Ryan smiled shyly. She didn’t think that Bright would, Bright loves trains after all but just in case. Ryan was the older of the two, she was in charge and by far the more responsible of the two, so she had to do her best to be that kind of dependable person. It’d make their grandmother proud to know that Ryan was such a reliable young woman. It certainly made Ryan glow with pride as her familial feelings manifested perhaps quite differently from this wholesome image.

   The next bullet train arrived swiftly. They were timed to a tee, shiny and sleek with pure, white carapaces with singular, teal stripes down their sides. The trains were majestic and inviting, especially as a place to put up their feet after a day out where they had hoofed it plenty. 

   Ryan and Bright had gone on a short day trip, to get out and stretch their legs away from the school and race courses. They visited the zoo and botanical gardens in a small, nearby city and used bullet trains as their preferred transport. That, in of itself, was a treat as the metro in Tokyo had grown so mundane since coming to Tracen Academy.

   On the inside of the bullet train, they were able to curl up together in a long, narrow carriage which had a warm, yellow tinge to the decor such as the plush seats they sat in or in the paint on the walls. A neon sign rotated through various messages at the front of the carriage and there was a charging station for phones right in front of them as they got comfortable. Their hand bags went up and over their heads into the stowage flat and they got comfortable.

   “Aah, I’m so tired, I could have a nap right here.” Bright sighed contentedly as she snuggled into Ryan’s side.

   Her hand snaked into Ryan’s. Ryan had placed her own at the helm of the armrest but Bright undid the latch of her fingers so they could hold hands instead. Their fingers entangled as Bright nuzzled against the corner of Ryan’s chin and the top of her shoulder. 

   “You can be such a handful.” Ryan muttered.

   She made sure that Bright’s affections were kept in check, almost quite literally, by correcting her seatbelt. She had put it on but not to its fullest restraint. Bright pouted.

   “Umcomfortable…” Bright mumbled.

   “It’s good, it’ll keep you safe in the event of an emergency.” Ryan reminded Bright.

   Bright’s lips pursed together and her brows furrowed inwards. Her pout turned quite exaggerated with cheeks that puffed outwards, like a chipmunk and a hum which caused a vibration in her vibration. She looked so cute! So, Ryan laughed at Bright’s expense. Though, this only caused her to go red, albeit faintly.

   “You’re no fun.” Bright complained.

   “C’mon, I thought you were sleepy, here, sleep. Our station is another hour away.” Ryan said.

   “Mm, and it’d be two and a half hours via a normal train, and-” Bright paused to yawn, “and, uh, even longer if we ran.”

   “Yeah.” Ryan agreed.

   Bright got a little absent minded somewhere in that despite a promising start. Bright was a little eccentric like that. She struggled with mathematics and misremembered important dates in history, but she did enjoy memorising these kinds of things: train time tables, schedules, their top speeds and such. If only she could put that effort in her schoolwork. That would make Ryan really happy but honestly.

   Academics, and even athletics, took a back seat to the pure bliss that Ryan felt as Bright fell asleep on her shoulder. She was out like, well, a light.

   Ryan blushed. She glanced up and down the aisle. The time was roughly… A quarter past four. This was a recreational line so it wasn’t super busy compared to if it were a peak commuter train but there were people. They were scattered up and down the seats, Ryan couldn’t see most people over the headrests of the various mustard-coloured seats and if she strained her ears, she couldn’t even hear the amenities trolley. 

   That made her a little glad.

   She didn’t want to be seen right now. Her heart raced. She glanced to her left. Bright had the window seat, Ryan had the aisle. Outside, the scenery was a hale blur. Green grass, azure skies. The speed was dizzying and yet, on the inside of the bullet train, it was quiet. Slow. 

   Ryan blushed harder. She held Bright’s hand tighter. She heard Bright lick her lips in her sleep and sigh contentedly. She snored in her sleep, too, it was adorable: a quiet whinny that made her ears flick above her head as she quickly got lost in dreams of a day well spent.

   “Good girl, get some sleep.” Ryan mumbled more to herself than Bright because…

   She wasn’t being a good girl right now. Bright was so affectionate. It gave Ryan mixed signals and got things all messed up in her head. Ryan loves Bright. Bright loves Ryan. Family should love family but Ryan’s stomach knotted, she was certain that family shouldn’t love each other like that.

   Something about Bright made her so… spoilable. Pamperable. She had this easygoing and kindly atmosphere which Ryan was helpless to, whenever they were around, it was always so lovely and lackadaisical. They laughed over silly, nonsensical things and held hands. It was always so warm and gentle until Ryan felt these feelings in places other than her heart.

   Like her stomach that twisted and turned, or in her knees that knocked and her palms that sweated. In the tingle of her lips which yearned to know the taste of Bright’s lip balm that she used. It’s Neopolitan ice-cream flavoured but… What the heck does that mean? Ryan had seen her re-apply multiple times today, and then how she would check her hair in her mirror, make sure her plaits weren’t too messy and her impish, little gaze. It made Ryan weak all over.

   Strolling through the tulip fields, they passed flowers which were seemingly black as crushed velvet but actually purple when the sunlight illuminated them just right. And when they watched the mongoose in the mustelid exhibit at the zoo or when they observed the Scandinavian wolf pack at the zoo through the glass. It was almost like they were on a date.

   No one would have known.

   No one would have cared.

   The Mejiro name meant nothing in the dirt tracks that Bright and Ryan had wandered together on today’s day out. They didn’t look all that similar except for the horse ears and horse tails and even then. Would anyone have pulled them up to ask?

   Ryan held her tongue. She shouldn’t think like that. She felt sick as she could truly feel herself flying in her seat on the bullet train now. She tried to focus on something else. Anything else. 

   She forced herself to memorise the scenery outside their window until it was burnt into her mind. Where they had been, where they would be next. Ryan tried to distract herself. She could imagine it but poorly. The last train station. It had yellow stripes on white tiles. After that was the city’s outskirts and then the landscape of an unfettered meadow and then. Something new. Something old. Something blue. 

   Ryan couldn’t focus on what she thought she saw. She couldn’t keep up as they blazed a million miles per second on these effortless train tracks. She saw as grey, tiled roofs pop up in between terraced valleys and vast electrical pylons that criss-crossed the paddocks of a scattered farmland. Ryan committed it all from the length of grass to the shape of the wiry trees that were there and then gone in a blink. The dry farmscape wasn’t ugly but it wasn’t pretty, either, not when Bright was there in the corner, nestled into her side and just beneath the peripheral vision that Ryan possessed. 

   Ryan gave up. She felt a beam of harsh sunlight, the last accusation of a summer sunset, on her face, it cut through the window and avoided Bright just to turn its judgemental focus on her and cause her to grow uncomfortably warm. She unclenched her eyes, Bright came into focus. Slowly and then beautifully. She looked so divine fast asleep. Her cheeks were slightly chubby, her skin was soft and pale. Her hair is shiny and artfully untamed. She wore her Sunday best today.

   Almost as though… She knew. Today wasn’t just a holiday between the two of them but an honest to goodness date.

   Ryan scared herself with that. She was getting too lost in impossible fantasies but it couldn’t be denied. In that moment, watching through the filter of unfocused eyes, all Ryan could think was how she wanted to kiss Bright so bad. Her little Bright. Bright who was so often off with the fairies and had such a wonderful, mellow personality and smelt like ice-cream. No, no, she shouldn’t, that would be super, mega, giga bad, and yet. For all that scolding, for all that effort Ryan put into clinging to the dependable, reliable, responsible older sister type she aspired to be, Ryan couldn’t rid herself of that urge to lean in and kiss Bright.