Page 31 of Stars

“To the finestgroup of astronauts I have ever had the pleasure of training.”

Mark hefted his glass of high, toasting the ballroom. Cheers rose, champagne twinkling through cut glass beneath glittering chandeliers, beneath the twirling lights that projected a million stars and the orbiting planets across the darkened ceiling. Gentle music threaded through the room, floating on the cheers and applause.

They toasted each other near the back of the room, keeping out of sight and almost in the walls. “Congratulations, my love.” Sergey kissed his cheek. “You are a star.” He brushed his thumb over the silver astronaut pin on Sasha’s suit lapel. “This is your dream come true.”

Seated at the table next to where they stood, Mikhail stared down at his phone, to the whole world looking unimpressed and uninterested in everything around him. Sasha had caught him surveying the ballroom, his head rising briefly now and then, allowing him practiced glances that took everything and everyone in.

“I could not do it without you.” Sasha wrapped his hand around Sergey’s, holding his hand over his heart. “I could not. I would never be here if not for you.” There was more than just emotionalism in his words, more than sentiment choking Sasha’s throat. If Sergey hadn’t sent the application to NASA in his name, forged his signature and set him up with an interview without Sasha’s knowledge. If Sergey hadn’t kissed him on the pebble beach on Sakhalin Island and kissed him again beneath the Arctic ice. If he hadn’t given him a job at the Kremlin, brought him into his government.

If he hadn’t saved Sasha’s life in every way a man could.

He would not be alive if it weren’t for Sergey.

Sasha brought their joined hands to his lips and kissed Sergey’s knuckles. “Ya lyublyu tebya.”

Sergey kissed Sasha’s hand in return, his lips lingering on Sasha’s skin. His eyes narrowed slightly. “Sasha…”

“Hmm?”

“A few years ago, I asked you to dance with me. Do you remember?”

Sasha swallowed hard. The night of the Heroes Ball. The night before the appointment Sergey had made for Sasha with NASA. The night Sergey had tried to restartthemafter Sasha had run away. He’d hated turning Sergey down, but never, ever inside of Russia could they be caught. Never.

This wasn’t Russia, and Sergey wasn’t exactly Sergey today.

He brought Sergey’s hand back down to his chest, over his heart, and cradled Sergey’s hip with his other, drawing him close. There was a dance floor at the front of the ballroom where Mark had made his toast. Sasha wouldn’t be caught dead there, under those lights, in front of those eyeballs. But here in the back with just him and Sergey…

He swayed, drawing their hips together, their bodies fitting into the curves and planes of each other as if they were carved from a single unit, split apart by an artist’s chisel. Sergey leaned in until their foreheads pushed together. Their breaths mingled, lips touching and parting, touching and parting.

“We could live like this someday,” Sergey whispered.

Sasha pulled him closer, as if he could merge their atoms and draw Sergey inside his soul. He’d never imagined a life like this, or even a day like this. Never thought he’d be able to hold a man’s hand in public. HoldSergey’shand. Kiss him, even.

And strangely, he wasn’t panicking. The sky hadn’t fallen… yet. As long as Sergey was beside him, the world kept on spinning. Maybe it would all hit later, but for the moment, this day was his. For today, he had everything. An astronaut pin and Sergey in his arms. A mission assignment, flying right seat to Mark on a flight beyond the moon and back.

The future belonged to the best of his dreams, moments he hadn’t dared to give life to inside his heart.

“Would you be an astronaut’s partner?”

“Are you asking me to move to Houston for you?” Sergey’s voice was teasing, gentle.

His breath hitched. “Maybe.”

“Now, that’s quite a commitment. It’s a big step.” Sergey pretended to think, frowning in concentration.

“You don’t want commitment?”

The teasing fell away. Sergey straightened and stared him dead in the eyes. “I want forever with you more than anything. I would stay with you until the universe goes cold. Until the end of time,” he breathed. “If you’ll keep me that long.”

Until the stars fall away, and you are reborn in the ashes of new stars, and your elements are scattered and reformed a hundred million more times. That is how long your love and you will be together.Kilaqqi’s words, like a prophecy, rose within his soul. How much could he trust from their drug-induced spirit quest? Was any of that true? Were he and Sergey bound together, their atoms older than the Earth and connected in a way that went beyond time, beyond starlight, beyond even the tech whizzes in the physics department in Building 4?

“Forever,” Sasha whispered, “is only our beginning.”

Sergey kissed him as the music played on and their hips shifted, feet slid, and bodies rocked from side to side in a perfect embrace.

They stayed another few hours, dancing in the back of the room and drinking champagne until Sasha’s blood felt bubbly. Mark made the rounds, congratulating them both, and Dan and Jerry spent an hour at their side and talked their ears off about living in Houston and how to make a life for themselves as an out couple in America and in Texas.

Eventually, Mikhail arched his eyebrows at them, and Sasha nodded. Time to head home.