We're on a friggin' bus!

There's a reason I don't ride the bus. All I ever hear is: sit still, be quiet, don't try to throw your friend out the window... I haven't been on the bus in ages. I think the guys and I are still banned.

Mr Hsieh, the driver, narrowed his eyes and jacked up one of his bushy eyebrows when I got on a block from my house, but when he saw that I was with Kira, he decided to smile instead and told her to call him if I got out of hand. 

What the hell?!

Well, I plan on getting out of hand... or getting Kira in hand... I really hope she doesn't call him.

She refused to go on the scrambler, and I guess she has a point; trying to stalk someone on a noisy motorcycle would be counterproductive. Still, the bus?! Seriously! I know she's scared of riding on my scrambler, so I didn't push it, but there must've been a better way than the bus. Pity my parents are both away with their cars.

"Spies and assassins don't normally take the bus unless their marks are on that same bus, Kicks," I inform Kira since she apparently doesn't know anything about stalking people... which probably counts in her favour. "Our dignity as stalkers is seriously being massacred here."

"Stalkers have dignity?"

"Yeah! We should be stalking them in a fancy black car with tinted windows like professionals."

This is not fun!

I'm itching to get up and stretch because my one knee is being squashed against the seat in front of us, and people keep tripping over my other leg in the aisle, so I'm trying to squish it in too. Why the hell are there so many people on the bus right now? The long back seat with at least one space backing the aisle is already full of noisy primary school kids. Nobody is telling them to be quiet! 

So unfair!

I turn my head to look at Kira so I can complain to her and realise how close together we are. My nose gets tangled in her soft hair. These seats are cramped, and I'm much bigger than Kicks, so I'm taking up most of the space, trapping her against the window. She's the one who should be complaining, but she's not; she simply looks out the window, keeping an eye on Simon's mother's car to keep track of where he's taking my sister.

This is kinda nice! 

I grin, looking at Kira's pretty legs sprouting from her long denim shorts. Her thigh is pressed against mine, and her hand is completely invisible when I wrap mine around hers. It's like I'm swallowing her, absorbing all of her. Soon there will be just me sitting on this seat because my body will have sucked hers up completely. It's like that computer game where the blue and red blobs try to swallow each other until the whole screen is either red or blue. This seat is going to be covered with just Ethan.

What the hell?! No! That won't be good!

No absorbing Kira! I like having her here beside me, all soft and smelling like lemons and roses... and vanilla. It's making me hungry. I want ice cream. Does she have any snacks with her? She has a big-ass bag... there could be snacks in there.

"Nahte, we are two bungling school kids; the best we can do is follow them from the scuffed luxury of this bus," Kira says, pouting her lips in that cute way she always does when she's trying to lecture me or calm me down or tell me not to irritate her or...

Since it's so cramped, I don't have to move much to reach her lips with mine, and now I really like this bus. I don't know if Kira would've pushed me away if she wasn't squashed against the window. She's not trying at all, she just sucks in her breath, taken by surprise, but her lips are soft and pliant and not saying no or pulling away at all.

Yeah, I really like the bus!

"Ethan!"

"What? I'm practising," I tell her innocently, blinking my eyes like a scolded child, and Kira just clicks her tongue and turns her head away to look out the window again. I'm grinning like I just scored the biggest tub of ice cream, and when I catch Mr Hsieh's eye in the huge mirror he uses to monitor the naughty kids on the bus, he shakes his head, but he is grinning too.

I guess he finds me kissing my girlfriend more acceptable than he found me having a hair-pulling contest with Wendy and Lurch. Wendy won! I have no idea how since she has a massive mane of blond hair cascading all over the place, and my hair was really short at the time. No, that wasn't last week... it was years ago when we were still young and didn't know how to behave. I think it was in December...

The bus ride lasts long enough for me to kiss Kira four times and after the second time, she doesn't even try to complain anymore. I think she even kissed me back a little bit. Hey, I kept it short and stuck to the bullshit rules for kisses they used in nunneries in the dark ages.

When we finally jump off the bus, I'm not banned for the next three months or given any warnings for a change. I'm impressed... and a little disappointed. I think Mr Hsieh and I are losing our special bond now. We had a great system going for many years.

