"Relax, it's a picture, not a punishment," Dominic had joked when he had approached the pair about appearing in the feature on the Elegant Love Society.

But sitting in the high-backed chair with her ankles crossed and hands gently on her lap, Yor had a hard time not seeing it as a punishment. She could already imagine the comments from her classmates: what an attention whore, what a waste for Forger to be with her, she's not even pretty. Nevermind that being in the school paper was the opposite of the hiding in the periphery that Yor was comfortable with. The only thing that made this experience remotely palatable was Loid's hand on her shoulder. She was sure the pictures would look good. Any photo with Loid in it would.

The snaps of the camera stopped. "Yeah, this isn't working for me," Dominic said. "You two look like you're offering mutilation instead of the opportunity to join a fun new society."

Yor and Loid exchanged a glance before looking back at Dominic. It was hard for either to imagine the other ever harming someone.

"It's okay. I've got an idea." Dominic knew Loid. Well he knew him through Frankie, really, but the two had done a few projects together and had been paired together once for doubles tennis in gym. Dominic could reasonably say that he had a decent impression of Loid Forger. And like everyone else except Yor Briar, Dominic could tell that Loid was and had been in love with Yor for a long time. He agreed to do this shoot because he was happy for them and thought that it would be an easy one with how intensely Loid felt about Yor, and, he assumed, Yor felt about Loid. But with how stiff these two looked, you'd think that they were two strangers pretending to be a couple for ulterior motives. He had to get the Loid he'd seen trip up the stairs when he saw Yor at the top of the staircase to come across on camera. And he needed to get Yor feeling more comfortable in front of the camera. "What do you two do for fun?"

"Together?" Loid said sounding a bit strangled.

"Yeah, like what do you do when you go on dates?"

Yor was trying very hard not to think about Loid taking her on an actual date and failing terribly. She said, "We volunteer at the hospital together."

"You're kidding. Forger, how the hell does your girlfriend think that volunteering is a date? You're not even trying to keep her!"

"Yor means that we've been too busy lately between studying and volunteering to go out much," Loid said.

"Right," Dominic said, "Yor, don't let this punk skimp out on you like that. Make sure he takes you out on a real date soon."

Yor flushed. "It's not like that! Loid treats me very kindly…"

"Don't make excuses for his behavior. You deserve better, Yor." He sighed. These two. "Back on task, when you weren't swamped, what did you do together?"

Loid swept his hand down Yor's shoulder to her hand which he took while he thought. He and Yor knew that they hadn't been on a proper date yet because they had only started dating last week, but they couldn't let that get out. "I don't know. As long as I get to be with Yor, I have a good time."

"Smooth, Forger, clearly," Dominic pointed to Yor's blush hidden by her turned head, "but that doesn't help me. I'm looking for something I can get you two to distract yourselves doing."

Dominic was determined to push Loid, and Loid was out of plausible lies. He dug into the deep recesses of his mind where the drawer holding all his date ideas for the next-to-zero chance that Yor would give him a chance. "I cook her favorite food."

"What else?"

"What do you mean?" Yor asked.

"That's not a date. That's like a quarter of a date. I wouldn't have to explain this if Forger was doing his job," Dominic said.

Yor was tired of Dominic picking on Loid like that. Loid took her on great dates, or, rather, he would if they were an actual couple. But the point still stands! Dominic was wrong. Loid was a great boyfriend. She smiled up at Loid. "Darling, you're forgetting that we watch the stars together."

Loid took a calculated breath at seeing Yor looking at him that way. 'It's pretend. Just for the society,' he thought. He leaned down and pushed Yor's hair away from her face with his free hand, "yes, thank you, dear." He kissed her cheek.

"Okay, yes, that I can work with. Let's start with the Cooking Society kitchens. Yor, you've got a key, right?" Dominic asked.

"No," she said.

"But Camilla said every member got one."

"Every member except me."

Loid had seen the way Camilla and her cronies treated Yor, and it pissed him off long before he had a right for it to. This reeked of Camilla's bullshit, and everyone but Dominic could tell. Loid didn't blame him; he, too, knew what it was like to have missed a few things because of love, like steps, walls, and entire dumpsters. (That scent sure took a while to get out of his uniform.) 'Not love. I am not in love. I have a crush on Yor which is fine because we are fake dating, beneficial even.' "Why?"

"Only members who can actually cook get keys."

Loid had to call bullshit. "Well I know that you can cook, and I am going to have to have a talk with Camilla."

Yor could see tension in her jaw that made her afraid for Camilla. "Loid, please don't."

