I had expected that the atmosphere in the Headquarters would be less tense after this breakthrough in helping Vir solve the chaos, but I didn't suspect that he would practically faint in relief. Several minutes after our epiphany, he briefly complained about feeling a bit light in the head, before his knees buckled and he started falling down to the ground.

"Wow, keep steady," I said, my voice laced with genuine concern, when I saw how pale Vir's skin had gotten. Guiding him to the sofa in his office, I made him lie down with a few short words. He followed my orders without complaints, and started breathing deeply to regain his wits.

"Are you okay? Should I call Willow or Daniel so one of them can call that doctor? You don't look fine, should I get you anything?" I rambled, worried for him.

"I'm fine," Vir tried to reassure me, as he motioned for me to come sit next to him. "Don't worry about me too much. Just give me a few minutes and I'll be up and walking again."

"Vir, you just almost fainted out of nowhere, how is that being fine?" worked up, I could feel the tension creeping in my shoulders, as I looked at him frantically to see if he was hurt anywhere. The colour in his cheeks had started to reappear slowly, and he watched me with a focussed gaze, to prove he was indeed, perfectly fine.

"It's just..." Vir started looking for words, as if he didn't know what he wanted to say exactly. "Figuring this out, it's like a huge weight is simply lifted off my shoulders all at once. It feels as if I can breathe a bit deeper all of a sudden, and I guess my body just needs a moment to acclimatize to the new situation." He brings his left arm upwards a bit, so he can softly push a strand of hair behind my ear. As the tips of his fingers grazed my skin, I could feel tiny sparkling pinpricks travel behind his touch, sending a wave of goose bumps over my entire body. Instead of closing my eyes and simply enjoying the moment, I couldn't help but smash down Vir's good mood.

"Vir," I started, and his hand fell down to his side, a hint of hurt flashing through his eyes briefly. I silently cursed myself, before laying down my own hand on his chest, as a form of apology for interrupting his moment of bravery. "You know that this doesn't solve everything, right? This is only the first step in a long series of discoveries before we can say that the chaos is absolved."

Vir grinned weakly, nodding. "I know," he explained with a sigh. "But now we know that someone is behind everything, we have a new lead, one of the most important ones in the entire process. If it were a natural chaos, we had no way of predicting what was going to happen. This is entirely different. The reason that knowing that someone has an evil masterplan to create the illusion of chaos brings me such relief, is that people make mistakes, no matter how smart they are. And we will make use of every single mistake, which will bring us closer to finding the culprit. I'm not saying that it will be easy from now on, but at least this brings me peace of mind, which will allow me to focus better, hopefully."

Now I smiled too, seeing as he makes a good point. "Alright, if you say so." I look him in the eye teasingly. "Do you think we deserve a break? To celebrate, so to say?"

And then Vir does something completely uncharacteristic of him. He agrees. "Okay, but I decide where we'll be going."

We departed not too long after in one of the self-driving car prototypes of the Headquarters. Vir wanted to walk to the tiny coffee house he was taking me to, but I pointed out that strictly speaking, he was still on bedrest. He had rolled his eyes, but complied nonetheless.

The over-the-top technological car was advanced beyond imagination. Instead of a classical inside of a vehicle, this one had light-beige leather seats lining up in an oval shape, a steering wheel and gas pedal not even being present. Between the seats there were small computers, that could be activated upon scanning it with the chip in the wrist. "Cool," I whispered, as I stepped into the car. It smelled new, as if it had never been used before.

I was glad to find that Vir chose to come sit next to me, stretching his long legs in front of him. Even though he was considered very tall, especially for Fortis Pack standards – apparently being very tall is not always considered beneficial in fighting? – he didn't take up more than half of the available space. Still, we had subconsciously sat down so close to each other, that our thighs were almost touching, a mere centimetre between the fabrics of our jeans – and in Vir's case, cotton-like khaki pants. Quickly scanning our wrists, the car doors closed without the slightest of sounds, and within seconds we were off. Vir typed a few coordinates into the tiny computer, and then closed his eyes briefly. If I really focussed, I could feel the wheels turning beneath me, but that was the only inclination that we were in a moving car. Everything was completely silent, except for the radio playing the soft tunes of a song that had probably been recorded in the Pulchritudo Pack, the Pack of Beauty. Considering the windows were blinded to such an extent it was nearly impossible to look outside, that also didn't give me the idea that we were driving.

