"Do you think it'll hold up?" I asked, tensing as another blast of wind buffeted the mattress over our heads. The complete darkness of our hideout intensified the sounds of destruction outside. Rain poured through the holes in the roof, sounding like an urban waterfall as it splattered against the tiles of the bathroom floor and every so often the cabin shivered with the sound of a particularly loud roll of thunder.

Zaphron lay still beside me, the steady rhythm of his breaths pushing his side against mine. "Should do," he said. "At least we're not in the Eastern Territory. Have you seen the radar?"

I propped myself up on my elbows and blinked on my Lens. The bright intensity of my overlays gave me a fright. With no background light to compete with, they were blinding. I adjusted my eyes and saw that Zaphron was right—the swirling expanse of cloud on the radar covered most of the continent, but the darkest patches containing high winds were all concentrated around the Eastern Territory. My stomach knotted at the thought of Mum battling out the storm in her apartment alone.

"Everything okay?" Zaphron asked, making me realise I hadn't drawn breath for a good half-minute.

"Just worried about Mum," I said, my voice sounding brittle. I blinked off the overlay and darkness took over again.

"I'm sure she'll be fine," he said shifting beside me. "In fact, she's probably doing better than us, waiting out the storm in a reinforced high-rise—not trapped in a bath."

He had a point, but it didn't stop me worrying. Even reinforced buildings had their limits.

As if he could sense the concern in my silence, Zaphron continued, "I mean, not that I'm complaining about the company or anything. At least I'm not stuck in here with Axel."

That made me a laugh. "As if. You two would be snuggled up tight. He'd be the big spoon."

Zaphron chuckled, rolling onto his side, his damp chest touching my shoulder. "I'll have you know, I'm always the big spoon when Axel and I snuggle."

"Spoken like someone with a little spoon complex."

He laughed again, this time the sound came from higher up and I wondered if he'd propped himself up on one elbow. "Did you let Delta know you're okay?" he asked.

"Oh." I blinked on my Lens again, guilt taking over the lurching of my insides. I'd been so preoccupied with Zaphron and the storm, I hadn't thought to fill Delta in. She was probably halfway through planning a search party or accusing Zaphron of tricking us and handing me over to Zenith.

Sure enough, I had two messages from her. The first asked why we weren't back yet, and the second was a worried follow-up to the lack of reply to the first. I swiped for my holo-key overlay and decided to roll over so I could type quicker—forgetting just how tight the space was.

"Hey—careful," Zaphron said, catching my elbow as it knocked into him.

"Shit, sorry." I froze on my side, my chest pressed against his. The beat of his heart drummed into mine. "Did I hit you in the face?"

The breath of his laugh breezed over my mouth and I tensed. "My collarbone," he said slowly, letting go of my elbow. "Why? Were you aiming for my face?"

I let out a nervous laugh and flopped onto my back—my jittery insides still completing a roll of their own. "I wasn't aiming for you at all." The admission reminded me of what I supposed to be doing and I fired off a quick response to Delta's latest panicked message. "There, I just filled Delta in."

"Good," Zaphron said, a grin in his voice. "Now she might finally stop messaging me. Did you tell her we were sharing a bath?"

"Uh I certainly didn't." I could just imagine how hard she'd tease me about that. "Wait, why is she messaging you?"

"To check you're okay," he said as though it were obvious. "I mean, you failed to return from a trip into a storm with a handsome stranger. So, you can hardly blame her for being a little worried."

"You're not quite a stranger, but—" I stopped mid-sentence as another bout of hail pummelled the mattress.

"But I am handsome?"

I nudged my elbow playfully into his ribs. "But I suppose you do know a lot more about me than I know about you."

He let out a soft oof and grabbed my elbow to defend himself. "Fine, lets even things then. Ask me anything—I'll answer truthfully."

"Oh, uh." I floundered, caught off-guard. Anything?  "Um, how long have you been in the Alliance?"

"Really?" He let out a laugh that was half exhale. "Since I was sixteen."

I ignored his jab at my boring question. What did he expect? I had to start somewhere. "And how old are you now?"

"I'm twenty-one."

"What made you join?"

He inhaled, thinking about his answer. "The cause obviously, but also because it's in my blood. My family has been involved in the Alliance since we set foot on the Ark."

I squinted into the dark, wishing I could see his face and get a read of his expression. I hadn't realised the Alliance dated back to the colonisation of the Ark. "Are you close to your family?"

"I was, yeah."

"Oh. Are they—?" I bit my lip, worried I'd already gone too far.

"They're around, it's just complicated."

"Right. Sorry."

"It's fine. Nothing I'm too hung up over." He reached out for my hand in the dark, his fingers accidentally brushing a section of exposed skin where my hoodie had ridden up over my jeans. I drew a sharp, involuntary breath—my hips twitching in response to his touch. Zaphron froze, his whole body going rigid beside me before he withdrew his hand. "Sorry."

"That's okay," I said, trying not to sound breathless despite my heart throwing itself mercilessly against my ribcage.

Thunder split the silence between us as I wracked my brains for a distraction, a change of topic—anything. The tension rolling off Zaphron twisted my insides into tingling knots and my traitorous brain kept filling my head with all too vivid images of how he had looked shirtless this morning.

Not helpful.

"Can I ask you a question?" Zaphron's voice snapped me out of my trance with a guilty start.

"Sure."

He hesitated and I heard him swallow. "Why the solar system?"

I tried to hold back the stupid grin that came over me. So, I wasn't the only one thinking about shirtless encounters. "I like space," I said with a shrug—aware of my shoulder dragging across his chest with the motion. "I've always dreamt of seeing the stars one day."

"You'd have to go off Ark for that," he said, sounding surprised.

"Yeah," I said sadly, "unlikely, I know." I paused and drew breath, working myself up to the question that I'd been dying to ask. "What's with the mountain scene then?" My attempt to come off nonchalant was pitiful. "It doesn't look like anything I've seen on the Ark."

"Oh, you noticed that?" he teased—and I imagined him biting back one of his smirks—then promptly stopped imagining when it brought back my heart palpitations. "It's Mount Rose, from the Old World."

"Mount Rose," I echoed quietly. I'd never heard of it.

Before I could ask more about the mountain, urgent strobing filled my gaze as several messages from Delta arrived at once. I flinched and blinked, realising she'd sent an entire message in single words to guarantee my attention.

Ask

Zaphron

What

Axel

Found

Today.