CHAPTER 5 KAT
“HOW IN the void did you manage to piss off both Zane and Flyn in a single sweep?” Kat shook her head for, like, the tenth time since leaping down into the steamtrap.
Rather than fight the crowd mangling for the showers, following Lee’s wily demise with the Laser Rounds, she and Lee had instead escaped further down the Heptagon, making for the training floors on the other side of the skywalk.
These lower levels would be deserted for a good hour, at least. Which was probably for the best. They’d have to tread carefully lest someone come after them for blood after that match.
“I mean, it was a pretty grand sweeping.” Lee glanced at her sidelong, a little smile curving his lips. He’d likely been expecting her questions. And when she continued to stare pointedly after him, Lee relented, letting his smile drop. “Flyn was easy. He’s been after that win for months.”
“And Zane?” she pressed, refusing to get sidetracked, even if it had been satisfying to see Zane hone that irritation into something useful. If Flyn had actually won today, they wouldn’t have stopped hearing about it for months.
“A necessary by-product.” Lee loosed a sigh, skimming a hand along the railing as they crossed into the training levels.
“I don’t think Flyn realizes he wouldn’t get nearly that far without Ness’s help.” Kat mulled it over, not fully satisfied with Lee’s explanations.
“I still can’t believe you pulled that off.” She shook her head, turning her smirk on him. “I was so distracted wondering what mayhem you were spinning, I lost track of the match. You play dirty, Waters.”
“You have to admit it was effective,” Lee said, glancing over again as they took the first set of stairs, heading down a level. “Sorry about that, by the way. I saw the cadets gang up on you there at the end.”
“It’s okay, you gave me the heads up. I got knocked out fair and square.” A fact she would be rectifying as soon as she got the chance. However, right now, she was still waiting on the punchline. One minute they were fulfilling a quota, the next, they were on the revenge track.
“I still don’t understand, though, why get Zane involved?” Kat asked. “Did you guys have some spat or something I don’t know about? I thought you guys were on good terms now.”
“It wasn’t to get back at him,” Lee said quickly.
“So what then?”
But Lee ignored her question as he directed an arm to the doors on either side of the rounding hallway. “What’ll it be, blasters or the mats?” She couldn’t care less and continued to stare after him until, huffing a laugh under his breath, Lee edged through one of the doors. “The mats it is.”
Setting her water bottle down, Kat moved towards the center of the room, rolling her wrists in idle circles.
Lee joined her, and she mirrored his movements as he started into a set of lunges, the whirring grates of the vents overhead masking some of the echo from their voices.
“Waters, are you ever going to clue me into your theatrics?”
“The General was in the audience watching today. We needed a win,” he said finally, finishing a hold. He drew himself up straighter, facing her.
Kat let her feet come to a stop, bringing her hands to her waist to steady her.
That General Narron was still here was news to her.
It was high time he got up and off their zapping ship, but…
there was more. She could feel it. She could see that tension rolling off Lee in little ebbs and ripples. “When you say we…” she began.
“I mean our former squadron. The Commander too, I suppose. I don’t know. It’s silly logic, it was just a match. But we couldn’t go out like that.”
Lee blew a breath into one of his fists, before trapping his fist in his palm.
And when he met her gaze once more, he let her read the urgency and the desperation there.
“I know what General Narron said—I know what I said afterward—but I don’t regret what happened with Segura.
I stand by the belief that they could have helped us and been an asset to our galaxy—no matter what else they were. ”
Lee cast his eyes down at his hands again, flexing them. “Segura is gone. They fled. That part’s over. But what we started on our raid with that mission, it doesn’t feel closed. It feels like we walked into the middle of something. Like there’s more to the story.”
“We’re just cadets. It’s not our battle,” Kat reminded him.
Pleading with him and with herself to just let it go.
They’d been given an opportunity to leave it in the past. She didn’t want to squander that, not now when they were so close.
All they had left to do was make it through the rest of their Gamma year and they would leave all of this drama behind them.
He must have read some of that in her eyes. His brow furrowed as he backtracked. “No, you’re right. It’s not our battle.”
“You’re not going to be able to let it go,” she said, head tilting as she scrutinized the warring in his eyes. “Are you?”
