She smiled, awaiting the food and taking a sip of the tea. "Wonderful tea, Well, We're a parliamentary confederated republic, forgiving the long words. We consist of six states who oversee most local domestic issues with a national government majorly responsible for national and foreign issues. Culturally it's well as diverse as the states; The coastal cities tend to be very liberalistic with the mountain states being staunchly conservative. Quite the assembly of people, really. Tell me more about Rashidun?"

Post the best discord memes disses etc here

Name	A-7 Bearcat
Variations	A-7B Bearcat A-7E Weasel Bearcat (SEAD)
Designed	1966
Entered Service	1970
Mission	Close Air Support/Local Air Supremacy (Helicopter Domination)
Crew	One
Length	62 ft. 9 in
Wingspan	35 ft 10 in
Height	13ft 10 in
Empty Weight	7,650lb
Maximum Take-Off Weight	13,460lb
Maximum Speed	455mph (730km/h)
Combat Radius	600nm
Service Ceiling	40,800ft
Ferry Range	1,000nm
Armament	Static: 4 x 20mm Cannon Mission Dependent: Unguided and Guided Bombs (up to 5,000kg) Guided/Unguided Rockets (up to 5,000kg) Air to Air Missiles Flares/ECM Countermeasures
Number Built	32 (12 in operation)

"Wa-..What?" James suddenly found himself gripped by a shaggy appearing fellow, who was now questioning him about "The Child." "What-..Who? What?" His wife and child were now looking on, as confused as he was. Before he could think of a cohesive response, the man had vanished back into the crowd.

"Who was that?" He looked back at his wife

"I have no idea... A Rashidunian maybe?" His wife shrugged, they both turned back to Millicent. "Well, we have our child, but I don't think that's what he means by the child....You're not starting World War Three down there or anything, right Millie?"

Her daughter jumped, seemingly having spaced out, "Huh? No,no no, 'Course not!" She answered sarcastically.

The naysayers appearance was, well, odd to the foreign cascadians. About midway through their confrontation, James and Minerva turned to eachother, slightly confused. Moreland was an interesting place indeed. Of course, their daughter felt so as well. By the time the Marines had pulled the two women towards the gateway, a childish voice pierced the commotion, "It's not pollliteee to yell at a wedding, miss!" It took them both a second to realize that it was their child who had made the quip in the middle of what was now the crowd's laughter, and they quickly turned to silence their ten year old. "Millie!" Her father snapped, grabbing her by the arm.


"But you told me to be quiet at weddings." she returned with another, albeit quietly quip. "That-..That doesn't mean you can tell other people to be quiet Millie..."

"B-..Fine. Boring." She snipped, "Stay quiet." Her mother commanded, and she shrunk back between the two of them.

ACTIVE PERSONNEL: 4,112
RESERVE PERSONNEL:  3,425
STRIKE FIGHTERS: 44
TRANSPORT AIRCRAFT: 33
CLOSE AIR SUPPORT AIRCRAFT 12
TRAINER AIRCRAFT: 20

Honorable Mr. Lanky,

Having been interested in signing the Mundus Convention on Universal rights, we wish to hold our possible application and attend any such meeting to discuss a enforceability clause by a international court. While most of the Convention falls in line with Cascadian ideals and morals, there are several clauses that are unenforceable by the Cascadian government upon its citizens and member states by our national government, thus making the prospect of enforcement by a international court quite worrying to potential signers such as ourself.

With this in mind, we wish to attend said conference in a observer capacity with the goal of better determining our position and possibly rectifying our issues with the convention.

Many thanks,
Sidney Stewart
Secretary of State

"Back! Back!" shouted a embassy Marine, pushing a straggler out of the Cascadian compound before re-sealing the gate. While not the particular target of the riot, the Cascadian embassy was opposite the Rokkenjiman, not a full block away, and thus was bearing some of the brunt of the riots. The compound was, however, not built for this type of conflict, of course. Paling in size to the Rokkenjiman embassy, the small three story 19th century brick-and-mortar building overlooked the street below, with a fenced front yard. Just beyond the front gates the streets seemed in a state of near anarchy.

On the third floor of the embassy, the Ambassador looked over the rioting below out his office window with the Marine force commander, if he can be called that with a half a dozen men under his command, standing to his right. They heard a volley of rifle fire go off.

"...Are they shooting at us?"

"No, sir."

"How can you tell?"

"That thud. It'd be more like a crack if they were shooting at us."

"So what's this all about?"

"No idea, but we haven't been able to get any supplies in. We have four days of food and water left."

"And we don't know when it'le end?"

"The Lakhzovians haven't returned our calls, though I suspect they're a tad preoccupied."

"Hmf, well, I suppose we're sitting it ou-.." He saw a wave of gunfire again, from neighboring buildings near the Embassies. "Police?"

"I mean-..could b-.." The officer was cut off by a loud CRACK, as shards of the brick near to the window dropped to the ground.

"Now they're shooting at us." The officer responded, grabbing his radio. "Keep your heads low, we're catching fire up here, Break." was met by a "Affirmative."

"So, let's assume this spills over here, what do we do?"

"Well given six marines versus a mob of hundreds, I can't really say I respect our odds, sir."

"So be it then." He nodded, taking a sip from his coffee. "Well, we're stuck here anyways."

---

[Verse 1]
Here's the story of Cascadia
A land both fair and great
On twentieth of October
An independent state
This was much against the wishes
Of the king's government
Whose leaders tried to break us down
To make us all repent

[Chorus]
But we're all Cascadians
And we'll fight through thick and thin
We'll keep our land a free land
Stop the enemy coming in
We'll keep them north of the Harbor
'Til that bay's bloodshot red
This mighty land will prosper
For Cascadians never die

[Verse 2]
They can send their men to hang
And they can shout their words of hate
But the cost of keeping this land free
Can never be too great
For our men and boys are fighting
For the things that they hold dear
That this land and all its people
Will never disappear

[Chorus]
'Cause we're all Cascadians
And we'll fight through thick and thin
We'll keep our land a free land
Stop the enemy coming in
We'll keep them north of the Harbor
'Til that bay's bloodshot red
This mighty land will propser
For Cascadians never die

[Verse 3]
We'll preserve this little nation
For our children's children too
For once you're Cascadian
No other land will do
We will stand tall in the sunshine
With the truth upon our side
And if we have to go alone
We'll go alone with pride

