Love Looks Not With the Eyes

Alex remembered when his mother used to tuck him into his bed of a night, pulling the Thomas the Tank cover up to his chin to keep him warm during the night. She'd then grab a book - his favourite storybook. It was about a mole, a small little baby mole who got lost, he didn't know why he liked the story so much, perhaps it was because he felt like he could relate to the small animal, in the sense that the two of them were both blind.
At the end of the story the mole found it's way back home, it made it's way through the burrows that it knew so well and managed to detect it's home, and that was Alex's favourite part of the story, it was the reason he liked hearing his mother's voice reading the words of the book out loud every single night to him. Even at the young age of 5, he liked the idea that even though he was blind, he'd still be able to make some friends and he'd still be able to have fun, just like the little mole did.

~~

When he was 7, his parents stopped homeschooling him, and instead thrust him into the spotlight of public school. To say that he wasn't fond of the idea was quite an understatement, what if all the children made fun of him? What if he couldn't make any friends?
"Alex? Can I talk to you in the kitchen please, sweetie." His mom called out. He put his toy cars down onto the carpeted floor and made his way into the kitchen, taking the route behind the sofa, because he knew that if he walked in front of the sofa that he would probably end up banging his hip of the sharp edge like he did every time.
He stood on his tippy toes so that he was able to crawl onto the bar stool that was made for someone much taller than him.
His mom pushed a glass of milk over towards him, making sure that he had noticed it's presence in front of him before she started speaking, "You know that making some friends won't be as bad as you think it will."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, Alex, that there are many other children like you, quite a lot actually, well, every child is born blind." His mother informed him, "Did you know this?" She carried on, trying to make sure her son understood.
But, of course, Alex didn't know this. He was 7 years old and only ever left the house when his mom and dad took him shopping with them, he'd had no contact with other children in his whole 7 years of life, how was he supposed to know this?
"No, I didn't know." He said, fiddling with the glass of milk in his hands, trying to work out how much was in it by the weight of it.

"Mommy?"
"Yes, babe?"
"Will I be blind my whole life then?"

Isobel smiled down at her son, he asked this every time they had a conversation about his lack of eyesight, and she used to wonder the same when she was a little girl. Every time he asked her, her answer was always the same.
"No, honey. No, you won't."

~~

He didn't make any friends on his first day, but, he didn't think that anyone there met any new friends. The only reason his parents put him into public school this early was because it was a brand new building that had been built quite close to them, so none of the children knew each other. They were all too busy being guided around the classroom by their own personal adult anyway, they touched the things in the classroom, trying to get used to everything.
They were all made to sit on the grass in a large circle at break-time, none of them tried to interact with the person sitting next to them, they all felt quite lost without somebody's hand to hold and guide them around.

In a sentence, Alex's opinion on public school was that it was OK. Before his mother had told him about the fact that he wasn't strange because he was blind, he thought that people would make a giant fuss over him or make fun of him, but it was nice to know that he was treated normally because it wasn't a rare condition, every child was born without their eyesight. He couldn't help but think back to his favourite story book about the mole, Martin the mole, and how similar moles and humans were.

~~

3 whole days later and Alex's opinion on public school still hadn't changed. Their class had all been made to stand up in their places and say a couple of things about themselves. It was nice to Alex to hear his peer's voices, and from the sound, he could tell where about they were all sitting, so he could roughly work out who was who if it came to it. He knew that there was a girl called Jessica who sat on the table behind him, and there was a boy called Ethan who sat on the table in front of him, along with Mark and Sarah.
There was also a boy named Jack, he sat next to Alex, but he was late to school so he missed the introductions. Thus, Alex knew nothing about him, not what he looked like, not what music he quite liked listening to, not even his last name.

The first time he heard Jack's voice was that day, about an hour before the end of the day when they were reading their books, hands running across the braille. They had their, what Alex would like to call 'guides', his one was called Sally, to help them if they came across a word they found difficult, but the book wasn't too complex, what with about 6 pages and 4 words on each page. Alex was also pretty certain that he had this book at home, but he'd only picked it up once so he couldn't be too sure.

