They weren’t just celebrating the recalibration effort tonight—although it sure helped. They were celebrating them. They were celebrating their friends. Their family. The people that had once been mere cadets, interchangeable members of a squadron. But here and now? Tonight?
Kat knew without a doubt that their mission had only come together because of the people in this room, and those that were not present here this evening. They wouldn’t have gotten this far without them. And she would never forget that. She owed them everything.
And once again, she found her mate. Her guy. Her beautiful, resilient, green-eyed boy. He too had laughing eyes as he caught her around the waist and spun her into him. The session ended, and still they stayed, and he held her and they drifted. Tonight had been for him, too.
Always.
Much too late, and far too early, they made their way on nimble toes and hollowed ears up the stairs of the Heptagon. Inside Lee’s dorm, she continued to dance and twirl on her toes and under his hands, to a new rhythm that tremored up her lungs and beat against her chest.
Until she finally curled into his arms, the replay of tonight a new imprint on her heavy eyelids.
CHAPTER 44: LEE
THEIR PENULTIMATE day on the ship came and went, a frenzy of him and Kat barreling through his portal door in the morning to avoid being late for trainings. A hurried lunch hour.
And then he was catching up with Kat to make sure they had copies of everything. The miscellany they’d found on the Commander’s hub; the copies of the Argos files; their list of potential base locations; and any other intel they thought they might need.
Beyond that, they were clearing search histories, and stripping down unnecessary files from their hubs, given the uncertainty of inspection after they made their big getaway tomorrow evening.
They were leaving tomorrow.
Tomorrow.
To-mor-row.
It was like the word was repeating in slow motion in his head while the day zipped past him. And just like that, the day was over.
Lee shuffled about his room, double-checking that he’d grabbed everything he wanted from the shelves in his closet. They were only just now finding time to load the skimmer. Kat was on her way back to her dorm to collect the blasters and her duffle. His own, he found, was much lighter than he’d thoughtpossible—but he was taking only the necessities. Band T-shirts. Toothbrush. Lazr-pods. He wouldn’t need all that much where they were going—hopefully.
He surveyed the wall by his window bay. All of his bedding was staying. Along with his aloes. He lifted one of its spines gingerly with a finger. He hadn’t even had a chance yet to repot this one. Maybe he could find some time to drop it down with Ilan tomorrow afternoon before they left. He smiled as his hand hovered over his action-hero figurine. The little guy still faced out to the stars.
Lee scooped him up, dropping him into the open duffle. Something to up the kilos, just a little.
He still grappled with the weight of uncertainty hanging on his shoulders from the other night. So many unknowns bearing down on him. Maybe someday he would breathe easy again. Although, he could admit that having Kat at his side definitely played its part in helping lessen at least some fraction of that burden.Void,she made that burden infinitely lighter. He couldn’t imagine trying to juggle all of this and deal with it on his own.
Even after everything they’d gathered and learned these past few months, it still felt as if they were going into this with a dark-opaque vizor pulled down over their eyes.
This was trust.
And his gut. His gut had never intentionally led him astray. He just prayed again on the destiny of that void that his gut wasn’t about to lose strength and fail him any time soon.
Kat was knocking on his portal door when his hyperband buzzed.
“Coming,” he murmured. He slapped a hand by the door, stepping back to read Whistler’s message while he let her in.
“Looks like our skimmer is for sure a go,” he said by way of greeting. He took the two strides over to the bed to grabhis duffle before following her outside to the hallway. “Whistler said he and Zane are implementing the hacks from Nikola and Hanna as we speak. I suppose now is as good of a time as any to drop these off.”
Lee slung his duffle across his chest before snaking her pink duffle over her head and doubling it up with his own. He accepted the star flower—her star flower, with its moon-dust petals, leaving Kat free to tuck the wrapped bundle of blasters more discreetly within her arms.
“You’ve done well with it,” he gestured with his head down to the potted plant. The pollen inside the second flower was vibrant and fiery as he remembered.
“I know.” Kat stuck out her tongue.
Lee just smiled. He was still surprised she had wanted to bring the star flower with her. But it had been her idea, and one she seemed pleased with, after confirming and re-confirming about a dozen times that he was sure it would survive out there.
The dinner hour, tonight, was a grateful distraction from passersby. They cleared most of the Heptagon and were down to that last stairway facing the central skywalk and hangars before Lee heard movement coming towards them. He hissed for Kat to duck around the corner ahead of him—
And then Nolan rounded the other.
