The rooftop was not, technically, somewhere they were supposed to be.
There was a door that was unmarked, at the end of a corridor on the top floor of one of the academic buildings which wasn't locked. Cait had clearly already established this. She pushed it open without any hesitation, and they stepped out into the evening air.
Elayna stopped walking.
The city spread below them in every direction — the academy building’s rooftops first, then the inner city beyond them, and the outer streets beyond that, and somewhere much further the great walls. The last of the light sat gold across all of it, warm and slow and going nowhere but everywhere.
"Oh," she said.
"Mm," Cait said, with the satisfaction of someone whose prediction had been confirmed.
She sat down at the edge with her long, bare legs dangling over, completely unbothered by the height — and pulled a small paper bag from somewhere. She opened it and held it toward Elayna without looking at her.
A pastry. Small, carefully made, the layered kind with cream between the folds and something sweet at the center.
Elayna sat down beside her. Took it.
"You brought this?" she said, voice mildly accusing.
"You seem like someone who likes sweet things," Cait said, which was not technically an answer.
"You assumed," Elayna said, with a subtle crease between her brows.
"I assumed correctly," Cait said, glancing at her with a small knowing smile.
They sat and ate and looked at the city for a while. The light kept going warm and slow across everything. The academy moved quietly below them.
Elayna's eyes drifted sideways without fully meaning to.
Cait's legs were right there — long and bare past the hem of her skirt, dangling over the edge of the rooftop with the casualness of someone who had decided gravity was a suggestion and not a danger. They were — Elayna's brain supplied the words before she could stop it, unreasonably attractive. Generously full without being heavy, the kind of legs that had clearly spent a considerable time doing very serious training while somehow looking like they'd never had to try. The smooth skin of them catching the gold evening light in a way that was frankly inconsiderate to Elayna’s well being.
Elayna looked back at the city.
Then, because she was apparently unable to help herself, her gaze drifted back and upward along the rest of Cait.
The way she was sitting — slightly leaning back on one hand, the other holding the pastry, made her figure very present and very specific. The combat uniform top had not, Elayna was noting this against her will, left much to the imagination.
Sitting here in the evening light it was somehow even less charitable about keeping Cait’s body unspecified. Cait's figure had the nature of something that should not have been allowed to exist in one person. The dramatic inward sweep of her waist, the flare of her hips, and — Elayna's eyes moved upward and she experienced a brief existential crisis. Her chest, which was exactly as unreasonable as Elayna had been trying not to think about since day one.
Her eyes moved up further to Cait's face and looked at the sharp high cheekbones, the mouth with its full luscious lips curved in that perpetual slight smile, the green eyes that were currently, Elayna realized with a start, already looking back at her.
"Done?" Cait said very pleasantly, not the least bit offended. Because — of course.
Elayna looked at the city with extreme intensity.
"I wasn't—" she started.
"Mm," Cait said with a satisfied smile, in the tone of someone who had won something.
Elayna ate her pastry with great dignity and said nothing further.
Elayna thought about the day and felt her eyebrows knit, "...You kicked me really hard," she said, after a while.
Cait glanced at her. "Yes," she said pleasantly, with the tone of someone saying Yes I have legs, I walk with them. "We were fighting."
"I know we were fighting," Elayna said, the frown deepening between her golden eyes. "But it was — really hard. I couldn't breathe for a long moment."
Cait's eyes danced from Elayna's face down to her stomach with a pleased expression. "Mmhm."
"How did you even do that?" Elayna said, with the tone of someone who had been thinking about this for several hours. "Your feet were planted weird, your stance was wrong, there wasn't even enough space or time for that much force—"
Cait smiled.
Not an explanation. Just the smile. Warm and slightly satisfied and offering nothing further.
Elayna looked at her with an unhappy frown.
"You're not going to tell me," she said, sounding slightly hurt.
"You'll figure it out," Cait said. "Eventually." She added, with a very happy smile staring down at Elayna.
"That's not—"
"Eventually," Cait said again, and took a bite of her pastry.
