Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Five years later

Sat on the edge of her bed, Kimiko couldn’t stop her brain from going into overdrive.

She had to talk to him. At this point, she just had to. Everything had gotten out of control and they needed to get around it before their week-long stay at the temple.

Thinking about that was much easier than doing anything, though.

After their last real conversation, the thought of talking to Raimundo made her insides squirm (in good and bad ways). If she wasn’t too careful, she knew she’d lose her nerve and let him get her riled up enough to say things she didn’t mean.

It’s what he always did and it always got her, even when she knew him like the back of her hand.

Then again, that came as no surprise. That had been their thing since the very beginning. Fighting like cats and dogs, as Clay would say. Even when they were on the same page.

He’d intentionally say stupid things and she always made fun of him for it. If he managed to catch her saying something half-coherent, he did the same.

Suddenly remembering that time they got into a very heated argument about some music album, Kimiko chuckled softly. Fucking asshole . He wouldn’t drop it at all. If there was anyone on this planet who was as stubborn as she was, it was him.

This time their argument was anything but silly.

Kimiko pursed her lips. She could vaguely hear her seventeen year-old self voice echo in her head and cringed. Things can be different, you know. Just go get what you want.

Things were not that easy, though. Besides, wasn’t that stubbornness and uncertainty why they were in this mess in the first place? Kimiko didn't dwell on it. Hearing the faint rustling on the bed, she looked over her shoulder to find her boyfriend, sleepily rubbing his eyes as he woke up.

Despite her conflicting emotions, she smiled. No one should look that cute just waking up.

Catching her stare, he immediately froze. “Morning. What did I do?”

“What do you mean ‘what did you do’? Don’t you know?”, she said, not smiling just yet.

He furrowed his eyebrows and opened his mouth to say something but she cut him off with a shrug and an eye roll.

“It’s nothing—I just thought you looked like an angel sleeping.”

He barely grinned. “I hope you don’t mean the angel of death or anything.”

“No, of course not”, Kimiko said, snorting. “Alright. Maybe just a little—you need a haircut because this look so does not work for you.”

He stared and, for a split second, Kimiko thought he’d actually do it.

Feeling the butterflies in her stomach frenzied and fluttering, she wanted him to tell her off. Not in the mean way, but in the playful way that meant he’d smirk and say he looked good enough for her to kiss him.

Just like that , she thought, biting her lower lip. Their spark would find its way back.

But it didn’t go the way she’d hoped. Instead, he sighed and deflated. “I probably should. You’re right.”

Of course, she was. This wasn’t Raimundo—this was Taisho. With him, Kimiko was never not right.

Anything she said was incredible and fascinating. All her words were truths and facts, even if they weren’t and he didn’t agree with them.

He’d never be angry with her either way—not if she was lying, not if she wasn’t fully there.

He just didn’t think like that, Kimiko knew. It’s not how he’s wired .

It had surprised her at first, the fact that Taisho wasn't upset at her not introducing him to her friends. He was okay when she refused to let him stay over. And he made it a point to work on his jealousy issues.

But the best part? He was not bitter about her not wanting to go public with their relationship at first.

To Kimiko, that was fascinating. None of her previous lovers were ever willing to go that far.

Some, like Masami, had been cool with going with the flow. Others, like Yoshi, didn’t like the uncertainty and seemed to think they owned her.

Blanching at the very thought of her most recent ex, Kimiko knew she should have been relieved.

On paper, Aoki Taisho was perfect . His only fault happened very early on in their relationship and he'd apologized profusely. He was a mature boyfriend who seemed to understand what she wanted. Until she discovered that he didn’t.

To him, Kimiko knew what she was because he’d always told her. You’re my goddess .

He acted accordingly, too. Pedestals and all.

Kimiko didn’t know how to describe it but the way he looked at her, either avoiding eye-contact or staring in awe, didn't sit right with her. It made her feel oddly and, well, it bored her. She started questioning that kind of love so much that she kept stalling in moving forward.

So, when Taisho asked if she wanted to be exclusive a year and a half ago, Kimiko forced herself to say yes.

Then, the milestones kept coming and they met each other’s friends and family and Taisho wedged himself deeper into her life. Kimiko learned to accept it.

Everything was fine until two months ago when he asked her to move in with him…but when she told him she needed a break, he didn’t flinch.

He didn’t even ask her what she’d done when she came back a week later with a neck covered in hickies,knowing she could easily bring up his biggest mistake. He probably should have asked, though .

After Kimiko said she needed that break, she left Taisho’s apartment, got drunk, and answered a Wu call from Dojo.

That led to the worst showdown outcome in the entire history of Xiaolin, or so Omi disappointedly told her over the phone.

It was by sheer dumb luck that her opponent was Katnappe, who became especially beatable the stronger the Dragons became. Still, Kimiko got an earful from Raimundo, who suspended her from all Xiaolin missions.

“Until you sort your shit out”, her leader said, the veins in his neck all but popping. “Don't even show up to training.”

Dramatic as always . Yet as much as she wanted to protest his decision because one mistake was just one mistake , she couldn’t.

All her leader wanted to discuss was what they did after he told her off. What they kept doing in his apartment that week.

Fuck , Kimiko thought, eyes now shut. She knew she shouldn’t have done it.

She should have had more self-control but all that she could think about was that Raimundo was overdoing it. The look of pity he gave her also irked her.

Sure, that was a fuck-up but Kimiko was not pitiable. Out of all the Dragons, she was the one who was the most put-together. She had a decent apartment, a decent job, a passion project, and had made it to the Dragon level a week after Omi.

No one should pity her, especially not Raimundo, who told her stories about his failed relationships in an effort to hide that he hadn't yet moved on from her.

If that was mean, Kimiko couldn't care less. What she did care about was the solution that could make the look of pity go away. It didn't hurt that she would also feel good.

She didn't think it through, however. Hence, the consequences that she would soon be facing at the temple.

The minute Taisho set foot in China, his rose-colored glasses would come off and he would finally see her as she was: Chaotic, loud, and highly temperamental—all things he openly disliked. He wouldn’t put up with any of it.

Forcing a smile when Taisho kissed her, Kimiko watched as he got out of bed and let her smile fade.

She grabbed for her phone and checked her emails with a sigh. Still nothing about the grant she’d applied for, which meant no news about her app.

Quickly moving to the barrage of unanswered texts, she saw it was the same old. Texts from work, from her father, from friends, and four very frantic texts from Omi.

Then, she saw one text from Raimundo.

If you don’t want to come to the temple, just tell me . A buzz later, he sent another one. Congrats on the boyfriend, by the way .

It took every ounce of self-control for Kimiko to not set her phone on fire then and there.

Still staring at his phone ten minutes later, Raimundo didn’t know how he got here.

The roller-coaster that was his life never made much sense. Yeah, you’re kind of a cautionary tale in the making , Kimiko would say. Don’t tell me you’re that surprised .

