INUIDIAM

AKANE

Monday night, History class. Akane was sitting with Derek, Lizzy, and Adam, same as always, listening to the old cane droning on about the first moon landing. How old did he think they were? Akane swore, every history teacher felt the need to rehash everything else they had been taught.

Her armor, such as it was, was working out pretty well. She and Derek had only taken six jobs since Friday, and they needed a bit of a breather after the constant fighting. The Minerva silk was holding up nicely.

Adam's astronaut was in 'sarian custody, as expected. Word had already spread about the mutiny and the USP takeover. It didn't affect the city directly, but a lot of Domina's supplies came from free colonies, so they'd be hit hard regardless. The big nations never liked their investments deciding to simply go independent.

But they weren't talking about that here. No current events, or indeed anything within the last twenty years. The old cane refused to even touch upon the toy maker. Ridiculous.

Lizzy, of course, was her usual bubbly self. All the horrors of the city never seemed to touch her. If anything, she seemed happier. Probably because the screamers hadn't affected her at all, plus she was at college. She always did love meeting new people.

She was having trouble understanding what the teacher was saying—as always—so she kept leaning over to ask Derek for help. He tried to explain everything as best he could, but he kept getting distracted by her cleavage. He avoided looking if at all possible, but that in itself was obviously costing him effort. He didn't look at any other girl on the planet like that. What made Lizzy special? They met first? Unfair.

After about half an hour of this little dance, Akane had enough. she couldn't watch it any more. But what was she supposed to do? She couldn't just ignore it since they were right in front of her. She couldn't tell them to knock it off since they weren't actually doing anything wrong. She got up and walked out of the room as fast as she could without resorting to her power.

She heard the teacher's voice cry out behind her. “Why do you people even come to my class!?”

She stopped in the hallway, breathing heavily. It was a stupid, childish overreaction. She should have just buried it down and dealt with it, like she always did.

Footsteps behind her. Her hand went to the throwing knives Maria had gotten her for her birthday, holstered at her elbow, as she turned around.

But it was just Adam, wearing a concerned frown.

“What's with you? You feeling all right?”

Akane let out a weak breath. “Yeah, I'm fine. It's just...”

He looked back into the classroom. “Ah. Yeah. I can see how that would upset you.” He patted her shoulder and tried to smile. “Derek's just a moron. Don't worry about him. He'll come around.”

She barked out a laugh. “No, he won't.”

“Who won't what?”

Derek had decided to follow them, Lizzy in tow. She, of course, clearly had no clue what was going on, and just as clearly didn't care. She was always very... zen.

Akane sighed. “Nothing. Don't worry about it.”

He shook his head. “It's not nothing if it makes you run out of class. What's going on?”

Akane rubbed her forehead. “Just... a headache, that's all.”

Derek nodded in understanding. “Yeah, I get those a lot too.”

That finally made Lizzy speak up. “You really need to see a doctor about that. If nothing else, I have some pills that might help...”

“No, I'm fine. It's—” He blinked, and grinned at Akane. “It's nothing important.”

She sighed again. He still didn't get it.

Maybe she should just leave. She didn't trust herself around them right now, and she had a few other things she could be doing.

“Akane was just saying she was going to go see Doctor Clarke after class,” Adam said, “but I think she should go now.”

Derek nodded. “You should. In fact, I'll go with you.”

“No,” Akane said quickly. “I can go on my own. And this is... different from your headaches. I'm sure it's nothing. I'll see you later.”

He looked like he was about to say something, but Lizzy grabbed him by the arm. “She said she'd be fine. C'mon, the professor is going to be mad enough as it is.”

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Derek nodded, and they all went inside, Adam giving Akane a reassuring look as they did.

She leaned her back against the wall and took a deep breath. She silently thanked Adam for coming up with a way to keep her out of the classroom. She would have been fine, she was sure, but she needed to be alone for a little while.

“Akane?”

She looked up to see Flynn walking down the hall towards her.

Not now. She had been avoiding him for over a week. She had even skipped kendo. Now was not the time to talk this out.

“Flynn,” she said coldly. Hopefully he would take the hint and find an excuse to leave.

He didn't. “I didn't know you had class right now. I haven't seen you since your party. You all right?”

