A security guard leans in and knocks on the doorframe. "Professor Cardiello, we need to borrow one of your students, a Lucien?"

The professor is actually quite fond of Lucien but won't miss him for one session.

And so here is a Lucien, trying to figure out if he missed a rule on the maximum number of classes and also why this would be relevant to campus security. 

(He really should sleep more, during the precisely eight hours he has scheduled for that.)

The security guard looks kind of disgusted with him and doesn't explain of his own accord on the way to the security office.

Lucien doesn't know what is going on but he already feels terrible about it.

In the security hut there's another security guard and also, eyes closed and hugging her knees, a girl he's met a few times.

This does nothing to resolve Lucien's confusion - he can't even remember the girl's name.

"So. Do you have anything to say for yourself, kid?" asks the guard behind the desk.

"I uh. Don't know why I'm here? At all?" He is not actually so tired that he is taking seriously the possibility that this is because he is taking too many classes.

The girl makes a noise that is half pained whimper, half exasperated scoff.

"You're trying to tell us someone else dosed her," says the security guard, unimpressed with this assertion.

"I haven't dosed anyone with anything???"

"So you got a friend to slip it to her?"

"No!"

"Then what do you propose to tell us happened here, Lucien?"

"I have no idea!"

"You realize that isn't very believable from our perspective."

"I-um. Yes?"

"So how about you think about whether you want to stick to the story where you have no idea what happened."

"I-really- is there a witch on staff who can confirm I'm telling the truth about not knowing anything about this, please?"

Sigh. "Yes, we can get a witch if you want to make this difficult."

"I'm um. Sorry?" Well, mostly he's sorry for the girl who's name he should definitely know but has awkwardly forgotten. She does not look to be having a good time at all.

She really doesn't and is still refusing to look at him.

Security phones the witch. "Fifteen minutes," he reports when he's done on the phone.

Lucien nods.

He sort of wants to know what is going on in more detail. But he doesn't actually need to and opening his mouth to say more things sounds.... stressful.

She fails at not looking at him, flinches, and pulls out her phone.

Apparently not doing anything wrong doesn't stop him from feeling terribly guilty.

Eventually the witch arrives. "What exactly is going on here?" she asks from under her white hooded capelet.

"Hi Professor," croaks the girl.

"Bella, hello."

"After breakfast I noticed somebody'd slipped me a love potion. He says he had no idea."

Lucien nods and tries not to look guilty on account of how he isn't guilty and thus this shouldn't be hard even though he feels terribly guilty about it anyways.

The witch pulls out her wand and points it at Bella, nods, and then points it at Lucien. "Your word on the matter, young man."

"I didn't do anything, have no idea how this happened to her, and um. Feel really terrible that it happened. And I haven't misrepresented anything or been misleading about anything."

Security pipes up, "Did you let on to anybody else that you might like her?"

"I don't know her - I think she's in the EU287 with me but that's a big lecture class and I don't think I've talked to her at all or anything. I don't know why anyone would do this at all."

The witch puts her wand away and nods. Security goes on, "Do you know who might have had access to any of your hair?"

"-I got a haircut a week ago? And I have a roommate."

"Who's your roommate?"

"Dmitry Krustev."

Security is going to go round up Dmitry now.

Dmitry has about as much knowledge of what's going on as Lucien.

Security is pretty stumped. "We'll go over the security footage, Bella," says one of them, "but we're running out of possible motivated suspects, here."

"Yeah-huh," she grouses.

"We're pretty sure you're on the 'Grenadine', uh, 'Kisses', recipe, which'll wear off in a week."

"A week," she repeats, rubbing her eye.

"Is um. There anything I can... do."

"Just be aware she's not in her right mind if she -" Security waves vaguely.

"I mean, she's not drunk, it's not legally intoxication for purposes of -" begins the other Security.

"Yes, yes, but - know it's a potion, know it's only a week."

"Okay."

"We'll look over the footage but there's no point tying either of you up here while we do that."

"Okay," sighs Bella.

Once they are no longer being stared at by security guards Lucien... attempts to say some words.

