The Retrofit: The Callistar 1.0

Chapter Nineteen

KIRA

“Do you remember when I said wars were not always started for resources? Spite is a reason to do things as well.” Kira said, pondering about his prior goal for galactic peace, when he’d not known what it was to care about another’s opinion. Resting her forearms on the hydroponics table, she seemed to tense when he’d said Watson’s name a moment ago.

“You think an entire planet can be motivated to war over spite?” Quinn continued to pick away at the tomatoes, dropping them into a tub nestled against the counter. They had elevated planters on long stainless tables.

Kira wasn’t helping, even if she’d volunteered, only keeping him company in a grumpy manner.

“No, I think one man can. If the leader of a people is charismatic, he can convince an entire population. There have been wars waged over one woman before, and that had no effect on the majority.” She knew he would find it ridiculous still, but she wanted to prove her earlier point. This was just the perfect moment to do so.

“Hrmph.” Turning one of the plump red ones in his hand, Quinn pulled it free from the stem.

“Of course, small slights have also sparked revolutions.” Kira lacked the capability to peer inside his mind, but following her own train of thought, from knowing him, she knew he wished to solve that issue as well. But you would have to take away emotion, want, everything that made the universe the way it was to get rid of the aspects that made up every soul.

“Well, I can agree with that.” Quinn pinched off a dead section of the vine.

Kira molded her words with sweet assurance because she was truthful, and there was power in that sometimes. Out of uniform she looked prepared to garden, a long apron with small flowers on it, her hair pulled into a loose violet ribbon halfway down her back, and that smudge of dirt over her brow she’d not noticed yet.

“I am glad that you agree.” She murmured, still lollygagging instead of helping nestled on a short chair.

Quinn had dirt under his fingernails instead of mechanical fluids. His bright white hair shot out in different directions, tousled ungracefully. He grabbed a plain blue apron to protect the long-sleeved black shirt he wore. The sleeves pushed up, out of the way.

Kira considered him still, her chin resting still on crossed forearms. A few days had passed since the quiet moments on the bridge. He’d spoken to more of the crew, Max, Alec, and even the ship’s cook, Hela, when he’d picked up trays for Kira. Everyone told her he spoke with them, nothing more than mentioning it in passing, a sign of approval as no one missed her looks other than her.

“Watson is going to apologize to you.” Kira popped off after the tick of quiet.

“Uh, okay?” The tomato in his hand bled around his fingers. He disposed of it in the waste bin, wiping his hands clean on the apron.

“I’m not sure it will be the most sincere thing you’re ever going to hear.” She picked at the dirt under her fingernails.

“Okay?”

“I told him it was necessary.” She capped it off with that one. “I told him he needs to apologize after what occurred.” She did not say that she had pressured Watson by saying that he was a guest of Toke and it had not been proper. Kira had wanted to say much more, but they had not yet achieved the delicate balance they had been working towards. Rocking the boat wouldn’t help anyone at the moment.

“Ah.” Quinn grasped a rag, wiping off the tomato juice. Semi clean again, he returned to his task. “Thank you, I appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome.”

They’d not yet discussed the events on the bridge, either. She got up to help him again. It put a plant between them. “I assume your room is safeguarded for scanning as well?”

“Yes.”

“Good.”

His inhale was audible. “Why did-“

“You know, sometimes in the projector room I watch the skies above Praetoria. I know the constellations and their stories. Even the star that leads due South from most of a land that I’ve never stepped on.”

He quieted, inviting her to go on despite her interrupting him.

“Toke dodges me about it when I ask. He always told me he rescued me during the Separate event, which I looked into. There was a small revolt the government did not catch early enough, and they marched on the capital. I’ve never served upon any ship close enough to interact with Preatoria if it could be helped and since this posting, if there is to be a possible boarding with crew scans, I’ve been informed to make myself absent.”

The stalk moved, pushed aside by him, and his eyes caught hers. “Do you want me to find out for you? The reason?”

Mulling over his offer, she had a chance. Was it exploiting him to ask? She decided it was. The things he would have to hack into and the databases he’d invade were dangerous. Not that he couldn’t hide his trail. It felt too far. She wouldn’t ask him to do anything that Paradigm might have pushed him for.