"...Why do you use two swords?" Elayna asked, after a moment.
Cait considered this with the expression of someone who had never really needed to think about it.
"I tried one," she said simply. "It felt like something was missing. Tried two. It felt right." A small shrug. "Not really a deeper reason than that."
"That's it?" Elayna said, almost sounding disappointed.
"That's it."
Elayna cast her a sidelong glance. "What kind of magic do you use."
Cait cast her a sidelong glance paired with a smirk and said nothing.
"... And why are you at the academy?" Elayna asked. "What do you actually want to accomplish here?"
"To be stronger," Cait said. Simply. Genuinely. "Much stronger than I am."
"Much more than you are now?" Elayna looked at her. "You grabbed Voss. Twice. On the first day... No one else even got close."
"There's always further to go," Cait said, in the tone of someone who meant it completely. Then, lighter, casting a sidelong glance with an easy smile: "What about you? Master sword mage. I know. Is that really all?"
"That's everything," Elayna said, with complete sincerity.
Cait looked at her for a moment. "I believe you," she said — and it sounded less like she believed Elayna wanted to be one and more like she believed Elayna would become one. There was a difference.
"What's your family like?" Elayna asked.
"My mother's a viscountess," Cait said. "Small lands, east province. Not much to inherit, which suits me fine since I have three older sisters ahead of me." A slight pause. "My oldest sister Diana — you know about her."
"I know about her," Elayna said carefully. "...What's she like?"
"We don't talk much," Cait said, simply. Not bitter. Just a fact stated plainly. "She's maybe a bit too serious. We were close when we were young and then we weren't. It happens."
She said it lightly. But Elayna had been listening to Cait long enough to hear the difference between something light and something that was lightened.
"I'm sorry," Elayna said, meaning it.
Cait glanced at her. "Don't be." Then, softer. "It's fine."
Another silence. Comfortable.
She felt her face heat up considerably. "...Why," Elayna said, "why do you tease me so much?"
Cait smiled, a bit wider. "Because you're way too easy and your reactions are great."
Elayna felt some frustration rise. "I'm not—"
"Elayna." Cait looked at her with great patience. "You go pinker than my hair if I say your name a certain way."
"I do not—"
"Elaay-yn-na~"
Elayna's face went pink immediately.
"Case," Cait said, leaning down closer to Elayna’s face, "established."
“...That’s unfair... And you know why...”
"...Why are you even like that?" Elayna said, her lower lip doing something she didn't want it to, shoulders rounding slightly, staring at the city with what was meant to be dignity and was actually a pout.
"Like what?" Cait said, perfectly innocent.
"Like — that!" Elayna said, with growing frustration. "The way you are. Why are you like that even.”
Cait looked at her for a moment with genuine and pure amusement, the kind of look that arrived when you thought something was so fun you couldn’t control your expression.
"That," she said, sounding very happy about something, "is a very Elayna question."
"It's a normal question," Elayna said, almost a growl in her throat.
"It's a wonderful question," Cait said, in a singsong voice, "and the honest answer is that you just make it very easy and fun. You're genuine and pure in a way almost no people are. Everything lands clear on your face before you've had a chance in deciding to let it." She tilted her head slightly, the green eyes warm and amused. "And let's not even get started on how I feel about you below your waist."
"Cait—"
"I'm being honest," Cait said, with great innocence. "You asked." She took another bite of her pastry.
Elayna looked at the city with great intensity.
"My roommates," she said, after a moment, "said you looked a certain way during our fight. They were pretty specific about it." A pause. "But I still don't fully — I saw your face but I didn't really get what they meant."
"What do you think it meant?" Cait said, in an innocent tone again.
Elayna’s patience was running thin. "I don't know. That's why I'm asking."
"Well. Make a guess." Cait seemed to have all the patience in the world.
Elayna thought about this carefully. About the wide grin. The pupils blown dark. The way Cait had said you’re fun to kick like she was naming a hobby. What her roommates had said — she was enjoying you not the fight, that's not normal, and that's not decent.
