He had said he wouldn't look. She had said it first and only to appease him, he knew. To make him feel better about going into a nude spa naked while knowing he wasn't as comfortable showing off his body as she was. The posh British upbringing of his requiring modesty. What would Preston have thought about this whole thing?

At the same time, a part of him wished that she had looked.

He's not sure when it happened. When they had moved from colleagues, to friends, to best friends, to –. Well, to whatever they are currently. He's never had a relationship like this with anyone else – friends, lovers, his brother.

She had reassured him that there would be no looking from either of them, but she was a very beautiful woman – gorgeous – and, and how could he not? He had been nervous about walking out naked into the courtyard with all those other naked bodies, with his boss. If only Stewie could have gone instead. But that was the point, wasn't it? That Sydney trusted him and not Stewie, never Stewie, even if Stewie also knew what they were looking for.

Anyway, they had been looking for the stones and he was able to put aside his nervousness in the hunt for the runestone. Until he had backed up against her. Naked backside against naked backside even though it was only for a second. While he hadn't known it was her at first, knowing it was her after, giving him a taste of how that bare skin had felt. He was lost.

And it wasn't as though he hadn't seen her naked before, or almost naked. She was the least shy person about her body he'd ever met. Even Cate, as confident as she was, hadn't quite so easily shed her clothing in the most public of places. This brings to his mind their time in Germany, hiding in a laundromat and shedding their clothes to wash so they could stay. He's also reminded of their hunt for Al Capone's gun, and their cover as a married couple sharing a room, sharing a shower. He hadn't known her for very long then. And yet, she had no compunctions about sharing a bed, or about walking in on him in the shower and stripping – intentionally.

Then they're finding the runestone and they're kneeling beside each other digging at it and pulling it out, and even to his ears and in his excitement, he hears the innuendo in their words as an outsider would. And they're pressed together at the sides and while he's showering in cold water later (Stewie's reminder to stay out of the cold water before he ended up naked in public ringing in his ears even now), he's thinking of her. Of her skin, of her hair, and how soft both are even while her muscles, very defined, aren't. Of how her eyes and her smile can pacify, seduce, and terrify in equal measure.

She has an almost unwavering confidence in who she is and what she does that inspires him, that makes him want to be better. He sees the best and worst of her all the time, hunt after hunt, class after class. He sees her on a hunt, when she's driven towards her find, using her intelligence like her knife, with deadly accuracy, when she's fighting for not just her life but for both of theirs, when she's exhilarated after a find, and when she's had a good class and students have been engaged and interactive. He sees her when she's jetlagged, when she's sick, when she's absolutely exhausted from their day's adventures.

He cannot believe how far they've come together.

He knows she's done this relic hunting long before he showed up. The monks had shown up with reverence for her when they asked her to find Buddha's Bowl. His first foray into the field, on his very first day. His experience with her casual existence in Nepal. Her passion is new to him, and refreshing after his time at Cambridge and with his brother in his social circles. She is interested and interesting and that's what caught him, what enticed him from that very first hunt. He had been terrified, bitten by bugs, lost his watch, almost sent to jail in a foreign country, and he wanted more. Was surprised by how strong those feelings were, and how exhilarating.

"Is it always like this?"

"You ain't seen nothing yet."

He's been enamoured by her from the beginning. Not just lust, although that too, but everything. His awkward attempts at feeling out how Sydney would feel about a relationship with him after Claudia's suggestive astrological comments were disastrous and left untouched after that hunt, with Sydney reaching out to Paul, and Claudia correcting herself to say he should be going after a Cancer, not a Scorpio. He's tucked it away where it can't be found, buried it underneath layers of offhand knowledge that comes useful in hunt after hunt. Astrology isn't even something he believes in, but Sydney makes him second guess so much. Not that she believes one iota in astrology.

But there are moments. Moments where they're almost naked, or in this case, actually naked, and he can't force those feelings, those questions from surfacing. It was funny. He hadn't wanted her to look, and had wanted to avoid the temptation of looking at her, except that once she wanted to split up he was terrified. If there was someone he trusted being naked in public with, it was her.

What are they? They certainly have a relationship that no boss and subordinate should have. He shudders to think of sharing the same experiences with Claudia as he does with Sydney. They work well together both in the College, and on the hunt, and in the time in between. They're building up an unbreakable bond where he knows what she's thinking before she says it, and she does the same. They're still learning how to communicate sometimes, something neither of them are very good at – she with her childhood being what it was, and he with his stiff upper lip that meant they would both keep calm and carry on no matter what.

He's washing the grime from the well, tunnels, and the burial room from his hair and body and images of her body force themselves to the surface of his mind. He's got an excellent memory, and sometimes he thinks it's a curse because he had peeked. He hadn't meant to, or at least he didn't think he had meant to, but he did and now he has more images of a golden tanned body to add to his ever-growing collection. Again, not that he was trying to see her naked. It just kept happening. It was both fortunate and unfortunate. He can't help it with her, with her all encompassing, all consuming nature in every way. He takes care of his business in the shower, and gets out, using the towel to wipe away the lingering thoughts of his boss, colleague, friend, best friend, whatever.

He's decided to keep in contact with Kristine, the waitress from the restaurant, because he knows that despite whatever they are, Sydney's taste in men is a bill he doesn't fit. Whatever they are, he wouldn't trade it for the world right now. Even though he can't help but to peek when the opportunity arises (no matter how much it makes him blush).