Special Thanks to MyNameIsAwesome for helping me make this chapter extra-adorkable. Now, enjoy the incredibly awkward confessions of nerd love. :3

Chapter Eleven: The "L" Word

Melody was relieved to finally be back in the wilderness. The wind whispered softly in the trees, squirrels leapt from branch to branch, birds flitted about their business, and there were so few people...

But there was the small problem of Nico, and telling him how she felt.

"Hey, Nico," she said nervously. "I need to talk to you about something."

"What is it?" he asked.

"Well, it's... um... well, that is... I... I'm..."

Nico looked concerned. "Are you okay?"

"What makes you think I'm not okay?" she demanded, a little too quickly.

"Uh, well, you ususally have no trouble saying what's on your mind." He put his hand on her head as if checking for a fever. She blushed slightly at his gentle touch, mostly because she was already nervous.

"Well... it has to do with something that starts with an 'L'."

Nico frowned. "Lemons?"

Melody frowned right back. "No."

"Linoleum?"

"Huh? No. That's ridiculous. Um... It's something that... makes people act... weird."

"Um... Licking?"

"No, Nico. Love."

"Oh. Um... Why would you wanna talk to me about love?"

"I—" Melody was startled by how oblivious he was. "I.. well..."

"What's wrong, Melody?"

She finally exploded. "I'm in love with you, you zombie-brained corpse-faced moron!"

"O-oh! Um... I... I... I didn't, I mean I— You— I— but— you..."

Melody began to suspect that his brain had crashed.

She sighed. "I'll come back when you've rebooted," she said, walking away.

Nico caught her arm. "Wait," he said desperately.

She turned to face him. "Okay now?" she asked.

His dark eyes searched her face. "Why? Why would you love me?"

"How could I not?" Her voice was barely more than a whisper. "How could I possibly not?" She pulled the silver locket out of her shirt. "You are the only person outside of my family who's ever been so... so unbelievably kind to me. You are the first person to ever say that my graveyard visits were appreciated. You... you remimded me that what I do matters. I had been alone for so long, Nico, and you saw that I was lonely. You came to keep me company when nobody else would give me a second look..." She was beginning to cry; she made an odd hiccuping sound before going on. "You cared about me, and you made me laugh, and... and I was so happy..." She suddenly put her arms around Nico and buried her face in his shirt.

"Mumph murmph mumphy," she said, her actual words muffled by Nico's chest.

"What? I didn't catch that."

She looked up at him with aquamarine eyes filled with fear and sadness. "Please don't leave me," she whispered.

Nico smiled. "Why would I do that?" He bent down slightly to kiss her on the nose, and said the words she had never expected him to really say, no matter how hard she wished he would.

"I love you too."