a/n: Short and Sweet; mostly just a chance to flex my writing muscles just a bit and to say Happy New Year
Song for this chapter: Everything Has Changed by Taylor Swift featuring Ed Sheeran
One adventure had turned into another, and so shortly after painting her living room and kitchen together the pair of them had ventured to a farmer's market together, quite early in the morning of course. They showed up just as the market was opening, so there would not be very many people there at all and they had purchased fresh supplies for their newest adventure of baking a pie together from scratch.
Ned had handled all of the supplies while they were at the market and their way back to the Pie Hole, which had in fact been closed for this momentous occasion. Once they were safely in what he had come to think of as their kitchen he handed the supplies they had purchased over to Letty while he procured aprons.
"I'm so excited to make my own dough," Letty chirped as she measured out the required flour into a pile on the counter like she'd seen Ned do the last time they'd baked together.
There was an easy atmosphere about the kitchen as Ned offered her a quick smile and began to prepare his own dough. He loved the quite humming sounds she made to herself as she worked, so he was more likely to be quite in the kitchen than not just to hear it. Today she was humming something that reminded him of a nursery rhyme his childhood but he couldn't quite place the words. The sun was still not fully risen so he thought they really ought to turn the lights on in the kitchen, but the orange light coming through the window and catching some of the flour that was hanging in the air about Letty painted such a pretty picture he couldn't bring himself to disturb it.
"You're getting flour on your face," she said with a smile as she looked up at him from across the work bench.
"Where?" he asked as he used the back of his wrist to try and wipe it off.
"Oh dear," she said with a tinkling laugh as she came around the table. "Hold on, you're making it much worse. Let me help."
Ned held still as she closed the distance between them by rounding the counter and reached out to wipe the flour from his face. He was much to focused on the feeling of her fingers on his cheek to really worry about whether she was fixing the flour issue or not. He hated to admit to himself that her touch made his heart flutter, because he figured it caused her palpations as well, but not in a blooming feeling sort of way.
At least he didn't think that was the case, until her fingers hesitantly drew across his bottom lip and his mouth opened slightly on it's own accord to release an inaudible breathy sigh. Letty let her eyes fall from his gaze to look at his mouth as she brushed her thumb over the lip again and he found he was entirely entranced.
"Would you mind it very much if I were to kiss you right now?" she asked, her shaky voice breaking the heady silence that had grown in the kitchen.
Ned couldn't think of anything to say. He wanted to say something poetic but he didn't have the words, so instead he just leaded down toward her effectively closing most of the distance between them. He stopped just an inch from her lips, leaving the last move to her as his answer to her question.
Letty did not disappoint him. She closed that small distance to press her lips against him and his senses went into overload trying to catalogue anything and everything. Her lips were pillow soft, and she was wear a fruit flavored lip balm, he suspected cherries, but there was just a hint of flour on her lips as well. He made note of how she was tentative at the first application of her lips, but when she tiled her head up just a bit to get a better angle her lips slipped over his causing his heart to skip in his chest and her to grow more bold. He was realizing that kissing may be his new favorite pass time as her fingers danced over his cheek and threaded into his hair and his own hands seemed to reach out on their own accord and pull her body flush against his before he tangled his own hands in her long locks.
Neither could be sure just how long they were in that moment, but they did eventually break apart to stare at one another from their now intimate positioning. Ned was thinking he had just won the lottery in the way her pale cheeks had flushed and her eyes seemed slightly dazed looking up at him. Letty was thinking that she must be the luckiest woman in the world if they brave and friendly man was actually returning the feelings that had slowly started growing in her in the last few weeks.
"That was…" Ned began before he realized that he still had no words.
Instead he tilted her head back just a little bit further and reclaimed her lips again. He brushed his lips over hers in several fleeting movements as he absorbed a feeling he had a hard time defining properly, but that made his head almost too fuzzy to think.
"Perfect," she whispered when he released her once more.
He was overwhelmed with the elation of the kiss, the emotion boiling up in him, and the absurdity of the realization that he'd just coated her hair in flour. He began to laugh a full belly laugh before throwing all caution to the wind, scooping her up in his embrace and spinning her around before he set her down on the counter so her face was almost completely level with his, though hers was tilted back in laughter and he found himself instead staring at the pale white column of her throat.
"Ned," say something, she said when her giggles were under control and she was meeting his gaze again.
"That was the single most glorious moment of my life," he said earnestly. "One I never dared dream could actually happen, and now I find I just want to repeat it again and again until I die."
"Oh Ned," she said softly as she reached out to successfully brush the flour from his cheek finally before planting a kiss where her fingers had just been. "Me too."