And yet, he was.

He thought he had things under control. It was hard not to think so when he landed a second, slightly more profitable job and was paying rent on time. He was also on top of his game with his temple duties.

It was his love life that was never really fixed.

Looking over his shoulder at his closed bathroom door, Raimundo could almost hear the scoffs his friends would give him.

Raimundo , he could hear Omi say, disappointed but not surprised. A coworker? You know so many sayings, but you’re not familiar with the saying ‘don’t shit where you eat’

Shutting his eyes as he leaned into the couch, Raimundo shook his head. Hooking up with his coworker wasn’t his smartest move, but it wasn’t the dumbest either.

It was simply a spur of the moment decision he’d made because he was lonely and bored.

As bits and pieces of last night came to him, he found himself thinking one thing: What would Kimiko say?

That was a question he’d had often. Raimundo looked at the photo on his phone again and sighed. Right now, for example, she would say that he needed to own up to this situation.

The sound of the bathroom door opening snapped him out of his thoughts. Raimundo cleared his throat.

“Over here.”

“Oh, okay”, came the swift, but startled reply.

A second later, Nando, dressed in a bathrobe and a smile, was on the couch next to him. “You’re up early.”

“Thought I’d get an early start.”

Not finding anything to say, Raimundo snapped his fingers. “Oh, there’s food in the fridge if you want to have breakfast.”

Nando nodded. “Good, that’s…good."

Smiling sheepishly, he added, "Uh, listen, can we talk about what happened real quick?”

At Raimundo's nod, the other man continued, “I just wanted to say that we should keep last night a one-time thing. It’s nothing personal, but we work together so things can get…iffy.”

A pause. “Also, I kind of have a boyfriend. We’re fighting at the moment, but we’re still—”

“Interesting”, Raimundo said, tilting his head.

Although they were on the same page, he was offended. The second time this month, he thought. How did this keep happening to him?

The warrior shrugged. “But that didn’t come up at all. What? You enjoyed yourself that much.”

“I should have mentioned it”, Nando tried again. “That’s my mistake, but it’s not like I thought something was going to happen. We were just hanging out.”

“But something did…and it can happen again.” A smirk. “I think if I told you to bend over again, you’d ask me how far.”

“...On a second thought, breakfast sounds good.”

As soon as Nando left, the warrior sighed and shut his eyes. He was doing it again, wasn’t he?

This whole ‘I was going to say no, but why would you? ’ bit was the last thing he needed. But he couldn’t hold his tongue.

It added a worse element to his current biggest problem: Breaking out the ‘ I love you’ s too early but not always meaning them. Usually, they translated to ‘ I love how you make me feel about myself ’.

Raimundo didn’t need anyone to tell him that that wasn’t good. He already knew it was selfish , but that was the only way he knew how to get the people he dated to stay. He was not above saying and unsaying whatever he needed if it meant not being alone.

This habit was also why several of his siblings, particularly Maria Luisa kept suggesting the obvious—therapy.

Raimundo thought it was unnecessary, though. Being an asshole was a personality flaw, but it didn't mean he needed the help.

That was half a lie, though.

Part of the reason Raimundo didn’t want therapy was that he didn’t want to know anything. Nearly dying and witnessing the apocalypse every other month didn’t bode well for him.

His friends would have agreed with his siblings, though. They would even bring up his odd habit of quitting jobs on a whim. Omi and Clay would definitely bring up his recent failed strategies.

Unsurprisingly, Raimundo had a feeling Kimiko would be his only ally. I get it , she would say. You’re bored . To her, that was normal and—

No, nope, don’t do that , Raimundo thought, now pressing his hands to his face. If he was agreeing with Kimiko, who was clearly going through something , maybe he did need the help after all.

Thinking about her made him think about what happened two months earlier. He couldn’t help but to want to know how they’d gotten there.

That morning, Raimundo wasn’t even supposed to see her. He had plans. Then, Dojo called.

“What do you mean she didn’t sound good?”

“ I don’t know, kid. She was talking just fine but her voice was weird. Like she has a cold .”

While a sick Dragon stubbornly trying to go on a mission wasn’t unheard of, Raimundo had a feeling that this wasn’t it. By the time he’d gotten to Kimiko’s location, he discovered that she was just drunk.

She had lost the showdown, the new Wu, and the Wu she had on her to Katnappe. As much as he was happy she was uninjured, he still went off on her.

Her response was a smile, then a few unsteady steps. To that, he rolled his eyes and opened up a portal to his apartment with the Claws.

Once there, Raimundo made Kimiko a coffee to sober up. Then, he made her another one for good measure. When she seemed sober enough, the Fire Dragon gave him a sheepish smile.

“I’m really sorry I lost the Wu.” Her gaze moved from the couch to the table to him, leaning his back against a wall. “New place?”

“Yeah. This one’s closer to the heart of town”, Raimundo said, furrowing his eyebrows as she took a few determined steps toward him.

They were nose-to-nose when he added, “Girl, have you heard of personal space? Still drunk?”

“Oh, I’m not drunk”, Kimiko said, chuckling. “But I did want to thank you. I probably would have passed out in that forest if you didn’t show up so…thank you.”

“Well, you said it so—”

That was when she dropped to her knees. “I can show it too.”

When she reached for his pants, Raimundo did not try to stop her. In fact, he helped and didn’t mind at all when she wanted to go to his bedroom. T he next morning, he woke up and expected to see her gone but she was in the kitchen, burning an omelet.

Kimiko didn’t leave that night either. She was still there the next night and the one after and he didn’t dare ask why. It felt good having her around again.

She was the one person he could talk to and not feel like an idiot, even when he was. When she smiled at him, he wanted nothing more for that smile to stay on him.

For a few days, everything was perfect.

One random Tuesday, though, Raimundo woke up to find her side of the bed empty. He hadn’t heard from Kimiko since.

It was a sucker-punch. For that one week, he thought maybe she wanted him back. Maybe she’d remembered that it had been five years, like they said before.

I must have done something , was his only explanation. Something he said or did must have set her off and he needed to fix it.

So, he called Omi.

“You’re sure Kim’s still going to the temple next week?”, he asked, laying on the casualness thick.

On the other end of the line, Omi was ticked off.

“Why would she change her mind? We all took time off from work for this. Just because you’re jobless—”

“I have two jobs!”

“And neither one of them sounds real, so you’re jobless to me.”

Omi sighed, adding. “Anyway, she is coming. You better be there because I will need someone to discuss her boyfriend with. Clay is apparently ‘trying not to gossip’.”

“Boyfriend?”, Raimundo repeated, unsure if he’d heard correctly. “She met someone new already?”

“He’s only new to us. Kimiko has been with him for a while—more than a year, I think.”

He paused. "Oh...you didn't know?"

“I guess I wasn't paying attention” A pause. “Good for her.”

