#linzuo

Breathing hard and grinning like a fool, Lin covered her face with one hand. If her pale skin hadn’t already been flushed from exertion she would have most certainly been blushing from the giddiness the bubbled from inside as Kaz rolled off her with a satisfied sigh. He lay down beside her, stretching one arm out to rest along her stomach, which trembled with the threat of laughter.

Kaz glanced at his shaking hand and back up at Lin’s covered face, “What?”

And then it came, like a wave cresting over the shore of her mouth- a case of giggles she hadn’t experienced in living memory. The laughter bubbled from her mouth- a breathy note that reached a silent peak as she continued to shake.

Kaz propped himself up on one elbow, watching her face redden with each passing moment, “What? What are you laughing about?”

Lin shook her head, indicating her ignorance at the source of her sudden fit, pressing her hand against eyes that began losing tears at either side.

“What is so funny?” Kazuo asked again with chuckle, coming down with her same affliction.

After a few heaving gasps of air she managed to choke out a strangled, “I don’t know” before devolving back into laughter. With nothing else to go on, Kazuo wrapped his arms around her tightly, burying his face in her neck, laughing right alongside as they rode out the storm together.

The act of catching her breath was a slow one, filled with lamentations of “oh my stomach hurts” and recurrences of the giggles, but eventually she wiped her eyes on last time and laid her hands at her side.

“Okay…” she breathed tentatively.

“Okay?” Kaz repeated, daring to look her in the eye, “what was that?”

Lin shrugged her shoulders; smile dangerously large, “I have no idea-“

“Because,” Kaz interrupted, “one of my fantasies is to have a woman laugh hysterically after having sex with me, so thanks. That was good.”

Lin shook her head, giggling lightly, “No, it’s not like that.” Her hand reached up to cup the side of face delicately, “I think…I think I’m just happy.”

Lin sighed, one month out of six had already passed and nobody had caught onto them yet, perhaps bending some of her rules wouldn’t lead to the catastrophe she originally imagined. For over a decade, the moments in which she experienced anticipation were almost always of the ‘dread’ variety. Now, as she looked at the sun glinting off the high-rise hotel building her anticipation was a thrill, all excitement for what the day had in store.

Having satisfactorily rationalized her feelings on the matter, Lin turned back to the trail, catching sight of a bundle of small lavender crocus blooms poking out of a melting patch of snow- a sure sign that spring was on its way.

*****

Since Amon’s attempted coup, overnight bags had become a common sight at Police Headquarters. Cops of every rank could be seen toting their essentials into the locker rooms at the start of each shift, the mark of an overworked force. Luckily for Lin, it also meant that the small bag she carried was of no particular note to her officers. That wouldn’t be the case much longer she realized, as the unrest in the city was beginning to subside and the gaps in her staffing were finally being filled.

It was nice to feel as if she were getting the force back in order after all that had transpired. Song had taken to his new post of Captain like a turtleduck to water and while Lin had expected as much, she was relieved to see her faith in him borne out into reality. His precinct was no longer a secondary juggling act between Captain Hong and herself. Beyond that, she was in the final week of re-training all the ‘warm bodies’ Saikhan had brought on in his desperate bid to keep the city from crumbling. In a few days time these latest recruits would finally be ready for patrol.

“Good morning, Chief,” Khen greeted her, popping up from his desk as she passed it.

“Good morning.”

He followed her into her office, notepad in hand. He closed the door carefully, shutting them inside her office, “Board of Fire phoned and asked to move your meeting out to next week.”

“That’s fine,” Lin replied, rounding her desk and dropping her overnight bag into her chair. She lifted a stack of documents that lay waiting before her.

“Those were brought by courrier late last night from Council Chambers,” Khen informed, “amendments to the City charter.”

“Ah,” Lin nodded, scanning the papers in her hand. They looked like drafts, she took notice of Tenzin’s handwritten notes to her in the margins.

“The City Attorney’s Office said they also want to reschedule, they said they found “adequate predication”, but they don’t have anything more to report at this time…”

That caught Lin’s attention and she looked up at Khen finally. He shifted awkwardly, unwilling to acknowledge he understood the message to be directly related to investigating Saikhan. She could wring Raiko’s neck for being so careless to leave such a comment in a message. “Thank you, Khen,” Lin said after a prolonged moment, “anything else?”

Before he could answer there was a quick knock at her door. Hong poked his head into her office without waiting to be invited, “Got a minute?”

