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Sportacus lifted Stephanie down the last few steps of the ladder. "Shopping!" he called, and flipped backwards to catch the first bag before it hit the ground. He was on his way to catch the second, when somebody got in the way.
She caught the bag and handed it to Stephanie. "There you are, dear."
"Thank you," Stephanie replied.
"Mama! I wasn't expecting to see you," Sportacus exclaimed, pleased to see her.
"My decision to visit was rather last minute," Mama replied.
"What happened, Mama?" Sportacus asked. "Where's Papa?"
"Blancville, I think."
"What's he doing in Albia?"
"Magic knows, my dear."
"Mama," said Sportacus sternly, crossing his arms.
"We've separated."
"Oh," said Sportacus in surprise. "I didn't realise..."
"Let's just say he's not in Blancville alone, shall we, Alex?" she replied in Fey
"Oh, dear..." He cleared his throat. "Mama, this is my friend Stephanie. Stephanie, this is my mother, Nina."
"Pleased to meet you," Stephanie said, offering her hand to be shaken.
"Likewise," said Mama, taking it.
"I think you'd better go now," Sportacus said, handing Stephanie the bag he still held.
"Okay. Thanks Sportacus!" she said, and skipped off home.
"She's a lovely little pixie, isn't she?" Mama said, again in Fey.
"Yes, she is. Are you going to tell me what happened with Papa?"
Mama shrugged. "Nine left me for another woman. A human one, after decades of believing that being part-human made us inferior."
"You don't sound surprised."
"At the cheating? He's been doing it for years. It was the girl's species that threw me."
"Oh, Mama," said Sportacus, gathering her into a hug.
----
"I can see what you're doing here," Pixel said, squinting at the workings of Robbie's latest invention. "I think you go the workings right, but..." he sighed, and sat up, pulling his goggles back up. "Are you sure got the right incantation? Electronic magic can be tricky, and I'm not nearly a strong enough warlock to examine somebody else's spells on that level."
"I don't know," Robbie said. "Everything I know says it ought to work, except it doesn't. Electronics isn't my normal specialty, maybe there's some trick I'm missing." He stood and paced blindly across Pixel's room, running into the wall. "I meant to do that."
Pixel ignored the incident. "You could un-enchant it, and then re-enchant it. Like rebooting a computer."
"I can't guarantee it won't explode if I do that. I enchant as I build, so the magic is kinda holding it together."
"Okay. Not a good idea then." He sighed. "I'm not sure what we can do. The only other magic users in Lazytown are the Fey..."
"Absolutely not. Have you forgotten the code of secrecy? We cannot allow the fey to know there are magic users among the humans."
"But they're our friends. Surely..."
"Do you know why I gave up trying to get rid of Sportacus? Because I was getting so desperate I pulled out several tricks that were so obviously magical, that only willful blindness about human magic kept people from realising. I'm still surprised nobody thought de-ageing him twenty years might have something to do with magic. I was ridiculously close to giving the whole order away for a bit of peace and quiet." He folded himself awkwardly back into Ziggy's normal chair.
"I thought you decided to be nice."
"Oh, that came later. When I realised I liked Sportacus," Robbie said, and then turned red and buried his face in his hands. "I didn't mean to say that," he added, voice muffled.
Pixel laughed. "I think pretty much everyone noticed that once we stopped only seeing you when you were trying to pull something."
Robbie pulled his face out of his hands. "Everyone?"
"Well, not Ziggy. He's still just a kid, but well, I think so."
"Sportacus?" Robbie asked apprehensively.
"I'm fairly certain he's been pretending not to notice so he won't hurt your feelings," Pixel said cheerfully, then realised he shouldn't have. "Uh..."
Robbie waved a hand dismissively. "Forget it. I'm going home." He stood, grabbed the invention, tucked it under his arm, and stamped out.
---
On the way home, Robbie came across Sportacus and a woman. The woman was older, but still handsome, her eyes crinkled around the corners with many years' worth of smiles, the short black hair beneath the green stocking cap turning to salt-and-pepper, her frame solid as elves' usually are. She was arm-in-arm with Sportacus, as he babbled enthusiastically in what sounded like the Fey tongue.
"Robbie!" said Sportacus excitedly when he spotted him.
"Hello," Robbie replied, without enthusiasm.
"Robbie, I'd like you to meet my mother, Nina. She dropped in for a visit, and I'm showing her around. Mama, this is Robbie."
"Hello, young man," she said pleasantly, offering her hand to be shaken.
Robbie took it limply for a moment. "Hi."
"Robbie," Sportacus reprimanded him, with a laugh in his voice.
"I've been to see Pixel about this," he held up his invention, "and I'm not feeling very social at the moment, so if you'll excuse me," Robbie said, and continued home without waiting for a response.