"You liked fighting me," she said. "More than just — normally liking a fight."
"Yes," Cait said, as if that was always obvious.
"And it wasn't just the fighting."
"No," Cait said. "It wasn't just the fighting.” Something amused in her tone.
"You said I was fun to kick," Elayna said, in the tone of someone hoping someone, anyone, would explain this to her. "What does that even mean."
"It means~," Cait said warmly, leaning down again and looked Elayna straight in her eyes, "that you make such a lovely little face looking up at me after you've been kicked."
That answer helped with absolutely nothing except making her body feel strange again. Elayna turned to stare at the city.
A silence. She looked at her hands in her lap with an intensely confused expression.
"Be honest," Cait said pleasantly, warmly, but seemingly meaning every word underneath it. "You like me, Elayna. You know you do. Why are you fighting that so much?" A pause, those green eyes very patient but slightly amused. "Do you even know that you're fighting it?"
Elayna looked at Cait. Cait looked back at her, patient and warm and waiting, her eyes holding a quality they rarely had, never had until now, where the teasing had quieted into something more genuine underneath.
Elayna thought about that for a moment. And realized — slowly, in the way of something that had been true for longer than she'd acknowledged, that she had probably liked Cait a little bit, even from the very start. From the line. From the tail. From Elaay-yn-na~ landing warm in her ear and doing something to her she hadn't understood, still didn’t. Cait was just someone so incredibly vastly different from anything she'd ever experienced that she'd never known what to call or what to do with what she was currently feeling.
She thought about all of it. The whole two days of it.
Cait giggled softly beside her. Not the teasing, slightly mean sounding laugh — just a small genuine one, like she could see the thoughts moving across Elayna's face and found them genuinely sweet and amusing.
"Elayna," Cait said softly, and the teasing quality had now gone somewhere else entirely for a moment, replaced by something that was just warm. Direct. Honest. "If you've started to lean where I think you're leaning." She smiled wide, and not the wide canine smile, something subtler, something more careful. "Let me help you. You want to try dating me? Even you know what I mean by that. Just answer — yes or no. Think about what you just. Want, for a moment." She added with a gentle smile.
Elayna thought about the hand she'd held walking up here. The pastry brought because Cait had simply assumed correctly. Diana said simply and set aside easily. There's always further to go. The way Cait had looked at her getting up off the ground — which she hadn't seen herself but could somehow picture now. Thought about how she felt when she looked at Caitlynn, how she felt when Caitlynn was looking at her.
She looked down at her lap. Stared at it for some time.
Mustering all the courage she had in her body, Elayna managed to give the answer she knew she wanted to give. "...Yes," she said, quietly.
She looked up slowly. Turned her head slightly. Found Cait already watching her with a smile Elayna hadn't seen yet. Not the full canine grin. Not the controlled warmth she deployed on strangers. Something quieter and more genuine, her green eyes full of mirth and delight without any teasing edge to it.
Cait's hand came up unhurried, deliberate — and gently cupped her cheek.
Warm. Steady. Her thumb resting and grazing just below Elayna's cheekbone — that rough, strong calloused hand so gentle against her face made something ache slightly in Elayna's chest. She felt Cait tilting her face up.
Cait leaned in slowly.
Elayna's brain was producing a continuous stream of observations and none of them were coherent. She's very close. She’s so attractive. Her eyes are very green. She's very tall even sitting down. Her lips are—
The kiss landed.
Soft. Careful. Just Cait's mouth and lips against hers, warm and without any rush, giving her every moment to adjust to the reality of what was happening.
Elayna's brain went briefly, completely, offline.
This is a kiss, some distant part of her noted. This is my very first kiss. This is Cait kissing me on a beautiful rooftop. Her lips are so soft. This is—
Not quite as careful as it had started. Cait's lips were parting slightly, catching Elayna's lower lip in a deliberate, slow press of teeth. A tug. The pointed canines grazing gently. Held just long enough to feel it.
