"Thank you." You let out a breath you'd been holdiing, able to relax a bit more now that your words wouldn't be overheard. Fire ran through your veins, and you bit yoru cheek to keep anything else from falling out of your mouth.
"What's wrong?" Kronii jumps down from her seat, heels clicking against the tile as she steps up to the desk where you sat. "Are you okay?"
"No." You grab her hand, gripping it tightly. "There's some kind of… don't laugh, but it feels like a 'love potion' or something." You do your best to keep your gaze locked with Kronii's, but you can't help but notice Fauna behind her. Even frozen in time, she looked beautiful.
Kronii furrows her brow, trying to tell if you're serious. It was strange—while your body burned with admiration of the kirin, none of it was lust. Which you'd like to credit to your willpower—but if you had that, you wouldn't be having so much trouble right now.
"I don't know how long it lasts." Even closing your eyes brings you no reprieve—your mind races with images of the keeper of nature. Her smile, the flowers in her hair. Her gentle voice, speaking soothing words. The sound of her laugh—it was harder and harder to pull away from those thoughts. "But if it all hit me at once…"
"Alright," Kronii nods. "I can only hold this for a couple of minutes, so you better be over it by then." She squeezes your hand. "How can I help?"
"I don't know," you admit, your voice croaking. "I can't ask you to reverse time, I know that, b—"
"I would, if it would help," she tells you, her voice quiet and determined. You gasp—knowing how big of a deal that is to her.
While she can bend the rules a litte, slowing time, freezing a particular person in time, even stopping time itself for a short period, actually reversing time, even locally, would be a severe breach of protocol.
"I'll be fine," you tell her. "Just… are there any more chairs? It would help if you sat with me." Kronii nods, and when you blink, there's anotehr chair next to yours, Kronii already seated in it.
"I'm here," she tells you. You impress meaning on the first word—Kronii is here, not anybody else. Even your rioting hormones have to realize that.
You lean against her, your head on her shoulder, and exhale, a long, shuddering sigh as you fight the influence of whatever was in that milk.