"Plain?" he managed, finally. "Ordinary? You? Yes--like a super-nova going off under a man's feet!" With a visible effort, Garlock pulled himself together. "I don't need to tell you what a surprise this is, and can't tell you what it means to me. But you never have said you love me. Hadn't you better?" "I'm afraid to. Our next kiss will be different. I'd spoil all this nice new make-up." She tried to grin in her old-time fashion, but failed. She sobered, then, and went on with a completely new intensity. "Listen, Clee. I'm all done--forever--lying and pretending to you. I love you so much that ... well, there simply aren't any thoughts. And when I think of how I acted, it hurts--Lord, how it hurts! I don't see how you can love me at all. It'd take a miracle." "Miracles happen, then." He put both arms around her, very gently. "For the first time in my life I'm cutting my screens to zero. Come in." "What?" For a moment she was unable to believe the thought. Then, cutting her own shield, she went fully into his mind. "Oh, I didn't dare hope you could _possibly_ feel.... Oh, this is wonderful, Clee--simply _wonderful_!" As the two fully-opened minds met and joined she threw both arms around him and their embrace tightened as though their bodies were trying to become as nearly one as were their minds. Finally she pulled herself away and put up a solid block. "What a mess!" she said, shakily. "Lipstick all _over_ you." "Why words, sweetheart? That was perfect." "Oh, it was ... but wide open, with such a mind as yours...." she paused, then came back to normal almost with a snap. "... but say; I'll bet that's what Therea and Alsyne were doing. That 'fusion' thing. We'll practise it tonight." He pondered briefly. "Sure it was." "But he said they learned it from us. How could he have, when we.... Oh, we did, of course, in moments of high stress ... but we didn't actually _know_ it...." She paused. "We wouldn't admit it, you mean, even to ourselves." "Maybe; and of course it never occurred to us--callow youngsters we were then, weren't we?--that it could be done for more than a microsecond at a time. Or that two people could ever, possibly, _live_ that way." "Or what a life it would be. So let's chop this and get back to you and me." "Uh-huh, let's," she agreed, but in a severely practical tone. "You've got lipstick even on your shirt. So change it and I'll go put on a new face and bring over some stuff and clean you up." While she cleaned, she talked. "I told you our next kiss would be different, but I had no idea ... wow! _That_ will be as much different, too, I'm sure.... Hm-h-h-nh?" Again she pressed herself against him; this time in a somewhat different fashion. "Stop that, you little devil, or I'll...." His arms came up of themselves, but he forced them back down. "... No, I won't. We'll save that for tonight, too."