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***

I arrived at the climbing gym a bit early, and swapped shoes while waiting for Cammy. I'd brought just a couple of drones, which I kept mostly out of sight, which was easy enough to do. Since it was the middle of the day, there weren't that many people here. Most people still stuck to their regular schedules, even if the automated scheduling systems allowed for much more freedom than that. It still made sense to try and line up your free-time with those you cared to spend it with, after all. I started to stretch a bit, and when there was still no sight of Cammy when I had done that, I picked out a route and started climbing. It went rather easier than I remembered it being. I didn't tire nearly as quickly, and I had much more luck reaching for and grabbing holds. Once I'd done two routes with barely any difficulty, I looked at my hands and arms. Well, they were rather more defined than their usual selves. I guess that gene treatment was starting to kick in. I shrugged and went looking for something harder to climb.

I was halfway up the wall when Cammy found me.

"Hi Sylvi! It's so good to see you, I guess you got started without me, huh? That's fair, I had a bit of trouble getting here, you see..."

I climbed the rest of the way up while Cammy fired through her explanation of her trip here. I reached the top and jumped down.

"...all over the place! That was really impressive, Sylvi! Have you been working out? Training without me? Did you find someone else to train with? Oh please say no, if you replaced me with someone else I just couldn't. Wait, why are you blushing? You did find someone else, didn't you? Oh you minx, who has gotten their claws into you? Can I meet her? I must meet her, please, say yes, I need to know who is stealing my Sylvi away from me!"

"It's not like that." I sighed. I guess it was a bit like that. "Listen, if I tell you about her, will you please agree to climbing a bit more today? I need to just focus on something else for a bit."

Cammy looked at me with wide eyes, then nodded, uncharacteristically quiet.

"Her name is Katherine, and she's also a Valkyrie, and..."

"Oh my gods, another one?" She interrupted. "I guess that makes sense, you're like, living with them now, after all... Ooh, is she tall? Got a great ass and long legs?" She nodded sagely as I blushed. "Yup, checks all the boxes. You're perfect for each other."

I spluttered.

"What?! I have more boxes than that!"

"Sylvi my friend, you're a simple person. Wonderful, but simple."

I tried to glare at her, but it didn't seem to take.

"So, how did you meet? Was it on the battlefield? Were you, like, swamped with Antithesis and she swooped in and saved you, and like, swept you off your feet and carried you to safety?"

"No, I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself. Well, sort of. Anyway, she lives with me in Valhalla, and..."

"You have to let me come and visit some time! I'd die! Meeting all of the famous Valkyries, I'd just die. Not that you aren't a cool Valkyrie, but like, you're not a Valkyrie Valkyrie, you know?"

"I'll think about it. After I figure out things with her, I don't want you messing it all up."

"What?! That's so rude, like I'd ever do anything that would ever do anything but improve your chances! If anything you should take me up there right now so I can prevent you from stepping in it like you usually do. Right, well now I see why you wanted to climb. Want to get in shape for your potential new girlfriend. That's, like, a noble goal. Well, let's get to it."

We did, and Cammy stayed true to her word and stayed reasonably quiet. Which meant she didn't talk all the time, merely most of it. That was fine, we worked our way through the gym's routes, me climbing two for every one of hers, which was new and unusual, but worked out reasonably well, all things considered. Once we were both totally beat a few hours later, we had our traditional sorbet reward, this time lemon-flavoured, and by the time we were done, I was pretty much ready to go again. These new muscles were a wonder.

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Cammy then suggested we go shopping for a bit.

"You have to dress for the battle ahead." She said.

I must have looked confused, because she continued.

"Battle for your girlfriend, Sylvi. You have to dress to impress your girlfriend-to-be. It's no wonder you never had one before, you're hopeless."

"I'm not hopeless." I muttered.

"Says the woman who owns seven identical blouses."

"That's efficient! I just know what I like."

"Efficiency is obtaining your goal with the least amount of effort, and so far your girlfriend score is 0, so I'd hardly call that efficient. Anyway, I just came across this wonderful little shop..."

It was another hour of walking through shops, looking at samples and trying things on before I said goodbye to Cammy, promising to keep her in the loop with regards to girlfriend developments, and walked towards the roof where I'd parked the van.

