"It sounds kind of gross to me."

"Move over, my legs are going numb." Obligingly, Felix shifted his body off Joline's legs, leaving them sprawled in a tangle involving more like one-fourth of their bodies, rather than one half. "That's better. You'd better stop growing, or you'll take up the entire floor pretty soon."

Their Keeper was out, and it was the middle of the night, upstairs, in the attic they shared for a room. A few blankets served for bedding; for this pair, at least. There might have been beds downstairs, but having the company and being able to talk, to them, was better than comfort.

"Shut up." Felix scowled at her, expression belligerent in the dark. Joline laughed and ruffled his hair.

"Was a tease, you dunce. Why d'you think it sounds gross? People seem to like it."

Felix wrinkled his nose. "It don't sound weird to you? I mean, people's mouths go all kinds of places. What's so special about sticking two mouths together?"

Joline scoffed. "You ain't even tried it. You don't have no idea if you'd like it." Felix glared at her again.

"You ain't tried it either, you never kissed anyone. I'd know. You don't know no more than I do." Joline opened her mouth to retort, and then got the expression on her face that Felix knew meant she'd just thought of something, and knowing Joline probably something good. She always had good ideas.

"So," she said, thoughtfully, "We don't know what kissing's like. So we can't really talk about it right, can we?"

Felix propped himself up on his elbows to examine her. "What're you saying?"

"I'm saying," and here she leaned forward conspiratorially. "We should try it. On each other. I'll kiss you and you kiss me and we'll see what we think, right?"

Felix hesitated, frowning. "It'd be fucked up. That's not the way it works, you're supposed to be in love or something."

Joline shook her head. "We're friends; best friends, that's good enough, isn't it?" His curiosity rapidly overtaking his wariness, Felix hesitated once more, and then nodded. "Okay." Joline grinned, and without further ado, said, "Peachy," and took his face and squashed her lips against his.

(That was Joline; she just did things, sometimes, without really waiting. It was all right, though, for her. Because she was Joline.)

They didn't stay there for very long. Joline came up spluttering and Felix stuck his tongue out, nose wrinkled. "I told you it was gross!"

"That was weird," Joline said, "Really weird, Kethe's cock."

"It's all rubbery," Felix criticized. "I don't like it. I ain't ever going to kiss anyone."

Joline looked a little flushed, and more than a little embarrassed. "It's not my fault you were wiggling so much. Right. Okay." There was a long silence, neither of them seeming inclined, despite the catastrophe of their first kiss, to move off of each other. A comfortable perch is, after all, a comfortable perch. And it was warmer this way.

Joline spoke up, after a while. "Let's not mention this ever again, okay?"

Felix nodded, fervently. "Never again."