Dominic was also not a fan of this idea. "I'll talk to her later, but for now come with me."

They met Camilla outside the Cooking Society kitchens.

Loid really did try to avoid violence, but it was so damn hard with bullies. Well, with those who bullied Yor. Just when he lifted his leg to take the first step of his warpath, he was jerked sideways into the kitchens. He found himself in Yor's arms which he knew right away from the rose perfume. She held him close to her chest with more strength than was probably necessary, but she couldn't let him punch Camilla. He would get so many bolts for that with who Camilla's dad was.

"Please Loid, just stay here. She's not worth it. Stay with me instead," Yor said.

'God with different context—but you don't have a different context. Get it together, Loid. She's just saying it to keep you captive,' Loid thought. "No one treats you like that and gets away with it. Not while I'm your boyfriend."

Yor had intended to hold Loid here until Camilla left but hearing him call himself her boyfriend broke her concentration.

He slipped out of her grip with a kiss on her hand and a wink, in case Dominic or Camilla saw them, obviously, behind the closed doors to the kitchens. He pushed the double doors out.

When Yor's thoughts caught up, all she could think was, 'he has a flair for the dramatic.' She snuck out of the kitchens before the doors closed so she could keep Loid from doing something he'd regret.

"I would have a word with you, Miss Bronson," Loid glared at Camilla.

Camilla reached for Dominic, but Loid pushed him away.

"This is between me and her, Dominic."

"What do you want, Forger?" Camilla crossed her arms over her chest trying to look bored and unaffected, but the twitch in her eye gave her fear away.

"I want you to stop bullying my girlfriend."

Camilla laughed. It was mostly her usual snooty laugh, but Yor could hear a little bit of something else there too, nervousness? "And why should I listen to you? You're just as pathetic a commoner as Yor, maybe worse because you're a trashy Westalisian."

"Very mature." He motioned for her to step closer.

Still slightly shocked that he didn't take the bait, she obeyed.

He leaned in to whisper in her ear, "Listen close because I will only say this once: you will leave Yor alone or Dominic and your parents will learn about what you do on Tuesday nights. And I promise you that what they will do to you will be so much worse than anything I could concoct." He leaned back. "Do we understand each other?"

She frowned, "Perfectly." Then she stalked off.

"What did you do to her?" Dominic asked more scared and confused than upset. "You didn't hurt her did you?"

"No, I don't hurt women except in self-defense. I guess that's the trashy Westalisian in me."

Yor was left blinking at Loid. "You just—you—how—what—why?"

Red in the face and avoiding her gaze, Loid turned to her. "I might have reminded her why messing with you is a bad idea."

'He got Camilla to stop bullying me? I love him.' She stepped up to him and quickly kissed his cheek. 'Not, love, no. That's not what I meant. I'm just awestruck, yeah. That's good.' She didn't realize what she had done until she felt Loid grab her hand that was still on his chest.

The pair belatedly registered a familiar clicking sound had been going off nearby. They both turned to see Dominic taking photos of them.

"What? That is why we're here." Dominic said.

Besides the candids of Yor kissing Loid's cheek and them holding hands and staring dreamily at each other, Dominic was able to capture a number of other accidentally sweet moments between the two while they were cooking together: one of Yor turning neon red as Loid put his arms around her to show her how to knead dough, another Yor caught a hot casserole dish Loid was pulling out of the oven and was threatening to fall on and scald him while Loid looked confused and impressed and red as hell, and another of them snuggled together and laughing while watching stars. (Well projected stars in the media society's room, but editing would take care of the rest.) Those were well and good for the feature on the society, but Dominic's favorites didn't make the cut. In one, Loid was cooking, looking quite in his element, and Yor was bent over the countertop one arm bent on the surface and the other propping her head up as she watched him like no one more precious or perfect had ever or would ever exist. In the other, the pair were laying down under the 'stars' while Yor was telling a story about her family, a funny one about the time Yuri's head got stuck in the banister, and Loid was turned completely to her with an arm propping him up with an extremely similar look to the one Yor wore in the other photo. It was an absolute crime that the editor had rejected these two. 'Oh, well,' Dominic thought to himself as he put them in a special folder for safekeeping, 'knowing Forger, I'm sure I'll need these sooner or later.'

AN: Hi, everyone. I apologize for any faux pas in formatting as I am still learning how to use this platform. I am reuploading some of the first few chapters now with formatting that makes more sense to me. Also for your information, I have written quite a bit more of this than is currently posted. My plan is to upload five (-ish) chapters once a weekend until I am done with this story. Hopefully this way I can stay ahead.

Thanks for reading! 3 Lolly