“I mean, I think that was also the year we figured out how to break into the kitchens,” Lee said, one hand resting on her boot as he tracked something on his holoblock.
“Adrenaline and food,” Kat snorted, “so basic.”
“Are you going to offer to bring snacks?” Lee teased.
But it was all coming back to her now. “I feel like you had a crush on that girl, Kinzie.”
“She was the red-head, right?” Lee asked, actually taking his eyes off the glowing files as he pretended to think.
Kat nudged his hand with her boot.
“She had a weird laugh.” Lee shrugged.
“Nice,” Kat said, going back to her lesson strategy.
“You really remember Kinzie?” Lee asked
“It’s like you said, she had a weird laugh,” Kat said, fascinated that she could still recall the irksome, four-year-old prickles, a feeling she hadn’t even grasped the meaning of at the time.
She looked up as he squeezed the bridge of her foot.
“Kinzie was never you. And your IRs? They’ll be fine with whatever you can throw at them— they’ve got you for an instructor. Just trust your instincts.”
“That’s the problem right now. My instincts are shot,” Kat said, slicing through the hologram open before her. “What are you working on over there? Didn’t you already finish all your lesson plans?”
“I’m just flailing,” he said, waving his hand over his holoblock. “Waiting for clear answers that don’t exist to magically materialize before me.”
She understood the feeling.
But Lee didn’t go back to his holoblock as he flicked his eyes back to her. “Hey, I’m really sorry about ditching the other day. It was careless. I didn’t think about what it would mean for us.”
“I know,” Kat said, unable to resist curling her toe a little into his leg at the anguish in his green eyes. “I think it threw me a little. This is what we’ve always talked about. We’re so close.” She shook her head. The closer they seemed to get, the more the idea of it repelled her; like she was the wrong side of a magnet. She had no idea what the solution was here.
“Hey, we’ll figure it out, yeah?” Lee asked. And she couldn’t help the little smile that tugged at her lips as she traced over that undiluted hope and determination in his boyish face.
“Yeah. We’ll figure it out.” She sighed, sinking back down into his bed. “What time was your mom calling?”
Lee checked his hyperband. “We have about five minutes. We probably ought to—”
“Yeah,” Kat agreed, dragging her feet from his lap as she sat up.
While Lee fussed with the pillow arrangement, she curled her legs under her as she smoothed down the square of comforter on either side of her. She’d known Tonya almost as long as she’d known Lee; Tonya had always treated her with warmth. But now more than ever, with her and Lee’s new relationship status being where it was, she felt like she was actually a part of something. Like they were hers.
And while it wasn’t exactly new anymore—flashes from a heated moment the night before crinkled in her mind—she’d never had this before, with anyone.
Lee was tinkering with the holoblock on his desk when Tonya’s virtual call connected with the token blips.
“Hello honey—and is that Kat with you?” Tonya’s brilliant white smile grew noticeably wider when she noticed Kat also sitting there.
“I told you she’d be with me,” Lee muttered. But when he glanced over towards Kat, there was no embarrassment on his face. Instead a quiet smile greeted her. A boy who still couldn’tbelieve this sweep of fate, as he moved with absolutely zero shyness and at ease to perch beside her. He leaned casually back on an arm, his hand falling over her knee.
“They’ve had you guys back in that drab black a lot lately, haven’t they?”
It took Kat a full minute to realize to what Tonya was referring. Lee had gone down some tangent about “supply and demand,” before she recalled the other “suit” for which Tonya would be referring.
Those strange synthetics he’d worn back onboard Segura.
She bit her lips down in a tight smile before her face could betray anything. She still couldn’t believe the timing with everything that had happened. Such a coincidence. And within that same hour, everything about that mission had gone to shit.
