But maybe Khatak will agree to stay with me? Just maybe he cares enough for me to put his entire life on hold and just… stay?
I really didn’t think this through. Not the immediate future. But I believe we can still make this work. I can handle a long-distance relationship, even if he’s on the other side of the galaxy.
“The boarding ramp has closed… you can’t actually leave on the shuttle.” The angel continues to explain.
I blink at him. “I can’t leave?”
“I’ll take care of it,” Khatak says firmly. His arm tightens around my waist. “I’ll pay for her passage, arrange for accommodations, whatever she needs.”
“Khatak, you can’t just?—“
“I can.” He looks down at me, and the determination in his expression takes my breath away. “I will. Whatever it takes, Selene. I’ll figure it out.”
“We’ll figure it out,” I correct. “Together.”
“We’ll get you home soon enough,” he tells me.
“I’m already home. If I’m with you, that is.” I reply.
“But the hotel. Your friends.”
“Are all going to be there when we get back.” I take a shaky breath, forcing myself to say the words even though they terrify me. “I’m scared, Khatak. I might always be a little scared of losing control, of not knowing what’s going to happen. But I want to face that fear. With you.”
“With me?”
“You’re going home to save your family, right? Let me help. Let me be there for you the way you’ve been there for me.” I manage something close to a smile. “Besides, I figure this counts as the ultimate trust exercise. Leaving everything behind, stepping into the complete unknown, surrounded by aliens I don’t know...”
“Selene—”
“I trust you to guide me through it.” The words come out with absolute certainty. “I trust you to help me understand what I need to know, to keep me safe, to be honest with me. I’m choosing this. Choosing you. Choosing us.”
He stares at me for a long moment, and I can see the war playing out in his expression. The part of him that wants to protect me from anything scary or difficult, fighting against the part that’s hearing what I’m actually saying.
I’m not asking him to make this easy. I’m asking him to let me choose it anyway.
“Together?” he asks finally, his voice rough.
“Together,” I confirm. “As a team. As... whatever we are to each other.”
“Mates,” he says immediately. “If you’ll have me. If you’ll accept?—“
I kiss him.
It’s not graceful or elegant. We’re both still shaking from everything that just happened, and my face is probably a mess of tears and determination. But it’s real. It’s a choice.
It’s us.
When we finally break apart, the crew member has tactfully retreated down the corridor, though I can see him talking quietly into a comm device. Probably arranging my accommodations while giving us a moment.
“Well,” I say, slightly breathless. “I guess we’re doing this.”
Khatak’s laugh is watery but genuine. His tail curls around my calf, the tip twitching with what I now recognize as happiness. “I guess we are.”
The shuttle’s engines pitch higher as we begin to take off. Through the small windows, I can see the hotel growing smaller in the distance. My home for these past months, the place where I built a new life after everything fell apart.
I’m leaving it behind.
The thought should terrify me. Maybe it does, a little. But mostly I feel... free.
