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Vessi nodded against her but didn't break the contact. They stayed that way for longer than either of them noticed, but it was okay. It was their way of saying goodbye, and Reyna would take as much of that moment as she would be given.

"Don't forget me," Vessi whispered minutes later.

"I couldn't if I tried."

At this, Reyna pulled herself up and opened her eyes. Vessi did the same, and Reyna could see every emotion she was feeling mirrored back to her. Their hands were still clasped together on the tabletop, but Reyna used her other to, once again, reach up to Vessi's cheek, stroking the skin there. Vessi's eyes fluttered closed again, and before Reyna knew what she was doing, she leaned forward and captured Vessi's lips in a soft kiss. Their hands still together, Reyna cupping Vessi's cheek. Vessi immediately responded, leaning into Reyna's kiss. Reyna felt a flash of energy pummel against her already rapidly beating heart, pushing her to intensify the kiss as Vessi's lips began to move against her own. Reyna got lost in the kiss, knowing she would remember it until her dying day.

They parted, and this time, it was Vessi who leaned her forehead into Reyna and stayed there, her breathing more rapid than it had been. Reyna realized hers was as well.

"You're going to make someone very happy one day," Vessi said.

Reyna smiled and a soft chuckle escaped her, which seemed to be contagious as Vessi joined in. "I can only hope."

At this, Vessi sat up straight again, looking at Reyna. "You will. I have no doubt."

"As will you."

And, as if they both knew the moment had come to an end, she and Vessi both stood up from their stools at the same time.Their hands were still together on the tabletop, and Vessi raised them once more to place a kiss against Reyna's knuckles.

As Reyna watched Vessi walk away and out the door of the mess hall, she wondered, for a moment, if she was making a mistake. She wondered if, maybe, this was who she was meant to be with. Her version of a soul match.

But something told her that this relationship, that this woman, though she was important to Reyna and to Reyna's life, was not the answer.

She wasn'tit. And that was okay.

The next day, Reyna watched Vessi walk through the airlock to the transport shuttle that would take her to her new position. As she watched her go, she felt that specific absence of a presence she had become fond of no longer being there. A tender ache of a chapter ending well. If anything, there was a lesson to be learned from this for Reyna. That one could experience a real relationship and let someone in, and then come out the other side, completely and wholly intact.

"You okay?" Elena asked her quietly as she stood next to Reyna watching the shuttle depart.

"Yeah," Reyna answered. "I'm fine."

"You always say that."

Reyna turned to Elena. "That may be true, but, I am."

"Promise?"

Reyna smiled. "Promise."

And she meant it.

"I'm going to hug you now," Elena informed her. Reyna actually laughed, letting her be enveloped in between Elena's long arms.

And this was why she meant it when she said she was fine. Because she had people in her life that could carry her through the pain of this ending, no matter how long it lasted. She hadElena and Jere to be her support team, and she was grateful beyond measure for that, and that alone.

? 1977 / CYCLE 487 | EMBERKIND CV-0417, THE FRONTIER ?

Over ten years on the Emberkind, and Elena, Reyna, and Jere still hadn't found a way to not argue about mission leadership.

The next mission on the docket was routine. They would be answering a distress beacon from the Frontier, with a standard animal-rescue protocol. It would only require a small crew, who would deploy to assess and retrieve as needed.

Elena was the one to assemble the team herself because she'd beaten Jere in the round this time. Jere had pouted. Reyna had rolled her eyes.

Reyna was on the bridge with Elena at the airlock. Forty meters of corridor between them with a standard pre-deployment checklist they were checking off together, even though both of them could recite from memory.

"Got your trinket?" Reyna asked without looking up from her console, the last item on the checklist to complete. Completely routine. It was sentence she had said before every deployment since her appointment to First Mate granted her leader privileges while Elena was off-ship. Elena had always answered it the same way every time.

Elena patted her suit's padded pocket and nodded. "Got it. What about you? Got your trinket?"