Chapter Text
Thalassia Tromas wasn’t really sure when her relationship with Dr. Zayne Li had shifted. She did not recall when she had first met him. But it must have been shortly after Grandma Josephine had adopted her and her friend Caleb Xia from the shelter. Two scared kids whose world had been turned upside down by the Chronorift Catastrophe. She had taken the two separately orphaned children in, making their unit of three into a tiny little family. And sure, she and Zayne had been, if not exactly friends when they were young, at least friendly, Zayne becoming her new brother Caleb’s best friend and all.
And sure, she would confess, at least, and probably only, to herself, that she had had a bit of a crush on the shy, studious future doctor at the time, spending many an angst-filled night as she got a bit older pining over the seemingly insurmountable obstacle of their age gap. Three years seemed like a lifetime when you were all of 8 years old infatuated with a boy in double digits. She had looked forward to the times Caleb would let (more not send her home when he discovered she’d followed them) her tag along with them, when they would secretly practice their evols, (Zayne’s ice and Caleb’s gravity) even, on very rare occasions, letting her attempt to use her own to resonate with them. This despite the fact that Caleb knew she wasn’t supposed to, that Grandma had forbidden it. Or the times when Grandma would have Zayne and his parents over for Friday night dinner. But then, three years later, his family had suddenly moved away. One day they were here, Grandma taking the three kids on an impromptu trip to the aquarium, the next…gone…poof. Her 11-year-old-heart had broken.
Grandma explained that Zayne’s parents were traveling physicians, going where there was the most need and 14 years ago there had been no place more in need of their expertise than Linkon City. The Chronorift Catastrophe had left the city and surrounding areas devastated, overrun with Wanderers. It had taken several years for the region to stabilize, and once it did, they had packed up and moved to the next area that needed them, taking their teenage son with them. There had been times in the intervening years that she had wondered if she had imagined the whole thing. The only evidence that Zayne Li had actually existed were the 3 little special snowballs he had made her with his evol that day of the aquarium trip after a seal had somehow launched a chunk of ice at her, injuring her and landing her in the hospital overnight..
She had been disappointed to think that Zayne was teasing her when she was brought home the next day to find the little box of snowballs sitting on the stoop with a card that just had her name on it in his tidy script. She had determined that she was going to throw each and every one of them at him the next time she saw him. Who knew there wouldn’t be a next time? She had kept them on her windowsill, those slightly mis-shapen, un-melting snowballs with the neat little name card, whispering to them every night before she went to sleep that someday she would return them to their maker, and wouldn’t he be sorry for teasing her like that and then just leaving.
It had been a little more than a decade before he had resurfaced in her life, the world's foremost expert on Protocore Syndrome, a condition, coincidentally, that she had suffered from since being attacked by a Wanderer in the early days of the Catastrophe. He was also, at age 27, the youngest head cardiac surgeon Akso hospital had ever had. She wasn’t exactly sure how it had happened, but Zayne ended up being assigned as her primary care doctor when her then current one had retired. She hadn’t, and still didn’t, understand how a cardiac surgeon could double as a primary doctor, but no one at Akso even batted an eyelash at it, so she supposed it wasn’t as strange as it seemed.
That was a little over a year ago. It had been a little odd and uncomfortable at first. He had changed in the intervening decade. He and Caleb picked up right where they had left off and became best friends again almost immediately, thick as thieves. It hadn’t been so easy for her.
Zayne had always been a serious person, even as a child, but it seemed that his accelerated academic path had exacerbated that. Gone was the sweet, shy boy she remembered and in his place was an often stone-faced and standoffish adult that always seemed particularly annoyed with her whenever she would go in for her monthly follow up examination for her Protocore Syndrome. After her first appointment, which was an unmitigated disaster, she had been ready to request her care be transferred to another doctor. She had recounted the tale to her grandmother and brother over family dinner that week, how he’d poured through her chart and very bluntly told her all the things she was doing wrong, starting with training to be a Deepspace Hunter with her heart condition. She had been concerned that he would withhold the necessary medical clearance for her to graduate from the academy, but Grandma and Caleb had told her that she was overreacting and overthinking and that she should stick with him. Gran even pulled out the emotional blackmail card of how relieved it made her to know that Zayne was handling her care now, how much less she worried. And Caleb told her he was sure it was just him being a good doctor and looking after her health.
