Not Kids Anymore
By Ongaku no Usagi
Hiro's breath caught as he watched Kisa, and he felt a little groan of longing threaten in his throat.
Kami, who knew that such a tiny little movement could be so enjoyable.
"Kisa," he said, "do that again, please."
The tiger-eyed girl—now seventeen—gave him a startled look with all the wide-eyed innocence of younger years. She frowned slightly as she picked the pen up again with her right hand.
"No, not that," Hiro said, laughing a little at himself. "The thing you did...with your mouth...when you picked up the pen?"
She thought hard to remember exactly what she had done, and somewhere, in the back of her consciousness, she remembered.
She licked her bottom lip again, slowly.
Hiro let that long-suffering groan escape as he leaned forward and smacked his face gently against the surface of the kotatsu they both were sitting at. Kisa gasped and grabbed his head in her hands to prevent him from doing the same thing twice.
He froze, feeling her soft hands on his face. Then, carefully, he took hold of her hands in his and leaned up and towards her.
She drew in her breath as she leaned backwards slightly. "Hiro..."
"Kisa," he breathed, bringing their faces inches apart.
Somewhere in her being an unearthly urge overcame her to jump up and run away from Hiro. Before she was aware of what she was doing, she was already halfway across the room.
"N-no, no, Hiro-kun, we shouldn't..."
His face darkened a little as he hesitantly rose to his feet and walked towards her. She held up her hands over her face and whimpered a little.
A little sigh. "Then, why not, Kisa?"
"Because...because...we're too young."
A somewhat derisive snort, resurrected from the days of old Hiro-kun. Kisa looked up into his eyes, now much higher than hers.
"We're not kids anymore, Kisa."
The words seemed to sink in very, very slowly, like a spoon dropping into jelly. Of course she knew they weren't kids anymore. But somewhere, she had been clinging to a part of the past, the part that loved to cling to Tohru-kun and hear her tell her everything was alright in the world.
But here was Hiro, and she knew, in her heart, that it was time to move beyond childhood.
Slowly, his hand came up to cup her cheek. Slowly, she closed her eyes at the gesture.
And then he leaned in and closed the distance for good.
Author's Notes: Le gasp! The kiss of Hiro and his princess! I thought of actually giving a little more detail on the kiss, but it seemed like the brevity of this story didn't really allow for it. Although it would be interesting to write an entire one-shot just about the duration of a kiss. Hmm...