Yor did meet Loid for study period that Tuesday and the next day and Thursday and Friday. They caught up on their life stories up to now, Loid admitting that he and his mother were refugees that could be turned out of the country at any moment and Yor explaining that her father had left them when Yuri was too young to remember.

Loid was waiting for her outside the hospital that Saturday morning. He had offered to walk with her from her home, but she wasn't ready to subject him to her family or her family to him.

"Good morning," she waved at him.

"Good morning, Yor." He offered her his arm which was the affection gesture they had practiced all week when he walked her to class. He had suggested that they start with small, elegant gestures and work their way up.

Yor had agreed, but it had been almost a week. Perhaps it was time to scale up? She bit her lip as she took his hand instead.

He looked at their joined hands, his clasping hers reflexively. His heart beat a bit more noticeably.

"People would get suspicious if we only linked arms, don't you think?" She didn't say that she had dreamed of doing that a thousand times.

"Good point. We should head inside. It would be inelegant to be late."

They walked inside together with hands still clasped. Loid kept the conversation flowing between them. It's amazing how spending a few hours with Yor made him exponentially more comfortable around her, and with the amount of eye contact she now gave to him, he had to speculate the same was true for her. Maybe she didn't feel that way about him, but she did seem to feel amiable toward him. That had to count for something.

They entered the conference room to see Dr. Yee was already there waiting for the stragglers. Yor felt Loid gently tug on her arm and nod towards the doctor before leading her up in that direction.

"Good morning, Dr. Yee. How are you today?" he said.

"Morning, kid. You're so polite. I am well. Thank you. What can I do for you and your pretty friend?" Dr. Yee said.

Yor smiled instinctively at the compliment and tried not to focus too much on being called Loid's friend.

"Oh, my apologies, ma'am. This pretty girl is my girlfriend, Yor Briar," he said.

"Oh wait a minute, you two were the ones caught cuddling on the job last week! I guess it did do some good then."

Yor blushed as Loid laughed, though a little pink himself. "Apologies about that as well. We're usually more discreet than that."

"Usually? How long have you kids been together?"

Yor looked to Loid. Despite the week together, they'd managed not to discuss their cover. She was anxious to learn what the correct answer was herself.

"Gosh, it must have been a year back, right darling?" he said.

"Yes, exactly," Yor said though not sure herself how to respond.

"Oh, exactly a year? I hope I haven't missed our anniversary. I haven't a head for dates."

The idea of an anniversary with the gifts and dates and signifying of a year of hard, memorable work took Yor out of focus. She missed the rest of the conversation, only tuning back into to her situation when Loid brought her hand, still in his clasp, to his lips.

"I promise I'll make it up to you," he said loud enough for others to hear and under his breath just for her, "Can't have them suspicious."

Her breath caught in her throat, and she found herself unable to break his gaze. She really did try to form conscious thought, but all that cycled through her mind was 'LIPS.'

He gestured to a pair of chairs a few chairs away indicating that she should go first. As she walked ahead, he found the hem of his sweater caught on a chair he tried to walk past which led to him hurtling at the floor. He closed his eyes waiting for the hit, but it didn't come. When he opened his eyes, he saw Yor looking down at him with her dark lashes fluttering.

"You ought to be more careful, kid, or you're going to break something." Dr. Yee said. "Let's get someone to help him to a chair. He might've sprained his ankle. I'll check it after the assignments."

It was easy for Yor to pick him up. For one, he was already in her arms from her deft catch, and two, the boy was surprisingly light. Moving one arm behind his knees, she hoisted him up, carried him to the chair, and sent him gently down. As she sat in her own chair, she realized that Loid was quite red. 'He's a really good actor,' she thought. She wished that she was the reason he was blushing, but she knew that was a wasted wish.

Loid stayed noticeably red until halfway through the assignments. He found it much harder to stop thinking about the feeling of Yor's arms than he would've expected. Damn was she strong.

"Briar and Forger," Dr. Yee winked at Loid, "are in the mailroom." She shooed the rest of the students off to their stations before checking Loid's ankles. He didn't have a sprain and insisted he felt no pain.

Yor noticed he paused when he stepped on his right foot. Though his smile didn't break, she knew a twinge of pain when she saw one. She let him maintain appearances until Dr. Yee left; at which point, she scooped him up again and began carrying him to their station.

"Yor, what are you doing?" he asked.

"Carrying you," she said.

"Well—okay—yes—obviously. I meant, why are you carrying me?"

"Why are you lying about your pain?"

"I don't want to be sent home…"

Her brain ran through several ends to that sentence: because I'm pumped about volunteering, because I don't want to get in trouble, because I don't want to miss out on spending time with you. Oh, no. That last one was dangerous.

"…because that would look bad."

'Because this is all about the optics for you,' she thought. "Well, I'm not letting you aggravate your injury while I'm here to help."

"Yor, you can't carry me everywhere."

She gave him a look that said that was a line he did not want to cross.

"I'm sure you're strong enough to carry 20 of me infinitely. This isn't about your strength."

"No, it's about your pride."

He didn't answer.

"Anyways, isn't looking after their partner something girlfriends are supposed to do? Maybe they couldn't carry their boyfriends, but why wouldn't I when I can?" She thought about Camilla and Sharon trying to pick up their boyfriends and smiled to herself.

Loid gaped his mouth open and closed several times struck by that self-satisfied grin on Yor's face. "Fine, but please put me down before we enter." He heard his phone buzz in his pocket and was certain it was Frankie teasing him about being bridal carried by his girlfriend, fake girlfriend that is. How Frankie found these things out so quickly was beyond Loid, but he particularly resented his best friend for his ability now.