"Um. Is there anything I can do to help or would you like to avoid me for a week or. Um. Sorry I really don't know what to do about um. Any of this."

"Me either! I don't have a living will to consult about what to do if I'm accidentally love potioned for some guy!"

Nod nod.

"I - did not think people did that and I really hope they find whoever did."

"Thanks."

"-I am not sure if dosing myself with something to make it reciprocal would make this easier or harder for you..."

"- why in the world would you want to do that," she says, stopping in her tracks.

"Because um. I imagine it's horrible to be in your shoes and I imagine that at least some part of that is it not being reciprocated?"

"It's - mostly about it being mind control. I don't like mind control."

"Yeah, it's horrible that people can just.. yeah."

"Obviously there is a part of me that's very tempted to take you up on that but that part of me is mind control and it'll be gone after this weekend. And we barely know each other at all."

"Will you be unhappy about me dosing myself after your dose wears off? Or uh, we can hang out without me dosing myself. If that would make things easier for you."

"I'd be upset about it now, just, in a more conflicted way. ...in some respects it might make things easier?? It'd maybe make it specifically easier to concentrate on my, like, schoolwork..."

"The hanging out or the dosing?"

"The hanging out."

Nod.

"I was going to go to Hechter Library to look at some records for my civil engineering class. If that works for you?"

"Yeah. That works fine till my next class."

Nod.

"I have another class at 3 and then at 4 and at 7. Probably I should drop one of those but I haven't actually decided which and until I do I'm trying to keep up with both..."

"What are you taking?"

"Intro to Agricultural Studies, Linear Algebra 1, Advanced Marcoeconomics, Civil Engineering 1, European History - you're in that one right? - Spanish 1, and Medieval Islamic Literature."

"I'm in that one yeah. I thought stuff as specific as Medieval Islamic Literature was only for upperclassmen or majors."

"The professor was very encouraging when I talked to her and it was a 7pm class so it was very easy to fit into my schedule.... That may be one of the classes I should drop."

"What are you going to do with that spread, anyway?"

"Well I haven't decided what I want to major in and I figured that taking a lot of things would help me choose."

"It kind of sounds like you barely even have a shortlist."

"I want to do something that's good the for the world and underappreciated and involves.... building better systems or institutions."

"You could narrow it down more by what you're good at?"

"I'm good at diligently doing work, staying organized, and I'm decent at math. In practice I think I'm doing best in Intro to Agricultural Studies and Civil Engineering 1."

"Huh. I've always known I wanted to be a witch."

"Oh, why?"

"It's sort of weird to me that some people don't. It's magic! You can like, heal people and stuff! What's not to like? Besides mind control spells which I will simply not perform."

"When you were younger did you want to be a witch so you could heal people, or was it just that it magic seemed cool?"

"Both. It wouldn't be cool if it just... turned lead into gold and nothing else."

"Oh yeah... though if anyone gets the more interesting metallurgical magic working I think that would be very cool on it's own."

"It'd have applications but I don't have an ambition to be an industrial process."

"That is a very reasonable opinion that people other than me often have."

"It didn't sound like you wanted to be an industrial process so much as invent them?"

"I'd like to invent one and then be involved with running it to some extent, but I mostly don't want to spend all my time as one of a large number of people doing a similar task, yeah.... their were some people in South Korea who claimed they had figured out a way to make a room-temperature superconductor with magic and if they had been right than one witch could have produced enough to revolutionize smartphones with just a few days of work each year, I think. I would have liked to be that industrial process, I think."

"What would you do with the rest of the year?"

"Well, probably there are other interesting metals to figure out how to make with magic... stronger versions of steel to help make taller skyscrapers, maybe?"

"Seems like more of an apothecary sort of thing, really."

"Yeah... I really wish that intro class had had an open seat."

"Yeah, I couldn't get into it either, I think one of the faculty had some kind of emergency."

"It did leave me free to take Spanish 1... which now that I think about it isn't actually a good thing."

"Maybe that's the one you should drop."

"I technically need a language if I do a humanities major... which isn't very likely at this point, so yeah. What are you taking?"

