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Eh!?

Heron stared after his friend who had just left after pretty much saying she planned on marrying him. Though she had been saying teasing things about it before, this was quite obviously not just some teasing.

Before this, he had had no inkling that she was in any way serious. She…actually thought of him like that?

His cheeks warmed a bit and he blinked confusedly. He had no idea what exactly he felt at this revelation. He wasn't particularly upset by the fact Elswyth had romantic intentions towards him. A bit embarrassed, surprised – even shocked. But also suddenly very restless.

He suddenly did not feel like working anymore. He wanted, well, he wasn't quite sure what he wanted to do, other than get around and move. He rubbed his arms and decided to think through this a bit rather than run away from it.

He was bothered.

Of course he was! He'd never had a girl say anything like that to him before! And – and she was a good friend who he was very fond of.

She wanted to marry him.

Heron had not spent much time even thinking of his own future marriage someday. He knew it would happen at some point but had never given too much thought to it.

Now, though he found himself wondering what it would be like to be married to Elswyth. What would it be like to live with her for the rest of his life? To always have her teasing him? To always have her ear when he wanted to talk to someone?

…What would it be like to kiss her?

Heron's cheeks suddenly felt very hot. The thought of kissing Elswyth sent his heart racing. He buried his burning face in his hands.

…He rather liked the idea of being married to Elswyth. He had to admit that it sounded nice in his head. Even getting teased by her for the rest of his life sounded pretty good. And he really, really hated the idea of her leaving.

He liked the idea of having a relationship built on friendship. And now that he was thinking about it, he really did find Elswyth attractive. Well, he had noticed before occasionally, but he always pushed it aside!

She was pretty. Especially when she laughed, and her whole face would light up and her brown eyes would sparkle as her nose lightly crinkled.

Yeah….he wouldn't mind marrying her. No, he wanted to marry her.

Heron buried his very warm face in his hands. Honestly, he wasn't sure what to do about it. Elswyth liking him made him feel somewhat giddy.

And he would love to talk about it with her more. But he wasn't sure he was quite ready for a relationship yet. This was all so sudden.

But he would start getting used to the idea. Then he would talk to her again once he was ready to change the nature of their relationship. For right now though, he would do his best to act normal around her.

That might have been what he decided, but it wasn't so easy to act natural with Elswyth like he had. He was very aware of her now and would blush as soon as he saw her. Elswyth for her part, didn't tease him about it, though he noted that his blush seemed to make her a trifle smug. He understood somehow that she was pleased that there was a reaction.