Some nice clouds are drifting lazily in the sky, and a strong breeze blows in from the sea. It's refreshing, and I smile happily at Kira when she looks up at me, our hands automatically finding each other's. She gasps in surprise when I pull her against the wall of the ablution block where the beach meets the pavement.

"What are you doing now?" she huffs, and I shush her in the best way possible. Yup! I kiss her. Gently but thoroughly, I brush my lips over hers, holding her lower lip between mine for a second. 

"They're parking," I explain. "They almost saw us."

Kira narrows her eyes and pokes me in the ribs, stepping out of hiding, and I follow her since I'm still holding onto her hand. This is a fun game. I get to kiss Kira every time I think we're about to be spotted... which is very, very, very often because we are terrible stalkers. Actually, I don't think Deli and Simon are ever close to spotting us, but we do lose them a few times because I'm so good at stealing kisses... I mean... hiding the fact that we're stalking them.

I'm also getting pretty good at getting Kira to stop scolding me. Same technique... I'm going to use suddenly kissing her as a solution for many things from now on.

"Seriously, Ethan," Kira grumbles, and she's been doing that a lot since we got off the bus. She took the cramped quarters and the heat, and big old me pressed up against her really well, but now that we're out in the fresh air with all the space in the world to spread out in, she's complaining all the time. 

Oh! Maybe she wants to be pressed up against me some more! Happy to oblige, I squirm closer to her so I'm squatting flush against her now, but that is not helping for some reason. 

"This is ridiculous. They're going to think we're trying to rob the bank and arrest us."

I pulled Kira down with me so we could squat with our backs pressed up against a glass storefront and hide beside a huge planter filled with small palm trees and large-leaved Seloums, and I now see that some passers-by are giving us looks.

"What bank?" I ask, glancing at her and she stabs a thumb over her shoulder at the glass wall behind us. Turning my head, I'm startled to see that we are sitting against the bank's window, and there are people inside looking at us. Mr Anderson, the guard, seems puzzled; he probably didn't recognise me yet, so I wave at him, and he shakes his head and laughs. He knows me, and he's used to me... doing things... usually with the guys and Wendy, not with Kira.

This is not quite as awkward as earlier when I saw Delia turn our way and pulled Kira close to me. I blindly pointed at things in the nearest window, telling her how cool I thought it was and how much I wanted one, only to realise I was showing her cigar clippers and cigarette cases and Barn's mother was stepping out of Lurch's mother's store, right next door. She stopped and frowned at me like always when I show up at the clinic, bleeding and dirty after playing with her son.

She asked me how long I'd been smoking and told me that her son had better not be sharing in that hobby. She assured me that if she found out that her boy was a smoker, she was going to skin his butt. I got a ten-minute lecture on all the dangers of smoking until I managed to convince her that I was actually looking at the little windmill that was part of the decorations, not the cigars, the cases, the tobacco or the pipes. 

I now officially have a thing for windmills.

I don't know if she believed me, so the first chance I got, I texted Barn, told him what happened and warned him that she was on the warpath.

When Kira realised we were standing in front of The Smoker's Den, she shrugged off my arm and hurried away, pretending she didn't know me even before I noticed where we were, and Mrs Doraliyagoda started scolding me. She waited for me on a bench in the shade, laughing her head off, so I told her Mrs Doraliyagoda asked me how long we've been dating and if we're using protection. That did stop her laughing, but it made her run away instead.

I should've just used my new kissing technique to silence her!

"Ethy," Kira says, shuffling away to make some space between us. I don't like that, but I don't close the gap. "This is silly. We've been ducking behind doors and garbage cans and suddenly turning down dead-end alleys. Why? We are allowed to be in town, you know? We're even allowed to be here together. People are giving us a lot of suspicious looks because we're being weird, and it draws attention to us."

"Hmm," I nod. She's right; we are getting a lot of unwanted attention. "This isn't very effective; we should just make out. People don't look suspicious when they're making out."

"Yes, they do!" she snaps, clapping one of her hands over my mouth when I lean towards her to show her what I mean. "What is it with you and making out all of a sudden?!" she frowns, and I'm about to lick her palm when she snatches her hand away. She probably read my mind because she's looking into my eyes as if she's trying to bore into my mind with hers.

"Well, it's part of dating, isn't it?" I frown, and I rather like looking into her eyes like this. Hers are alive with autumn and spring colours blending together, happily changing from a cat's to a tiger's and back. Moss green and golden brown. "It helps couples to bond, and it's really fun to do, so..." I shrug, feeling a little hurt that she's so dead set against it all of a sudden, and she seemed to like it earlier.

