What is This Feeling?

She had to practically jump to reach his cheek, but when her lips pecked against Yuugata’s skin, a warmth spread through his body - very unlike the searing heat that had briefly pained his hand.

The contact lasted but an instant - a blink of an eye - before Saria’s feet were on the wooden floor again.

"Thank you," she said.

A million words were running through Yuugata’s mind. He couldn’t pin them down to form a reply.

Why was he feeling this way? A peck on the cheek was considered a thank-you between close friends in many of the places that Yuugata had visited thus far. But his friends’ thank-yous had never caused his stomach to squirm in such a way. Though this was, in itself, just another thank-you, this one...

This one felt so different.

"Are… are you all right?" Saria wondered.

The feeling was fading, replaced by a tingling curiosity. An old friend once told him that if he had a question, he ought to do whatever he could to get it answered. No one learned anything about the worlds with their mouth shut.

So he asked, “Could… you do that again?”

----

So I went on an utter nostalgia trip and started rereading Namahage Shinzo, my friend's story. I got to the part where Yuugata tells the story of how he met Saria and I remembered that my story was a lot less gruesome than Kira's.

It was also written like a bad Disney movie.

Seriously, that little snippet up there is better than how I wrote that scene almost six years ago. At that point in the story I hadn't yet gotten it figured just how long Yuugata was on Earth - with how long he's been there, some of that innocence would probably have worn off. He was definitely no virgin, I'll tell you that.

There was so much more to their story than I felt I could fit into a one-chapter side-story, though, so I was kind of stuck with what I had. I'll be able to explore it more in the comic - you'll get to see all those missed bits, but unfortunately it might not be for a while. I don't plan on starting any side-stories for characters that haven't even shown up yet - and, in Yuugata's case, won't show up for a while.

Can't wait to get to his stuff, though.

So anyway; now I've got NS on the brain again and I'm buzzing! It's been a really, really weird day.