Daniel followed Rafiq as he pushed the room door open, and they rolled their suitcases and bags inside. It was a similar setup to their hotel rooms in Paris, with Mr. Stone and Carmen getting individual rooms while Rafiq and Daniel shared the largest one. This room didn’t have a balcony; instead, a floor to ceiling window took up half of the wall beside the bed.

Daniel flopped onto the bed facefirst. Behind him, Rafiq unzipped his suitcase, and started unpacking his bathroom stuff. “Not gonna lie, bro, I thought the dancing was funny as hell.”

“It wasn’t worth it,” Daniel said, his voice muffled by the bed.

“I can’t believe it made them that mad! That man Bubbles really had the email typed up quick in case you lost,” Rafiq said, though he sighed afterwards. “Did that go for just you, or all of us?”

“If any of us loses a big fight again, we’ll be out of the program.” Daniel rolled onto his back. “I guess they really don’t want to be associated with the image of someone taunting and still losing.”

“Damn, bro. You really put us in a situation. And you got the shit with Carmen going on, too.”

Daniel sat up. “Huh?”

Rafiq gave him a look. “I’m not dumb! Y’all have hardly shared a sentence since our party on Friday. Y’all didn’t even sit together on the plane! What’s going on?”

“I think she might be thinking that I’m mad about something she said, and acting guilty because of it. She asked if I thought it was a mistake for us to date, ‘cause I’m fighting to go back to my home dimension, anyway.”

Rafiq’s jaw dropped. “Damn. Was she right?”

“No!”

“But ain’t you leaving?”

“That doesn’t mean I don’t like her!”

“So how can you like her so much if you know you’re gonna have to leave her when you go back home?”

“I thought you said you weren’t dumb, dawg. You just now figured out the problem.”

“I’m gon’ pretend you ain’t just call me an idiot.”

“Ah, don’t pretend. I didn’t call you an idiot. I just agreed and implied the same thing. That definitely happened,” Daniel said, grinning.

“Anyway. That’s tough. It don’t look like you had a good answer for her.”

“I didn’t have any answer for her. But I can’t imagine just not liking her. I had a crush on the Carmen back home, too.”

“What was she like?”

“The type to need glasses, but not want to wear them ‘cause she didn’t want to look nerdy,” Daniel said. “She wore a ton of makeup, and started getting her nails done fancy ever since middle school. Had a lot more friends. More exes. Not as good on her grades.”

“And you liked her?”

Daniel nodded. “For years, man. We basically had the same taste in music. She had so many opinions, I’m starting to think finding any hill to die on carried over between dimensions.”

“Man! You remember that night in Paris when we were chilling and I asked Carmen which season of Ultra Fighters she liked the most?”

“You hit an unskippable cutscene.”

“Three hours! I had to stand on that shit for three hours fighting for my life,” Rafiq said, laughing.

“Yeah, the Carmen back home was the same.”

“Did she like you back?”

He shrugged. “I had to be there whenever she was down about her ex that month. Aside from that, there were a few times where I thought she liked me, but…” Lightbulbs started to flicker in his mind. “Huh.”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“You hearing what I’m hearing?” Rafiq leaned against the bathroom counter, crossing his arms.

“Am I?”

“I’m hearing that she gave you enough crumbs of affection to keep you strung along around her finger for years while she went from guy to guy, and you prolly kept that crush ‘cause you loved her occasionally choosing you over all her other options.”

Daniel scratched an itch on his forehead, jaw gaping. “I mean…

Rafiq shrugged. “And I’m betting you like Carmen more cause she don’t make you feel like that,” he said, jabbing a thumb towards her room. “Or do you just like her because you liked the old her, and you think you got more of a chance with this her?”

“I’m not gonna lie, I think it used to be the second.” Daniel leaned on his fist, sitting cross-legged on the bed. “I didn’t mentally separate them as two different people until the first time we sparred with no special moves. She got mad at me for not wanting to hit her, but got happy once I stopped holding back. That will to fight makes her so different from the other Carmen.

