While still very much in the dark, Kat let a grin taper her lips. “I heard you guys saw Whistler?” They’d always been close. The four of them had a bit of a thing going between them for a while, there.
“He snuck us some food from the Canteen a couple times,” Kamata confided.
“He’s been seeing people,” Kiara added.
People. Plural.
“Glad he’s keeping busy,” Lee said.
“He’s had his hands full,” Kiara agreed, brows waggling.
But Kat got it. The random dates were his way of coping. For the twins, perhaps they had each other. And for her, what was her way of dealing?
But the answer was right in front of her.
Lee.
She leaned into Lee for all the heavy lifting and wading. She’d always leaned on Lee. Even before she was fully cognizant of it.
She watched him in awe as he joked with the twins about the Canteen needing to stock some better snacks behind closed doors, a white peace flag waving between them.
“We were just heading down to the anti-gravity chamber for a little… crash course.” Care to join?” Kamata asked. And the way she saidcrash…
Oh, would she, ever. The mayhem they could cause there… But to spare Lee from whatever was left of his moral high-ground after all of these years, she politely declined on their behalf.
“We’ll see you around, then,” Kiara winked, the look in her eyes already going mischievous as the twins disappeared around the corner.
They’d made it to the lower skywalk before Lee voiced his concern. “What could they even get up to with the grav-chamber?”
Kat spared him the answer to his question, still watching him as she nudged his arm. “And I didn’t think you liked the twins.”
“They grow on you.” Lee nudged her right back.
They stopped walking when they reached the far side of the skywalk, the smells and chatter from the Canteen launching a full frontal attack after their sanctuary in the training levels these past couple of hours. At least half a dozen of the younger cadets paused on their way in to compliment Lee on his Laser Rounds performance—each of which Lee was quick to shrug off.
But Kat couldn’t do more than blink. Even standing here outside those doors, her fear rooted her to the spot. How was she ever supposed to face the Academy again? The Laser Rounds were one thing. But to make small talk and pretend that they hadn’t learned what they’d learned, or seen what they’d seen. That she wasn’t still rocked to her core over seeing that side of their General or what the AMG was capable—an outcome they’d very much played a part in bringing about.
That is assuming the other cadets hadn’t paid any heed to all of the political developments onboard the ship since they’d returned…
“They’re not talking about us,” Lee assured her, wrapping an arm loosely about her shoulders, guessing correctly where her thoughts had gone.
She met his eyes but couldn’t return the confidence. “We don’t know that. It’s been four days. Anyone could have seen the General’s ships in the hangar, or seen us heading back and forth to meet with the Commander. We don’t know what they’re saying right now.”
“Oh, we might.”
Letting his arm fall away from her, she eyed him suspiciously, her full attention now focused entirely on him. But Lee instead faced the Canteen doors. “I was in here the other morning.”
“You went without me?” She smacked his shoulder.
Lee held up his hands, fending off against further attacks. “It was biscuits and gravy day. The grease practically dragged me in here. I promise I told my stomach to wait.”
“Single-minded.”
“Says the girl who keeps talking about eating in here.” Lee backed a couple of steps into the Canteen. “I promise it won’t eat you. Or will it?” He raised his brows.
Why was everyone so obsessed with feral creatures lately?
The sounds from the cadets inside seemed to swell, like they would indeed swallow her whole if she wasn’t careful. But she kept her eyes focused wholly on Lee. She had to bite sometime.