“No.” She finally decided, shifting to the side, taking refuge in the veil of the leaves. Partially because of the subject matter and partially because… he made it hard to concentrate. “Could I ask you to do something else instead? Hear Watson out. You don’t have to accept his apology, but it at least might make things smoother.”

“Okay.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.’

The task at hand started when he’d volunteered after breakfast, when Hela had mentioned it, and she’d seconded his offer. The drones could completely plant a new patch and taking care of the current crop, but doing things by hand was a habit Hela instilled long ago.

“I always thought we should do a flower part in here, a place to sit where they bloom. Unfortunately, most of these don’t bloom, but they grow in their own way and are no less pretty for it.” She dropped seeds into the holes of another planter, using a short shovel to make the opening.

A full grown orange tree blossomed in the hydroponics bay with a small patch of grass, but it laid over in the corner, out of the way.

“Oh, like I did in your Astrium? To make it look nice?”

“Yes. That resembles more of a clearing in the forest where you could climb the trees to get closer to the stars. I cannot imagine anything more peaceful.”

She thanked him again without saying the exact words. Unlike the first time she’d said it, he handled her gentle affections easier now than before. He didn’t flinch away, but sought it out sometimes on his own.

“I’m glad you like it.” He scratched at his nose, leaving a heavy smudge of dirt on it.

Finishing up the cart, she washed her hands in the bin. “This should be enough to keep Hela busy for a while. I got her word I’d get a pie out of this too.” Walking over to him, she giggled as she told him. “You’ve got something on your nose.”

Licking her thumb, she went to brush it off.

“I do?” He blinked, remaining still, pink racing across his cheeks as she wiped it away. “Uh… thanks?”

“You did, and you’re welcome.” Her voice dipped into a husky tone at their proximity. She steadied her thumb, placing her fingertips on his cheek. They went a little farther. She cradled his cheek. Dusky skin, like warm caramel, slightly harder to see through, but her cheeks turned red.

His net shot off. Clear skies of the early morning moved to her lips, then back up. That flicker, that up and down of hesitation before either of them did something rash, woke her up.

She felt a pull at her navel, warmth spread through her body. Knowing he might not even understand his own urges did not help her resist hers. She wanted so badly to break the unspoken rules of friendship they’d placed between them, to capture that little bit of space by leaning forward. But should she?

She moved her hand down his cheek, her forearm settling on his chest. Quinn wasn’t overwhelmingly taller than her but her chin had to angle upward. If she put just a bit of pressure on his neck, if she brought him down. It would be all too simple. Therefore they were entirely too close still. “I should get going.”

“Uh, yeah. Sure. Of course. You are busy.” He’d been staring when she broke contact and he rubbed at his eye.

“I’ll catch you later?”

“Yeah? Yeah.” He nodded.

QUINN

Max was either an eerily lucky man, or he just got his way eventually because the moment Kira disappeared, he popped in with a tray to harvest some blackberries further down the line. Quinn heard him when he entered. The Vicar and he had spoken off-hand before and he’d asked to speak with him. Seeing his chance, Quinn asked as he walked by. “You said you wanted to talk?”

“Ah, yes.” Max was quick to smile, a people person. Quinn had learned that’s what his personality was called. Max sat down his tray, seemingly happy to put off his other work, joining Quinn by the tomato plants. “Kira has told me quite a bit about the alterations to the ship. It seems you had your work cut out for you when you arrived.”

“I guess?”

“You don’t quite know how to carry a conversation, do you?”

Quinn mulled over his answer. Max didn’t fill it in for him, just picked up one of the adjacent aprons and slid it over his head, tying the back. He did not wear his regular garb, but a slim fitted suit in the same gray. More cottony in appearance. A work outfit, one he’d seen on several of the crew, serving more as a secondary uniform for the ship if they weren’t wearing a flight suit.

