A/N: This working for a living isn't all it's cracked up to be. It's taken me for bloody ever to get this little bit completed... hopefully more will be on its way really soon. Hope you enjoy

One and a half cigarettes later, Caution had calmed down enough to look at things rationally. She was, she told herself, at least partly to blame for the mess she and Creep found themselves in. Creep couldn't really help being jealous. And besides, Andy was out of the way for a few days, and Caution wanted the taste of Royalty out of her mouth. She decided to go in search of Creep.

It wasn't much of a search. He was in her parlour.

“Huh.” Caution said, stopping dead in the doorway. “I was just going to come looking for you.”

“I thought as much,” Creep said peevishly—at least, it sounded peevish. It was monotonous, at any rate.

“Did you need me for something?” Caution asked slowly. “Or...”

“I came because I thought you would be searching for me,” he said simply.

“Yeah. I mean, I was. Can we talk?”

“We are talking.”

“Yeah. Right. I, um, don't want to fight with you.”

“Very well.”

“No, not very well. We need to talk this out.”

“In what sense?”

“Damn it, Creep! I'm trying to—I just don't want to fight with you, okay? I want us to be happy.”

“I do not see that that is necessarily possible.”

“Not necessarily, no, but we could at least try, couldn't we? I mean, I want us to be... us.”

Creep blinked. Then, within a moment, he had crossed the room and wrapped his arms around her. “As do I, Caution. I am sorry I acted the way I did.”

“I'm sorry too,” Caution whispered. She paused, pressed warmly into Creep's body. “God, we're so cute I could wretch.”

Creep flashed his half-smile, indicating that he knew exactly what she meant, then let her go with a quick kiss on the cheek.

“Was this the talking-out that we needed?” he enquired after a minute.

“Uh, close enough, I guess. We're good, right?”

“I believe so.”

“Well... good. So, Andy's going to be gone for a while, right? There must be something we can do, to pass the time while he's away.”

Creep looked thoughtful. Caution was mentally preparing to explain that she didn't just want sex, when Creep said,“Perhaps I could show you some of my magics.”

It wasn't what Caution had in mind, but she was too curious to let the opportunity go to waste.

She shrugged her shoulders. “Sounds good to me. Where to?”

“The central tower.”

“Ooooo,” Caution beamed. “I was wondering when you were gonna take me some place nice.”

Creep stared at her, then, slowly, blinked.

Caution shifted uncomfortably. “So are we going, or what?”

Creep half-smiled. “This way,” he said, moving out of the way of the door and waving Caution through.

The castle was relatively quiet. Caution had half-expected Andy's advisers to all be running around like chickens with their heads off, trying to figure out ways of getting into the throne, should Andy not return. That, she realized with a wry smile, was not going to happen. If they wanted the throne, they'd have to go through her. Caution's smile quickly vanished.

“Creep, how often do people get assassinated around here?”

Creep looked back at her and blinked. “Not often. Why do you ask?”

“Oh,” Caution said vaguely. “I was just wondering. So, uh, how's that going, with the telling the Chonti that they're—you're free?”

I sent word out as soon as the king left this morning.”

“Why not sooner?” Caution asked, a little bit more accusingly than she meant to. She softened her tone. “I mean, it's kind of a big deal, isn't it?”

“Which is precisely why I waited until your decree would be legal,” Creep said, turning back down the hallway.

Caution caught up with him and gave him a questioning look.

“You may rule in his stead, Caution. Only when he is unable. Clearly, when he is not here, he is unable.”

Caution smiled. “Oh. I see. So it's official, then? It's actually a real Royal Decree?”

“Yes.”

“Goodie!” Caution said, clapping her hands together, and drawing the attention of a nearby maid. “Anyway,” she said a little more sedately, “on with what we were doing.”

The central tower, if it was really central to the castle, did a good job of making Caution realize just how big Craté was. It seemed to take twenty minutes to get there from her chambers in the west wing. When they finally did arrive, Caution flopped down on Creep's cot and pretended to go to sleep.

“I thought you were interested in magic,” Creep said flatly.

Caution pulled a rough blanket over her head. Then she sat up. “This is silly.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“This. It's silly. I mean, why do you sleep on an itchy little cot, when you're pretty well the most powerful man in the castle? It doesn't make sense.”

“It is all I require.”

“Well I—” Caution stopped. She smiled suddenly. “I think you ought to spend some time in a proper, comfy bed. You'll sleep in mine tonight.”

Creep smiled his creepy smile at her, and bowed his head. “You're wish is my command, Majesty.”

“Reeeeally? Well in that case—I suppose that can wait. Magic first, fun later.”

Creep contrived to look hurt. “But magic is fun,” he said.

“Good. I wanna learn some. Go!”

“I still don't get it,” Caution was saying.

“Very well. Picture a cone.”

“'K...”

“Now imagine it sits on top of the castle.”

“Like a funnel?”

“No. It goes point-up, with the circle surrounding the outside of the castle.”

“Oh, like a... upside down cone.”

“Like one of your orange traffic cones,” Creep said. “But much larger, obviously, and spanning out over many of the farms that surround the castle.”

“Alright. Then what?”

“Imagine the point of the cone is level, so that the space above the castle grounds is flat.”

“Okay, so we have this big, royally messed up traffic cone sitting on the castle, then what?”

“That is how it works.”

“Nobody backs into us?”

Creep gave her a meaningfully blank stare.

“I still don't get it.”

“Magic rolls off the cone. If one were to work magic within the castle grounds, that area is flat, so the magic behaves as it should.”

“'K...”

“But if one were to aim magics at the castle from a distance, the magic would roll, as it were, down the side of the cone.”

Understanding dawned. “Oh. So that's why you couldn't just whoosh us straight here from Earth.”

“Exactly.”

“But you can do that zzzt thing here, 'cause we're in the flat part, right?”

“Yes.”

Caution punched Creep affectionately in the arm. “Why didn't you just say so?”

Creep sighed and rolled his eyes, without a hint of actual annoyance. He gave Caution a fond look, which almost could have passed for a smile.

“So can anyone work magic in the castle?”

“If they could work it, they could work it here.”

“Do you have to be born magic to do it?”

Creep looked puzzled. “Yes,” he said finally.

“Are there ever any humans born magic?”

“All of them,” Creep said flatly.

Caution stared at him for a moment. “But then—”

“Very few of you seem to know it,” Creep answered, before she could finish her question.

“What about on Earth? I mean, people there aren't... I mean, we can't—”

“You could, if you tried—if you knew how to try, I should say. It is difficult to explain.”

Caution took a moment to let the idea sink in.

“I wanna try,” she said in a mock-whine.

Creep grinned. “And you shall.”