A chorus of "oooh's" rose up from around the firepit, the faux scandalization in their tone making Kaitlyn blush. "What do you mean?"

  "Yeah, Esme, spill!" Heather demanded.

  "Oh, you know…" The dark-haired girl shrugged with exaggerated nonchalance. "Elliot just seemed to really enjoy hanging out with you at that party. At least, that's what it sounded like."

  Heather's brow furrowed as she seemed to search her memory for the name. After a moment, her jaw dropped open as she slowly turned to face Kaitlyn. "Omigosh, Kate. You two are dating, right? You've been, like, totally into each other since the start of the semester, girl!"

  Oh, shoot. That's right, I totally made her think we were a thing already…

  Kaitlyn shifted uncomfortably, mind racing to figure out the best way to frame the situation. "I know, I know… We just… haven't made it official? I mean, he hasn't asked me out yet, so…"

  "Psssh," Heather waved off the objection. "What're you waiting for? A hottie like that's gotta be snapped up fast, and publicly. Otherwise, someone else is definitely gonna snatch him out from under you."

  The words made her tense. For a moment, Kaitlyn intently studied Heather's expression for that familiar look she'd seen during Alex's endings. Thankfully, it was nowhere to be found. For now.

  Not that I think he'd actually let her get away with that anyway. Elliot made it pretty clear that he wasn't interested. Besides, he has enough backbone to actually say no when push comes to shove.

  Esme snorted. "Yeah, good luck with that. Believe me, there's no shortage of girls who've tried. I've yet to see a single one actually succeed, though."

  "Really?" Heather blinked in surprise. "Is he, like…?"

  "No, he's straight," Esme sighed, blowing on the fireball that engulfed her marshmallow. "He's just picky. Really picky. He's not interested in dating just anyone."

  Kaitlyn's shoulders relaxed slightly. Still, the words did make her consider the current state of the loop. It had become abundantly clear that Kaitlyn was well and truly on Elliot's romance path—unless she'd somehow massively misjudged things. Yet despite that, she still wasn't sure how to feel.

  I mean, don't get me wrong, I DO like Elliot. He's awesome. But… do I like him like I liked the other guys? Do I even deserve to get his romance ending?

  Sure, they'd spent plenty of time together—time that they both seemed to very much enjoy. But her experience with the Ian loop had shown that wasn't necessarily enough. That, plus the fact that she still didn't feel like she'd helped him in any way, really gave her pause.

  I don't feel like I've fallen for him in quite the same way that I did with the other guys—I mean, I definitely like him, but it feels less… intense, somehow. What if that's a problem?

  The looks he gave her made it pretty hard to deny he liked her, for whatever reason. The more they did together, the more she'd come to see the ginger as a dependable presence, someone she could trust and rely on to be there for her. She certainly didn't feel like her actions had warranted the same kind of trust, though. And that mismatch could be a problem.

  What if I'm missing some piece here? What if it ends up being another red herring like Ian's bad ending? Like I'm just convincing myself that it's a thing? Or maybe I haven't done enough to deserve him, even if we do kiss…

  She shook her head. Whatever the case, she was quickly running out of time to do more. The end of the loop was only a few weeks away. And without any other major events on the horizon, she'd just have to wait and see.

  Rachel skewered another marshmallow on her roasting stick. "You can always ask him out yourself, you know. Sometimes, dropping hints just isn't enough, sweetie."

  Kaitlyn's head snapped up. Oh, that's absolutely rich coming from you, Rach. You're ten times worse than I am about this stuff!

  Her lips curled into a devious smile at the opportunity. "Speaking of dropping hints… How are you and Cedric doing, Rach?"

  The girl froze in place. The flickering firelight made the exact shade of her cheeks quite difficult to make out, an issue not helped by her dark skin. But Kaitlyn strongly suspected that they'd suddenly gone beet red.

  "What do you mean?" Rachel asked, feigning a casual attitude as the others turned toward her with curious expressions.

