Ravi stood at the head of the muster room table, waiting for the crew to roll in. Bonanza had gone better than he'd hoped. It had been a haze of sprinting from event to event, but overnight the whirlwind of the day crystallized into glowing memories. He sifted through them again, marveling.

Orvaska thrashing the top-trained recruits from Enforcer units. Yorune, Onfenka and Rosareen stunning all of the people who had scoffed at their robot in the Build round with their performance in the Application round. Jossen blubbering praise at everyone during the raucous train ride home. Aziri exiting the pits with a top score and being pounced on by what Ravi was fairly sure were scouts for the cryptics intelligence branch of the All-Territories Rangers. Teres beaming in spite of her split knuckles and bruised shins. Duhar spinning in the center of a wild sim machine as he flipped it upside-down. Lio, pushing through that obstacle course, undaunted by how ridiculous he looked. And then spitting icicles with a smile, right in Gadsen's face. He probably shouldn't feel quite so gleeful about that last one.

Jossen plowed through the muster room door with a plate in hand. "I made pancakes to celebrate this morning," he said, and held the plate out to Ravi. "Saved you some."

Ravi grinned as he accepted the offering. He wouldn't have guessed that this Jossen was hiding somewhere beneath the sour exterior he'd first met at Opalina. But everything about this place turned out to be a surprise.

The crew, loud and buoyant, took their seats. Ravi rapped the table for their attention. "Morning."

A loud, incomprehensible choir of responses swamped the muster room. The high from yesterday had definitely not faded for any of them. He inclined his head. "Congratulations again, for an awesome performance. We were one of the top five crews at Bonanza. That alone is a major addition to your resumes, but—" He held up a hand to forestall the table-smacking and hooting. "I'm also happy to tell you that this crew earned eight commendations—"

They really cheered then, pounding fists on the table, stomping their feet, and this time Ravi didn't wait for them to quiet. He just shouted over the noise. "Which means you all now have ten commendations on your resume." He grinned. "Which also means you've earned a day off.

"Yes!" Duhar rocketed up from his chair. Teres let out a screech, while Onfenka and Rosareen high-fived across the table. Even Aziri and Orvaska applauded.

"Here's the deal," Ravi continued, "I'm happy to give you all a free day and everyone just does whatever. Or, we could all head into town for the day and hang out, or...I dunno, picnic at the Amphitheater or something. Whatever you want."

"I vote town," Rosareen said instantly.

"We could go to Ferdi's!" Duhar added.

Accosted by the memory of the last time he'd been at Ferdi's, Ravi kept his gaze on the table and his mouth shut, hoping no one noticed the way his cheeks warmed.

"I have an alternative proposition." Lio raised one finger. His eyes gleamed as he leaned forward and looked around at the crew. "It's Neon Night at Starmesa."

Clubbing was not his gig. And most of the crew were still on the service years stipend, which wasn't exactly a lot of credits for the kind of entertainment Lio was likely used to. Ravi arched a warning eyebrow. "Starmesa isn't cheap, Lio."

"There're always more people there than they actually let in," Teres added. "We could end up standing in a line outside all night."

"No, no, I'll get us in. Trust me," Lio said. "And the cover credits are on me."

"Will it be very loud?" Onfenka said.

"Not all of it! There are seven different bars in there, cozy little nooks, there's a whole art gallery, and the roof—" He flattened himself across the table, arms outstretched. "Come on, people, it's so amazing, and you can't do your service years out here without ever once setting foot in Starmesa!"

"I'm in," Aziri said. "If I can raid your closet for an outfit."

That quick, the tide shifted. Everyone started babbling about what counted as neon and what time they should start getting ready. Dismayed, Ravi looked at Jossen, who gave him a little shrug. He'd said it was a free day. Apparently, they were going to a club.

Ravi stood in the middle of his bedroom, hands tapping his thighs uncertainly, possible shirts on the bed. He only had a few non-uniform options that were in decent enough shape to wear in public. None of them were neon.