“It made me realize how she’s not just a new opportunity, but my rival. My…other half,” he said, feeling the texture of the bed’s thick blanket between his thumbs.

Rafiq smiled. “See, man? Everything you described about that other Carmen was just outside stuff. Anyone can have nice nails and exes and all that shit, but only she can have her personality. And you love her for that! So it ain’t no mistake for y’all to date.”

Daniel nodded. “I just gotta really enjoy the time we do have together. I get it now. I should’ve told her that.”

“Yea, ‘cause now she prolly thinks you’re more hurt about what she said than confused on your own feelings, so she’s staying away ‘cause she feels guilty.” Rafiq laughed. “Man, you’re making me glad I don’t have to deal with that. You just gotta tell her.”

“How? Wouldn’t it be weird to just walk up to her and say that if she already doesn’t want to talk? I mean, I’ve been on delivered since before our flight.”

“Are you deadass asking if it would be weird to go talk to her?” Rafiq laughed. “Come on, bruh. It’s ain’t that hard.”

“You’re right. I gotta stop being a scaredy cat for her.” Daniel shook his head as if shaking the fear away, but only ended up slapping his face with his dreads.”

Rafiq flopped onto the bed beside him, his weight springing Daniel into the air for a moment. “Hear me out, bro. Her birthday’s in, like, TIME days. How about you tell her all that while buying her a souvenir too?”

Daniel gasped. “Isn’t there that one mall here with the whole Nintendo store?! She would go crazy for that!”

“Oh, hell yeah! We gotta ask Mr. Stone about a trip there. That’s the perfect chance, for real. And then y’all can kiss and make up and whatever.”

Daniel chuckled. “That’s not how it works, man.”

“Not with that attitude, it ain’t. I’ll come with you to look, too. I know you know what series’s and games she likes the most, but you aren’t from here, so you won’t really know the good shit.”

“I’ve been here long enough! How long did Mr. Stone say we had?”

“Like five minutes. Don’t you have to unpack your stuff, too?”

That was enough to spur Daniel into action. They both rose from the bed, continuing their work on unpacking what they had to. Daniel retrieved his silk durag and hair products, packing those in the bathroom while Rafiq set up their chargers.

“Yo, was there a version of me in your dimension, too?”

“I don’t remember a Rafiq…oh, wait! There was this one middle eastern kid always getting high scores on our tests. I think his last name was Shabir.”

“You pronounced that hella wrong, but you’re telling me I was a nerd in your dimension?!” He flashed surprise, yet it quickly melted into a nostalgic smile, almost like he was reminiscing on memories he never had. “Good for him, man. My Baba said he would’ve made me join the Math Relays team if I didn’t get into Fighting. I wondered how I’d turn out.”

“Oh, yeah! He was in our math relays, too!”

A few minutes later, once they were done unpacking, Mr. Stone knocked on their door. They stepped out to meet him and Carmen, though Carmen’s sheepish expression as she averted from his gaze pushed the awkward feelings to him, too.

He had to save their talk for later. Now was the time for going out to eat. Rafiq asked about going shopping, and Mr. Stone agreed for tomorrow, but since they arrived late in the day, they needed to get food, first.

Mr. Stone led them down the hallway, but froze in his tracks as a Japanese woman stepped out of her hotel room. She faced him head on, straight black hair and piercing eyes, yet her eyes wide.

“Akane?” he said.

“Jonathan. It’s been quite a while.” She smiled. “You look older.”

“And you look quite the opposite.”

“Who are you?” Daniel asked.

“Someone that I used to be very close with,” Mr. Stone answered.

“Before everything changed,” Akane said, pursing her lips.

Daniel winced. The dojo.

“Indeed. Would you like to catch up over dinner? My students and I are here on a trip.”

“If I come with you, we’re going somewhere different, Jonathan. Those places they recommend you on the travel guides aren’t really good places.”