“Apparently not.” Quinn decided, pruning a few dead leaves. He wasn’t actually sure how to supposedly respond to any of this, really. Some standard responses had flashed by to Max’s first comment, but they’d all been... pointless? Mostly either downplaying the work he’d done or exaggerating it. It’s what he’d offered to do, and it had gone off with no hitches that weren’t named Kira.

“Considering how you were raised, I did not expect you to be loquacious or graceful in managing one.” Max didn’t pull punches, it seemed. “Making small talk is difficult sometimes even for the best of us, so I’ll forgo it too if that’s alright?” He slipped both hands into his pockets on his lean legs.

“Sure?” Why did people have to be so complicated? It felt like Max danced around the subject without truly hitting the point. Which seemed pretty silly. If he truly wanted to forgo small talk, he’d simply speak.

“I wanted to offer an ear to you. One without judgment. You seem to manage alright on your own, but I am sure that the perspective of another who has had more life experiences might be helpful. Besides, I know the Captain well.”

“I feel...” He digested the offer. “That is a kind gesture. So thank you?” Scratching at his neck, he wasn’t sure what else to say to that. He wasn’t sure what, exactly, the man was offering to give advice about.

“It is, but you don’t have to thank me. The role of a Vicar is to guide. It does not always mean spiritually.”

“Okay, well, I am not sure what you think I need to talk about,” Quinn admitted. “But I appreciate the offer, even if I don’t know what to do with it.” His statement might have sounded sarcastic coming from someone else, but he was just being honest.

“Considering your recent upheaval, your newfound relationships aboard this ship, including Watson, and your lack of understanding of social cues, though I know you can figure out most on your own, I am sure you will eventually find something.”

A file only told Quinn so much, but from what Quinn discerned, Kira trusted this man. Otherwise, she would have never brought him to Toke.

“I mean... I suppose so.” Quinn frowned slightly. When he was younger, there had been therapists, but like everyone else, they were instructed to keep him at arm’s length while evaluating his mental health. Everything he said was reported directly to Paradigm and at a certain point, he just started lying to them.

Lately, he supposed he had been confiding in Kira, mostly about the mental breakdowns she caused and then helped him through by not leaving him alone. But without the pressure of something giving him an anxiety attack, he wasn’t actually sure what to tell the Vicar about.

“I mean,” Quinn began. “Relationship wise, it all seems pretty straightforward to me. I am infatuated with Kira. Watson is fixated on her. Kira isn’t sure how she feels, but knows she doesn’t want either of us trying to manipulate her. I am just enjoying what time I can get with her and trying to work on my social skills. The latter due to a comment Watson made, which, while insulting, was accurate enough for me to consider. I thought it would make Kira happy, so I decided it was worth doing.” He paused as he considered this and then shrugged. “Beyond that, I have clear signs of social anxiety, depression, insomnia, and a host of other issues. Although these are all rooted in my nurturing as a child and the experiments performed on me rather than my nature, seeing as my genome was programmed prior to birth to avoid the genetic disposition to such things. So if you just wanted to hear my problems, I guess there you are?”

Quinn didn’t really feel any different from expressing them. It all seemed obvious to him.

Max, during his monologue, kept quiet, reflective. His hands were in his pockets, still a hip bumped up against the table. “It sounds as if you are struggling, and now that you have time to consider them fully, you have. Though you cannot do things simply because you are trying to please someone else. That is a path that is hard to recover from as well. As for the rest, I assume with your implants you’re averse to taking medication to fix your brain chemistry?”

The look Quinn gave Max as he informed him he couldn’t do things just for another person was best described as flat. More accurately, though, it resided in the realm of condescending, since Quinn knew he could do things for another person, as that was what he was currently doing. Still, he would not argue with the Vicar over an opinion, as that seemed fruitless.

“Considering that any substance that alters brain chemistry has a chance of interacting poorly with the implants in my brain up to and including causing an aneurysm, No. I am not keen on rolling those statistical dice.” Alterations to his chemistry were unavoidable, but suddenly introducing an influx of a chemical through a pill or substance in large, unnaturally occurring quantities was a giant risk.

