Amadeo had never even seen the club before.  It was an old church with wonderful stained glass windows.  It was so gothic, right out of a Vampyre movie.  He loved it.  He didn't even mind the wait to get in.  Inside the door, they took Matt and Amadeo's cards to check if they were at least 18.  Kim they remembered.  And up the winding staircase, which seemed a maze to Amadeo, it all seemed to be a different planet.  It was no wonder these people were called the Fay. So many people inside were like nymphs or elves.  No one looked particularly human.  Any sort of freak would fit in, because no one looked very much like anyone else.  There weren't a large number of character dressers then.  And not everyone dressed the Fay, though most did.  The Fay were known by relatively few, so that if you saw them on the street at night you wouldn't know what sort of insult to make.

Amadeo stayed close to Matt.  Matt had him dance with him.  Amadeo loved being in the middle of the dance floor; he remembered he'd been the one to teach Matt to dance years ago.  Amadeo got hot and asked Matt to stop. Several people whispered in his ear or kissed him as they passed by.

Amadeo loved it, but he was lost at the same time; it was like going to a new school all over again.  He followed Matt, away from the dance floor and into a long room with a sort of faerietale mural along the long far wall.  Up a couple of steps, there was the lounge with French panel walls, with mirrors set in every other one and red velvet chairs and couches.  Matt seemed to be trying to talk with someone who could not read signs.  Matt could read lips, but Amadeo knew there could still be word confusion when context wasn't known. Matt had been taught to speak, but his words often lacked sharpness.  Amadeo would have translated, but it seemed the young man though Matt looked good enough that it didn't matter.  And Amadeo watched Matt go dance with him. He felt brave enough to wander upstairs.  He went to the bar near the top of the stairs.  He knew he couldn't buy anything with alcohol, but he didn't drink anyway for fear that it would lessen his control of his mind.

Amadeo asked for Coke and Milk.  "Bullshit," said the bar tender, "That's what they call it."  He took Amadeo's card to register the sale.  He gave it back with the glass and he smiled at him.  Amadeo smiled back.  He stayed close to the bar drinking.  After a while the bartender himself started talking to him when no one else did.  He said his name was Eddie.  He said he might just be able to get Amadeo on the guest list.  He wanted something, Amadeo thought.  He set the glass on the bar when he finished.

A young man came up to him as soon as he left the bar. "Are ye fair?" he asked.

"Fair?"

"Do ye speak t Fay?"

Amadeo almost laughed at the archaic speech.  "I only found out today that people who dress like me, read in cafes, and listen to dance music are called Fay."

"I could give you a lesson, if you would like lick my ho-ho, or if there is something you could teach me..."

"I don't think I would like that, I have never had a ho-ho only..."

"Doughnuts."

"Yes, and I don't know if I would like it.  I'm quite brilliant though.  Is there anything else you want?"

 "Anything I want?  No, not now.  Might I just kiss you before I go?"

"I think it would be cruel and strange here to say no."

"A Faerie can always say no, whenever they want.  What good is yessing if you maynt sometimes say no.  Everything must be fair.  That lesson is free because it's crucial."

"You can have a kiss for it," said Amadeo.  The boy moved forward and kissed him on the mouth.  It was nice the way he let his lips linger there for just a moment.  It certainly didn't feel any different than kissing a girl's mouth.  And with some of the Fay they were so dressed up, you couldn't really tell by looking which they were.

The boy whispered in his ear before leaving, "Im Pony.  If you want me, you must tell me."  Then he left.

Amadeo decided that he wasn't going to find anyone worth speaking to noing all the time.  He had to find someone who would help him without wanting what he wasn't ready to give. He knew he was a very good dancer, so he decided to work his way around the dance floor.

He needed someone to dance with.  He stood along the catwalk watching the dancers below.  Everyone but him appeared to be with someone else.  Amadeo had never had to really ask for anything in his life.  And here, everyone appeared to be at least as beautiful as he.  Watching very carefully, he saw there were differences in the way they Fay treated each other.  There were about five Fay which most of the others constantly approached.  They could pick and choose.  They did look older.  They probably knew what it was all about.  Three of them were up in the rafters of the third floor, where he could just glimpse, through the smoky air, another couch and a barmaid walking among them.

Amadeo went back down to the dance floor and spoke to the first girl he saw alone:  "Do ye speak t Fay?" he asked.

"Yes," she said.

"I don't.  Could you tell me who the old Fay are?"

She looked up.  "They are the Fay Queens.  When they are fair they are impartial, when we are fair we are available. Of course, when they are very fair they are available as well. I spoke to Mab.  She is the blonde nymph."

"Mab?  That is the name of the Faerie Queen!  Do you mean all I have to do is read it again and quote from it?"

"Yes, that and a Midsummer Night's Dream."

"I was completely lost."

She laughed.  "Are you fair?"

"Fair to what?"

"You chose."

"I can dance well.  Would you like to dance now?"

"Do you really move well?  I think I would improve in a lot of things if I could move this tail."

"I taught my deaf cousin to dance."

She smiled then followed Amadeo out to the floor.  He stood behind her and through all the writhing and twisting he held her hips and moved them for her.  She reached back to put a hand up around his neck.  He was almost kissing hers.  He wanted her, and whe she realized this, she turned around and whispered to him, "I can tell if you are lying, Pinocchio, are you fair?"

"Yes." 

"Come with me," she said and took him outside, out the side door off the stone lined stairwell, to a van just up the block.  She opened up the back and climbed in.  Amadeo hesitated. "You don't have to," she said, then, "You want to hold my keys?" Amadeo shook his head, deciding he trusted her. He saw the pillows and blankets laid out neatly, the stumpy candles she was lighting.  She closed the door on them.  "I would say your ho-ho wants licking."

She produced a foil from somewhere in the van and put it on him after opening his shorts.  She sucked at him rubbing her hands against him.  "You're very good," he said when she was done, and he honestly had to mentally restrain himself not to gush over her talent.

"Im just a fag on the inside maybe," she laughed.

"What do I call you?"

"I don't know yet but my name's René."

René walked Amadeo to the coffeehouse, knowing its location well.  He gave her a long kiss before watching her leave. Going inside, he saw Matt was there.  Kim came in later.  She asked if they were going home.  Matt said he would stay with Amadeo rather than go home late at night.  Amadeo had been to Matt's house.  He was the youngest and his parents were quite old.  It was always quiet there because his parents didn't like or make noise and Matt never listened to music alone.

Kim drove them home.  They stayed up the rest of the night in the playroom telling each other what they knew about the Fay.  Matt said René was usually a teaser.

Amadeo asked if Matt really had sex with men.  He'd noticed how often Matt danced with them or talked to them.   "When we were kids," said Amadeo, "I never realized you were gay."

Matt grinned.  "I didn't know.  They did the tests, when I was a kid, like they do to everyone, but the result was inconclusive.  I was late to come out.  I wasn't sure 'til I was fifteen."  Amadeo almost didn't understand the pronunciation of inconclusive, but the meaning was easy to get from Matt's thoughts. Matt told him that he had told his doctor that he was attracted to men when he was 16.  His doctor asked him a couple of questions about whether or not he could get an erection or climax during homosexual sex. 

Matt said Kim had friends who understood better, but the current politics were such that rights and labels went hand-in-hand. "To them: fluid is what? Label is which?"

"I don't remember being told any results," Amadeo said.