Learning A Bit About Aoi

Down in the quiet stretch of corridor by the air scrubbers, Ms. Tachibana stood alone at the observation port, looking out at the dark silhouette of the Black Kite hanging in the void.

Leo walked up quietly with his boots barely making a sound on the deck.

"...Sensei."

She didn't turn around right away. 

Her hands were folded gracefully over the sill, her dark hair catching the amber twilight of the night-cycle runners.

"Leo," she answered softly, with a fragile faraway quality to her voice.

He leaned his forearm against the frame beside her and looked at her profile. 

The neat line of her nose, the slight curve of her lips. And the heavy exhaustion that had been crushing her shoulders since the sky burned... lifted, for the first time.

It made her look like someone he'd never been allowed to see.