He waited on the shore, pacing back and forth over the pebbled beach. The water on either side stayed silent and still. Still enough to ripple when he kicked a pebble into the water in a short burst of frustration. His toe throbbed in response but he ignored it and turned on a pivot to pace the beach again.

"Did you miss me so much you'd take to roaming the beach?" He looked up as Anna waved at him, her golden hair hanging damp but not soaked on her shoulders. Shoulders covered by fabric that wrapped her entire body.

"I'd hoped you'd return."

"I went to another part of the island to explore a bit." She paused, "Am I allowed to do that?"

"As long as you harm nothing."

"I was careful with my steps." Anna climbed onto the rock and looked at him as if waiting for John to join her. "I'd hate to ruin the beauty of this haven."

"It is lovely." He climbed next to her, leaving space between them. "Did you see anyone else?"

"Why? Are you worried I'd make a friend who isn't you?"

"No, I…" He stopped, his brow furrowing at the smile on her face. "I think you are poking fun at me."

"A little." She shrugged, swaying a second as her hands repositioned to hold the fabric over herself. "But that is what you do, when you're friends."

"Is that what we are?"

"I'd hope so. I told you my name and helped give you one of your own." She shrugged again. "It seems like the kind of things friends do."

"Do you have many friends, Anna?" He risked scooting a little closer to her, taking the time as she spoke to study her better. To commit her better to memory after the last time.

"Not here." Her face fell a little, her teeth biting at her lip. "When we were in Yorkshire I did. Not many friends but good ones. The kinds of friends you could tell all your secrets and never worry that they'd tell anyone else."

"But not here?"

"No, not here." She shook her head slowly, taking a breath that slightly unsettled the fabric over her shoulders so it fell to expose her skin. "Not yet, anyway. I'm hoping to make more friends once we travel a bit more."

"You'll be traveling?"

Anna nodded, "My father's been appointed here. It's…" She frowned, "I'm not sure what you know about humans and how we govern ourselves but the people in charge ordered my father to come here. To try and help maintain some kind of order or something."

"Do humans need much order?"

"We do when we're not kind to one another. Which, unfortunately, we often aren't." Her chest deflated a little, as if the weight of the statement sat heavier on her shoulders. "I'm not sure the Fey have the same problem."

"We do." He nodded and she turned to him. John offered her a smile and knocked his knuckles against his armor. "Why do you think I wear this?"

"To protect yourself, of course."

"But who did you think I was protecting myself from?"

"Honestly?" Her fingers dug into the fabric. "Humans, probably."

"In my grandfather's day that was the case but not now." John shook his head, gazing out across the lake. "As you said, humans don't usually get along with one another. In times like that they tend to forget we exist."

"It probably helps that my people think the people here…" Anna paused, "I'm not from here and the people who sent my father here aren't natives either. This land it's… It's not ours but it is. Does that make sense?"

"You don't sound like the humans from here so I knew you weren't native." He pointed across the lake. "They've got brogues and trills to their voice you don't have. A natural roughness that speaks to how the land here grows in them. In a way the land doesn't grow in you."

"What land grows in me?"

He turned to her, bringing a leg up onto the rock so he could lean fully toward her. Study her more intently. "You said, when we first met, that you think there are Fey in the Yorkshire Moors, yes?"

"Yes."

"There are. And while I've never met them, I studied what knowledge we gathered about them." He reached into a pocket of his kilt and pulled out a smooth stone. "This is what they sound like."

Placing the stone on the rock between them, he whistled three notes. In response, the stone glowed for a moment before it emitted a sound. Or, rather, a multitude of sounds. All layered and weaving with one another as if singing the same song at different tempos with different voices and in different harmonies. It clashed and ran together until all that was left was a composite sound that ended almost as swiftly as it began.

John took the darkened stone back and slipped it into his pocket. "They sound like you do."

"I can't sing."

"No?"

Anna reddened slightly. "Not like that, anyway. We sing in church but it's not the same." She shuffled in the fabric before holding out a pleat of it. "Thank you, for this. It's very comfortable."

"You insisted that you didn't want to show off to the whole island." He grinned at her, watching the shade of red on her cheeks change hue. "And I didn't feel like sharing the view."

"Well," Anna shifted in place again, keeping her grip tight on the fabric. "A lady's supposed to preserve her modesty."

"Is that what all humans believe?"