The afternoon had slipped through his fingers while he debated whether or not to go to Starmesa. But no one else was hesitating, and besides, with Lio leading this expedition, he probably needed to go just to keep an eye on things. He was already wearing loose black pants, so he reached for a white t-shirt. Best he could do. Not that it mattered at all. Wasn't like he was trying to attract anyone's attention.

Holowatch hooked to his wrist, he reached automatically for his slate. He hesitated, staring at the little screen. This was supposed to be a night off. Awkwardly, he gave the slate a little pat and left it in a drawer. The absent weight in his pocket felt strange as he headed out to meet the others.

Most of the crew were already gathered at the entrance, and Ravi saw Jossen galloping from the other end of the tunnel, dressed head-to-toe in excessively bright orange.

"Com, you should've told us you needed neon!" Yorune said, frowning at him. "We could have decorated it like Orvaska's."

Orvaska, who looked as though someone had busted several highlighters and drizzled them all over his shirt, rolled his eyes and sighed heavily.

Ravi grinned. "Next time, Yorune. Who're we waiting on?" He knew already, but maybe if he acted like his attention didn't helplessly revolve around Lio, it would become true at some point.

"Nobody!" Lio shouted from behind him. "We're ready!" He and Aziri strolled down the tunnel, arms linked.

"Aziri," Teres gasped, "You look amazing!"

"Twirl," Lio commanded, and Aziri did, spinning gracefully into the circle of the crew, lifting his arms so that gold, Fennec-style bangles slid down his forearms.

Lio stood with his arms crossed and his hip stuck out, wearing a satisfied smile. And a mesh neon-pink shirt that barely concealed any skin, tucked into a pair of black shorts molded so precisely around his ass Ravi very nearly decided he needed to skip out on the Starmesa trip.

"Shall we?" Lio asked. He led a loud parade down to the mag strip, where a very odd hov waited. It was long and strangely segmented, like ten normal hovs had been squashed into each other.

"A caterpillar hov!" Rosareen said. "I've always wanted to see inside one of these."

"It splits apart into different sections," Lio explained. "I thought we could use it in case people wanted to leave at different times."

Ravi lingered at the back of the group and climbed in last. A narrow aisle ran alongside a row of plush seats, each stationed directly in front of the other. He sank into a spot in the very back, far away from Lio.

"Seatbelts," Jossen barked, and then the hov was bolting down the mountainside. Starmesa was not as far as the trip to Raffaret, but Ravi still felt as if he should've brought his slate and tried to get some work done. He found controls on the side of his chair, and eased it back like a lounger to give his legs some room.

An expensively furnished, highly engineered hov. Offering to cover Starmesa's price for the entire crew. Unending outfits and the latest holowatch. Lio lived in a different world. Reason number one that he shouldn't even be contemplating what he was contemplating.

Then there was the fact that he was a com, Lio his recruit, and the line between them established by centuries of service rules. Although, muttered a stubborn little voice in his head, plenty of people ignored those rules. Including him. He'd had no problem flouting those rules for Gadsen, and Lio was better than Gadsen.

He took a sharp breath. It was the first time he'd really allowed himself to think it. For a while he'd convinced himself that the Lio who swept him off his feet in the bar was an illusion. An illusion that hid a spoiled, self-centered, rich prick who didn't give a fuck about anyone else. Yet every passing day at the outpost, Lio kept chipping away at the explanations Ravi clung to. He turned out to be generous and charming and very smart, and an absolute goof when he wanted to be, and he adored Opalina and the crew.

And Ravi was pretty certain that his attraction was returned. Although, knowing Lio, it was possible he casually flirted with everyone without even being aware of it and he just thought he was being friendly. The bigger problem, the one that sat like a mountain on his chest, was what it would do to him if he stopped resisting. It'd be a game to Lio, a fling to spice up his time spent in the Fennec region, before he left to go back to the world where Ravi could never hope to follow. And even if he did try to keep up with Lio somehow, was that really what he wanted? Chasing after him, dreading the day he'd lose the battle for Lio's affection to some other guy, or a new career, or a fucking Mastali lightship.

