Apparently this site's email notifications for comments went down for months around the time that I uploaded chapter 3. If I didn't reply to your comment from last chapter, please know that it's not because I'm ignoring you! Thank you if you commented! I appreciate all comments, favorites, follows, and readers.


Fiona finds herself in a predicament. Although her motivation to win Yuri over has increased, her number of plans have not. All of her prepared plans were contingent on her being successful in seducing Yuri. As a result, she has to reinvent a plan with zero clue how to proceed from this point forward.

Whenever Fiona is in trouble, she always thinks of that person's words to support her. On cue, a memory of something that person said pops up in her mind. And it is the perfect line for this situation.

"Trying to solve everything by yourself is just being inflexible. Don't be afraid or anxious to reach out to others if you hit a wall. Find someone that you trust to give you advice."

Hearing that voice, even if it's only in her imagination, makes everything clear. Fiona now knows what she must do.

There is only one person who can help me solve this problem.


A few days later, she turns to the only person she feels she can trust; her mentor, colleague, superior and, most importantly, her true love, Loid Forger. She approaches him while they are working their cover jobs in the hospital. "Doctor."

Loid looks up from his clipboard and turns his head towards Fiona. "Yes?"

The way he looks at her is enough to hasten the paces of her heartbeat by magnitudes. Stay focused. Being able to keep her thoughts and desires from showing is part of the job. "May I have a moment of your time?"

"Certainly."

They change their location from the hallway to his office.

Part of her daily tasks includes sweeping both of their offices for bugs. They also have multiple security measures in case someone is walking in this direction, so they freely speak without code.

"How is your mission with Yuri going?"

"That's exactly what I wanted to ask you, sir. My first attempt to get closer to him has been unsuccessful. I'm not sure what I did wrong."

"Explain from the beginning."

"Handler and I have relayed to you before that you rely too much on your appearance. It is certainly useful to become close to others, but at the end of the day, it is still only a tool. There are other tools for targets who look beyond a person's appearance. Try and find something in common with him."

One of the first lessons Fiona learned when Loid was her instructor; fabricating a complete lie is much harder than taking a seed of truth and expanding from there. Meaning that she needs to search for something she has a genuine interest in that matches his interests… which could prove difficult as information about him is sparse. "Do you have any useful information about Yuri?"

"Maybe not useful… but I can think of one possible thing you have in common."

"What is it?" She lowers her voice, wondering if it is supposed to be a secret seeing as he hasn't said it outright.

"...You both are close to Yor?"

…Did he suffer a head injury recently?

Fiona can't tell if Loid is trying to crack a joke or if he's being serious. Either way, she forms a disgusted expression that he responds to. "You aren't? That's a surprise to me."

He really thought that that was true? Fiona fights the urge to smack him for saying something so outrageous. He is the only person who would be spared from that fate.

"Yor has been saying you're much friendlier than you appear. She's also glad that she has someone around her age that she can talk to outside of work."

Fiona thinks of a change of topic as this one is simply incomprehensible to her. "Speaking of your wife, her cooking is horrendous. I nearly suffered a slow, torturous death the other day because of her. It wouldn't be a surprise to see it kill you one day."

Unlike the other times where Fiona makes disparaging comments about Yor, Loid doesn't come to his wife's immediate defense this time. "...I can only hope that that doesn't end up being my fate."

He actually thinks that could happen? She shakes her head and thinks about making him food from now on. "...What are your impressions about Yuri?"

"I've thought this since first discovering that he was an SSS agent; as long as he doesn't suspect us, there's certainly value in being friendly with him."

"How is your relationship with him?"

"Honestly not great. I've only shown him the friendly Loid Forger, yet he has been maintaining the same large distance between us. I fear that that distance can no longer be closed if my intuition is right."

"Why do you suspect that he knows something?"

"It's just a feeling. He used to stop by our home a lot more. I'm not sure whether that was because he was digging up dirt or he was looking to drive a wedge between me and Yor. Lately, he's stopped coming by. As a psychiatrist, I would like to think that that's because he's no longer obsessed with Yor… but that's unlikely."

Fiona thinks back to her first meeting with him and nods. "I agree with your assessment."

"It is good that he hasn't ruled out a future relationship with you-"

"That could just be lip-service."

"Perhaps. But that's still far better than what he's shown me. Due to my relationship with Yor-" Fiona clenches her fist, "I don't think there's a way I can become closer to him unless he gets over his obsession. There has to be outside interference."

"I'll do what I can."

"I trust that you will. And be careful." Her heart flutters, knowing that this is a task that only she can accomplish and that she can directly support Loid.

"I will. Thank you for your time and advice."

"Any time. Let's go back to work, shall we?"

"Yes, Doctor."

Other tools depending on the target, huh?

"One moment, Doctor. Sorry, I have one more thing I want to bring up."

"What is it?"

"Before we go back to work, may I ask for a favor?"


There are only two reasons for Yuri to leave his house besides work. The first one is to visit Yor, which he apparently hasn't done for some time according to Loid. That leaves the second reason as the one to catch him; when he has to obtain food to survive. The rare times he eats out is only when he's with his coworkers. Other than that, he buys his own food to cook at home. Fiona has observed that there is one grocery store that he seems to favor, the only place she has seen him buy from.

On the day that he goes on his shopping run, Fiona makes her move. She enters the grocery store shortly after he goes in. She's been thinking about what type of approach to use and goes with the strategy of 'coincidentally' bumping into him in the same aisle.

Yuri walks past the caffeine aisle and is clearly startled when he sees Fiona, as though he's seen a ghost. "Uh- hi." Yuri says.

"Hello."