"Most of us. And since it gets so cold up here it'd be foolish to go about wearing nothing all the time." Anna turned over her shoulder as if eyeing the tree line. "How is it that you stay warm if your people don't wear clothes?"

"The weather on this island does not change much once you're a bit further inside the tree line." John slid off the rock and offered Anna a hand. "If you'd like to see what I mean."

She took his hand and slid daintily to the ground, keeping a firm grip on the fabric. "I would like to see a bit more of the island."

"There's not much more you're allowed to see. Past the beach, that is." John ducked his head, leading forward to the tree line and slowly his pace to account for Anna's unfamiliar bare feet. "It is why I asked if you disturbed anything."

"Would you be in danger if anyone else knew I was here?"

"I don't know." John kept his voice low. "As I said, we've no argument with humans, since most of them leave us be or don't believe in us anyway, but when some do come…"

He shrugged a shoulder as they climbed over a few rocks and into the trees. "It's best that we keep them away."

"In the current climate on the other shore," Anna took an offered hand and hauled herself over the last rock before joining John fully in the trees. "It's best that we don't find anyone else with whom we might want to fight."

"Do you fight?"

"No. I'm supposed to become a proper lady of society. Someone who…" Anna paused, adjusting her hold on the fabric. "Someone who might be used to help bring peace, if a marriage can solve what fighting doesn't."

"You're to be married?"

"I hope not but possibly." Anna paused, her steps careful on the beds of needles scattered under ancient pines. "One day I might be the key to bringing my father's house together with a clan arguing about land."

"Which clan?"

"The ones around us, the Fraisers and Lovats and even the Mackenzies are options but I don't think I like the options for any of them." Anna paused, glancing down at the fabric covering her and then at John's kilt. "Are you from any of those families?"

"We're Fey. We don't have family names like that."

"But this," Anna held out a pleat again and nodded at his kilt. "These are clan colors. They call it tartan on the other shore but these are house colors yes?"

"Of course they are." John held up his kilt. "These are the colors of the king's house and as I'm of his house I wear them. It's a great honor."

"Then you're a…" Anna stopped herself, "Are you a prince?"

"Not in the way your people think. I'm…" John's face scrunched. "I'm a kind of prince but I won't sit on the throne."

"Is that a relief?"

"I prefer to be near the shore." He gave her a smile. "If I were on the throne then I wouldn't have met you."

"Good point." Anna joined him as John stopped just short of a ring of trees. "Is this the line I can't cross?"

"Yes." He reached out and took one of her hands. "But you can feel it so you'll know, if you explore in the future, where you're not allowed to go."

Her fingers, small compared to his, flexed under his hold as he pressed them lightly against the invisible barrier. A tingle ran through his arm, only detectable because she touched the barrier, and he noted the golden hue for a moment as if a wall appeared between the trees. The breath rushed out of her in a second and she flexed her fingers over the air again before pulling back. John flicked his fingers into the space as she left it, restoring the harmonizing tone before it might offer a cacophonous cadence.

"Why did you just…" Anna flicked her fingers in a mimic of his motions.

"It just reset the barrier. Otherwise they might think you crossed it and then worry about humans being on our island again."

"You did say that we're not exactly welcome here." Anna turned around, resetting her steps for the beach. "But, within the barrier, the weather's how you'd wish it to be all the time?"

"It's one of the gifts of our mages. They control the weather, the growth, the patterns of the foliage to keep us safe and protected."

"Sounds like a little piece of paradise." Anna carefully navigated the rocks to reach the beach and John waited until her feet were on the earth again before he joined her. She opened her mouth to speak and then covered it with one hand when she saw how he lighted on the ground, his wings fully unfurled. "I didn't know you had wings too."

"All the Fey like me do." He let his smile spread wide. "I didn't want to scare you with them."

"Scare me?"

"They're rather large."

"So is the sky and it's no less beautiful for its size." She stepped forward, her fingers unfurling for a moment and then drawing back as she looked at him. "May I touch them or are they like butterfly wings?"

"They're stronger than that." He nodded to her and noted the way Anna resettled her grip on the fabric wrapped around her with one hand before stroking out with the fingers of the other to feel over his wings. It gave him a shiver at the tentativeness in her caress but he kept still as she awed over them.

"They're like silk."

"Is that good?"

