“Enter.” Celestia’s voice was calm, even, but carried through the door quite adequately.

Blake pushed the door open with his knee and then wheeled the food cart in, holding the door open so nothing scraped.

“You’re late,” Steven said, staring at Blake down his nose.

Blake looked back and forth between the diplomat and Celestia, and then gave the slightest of shrugs. “I apologise Your Majesty,” he said with a slight bow to Celestia, and then turned to Steven, “And sir; I stopped for a skateboarding competition on the way over.”

Steven’s eyes narrowed further, and he arched an eyebrow. “Oh really now?” he asked, turning to face Blake fully. “I’ve noticed you redirect quite often with insipid little quips. You’ll tell us why you were late or I will have you removed.”

Blake frowned inwardly at that, casting his gaze towards Celestia.

Celestia lifted her head slightly, and made a motion. “Please tell Steven why you were late,” she said calmly.

Biting the inside of his lip, Blake shrugged. “I slept through my alarm clock.”

“You are nowhere near careless enough for that,” Steven said with a slow smile. "I would wager you have two different alarms set to go off within ten minute incriments.”

Blake’s eyes narrowed. “Five minutes, in fact.”

“Exactly,” Steven pressed, making a motion with his hand, impatient. “Now, the real reason, lest I have you thrown out?”

Blake ground the heel of his good foot into the carpet. “I tripped walking up the stairs in the park and spent ten minutes sitting on the sidewalk crying.”

Celestia arched an eyebrow.

Steven snorted once. “Really?”

“More pained groaning and grunting and lots of cussing,” Blake corrected flippantly. “You get the gist.”

“Very well, you may leave,” Steven said dismissively, waving a hand.

“I would like him to make my tea,” Celestia said flatly..

“Wait, come back then,” Steven said with a sigh. “Make the princess’ tea.”

Blake didn’t answer, but he uncovered the tray of foodstuffs and set about making the princess her tea. “Any particular preference for your tea this afternoon?”

“Your highness,” Steven added, his tone venomous.

“Your highness?” Blake added.

Celestia’s gaze turned from Steven, back to Blake. “The black tea, please.”

Blake nodded, and pulled out the metal kettle, setting it atop the hot plate built into the cart, beginning the process of boiling the water.

“So, as I was saying,” Celestia said, turning back towards the window, staring out at the hustle and bustle of the world beyond. “Did any of the ponies I requested make it through quarantine?”

“I’m sorry, Princess, but we just didn’t have enough time. Had you given us the list or informed us of the celebration yesterday or even the day before…” Steven said, his tone completely different now that he was talking to the princess. He was attentive, careful, pronounced, and utterly unlikable.

“You assured me you would attempt to rush,” Celestia stated blankly, her tone and expression impassive.

“And I most certainly did exert as much pressure as humanly possible. Unfortunately, some things simply can’t be rushed.”

“So I am to celebrate the Lunar Perihelion on my own?” Celestia asked, an edge entering her tone.

Steven paused, collecting his thoughts. “I am sorry, your majesty. But it’s simply unfeasible given the time constraints.”

“Are you saying it’s my fault?” Celestia asked, her expression darkening.

“Yes, yes I am,” Steven said calmly. “You did not give adequate time for us to get your guests through quarantine and thus this could not be avoided by us.”

Celestia seemed taken aback by the calling of her bluff, and she fumed for a moment, staring out across the city. “Fine,” she growled. With a haughty huff, she turned, and sized up Blake with the look of someone inspecting jewellery. “You, server, what are you doing tonight?”

“Sleeping for some time, watching television,” Blake said evenly, picking up the heavy iron pot and pouring some fluid into her cup.

“You can’t be-” Steven began, but Celestia silenced him by lifting a single hoof in his direction.

“Very well, you are cordially invited to a Royal Celebration.” Celestia’s tone dropped, and an almost ominous note entered it. “It is very unwise to refuse a royal invitation.”

Blake looked back and forth between the two of them. Steven mouthed ‘no’ at him quite exaggeratedly.

“Uhhh, I’m…” Blake frowned, chewing on the inside of his lip. “I don’t have anything to wear,” he said lamely. “I really don’t want to stand around all evening either, Your Majesty, on account of my foot?”

“There will be seating provided,” Celestia said with barely-repressed rage in her tone.

“Your majesty, you cannot just pick someone at random to join your celebration,” Steven coaxed genially. “Why, I could have a veritable who’s-who of people here by this evening, a party fit for a king. Or a princess.”

Celestia rounded on Steven, her tone rising with each word until she was almost shrilly yelling at him. “Are you denying me this?! First you deny me my actual guests, and then I’m not even allowed to choose whom I am to spend my evening celebration with?!”

“I did not mean to imply-”

Celestia cut across him immediately. “I don’t care what you meant to imply! You outright offered to pick and choose my guest list. My guest list! To my celebration!”

Steven gave a strained smile. “What would please you, your majesty?”

“What would please me, is this human accompanying me to the celebration,” Celestia said, pointing vaguely in the direction of Blake with a hoof. “And not anyone that you select for me!”

“Very well,” Steven said carefully, turning to Blake and giving him a warm smile. “I leave it up to Blake.”

Blake didn’t fail to notice it was the first time Steven had treated him with even a trace of respect.

“Yes, Blake,” Celestia said, rounding on him, rising to her full, impressive height. It felt like she was filling the entire room with her presence. “Are you coming to the celebration with me?” she asked, her tone sweet and unemotional, but with a biting edge of danger hidden amongst it.