“Can it wait until hand-off?” Lin asked.

But Khen looked visibly relieved by the interruption and took a step back, “I don’t have anything more.”

Lin nodded, waving Hong into her office wordlessly. Hong moved forward dragging a chair before Lin’s desk out to take a seat, he sighed heavily. “I need a favor. I’ve got a time-on request for you.” “Time on?” Lin returned, eyebrow raised.

“Yeah,” he laughed, “Blue Dragon Festival is coming up and Binh is already talking about getting the kids to participate this year.” Lin rolled her eyes. The Blue Dragon Festival was not a holiday marked by big celebrations as far as Lin was aware, but instead by the cleaning out of one's house. It was a marker of spring; a new start. Hong continued, “if you could schedule me for some back-to-backs I would appreciate it. I don’t mind cleaning out the house if I can do it on my own, but if I have to manage the kids the whole time it’s a different story.”

Lin scoffed, removing her overnight bag from her chair to take a seat, “Why don’t you just tell your wife that instead of asking me to manufacture an excuse for you?”

“Come on, Lin,” Hong pleaded, “you could use the time off, right?” He motioned at the overnight bag as she placed it onto her desk, “sleep at home for once.” She bristled at his comment, snatching the bag and placing it on the floor behind her desk out of sight. He didn’t miss the change in her demeanor, but he didn’t comment on it either. “This is a win-win for you.”

She sighed. Blue Dragon was an official holiday, which meant the Council and Transitional Committees would surely have a three-day recess. It was the closest thing to a guarantee that her schedule would line up with Kazuo’s for once. “Fine,” she relented.

“Thank you,” he exhaled, sitting back in his chair finally, “you have no idea how much this means to me. Nothing has been done since New Year, Binh thinks it’s bad luck.”

Lin chuckled, “My grandmother had that superstition. Didn’t want to risk sweeping away the good luck of the new year too early… of course, that shouldn’t have been a problem, I don’t think she ever picked up a broom in her life.”

“She must have been really lucky in that case,” Hong joked.

Lin nodded, gathering a few more documents from her desk in preparation for their morning hand-off meeting. She straightened the stack of papers with one curt tap against her desktop, “Shall we?”

“We shall,” he agreed, standing to follow her back out of her office door.

******

Street lamps reflected little pools of light in the snow melt along the street before Hangshan Hotel, its stately visage distorting as satomobile tires rippled through, winding their way through Republic City. Lin hopped over one such puddle at the last minute, remembering suddenly that she wasn’t in her usual metal boots. Her uniform had been like a second skin for as long as she could remember, a physical barrier between her and the outside world, protecting her from harm. Her armor was left behind tonight as it also proved quite effective at staving off sexual advances; something she was not keen on at the moment. A brief twinkle of self-reflection about that was batted away, moved to the back of her mind to be pondered at a later date.

For now, she was focused on the elevator doors that carried her up toward Kazuo’s suite. The doors parted and Lin stepped off into the hallway, suppressing the twinge of anxiety that always preceded their meetings long enough to knock at his door. The door swung inward in short order, “Well, hello stranger.”

Lin’s attempt to stifle her smile was in vain, her grin so fulsome that the only hope of reigning it in was to bite her lip, “Hello.”

He stepped aside, holding his arm out to welcome her into his suite, “Feels like I haven’t seen you in a whole election cycle.”

Lin rolled her eyes, walking past him to deposit her overnight bag along the low wall that sectioned off his kitchenette. She didn’t dare admit that to her, the past three days had indeed dragged in the most tedious way. “Really? Seemed like three days to me,” she told him sarcastically as she undid the tie at the waist of her coat. She felt his lips plant a kiss along her neck, just below her ear and she leaned back into him, tilting her neck to offer as much of it as he liked.

The low timbre of voice against her skin created the loveliest sensation,“Oh, so you were counting the days then?”

Lin scoffed, turning her head finally to meet his eye in feigned annoyance. His response was another chuckle and a kiss to her cheek before he stepped back, helping her out of her coat finally. She gave him an approving look as he hung her coat on the rack. He turned his attention back to her, slipping his arms around her waist. Lin returned his gesture by settling her hands on his shoulders. “Now, where were we?” he asked, leaning in before stopping short of a kiss, “Ah- that’s right- you were counting the days…” Just inches away Lin gave him a withering look, “I can count higher if you’d prefer.” He laughed, shaking his head, “No, no. You’ve been through enough.” When their lips finally met they were both smiling, making the act of kissing a difficult task. That didn’t last long, however, as they were interrupted by a knock at the door.

