Chapter 61: I Like Your Eyes

Ava was waiting on the steps outside Building A, blond hair bright against the stone, and the other third years already dismissed to a distance away from them. When Ethan came through the doors she brightened with a smile.

"You actually came," she said. "I thought you would have left. Was already thinking of the possible places to find you..."

"You made a scene in a classroom." Ethan stopped one step below her with his hands in his pockets. "If I vanish, the story gets uglier."

Ava’s yellow eyes were lively up close. So lively that Ethan was thoroughly uncomfortable. "I want observation rights."

"Of what?"

"You." She lifted a shoulder. "Not an interview for the yearbook. I want to watch a restricted class user’s combat style that isn’t already collapsed under monitoring. Your dungeon run made that rare enough to be worth my time."

Ethan studied her. Every practical instinct said no.

But he knew that refusing after her classroom entrance only delayed the same attention.

Who knew what she would do next if he refused...

Then again, he didn’t like this. ’Stay away from popular girls...’ that rule was becoming stale at alarming speeds.

"...Boundaries," he said. "You watch. You don’t touch the corpses. You don’t give orders. You don’t narrate for an audience. And When I end the session, it’s ended."

Ava’s smile widened, pleased if anything "Reluctant and conditional. Adorable... acepted."

"When." she asked after a pause.

"Tomorrow. East grounds." Ethan said.

"Alright then! If you don’t show," she grinned. "I’ll find you."

Ethan exhaled through his nose. "Of course you will."

"Stop trying to act like you don’t like this. Most first years would kill for senior interest."

"Most first years aren’t being followed by an unhinged senior." He said flatly.

Ava laughed and stepped aside. "See you tomorrow, Shaw."

The moment she said that, he left with saying another word.

***

The following morning Lila was already awake when he came out of the bathroom.

She didn’t sleep in his room last night. Normally he would’ve have been relieved that he had the bed to himself but yesterday’s event didn’t really allow that.

She sat at the small table with tea cooling between her hands, her uniform neat, and her hair tied high in a ponytail.

She did not ask where he was going. She did not need to. Campus rumor moved faster than schedule emails here. And Ava saying "outside" in a full classroom had not required any extra memos.

"I’ll be at the East grounds," Ethan said anyway, because silence made the atmosphere worse. "She wants an observation session. Shouldn’t take too long."

Lila’s eyes didn’t move from her cup. "Okay."

Ethan raised his eyebrow. No "be careful". No "I hate this". No "I’m coming with you."

Just okay....

’Maybe I shouldn’t have said that.’ he thought.

’Then again, it doesn’t feel right going somewhere without telling her.’

She stood, rinsed the cup, and collected her bag. In the doorway she paused long enough that he thought she might add something, then walked out ahead of him without waiting.

They took the same route toward the main academy block in silence. When their paths split, she only said:

"Don’t collapse."

Then she was gone.

Ethan stood for a second, watching her disappear around the corner and hated how much the short line felt like both care and distance.

***

The east grounds held a certain emptiness between formal classes.

Ethan moved near a clear spot, rolled his shoulders, and pulled Bef and the Blood Raven from Storage.

Bef shook out shadow and settled next to him, and the Raven exploded upward as the link settled on both of them. He set a simple pattern: Bef on the ground, Raven circling ahead. He made sure to use Death Link a bit ast welll.

He had been at it for a few minutes when Ava arrived.

No crowd this time. Just her, hands behind her back, her blond flowing with every step, and her eyes already tracking the Raven’s movements with open fascination.

She stopped a few steps away from him.

"I came alone," she said cheerfully. "I’m a saint."

"Sure you are."

"I’m interested." She paced once along the edge as he sent Bef wide and snapped the Raven into a dive sequence. "There. When you switch primary focus, your shoulders set before the undead moves. Most people flinch after. You’re ahead of the link."

Ethan did not answer. Commentary was inevitable; engaging with it only lengthened the time he already wanted desperately to end.

He ran Death Link through the Raven for a exactly five seconds. Height, wind, the shrinking grounds with every hieght.

Lila’s absence sat like a stupid irrelevant note at the edge of his mind, and he cut the link before the drain could become something he stopped being able to ignore.

Bef ran around below while the Raven held a hover that made the control strain climb though remaining manageable.

Ava watched without blinking much.

"Wow" she said. "Nothing too grand. Coach Merrick will like that even if he’d rather die than admit it about a Necromancer." A pause. "Your face changes when you give new orders as well."

Ethan brought the Raven down to a lower circle and kept his breathing even. "You sure do talk a lot don’t you..."

"That was within observation." She stepped closer along near enough that he caught the faint saint of lavender from her hair. "I like your eye color."

The command chain stuttered for a moment as the Raven drifted a meter off pattern before he corrected it.

Ethan looked away. "It’s just green."

"It’s not ’just’ green." She said. "It’s beautiful. I like how it glows sometimes." She stepped away. "You push personal comments into the same bin as threats. That’s tragic."

"That’s not why we’re here."

"I know." She eased back a step, "Continue. I’ll be quiet for a whole minute. No promises though."

He continued.

Bef ran until its path was a clean groove in the dirt. The Raven climbed, dove, recovered, accepted a second short Death Link, and held formation under a dual-command stack that made Ethan’s temples pulse a bit. Ava stayed mostly silent for longer than a minute, which somehow felt more dangerous than the commentary. Interest without noise still had weight.

When he finally cut the session, he brought Raven and Bef back into Storage. His Death Energy had taken a hit and his legs were reminding him that the laps plus command work was a bill he couldn’t afford.

Ava rolled her shoulders, satisfied.

"Same time in two days," she said. "Or I’ll find you earlier if I’m bored. Try not to look so hunted. You’re the one who agreed."

Ethan looked at her. "I agreed to observation. Not a subscription."

"Subscriptions are just observations with a calendar." She started going backward toward the path and Ethan saw the way her blond hair caught the sun.

"I had fun today. See you again."

Ethan said nothing. He wasn’t sure if watching him give corpses orders could be considered "fun"...

Ava’s smile flickered wider, and left him alone on the east grounds with residual control strain, a session he already regretted, and the unwelcomed echo of a comment he didn’t want to remember again.

"I like your eye color."

He stood until the link-ache faded, then headed back toward campus on sore legs as his mind drifted back to Lila....