before the fall, when they wrote it on the wall

Flora didn't usually demand an explanation when Addam appeared before her in one of his jauntily tilted moods. That is, she didn't usually have to, because he usually spilled over with his own. Today was different, and became markedly so when he readily grasped her hands and leaned in to kiss first her left cheek, then the right.

"Addam! Well, hello. What's all this about?"

"That? Oh." He'd dropped her hands, and now fiddled with his tied-off lock of hair, as if there were any real appearances to be conscious of. "The dominant cheek is supposed to be first, so you end off standing on the non-dominant side. Didn't I remember correctly?"

Flora regarded her sudden suitor with a fond look. "Yes, you did, but what I meant was, why all the kissing in the first place?"

Addam grinned. "Diplomatic custom. They made sure to instruct me on it, last time I was on tour. For Queen Zephyr, in Coeia." The grin fell. "Not that I've much occasion to use it, since I bow to my father and uncle, and the other two are rarely present in the foreground."

"And your...mother?"

"As if the queen would even let me near her. And Amalthus...well. So that's all my close friends and dignitaries sorted."

"I suppose I should be so glad I'm not one."

"You, Flora? Not my dearest friend?" Addam pretended to swoon, and then didn't even pretend. He nearly fell over, in fact, and it wouldn't have changed the tousle of his hair a wit.

Flora, however, was none so transported, as she continued her coy, sardonic scheme. "Well, that's Minoth, anyway."

Addam brightened immediately. Flora almost scowled, but for the fact that his darling face did make her so happy. "Oh, that's right. I tried it on him, too, when I saw him. He called me a clown, as I recall."

"You should have expected as much."

"I should have!" exclaimed Addam, pointer finger to sky and sun. "But I didn't."

"Well, and do you feel properly princely, now?"

"You know, Flora, I think I do. And certainly anything helps, when I feel especially like feeling one way or another."

He still wasn't listening, was he? She leaned more insistently on the fence overlooking the moat, and said quietly, "Wouldn't any girl feel even more like a princess, if she was there with you..."

Addam moved to join her. The toes of his shoes, day over day a little more defined, a little more firm and noble than those of the Tornan commoners, bumped awkwardly at the base of the fence's pickets.

"I wish feeling like it was all I was doing, instead of being groomed against everyone's will for some hypothetical fiefdom of majesty."

"The people like you. Even your father is in your support, underneath it all. It's just difficult. Not that hard to understand."

Not that hard, was it? Sure enough, on paper. But it wasn't on paper. It was people.

People were...difficult. People who weren't Addam and Flora. When Flora got petulant about knowing things, and understanding, that was when Addam had to be aware that something was up.

"Is there something the matter? Anything I can help with?"

Her fingers fidgeted, short-trimmed nails scrabbling at the gaps between on opposite hands. It was silly, wasn't it?

"I only met you just a little while ago. And now you're already moving on." She sighed, purposefully straying her eyes away from Addam's, which likely lingered dogged above crestfallen parted lips. "What will I do? Without my dearest friend."

There came an odd sound then, almost like an "aha!"

Flora didn't stir. She was like a girl now, wasn't she? All too easy to upset. And what good was that? For anyone?

"You're not coming with me? Why, I thought that was assured. Shall I give you another kiss, to seal it?"

Like a pinky promise, he probably thought it was, and it wasn't because he didn't know any better. Flora's eyes still stayed forward, but then there was Addam - at her dominant side, indeed.

"Another?" she murmured, hands separated and that defter creeping over to move atop Addam's, and then be covered.

"If you'll look at me," he answered softly back.

She didn't have much time to do it before both his hands were cradling both her cheeks, and he was making the real promise of it square in the center.

"See? I'd never do that with Minoth."

"I don't believe you," Flora shot back with a swooping dint on the D, but it was unintelligible for all her joyous laughter breaking up the solemnity of that first fragile moment.