*knock knock knock*

They broke apart, both sighing.

“Okay, three days and one more minute,” Kazuo quipped in a low voice, curling his fist in a show of solidarity, “Stay strong.”

He let go of Lin’s waist, stepping back just in time to catch another roll of her eyes before peeking through the peephole of the suite door. His expression turned to one of confusion and he motioned Lin forward to look for herself. She hesitated only a moment before squinting through the looking glass to see Governor Jie of the Earth Kingdom Province of Leong standing on the other side of the door.

Jie was a force to be reckoned with both inside and outside of the Earth Kingdom. She had been appointed to the Earth Kingdom’s transitional committee as a political act of self-preservation by Queen Hou-Ting. Jie was a vocal opponent of the monarchy, but her substantial support in the southern provinces had grown powerful enough that the Queen understood leaving them without representation as the United Republic severed its ties would have been an act of suicide, quite possibly in the literal sense.

Lin had only met Jie briefly at the welcoming party the previous month, where she made the grave mistake of leading with, “Chief Beifong, your sister is an invaluable friend and ally of mine.” Outside of that, they had no interaction. Lin only interfaced directly with the Council and the Transitional Committee Leaders in her work.

Kazuo, however, had reason to meet with her several times a week- though late in the evening at his hotel suite wasn’t exactly the usual setting.

*knock knock knock*

Lin and Kazuo exchanged a look and he shrugged, his face the picture of confusion. Lin shrugged back, motioning to the doorknob before stepping to the side into the kitchenette where she wouldn’t be visible once the door was opened. Lin folded her arms, leaning back against the counter as she watched Kazuo open the door to greet Jie.

“Governor, this is a surprise. What can I do for you?”

From the gap at the hinges Lin could barely make out her elbow, bouncing as she gestured, “Kaz, hi…I, uh, I was just going to head down to the lobby for a drink and I was thinking about what you said about import tax in our meeting with the Council this morning… I was hoping you might be free to join me. You know, give me some further insights.”

Lin was sure Kazuo could see the disgusted face she pulled out of the corner of his eye, but he didn’t react. Instead he continued to look forward. “Unfortunately, I’m expecting the Palace to telephone me any minute,” he lied,“but I’d be happy to go over all of that sometime tomorrow.”

“Sure,” Jie agreed, “that would be great. If your phone call finishes early, I’ll probably be down there awhile.”

Kazuo nodded, giving her an earnest smile, “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight Kaz.”

As soon as the door closed, Lin lifted an eyebrow, “Did you double book yourself?”

Kazuo shook his head with an amused laugh, “I knew you were going to say that!” He pointed at the closed door, “I have no idea where that came from.”

“I’m sure she could give you some further insights.”

He shrugged, “Too bad because I already had plans to give you some further insights.”

“In regards to…?”

His expression shifted suddenly, dropping any hint of flirtation as if he’d remembered something. “Actually, I did have something I wanted to talk to you about.”

Lin felt her chest tighten, bracing herself for— well, she wasn’t sure. That was the problem. In the thirty seconds it took Kazuo to collect a brochure from the counter and hand it to her, Lin had spiraled into a thousand emotionally devastating scenarios. She looked down at the glossy card stock in her hands depicting two dragon boats side by side on a river.

“What’s this?”

“The Blue Dragon Regatta,” Kazuo returned plainly, as if that cleared up any confusion.

“What is that?” Lin asked again, glancing back at the brochure in her hands. She looked up to find Kazuo aghast.

“Are you joking?”

“No?”

“The Blue Dragon Regatta,” he repeated with an incredulous laugh, “it’s the most important boat race of the year and it happens to be just outside of Chenbao this year. On the Su Oku River.”

Some of the words he was saying made sense; she knew where Chenbao was- about a three hour train ride northeast of Republic City just over the mountains. She was aware of the Su Oku River- the surrounding villages were popular weekend retreats for the overworked citizens of Republic City. She knew what a boat race was, of course, but what she didn’t know was what any of this had to do with her.

“So?”

“So,” Kazuo led, “I was thinking you might be able to pull some strings with the boss at work and get some time off to join me.”

