Kiem knew he was putting off asking the question.

Jainan asked it instead. “What are you going to do?”

“I was thinking,” Bel said slowly, “it might be nice to see some more of the galaxy. There isn’t much chance of that, with the Emperor.”

Kiem found he was smiling again. “We could probably match the pay raise.

Since there’s two of us now and all. And you could always go and work for the Emperor later.”

“I could,” Bel said. “No promises about how long I’ll stay. But I do want to see how Jainan’s engineering thing works out.”

“How did you know about—”

“She asked the Emperor’s aide,” Jainan said, amusement running through his voice. “Keep up, Kiem.”

“And now I need to go and put them off for a bit,” Bel said. “I’ll leave you to it.” She gave them a quick flash of a grin, turned away, and disappeared into the crowd again.

“And now can we have some privacy?” Jainan murmured.

“Yes! Right. Of course.” Kiem opened the door with a flourish that he turned into a bow halfway through. “Your Grace?”

“Your Highness,” Jainan said, with a grave nod. They passed out of the fug of light and noise into the stark, clear darkness outside.

The stars spiraled around them in countless points of light. Thea’s dark and glittering bulk rotated below, limned in sunlight at the end of its night as the station rose around it like a moon. But neither of them really noticed, because the corner of the balcony was the ideal place to lean against.

It was a while later that Kiem took a breath and leaned his head back. Jainan was warm and solid in his arms. “You know,” Kiem said, “we’ve had a shared bedroom for weeks, and instead we’ve decided to go around sneaking kisses on balconies.”

“Your mother was wrong,” Jainan said. He detached himself from Kiem and took his hand instead, leaning next to him against the glass so their bodies were pressed side by side. “I appear to be a very bad influence.”

“I didn’t want you to stop, ” Kiem said. Jainan smiled in the starlight, and Kiem leaned over to kiss the corner of his jaw. He was stopped only by the doors bursting open.

“Oh, sweet God,” a Thean voice said, dismayed. “I only came out to grab Jainan. I really didn’t want to catch you necking.”

Kiem groaned theatrically and raised a hand to his forehead. “Jainan,” he

said, “tell me Thean law says you’re allowed to space members of your clan in moments like this. I can find an airlock.”

Jainan laughed. It took a moment for Kiem to realize he hadn’t heard that before—Jainan had smiled, joked, suppressed a chuckle, but he’d never given in to it freely like this. Jainan’s laugh was joyful and infectious, and Kiem discovered he loved every nuance of it. “No,” Jainan said, rubbing a hand across his jaw to bring himself under control. “It unfortunately does not. Gairad, try making your entrances more discreet.”