Lio was too easy to fall in love with. And that was both the reason Ravi wanted to be around him, and the reason he should stay away.

But if he was playing the honesty game, he'd already failed at trying to stay away. Maybe he'd been a lost cause since the minute he'd looked up to find Lio standing next to his table, with all his confidence and imagination.

The likelihood of figuring anything out on the hov ride was nil, and his thoughts were starting to crowd in his chest like jagged glass. It hurt, so he gave up and listened to the snippets of conversation that floated to him from the crew's seats. Eventually, he glimpsed colored searchlights waltzing across the sky outside the hov's dark-tinted windows, and buzzed the pane down for a better look.

Starmesa was built into its namesake. Huge black windows glittered from near the top of the flat, high rock of the mesa. At least twenty glass elevators rocketed from the desert floor, lit with flashing neon lights. The reflections skittered over the packed hov ports, and an absurdly long line of people that snaked along the mesa's base.

Once they were untangled from seatbelts and outside, he made them circle up to ensure everyone had each other's numbers and the codes for the hov. "And seriously," he added, "everybody needs to be back at Opalina by night-three. Got it? No later."

"Yeah, Lio," Teres said, and half the crew echoed it. They were laughing, and Lio was laughing, and the crew moved in a lighthearted cloud toward the line. Something jammed in Ravi's throat. Little Goddess, maybe the feeling of standing on the sidelines watching a stranger dance away with Lio was much closer in his future than he'd thought. He should have prepared himself. It was a free night. Of course Lio would want to have fun, and he knew better than anyone here what Lio having fun looked like.

Following their fearless leader, they cut to the head of the line, where a boulder of a man glanced down at Lio. "Special guest, and company," Lio said, extending his wrist so his holowatch could be scanned. The man eyed the readout on the scanner, and then ushered them through a gate and to an approaching elevator.

"Holy shit," Duhar said, hopping inside as soon as the elevator doors parted. "Lio, I'm going everywhere with you from now on!" The space was big enough that they all fit comfortably. Ravi looked through the glass floor, watching the ground recede as they soared upward. When the elevator dinged and stopped, the doors opened onto a surprisingly quiet purple room. Ravi could feel the bass beat of music somewhere, but couldn't quite hear it.

A woman wearing a feathery headpiece and a skin-tight dress flung her arms wide. "Lio! You're finally back!" She seized both his hands and air-kissed his cheeks before beaming at the rest of them. "Welcome to Starmesa, new friends!" Fluttering around to the crew, she handed out chunky, neon lit sunshades. She gave a rapid-fire description of the doors behind her, each of which led to a different part of the club, and uploaded credits for drinks onto all their holowatches before bowing out of the way.

"That door is to the club," Lio clarified, "and that one goes to the downstairs bars, which are quieter. Pick your poison!"

"Dancing!" trilled Teres. She grabbed Aziri and towed him toward the first door, Yorune and Duhar skipping in her wake.

Rosareen nudged Onfenka. "I need a drink first. Off to the bar?" They turned to the second door, and then everyone was splitting up. Ravi shifted, following the group headed to the bar. He watched Lio skate off after Teres. And that was that. It was unreasonable to be disappointed. There was nothing stopping him from going upstairs and trying to find Lio. Except the terror of seeing him wrapped around some other guy.

The bar they found was, as Lio had promised, not at all loud. The walls looked like pulsing magma, casting a soft blue light over the space, and all the seating areas were surrounded by screens of tropical plants. They claimed a booth on the far wall opposite the bar and cashed their drink credits with the menu embed in the table.

Joking with the crew was a distraction from the impatient ache in his chest. Ravi wanted them to have a good time, and he was happy to see them cut loose a bit. He slouched back into the booth when Jossen bought everyone a second round, listening to them trade stories and tease each other. Yorune and Duhar staggered in later, sweaty and babbling about the cavernous club floor. The pressure over his ribs wrapped tighter. He couldn't just sit here all night.

