How did you end up here? Jo thought to herself. All you wanted was to lead the life of riley, instead somehow here you are standing inside an abandoned castle, outside of a room where ‘sleeping beauty lies.’

It was so cliché it actually hurt Jo to think about it. Why hadn’t she seen the signs earlier?

She had met a ‘Prince Charming’ type before and had to say he was a right knob. Arrogant and self-assured when really there was nothing to him, other than fabulously wealthy parents and a lot of surgical work. The PR work his family had done to cover up the rape charges were immoral at best.

Yet here she was dick in pants, sword in hand with a door to some princess’s chambers in front of her. Top tip, when you go for a walk in the forest and are approached by a seemingly near blind elderly lady, walk briskly in the other direction, don’t make eye contact, nothing good can come from it. No genuinely near blind elderly lady goes walking alone in the woods.

Jo cursed herself, personal pronouns were hard when she was inhabiting a man’s body, she never knew if she should call herself by the feminine or masculine form. Neither seemed quite apt for her situation. Don’t even get started on when she was an Amoeba.

Yes, there were some languages where the split was less defined but that wasn’t her language and she always reverted back to her basics.

She was procrastinating. She knew this but didn’t want to go into the room. The door between her and sleeping beauty was your traditional fairy tale one. Pristine, trapped in time as everything else around it rotted away. She knew already what the room inside would look like.

Well here goes nothing. She pushed on the door and was happy to find that it opened with ease. She didn’t want to have to solve a magical lock this late in the game.

Inside the room everything was as expected. Perfectly maintained rug on the floor, heavy wooden furniture untouched by rot or worm. Jo walked over to the vanity table, strangely lacking in jewellery if she had to be honest. Had someone pillaged the room before she had gotten here? It would explain the lack of a magical lock.

In the centre of the room was the bed, a four poster with silk drapes hiding the occupant. Why did these royal folks always have their beds in the middle of the room? It was one of the first things she had ordered changed when she became a prince. It was a ridiculous thing to do.

Gingerly she pulled open the drapes, she wasn’t really looking forward to forcing herself on a sleeping princess.

“huh…” sleeping beauty was actually Prince Charming, with an erection.

Jo stood and pondered this for a while, what did it mean? Had the elderly lady’s sight been that bad that she had thought that Jo was a woman? Had the elderly lady known that Jo was actually a woman masquerading in a man’s body? Or did she know that she was a man and it was Prince Charming who was living his life as a lie. Was Jo Prince Charming’s true love?

She pulled her sword from her scabbard and swung the blade parallel to the body.

Nope she definitely wasn’t his true love.