  Kaitlyn doubled down. "I mean that you're one to talk. You've totally been into him for a long time now. Why haven't you two gotten together?"

  She knew the answer, of course. It was a combination of Rachel not wanting to ask the guy out and Cedric's complete and utter obliviousness to her feelings. But there was something gratifying about teasing her friend, especially as payback.

  "I…" Rachel bit her lip for a moment. "I don't know. I'm fairly certain he does like me, but…"

  Kaitlyn blinked in surprise. "Wait, you are? How?"

  "His roommate… may have made some comments." The girl shook her head. "At first I wasn't sure, but now? I'm pretty sure he's trying to play wingman."

  It took a lot of effort to keep her face straight. Wait. Alex did WHAT?!

  She hadn't spent much time hanging out with the guy for a long time now—or Cedric for that matter. Sure, she'd seen them during practices and group events, but never enough to have an individual rapport with either. Rachel had been the only real friend she'd "kept in contact with" after that ending.

  …So it makes sense that I wouldn't realize something like this, Kaitlyn realized. Just… woah. I can't believe it. Has he really been trying to get those two together ever since?

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Heather nudged Rachel in the side as Kaitlyn mulled over the revelation. "Ohmigosh, this is perfect! You can, like, totally use that! Just have that roommate of his drop a couple hints, maybe organize a hangout and have him 'flake' last minute… We can absolutely make this happen, girl! Just say the word, I can totally pull some strings…"

  "I don't want to pressure him into anything," Rachel objected. "But at the same time, I do kind of want him to ask me, rather than the other way around. Which… yeah, I guess I get your point, Kat."

  After a round of light teasing about the girl's own relationship troubles, Kaitlyn spoke up. "It's up to you what you want to do. It's not like I'm one to talk, here. But… I think you guys would make a great couple."

  Rachel met her gaze, seeming to seriously consider her words. After a moment, she nodded. "Thanks, sweetie. I'll think about it."

  They continued chatting, enjoying their smores in between rounds of gossip. As the group began talking about their classes for next semester, Kaitlyn looked up into the night sky.

  That Alex thing is just another reminder of how much things have changed since I got here. Not just for me, but for them, too…

  It was an odd thing to realize. How many other details like this had she missed? How many other developments had gone unnoticed because she'd avoided the other male leads?

  She shook her head. …No. Even if I'm curious, it's not a good idea to go back. Not now. Not when I'm so close.

  The fire's embers drifted skyward, twisting and dancing among the tendrils of smoke.

  ***

  Kaitlyn finished jotting down a final note in her lab notebook, referencing the computer nearby as she wrote. Neat little multicolored bar graphs complete with squat error bars watched over her—the culmination of this loop's efforts.

  Finally. It's done.

  She set her pen on the bench with a decisive click. The last of her experiments for the loop had gone amazingly—even better than she could have hoped. After learning a whole host of things not to do from her first VIGS experiment, the final run had produced cleaner and more straightforward data than she'd ever imagined. That, combined with everything else she'd done, made her gene's function as clear as a pristine lake.

  I already knew it ACTED like a negative regulator of immunity. Only, now I can actually say it IS one. With enough confidence that only the most nitpicky of reviewers would ever dispute that claim. You can't get much better than an in-vivo knockdown using bio-neutral particles to transport the plasmid into the plant. Especially when my controls are absolutely pristine.

  There were still objections that people could raise, of course. But that would always be the case, even if she managed to reproduce every single result from every single successful assay she'd done over the loops. While perfection might forever be out of her reach, 99% confidence was a pretty darn good alternative. One that Kaitlyn was more than happy to accept.

  Yup. I'm satisfied.

  She closed her lab notebook, the motion marking a figurative end to the sidequest, if not a literal one. She would still have to brief Christa and Professor Adams on her findings before the end of the loop. But the part that really mattered to her was done.

  "Heading out?"