"Silk is lovely. A strong, sturdy fabric, that's supple and beautiful." Anna withdrew her hand, flexing it as if trying to memorize the sensation. "My mother had a silk dress once and it was the most beautiful thing I ever saw."

"Like these?" John rolled his shoulders to let his wings furl out again.

"As similar as a candle is to a fire I think." Anna continued to gaze at his wings. "These are as glorious as any creation of God's I've ever seen."

"They're strong, light, and case a rainbow when I fly." John almost grinned at his wings before biting at his lip. It took him a moment before he cleared his throat and offered Anna his hand. "Would you like to fly with me?"

Anna gaped at him a moment, blinking rapidly as her grip on the fabric around her flexed. "Is it safe?"

"It is for me but I will be honest, I've never flown with a passenger." John surveyed the area around them. "We won't go high. Not until I know I can carry you. I wouldn't want to drop you or fall out of the air."

"I wouldn't want that either." Anna took a deep breath and nodded. "Alright. We can try it and see."

"You're sure?"

"Yes." John went to take her hand when Anna nodded but stopped as Anna raised a finger in warning. "Only a few feet."

"Agreed."

They arranged it between them, John taking Anna in his arms as she put one around his neck and the other hand kept the fabric clenched tightly around her, and he jumped into the air. His wings beat powerfully as they tried to compensate for the change in weight and position to gain altitude. But eventually they lifted from the ground and John maneuvered his body parallel to the ground to sail over the eddies of air so they could fly.

At first Anna gripped tightly to him, her eyes almost scrunched shut against the sensation. But after a few moments, and with the speed and height they gained, she let the joy of the moment fill her. The elation took over her face and she turned into the wind as John continued to pick up speed and height. They sailed out in larger and large circles until they skimmed over the water. When Anna risked a toe in the water, dragging it behind them to leave a trail as they went, John turned back toward shore.

Once they were close to the shore and only a few feet above the water, he allowed her to tumble into it. The shock on her face for the moment she had before submerging was almost enough to make him regret the action. But as he folded his wings into his body and tucked his legs to his chest, John turned into a rock to hit the water with a significant geyser of a splash. A splash that he almost choked on when he emerged as Anna whipped water at him with her hands.

Snapping the wet fabric billowing between them, John wrapped it over his body to get it out of the way and returned Anna's splashes. Their game had them both beating water back and forth between them until John caught Anna's hands by the wrists and tugged her close so she could not use them against him. And, in the moment he noted the sparkle in her eyes and the exuberance of her expression, he kissed her.

The world stopped then. Pulled to an abrupt halt as Anna's hands snapped from his grip and she almost stepped back from him. John's fingers clenched in the water and he struggled to find the words he needed to apologize. For another misstep when it came to the differences between them. For–

Whatever thoughts he had or the apology he wanted to give immediately died on his lips the second Anna's met his again. Her hands held fast to his face, her fingers flexing into his skin as they had on his wings, and her mouth slanted over his. The exuberance of her earlier expression played into the kiss she gave him and made up for whatever she lacked in skill.

John leaned into it, shifting them close enough to shore so she stood without needing to be on the tips of her toes, and let his hands echoed hers as they framed her face. He returned the kiss, urging her to continue and experiment as he slid his tongue along her bottom lip. A gestured she echoed and then pushed further as she pressed against him.

Shifting the kiss to her control, relishing in the way she seized on each new thing, John allowed his hands to wander. To use the water to follow the curves and dips of her arms and waist. And when she pressed into him further, losing herself in the levels of sensation, John ran his hand between her legs.

Anna broke the kiss then. Her hands fell from his face and she slapped at the water as she momentarily lost her balance. John's hand was on her arm, steadying her, and he watched her reaction before cringing. "I'm sorry if I-"

"You…" Anna eased from his grip, stumbling a little as she moved in the water. For a moment it appeared as if she might head for shore again but when her fingers touched her bare skin she sank deeper, as if to hide from him. "You… I've never… I don't…"

John frowned, "You've never kissed before?"

"Not like that." Anna fumbled with her words. "I've had kisses and… They've not been like that. And no one's ever…"

"Ever touched you like that?" Anna nodded and swallowed hard enough John could see it. "But why not?"

"It's not done. Well, it is and some people have but… But I've not because I'm…" Anna stopped, a hand pushing toward her hair, as if moving it from her face might help order her words better.. "I'm not supposed to."

