A/N: Well... at least this one is a more appropriate length? :3

Edited in a rush. And now I'm off to school. OHYAY.

Day 4 – Teeth and Chapped Lips

Tumblebrutus woke the next morning to a pleasant breeze skimming across his face and the pastel colors of dawn warming his pelt.

And there Electra was, silently watching from close by, her eyes lidded in drowsiness.

"Holy mother of-" Tumblebrutus was immediately on his feet, backing away. "Why... what are you doing here, Electra?"

She smiled. "I need to talk to you, Tumble. Walk with me." She held out her soft palm to him and he grasped her wrist, a little uncomfortable.

"So, what do you want?" Tumblebrutus questioned warily, holding her wrist loosely. His palms were beginning to sweat.

"Let's get straight to the point," she said briskly. "Stop acting like you and Pouncival are a joke. You two have something. You guys are my best friends and... I want you to be happy."

"What are you on about?" But Electra saw the startled, guilty look that rushed across his face and she spun so that he was forced to look her in the eye.

"Everyone else around here admits their crushes," she hissed, obviously frustrated. "Why can't you?"

Crushes? He... and Pouncival? No, he couldn't possibly... have a crush on Pouncival?

"He's my best friend," Tumblebrutus blathered. "And we're both toms - we couldn't."

"I wish that we didn't have to make our decisions and base everything we do on the collective opinion of society," Electra said coldly. "I mean, at least I do and say as I wish." With that, she released Tumblebrutus' arm. "I'll make it work," she promised before rushing off.

Tumblebrutus couldn't quite fathom what she was trying to say. He growled angrily to himself. His head hurt - his heart was reminding him of the steady look in Pouncival's gaze as he'd promised to care for the flower. His mind was telling him that he was being stupid.

But... maybe he was making a big deal out of nothing. He was muddling the simplest of things with the opinions and ideas of others. He was destroying the urges of his own emotions with words. Words were just ways to express oneself, inferior to true emotion.

The way he'd felt with Pouncival's hands wrapped around his own...

He needed to stop deluding himself into anger and act.

Pouncival was asleep, head curled against his pillow. Tumblebrutus sat on his bed and watched a moment, listening to the rasping quality of Pouncival's breathing. Then, steadying the surge of emotion within himself, Tumblebrutus shook Pouncival awake.

"Mnnff..." Pouncival rolled over, almost wrapping himself around Tumblebrutus in the process. "Whaaa...?"

"Pouncival," he said softly.

His eyelids shuddered once and then were lifted away, revealing dark eyes that still sparkled, even through the haze of sleep that covered them. "Tumble?" he said sharply.

Where Tumblebrutus had frustrated himself to the point of screaming before, he now felt perfectly content. Something about Pouncival... how had he not noticed the moment that his best friend began to make his heart tighten with a single inquisitive blink of the eyes?

Tumblebrutus nodded to himself. All the signs were there... I'm in love with him, he told himself, smiling. No one else's opinion mattered - Electra was right.

"I think I love you," Tumblebrutus blurted, because that was what Electra had urged him to do, right? And before he even had time to see the look that spread across Pouncival's face, he leant down and kissed him.

It was his first kiss. Their first kiss.

It was an awkward, fumbling thing. Tumblebrutus winced as his teeth clacked against Pouncival's, at the feel of chapped lips pressed against his own, soft lips. He frowned, unnerved that he could feel the movement of Pouncival's tongue rolling in his cheek. Their eyes were squeezed tightly shut, Tumblebrutus' fingers searching for Pouncival's cheek but instead pinching his ear.

But for Tumblebrutus, it was very real, and a feeling of warmth was spreading all through his chest. Surely Electra was right. Surely, this had to be love.

And as they pulled back, Pouncival was smiling.

His next words, however, caused Tumblebrutus' sappy train of thought to come to a shuddering halt.

"Get out."

The joy that Tumblebrutus had created for himself dissipated with the easy blink of two blank eyes.

We are never so happy nor so unhappy as we imagine.