"Kiss me," croaked the hideous creature standing at arm's length from Emilia. It was dripping all over the carpet.

"What?" Emilia replied incredulously, backing away slowly.

"He wants you to kiss him," replied Jasmine, who had apparently met the thing outside, and taken it upon herself to let it into the house.

"But why?"

"He says if you kiss him he'll turn into a frog."

"Why would he want to turn into a frog?"

Her friend shrugged, then looked the thing up and down before turning her attention back to Emilia. "You have to admit, anything's an improvement."

The creature stood silently, his one-eyed gaze switching between the two girls.

"Oh. Well, why can't you do it then?" The bulging eye didn't particularly bother her, but that tooth that stuck out from its crooked mouth sent shivers down her spine. And the skin. He looked like he could have been some great great great grandfather that had just spent the last few centuries withering away at the bottom of a swamp.

"You princess," it croaked slowly, struggling with the words.

"Princess?" She laughed uneasily. "No, no, see, you've made a mistake. You're thinking of someone else. I'm not a princess!" She marched towards the door and held it open for the creature.

"Princess!!!" he shouted. She dashed away, grasping Jasmine by the arm.

"He's not going to leave until you kiss him," Jasmine said.

Emilia looked uneasily at the demon again, and then back to her friend. "Do I have to?" she asked pleadingly.

"Yes!"

"Oh." She trembled. "Alright." She closed her eyes, and drew herself closer to the thing. She kissed it, a feeling of cold, wet skin against her."

"Its lips!" Jasmine cried.

A shiver went down her spine. She lowered her head and kissed his lips, meeting an altogether slimier wetness, but no less cold. She pulled back quickly and ran behind Jasmine again."Did it work?" she asked, not daring to look at the thing she'd just kissed. She felt sick just thinking about it.

"Well..." her friend began hesitantly.

"It didn't? You made me..." Suddenly, there was an explosion. She dared herself to look. When she opened her eyes, she caught the sight of a small frog, leaping away from the smoke, out the door.

* * *

The frog leapt steadily towards the pond, overjoyed to have such control over his young body again. All that business from centuries ago, when that princess had kissed him and turned him into a prince, was finally behind him.

It had taken him years to track down the remaining branch of her family. If only he'd known, when he got tied up in that whole mess, that immortality didn't actually mean he wouldn't get older in his human form. If only he'd known that his amphibian desires would still remain, and he wouldn't be interested in human things.

He leapt into the pond with a splash. It was good to be home again.