Giving him a little space allowance, Kat nestled at the head of his bed, propping her feet up on top of his legs.
They worked in silence for the first little while, scanning through the files. Until she caught Lee staring again at the same file he’d had open before. “You’re still thinking about what Nolan said.”
“Why the Bureau of Planetary Land Management?” Lee asked.
She pulled her feet off of his legs to tuck them under her until she was sitting crosslegged beside him on his bed. “Assuming this is the business to which Nolan was referring? Maybe he’s interested in purchasing new headquarters to park all his zillions of ships.”
He raised his eyebrows at her, and she nudged him with her knee.
Lee let his hand drop, resting it on her thigh as he pushed his holoblock off his lap, letting it sink down into the bed in a flickering of scalding, bright holograms.
“It’s got to be part of some big plan he’s rolling out. Another phase in his Preservation Initiative. Who knows,” Lee said, running his other hand through his hair, ruffling the sweeping, medium-brown strands that fell over his forehead, reaching well past his ears these days. “Did that reference you found earlier say what the agreements were?”
“Seemed like land permits.” Kat shrugged. “Some caveat that operations wouldn’t mess with the ecosystem.”
“Maybe he is building a new hangar,” she added as an afterthought.
“General Narron’s glorious Preservation Initiative. The future of the Mangorian Galaxy…” Lee mused. The glory was fraying by the day.
Their life had become a mess. One big, tangly, grey mess. And what did they have to show for it? A ship-full of suspicious frenemies and a smudged recommendation to become raiders some day? And this was who they’d be doing business with.
She slid over until the two of them sat shoulder to shoulder, slumped and staring up at the eggshell-paneled walls above his desk.
“Gamma year was supposed to be fun.”
“Oh, it’s fun,” Lee said, voice dipping into the lower octave.
She nudged him with her shoulder, peering down at their worn boots and the uniforms and all they represented.
“Going out on that raid, I thought we would have an adventure, and maybe uncover something cool in the process. We’re supposed to be the best and the good guys in all of this. But with what happened with Segura, what we played a part in making happen… It doesn’t feel right. We’re supposed to make the galaxy a better place for everyone. Not scare people away.” So much of the galaxy put their trust in them, but Kat wasn’t so sure she trusted herself anymore.
“The year’s not over yet. We’re still Gamma cadets for another half-dozen months. You never know where we’ll be at the end of this.”
“Yeah,” she agreed. Although, there was a tension edging this conversation—from both of them. She wasn’t sure she’d ever come to terms with where she was at now.
She leaned her head down to rest in the crook of his neck, and he brushed his lips across her forehead.
They had this part down, though. Being with Lee was the most natural thing in the world.
“Yeah,” she murmured again, and Lee rested his own head against hers. Even their breathing felt in sync tonight.
They made it through the rest of the raid files before calling it a night. They even had plans to be asleep by 22:00 hours, which had to be a new record for them—especially for the night before a raid. But as they slid to their feet, Lee’s 183 centimeters meeting her 175, all cedar trees and curls, and too many wasted opportunities, she lost all expectations for an early night.
“You know,” she said slyly, letting her hand drop from the panel by the door, “We could always start a new tradition.”
“Oh, yeah?” He tilted his head to the side, taking the opening.
Grinning, she pushed away from the wall, pulling him back towards his bed with her.
CHAPTER 10: LEE
LEE WAS a thousand percent onboard with this new tradition of theirs.
It was just after 01:00 hours and the ship was silent, his only company the churning vents overhead, as he slipped down through the Heptagon in search of snacks—at Kat’s request, of course. But he’d been more than happy to comply. Especially after that last makeout sesh.
He had the wild fragrance of Kat in his nose. The familiar weight of her body and the softer parts he’d taken a liking to conformed to his arms. The vents’ churning overhead a reminder of their stilted breathing and huffed laughter as they blurred lines…
The late nights probably weren’t super sustainable, but Lee wasn’t complaining. Not as he took that last stairway past the Hideaway on muscle memory alone. The footsteps of a very appreciative man.