Now, in the present, Raimundo shifted in his seat. Nando was still in that kitchen. The more he thought about him in that bathrobe, the more he vividly remembered last night.

Maybe an encore wouldn’t hurt . He could surely use the kisses now. Maybe, just maybe, he would stop thinking about that picture on his phone too.

The first time Taisho saw a photo of Raimundo, it was on accident.

Sure, it was a stupid accident Kimiko could not believe she let happen but it did. Even though they agreed the day before that Taisho would stay over, she still forgot to clear her apartment of everything Xiaolin-related.

Kimiko had thought about how it was weird that the cleaning process only took her an hour this time, but it wasn’t like she hadn’t rechecked.

Shen Gong Wu in the storage box under her bed? Check. Xiaolin and ceremonial robes neatly pressed in a garment bag? Check.

History scrolls hidden among old college books? Check. All the pictures of her friends and old trinkets stuffed in her closet? Triple check!

And yet, she must have forgotten something so she went over the list again. And again. And a fourth time, but she only realized what she forgot too late.

Walking out of the kitchen with two steaming mugs of coffee, Kimiko saw the old photo in Taisho’s hand.

For a second, she couldn’t process what her boyfriend was really looking at because she always made sure that out of all the Xiaolin stuff, her photos were especially well hidden. If those photos featured Raimundo, then she took extra care in hiding them.

Not enough, apparently . “Hey, what are you looking at?”

“Oh, just this photo. You always say you’re trying to read this novel, so I wanted to see if you made progress and it just….fell out”, Taisho said, raising an eyebrow. “Who are these people?”

Taking her seat next to him, Kimiko bit her lip.

There was no way she could answer that. ‘Friends’ was an understatement because they were a lot more than that to her.

At this point, the bond they’d shared was literally one of a kind—a nameless kind that meant more than words could describe.

But Taisho was expecting words, so she took a look at the photo he’d been holding—the one of her, Omi, Clay, and Raimundo with their faces smeared with Omi’s thirteenth birthday cake—and shrugged.

“Those are my friends”, she said, trying to not scratch her throat at the lie. After nearly dying together half a hundred times, ‘friends' barely scratched the surface.

Seeing her boyfriend’s predictable confusion, Kimiko feigned surprise. “From the Xiaolin Temple. You’ll see them next week when we go there.”

“Wow”, Taisho said, eyebrows soaring. “You’re a Tohomiko, as in the actual Videogame Tohomikos and you also lived in a Chinese monastery ."

He grinned."Do you get cooler by the second?”

“Guess so”, she said, smirking. It did sound pretty cool the way he put it. “I spent all my teenage years there, up until I left for college anyway.”

“It looks like it was a really, uh, international temple”, he said, carefully choosing his words. “Your friends seem interesting.”

That did not do them justice. “You don’t know half of it."

Biting her lips, she added,"See the one with the cowboy hat? That’s Clay. He’s from America and, like, that’s not a costume. He’s an actual cowboy.”

“I had no idea cowboys still existed”, Taisho said. “Does he live on a farm or is it bad for me to assume…?”

“No, he does, but it’s actually a ranch. We used to make fun of it sometimes and he hated it, but he’s pretty cool. And the ranch itself is cool, too.”

A pause. “The cows are cool and the chickens are…. evil .”

Smiling at her boyfriend’s chuckle, she added, “Oh, and that’s Omi. He’s an orphan so he actually grew up at the temple full-time. We all flew in and he was already there. He’s a little shit and he’s too fucking nosy but I love him.”

Taisho took another look at the photo, raising a confused eyebrow that seemed appropriate at the odd combination of pink frosting and cake clumps against the red and white robes.

Then, he pointed. “Who’s this? The last boy?”

Of course. Throat tightening, Kimiko tried to feign casualness. “That’s Raimundo. He’s from Brazil.”

Nodding, Taisho waited for her to continue but no words came. After two more silent seconds, he laughed. “That’s…concise.”

“I don’t know how to describe him, uh, he’s a character ”, Kimiko said, forcing a laugh.

Of all the photos she’d had of them together, she hadn’t expected that photo to have her at a loss for words. That group photo, of all things?

There were other photos that could have had that effect on her. Like the one she’d taken of Raimundo at that tattoo parlor years ago.

He’d insisted on holding her camera-free hand and kissing it, while he got his first tattoo done. I’m not scared, Kim, I just want to remember that you were here with me .

He was scared, though, and Kimiko knew it. As she smiled at that memory, others came rushing back and she blinked them away. Not the time, not the time .

“How would you describe him at the first impression?”, she asked. “Like, I know it’s just a photo but…?”

“Honestly? He looks annoying”, Taisho said, sheepishly smiling. “No offense, I know he’s your friend and everything but that’s the vibe I get. I don’t think we’ll get along.”

Kimiko shrugged. It’s not like that was a lie. “You’re not wrong. He’s an asshole, like he’s nice but he’s also an asshole, if it makes sense.”

A pause. “I can’t believe this is the first time I’m telling you about my friends. I should have mentioned them sooner.”

Although the words weighed on her tongue, Kimiko forced a smile. She wanted to bring up her friends and her Xiaolin life many times, but Taisho had been so impressed by her family name that part of her thought he wasn’t genuine.

Oblivious, Taisho looked at the photo again. “It’s pretty bizarre but I actually think I recognize these guys.”

Breathing slowly, Kimiko raised a questioning eyebrow. She hoped for all their sakes that they weren’t seen on any news channel.

“Really? How do you recognize them?”

“You…have photos with them online, right?”, Taisho said, confusedly. “Last week, you were at this guy’s place for a party. Doesn’t he live in Tokyo?”

Looking at Clay’s face as her boyfriend’s finger hovered over it, Kimiko shrugged. The lie that came out was effortless.

“No, he lives in America, but he was visiting a relative here so we caught up.”

When Taisho nodded and went back to looking at the photo with a renewed interest, she deflated as discreetly as possible . Thank Dashi , he wouldn’t know a lie if it hit him in the face. Wouldn’t even call me out on it if he knew .

The one thing that might rile Taisho beyond reasonable doubt, however, was something that made him look stupid. So, she had to tell him.

Chewing her lower lip, Kimiko cleared her throat. “There's something you need to know before we go to the temple.”

At his curious stare, Kimiko sighed and snapped her fingers. He froze, open-mouthed staring at the fire atop her fingertips. A short explanation about the Xiaolin world later and her boyfriend, still shocked, grew more accepting.

“I can see why you’d hide that. All your duties—it must be overwhelming”, Taisho said, nodding. “Is there anything else you want to tell me?”

Just one thing; I slept with someone el — “No.”

As someone who prided himself on his manners, Clay tried to be polite. He truly did but Kimiko’s new boyfriend had already made the same comment about four times.

Now, the cowboy warily thought. He was going for a fifth.

