Page 147 of Every Almost

"'The Wee Captain,'" Borran said.

Charlie's eyes went wide for exactly 1.28 seconds before her hand shot to her mouth and smacked it over her lips so no sound could escape. But unfortunately, she was too late. Charlie's laugh burst from her, loud and bright and overwhelmingly joyous. Reyna closed her eyes, seeming to make every attempt in her power to rewind time and erase that answer from the time-space continuum.

"'The Wee Captain?'" Charlie asked in between squees. "Really? I mean, she's not even thatwee!" Charlie managed, which only made it worse, because now she was laughing at her own observation, and Borran's expression actually made a small change. He smiled, which, if Charlie knew anything yet about the Brontari chef on the Emberkind, was the equivalent of a big, hearty belly laugh.

"It was funnier before," Borran said.

"Before?" Charlie managed in between sharp intakes of breath into her lungs.

"When she was twenty-two," Borran said. "First on the Emberkind. Shorter then."

"I was NOT shorter," Reyna said indignantly.

"Mmm," Borran said, which meantyou were and we both know it.

The kitchen door swung open again and Tavi appeared, drawn by the commotion. His amber skin caught the galley light as he looked between the three of them, reading the room in an instant.

"What did I miss?" he asked.

"Borran gave me a nickname," Charlie said, her laughs dying down enough to have a semblance of conversation.

Tavi's eyes lit up. "What is it?"

"Spark Plug."

"Oh, that's good. That'sreallygood." He nodded approvingly, then his gaze slid to Reyna, who still had that expression on her face. "What's happening to the Captain?" Tavi asked as he hooked a thumb in Reyna's direction.

"Borran was kind enough to tell me whathernickname is."

Tavi's head swiveled very, very slowly to Reyna. Whatever he saw in her expression made him press his lips together tightly.

"I am aware of the Captain's designation," Tavi said, turning back to Charlie with his expression carefully, beautifully innocent.

Charlie nodded, biting her lip. "And yours, Tavi? What's your Borran nickname?"

Tavi straightened to his full four feet, happy to be the center of the change of subject. "Short Stack."

Charlie lost it again. It was formally a lost cause. She heard Tavi laughing now, too, and it only made her more happy with the moment she was sharing with the people around her. She laughed until her shoulders shook, and somewhere in the middle of it she heard Reyna speak.

"I really need better friends," she said in a voice that was trying very hard not to laugh.

"You'd never find anyone as understanding as us when it comes toyourquirks, Captain," Tavi replied while his laughter was still going strong.

And then finally, Reyna's laughter burst out of her, joining in with the group.

It kept coming back to the same problem. Distance was survivable when it was temporary, when both ends of it were still reaching toward each other. That was the only kind of distance Charlie had wanted her whole life.

This wasn't that kind.

If Charlie started to suffer under her own stupidity and let herself even consider the Captain, she'd be wanting a person on the far side of a distance with no way to overcome it. No road back, and absolutely nothing of substance whatsoever on the other end but the fact of having wanted her, period. Despite what she may be feeling, that was not worth starting.

She would keep telling herself that no matter how long it took for her to believe it.

After Borran's,Charlie set off for the Engineering Bay to begin her day with her hands among the engines, when Selowen cornered her in the Engineering corridor and reminded her that tea was still on the calendar.

"The Comfort Grove," Selowen said, in that unhurried way of hers but that still made her request more of a demand. "Ten minutes, after Third bell. Don't be late, and don't eat beforehand. I have plans for you." And then she'd walked on.

Charlie smiled before her brain had even caught up to the fact that she'd been summoned.