There were no real words to be shared the following morning, in Marsh's opinion, but of course Apple found things to chatter about anyway.

"Doh, I can't come up with a good enough word to describe last night! 'Good' isn't enough. 'Great' isn't good enough, either. But 'the best' is two words, so that doesn't work."

Marsh could only smile and nod, a willing captive to Apple's chatter as they walked back to the mansion.

"Maybe 'fantastic,' but that doesn't work because you don't like talking with our fans. And I don't even know what 'stupendous' means..."

"'Stupendous' means really good."

"Ah. That's definitely not enough. Hmm... 'Super'? Nah, too heroic. Uh..."

She hadn't made any progress on her dilemma by the time they reached the mansion's grand door. "Bestest isn't a word, is it?"

Finally, Marsh sighed. "It's not. There's only one word that means perfect."

"What's-"

On impulse, she spun around and pecked her cheek. Marsh resisted the urge to move away by bracing her hands on Apple's shoulders. Apple stared at her with a few surprised blinks.

"Perfect. That's the word."

"I-I guess, but... it's too simple, don'cha think?"

"There's no such thing as 'too simple' to describe stargazing, or us. Simple is good. Just because you have the vocabulary doesn't mean you should use it always."

Apple looked a little lost for a split second, then grinned. "Guess you're right. 'Perfect' is perfect in this case. How long did it take you to figure that out?"

"Not long," Marsh admitted gently. "Now, I love listening to you, but would it kill you to let the silence sink in a little?"

"...Haha... Guess not." Apple rubbed her stem with a self-conscious grin.

XXX

"We should probably add table manners to the list of things we learn about."

Apple raised an eyebrow and swallowed. "What are you talking about?"

It was the first string of words that had come to Marsh had said in a while - not in response, at least. There'd been a few minutes of silence between them as they heated up their pancakes, but little more.

'Where do I even start? Occasionally you forget to use a fork. Almost without fail you drop some food, especially when it's something messy, like the maple syrup this morning. And we put our elbows on the table. Don't get me started on how you lick the plate when you're done. I like that you appreciate it, but that would be pretty rude in a restaurant setting. And-'

"It's nothing," Marsh replied. "It's probably for the best that we didn't do a fancy dinner last night."

'Last night.' Marsh couldn't help the huge smile that came onto her face.

There was nothing grand about "last night", practically speaking. It'd just been talking and cuddling at face value. It wasn't a euphemism for something else. Even the "I love you" was unsurprising; it took a blind person not to see it coming.

'The only remotely grand thing about last night was that question I was going to ask. Even then, it wasn't that grand. Asking her to help me with my problems isn't the biggest thing. It's not like she hasn't already wanted to help.'

And yet... It still felt grand.

"Yeah," Apple agreed, then went back to eating. Marshmallow rested her face on her cheek.

'Interesting how it's just my heart doing this to me. I guess the romance novels aren't too off about love, huh? I never would have thought I'd fall victim to it.'

But, there it was. There she was.

"Heeeey! What's for breakfast this morning?" Bow floated into the room.

"What's for breakfast this morning? Yaaaah!" Dough followed and was pushed away. Bow looked more amused than annoyed.

"Pancakes and good company," Apple said.

"Did you actually eat it into the shape of a heart?" Bow inspected Marsh's plate. She snorted with amusement. "Wow. Sitting in a tree, much?"

Marsh blushed. "Heh..."

"Sitting in trees is actually really good and fun," Apple remarked. "Don't see any trees in here, though. What's that mean?"

'...Procrastinating is never good,' Marsh thought as Bow explained. '...If I'm going to overcome my inhibitions... there is no time like the present.'

Marsh steeled her nerves and spoke. "Um... speaking of sitting in a tree..."

Everyone looked at her with interest. Bow's gaze bore especially deep.

"When you said you wanted to help me get past my, um, past, I took your word for it. And I think today's a good day to start doing that."

Apple's eyes widened with surprise. She set her fork down so it was impaling her food. She looked her straight in the eye.

"Really? You're ready to tell me?"

"...Yeah. I am."

"Okay."

Marsh thought for a long time; with three sets of eyes on her, she felt anxious. How was she supposed to broach it? It wasn't the kind of thing to talk about over breakfast.

Eventually, she asked, "Have you ever had a song stuck in your head?"

"Yes," Apple replied.

"They say that the best way to get a song out of your head is to listen to the whole thing, beginning to end, without interruption. So-"

"What's 'interruption' mean?"

"It means without being distracted or kept from finishing. For example, you just interrupted me."

Apple grinned sheepishly. "Ah."

"So, what I'm thinking is... maybe it's time for me to stop trying to ignore the past. Instead I should hear them through to the end so there's no reason to think about them anymore. But it's like... opening a jar of peanut butter. You need to get the lid loose before you get the cap off, and then it takes you more time to eat all of the stuff inside. And it takes more than one spoonful. In fact, it takes peanut butter sandwiches, cookies, and spoonfuls to empty it without getting a stomach ache. Does that make sense?"

"I've gotten stuck in those before. It takes, like, forever to get out," Dough chimed in.

Apple raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, I get that, but what's that got to do with your past?"

Marsh sighed. "I'll explain later. But the bottom line is, to 'loosen the lid', I need to create life instead of destroying it."

If Bow knew what she was talking about, and she probably did, she didn't show it. Instead she snorted. "I'm not becoming a granny, am I?"

"Wh... no." Marsh gave her a strange look. "I'm talking about gardening. It'd be good for us to have more living, colorful things around here."

"Gardening? Not sure how that relates to peanut butter or anything else," Apple replied. "But it makes sense to me. When do we start?"

"We can hit Walmart after breakfast for supplies," Marsh replied, really expecting some kind of question, some kind of extra barrier. "And we can decide what plants to grow on the way."

"Good idea," Apple replied, then sighed dreamily. "I'm glad I get to help you."

"That's good," Marsh replied, not really knowing how to respond, so she let silence come over them again. It was probably meant to be silent.

After a few moments, Bow groaned loudly. "You guys are, like, so boring and romantic. Let's blow this stand."

Dough perked up as he followed her. Apple was staring at Marsh; Marsh stared back until her heart went too fast and she felt too shy.

She couldn't deny that she felt even fonder of the fool than even yesterday, though. That a few little words gave her the push she needed to get past the inertia of her inhibition. That somehow silence gained meaning.

Who would've thought so little could change so much?