The school year comes to an end, and it's summertime. Early July and the hot breeze stirs the muggier air as the Shirley children and Gilbert sit at the edge of the Lake of Shining Waters, gently tapping the surface of the water with their feet.

'Ugh.'

'What?'

'It's too hot. It's just too hot.' Cordelia collapses into the bank, the sunbaked grass worsening her predicament. 'Argh, why? Why is it so hot? Everything's itchy and I hate it. I hate it.'

Alexander, devoted twin that he is, fills a cup from their picnic with lake water and begins to flick it over Cordelia's face. 'Better?'

But Pierre has the wrong idea, and jolts Alexander's hand so that the cup tilts and its contents spill all over Cordelia. 'Better?' he asks in a sweet tone. 'Are you colder now, Cordelia?'

Gilbert, sensing her ire rising just as her sister's does, pulls Pierre protectively onto his lap. 'Dee, he was only trying to help!'

'He should know better! He's 6, why is he such an idiot?'

'I'm not an idiot!' he protests from within Gilbert's embrace.

'I'm telling Mum and Dad!' she shouts back, halfway up the slope, helplessly dragging her twin. Pierre extricates himself from Gilbert's caring but boiling arms, stumbling after them with cries of 'No, Dee! No!'

Gil and Anne are left chuckling by the water, her siblings no longer separating them. He shuffles up next to her. Their feet dangle in the hollow side by side, his tanned, hers pale. The minnows dart around them, skittish.

'How are you, Gil? We haven't spoken properly since school broke up,' she says, breaking the prolonged but pleasant silence.

'Very well thank you. I've been trying to get some studying out of the way before harvest comes around though. No rest for the wicked,' he mumbles with a grin. She returns it, pats his arm.

'What have you been doing?'

'Much Ado About Nothing,' he replies after a momentary pause. Then rattles off, 'Euclid, Virgil, dissection plates,' without placing quite the same amount of meaning on the words.

'Oh.'

'Yes, well... I find myself quite engrossed in the lovers' entanglements.'

'D-do you?'

'I do. Beatrice and Benedick have made quite the impression on me, I must say.'

She exhales shakily, prepared to hear his thoughts and think them over. There is more than one way to love, her mother tells her inside her head. 'How so, Gil?'

He looks at her with a smile, a real one. 'I believe I've expounded my thoughts on them to you quite enough already, actually. You must be quite bored to hear me talk all the time.' He looks away bashfully.

She finds herself wanting to hear him talk of love, accepting within her heart a glimmer of something. 'N-no, do go on!' she nearly cries in protest, her hand falling on his arm as he turns away, moving up to his neck to compel him to look at her again.

'As you wish,' he whispers, face suddenly inches from hers as he turns back to meet her own advancing features.

One moment. He inhales, makes a decision.

He kisses her then, their bare feet entwining in the water that laps around them, her other hand coming up to meet the one already around his neck, their bodies rotating to meet in the middle. Her lips softly meet his - they are perfect, they rest there for a moment, before she responds in kind, pushing in to meet him. Their skin meets, brushing slowly against the other in an extension of the kiss, the soft warmth of it allowing the July haze to envelop them as they gently press together. A warmth that has nothing to do with the oppressive heat of the day kindles in her stomach; she tingles as he gathers her nearer in his arms, sleeves pushed up to the elbow again. She lets out a little sigh that puffs across his nose; he smiles and leans back in.

Who knows how long they are there for? It cannot be long, though it feels like an eternity, as they separate only when they need to breathe. Panting, Gilbert whispers 'that is my case for Beatrice and Benedick'.