[Chorus]
'Cause we're all Cascadians
And we'll fight through thick and thin
We'll keep our land a free land
Stop the enemy coming in
We'll keep them north of the Harbor
'Til that bay's bloodshot red
This mighty land will prosper
For Cascadians never die

[Chorus]
Yes, we're all Cascadians
And we'll fight through thick and thin
We'll keep our land a free land
Stop the enemy coming in
We'll keep them north of the Harbor
'Til that bay's bloodshot red
This mighty land will prosper
For Rhodesians never die

[Chorus]
Because we're all Cascadians
And we'll fight through thick and thin
We'll keep our land a free land
Stop the enemy coming in
We'll keep them north of the Harbor
'Til that bay's bloodshot red
This mighty land will prosper
For Cascadians never die

Premier Minerva Todd
The primary figure for political evacuation in WP-87 is the Premier. The Premier is, when at residence, found in the Premier's Office during business hours and either in one of the house's lounging areas or her bedroom after hours. In event the Premier is out of residence, the Premier's Protection Team is aware to make Defense Ministry staff aware should WP-87 be executed to change plans.

First Gentleman James Todd
The First Gentleman is usually found in his office, the bedroom, or the living room/kitchen in the Premier's Residence.

First Daughter Millicent Todd
The Premier's Daughter is usually located either in the living room or her bedroom, excluding schooling.

• If the evacuation during school hours the First Daughter will be located at the West Market Elementary School, three blocks away from the Premier's Residence. The First Daughter's security detail will be paged if WP-87 is executed and are expected to expedite her to the landing zone on the Premier Residence's lawn. Crews are expected to wait no more than three minutes for the First Daughter after loading the Premier and First Gentleman, and should not wait any longer. WP-87 authorizes direct orders to wait past the allotted time to be ignored; While vital to the  morale of the family, the First Daughter serves no role to national security and the daughter's security team has a contingency plan to evacuate her should they miss the Premier's evacuation helicopter.

THIS PLAN IS written in contingency of a 'unwinnable' (No tenable objective opinion of being able to repel) invasion of the Cascadian homeland, or significant national emergency that places all of a majority of senior officers at immediate risk. The determination can, in most situations, be made on the following facts:

• Cascadia's Armed Forces are both primarily defensive in nature and woefully inadequate if faced with invasion from a major world power.
• Cascadia's Navy could not feasibly repel a large scale naval invasion directed at the cities of Harbordale, Scott, and Moon
• A single contemporary Aircraft Carrier from a major power could produce air supremacy over a particular region of Cascadia (Primary region of concern being Harbordale).
• It is assumed that any foreign invasion of Cascadia would be planned to involve at least twice, and very possibly three times the manpower of available Cascadian forces

With these in mind, the determination that any primarily planned invasion by a world power would be constituted as strategically unwinnable by Cascadian forces. Based on this, WP-87 should be implemented as soon as possible if a imminent foreign invasion is suspected.

"But Maaawwwwwwm, I dun't wanna go!" The young girl squirmed as her mother - though many attempts - got her into a formal(ish) dress. "How old are you now, Millie?" snapped her mother. "Ten..."

"Yes, bit old to be throwing a fit then, yeah?"

"But maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwm!" The girl pouted, crossing her arms.

"Why are you so pouty anyways?"

"She may have 'found' some Mountain Dew at the festival." Chirped in her husband from across the hotel room, fitting his tie on. "You had one job, James." Pouted Minerva sarcastically. "I mean, I actually have quite a few-.." her husband responded, "Urgh, well, if your daughter finds a way to screw up the first foreign wedding that we attend it's on you." She teased, adjusting her own dress as her daughter toyed with hers.

"My daughter!?" The voice boomed from across the room, her husband emerging from it in a suit and tie. "Mmmmhmmm..." He rolled his eyes. "Let's go." They made they way out of the room, being escorted by their usual two man security detail downstairs and into the festival grounds, before weaving through crowds to arrive at the VIP entrance. Their names checked, they were lead inside where they quickly found a seat towards the rear before the Bride's arrival.

CHAPTER 4: MONEY
PART 6. EVICTION NOTICE

Aurelia is studying to become a doctor, has no social life, more stuff happens




I. 1. A. Some congenital diseases can lead to... The words went until they nearly fell off of the page before beginning again on the other side. Aurelia had really lost track of time these days, unless it was a deadline or an exam. She was sprawled out on the living room floor, four textbooks at her right side and a stack of paper on the other. Studying for what seemed like an eternity only broken by the brief moments where she wasn't alone. Frank had a job, and apparently, a job that involved people counting on him, so he couldn't hang around much. At least, that was what it seemed like to her, now. She hadn't done anything for fun in weeks...

Frank shifted into the apartment at about 6 in the afternoon, he had left at 7 in the morning. A eleven hour day was far from unheard of for him. He originally just gave Aurelia a nod as he shifted into the kitchen, setting down the groceries he had brought in, before he realized they both were stuck in a bit of a rut. He shifted back to the living room, plopping himself down on the couch and looking at her. "We haven't really like, done anything in weeks. Let's go do something." he paused, "Any ideas?"

Aurelia gave him only a passing glance, not out of indifference, but out of sheer concentration on the stack of papers in front of her. "No, I gotta take these notes and then, I have to review that old chapter and..." she sighed. "Too busy." before beginning to write again.

He himself sighed, reclining to lay across the couch as he watched her. "You've been doing nothing but studying for the last two weeks. You could stand to get out of the house." She looked up at him again, not saying a word before delving back into the textbook. He was right, and perhaps she was rationalizing it in her mind, but she had always blamed the accelerated course for that. The bags under her eyes might have been telling a different story, not one of sheer determination, but perhaps one of situational depression just as she'd had back in the prison. She lacked enthusiasm, and her entire mind had been laced with doubts over her morality with the people she could be helping. "I'm fine." she insisted almost involuntarily under her breath as she continued reading.

He grunted, rolling off of the couch and onto the floor next to her. When she turned to look at him, he crawled up next to her, doing his best to fix her messy hair and trying to wipe away the bags under her eyes. "You really need to get out of the house." he remarked again, rolling on his back to look at the ceiling, being careful not to disrupt any of her study items as he shifted around.