"You should practice doing it," I suggest, remembering our 'goals' for being in this relationship. "It will help you with the whole dating thing."

"Oh!" Kira gasps, her cheeks flaming brightly and her eyes shy away from mine. What did I say to make her look like this now? "Yes, I-I know I'm b-bad at it..." she stammers, stabbing a hole right through my heart. I didn't mean that!

"No," I mutter, sliding my fingertips along the soft skin of her chin, tilting her head so we can look into each other's eyes again. "Actually, you're pretty good at it, which is making me question a lot of things I've always thought about you," I grin, teasing her a little, but just a little. She really is too good at it not to have had much practice. I frown, jealousy starting to crawl around in my stomach again. "Just who have you been practising with?"

"Mr Big Bear," Kira whispers, her eyes large and bright, looking into mine and I laugh hearing those words coming from her lips. Mr Big Bear is a huge cuddly bear my dad gave her the day after her mom died so she could have something to hold onto when she felt alone.

"What do you mean?" she says, giving me a cheeky look. "Didn't you just tell me that I need practice?"

"Only to get used to doing it, not to work on your... technique," I grin, loving how her cheeks flare up again. This time, it isn't because I inadvertently hurt her. This time, it is because I'm being a pest and making her shy. That is so much better. "You just always seem like you're about to pass out and die when I kiss you, and I figure that if we do it more often, you'll relax about it a bit more."

"That's because it's you... and me," she says, and now she's the one hurting me a little bit. "It's not natural."

"It's pretty natural," I frown, not liking where this conversation is going now. "We're the same species."

"No, we're not!"

"We're not?" I don't know whether I should laugh or cry now. What the hell?!

"No, you're a weirdo..." she says, a slight smile plucking at her lips and, sitting here beside the planter looking at her, I really want to go somewhere else with her now. Forget about Deli and Simon and learning stuff from others. I just want to be with Kira... alone... and find our own way of dating each other. A way that involves loads and loads of kissing... and cuddling. I love her so damned much.

"I'm not like you, Ethan," she whispers, the slight smile gone now. "This cannot go where you want it to go; I cannot be that girl for you."

"What girl?" I have no idea what she's talking about now. I want her to be the girl who loves me. The girl I'll marry one day. Does she mean she cannot be her? Hell, I hope that is not what she means!

"The girl who looks into those ridiculous eyes of yours, and then all her clothes fall off."

"I have ridiculous eyes?" I frown at her, wondering if that was supposed to be an insult. I have my mother's eyes, and Kicks always says my mom has beautiful eyes, which means she should like mine. Then again, she's never said weird things like that about my mom's eyes... "Why would my eyes make people's clothes fall off?!" I chuckle, really confused now.

"I've never been able to figure out why," she mumbles, and now she won't look at my eyes anymore. I really want to test that theory!

"I think you're the weird one here, Kicks," I tell her, still laughing softly.

"Yes, I am, but you know what I mean," she says, and I'm relieved that she's also laughing now and not trying to run away again.

"Not really," I say with a grimace and a shrug, feeling slightly sick now. "I think you have the wrong idea about me, Kicks. I've had a few girlfriends and friends who are girls, and I liked kissing some of them... and stuff, but there have been only one girl things went overboard with, and I've regretted it ever since it happened."

Amber friggin' Dyson! I have no desire to talk about her now! I haven't seen her since the middle of last year, and I have no desire to see her again.

"Only one," she mutters, looking at her hands wrapped around my bicep as if she only now realises that she's been holding onto me to keep herself from toppling over.

"Yeah. And surely, you know that I'll never force anything on you that you're not ready for? I just figured that some kissing and cuddling is natural in a relationship, and we're trying to be real here, so..."

Kira doesn't answer; she is looking off into the distance, her expression growing increasingly horrified, causing my breath to get stuck somewhere between my ribs. "Wow! Fine! You don't have to kiss me if it creeps you out that much!" I exclaim, really hurt now.

"Friday is Founders' Day," she says, blinking at me with her wide eyes. "The festivals."

