Footnote

An Alleycat Crew Short

Kash was dumbfounded, or maybe his brain just… broke.

They’d had to pull The Cat into a public-use garage, so it was out of the weather and they had access to all the tools they’d need to fix the engine after a stray bird got sucked into the intake and damaged something.

Calynn was more than thankful that Kash had been in the cockpit with her when it happened. Flying a ship designed for two engines with only one was more difficult than she had anticipated. Kash grabbed the wheel, somehow coaxed the ship along, and got them safely to the ground.

Now he was greasy to his elbows, sweat dripping from his brow, as they tried to patch the problem at least enough to get them to Thracia so Rinktee and his team could rebuild the engine. And he was staring back at her with the most bewildered look on his face.

Ten seconds passed.

“What… what did you just say?” Kash finally managed to ask.

“Wait. Why?”

“Because I want to make sure you said what I heard.”

“Well, what did you hear?”

“Calynn,” Kash said sharply, then paused and softened his voice. “Just… repeat what you asked me… please.”

“It was just an innocent ques…”

“Baby Girl,” Kash cut her off. “Just…”

“Well, I bet this is why nobody has tried it,” Calynn said, exasperated, waving her arms in the air in defeat.

“Tried what… exactly?” Kash pressed.

“Why can’t we hold feet like we hold hands?” Calynn blurted out, repeating herself. “We play footsies sometimes, and people have foot fetishes, and I just wondered why it never…”

Kash’s chuckling interrupted her.

“Why are you making fun of me?” Calynn pleaded, more hurt than she wanted to admit. “I just… oh, never mind.”

Calynn jumped down off the floating platform they were using to work on the port engine and started for the open cargo door of The Cat.

“Calynn,” Kash called after her.

She ignored him and kept walking. Her hands were dirty too, so she made a beeline for the bathroom to clean up before going back to the helm. She plopped down in her seat, pulled her knees up to her chin, and hugged her legs to her chest.

She heard his footsteps a few moments later. He also stopped at the bathroom to wash up before following her to the cockpit. Then he just stood in the doorway behind her. Watching. Drying his hands.

Silence.

“Why would you make fun of me for that?” Calynn cracked first.

She spun around to look at him. He had that smile. The one that was kind of a smirk, but not really. Like he knew something everyone else didn’t. It was so frustrating… and yet… disarming. Why did he have to be so handsome and love her so much?

As soon as he took a step toward her, she jumped from her seat, wrapped him in a hug, and buried her face in his chest.

He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her head.

“I’m sorry I made fun of you for asking a question,” he said softly. “But your timing caught me completely off guard.”

He pulled back a little and gently lifted her chin so she was looking up at him.

“Why would that pop into your head when we were neck deep in our broken engine?” he continued.

“I glanced down and our shoes were toe to toe, and I don’t know,” Calynn tried to explain. “I thought about it for a second and just wondered why that was never a thing, with all the other foot things. And all women use those little foam spacer things when we paint our toes, so toes can kinda spread enough to do it. So… I asked.”

Kash’s smile grew. It touched his eyes, and he leaned down to give her a kiss.

“Well,” Kash replied, pulling back to look into her eyes. “I don’t know if it’s a thing or not. I guess I never thought of it, but I assume dexterity might be an issue. You might be able to control each toe individually to lace them together, but I don’t think I can. You can bend your joints backwards on purpose. That would land me in a hospital bed.”

“I guess,” Calynn mumbled.

“And some people have webbed toes, where two toes never separated,” Kash continued. “And the difference in foot size would matter more than it does with hands, because toes are so much shorter than fingers. But…”

Kash paused and kicked off his work boot. Then he used his other foot to step on the tip of his sock and pull it off too.

“If you want to try, we can,” he added with a soft smile.

Calynn’s heart fluttered, and she quickly backed away to pull off her shoe and sock.

She stepped back in, hugged him tight, and tried to lace her toes into his. It didn’t have the feeling she was hoping for.

“Nope,” Calynn blurted out, shaking her head and stepping back. “That’s weird and somehow a little creepy. Let’s never try that again.”

Her whole body shuddered as she shook off how gross that felt. When she looked back at Kash… he was smirking.

“What?” Calynn asked.

A mischievous glint sparked in Kash’s eye as he slid his foot forward so their toes touched again.

Calynn almost yelled at him for it, but then sighed.

“You’re not going to let this go, are you?”

“Nope,” Kash chuckled, kissing her head again. “Come on, toe girl, we got work to do.”

“Oh… fine.”