"I'm fine." she repeated, flipping the page over to the other side and beginning to write the next section's notes. He continued to look up at the ceiling, "I think we know each other well enough that we both know you're not fine." She didn't respond, feeling she didn't have time to doubt herself, and instead continuing to write, the sounds of the pencil writing on the paper creating an almost monotone scraping they could both hear.(edited)

He sighed, deciding not to prod the problem further. He pushed himself up, being careful not to disrupt her. "Well, I guess if you need anything, let me know." He sighed, leaving her to her studying and going to the bedroom to change into more comfortable night clothes.

As he left, she gave him a brief glance, before returning to her studies. Half of her had almost been hoping he'd insist, or close the book in her face. But the other half was only focused on work. And as she thought of her own internal struggle, her mind drifted over to her Psychology course. Superego and Id? Fucking...fucking Freud. She thought, referring to some outdated and arguably disproven theory she'd still have to learn for historical context on the whole course. And then she remembered she had a quiz on that soon, and she started writing down notes twice as fast, almost to the point of scribbling.

He eventually re-emerged, in far more comfortable clothing; shorts and a t-shirt, and shifted himself around Aurelia to get to the recliner, popping it out and plopping himself into it. He was debating turning the TV on before deciding against it due to her studying. After sitting there for a minute, he decided to just take the question out of it. "We'll go somewhere after I take a quick nap. Maybe the waterfront." he trailed off, Internally he thought he'd just drop it if she seriously opposed, but he was having real difficulty reading what she wanted. He eventually just sighed and drifted off to sleep in the recliner.(edited)

Aurelia once again didn't respond, but her mind had made itself up. She had to finish all of her shit if she was going to get dragged off anywhere. But minutes of studying turned to an hour turned to two, and every second she'd found her face a bit closer to the book until finally she dropped into a very light sleep and her mind entered surrealistic nightmare territory. But today wasn't like usual. Occasionally, she'd have some brief PTSD episode, some anxiety attack over some issue that didn't exist, but never some weird slow motion fever dream. That was, until today.

Frank had, himself, shifted into a uneventful nap, until he was awoken at around 9pm suddenly by the loud thunk of a book hitting the ground; Aurelia had shifted in her sleep, hitting a leg of table on the edge of the living room and causing a book on it to fall off. She was mumbling loudly in her sleep and her arms occasionally shifted violently, He immediately knew what was happening, and jumped out of the recliner and crouched down next to Aurelia, rolling her over onto her back. He lifted her head up slightly, slapping her lightly to try and wake her up. "Hey now...hey.....hey...it's alright...Relax..." He mumbled, trying to pull her out of the dream as he laid the back of her head on his lap.

Aurelia's eyes shot open at the first slap, and she spent the next ten seconds trying to swat Frank's hand out of the way. "There's...there's probably better ways to wake me up.." she mumbled, before yawning loudly. He smiled at her, retracting his hand. "You scared me there." he remarked.

"I what?" she squinted. "What time is it?"

He looked around, her tossing and turning had made a bit of a mess out of her little study area. "Nine at night." he said.

"Ugh..." she wiped her eyes before closing them. "I'm tired..."

"You sure you're alright?" he asked sincerely, still sitting down next to her and holding her upright. He slowly came down from the adrenaline rush seeing her struggle had put him in. She hugged him. "I had a dream where we died." she whispered.

He laid himself, and thus them both backwards onto the floor, staring at eachother in a hug. He elected not to respond to her directly, just holding her closer as she whispered to him. They hugged for at least several minutes, before he whispered. "Do you just want to go to bed or should we still go out?"

"I don't know..." she trailed off, "I don't know anything anymore except that I have a defense mechanism and shit's firing off in my brain and I've been studying too much and you're never around-" she said, rocketing off like a twelve year old with ADHD.

He cut her off at 'never around', just kissing her briefly in their embrace, before running his good hand down her cheek. "We both knew the first few months of this would be hard." He paused, ensuring she was paying attention. "I'm only on overtime because of the whole Ionia thing, it'le blow over in a month, tops, and I'll be home sooner. You'll have the credits you need soon, too, then you'll be a Doctor and everything will work out. I promise." He was reassuring himself just as much as her, at this point.

"What Ionia thing?" she asked, totally clueless to anything going on outside of a twenty meter radius of their apartment.

"They walked into Vienra" he remarked, sighing. "I heard it's rather messy."

"Oh, right." she trailed off. "So nothing's changed." she sighed. "Mmf..."

"Well..." he remarked "...The Ionians tried taking it back, Ionians got routed...Rumors aren't good about what's going on in the city..."

"Oh, I don't give a shit anymore..." she frowned, burying her face into him.

"You did ask..." he said, obviously in jest, He rested his head ontop of hers. "But we shouldn't worry about that now. You want to go out or stay here?"

"I want to go out." she said, breaking from the hug and rolling off of him before standing up and straightening herself out. Her hair was hanging messily over her face, blocking out one of her eyes from view and making her look more like a moody teenager than an almost-doctor.

He pushed himself up, looking her over briefly and fixing her hair - again -. "You sure you don't want to get changed or put any makeup on?" he remarked, trying to avoid a situation where they leave and she immediately regrets not fixing it.

"No. I don't care." she told him, looking down at her sweatpants and mismatched socks. "I look fine..."

"To me, yes, but you need to also look beautiful to everyone else." he teased, backing her into the wall next to the apartment door before kissing her neck affectionately. He figured making her feel wanted was the easiest way to get all of this off of her mind.

She squeezed his wrist. "It's 9 PM...who the hell's gonna care?" she asked.

He smirked, whispering "Aren't you the one who wants everyone to see us kiss in public?" He paused a second, shifting his position as he kissed her. "I'll make this easier for you." he said with a smirk, and his hand shifted to her rear, squeezing it for a second passionately before using it as a platform to lift her up onto his shoulder in a fireman's carry, making out with her as he brought her up; one major benefit of only having one arm is the other one had become necessarly stronger. She felt herself being placed onto his shoulder, and looked backwards as he carried her back to the bedroom. He plopped her down next to the closet, which mostly had her clothes in it. "Surprise me." he whispered giddily, before leaving to wait for her in the living room. Though Frank was having at least some fun, he knew the main purpose of overdoing this was to get Aurelia's mind off of studying and the many problems they faced ahead.

She giggled as he lifted her up, wiggling her legs around briefly to try and get him to set her down early. After getting set down, she looked at the closet, her eye twitching a little bit at the thought of looking passable now. She delved into the closet and put on some shorts and a tank top filled with pictures of cats that she'd found for some extremely reduced price three weeks before. She threw her socks off, took a brief look at herself in the mirror, and headed out, groggily smiling at Frank when she got out into the living room.

He looked her over, smirking before taking her hand and opening the door for her. "You look great." he whispered with a smile as they descended the stairs to the boulevard below.

She shoved some shoes on and followed him down. Gone were her days of hobbling down stairs, but she nevertheless disliked them. "So, where are we going now? Another walk?"

"Going to hop on the tube to the waterfront" he announced, "Shouldn't take long." They entered the tube station, boarding the next train, and arrived at the waterfront district 10 minutes later; most promiment was a long boardwalk with various shops and restuarants. "Anything in particular you wanna do?" he asked as they exited the tube station, crossing a street to reach the boardwalk. Various container ships, cruise liners, warships, sailboats, and etcetera were in the harbor, lit up at night, and it offered a nice view of downtown Hematite on the other side of the harbor.

"Uhm, no, not really. I want to study..." she trailed off, looking at the view. One of the many buildings in the skyline was partially a hospital. She wondered if she'd ever get to work there. "Oh, shhh." he remarked. Knowing neither of them had ate dinner, he went looking with her. Finding a place was actually kind of difficult though; most places were exclusively seafood because of the locale, which neither of them were particular fans of seafood. They settled on a family ran restuarant that seemed to offer most common dishes, and more importantly had tables outfront overlooking the bay. Frank got a table for two outfront and they sat down.

Aurelia proceeded quietly alongside him, sitting down and waiting. Her mind was a frustrating amalgamation of wanting to do nothing and wanting to do everything and it served nothing more than to piss her off. She hoped she wasn't pissing Frank off, too.

"I...well...I just need you to know I'm here for you." Frank was aware he sounded more or less cliche, but it was the most he could muster right now given their circumstances. "I, mean, well, we're here for each other." Right as he finished a waitress arrived, taking their orders for drinks.

Aurelia ordered beer. "Haven't we already been over this?" she asked him. "Just..." she looked down. "I don't know..."
She looked up, clearly wanting to tell him something but waiting for the waitress to leave.

He was halfway through ordering a soda when she ordered a beer, and internally decided to just get a beer as well. The waitress left them with the drinks, when he continued, "We have...just...you know...It hasn't been easy."

He corrected himself in his seat, sipping the beer. "I guess you're right, yeah, we shouldn't talk about this." referring to the initial circumstances of their relationship.

"I'm starting to hate things I shouldn't hate..." she frowned.

He smirked, happy to change the subject. "Like?"

"Sleeping. Studying. The thought of being a doctor. Food. Comfy couches. Music..." she sighed.

"So basically you're starting to hate life." he joked, "That's more common than you think."

"I...I don't hate life..." she frowned.

He sighed, "Mhmf...." waiting for a waitress to take their orders for food before continuing; Frank ordered a sandwich. Aurelia reluctantly ordered a different sandwich, smiling weakly at the waitress.

Once she left, he continued. "I...erm...talked to my boss the other day." He took a sip of the beer, to calm his nerves. "He recommended we may want to look into, well, therapy. Said he knows someone." He paused awkwardly, evidently not sure himself how to see the suggestion.

"For-for me?" she asked, looking down. "For us? We're fine. Our relationship's fine."

"I was referring to both of us." he said, seriously, "Not for our relationship, but for what we've been through..." He sighed, drinking more of his beer. "I don't know if we can keep going just pretending that it didn't happen."

Aurelia looked down at the bubbles on her beer. She hadn't even touched it. "It happened...but....I mean, that's behind us now. My dreams have been getting better. Just...I still occasionally get a weirder one like this."

He frowned, electing not to push the idea harder. "Just keep it in mind, I mean." He looked out over the bay, a sailboat was cresting waves at speed, but the sail had been replaced with a gigantic Dartfordian flag illuminated by a spotlight. A flashing neon sign saying 'LEAVE' flickered in various colors. Just another day in Hematite. "I'm just...worried about it...you know? I mean, I don't know, am I being paranoid?"

"Yeah, you are." she assured him, wondering if he was being paranoid. "Actually..." she paused. "I think I only hate stress."

He smiled at her assurances, deciding to himself that he probably was being paranoid. "Well, when you coop yourself up in the apartment for weeks at a time looking at the same chapters of a textbook you get plenty of that." he smirked. She shook her head. "They're not the same chapters and they're not the same textbooks. I gotta lot of shit to do."

"Oh shush, you know what i'm saying. You need to find time to like, enjoy life." he smiled, taking a bite of his sandwich. "Life is..." she was about to say 'unenjoyable' impulsively but caught herself, recognizing not only the red flags that would set off but the fact that it wasn't true at all. "...tolerable." He looked at her, slightly confused by the...oddity...of that statement, "I expected something more..flamboyant, I guess." He shrugged, thinking she had intended on saying that.

"I mean, like...It's not very fun at the moment."

He nodded, "Well, the suckiest things are that much more fun if you're doing it with someone you love." He still felt slightly odd about using the word 'love' - even if they had been together for some time by now, but he traced that back to the way they met.

"Do you want to study for me? That's academic dishonesty." she teased.

He smirked, "I mean, I couuuuullld, but you wouldn't be able to read the notes"

"Bullshit. You seen my handwriting? It's not much better than yours, now." she grinned. He laughed, "Well, someone's got the makings of a good doctor then." She started giggling perhaps a bit too loudly. "Aw, stoooop!" He smiled, placing his hand on hers "Just think, in a few months you'll be a doctor making four times my salary and it'll all work out"

"And you'll be a-" she paused suddenly, a weird expression going over her face. She held on it for a second, before immediately sneezing into her elbow. He grinned, almost laughing, "A what?"

"A-a-a-a-" she started again, sneezing a second time into her elbow before blinking a couple of times. He laughed, when suddenly his phone started ringing. His hand moved to his front right pocket, pulling it out before answering it with a sigh. "Yeah? - Oh, hello, sir...No...I'm kinda of in the middle of something, sir..."
Aurelia nodded at Frank, having noticed that it was job related.

He was on the phone for another two or three minutes or so, mumbling things like "I'd really prefer if I didn't..", "Nowhere near the line...?" and "Tomorrow at five?" With each passing minute of the conversation, he shrunk in his chair, looking down at the ground near his feet. He finally ended the conversation with a "Understood", hanging up the phone and putting it in his pocket. He sighed, looking over at the harbor and deciding very carefully how to address this.

Aurelia grinned at him. "Hm. What is it?" - He was thinking of a long way to dabble around the issue, but all of that went out the window. "They're sending me to Ionia." Her grin disappeared, forming into a totally neutral expression, but she didn't say anything.

He also elected not to say anything else, still looking at the harbor, tapping his hand on his leg. He finally blurted out "They want me to leave tomorrow at five in the afternoon." She didn't react. Perhaps her brain had gone numb, or perhaps she'd simply filtered him out, distracted by some sort of morbid internal screaming, pleading with nothingness for him to stay.

He pulled out his wallet, deciding to pay for the food. Neither of them were likely to finish it given that announcement. He left a somewhat hefty tip before electing to stand up and placing his hands in his pockets. She didn't stand, but her eyes followed him, a hint of a shine in them that usually wasn't there perfectly obvious in the light of the city.

He half-assedly signaled her to follow him before walking over to the railing of the bay, wrapping his hand around her waist when they both reached the railing. He whispered what little encouragement he could offer, truth be told he wasn't a huge fan of going himself. "They said I won't be anywhere near the fighting...I can...erm...call every night, yeah."

She sluggishly got up and followed him, stopping at the Railing and grabbing his hand lightly. "I'll be...it'll...fine...I'm fine..." she mumbled, not even properly audible. He leaned over to kiss her, holding her over the railing for a moment before breaking it and holding the hug. "You will. You're strong, we both know it." he whispered.

"Please don't die." she whispered. "Please."

He held her closer, trying to ignore the fact he himself was tearing up. "I won't." He lifted her chin up so he could look her in the eyes. "Promise." She blinked once, sighing, before closing her eyes completely.

They held each other for a few more minutes, before Frank finally broke it off. "We should get going." He took her hand as they began walking back to the train station.

CHAPTER 4: MONEY
PART 3. SHOCK THERAPY
Frank goes to rehab. Aurelia tags along.



The previous day and night had gone usually, Frank was getting back into the swing of work and Aurelia was looking at medical schools. On Friday, however, he was due to start the physical rehabilitation program, so he was let out of work early at lunch. He went home to pick up Aurelia, twisting the key and entering before closing the door behind him. Aurelia looked up at the newly-arrived Frank from the couch. She was watching a cartoon. "Yo." she greeted him.

"Yo", He walked over past her, kissing her briefly before starting to walk back towards the bedroom, changing out of his dress clothes. He re-emerged a few minutes later in jeans and a polo shirt, but still struggling to button the collar of his shirt. "Just one thing" he looked at her, evidently motioning to the buttons he was having a hard time getting to go in. "Mhm." He hugged her with his one arm, before speaking lowly. "I'm anxious as fuck right now."

"It'll be fine." she reassured him, finishing the last button. "You saw the reviews this guy got. There's a reason for them. He's helped a bunch of people just like you."

"Mhm. That'd be why I want to bring you along" He kissed her again, more to calm his nerves than anything, "You ready to go?" She nodded, looking down at herself. "As ready as I can get."

He smiled, leading her out of the apartment before shutting and locking the door behind them. They descended the stairs, popping out of the lobby on the boulevard. "Think we're taking the tube, yeah?"

"Yeah. But you know where." she said, pointing to his pocket. "I can't even remember what his name is." He shrugged, reaching into his pocket and grabbing the business card. "Doctor....Nicholas Brown." He shruged, walking down into the nearby station with her; it was bustling with lunchtime activity. They paid for the tickets before waiting on the platform for the train to come. "I still prefer the countryside" murmured Frank to her, quietly. "I just don't like the bustle, I guess."

"Weirdo." she teased, watching the train arrive and limping on, immediately gravitating to the only empty seat she could find. "Tell me about it." he agreed jokingly, boarding the train with her, but not being able to immediately find a seat so he stood next to her with his hand on the railing. "Three stops down the line is where we're getting off" he reassured as the train started moving. She nodded silently, waiting for their train journey to start as others came walking into the train. The train began its movement, only going for about a mile or so before stopping at the first stop on their route. The person who was sitting next to Aurelia stood up to get off, causing Frank to immediately steal his seat. He was shaking his left leg, presumably as a way to deal with the anxiety. "I really don't know why I'm so nervous about this..." he tried explaining, "I can't make any sense of it."

"It's because you're gonna have to talk about it, right? Chill. It'll be fine." she theorized, reassuring him. "I guess." He sighed as the train made its second stop, "Or i'm worried about what he'll tell me about it."

"Guess you'll find out." she shrugged. "Seriously, don't worry. We'll go watch a movie or something after, yeah?"

"Mhm. You're right." he was more reassuring himself than anything. The train came to a stop, and Frank stood up with Aurelia, shuffling out of the underground station and appearing up near a medical complex and hospital. "He's in building 7A...4th floor." said Frank, looking at the business card as he walked. "They better have an elevator..." she trailed off, looking at the building. She grabbed his hand and looked up to him. "Lead the way."

"They ought to have." he joked, "Only got one hand so carrying you up would be difficult." He joked, as they entered building 7A. There was immediately a bank of elevators near the lobby, and they walked into one and Frank pressed the '4' button. The second the elevator doors closed, he locked in a prolonged kiss, afterwords holding the hug and whispering "I have no idea where I'd be without you...and I have no idea how I'd live without you. " He trailed off, in a normal relationship it'd just be lovey-dovey talk, but given the context of their relationship, it was entirely truthful, at least in his mind. Aurelia returned the hug. "Holy Gods, dude." she giggled. "Me too...for real." she said, telling the truth. After all, he'd broken her out.

He held the hug for a little while as the elevator went up. "It's like....weird...We've known each other for such a small relative period of time, but we're also so...well...intertwined." He shrugged, finally letting go as the elevators doors opened. "They say scary experiences form bonds." she grinned, looking out towards the hallway and pulling him out after her, searching for the right door. He smiled, letting her pull him along 'til she found the door, leading them both inside. The waiting room was surprisingly empty, given the specific nature of the specialist and Dartfordia's lack of interventionism, only three other people were inside. Frank sat down, electing to let Aurelia check them in with the clerk.

Aurelia let go of his hand and walked up to the clerk. "Hey." she smiled. "I'm here with Frank...uhm, Francis Keeve. He had an appointment." The clerk nodded, "Yeah, doc'll be with you shortly" She gave her a patient information clipboard and a pen. "Bring this back when you're done." Aurelia nodded with a faked smile and went back over to Frank, sitting down next to it and beginning to fill it out for him from memory, before handing it to him so he could sign. "This is my least favorite part of any doctoral visit." she confessed. "Including processing these..." He sighed, forcing out a barely legible signature with both hands. "Yeah, same here. Particularly now." She stood up slowly, limping back to the clerk and handing it to her. "Right. He'll be with you lot shortly." she said. Aurelia nodded, sitting back down.

They held hands for a minute, sitting there into a assistant opened the door and called Frank's name. They stood up, moving over to a room by themselves and waited for the doctor. "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck..." he confided, quietly, as they both sat down. Aurelia looked around the rooms, spotting the familiar implements that every doctor's office had, including posters of the muscular system. "Well...now we wait, yeah?"

"Worst part." he confided, sighing and closing his eyes as he reclined his head backwards. "It's gonna be fine, Frank..." she trailed off, holding his hand. "Come on. Just a doctor, and we go to the movies after, yeah?"

He sighed in agreement right as the Doctor entered, closing the door behind him. He was a man in his early 30's, rather young for the profession. Frank and Aurelia both stood up as he went to shake their hands, "I'm Doctor Brown" remarked him as he shook Frank's hand. "Nice to meet ya, Frank." He went over to Aurelia, shaking hers as well. "I don't believe I have your name, though?"

"Aurelia." she said at the doctor. "I'm his...girlfriend. And kind of indirectly the reason he got his injury." she told the Doctor. He nodded, writing something on the clipboard. "What was the story behind that, if you don't mind? All I had down was gunshot wound."

"He, uhm..." she looked to Frank briefly, letting him make up his own lie, because there was no way in hell she could think of something believable. That is, if he even chose to lie.

"We....uh......well...." He froze up again, "We had to...er..Luvonia....uhm...border..." He was cut off by the Doctor, "Hard to talk about. I understand that. We'll get to it another time." he reassured them, "Go ahead and lay on the bed then, take your shirt off so I can look at the wound-..." He looked over at Aurelia, unsure how far along the relationship was. "She can stay or?.." to which Frank quickly responded it was fine if she stays, laying down upright in the medical bed as the doctor visibly inspected the wound and the stitches.

Aurelia crossed her arms and bit her lip, feeling the situation had become a bit awkward before the doctor had done his job and dispelled it. Still, she felt a little guilty...she shouldn't have put Frank in that situation. He poked at the wound, running his hand down Frank's disabled arm and toying with it, asking him if he felt anything to which he got varying replies from "No" to "Kinda, it tingles somewhat." The doctor asked him if it was his dominant hand, to which he responded "Yes. I can't write." The doctor sighed, looking between them. "You two really have it cut out for you, yeah?"

She shrugged, looking down. "Yeah, yeah, I guess." she half-smiled helplessly. He nodded, "Well, we're going to need to have him come in twice a month to get working on that arm. Probably start him on classes to learn how to write on his right hand as well...Anything else you two think I should know? Anything in particular he has problems with?"

Aurelia's eyes darted side to side. "Uhm...it was kind of traumatizing for both of us..." she looked down again. "But...no, not really, nothing else physical except what you saw." The doctor nodded, "Well, usually with incidents like this, I won't auger coat it, it'd be unlikely he could regain 'full' control of the arm. But we can make the best of what we have and definitively make life at least slightly easier for him" Frank nodded, sitting up to the side of the bed and starting to fumble to get his shirt back on. He already wasn't enjoying being here, but he was glad this appointment was only to get a feel for his injuries.

"What's the best we can do, then?" she asked, gravitating next to Frank and helping him pull his shirt down. The doctor shrugged, "It depends person to person. We won't really know what his 'limits' are, per se, until we reach them."

"Hm, okay...thanks." she looked down, sighing a bit, and taking Frank's hand. "I understand this is going to be a bit hard long term for the both of you, but we'll do the best we can to make the best out of it. Thank you both, Frank, Aurelia, I'll see you both next week." He left the room, leaving it open for them to leave. Frank stood up off of the bed, feigning politeness as they both left the office and re-entered the elevator, before letting out a long exasperated sigh as the elevator doors closed to bring them back down to the ground floor.

Aurelia looked up for the first time in a while in the elevator. "Fuck..." she hugged him tightly. "I'm sorry..." He held her, whispering "This whole thing is...so fucked....I know I never should've joined, but I know if I didn't, we'd never meet and you'd probably be dead by now....We probably shouldn't of ran the border, but if we didn't, we very well could both be dead right now...I don't really know what to do, Aur.....This whole thing is so fucked, no decision is right, or wrong...I'm going to drive myself nuts just thinking about it." She broke the hug and looked him in the eyes. "You know which decision was the right one? The one where we're both guaranteed to survive." she told him. "You did the right thing." she asserted. "You did. Look, we're alive. And we've got each other." she told him, stretching the one leg she could to reach his face and kiss him.

He kissed her briefly, electing not to continue the conversation for the sake of both their sanities. "Thanks." was all he elected to say as the elevator doors opened, "So, where are you taking us? Movie?"

"Yeah, she said, pulling out her phone and starting to walk. "We're gonna watch some fun movie and have a great time. Because I just saw a bunch of trailers and I need to see one of those movies." she joked, heading out the front door.

CHAPTER 4: MONEY
PART 2. INTERNATIONAL POLITICS TRUMPS ROMANCE
This post ties in with the Hematite CSU summit

Dart-ach relations aren't the only thing being spoiled by the CSU.

#darxit


After a day of lounging around and not doing much, both Frank and Aurelia tired early and went to bed by about 9 at night. He had made sure to shut off his alarm so they could, hopefully, sleep in. Frank woke up at about 11 in the morning, carefully moving to avoid waking Aurelia. Comfortable that he had gotten a good nights rest, he stumbled out of bed and moved into the living room. Oddly enough, he poked his head out the window and noticed the news vans were gone. Odd. He moved over to the couch, not immediately grasping what that meant, and turned he TV on, keeping it on a low volume to try and avoid waking Aurelia. It was on the same cable channel as yesterday but he didin't bother with changing it.

It would be almost an hour before she would wake up, her earlier sleepless night having taken its toll on her. She stumbled out of bed and got dressed, limping out into the living room yet again to find Frank watching TV. She didn't say anything, instead hobbling over to the couch and sitting down right next to him.