Murmuring something about going to find the art gallery, he finished his drink and slipped away. But as soon as he stepped out of the bar, his courage failed, and he leaned against the nearest wall, studying his shoes. He was doing it again, setting them both up for temptation and confusion. Unfair to himself, unfair to Lio. The crew certainly didn't need their com sulking around all night. He could just take the hov back to Opalina and avoid opening any new wounds in his life.

"You're not having fun."

His gaze snapped up to see Lio, head tipped to one side. And, goddess, it was wrong, but relief flooded his chest at the sight of him standing alone.

"Hey." He smiled and pushed off the wall. "No, I'm fine. Just...thinking."

"Ah. The most fun." Lio pursed his lips, and then gestured at the bar. "Everyone else in there?"

"Yeah. You should go in. Hang out."

Lio just looked at him for a long moment. Then he lifted one shoulder and offered a rueful smile. He inched toward the door, and stopped again. "You're not leaving, are you?"

"I, uh, might walk around for a bit. But...this isn't really...my kind of place."

"But you haven't been to the best part." Lio backed away, beckoning. "Come on. I forbid you to leave without seeing this." He darted off, glancing back with his mischievous smile to check if Ravi was trailing him. Of course he followed Lio. He was incapable of wiser decisions.

They went up a packed flight of stairs, dodging clubbers and cutting through groups standing around on the landings. Weird place to stop and talk. Warm air gusted over his face, and he realized Lio had pushed open a door. And then they were outside, in the desert, on top of a mesa. Ravi stopped short, his attention finally yanked away from Lio.

Compared to the rest of Starmesa, the roof was spartan. A fence kept partyers well back from the mesa's edge. There was no bar, no seating, no music, and nothing but a few dim glow strips in the ground for lighting. Nothing else was needed, because overhead was the most incredible sky he had ever seen. Endless stars. A velvet breeze swirled warm around him as he stood, thumbs hooked in his pockets, jaw slack.

"Pretty phenomenal, right?" Lio asked, leading him further out on the caprock. He circled away from one of the larger groups to a deserted section and sat down, patting the place next to him.

Ravi sat and leaned back on his palms. For a while, they sat with their with heads tilted back, searching the sky. It was stunning. But it only distracted him from Lio for a bit before he needed to steal another glance at his companion. "I can't imagine a better place to see the stars like this."

"I can," Lio murmured.

His eyes had adjusted to the dark well enough that he could see Lio's face. "From a lightship?"

Lio smiled. "You know me too well." Then he laughed, strangely hollow. "Although at this rate, I'm never going to get to see it."

"You have time for more research," Ravi said. 

The long silence that greeted this made him lean closer, bumping Lio's knee with his. "You okay?"

"I don't think my family is going to allow me to complete my service years out here," Lio said quietly. "They said one year. It's almost up."

That hit like being kicked in the chest. They couldn't take Lio away so soon. "Your family doesn't get to decide that for you." Ravi looked back up at the sky, hugging his knees. "Tell them your com won't let you to leave. Tell them he needs you around. He's signed you up for all the obstacle courses in all the competitions."

Gentle laughter near his ear, and then the sensation of Lio's cheek settling against his shoulder. Warmth seeping through the thin cotton of his t-shirt. "Lio," he said, not even sure if it was a warning or a prayer.

Lio rubbed his cheek against Ravi's shoulder and said, "Shhh, don't disturb me, I'm being a cat."

He snorted. "A cat?" He looked down, and Lio's mouth was so perfect and close. "Thought you were an alien," he said, voice gone husky. His heart stumbled in his chest.

Lio shifted slowly, lifting his head to hold Ravi's gaze level, starlight caught in his hair and his eyes. "Damn. You weren't supposed to remember my true identity," he murmured.

"I want to kiss you." Just saying it felt like a lungful of air after being underwater.

"It's a free day," Lio whispered. "You can have anything you want."