Undeterred, she called Zayne at his office the next morning and told him she didn’t think this arrangement was going to work out. He told her she shouldn’t change doctors on a whim, that he’d never thought of her as a quitter and it was too early in their partnership for her to give up. He challenged her that if she could defend her position he would reconsider his stance. She had to admit that it was a reasonable request.
So she had stuck with him, going into her second appointment armed with research and studies that showed that Protocore Syndrome, when managed correctly, didn’t necessarily exclude someone from doing physically strenuous jobs. She could still see the look on his face, part amusement, part exasperation, part admiration, when he pointed out that if she spent as much time and energy following doctors orders regarding management of her health as she had on defending her career choice, they wouldn’t even have to have these conversations. In the end he had agreed to work with her on it, as long as she committed to taking her condition seriously. By the third visit, they had built a tenuous rapport, and he had even started to reward her with her favorite candy when he was pleased with her. A few months later, when she graduated from the academy, he had dutifully signed her medical clearance, allowing her to fulfill her dream of being a Deepspace Hunter.
They continued on like that for a few more months, their only interaction at her appointments. He had taken to making her reminder calls himself after she rescheduled one appointment too many times, telling her his staff was too fond of her and went too easy on her. He started making her have to cancel and reschedule her appointments with him directly. She hadn’t missed or rescheduled an appointment since.
After that, his nurse, Yvonne, started referring to her as ‘Dr. Zayne’s favorite patient’, with a little twinkle in her eye. Thalassia had been quick to gently disabuse the nurse of that notion, and when Zayne had overheard it one time he had scoffed and corrected it to, “Dr. Zayne’s most stubborn patient.” That had earned him a withering look from her, but still Yvonne persisted, taking it upon herself to recount all the gossip she’d heard about the good doctor over the course of the previous month once he was out of earshot. And though Thalassia swore that she didn’t care to hear it, she found herself listening with rapt attention. One time teasing him about something she’d been told and earning an almost embarrassed look from him as he told her that patients shouldn’t be so nosy and wrote a reminder to himself to talk to Yvonne about the office gossip.
She knew that he had been to dinner at her grandmother’s house a few times. Gran had invited her as well with that mischievous, match-making glint she got in her eyes whenever she thought she had found the perfect man for her. But she always declined, telling her she either had to work late or already had plans with friends so that she wouldn’t push (or worse), guilt her into going. She also knew that Zayne and Caleb got together any time Zayne was in Skyhaven, which was pretty routinely as he was a consulting physician at Willowhaven Medical Center. She’d heard much more than she cared to about the times they spent together and she was convinced that Zayne had been the information pipeline for all of the things that she didn’t want Caleb to know.
Somehow her brother always managed to call soon after she had been in the emergency room, be it for stitches, some other work-related injury, or something related to her Protocore Syndrome. Caleb would swear it was just a sixth sense where she was concerned, that he would always know when she was in trouble, but she had a sneaking suspicion that that “sixth sense” manifested itself in a vague call or text that Caleb should really check in with her. She was pretty sure Zayne would never cross the line and give out her private information, but it did seem he would do his best to make sure that she didn’t keep anything important from her family and he knew better than to expect that she would take the initiative and volunteer the information on her own.
At some point, during one of those “sixth sense” check-in calls she admitted to Caleb that it made her a little jealous that Zayne got to spend more time with her brother than she did and Caleb had just laughed and told her it was her own fault for not going to see him more, questioning if it was really him or Zayne that she wanted to see and suggesting she tag along with the good doctor the next time he visited. She had politely declined, stating seeing him at the hospital was more than enough exposure for her. Caleb had just chuckled and allowed her to change the subject.
She didn’t know if she would call it luck (bad or good was open to interpretation), chance or fate, but shortly after that conversation, she found herself running into Zayne on the odd occasion away from Akso. Coincidental little encounters that had the old spark of friendship awkwardly reigniting. First, sharing a table at a trendy (and quite full) restaurant she stumbled on after she had missed lunch one day, He had been sitting alone at a table for two by the window when she had spotted him. For a moment she had thought that he would decline her timid suggestion that they share the table, but to her surprise he had agreed. The conversation had been clumsy, but not quite the disaster she had imagined it would be when she initially sat down. Then later, they bumped into each other at a museum exhibit. He had been making notes and sketches at one of the displays and had loaned her his earbuds to listen to the recordings. He had left before she could return them. That had forced her to stop by his office with them the next day and somehow after that she found herself spending more time with him socially.
