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Once Upon a Time there was a universe not too different from our own where magic ruled the universe alongside science. Within this Universe was a planet called Earth which had known many a King and Ruin until united under the rule of King Cochrane.
King Cochrane was an eccentric mage, who's seemingly random decisions left the nobles of Earth on their toes. Not many Kings in Earth's history could claim the things King Cochrane could. As the inventor of the starships, the first human to make contact with another planet and the King under which Earth united, he certainly had a reputation.
Adopting the grown son of his head guard fit the whirlwind decision making of the man. At least, as far as the commoners assumed.
In reality, King Cochrane was sharp witted, a deep thinker and highly distrustful. He created the starships and the spells that drove them because he refused to allow the royal magic guild to take the credit. He made first contact with the Vulcans for the sheer pleasure of pulling a fast one over them. There was nothing like asking to be taken to the planetary government only to realize you've been talking to them the whole time.
King Cochrane once explained that the pleasure became all the more enjoyable upon learning that Earth was a bit behind the times as unfortunately magic was rare on the planet. Studies say only one in ten thousand people have the ability, though King Cochrane believes everyone does if they bothered to try. Regardless, for a species like Vulcans who come by magic naturally, Earth was horribly under prepared for the rest of the universe.
When Vulcan tried to take the planet under their wing, King Cochrane dug in his heels and the best that Vulcan could manage against the combined stubborness of Earth was an arranged marriage of King Cochrane and Prince Solkar of Vulcan. It would be Prince Solkar's second marriage and with the life span discrepancies between Humans and Vuclans, he'd likely marry again before the end of his life. It was no loss to Vulcan as they had heirs and time, something Earth had neither of.
Which was why it wasn't kind-heartedness that had King Cochrane taking a young orphaned Star Knight under his wing after his head guard's death protecting the King from a Romulan plot. Certainly the King found his head guard to be his very best friend and was fond enough of his child himself, but King Cochrane wasn't looking for a son, he was looking for an heir.
He was building a legacy and for that he needed Star Knight Jonathan Archer because he had no one else.
Jon wasn't meant to be royalty. In fact, his greatest heart's desire was to explore space under his father's command but things had changed drastically after his father's death. Going from an unknown knight in training to the crown prince overnight sent Jon's head spinning and only his best friend, Trip, his new guard, Malcolm, and his new advisor, T’Pol kept his life straight.
At least when they weren't arguing. T’Pol was a Vulcan and her seemingly emotionless stance on things often butted heads with Trip's high emotions which then countered Malcolm's serious stoicism that often saw T’Pol as a threat herself.
Ultimately, it didn't matter if they trusted each other, because Jon trusted them all and he would need that trust for the coming challenges.
“What do you mean he's already married?” Trip demanded. His face was red as he squared up to T’Pol who looked completely apathetic towards Trip's plight.
Jon and his main aides, including Hoshi Sato the Royal Translator and Cultural Guide, were tucked away in his study to discuss the announcement made by the King at dinner.
Jon was to marry the Prince of Andoria, Thy’lek, in order to settle tensions between Earth and Andoria that have been slowly building since King Cochrane married Prince Solkar. Jon knew this was a show of good faith, that Earth could be friends with both Vulcan and Andoria even if the two planets continued their little cold war in the background.
Jon thought it would be better to just try and end the tensions between the two worlds but until King Cochrane died, things like that weren't his call. Which was maybe for the best as Jon was often rash in his desire to befriend others.
“Andorians practice multiamory including polyamorous relationships,” Hoshi explained, from her seat by the window. “It's actually a very effective method for making alliances. One Prince can marry both an Aenar and a Human and unite both the Andorian planet and one of the nearest semi-hostile, semi-allied planets.”
“Being the other woman isn't fair to Jon,” Trip argued.
“An arranged marriage period isn't fair to Jon,” Malcolm interjected, cutting over Hoshi’s objection that Jon would be the other woman in a consensual polyamorous relationship.
“I don't know, I think an arranged marriage is the only way I'm getting married,” Jon joked trying to break the growing tension in the room. It didn't work as even T'Pol sent a mournful look his way. “Guys, I'm getting married, not dying, stop picking flowers for my grave.”
“Andorians are a very militaristic society,” T'Pol started. “They like war. They like structure. They like rules and regulations. You Jon like none of those things. This isn't a good political match.”
The fact that Hoshi didn't argue with her told Jon everything he needed to know. T'Pol wasn't being rude and judgmental like Vulcans were known for. She was telling the truth, at least as Vuclan and Earth knew it.
Jon liked to judge people on his own experiences though.
“Everything will be fine,” Jon countered, putting an end to the discussion. “I'm sure Prince Thy’lek will be a decent person and if not at least I'll have Princess Jhamel to complain about it with.”
