The Royal Romance - What nearly happened...

No more secrets?

He looked up in surprise as he heard the tent door open. There was only one person who it could have been, but he was nonetheless surprised to see her. Pleasantly surprised.

"Who's there? Is it ghosts?" he called, sitting up.

"It's just me!" she said, closing the tent, and throwing down her sleeping bag. "How was ghosts your first guess?"

"It's dark. That's when the ghosts come out," he said.

She sat down next to him, with a satisfied smirk. "And when shirts come off.."

"Oh.." He looked around for his shirt.

She giggled. "Relax Maxwell, it's just me."

He smiled back at her. "Prove you're not a ghost impersonating Jen."

"Well, I know you love dance offs.."

"Everyone knows that!" he said. "I'm sure that's the first thing a ghost would know about me."

"You eat candy corn all year long.."

"That could be true of anyone," he argued.

She shook her head. "It's not."

"I'm still not convinced, ghost,"

"Okay, how about this.. you care more about Bertrand's opinion of you than you'd like to admit."

She knew him too well. "Wow, that got real pretty fast. But I'm still not sure I believe you."

At that she launched on him, tackling him to the ground in a hug.

He tensed up. "Whoa.."

She grinned at him. "Do I feel real enough for you?"

Oh, definitely. "I guess a ghost would've just passed through me, leaving the eerie chill of the dead.."

"Doesn't explain why you're still shivering," she said with a sly smile.

"Am I?"

"Good thing you have me here to give you warmth," she went on.

"It's cold out here in these haunted woods," he said, gazing at her, willing her to hug him again.

And, to his amazement, she did, and this time, he went with it.

"You're right," he said, dreamily. "This is nice."

"Told ya," she chirped.

"Alright, you've finally convinced me. You're not a spooky ghost," he said, as content as he could ever remember being.

She shuffled backwards, seemingly to see him properly. "What would you have done if I had been a ghost?"

"I would've trapped you in an amulet and taken you to the nearest body of water for cleansing. Pretty standard stuff, really."

"Well," she said, "Since I'm here and there still could be ghosts lurking all around, I guess it'd be safer if we stayed together tonight."

He wasn't going to argue. "Good thinking. We can take turns keeping watch. You wanna go first?"

"But the ghosts can't get us if we're together," she said. "Let's just stay here like this, and cuddle!"

"I... uhhh.."

"You know, like we did last time? At your place? Because that was nice. Or is 'shirtless' your advanced ghost fighting tactic?" She reached out to touch his tattoo.

"Oh, yeah," he said, flustered. "Ghosts are terrified of the exposed body. It makes them uncomfortable."

"So..." She looked at him with a strange expression that he didn't really get.