"Spanish 3, European History, Stats, Freshman White Arts Seminar and the associated lab, and Intro Econ."

"Oh, you got into Stats! I'm jealous."

"I think there was a lottery for it or something."

"Honestly I'm surprised at that one- I wouldn't have thought so many people would want to that it that they would need to be that selective."

"I think our class this year is bigger than previous ones and maybe they weren't sure where to hire to accommodate us. They need another apothecary and another math, apparently."

"I suppose that shows the student body has good taste, at least, even if it's inconvenient for me."

"You'll probably be able to get in next semester."

"Yeah, hopefully - are you enjoying them?"

"None of my classes have really gotten into the swing of things yet. I hope."

"My civil engineering class has already gotten really interesting... though that might just be me overdoing the first homework assignment."

"Oh, what is it?"

"Well, it was to sketch out a very basic site plan for a residential building using some educational software they provided us with but I wasn't sure about how to handle the density I wanted to support without risking the elevators being slow, so I had to look into typical elevator usage patterns and speed constraints, which turns out to be a subject of active study in some journals, so I'm trying to incorporate that and also trying to see if I can account for occasional stair usage and - probably this is boring you, no one is as excited about elevator usage patterns as I am."

"I read somewhere that elevators are the single most efficient form of public transit, is that true?"

"I think in terms of energy and space and overhead, yeah, I think so. Though I'm not sure if efficiency is most important constraint in a lot of situations, if that makes sense?"

"Go on?"

Lucien has spent probably too much of the last several days thinking about elevators and has some very detailed opinions on them, versus stairs and escalators and longer range forms of public transit.

She will listen to him talk about this for as long as he can keep it going.

"-are you really that interested in this?" he will ask, after explaining why he thinks escalators are overrated.

"...I am kind of interested in the topic and very interested in not being burdensome to have around so that I can continue to be around?"

"Oh...kay."

"You really are welcome to hang around me without needing to listen to me ramble about elevators."

"Well, if you're not talking at all it's harder to -" Handwave.

"Hm?"

"Sitting in the same place doesn't mean anything, and talking to me also kind of doesn't but it's more - salutary."

"Ah - well, I can keep talking with you but um-"

"-I'm going to follow your lead on what I should be doing that will make things easiest for you."

"Okay. Thank you."

Lucien does not know what to do with the fact that the girl mind controlled to be in love with him looks pretty when she smiles.

"-that being said I'm also interested to hear about um, what your classes are like? If that works as a thing for us to talk about."

"Sure, if you're interested? Do you have any witchcraft background at all, my high school didn't offer it so I know some don't."

"Unfortunately not."

"So keeping it to generalities then, I don't think our textbook is very good but fortunately there's a lot of handouts supplementing it, and the other people in my lab section have compatible taste in mood music, which is nice."

"Why don't you think the textbook is very good?"

"The author cares a lot about sounding mystical? But witchcraft reduces to sensible moving parts, it's not actually necessary to go into it like it's a religion - that might help some people but I don't think it's appropriate for a university course and it makes it harder to extract concrete meaning."

"Oh that sounds unhelpful - my general impression is that people rarely treat witchcraft as a science, even though in theory it would make sense to do so?"

"So it's not amenable to - precision engineering - because it's so much about the emotions of the individual witch. Which I think confuses people into thinking there's no principles underlying it at all."

"How does that work, exactly?"

"How does what part of it work?"

"How do the specific emotions effect the outcomes?"

"You know the basic, negative emotion black arts, positive emotion white arts, thing, right?"

"Yeah."

"So you can in principle run any white arts spell on any positive emotion but the results will come out differently based on exactly what you're using - and who it came from, we have less reason than black arts witches to use someone else's emotions but we can, because everyone feels things differently. There's one specific guy in Australia who has the best quality sense of humor for fixing a specific blood disorder, and that's just the most famous one."

"Huh, how much more effective is it to use that guys sense of humor than then average sense of humor?"

"If you happen to be treating that exact blood disorder about a factor of fifteen, but it's not especially good for anything else it's been tested on."