“It’s just…this place is so beautiful”, Taisho said, looking around the courtyard for the umpteenth time. “All those photos and outdated videos truly don’t do it justice.”

As if rehearsed, he smiled at his girlfriend and rephrased the other half of the comment. “I just can’t picture you here at all! As a teenager too? I imagine you were a handful.”

“No more than the rest of us”, Omi said, masking his annoyance with a tight smile. “Actually, she was the only one who’s never triggered an apocalypse before.”

Taisho was speechless. “I see.” A pause. “Uh, so how do you get to Dengfeng from here? Do you take the bus?”

“Shen Gong Wu, babe”, Kimiko reminded him, with a ‘come on ’ look. “Like the one we came in, remember? We can go anywhere with those. Also, the temple has a car we use sometimes.”

“That’s cool”, her boyfriend said.

Directing his smile at Omi, he added, “We came with the Silver Manta Ray. What did you take?”

“Oh, I took the Longi Kite to Clay’s place”, Omi said, blinking. “Then we took the Crouching Cougar to get here. It’s much more efficient than a plane, but it still takes more time than other Wu. Like the Golden Tiger Claws.”

Pausing, he groaned. “Speaking of that, where in the name of Grandmaster Dashi is he?”

“Later, babe,” Kimiko said, shutting her boyfriend up before he could ask about the expression. “So, uh, Rai told you he’s coming?”

“Of course, he is”, Omi said, narrowing his eyes. “Why does everyone ask me about this?”

“Rai will be here in a sec”, Clay said, good-naturedly. “I texted him a while ago and he said he’s on his way.”

“So, he’s in the shower?”, Kimiko said, sarcastically.

Snorting, Omi added, “Or, he’s still packing.”

“Y’all are both wrong”, the cowboy said, pointing in the distance.

As the other three turned, they saw the same sight. Raimundo, carrying a duffel bag and an easy smile as he walked toward them in the courtyard. Waving, Clay snuck a glance at his companions: Omi was making a show of checking his watch, while Taisho’s smile had significantly diminished.

The second thing happened because Kimiko lightly jogged instead of waiting. As soon as she reached Raimundo, she hugged him.

Raising his eyebrows, Clay snuck Taisho another look and saw that his mouth was a line.

He had no problem seeing Kimiko jump into Clay’s arms to greet him. He didn’t mind her littering kisses all over Omi’s face. Yet to him, this crossed a line.

Understandable , the cowboy thought when he looked back at the hugging pair again. That hug seemed way too intimate by a half. Kimiko melting into the hug, head buried against Raimundo’s chest, made Taisho’s frown deepen.

When the latter’s eyes met Clay’s, the cowboy sheepishly smiled. “Actin’ like they ain’t met since the war."

A pause. He cleared his throat. “C’mon, y’all, don’t be rude!”

Breaking the hug, Kimiko turned and stuck her tongue out. “I’ll hog him as long as I fucking want!”

Smiling too, Raimundo finally dropped his arms, releasing Kimiko to greet the guys with hugs.

Then, he faced Taisho with a friendly smile and extended a hand forward.

“Raimundo. You’re Taisho, right?”

“I am”, Taisho said, forcing a friendly smile. “Nice to meet you.”

“Nice catch, Kim”, Raimundo teased.

As he turned his gaze to Taisho again, his smile took on a knowing edge. “Just what did you see in our girl here?”

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph , Clay thought, sighing in exasperation. That was going to be a very long week, wasn’t it?

Unfortunately, Clay was right. He’d confirmed his suspicions about this now-very-tense week at midday, when he followed his friends around the temple as Kimiko led her boyfriend on the Xiaolin temple tour.

It was as boring as it sounded.

“—and this is where Clay started freaking out because he was convinced he was an ice-cream sandwich and insisted we put him in the fridge.”

Maybe not boring enough . Clay rolled his eyes and nudged Taisho. “Never took acid again after that one. Real bad trip.”

Despite the cowboy’s attempt at being friendly, Taisho did not smile. He nodded, unhearing but trying to be polite.

His own smile dropping, Clay shut his yap.

The least he could do to spice up Taisho’s tour was giving him a few pointers on how LSD interacted with the human brain. His friend’s boyfriend wasn’t interested, though.

Clay couldn’t blame him. Kimiko’s story time jogged his memory and, sure, that ice-cream bit was hilarious. Hallucinating the end of the world via the ultimate Heylin apocalypse? Not so much.

Sighing, Clay snuck the boyfriend a look. Taisho’s glassy-eyed demeanor said that he’d stopped paying attention ages ago.

Doing a double take at Taisho, Clay saw that he was now paying attention. When he looked back at Kimiko, the cowboy knew why.

She was looking at Raimundo, who laughed before he interrupted.

“—she was so fucking high”, Raimundo was saying. “She kept telling the Fungster that the peacock was her cousin Hideko!”

“The weed was your idea”, Kimiko said, slapping him on the arm with a smile. “And that peacock did look a little like Hideko, don’t lie—”

He definitely suspects something , Clay knew, sneaking another look at the boyfriend. If the cowboy could tell something was going on, Taisho definitely knew too.

Then again, no one needed to be an Einstein to figure out their significant other was mentally undressing someone else right in front of them.

Guiltily, Clay looked away from the impending train-wreck. A month ago, Kimiko told him about her boyfriend and the cowboy had been genuinely happy for her.

Then, he remembered the frantic 2 AM call he’d gotten from Raimundo a couple of months before.

His voice was ten shades of euphoric. “I’m getting her back, Clay. She was here— she came to me …I’m really getting her back.”

Something was up with Kimiko, clearly, but Clay had no way of confirming that yet.

Still, he worried about her. The situation she was in right now was surely leading to something unpleasant.

Someone was getting hurt. Again.

Kimiko barely remembered that her boyfriend was not just a figment of a Japanese mom’s imagination until he stumbled over his words the first time he met Master Fung and Dojo.

Somehow, that interaction made her realize he was cute.

Yes, cute. It surprised her, the fact that she hadn’t thought about him like that since she’d stepped foot in the temple. That she hadn’t been thinking about her boyfriend in any way, pleasant or otherwise.

But she wasn’t wrong. Taisho was just that cute that day. He littered his sentences with ‘sirs’ and ‘misters’, bowing his head every time he spoke with the older adults, and tried not to freak out when seeing that Dojo was an actual dragon.

It was so endearing, it sent Kimiko back in time to the day they first met. When he was reading in a coffee shop, she was intrigued by how much he didn’t mind rambling about what he read for hours.

Seeing a glimpse of that old Taisho drew an instinctive reaction from Kimiko.

“Oh my god”, she said, in English, basically cooing. “That was so cute , I love you!”

They all heard, of course. Not only was Kimiko loud; that was also the moment all conversations died down. For a couple of seconds, the room was deathly silent. A second later, though, the chatter returned but Kimiko avoided everyone’s eyes.

