I Stopped Simping and the Heroines Lost Their Minds

Arthur woke to the sun directly in his face. He grabbed his phone from the nightstand and squinted at the screen.

Eleven-forty.

He had slept through the entire morning. Chloe had told him to come by at noon.

He got up, showered, and pulled on a clean shirt and dark pants.

The academy grounds were active as he walked toward the infirmary. Students ran drills in the training rings, a few groups sat studying on the grass outside the library, and someone hauled a cart of target dummies toward the training hall.

Arthur walked past them and headed inside.

The main hall smelled of antiseptic and crushed herbs. A few students were sitting on the beds with ordinary training injuries. A guy with a wrapped wrist was talking quietly to his friend, and another student winced while a junior healer applied a thick salve to a burn on his arm.

Chloe was at the far end of the room, checking the tension on a girl’s bandaged knee.

Arthur took an empty wooden chair near the door.

Chloe finished explaining how long the girl needed to keep the weight off the joint. She patted her shoulder, turned around, and caught sight of Arthur sitting across the room.

She gave him a look.

Arthur smiled.

She picked up her clipboard, marked something off, and set it on a counter before walking over.

She stopped in front of him, looked him up and down once, and grabbed the front of his shirt.

She pulled him up into a deep, familiar kiss. Arthur responded instantly, his arm wrapping around her waist to pull her flush against him. Her mouth was soft and warm, tasting faintly of mint tea.

When she finally pulled back, she kept her hands on his chest.

"You took long enough."

"I got distracted," Arthur told her.

Chloe’s hands moved down his sides. "Where are you bleeding?"

"Nowhere."

Chloe gave him a suspicious look and checked his side anyway. After a few seconds, she dropped her hands.

"Huh."

"This feels strange," Chloe said, dropping her hands.

Arthur glanced around the busy infirmary. "Me being healthy?"

"You being in here without ruining something."

Chloe went back to the counter to organize a row of glass vials. Arthur stayed in his chair and watched her work. She moved efficiently, treating a minor cut on a younger student’s arm and answering a question from one of the junior healers.

Beatrice walked out of the back supply room carrying a stack of fresh towels.

She stopped when she saw Arthur sitting there and looked him over once.

"What happened?" Beatrice asked.

"Nothing," Arthur said.

Beatrice looked across the room at Chloe.

"Nothing," Chloe confirmed, sorting the last of her vials.

Beatrice gave Arthur a long, measuring look, then carried the towels to the nearest cabinet without another word.

Chloe finished updating her chart a few minutes later. She set her pen down and walked back over to Arthur.

"I’m hungry," she announced.

They left the infirmary and walked to an open-air food stall near the student dormitories. Arthur bought two bowls of spiced meat and rice, and they took a seat at a quiet table under the shade of an oak tree.

"So," Chloe said, mixing her rice. "You found a giant wolf."

"I think he found me," Arthur said. "Emily is going to lose her mind when she sees him."

"She’s going to try and ride him."

"And she’ll get bitten."

Chloe laughed. She asked about the caravan ride and why the trip had stretched out for so long. Arthur gave her the casual version of the Thorne estate, the Blacktusks, and the mess in Rauk Hollow.

He asked what she had been doing. Chloe complained about the healing exercises Beatrice had been making her repeat, the reading she still had to finish before classes resumed, and a stupid argument Felix had started in the group chat two days ago.

She sat close to him on the wooden bench, her thigh pressing warmly against his leg.

Arthur reached over with his fork and stole a piece of meat directly out of her bowl.

Chloe took it right back off his fork and ate it. She reached over, took a piece of spiced chicken off his plate, and chewed it with a satisfied smile.

Arthur let his hand drop beneath the table, his palm settling over her thigh.

Chloe kept eating her rice.

Arthur’s hand slid higher, his fingers slipping under the hem of her skirt and tracing the soft skin of her upper thigh.

Chloe looked at him.

Arthur left his hand where it was.

Chloe reached under the table, caught his wrist, and put his hand back on his own knee.

They finished eating and wandered back through the campus toward Arthur’s dormitory.

"What are you doing with the rest of the break?" Chloe asked as they walked up the stairs.

"Sleep. Eat. Probably hit the training rings eventually."

"Sleeping for six days would be a massive improvement over your usual decisions."

Arthur unlocked his door and pushed it open.

Chloe walked in ahead of him and dropped into the desk chair.

When Chloe turned around, Arthur pulled her in and kissed her.

She kissed him back and dragged him down onto the bed with her. A moment later she was sitting in his lap, one arm around his neck.

Arthur slipped a hand under her skirt and grabbed her ass.

Chloe caught his wrist.

"Careful."

Arthur grinned. "What, a few weeks off made my little voyeur soft?"

Chloe’s face went red.

"Shut up."

She grabbed the back of his neck and kissed him harder.

Arthur laughed and kissed her again. His hand stayed under her skirt while Chloe pulled herself closer against him.

They stayed on the bed for a while, kissing and fooling around until Chloe finally pulled away and dropped onto his pillow.

Arthur sat beside her. He rubbed her back while she pulled out her phone and checked a message from Beatrice. They spent the next hour doing absolutely nothing.

Chloe eventually checked the time at the top of her screen.

She sat up and smoothed the wrinkles out of her skirt.

Arthur stayed on the bed, watching her fix her hair in his mirror.

"I have to get back to the infirmary," she told him, turning around.

"Alright."

"I expect to see you again before classes start."

"You will."

Chloe leaned over the bed, kissed him once more, and walked out the door.

Arthur lay back against the mattress and checked his phone. It was still only mid-afternoon.

After a few minutes staring at the ceiling, he decided he’d been lazy enough and got up to head for the training rings.