"-huh, how feasible is it to find more instances of things like that?"

"It's hard! That one was discovered in a complete fluke. But there's been a lot of testing for certain cancers and stuff and we've found some factor of, like, five, variance, doing it that way, and there have been more flukes with more extreme results."

"How hard is it to test for?"

"Most of the overhead is getting someone into the collection booth and in the right mood, but that's surprisingly hard to do at scale."

"-hrm, this sounds like an interesting logistics problem.... are there easy ways to provoke emotions that could use more testing? Can you test for a bunch at once?"

"You can only test what you actually store, so if what you store is a complicated cocktail, that's what you get, not several different crystalsful of whatever separate ingredients were in the emotional state. Different people vary in what's easy to provoke and how!"

"Hrm, this does sound rather difficult to scale."

"There was an experimental theater production which tried to arrange their show so they could try to elicit emotions with it while the audience was all in collection but it did not work that well, usually you have people watch movies - often picking their own, since, again, variance."

"How obtrusive is it to test people? Could someone set up movie theaters that are free so long as the audience is okay having their emotions distilled?"

"You need them all in their own booth. Prevents having more than one row unless you go for really aggressively stadium-style, so it'd be expensive to build, and you couldn't sit next to anyone you went with, and you'd probably still get takers but you wouldn't want repeat takers showing up just for the free entertainment, if you were trying to do this for testing. Also doesn't filter at all for willingness to follow up on regular donation."

"How inconvenient is regular donation? Can you pay people for it?"

"I mean, you have to show up to a place and get into the specified mood on demand, it's not more inconvenient than that makes it sound, but most people don't want to, and it does tend to affect the quality of emotions to pay for them."

"Can uh, dru-um."

"...what?"

"Um. I was going to ask if drugs work." Which is maybe insensitive to bring up given the circumstances but he's not really sure what else to say.

"They don't distill. They're localized differently. They can sometimes help - if someone's too anxious to be happy then taking an anti-anxiety med will let them distill happiness."

"Ah, that makes sense. What does it mean for them to be localized differently?"

"Uh, authentic emotions are generated in the soul and only cause physiological sequelae, drug-induced ones go the other way."

"Ah.... are there resources on magic which are as good at explaining it as you are?"

"...there's textbooks and websites I like, but I'm not copying my exact words from anywhere in particular."

Nod.

"When I've tried to look for things I havn't found anything that seemed like both a good entry point and ... clear headed."

"I think it helps if you've practiced at all even a little, it contextualizes some of the - flowery analogies people pull out when they're trying to describe it, so you can pick out the actual content better."

"Is it the sort of thing I can try in an afternoon?"

"Normally you'd take a whole class on it or at least a summer camp, I think you could cut it down some but not to an afternoon without cutting a lot of the safety lecture."

"I suppose I'll have to make do with waiting till a spot in a class opens up."

"Did your high school not have it?"

"It was at the same time as economics."

"Oh, now, my high school didn't have economics, but I think witchcraft would still have won, economics you can get a fair ways just reading books."

"At the time I didn't realize this wasn't true of witchcraft... I can't actually bring myself to regret my choice, Economics was very fun."

"What'd the class add to the experience over books alone?"

"More structure, projects, and a really good teacher."

"Kinda projects?"

"There was a simulated market economy for a week, with little scraps of paper to stand in for vegetables and money. I did accounting for it."

"What motivated people to buy paper vegetables?"

"You had to get enough to feed your family at the end of each day."

"...seems hard to do with only vegetables and wouldn't really motivate discrimination between kinds on anything but price and calorie."

"Some of them would spoil quicker than others, or be easier to make into dishes that could feed more people. Also I think some of my classmates just really wanted eggplants for some reason."

"...ah-huh. Did you arbitrage eggplants?"

"Yeah. I earned more than anyone else I think, but I gave out a bunch of my stockpiled food to people who were running short on the last two days, so I didn't get on the class scoreboard for wealthiest student. But my class period was the only one that didn't have anyone starve."