Of all the catastrophic scenarios Lin had imagined in her brief spiral, this was not one of them. Her chest tightened again, but in a different way. He wanted to go away with her, on a trip, just the two of them– on purpose. Had such an instance ever crossed her mind as a possibility she would have certainly added it to her list of rules: no romantic getaways. Then again, her list of rules had been wholly ignored by them both since the day they were instituted.

Her first instinct was to decline his offer, but she hesitated, opting instead to say simply, “Oh.”

His eyes scanned her face, searching her expression, “Not a fan of boat racing?”

Lin shook her head, “Are you?”

It was a silly thing to ask at the moment, he was clearly a fan, and come to think of it– the oar situated over the mantle in his apartment finally made sense, but she was buying herself time to weigh the pros and cons of spending an uninterrupted weekend together. What if they didn’t travel well together? What if they got sick of each other before they even arrived in Chenbao? What if he actually expected her to be excited about boats floating on a river? What if someone saw them together? What if she hated being stuck with him? Or worse– what if she loved it?

“I used to row in college and still follow it closely,” he explained, “I’ve never managed to get to the Blue Dragon regatta in person, I usually have to listen to it on the wireless.”

Lin looked up, “On the wireless?” He nodded. “How does one announce a boat race?”

“What do you mean?”

“Does the announcer break into a regular program with a bulletin update to report the boats are indeed on the water and roughly beside one another?”

Kazuo sighed heavily, “Oh, Lin. It’s an event. Especially the Blue Dragon- there are heats with every class of vessel you can imagine! Catamarans- all kinds of sails- skiffs and dinghies, yachts, rowing- single sculls, coxed eights, coxed fours- the whole nine yards. And the traditional dragon boat race, obviously.”

“Obviously,” Lin returned dryly.

“I can explain it all when we’re there,” he assured, leaning in to take her hands. He slid his thumb along the inside of the brochure she was holding, pushing two train tickets out the top. “And I hope you will come because otherwise I’ll have to sit next to a stranger on the train.”

Lin smiled, heart warmed by the realization that he had been so eager to take her along that he had gone out of his way to purchase a ticket on her behalf. She wasn’t an afterthought.

“You already bought me a ticket?”

He nodded.

“And you’re sure this wasn’t meant for Governor Jie?” she teased, reflexively compelled to temper her actual emotion with a little sarcasm. He laughed, thankfully.

“I’m sure.”

“Well, if you already went through all the trouble of getting a ticket for me I suppose I have to go.”

He leaned forward still, catching her lips for a kiss, “Great. I can pick you up after your shift on-”

“I’ll meet you at the train station,” Lin asserted firmly. The shift in her tone acted as a pin, deflating their flirtatious banter just as it was taking off. It was somewhat involuntary, this verbal wall she erected between them– a survival tactic she had honed over the years whenever someone got a little too familiar. Still, she regretted the way it came out. She was grateful when Kazuo didn’t seem to make any particular note of all this.

“Alright,” he agreed without missing a beat, “now that it’s decided I’ll give you a crash course in the basics of rowing.” The ease with which he breezed past some of her more prickly personality traits never failed to amuse her and she couldn’t help but chuckle, “that’s not what I came over here for.”

He shrugged, “I’m a great multitasker.”

************

The hollow sound of her drumming fingernails along the bank of filing cabinets snapped Lin out of her reverie and she clicked her tongue in disapproval. Despite her feelings to the contrary, there was no actual rule in the city charter that Lin must be working at all times. With a sigh, Lin pushed the drawer containing her personnel files closed. She would only be in Chenbao a few days after all, and it was meant to be a social getaway. Still, her eyes next landed on a drawer containing files her precinct detectives had finally determined to be “cold” and guilt gnawed at her.

Mercifully, a quick rapping of knuckles at her office door interrupted, “you ready for hand-off?” Hong asked, poking his head in.

Lin turned her head, hands still resting along the cabinet before her, “In a moment.”

Rather than departing, Hong pushed the door open further, stepping inside, “you looking for something?”

“Take home work,” she replied, turning to face him finally.

Her answer was met with a chuckle from her old friend, “You’re allowed to take time off.”

“Says the Captain who just requested three days worth of back-to-backs,” Lin retorted.

“Fair,” he conceded, “but I don’t take my work home with me…especially when I’m going out of town.”

Lin gave him a critical look, but was betrayed by the flush rising in her cheeks, “who said anything about going out of town?”

“The overnight bag you brought in,” Hong replied, looking satisfied with himself.

