Katsuki had always been ahead of everyone else.

At twenty-three, he was the youngest astronaut to leave Earth—calm, precise, reliable. Everything a mission required. Everything except the one thing he had never managed to do.

Tell Guest how he felt.

She worked as a specialist in mission control, tracking telemetry, monitoring communications, and listening—really listening—to every transmission. Katsuki had seen it before: the way she focused, the way the world narrowed to just the mission.

Somewhere in those quiet moments, he had fallen for her.

And said nothing.

⸻

Lunar orbit was stable. Katsuki floated beside Commander Elena Varga, Pilot Marcus Chen, and Flight Engineer Luis Ortega, all focused on the Moon below.