"Congratulations!"

"Thanks." Lucien is in fact pretty proud of this.

"Was the teacher impressed?"

"Yeah, I got bonus points."

"Oh good."

"What sort of magic have you learned so far?"

"I want to focus on infectious diseases but so far we're doing a pretty broad survey of the basics so on top of high school stuff I have, like, the classic tidying spell and some first aid."

"Infectious disease magic is a really good thing to prioritize!"

"Yeah, I want enough range on it that it'd be possible to area-eradicate and just move around a lot and repeat the process."

"-wow, that sounds great. Do you have estimates of how many people you could heal per year that way?"

"It'd depend too much on how densely populated they are and the gnarly tropical diseases are in low density areas."

"Does that end up being more effective than aiming at poor cities?"

"If you're aiming to eradicate something, yes, because the things that show up in cities aren't usually rare enough to straightforwardly eradicate, but stuff that's geographically concentrated is."

"Oh, you want specifically to eradicate diseases and not just heal a bunch of people?"

"It's a little more satisfying, you know? Smallpox was."

"You have very good goals!"

(He is a tiny bit sad about the concept of eradicating any species entirely, but still, it's clearly worth it.)

"Thank you!"

"When did you decide that this was what you wanted to do?"

"I've always wanted to be a witch since I was a little girl. It did take me a little longer to settle specifically on epidemiology."

"I still havn't figured out what I want to do when I graduate."

"Planning to wait for a career fair to make a case, or stay in academia indefinitely, or...?"

"Well, I was hoping taking a bunch of classes would help me better understand the options, but I think I have overdone it."

"Maybe."

Why did the girl who was mind controlled about him have to be pretty.

"I think I want to do something more... systemic than your plan, if that makes sense. But your plan does seem really good."

"I do sort of imagine I will need some kind of institutional backing to bop around a few continents annihilating malaria."

"Just for transportation and identifying locations and such?"

"And maybe a security escort, there's like geopolitical instability in some relevant locations."

"Huh, that does seem like a worthwile niche to fill."

"I think they can be hired for money, I'm not sure yet who will be funding this operation though."

"Maybe it's possible to raise it via donations, or maybe local governments can be persuaded... or existing aid organizations."

"All possibilities, yeah."

"I wonder if there's anything similar that's been done previously to compare against."

"Not that I know of but I have not conducted an exhaustive literature review."

"Would it help at all if I did?"

"...maybe? I'm not sure that's a great idea unless it'll count as a class assignment, though, you're busy - maybe I should shut up and let you do your work -"

"I should really drop some of them..."

"For whichever ones you aren't dropping."

"I guess I should do some work for them, yeah..."

"I can shut up."

"...I um... have really liked talking to you."

"Thank you."

He can work next to her at the library until they have class. He finds himself glancing at her once or twice or maybe three times which is just, objectively very rude of him given the circumstances.

She might be meditating or something. Maybe that's a witch homework thing.

He doesn't know exactly how, but him finding her this pretty has got to be him taking advantage of the situation, unethically. And yet, he can't stop.

Does she want to hang out again after class?

"If you're not busy!"

He is not! Or at least, not in a way that he can't reschedule.

"...library again?"

"If you'd like."

"I'm just, uh, not sure where else would - be good."

"I don't know what you mean?"

"Well, like, it probably shouldn't be either of our rooms."

Nod nod.

Library.

On the way back to the library after classes he asks her if she's sure she doesn't want him to dose himself with something.

"I'm sure!"

"Okay. Sorry."

She swallows a sob.

Offering her a hug will probably make things worse. 

If he doesn't try it he'll never know! She collects herself in a minute.

Deep breaths.

"Um. If you want a hug. If that would help."

"Yeah I would like a hug."

Oh thank god he didn't just make everything worse. Hug!!

Hug. JUST A HUG but a hug.

It's a big hug! During which he is helping instead of hurting her, for once. He hopes.

She looks calmer when they unhug.

Why did she have to be cute, bad Lucien.

She is going to try to concentrate on her handout from Spanish 3.