She pulled back. Slowly — letting Elayna's lower lip stretch out before releasing, letting it snap gently back against her slightly stunned and open mouth.
Elayna's eyes were unfocused. Her brain was somewhere approximately three feet behind her body, still catching up. The expression on her face was — dreamy didn't cover it. Blissed out, blissed out to the absolute maximum. The look of someone whose entire reference framework of life had just been quietly dismantled and rebuilt into something she hadn't expected to like this much.
Cait looked at her.
And felt — something. A very specific something. The specific kind of something that happened when you got exactly the reaction you'd been hoping for and it exceeded what you'd been hoping for by a landslide.
She looked at Elayna's lower lip. At the expression on her face. At those wide golden doe eyes, slightly glazed, looking back at her with that completely unguarded ooh expression—
Cait leaned back in.
She wasn't fully conscious of deciding to. Her hand was still cupping Elayna's cheek, her thumb still resting below her cheekbone, and then her teeth had Elayna's lower lip again — catching it, holding it, a little more deliberate this time, a little more pressure. Confirming something, she realised distantly, confirming whether it was the kiss or specifically this that had produced that wonderful expression—
Elayna made a sound.
Small. Barely there. Somewhere between a soft exhale with a mewl and something that wasn't quite a word. Her eyes went lidded, eyelids drooping heavily, the golden irises going warm and slightly unfocused, her whole expression doing the thing it always did where everything was landing on her face before she had any say in deciding to let it.
Cait released her lip.
Leaned back.
Blinked.
"...Oops," she said. "Sorry,” she added with a soft giggle.
She said it with complete sincerity, with the sincerity of someone who had just done something their instincts had done before their brain had weighed in, and was now slightly surprised to find themselves having done it.
Elayna stared at her.
Her brain was still not fully operational.
"Why," she said softly, after her mind slowly came back, "would you bite my lips during a kiss?"
"Did you not like it?" Cait said, voice pitched slightly higher than usual, with great innocence.
"That's not — kisses aren't supposed to—" Elayna stopped. Felt her face go very warm. "You're not supposed to bite someone during a kiss." She said this with firm determination, as someone stating a rule they had just invented but believed in completely.
"So you know how kissing works?" Cait said pleasantly, the teasing coming back now, warm and bright.
A pause.
"...No," Elayna said, slightly less firmly.
"Hm," Cait said, with great thoughtfulness. "I'll teach you all about it Elayna, don't worry." She added in a slow and soft voice.
Elayna stared at her. Then at the city. Then back at Cait, who was looking at her with the expression of someone who had just confirmed something very useful and fully intended to remember it indefinitely.
"They were right," Elayna said, softly but with great feeling. "You are a problem."
Cait looked at her for a moment — warm, pleased, certain about something, the canines just visible at the edge of the smile.
"And I think," she said softly, leaning down close to Elayna's ear, "you will love it." She leaned back.
Elayna looked at her.
Then at the city.
She found she couldn't argue with that. Felt her face go very warm. Felt something else go warm too, somewhere lower, that she was absolutely not going to think about right now.
They sat there in silence for a moment staring at the city in the warm evening sun. Then they said goodbye for the evening, but not before Cait pecked her on the cheek.
She walked back alone.
The corridor was quiet with the evening settling into the building, distant sounds of other students somewhere further in the other dorms. Elayna walked slowly, not quite ready to arrive back at the room yet.
She lifted her hand.
Touched her lower lip with her fingertips.
Just the lightest touch. Just enough to— she felt it immediately. A faint residual sensitivity there, where Cait's teeth had been, where the pressure had been and then released, and the ghost feeling of it made something bloom powerful and low in her stomach... Warm and insistent and considerably more present than she knew what to do with. She pressed her fingertip slightly firmer against her lip and felt that warmth pull considerably tighter and deeper and her breath caught very slightly and—
She dropped her hand.
Stood in the corridor for a moment.
