It was late, the paper was printing, and its editors were waxing philosophic. However, the "my, aren't people unbelievable?" stories of the day wound down and the ever-looming presence of unresolved tension between the two of them came up again. This time, Sacharissa decided to address it directly.
"What are we?" she asked, eyes averted in embarrassment.
"Er, human?"
"Don't be an ass," she snapped. "I mean us."
"I don't quite follow..."
She rolled her eyes. For someone so smart, William could be so stupid sometimes. "Relationship-wise."
"Oh. Oh... Er... I don't know. I didn't think we quite had one."
"That's what I mean."
"Um... Well, what do you want?"
"I... don't know," she sighed. "What do you want?"
"...I wouldn't mind."
"That's romantic..." she muttered.
"Well, you don't have to be so oblique and force it all on me," he countered.
"... I guess I deserved that," she conceded with a self-deprecating grimace. "I wouldn't really mind either."
"Does that mean...?"
"I guess." She blinked. "This is a really odd way of doing it, isn't it?"
"Maybe." He leaned forward and kissed her hesitantly. She pulled him closer, and he twined a hand into her long hair, accidentally dislodging a pencil. There was a soft flicker of tongue, and the kiss deepened. They lingered in the moment for awhile.
"Odd's not so bad," she breathed when the kiss broke.