#but the idea that she actually lures Kal into it amuses me a bit more

[johannstutt413]

(requested by anonymous)

The light was on in the living room when Kal’tsit woke up. She groaned - it was happening again. “Oh, darling!” She called through the open door in a somewhat sharp sing-songy voice. “I thought we talked about getting up at 3 am to write on your board!”

“But I had a dream and I had to get it down before I forgot it!” The response came as Kal’tsit stepped out into their living room to find the Doctor with her nightgown on, notepad and pencil in hand.

“So this isn’t a shipping thing, then?” Her wife asked, genuinely interested in what could be a new development. “Or is this a matchmaking plan you had?”

The Doctor looked up from her work to give her a quizzical stare. “What are you talking about? I’d never actually try to get these couples together...I mean, seriously, Provence and Scavenger? Come oooon.”

“Right, yeah, totally unreasonable.” Kal’tsit smiled to herself, remembering the lovely invitation she’d received for their upcoming wedding not two days prior.

“It’s not about if they would actually work together, anyway.” She beamed a smile in Kal’s direction. “It’s about imagining the arc they would have to take to get them there.”

Her logic was met with a blank stare. “Uh-huh.”

“Come on, babe, play with me in this space for a little bit. I know, I know, it’s early, but-”

“Doctor dearest, you know what I’m like.” After watching the change in the Doctor’s face, however, she sighed. “But I can make an exception this once.”

She cheered, which involved a wild flailing of limbs one might call a dance if it weren’t horizontal and much less coordinated. “Yes! Alright, alright, calm down, let’s not blow this...Okay. Okay. So, where do we start...”

“I’d imagine we start with a couple?” Kal’tsit offered, taking a seat on the couch on the opposite end.

“True...Alright, you pick a person, and I pick a person, and that’ll be our match.” The Doctor turned to a fresh page in her notepad. “Ready?”

Her wife chuckled - Kal had to admit, she was damn cute when she got like this. “Alright, I’m ready.”

“One, two, three!” “Ethan.” “Astesia.” “...Huh.”

“Alright, we have our happy couple,” Kal’tsit observed. “Now what?”

The Doctor steepled her fingers, notepad at her side. “Well, we should start with what we know. What do we know they have in common?”

“They’re both Infected, they both have ties to outside factions, they both...um...that’s what I’ve got.”

“Both of them keep secrets while trying to be as open as they can.” That earned her a look. “Astesia doesn’t talk about her society, but she’s an open book when it comes to astrology and divinations, and Ethan won’t tell us everything about his past but loves dishing dirt about Reunion and some of the things he’s done.”

She sighed. “You’re right, I just never would have seen that.”

“It’s okay, darling; that’s why I’m here!” The Doctor hopped on the couch to get within ear-scratching range and proceeded to do just that.

“Prrrr...” Kal leaned into it, entirely forgetting the early hour. “H-hey, don’t rile me up too much, or we’re never going to finish this.”

She smirked. “Alright, if you insist. They both have rather refined tastes - Astesia because of her background, and Ethan for the exact opposite reason. Actually, that’s pretty important; Astesia lived the life of a rich man’s daughter, pursuing her fancies and becoming involved in a hyper-sophisticated elite occult society of some sort, while Ethan has lived on the ground his entire life, fighting for the Infected’s right to be acknowledged with nothing more than cans of spray paint. Despite that, they’ve both had crises of faith, sort of; Ethan has been a pacifist resistance fighter for so long, he’d lost hope that there’d ever be a future for the Infected, and when Astesia became Infected, she was suddenly confronted with the limitations of her chosen field. I think Ethan’s morale is higher, since his fears are pretty firmly assuaged now that he’s with us while Astesia’s battle is really one only she can fight, but...hmm.”

“I took for granted that you’re in charge of HR. That was a really deep analysis for something like a shipping diagram, darling.”

“How do you think I got this good?” The Doctor kissed Kal’tsit’s forehead. “You have to be good at this sort of thing if you want to argue about pairings on the forums.”

