So basically, Kimberly posed a question at the forum about what kind of kiss Walter and Paige might have next, and Heidi gave a great analytical response that included her mentioning she hopes their next kiss is slow, soft, and sweet, as opposed to hot and wildly passionate, and I thought hey, I might be having difficulties figuring out some things in Serendipity, but I can still write some other stuff to clear my mind, so Heidi, this is for you.

Walter fidgeted as he waited for her to answer the door. He wondered if she'd been wondering if he would come. He might not be the best at interpreting situations, but he knew she'd caught him staring at her before she left, and once she caught his eye, it took Toby's comment of well, that's an intimate look of longing if I've ever seen one to bring them back to the present.

She'd shot him another look as she walked out the door, and he hated now much it hurt now, to see her leave, even when he knew she was just going home to Ralph, or to watch reality TV until one in the morning.

When she opened the door, her face softened, and she gave him a little smile. "Walter."

She looked happy and shy at the same time, and he was finding it...internally, he frowned. Is this what 'adorable' was?

"I uh, I came because..." he cleared his throat. "Would you agree that, uh, you and I, we...we need to talk about..." he cleared his throat again, "our relationship? With each other?"

"Come in," she said, nodding slowly and backing away, holding the door open for him.

It hadn't been that long since the last time he'd been in her condo, but for some reason it felt almost foreign to him now, almost unwelcoming. He attributed the feeling to the magnitude of the discussion they were to have. If it went badly, then this would forever be the place where things went definitively wrong, or rather, the place where he realized how irrecoverably off track he had allowed this to go.

"You were staring at me today," she said.

He was surprised at how quickly she'd began to speak once her front door was securely closed. He'd been expecting her to lead him to her living area, or to pull a chair out for him at the table. Instead, she was standing, facing him, their bodies two feet apart, if that. Her voice was low, familiar.

"I was thinking."

Her response was visible as her lips drew into her mouth. He continued. "Paige, I know you and I...we decided, last year, that it was important to, uh, suppress, anything we might be feeling for one another. I thought that maybe it would get easier to ignore."

She was so hard to ignore that he could hardly translate the hypothetical situation into words with her standing so close. He struggled to form another sentence, so conflicted over what was the right thing to say that when something acceptable passed through his brain he blurted it out. "I know I still ruin things. With the way I am."

"Walter," she said, putting more emphasis on the second syllable of his name as she shook her head. "You're you."

"There are still ways I can be better," he said. "And I'm getting better, and understanding...things. Emotions. Other people. The way I feel about you still surprises me sometimes," he admitted, shifting his weight. "But it's not the way I feel that surprises me not...not anymore. It's more of..." he flexed the fingers on one hand as he searched his brain for the right word. "The intensity of the feeling. The...the degree to which I want to be this way with you." He bit his lip; he usually did when his emotions were threatening to overpower him. "Paige..." he shook his head. "I know I've been pulling back. I know you've tried to take us down this road and I've resisted. Despite me being a-a genius, there are so many things I still don't know but what I do know is I don't want to be the reason you and I aren't together." He shifted his weight awkwardly again. "And if it's just because of my resistance, I'm telling you I am done. I once told you that I didn't think I wanted to be human, or experience anything like this, but I've learned that...I can still be who I am. I can still save the world, and create, and discover, while understanding and accepting that if everything else were to fade away tomorrow, I could be okay as long as I still have you and Ralph."

She didn't respond – at least not verbally. But he could see a light in her eyes that wasn't there before, and her tongue made a brief appearance to wet her lips. She rubbed them together slowly, not taking her eyes off of him.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been looking at her lips, but suddenly he was self-conscious of how long it'd been since he'd spoken. "So I," he started, the two words coming so fast they almost sounded like one, "I know that maybe it's been too long. But I always thought love was imaginary and in all my years of listening to Toby talk about health and medicine I've never heard of a hallucination powerful enough to convince me this is how I feel if it's not true." He shook his head. "And if you still feel the same way about me..."

"Yes."

He wasn't expecting her to speak, but when she did, he felt the relief in every atom of his existence. He raised his eyebrows hopefully.

She nodded. "I do, Walter." She smiled. "And..." her head tipped to the side as she shook it again, slowly. "Hearing you say all that..." She smiled. "I know you have trouble sometimes reading other people's emotions so I will say...that makes me really happy."

A corner of his mouth turned up. "Yeah?"

She inched toward him. "Yeah."

"So does this mean you want to..." he searched his brain again, this time for the way Toby had put it in therapy when he'd last challenged Walter on his feelings for this woman. "...be an us?"

A happy smile manifested itself on her face. "You know I've wanted that for a year."

Her nostrils flared slightly – a sign that her body was preparing itself to use more oxygen. He knew that in itself wasn't enough of a sign, but he could see the other ones, the way her body swayed slightly toward him, the way her lips pressed together and her eyes dropped a few inches below his own.

His lips found hers at the same time as his hands located her hips, tugging her closer. She took a step nearer to him and slid her arms up his chest, her thumbs together, hands only separating when they reached his neck. He slid his arms around her waist as she cradled his face in her hands, holding him in place, as if he could even consider pulling back again.

Their lips separated, barely any definable space between them, and Walter changed his angle slightly while simultaneously separating his lips, placing them more confidently more fully, back on hers. Her arms slid around his neck, their bodies in contact from chest to hips. One of his arms slid up so his hand rested between her shoulder blades.

A sound came from Paige. It wasn't a moan – not exactly – but it was a sound of vulnerability. He could feel her body relaxing in his arms, and she held her mouth firmly against his, not moving, for several seconds before she slowly rolled his lower lip between hers.

Their lips separated again, neither of them going in for another kiss. Instead, their eyes opened and they looked at each other, Walter incredibly aware of how large her eyes were – there was so much in them, and the longer he looked, the more he liked what he saw.

He shifted his hands, coming up to cup her face as she'd been doing with his minutes before, and closed the gap between their mouths again. He'd enjoyed the intimate nature of it, the feeling of being held into the kiss, knowing that the other person didn't have anything they would rather be doing. He knew he was transmitting the same message back to her when she opened her lips and gave a small sigh before closing them back around his.

It was quiet around them. Ralph wasn't there, the traffic outside had seemingly silenced, and modern times meant there wasn't even a ticking of the clock in the background. All he could hear was both of them breathing and the soft sound of their lips shifting positions, or coming apart briefly before gliding back together again. He was slightly more assertive about it than she was, but judging by the contented sounds she was making, that was exactly what she wanted tonight, him taking control and taking his time, showing her that he knew this was real and worth any concerns either of them might have ever had.

She deserved to be loved like that.