Yes Lucien also can focus on his work, instead of being disappointed that Isabella doesn't want him to like her back, or something like that. He's trying not to think about it.

She is content, apparently, to read her Neruda poems and comment on them in her homework.

He can manage to focus on his own Spanish 1 work for a full hour. Barely.

Wait...

...he was going to drop Spanish 1.

She's managing to focus hard enough on her own stuff that she does not notice this before he does.

"I should probably go to the registrar and ask if I can drop out of Spanish."

"That makes sense. Is that he kind of thing you can't do over email?"

"I think I technically can? But uh. I sort of like visiting the registrar. They are very helpful." Why is he like this.

"Okay. I should go - hit the dining hall, anyway -"

"You can come with me and then we can go to the dining hall after, if you prefer that."

"Yeah. Thanks."

"I can also just email. If you don't want to walk all the way there with me."

"I suggested emailing mostly because I avoid excess walking when I can but like you can go without me or - it's whatever -"

"I'll email."

Nod.

He takes an unreasonably long time to write the email but eventually manages it.

Maybe he's just a wordy emailer.

Well, he keeps getting distracted and apologizing in the email, and then backspacing and deleting the apologies.

She's not looking over his shoulder. She's finishing her Spanish assignment.

He eventually finishes the email.

"-do you still want to go to the dining hall and get dinner."

"Well, I also considered fasting for the spiritual benefits but on the whole I'd prefer to eat."

"Do you have a preference among the dining halls?"

"South one we don't need to climb any stairs."

Nod nod. 

"...would you like help walking."

"I don't know how to use a cane or anything so I'm not sure anything else would be better than nothing either but thank you."

Nod. 

There's conveniently a booth free in the back of the dining hall today. And they haven't run out of macaroni and cheese with bread crumbs yet.

Yay, macaroni and cheese!

Isabella has good taste.

Mac 'n cheese and chicken nuggets and coconut cream pie. Yay.

"Hi Lucien did you know it's going to snow and also who's your friend?"

"-I knew, this evening, right? And this is Isabella. Isabella, this is Sophia."

"...hello, Sophia."

"It's going to snow between four and eight inches. Unless they are wrong which they are five percent of the time, according to my applied meterology textbook."

"...okay."

"I assume you don't care about the weather like everyone else except for Lucien and my flight instructor, who have to because it's important for being my friend and for flying."

"It matters to me when there's going to be ice on the paths, I guess."

"Yeah! And wind speed is something you have to be careful about if you're going to be tempted to fly too close to storms all the time, which I am since I am impatient to fly into hurricanes."

....

"You can predict hurricanes that way! Which is very good because otherwise I wouldn't have a reason to do it."

"You can predict... a hurricane... that is already there for you to fly into?"

"Yeah! You can measure the pressure which lets you know about important things and how it will behave when it hits land and how fast the wind is going and how long it's going to last. They do it with all the hurricanes."

"Oh, huh."

"I've wanted to do it ever since I learned that weathermen don't actually get to look at weather all day. Later I realized that I'd probably also make a really bad weatherman because of how I can't follow a script about the weather but I realized the bit about looking at weather first."

"What are they doing besides that and talking about it on TV?"

"I think they make pictures of the weather sometimes. But not of the actual weather, just of radar and things like that, which is neat but not as cool as taking pictures of actual weather. Oh and also sometimes they go out and report on storms from outside - I'd like that bit."

"Gotcha."

"Did you buy better gloves?"

"Yes, you and the frost bite were very convining about that. My mom also told me not to go out when it's snowing so much but she was less convincing."

"You gave yourself frostbite?"

"It only snows during a quarter of the year!"

"...yeah?"

"So I have to make the most of it. And I didn't have good enough gloves to do that, I guess."

"...gotcha."

"How do you know Lucien?"

"We were introduced earlier." And it wasn't by a cloud so probably she doesn't care!

"That's nice." It's true, she doesn't.

"Did you know that some scientists photographed 2304 snowflakes and found 80 different types but none that were really identical though I sort of think that Number 236 and Number 1834 should count." 

