"Oh, no, no," he heard himself saying immediately, because she was apologizing and he was embarrassed and he hadn't thought she was bad at all. Perhaps if he had been some sort of Don Juan type himself, he would have picked up on the awkwardness and hesitation that always accompanied a first real kiss, but it wasn't as though he had a wealth of experience to draw from. Most of the kissing in his life had been first kisses, because it wasn't as if he'd had any prolonged affairs except for his one-time fiancee — and even then, they had mostly been exchanging letters, not running off and cavorting around in bushes. From his perspective, the entire thing had seemed like a very intricate and sweet sort of play between the two of them, and it had been wholly enjoyable — but, of course, he had no idea how to articulate as much.

"That was — I mean it wasn't —" he stumbled, realizing as he groped for words that she might have taken his abruptly ending the interlude as a sign that he wanted it to end, which had been rather the opposite of the truth. He couldn't say that, however, because he had no proof whatsoever that she had enjoyed it the same way that he had, and he didn't want to force her to say as much. It wasn't as though she had chosen to kiss him, after all, or given him any signs that she wanted him to, which made the whole matter incredibly awkward and almost impossible to talk about.

"It was nice," he finally said, glancing down at the ground as he spoke before forcing himself to look her in the eye again.

  

---

MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

"Oh!" Zelda said, "Well, I'm glad it was - nice. I also didn't... dislike it." This was the worst. This was the worst and she was bad at it, and she wished that they could go back to kissing so that she could feel that warm again, but also (and more importantly) so that she could shut the hell up. Unfortunately, making out in public was generally frowned upon, and she was a mostly reputable young lady. Mostly.

Except that she had just kissed a stranger - if not a stranger, then a strange person - in public.

Zelda's mouth flattened into a line. "Oh no," she said, "My father is going to kill me."

---

  

---

AMAZING set by MJ

Alfred had no idea how to take her response. Double negatives were supposed to mean positives in proper English, but that didn't mean that was always the way people used them. There was a very big difference in her saying she didn't dislike something and saying she liked it. Of course, he wasn't sure what he'd been expecting her to say about a forced kiss underneath a piece of enchanted mistletoe. Certainly not that she had enjoyed it, when she likely would have wanted to be anywhere else, given the chance.

His cheeks and ears stayed red. He didn't know how to respond, and wondered if he'd already said too much. Had she interpreted him saying it was nice as him enjoying it? Not that he hadn't enjoyed it, but he also didn't want to come across as some sort of a creep or a pervert. If she'd taken it that way, though, it was too late for him to do anything about it. He hardly had the sort of social grace to pull himself out of a pit he wasn't even sure he was standing in.

But now she was talking about her father, anyway. "Oh," he said, taking a small step back. "I suppose you should get home, then."

  

---

MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER