Let's Not Stay Away Anymore (Kaimelia)

5: Wonderfully clueless

"Dr. Shepherd, hi! You look lovely this morning!" Helm cooed as she saw Amelia approach her and Kai, both sitting at a table in the cafeteria, some papers, coffee cups and unfinished breakfast foods decorating it. 

So they've been here for a while, having breakfast, Amelia eyed both, struggling to push down a surge of jealousy seeping through her body.

"Dr. Helm, Dr. Bartley. Mind if I join you?"

"We were actually waiting for you," Kai spoke softly, a playful sparkle in their eyes, clearly enjoying being in on what Amelia was thinking. They'd seen that same look on her face last night. Does she really think there's anything to worry about here? With her brilliant mind it's almost surprising how clueless she is to the fact I've spent the past few months hanging onto her every word, every look, movement and sound.

Kai gestured to the third coffee cup that sat in front of the only empty seat at the table, and Amelia sat down.

"Dr. Helm here is tying up some loose ends with the paperwork, but apart from that, the lab couldn't be more happy about your return." Kai said, eyes moving from Amelia's own, to her lips, reaching down her neck before coming back up to meet her gaze again.

Dr. Helm was eager to help, so wasn't noticing much of what was going on around her. Amelia somehow found it in herself to look over to her, finding her buried in paperwork, mumbling quietly along as she was writing. Clueless. 

It felt almost dirty, sitting here, across from Kai, having them eye her up like she was a candy bar and they'd suddenly felt their blood sugar levels plummet...

Amelia cleared her throat, "Well, I'm happy to be back... I've missed it a lot." Her eyes locked into Kai's as she said the word 'missed'.

Almost in an instant she saw Kai put their phone down and point to hers as it lit up.

A text. From... Kai.

Do I sense a double entendre, Dr. Shepherd?

Texting while at the same table with other people present? What was this, grade school? Kai bit their lip, meeting Amelia's eyes again. She couldn't help but giggle, only caught off guard by an involuntary gasp as Kai moved their leg to touch hers. 

No further movement. Just sold, electrifying contact. All of it, every interaction was charged, no matter how many times they looked at her, spoke to her or touched her, just her. 

Like a thousand fireflies were crawling through her, emanating light and a faint buzz along with it. She shivered at her own thought, no. It wasn't quite like swallowing a bunch of bugs, but she had no idea how people usually arrived at the right way to describe feeling like this.