"Because you don't want to?" John managed a step closer to her and waited until he was sure Anna would not move away. "Or because you're afraid to?"

"I've not learned how." Anna kept her voice quiet, "It's not done. Not for ladies, anyway. We're not supposed to."

John closed the distance between them. "Do you want to?"

"I…" Anna swallowed, "I don't know what it's like."

"I can show you."

"Is that what your people do?"

"It's far more normal for us than you." John shrugged, "It is probably easier without all the clothes."

"Probably." Anna wrapped her arms around herself. "I feel very exposed now… Without all my clothes."

"If you want," John took the fabric from around himself and wrapped it around her. "I could teach you."

"I don't think…" Anna stopped herself. "I couldn't do that. We're not married and it's not proper."

John frowned and then shook his head. "No, I didn't mean… I was going to teach you how to do it for yourself."

Anna blinked at him. "What?"

"If it's not done for ladies then, perhaps, I should teach you something that you could do on your own. Something for when you're not here. Not as free."

"Are you free here?"

John nodded, "We don't have the same restrictions you do."

Anna tugged the soaked fabric around herself before nodding. "It might… I'd want to know. If I have to get married I don't want… I don't want to be ignorant."

"Then, if you'd like," John extended his hand to her. "It'll be easier if you're on land. You can lay down and don't have to worry about the water if you slip."

He trailed in her wake of the water, unconsciously matching her steps a pace behind as she trudged out of the water. With each step the fabric wrapped about her all the more as if it dragged some of the lake with it until the drips of droplets falling back onto the water sounded in time with her feet on the pebbles and mud of the bank. A bank he surveyed, taking care to note any possible onlookers as Anna took a seat at the base of the large rock that served as their unofficial meeting place. The same rock where he saw her for the first time.

When he joined her, his armor peeled off and left on the top of the boulder to dry, John paused. Her fingers still clutched at the fabric, holding it around herself as if the soaked cloth might protect her from something. And she flinched when his hand covered her fingers.

"I'm sorry." He drew back, fingers curling into his own palm. "If you don't-"

"It's not…" Anna closed her eyes, taking a deep breath before speaking again. Her eyes, however, remained closed. "I'm afraid."

"Of me?"

"No." She shook her head, finally opening her eyes but keeping them on the far shore. "Of what's back there."

"I don't…" John frowned and settled next to her, "I don't understand."

"When you kissed me…" Anna's fingers brushed her lips, a small smile there, and she managed another breath before continuing. "I wondered if that's what it was supposed to be like. If that's what I was supposed to be feeling."

"From the others you've kissed?"

Anna nodded, "They were boys, mostly. When you're young you kiss the boys as a dare but now, that I'm older, I've had a few… Other kisses."

"And you didn't like them?"

"No." Anna shook her head, her wet hair sticking to her face a moment before falling back to her shoulders as they both slowly dried under the sun. "They were with men who might marry me. Who wanted to see what it would be like. Who told me… Who told me that they…"

John nodded, "Told you what they intended to do to you when you marry."

Anna's nod was ever-so-slight. "It frightens me."

"It frightens me too." When Anna turned to him, finally looking at him since they headed for the beach, "It's one of the things that demands we leave our people as the changeling children you spoke of. Men, and women too, who force others to do things they don't want. Their punishment is exile."

"Is it truly so heinous?"

"Of course. Terrorizing someone in that way is…" John failed to find words. "They deserve what they get for the ruin they sowed. May they always reap it in kind is what I say."

He kicked out at a pebble, sending it skittering into the water. "And whatever men who've… whoever's made you afraid, shame on them too."

They were quiet a moment before Anna spoke. Her eyes did not meet his but John noted the flex in her fingers as they released the cloth around her just a touch. "I didn't feel afraid with you."

"I hope I never make you afraid." He flexed his fingers again as he reached out and laid his hand gently over hers. This time Anna did not flinch under his hold. "And, if I overstepped when I-"

"Perhaps a little," Anna winced, facing him, "But only in as much as I think our cultures are very different in regard to… This sort of thing."

"My offer still stands."

"About?"

John failed to suppress a smile. "About this sort of thing."

"Oh." Anna's face reddened along her cheekbones and along the collar now peeking through the fabric as she shifted in place. "I…"

"And I won't press if you've changed your mind." John's hand firmed over hers, drawing her to look at him again. "No matter your fears of ignorance in things like this, it's not something to be forced. And a myriad of curses on anyone who tells you otherwise or would seek it from you without consent."

