I do not own any of the Meru Puri: Machden Prince characters.

What if Airi and Aram's kiss after his memories got locked in the box and she followed him to Astaele had gone a bit longer?

Just a little further

"It's here" Airi said, lightly stroking the seal of marriage on Aram's chest. She felt him tense beneath her touch. "I was so afraid it might have disappeared…but it's here…" She hadn't realized how scared she had been that it had vanished with his memories of her. She wished more than anything that her touch would make it glow the way his touch did on her marriage seal, but she knew it wouldn't. She leaned in, "Let me kiss you…"

Aram shoved her away, "Are you trying to kill me?!" He didn't know what it was, all he knew was that being near her made his head hurt and his heart throb. He felt drawn to her yet he didn't know why. She was just some girl who housed him when he was on the other side. And yet, she followed him to this side, told him she loved him, and for some reason it really bothered him that she was now with Jeile. She grabbed his hand "No, and I can prove it!"

"Let g-"He grasped the canopy to pull himself up, but with a PopPopPop the whole thing came down on top of him. "Aram!" she called. And his heart throbbed.

"Eek! Hold still. I'll get you out!" She struggled to pull the thick fabric off him, but he felt it was too late. He already felt himself grow. It was so strange when Jeile's spell made him age. He knew he was still young, but he felt older, stronger, and more confident. He found his way out of the fabric. "Oh…dark under there…" was all she could stutter when she saw that he had aged. He glared at her. "Wh-wh-what? That wasn't my fault!" He felt a strange anger growing in him.

"Show me your chest." He commanded. She stared at him for a moment then spun around, reaching back to undo the top of the apron. "Turn around." Seeing her figure from behind as she began unclasping the top of the dress, Aram got a sudden flash of her walking away from him forever and a sudden urge to keep her as close as possible. He stepped to her and pressed himself to her back as he began undoing the clasps faster than she was.

When Airi felt the heat and pressure from Aram's body she remembered the almost intimate moment between them in the closet and her heart broke all over again. "No…I can do it myself…" She was frozen. She couldn't move away, she couldn't push him off; his touch had completely immobilized her. He spun her around "I said I'll do it…" She cried, trying to curl into herself as he pressed her down on the couch.

"How? I don't remember choosing you. Yet you bear a mark of marriage identical to mine." Even though he was focused on the mark, he couldn't help but notice how beautiful she was and how lovely the slight glimpse of her breasts was. "How can that be?"

"You idiot-" she cried out, trying to fight his grasp on her hands and making his heart throb painfully, "you put it there!" Airi felt her heart break at his words and she felt the pain from his forgetting reach its breaking point. "You said you loved me first! Just like when you gave me that mark-How could you forget?"

"…Shut up" Aram was feeling sick again at her name calling and words about the supposed past they had. He just needed her to stop for a second so he could think, but she just kept going.

"You idiot! Just when I figured out how I felt…" She began crying and he felt his heart break at her tears. He was never able to handle a female crying but with her it just tore him in half. All he could think about was doing something, anything, to make her stop. He never meant to hurt her. He wished he understood what happened between them, wished he remembered what she claims he forgot. On impulse he did the only thing he could think of… He pressed his lips to hers.

It certainly shut her up, but it also set off a chain reaction. His heart began to pound in his chest, he grew light-headed, and the marriage mark burned. But none of that mattered. All he could focus on was the feeling of his lips pressed against hers, so soft, so gentle, and, after a moment's shock, so willing.

For Airi, feeling Aram's lips suddenly against hers shocked her into silence. She wanted to resist but at the same time she didn't. Half of her felt that this may be the last time she would get to have this connection with Aram and her heart broke as she willingly melted into the kiss.

Aram pulled away for a moment and stared into her eyes. They shimmered from her tears, tracks ran down her flushed cheeks, her lips were parted and she was panting slightly. But it's what he saw in her eyes that sparked a craving he'd never felt before. Pouring out of her eyes was the deepest love and sorrow, he'd ever seen. The look in her eyes seared his soul and made him lean in to press his lips to hers again. He wanted to devour her. He wanted to hold her as tightly as he could. He wanted to absorb her, to merge their bodies, to possess her and the love that he saw in her eyes. He released her hands that he had pinned against the couch and wrapped them around her, pressing them even closer. Her hands rose and gently gripped his upper arms. He was straddling her legs and her back was arched, pressing her exposed skin to his chest. He felt his marriage mark burn as it touched her skin. He felt a sudden urge to kiss her mark. In the back of his mind a small warning bell went off, that if he wasn't the one who gave her that mark, he would kill her. But something deep inside wanted him to test it, wanted him to prove to himself that he had been the one to give her that mark, that she was telling the truth, and that she belonged to him, and only him. Not Jeile, who had more wives than could be counted, and always wanted more. Not Raz, who's ancestor was betrayed by her ancestor. But him and him alone.

He left her lips and kissed her cheek, tasting the salty tears that still felt silently. He moved to the edge of her jaw and then her neck. She gasped when his lips touched her neck and her hands gripped his arms a little more tightly. He continued pressing gentle kisses down her neck. When he reached the edge of her dress, he pulled one hand from around her and pushed the fabric further off her shoulder, causing more of her breast to be exposed and laying her down beneath him. His hand ran down her side beneath the fabric of her dress. He wanted to feel every inch of her but immediately encountered the obstacle of her unclasped bra. He settled for holding his hand against the bare skin of her back. He kissed her shoulder, down to the upper slope of her breast, over to the inner curve which caused her to gasp and arch further into his kisses. He held her closer as he trailed kisses between the valley of her breasts, and just above the marriage mark.

Each kiss and touch burned Airi and she seared them into her memory in case they never happened again. She wanted this moment to last forever in case she lost him completely. When he pulled her closer and kissed the inner curve of her breast, she gasped and her back arched. Her mind flashed back to when he had given her the marriage seal. He had grasped her breast and squeezed it gently when he fell asleep. A moment of such innocence But compared to now? Had her cute little Prince really grown up this fast? Or was Jeile's spell having more of an affect than just aging his body? All she knew was these kisses were more than just innocent exploration. She felt the heat and desire radiating from him as he traveled closer to the marriage seal. The pressure from his hands on her back was more possessive than just a child clinging to a person labeled as "most favored maiden." Memories from those carefree days appeared before her eyes as he reached the marriage mark and she almost hoped it would kill her because losing him would be a torture she could never survive. "Aram" she breathed as he moved in to kiss the marriage seal.

He heard his name fall from her lips and the spell was broken. He jolted up and sprang away from her his hand over his mouth. "What am I doing?" He covered his face as he ran from the room, the previous scene flashing in his brain. She called his name as he ran from the room and it rang in his ears and made his heart clench. Once he finally stopped to catch his breath, his body began to glow as he returned to his appropriate age. He clenched his fist.

What would have happened if it had gone just a little further? They both thought.