Page 325 of Every Almost

She was walking a coil assembly down to the secondary junction, Tavi walking beside her, mostly so he could keep talking, when she saw Reyna coming from the other end of the corridor.

She had about six seconds to decide how to play it because, technically, they were both working. Reyna had the Bridge and Charlie had a coil assembly under her arm. Not to mention all the crew in the corridor.

So Charlie decided to be professional about it.

"—and so I told Borran, respectfully, that if he reprograms the galley playback one more time to skip my Zeppelin, I will reprogramhim?—"

"Tavi."

"—and he said, and I'm quoting, 'Short Stack threatens Borran again'—"

"Tavi."

"What?" Tavi asked, clearly upset he couldn't finish his story. Charlie lifted her chin to the end of the corridor, and she watched him follow her eyeline. He obviously saw the Captain approaching and, presumably, whatever was happening on Charlie's face, because he lit up with the specific joy of a man being handed a gift.

"Oh, this is going to begood," he said, absolutely delighted, and dropped his voice to a stage whisper. "Are you going to be normal? You're not going to be normal, are you? You've got the look. You had that look right before you sang."

"Shut up."

"You absolutely have the look?—"

They drew even with Reyna. Her eyes found Charlie's, and the corner of the Captain's mouth quirked up, so subtle that anyone other than Charlie would probably miss it.

"Captain," Charlie said.

"Chief Wickett."

And they passed each other.

As soon as she felt the breeze pass by her of Reyna's retreating form, she thought about every single time they'd done exactly this. Passed in a corridor, said the careful words, or kept the space between them. All of them, all those months of walking away from the one person she couldn't stop wanting.

What the fuck am I doing?

Not this time.

"Are you serious?" Tavi whispered. "What the fu?—?!"

She turned around, shoved the coil assembly into Tavi's arms without warning?—

"Hey!"

—caught Reyna's wrist before she'd gotten out of reach, and pulled.

Reyna came, surprised and slightly off-balance, right into her, and Charlie got an arm around her waist before kissing her, right in the middle of the corridor, in the middle of a shift, in front of Tavi and the crew and whoever else wanted to look.

Reyna startled at first but melted into the kiss in seconds before her hand came up to Charlie's jaw, no longer surprised, and kissed her right back. Then she made the smallest sound against Charlie's mouth that made Charlie go slightly weak at the knees.

When Charlie pulled away, Reyna's eyes stayed closed a half second longer, and the rose had come up warm along her throat. Charlie put her mouth close to her ear.

"I love you," she said. "That's all. Carry on, Captain."

She let go and Reyna, to her enormous credit, remained standing.

Charlie turned back to Tavi, took her coil assembly out of his arms, and said quietly, "Sorry."

Tavi was staring at her as though she'd hung the stars personally.

"Spark Plug," he breathed with tremendous feeling. "You are forgiven for every crime, past and future, for the next hundred years, no matter how big or small. I don't care what you do. Reprogram my Zeppelin. Insult my braid. I don'tcare." He clutched his chest. "That was the greatest thing I have ever witnessed, and I haveseen a supernova."