Are we going to address the floating eyeball situation or are we going to keep counting speckles in each other's eyes? Eydis pondered silently.

  Very, very captivating eyes, but that was entirely beside the point. There had to be a less awkward way to gather intel than prolonged eye contact.

  Eydis looked away first and crossed to the desk, where she dropped off her blazer. Braced lightly against the desk’s timber, she weighed it again. Going after Theo again could be easier than this route. Far safer for her own equilibrium.

  "You... okay?" Astra finally broke the silence. "You should've stayed in bed."

  Eydis angled her face towards Astra, wearing a faint smile. "My dear roomie,” she said airily, “I assure you, my health is impeccable. But if you’re concerned, you’re welcome to inspect me. Thoroughly.”

  Astra blinked. “Last time I did that…”

  “I used you as my blanket.”

  Astra's cheeks immediately warmed to pink, the colour almost matching the scarlet lace lingerie just visible inside the shopping bag. Eydis's eyes lingered on them. Normally, she would have scoffed at such a bold, brazen choice. But on Astra…

  Curious, she thought.

  Irrelevant, she hastily corrected, snapping her eyes back up but found Astra already staring.

  Eydis felt as though she had been caught red-handed at… something.

  Astra’s eyes had gone dark, fixed on Eydis. With the barest nudge of her foot, she eased the bag and its scarlet contents further out of view.

  “So you remembered.”

  “How could I not?” Eydis ran her fingers through her hair without thinking. That was when the faint sandalwood reached her.

  Lighting those fingers to her nose, she inhaled the scent. She’d doused herself in lavender earlier, a few sprays too many, if anything. And yet, here it was.

  Still here.

  Eydis wondered if it was something beyond physical. But of course, that thought was not only dangerous, but forbidden.

  "Your essence,” she murmured mostly to herself, “is rather… persistent.”

  Astra stared. “My… essence?”

  Eydis cursed under her breath. She’d really said that out loud. She took a breath, and wished she hadn’t. The fragrance hit much too strongly, pulling old sense-memories behind it: Astra’s silky hair tickling her cheek, her low laughter, the warmth of her—

  Neck, Eydis reminded herself, Just her neck.

  "Sandalwood fragrance, is it not?" Eydis asked, trying for neutral. "I’d take a recommendation. For research, of course.”

  Her curiosity was genuine. The perfumes her teenage self could afford were less ‘eau de toilette’ and more… ‘odour of the toilet’. Astra’s scent, however, was something…

  Unsettlingly divine.

  "Why?" Astra asked, her one brow lifting in that precise, irritating arc that always set Eydis on edge.

  Infuriating. Distracting.

  “Must one hoard every beautiful thing life offers?”

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  “Hoard… every beautiful thing?” Those smug brows furrowed endearingly. “That’s not what I—Your scent is lov—fine. It’s fine.”

  Eydis went still, feeling her own cheeks warm, probably matching Astra’s. She’d been complimented plenty of times. Envy made a hobby of it to win her favour. But those were often empty praises.

  That had been the rhythm of her entire previous life. Yet, a stumbling, unscripted compliment from Astra… filled her with elation.

  Astra seemed to realise something, rising from the bed and stepping lightly through a minefield of her shopping bags.

  Eydis remained rooted at her side of the room, though the gradually narrowing distance between them made her pulse flicker.

  In less than a few seconds, Astra was already standing face to face with Eydis. Leaning slightly forward, she rested one hand on the desk beside Eydis, the other lifting gently to her forehead.

  “Are you really alright? Your face is quite… flushed.” Astra asked in her usual clipped tone, but the concern in her eyes said more.

  Who… was disregarding boundaries now?

  Eydis gripped the desk for… balance. Yes, that. Taking Astra’s action as a challenge, she edged even closer, close enough to feel the warmth between them.

  “One fever dream, and you’ve abandoned your beloved boundaries?” Eydis’s voice came out rougher than she would have like.

  Astra smiled, slow and beautiful in a way that stirred something in Eydis she hadn’t been ready to feel.

  For the first time, Eydis wondered if there was meaning to... winning this. Whatever this was.

