"Ohgood," she breathes, and then she reaches out to take one of his hands in both of hers. That's fine, right? They've held hands before.

....

Okay, uh. Now what.

Who are you asking here, Inori.exe is still rebooting.

...he does sort of make circles against the back of one of her hands with his thumb, though. Sort of stimmy.

Well! That's very nice, actually. She gives his hand a reassuring squeeze and smiles at him. Well. Smiles at her shoes.

And then she remembers that he is, in fact, still injured.

"... Oh, uh. We should probably still get you to the infirmary, because you have got to still be in pain," she realizes in a rush.

"...oh. Um. Yeah."

He does not take any steps towards the infirmary.

"... The offer to carry you there is still open, you know," teases Akiho, still holding his hand. Yes. Teasing. She knows how to tease him, that is familiar territory. That is not strange and terrifying like this, uh. This other stuff.

—that breaks the spell. He covers his face with his free hand, still red as a tomato, but manages to look up at her.

Then he remembers how pretty and nice and smart and powerful and mature and great she is and needs a few more seconds before he convinces himself to resume walking. While holding her hand.

She gives a little giggle, and entwines her fingers with his. She will hold his hand with just one of her hands, how about that. That sounds like a plan. And then the other hand can be used for self consciously combing her fingers through her hair, because it's probably a mess right now. For some reason that matters right now. She’d like to be as pretty as possible, or something.

Fortunately walking to the infirmary doesn't require either of them to be particularly eloquent, because unless it's playful teasing, she's all out of words.

Yeah definitely.

He knocks when they arrive.

    "Come in," says the voice of the jujutsu medic.

Inori opens the door and—only remembers he's holding Akiho's hand too late, and burns up anew when he sees her eyes fall to their hands before returning to their faces.

    "Yes?" she asks.

Awwww he’s so cuuuute.

It is a little embarrassing to show up to the infirmary holding hands, but. It’s fine. They have sorted out their feelings, and that is the important part. The rest of the world can just figure itself out.

“He’s injured,” she says, pointing with the hand that is not holding Inori‘s. “It was uh, ribs and pelvis, right? Anything else?”

Right yes injuries. "Arm," he says, letting go and walking over to Ieiri.

    The medic places a hand on his arm and frowns. "Practice should probably not go this rough," she sighs, clicking her tongue, but the injuries are mild enough it only takes a few seconds of concentration to fix the worst of it. "Take the rest of the day off, maybe sleep." She glances at Akiho for a second before looking back up at Inori and waving him out.

“It was not training, actually. Uh. Some students from Kyoto showed up, and. Were terrible. But thank you very much!”

… and then she can reclaim his hand as they leave, right? It is hers to hold, now?

Yes it is and any leftover stiffness is absolutely just because Inori is a dork who does not know how to navigate any of this!

She seems to be the more functional of the two of them, so it’s up to her to figure out where they go. How about a nice out of the way spot, with an excellent view of all of the nature around them, where they can. Sit. Together. That’s fine, right?

He is absolutely being led around, yes, ma'am. He can even sit!

Yay!

So they can just sit together and wait for Inori.exe to finish rebooting.

Honestly he's probably fully online already this is just how he be.

That is also fine! Though she does eventually start to get bored. Accordingly, she scoots closer to him to lean her head on his shoulder, and then gets out her phone.

O-oh. He freezes up for a second but then relaxes.

This is... nice? It's nice. It's a lot less terrifying than he was expecting.

Maybe he won't need to... say any words? For a bit? That would be really nice. He tentatively wraps an arm around her.

She smiles brilliantly at him when he does, making a contented humming sound and settling in to a comfortable spot.

Yes, this is very nice. He doesn’t need to say any words at all, this is more than enough.

What the heck this is ridiculously nice no one told him it was so nice. What??? He's not sure what's happening here. He's not even picking up his phone because he doesn't need to and he can just. Hold her?????? Just like that????? Since when is that allowed what the heck.

Yep! He can just hold her! She even adjusts herself to nestle closer and lean more of her weight on him and everything!

"I really, really like you."

“I really, really like you, too!” she replies, beaming up at him. “… Oh, uh. Do we want to be dating? Officially, I mean.”

"...um. As opposed to?"