Under the Stars

0300 hours on the clock was the only indication that it was still the middle of the night. On the Xin Caodi platform, the sky never changed, and quite frankly, she liked it that way. No matter the time you could look out over the city and see the soft glow of Djinn's Bane below, offset with the deep black of space above. It was the perfect place for a lifelong pilot to put down roots.

Not that the choice had really been hers... sure it would have come eventually, but with things the way they were... No, she wasn't going to go down that train of thought. It didn’t lead to a good end and right now she wanted to enjoy the good she had... A glance back over her shoulder to the sleeping figure quickly returned the smile to her face.

Elias... how the hell did she manage to get so damn lucky? What had been a chance encounter at a local bar had turned into... well.. maybe that’s what her mind was trying to figure out in the small hours of the morning. Turning from the window, she padded barefoot across the apartment, carefully slipping back into bed without waking him.

Propped up on her elbow, she watched him sleep a while, letting her mind wander, for the first time in as long as she cold remember, her jumbled thoughts peaceful. In just a short few months he had become the center of her universe... something she never thought she'd find again; hadn't found in this life that Wirefly had dumped her into.

For the first time, she found she was actually grateful for the opportunity the madman had given her... the past seemed so far less important now than it once had. Here was this man who had come into her life, stayed by and cared for her whens he was ill, risked his life to help save hers... and even now, with the problems the damn chip they'd put in her was causing; he never once faltered.

So much stayed unspoken between them, and that was just fine. Words only seemed to get in the way most of the time, they either weren’t the right ones or they were just not enough. Most times, it was enough to just let it be.. but tonight was not most times.

With slow gentle movement, she leaned close, whispering softly in his ear as he slept. Nestling back up close, she closed her eyes, maybe some day she would find the right moment when he was awake...