  "You're one to talk, Eydis."

  The way Astra’s said her name, how it sounded almost like a hesitant caress on the syllables, felt… intimate.

  Her name had never sounded like that before.

  It didn’t help that their closeness stirred something volatile. Eydis forgot what she meant to say. The challenge, the game, the scripted confrontation… it evaporated.

  She only wanted more of that—more of Astra when she wasn’t holding back. Her exhaled breath brushed Astra’s cheek as she tilted her chin slightly and met Astra’s eyes.

  “Is that so, Astra?” She savoured the name as she said it, finally allowing it. “Care to elaborate on my sins?”

  Astra’s breath snagged. Quiet, but Eydis heard it, felt it; the sound lit her nerves. She bit her lower lip to hide the grin.

  But in the briefest second, Astra recovered her calm composure. “Oh, I’m not sure.” A small twitch played at her mouth. “Ask me again when you’re not about to inhale me.”

  Eydis chuckled. "Can’t help it, can I? We already established you smell divine. Unless you’re fishing for compliments now, Ice Princess.”

  “Divine?” Astra faltered again. “You’re… impossible.”

  "Impossible? What if I told you I’m not feeling quite myself? Would you offer your expertise, Doctor?”

  Astra edged back, crimson eyes darkening like deep water. Metaphorically, of course.

  Eydis wondered if, in this lifetime, she would finally get the chance to chart those depths—

  No. The ocean’s. Literal ocean.

  “So I’m a doctor now? Not a healer?” Astra’s voice had a husk to it.

  “Do you remember everything I say?”

  “Silver tongue. Always deflecting.”

  “Actually,” Eydis said, “I’ve been straightforward with you.”

  Astra’s eyes narrowed slightly “There’s nothing straight…forward about you.”

  "Is that a riddle, Astra?”

  “And here comes the deflection.”

  Eydis let her gaze rest on the faint blush across Astra’s cheeks. “No deflection here. And are you?”

  “Am I what?”

  "Are you alright?" Eydis’s voice tilted between teasing and genuine concern. "Wouldn’t want you catching my symptoms, considering..."

  Considering our night.

  Those words stayed locked behind her teeth. Intimacy was a line she wasn’t ready to cross, not now and not in any life that follow. For people like them, mortals who wedded themselves to shadows, soft things never arrived without a hefty price.

  “I’m fine,” Astra mumbled. Just when Eydis thought she’d leave it at that, mischief lit up her crimson eyes. “Just allergic.”

  "To what?”

  “Cats.”

  "You’re calling me a cat?”

  Astra bit her lower lip. "You purr. You invade space." She shrugged. “Yeah. Sure. Why not?”

  Eydis laughed again. Anyone else would’ve been incinerated on the spot. But from Astra, the insult was… charming.

  “The way I purr?” Eydis purred, to test the sound, to test Astra, who tensed, just slightly, in the most endearing way. “Not the shameless body-heat theft? The disrespect for personal space? The habit of kneading my roommate’s… things?”

  "So you know it's shameless. Not just kneading, but rubb—"

  Astra snapped her mouth shut too late.

  Eydis’s eyes darkened. Again she tilted forward, erasing the distance Astra had tried to keep earlier. “Rubbing, physically, you say? You know, for an Ice Princess, you’re surprisingly… hot.”

  Astra stopped breathing. “Eydis, y—”

  “Which means, I simply couldn’t resist getting closer. Call it weakness. A feverish feline seeking sanctuary in a cold, cruel world.”

  What she’d meant as light teasing landed heavier than intended, the quiet trailing behind the words held too much truth.

  Eydis silently cursed Lust itself and vowed some small, spiteful payback later. She searched for a safer line, any kind of damage control.

  Astra spoke before she could. The tenderness in her tone was almost startling. “Are you saying I’m your sanctuary, Eydis?”

  Eydis felt her pulse spiked hard.

  “Mine?” It escaped on a breath she hadn’t meant to release. She pinned the blame on the close room, the warm air, the distant, uncaring stars.

  Then came the follow up neither of them expected.

  “Is that an offer, Astra?”

  So. Much. For. Damage. Control.