Kal’s ear twitched. “The...forums?”

“There’s a group of us here in RI who talk to each other anonymously on this one site. They’re actually the ones who told me about our history together, so my little hobby is what got us together~”

“I will never disparage your fake matchmaking hobby again,” Kal’tsit swore. “When does any of this turn into something meaningful, though?”

Her wife nodded sagely. “That would be the meet-cute.”

“The meet who?”

“The meet-cute.” The Doctor giggled at Kal’s blank stare. “You really are new to this, I love it. It’s when a couple have their first encounter; like, they aren’t romantically involved, but this first meeting foreshadows it, and usually it’s kind of out-there. For us, that’d be when you gave me my first briefing.”

Kal’tsit, head now resting in the Doctor’s lap, shook her head. “There wasn’t anything weird about that, was there?”

“I kept having to grab my pockets with my hands to stop myself from rubbing behind your ears.”

“Oh, that’s what you were doing.” She chuckled. “I thought you were cold, and I was this close to grabbing your hands myself just so you’d focus on what I was saying.”

The Doctor gave her another ear-scratch. “That’s exactly what made it a meet-cute; we were both so awkward, it made a normal meeting basically impossible. So, what’s their moment like that?”

“It couldn’t be one of Astesia’s readings,” Kal’tsit noted, twirling some of the Doctor’s hair around her finger.

“It wouldn’t be a bad one, but it’s better as an ah-ha moment, I agree.” She thought for a moment. “You know, I can’t think of a time I sent them on a mission together.”

Kal nodded. “They go on a mission, and they’re sitting next to each other on the transport back. Ethan tries to make small talk, which Astesia responds to, and then they’re ambushed.”

“Oh, I like that - Reunion grunts, definitely a couple of Wraiths in there, they fight them off and resume heading home...but now they’ve not just gone on a mission, they’ve fought together, like back-to-back almost. Talk about bringing people together.”

“Speaking of which,” she rubbed her hands together, “the next thing is Ethan asking for a reading and finding out something moving in his love sector, right?”

The Doctor shrugged. “That’s a little too straightforward.”

“Too straightforward? For who?”

“Well...how do I explain this,” she mused for a moment. “Life isn’t that simple, so for a ship to sail right, going for the obvious connections is kind of like taking the easy way out.”

Kal’tsit sighed. “Alright, then, what happens next?”

“Well, let’s see...”

-

A few days later, Ethan walked into Dr. Kal’tsit’s office with his usual, almost accidental stealth. “Yo, Dr. Kal’tsit, you got a minute? I need to ask you about something.”

“One second.” She growled something into her phone before hanging up. “Alright, go ahead. What is it?”

“Normally I’d talk to the Doctor, but...anyway, I was wondering if you could talk to her about her most recent shipfic.”

Kal’tsit’s eyes flew to the door. “Come in and close the door behind you.”

“Sure.” He complied. “Anyway, I wanted to ask - is she psychic or something?”

“I’m starting to wonder that - she did call Provence and Scavenger, after all...You and Astesia, right?”

He scratched behind his head. “I don’t wanna say she gave me the idea, but I write myself, and after reading her post, I got to thinking, and...our convoy got ambushed earlier today.”

“My God.”

“Now, I don’t think I should try to force anything, but, well, we did kind of hit it off, so...” Ethan sighed. “Any advice?”

She smiled. “Life is never as straightforward as we want it to be, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make it simpler. Ask her to give you a reading; if she says good things about your love sector, maybe see if she can clarify things a little more.”

“That’s what I was thinking. Well, that’s all I needed to ask, so I’ll let you get back to it.”

“One thing before you go, Ethan?” Kal’tsit gestured to her cell phone. “Give me a call after you’ve gotten an answer.”

He gave her a curious look. “Why’s that?”

“So I can rub it in the Doctor’s face if I’m right, and prepare a good response if I’m not.”