He spit it out as discreetly as possible. “Propriety has always been nothing more to me than a monstrously heavy set of shackles, which I am more than willing to cast aside. It isn’t a particularly good fit for someone like me anyway. I would be glad to be free of it.”
Boom latched onto that, pausing at whatever she was typing into Jun’s console. “Someone like you?”
It was incredibly refreshing that she didn’t immediately know what he meant. That the entire Crew seemed to be at a loss. Theo wasn’t used to being considered proper in any way. Much to his surprise, he was kind of enjoying it. “Oh, I suppose you may not be aware, but back home, I am considered to be somewhat unconventional. Those concerned with propriety often find me off-putting.”
Jun’s feet shuffled enough that his leg pressed against Theo’s, and rather than moving away again, he left it there. Just…touching. Such a small thing ought not to have any effect on Theo’s composure, but he found himself stifling a gasp at the contact. At the implications of familiarity. Intimacy.
The light in Jun’s gaze only emphasized those implications, affection tinting his voice. “Unconventional’s one way to say it.”
The prickling burn of a flush started in Theo’s scalp and washed down over his face. He waved his arms to distract from his undoubtedly pink cheeks. “Odd. Annoying. Dramatic. Overwhelming. Vulgar. Take your pick; I’ve heard it all. People have never suffered from a lack of things to say about me.”
There was a moment where Jun pressed more firmly against him as if in support, and then he withdrew entirely. Theo barely restrained himself from reaching out for him in his retreat.
To his shock and delight, Jun was the one who reached out, skimming his knuckles over Theo’s chin before he teased away the last strands of hair that were still caught in his mouth. “One thing you are not, is underwhelming.”
He turned away so quickly Theo very nearly missed the blush that burned his ears. Nearly.
Theo gave chase as Jun began to walk off of the bridge, dogging his heels. “Wait. Was that a compliment? Jun? Say it again.”
Jun paused at the door to tap something into the panel. “No.”
The combined forces of Jun’s blush and the embarrassed tone to his voice made Theo want to float to the ceiling with glee. “No, that wasn’t a compliment, or, no, you won’t be repeating yourself?”
Jun didn’t answer, focusing instead on Axel with a severe expression. “Set our course for Drei X, and leave Dr. Campbell alone. Boom, follow me.”
Theo held in his laughter at Axel’s silent mimicry of Jun’s face until Jun and Boom had left the bridge, but it was a very near thing.
It wasn’t that he didn’t love Jun’s face and the effortless way he exuded a dark cloud of masculine rage; it was more that—
Oh.
Oh, dear.
Theo loved Jun’s face.
He loved—
“So, you and Captain Park, huh? I was kinda joking before. But I gotta say, he’s not reacting as if it’s a joke to him. Park can take a surprising amount of razzing, but when you hit too close to the bone, he’ll bite your head off.”
Theo avoided the question by locking up his pad with a noncommittal hum. Thankfully, Axel didn’t notice the slight tremble in his hands.
Chapter Twenty
Axel sauntered out into the corridor, paused, and then stuck his head back around the doorway to the bridge to call out to Theo. “Come on, legs, I’ll hook you up with the goods.”
Reluctant to be left alone on the bridge with the multitudinous tempting buttons and his own dubious self-control, Theo followed after. “Do you know, I’ve dedicated my life to the study of language, and yet, when you speak, I am often cast to sea.”
Axel leaned back against the interior of the lift, leaving plenty of room for Theo to join him. “I can’t understand half the shit you say, man, but I gotta admit, you say it with style.”
That sounded somewhat complimentary, so Theo decided to accept it as such. He had learned long ago to take praise wherever he could get it. They arrived on the second deck, and Axel took off in the opposite direction from Theo’s bunk, winding around the dimly lit curving hallway until he came upon a haphazardly decorated door.
Printed images in various states of distress plastered the dented metal. Some were faded and scratched, while others appeared shiny and new. There was no rhyme or reason to the arrangement, just brightly colored images of everything from a scantily clad feminine torso to what appeared to be a ham sandwich overlapping one another from top to bottom.
Axel didn’t comment on the decor as he opened the door to a room filled with much the same, with the addition of multicolored lights glowing along the edge of the ceiling.
He bent to dig through a mountain of discarded clothing, then emerged triumphant with a bit of black cloth clenched in his fist. “Here, try these on. They’re too small for me, so they might fit your scrawny ass. They’re even clean, so you’re welcome.”
He smacked Theo in the face with the cloth, which turned out to be a pair of exceptionally tiny black trousers. They were made of some kind of strange, stretchy material that had a metallic sheen to it.
Axel threw himself back on the bed, dug through the rumpled sheet to recover a pad, and then pulled up a vid of some thumping musical performance with brightly flashing dancers in accompaniment. He focused on the screen, not even glancing Theo’s way. “Go on and get changed. I’m dying to see Park’s face when you walk out in those. Promise I won’t peek, Dr. Campbell. On my honor.”
There was something there, in the way he dropped his voice to say that last bit, that made it clear
