Love Potion

Like Two Blushing Pilgrims

The next morning, I was welcomed with a totally unprecedented but not totally unwelcomed surprise.

I had just left Study of Magical Creatures (with soar swellings on the knuckles of my fingers from handling a poison-skinned kripslythe, and feeling a fool since Amadeus grilled me on my absence from his last lesson, and even more so because Viper was in the lesson, and I refused to meet eyes with him) when a hand closed around my wrist, as if to tell me to stay. I turned around, feeling only cold and tired, to be bewildered by the warm face of Kenzie. I admit, I hadn't thought about him the past few days; for I had been in a state of torment of Killian Viper, and my own hogwash of feelings, and the terrible question of what is the right thing to do; seeing Kenzie then, it was a kind of newfangled relief, a reminder that there is light outside of this situation.

"Hello," I had said to him, in a sighing voice. We were a way off of the tree in which Amadeus lived, and still in the wood. The rest of the class had tromped away to the castle, and the pair of us were left alone in the hushing, honey-ray forest. I will tell you that he looked particularly radiant in this light, with sun diamonds on his face, and bringing out the bronze in his dark eyes. I hoped the yellow morning had the same effect on me.

"Hello," he said back. His voice was a muted sort of rumble. He kept adjusting his collar, fumbling with the hem of his shirt. When his eyes met mine, they quickly went away.

There was a quiet moment. I smiled at him encouragingly - now reminded of him, my like to him was budding. He opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again, and looked away, rubbing his neck, and grumbled to himself. More quiet.

Just what was he to say to me? Had he grabbed my wrist only to grumble and rub his neck?

"Kenzie-"

"Cosmo, for frinx' sake, will you go to ball with me?" The words tumbled out of him in a desperate plummet.

I gaped. I was more than shocked. Was I so anxious to not see this coming? His blush, his ticks, his fumbles - 

"Yes."

His eyes had been squinched shut, but now they opened, and stared. "Yes?"

"Yes."

He stared at me for a second. I stared back. We were staring at each other.

And then his terrified little 'O' of a mouth split into a cracking grin - and then he embraced me like a bear, and we shared the warmth of our chests and the smells of our necks, and we laughed like madmen, and grinned so our mouths ached - but obviously not aching enough, for then he had grabbed my face in his big broad hands and kissed me hard.

It was a desperate kiss of lips against lips, just pressed together like building blocks, not quite opened, though mine was in soft surprise. And it was a nice kiss, as kisses go, though I suppose I've never kissed before. In the moment, I wasn't focused on that - more of the fact that Kenzie Kane was kissing me, and I was not complaining. Of all the characters of Greamelts, Kenzie Kane was never the one I dreamt of kissing! How strange these things go!

And now, I am going to the Marvel Ball with Kenzie, and I will be his glad and loving partner, and there is suddenly a splitting light in the dark marsh where Viper resides my mind. Yes, glad! How glad I was, how glad I am! Kenzie was a kind and thoughtful and beautiful boy, and I liked him very much. The only two worries that flitted in this Pandora's box was the reaction of Tatiana, and Viper being his closest friend. Hopefully, being with me will give Kenzie enough sense to unfriend the villain.

And how beautiful it will be, how beautiful we will look! Of course, Kenzie Kane was the one to steal those dressrobes with me, and Kenzie Kane will be the one to wear them with me that night! Of course! It was Kenzie all along! Never mind that Killian, never mind a thing - how could I have been so blind? My worries of yesterday had haunted me like a plague, and within a question and kiss, they seemed as far as the horizon.

And presently, I am squealing into my pillow in the bedchambers with Persephone, Morgaine, Mollis and Pip, and they are squealing into their pillows too - they are twice as shocked as I, but not half as glad! This sudden and amazing revelation inspired me to reconnect with these friends, and I'm glad they're the first I told. They couldn't quite believe it, and they were more concerned. They were already wary of the pilfer he brought me on at Day Vale, and his history of beastliness, which I was wary of too, but I promised them and I promised myself that his heart was golden, and he treated me well, and his awkwardness this morning was more soft and adorable than twelve boxes of rabbits.

And now, by the last three, dragging days to the ball, as we passed in the corridors, we shared stretching grins, and in the few lessons we had together, he approached me with precious timidity. We spoke a little, laughing more than often, fumbling more than often, but we didn't kiss or embrace like we did before.

He only told me how looking forward to the Ball he was, and how happy, and how beautiful I would look. I accepted his compliments with grins and glee, and tried my best to return them. I felt a little overwhelmed, and glad we weren't repeating that kiss of the moment, but utterly happy, and utterly looking forward to the ball. 

And Tatiana, who unavoidably found out about this new revelation, gave me such a look every time she saw me that she could gun me down with those hypothetical daggers. She was crueller than before because of it, though supposedly going out with Muskett. In our last wandwork lesson, she in fact tugged very hard on my hair, and 'accidentally' sent a leg-lodging jinx at me that sent me to the floor. It was all that I could do to keep the tears out of my eyes, and Kenzie in my mind. I tried not to look at Viper, but when I did, his face was totally indecipherable. Did he care, I wondered? Did he hate me more than ever, his best friend having fell for me? Or did he not spare half a shit for it? I thought that was much worse. 

But of course, I did not actually think any of this.

Any of the ways, I went to bed forgotten about it and only feeling highly elated for the ball, no sooner than the tick of nine tommorow. I spent half an hour gazing at the glittery, flitting fabric of my dress for I was very much too electrified to sleep, but somehow I did, after Tatiana hissed from the darkness, "would you turn the frinxing light off, you fat cow? Some of us are trying to sleep here." I thought this was high coming from her, as she spent the next two hours of the night with her own candle on, and reading raunchy pirate pornography that I knew she hid under her bedspread.