He heard a woman's voice nearby - but it wasn't his own guide, so he guessed it was Jack's, she talked in a really sweet tone and that comforted Alex, at least they weren't being left in the hands of complete nutters.
"Jack, I'm just popping to the loo, you'll be okay here for about a minute, won't you?"
That was when he heard Jack let out a little quiet, "Yeah, I'll be fine."
He sounded nice, his voice was smooth and he actually sounded happy, Alex liked that.

Their class teacher, Miss. Budd, let them out of school 15 minutes early and let them all sit on the grass outside for them to wait for their parents. Alex felt Sally take his small hand in hers and lead him outside, he felt the cold air hit his exposed arms and he felt goosebumps rise on his skin, making themselves known on his small body.
"Do you want to sit down Alex?" Sally asked, squeezing his hand in a friendly gesture.
"Yes please." He replied instantly, he didn't really want to speak to anybody today, maybe tomorrow though. Right now, he just wanted to sit down on the grass and wait for his parents to come and pick him up while he drank his blackcurrant flavoured juicebox.

Janine held Jack gently by the hand, wandering around the yard slowly with him.
"Is there anything you wanted to do? There's still 10 minutes left until parents start arriving." She said, glancing at her watch.
"Who's that nice boy that sits next to me?"
"His name's Alex."
"Where is he? Can I go and talk to him?"
"Sure you can, Jack." Janine said, spotting Alex sitting down in the far corner of the grassy field, Sally was sat next to him, having a conversation with him as Janine lead Jack over to them both.

Sally smiled at Janine as she saw her and Jack and she nudged Alex with her shoulder, "Hey uh, I'm just going to go and uhm, grab my jacket, you'll be okay, yeah?"
"I'll be fine." Alex smiled at her.

"Okay, Alex is sitting just there, I'll sit you by him and leave you two alone, sound good?"
"Yeah, that's fine." Jack smiled.

Janine lead Jack to sit by Alex and made sure that he was okay before she went to join Sally, sitting on the benches, smiling fondly at the two boys sitting next to each other on the grass.
"Who's that?" Alex asked, bring his juicebox up to his mouth to sip at it.
"Jack. I sit next to you in class."
"Oh uhm, well, hi then." Alex replied, scooting closer to Jack, he liked to be close to people he was talking to, it made him feel more comfortable, "I'm Alex."
"I know."

There was a silence between them for about 30 seconds before Alex broke it with a nervous voice, "Jack?"
"Yeah?"
"Can I- can I like, touch your face?" Alex asked, he wanted to get a general gist of what Jack looked like if he would be sitting next to him in class for God knows how much longer.
"Sure." Jack replied without a pause, like he was asked this question every day and it didn't bother him at all.
Alex moved to sit in front of Jack, he felt around for his knees so that he knew he was sitting directly in front of him before he brought his hands up into the air, eventually landing on a soft tuft of hair, it was fluffy and quite long, not really long, but it went past his ears. Next, he felt around on his face, he had bushy eyebrows, a quite big nose and full lips. He was about to feel the shape of Jack's face when he felt a prod at his shoulder.
"Alex? Sweetie, are you ready to go?"
"Uhm, yeah I am, I'll uh, see- well, speak to you tomorrow, Jack?"
"Yeah, course, speak to you tomorrow." Alex could hear the smile in his voice, he could also hear the sound of Jack's parents voices as they picked their child up.

Alex walked in between his mom and dad, both of them holding one of his hands each, both of them guiding him towards their car. They placed him in his seat and his mom buckled him up while his dad went over to the drivers side of the car.
His mom sat in the passenger side, "So, Alex, did you make a new friend?" She asked, smiling fondly.

"Yeah, I guess."

~~

Over the next few days, Alex and Jack grew quite close, instead of reading their books in class and feeling the props that came with the book, they would sit and talk about whatever it was young 7 year old boys talked about. Toy cars, action men, that kind of thing.

And it carried on like that, they would talk to each other every day, they'd switch sandwiches at lunch, because Jack didn't like peanut butter and Alex didn't like Nutella. It was nice, to say the least, it was nice that they could talk to each other and trust each other even though they couldn't see each other. It was almost better this way - not that neither of them knew what having sight felt like, but it was nice knowing that you could put all of your faith into someone without even knowing what they look like. It was nice knowing that they wouldn't judge each other based on their looks. It was nice.
The day after they started talking, Jack sat down next to Alex and asked if he could feel his face - just so that they were even. He had hair that was almost the same length as Jack's and a cute little button nose that Jack continued to poke, making Alex giggle quite a lot, which was the main reason he carried on doing it.

