>>Only Human<<

Permission to Touch

Author's Note: As much as this pains my OTP emotions, I can't help but love dorky Neo :3
Ps, what would be a good ship name for Kate and Neo? Keo? Nate? Winderson? Andership?
Pps, that pic on the media.... literally me. (This fic included xD)

We sat at the table together every meal now. Neo easily could take any seat in the room, however small the dining area may be, but he always chose the one on my right.

Was this some assigned seating I wasn't aware of?

Today, Neo's hand was sitting on the table calmly. Slowly, so I wouldn't be noticed, I propped my hand parallel to his.

Not touching. Waiting for permission to touch.

I tried remaining as casual as I could, but really, the idea of finally maybe holding hands with Neo was a big deal.

If I could move my feet, I'd go for something way more subtle, and not holding hands on top of the table for everyone to see.

I don't know what the prospect of holding hands being a big deal says about my past relationships, but... none of them ever really got too far.

Neo even seemed like the best candidate, if I had to choose from any guy I'd met. He genuinely seemed to care. Too bad all I ever did was freeze up and turn my words into alphabet soup whenever I tried talking to him.

It had been a week since Neo kissed my head, an occurrence I still didn't know if he realized that I felt. I was too chicken to bring it up. It was that little thing I thought about before bed that had me blushing and hiding in a pillow.

A week and a half (almost two weeks) since I'd arrived. Since then, I'd gotten closer to some of the crew, Coda, Neo, and Trinity especially.

At that moment, Bit commented on how relaxed I looked, and how it was so different than when I'd shown up.

If he could see the tension in my arm right now from my attempt to slowly hold hands with Neo, I'm sure he would have said differently.

Scoot it closer. Wait.

I wanted to touch his hand so badly. Why is this concept so hard to do? Why is touching someone's hands so difficult when a week ago, I willingly jumped off a building when I was afraid heights?!

Do it.

Before I could think about it more, I lifted my hand to cover Neo's, but at that exact moment, Neo decided it was time to remove his hand from the table.

I covered for it by taking a drink, but now my face was red. I finished lunch in silence.

***

No training until later, because some of the computers needed fixing. Since I wasn't much help in my chair, Coda sat at a neraby compuer to keep me company. I sat back and watched the others work.

Neo worked with a few of those chairs where we get hooked up, and he was squatted on the floor. Trinity was walking back and forth several times from one end of the ship to the other. Sometimes she had a tool, other times, she was returning them to the others.

She passed by and gave Neo a nod almost every time.
"Neo," she said curtly.

Neo was focused, but when she walked by, he would stop and his eyes followed her.

"....hi, Trinity,"

My eyes narrowed in the slightest at his expression and I tried extra hard to distract myself with Coda.

But sometimes Trinity would stop and talk to Neo, and he'd just get this look on his face. Happiness. He always seemed generally in a good mood, even when training me, but this was different.