She was sitting at the counter, all red hair and smiles. She wore shorts, despite the gloomy New England weather, and her legs twined together beneath her stool in all their pale, lovely splendor. She still moved them like they were one instead of two, and Killian wondered whether she remembered how it felt to have a tail. He wondered whether she remembered him.
She laughed at something that the black-haired wench behind the counter said. Killian savored the sound. He hadn't heard her laugh in so long, and her smile was the first truly happy sight he'd seen in his whole life. At that moment, he wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms and kiss her. But he knew that things hadn't ended well between them, and he was probably the last person in the world that Ariel wanted to see.
Just as he was considering ducking out of the diner before he was seen, Ariel turned her head towards him. First, the brief moment in which she was more confused than anything else. Then her eyes widened and her jaw fell open.
Killian couldn't move. Hell, he couldn't even breathe. Ariel was looking at him with her glassy, sea-green eyes, and Killian couldn't tell whether she loved him or hated him. He just wanted her to bloody say something already.
"Killian," whispered Ariel.
She smiled. It was a small, shy smile meant only for him. Killian smiled too, and then he ran forward to gather Ariel in his arms.
He had never hugged her while standing up before; her tail had made that sort of thing impossible. But now, their knees bumped together while they held each other close. Ariel buried her head beneath Killian's jaw, and he wrapped his arms tightly around her waist. He made a point to keep his hook pointing away from her back.
"Ariel," he whispered.
He hadn't said her name in so long. In the first few months after their last goodbye, he would sometimes whisper it to himself when it was dark and no one was around. But that had been so long ago, and nothing could possibly compare to the feeling of saying her name while actually holding her in his arms.
"Ariel," he said again, just because he could.
"Killian," said Ariel, "I missed you."
Killian used his good hand to caress the back of her head. Her hair was soft and dry, and Killian was utterly unaccustomed to it. Whenever they used to meet, him in his rowboat and her fresh from the sea, Ariel was always soaked to the bone with seawater.
"You smell of the ocean," said Killian.
"You do, too," said Ariel.
"You have legs."
"You do, too."
They both laughed. Ariel pulled away from Killian's shoulder. Her eyes flickered between his eyes and his lips. Killian knew a signal when he saw one, and he could never deny Ariel anything.
He leaned forward and kissed her. With his good hand, he brushed his thumb gently over her cheek. Ariel kept a hand on Killian's chest, and the other gripped his hair tightly. Ariel's lips were soft and tasted of strawberries. Her tongue swept over Killian's lips, and one of her legs twined around Killian's.
Killian never wanted to let go of Ariel, but somewhere at the back of her mind it must have registered that they were kissing in an incredbly public place. She pulled away with a blush on her cheeks. She cast her eyes shyly over the room, and thankfully everyone was pretending not to have noticed. Only the black-haired girl by the counter was watching them with a smile. Killian nodded his head at the lass. Then he turned to look back at Ariel, still firmly enfolded in his arms.
"Care to go for a walk?" asked Killian.
"Of all the things I never thought I'd hear you say," said Ariel.
Ariel led the way out the door. Killian trailed a few feet behind her. He was absolutely mesmerized by her new legs and the way she moved so gracefully. Her skin looked soft and smooth and oh so lovely…perhaps a walk was not what he had in mind after all.