Bella fills her mouth with macaroni and shakes her head.

"I'm still skeptical that that the typology actually has any meaning."

"I thought you were right but I looked at all the snow flakes and now I don't know."

Sophia is happy to discuss snowflakes with Lucien and Isabella for the entirety of lunch!

-is Isabella happy about this?

She is not actively miserable about it. She looks kind of bored.

Lucien honestly has no idea what that face means and no other conversation topics in mind so he will just have this conversation and hope that Isabella doesn't hate him any more than she currently probably does for it.

She doesn't complain about this. When she finishes eating she interrupts Sophia softly to say, "I'm supposed to go tutor somebody, I'll see you later?"

"Oh, uh, yeah..." He should probably hide in his room for a bit. And call his parents. Thankfully his roommate is nearly always absent, so he'll have the place to himself. 

"I can meet outside of Mathias Hall afterwards, if that works?"

"Mm-hm, I should be done around eight?"

"Yes that works." ....Lucien does his very best to specifically not think about her smile. His best isn't very good today, apparently.

"See you." And off she goes with her careful gait.

Lucien flops on his bed, cries, and calls his parents. It is not a short call.

She is done around eight and drifts in the indicated direction!

"-yes I'd love your help on my economics homework in person dad, but I don't think that's actually sufficient reason to visit, and if I did I'd still feel guilty for having a crush on her and she'd feel worse for not having me around and I'd feel guilty about that as well and it would all be worse."

- wait what does he have a girlfriend -

- no, that is not the actual implication of the -

- why did he have to say something like that -

- she is going to march out of earshot and sit on that bench under that tree and cry into her knees.

It's going to take Lucien another few minutes to wrap up his call, at which point he'll manage to get out of bed and notice that for some reason his roommate left the window open again, which explains how cold it is.

- oh no it's 8:02.... And still no sign of Isabella but that's no excuses for him being late. He throws on his coat and goes to wait for her outside his dorm.

She's over there, if he looks around.

.... that expression he can read and it's not a good one!

"Is-um. Everything okay?"

"I was going to wait inside but your window is pretty close to the door - and you were still on the phone -"

"-and my roommate left the window open."

"Mhm."

"Um. Did you hear.... Uh." It is sort of obvious given that there's really only one thing she could have heard.

"Mhm."

"Sorry."

"You didn't do anything wrong, it's just - it's going to wear off after it's been a week, so -"

"Yeah." And then she'll hate him. Which isn't as bad as the part where he's being terrible to her right now but is still pretty bad.

"But right now I'm pretty upset about the prospect of abandoning you when that happens."

"Oh. I um. Will be okay? If that is what you are worried about?" Eventually. He assumes.

"I hope so. I mean, probably. People get over crushes all the time, just."

"I'm um. Not really sure what comes after the just in that sentence. I don't think I'm very good at modeling what you are thinking about.... any of this. But if you would rather not talk about this we could also just not talk about this."

"Okay."

"-would you like a hug."

"Is that gonna make anything worse on your end?"

"Not really..."

"I'm um. Not worried about you rejecting me nearly as much as I'm worried about hurting you."

"I am kind of in a stupidly vulnerable position and whoever potioned me should never walk the earth free again but you're not doing anything wrong."

"I um. Really don't want to accidentally take advantage of your situation somehow. And my brain uncooperatively decided that it would-"

"It would?"

"Decide that um."

"You are very good." And pretty and smart and moral and ambitious and this is maybe the worst thing his brain has ever done. 

"Well, y'know. One tries."

"You um. Seem much better at being good than other people who try."

"Thank you."

"-is saying things like that... Okay."

"Why wouldn't it be? Are there people who just hate compliments?"

"I um. Thought you might dislike reminders of me... liking you."

"Oh. The connection was not obtrusive."

"Okay."

Deep breaths.

"Sorry I'm such a bummer."

"It's definitely not at all your fault."

"Well, no. But I do regret that it is the case."

"Yeah."

She goes quiet. Sighs.

So does Lucien, apparently.

Then they might have a pretty pensive bench-sitting evening.