…It was hard to pretend she didn’t know he was broken. Not when what she really wanted was to help fill the holes.

So when he summoned she hurried, knowing he meant not just now, but right now. Knowing ‘demanding’ was ‘asking’ in Star-speak. Needing - now, please.

She’d let her momentum slam them together because that was how it worked best. Forcing him instinctively to catch, initiating an embrace he wouldn’t have otherwise managed.

He’d growl, “Get naked.” …Or something more vulgar.

And in reply she’d strip, letting him fake deafness when she acknowledged “I love you, too.”