She was surprised to find herself unexpectedly getting used to his dry, stoic demeanor, and actually enjoying his company. Since they were both alone in the city and in busy, demanding jobs, it made a certain kind of sense that they started to lean on each other when loneliness became too real, and had started communicating outside of the hospital more. Soon they were texting or calling regularly, not just for appointment reminders, but also when one or the other couldn’t sleep, or when a storm unexpectedly rolled in. Thunder had always unnerved her and he knew that, so he started checking in on her during storms, sometimes staying on the phone with her until it had passed, especially when he knew her brother was away on a mission. They also began meeting up for coffee and dessert after work once a week at a little cafe between the hospital and the Hunter’s Association, the occasional movie and dinner here and there when one or the other just didn’t feel like cooking or eating alone. She had been surprised to find out that her rather stern physician had a wicked sweet tooth, a fact that she enjoyed teasing him about whenever he started harping on her own diet.
She had only two stipulations for the calls and meet ups. The first was that he leave Dr. Zayne at the door and just be her friend Zayne on these occasions. The second was that they not discuss their friendship with either of their families. She wasn’t sure how Caleb would take her spending time outside the hospital alone with his best friend, or his best friend spending time with her no matter how platonic the relationship or how much he teased her about her about Zayne She also did not want her grandmother to get her hopes up any more than she already had. He had agreed to both. There’d been some struggle with the first at the beginning, but now he only had the occasional lapse, and usually only when she made the mistake of telling him one of the plethora of reckless things she had done on the job. Neither of them had any trouble keeping to the second.
That was how she found herself walking into Destiny Cafe one afternoon, running late and slightly out of breath as the conference she had attended and presented at had run over. It had been a rough day. She had lamented the need to dress up, put on stockings and heels, and do her hair and makeup, but she’d done it, twisting her long, dark hair into a loose bun and applying a light amount of makeup to her face. Not anything overly dramatic, but definitely more than her usual mascara and lip gloss. She hated public speaking to begin with, so the torturous wait to present and the mounting frustration every time something went long, frayed her nerves.
She had contemplated cancelling the meet-up, but he had already had to cancel the last two due to an unexpected business trip and then an emergency surgery, so she didn’t feel right canceling another one. And especially not last minute. So, she’d practically run the few blocks from the convention center to the cafe.
Zayne was already seated at a table near the back, a steaming mug of what she assumed was cocoa in front of him. He had his laptop open, typing away, his gold flecked green eyes intent on his screen, silver wire framed glasses perched on his nose. She headed over and sat down opposite him, slipping her swollen feet out of the heels she had worn with a little sigh, and making a mental note to never run in heels again. She smoothed the skirt of the loose, flowy dress she wore. He had a bit of a scowl on his face that she assumed was due to her tardiness. She gave him a sheepish smile as she looked across the table at him.
“Sorry, I’m late,” she said, forcing some brightness into her voice,despite her frayed nerves. She took her own laptop out of her messenger bag and booted it up. “I had my presentation today and you know how it goes. Mine was last and everyone before me decided it was their mission in life to make sure they ran long,” she concluded with a frown and a dramatic sigh.
Zayne looked up from his computer screen and took a sip from his mug. He stared at her for a long moment, then he simply nodded, made a small noise of acknowledgement and went right back to his work, effectively dismissing her. She pursed her lips and exhaled. It seemed like a bit of a punishment. She knew that he prized promptness over just about everything else, especially seeing as his schedule was so packed with rounds, surgeries and office appointments. She felt properly chastised for her thoughtlessness in not texting when she knew she would be delayed. They sat in awkward silence for a few moments, until the waitress came over and took her order.
When they were alone again, she tried to occupy herself by catching up on work, checking Wanderer activity logs and patrol reports. He appeared to be pointedly ignoring her except for a few glances her way accompanied by an annoyed shake of his head that she caught out of the corner of her eye. After a few minutes of this silent treatment, she was feeling fed up and couldn’t take it any longer. She wanted to point out that he was being childish and that she had already apologized, but instead she took a steadying breath and leaned across the table toward him, a sufficiently penitent look on her face.
