I keep thinking I'm going to get the next kiss scene finished quickly after the one before. And then it takes me, what, a month? Two months? I think I'm losing my touch. Oy vey...

This doesn't mean I'm finished with these kiss scenes, of course! I just didn't expect this process to consistently take so long! And I still have three, maybe four scenes left before I'm ready to move on from Twilight Princess! And after that, I have to get through Hyrule Warriors, Four Swords Adventures, and BOTW/TOTK. And now there's a new Zelda game that just came out in the last few months...It never ends!

But hey, that's fine. The fine folks over at Nintendo consistently make games with engaging stories, colorful characters, and fun gameplay. It's worth a bit of a long, hard slog to write these fics.

Anyway, I've rambled long enough...Please be sure to leave a review if you enjoy this kiss scene, or have advice on how to write better kiss scenes! Thank y'all!

"So what's it like, being a prince?" asked eleven-year-old Beth, leaning on folded arms against the fence around the inn at Kakariko. It was the first real attempt at conversation that anyone had made with Prince Ralis in the last few days.

Personally, the young Zora was just glad Beth hadn't asked what it was like to be a king. Three days prior, a pair of royal guards had come to the village and sought him out, informing him that he was now the king of the Zora people. That news could only have meant that his mother had passed away. Killed, most likely, as the whole of Hyrule was facing an invasion from the Twilight Realm. He hadn't been ready to return to Zora's Domain immediately, but had spent these last few days coming to terms with his mother's death. He still didn't feel ready to assume his throne even now. He hoped no one would fault a ten-year-old for feeling that way.

That was one thing no one ever told you about being the heir to a kingdom, he mused; becoming a king meant becoming an orphan as well. Not that he would say that to Beth. He knew she meant well, and still believed in fairy tale princes. She didn't need to have that idea shattered.

So he pulled from his memories from before the invasion to answer her. "Mostly a lot of lessons," he told her. "Politics, diplomacy, war, finances…my tutor once told me that to lead a realm, you have to know at least a little something about everything."

Beth's eyes widened a bit. "Somehow that sounds boring and tiring at the same time," she remarked.

Ralis allowed himself a brief huff of amusement. "Yeah, it is," he replied. "But I still have some time to play with the other kids."

"That's good," Beth said with a relieved-looking smile. "Do Zora princesses wear nice dresses?"

That question drew an actual chuckle from the young prince-turned-king. "Well, we Zoras usually don't wear, well…anything, really. Some of us have fins that cover us like clothes, so most visitors don't really notice."

The Hylian girl's eyes widened a little further this time as she considered the implications of that. Not for very long, though, as she found another question to ask. "So do you have a lot of friends back home?"

Ralis smiled. "A few," he responded. "We don't have as many people as Hyrule proper, so there's fewer kids my age." As he said this, a dark thought came over him, and without realizing it, he added, "I sure hope they've all survived the invasion. I'd…" He stopped short. He hadn't even meant to say that aloud, but hearing himself talk of his friends surviving suddenly brought to mind the one important person who hadn't.

Beth caught the choked noise he'd made as his voice stopped, and her heart broke for the young Zora. She couldn't even begin to imagine how she'd feel if one or - Three forbid - both of her parents were to die. Frankly, she didn't want to imagine that. The fact that on top of it, Ralis would soon have to start running a whole kingdom made things all the worse. The young prince-turned-king may have tried not to destroy her belief in storybook princes, but the situation itself had made it so that that image could no longer last anyway.

Gently, she wrapped an arm around Ralis' waist. Then, as she saw the first tear begin to trickle down her companion's face, she wrapped her other arm around him, bringing him into a secure embrace. And with that gesture, all the grief that Ralis' had been bottling up for three days came flowing out. He clung desperately to Beth, letting the tears flow freely now, silent except for the hoarse, rattling sound of his inhalations. The Hylian girl brought one hand up to his head, keeping it securely pressed against her shoulder as she stroked his temple with her thumb, trying to comfort him as best she could.

Without even realizing it, she started whispering to him, "I'm sorry…I'm sorry…it'll be alright, I promise…I'm here…I'm here for you…" Anything comforting that came to mind, she murmured it to him.

It took some time, but eventually Ralis relaxed into her embrace, the choked sobs fading away. The pair continued holding onto each other for another long while, though. Beth could see that the prince's initial flood of emotions had run its course for now. But she knew that the grief would return to overwhelm him again eventually. And, while she knew he had friends back home, she wasn't sure they'd be in any position to comfort him as she was doing right now.

So she made a resolution. It might take her away from her family for a while, but she'd already fancied Ralis since he'd first arrived, and the thought of him having to face his grief again, but alone, didn't sit well with her.

Gently, she held her crush out at arm's length and looked him square in the eye. "I'm going to stay with you, okay?" she told him. "You're not going to be alone. I promise you that."

Ralis' eyes went wide. "A-are you sure?" he queried, awestruck.

Beth responded by leaning in and pressing her lips to his. The kiss, brief as it was, was still quite satisfying for the Ordon girl. Though she pulled her lips away after a couple seconds, she didn't let go of Ralis', chipping his face in both hands and pressing her forehead to his as she looked into his wide eyes. "Absolutely," she finally answered. Then she went in for more.

Ralis' breath caught in his throat as he felt her claim his lips for the second time. He hadn't been expecting her to kiss him, but it felt so good that he didn't want to pull away. And even if he had, he wouldn't have been able to, as one of Beth's arms moved down and wrapped around his waist, pulling him flush against her.

Beth heard the quiet hum of longing that escaped the young Zora's throat as he fully surrendered himself to her affections. She felt him begin to return her kisses, and she couldn't help but smile in triumph as his arms wrapped around her. If this was how he reacted to being kissed, she thought, then helping him to combat his grief would be easy.

And if it got her a cute Zora prince (or a king, she supposed) for a boyfriend, well…that would be an enticing bonus.