His friends traded looks but none of them said anything further on the topic as Hoshi turned their attention to the body language of the court during the announcements. Jon paid close attention because enemies within the house were always more dangerous than those on the outside.
There eventually came a day in mid-winter when shoving the arranged marriage out of his mind failed. It was hard not to think about his future husband when the man was somewhere in the palace.
Jon said somewhere because despite Prince Thy’lek being there for a week he had yet to run into any of the Andorian delegation. Dr. Phlox, a medic from Denobula, had mentioned something vaguely about a quarantine due to some Andorian virus but Jon hadn't thought it would be a whole week locked away.
The only indication that the Andorians were even present was the one guard who hadn't fallen ill. Shran was an oddly intense Andorian who took his job just a tad bit too seriously. Supposedly he had been given orders to join Jon's personal guard and personally guard Jon he certainly did.
Jon saw Shran more than he did his own guards as the alien trailed him through the corridors and pulled him out of more than one harmful situation that Jon was particularly skilled at getting himself into.
Shran was a man of few words but the words he did say were cutting and sarcastic in a way Jon found deeply amusing. There wasn't a single one of Jon's friends that Shran didn't rub the wrong way.
Trip hated him. Malcolm liked him. T'Pol pretended he wasn't there. Shran didn't like anyone but Jon. Jon cared for all of them.
This just meant that Shran fit well with the group who made it a goal in life to drive each other crazy on a constant basis.
What Shran lacked in words he made up for in questions. Questions about Earth, “why is only 10% of your planet tolerable?”, questions about Humans, “why do you insist on eating poison?” and mostly questions about Jon, “if you wish to explore space why are you here?”
Jon answered the questions easily, making things up for his own amusement when he didn't know the answer but as the questions grew more intense and personal, Shran guarding him felt more and more like an interrogation as time went on.
At the very least they found a similar ground on their view of space. Magic may have been what brought them all to the stars but space was where non-mages learned of a different kind of magic - the magic of exploration and discovery.
When Shran wasn't acting as a guard, he lived out Jon's dream with a ship that he was a commander of alongside the ship's mage, an Aenar he was married to. Which was how Jon learned a tidbit he would only share with Hoshi, Andorians were much more like Humans than Vulcans in that only some of them had magic. The Aenar are the ones always born with the ability to wield the cosmos.
Something about the way Shran said it, made Jon wonder at the true nature of Prince Thy’lek and Princess Jhamel's marriage and his own future union. Did the Andorians ally with the Aenar to make use of them and if so, what did they want with Earth?
Jon never got up the nerve to ask before things spectacularly went wrong.
“Tell me you didn't know?” Jon asked. He stared T'Pol down begging his friend not to break the trust he put in her.
Credit where it was due, T'Pol didn't lie. “I could not have told you where it was,” she replied, “but I should have told you it existed.”
Jon's jaw clenched. “And you, your highness?” Jon demanded, turning to Shran, or rather Prince Thy’lek. “Do you often fake marriage proposals to get what you want?”
“No,” Shran, Prince Thy’lek, whatever his real name was, replied. “And I didn't fake this one. The opportunity to not only see if rumors were true about Vulcans using Earth as a spy station as well as swipe their singular allyship of Earth from them was too much to deny. The days of Vulcan taking over planets under the guise of protection should be over.”
“As if Andoria doesn't do the same,” T'Pol replied.
“Enough!” King Cochrane yelled, silencing all parties that stood within the underground spy center. Consort Solkar stood at his side, blank faced in a way that spelled a personal betrayal. T'Pol knew but Jon would bet anything that Solkar didn't.
Something like this would have put him at great personal risk as an alien on a foreign world. Something like this would put Jon at risk in the future if this wasn't settled here and now.
“I want this gone,” Jon said, speaking over King Cochrane. Oddly enough they said the exact same thing. The King looked at Jon funny before motioning for him to continue.
“If Vulcan and Andoria wish to make allies of Earth, it will be done honestly from here out. No more spy centers and no more lies. Earth is willing to work with both of you, so work with us and learn to work with each other.” Jon turned to Shran, not Thy’lek who Jon had never really met, but Shran the man who had wormed his way into Jon's friendship. “There won't be a wedding until you do.”
“The Vulcans-” Shran started to object before being cut off by Consort Solkar.
“Will be handled.”
The wind seemed thoroughly removed from Shran’s sails as that comment ended the discussion. Consort Solkar marched off, clearly at the end of even his Vulcan control, and King Cochrane followed.
Jon looked between T'Pol and Shran before storming off in a similar direction, he stopped at the door. “You know, when magic first got our ships off the ground and into the stars, Humans were excited. For centuries we've reached out to the stars for connection and when we find it, it's just more people out to control us. I thought I could trust you two, but-” Jon paused and reconsidered what he was about to say. He shook his head instead. “I thought I could trust you two.”
