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The broadcast cut to a sports drink commercial and Niko swiped it away, silence filling the room again now.

He looked at Elliott, unable to take his eyes off him.

He wanted to kiss him senseless, until Elliott couldn’t think anymore.

Until they both forgot who they even were.

The jubilant grin from before made its way back across Niko’s face as he watched the man beside him.

Elliott sat, stunned and frozen, his skin turned a shade paler.

His expression was profound—eyes wide with a mixture of shock, pain, and hope.

His lips were parted slightly. For a moment, Niko thought he might actually cry.

But instead, he seemed to snap out of it, composing himself again, and looked back at Niko.

Elliott swallowed. He was starlight made tangible, all of it contained in the radiant reflection of his eyes. “ Niko .”

Niko’s grin widened. He was smiling so hard now that his face was beginning to hurt. “I know, babe. Zann thinks they’re really going to cancel the bounty, too.”

Elliott shivered, a subtle thing. He absentmindedly snaked up a hand to tug at the collar of his turtleneck, long fingers playing at its edge. “Niko, I—I’ve tried to get this out for years. I thought it would never change. I thought no one would ever listen.”

“I listened, Elliott,” Niko said. He couldn’t help himself, reaching over and taking the hand that still played at Elliott’s collar, and held it tightly. “Even if no one else did, you had someone who heard you and believed you. And now you have the entire galaxy listening. We did it, Elliott .”

“Niko.” Elliott cupped his cheek with his free hand and leaned forward, kissing him deeply once, twice, several times until they were lost in each other.

Niko couldn’t help but smile again once they finally parted, and reached up to comb at his wild blond tresses.

“Thank you. For everything. For listening. For being here. I… I couldn’t have done this without you. ”

“Yeah, well, none of this would even be possible without you , Elliott. You’re the one who was brave enough to stand up to them.”

Elliott searched his gaze with his own, his sea of green vivid and passionate.

He looked alive and free in a way Niko desperately loved seeing, like something from his case photographs, back from before Honeybliss had ever taken his sister away.

It was unspeakably precious, something so rare and wonderful that Niko found he would do anything to bring that look back again and again.

And then, just as quickly, it all fell away, replaced with a somber shadow.

“I can’t afford to celebrate right now,” Elliott muttered, seemingly more to himself than Niko.

“I think you deserve at least that much, babe,” Niko said.

“No.” Elliott turned away from him now, summoning his wall of holograms back to hover before him. Documents, portraits, and political histories filled Niko’s vision in harsh blue. “Not until your family is home safe. Not until I know that they’re alright. We need to find them.”

Niko hesitated. He wanted to give Elliott his moment in the sun.

But the man had a point, and thinking about it slammed Niko back onto the ground under the harsh press of gravity.

“Okay, Elliott,” he said, finally. “We keep going.” He paused, before adding, “Hey, um. Zann said he’s going to come, but needs a day.

I’m going to pick him up in Celelast. I can go by myself or—”

“I’m coming with you,” Elliott said quickly. Then he added, a little hesitantly, “If it’s alright with you.”

Niko smiled again, though it was only a mere ghost of the celebratory jubilation from before, this time something fond, subtle, warm.

He was grateful to Elliott. Grateful for the selfless grace he’d exhibited when he’d pushed to cancel the broadcast that had meant everything to him to instead protect Niko’s family.

Grateful that he’d agreed to let Zann stay.

And grateful that he was being mindful now with Niko, respecting the boundaries he’d communicated before.

“It’s alright, babe. I want you there with me. In the meantime, let me help you with the research. Whatever you need. You don't need to try and do this alone. We’ll find them.”

“We’ll find them,” Elliott said. “Let's get to work.”

Zann stepped onto the Sonadora , glancing around its cramped interior. In his hands were two dark, heavy duffel bags, so overstuffed that angles jutted out from their sides at random intervals, making them into abstractions. “Been a while since I’ve seen the inside of this thing.”

“Well, get used to it,” Niko said. “It’s going to be a four-and-a-half-hour ride back.”

Zann’s gaze then landed warily on Elliott. Niko could almost feel the electric tension in the air between the two men. Elliott stared back at him, expressionless and watchful. Zann smirked. “Hey there, killer. Long time no see.”

“Oh, yes. Not long enough,” Elliott murmured.

This was going to be fun.