An awkward silence fills the air for a few seconds before Yuri opens his mouth again. "...Nice to see you again."

"Your face doesn't match your words. Are you that unhappy?"

"I'm not unhappy… I'm just surprised to bump into you here. Isn't this store pretty far from your place? We went in opposite directions after the dinner."

"I was just joking about you looking unhappy."

"...You can joke?"

"Yes. What do you think I am?"

"Sorry, that was rude of me."

"Anyway, I just moved here. The rent in that area has increased too much." Fiona's statement about the prices is true and easily verifiable, making it a very convenient excuse. "I've found a similarly-sized apartment for significantly cheaper. I'm surprised to see you here too."

"Hm. I see. I guess we'll be seeing each other more from now on?"

"You live near here?" She asks as innocently as she can.

"Yeah."

"Then you're probably correct. I just stopped by to pick up groceries, same as you it seems."

"You picked a good spot. I always get my groceries from here. Wait, you know how to cook?"

"Yes. Is that surprising?"

"No. Well- a little I guess. You didn't seem the type."

"I'm quite picky about what I eat. Now that I've learned, I can cater to my own tastes."

"That's a good reason. Not everyone knows how. Since you said you're new here, do you want me to show you around?"

"I have an appointment that I need to get to soon, unfortunately. And I need to cook my meals for the coming days after that. I may take you up on that offer if we bump into each other again."

"That might be tough since my schedule is unpredictable… Hang on a second…" He puts his shopping cart to the side and takes out a small notepad and a pen. He scribbles something down and hands it to Fiona. "That's my phone number. Just let me know when you want to. Even if I'm busy, I'll at least respond."

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it. Any friend of my sister's is a friend of mine."

The atmosphere isn't bad to try and take things a bit further, but... Attempting to rush last time led to that humiliation. I won't make the same mistake again. "I'll be going now. Good night, then."

"Good night." He says and then they walk past each other.

The first step in this new plan is to make her presence known to Yuri and then keep growing it from there. Fiona marks this as a success.

The problem is the next part. It's not that she thinks it won't work, it's that she feels no real motivation. It's the exact opposite problem as before; Fiona believes the next phase has a high chance it will succeed, but her motivation to do it is lacking. Regardless, she reluctantly proceeds.


Fiona takes a moment to stare at the door of the Forger home. It's the first time she's been back here since her near-death experience. And she will likely have more in the future with this plan. She takes a deep breath and knocks. "Hello." Fiona says when Yor opens the door.

"Oh, hi! Welcome back to our home! It's been a while since you've been here." Yor takes a glance at the plastic bag in Fiona's left hand. "Did you bring something else that belongs to Anya?"

Fiona extends her arm holding the bag to signal Yor to take it. "Not this time. I've come by unannounced multiple times, so I've brought over some cake for you."

"Oh my- you really shouldn't have. Thank you so much!" Yor uses both hands to carry it to the dining table. "Please make yourself comfortable."

"Sure." Fiona takes her coat off and places it on their coat rack.

The favor that Fiora asked of Loid is to provide a report to Sylvia that they are to be long-term cooperators as their missions have a great amount of overlap. Meaning that Fiona will be allowed to enter the Forger home and interact with Loid and his family as she pleases. Well, she already did that whenever she wanted but now she is saved from Sylvia's nagging. One less thing to worry about.

"How did your date with Yuri go?"

"Did he not tell you anything?"

"Unfortunately, no… I've left him some messages on his answering machine, but he hasn't been replying."

"He seems to be more focused on his work right now than relationships. Well, it didn't go badly. We might have another meeting."

"I'm glad to hear that you might see each other again. I'm sorry I couldn't be more helpful."

"Not at all. Thank you for setting it up."

"Um- so what kind of cake did you bring?"

"Tiramisu. It's better to eat it while it's fresh." Fiona lifts the cover of the box to reveal the lavish cake.

"It looks great! Do you mind if I try it now?

"Help yourself."

"Thank you! I'll try some now." Yor goes to the kitchen and sets a pair of forks and plates on the dining table. She then retrieves a knife from the kitchen and skillfully carves out her portion in one motion. "Wow… this is delicious."

"I learned how to cook when I lived abroad."

"Huh? You made this yourself?"

"That's right."

"That's… incredible! It looks and tastes what I would expect from a famous bakery!"

"I know that you've been... trying to improve your cooking. Would you like for me to teach you?"

"You can do that?" Fiona expected Yor to waver between receiving lessons from her rival and being less of a burden to Loid, however she answers with zero hesitation. "As you can probably tell from the last time you were here, I'm not the best cook. I've been getting some lessons from my coworker, but she's not always available. And asking for more from her would definitely be pushing it… so thank you very much for offering! I would love to have the opportunity."

The fact that Yor readily agreed both pleases and aggravates Fiona. Pleases because Yor admits her inferiority in this, but aggravates her because it feels like she is no longer a love rival in Yor's eyes. These lessons could unfortunately improve Loid's image of Yor. Fiona focuses on the positives; doing this will increase Loid's chances of survival. And it can only improve her relationship with Yuri if this reaches his ears as he (and apparently everyone else, including Yor) is under the impression that the two women are friends. "It's good that you're motivated-" Fiona has to take a moment before finishing her sentence, "Yor." If I were to spend more time and get closer to her, it would be unnatural to avoid saying her name forever. And while I didn't want to, it's also not a big deal for the sake of the mission.

"Ah," Yor lets out a big grin, "that's the first time you've called me by my name! Sorry, it just makes me happy for some reason. I know it's a little strange."

So she noticed... "Not at all. I can come by on Tuesdays and Thursdays if you're available."


Just a warning that I might wait for more canon material about either character before writing the next chapter