Max appeared nonplussed, which seemed to be his usual expression when he wasn’t smiling. “Then I suppose you will have to do it the natural way. Find things that interest you and make you happy outside of the Captain. Exercise is one way; it naturally releases endorphins in the brain. We have a room for it. Or you could do morning runs with Kira if the mood strikes you. Although, I do not know if you’ll be able to keep pace. The only one capable thus far has been Rick.”

“I picked up the guitar and have been learning how to play it.” He left out that he’d started because Kira had suggested it. He found he enjoyed the act of creating music, even if his fingers couldn’t quite match what was in his mind yet. “I also have my workout equipment in my room. I’ve been doing two-hour workouts a day since I finished work on the ship.” He intended that as a statement of fact if not intent, since he would be in the gym to run with Kira in the morning if it was an option. He would mention it to her the next time he saw her. Any reason to spend more time with her he was happy to take.

“Good, it sounds as if my suggestions are not needed then. If you’re staying here, I could use the help to collect things for Hela if you’re willing.”

“I mean, they were excellent suggestions.” The dead leaves plucked off, the ripe tomatoes off the vine, and the bucketful left him little else to do so he nodded.

“Thank you.”

Quinn took his words at face value.

Max broke the silence a moment later by saying softly, “I rarely speak openly of my friends, but I will say that the Captain, while confused, is not wholly without feelings for you as well, from what I have seen. She values what you have together.”

A long period of silence came from Quinn before he said, “She values our friendship.” The part he didn’t want to confront was how he continued to downplay his own emotions and hopes for Kira’s emotions to match in order to shield himself. He’d become a lot more open in the last few weeks, but he wasn’t completely done cutting himself off, not yet.

“Are you sure that’s all?”

“It has to be,” was the answer he finally gave, looking away from the vicar. The memory from earlier in the day played on a loop in the corner of his eyes, repeatedly.

Max lowered his chin, a thoughtful nod given as they worked on collecting other ingredients, pruning, and repotting. When they finished, Max even invited him to the dining hall to play Quest, something Quinn questioned immediately before being informed it was a card game.

Kira received a message from Quinn later on asking, “Should I play Quest with Alec, Max, and Rick?”

“Only if you’re willing to not look up the answers.’’ The voice message back was playful. She sounded as if she was smiling.

“Okay.”

Returning to his room, Quinn settled in. A lot flooded through his mind, and he ultimately shut off his neural net to block out the noise.

“What the hell am I doing?” He asked the empty room as he tried to get the image of Kira looking at him in the hydroponics bay out of his mind.

When he arrived in the mess, he found Rick involved in a game with Alec. There was more swearing on Alec’s end. Rick was quiet, calculated. He moved with precision and poise and gave looks under his brows that would have frightened anyone attempting to fight him. Max fiddled in the kitchen putting together bowls of apple pie and ice cream.

Remembering his promise to Kira, he entered with only his own wits to guide him. Approaching the table, Max caught sight of him first. The boys said hello, which was really Alec dropping a grumbling utterance as he moved his cards, and Rick looking in his direction. Rick he’d not met yet. The security officer, a brooding man with dark hair and eyes. He wondered if Kira thought to use him as an example instead of Morgan when she’d mentioned attractive crew members. Objectively, his programming could determine he was that, but according to his file, he was human but modified.

Max, seemingly always cheerful, said, “Glad you could join us! I have ice cream and apple pie. If you’re interested, I’ll set up another bowl.”

“Uh, okay.”

Max prepared another, emerging with four passing them out. “Do you want me to explain it?”

Quinn opened his mouth to inform Max that he didn’t have to, but then thought better of the situation. “Sure.” Curious to see how Max’s explanation would differ from what he had read online.

Max explained the rules faithfully while adding in a few ‘house rules’, which he told him only applied to their immediate company. Rick defeated Alec. Max set up to go up against Rick next, and Alec asked Quinn if he’d like to play a game on the side while he finished his ice cream. He promised Quinn that he would not go easy on him despite him being new, as he said. “That bloody brain of yours doesn’t deserve a pity win.”