“I should have texted and let you know that I was delayed, it was insensitive and disrespectful of me,” she acknowledged, which earned her another dismissive glance from him. His face was slightly red and she swallowed hard. He wasn’t a very demonstrative person, preferring to keep a tight rein on his emotions, so seeing his irritation so clear on his face unsettled her. She straightened up and sucked her bottom lip between her teeth, giving her full attention back to her computer screen, but she couldn’t concentrate and found herself reading the same sentence multiple times.
She was grateful for the distraction when her tea and cheese danish arrived. She slid the plate over toward Zayne, hoping that maybe sharing her sweet treat would be enough of a peace offering to clear the tension in the air.
“Want some?” She inclined her head toward her metaphorical olive branch with a delicate smile.
He just shook his head, seemingly very intent on whatever he was reading and writing. Disappointed, she pulled the plate back and started picking at the pastry. She really couldn’t believe he was going to hold this against her and be so passive aggressive that he wouldn’t even fess up to what was wrong or why he was treating her this way. It wasn’t even the most spectacular fuck up she’d made during the course of this new friendship. That would have been when she had inadvertently brought him a slice of carrot cake one evening when he was stuck working late thinking it was a spice cake.
He abhorred carrots, detested them since childhood, and he’d quickly forgiven her for that. Well, maybe not quickly. He had made her suffer for a few minutes, while he obsessively brushed his teeth and rinsed his mouth out, obviously enjoying her profuse apologies, but it was definitely quicker than what she was dealing with today and it was making her crazy. She took a long sip of her tea, hoping the warmth of it would settle her and sooth the headache that was beginning to pound behind her eyes.
After the third time Zayne looked over at her and then away again with what she could only describe as a perturbed expression, like her very existence was vexing him, she had had enough. She huffed out an annoyed breath, and scowling, slammed her laptop closed, shoving it back into her messenger bag. She pushed back from the table and stood up as he looked at her, his brows drawn together. Reaching into the pocket of her dress, she grabbed a twenty and tossed it angrily on the table to pay for her food. Tears pricked the corners of her eyes and she quickly blinked them back, frustrated with herself and her tendency to cry when she was mad.
“I’ve got to go. I don’t need this today,” she spat as she turned, shoved her feet back into her heels and started to march toward the door and the late-afternoon sun, hoping he hadn’t noticed her watery eyes. His hand snaked out, catching her wrist and gripping it tightly, stopping her retreat.
“What happened? Are you alright?” His voice was soft, filled with concern, totally at odds with what she had been feeling from him since she had arrived.”Why are you leaving?”
She attempted to twist her wrist free, but he held it steadfast. She settled for turning back to look at him incredulously.
“Why am I…What happened?? Seriously??” she snapped in disbelief, blinking furiously, trying to contain the moisture that pooled in the corners of her eyes. “You know, Dr. Zayne, if spending time with me is so distasteful, if I annoy you so much, you could have just declined meeting up with me today and just gone and done something you’d enjoy more.”
His expression turned puzzled, then concerned as he took in how upset she was.
“Thalassia…” he began, his voice betraying his confusion. “You’re going to have to help me out with this one. How have you managed to jump to the conclusion that spending time with you is now somehow suddenly distasteful or that you annoy me?”
She yanked her arm again, felt him tighten his grip, and her lips compressed to a thin line. She could see several patrons pause their own conversations and look their way. She kept her voice to a low hiss as she responded.
“I’m not stupid, Zayne, and I am not as unobservant as you and Caleb like to think. I am a Deepspace Hunter after all. I saw the daggers you were throwing at me almost since I walked in the door. It wasn’t hard to infer. It’s quite obvious you're irritated at me.” She wished her voice didn’t sound quite so petulant. ”I already apologized for being late.” She turned her head away, feeling a tear slide down her cheek, not wanting him to see it. “I don’t deserve the faces and the silent treatment.”
He gave a heavy sigh. The kind of sigh that she just knew was accompanied by him removing his glasses and pinching the bridge of his nose, and somehow that made her even more irritated. She refused to turn back to confirm her suspicions.