"I'm not sure I have as much of a say when I'm on that side of the lake." Anna's eyes drifted back in that direction and, after a moment, her jaw firmed. "But I won't let them have it from me. Or take it, or whatever they intended to do."

"No?"

"No." Anna shifted entirely, facing John full-on. "If you're going to show me how to do it, for myself, I want to do the same to you."

John almost dropped his jaw. "You want…"

"It would only be fair."

"It would be…" John cleared his throat. "But this isn't about me."

"No?" Anna frowned, pointing toward the water and succeeding in sending part of the fabric off her arm. She rescued it but too late to stop John seeing half of her naked torso. "Out there you were-"

"I was but…" John forced his eyes shut but the image burned there and he opened his eyes to try and stop himself giving into her innocent offer by filling his mind with another scene. "But I can wait. I've had more practice."

"At your hands or the hands of a fairy princess?"

"I… Either and… Both but that's not…" John scrunched his eyes closed as he tried to organize his thoughts but the image returned and he could almost feel the tangibility of his willpower crumbling. "Only if you want."

The stunned expression on Anna's face made John want to take back the offer entirely while also give in all the more. The wealth of expressions and sensations and the depths of emotions she conveyed with just twitches of her eyebrows or the coloring of her cheeks or even the flitter of her fingers made him want to study her all the more. To see how those reactions changed when he brought her out of herself and made her come alive on the beach and then encouraged her to-

John shook his head, biting his tongue hard enough to strain his jaw to refocus. It took a moment but he finally looked Anna in the eyes. He swallowed hard, to clear his throat, and repeated his earlier condition, "Only if you want."

For a moment he both feared and hoped she would rescind her request. That she would ask him to turn around as she dove back into the water and swam for her home. That perhaps Anna would think the offer too offensive or ridiculous to seriously consider now that they were drier and the kiss faded toward memory. That perhaps she-

Anna's lips landed on John's, her fingers more firm on his face, and her body leaning toward him with no trace of the covering he left for her. John's eyes opened for a second and he pulled back just enough to leave them room to speak. The swipe of Anna's tongue over her lower lip almost had him regretting the motion but when she spoke he sighed in relief.

"I want this. I want you to show me how."

John returned the kiss and surged forward. One of his arms wrapped around Anna's back, holding her to him as his other hand caught their weight so he could lower her to the fabric. It bunched and John broke the kiss to arrange it so Anna would not run herself against the rough ground.

She stiffened when his weight pressed against her and John pulled back slightly, waiting. When Anna nodded he kissed her again. This time me moved more slowly, set a pace that had Anna relaxing around him, and gave him the space he needed. Space he used to run his fingers over her arms and face and into her hair as hers tentatively explored his in turn.

When her hands moved to his back, running along the edges of his tucked back wings, John took it as a sign to continue. So he trailed the kisses away from Anna's lips, ignoring her surprised whine until it turned into gentle moans as he kissed along her jaw and down her throat before setting across both of her collarbones. All the while his hands stroked and traced along her while learning the sounds she made the motions of her hands against him.

Motions he wanted to continue but the desperation in Anna's touches forced him to pull back. She almost whined again, her fingers clenching as if wanting to pull him back to her, but John caught them. Caught them to kiss the edge of his finger before guiding them back to her own body.

Her eyes could not have opened wider if she tried and John quickly soothed her, speaking softly as his hands guided hers. "I told you, I'd teach you to do it for yourself. This is part of it."

The tension in Anna's body gradually dissipated as John guided her through the motions. As his hands moved with hers to leave her quivering and trembling under her tentative touches. And then shaking with ecstasy as she learned herself from the inside out and the outside in. When she came, John could only watch as she chest rose and fell with each breath she fought to fill her lungs.

Kissing the corners of her mouth, the tears away from her cheeks, and gently sucking the remains of her climax from her fingers, John helped Anna sit up. She reached for him but he stopped her. "Not today."

"But you said-"

"And I intend on keeping my word but," John pointed to the sky. "I don't know how long you can be away and we've taken too much time already."

"It felt like no time at all."

"May it always be that way." John kissed her hands. "And, if you come back, perhaps we can do it again."

"Perhaps." Anna smiled at him, stretching out and rising.

This time she walked backward into the water, not breaking eye contact with him until she had to turn to swim away.