Oh so just another month? Cool.

"By the way," he asks as they leave the meeting, "what exactly are your years and months and weeks and seasons based on?"

"Something involving the suns? I think they shine for the shortest time on one particular day, and that's midwinter."

...And he's thought about it long enough, he is bisexual and ignoring that would be annoying and pointless, Sadde gets a kiss.

Oh gods yes okay Sadde has completely forgotten what he was talking about.

(Well not really but it's no longer in his mind.)

Well, the kiss is polite PDA level only, seeing as they are on a sidewalk. But yep.

Yes yes sure it's still great and Terel-kissing and mind-melting and he will not be the one pulling away here.

Right, Terel will, and then comment, "It's strange we have the same week and same hours in the day and stuff though. Does the key sort by similarity or something? ...No data."

Nnngh okay no more kissing. "No data," he agrees. "It's strange that you even have years and months and whatever. Like, there's a mechanistic reason why we have those where I'm from, here it's just sorta arbitrary."

"Think someone designed the world, and not as elegantly as you say yours is? That's one of the theories."

"It certainly looks designed. But then again, all magic does, yours is just more obvious about it."

"Well if we find the designer, I'm going to get them to fix rifts, and tile-crumbling, and interrogate them on why humans and mer get sixty to a hundred years while dragons get forever."

"—I just got this urge to twirl you in the air and kiss you."

"Heh. Go for it. How many twirls do I get if I swear to spread computing to the four corners of the expanding plane by the time I'm sixty?"

"If you do that I might have to take you somewhere private," he says, grabbing Terel by the waist, twirling him twice, and kissing him.

Wheee!

"Then maybe I'd better not just yet. Still have things to do today. Like lunch, and the ever-popular homework and classes. They sure do take up a lot of time once you stop and think about it."

"Sleep does, too," he whines. "I love you."

"Mm. I know I said no more cafeteria food but I actually have a lunch meeting with that golem team. But I think they get the idea that you don't eat now so you could probably follow as long as you don't sit at our table during the actual meeting bit."

"Sure. I, er, will be able to listen in unless I'm several tiles away."

"They don't know that, but we're not going to be discussing anything important and it's polite to pretend not to."

He starts walking towards the cafeteria, hefting that backpack again and offering a hand to hold. Because it is kinda nice to be Openly In A Relationship Of Some Kind With This Cute Guy.

Eeeee handholding. Sadde will have this look on this face like he is the luckiest man alive to have scored Terel. It's all the more effective because of just how sincere it looks.

They're both charmed by the handholding then.

The cafeteria cashier doesn't try to charge Sadde. Terel fetches food.

Leah, that girl who didn't like him the first time he met Terel, is whispering to a friend about Sadde, "No, that's definitely the same person. We're going to say it anyway."

Sadde's only half-paying attention, and mostly wants Terel's attention, so.

He eats quickly, is amused by the some of the things Sadde describes the internet as containing, heads over to his group's table with last week's work on the communal golem project.

The actual meeting part of their meeting goes smoothly. Everyone's satisfied at the step they've taken to the completion of a thoroughly mediocre and minimally creative final product. They agree to assign the next batch of work at the Wednesday meeting. Terel moves to get up.

Leah interrupts, "Wait, Terel. We need to tell you something. Guys, back me up please? I'm concerned for you, Terel. I'm worried about this 'Sadde' character."

"...What do you mean? Sadde's great."

"But how do you know that? They just swoop in, some kind of unfamiliar Fair Folk, claim to have all this knowledge from another world, some bunk story about hopping dimensions and fantastic foreign secrets, and we barely see you for the rest of the week. I honestly thought she - he - whatever - might haul you off into the mountains never to return, like a Ramusal or something. Just one day-"