Instead she focused on Dojo. “So, you’re back early from your trip to Dragon Island. Wasn’t it fun? Were your elders in a mood?”

Dojo playfully scoffed. “It’s called a pilgrimage , Kimiko. I was not gambling in Macau!”

But that wasn’t the only thing Dojo said to her.

Later that day, when it was just the two of them in the tea room, the dragon gave her a disappointed sigh.

“That Taisho is a nice kid, you know that, Kimiko?”

She barely held back that eye roll. “I do, Dojo. Obviously , I have good taste.”

“Everyone else seems to think so too, you know”, the ancient dragon said, giving her a look. “Clay said he’s a good conversationalist and that he’s a little funny. And Omi…Omi did not insult him right away.”

“Giving out the gold medals already”, Kimiko joked.

“Wen thinks he’s promising”, Dojo said, ignoring her joke. “I do too. Raimundo also said he thinks Taisho is good for you.”

That didn’t feel as good as it should have. Just like that, her good mood vanished. “That’s good. I’m glad they all like him.”

“Exactly, so you shouldn’t do that thing humans do.”

“What thing?”

“You know”, Dojo said, gesturing aimlessly with his claws. “That thing where you think talking is ‘too scary’ so you ignore situations for too long and eventually hurt the people around you.”

A pause. “I hated when Dashi did that.”

Kimiko avoided his eyes. “Oh, you mean that thing.”

A pause. “I wouldn’t do that anyway. Everything’s fine.”

“No, it’s not.” A pause. “Kimiko, I may not be a human and I may not get your ‘experience’ but I can read your feelings. Something’s wrong.”

“...I’m trying to work on it. Believe me”, she began. “It’s just super hard, you know?”

“I know”, Dojo said, smiling sympathetically. “And that’s why I’m here. In case you want to talk about the difficult things.”

Kimiko smiled. Then, she frowned. “Wait. When you say you can read what we’re feeling, are you talking about all feelings?”

“Oh yes”, the ancient dragon said, exasperatedly. “Trust me, I wish I could unread half of it!”

It seemed like Master Fung and Dojo had finally agreed on something without any initial squabbling.

That ‘something’, sadly, was Kimiko and her situation. Even if their approaches differed.

See, instead of tracking her down for a one-on-one conversation, Master Fung actually summoned Kimiko to his room for a chat.

With a pleasant smile, the old teacher decided to be even more cryptic.

“If small holes aren’t fixed, then big holes will bring hardship.”

“…Okay?”

But Master Fung didn’t stop there. The second day at the temple, she woke up early enough to catch him at breakfast before his morning hike. He had a confusing saying ready.

“As you know, of course, a bad beginning makes a bad ending.”

Later that same afternoon, after his hike and activities, Master Fung changed his tone. He sounded exasperated.

“Punishing those who come before stops those who come after from acting.”

A pause. “With truth on your side, you can go anywhere. Without it, you can’t take a tiny step.”

Kimiko was fed up. “Master Fung, can you please tell me what you want to say? Just once, no cryptic little sayings. What is it?”

“Okay”, Master Fung said. This time, he was completely transparent. “You reap what you sow, so you better sow what you seek.”

As he looked away, Kimiko followed the old man’s line of sight to the kitchen doorway.

Inside, she could see Taisho at the kitchen table, listening to Omi ramble. Next to him, Raimundo sat. From the delicious smell, she could tell that Clay, out of view, was making his ‘special’ omelets. Looking at her boyfriend again, Kimiko blinked.

They were two days in their week at the temple, but she’d barely seen the man she was sharing her sleeping mat with.

Not like that was her fault. She’d been busy playing translator with Master Fung, whose words sounded rather harsh now.

“I’m not…I’m not sowing anything”, she said.

Master Fung raised a surprised eyebrow, but didn’t say anything else. Just like that, he left her standing there, at the kitchen’s doorway.

There wasn’t much that Raimundo regretted nowadays, but he was damned if he regretted not changing his mind and staying in Rio instead.

Being at the temple right now was an exercise in patience.

See, if he wasn’t getting caught in nostalgia, he was facing the very real threat of popping a vein because Kimiko kept trying to catch him in a moment alone. According to her, 'they needed to talk. '

Raimundo just wasn’t interested.

Even though he wanted to talk at first, he already knew what she would say about their week. It was a mistake . He wasn’t interested in hearing what he’d known wasn’t true. 

“—so, we’ll just go and get takeout, okay?”, Kimiko was saying, pointing her index finger at Clay’s resigned face. “No sudden stops at the bookstore or I swear to fucking hell—”

“You don’t have to”, Clay said, sighing. “Kim, I told ya I’m just as tired as you are. We won’t stop nowhere!”

Regret , Raimundo thought, watching Kimiko wave as she and Clay headed out of the temple gates. How funny was that word? Speaking of funny, it was at that ill-timed moment that he caught Taisho staring at him. No, glaring . That might have been the right word.

Instead of asking him what his problem was, Raimundo smirked. He was that bored.

This was gonna be good . “Wanna hang out?”

“Uh…sure?”

Fifteen minutes later, they were deep into the temple’s woods with nothing but a six-pack and nature. A perfect combination for extreme chaos that Raimundo suddenly felt like he wanted.

But there was just one thing missing… “Tell me a secret.”

“Excuse me?”, Taisho confusedly asked. This wasn’t what he’d been expecting to hear because his shoulders slumped. “A secret?”

“Yeah, you know those, right?”, Raimundo said, smile growing. It was tricky, walking this balance between sincerity and playfulness. “Do you have any secrets, Taisho?”

Taisho tried not to sound insulted. “ Of course , I have secrets. I just…”

A pause. “Why should I tell you?”

Shrugging, Raimundo turned to face the endless greenery. Any minute now .

He didn’t have to guess—he knew Taisho was going to give him something eventually. Maybe it was because he was a chatty person, but ever since he was a kid, Raimundo knew he could get anyone to talk to him and reveal things they didn’t want. Mostly because people liked to talk about themselves.

Biting his lower lip, Taisho focused on a single tree in front of him like it was a door to the past.

Raimundo sighed. With the way the other man was standing and the way his fists were clenched, he could tell he was intimidated.

Just what the hell did Kimiko tell him about me , Raimundo found himself wondering. He was only broken out of his thoughts with a long sigh.

“I guess, if I have to share a secret then…I’m worried”, Taisho began, twiddling his thumbs. “About me and Kimiko.”

After seeing her shrug her boyfriend’s arm off last night, acting surprised had never been so hard.

“Really?”

“Yeah”, the other man said, uneasily. “She's been kind of… distant lately. It's making me question a lot of things."

“Don’t say that”, Raimundo said, successfully biting down his smile. “Just out of curiosity, when did this start?"

"Around two or three months ago. Why?"

"No reason, but it's predictable. She was on a real shit mission around that time."

He paused. "She was in a bad way when I found her. I had to take her to my place and—"

"Your place?" Taisho blinked. "She went home with you?"

