author's note: Ten days ago I submitted my first Tales of Graces fic and held my breath. I cannot believe it's only been ten days, because I've gotten so many nice reviews, PMs, emails, and such since then! I really couldn't wait to get another HubertxPascal up on the site; I'm working on two very long sequels to the first fic, plus another pretty long thing, but I had this sitting around and decided to put it up in the meantime.

I covered the subject of Hubert's height already in "aitai" ... but I actually wrote this piece before I finished that, and ended up drawing in some elements there because I thought it was cute. So this may seem like a little bit of the same thing... Please forgive me if it's repetitive, but I like it a lot orz

Short and sweet this time, enjoy :)

"Wooooow, Hu, you sure have gotten tall!"

Hubert sighed. After six months apart - half a year of exchanging almost daily messages on Pascal's communication device - the day he had been anticipating had finally arrived. He'd walked to her door with a throbbing heart and trembling limbs, pausing for an uncomfortable moment before working up the courage to knock. She'd thrown the door open, their eyes had met, and then...

And then she'd said that. A very un-romantic greeting for the young man who'd fallen head over heels in love with her - the man who'd said as much over the course of their six months of messages. But that was just like Pascal, wasn't it?

"It's nice to see you too, Pascal." He folded his hands together, fighting back the immediate urge to seize her in his arms and kiss her until he ran out of breath. It was a difficult kind of urge to ignore. "I hope I'm not too early."

"No! But more importantly..." She stepped outside, closing the door behind her, and peered up into his face. He recoiled, caught off guard, remembering quite quickly how flustered she was able to make him. It wasn't as easy to cause this kind of reaction when they weren't communicating face-to-face. "You really are taller," she insisted, tilting her head to one side. "That's super unfair!"

"Unfair...?"

"I used to come up to... about..." She stood up on her toes, lifting her head, and the bottom of his chin was level with the top of her nose. "Here," she remarked, before settling back down on the soles of her shoes. "But now I'm all the way down here!"

"Ah..." He looked down at her, blinking. "I suppose you're right. The view isn't quite the same."

"You must have grown a ton! You're a whole head taller than me now!" She puffed up her cheeks and began to pout, stomping one foot. "That's mean!"

"Mean? Hm." He lifted a hand to adjust his glasses. "I had no choice in the matter. And perhaps it is because you shrunk, not that I grew taller."

"I did not shrink. I measure myself every week, just in case I start growing again." She stomped her foot again, then huffed, turning her head away. "The way you're acting, it doesn't seem like you're happy to see me at all, Hu. I thought you would have been way more excited. Instead you're standing on my doorstep showing off how tall you are."

He sighed a second time. "Only because you brought it up. What kind of person greets someone they haven't seen in half a year with something like that? I was fully prepared to - " He stuttered, abruptly, feeling his cheeks color. "To - to greet you properly."

"Oh?" She smiled brightly. "What were you planning? Something good, yeah?"

He paused for a moment, weighing his options. Finally he gave a smile of his own, albeit a wry one, taking a step forward. "Well," he remarked, "I'm just not sure if I can reach you all the way down there."

"Whaaat?"

"Since I am a whole head taller than you now, I imagine it would be quite difficult to - " In the middle of his sentence, an annoyed look crossed Pascal's face, and she immediately sprang forward, reaching up to throw her arms around his neck. He caught her as gracefully as he could, having just enough time to brace for the impact; their bodies collided and the Amarcian grinned, standing up on her toes again, pulling herself up by her arms to close the distance between them. Although Hubert had been expecting to be the one that initiated their first kiss, it was Pascal who had done it, proving him wrong. And that, too, was just like her, wasn't it?

The kiss went on for a while - probably far too long, actually, considering there were others nearby that could have easily witnessed the scene as it developed. But just this once, Hubert didn't mind Pascal's tendency to overdo things. "I must have been mistaken," he said finally, after they had parted, his hands settling on the curves of her waist. "It appears that I can reach you just fine."

"And don't you forget it." Pascal's blush threatened to match the crimson locks of her hair, but she seemed too pleased to care, her amber eyes sparkling. "You had better greet me like that from now on. Got it?"

"If you insist," he replied, but he didn't mind and they both knew it. And as Pascal opened the door of her room and led him inside, Hubert decided that he hadn't quite greeted her properly just yet. They had six months to catch up on, after all, and a lot of missed greetings to account for.