Miss Me?

The smell of incense hung in the air, thick enough to chase away the moths that hungered for Cecilia's tomes, scrolls, and research notes. She stopped bending over her work for a moment, stretching her arms high above her head and letting her eyes view the cloudy white sky through her modest window.

A knock came at her door, making her jolt in her seat. She stood up, straightened her sorceress robes and went to answer the door. A senior sorceress was there with a curious expression on her face. "Someone's here to see you," she said.

"Huh? A guest?" The gray-eyed woman blinked, sliding her reading glasses off her nose and combing a hand through her loose brown hair. "Who is it?"

"Some horned maj."

"I don't know any maj's though," Cecilia tipped her head and muttered. "Fine, I'll deal with it."

She thanked her senior, navigating through and down the tower to its reception area for visitors. There weren't many people in today, so she swept her eyes over the thin crowd, finding a place where one guest in particular was being given a wide berth.

Cecilia sucked in a sharp breath and then simply stopped breathing for a while. She would recognize him anywhere. Tall, but not too tall, with a halo of golden blonde hair, sky blue eyes, that face that made her heart melt… His eyes were green for some reason, and he was wearing a weird horned headdress, but those little details hardly mattered.

The moment her lungs finally worked again, Cecilia shouted, "Rory?!"

He looked her way, wide-eyed, like a dear caught in lantern light. Then he smiled warmly at her, and Cecilia felt a lump rising in her chest. She shoved it down with all her might.

"Hi, Cecilia. Long time no see."

"What are you doing here?!" she trotted up to her childhood crush, then shyly fixed her hair and clothes and tried not to seem shy while she was doing it. Cecilia stood tall and proud, reminding herself of her accomplishments and her goals.

"I-I mean, I never expected to meet a homebody like you in Pompeii of all places. Did you miss me that much?" She glanced curiously at her friend's wooden antlers and viridescent green eyes. "You look great, but… what happened to you?"

He smiled and politely defer her question. "First, is there somewhere we can talk?"

"Oh! Yeah, of course. Follow me, I'll take you to my lab."

She started leading Aurelius to the stairs, but the receptionist on duty called her to a stop.

"Sorceress Cecilia," the stern, dark haired woman said, "Don't forget to check in your guest."

With her back turned to her crush, Cecilia blushed and cleared her throat. "Of course. This way, Rory."

She brought him to the reception desk while irrelevant thoughts flooded her mind.

'Get it together, Cecilia. You want him to see you as a mature woman and not a little sister? Then act like a mature woman, dammit. Ugh, I must smell like moth repellent and ink…'

She wasn't trying to do anything strange, but Cecilia couldn't help noting that Rory smelled like freshly fallen leaves… or maybe it was just the leaves on his headband she was smelling. Regardless, it made her feel wonderfully at home and terribly homesick at the same time.

The receptionist adjusted her spectacles on her nose and, looked Rory up and down and then turned her gaze to the paperwork in front of her.

"Name?" she asked.

"Aurelius Glorianus," he smiled politely.

"Reason for visiting?"

"Sorceress Cecilia is an old friend and colleague of mine."

"Are you affiliated with any states, magic towers, or knight orders?"

"No."

The receptionist nodded. "Species?"

"Human."

The stern woman looked up at Rory with a skeptical eyebrow raised. "Sir, this form is for our security records. Please take it seriously."

Cecilia looked at the woman indignantly. Was she really foolish enough to mistake Rory for a magical species? His headband looked pretty realistic, sure, and he was more handsome than most humans, and the glowing green eyes were a little strange… But it still ticked her off.

Cecilia glared. "Hey, drop that tone. Rory and I grew up together. He's just as human as you and me."

The receptionist glanced at her with chilly indifference. "Whatever you may feel, Sorceress Cecilia, I'm still obligated to ensure our records reflect the facts."

Cecilia's jaw dropped, but Rory held up a hand before she could retort. "It's fine, Cecilia," he said softly. He locked eyes with the receptionist. "Just write 'Druid' then."

"Rory?"

Cecilia blinked up at him in confusion, but he just smiled reassuringly at her. The receptionist finished writing, filed the paperwork away, and nodded.

"Thank your for visiting, Mr. Glorianus. Have an enjoyable visit."

***

'I think I'm getting used to being treated like a maj,' Rory thought to himself bitterly.

He had come to the conclusion that his situation was too complicated to explain to every person on the street, and sometimes it was just easier to go with the flow.

'At least they didn't charge me anything this time.'

Brushing aside his exchange with the receptionist, Rory focused on Cecilia.

'She seems to still desire you,' Jahreszeiten pointed out unhelpfully.

The young Druid held back a sigh. On the one hand, he didn't want to risk getting her tangled up in the mess he was in now. But on the other hand, even if she was still clumsy, Cecilia seemed to have matured quite a lot in the year she spent away from the village. There was a confidence in the way she walked and a self-assured light deep in her eyes.

She just didn't seem like a little girl anymore.

That said, to Rory, she was simply a friend.

Rory looked around Cecilia's lab curiously. She had less written material for study than teacher Justinian had back home, but more tools and equipment to make up for it. It looked like an excellent environment for research.

'She's doing well for herself,' Rory thought with a faint smile.

Meanwhile, Cecilia took a seat at her desk and invited him to borrow another empty chair. The sorceresses gray eyes were more serious and concerned now as she looked at him.

"So what exactly is going on?"