First Day Of Training

The air in the fabrication alcove went so still that the faint rhythmic whir of the coolant lines behind the bulkheads sounded like someone drawing a breath.

Leo stood rooted to the deck plates by the open threshold with his arms frozen across his chest and his eyes fixed on Elena. 

The midnight-blue silk followed the sharp line of her collarbones, narrowed at her waist and parted along the high slit of the skirt with an effortless elegance that made the whole utilitarian machine corridor look ridiculous.

A heavy suffocating warmth climbed his throat and bloomed into a fierce red that spread across his cheekbones all the way to the tips of his ears.

"Elena..." he started, and his voice cracked on the first syllable before he covered it with a rough, thoroughly unconvincing cough. "That's... well, you definitely aren't crawling under an engine block in that."

Elena's icy blue eyes flared with triumph.