I know that, of course. I'm looking forward to having fun with Kira at the festival. It's a pretty big deal. About a gazillion years ago... 300 or so, some sailors got stranded here in the bay when pirates chased them off their course, and the cove's rocky arms tore their ship.

They thought they were on an uninhabited island, and while they were trying to build a new boat to get home, they developed the cove a bit so that they would be able to survive long enough. Meanwhile, civilisation was just on the other side of the mountains that cut Summerfield off from the inland. It took two years for them to be discovered, and that happened by accident because some farmers lost a herd of goats and climbed the mountain to find them.

The sailors loved the cove and the land they'd started to cultivate so much that after being helped by the population on the other side of the mountain, they went home and brought their families, and that is how Egret's Rest and the other towns this side of the mountain were born. They named this cove after their ship, the Egret.

Pieces of it, like the mast and crow's nest, are mounted in the town's square, and the figurehead that used to be on their ship's prow, a large detailed Egret, was bronzed and given a place of honour on the steps of Silverview's town hall. Some of the people from the other side of the mountain joined the small group of families, and the district grew and became what it is today.

Hot as hell... but as pretty as Heaven.

Every year, the population of the four towns and the city, Silverview, that make up Summerfields gathers in Egret's Rest to celebrate the lucky accident that led to the creation of our district. Founders' Day weekend is a long weekend. Who doesn't love long weekends? So why is Kicks looking like this?

"What are you saying? You want to save kissing and stuff for the weekend?" I stand up and pull her up too, hoping she will not say yes. "That's three days away!"

She blinks at me, a confused frown between her eyes, and I'll take that as a good sign, but... "We've lost Deli and Simon!" I gasp, horrified because I think we might need their guidance after all.

"They'll be at the library by now," Kira says, brushing the dust off her bottom and I wonder if it would be okay to offer to help her with that. Probably not, so I just brush my hand over my own backside. It's really not satisfying at all.

"Why?" I ask, not feeling very inspired by the word library.

"Delia said they were going there."

"Why?"

"They like the library."

"I don't get it."

"They need to get some books."

"I don't get it. Aren't they on a date? I really don't get it!"

"Sort of."

"I don't get it," I mutter, taking Kira's hand, happy that she's not pulling away from me, but I still... "Don't get it."

Climbing the stone steps to the library's front door does not feel natural at all. Kissing Kira felt natural; this is just weird.

"I don't get it," I say when we enter the library, and I might not get why we're here, but at least there's some really good aircon going in this place with its high ceilings and maizes built with bookshelves. I'll survive despite the fact that I'm now surrounded by containers of words that have letters in them that never want to stand still and stick to their order. "Why would people come here on a date? This place only has books."

I grab Kira's hand, wondering when I let it go. This place must really be evil to make me lose it like that. Seeing some directional signs mounted on a post, I'm struck by sudden inspiration (I might actually get it now). I turn to the right and stride past rows of bookshelves towards the stairs set to the right of the library's ground floor. Lurch and Jet told me about the archive section on the second floor. They've often gone there when they couldn't find a place to be alone with their girlfriends.

"Where are we going?" Kira asks, and I stop to frown at her. 

"To the archive section, obviously." Doesn't she know? Oh... right... maybe she really doesn't.

"Why?" Yup, she doesn't, and I'm really glad about that.

"Nobody ever uses that section, so people go there to be alone and do stuff... with each other," I clarify, hoping she will see the beauty of this side of the library experience.

"Dell and Simon didn't come to the library to get all gropy with each other," she grumbles, glaring at me, and there goes the only redeeming quality this place has. "That's not what libraries are for!"

"It's not?" Why did my sister and her boyfriend come here then?

"No. Besides, Dell and Simon came here because they wanted to find books to write their reports on."

She laughs when I stare at her in horror. What the hell kind of thing is that to do on a date?! My sister and Simon really are the worst romance guides.

"Don't you remember our English assignment?" Kira laughs, shaking her head and giving me a cheeky look. "We need to read a book we've never read before and then write a report on it. I'm going to use The Pirate Who Knows Stuff. Which book are you going to use?"

Really? We're going to talk about this now? I blink at her, really not enjoying this conversation much. It's about school work... book reports... homework... I'm dying here. We're on a stalking date for crying in a bucket!

"The TV Guide," I finally shrug, making her giggle softly.

"Well, that is going to be a challenge because the plot sucks, and the characters are all the same."