“You’re basing this off of my facial expressions?” he queried. “Aren’t you the one who said that you thought my face might break if I changed expression or tried to smile? I don’t think I looked at you any differently than I normally do.” He paused, as if pondering if he should continue or not. “You’re being awfully snappish today. Did something happen at the conference?”
“Snappish?” she repeated, unable to hide her exasperation. “You think I’m being snappish?”
A few heads turned in their direction as she raised her voice and she bit her lip to try to rein herself in. How dare he call her snappish when he had been giving her the evil eye and the silent treatment since she had walked in?
“Please sit back down. It seems I must apologize for my face, and being too focused on my screen to chat, but I do not find being here with you distasteful. Quite the opposite, actually. I enjoy spending quiet time in the cafe with you. I feel very lucky, in fact, that I get to spend this time with you.” His voice softened. “I didn’t mean to make you cry.”
He released his hold on her wrist. She was silent for a long moment, rubbing it gently. She internally debated, both touched by his tone and mortified that he had noticed her tears. She also wasn’t certain she believed his explanation, although she couldn’t think of a reason why he would lie to her. Then she blew out a lengthy breath, most of her hostility draining from her,
“Then why were you looking at me like that, not speaking at all? Like you would prefer to be anywhere but here?” Turning around, she stared at him, her sapphire eyes filled with distress. She wanted to believe him, but his actions were completely at odds with his words.
He was silent for a moment, their gazes locked.
“Zayne?” she prompted and earned another heavy sigh from him.
“I was dealing with…or trying to deal with…a rather irksome situation with a former colleague, which set me on edge. It’s just my bad luck that I was also trying to figure out how to tell you how pretty you look today without it being weird,” he responded, an embarrassed expression on his suddenly flushed face.
His confession brought her up short and her hand fluttered to her neck, her cheeks blooming with warmth. Did he just say he thought she looked pretty? After a few moments of awkward silence he spoke again.
“From your lack of response I assume you now understand my dilemma… and that it’s now weird.” He gave another dry, humorless chuckle, as her warm pink blush crept across her cheeks and down her neck.
She sank back into her seat, messenger bag dropping to the floor beside her as the onlookers went back to their own conversations with the evaporation of the drama in the air.
“Not weird at all,” she said softly. “You can tell me that.”
“I just did.” He closed his laptop and reclined in his chair, crossing his legs..
“No. You said you were going to tell me. You never actually told me.” She gave him a teasing smirk, one eyebrow raised..
“Well now you’re just arguing semantics,” he muttered as she watched him expectantly. Finally, perhaps sensing that she wasn’t going to drop the subject, he leaned across the table toward her, the faint rosy coloring of his cheeks now staining the tips of his ears. “You look very pretty today.”
His voice was low and husky and she had to lean in to hear him. She felt her heartbeat quicken as he held her gaze intently. For a moment his hazel eyes flickered and she thought she saw something more than simple friendship in the way he looked at her, thought she felt something more than simple friendship in response. Something that left her speechless, heat continuing to flood her cheeks. Just as quickly as it appeared, that flicker was gone,
She cleared her throat nervously and made a big show out of retrieving her laptop, almost dropping it as her flustered hands pulled it from the bag. She began working on her half finished report again, pointedly ignoring the slight, self-satisfied curve of the corners of his mouth.
He reached over and snagged the pastry she’d left on the table, taking a leisurely bite and chewing thoughtfully as she let out a shocked exclamation.
“So what have we learned today?” he asked in that quintessentially Zayne way he had of speaking when he was making a point. Too playful to truly be condescending, but serious enough to make you pray you’d been paying proper attention.
“That you’re a pastry thief?” she responded, reclaiming the plate along with her danish.
He laughed softly and reached across the table, chuckling when she pulled the plate out of his reach with an indignant look. He snagged her other hand instead, holding it in both of his. She didn’t pull it away. Her eyes widened, her expression going from indignant to startled within the space of a heartbeat. Her stomach did a little flip.
“Wrong answer, and as I recall, you offered me a bite earlier. I simply changed my mind about declining.” He leaned further forward looking deeply into her eyes. ”Care to try again?”
“That you enjoy teasing me, maybe a little too much?” She was unable to look away from his own hypnotizing eyes, her voice breathy and slightly nervous..