"I like your laugh." Jack complimented and Alex could feel his cheeks heat up.
"Thanks." He replied, brushing his fringe out of his face because it was beginning to tickle.

Their parents were more than happy that they were getting along, and they all grew close. Isobel never said no when Alex asked if Jack could come around to play and - attempt - to bake cookies with a lot of help from the adults, and Joyce was exactly the same with Alex. They'd watch as Alex and Jack would play with their toy cars and push them as far as they could away from them - always having to ask their parents who pushed their car the furthest.

They'd sit on the sofa close together and watch movies with a voice over on so that they could tell what was going on while their parents would make them sandwiches and give them juiceboxes for their lunch. They both felt proud to call the other their 'best friend.'

Of course, they made a couple of other friends along the way, but they knew that those other friends would never mean as much to them as they did to each other, there was Matt, Benny and Danny, but they weren't half as close with them as they were with each other, and that's just how it was.

~~

Their friendship continued to blossom and when they were 11, you could barely separate the two without them complaining. The only time that they were willingly apart was when they had to go to the bathroom. They'd often spend their Sunday afternoons under a blanket and having naps next to each other, leaning against each other and cuddling close.
Until they were always rudely awakened by their dads, telling them to budge over or go upstairs so that they could watch the football. They always opted for going upstairs to one of their bedrooms, football didn't hold their attention for long enough as all they could hear was the screaming fans when a player did something good, it wasn't like they could actually see what was going on so they had very little idea of how the game actually worked.

They'd spend sunny days at the park together, sitting under a large oak tree, eating ice-cream and talking about new music that they had discovered that the other may like or books that they had recently read and wanted to share with each other.

They almost liked the fact that they couldn't see each other, it made their friendship more trustworthy and it added a bit of mystery to it.

~~

It warmed their parents hearts that their children stuck together for many years, and their friendship was still going strong when they were 14 and starting high school as Freshman.
The high school was only small - considering that everyone in it apart from the teachers was blind and things could get crowded and rowdy if there were too many people there. It consisted of 2 floors and 80 pupils, with 3 sets of elevators to take the pupils to whatever floor they needed to be.
Their first week there consisted of getting to know their way round, using the rails on either side of the corridors to help them walk in a straight line without bumping into anyone. Alex and Jack barely separated themselves from each other’s hip, and they only really spoke to Matt, Benny and Danny at break times and lunch.

"Where was English?" Jack asked, trying to rub his fingers over his braille quickly so he could see what floor it was on.
"We're on the 2nd floor now right? I think it's downstairs." Alex replied, taking Jack's hand in his and trying to find the rails so that they could go to the elevators, the fact that he had absolutely no sight whatsoever annoyed him but after 14 years he had learnt to live with it - and he was pretty sure his mom was lying 7 years ago when she told him that he wouldn't be blind his whole life, he was convinced she had just said that to make him feel better. He didn't want to tell this to Jack, because he knew that Jack's mom had told him the exact same thing and he didn't know whether Jack believed it or not, he didn't want to hurt the other boy's feelings.

At break the two were left alone, sitting in the corner of the yard against a wall while their three other friends caught up on some Biology work.
"Do you think we'll ever get our sight back? Not just us two, but all of us? What if we're just a freak accident for a generation and our parents weren't actually born blind?" Alex asked Jack.
"What's brought this on? I doubt we're a freak accident - I don't see why our parents would lie to us about it." Jack replied, sounding quite surprised.
"Yeah." Alex's tone was glum, "I guess."
"C'mere." Jack said, reaching his arms to the side for Alex and pulling him closer so that his back was leaning against Jack's chest and he was sat in between his legs. "We'll get our sight, soon. I promise."

And Jack was the one person who made Alex believe it.

The question still bugged him though, so when he got home that day, he put his bag in it's usual spot by the door and walked into the kitchen, where he knew his mom would be, probably washing dishes.

"Mom?" Alex asked as his fingers trailed over the bumpy floral decorations on their kitchen counter, he liked the feel of it underneath his fingertips, he liked that he could tell where the stem was and where the petals were.
"Yeah, love?" She replied, drying her hands off.
"When will I be able to see?"
His mom sighed, walking over to her son and putting a comforting arm over his shoulders.
"Soon, honey, I promise."
"When did you get your sight?"
She smiled into his hair, "When I met your father."