"Stayed a week", Raimundo confirmed. “To recover. Like I said, she was in a bad way.”

A mix of surprise and contempt soon crossed the other man’s eyes so he sighed and pretended to be apologetic. “I’m so sorry; I thought she must have told you something.”

A pause. “You should talk it out with her. Don’t make assumptions just because you’re worried or insecure.”

“I’m not insecure”, Taisho defensively retorted. Breathing out, he calmed himself down. “Sorry, I just…I don’t like it when people call me that.”

“I get it.” Raimundo gave him a look. “So, that’s the only problem? You feel like she’s been distant?”

“Yes, but also it feels like there’s still a lot that I don’t know about her”,  Taisho said. “We’ve been together for almost two years, so that feels wrong.”

Biting the inside of his cheek, he gave him a look. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Were you two…were you and her ever…” A pause. “You know what I’m asking, right?”

Raimundo did. He wasn’t sure how he should answer, though. A part of him wanted to say yes and double-down on how long they’d been together.

The other part, however, knew that if Kimiko barely mentioned her boyfriend to any of them, then she probably didn’t tell Taisho they dated. She wouldn’t be happy with him, if he let it slip.

“We’re good friends.” The warrior shrugged. “People have said that makes it feel like we’re weirdly close.”

“But you two have…slept together, right?” He sighed, shutting his eyes. “It’s really fine if you have. I wouldn’t have the right to be upset because I didn’t know Kimiko back then but…”

A pause. “She doesn’t tell me anything. Everything is a puzzle and every time I think I got somewhere, there’s always more pieces. It’s like she’s scared of me or something.”

No , Raimundo thought. Not of you . What scared Kimiko was something that only seemed big to her. But it wasn’t his place to comment on it anymore. He shrugged.

“I’d be a liar if I said nothing never happened”, Raimundo answered, as vaguely as possible. “But clearly we're not together now. Lucky for you, huh?”

Taisho smiled, friendly-like, and nodded, more to himself than to the other guy. Taking a swig from his bottle, his stance relaxed. “I am pretty lucky to be with her.”

Clenching his jaw, Raimundo looked back at the trees. The last time he had been this deep in these woods was years ago with Kimiko. Now, he was here with her boyfriend, whom he was trying to get dirt on. A bad habit he'd tried and failed to get rid off after she'd told him off so many times.

Life was pretty ironic that way and he’d accepted it. He couldn’t Taisho being that open about his luck, though.

Of course, he got lucky , Raimundo couldn’t help but think. This was a guy that Kimiko deemed good enough to be her boyfriend, not just a random hookup. She even brought him to the temple.

Taisho cleared his throat. “So, why is she following you around? I don’t mean to pry but I’m curious.”

“You’re not prying at all, man”, Raimundo lied. So, Kimiko’s been that obvious? “Let’s just say you’re not the only one with a secret. Kim’s just trying to get it out of me.”

“Can I know the secret then? I promise I won’t tell her.” A pause. “I told you mine.”

“Okay, my secret is”, Raimundo began. Remembering the photo on his phone, he sighed. “I’ve got some news and my whole life is about to change.”

Taisho nodded. “I see.” A pause. “That’s a bit of a cop-out, though. I told you something huge .”

Raimundo wished he didn’t say that. The only other thing he had up his sleeve wasn’t something Taisho would want to hear and he knew it. Pity. He was starting to like the guy, too. In fact, he didn't just like him; he pitied him. Everything Taisho said and Kimiko did screamed that Kimiko no longer had her heart set on the relationship.

For some reason, both she and her boyfriend deluded themselves into thinking otherwise. Still, that didn't mean that Raimundo's secret wasn't going to ruffle a few feathers.

“Alright", Raimundo began, "So, recently, I’ve been a part of an affair.”

It was a tad insulting that Taisho wasn’t as shocked. “You cheated on someone…or, uh, someone cheated on you?”

“Neither. I was the guy she cheated with.”

Smile fading, Taisho responded with a still face and steely eyes. Everything about the way he stood to the way he clenched that bottle told Raimundo that he was rethinking every word exchanged between them.

Still, the Wind Dragon continued, “I knew it was wrong but that’s the kind of thing that makes you forget all about common sense.”

A pause. "She was, like, blindingly hot. Persistent, too. Has a mouth like a—"

“Sorry, I don’t mean to be judgmental.” Lie . “But why did she even get with you? Do you know?”

Raimundo shrugged. “She and her boyfriend were having problems. And she was the one who started and ended it. He still doesn’t know.”

“Oh”, Taisho said. “The boyfriend—do you know him?”

“We’re actually becoming really good friends”, Raimundo said, avoiding the other man’s eyes.

Shifting in place, he added, “I’m not sure if I should tell him, though. Like, if something like that happened to you , would you want to know?”

“Not really, no.”

“Fair enough”, Raimundo said, looking back at the trees. He tried for a smile. “So, did you ever—”

“We’re going to start living together next month. Kimiko and I”, Taisho said, cutting him off.

He licked his lips, seemingly eager to prove something. “Did she tell you that?”

Raimundo’s smile dropped. “You are?” Then, it came back again. “That’s good news. Weird, she didn’t say anything about it.”

“She likes to take her time with things and I’m cool with waiting for her.”

Makes two of us , the warrior thought. Having said what he said, Taisho’s guard had risen up considerably, so he cleared his throat.

“Her name’s Andrina, by the way. The woman from the affair.” A pause. “She’s the same woman who gave me the life-altering news I told you about.”

“That sounds terrible”, Taisho said, slightly more sympathetic.

With a heavy breath, he looked around again. “Nature is great and everything but what do you around here for fun?”

Raimundo shrugged. “Wanna play some FIFA?”

The worst thing about what Master Fung said to Kimiko was that he was right.

She sure was sowing something. Only she didn’t know what it was and what she’d hoped would happen.

Bringing Taisho here had been a mistake. She should have been more prepared and maybe let him in on the Xiaolin aspects of her world little by little. She couldn’t just pluck him out of his day-to-day Tokyo life and expect him to roll with it. Especially because he was becoming kind of annoying.

The more Taisho learned, the more questions he had for her. The second night of their stay at the temple, he ended his questions with one of his own.

“So…do you have any thoughts on moving in yet? We’ll need to put in a deposit by next week if we want that apartment I showed you.”

To that, Kimiko truthfully said she was still thinking about it. When Taisho told her to take all the time she needed, she kissed him and things escalated until the night ended on a predictable note.

Lying next to him on the sleeping mat, she relaxed her shoulders and listened to the crickets outside the guest room’s window.

About a minute or so later, the crickets’ noises were mixed by a familiar voice and an unfamiliar language. Raimundo , Kimiko thought. Probably making a call because it was the morning in Brazil. Shutting her eyes, she listened in and tried to keep the knot in her stomach from tightening.

