Jason sighed ever so quietly,wondering if his mother and father had held hands like that,before they'd had him and Shade.

Curiosity battled revulsion. "Who are they? Puck whispered.

"There is a story," he began in a solemn tone, "about a talented saxophone player who went to Mardi Gras one night and caught the eye of a faery queen. And the queen bid him come to her, because he was young and handsome and charming, and his music could set ones soul on fire. But the sax player refused, because he already had a wife, and his love for her was greater than even the beauty of the faery queen. And so, angry that he spurned her, the queen took him anyway, and held him in the Nevernever for many long days, forcing him to entertain her. But no matter what the young man saw in Faery, and no matter how much the queen tried to make him her own, even when he forgot his own name, he could not forget his wife back in the mortal world."

Watching Ashs face, the shadows in his eyes as he spoke, it was possible to get the feeling this wasnt a story hed heard somewhere. This was a tale hed watched unfold before him. He knew of the Token and where to find it because he remembered the sax player from the queens court; another mortal caught up in the cruelty of the fey.

Jason stared at the couple,wondering if there was love out there like this,one sided and desperate...and sad. "Love can be cruel." Jason murmured ever so faintly,remembering his mother and father.Knowing he'd had Shade and Jason with their mother but their other half siblings with another because...the king had loved a human,but had been forced to have heirs of the throne with another dragon.A purebred dragon...not a forth breed like himself. Jason was half and half,only getting dragon from his father and lacking the faint dragon blood in his mother.But for Ash to have seen this story unfold before him...he felt bad for Ash.

"Time passed," Ash went on, "and the queen finally released him, because it amused her to do so. And when the young human, his head filled with memories both real and imagined, returned to his beloved wife, he found her aged sixty years, while he had not changed a day since he vanished from the mortal world. She still wore his ring, and had not taken another husband or suitor, for she always believed he would return."

He stayed silent,not saying or doing a thing.

"Neighbors found them days later lying in bed, a young man and a shrunken old woman, their fingers intertwined in an unbreakable grip and their faces turned toward one another. The blood from their wrists had already dried on the sheets."

Now that is what Jason knew for sure was love,he looked at his own wrists,wondering if he'd be so willing to do that for Puck...or even still Ash.To give up life just for love. He found that for once,it didn't seem so crazy to him.

And Puck wished that, for once, fairy tales--real fairy tales, not Disney fairy tales--would have a happy ending. Jason was in a faery tale, wasnt he? He was playing his part in the story, the dragon boy who had fallen in love with a faery prince, and then a king's jester. Stories like that rarely ended well. Even if they did finish this thing with the false king, even if Jason did go back to his realm and live out a normal life, where would Ash or Puck fit in? Jason was a dragon; the fey were immortal, soulless faeries. What kind of future did they have together? Jason would eventually grow old and die; Ash and Puck would live on forever, or at least until the mortal world became too much for Ash and he simply ceased to exist.

Jason would grow older,but eventually both his halves would stop physical aging and he would live a very long time,unless he shattered again or was wounded fatally.But he would live on a long long time,and yet still he as well looked for a moment on the situation they were in and all that was going on and as well wondered if it could or would work out in the end. He really wanted it to,because...he'd found love,and the second time wasn't as painful as the first. It was for sure real,and it had to be fate,right? Puck was just perfect,like a knight in those stories. The knight was fearless and brave,he always fought well for what he saw was true and right and in doing so protected who he loved,even if that meant giving up his life,as Puck had done with that bullet and as he'd done so many times blocking blades that swung at Jason that...he would admit he wouldn't have been able to dodge on his own.

He looked up at Puck and wondered...if it would work out...and he truly hoped it would,because he knew he wouldn't be able to stop another shattering from fully killing him if he lost or couldn't be with Puck.

(*Starts tearing up a little*)

Something landed on the roof overhead with a hollow thud, and a shower of dust filtered over them. Coughing, Puck waved his free hand in front of his face, squinting in the sudden rain of filth.