“I can try.”
Kat nodded slowly, trying to get past the faint ringing in her ears.
“I’ll find a way to make it right, okay? We’ll figure it out,” Lee promised.
“And our probation?” she asked. If they were to figure this out, they’d have to accept the consequences of their actions and all that came with them.
“We’ll add it to the list,” Lee half-groaned.
It was funny. Coming home to the Academy, she’d pictured it as her safe space, the warm blanket she’d pull over her head to dull the shock and confusion.
Yet the longer they were back, the more it seemed to channel those notes right back to her, like static on the fabric, or a malfunctioning verinity shield in need of a recharge.
Kat stretched her arms taut against her chest as they collapsed against the mats, moving on to a series of plank holds. Did she have any regrets?
They finished the set before Kat sat up again, sitting on her hands and knees. Conscious, and almost shy of the body next to hers. And the muscles she’d witnessed many times in action.
“You and I,” she began slowly, cursing herself a little for even going here. But something in his words earlier had thrown her. And while she knew what they’d said on that ship, they hadn’t talked about it—not exactly… “We’re good, aren’t we?”
She stole a glance over at him, peering around the vanilla strands hanging in her face.
Lee’s brow furrowed as he also pushed himself up to his knees, his green eyes sliding to hers.
“We’re good.” His chest heaved as he angled his body towards her. “You and I are good, Kat,” he added, leaning in close enough that she could trace every plane of his mouth and feel his cool breath on her face.
Her eyes glazed a little at his closeness, eyelids shuddering.
“No regrets?” She somehow got the words out, the sounds breathless on her lips as heat began to claw its way up her spine. It was like the other day in his dorm. The insatiable fire was back.
“No regrets,” he breathed. And when his eyes latched onto hers this time, there was a feverishness there, a crazed hunger.
Her muscles were shaky, and not just from the workouts, as she eased upwards onto her knees, stopping herself when their bodies beat and tremored only a breath away. A minor movement from either of them, and her lips would be upon his.
Could he handle her particular brand of chaos? Could he handle all of her?
He leaned towards her.
“Lee,” she said softly, halting his movements as she pressed a hand softly to his chest. He froze, almost immediately. And she could feel the alertness in his body, the fluttering pulse beneath that warmth and strength. One word from her and he would back down. He wouldn’t try this again.
She leaned deeper into the touch, into the feel of him, as she traced her fingers over a patch of his suit. She wanted to try—again and again if that’s what they needed to get this right. He wasn’t just another guy to her. He was Lee—her Lee.
“I don’t want to rush this,” she breathed, at last glancing upward.
“Okay.” He didn’t move. Didn’t even adjust his position, like he was afraid he’d scare her off at any moment. And in the past, he might have.
She rose higher on her knees, tilting her head, just a bit. He needed to know that she wanted this—that she wanted him.
“It’s just that, with our history, with everything, I don’t want to go too fast and ruin this,” she said.
“Okay,” Lee said again with that quiet confidence of his, a secret little smile turning up one of the corners of his lips, the kind that only she recognized and he probably wasn’t even aware.
The kind that had her seeing charred and smoky stars all over again.
She couldn’t say how long that tension had been building between them. Forever?
“Okay.” It was her turn to relax her lips into a tiny smile.
“But Kat—”
“Yeah?” She could feel her body tightening up everywhere.
“I’m not going anywhere.” His breath wafted towards her again, that sweet breathing of a thousand words of mischief shared between them.
She didn’t hold herself back anymore as she leaned forward the rest of the way and caught his bottom lip with hers, sucking, ever so gently.
His lips grazed hers, his hands tangling in her hair as she clung to him.
And then they were falling in a tangle of limbs and stuttered breaths as they lost their balance.
Lee cradled her head to his chest as he fell backward onto the mats, gasping out laughter in splutters and cries of shock.
Only once the huffed breaths and laughter had ceased did Kat slowly roll off of him.
But she made no move to stand up, not as she peered down at him, studying the soft arc of his lips.
“Try that again,” Lee breathed.
The walls of her stomach fluttered as she smiled, caressing his face with her hands. And then, with purpose this time, she leaned in.