“I don’t know why you would go easy on me.” The concept of going easy on someone for the sake of fun involved a few social constructs that Quinn couldn’t understand yet, seeing as he’d never played a game before. Settling in across from Alec, the engineer shuffled. Surprisingly, Quinn lost. Alec had to work rather hard to manage it, but in the end, he won. In part thanks to a house rule about doubling up cards.

Alec’s complete and utter shock came with his quick dismissal of another game, seeing as he knew when to take his winnings and leave. It left the other two amused. Quinn side eyed the other game. He learned Max had a difficult time with Rick, who seemed as lucky as skilled.

The security officer worked in a way that always put him five steps ahead while planning for any contingency.

Alec settled in to watch as well, telling Max, since he could see his cards, “Might wanna be careful with that.”

“I know what I am doing,” Max replied, raising one brow and shifting his hand.

“Oh aye, ya do now, but when he wipes ye out, don’t come crying to me.” Alec’s gruffness displayed openly but he clearly wasn’t upset, a smile on his face.

“You wouldn’t offer me your shoulder, Alec?” That already raised brow went higher. Max turned in his seat to eye their engineer, the move smoothly done as he brushed the edge of Alec’s shoulder.

Alec stammered out a reply in a brogue that Quinn could not translate, but he did watch as Max roared with laughter.

Rick spoke finally, his level voice the one of reason, “You should pay attention before you lose.”

“I think I might prefer it now.” Max laid down his next card.

Alec flushed. His entire face looked like the tomatoes that were harvested earlier.

After a while, Rick came out victorious, though it was a good fight. Kira wandered in around that time asking them, “And who is crowned champion this evening?”

“Rick by default,” Alec supplied with a mighty grin, coming up out of his seat and clasping hands with the captain as if it were a natural thing.

“I see,” she said, glancing down at the full table.

“Are we done already?” Quinn blinked in surprise at this. He’d thought he would play more than one game. The implication that there was a champion already suggested that they were finished.

Kira being there he would not complain if that was the case.

“Goodness no,” Max said politely with a laugh. “But we have an ongoing tournament amongst ourselves that we were sorting. Rick has just finally won. We rarely play so seriously against one another.”

Kira smiled. Quinn didn’t check his neural net and therefore did not notice he’d spent an hour and a half with the crew already after having watched the first, then playing his own, and watching the end of a second.

“I promised I would play the winner, though not tonight Rick, if that’s alright?”

Rick nodded, shuffling his cards. “It can wait.”

“So who do I play next, then?” Quinn inquired.

“I’d like to take a turn.” Max was the first to seize the opportunity.

As the game progressed, it became obvious Quinn playing against Max lacked a resolved strategy. Much like how he experimented with his meals, he occasionally made poor plays to figure out how to use the house rules to his advantage. Deliberately creating scenarios so he could see how strong of a move he could fabricate.

“Oh aye,” Alec said smoothly, watching the end play out. “The lads got a handle on it, that’s for sure.”

Rick put his true game face on as he switched spots with Max and they began to play. The sound of an alert that went through comms to each of them only saved him. Everyone stood to disperse, with hardly a word to each other.

Only Kira cursed softly as she hopped off the table. “You should head to your room, Quinn.”

The alert was unexpected and his neural net booted up as he looked over the ship’s logs to see what triggered it. When Kira advised him to go to his room, he frowned. That bothered him, but he couldn’t argue with the suggestion. If it was a patrol, they were a danger to him. Getting up, he did as he was told.

Kira followed in the same direction, muttering to herself on the matter. “Praetorians again, given permission to be here.”

She clenched her hands into fists as she got onto comms and Quinn caught half of the conversation.

“Morgan, are you on the bridge?”

“How close are they?”

“Damn.”

Tapping into the mainframe, he judged they’d be within scanning distance in a matter of minutes. Cloaked as a transport ship, one doing a regular route, Ann would not have flagged them right away. There hadn’t been a concern before their sudden change in direction.

“It may be too late,” she said to Morgan. “If it is, you must stall for as long as possible. It will take me time to reach the lockup. Watson needs to get there now, too.”

