Having received a message from Locke that it would be morning before he returned, John resigned himself to sleeping alone, something that hadn't happened in a very long time. He found himself hoping that the news was good, not that something terrible was going on. He had really meant it when he had told him, "Good luck..." After all, it meant a baby...no...babies.

In the Green Witch's quarters, Locke and Darwinia participated in her wish for some cuddling, and were snuggling and kissing, and petting until they fell asleep. Early in the morning, Locke awoke before Darwinia, and noticing their conditions, slunk off to the shower and cleaned himself up. She seemed so content that he felt cruel to have to awaken her. He decided to stall a little longer, and went back into the water closet to draw her a hot bath.

Once the little copper tub was filled with hot water, he snooped through the supplies stored there. Finding what he sought, he set out two dainty china dishes, one filled with iridescent-green lime-scented bath beads, the other with soft matte-green mint-scented beads.

Having donned his soiled uniform from yesterday, he flopped back down on the bed next to her, but on top of the covers. Brushing her hair back from her face, he called her name softly, "Darwinia...Darwinia..." And then a little more loudly, "Darwinia..."as he touched her cheek. Her eyes fluttered open and a soft smile lit her sleepy face. She leaned into the palm he had placed on her cheek.

"Good Morning." She gazed deeply into his blue-green eyes, with such affection as to be embarrassing.

Locke sat back and added, "I hate to go, but I need to get back. I've run you a bath. Do you need help bathing? I can help, or I can have a Lady sent in." He took her hand and kissed her fingers one at a time. "Oh, and what are we going to do about him?" Locke jerked his head in the direction of his guardian. She glanced over Locke's shoulder and made a gesture with her hand. The Personal Guardian, Geoffrey, shook elaborately and stood up at attention, cocking his head at Locke. Locke stood and held up a finger. "A moment, please..."

"Locke, I'll be fine. If I need someone, I'll send for a Lady." Darwinia stood on tiptoe and kissed Locke soundly. "I'll see you later, darling." He smiled his sweetest smile and turned away, signaling Geoffrey to follow. 

"Don't forget to wear my gift for Johnny." He grinned and exited her apartment.

Feeling like he had run a marathon carrying his horse, Locke strolled slowly back to his rooms, eager to see Johnny, and perhaps get some more sleep. Geoffrey followed at a discreet distance, sensing his charge's mood. He also remembered a smattering of last night's activities, and it wasn't all playing cards. (...The witch must have done something to my memories...) Geoffrey watched Locke shuffle along, not his usual proud strut, and his brows rose imperceptibly, not totally oblivious, but wondering how Locke could be so worn out.

Locke flung John's door open, and called, "Honey, I'm home." The prince was seated at his desk, making a last-minute adjustment to a decree he was to make in his father's stead. Turning in his chair, he spied Locke and jumped up and ran into his open arms. He snuggled his face into Locke's chest.

"I have missed you so much." 

Locke wound his arms around John and squeezed him hard. "Me, too." He kissed the top of John's head. John leaned back in Locke's arms and looked up at his face, with a knowing grin lighting his face. Locke grinned back, "Minx." He took John's hand and wandered slowly into the room. Geoffrey slid by them and tucked himself into a corner. (...Unbelievably, this seemed natural, unlike last night...)

"You look exhausted. Did you get any sleep?"

"Yes, but it was weird. Lots of odd dreams, and I feel tired out, emotionally more than physically. Be prepared for an unusual night, Johnny." He hugged John close again. "I do have to confess one thing." 

He looked around to see where the two Personal Guardians were "lurking." They were conversing quietly against the far wall. Little did Locke or Johnny know, that Geoffrey was telling his partner, Davison, that he thought that the witch had put a spell on him. "It didn't hurt, and I never noticed anything at all, until this morning when the Consort Locke was acting very unlike himself." He paused. "Just be careful."

Locke had seated Johnny on the settee in the bedroom and sat himself very close with his arm around Johnny's waist. "It was all very exciting, and having sex with a beautiful woman, even for someone with my proclivities, is not boring." He touched Johnny's cheek and turned his face up for a quick kiss. "I hope you have as much pleasure as I did. And that's what she requires anyway, to meet her criteria for her pregnancy."

He gazed off into the middle distance a second. "I had a rush of guilt this morning, feeling like I had cheated on you." Johnny shook his head. "Yes, I did, but when I reflected on it, I felt better. I was able to make love to her, and I finally realized that it was for us...for you." Johnny blinked slowly. "I'm telling you this, because I don't want you to feel guilty or anything. Remember when I told you that there are many ways to make love to each other. Loving Darwinia is one of those ways. Do you understand?"

