CHAPTER 6 LEE #2
“You’re not bad,” he called over, legs swinging beneath him, as Kiara muscled around that last hurdle. He’d expected as much for one with her resourcefulness. “But you’ve got to work on your technique,” he half-teased.
“I… demand… a rematch,” she ground out in-between breaths.
Lee was chuckling as he scanned his controller, riding one of the pulleys back down.
Kat stood at the base of the wall, hands braced on her hips, wearing a very obvious I told you what you guys were getting into look.
“Did I live up to your expectations?” he asked, leaping down the rest of the way.
He’d expected her eye roll. But it was his eyes that were popping out of his head when Kat reached up onto her toes, planting an extremely wet, smacking kiss on his cheek.
“And then some,” she said.
The imprint of her lips was a cool, glittering raison d’être as he slung an arm over her shoulders. “Good. Cuz now it’s your turn.”
An hour later, they stood with the twins and Whistler, and his latest cadet—fling?—whatever he was, at the base of the wall, each having had their fill of climbs.
“It’s nice to meet you—outside trainings, that is,” Lee said. “Remind me of your name?”
“Demi,” the cadet said, extending a hand for Lee, the gleaming hoops lining one of his warm-golden ears glinting with the movement.
“You guys all seem really close. I haven’t known too many Gammas who openly hang with the younger cadets,” Demi mused, sharing a grin with Whistler.
“We’re mature for our age,” Kamata joked, hopping from one foot to the other, already seeking out their next adventure.
“Some of us also share a history.” Kiara waggled her brows, the implications transparent. “And don’t even get me started on those two.” She batted her eyelashes heavily in his and Kat’s direction.
He stole a glance at Kat to gauge her retort, but a shadow had crossed over her eyes. As Kamata stated her plans to hit up the blaster range next, he slipped an arm protectively around Kat’s shoulders.
“We’ll catch up to you guys later. Raincheck?” Lee said.
“Fine, but next time, you have to promise you’ll show me where you get all your ninja stealth,” Kiara challenged.
“Have fun, you two cuties,” Kamata called.
“But not too much fun!” Kiara cut in with a wink.
“Nothing we wouldn’t do!” Kamata yelled behind her, and both girls giggled.
He and Kat left the training levels and the heptagon behind them, wandering around the dorms before Lee prodded the shadow that stalked her.
“Demi seems nice.”
“Mm,” Kat agreed.
“You doing okay? You’ve been quiet.” He nudged her softly with his arm.
She didn’t bother to shrug, her gaze trailing along a pattern in the grates below them.
“Was it something Kiara said about us getting together? Because I can vouch for the ending of that tale. I’m pretty into you.”
When Kat glanced his way, amusement danced with the shadows.
“You guys are getting close,” she finally said, slowing her steps, and Lee did the same, despite his heart starting to gallop.
“We’re all getting really close, and it’s just…
” Her pause seemed to crescendo until she stopped walking altogether.
“We’re doing the right thing, aren’t we, in staying out of it and putting this raid behind us?
We shouldn’t be banging on Nolan’s door, begging him to lift this ridiculous probation and give us another shot at the General?
We’re their squadron leads. They listen to us—they look up to us.
I just don’t want to let everyone down.”
Her voice had dipped down to little more than a whisper, but the hallways around them absorbed every word.
And he could see the wishfulness there, the yearning, wanting him to counteract her words, and at the same time absolutely terrified of what that would mean for them.
Capturing both of her hands in his, he drew them up to press a kiss to her thumbs.
“I can’t answer for everyone else. But Kiara and Kamata are strong. Whistler is strong. They’ll be fine,” he murmured, running his thumbs in soothing strokes along her knuckles.
“And Jed?” she asked, peering up at him, with just a glimpse into the face that could pick out stars even in the most brightest of spacescapes.
“I’m sure I could identify some strong qualities with Jed and the others.”
Kat huffed a laugh, the edges of her eyes crinkling with the motion.
“As for you and me,” he said, finally, still holding her gaze, “we decide what is right for us. You never let me down, Kat.”
She threw her arms around his neck, and Lee folded her into him, holding her close enough that her warm cheek rested at his heart, and he could feel the strays of her hair tickle his chin.
There was a reason he hadn’t been down to the greenhouses since he’d been back.
Seeing those blue-green lights again—the base identifiers of the neutrino tech that had made up Segura’s lead operations—would call too many truths to the surface.
Reflections he’d have to face. Doubts he’d have to wade through.
But they’d made it this far. They were here.
They were trying. And that was enough for now. That had to be enough.
Kat’s final shudder was echoes below the grated floors before he finally loosened his grip to better see her face.
Her skin was a bit flushed, and flakes of black mascara gathered under her eyes.
And she looked tired, so tired. Not just physically from the climbing or the social exertion, but mentally.
Emotionally. How long would the effects of their actions plague them, chasing their dreams?
And even so, she was still the most beautiful person he’d ever known.
She clung to his arm when they eventually arrived at Kat’s dorm.
He lingered a couple steps away while she scanned her hyperband at the door.
If she needed her space right now to figure out what was so obviously at the forefront of her mind, he would give it to her.
He would kiss her cheek and say goodnight.
But when she glanced back at him, she only had confusion written in her brow. Typical Kat fashion of, what in void’s name are you waiting for, Waters?
Biting down on his grin, he followed her inside.
A similar chaos greeted him from the last few times he’d been here.
And despite their conversation, she appeared entirely unflustered as she pulled the band from her hair, tossing it carelessly in the general direction of her closet.
Lee trailed a step behind her, resisting the urge to right the bin by her desk and re-home that rubber hair band, as she ran the tips of her fingers through the crown of her hair, the motion sure and premeditated.
She was safe behind the door of her own room.
And safe with him.
“Hey.” He came over to her, cupping her arms with his hands. “One step at a time, alright? No one expects us to figure this out all in one day.”
She sagged in his arms, letting him pull her back against his chest once more.
She doubted herself sometimes. But she, too, was a source of strength that went beyond the annoyingly attractive tilts and suggestions and quick retorts that she could make with this lissom body of hers.
It was in the way she moved through life and understood it.
Even when she didn’t wholly want to believe it.
She twisted in his arms to peer up at him with those pale grey eyes until the uncertainty in them softened into curiosity.
“There is one thing I’d love to explore a little more though, before today is done.
” Her pink lips were like a candy secret, spilling the sweetest nothings as they split into a grin.
She attempted to catch him off guard as she shoved him backwards into her bed with both hands. But he snatched her into his arms as he fell until—with Kat’s breathless shriek—they were both toppling into the rumpled grey sheets. Always falling over him, this one.
For a single perfect moment, he lay there, limbs tangled in hers, their frantic breaths mingling as he gazed up, captivated by those dancing eyes, and wondering what she might do next. How thoroughly hers he was. And she didn’t even know it yet—not the full extent of it, anyway.
Gnawing at her bottom lip, she brushed a strand of her hair from his forehead, tracing her fingers over his nose and cheek, smiling to herself at some inside joke he hadn’t yet unraveled.
And then, cupping his cheek with her hand, she brought those smiling lips down to his.