Observing the ships, Quinn ran the math. If she went to the lockup... Well, she could make it, but it would be very close. Even if she rushed, it was hard to get an exact number, but her margin of error existed at about less than ten seconds to arrive safely. As long as he hurried, his margin of error was closer to forty seconds, so that made it the safest option for both of them. It also didn’t involve Watson and her in an enclosed space. A win win as he’d heard before.

“Uh, you could just go to my room with me. The praetorians are almost within scanning range and it’s the closer of the two.”

“Right, yours is blocked too?” She did not wait for an answer, instead she gave a quick, “Thank you Quinn.”

Jogging that direction once they were inside, the door closed and a faux wall went up in the hallway. They were completely undetectable to the rest of the known galaxy as he walked over to his bed and sat down. Normally he would lie down, but then she wouldn’t have anywhere to sit.

“This can’t just be West anymore.” Kira halted at the door, leaning her forehead against the cold metal. “They’re after something. There is no reason for us to be so accosted. I am sure that Paradigm put a number out for you.” One hand formed a fist, and it slammed down on it, but he couldn’t see her expression, only hear the anger in her voice as she said, “It’s ridiculous, you’re not some piece of property for them to claim.”

“I mean, from a legal point of view, there is a case for that. There was actually a fairly intensive file for that argument to be made in the event my existence was made public.” Since he hadn’t technically been born and had been augmented since birth and since said augmentation was the only reason he was alive... Well, it was a fairly lengthy and detailed document that sought to prove that he wasn’t a person by the legal definition.

“Well, they can burn for it.” She turned from the door, tears threatened to spill over her long eyelashes.

He’d never seen her so frustrated or angry before. Even when she’d broken her ankle, she’d not shed any tears at the pain. The fact that it was over- that her tears were for him, well, it was surprising to say the least. He rose to his feet. Tentatively, he made his way across the room, reaching out to put a hand on her shoulder. It took him a moment, but he dragged her into a hug.

Her forehead came down against the edge of his shoulder. “I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have to deal with this. I’m being ridiculous too.”

“I mean, I don’t think you have anything to be sorry about. Thank you for caring,” Quinn said with genuine feeling in his voice. His life became better with her presence and seeing just how deeply she cared made him feel unsure. The complication frightened him.

“Mmmph,” she murmured, switching to her cheek, shifting and allowing him to draw her in truly close. “You are worth caring about, Quinn.”

He kept replaying how he’d felt earlier that day even if he wished to focus on this moment with her, not trying to figure it out, not trying to shield himself, just being with her. “I- I care about you too, Kira, more than anything.”

Her shoulders shook, but the fact she laughed abated his fear of her falling apart. “What a pair we make, then.”

“I guess.” Quinn said, echoing her laugh lightly, glad he could get a cheerful sound out of her through the tears. It made him feel like he’d accomplished something. “Despite my best efforts.”

“Oh, it would never work against my best efforts.” She drew back with a smile, wiping her cheeks. “I have more experience in bothering people than you do. I win in that category.”

“There is no denying I was in no way prepared for you,” he said with another laugh, this one a bit deeper as he continued to hold her tightly around the waist.

Happy just standing there, being of even the smallest amount of comfort for her. Her arms were situated just over his, where her hands fell on the edges of his shoulders. Her fingertips dug in just slightly, holding onto him. Barely enough space existed between them to see each other properly. Her eyes dropped low again. All it would take was courage on one of their parts.

“Well, we’re even, then,” she said in that same husky voice.

The shift in her voice couldn’t be missed. Quinn’s overt intelligence made him absorb information like a sponge, and that tone in her words, already burned into his mind from the memory of the hydroponics bay, had been playing for almost the entire day. The things that tone did to him, it made his body react in a way he’d never quite experienced before.

“Oh, that’s... good.”

Kira looked at his lips again, and he couldn’t help but look at hers. It felt like an invitation. It took him a moment to sum up the courage, but he leaned forward.

“You’re leaving,” she said suddenly, cursing aloud. “I’m sorry I should have never.” Her back met the door, putting the tiniest modicum of space between them. “You can’t stay and be hunted and trapped like an animal.”

“I-” He could not find the words. She made a valid point. “I just want to be with you. Even if it isn’t forever, just for now, just for as long as I can. I want to be with you.”