The prince stared into Locke's eyes and saw no guile or evasion, only the profound love that Locke felt for his John. "I understand, Sherlock, and I love you. I'll do my very best to make you proud by loving the Green Witch the way she needs to be loved..." His soft smile broadened and he giggled to lighten the mood. "By the way, you got any tips?" 

"Idiot!" Locke grinned and hugged John playfully.

Locke pleaded exhaustion and asked for a longish nap. Locke dragged his clothes off and crawled into the bed. Johnny stripped off most of his clothes and lay down beside him, gathering Locke against his chest and holding him while he slept. The young prince spent the full two hours just gazing at Locke's beautiful face in repose as he napped in the arms of his prince.

As suppertime approached, Locke used his special skills to make Prince John into the gorgeous young royal that he was. He dressed him, and groomed him, and decorated and polished him. John humored his love, but knew that none of this mattered, not to him, not to Darwinia, not to their future children.

With his ubiquitous guardian on his tail, he strolled jauntily to the Green Witch's apartment. At her door, he reached up to knock, and the door opened silently. Darwinia called from within, "Come in, Johnny." He glanced back at Davison, his guardian and shrugged. Stepping into her rooms, he let Davison slip around him as he went to hide on the far wall. Didn't do him any good. Darwinia waved a hand at him, and he watched his charges play cards for a few hours.

Prince John glanced at Davison and then turned to face the young witch, at which point he turned into a blithering idiot. "God, Darwinia, that's not fair. You're stunning...Beautiful...Too... too..." He just stood, shaking his head, his fingers kind of flickering as if he were playing scales on his pianoforte.

The beautiful Green Witch stood next to her bed in Italian-made very high green satin heels, a satin Kelly green bustier with an attached ruffle that almost...almost covered her secondary sex characteristics. More than half of her exquisite breasts spilled over the top of the bustier. The ruffle flared out at her hips and gave peek-a-boo glimpses of her most feminine place when she moved or even just breathed. The whole picture was camouflaged in a floor-length, kimono-sleeved peignoir of the palest green, embroidered here and there with soft green roses.

"This was Locke's gift, the one I never got around to opening." She gazed up at John's gaping face. "He wanted me to wear it for you, since he never got to see me in it."

Breathlessly, John whispered, "Poor Sherlock." She lowered her eyes and smiled shyly. In a kind of skipping turn, she whirled all the way around to let him see the whole effect. Facing him again, she lifted her arms and turned beseeching hands to John.

He stepped closer and gently took her into his arms. "Darwinia...Winnie...I want...I want to kiss you until neither of us can breathe. I want to feel your body tremble with joy under mine. I want you to feel the joy that you so want for me. Will you let me try to love you...Winnie...darling?" She threw herself against him and wound her arms around his neck. She leaned away from him, looked up at his handsome face, and parting her lips, let her eyes drift to his.

The prince let his eyes rove all over her face as he slowly lowered his mouth to hers. His slightly parted lips met her slightly parted lips, and their warm moist breaths mingled for a second, before they both deepened the kiss, his tongue slipping into her mouth. She sucked his tongue. His mind whirled. Suddenly, he understood how Locke felt, when he feared he had enjoyed her loving too much.

She took his hand and led him to her bed. They sat down side by side, scooted back to the middle of the soft mattress, as he slipped an arm around her waist. "Locke had been with a woman when he was very young. I never have," he confessed in an unsure whisper." He leaned forward and cocked his head to look closely at her face. "But..Locke is not the only one who can do research." He grinned. Her forehead wrinkled, and his silly smile slipped. "I wanted to learn how to please you. I...I wasn't sure that I could."

Her eyes misted as she gazed at his adorable face. He's so sweet and so innocent, trying so hard to please not just me, but Locke as well. (...How could anyone not love this sweet princeling?...)

She lay her palm on his cheek and turned his face to hers and pressed a sweet and undemanding kiss. John leaned into the kiss and pressed his lips closer. He placed his hand over hers on his cheek and lay back, pulling her with him. As they lay side by side, he lifted a knee to lay across her thigh and slipped his leg between her thighs. Raising himself on his elbow, he drew the peignoir off her shoulders and kissed the curve of her breasts above the bustier, the hollow at the base of her throat, the shoulder nearest him. She shook the peignoir off her arms, as he pulled his arms out of the sleeves of his over-wrapped half-cape. 

