A few weeks later, Aliyah had come to a humiliating conclusion.
Scarlett was not a temporary problem.
She was a recurring one.
A very tall, very flirtatious, very tattooed recurring problem who had somehow slipped into the shape of Aliyah's days without asking permission.
It had started with small things. Walking back from class together. Running into each other in the training yard. Scarlett stealing half of Aliyah's lunch and then giving her the better half of her own with a grin that made it impossible to stay annoyed.
Then it became longer conversations.
Real ones.
About fire magic, combat drills, noble families, terrible professors, favorite foods, old fights, stupid academy gossip. Scarlett had a sharp mind under all that shameless flirting, and Aliyah had learned quickly that the flirting was not there to hide emptiness.
If anything, it hid depth. Scarlett was funny in a rough-edged way, clever in a way that came from paying attention, and unexpectedly honest whenever she stopped performing.
Aliyah had also learned that Scarlett hated tea unless it was painfully sweet, preferred knives over swords, and had once broken a noble cousin's nose at sixteen for insulting a servant.
That story alone had made Aliyah dangerously close to falling in love.
Not that she would ever phrase it like that.
She still had dignity.
Some of it.
Today they were in Advanced Fire Magic again, seated side by side as if the universe had decided Aliyah's concentration did not deserve to live. Professor Vaeric was lecturing about rotational ignition control with the enthusiasm of a man delivering a royal execution, but Aliyah was only pretending to take notes.
Mostly because Scarlett's knee had been brushing hers under the desk for the past ten minutes.
Maybe by accident.
Maybe.
Aliyah was not stupid enough to believe that, but she appreciated the fiction.
The classroom hummed softly with contained heat. Several practice flames hovered above the central floor, spinning in controlled patterns while students copied down the theory behind them.
Aliyah kept her eyes on the parchment in front of her and tried very hard not to think about the warm line of Scarlett's leg beside hers.
A folded scrap of paper appeared near her hand.
Aliyah glanced sideways.
Scarlett was looking straight ahead like a model student, which was absurd enough to be suspicious.
Aliyah unfolded the note beneath the desk.
You look pretty when you're pretending not to stare at me.
Aliyah nearly inhaled her own soul.
She grabbed her quill and wrote back without looking at Scarlett.
You are an academic disruption.
Scarlett took the note, read it, and smiled to herself in a way that should have been illegal.
A few seconds later it came back.
And yet you keep sitting next to me.
Aliyah stared at the words, then slowly turned her head.
Scarlett finally looked at her, one red eye and one black eye warm with amusement. There was no shame in that woman. None. If shame knocked on her door, Scarlett probably flirted with it and sent it home confused.
Aliyah wrote, Then stop giving me reasons.
Scarlett read it, and this time the smile that crossed her mouth was softer. Less teasing. More deliberate.
Then, while Professor Vaeric continued explaining something about flame density to the room at large, Scarlett leaned just a little closer and murmured, "Go eat somewhere fancy with me tonight."
Aliyah blinked once.
She had expected flirting. Expected notes. Expected some whispered comment about how she looked in uniform, or some shameless remark about her mouth.
Not that.
She turned fully enough to look at Scarlett properly. "Fancy?"
Scarlett's mouth twitched. "You say that like it insults you."
"I say that because you don't look like someone who belongs anywhere with too many forks."
"I can use forks," Scarlett said, offended.
Aliyah narrowed her eyes. "Can you?"
Scarlett leaned back in her chair with that infuriating confidence of hers. "Princess, I come from a noble family. I know exactly how to behave in fancy places."
Aliyah had learned that already. Scarlett could clean up beautifully when she wanted to. It was just that most of the time she seemed to prefer looking like trouble in expensive boots.
Still, the invitation sat in Aliyah's chest like a lit match.
Go eat somewhere fancy with me tonight.
Not lunch.
Not a walk.
Not accidentally ending up in the same place and staying longer than planned.
Tonight.
Somewhere fancy.
Aliyah lowered her voice. "Is it a date?"
Scarlett did not answer immediately.
She looked at Aliyah for one second, then two, and there was something almost wicked in the patience of it. Like she enjoyed watching anticipation build. Like she knew exactly what that question cost Aliyah to ask.
Then Scarlett said, quiet and smooth, "Maybe."
Aliyah stared at her.
Maybe.
Maybe?
That was a terrible answer. A criminal answer. A smug, useless, devastating answer that made Aliyah want to kick her under the desk and kiss her against the nearest wall in equal measure.
"You're annoying," Aliyah whispered.
Scarlett smiled. "You still haven't said no."
Aliyah looked back at the front before Professor Vaeric could decide they deserved death. On the central floor, one of the practice flames spun too wide and nearly singed a student's sleeve.
The professor barked at him. Quills scratched across parchment all around them.
Beside her, Scarlett waited.
Aliyah could feel it. Not pressure, exactly. Just attention. Warm and steady and impossible to ignore.
Her heart had been behaving stupidly around this woman for weeks now. It sped up when Scarlett touched her, when Scarlett laughed, when Scarlett let the flirting drop just enough to show something real underneath.
And the truly embarrassing part was that Scarlett seemed to like her back. Not in the sweet, safe, tragic way other women did.
In the dangerous way.
Aliyah kept her gaze on her notes and said, as calmly as she could manage, "Fine."
Scarlett's knee nudged hers again under the desk. This time definitely on purpose.
"Fine yes?" she asked.
Aliyah finally turned and gave her a look. "Fine, maybe."
Scarlett's grin was slow and victorious and far too beautiful.
For the rest of class, Aliyah learned absolutely nothing.