In the Silver Manta Ray ride from Tokyo to the temple, Kimiko thought it would be easy to introduce Taisho to Master Fung and Dojo and the boys. She’d been there before with different exes.

The only reason it was this difficult was that Kimiko couldn’t talk to Raimundo after what happened between them a couple of months ago. He had no idea she had a boyfriend and she had no idea what he would think.

It was why she ran to him after he arrived at the courtyard yesterday. To tell him about Taisho and to warn him about keeping silent. But the second she was in front of him, it felt like the air was sucked out of her.

Seeing Raimundo again after a period of Xiaolin inactivity felt good. He smelled good, too, and it reminded Kimiko what happened the last time she was with him alone. This time, she only hugged him.

She didn’t stop until Clay joked about it and, by then, she lost her chance to talk to him.

Apparently, that was her only chance too because Raimundo tried to not be around her outside of group settings. Whenever they were alone, he avoided serious topics. In fact, Kimiko barely got a word in.

She thought it made sense. He’s hurt, so he's won’t talk. Undeterred, she began the next day with some friendly gossip. “So what do you think?”

Omi shrugged, taking a bite of his rice cake. “I think you have to tell us more so we can say what we think.”

A pause. “Rai, what do you think?”

“Can I just ask”, Raimundo said. “How much does Keiko mention that neighbor guy?”

“A lot”, Kimiko said, scoffing. “She literally doesn’t stop complaining about him. It’s annoying.”

He gestured with his hand. “That settles it. She should date him.”

“But isn’t that a little rash?”, she asked, raising an eyebrow. “What about Akira? She likes him more.”

“More?”, Raimundo repeated, smirking and sending the butterflies in Kimiko’s stomach into a frenzy. “Are you sure?”

Omi gave her an unimpressed look. “Kimiko, are you saying that because you’re looking out for your friend or because Akira’s your cousin?”

“A little bit of both”, Kimiko said, allowing a small smile. “That whole three-way situation she’s got herself in—”

Omi snickered. “That’s so not what a three—”

“ Anyway ”, she said, glaring. “It just confuses me because, like…isn’t the choice obvious here?”

Raimundo clicked his tongue. “If it was, would you ask us? Keiko’s an adult. She should choose for herself, but she clearly likes the neighbor more.”

“The neighbor? Keiko’s always saying he’s such a douchebag!”

“So?”, Omi said, narrowing his eyes. “Everyone’s been attracted to an asshole at least once .”

“Guys, I don’t think you get it”, Kimiko said, shaking her head firmly. “The way she talks about him says there’s zero attraction there. Honestly, I think she might hate him.”

Raimundo gave her a look. “Or maybe all the sexual tension makes it feel like that…but you know about that as much as I do, don’t you?”

Staring directly into her eyes now, he smirked. “When that kind of tension is there, it's all you can do to keep your hands off the other person. Used to be like that all the time with one of my exes.”

In hindsight, it was good that Kimiko started this conversation with Omi in the room. The way her youngest teammate’s head swiveled back and forth between her and Raimundo made her focus on something other than heart hammering in her chest.

Raimundo innocently smiled. “I told you guys about João, didn’t I?”

Sneaking a look at Omi, now extremely engrossed in his rice cakes, Kimiko made sure to not look behind her and tightly smiled. “Keiko’s not like that. When she doesn’t like someone, she just doesn’t.”

“We’ll see”, Raimundo said, shrugging. “If your friend doesn’t ‘disappear’ for a week and come back with a limp, I’ll let you win at sparring.”

Despite herself, she laughed. “Let me win? As if !”

Shooting Omi a knowing smile, Kimiko finally looked over her shoulder to share the same smile with Taisho. She didn’t get a smile back. Instead she saw him continue staring ahead, eyes burning holes into her skull.

Instantly, her good mood vanished.

This was the thing she’d hated about Taisho the most. She appreciated a healthy degree of jealousy, but right now it was a nuisance.

Unfortunately, Raimundo picked up on that and talked more. Usually, Kimiko had no problem hearing his stories or the way he remembered things. In spite of his embellishments, she truly enjoyed the way he talked. He’d had a gift for making every detail seem more magnetic than the last.

Sadly, that meant that Raimundo made those stories memorable.

“—but what does it mean?”, Taisho asked, once they were in their guest room that night. “That whole ‘extra security at the vault’ thing he mentioned? It sounded serious.”

It wasn’t. When Kimiko and Raimundo came up with that code, they felt like geniuses for duping the monks watching them like hawks.

Really, that code meant ‘ come here so I can kiss the lips off you’ .

Opening the door for that memory was a bad move, though. It made Kimiko remember other things. Like the way Raimundo kissed her, for example. Urgent and demanding, pulling her in.

Soon enough, these thoughts leaked into the room she and Taisho shared.

“You’re not doing it right”, she said, huffing as she pushed him off her. “That’s…just wrong.”

Taisho was confused. “But I always kiss you like this.”

“No”, Kimiko said. But he does . It was weird; Taisho was mostly a good kisser. Right now, his kisses were tinged with desperation and not in a good way.

“Do it again”, Kimiko said, breathing out her negativity. “Just…try something different.”

Nodding, Taisho did as he was told and hesitated a second before leaning in again. His hands twitched slightly as he held her face and every kiss felt like an apology.

Like he’s making it up to me , she thought. That he’s not — “No, that’s not going to work.”

“Well”, Taisho said, an edge to his tone now. “Can you tell me what I’m doing wrong then? Or do you just want to point out that I suck ?”

“We’re not fighting about this”, Kimiko said, sighing. “You kiss me like you’re afraid I’ll bite you or something. Don’t do it like that.”

So, Taisho didn’t. He didn’t do anything at all. He just stopped kissing her.

Kimiko didn’t want to know what bothered her more. Her relief at him not kissing her or how he used his free time to hang out with Raimundo, who welcomed the company.

She soon discovered that what she hated most was that Raimundo used that weird friendship to run his mouth even more. Naturally, that led to Taisho asking more questions.

One of the worst questions was this:

Where did you go when you disappeared that week , her boyfriend asked. Apparently, you were in a mission that didn’t end well . Why didn’t you tell me if you were okay?

After the rounds of incessant questioning and the suspicious gazes, Kimiko had had enough.

She and Raimundo were going to talk, his discomfort be damned. 

Omi was done with the idea of Kimiko’s boyfriend winning him over before it even happened. And yet, here he was. Being interrupted on a calm morning trek through the woods with that same boyfriend and his earnest smile.

The one thing stopping the Water Dragon from being rude was the fact that Kimiko made him promise to be nice to Taisho.

So, now Omi had to smile back. “It’s very nice of you to join me in this walk, Taisho. I really needed company.”

“Oh, you’re very welcome”, Taisho said. “So, Kimiko told me you’re a photographer.”

