thanks for being so supportive - this fic honestly wouldn't have reached the place it is at now if not for all you lovely readers :)

also, to the Guest who left a review on the last chapter (or perhaps chapter 43? not really sure) I'm sorry for the inconsistency! i try always to reread chapters before writing the next one, but due to the Word crash and subsequent loss of the past couple chapters, i must have skipped that part out in the rewrite ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ sorry again! hopefully this chapter sort of makes up for it? (thank u for being so attentive, though!)

credit where credit's due: the classroom scene in this is sort of inspired by a scene from a very old Harry Potter fanfic i read back in 2007/2008

title taken from: "What's It Gonna Be?" by Shura

Due to strange, unforeseen circumstances, Mr. Scott seemed to have upped the ante now that exams were fast approaching.

The past few days he had been actually lecturing to the class; telling them the things they needed to know for their test. He had already assured them it wouldn't be too difficult, and there were a good number of people in the class who had only taken it as an easy credit, but despite this there was a sort of air of stress and negative anticipation in the room whenever there was a class on.

Jim in particular seemed to be just a bundle of nervous energy recently. Pam knew he had troubles staying focused, particularly during revision, so she could only imagine the stress he must have been under. She herself was now feeling a little scared, mostly of the expectations placed upon her - by professors, parents, herself.

It was in a particularly stressful History lesson - Mr. Scott had given them a couple of 'practice' pop quizzes to complete - that Jim suddenly let his pencil fall from his hand, clattering off the desk. It was loud enough to disturb only the few people sitting around him, but not enough that Mr. Scott would hear; nevertheless, Pam stole a glance at him anyway.

It was obvious that he was struggling. His hair was ruffled at the front from too much scrubbing, his eyebrows were creased, and when he was writing, his pen chicken-scratched across the page with real urgency.

After a minute or so of watching him, he began scribbling again. When he moved onto the next question, he took a break to think.

His left hand slipped down, dangling by his side.

It would be so easy to reach out and hold it.

But would he want her to?

Her right hand was cramping up anyway - surely she deserved a break, no matter how small...?

Hm.

Pam set down her own pencil carefully, trying hard not to make any noise and disrupt the rest of their class. She let her arm fall down, swinging it lightly by her side. Jim didn't flinch, although he perhaps was unaware of her attempted advances. Softly, she bumped the back of her hand against his.

He didn't obviously react, but Pam knew him pretty well by this point. His frame froze up ever so slightly, and so Pam knew he felt and understood what she had just done. Still, the reaction was not what she had hoped for.

Though, maybe if she was more clear...?

Once again, she bumped her hand against his, more firmly this time. When nothing happened once more, she decided to just give up - surely he would have reciprocated her signals of he really wanted to; maybe he just needed peace to focus and she was being annoying; or maybe it-

She felt something brush her wrist.

Caught slightly off-guard, she stole a glance at her companion.

Jim shot her a warm grin, and intertwined his fingers with hers. Pam felt a similar smile stretching across her own face, and had to duck her head to hide her blush.

"How did you find it?" Jim swung their joined hands as they walked. This thing - the hand-holding thing - wasn't exactly new in their relationship, but the in-public part was.

"Okay," Pam replied, using her free hand to nervously tuck an escaped strand of hair behind her ear. "How did you find it?"

Truthfully, it had been rather difficult. He knew that the maximum he could achieve in this particular class was a B. "It was fine." He said. "The usual, y'know."

"Oh. Good!" Pam seemed to perk up at that. She worried about him, sometimes - she knew all too well that his focus wasn't great. "That's - really good!"

"Yeah," he couldn't help but grin at how happy she was for him. Really. Though it was faintly time to change the subject. "Um. Anyway…"

"Hm?"

"Coffee later?"

"Definitely." She nodded, then took on a teasing sort of smirk. "You owe me, after last time."

"I know, I know." Pam wasn't deliberately trying to make him feel bad about his slip-up, but he was ashamed all the same. He'd apologised already and promised to make it up to her, and he guessed the latter part was going to finally happen today.

"I'm looking forward to it." She assured him, then surprised him by rolling up onto her tiptoes to plant a kiss on his cheek. "Really."

"Good." They resumed their walk. "'Cause it's gonna blow your mind, Beesly."

no idea when the next chapter will be up, though hopefully sooner rather than later. again, thanks for the patience.