The girl was standing in the garden knowing that Septimus would soon come there for a walk. She was feverishly rehearsing a speech she would tell him. "Look, about what happened at the wedding. You were drunk, I was drunk, everybody were drunk. So what happened was obviously caused by alcohol, it's understandable and now we can forget about it." Yes, that sounded about right.

He came from behind, put a hand on her waist and kissed her on a cheek lightly. The girl blushed.

"Here goes my speech" she said miserably.

"Speech? What speech?"

"About the things alcohol does to people..."

"Oh yes, alcohol, that cheeky bastard. So what about it?"

"Last night... lots of alcohol... we can forget..."

"Can you? That's insulting, I have to say" he grinned.

"Can you stop being so smug for half a second?"

"Possibly. But why would I?"

"God, why does it have to be that hard?!" groaned the girl.

"You tell me" he wanted to stop there but he was getting angry too "Why do you have to deny everything you are feeling? Why can't you simply admit that you like me and live on with it? You're the one to complicate things, so don't blame God for that"

"Maybe because I don't like you!"

"Stop that. You're a very bad liar"

She laughed nearly maniacally. "Yes, I am. But you, oh, you are a very good one. Playing on my feelings like that. And for what? To boost your self-esteem? Or to prove your point? Well then, consider your point proven. I do like you, as heartless and as full of shit as you are. If I had anything to compare with I would have said that I bloody love you. Happy now?! Now you can go to hell, because I hate you. And I'm not running away, I'm indignantly walking off"

And then she ran away of course.

"Fuck" said Septimus.

He found her in half an hour, sitting under a tree. She looked like a complete mess. It was clear that she was crying for the most part of that half an hour. When she saw him she tried to wipe away her tears but not quite successfully.

"I don't hate you" she said still sobbing a little.

"I know. And I didn't kiss you to prove a point"

"Really?"

"Yes. Now, please, get yourself together"

"Why did you do it then? I mean, really, why? You can't honestly like me. I'm not pretty..."

"That you are not" he admitted.

"Or smart..."

"Well, you have your moments but you do behave as an idiot of a girl for most of the time"

"Then why?"

"Look, Val, I'm not saying I'm in love with you, that wouldn't be true. But I haven't been close to anyone for years, and, as you put it, you weren't the worst variant... That sounded wrong. What I'm trying to say is that I do like you, for whatever reasons, but my feelings are probably inadequate to what you feel. And I got carried away"

"So what are we going to do?"

They mutely mused about it for a while. Then the girl collected herself and said:

"Do you know what our main problem is?"

"Idiocy and stubbornness?"

"Yeah, those too. But basically we are just having too much time to overthink everything. I'm sure that as soon as we get on the move all that frustration will wear off"

"So, what are you saying?"

"I'm saying screw it. Screw the feelings. Let's hit the road, get ourselves occupied, forget about all that emotional staff"

"We can't leave untill the coronation. Tristan is our new king after all"

"You can hint that you are planning to poison him... I'm sure they will be more than happy to let you go"

"It's just a few more days. And as soon as the king is crowned we're going to leave"

"I'm starting to wonder whether you do plan to poison him" she smiled.

"Shut it, girl" He landed her a hand to get up and they went on their usual walk, with a sense of relief from getting everything out.