He spent the rest of the summer doggedly failing at the sims, and working out. It had occurred to him that perhaps he was trying to drown his troubles in adrenaline. It was too bad that it wasn't anywhere near as potent without Kara close by. In fact, nothing seemed as potent without Kara close by. The summer passed in a muted haze: sweat and leather jump seats, Zak's chatter and his mother's cooking. He ran every morning in the fields around their home, and counted down the days to the start of the semester.

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When he finally got to come back to the academy for opening ceremonies, he got stared at, a lot. Mostly by girls. He'd packed on a few pounds of solid muscle over the summer, and his morning runs had resulted in a darker tan than he'd ever had before. His mother, in a particularly sour mood one day, had said that it made him look more like his father.

Zak had grumbled about genetics and unfairness, and whined that he never put on muscle mass that quickly, but then again, Zak thought that Lee'd hung the moon since he was twelve.

The looks he was getting now were making him a bit apprehensive, not to mention reminding him of the reason why he liked to study and not be studied. They made him feel like a lab specimen. They were frankly predatory too, and they kind of made Lee want to hide. Or find Kara. He was pretty sure most of the female cadets were scared of Kara… he was kind of scared of Kara sometimes… and also, he wanted to see how she would react to his new and apparently improved physique.

He saw her before she saw him, and something inside him snapped back into focus. She looked good. A little more muscular than she'd been when she left, and perhaps a little too thin. A tiny little paternal part of him started cursing at her training camp, which clearly hadn't fed her enough, but it shut itself up as soon as she made eye contact. Probably because all thought went out of his brain and he was left with anxiety and glee all mixed up together. He was acting like a schoolboy with his first crush. He knew it was pathetic, but he couldn't help it, damn it. He wondered if he was actually going to be tongue-tied when she came over and talked to him, and watched her even more closely, trying to guess what she would say.

She started cheerfully elbowing people out of the way to get to him, but that wasn't all that unusual for Kara. She was looking at him, again not that unusual, but there seemed to be pride and sadness all mixed up in her gaze.

"You didn't find a way to reverse your old man's decision, then." It wasn't a question, but he answered anyway.

"No." There. Words were coming out. He was proud of himself.

"So you decided to take it like a man." That was said with a poke to his newly formed biceps. So she had noticed then. Excellent.

"I guess."

"Oh, how very decisive of you. We're going to have to work on that if you want to survive with the viper jocks."

Lee smiled at her. He didn't know what he'd been so nervous about a few minutes ago. This wasn't difficult at all. This was Kara. Besides, he was plenty decisive, and they both knew it. He was just… quiet about it, which would probably take some time for the other flight cadets to realize. Until then, well, "I thought perhaps you could be decisive enough for the both of us, and I could just sort of sit back and agree with you."

"Yes, that's a brilliant idea, oh academic one. Hiding behind someone is a sure way to gain the respect of others." It was said with a smile, but there was still a bit of bite to it.

I don't want their respect, thought Lee. I just want them to leave me alone. The sentiment must have shown through on his face, because Kara reached out and curled a hand around his arm. "I'm glad you came back," she said, and he realized that she had actually been questioning whether she was going to see him again. Even though he hadn't written. Even though he'd told her all along that he wasn't leaving the academy. Even though what he'd really meant when he said that was that he wasn't leaving her.

Female cadets were lurking, and Kara was trying to hide the relief that she felt at having him back, but it was showing through in all sorts of little ways—the strength of her grip, the tension that had left her shoulders—and Lee decided, to hell with it, and pulled her into a crushing hug.

Kara kind of… melted, which was just about the best thing to happen to Lee since, well, since the last time they'd done this. He muttered into her hair, "I missed you, and also I think those women over there want to have their wicked way with me, and I'm using you as a human shield." He could feel her laughter vibrating through his body, and it was an amazing sensation. Amazing enough that he had to let go a little earlier than he wanted to.

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He sat next to Kara during opening ceremonies. She mocked Admiral Scott's address in whispered tones, and by the end Lee had no idea what he had actually said. He could remember perfectly, though, the way Kara's lips moved as she whispered.

Those speeches were all the same anyway. He'd only ever listened because he'd been interested in the psychology behind them. The appeals to duty and responsibility in particular. He wondered how many people were here for any of those reasons. It was rather troubling to realize that of all his class, in some twisted way, he was perhaps the closest embodiment of the ideals the Admiral was droning on about. He wasn't here for glory, or blood. He was here to do a job, plain and simple, and he was going to do it as well as he knew how.