  She looked across the lab toward Elliot. The ginger sat at his own bench, hard at work setting up what appeared to be a miniprep. "Yup. Just gotta finish tidying up, then I'm gonna grab some dinner at Cappy's."

  "Mind waiting up for me? I'm just about done myself."

  "Sure! No problem."

  She closed down the open tabs on the computer, then took a seat on her stool until Elliot finished purifying his plasmids. In a few minutes, the pair of them had replaced their lab coats with jackets and headed toward the dining hall. A quick check of the clock revealed that they were just in time for the dinner rush.

  Hmmm… might be kind of crowded. Maybe we should grab something to-go and take it back to the dorms.

  It wouldn't exactly be out of the ordinary. It felt like they ended up back there more often than not nowadays, whether to play a few rounds of Bash Bros, have a quick piano jam session, or even to just hang out and talk for a few hours. Though between the sheer number of study sessions with Esme and her work ramping up unexpectedly, their hangouts had been a little harder to come by this week.

  Oh! Bara Bash is coming up, too! I completely forgot. Maybe he'd want to go?

  Before she could ask, however, Elliot spoke up first. "So. Got any plans for the break?"

  Kaitlyn grimaced, then shrugged. "Not really. I'll probably just stick around here after finals. You?"

  "Mmm. My family's right around the corner, so I'll be hanging out with them."

  She nodded. Considering that his mom worked at the hospital down the street, that only made sense.

  "But if you'll be around…" He continued as they reached the elevator. "My folks are holding a Christmas party for one of their companies the weekend after finals. Big thing, happens every year. Want to come?"

  Kaitlyn cocked her head. "A party? Is this some big formal thing, or…?"

  He waggled a hand back and forth. "Eh, kinda. It's not as fancy as your work thing was, but people do dress nice. I could get away with wearing a dress shirt and slacks, but you'd be perfectly fine wearing your dress if you wanted."

  "That kind of sounds like you're hoping I will."

  "I am. Why wouldn't I? You looked nice in it."

  They reached the entrance, the automatic door sliding open as they approached. The sudden breeze ruffled both of their hair as they stepped outside. Kaitlyn shivered slightly, retreating into her hoodie. "Geez. Cappy's better have some hot tomato soup on the menu today, or I'm gonna be pissed…"

  Elliot chuckled. "What, you don't have a pot of the stuff ready to go in your room?"

  "No. I sold out of it yesterday. And I somehow doubt that Heather's share in the fridge made it this long…"

  "Probably fair. Here, take my jacket before you freeze to death."

  Kaitlyn stepped back as he unzipped the puffy coat. "No way! I'm cold, but not that cold. And you're only wearing a t-shirt underneath?! What's wrong with you?"

  He shrugged, holding the jacket out. "I'm not as sensitive as you."

  "I can see the goosebumps on your arms!"

  "Well, maybe next time you should buy a better jacket, then."

  Kaitlyn gritted her teeth, then relented, accepting the coat. It was just as warm as it looked. Even better, it seemed to stop the wind dead in its tracks, rather than allowing it to cut through her like the hoodie did.

  Dangit… maybe he's right. I should buy a new jacket. Why didn't I think of that?

  They continued down the narrow paths that characterized this part of campus, the sun's descending form piercing through the clear winter sky. Despite losing his best protection against the weather, Elliot seemed determined to not show a single sign of minding the cold either way. His hair seemed to glow in the light, twisting like flames and giving off an impression that maybe he could generate his own heat.

  "So? Want to come?"

  Kaitlyn nodded. "Of course. It sounds like fun! After all the times you've been my date, I wouldn't mind being yours for once."

  "Awesome." He smiled at her—one of those genuine smiles, not the polite impersonal one he generally used. "Looking forward to it, then. Though I wasn't going to introduce you as my date."

  "What do you mean?" Her brow furrowed in confusion. "What, are you gonna introduce me as your eye candy or something?"

  "Actually, I was thinking about introducing you as my girlfriend."