for you... When it's right, it's right. You just know it. Remember that Dad dated Carole for not even a month before they got married, and they're still madly in love all these years later. So I'm sure it'll be fine. Of course, there's a lot of work involved in marriage, and you two haven't had the most stable relationship...But if you really love her, you'll make it work."

Those weren't exactly the words of encouragement Bernard had been looking for, but oh well.

Charlie was about to ask him what triggered his radical shift in attitude, when Destiny entered the room. She smiled nervously at Bernard, suddenly much less confident of herself. "H-hello."

He threw his hands in the air and laughed joyfully. "Ah, just the person I wanted to see!"

He gave her a hug. She looked like a cat in the path of headlights. "Uh, HI?"

"You can exist again! Isn't that great?" He let go of her. She raised her eyebrows at him, and he shrugged. "Listen, I'm really sorry for yelling at you. That was way out of line. But I just bonded to April, (you know what I'm talking about, I assume, being my daughter and all) and now life is great! In fact, I have never felt this good in my entire life...And I'm over three thousand years old so that's saying something INDEED."

"That's great, Dad...I mean, Bernard!" They chuckled at the same time in the same way, and Charlie looked at them both like they were contagious. Destiny sucked in a deep breath and turned to him, suddenly all business. "How is production headed?"

Charlie cleared his throat and indicated to the giant Christmas ordainment looking object in the background, surrounded by scaffolding. "This is the last one, and it's about..." He pulled a calculation off the ceiling. "Seventy-three point eight nine percent finished? Give or take a hundredth of a point or two."

"Wonderful...And when do you expect to finish it?"

He grabbed a clipboard off the wall and flipped through a couple of pages before coming to a conclusion. "Next Saturday, I expect. And that's at the worst. At best by..." He squinted. "The day after tomorrow."

Bernard suddenly got the feeling he shouldn't be there so started backing out of the room. "Hey, I'm gonna go now...Uh, I'll leave you two to your matters...I told April I'd come right back anyway. So bye."

"Now don't get too naughty with her before the wedding, ya hear?" She called after him with a hand cupped over her mouth. His eyes went wide. That hadn't even entered his mind...Really, it hadn't! He chuckled to himself and walked away with a bounce in his step.

After much searching, he found his rival lurking about in an otherwise abandoned third floor corridor. "Hey, there! How's my good buddy?"

Maigri stared at him dumbfound. He looked around, thinking he must have been talking to someone else, but saw no one. "Excuse me?"

"I'M GETTING MARRIED!" He shook Maigri's hand violently, and then smacked him lightly on the back. "And you're not invited!" And walked back, leaving poor Maigri standing there with his hand still outstretched. He blinked several times and an alien feeling came over him.

He felt hurt.

And so, they began preparations for the wedding. Some said they had bad timing, since it was so close to the biggest day of the year. But nobody knew just how bad their timing really would be.


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