"So if like - the first time we'd talked about this, I'd said 'oh, there's a fairy custom where if you like your human very much you tell your whole court that you mean to keep them in comfort for the rest of their mortal life', then, that wouldn't be the things you know, but it'd be - closer -"

Nod. "I mean - if there were just something you did to mean that someone really mattered to you, then - maybe, yeah.

" - oh, um, married people where I'm from wear rings? Matching ones? It's not - it wouldn't be a promise, or anything, by itself, but it'd be - people you're not committed to don't wear rings. I don't know if that helps, but -"

"It does, yeah."

Nodnod.

"About the other thing - I don't really know how much sex has to hurt. I think - nobody's ever really tried to make it nice at all, before, and - but if we did ever, I think I'd want to know that - whatever we were doing was a really different sort of thing, from what happened before? So - I might need time. And might need to be really far away from court. But - if we were together and going to stay together and if all of me and not most of me was sure things were different now, then -

" - I think then maybe I would want to see if it didn't have to hurt. Someday. But I don't really know from here."

"Okay. I'm not...it's not important to me but I think that's mostly because I didn't realize it was important to you?"

Nod.

"I don't think it'd be terrible, if it didn't ever happen. And - it's really really good that it doesn't - I think most people would feel like not having it wasn't really an option, no matter how much it hurt. At least if they were thinking about marrying someone. Or kind of marrying them."

"I guess I was kind of imagining human marriage is similar to commitments made to someone you're having a child with, and, uh, for that fairies do actually need to have sex."

"Yeah. It is. Probably.  This is why the entire situation is - " wobbly hand gesture. "I hadn't ever occurred to me that anyone would care about me and - also care so much about hurting me that they considered just - not."

“That’s - not even really about you. I don’t really think I would have any fun if I were having sex with someone who was clearly hoping that if they held still enough I’d be done soon.”

Nodnod.

Pat. “Anyway we should - be away from this place, and figure other stuff out, first.”

Snuggle. "Yeah."

“Did you want to try meeting anyone in a less - formal manner at some point?”

"...maybe. I'm - not really any good at talking to important people when I'm not telling them stories."

"You definitely don't have to. People are curious but they can either suck it up or in one case mysteriously learn it anyway."

Oh good. "Curious about what, in particular?"

"You! What humans are like, where you're from, how you like it here..."

"Oh. Well. ....can you be there and make sure nothing accidentally terrible happens and that we can go if we really need to?"

"Of course."

"Okay. Then I think I can probably talk to people."

"Okay. - I'm not promising you'll like them. You probably won't."

Nodnod. "'s okay."

So he makes arrangements and a few days later takes her out of court up a tree where some of his brothers are sitting around a glowing rock, talking in only slightly halting Norwegian.

"You made it!"

"It's not that much of a trip."