After a few days of consideration, Kat made up her mind. She’d talk to Darius privately and explain why she was reluctant to have physical contact. She set up a night at her place to play board games and eat takeout and spent half a Saturday afternoon cleaning the apartment from top to bottom. Cami caught her pacing with a duster and cackled her way out the door.

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do! Bye, Kitten!”

Kat didn’t know what to say, so she wiped the fingerprints from the fridge and took out the trash, busying herself until Darius arrived. She’d given him the code so he didn’t have to wait outside for her in the mornings, and he tapped on the door right on time.

They traded greetings. Darius set the food on the counter, then pulled a small box from his coat. “For you,” he offered with an eager smile.

She took the little box. “What’s this?”

 “Go ahead, open it.” Childlike excitement lit Darius’s face, and Kat couldn’t help but return his smile as she opened the box.

She gasped.

Cradled in tissue paper sat a gray, five-inch tall plastic figure that Kat recognized instantly. She lifted the replica out of the box, marveling at the details on the robot from her favorite movie series, down to the repaired arm and the moss growing on its shoulders.

“It’s Omnaeus!” Wonder lit her voice. Across the table, Darius stood a little taller. “How did you...? Where did you find it?”

Kat delicately ran her fingers across the robot’s luminescent eyes. “There’s even a crack on the eye where it got shot at the end of episode four...” she said in awe.

“It took a while to find,” Darius confessed, leaning on the countertop. “But it was worth it to see you light up like that.”

“I love it! It’s the most amazing thing anyone’s ever gotten me. Gosh, nobody knows about Aliopex fighters. It’s so niche.” She couldn’t take her eyes off the unexpected gift. She’d looked for this model for literal years and only ever found it on overseas sites in limited batches that sold out instantly or on eBay for hundreds of dollars. She wondered if Darius had a friend in Korea or had gotten it 3-D printed.

“I noticed your keychain and did some digging,” Darius explained.

Kat nodded, turning the figure in her hands. She’d had the little space fox captain on her keychain since Jonas gave it to her for Christmas.

She set the model on the table and took out her phone so she could snap a picture, then hesitated, abashed.

“Where are my manners? Thank you! I was too busy nerding out there. Hey, if you’re okay with it, we can hold it while I take a picture?” Kat shyly held out the model.

“Absolutely,” Darius nodded, and they posed together, fingers brushing as they held the model.

She took the pic and posted it, then shook her head, impressed. “This is incredible. I used to make and paint models, so I know how rare some are. And this is the only one of the set I don’t have! This is really something. You didn’t need to do this.”

“I know, I wanted to.” Darius grinned and leaned back in his chair, his hands behind his head.

Kat gave him a skeptical look and opened the Chinese food. “This must have taken weeks to find, let alone ship. Now I owe you a candy bar and a cool object of some kind.” Her eyebrows lowered. “This is becoming a serious deficit. I wasn’t prepared for this escalation.”

“Better get used to it. I like getting things for people I love.”

Kat’s hands stilled on the takeout container. The room tilted like she’d stood up too fast.

Love?

That was why people dated, after all.

But this fast... Could a person really fall in love within a couple of weeks?

Her gut twisted. If she didn’t tell Darius now, she’d struggle later. She’d invited him over to talk to him about her failings.

“Darius, I need to tell y—“

 She was still trying to find the words when a heavy knock landed on the door. Darius frowned in its direction, and Kat checked the time. Seven pm was a strange time for someone to come by, especially if Cami was out, which meant it was almost certainly—

“Just a sec,” Kat excused herself and walked to the apartment door to unlock it, checking the peephole.

Sure enough, a tall, broadly built middle-aged man with a Hawaiian shirt and a cane stood outside the door. He wore a tool belt and held a bucket and a plastic bag with a hardware store logo.

Cami had once eloquently described their landlord’s face as an angry brick. Somehow the description fit.

“Hi, Mr. Walker-“

He handed her a bucket with gloves and a trowel inside, and she instinctively grabbed it.

“Use these to weed the landscaping. Use gloves for the ones with spines. Is Camilla here?” He peered behind her at Darius, and his face hardened.

“Thanks. I’ll make sure it gets done tomorrow.” Kat made a mental note to set her alarm earlier for the next day, so she had time to do the task. With the recent warm weather, they were already growing out of control. Usually, she went downstairs and got the tools herself.

“Cami’s not here right now,” Kat answered, blowing a silent breath of relief that she’d cleaned the apartment and sprayed air freshener.

Mr. Walker frowned. “She mentioned a broken window latch.” He rustled the plastic bag.

“Oh! Yeah, the one in my room’s been busted for a few weeks. I didn’t want to bother you. Err, come on in.” Kat decided, opening the door wider.

Mr. Walker walked in and inspected the living room, starting at a crack near the balcony doors and acknowledging Darius with a quick flick of an eye. Darius watched the mustached man openly.

“This is my boyfriend, Darius,” Kat explained.

“I’ve seen him around.”

Kat led Mr. Walker into her room and pointed to the window latch, demonstrating the flimsiness of the little lever and that the window could open just as easily with it ‘locked’ or unlocked.

Mr. Walker approached and let out a groan as he knelt by the window, pulling out a pair of spectacles.

“How’d you break it?” He asked, his tone hovering on the edge of accusatory.