“Yes… but, no.” He shook his head again and continued in a soft solemn voice. “Perhaps, if you are upset with me, or questioning my actions or intent, you’ll talk to me about it before assuming the worst of me?” His expression was earnest as he searched her face, still holding her hand softly between his, clearly feeling the electricity running between them.
“I dislike it when you are upset with me,” he confessed, his voice pitched low enough that only she could hear him, a rare glimpse of vulnerability in his eyes.
She was transfixed, unable to tear her focused attention away from him for several long moments. He had never looked at her like this before and all of the old feelings, that old crush, rushed through her. She felt her temperature rise, the heat in her cheeks, the redness that crept down her neck. Then the intensity in his gaze became too much and she looked down and away. She released her breath in a relieved rush, finally able to gather her thoughts with the loss of eye contact.
She internally chuckled at herself for getting so hypnotized, for letting her infatuation make her act like a love struck fool, gawking at him like she had no self control. When she looked back up she couldn’t help but grin at him. He just gazed unguardedly back at her. In that one moment she clearly saw the young boy that she had grown up with in his face, and her heart lurched just like it had back then, despite her efforts to stop it..
“Then I guess it’s a good thing I can’t stay mad at you for long,” she said sincerely, her voice still a little breathy, and squeezed his hand tenderly, the air between them still charged with that something more than something she refused to put a name to. He must have felt it too because he cleared his throat and made a show of releasing her hand and re-opening his laptop.
“Now, if you could be a good girl and stop throwing a tantrum like your age is in the single digits we can resume working, no?” he teased with that dry sarcasm she was used to hearing from him. He checked the clock on his computer and sighed. “Actually, It’s getting late. I have to head back to the hospital. I need to check in on the patient I admitted this morning before I head home” He paused, almost as if he was warring with himself over what he was going to say next. “Are you done for the day? If you want to walk back with me, I can drive you home if you don’t mind waiting a few minutes.” Now he was talking a little too fast, sliding his laptop into his own bag as he spoke, like he was nervous about the invitation. He stood and set some bills on the table to join her crumpled twenty.
She snorted in amusement, the strange spell she had been under broken. She stood also and slipped her laptop back into her bag, adjusted the strap on her shoulder.
“That would be nice. I wasn’t looking forward to taking the train again today,” she said as she followed him out. They walked side by side in companionable silence for a few moments. The fresh air and cool breeze cleared her foggy head and she chuckled at how awkward they had been in the cafe.
“You know,” she began,skipping forward a few steps and turning back to face him unable to resist needling him, “you want me to be more up front with you, but If you had just told me about what was going on with your colleague when I got there, this could have been avoided. Communication goes both ways.”
“Point taken,” he conceded. “Now turn around and walk correctly or you’ll twist your ankle in those heels” He gently grasped her shoulder and faced her forward. She couldn’t suppress another little chuckle as they stopped at the cross walk and waited for the light to change. He turned to her, a mildly amused expression on his face. “Although how you could think I would be more angry at a little tardiness than I was at say… being purposely fed carrots for your entertainment...” he teased, letting his sentence trail off, as if knowing that it would get a rise out of her. She didn’t disappoint.
She made an affronted sound and bumped him with her hip, knocking him back a step. Then she playfully jabbed him in the shoulder. “It was not for my entertainment. It was an honest error and you know it.”
He gave a soft snicker.
“You really are a troublemaker.” He shook his head, rubbing the spot that she had poked,
clearly entertained by her reaction. As the light turned, he casually reached over to grasp her hand, lacing their fingers together. She stood rooted to the spot, slightly stunned at the contact. Her brain short circuited, her awareness focused solely on the warmth of his hand holding hers. It had been one thing for him to grab her hand in the cafe to hold it still. It was quite another for him to do it out here on the street where anyone and everyone could see.
He turned and gave her his usual little half smirk and tugged on their joined hands, like it was the most natural thing in the world for him to be walking hand in hand with her, prompting her to start walking again. She blew out the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding and could have sworn she heard a satisfied little chuckle that he quickly covered with a cough, his thumb rubbing gently against the pulse point in her wrist. They crossed the street in silence and continued the walk back to the hospital. He held her hand the entire way.