"Because I was raised better than that," he said.
Her jaw loosened and she looked at him for a long moment. He had to look away first.
The ship's climate system chose that moment to cycle, and she shivered hard enough that her teeth clicked.
Crossing to the environmental panel, he adjusted the temperature up four degrees. Latharian comfort ran cold for humans, which he should have thought of hours ago. Draanth.
Her shoulders dropped a fraction, and she pulled Barnaby closer against her chest as she looked at the bed with longing.
The cat chose that moment to make his move.
He launched himself from her arms, hit the bed with the heavy thump and circled twice. Then he dropped in the center of the bed, tucked his paws under him and closed his eyes.
"Well," she said. "Problem solved. Neither of us gets it."
Barnaby purred.
Daaynal is never going to believe any of this.
"Fine," he said.
He grabbed a pillow off the bed and dropped it on the floor by the door. "I'll take the floor. You take the other side of the bed. The cat gets the middle. Everyone's happy."
"I didn't say I was happy."
"I didn't ask."
She stared at him, then at Barnaby.
"Fine," she said.
She climbed into the other side of the bed and pulled the covers up to her chin. He bit back his smile. She was so tiny in the bed, barely taking up a quarter of the space, but he knew better than to mention that.
Killing the overhead light, he sat down with his back against the wall and closed his eyes.
The deck was cold and hard and exactly as comfortable as he'd expected. But he'd slept on worse. Plenty worse. The floor of a troop transport. Frozen mud outside a firebase. A maintenance crawlway after he'd lost a bet with Raaevik about who could drink the most raastic and still report for duty. He'd been younger then, and stupider, which was saying something given present circumstances.
In the darkness he could hear Barnaby purring and Amelia's breathing. She wasn’t asleep yet, but nearly. The distant ping of the scanner came from the bridge, steady and unchanged. The C'Vaal were still out there, waiting, but for now they were safe.
"Thyaar?"
Her voice was quiet.
"Yes?”
"Thank you."
He opened his eyes in the dark and stared at the ceiling.
"Go to sleep, Amelia."
She didn't answer. After a while, her breathing slowed and Barnaby's purring dropped to a low rumble.
Thyaar closed his eyes.
But he didn't sleep.
7