"Maybe," I nod, agreeing with her. "But it has a strong mystery element too; I can never figure out when the shows I'm looking for are going to be on."

Glancing past Kira's shoulder, I see my sister and Simon sitting at one of the tables near the windows. She's right; they have a small pile of books between them. Please, kill me now! Well, the mission is back on... I guess. Kira likes books. If she wants to do book things on our date, I'll do some book things with her. Being stealthy and professional, I drop to the ground and roll to the edge of the next shelf, planning to roll from shelf to shelf until we can find a good spot to spy on them from.

"What are you doing?" Kira hisses, following me, walking upright in full view of anybody who wants to see her. She will really not make a very good spy one day. I hope she never decides to change her career plans.

"What are you doing?" I bounce her question back at her, looking up at her from the ground where I'm now lying on my back. "Deli and Simon are over there by the windows. They'll see you if you just walk around like that," I tell her, rolling over into a crouch.

"I know they're there, and there's a much bigger chance of them seeing us if you're going to act like GI Joe!"

She's right; I'm getting even more attention than usual, and I don't like it, so I get to my feet, smiling and nodding in apology at the people giving me freaked-out looks.

"I hate this place; it is creeping me out," I grunt.

"You're the only creepy thing here," Kira scoffs. "Unless you count the books in the paranormal section."

Delia leans into Simon's shoulder, giggling softly about something he'd said, and that makes me a little hopeful that this mission is not a complete bust, but then they open some books. They are reading! Come on!

I groan and carry on down the path I'd been rolling on. I'm going to go over there and tell them to make this more fun or they're fired. There are only a couple of rows of shelves left to pass, when I see it. A big, happy sign with some awesome words on them! 

Manga! Graphic Novels!

 I might like this library after all. I didn't know they had good stuff here too! Rows upon rows of my favourite stories. Usually, I watch the anime, but I like reading the books too... they've got pictures! I pull out one and another, browsing like a friggin' pro, and then I stumble upon one I haven't seen before. It looks like my kind of story, so I take number one from the shelf and make myself comfortable on the carpet.

"Are you building a fort?" Kira suddenly speaks near me, and I'm startled to realise I forgot I was here with her. Only for a minute! I was going to remember in a few seconds. I'm just trapped in a world filled with zombies right now, and I have a bucket list of things I want to do before I become one too... well... Akira is, but I'm right there with him, having a blast.

I glance around me at the books I'd been browsing... yes, browsing! Like a grown-up. It's been a while since I built book forts in my dad's study... and this time, I literally mean years. Hey, this place has a lot of potential. I could build huge forts in here, but I won't. I'm going to read and be all impressive for my girlfriend, who is sitting beside me, looking cute and cheeky, ready to tease me.

I throw an arm around her neck to pull her closer and punish her a little bit for messing with me, but I'm kinda forgetting the mission now that I have her squashed against me. I'm also starting to forget about the bucket list I was reading about.

"Comics?" Kira snorts, scooting away from me and giving my books a haughty look.

"It's not comics," I grunt, and glaring at her, I gesture at the sign above the section of shelves in front of us.

Graphic Novels.

"Oh... what's the difference?" Kira shrugs, paging through one of the books looking at the speech bubbles and images.

"Comics don't have large, complicated storylines," I tell her, a little annoyed, though I actually like comics a lot too.

"And this one does?" She taps the one I'm reading, looking curious, no longer teasing me, and I give it to her so that she can have a closer look.

"Yup," I say, watching her read the name on the back, Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead, and the description on the front.

"It's really cool," I tell her when she looks up at me. "It's about a guy trapped in a zombie apocalypse, and he has a list of things he wants to achieve before he becomes a zombie. It's by Haro Aso, the same guy who wrote that Japanese series we watched, and you liked so much, Alice in Borderlands."

"Oh! Yes, I did like that!" she grins, starting to share my enthusiasm, and I take the book from her to open it again. "Ms Pringle didn't say that we're not allowed to write our report on a graphic novel, right?"

"No," Kira shrugs, the look she's giving me turning suspicious. "You cannot possibly be almost done reading it!" I don't immediately get what she means, and then I follow her gaze to see that I have it open near the back of the book.

"It's a Japanese manga. You read it from right to left, so... back to front."

"That's not Japanese; it's English."