That's fine, she told herself. That's completely normal. That's just — that's just what happens when someone bites your lip, it's a physical response, it doesn't mean—
She touched her lip again almost immediately, without deciding to, and the same thing happened but slightly more intense. The warmth in her lower stomach grew heavy and strong and she felt her whole body below her waist tighten.
She dropped her hand again. More firmly this time. Decided to not touch her lip again.
R-right.
She stood there. The corridor was very quiet.
...Is Cait my girlfriend now?
The thought arrived in the likes of something that had been waiting to be thought and had finally found its moment. Completely earnest. Completely innocent. Completely unironic.
Oh, Elayna thought.
And then... Oh no.
I can't think of her as my girlfriend already! We just — she just — I only said yes and then she kissed me... And bit my lip and — that doesn't make her my — or does it? Is that how that works? We didn't discuss anything I mean she — she said try dating — or she — does that mean — am I her girlfriend!? ...Is she my girlfriend!?!?
She stood very still in the corridor.
.....I'm so confused, she thought, with great feeling.
She touched her lip one more time. Felt both that her lower lip and something else now had gone sensitive. Her chest was also—
She dropped her hand immediately, and walked to the room.
The door opened.
Elayna walked in.
Her expression was slightly dreamy, slightly unfocused, and she haid the ghost of a smile she herself wasn't fully aware of. Her wide golden eyes had the warm glassy quality of someone whose brain was still somewhere else. She went and sat down on her bed. Stared ahead at nothing for a long moment.
Zyvara looked over at her with her large bright red eyes. They narrowed immediately.
"...What's wrong with you?"
"...Nothing," Elayna replied while still staring ahead at the nothing, or the wall perhaps.
She said it the way someone says something when they are technically present in a conversation but most of their mind is somewhere else and slightly overwhelming that they aren't ready or wanting to leave yet.
"What happened?" Zyvara probed further.
A short silence.
"... She — she bit me," Elayna eventually answered, with a finger touching her lips.
The room went very still.
And then. Simultaneously, at significant volume.
"Where?!" Evelyn shot up from where she was lying on her bed, her eyes went wide.
"Huh?!" Zyvara shouted with a crude expression at Elayna, with her own large red eyes going even wider.
“...?” Kiri just tilted her head.
"My — my lip," Elayna said while blinking slowly and coming slightly back into focus. "She bit my lip. During a — it was a kiss, it was just a kiss—"
"It's okay," Zyvara said as she got up, suddenly very focused as she started walking up to Elayna, leaning forward with those large red eyes fixed on her with an intensity that suggested she was running a damage assessment. "It's okay Elayna. Just look at me."
"I am looking at youuu—"
"Elayna!" Evelyn said as she appeared beside Zyvara, her blue eyes wide and worried. She gently grabbed Elayna's shoulders and leaned close. "Are you alright? Did she do something to you? You look—"
"It's okaaaay," Elayna was visibly slightly bewildered by the energy in the room but still tried to reassure everyone. "She didn't hurt me. It was fine. It was actually—"
She stopped.
The dreamy expression from before was coming back.
"Elayna," Zyvara said very slowly, as her red eyes studied her face with the focus of someone trying to determine if their friend had been enchanted or had a spell cast on them. "... Did you like... getting bit?"
A long silence.
Elayna's face went from slightly pink and dreamy to deeply, committedly catastrophically red. From the tips of her ears to her collarbones. In approximately one second.
“Oh Elayna...” Evelyn sounded mildly worried.
Zyvara straightened herself up to her full height and crossed her arms, “... You’re hopeless,” she said flatly. Not unkindly or in a demeaning way, just very much stating a fact she now fully believed in.
Elayna said nothing. Could say nothing. Her wide golden and slightly unfocused eyes looked up and stared at the ceiling with the desperate focus of someone hoping that if they looked at it long enough the current situation would solve itself.
Across the room, Kiri set down whatever she had been doing. Looked at Elayna for a moment — at the red ears, the ceiling-staring, the complete and utter communicative shutdown. Then looked back at her own desk.
"...That's our Elayna for you," she said quietly. "...She never stood a chance."