The days became colder all too quickly, the dropping temperatures accompanied by changing foliage as red and brown began to carpet the campus. Neatly raked piles of leaves along the sides of paths became a common sight for any on their way to class. At least, when the piles hadn't been blown away by biting winds or cleaned up entirely by groundskeepers.

  Some of those loose leaves skittered across the pavement, keeping just ahead of Kaitlyn and Elliot's feet as they traveled from their Genetics class to lab. By now, Professor Adams's lectures were so familiar that they were almost meditative. Because of that, Kaitlyn found the class a surprisingly useful environment for getting work done, even if she was certain that she got judgemental glances from her neighboring students. Having code up on her laptop screen wasn't exactly subtle. Still, Elliot never seemed to mind, so she didn't see any reason not to take advantage.

  "I saw the cake you and Esme made."

  Kaitlyn looked up at the ginger, his fiery hair mussed by the wind. "You did?"

  "Yup. Esme showed me the pictures. Well, more like she bombarded me with them." He shook his head with amusement. "Though I can't really blame her. It looked pretty professional."

  She preened a little at the praise. "Well, it better. I technically am a professional, you know."

  He cocked his head to the side. "Huh. That's a good point. Still, though, it wasn't just you working on it."

  "She's surprisingly good at decorating stuff. Way better than I was when I started out…" Kaitlyn shrugged. "Oh, well. Did you get to try it?"

  The look he gave her was a mixture of incredulity and amusement. "What do you think?"

  Kaitlyn's jaw dropped. "No way. She ate it all?!"

  "Don't underestimate what she's capable of—especially when pumpkin spice is involved."

  "But it was an entire cake! There's no possible way she ate it all herself! I refuse to believe it!"

  The ginger gave a helpless shrug. "Well, she might have gotten some help from her roommate and her friends. But I'm sure that she pulled most of the weight. Not that I'm complaining. I'm sure it was good, but I've always been more of a pie person, anyway."

  Oh! That's good info, write that down! Kaitlyn committed the tidbit to memory. Despite Elliot's very limited preferences for food, she still hadn't completely given up on that avenue quite yet. It was entirely possible that she just needed to hit the right recipe. And this was certainly more promising than most of her other attempts.

  Although… pies are pretty hard with my setup. Maybe I can get some mini pie pans and experiment? The fillings wouldn't be too hard to make in bulk, but setting up the crusts would take more labor and time than something like cupcakes. Then again, I won't have to decorate them afterwards, and I could definitely charge more…

  "I mean, if you want to have a pie-making day, I'm totally down," Kaitlyn offered hopefully. "I'm pretty sure we could make some in the dorms. Just let me know what flavors you want to do."

  "Nah, I'm fine," Elliot casually dismissed the offer. "I've never been into baking quite as much. It's nice of you to offer, though."

  "You sure? We could even drag Esme along, make it a group thing. I'm sure she wouldn't mind."

  "Nah. If she wants to do it though, go ahead. I won't feel left out."

  She frowned. It could have been her imagination, but he always seemed to turn down her offers to hang out. The only exceptions were study sessions, lunches with Esme, and these brief walks traveling from one place to another. Other than those relatively practical "hangouts", it seemed nearly impossible to get Elliot out to do anything else.

  Maybe he's just that busy? He does spend a good amount of time in lab, and I'd have to guess he practices with the band at some point. He's also good enough in classes that he probably spends a lot of time studying.

  Then again, considering his grasp of the material, maybe he didn't need to study. Maybe the guy was one of those lucky people who this stuff came naturally to. He definitely seemed like the type.

  Elliot interrupted her thoughts. "She mentioned that she told you about our relationship, too."

  His wording made her raise an eyebrow. "Yeah, I guess that's one way to put it. But did you have to phrase it that way? Even knowing you guys are cousins, that still sounds really… suggestive."

  "Gross," he chuckled. "You need to get your mind out of the gutter, Kate."

  "Hey, I'm not the one who's saying sketchy things in sketchy ways! Unless you meant it that way…" She waggled her eyebrows at him.

  He shook his head in disbelief. "You're incredibly gross for even suggesting that. It was pretty funny to hear you assumed we were dating, though. Do we really give off couple vibes?"

  Yes. So much so that I completely wrote off your route for YEARS because of it. In fact, if I hadn't seen firsthand how absolutely mortified Esme was at the suggestion, I still might not believe it.

  But instead of voicing her thoughts, she satisfied herself with a simple, "Yes."

  Elliot grimaced. "Wow. That bad, huh?"

  Kaitlyn shot him an apologetic look. "I mean, have you noticed how protective she acts around you? I always figured that if she wasn't your girlfriend, then she was definitely interested. It doesn't help that you're way more relaxed around her than anyone else, either. And you're pretty much attached at the hip."

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  "Yeah, makes sense I guess. We grew up pretty close, to the point where she basically feels like a sister to me. Maybe even closer than that, considering some siblings I've seen. Still…" He scratched his head and sighed. "That's a pretty unfortunate assumption, to say the least. Then again, it's not the first time people have made bad assumptions about me. I guess I should actually be thankful that no one realizes we're related…"

  Should you? I mean, if they did, then you might be able to avoid that whole problem altogether, right? Then I would have assumed you were siblings instead of… well, that.

  She briefly imagined what Esme might look like if her long black hair were orange instead. To her surprise, it kind of fit. The resemblances between her and Elliot were still sketchy at best—though maybe their noses did look pretty similar—but she could see it. Maybe it was just confirmation bias.

