"You didwhat."
"You heard me."
"Reyna." Charlie's voice cracked. "You didwhat?!You threatened to resign your command. The ship. All those years. Your whole—you put all of it on the table for—" She stopped. "Whywould you do that?"
And Reyna, who had spent a lifetime measuring the cost of every single thing before she let herself want it, found there was nothing to measure here. There never had been. The answer had been sitting in her, whole and finished, since a bridge and a headset and a woman's silence on a dying planet.
"Because I'm not going anywhere in this universe without you," she said. "There's no version of it where, if it doesn't have you in it, I don't want it." She held Charlie's gaze, steady, the rose gone warm along her arms. "You are what I choose. I love this ship. I love this crew, and I love the work we do." She ran her finger along Charlie's jaw. "But I love you more." Reyna cupped Charlie's cheek. "You're it, Chief," Reyna said, using Charlie'stitle, making her laugh. "Everything else is just where I happen to be standing."
Charlie's laugh quieted as she stared at Reyna, not saying a word.
Then she reached up, took Reyna's face in both hands, and kissed her.
Charlie's fingersfound the top button of Reyna's coat while they kissed, popping it open against her warm skin. Reyna went to the hem of Charlie's shirt, sliding her hands underneath and grazing against Charlie's skin. Charlie groaned into her mouth and gripped the coat before she moved to work the second button. Reyna was tugging Charlie's shirt up her body while her fingers worked down the coat until it was fully open. Charlie pushed it off Reyna's shoulders just before she pulled Charlie's shirt up and over her head.
Charlie's hand moved again mid-kiss and Reyna felt it trail along to her waist, pulling the hem of her tank top out of her pants, Charlie's fingers caressing the skin there. Reyna's breath hitched at the touch, and she felt the rose begin to collect where Charlie's hands stilled.
Charlie’s fingers moved higher, gathering Reyna’s tank top in both hands as she ascended. Reyna lifted her arms, breaking the kiss only long enough for Charlie to pull it over her head and toss it somewhere behind them. Before it had landed, Reyna had caught the hem of Charlie’s undershirt and was doing the same, dragging it upward until Charlie ducked free of it and came back to her mouth.
They made clumsy work of the rest. Charlie’s hands found the fastening at Reyna’s waist while Reyna worked at Charlie’s,both of them laughing once, breathlessly, when their fingers collided between them. Reyna stepped out first, one hand braced against Charlie’s shoulder, then steadied Charlie while she kicked her own away.
For several breaths, they didn’t kiss, simply holding one another close, skin-to-skin.
The need hadn't passed. In fact, Reyna suspected it might never pass where Charlie was concerned.
They knew each other now, knew one another’s bodies. They'd found the places a hand would settle without being guided, which breath meantcloserand which meantstay right there.
Charlie’s skin was warm against hers, her mouth resting near Reyna’s neck. Her fingers moved slowly along Reyna’s back, tracing paths of rose they had followed before and somehow making each one feel newly chosen.
Reyna tightened her arms around her.
Charlie kissed her shoulder. Then again, closer to her throat.
“Rey?”
“Yes?”
“I think my legs have stopped working.”
Reyna laughed against her hair. “Again?”
“That sounded judgmental.”
“It was an observation.”
“Well, then observe this.”
Charlie kissed her before Reyna could ask whatthiswas supposed to mean, and the answer became immediately, thoroughly clear.
Charlie moved backward until she sat on the edge of the mattress, keeping hold of Reyna’s hands. Then she shifted farther back and looked up at her.
“Come here.”
Reyna followed Charlie into the bed, and Charlie drew her forward. Charlie lowered fully to the mattress, sitting cross-legged. She pulled Reyna towards her, settling her into her lap. Reyna's knees moved easily to either side of Charlie’s hips, wrapping her legs around Charlie’s back as her arms closed around Reyna’s waist and pulled her nearer.
The position brought them together differently, closer than standing allowed. Face-to-face, breath-to-breath, with nowhere for either of them to look except at the other.
Reyna’s breath caught, and Charlie smiled as though she’d felt it happen.