"Morning" he remarked, casually looking at the TV. "Well, actually, I think it might be afternoon now. You enjoy sleeping in?"

"Mhm." she murmured, holding back a yawn, not saying much.

He nodded, looking at the TV. "News trucks were gone this morning when I checked, Odd, huh?" He still wasn't putting two and two together or thinking much of it. "Maybe they moved on?" quipped Aurelia, having immediately done what Frank hadn't, despite not even checking to see if he was correct. "Shit....really?" He shrugged, flipping to the news channel to see nothing but coverage regarding a CSU summit in Hematite. "Holy shit, Holy shit, I think they're gone." He suddenly became energized, as if he was freed from his own little prison. He instintively tried standing up to walk back to the bedroom to change, only to immediately trip on the blanket he had subconciously wrapped himself in and tripping onto the living room floor with a thud. Completely unphased, he pushed himself back up "We need to like, get the fuck out of this apartment, now, Don't care where we go. Annnywhere but here." He dissapeared back into the bedroom, presumably to change into some real clothes.

She felt an overwhelming urge to giggle at his fall and sudden energy. "Alright...alright." she grinned, getting up and taking a quick look at their messy kitchen before deciding they would eat outside somewhere. He re-emerged from the bedroom a relatively short period later, wearing a t-shirt and shorts. He was now wearing shoes for the first time in a few days. "Where we going?" he asked, realizing she knew her way around and he definitively did not. "Uhm...downtown?" she asked him as she looked him over briefly. "Or...wherever. We could just walk around. " she joked, putting on a sandal before going to stand behind him. "Whatever works for me as long as we get to do something" he echoed, opening the door for her before closing it. They made their way down to the bottom floor, taking a bit of extra time because of Aurelia's leg, and finding themselves on the main boulevard; full of more traffic than usual. He looked around, shrugged and looked back at Aurelia, "So, erm...you know where we're going?"

"Not exactly." she looked around awkwardly. "We're pretty close to downtown, we could just walk." He nodded, expecting her to take the lead as he hadn't had a chance to really get his bearings. "Sure." They began towards downtown on foot, occasinally stopping for a crosswalk or so one of them could check something on the sidelines out. Aurelia was clearly in her element here, often taking the lead in crowds and in crossing roads, despite her leg. It quickly became evident how much Frank was out of his comfort zone; having only really entered big cities a few times in his life. But, he had found someone who evidently knew what she was doing, so he didin't have to. He just kinda hung with her to avoid getting himself lost in what seemed like a maze.

They eventually stopped at a major intersection which looked like it was going to take a while. Aurelia tugged at Frank's hand. "You like it? If you see something cool...y'know, like...tell me." she grinned. He seemed rather confused, "How...how are you so good at this?" He saw himself as a dazed tourist and Aurelia already seemed like she lived here her whole life. He chalked it up to her living in cities her whole life. He held onto her hand, leaning in to whisper "You're going to have to teach me how not to look like a idiot in all of this hustle" jokingly. "Just follow what the other people are doing." she told him. "It's like any old sidewalk, it's not that hard." she insisted, having no notion of what Frank was talking about.

He shrugged, following her through the intersection. "Just...so many people....so little space...it's confusing I guess." He, likewise, didin't grasp how she was such a natural at the system, but he could only assume he'd get better with time. She looked up at him right as the light went green and they started walking. "Yeah, but you can see over half of these people." she assumed.

He laughed, looking back down at her. "I guess that's true. So, you got anywhere in particular or are we just out for a walk?"

"I dunno...coffee would be nice." she smiled up at him. "We could probably also check whatever protest is going on from the news. But I'd prefer not to get involved..."

"Same, but it's nice to not be the focus of attention for once" He smiled, looking up ahead as the crowd thickened. He kinda went tippy-toed a bit, trying to look over the crowd "Heeeyyyyy....speaking of that." He strained to get a view over the crowd as sirens could be heard in the distance, the two of them shuffling through a crowd to reach a barricaded street. "I can't see shit..." trailed off Aurelia, staring at someone's back. "What's happening?" He noticed a opening in the crowd, and kinda forced Aurelia through it, following right behind her. They managed to pop up right infront of a Dartfordian police barricade, both sides of the street blocked, with several police and blacked out limousines approaching. "That'd be your CSU meeting" he noted. Both sides of the barricaded intersection were packed with people, some cheering, but with many jeering, some holding signs like "CSU GO HOME" and "#DARXIT" up towards the approaching vehicles.

Aurelia winced as Frank had forced her leg a bit, but stopped in her train of thought when she saw the limousines. "The fuck is this? World leaders?" she said towards Frank, clearly not impressed. They approached, armed Dartfordian officers with them, at a rapid speed - obviously trying to speed past the crowds of protestors. One had the flags of Dartfordia and Achkaerin, the one immediately behind it - with its own envoy of security vehicles, the flags of Dartfordia and Rokkenjima. "In my absolutely unqualified opinion", he remarked sarcastically, "Yeah. World leaders." He shrugged, watching them approach. A protester tried throwing a egg at the Achkaerinese vehicle as it approached, missing by a virtual mile and shortly thereafter being tackled by multiple Hematite police officers. Another was shouting something about genocide at the Rokkenjiman limousine.. "Brunch and a theatre" he joked.

Aurelia still couldn't see very well, but she'd seen enough. "Lame. I think they closed off a coffee shop because of this shit." she said, pointing over the barricade at a vacated set of tables. "Yeah." he sighed, as the convoy of vehicles sped past at a speed that normally wouldn't be remotely safe, causing each to catch a little bit of air as they sped past trying to avoid the protestors. "We'll have to think of something else, I guess."

"Well...I'm out of ideas. I guess we could just keep walking or something." she told him, speaking up because of the crowd. "Yeah, we'll have to backtrack" he spoke up, grabbing her hand so they wouldn't loose eachother as they went back through the massive crowd. Things began to clear up again as they hit the intersection they just crossed, this time they took a right turn to try and find another restuarant. "Well, that was interesting, I guess."

"Mmf. Whatever." she replied, unfazed. "That happens every week here, I bet." He laughed, "Keeps things entertaining, I bet." They found another coffee shop, this one with a balcony. "That'le do, yeah?" They entered and slowly ascended the stairs, finding a table on the balcony above the hustle and bustle below. "This place is nice" reaffirmed Frank, looking around at the view of the street below. Aurelia got situated, laying her legs in Frank's lap under the table. "Yep." she replied concisely, pausing for a bit. "Wow, I'm being awkward. I have no idea what I'm doing." she confided in him, having expected to be stuck in the apartment for much longer.