  The pair fell silent for a little while, their footsteps tapping softly against the pavement. As they branched off from the main thoroughfares, the neatly raked piles of leaves suddenly disappeared and gave way to an even coating across the ground. Occasionally, Kaitlyn's foot would crunch on one that had wandered onto the path.

  I should probably ask why he's so skittish about relationships. While we're already on the topic, I mean.

  Esme had mentioned that Elliot had some bad experiences in the past. That was info that seemed pretty darn relevant to her own purposes. And considering that they were getting along pretty well this time along, there was a real chance he'd open up about it and answer. The problem was, she was scared.

  I don't want to mess things up. I mean, maybe I should wait. He's definitely still got some walls up around me, even if it's less than before. So there's every chance this could just backfire and set him more on guard. But then again… I have to take the leap at some point, don't I?

  Maybe it would be better to wait until after she'd gotten some results from helping the guy. But then again, maybe not. It was hard to know. And either way, did it really matter? She was still in a time loop. Just because getting to this point again felt like a difficult proposition didn't mean that she couldn't manage it.

  Kaitlyn made to square her shoulders, then stopped herself. Best not to seem like she was intentionally working herself up for this, whether or not it was true.

  "...Esme also said you're kind of skittish about relationships."

  "Did she?"

  "Yeah. She said you had some sort of bad experience, but didn't explain."

  Elliot's expression tightened almost imperceptibly, becoming more guarded than before. She could practically hear the walls slamming back up as he spoke. "You could say that."

  Kaitlyn waited for him to elaborate, but the explanation never came. Instead, the sounds of skittering and crunching leaves were the only accompaniments to their footsteps until Elliot changed the topic.

  As they continued to chat about other things, she mentally kicked herself. She'd gone for it and failed. Evidently, whatever threshold she needed to pass in order to have Elliot open up was still out of reach. For now.

  Hopefully I have more luck once he sees I'm trying to help. I've just gotta prove that I'm not trying to get anything out of him selfishly. If that's even possible…

  She banished the thought with a shake of her head. It obviously was possible. Otherwise, there was no way they'd ever come close to seeing a romance ending. She just had to hope that her plan worked.

  ***

  Alright. This is it.

  The dense crush of bodies packed inside The Gully pressed against Kaitlyn, shadowed figures set partially aglow by the blue and purple lights on the empty stage. A cacophony of voices, all attempting to be heard over each other, filled the smallish space with a disproportionate din. Despite that, the warmth was a welcome reprieve from the cold outside and quickly had Kaitlyn shedding her red hoodie.

  Their little posse of girls wrestled their way to their usual spot at the side of the stage, chattering excitedly the whole while. Kaitlyn positioned herself safely near the center of the cluster. Despite the borderline aggressiveness that had allowed them to secure the spot in the first place, they were really quite conscientious about people within their group. More than the rest of the crowd would be, anyway. And Kaitlyn would need to make use of that.

  "Omigosh, I'm sooo excited! Aren't you?"

  Heather bounced in place, her blonde curls bobbing up and down like springs. Her wide eyes practically sparkled in the light as Kaitlyn nodded. "Yup. Me, too."

  "Omigosh, me three!"

  "I'm absolutely stoked."

  The group of girls quickly occupied themselves with predictions about what songs Maze of Ills would play as Kaitlyn checked her phone. She'd already begun her fan page posting about the Dream Lizards to get a head start and build a foundational following. To her astonishment, it was actually doing quite well. Heather's lessons seemed like they were actually paying off in getting her numbers way up there, so much that it was a little shocking. But tonight would give her even better material to work with.

  She raised the phone, checking on the view from her current vantage point and shifting slightly until she was satisfied. Then, she tucked it away. Their spot was nearly perfect for recording. Heather's friends always maintained an iron grip of the area closest to the stage, meaning she wouldn't have to worry about other people's heads and arms getting in the way. She'd even made sure that the device had plenty of space for videos and pictures. This was the only time she got to see the band perform, and there was no way she'd let it go to waste.

  Eventually, the lights dimmed, plunging the room into near darkness. A wave of cheers and scattered applause rang out through the crowd as the shadowed figures of the opening band took their places. She got ready to record, catching the keyboard's opening notes as they rang through the space.

  The lights brightened to illuminate the Dream Lizards. The drummer and keyboard player were near the back, their boyish features and frayed clothing giving off a distinctly punk impression. But there, near the front with the scruffy lead singer, stood Elliot's familiar form. His fiery orange hair flowed loose about his shoulders, flannel open to reveal a white shirt beneath. A polished black bass guitar hung across his chest, his hands poised and ready to play.

  The crowd began bobbing and cheering as the music continued, the band launching seamlessly from their first song to their second without missing a beat. Kaitlyn did her best to hold her phone's camera steady, though she found herself getting caught up in the excitement a few times.

  "Hartland University! How we feelin' tonight?"

  As the lead singer riled up the crowd, Elliot idly scanned the sea of faces until his gaze came to rest on Kaitlyn. Flushing, she gave him a small wave.

  Shoot. I kind of didn't consider how I might look doing this… Hopefully he doesn't make any weird assumptions.

  Thankfully, the guy just flashed her a smile.

  "Omigosh, the bassist is totally smiling at us!"

  "He so did!"

  "Ugh, Heather! He's totally hot!"

  The speculations of who exactly Elliot had been smiling at were quickly converted into cheers as they launched into the next song. Kaitlyn stifled a chuckle as the ginger returned his attention to his bass.

  I really hope this is the right thing to do. If not… well, at least I'll learn something, I guess.