Blake actually felt slightly cowed under her gaze and the question. He wasn’t entertaining any ideas of refusing, but just the thought of it had a cold sweat building on his brow. “Yes, I’ll come. If I can sit down.”

“Very good,” Celestia said with a smug smile, and then pointed a hoof at the door. “You may leave, Steven. I don’t wish to speak to you any more right now.”

Steven bowed cordially. “Very well, your majesty."

As he turned to leave, he gave Blake the dirtiest look he had ever received from a person, and sniffed once in annoyance, smartly closing the door behind himself.

A long silence hung in the air between Celestia and Blake.

“So,” Blake said after a moment. “You totally planned all of that, didn’t you?”

“Whatever gave you that idea?” Celestia asked, turning towards him, sizing him up.

Blake pondered for a moment. “Well, you asked for black tea,” he said, holding up the iron pot. “Takes twice as long to boil and prepare as regular tea, keeping me in the room the entire time. You dragged Steven into a verbal trap by making him call your bluff on acting all haughty about not getting your guests here for that thing you want, when you know he’s just dying to correct you and show you up any chance he can get if you’re in the wrong. And that set you up to demand that I, your oblivious server, join you for an evening. Alone.”

Celestia gave a thin smile, and then stared at him for a long moment, sizing him up again. “Are you quite certain that you aren’t a diplomat?”

“I’ve been with a few really manipulative girlfriends so I know a set-up when I see it,” Blake said with a slight smile.

“I planned it down to the sentence,” Celestia said with relish, before she rounded on him, her eyes narrowing. “Why do you let him talk down to you like that? He humiliated you. You know he was digging up that thing from this morning just to spite you.”

“I know,” Blake said with a strained sigh. “But I can’t exactly tell him to go fuck himself. I have to insinuate it, instead.”

Celestia gave a single snort. “Still.”

“I appreciate you getting annoyed on my behalf,” Blake said with a slight smile, taking the iron put over to the sink and pouring the contents out entirely. He returned, and pulled out the porcelain pot. “Green tea this time?”

“Please!” Celestia said, throwing herself onto the couch and stretching out with a long sigh. “At least the most annoying part of my day is over.”

“So what’s this Lunar periwhatsit anyhow?” Blake asked carefully.

“Lunar Perihelion,” Celestia corrected, and then added: “Don’t do that.”

“Don’t do what?”

“Pretend to be stupid. It’s unbecoming,” Celestia said flatly.

Blake gave a chagrined smile. “Okay, I know what a Lunar Perihelion is, but only because I play videogames.”

“Very good. Then you know it is absolutely rubbish.”

Blake paused at that, and then shook his head. “No, actually. Ancient cultures probably used to celebrate that stuff. Or at least took note of it, if I remember that stuff I read about Mayans…”

“Either way, it is not a celebration in my culture,” Celestia said simply. “In fact, the perihelion is not for another month.”

“You just desperately want to get me alone for a few hours?” Blake asked casually.

“Desperately,” Celestia said, licking her lips.

“And now it’s my turn to say ‘stop that’,” Blake said bluntly.

“Stop what?” Celestia asked, blinking once.

Blake took a long inhale, and then sighed slightly. “Trumping everything up like that. I know it’s fake. I know that’s not really you.”

Celestia’s eyes narrowed, but she didn’t respond.

“It’s like this comedian says. When you first meet someone, you’re not meeting them, you’re meeting their representative. And for some reason, you really want to seduce me,” Blake said casually. “I don’t know why. But you’re trying too hard. You’re being very unlike a princess and against what I think you would normally be like, trying to appeal to what you think I want you to act like.”

Celestia pursed her lips. “Is it working?”

Blake scowled, and then chuckled. “Yes, yes it is. But still… It feels insincere.”

A long sigh left the princess, and she hung her head slightly. “It’s… It’s very difficult to say to someone ‘I am desperately curious as to your species’ mating rituals, please show me’.”

Blake nodded. “Yeah, I get that,” he said, picking up the tea he had prepared and bringing it around to the princess, setting it down on the awkwardly-named coffee-table and then sitting lightly on the edge of the couch next to her.

Celestia frowned, staring down at her forehooves, her tone flat. “Your kind is emotional. Just like ours. If I even let on that I’m interested in the mechanical aspects of your courting, it would be a huge turn-off and make the whole thing pointless. It would ruin it.”

“I get that, too,” Blake said soothingly, shifting a little closer to the princess. “But being fake about it ruins it for me, too. I know when someone is trying to manipulate me.”

“And here I thought I was being perfectly acceptable,” Celestia said ruefully. “You really should be a diplomat.”

Blake narrowed his eyes at the princess, and then gently pulled her muzzle up with his palm, leaning in to kiss her on the lips.

Celestia blinked once, but relaxed into the kiss, enjoying the feel of his soft lips against her own. One of her eyebrows arched and her eyes blinked open as she felt a warm palm on her wing, pushing it back down against her side.

Blake drew back from the kiss with a smirk, giving her a long stare. “You see that?” he said, pushing against her wing a little more firmly in punctuation. “You can’t hide that.”

A soft huff left the princess. “Are you now a master of alicorn body-language?”

“Enough to know that your wings lifting up on their own like that means you enjoy something quite a bit more than you’d admit,” Blake said with a wry grin.

Celestia scowled at him slightly at that. “Perhaps.”

“And now, you’re going to think about it next time I kiss you, and it won’t happen any more… so I’ll just have to look for some other ‘tell’,” Blake said with a knowledgeable nod.

Celestia squinted at him, but then her gaze softened, and she leaned her head on his shoulder. “Is that enough for you?”

Blake nodded, lifting a hand to rest on her mane. “In regards to you? Yes.”