"I know," Mericlou replied with a tiny, cute smile. "But it sure was funny."
"That it was."
The time is now, Aldrec thought. If now was not time for that ultimate test, then it would never be. He had to know; he had to find out if she felt the same way. He steeled his courage as best he could, and then slowly allowed his face to move closer to hers.
Mericlou's eyes clouded over and her glossy lips parted ever so slightly as his moved ever closer. Through it all, he felt no tensing from her, no resistance, and this was all the encouragement he needed to move toward his, -their- goal.
He felt her begin to quiver when she moved her mouth to speak. Her voice had lowered to where it was almost inaudibly quiet, her breath gently touching his lips, mere centimeters from hers.
"Aldrec …"
"Yes?"
Is … Is this the beginning of another line?"
"If you want it to be."
"I do."
Closer.
"'One kiss is all I ask, fair maiden, and my humble form shall no longer ask, shall no longer hunger … for anything!'"
"Then I believe I must give you this kiss," Mericlou whispered, the last consonants of the word, "kiss," vanishing as their lips finally, at long last, touched each other's.
Mericlou and Aldrec together reveled in its sweet release, the long-awaited confirmation of a long-burning question inside their hearts and minds, bringing them to tears at the answer. And during that slow, gentle, delicious kiss, Aldrec discovered something new and strange, but not at all unpleasant. It was the fact that not only did Mericlou smell like flowers, but she also tasted like them.
***
"This changes everything, you know?" Mericlou said.
They reclined together in that grassy bank where they had fallen into each other, both literally and figuratively, Mericlou resting in Aldrec's clasping arm, him tenderly running his fingers through her soft ringlets of green hair, content as children tucked into bed.
"It changes nothing for me," Aldrec said.
"It doesn't?"
Aldrec supposed he had phrased his sentence wrong from the disappointment in Mericlou's voice. "No, no," he said, laughing in spite of himself. "It's not what you think. I'm not saying that I don't love you; I'm saying that I've always loved you. And that kiss simply confirms those feelings."
"You know, you always did seem shy about something," Mericlou mused, "especially in the past three months."