He joked in return, "Hey! I thought that was my job!" He laughed, before whispering. "I think we're both just figuring it out as we go along at this point. I've had no idea what I've been doing since I got here."

"Yeah, I guess. Just..." she trailed off, electing to stare at him briefly instead. "Mind getting us coffee?" she asked with a smile, probably trying to goad him into doing all of the work because of her leg. "Fiiine....what do you want in it?" He said as he was getting up."Creamer. Lots of creamer." she grinned. "Nothing else."

"Mhm." He decided not to poke fun at her choices like usual, deciding to just go get the cups of coffee. He came back a few minutes later, holding the coffees on a plate with one hand, kinda like a waiter. He had a bit of a hard time balancing it, and a tad bit of coffee spilled onto the plate, but he made it back to the table without any major mishaps. "Send the guy with one arm to get the coffee" he retorted. "I probably shoulda had that in mind when I went to get them."

She crossed her arms. "You don't have one arm. You have one working arm. For now." she said optimistically as she grabbed her coffee. "I was expecting you to call me a savage for not drinking pure black coffee, or something." She grinned.

He showed her his coffee, which was brown with creamer itself, before taking a sip of it. After he swallowed, he responded "There's something up with you for not wanting sugar, though." He smiled before taking another sip, shifting his eyes to the road below before back up to her. "Creamer's already sugary as shit. But I'd still take sugar." she grinned, pleasantly surprised to find that Frank at least drank Coffee exactly as she did, more or less.

"Natural solution is, of course, more sugar." He grinned, taking another sip of his coffee. "But I think we're close enough" She nodded, gulping down half of her cup immediately, as if she was rushing somewhere. "So..." He took casual sips, before noticing her gulping down half of her cup, "We in a rush anywhere or..?"

"No..no.' she said, wiping her mouth of excess coffee. "I just really needed that." His smile widened goofily, clearly holding back laughter. "Right." He took another sip of his coffee. "You didin't take any when I made some yesterday, Ya just don't like my coffee or?" He was more teasing her than anything, just prolonging conversation. "No, it's cause I'm a moron." she answered. "Yesterday just...came outta nowhere, you know?" she asked, blinking once at him. "I guess today did, too..."

"To be honest, if anyone's the moron, it's me for not doing it sooner" he sighed, placing his hand on hers on the table. "I'm still kinda amazed I did it at all. I'm really good at well, what I do, but when it came to you I-...I-...I guess I just kinda froze up." He paused, awkwardly so, before continuing. "But now that I've done it, I don't regret a second."

"Good at interrogating?" she asked him jokingly. "And it makes sense for you to freeze up... I mean..." she paused. "I'm the same. You worked for the people I hated...but something...something kept us together. Aaaaand. Here we are."

"I was going to say intelligence, but, yeah, I guess that works." He sighed heavily, "Yeah, you're right." He paused again, taking a sip from his coffee. "I guess if there was a 'two most awkwardly different people to start dating' award, we would've won it hands down." She laughed, finishing the coffee. "I guess, yeah." she said. "But that's all behind us now, right?"

"Right" he reaffirmed, finishing his.

"We ought to go out on a day that isn't so crowded." she told him, poking his knee with her foot. "Let's chill here for a little bit...I'm not really into walking right now." she noted, looking down. "But the media's gone. We finally get freedom."

He nodded, "Yeah, i'm enjoying the breeze. And the lack of media, for sure." He pondered a second, "Maybe I can turn my phone back on and not get mobbed, once we get back home."

"Yup. Don't worry, they'll forget." she grinned.

He returned the smile, before it quickly dimmed. "Shit...they'll want me to come into work tomorrow then." He laughed, "We should probably enjoy my paid vacation while it lasts, then."

"Well, we do need money. And you need to be a superspy." she laughed.

He grinned, "Unfortunately, we both know I'm spying on a desk." he laughed, smiling. Regardless of all the shit up to now, the prospect of working tomorrow, he was happy, right here, with her. And that was a feeling he'd try to extend as long as possible.

"Epic hacking backup dude then." she corrected. "I dunno. Something way cooler than I'll ever do, even if I become a doctor." she said. "Speaking of which...I'm definitely going to become a doctor." He grinned, "I don't know how to work my phone let alone a computer. More like constant briefing guy." he corrected again, jokingly, upon hearing about her doctorate. "That's great. Because you'll still be making far more than I'll ever make." he laughed, smiling. "You started talking to universities yet?"

"Nope. We went to sleep together dude. You'd know if I did." she raised an eyebrow. "But yeah. I'll look into it."

He sighed, "I'm still getting used to the fact that I'm spending every waking moment with someone else, y'know? It takes some getting used to." She grinned, poking him in the leg again. "That's not a bad thing."

"Not at all, but it's different." He smiled.

"I guess. I had a roommate for a while, so I'm used to it." she told him.

He smiled affectionately, "Well, this is a bit different. In a good way."

'In an excellent way." she corrected, yawning despite the coffee. He grinned, "I'd kiss you again if I didin't have to bend over this table awkwardly."

"Mmh, that's a terrible excuse.." she said, bending over the table anyway and stopping halfway, hoping for his prediction to come true. He responded, "You're really enjoying this." Now seeing the real reason behind this was so they could kiss publicy, he moved right up and kissed her on the lips, holding it into she stopped. "I'd guess that's the real reason for going out for coffee?" he joked.

Her lips curled upwards into an even bigger and goofier smile. "We can kiss wherever we want." she cocked her head to the side. "It's not like any of these people are gonna notice."

"Mhm" he laughed, taking that as a yes. He stood up, offering his hand to her to help her up. "Might as well get moving, yeah?" But upon lifting her up, he immediately launched into another kiss, this time the both of them standing next to their table, and after kissing for a moment they began walking back to the stairs, him discreetly squeezing at her rear before wrapping his arm around her neck as they started walking back down, whispering "Still getting the hang of this, but I can get used to more of this." He smiled at her, descending the stairs back downward to the ground floor.

She grabbed his hand and looked down the road. "Let's take a longer walk..." she looked back to him, beaming. "We got a lot more city to explore."