Zann’s smirk only grew. He set his bags down, then sank into the co-pilot’s seat, the one Elliott typically sat in now during their travels.

Elliott stood in the tiny cabin of the ship, arms crossed tightly over his chest. Niko rolled his eyes, then shut the door to the ship and sat down in the pilot’s seat.

He punched in the coordinates for the facility, the ship beginning to ascend.

“Sit down, babe,” he murmured to Elliott. There were no other seats, so the other man simply sat on the floor in the cabin, clutching tightly to a support bar along the wall. “You good?”

“I’m alright,” Elliott said. Niko hated having him sit on the floor, but it felt a little weird to eject Zann from the seat, and even Niko had enough wherewithal to know asking Elliott to come sit in his lap right now probably wouldn’t go over well.

All three of them were jostled to and fro as the ship shook, resistance from Celelast’s atmosphere pushing back against them. Then they were in the quiet dark of open space, rising slightly from where they sat before Niko switched on artificial gravity and set the course back to RM-9832642G.

“So,” Zann said, releasing the position lock on the co-pilot’s chair and spinning back and forth in half circles. “I brought you some presents.”

Niko eyed him warily. “You did?”

“Yeah. Got some shit from Galapol’s archives.”

Niko sat up straight as a rod, opening his mouth, but Elliott beat him to the punch, speaking first. “How did you get that?”

Zann smirked, spinning another half circle, then swinging back around again. “It’s probably better I spare you the details.”

Elliott shot Niko a sharp look, clearly on edge. Niko could hear the words in his voice without them even being spoken. He’s with Galapol, Niko. This was a horrible idea.

Niko sighed. “Zann, how the hell did you get anything from the archives?”

“So, you remember Naanu Kiit?” Zann asked.

“The Toliai secretary from Logistics?” Naanu was, in fact, hard to forget.

Toliai were rare as white-collar workers and the department had scrambled to accommodate her thirteen-foot tall, scaly, four-legged self by installing a customized chair and desk.

She was also, unfortunately, one of those types of people who mistook any sort of professional politeness as potential romantic interest, so Niko had kept a cordial distance when he’d had to speak to her.

“Yep. She works graveyard shift. I still had my ID badge, though it doesn’t work for shit since they disabled it.

But she had no idea I got fired since she’s in an entirely different level of the building.

I played up that the research division check-in systems were being overhauled and that I brought the old version of the badge by accident.

You know how she is. I just flirted her up for about fifteen minutes and she let me right through.

Helps that I remembered her favorite latte flavor and brought it too.

And that I'm very aware of when the door cop takes his smoke breaks every night.”

Niko blinked at him. “You— No. You flirted with the Toliai secretary and she just. Let you walk right in with no badge. To Galactic Police Station Twelve. And then let you into their archives.”

“No, no. All she did was get me inside,” Zann corrected, wagging a finger. “Getting to the evidence archives was all me . That was a hell of a wild half hour trying to avoid anyone who recognized me.”

“You’re shitting me, Zann.”

“Nope.”

“You don’t actually believe this, do you, Niko?” Elliott ventured.

Niko had no words. If anyone else had told him this story, he wouldn’t believe them, straight up. But this was Zann, and Zann was staring at him with squinted, dark eyes, looking quite pleased with himself.

“No fucking way,” Niko said.

“ Yes fucking way. Anyhow, I made it quick. Grabbed some shit and got out fast before anyone realized what was going on. I figure it’ll help us get some answers. You’re welcome, by the way.”

“Zann,” Niko mumbled, anxiety webbing throughout his chest.

“I figure Chief owes me big time anyway for replacing me with that slimebag douche-freighter, Fourier. Dude had such an obvious hard-on for murder,” Zann said.

He glanced back at Elliott over his shoulder.

“No offense, or anything. I know your ass has an extra-strength prescription for murder boner enhancement.”

“Only when I'm in the special mood for it,” Elliott purred.

“Which is pretty much all the time, if your track record is any indication. Anyway, I haven’t had a chance to go through most of the data yet, but I got a lot of classified files.

Copied them onto a blank hard drive,” Zann continued.

He held up a tiny, translucent data chip, looking at Niko.

“Maybe now I can figure out how the fuck Dad managed to get taken when they were supposed to be watching him. Because, curiously, Galapol didn’t seem to have answers to give me. ”

“Are you surprised?” Elliott asked.