"It has been a long time since I last went out of the Headquarters for fun," Vir murmured softly after a few moments.

I glanced over in his direction, my expression teasing. "When was the last time you did anything for fun in the first place?"

He flushed red, going shy. "I'd like to think that when we danced together I did that for fun."

I found my cheeks warming, and I looked away bashfully. "That was indeed fun." I frowned after that. "Still, that was at least two months ago, wasn't it? Have you been working ever since?"

A bit embarrassed, he nodded. "Being Alpha is a twenty-four seven job. It is not as if I have weekends, or holidays. Especially not during everything that has been going on lately. My main priority has always been working, having fun would come later."

I shook my head. "Well, I'm here, so that will have to change now."

The ride to the place Vir wanted to take me – which turned out to be a tiny cosy coffee bar – didn't take any longer than ten minutes, that was spent in a comfortable silence after our initial conversation. It was a small café, decorated to be a typical place at the beach, with wooden tables and chairs with colourful pillows. As expected, it wasn't very busy, with only a young woman behind the counter. She came towards us immediately after we sat down in a corner only illuminated by a few grey and pink candles. Even though she clearly recognised Vir, she didn't comment on it, and quickly noted down our orders. Within a few minutes, I had a cup of steaming black coffee in front of my face, and Vir had his long fingers wrapped around a glass filled with some kind of sweet caramel latte macchiato with a lot of sugared whipped cream, topped with tiny marshmallows and caramel pieces.

As he took a sip of his sugary beverage, he sighed in content.

"I didn't peg you to be someone with a sweet tooth?" I commented, my eyebrows moved upwards in surprise.

"I'm not, honestly," Vir muttered. "I just hate the taste of coffee, and this is somewhat edible. Besides, it has been proven on multiple occasions that the brain releases a surge of dopamine and serotonin upon ingestion of a food or beverage with the perfect ratio of fat and sugar. According to my calculations, this drink qualifies for a cheap pepper-up, especially when taking into account that there is also some caffeine present."

I grinned in my hand as I shook my head. Only Vir would seek to justify his choice of drink in a coffee house with science, to such an extreme extent. "I think my mom fed me coffee when I was a baby, I practically grew up with it. I'm pretty sure that at the day of the Intelligence Competition in the Fortis Pack, my blood was about 20% caffeine."

"Technically that isn't possible, Livia," Vir interrupted, "even if you would infuse your blood with coffee – and that would be a terrible idea because then you would miss the protective barriers in your stomach lining and intestines, not to mention the first pass effect in your liver – you would need to absorb about..." he made a quick calculation in his head, "425 litres of espresso, taking into account that in espresso there is about 212 mg of caffeine, and that 20% of your blood volume is about 900 millilitres." He looked me dead in the eye. "So it is absolutely impossib-" he stopped briefly as he saw my face. "That was a joke, wasn't it?"

I laughed loudly at Vir's face, which was turning bright red at an alarming rate, the flush of embarrassment spreading from his cheeks to his entire face, followed by his neck and throat.

"Please ignore me," Vir said quietly, looking as if he waited desperately for a hole in the earth to appear that would swallow him whole.

"Don't be shy," I mused, smiling gently now. "I like it when you get all sciency. It's cute." And I did like it, immensely. I almost couldn't get over the fact that he was talking freely around me now, feeling comfortable enough that he would ramble on about facts on coffee and sugar. "Does it work, by the way?"

"What?"

"Your happiness bomb." I pointed towards his latte macchiato, which Vir had already finished halfway. He shrugged as an answer, a small smirk forming on his lips. "I can't tell really, there is a confounding factor present in my study. Being around you also drastically elevates the dopamine levels in my blood, so I have no way of figuring out if the coffee makes me happier, or if that is just you."