She helped him take off his doublet and began unbuttoning his starched-stiff white ruffled shirt. When she came to the waist of his leggings, she rolled them down, exposing a firm muscled abdomen with a slice of curling blond hair trailing down to "there." He pulled the ribbons encasing her in her bustier and it fell away taking the useless ruffle with it. He hissed in a noisy breath at her pale skin glistening in the light of the single candle in the middle of the room. He murmured softly, "Beautiful..."

A/N: For those that would rather not read sweet smut, the rest of this chapter is a love scene. You may wish to skip this part and go on to the next. 

He shinnied out of his leggings, freeing his more-than-adequate male member. She gasped as she saw him. She turned awed eyes to his, and whispered, "Oh, Johnny..." He smiled shyly, never having thought anything of it. It was just him. She reached down and touched the tip, brushing her thumb over it. John gasped and his eyes snapped to hers.

"If this is going to be successful, you need to stop that." He smiled a wobbly smile. She giggled.

Raising himself on his elbows again, he cupped both breasts and sucked and kissed them until the tender peaks of her nipples stood stiff. Sliding both knees between her thighs, he poised himself over her womanliness and lowered his hips until he felt the tip of himself breach her female center. She was warm, much warmer than he had ever imagined. 

He pushed himself deeper, keeping eye contact with her, until her eyes drifted closed, her breath coming in gasps. It was still warmer, hot even. He pulled out a little and drove in deeper again. He recognized the edges of the aching pleasure that he experienced with Sherlock. He had better go forward with what he learned.

"Winnie, I want to do something new that I learned. May I try?" Her eyes half-opened.

"Anything  you want, darling..."

"'Kay...This is for you to do, but it's supposed to help the female reach orgasm more easily." She arched a brow.

"You think I'll have a problem?"

"I really wasn't sure about myself and if I could d...."

"Johnny, you're so beautiful, it could happen just from kissing you." The prince blushed and lowered his eyes shyly. It took a moment for him to recover his aplomb. All his life he had been told about his beauty and charm and whatever, but he always assumed it was because he's "the prince." Hearing it from this (...literally...) enchanting woman was too much.

Softly, he mumbled, "Thank you." She caressed his cheeks. Staunchly, he continued, I'm going to try to penetrate your..." She faux-frowned. "I'm going to penetrate your body. As I do, you use your internal muscles to push as hard as you can against me, as if trying to keep me from penetrating you...for seven breaths. Then I'm going to begin to withdraw, you try to hold onto me by squeezing as hard as you can for four breaths. We will keep trying back and forth until something changes. Is that okay?"

"Of course."

"I'm sorry that this is so awkward."

"This isn't awkward, darling. Married couples and long-time lovers talk to each other and experiment all the time. This is perfectly natural." A quick gasp escaped her lips as he entered her again. The surprising breadth and length of the prince's manhood caught her unaware again. 

She remembered her part and tried pushing against his throbbing member. The pressure seemed to increase tenfold and was beyond exciting. His lips parted on a quick inhaled hiss. She never thought to count breaths, but John seemed to know when to withdraw. She began to squeeze as hard as she could manage. The pulling against John's withdrawal surprised both of them. He immediately began to push himself into her center again. She tried pushing and felt the touch of an aching wonder within her core. 

A few breaths later and she was starting to feel a frantic need to hold onto him and started squeezing before he tried to withdraw. His ragged breath was coming in short gasps. His body was screaming for relief. The anticipation of the pleasure/pain was causing a lump in his throat as he tried to hold on for her. He reversed again, and as he did so, a soft sob escaped his lips as he felt the bliss start. He fell into an all-consuming, burning ecstasy, and felt ashamed that he hadn't been able to hold out longer. 

It was then that he noticed tendons and veins standing out on her arched neck and her hips were bucking against his. A powerful aching bliss rushed through her core and radiated to the tips of her fingers. A full seven "breaths" later her womanly center was still fluttering softly as liquid heat trickled through her. Her body fell lax to the bed and tears trailed down her cheeks. Moaning softly, she clutched ineffectually at his shoulders and arms. Barely a whisper found its way to his ears, "Johnny...My Prince...My Johnny..." She murmured the litany for a few seconds before opening her eyes and gazing at his adored face.

Her lips parted, and he dropped his lips to hers in a crushing, fervent, and deeply emotional kiss. Their tongues battled, sucking, caressing, their need drawing the warm breath from each other, tears searing the eyes of both of them. As the wondrous joy waned, the frantic kissing and embracing slowed and they spent long moments, just looking into each other's eyes and remembering that this would be the only time they ever "love" each other.

Locke wasn't expecting him home tonight. He threw himself onto the bed beside her. Taking her hand and kissing her fingers, his half-opened eyes gazed lovingly into hers, as the two drifted to sleep, sated and warm and joyful.