She took a step away from him, then kept going, walking back towards the dorms.

He followed. “Hey, you can't just ignore me.”

“Can,” she said.

“Look, we seemed to be hitting it off, and you even—” He stopped as they passed a maintenance man, installing a new speaker in the corner. Once they were out of earshot, he continued. “—you even showed me your powers. If you have a problem, I want to talk to you about it. Figure out what's wrong. Or are you seriously just going to avoid me forever?”

“Yes.” She didn't want to explain further. She didn't have a chance with Derek. She knew that. Even if Lizzy didn't exist, he would never look at her like that. She had known that for eight years.

Her “feelings” for Flynn were just the result of her heart trying to find a viable target. He was an emotional substitute, nothing more. But if she pretended he was something more, things would quickly spiral out of control.

...but he had kept their secret.

He didn't have to. Musashi's sword, it was becoming more and more clear that there was no real need for it to be a secret. But he had kept their trust regardless.

Akane stopped and turned to face him. He swallowed anxiously, but held his ground.

“Maybe... not,” she said. “I've been... mean to you. You don't deserve to be kicked out of the loop for no reason.”

He put his hand on her shoulder. She didn't flinch. “I don't need to be in the loop. I just want to spend time with you.”

At least he knew what he wanted. Everyone knew what they wanted. Derek wanted Lizzy, Laura wanted to be left alone, Adam wanted Lily, and Ling wanted everyone.

But Akane still didn't know. Derek was out of reach. Much as she liked to pretend otherwise, that was a fact, and it had nothing to do with Lizzy.

She didn't know what to do. She had a billion different conflicting feelings she was still having trouble sorting out. Loyalty to Derek. Love for Derek. Respect for Flynn.

“Look, why don't we just get some coffee?” he said. “Lily's at the Starcup stand just down the street. We can go there while she waits for Adam to get out of class.”

And then what? A double date? That wasn't what she wanted. Lizzy kept suggesting she do it, to ease herself into the “game,” but it was hard to take advice from her. She was about as smart as a bag of rocks.

Akane was being unfair. Yes, Lizzy wasn't very smart. But she was cunning. She knew what worked and what didn't.

“Akane?” Flynn said. He didn't want to force her to give him an answer, but her silence was probably making him uncomfortable.

But she still wasn't ready for a date. Of any kind. She had been loyal to Derek for so long—in more ways than one—that she didn't really know what to do with the romance side of things.

And it wasn't just her. Flynn was eager. If she went out on a date with him, even just coffee, he'd take it as a sign she approved of a possible relationship. Which could be... good?

No. It would be very, very bad.

Flynn removed his hand from her shoulder and took a step back. “If you don't want to, that's fine. No pressure. I'll just—”

“Wait,” she whispered, thinking. There was something Lizzy had said, when she mentioned some of her anxiety about dating.

Flynn frowned, but stayed.

Flynn's brow furrowed further. “What are you—”

She stepped forward and kissed him.

Technically, it was her first kiss. Okay, yes, it was her first kiss, since the time Robyn got drunk and licked her face doesn't count by any stretch of the imagination. Perhaps giving it to Flynn wasn't the best of ideas.

He was surprised at first, and nearly flinched away, but after a moment he wrapped his arms around her. He was warm, and more tender than she expected. Most of her experience with men other than Derek involved working with them for hunts or hunting them, so perhaps she should have expected him to be different.

Akane lost track of time for a while there. She wasn't sure exactly how long they stood in the hallway. Ten minutes, twenty tops. Eventually, she managed to break free.

He looked her right in the eye and smiled a little. “Um, not that I'm complaining, but what was that about?”

Akane felt all the blood in her body rush to her face in a flush of heat. Had she really just done that? What the hell did she do now?

Drawing on her mastery of the English language, she squeaked out an “Eep” before running away at superspeed. She was well out of Flynn's sight by the time her reservoir ran dry. She placed her back against the side of the building and took a few long, deep breaths. It was a long day, and Lizzy's advice hadn't helped much. Kissing Flynn hadn't told her anything, didn't make her decisions any easier. She needed to go back to the dorm and take a long shower.

That's about when she realized she had left her bag in the classroom.