"It's translated," I sigh, rolling my eyes. Come on! She must've realised that! Is she mocking me again? I thought she was being supportive that I'm actually reading something. "They kept the Japanese look and feel of it. Come on, I'll restart, and you can read it with me."

"I hope you don't mean the way we used to when we were little," she grins, reminding me of the happy times I spent with her and Deli, reading books out loud together, each of us making the voices for our chosen characters. I loved doing that. It's how I passed reading in the first couple of grades at school.

"We're in a library, Kicks. We have to be quiet. Don't you know anything?" I tell her in my best Kira-tutor tone of voice, and the little brat pinches me, making me yelp. Kira never pinches me! That's Deli's speciality!

She snuggles closer to see the pages clearly, and just like that, I am in Heaven. I have a manga in my hands, and the girl I love is technically cuddling me, resting the side of her head on my shoulder. I could stay here forever. Maybe we should teach Deli and Simon all about dating! They're clearly doing it wrong.

"Hey, you two!"

Delia startles us, suddenly appearing here in our aisle. We were both deeply engrossed in the story of Akira and his bucket list, sniggering and gasping together as the story switched between humour, suspense, gore and back at a fast pace. Simon is with her, and they're both grinning, enjoying our confusion. Delia has her phone in her hand, and she's giving me a look and a wink, making me grin. I know she took a nice pick of us. When she saw my phone's wallpaper, she said it was funny but depressing and that she would make sure I got a nice romantic one.

I knew I could count on her.

"H-hi," Kira says, awkwardly untangling herself from me and now I wish my sister didn't interrupt us. This was the most fun I've ever had while reading.

"You guys are the worst stalkers ever," Delia informs us, and Kira tries to deny it, which is really cute but useless. We sucked at it, and I think Delia's been on to us all day. When we were in the class, and Kira took her phone and sent me that screenshot, I saw Deli smirk a few times. She was laughing at us on the in side the entire time.

While we were following them, I suspected a few times that she doubled back on purpose or waited when we lost them. I'm sure she and Simon were having a blast pretending not to know they were being stalked... until we forgot that we were stalking them and ended up reading on the library floor. 

I have to tell Burlap about this. He will not believe it. I obviously won't tell him that there was manga involved... he'll guess it anyway...

"Yeah, well, you guys are the worst dating example ever," I assure them. "Seriously boring! Deli, have you learned nothing from me?"

"If I learned from you, Ethe, I would've been called rude names," Delia says, and she's not wrong. "Besides, this is not a date."

"We're going to grab some dinner; would you like to join us?" Simon offers me a lifeline, wrapping an arm around Delia from behind.

"I can eat," I say, pretending not to be thrilled by the invite, as I look at Kira to see how she feels about the idea of joining them for dinner.

"I know," she says, being cheeky again. "I've seen you demonstrate your ability for 12 years now... Ow!" 

She giggles when I wrap an arm around her head and pull her closer, rubbing my knuckles over her head. For the last 12 years, this technique has worked well when I wanted to torture her. I should probably replace this one with the new kissing one, but if I have to kiss Kira each time she's cheeky, I'll constantly be kissing her.

And the problem with that is...?!

"Hm," Delia grunts, shaking her head. "I can see that you need all the good examples you can get."

"We'll meet you out front; we're just going to check out these books," Simon says.

"I've already let Mum know that she has to feed your dad, Kiki," Delia smiles and off she goes with Simon and a canvas bag full of books. Kira's bag is big enough to fit snacks, but I don't think it's big enough for books. She didn't even bring any snacks in it! Just her wallet, some tissues and her phone. Seriously! Yeah, I asked. 

We're going to have to share Deli and Simon's bag. I dump the books we're not taking back on the shelves, grinning when Kira frowns at me and sorts them into their places.

"I'm checking these out," she tells me, holding all four Zom100 volumes and some of the others I've been looking at. Nice!

"You're not reading them without me!" I tell her, narrowing my eyes and taking the books from her arms to carry them to the checkout counter.

"Wouldn't dream of it," she grins, making my heart skip a beat. At the counter, I put the books down and pull my phone out of my jeans pocket to see why it buzzed. It's an image from Delia, and glancing up, I see that Kira is smiling at her phone too.

"I think I just found my new wallpaper, Kicks."

"Me too," she giggles, the sparkling sound sending happy ripples through my heart.

♂♀