Oooh yes! But then he pulls away, grinning, and says, "Straightforward, aren't you?"

"Who? Me? No way."

"Oh, my bad, please continue."

"Sure!" Peter continues kissing.

This is some A+ quality kissing right here.

"Our ice creams are going to melt," he says eventually.

"Good point! Can't have melted ice cream like a savage."

"Exactly!"

Lick. Kiss. Cold kiss.

Lick. Delicious cold kiss.

Eventually: "So why did you get a squirrel the other day?"

"Would you be surprised if the answer was 'nuts'?"

"—only a bit. What?"

"There was a dispute between two fair folk. One that claimed lordship over the trees and another that claimed lordship over the small mammals. They were disputing who gets ownership of nuts, since squirrels do the thing where they bury them and the ones they forget turn into trees. When I got there, someone was proposing that they'd cut all trees and all squirrels in half and tree lord was arguing that the cut should be vertical while the mammal one was arguing to cut the limbs or branches."

"How ridiculously petty. Are they gonna start arguing about it with all other tree and mammal fairies in the UK, too?—they are fairies, right? You mentioned you lived in a single-species court..."

"Their claim of lordship is only in the court's area. But I wouldn't be surprised if they decided to pick a fight with anyone. They are both fairies, yes. We have others but they are like, sort of not-actually-part of the court."

"Oh? What do they do there?"

"It varies? A lot? I think most are artists, entertainers, or sex workers. Fairies have this beehive-like structure and everyone has a job and other kinds of fair folk are sort of... bells and whistles."

"Bells and whistles. How quaint. So they're just decoration?"

"I mean, these are fair folk. To them bells and whistles are like the most important part of life. But I don't think the Queen needs four different musicians for each time of the day, she has a music player. But decoration is properly descriptive."

"And what do they get out of it?"

"You say that like fair folk have the habit of being sensibly focused?"

"Well they're usually focused even if not sensibly."

"Fair enough. But again, it varies. Food and shelter and a measure of safety? Wouldn't be surprised if some kink on doing the Queen's whims."

Snort. "Makes sense."

"I would complain that all we talk about are the fair folk in my life, but they do take a good chunk of it."

"Feel free to suggest a different topic."