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e was still annoyed about the aborted kiss when he got to the tree house, to find Stephanie in it crying.
"Stephanie?"
She didn't reply, just unwound herself from the miserable little ball she'd been curled into, and latched onto him.
"What happened?" he asked soothingly, rubbing her back.
"P... Pi... Pixel was staring at my breasts!" she wailed.
"While I agree it was inappropriate, surely it isn't that upsetting?"
"I ... I heard him tell Stingy that he hoped I didn't realise I need a bra any time soon, because he likes looking when I dance."
"Oh. That's not nice."
"I thought he was my friend!"
"I'll have a talk with him," Sportacus promised, quietly furious at the boy. She sniffled, pulled back, and retrieved a handkerchief from her bag to wipe her nose with.
"Thank you, Sportacus." She sniffed again. "um... I'm-sorry-but-I-went-to-find-a-baby-photo-and-I-found..."
"I know. Robbie told me."
"You were really a girl when you were little?"
"Not really. Even when I was little, I didn't feel like I was a girl, even though everybody said I was."
"It was really mean of your dad to make you wear the skirt with the Sportacus costume."
"Oh, I hated Papa that day. He still thinks of how I look now as 'that thing Ten did to herself'."
She hugged him. "You look how you're supposed to now."
"I would have preferred to be taller, but thank you. I'd better go talk to Pixel now, and I believe you need to go shopping for foundation garments."
----
Pixel was sitting under a tree, playing a portable video game of some sort.
"Pixel."
"Oh, hello Sportacus," Pixel replied, pausing his game.
"What do you know about the history of the Fey War?"
"Uh... well, when the realms collided, the humans and the elves-and-pixies didn't get on real well, and... I'm not sure. It was a long time ago now."
"You're probably aware that humans find pixies magnetically sexually attractive?"
Pixel nodded. "It's kinda hard to miss."
"Fey culture has always been a symbiosis between elf and pixie, in which we protect them, with our lives if necessary, and they look after us. A lot of our reason for the war was pixie women, and the way human men acted towards them. We did not take kindly to the sexual objectification of the most precious and vulnerable members of our society, just as I imagine humans would have no problems going to war against a society of paedophiles."
"Is there a point to this?" Pixel asked, confused.
"The connection is still there, even in part-fey. Even in the magical desert that is a town full of humans.
"I was not pleased to hear that instead of informing Stephanie she needed support, you chose to keep quiet and take sensual pleasure in her accidental immodesty," Sportacus said, vaguely aware he was looming.
"How did you... I mean..."
"Stephanie overheard you talking to Stingy. Her distress was enough to set off my crystal."
"I'm sorry," said Pixel in a small voice.
"Don't apologise to me, apologise to her," Sportacus replied. "Pixel, the need to protect pixies is in my genes, as primal as hunger. The need to help people in general is just a personality trait. Don't push me again on this one, got it?"
Pixel nodded, looking frankly terrified.
"Look, I do understand it's difficult, growing up," Sportacus said more gently. "Being attracted to Stephanie is perfectly natural and nothing you have a choice about. Even without the pixie blood she'd be an attractive young lady. But objectifying or taking advantage of her, or any person you're attracted to, is something you do have a choice in, and it's not acceptable."
"Okay," said Pixel timidly, staring at the ground.
“Good boy,” Sportacus said, patted him on the shoulder, and bounced off to get back to Robbie.