~~

"Can Alex come over today?" Jack shouted down to his parents as he pulled a t-shirt over his head.
"What do you think the answer is?" Bassam's cheery tone rang back upstairs.
"Thanks!" Jack felt around for his phone underneath his duvet and pillow before he unlocked it. His phone had a voice over option so everything he tapped on would be said aloud, so he knew if he typed something wrong, he found Alex's name in his contacts and typed out a message, 'come over.' There was really no need for smiley faces otherwise he'd put one.
Seconds later his phone buzzed with a reply, "I was already on my way. Be about 20 minutes."

While he was waiting, he checked over his English homework, making sure that everything was there. They had to come up with 2 sentences about what they thought love was. Jack had decided to use his braille stickers to write his sentences - he still wasn't 100% confident with his writing skills.
He wrote about how it's the tingling in your bones when you speak to somebody, it's the pounding of your heart when your hands brush together.

As he was writing all of this, he couldn't help but think of one certain person.

His mom walked into his room just as he was finishing sticking on his last sticker, "I'm just putting some washing away, honey."
"Okay. Hey mom?"
"Yes?"
"How do you know when you're in love?"
He could hear his mom chuckling and she walked over to him, she bent down to kiss his forehead and ruffle his hair.

"Oh, trust me honey, you'll know."

~~

"Did you do the English homework?" Alex asked, they were lying down and Alex's head was resting on Jack's chest - it wasn't an unusual position for the two of them.
"No." Jack replied, not wanting to show Alex it in case he thought he was a huge sap and made fun of him.
"Ah, okay, I'll just do it when I get home."

Jack hummed, letting Alex know that he had heard him.
"Gonna nap on you now." Alex mumbled into Jack's shirt. Jack just reached for his hair and chuckled, stroking it softly.

Alex didn't end up going to sleep, he just snuggled closer to Jack and ran his fingers up and down his arm, it made him more comfortable and it was nice to know that they could touch each other innocently like this without it being weird.

"Alex?"
"Yeah?"
"Can I try something?"
"Depends what it is." Alex chuckled, "I'm hardly going to say yes if you want to take me to the woods and kill me."
Jack laughed, feeling some of the tension ease away.
He took Alex's face in his hands and lifted it up so that he could feel their forheads resting together.
"Jack, I'm tired." Alex complained.

Jack completely ignored him and ran his thumb over his face until he found his lips, he stroked his bottom lift softly.
"Jack?" Alex asked, confused as to the other boys motives.
Jack just leant forwards, until their noses brushed. He moved his thumb away so he could instead replace it with his own lips.
He felt Alex completely tense against him and after he didn't kiss back after 6 seconds, Jack pulled away.
"Sorry." He mumbled, feeling insecure at the fact that he couldn't even see Alex's facial expression so he didn't know how he was reacting right now.

"Can we uh, maybe do that again?" The silence was filled with Alex's voice.
"Wait, what?"
Alex laughed at the surprised tone in Jack's voice before he found his lips and connected his to them, not forgetting to actually move his lips this time, because that was pretty stupid on his part.

The two of them pulled apart when they eventually ran out of air, both of them gasping for breath.

"That was nice." Jack noted.
"Yeah. Yeah, it was."

~~

When they were 15, they started dating, which was a little complicated, what with them both being blind. They couldn't exactly do anything. Not that much changed, they still cuddled and held hands in school, but it was just that feeling that they could call the other their boyfriend that made them happy, plus, they could kiss each other whenever they wanted so that was always a good thing.

They told their parents 6 months later - well, Isobel walked in on them making out on Alex's bed, but she immediately walked out with an exclamation of 'Sorry!' and Alex could literally hear the smile in her voice.

Their parents saw it coming, from when they were younger and used to cuddle up on the couch, thinking they were safe from the world under a small blanket. They were truly happy for them.

~~

When they were 16, Alex had 110% officially given up with hoping for his sight. He'd come to a conclusion that the stories of him getting it back were just that - stories. Stories that his mom and dad would tell him to make him feel better, so that he wouldn't get upset and throw tantrums.
He was used to being blind now, he could make his way round his house like an expert, apart from when his aunt and uncle came to visit and his little cousin would always move the coffee table 5 inches to the left, making Alex bang his hip on it every time he walked past it for about 2 days before he realised and moved it back.

