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“...What are you two doing?”
The two young men in front of Loid visibly jumped out of their skin at the unexpected call and nervously turned around to face him. Loid knew them as the research students that he was supervising for the day—a quick revision of their background checks in his head didn’t raise any immediate red flag, but the way they were giggling and peeking around the corner seemed odd enough that Loid felt the need to call them out on it.
“Ah, Dr. Forger! It’s nothing, really!” said one of the students, face fully flushed red.
Loid shot them an unimpressed look.
“We—ah—we were just talking about a lady we just saw. She was so beautiful we just couldn’t help ourselves,” said the other, face equally flushed red.
Loid shot them another sharper look, “I do hope you know that creeping on unsuspecting women is not an acceptable behaviour, gentlemen.”
Both of them straightened up after Loid’s statement. “Of course sir! That was not our intention at all!”
Loid let out a small snort. Once he figured that the young men were not up to anything sinister, he supposed he could see a more amusing side of it. He might not have had time for genuine romance and the likes during his own early twenties, but he definitely still held some appreciation for the more mundane aspects of life such as this… situation in front of him.
“Well, in that case, you could try being a bit less conspicuous about it.”
The one student nudged his friend, “That’s what I’ve been telling you, Ben.”
“Shut it, Lucas!” replied the other.
“Uh, guys…?” sighed Loid, appreciation starting to make way for slight annoyance.
“Sorry doc, it’s just not everyday that you get to see someone with such beauty, you know?” said Ben with a whine in his voice, “ And, I didn’t see any ring on her finger, so she must be available! Can you blame me for thinking that lady luck is finally smiling on me?”
They sneaked some glances back to the corner across the hallway where Loid assumed the object of his students’ desire would be. He didn’t know what he was expecting to see, but it took some core muscle memory from his early spy training days to keep his composure in check within 0.1 of a second when he realised that the woman they’d been talking about was none other than—the current Forger matriarch herself.
Yor.
Hair as black as the night in its usual updo, wearing the same City Hall employee uniform that he saw her in this morning before they parted way for work. She was taking her cup of coffee from the vending machine, not minding the three pairs of eyes currently on her.
Hang on.
What was that about a ring—
“I don’t know why, but I have a feeling that I shouldn’t let this chance go away. I need to at least talk to her.”
“Yeah, you just know that she is the type to have many admirers,” said Lucas, “if you didn’t go for it, at least half a dozen men around here definitely would.”
Huh?
“She looks like she might be older than us though.”
“That doesn’t worry me, if anything that makes her even more attractive,” said Ben, raising his eyebrows suggestively. Lucas laughed in response.
Something in Loid’s head twitched.
Yor took a sip of her coffee as she walked towards the door of a consultation room and took a seat on one of the waiting chairs. Loid could hear his students rambling on about how mesmerising they found her to be, but he couldn’t really listen to the exact words they were saying. They did not seem to notice who Yor was—let alone what her relationship to Loid was, legitimacy withstanding. Not that anyone would know about that last detail.
“What do you think, Dr. Forger? Do you think she’s—” Ben didn’t get to finish his question as Loid pushed his way through the young men, legs firmly making their strides towards Yor, much to the shock of Ben and Lucas.
“Wait Dr. For—”
“Yor!”
“Ah, Loid, hello!” Yor looked up from her cup of coffee with a smile on her face. She stood up as Loid approached her, the two students not far behind him.
“Hey,” Loid couldn’t help but to return her smile a little, though it was filled with some concern as they were meeting in a hospital after all, “what are you doing here? Is there anything wrong?”
“I’m fine—it’s one of my colleagues, they almost collapsed because of an allergic reaction during lunch, and I offered to take them to the hospital. I think the worst has passed, and the doctor is currently in there, doing the check up,” said Yor, motioning towards the consultation room door just next to where she was standing.
Loid let out a sigh of relief, “Is that so? Thank goodness.”
“Uhh, Dr. Forger…?”
He almost forgot about the young men that inadvertently shifted the course of his day to this point.