Lin turned back to her filing cabinet with a roll of her eyes, opening another drawer as casually as she could to begin thumbing through her files again, “every officer in this precinct has been bringing their overnight bags to work.”

“True,” Hong conceded, “but you brought a different one today.” When Lin didn’t reply he continued, “you want my advice? Don’t bring your work, it’d be rude.” Lin closed the drawer without retrieving a file and turned back to him with a defeated sigh; he had her dead to rights. “I was a detective before this, you know,” he chided.

“Alright, Detective,” she gestured toward the door, “shall we?”

“Yep,” Hong agreed with a clap of his hands and they exited her office for their shift change meeting.

*************************************** It had been years since Lin had cause to find herself on the platforms at Central Station. As an adult her vacations - especially inside the Earth Kingdom- were a rarity. As a child, however, Central Station was the jumping off point for her many visits to Gaoling. In some ways the ornate old train shed hadn’t changed much; the same brass railings she and Suyin used to stage their games of ‘slap-hands’ along were still there, covered in decades of smudged fingerprints that made Lin cringe at the memory of willingly placing her palms upon it. She recalled the mix of excitement and anxiety that preceded those trips; anticipating the adventure that went along with traversing the Earth Kingdom overland while simultaneously dreading the exhausting act of predicting which words and behaviors were appropriate in the presence of her grandparents.

Truth be told, she had the similar feeling now as she made her way toward the boarding platforms. Though she was sure that attending a boat race in Chenbao with Kazuo was likely to be less restrictive than an opera performance of The Heavenly Maids Scatter Blossoms with her grandfather, she was still fretting about how to conduct herself in this unfamiliar setting. She was also reasonably certain that weekend getaways were not a standard earmark of individuals engaging in casual sex, but anything remotely resembling a relationship was strictly out of the question, so where did that leave them? This nebulous space the two of them seemed to occupy as of late did vex her somewhat, but in her lighter moments she almost managed to convince herself that she might enjoy allowing life to happen to her if she simply let it. Unlike her files, her cabinets, her closets- not everything needed a label and a designated space- some things might even be better just existing without too much examination.

Lin sighed, checking her ticket against the platform sign; she didn’t believe that for a second. She was in the correct place at least, platform number six, and she managed to arrive a little early even. As she approached the steward she took a last look around the bustling crowd for any sign of Kazuo, though she didn’t know why- the whole point of arriving separately was so as not to be seen together. Either way, she didn’t find him and passed her luggage and a couple of yuans off to the rail porter. He had only made it a few steps toward the baggage car when Lin stopped him, beckoning him over so that she could retrieve a book out of her bag. She offered a few extra yuans for the trouble and the porter didn’t seem to mind the delay in the slightest.

Strictly speaking, she had no intention of reading The Gold Murders on the train, but concluded that in her nervous state her hands needed something to do, even if it was only holding a book. Her cold case files would have been good for this too, she thought regretfully as she boarded railcar number two. Another steward stood just inside, offering to help her find the proper compartment, but Lin assured him that she was perfectly capable of following descending numbers down a singular pathway to compartment number eight. She was surprised to find Kazuo already seated at the table within, obscured behind a broadsheet copy of the Fountain Daily News touting the headline TENSIONS FLARE OVER EARTHBENDING INFLUX and a photograph of two groups of people shouting at one other across a deep fissure in the ground between them.

“You beat me here,” she observed and he folded the paper in his hands so that he could give her an enthusiastic smile.

“And you made it,” he returned, moving to stand, but Lin waved his gesture off and took a seat across the table from him.

“I thought for sure you’d be hung up with work,” she explained, settling in. He folded the paper in his hands again, setting it aside to reveal several stacks of files and a heap of unopened correspondence covered in Fire Nation postage on the table between them. “No, I brought it along instead,” he chuckled.

“Oh,” Lin replied, doing a poor job of disguising her disappointment in having left her own work back at Headquarters.

He must have misinterpreted her tone because he quickly began to clear the table, “I don’t have to do it now,” he explained, looking almost bashful. Lin didn’t previously think Kazuo was capable of looking bashful.

“No, no,” she interjected, “it’s alright. I brought a book.”

Kazuo shook his head, continuing to stack his files along the seat beside him before remarking, “I’m surprised you haven’t finished it yet.”

“Me too, actually,” she agreed, following his lead and putting her book aside. When the table was cleared they met eyes again, silence stretching.

“Hi,” Kazuo offered, laughing lightly.

“Hello,” Lin returned with a small laugh of her own.

