Whoa. Look what griping about comments got me. This is now my most reviewed fic since '02. Must do that more often (kidding!). I'm not trying to be a chapter-withholding prima donna, but I did kinda sound like one, didn't I? I do love you all, you know (except for 'Becca', who I apparently need to have a chat with about transfolk and how biology ＝/ ＝ 'real' gender).

"Oh, c'mon Pinkie, don't be a prude. Sportacus is hot."

"You might think so," Stephanie replied, half-heartedly splashing her friend. "I am allowed to have different opinions to you, aren't I?"

"Puh-lease. That level of hotness is universal. Unless you don't like boys, that is," Trixie said, shooting her friend a sideways glance. Any chance? Any at all?

"I like boys just fine. Human boys, Pixie boys. But Sportacus is Elven."

"What's that got to do with anything?" Trixie asked, a little disappointed.

"Pixies and Elves just ... we just don't, okay? Have you ever met or heard of somebody who was part-Pixie, part-Elf? We're not compatible."

"Oh. That's kinda odd."

"Well, it's true. Asking me if I find Sportacus hot is on the same level of weirdness as asking if I fancy Ziggy."

"But Ziggy's just a kid ... Oh, I see."

Stephanie looked up and squinted in the glare of the afternoon's sun on the water. "Hey, Pixel's coming out here."

"Hi, Pixel," Trixie said.

He sat down on the bottom without a word, head disappearing beneath the water, and reappeared, dreads plastered to his skull, just as Trixie was starting to worry.

"Pixel?" Stephanie asked, sounding concerned.

"I'm fine," he muttered, not really sounding it.

"Are you all right, dear?" Nina asked Pixel quietly on the way back into town. He'd fallen far enough behind that there was little chance of being overheard, and it made him nervous.

"Fine," he replied, surprised. "Why?"

"You did seem flustered. I wasn't trying to discomfit you, Pixel," she replied. She looked so harmless, fully dressed, stocking cap flopping in her eyes, and not a banana in sight.

"That's all right," he assured her, though still somewhat uneasy.

"Wasn't trying to make you uncomfortable at all," she murmured, a dangerous smile crossing her face suddenly, "but you make such adorable prey." She leaned down to his height, and Pixel suddenly realised he'd somehow been backed into a tree. She closed the gap between their lips and Pixel lost the ability to think.

Sportacus looked back as the group neared the town and realised that Pixel and Mama were gone. "Robbie, could you get the kids back to town? I'm going back to look for Pixel and Mama," he said.

"Wait, you're leaving me in charge of the field trip?"Robbie asked. "I'm not sure I count as a responsible adult."

"Close enough," Sportacus said, and ran back towards the lake to find his mother and friend.

He found them as he passed a large tree. Mama had Pixel pressed to it, kissing him, a hand sneaking below his shirt. His first thought was any grown child's distaste at witnessing a display of parental sexuality, but knowing as he did that human adolescents were an entirely different matter to elven ones, knew it had to stop now. He flipped the last few metres over to them, and pulled Mama off Pixel.

"Pixel," he said, layering his voice with obedience magic, something he'd never resorted to in Lazytown before, "Go home. Now."

Pixel was, thankfully, susceptible, and skedaddled instantly.

"What are you doing interfering with the hunt?" Mama hissed in Fey. "Willing prey is rightful prey."

"Not by the laws of this land," Sportacus replied in English. "Human land, human youngster, human laws. You may live by the elven custom of might and magic making right, but he doesn't even know of it. He has no idea how to react to being 'hunted' by an elven warrior. He doesn't know to fight if he doesn't want it. He wouldn't know how to declare himself a willing equal instead of 'prey'."

"And if I explain to him? Would you accept his submission as valid then?"

"I might. The law certainly will not."

"That's ludicrous. What kind of law condemns a warrior for taking willing prey?"

"Humans see things differently, Mama. To them, 'hunting' youngsters is the same crime as interfering with a small child, and from what I've seen of the behaviour of my young human friends, it's not an incorrect assessment. Despite the heating blood and developing bodies, Pixel, Stephanie and Trixie are still children. Submission would be taken, not given."

Mama sagged visibly, and swore in Fey, a rather strong curse-word complex with an English translation that was, approximately, 'purple fuzzy magical kittens'.

Sportacus put an arm around her shoulder and led her back towards the town.

In my original plotting, Nina and Pixel actually did have intercourse before Sportacus found out and blew up at her about it. Needless to say, enough of you seemed freaked out by just the banana sequence (which wasn't in my original plotting, it just sorta happened) that I didn't think it would be a good idea to keep. As a result, I had to do some reworking, which slowed this chapter down a lot. I ended up cutting off the next scene because it wasn't finished, and I decided you'd waited long enough and it didn't need to be in this chapter (though I really would have preferred not to end the chapter on this particular note).