"Let's go on a date." Jack declared one day, they were sitting at his kitchen table, fiddling about with the cutlery, not bothering to put them next to the plates.
"Where to?" Alex asked, placing the cutlery down on the table.
"I figured we could walk around the park and get some ice cream."
"Yeah." Alex smiled, moving himself so that he could wrap his arms around Jack's neck - once he found it, "Yeah, I'd like that."

~~

Jack had his mom help him pick out some clothes - not that it mattered, neither of them would see them anyway, but his mom told him that he was wearing a white button down with black skinny jeans and a pair of black chucks.
Him and Alex had agreed to meet at the park, underneath the big Oak tree that they always sat under in the Summer. He grabbed a jacket on the way out of the house, because unfortunately it was Winter and not Summer, and it was fucking freezing outside.

He walked down the street, nearly tripping over on a new electricity grid that had been placed down and damn they really should get warnings for this kind of stuff. He walked across the road once he made sure that he could hear no cars and found the entrance to the park.
He took the route that he was all too familiar with and found his way to the tree where he was pleasantly surprised to find Alex already there.
"Jack?"
"Yeah, it's me." Jack said, following the voice and reaching his hands out to find Alex, who also had his arms outstretched, the two laughed as they joined hands, placing a peck on each other's lips after three attempts - all landing on the nose.

They kept their hands intertwined as they took a stroll around the park - completely forgetting about the ice cream because they were so lost in just talking to each other,
"I like you a lot, y'know." Alex informed his boyfriend, in a very matter of fact tone.
"Well that's good because I like you a lot too." Jack chuckled, moving his hands so that they were wrapped around Alex's waist as Alex's arms found their way around his neck.

For the next 10 minutes they both just stood there in each other's arms, swaying, breathing in each other's scents and just enjoying the company and pure feeling of want that they had for each other.
"Ready to go?" Jack asked, wrapping Alex's jacket tighter around the elders body as the wind began to pick up.
"Yeah."

Jack, being the gentlemen that he is, decided to walk Alex home, they stood outside on his porch shivering in their boots from the cold.
"Get home safe, love." Alex told Jack, concern laced within his voice.
"I will, don't worry." Jack smiled, pulling Alex in for a hug, placing innocent kisses to his neck, hearing Alex giggle like he used to all those years ago.
"Text me when you get home, so I know you're safe." Alex said, and Jack could only think of his mom when Alex said things like that.
"I will, babe, don't worry okay, I'll text you tonight and then we'll see each other again tomorrow." Jack said.
Alex wanted to correct him on the 'see each other', but he didn't, he just nodded happily against Jack's shoulder and leaned up for one last kiss before Jack left.

Jack didn't start to walk back home until he heard the front door shut and he knew Alex was inside, he imagined it was dark outside right about now so he jogged home, not wanting to be beat up by some weird old man. It could happen, okay, you never know.

It was when Jack had text Alex and lay down in his bed that his skin started to feel all warm and tingly, his lips felt hot from where Alex had kissed them hours ago, he could ffel his heart rate speed up a considerable amount and his whole body felt fuzzy and like jelly. He could feel a grip on his hand, much like there would be if Alex was holding it, his cheeks began to heat up and he was certain he was sweating.

That. That was when it hit him like a train.

He loved Alex, he had fallen, hard and he wasn't even going to attempt to pick himself back up.
He just rolled over in his bed and shut his eyes to go to sleep, a smile on his face.

~~

Jack woke up with a groan, he was hoping to just sleep through the entire day, but it didn't feel like he'd done that.
His eyes cracked open and that was when he knew that he must have been asleep, he was dreaming.

He could see.

He could see an alarm next to his bed, he could see a bunch of clothes scattered all over the floor of his room, he could see the lamp on his bedside table, he searched under his pillow, he could see the text Alex had sent him last night, "Okay, goodnight x", he could see the dark coloured carpet of his floor.
His breathing picked up but before he went off and had a full blown panic attack there was a knock on the door, "Jack? You awake?" He heard his mom say, before she was walking in with a pile of clothes in her hands.