In the years since they had met they shared plenty of awkward moments, but to Lin’s knowledge this may have been their first awkward silence, made even more awkward by the fact that Kazuo, who normally cannot stop talking to save his life, didn’t seem to be capable of breaking it. “How was work,” Lin blurted finally.

“It was productive,” Kazuo reported, “we finally agreed on an election date so that’s done.”

“Really?”

He nodded, “It’ll be in the papers tomorrow, but I’ll give you the scoop- it's scheduled for Harmony Week. Now, it’ll be down to the Council to codify the election laws, but at least the rest of us can start planning our return trips.”

“Oh. That’s great,” Lin replied, but her conviction was lacking.

Harmony Week was a yearly celebration at the close of each summer to celebrate the founding of the United Republic. It was a logical choice given the historically symbolic nature of the week itself and it aligned with the committee’s rough timeline of six months. Even so, having a tangible timeline for his exit from her life- quite possibly forever- left her with a hollow feeling. “It looks like you’ll have your hands full when you get back,” she continued, referencing the newspaper at his side.

“Oh this?” Kazuo asked, lifting the paper slightly. Lin nodded. “It’s been an ongoing issue. Fire Fountain is built on top of natural gas deposits and a lot of engineering has gone into directing that gas throughout the city safely. We have this sect,” he explained with noted disapproval, “that call themselves the ‘Spirit Warriors.’ They believe the gas should be allowed to seep out wherever they decide so they can have ‘visions’ of spirits or something so they’re always making attempts to sabotage the underground pipelines.”

“Lovely.”

He nodded, “we’ve had some luck curtailing their efforts in the last few years and there were even a few months it looked like they’d left Fire Fountain for good.”

“And?”

“No such luck- they were just on a mission in the southern Earth Kingdom proselytizing to benders so they could recruit them back to do this. Up to now they’ve been protected under religious exceptions, but now that they’re doing some real damage I’m having to draft legislation redefining what it means to be a domestic terrorist.”

Lin gave him a light shrug,“sounds pretty straightforward at least.”

He chuckled, “Ah, spoken like someone who enforces the law instead of legislates it. No,” he pat the stack of files on the seat beside him proudly, “this is going to be the most excessively pedantic set of addendums Fire Nation law has ever seen. I’m talking zero wiggle room.”

“Where in the southern Earth Kingdom?”

“Hm?”

“Do you know where in the southern Earth Kingdom they were picking up benders?”

Kazuo laughed knowingly, “Not Zaofu if that’s what you’re asking.” Lin felt a hint of relief at his answer. It was indeed what she had been asking. “Apparently they were in Yi and Leong.”

“Governor Jie’s province?”

“Leong? Yes,” Kazuo nodded, “I actually have to add her to my calendar next week come to think of it.”

Though Lin did not intend to react, her eyebrows were quicker than her intention and they lifted with significance. Kazuo noted her expression and laughed, “I do need some further insights into this situation, but not the kind she was talking about- don’t worry.”

“I wasn’t worried,” Lin shot back compulsively, though something in her stomach did twist at the idea of Kazuo and Governor Jie meeting.

Kazuo reached into the breast pocket of his jacket then, where he normally kept his cigarettes and pulled out a deck of playing cards instead, “Up for a game?”

“Alright.”

Kaz opened the case, shuffling a crisp deck decorated with scenes of Republic City on the back, “Do you know Big Two?”

“Know it? I played it so much during triad stakeouts I would dream about it later.”

Kazuo cut the deck, dealing out the cards one by one, “Koji and I play this a lot when we’re on the campaign trail.”

Lin gathered up the cards she’d been dealt, shifting them into descending order in her hands, “Hm. I don’t think he likes me.”

Kazuo paused, “Who? Koji?”

She nodded, selecting out the three of diamonds and placing it between them, “Yes.”

“No,” he insisted, finally covering her card with a four of spades, “no, that’s not it at all. If anything he was just nervous about how much I like you.” It was Lin’s turn to pause then, cheeks coloring. In spite of the fact that they were headed for a weekend away together, statements like this still caught her off guard. In her moment of silence the train engine sighed, signaling their departure, almost as if it was her own response- the train was leaving the station. Lin selected the two of hearts, laying it on top of his card.

Kazuo’s eyes bugged at the site of it, “Spirits. Looks like you have control again.”

Lin swept their pile to the side, starting over with a seven-high straight, “I suppose so.”

Notes: