Zayne doesn’t look up when he hears the door to his office swing open. He already knows it’s you two based on the silence beyond the doors, signalling that his peaceful morning was over. “I have a patient in pre-op,” he says, pen scratching across a chart. “I assume this is your version of a house call.” When he finally looks up, he sees you and Sylus standing in the doorway wearing identical grins. The sigh that escapes him is bone-deep and immediate.

“Now, now. We brought reinforcements,” Sylus says in bemusement, lazily gesturing to the takeout bag in his hand. “And a deeply repressed hunter who says she misses you.” He gives you a smug look as if to say ‘Isn’t that right, kitten?’ and begins to move towards Zayne’s desk.

Zayne exhales through his nose, already failing to hide the way his mouth twitches at the corners. He gives your so-called ‘reinforcements’ a cursory glance, nearly doing a double take when he spots the dessert box balanced at the very top. He shakes his head, long-suffering but unmistakably fond. “Come and sit down, both of you.”