"M-mom?" Jack asked, voice croaky.
"Yes, it is me." His mom chuckled, completely unaware to the fact that Jack was looking at her like she was on a different planet.
Jack didn't think he'd ever jumped up so fast in his life, he nearly knocked his poor mother down as he ran into her, giving her a squeeze around the waist as a hug, by now all the clothes were scattered on the floor.
"Mommy." Jack cried into her shoulder.
Joyce was confused until she pulled away, seeing Jack staring into her eyes, he touched her hair and twiddled it around his fingers, he touched her nose and her lips, tears only falling faster down his face.

Joyce then realised, that her boy, her brave little boy could see her, he could see exactly what she looked like, and that was enough to send anyone into tears, "Oh, baby." She let go then, crying too, pulling Jack into a hug.
Jack wept like a baby into his mom's shoulder and only stopped when his mom pulled away - he didn't know how long it had been, 20? 30 minutes?

Joyce stroked the hair out of Jack's face, placing a kiss to his forehead.
"I told you so." She said, causing Jack to let out a weak laugh, still sniffling.

An hour later, the two of them had fully composed themselves, Joyce was flipping bacon in the pan, she had text Bassam about Jack as he was at work so he wasn't able to witness it. Jack however, was walking around his house, looking at all the furniture he had spent the past 16 years trying to walk blindly around, he saw the coffee table, the one that he had gotten a sore hip from one too many times.
He saw the stairs, the ones he had fell down and injured his knee when he was 10.
He saw the jacket, the jacket that Alex had given him the other week when he was cold and he still hadn't given it back.

Alex. Alex.

His mom watched him from the kitchen, smiling fondly at how starstruck he looked, "You can go see him, if you like." She laughed, walking out of the kitchen, wiping the grease on her hands off with a dish cloth.
"I love you." She said, giving him a kiss on the cheek before she followed him to the front door.
"I love you too." He laughed, and there was no reason for him laughing, he was just so damn happy.

~~

He followed the roads he knew all too well to Alex's house, taking 20 minutes longer than he usually would to take notice of the shops, the plants, the people he probably walked past on a daily basis without even noticing. But now, he did.

Butterflies erupted in his stomach as he stood on Alex's porch, he was so damn excited to actually be able to see Alex in the flesh for the first time in all the years that they had known each other - he just wanted to kiss him and tell him "I love you, I love you, I love you." Over and over again until he couldn't say them anymore.
He heard laughter and cries of happiness from inside the house and he was pretty sure he could hear Isobel crying.

He lifted his hand up to the door, tapping his fist against it 5 times, it was his signature knock, the knock he used all the time so that the family knew it was him.
"Oh my god." He heard Alex exclaim from the other side of the door before he heard feet pounding towards it - like the person was running.

3 seconds later and the door was opened - revealing Alex. He stood before Jack with a wide grin on his face, a red face and red eyes, but he couldn't look anymore beautiful to Jack. His light hair was a mess, his nose was still small and cute, like Jack remembered spending so much time poking it because he liked it so much, his two front teeth were slightly crooked but Jack thought that Alex had the most beautiful smile, and he was wearing a plain black top and some golden basketball shorts, Jack couldn't tear his eyes away from the boy in front of him.
"Jack?" Alex croaked, tears beginning to stream down his face - but his smile was still there.
"Alex" Jack replied instantly, his voice almost a whisper.

Alex leapt towards Jack, arms instantly winding around his neck and legs wrapping around his waist, Jack could see Isobel and Peter over Alex's shoulder, standing there with smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes, and fuck Jack was going to cry again now.
"You too?" Alex asked, tears beginning to soak through Jack's shirt, but he couldn't care less right now.
"Yes, fuck Alex. I love you." And that set Alex off, his crying became harder as he replied, "I l-love you too, s-so much, oh my God." Alex sobbed.

Alex pulled away from Jack's shoulder, settling for resting their foreheads together, this way he could look into Jack's eyes, Jack's dark, beautiful eyes, he could see Jack's full lips for the first time and he could see the wide smile on his face.
He let out a small laugh, a laugh of relief, relief that those stories his parent told him weren't a lie, relief that he could finally actually see Jack, relief that he would be able to wake up in the morning from now on and see Jack while he was sleeping.
He placed his hands on either side of Jack's face, bringing their lips close together, Jack made the final push and connected their lips in a passionate kiss.

He supposed he wasn't that much like a mole at all.