The ceiling of my room had become intimately familiar over the past hour. Every crack, every imperfection in the paint, every shadow cast by the dim lamp on my nightstand. I'd memorized them all while Natalia's naked body pressed against my side, her breath warm against my shoulder, her fingers tracing lazy patterns across my chest.
"You're thinking too loud," she murmured.
"Didn't realize thinking made noise."
"It does when you do it." She shifted, propping herself up on one elbow to look down at me. Her purple hair fell in messy waves around her face, the white streaks from the Necropolis catching the lamplight. "What's bothering you?"
I let out a breath. The Gate briefing sat on my datapad across the room, the screen dark but the information burning in my brain like an itch I couldn't scratch. Team Gamma's deployment tomorrow. Me playing porter for Celeste and her crew. Monica's first real test since the Arboretum.