Nothing existed between them again. She took a quick step forward, placed a gentle guiding hand on the nape of his neck, and he found himself drawn downward. He went to question it, but she pretty effortlessly silenced him. His eyes went wide in shock as he felt her lips on his. The pressure became gentle, but needing, like velvet against his own. Analyzing the act, seeing others do it, he’d not thought something so simple would bring a sensation of such pleasure. Trying to process everything simultaneously, he realized he couldn’t.

So he just focused on what was happening instead of trying to figure it out. Quinn melted into his first kiss as his arms gently wrapped around her. For the first time in his life, his heart wasn’t aching, it was just full, completely and utterly full.

Kira drew back as if to give him a second to breathe; his lungs felt tight as he manually reminded himself to.

She was still there. “Together then,” came her breathless reply to his unspoken question.

“Yes, together.” Even if he wasn’t sure what it meant, he knew he wanted it, all of it, whatever she offered to him.

“I’m going to kiss you again, is that alright?”

“Yes.”

The response came immediately, his voice still quite low and soft, as though he worried that speaking too loudly would break the momentum. It was a moment that kept getting better and better. He soon kissed her back eagerly, clearly quite enamored with the activity.

She moved flush against him at one point, curves pressing against his body in an exciting and new way because it was in a way that wasn’t meant simply to be friendly. It was definitely something more. Against all odds, they had discovered each other and found themselves locked in a room together to evade a scan. In the meantime, they performed their own scans and diagnostics. Quinn didn’t resist when Kira pushed him back until he sat on the bed, her straddling him, both upright.

Resistance would have required some sort of cognate thought at that moment. Not just a cohesive thought, but one that would give him pause. He wasn’t thinking. In fact, he wasn’t going out of his way to not think. He didn’t want to think. He wanted Kira to keep doing whatever she wished because it was the single best thing to have happened to him.

She had eclipsed every thought, worry, anxiety, and fear, replacing all the negative, all the hurt, with herself. She dominated all of his senses, all of his attention, all of his being. The only action he took was to follow her gentle guidance and to keep his hands wrapped around her as she pressed her lips to his. In that moment, she had given him the one thing he had always wanted. She had taken his hurt away.

When she stopped, Quinn almost followed her before he took a breath and looked into her eyes. Thoughts tried to crowd into his mind once again, but as he gazed up at her, he let out a little sigh. Pressing his forehead against hers, he murmured softly, “thank you.”

Quinn thought she had to know he was at least infatuated with her, and possibly in love with her. He’d shown her so clearly before.

“You’re welcome.”

“I- This is what I wanted. Just not the way I thought I would find it. You made me hurt less before, and now, now, I do not hurt at all.” He explained it, not sure he had the right words for it all, but Quinn did his best to give her the truth that was in his heart.

Unlike so many others, no one was going to take her away. She’d never given up on him, and no one had paid her to manipulate him. She was just- Kira. A woman who saw a man trying desperately to shut himself away and had stuck her foot in the door, forcing him to let the sunshine in because she brought it with her.

“You make me happy too, Quinn.”

“Thank you.” Knowing that he did for her, in some capacity, what she did for him made him feel, well, he already felt good, but it somehow made him feel better.

“Can I-” He trailed off, but his gaze on her lips once again. He only picked up on what was on the surface.

“You may.”

The simple kisses were good, but instinct and desire drove him to deepen it. His attempt started clumsy, and inelegant, but soon enough, he moved as she guided him.

She wrapped her fingers in the short locks at the nape of his neck and the feel of her hands in his hair and on his chest made his entire body respond. Charging him like an electric current, every strand of hair on his body felt ready to stand on edge. The gentle feeling of her tongue pressing against his lips confused him at first, but there were only a finite number of things she could be trying to achieve.

Parting his lips tentatively, he felt her tongue in his mouth and soon he got the idea of what he was supposed to be doing. Without even really thinking about it, his hands ran up her back, digging lightly into her skin, his own hand gently combing through her hair. Quinn had an endless curiosity, and she gave him an entirely new world of delights to experiment with.