Chapter Text
“Will! Let me hug you!”
The little girl shouted and, without giving her friend a chance to respond, she and three clones jumped on him. Will fell under the weight of them. He was thankful that she didn’t pounce him with all nine of her clones like she usually did, but this was getting ridiculous! It was too embarrassing to be tackled by her all the time! Will had to beg her to get off of him.
“Getting hugged by you is embarrassing! And the other boys tease me for it!” he whined.
“What’s more embarrassing? Them teasing you or making me cry?” She asked, her eyes already watering. “You’re so mean to me, Will! I just want to be your friend!”
“We are friends!” he shouted. “But embarrassing things are embarrassing!” Really, when it came to Elfaria and her affections, Will had no idea what to say or do. It had always been that way. He’d gotten better over the years, or at least he thought he did. He usually didn’t hesitate when she asked him to hug her anymore. Yet lately she was starting to get impatient even with that.
The girl pouted. “If you’d just hug me I wouldn’t have to do that all the time!” she insisted.
“F- Fine! If I hug you, will that be enough?”
“Try it and see.”
And so Will did. He opened up his arms and willingly embraced Elfaria. The girl squealed with delight and wrapped her own arms around him, burying her face in his chest with a giggle the biggest smile. To be honest he didn’t dislike hugging her. Or petting her head. Or playing with her. Or complimenting her. Or anything else. But for some reason he always felt a certain way about her and he couldn’t figure out what it was or why. The other boys teased him, saying that he had a girlfriend. But what was a “girlfriend”? Elfaria was a girl, and she was his friend, so they couldn’t be wrong , right? But why was that such a bad thing that would cause their teasing? He couldn’t figure it out.
“Will, don’t forget to pat my head!” the girl chimed in.
Dutifully, the boy smiled and stroked her hair. She giggled again and nuzzled him. Will could feel his cheeks warming and a fuzzy feeling blooming in his chest. These reactions were becoming more and more common lately. They were confusing, and he had half a mind to ask a grown-up about it, but it was so embarrassing . Besides, it didn’t feel bad so it couldn’t be bad, right? And so once again he decided to pay it no mind.
“Hey Will…” Elfaria murmured suddenly. He looked down at her to find that she wasn’t looking at him. That surprised him more than anything. “Grown-ups say kissing is nice to do with someone you like. I like you, Will, so do you think…” He could tell that her face was turning pink even though he could barely see it. “Do you think we could… K- K- K-”
It was rare for her to be unable to say something. Will knew what she wanted, though, and he could feel his own face heating up.
“K- Kissing is for grown-ups though!”
“I’ve seen other kids do it!” Elfaria insisted. “So why can’t we…?”
Will thought about it. He knew what kissing was. As much as any child their age could, anyway. He’d seen adults do it, he’d seen it in their story books, and he had seen some of the older orphans sneakily do it when they thought no one was looking. But that was just it; everybody he’d seen was older than them.
“Please? Just once and I’ll never ask you to do it again!” the girl pleaded.
Will knew better than to believe that, but at the same time he was powerless to say no to her puppy-dog eyes. Shakily, he began to lean in toward her.
“You have to close your eyes…” she murmured.
Flushing deeper, Will did just that. He didn’t know how he was supposed to find her lips with his eyes closed, but if Elfaria said he had to then he would.
He was shocked to feel something touch his lips. He couldn’t tell what it was, but it was warm and soft. It made his chest fuzzy again. Cautiously he lifted his eyelids and found Elfaria right there in front of him. She looked a little funny being so close to his face, but it made it clear to him that they were, in fact, kissing each other on the lips.
He was blushing. He knew he was blushing! But he couldn’t do or say anything to make it stop! Did he even want it to stop? It felt good! Why did it feel so good? It was way better than hugging her had ever felt!
And what was he supposed to do now? How did one stop kissing somebody? Were they just supposed to pull away? That didn’t seem right somehow. But they couldn’t keep doing this forever! Will was beginning to run out of air! How come their story books never told them how to stop kissing?!
Suddenly Elfaria took a step back and Will’s worries vanished with her lips. She looked as beet red as he felt, yet she had the biggest, cutest grin on her face that seemed to wipe all of his worries away.
The girl grabbed Will’s hands. “Let’s go play by the river!” She loudly announced. “It’s too hot out!”
Elfaria began to pull him along, and Will was powerless against her. He followed along with her like he always did. And for the rest of the day nothing could ruin Elfaria's high spirits.
The following day Elfaria deemed it necessary to give Will a lesson on how kisses were the best way to tell somebody (her) that you care about them (her)! Embarrassed and not entirely believing her, Will promised to try and take her teachings to heart.