The hero and the princess - 12

The wedding cake was caramel, tiered, with butter cream frosting and an edging of delicate licorice lace around the bottom. When Dante's grandmother whispered that a wedding cake should be white he faked a panic, asking with an increasingly loud voice: "The cake isn't white? It was supposed to be white; isn't it white? Why isn't the wedding cake white?" until Moonbeam elbowed his ribs and the grandmother walked away in a huff.

He didn't care what color the cake was; it was the perfect flavor, and he absolutely ruined it by sticking his fingers in the icing and feeding bits to his wife.

---

May was her real name. She'd given fakes to the others, just like Dante had pretended he wasn't blind.

He never stopped calling her Moonbeam.

---

"You have cotton candy eyes." Moonbeam told him the first time he removed his glasses for her. He told her to prove it, and she took him to the state fair where they ate and whirled until they were absolutely ill. They brought home three bags of cotton candy and ate from them clear through Christmas.

---

Dante told Moonbeam that her eyes were the saddest flavor he'd ever seen; she asked how he knew.

"I told you I'd see you, when you loved me again."
"Be serious."
"I saw you. You were wearing the licorice and butter cream skirt; I don't know the color for your hair, but the grass was green and your shoes must've been red."

She spent the rest of the night curled in his lap, weeping as he stroked her hair.

---

May finished studying art. They were watching fireworks when she thought to ask what he'd done before, ever in his life.

"Didn't I tell you? I'm a hero… I save the world one broken heart at a time. Occasionally I push ladies at the bus stop."

She held his hand the rest of the way home.

---

Dante met her in the park one day for lunch. She was wearing a skirt, and he reached under to caress her thigh. Instead he was met with a handful of ruffles.

"What's this?" He was shaking the fabric.
"It's a petticoat."
"Did I somehow miss that we live at the junction? Is there an old-timey train station nearby?"
"No, stop that now. My legs are cold, and it keeps me warm."

He was shaking the ruffles; she was batting his hands away. Then he stood up.

"Anything around us?"
"Not close… why?"

He threw her over his shoulder, spinning and shouting "This is my Petticoat Princess!" She laughed and the people walked around them.

---

Dante was the first to see them, when it was all finished. He curled into the bed with May and let his fingers roam until they found the lump in her arms.

"What's she look like?"

"Her skin is pink like strawberry cake, and her hair is soft and white like butter cream frosting."

He pressed his nose against the infant, who hiccupped in response.

"How long before she can jump in puddles?"