“Oh, yes, Yor, these are Ben and Lucas,” said Loid, the men mentioned were slightly flustered, “they are research students in my department. I’m supervising them for today.”
“How wonderful! My name is Yor, very nice to meet you gentlemen,” she said with a polite bow.
“V—very nice to meet you, Miss Yor!” replied the young men, bowing a tad vigorously. Loid did not like the way they said her name.
Any chance of further conversation was cut short by the opening of the consultation room door, followed by the doctor inside calling for Yor.
“Mrs. Forger? May I have you in the room for some updates, please?”
That sounds better.
“Of course, doctor,” replied Yor before turning to Loid, “I won’t be a second.” She handed him her coffee cup and he took it seemingly without thinking.
Ben and Lucas were too caught up in the familiarity surrounding the interaction they just witnessed that they almost missed the fact that—
“Wait a sec—”
“Is she your wife?!”
Loid suppressed the rare urge to laugh, instead opting to give them a look as he took a deliberate sip from Yor’s coffee cup. The first thing he noticed was the faint taste of lip balm flavouring from where Yor’s lips touched the cup. The second thing was that the coffee contained way more milk than what he usually had in his. He didn’t hate it.
The young men were getting increasingly flustered the more they recalled what they had been saying in front of their supervisor.
“Oh my god, oh my god, I am so sorry, Dr. Forger, I didn’t know—”
“Why didn’t you immediately say?! I wouldn’t have said all those things—”
“I swear I didn’t mean any disrespect—”
Loid just let them ramble on with a smirk on his face, their antics had gone back to being amusing to him again. He sensed a… feeling that he couldn’t quite put his fingers on blossoming in his chest. Is it pride? What is he being prideful about?
True to her words, it was not long before Yor emerged from the consultation room. If she was confused by the sight of the two students profusely apologising to Loid, she didn’t let it show on her face. They immediately went quiet at the sight of Yor anyway.
Loid shifted his attention to Yor once more, smug making way for a softer expression, “How are they? Is everything okay now?”
Smug? He was feeling smug about them knowing Yor’s his wife?
“Yes, they’re all good,” replied Yor with a bright smile on her face, “I’ve helped them contact their relatives so I’m no longer needed around now.”
She is too damn kind.
“Are you going back to City Hall after this?”
“No, they said I didn’t need to come back. It’s almost Anya’s home time anyway, so I might just start making my way to the bus stop,” replied Yor as she turned her head to the young men, “I apologise if I caused interruption to your time with Loid.”
A quick peek at his wristwatch confirmed that time for Anya to leave school was indeed nearing. His students were insisting that Yor was far from causing any trouble to them, to which Yor simply replied with a polite smile and giggle. It’s a smile that he had grown accustomed to over the time they were playing house—a smile that might have influenced the words that came out of his mouth before he could second guess himself.
“Actually, Yor, if you don’t mind waiting a couple minutes,” said Loid, eyes briefly shifting towards the bumbling young men, “I can start packing up and we can get our daughter together.”
Even if Loid did feel any type of satisfaction hearing the choked reaction from his students, he would never admit it out loud.
“Are you sure? Anya will be thrilled to see you but I wouldn’t want to take you out of your busy schedule.”
“I’m sure,” Loid reassured with his best smile, “I’m practically done for the day anyway.”
Which meant that The Handler hadn’t assigned him to any additional mission, something that he would also never say out loud because—one, it would be the most unwise thing to do; and two, he really didn’t want to tempt fate.
“Huh? Dr. Forger, didn’t you say you were going to revise our papers later—OW!” Lucas jabbed Ben on the side with a look that said I think we’ve opened our mouths enough for today. Ben scowled, but he got the message.
The students could only watch as the Forgers bidded their goodbye and walked away together.
.
.
.
The walk to Anya’s bus stop with Yor was comfortably quiet, unlike the thoughts running through Loid’s mind. That on itself was not an unusual occurrence, but the content of his thoughts was somewhat new.