A knock on his office door was the last thing Jon expected after his eventful day. Most people were too busy scrambling after the King and his Consort to bother him right now. He assumed it was Malcolm or Hoshi coming to offer their own awkward brand of comfort. Trip would have just slammed the door open.
Jon moved to open the door but it wasn't one of his friends standing on the other side, though at one point they could have been.
Shran was for some reason holding a fistful of flowers pulled from the royal garden beds.
“What?” Jon asked, his tone more confused than the anger he was going for.
“The translator, Sato? She said Humans give flowers when they are sorry,” Shran said, pushing the disheveled roses towards Jon.
“They do,” Jon said, trying to prompt Shran further but the Andorian didn't budge. Jon probably should have known better. Shran had offended plenty of people in the few weeks he had been in the palace and had apologized exactly zero times.
Flowers were honestly more than could be expected.
“I didn't need a fake marriage to get here,” Shran said, staring out the window to avoid looking at Jon. “King Cochrane was excited enough at the idea of a treaty alone and marriage to seal a treaty isn't really the Andorian way of doing things.”
“So you and Jhamel?” Jon prompted.
Shran shrugged. “Fell in love during negotiations,” he replied. “Her brother had been a prisoner of war which left her in a very delicate situation as she negotiated the end of the Andorian-Aenar War. I was impressed.”
“So then why me?” Jon asked. If Shran didn't need the marriage and Andorians didn't marry for treaties then what was the point?
“I was impressed by your records from your time as a Knight,” Shran answered. “I wasn't lying, Jhamel and I run a ship together but I'm not some great negotiator like you are. I think you could honestly get Klingons to shake hands if you wanted.”
Jon thought back to his one interaction with Klingons where he could honestly say the most he got out of them was not killing him and thought Shran gave him way too much credit.
“I wanted to see what you Humans were made of and needed a reason to get close. I would have married you, without regret.” Shran finished. He nodded his head as he said his last piece and then moved towards the door.
“Do you really fall in love that easily?” Jon joked. He thought it odd that Shran would marry both Jhamel and Jon after such a short time knowing them.
“Yes.”
Jon had been to a lot of strange worlds but Andoria was unlike any other. It was like Jon had been dropped into the middle of Antarctica on steroids.
If asked he couldn't honestly say why he was here, all his friends thought it was an attempt to salvage any remaining good will between Earth and Andoria but that was a lie. King Cochrane had settled ruffled feathers over a year ago and Andoria and Vulcan had signed a peace treaty themselves, no unnecessary marriage needed, two months before.
Jon was here for a more secretive negotiation that was had over nightly portal calls. At first it had been awkward and difficult to talk to Shran about their not-a-friendship not-a-relationship status knowing Jhamel was the one holding the call portal open, but if Jon was honest, after a year he was a little bit in love with her too.
Which brought him here with Trip, Malcolm, and T’Pol at his side once more with a proposition.
Shran’s father was intimidating, his voice echoed across the ice as he asked for Jon's purpose in being there.
Jon answered him honestly. “A year ago the engagement between myself and your son ended due to political complications. In light of recent alliships, I would like to extend my own proposal for marriage to your son.”
It wasn't the King who answered him. Instead, from a side door, Shran stepped out and answered in a way even his father couldn't argue with.
“Yes.”
“And they lived happily ever after!” Talla declared, finishing Jon's Fairy Tale for him. “Fairytales always end happily!”
“Well, not always,” Jon replied, “but this one yes. Now, I believe the deal was a story and then bed.”
Talla huffed but didn't fight Jon as she laid back in her bed.
Jon bent over to kiss her forehead and smiled as Talla’s antenna tapped his forehead in return.
“Night Princess Talla,” Jon said, slipping from the room.
He ran directly into Thy’lek who was leaning against the wall across from Talla’s bedroom door. He had clearly been listening to Jon's story if the smirk on his face was anything to go by.
“Not very realistic,” Thy’lek said.
Jon rolled his eyes. “No, I'm pretty sure that's exactly how P'Jem went down,” he said.
Thy’lek shrugged, a Human gesture he had picked up. “Maybe, but there are better stories of ours to turn into Fairy Tales. Like what about the time Captain Archer was stranded on the high sea, or whatever, surrounded by enemies until Captain Shran came to his rescue.”
“You mean when Pirate Shran betrayed Captain Archer's trust and stole his treasure before feeling guilty?” Jon asked innocently.
“Maybe not the best story either,” Thy’lek admitted.
“I think,” Jhamel said, interjecting into their conversation, “that the story of how Princess Jhamel used her smarts and bravery to take on the Romulans to try and save her brother and people while Prince Thy’lek and Prince Jon struggle in the background with their growing feelings for both the Princess and each other is the best Fairy Tale.”
Thy’lek and Jon traded a look.
“Of course, your Highness,” Jon replied while Thy’lek bowed sarcastically.