Page 243 of Every Almost

That was when Tavi turned to look at her, right into her eyes. And Charlie watched his face change as he immediately seemed to understand. She watched the realization move across his face, soft and certain, almost as if he'd been waiting for this and she'd finally found her way to him.

"Oh, Charlie."

She looked up at him fast because the way he said it made her heart squeeze.

But what she found in his face wasn't pity or worry, and it wasn't the beginnings of a careful approach to her because he thought she might break.

It was just Tavi, looking at her as if she were exactly who she'd always been. It was just that, now, he could see she was carrying something more.

"It's the Captain, isn't it?" He asked softly.

Charlie closed her eyes, dropped her head, and nodded, just barely.

"How did you know?"

Tavi took a deep breath. "All the strikes, Spark Plug," he answered, triggering Charlie's memory of the times Tavi would use the baseball term with her.

"Is that what that was?" Charlie asked.

"Yeah. Well, that and what Maren told me."

Charlie raised her head to look at him. "What did Maren tell you?" She asked, her voice raising an octave.

Tavi laughed. "Something about 'interrupting a moment' during the cascade emergency?"

Charlie groaned, letting her head fall back onto Tavi's shoulder. She went quiet for a moment, letting the feelings free from their cage in her chest. And it engulfed her completely. She couldn't help taking a shaky breath as every single emotion she'd been holding back was allowed to run wild in her ribcage.

"I don't know what I'm going to do, Tav."

Tavi settled beside her, putting his arm around her the best the geometry would allow. The mechanics of a three-foot-ten Tessarae hugging a seated human were faintly ridiculous. But, it was one of the best hugs she'd had in a long time. Right up there with Maren's from just twenty minutes ago.

"You do nothing, Charlie," Tavi replied. He paused. "You leave your feelings right where they are. You'll figure out what to do with them at the right time, I'm sure of it."

"Oh yeah?" Charlie asked incredulously.

"Yeah, sure!" Tavi stressed. "I mean, who really knows, though, right?"

He laughed, soft, and she felt it more than she heard it, his shoulder against her side. Charlie gave him a small, shy smile, before it fell. She saw Tavi catch the flicker. Then, she let her eyes close as she spoke again.

"I think I'm in trouble," she said, barely above a whisper. It felt big to say what she'd been holding in all this time.

Tavi took a deep breath against her before he slowly nodded.

"Yeah," he said. "But it sounds like good trouble."

"Good trouble?" Charlie repeated, laughing a little at the sheer absurdity of it. Of all of it, frankly. Especially of falling for a starship captain on the far side of everything she'd ever known. "What could possibly begoodtrouble?"

Tavi smiled.

"I have no fucking idea. But it could be fun to find out."

They laughed, both of them, and it loosened something in her chest she'd been clenching for weeks. Tavi tightened his arm around her and kissed the top of her head as she leaned into him, brief and warm, the gesture of someone who couldn't reach her forehead when they stood next to one another but had never once let that stop him. This was how Tavi held his people.

"You'll be okay, kid."

"You're younger than me."

"I onlylookyounger than you, Spark Plug. In reality, everyone's younger than me. Tessarae live a very long time, and I've been old since I was twelve in Tessarae years."