He knew that Yor was an attractive woman, he had said as much to her on their first encounter at the tailor. What hadn't really crossed his mind before was that other men might have the same idea. That did not sit well with Loid.
It is essential to the success of Operation Strix that we always put the perfect picture of a family, after all.
If Yor was to be pursued by another person then—well—it would be up to her on how she would like to go about it, he supposed. Their little arrangement did not mean that they were deeply involved with each other’s private lives. Yor was more than free to make her own decisions when it came to her own individual. Just like how she chose to be a part of the Forger family in the first place.
Yes, Loid had no need to be worried at all. He had been seeing firsthand how Yor’s love and adoration for Anya grew stronger every day, how he could feel her getting more comfortable taking up spaces in their shared residence.
But feelings can change, can’t it?
If someone were to come along and give Yor the honest love she deserved, he would be in no position to force her to choose their arrangement over her own happiness. If she wished to, he would be in no place to stop her from leaving a relationship based on pretence and deception, leaving Anya and Bond—leaving him…
…having to find a new mother for Anya to continue the mission. And he would have to do it inconspicuously, which he knew was realistically improbable.
Loid mentally shook his head. He could be overthinking it too much, even for his standard. Yor had not given any indication that she wanted to leave. No one even had so much as approached her in a suggestive manner—as they should—because only fools would make a move on a married woman, which what Yor obviously was in the public eyes.
‘I didn’t see any ring on her finger, so she must be available!’
A quick glance at Yor’s bare hand reminded him of his impulsive and haphazard proposal to her. He supposed he wouldn’t expect her to actually use the grenade pin as part of her everyday accessories. He hadn’t got the time to go out and buy proper wedding bands for them, and it slipped through his mind more as more days passed. It almost was like they trusted each other enough that the symbolism of a ring was deemed pointless.
You are getting sloppy, Twilight.
Because, against his nature, he could genuinely admit that he trusted Yor. He had to, as one uncertain step could mean death in his line of work. It wasn’t like Yor was making it hard for him to put his trust on her, especially when it came to raising Anya. She was too kind for her own good sometimes. He wondered if other people saw her in the same light that he did.
‘If you didn’t go for it, at least half a dozen men around here definitely would.’
His students might have exaggerated the number, but he could confirm that the number of men eyeing Yor during their walk was non-zero. More often than not their faces would then fall as they noticed him walking next to her. On occasion, the look lingered longer than what would be considered as polite. It irritated him knowing that Yor would be aware of such blatant stares, even without her sharp perception. It’s irritating because it was simply disrespectful—creepy even—no matter if the look only lasted a second—it was just rude and that’s it.
.
.
.
If anyone was to point out that Loid was too deep in his thought that he did not realise his hand moving on its own accord, followed by the soft gasp from Yor, he would deny it vehemently.
.
.
.
The school bus parked at its designated stop right on time. Anya was one of the first to jump out, eyes brightened once she noticed that for once both her parents were present to welcome her. The next thing that she immediately noticed was that her parents were—
“Not fair!!” screamed Anya, shocking both Loid and Yor, “I wanna hold hands with Papa and Mama too!!”
It was only then that Loid realised three things almost simultaneously: one, he had been holding Yor’s hand for God knows how long; two, Yor’s face was getting as red as her eyes, and; three, he could feel some warmth, similar to the one radiating from Yor's hand, rising on the back of his neck.
“I—”
Before he could say anything, he felt Yor’s hand being replaced with a much smaller but equally warm hand that belonged to Anya. Her other one was linked to Yor’s, completing their chain of family. Any tension that might have risen was immediately removed by Anya’s massive grin and squeal of delight.
Loid’s eyes finally met Yor’s and all he could do was to give her a sheepish smile. To his relief, Yor replied with a soft giggle.
The Forgers, hand-in-hand, started to make their way back to their apartment, when Anya suddenly gasped in realisation.
“Oh no!” she exclaimed with genuine worry in her voice, “I interrupted Papa and Mama’s flirting time!”
To which her parents, caught off-guard with full blush on their face, could only reply with—
“No we were not!”