Elias was not a man who was easily flustered. He hadn’t been for years.

Following an escaped prisoner was… unusual, but, there was no one else about and he was only following T77E until security could pick him up. At that point, Elias reassured himself that he could return to his scheduled evening activities. A workout, and a book. He might even walk a different way to the gym, which he could report to his counselor. He ignored the fact that that was actually a cop-out, since he’d memorised the different routes and knew to the second how long they took. But he *did* have a favourite, efficient route, so the change counted, right?

That ease disappeared, though, as soon as he walked through the door into the next corridor and saw that they weren’t alone anymore. Walking toward them was his counsellor, Lieutenant Black. Instantly, a cold chill washed down Elias’s spine. The gentle young woman would have no idea who T77E was or that he was armed.

Time slowed to a crawl, his gaze fixed on the Lieutenant as she walked toward him… looked up… met his gaze.

He plastered a wide smile on his face as T77E focused his attention on the slight counsellor.

“My love, you’re off duty early! Well, you have completely ruined my surprise,” he said, waggling the flowers slightly and hoping that she got the message.

Luna had been headed for one of her favourite reading spots off the promenade, and as a result was carrying a messenger bag which contained a carefully folded blanket, three books and a bottle of water. She’d also felt an urge to be slightly naughty and had replicated herself a flapjack that was wrapped in wax paper and gave the immediate area around her a pleasing but gentle aroma of treacley sugaryness. At first, her recognition of Elias took a moment. Had she been in the Counseling suite she would have placed him, but as it was seeing him here was out of context and slightly confusing. Then she remembered, just in time for him to say his cover piece.

To say that Luna couldn’t hide her surprise would be putting things mildly. She was, in part, an effective counselor because she could get patients to open up to her in a way they may not to others, based perhaps on the fact that she was about as threatening as a sleeping mouse. There was a strong element of kindness and caring and of unbridled empathy too. The last part of it, as she had found out to her perturbation was that patients, especially those who’d been treated poorly on a continuing basis tended to respond to her kindness, attention and disarming blue eyes by falling in love with her. This was a problem, not least because of professional requirements for propriety, but also as Luna regarded relationships as a source of pain, never having met a person patient enough to deal with her shyness on an intimate level. Elias’ gesture therefore, whatever the reasoning was setting off klaxons in the Counselor’s mind. Still, there was something in his face that made her stay Neutral with her statements. Something didn’t feel right about his countenance.

“Elias…?” She said, her face a mix of surprise and confusion. “W… what’s going on?”

Relief rolled through him as she finally reached him, and he could get his larger mass between her and T77E. He leaned down, using the flowers to shield the fact that he’d simply air-kissed the vicinity of her cheek.

“Play along, please, ma’am,” he murmured. “That’s one of the escaped prisoners. Security are on their way, but I need to keep him in sight.”

Luna looked panicked at hearing this news. She fought every urge to turn around and look at whoever Elias was talking about… yes… she’d just walked past someone coming the other way, she hadn’t taken much notice, her eyes had been down to the floor as usual. Her face may have been the expression of anxiety, but her voice managed to stay free of hysteria. Luna channelled everything she’d been taught at the Academy about keeping her voice level and consistent for sending distress calls.

“W… w… what a lovely surprise!” She said, sounding much less level than she normally would, but that could be taken for excitement at the circumstance of her ‘significant other’ surprising her with flowers. “Um… yes, off early…” They were still stopped and whoever it was was moving away. “These are lovely, let’s put them in water!” It didn’t sound like Luna at all, but the prisoner didn’t know that. She grabbed the flowers with one yellow-nailed hand and Elias’ own hand with her other and set off up the corridor after whoever this person was, pretending to inspect the variety of blooms she’d been given, her eyes occasionally shooting up the corridor to gain a glimpse of the prisoner.

Elias breathed a sigh of relief that she didn’t give the game away, and wrapped his larger hand around hers. Yellow nails this time, he noticed. A small detail to notice in the grand scheme of things.

He tried to pull her back, making sure to keep himself slightly in front of her. That way if T77E turned and shot at them, he could try and shield her with his own body. His gaze darted around them, old, old training coming into play. There wasn’t enough cover here. She wasn’t safe. His hand tightened slightly around hers as he ran countless options for how this could go through his mind.

Luna’s heart raced. Massive Adrenaline started to run through her system, filling her chest with a tight fizz. The prisoner was still in view and apart from a couple of furtive glances around didn’t seem to be on to them specifically following him. She made sure not to be looking toward him when he looked at them. Her reaction may not have been so courageous if she’d known he was armed.

Luna felt Elias’ grip tighten as he moved slightly in front of her. It was an incredibly odd feeling. She hadn’t held hands with anyone in… maybe four years? Her last relationship, if you could call it that had been in her second year, after which she had sworn off them for a while. Her boyfriend at the time had been nice enough but wanted to move faster than she did and, inevitably got frustrated with her timidity. Elias’ palms were warm, she could feel the tension in his arm holding her behind him. It was an incredible thing to do. In a moment of clarity she realised that in calling her ‘my love’ he had both saved her from harm by making sure the prisoner knew she was being looked-out-for and also was now keeping her in danger by continuing the reuse, but to that he and she had no choice, they were committed. They’d been silent too long, it was suspicious.