I crossed the infirmary and sat on the edge of the bed. The mattress crinkled under me. I pulled the academy jacket off, set it beside me, then reached for the hem of my shirt and pulled it over my head in one motion.

Hart was already turning toward the scanner cart parked against the wall. She glanced over her shoulder mid-step, caught a look at me, and the look held longer than it needed to.

She turned back to the cart faster than she’d turned toward it.

I grinned at her back.

"See something you like, Nurse?"

"I see an idiot." Her voice was even, but the back of her neck told a different story. "Lie down. Arms at your sides. Don’t talk for the first scan."

"Yes, ma’am."

I lay back on the bed still.

Hart rolled the scanner cart over beside me. A thin arm extended from the top of the unit, ending in a flat sensor about the size of a paperback. She moved it over my chest, and a low hum started somewhere inside the machine.

A holographic display unfolded above my sternum.

My mana channels lit up in pale blue lines, branching from the core in my chest outward through my torso, my arms, my legs. The core itself sat in the center of the display, a small dense knot of light, rotating slowly. Around it, a second layer of light hung in a thin shell.

Hart went still.

"Ash."

"Mm."

"Don’t move."

Ignoring her, I reached up with my left hand, and brushed the strand of hair that had fallen across her cheek back behind her ear. My fingertips grazed the edge of her jaw on the way down.

Hart froze. "What are you doing."

"Your hair was in the way. I thought it might hinder your work. Also, I wanted to see you properly. You’re very pretty when you’re concentrating."

Hart’s mouth opened, then closed like a fish. She turned her face back toward the display without a word, but I saw it before she did.

The color climbing up the side of her neck in a soft, slow pink, spreading from her collar up to the line of her jaw.

"That’s inappropriate," she said, eyes fixed on the holographic image. "I’m conducting a medical examination."

"You’re conducting it very well."

"Stop talking."

"Yes, ma’am." I decided to stop teasing her, knowing there was limits to everything. It was better to take it slow with girls like Hart.

Hart leaned closer to the display. Her hair fell forward over her shoulder again, brushing the edge of my arm where it lay against the sheet, and I felt the warmth coming off her even through the cool air from the unit above us.

Her eyes moved across the projection, deep in focus.

The shell of light around my core pulsed once.

Hart’s breath caught in her throat.

"What’s wrong?" I asked, struggling to hide the smirk off my face.

"Your core...is changing as we speak. It’s becoming stronger."

I looked up at the holographic image above my chest.

The dense knot of light in the center was growing. The outer shell was thinning, then thickening, then thinning again, in a rhythm that matched my pulse but moved faster, like a second heartbeat layered over the first.

The blue branching channels through my torso were brightening at their roots, the color deepening from pale ice to a richer, fuller shade.

[Reward delivered: Core promotion (D → C).]

The System’s blue screen unfolded in the corner of my vision.

Another twenty minutes passed.

Hart’s eyes were still locked on the holographic display of my core, her lower lip caught between her teeth, the sensor in her hand drifting back and forth across my chest in slow, careful sweeps.

I checked the clock on the infirmary wall.

If I didn’t leave in the next five minutes, I’d be walking into the next lesson late.

"Hart."

"Beauty..."

Her eyes stayed on the display.

I cleared my throat. "If you keep staring at my chest like that, people are going to talk."

Hart blinked, shaping out of her daze. The sensor in her hand jerked back from my skin, and she straightened up so fast the cart wheels squeaked under the sudden shift in weight.

A deep flush bloomed across her face from her collar to her hairline.

"I’m so sorry." She set the sensor back in its cradle and smoothed the front of her coat with both hands, then smoothed it again, then smoothed it a third time because the first two hadn’t done anything. "I, that was, I apologize. It’s a fascination, seeing one of these in person. I’ve only ever read about cores like yours in case studies. It’s marvelous. I lost track of time."

I sat up on my elbows.

"Maybe you can see it every day. If we, you know."

"Ash!"

"What."

"Quit it."

She said it firmly, but the corners of her mouth were curling up against her will, and the soft smile she was fighting was losing ground by the second.

"Alright, alright." I held my hands up. "Behaving."

"Good."

Hart took a breath, and picked up her tablet from the cart, glanced down at the readings she’d been taking, and her expression sobered.

"Seriously, though." She looked up at me. "Your injury is gone. Completely. I thought you’d need four more sessions after this one, minimum. It turns out you don’t. Your channels have rebuilt themselves on their own, and the new core capacity is absorbing what was left of the strain. You’re cleared."

I shook my head slowly.

"Oh, trust me." I reached for my shirt and pulled it back over my head. "I do."

I tugged the collar straight and met her eyes.

"I need way more than four sessions with you."

Hart blinked, before slapping the back of my head. "You better head to class now. I don’t have time to play games with you, I’m busy."

"Yes, Ma’am." I smirked, putting on my uniform jacket and stepping out.