Girlfriend. To think I might have a girlfriend soon. The thought made me giddy and nervous at the same time.

I'd ended up with an outfit that was a bit more tight-fitting than what I normally wore, but Cammy had insisted that, like, with this muscle definition I had to show off a bit more, or it'd be, like, a total waste! Whatever. There was a real chance I'd end up not being able to fit some of this stuff if the gene treatment was heading the way I was expecting, but I guess I'd just recycle the clothes for credit next time I went shopping if that was the case. And, more reason to, like, wear it sooner rather than later, as Cammy pointed out.

I'd gotten home and headed to my room to change out of my gym clothes and into my new set, then headed towards the the common area, to maybe hang out, maybe catch a snack. Actually, scratch that, the snack was definitely high on the list of things I needed right now.

So, I went straight to the kitchen and found Anker cooking in his customary flamingo apron. It looked to be a long term project for dinner, which smelled delicious, but not a solution to my current hunger predicament, which meant bread and cheese for me. While I was munching away on that, I tried to strike up some conversation with the terse Anker. I still had some studying to do, after all, and I figured I might be able to get him talking on Antis or combat strategies. After some prodding and open ended questions that mostly just yielded monosyllabic answers, however, I lost my nerve and figured the man just wanted to concentrate on his risotto.

As I left the kitchen I ran into Katherine, who was now sitting in front of the big screen in the common room, watching what looked like a foreign news report. She glanced at me as I entered, then did a double take.

Well. That was rather satisfying.

"S-Sylvi. Hello there."

"Hi Katherine. How has your day been?" I asked with a smile as I approached.

It took her a moment to answer.

"It's, uh... Fine? I mean, I just did my gym session then had a light lunch, nothing special. How about you?"

"Oh, I climbed a bit with my friend Cammy, then went and bought some new clothes. Do you like them?" I thought about twirling, but instead just struck a bit of a pose.

"They're, uh. Good." She coughed. "They look good, I mean. Very nice."

"Oh thank goodness. It's a bit different from what I usually wear, so I wasn't sure. But if you like them then that's good." I felt myself blushing a bit. This was pretty far outside of my normal comfort zone. I walked around the couch Katherine was sitting on and sat down next to her. Not right next to her, but a bit closer than I normally would.

"So, what are you watching?" I asked, feigning a casualness I sure wasn't feeling.

"W-what? Uh, just some news. I was checking to see if Gdansk was mentioned. Seems it was, but mostly in passing with no real details."

"I see. That's good, I think? Might mean it wasn't a big enough disaster to warrant it."

"That was the impression I got, yes. Seems we did we good job." She smiled at me.

My breath hitched a bit at that. She really was lovely, especially when she smiled like that...

"Ah, that's... good." I smiled back at her, and for a moment we just sat there, smiling at each other. I felt my cheeks heat up further and saw hers do the same.

"Well. Uhm." I began eloquently, then ran out of steam.

I gathered my courage once more.

"Would you..." I ventured.

"Do you..." She said at the same time. "Oh, sorry. You go first."

"No, please, go ahead." I demurred.

"I was just wondering if you'd perhaps want to watch a movie with me or something."

"Sure!" I said with some excitement.

"We have an hour or so until dinner time, and if you aren't doing anything else maybe... Oh." Her uncertain features lit up. "You want to? That's great! Good. Uh, what do you want to watch?"

I didn't really care, and it turns out neither did she. We kept insisting the other person pick for a while, until finally Katherine yielded and just picked something that turned out to be an entirely forgettable thing, which was fine. It wasn't quite bad enough to be great for complaining about, but it was close enough that we did so anyway, laughing more at the movie than with it.

Then half an hour in I saw her hand moving towards mine on the couch through a drone. I'd sort of put it there vaguely hoping for something like this, but now that she was closing the distance I had to stop myself from instinctively pulling away. Which meant that I soon had a warm hand on top of mine, and a Katherine shooting me concerned glances. Well, that wouldn't do.

I smiled reassuringly at her, then turned my hand over so I could entwine my fingers with hers.

Her look of concern vanished as a brilliant smile split her face. I could see a similar smile on my own face, through a drone, and I must admit I didn't really notice much of what went on with the movie after that.