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it was hard. I was getting old. "And shit, just call me Mason."
"I wish to explore Edo," Keno said. "I just... I just need to
see how it's changed. I know that this isn't close to the Tokyo
I grew up in, but I can almost see it sometimes."
I believed that, because I doubted the kid had been
allowed to wander around like this. I knew Samojirou had
stopped by last night, from the sounds I'd heard coming from
Keno's room. I was just glad Keno knew that his lover and
Tamazusa were all right. I'd felt a twinge when I'd heard that
she had gotten her kuni back. I had promised her salsa
dancing. I didn't think that was going to happen now, and for
some reason, that upset me.
"You got any money, Sakura?" I asked.
"I do," he said, sounding puzzled at my request. "Why?"
"'Cause I think that your sister deserves a nice present for
getting her job back," I said.
He laughed. "I think that she would be proud of you right
now. You managed not to mention anything important in
public. You are learning to be discreet."
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I laughed, too, even though it sounded off to me. Keno
picked up on it, though. I was glad that Noma was wandering
slightly ahead of us, not really paying attention to what we
were talking about, just keeping an eye on us. "I think that I
like your sister the way that she was in the Northlands more
than who she is now."
Keno was silent for a moment. "She...."
"Isn't the same person," I finished for him. "Shit, that
sounds stupid. But she was my hot mama for a while."
"You didn't call her that to her face?" Keno asked,
sounding like he was going to have a heart attack. "Mason...."
"She ain't that anymore," I said with a shrug. "She's like
my boss now. You don't have that much fun with the boss.
McGann, she don't feel like she's that to me now. And shit,
you know that she isn't that to Wolf right now, or he wouldn't
be actin' like he is. Man's trying to date her or something.
Good thing, too, because she's a nice lady, and she needs a
nice man, which he is. She told him that she was...."
I stopped, wondering why I was willing to let that secret
out of the bag after keeping it for so long. Keno didn't seem
to notice the slip or he was willing to ignore it.
"I think that Wolf would be good for her," Keno said.
I was glad he sounded so calm about it, considering he'd
had a crush on Wolf forever. I figured finding your True Love
or soul mate or whatever the fuck Samojirou was to him got
him over Wolf. "Shit, Sakura."
"You remembered," Keno murmured sarcastically.
"Don't be a smartass," I told him. I wondered how much
English Noma knew, because I was pretty sure you weren't
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supposed to talk to whatever Keno was like this. If he
understood what I was saying, I thought he'd have to kick my
ass. "She told him something important that weirds a lot of
people out. He didn't freak. End of story. But your sister,
man, she's gonna go back to being a cast-iron bitch."
"Mason!" Keno snapped, horrified. He should have been
used to this from me by now.
"It's a good look for her," I continued, ignoring the small
conniption fit he was trying not to have. "Not blaming her for
it, 'cause she isn't a bad lady that way. I just don't think that
she's going to like me teasing her again. Or that we can act
like we did on the boat."
Keno stopped and looked at me. I was kind of glad that I
couldn't see his face, because actually hearing what I had
said made me feel like an idiot. Shit, I hadn't sounded this
bad when I was a teenager and started dating. Let me tell
you, I did some really stupid shit then, but this took the
fucking cake. I sounded really pathetic.
"Tease her," he said simply. "While she isn't who you want
her to be anymore, I think that she likes you."
"I figured that one out," I grumbled. "She didn't Jell-O
me."
I had figured out that she couldn't do it anymore when she
lost her kuni, but the lady could have done something like
that, if I had pissed her off, just with a knife. And now, I
really don't think that she would. I could be wrong, but I
doubted it. And I wasn't thinking with my dick, either. I didn't
know why I liked the woman, but I did. Could have been that
she was smart, kept her cool in a crisis, made the hardass
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Back to the Dream
by Felicitas Ivey
decisions that she needed to, and was willing to get her hands
dirty, literally and figuratively. McGann was the same way,
but she was more like my kid sister or something. Tamazusa
wasn't. I didn't know what she was, but I knew I wasn't going
to think of her as a sister.
"You both suck at relationships," Keno said bluntly, like he
was an expert. "Why don't we just deal with this later."
"Good for me, because I feel like an ass now telling you all
this crap," I said. This was about all the sharing I was willing
to do right now.
* * * *
We ended up at a restaurant that was pretty nice, eating
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