Ariel was surprised when he told her he was falling in love with her, but she liked hearing it. "It's not too bold," she told him. Of course she heard it plenty in her own time, so it didn't bother her, especially since she felt the same. "I do love you," she admitted. It was another thing she had been wary of saying, but with his confession and even him pointing out that she must love him if they married, it made it easier to say to him. "I fell in love with you the first time I saw you, when you were unconscious."