Awkwardly, he added, “Uh, so…what’s your specialty? Landscapes? Fashion? Uh, portraits?”

Shrugging off his memories of the frustrated advisors telling him he had to pick a specialty, Omi exaggerated a smile. “A little bit of everything.” He paused. “But I’m especially good at portraits.”

“Oh, cool. Can you show me some of your work?”

Not feeling like he was up to hearing exaggerated oohs and ahhs about how good his work was out of a desperate boyfriend, Omi gave him an apologetic smile.

“No, sorry. I don’t have anything with me right now.”

“Come on, just one photo”, Taisho insisted. “You never know when you’re going to find your biggest fan.”

His biggest fan was the ever-supportive Dojo and Clay and Jermaine were tied in second place, but Omi judged that a little more flattery couldn’t hurt anyone. “Alright, but just a couple of photos.”

That turned out to be a lie, of course. After Taisho’s commentary proved to be actually insightful, the Water Dragon didn’t mind showing him some of the candids he’d taken either.

Maybe the suck-up approach did actually work on Omi, after all.

“I’m serious, Omi”, his friend’s boyfriend said, handing him his phone back. “You have a great eye!”

Omi waved it off in a show of faux-humility. “Oh, it’s nothing—but you know, some people say getting the technique right on the first try isn’t so easy, but I did that so…”

“Just one question, though. Uh, if it’s alright with you.”

“Sure, but if it’s about me taking you to the Kunlun Mountains, you can forget it. One of our most dangerous enemies lives there and he will not stop lecturing me about privacy if he sees you.”

“It’s not that”, Taisho said, with a weak smile. “Just that photo you have of Kimiko and Raimundo. The one with the dress—when did you take it?”

Omi raised an eyebrow. “At her cousin Miyuki’s wedding, but that was around six months ago. Why?”

“Nothing. It’s just…” He shook his head. “Are you guys close to her cousin?”

“No. That wedding was the first time I saw her, but I’m sure you know you never turn down a Tohomiko family event!”

Taisho pursed his lips. “Actually, I wouldn’t know. I’ve never been invited to anything.”

“...Well, it was a boring wedding, so you didn’t miss out on much”, Omi lied. “I’m sure Kimiko’s just saving the best events for you!”

Forcing a tight-lipped smile, the older man nodded and walked ahead.

Hands on his hips, the warrior clicked his tongue. So, Kimiko didn’t hide them from her boyfriend because she was embarrassed or even to keep said boyfriend out of potential danger.

There was something deeper there, Omi knew, and he had a feeling Taisho knew it too. Possibly, so did Raimundo. At least , the youngest Dragon thought. This week was going to be eventful .

Maybe Omi spoke too soon.

After two whole days, nothing eventful had happened and the initial tension in the air subsided. Being home for the week meant the Dragons had simply slipped back into their old routine.

So, Omi woke up early and squabbled with Raimundo over who should use the bathroom first. Clay sleep-talked through the night and Kimiko was still the first person to head to the sparring dummies every morning.

Taisho, new to all this, kept tagging along and eventually began asking Omi tons of questions about the Xiaolin. Kimiko said you know everything to know, he’d added, hoping to butter him just enough.

Today, however, Omi had not had a single question from Taisho.

As happy as he was to be let off the hook, he knew something was up because his friend’s boyfriend had been silent all through breakfast and the morning training session he observed.

Now, it’s been about an hour since Omi had even seen that man. Normally, he wouldn’t have cared but he’d wanted to go to the town’s cinema and didn’t feel like going alone.

Because Clay was napping and his other teammates were nowhere to be found, Taisho was the only choice.

So, Omi looked for him in the vault (and grabbed some Wu, just in case), before he moved on to other rooms in the temple. By the time he’d passed the Meditation Hall, the kitchen, and the Scroll Room, he’d found nothing.

He almost passed the Infirmary too, until he’d seen Taisho, ear pressed to the door. Curious, Omi unfolded the Shroud of Shadows. As soon as he invoked the Wu’s name, he started listening in too.

Omi knew the whispering voices right away.

“—so let’s not go poking the bear, okay?”, he heard an annoyed voice that could only be Raimundo’s whisper. “We didn’t talk about it then, and we don’t have to now.”

Omi heard a snort. Then, Kimiko began, “ Please . You want to talk about it as much as I do, or you wouldn’t have texted me. Remember?”

“So, you did see my texts? You just ignored them.”

“Maybe I did, but you have to let me explain—”

At that, Omi frowned. What happened? Sighing, Raimundo gave him no chance to dwell on it.

“I don’t have to do anything, actually. I said I’m good .” He laughed, humorlessly. “Two fucking years and I only heard about him from Omi last week.”

A pause. “Do you know how insulting that is, Kimiko?”

Eyes darting between Taisho, fists clenched, and the door, Omi swallowed. He barely heard what Kimiko said next.

“—and I just couldn’t, okay? It was hard .” A pause. “I know this will sound horrible, but I need to know what you’re telling him.”

“Oh my fuckin—do you think your boyfriend and I talk about anything but the FIFA we play?”

“ Clearly , you do”, she said. “Every time he comes to bed, we always fight about something only you could have told him.”

“Like I would—”

“He asked me about Miyuki’s wedding because he knew you were there. Can you explain that?”

Shutting his eyes forcefully, Omi cursed under his breath. Of course, this was going to bite him in the ass.

Getting no answer, Kimiko continued. “He was okay that I didn’t tell him I was a Dragon, but now he’s saying that I didn’t trust him. He keeps asking me where I went a couple of months ago. Explain that.”

“You know, that last one’s actually a good question”, Raimundo said, amused. “You should answer it.”

“I already did and it was supposed to be behi—”

“Maybe he needs the actual truth. Sometimes a guy likes to have answers.”

Something about his friend’s tone set Omi off. Sneaking a look at the blanching Taisho, he confirmed that the tone was off.

Scoffing, Raimundo added, “I have a question that needs answering too. If you shut your eyes when you’re together, can you pretend he’s me?”

Omi’s eyes widened. Knowing that this could only get worse, he wanted nothing more than to drag Taisho out of there. One look at that man told the warrior that he’d heard enough.

“Real classy, Rai. He’s done nothing to you; why do you hate him that much?”

“Hate him? Who said I hated him? I can’t hate him because I fucking pity him. Even the kissing he needs help with.”

“...He told you that?”

“See how far you pushed him? He’s asking me for advice.” A sigh. “I didn’t tell him anything about us. Not a word. I’m doing what you want.”

At that, Taisho shut his eyes and muttered something inaudible under his breath. As soon as he heard Kimiko mumble a vague thank you, he shook his head and stalked off.

Shocked and fed up with his friends’ drama and the carelessness they had for other people, Omi wished he could do the same, but his legs were cemented in place.

He wouldn’t wish the look on Taisho’s face on his worst enemies. And that said a lot.

Kimiko couldn’t breath. Or, it felt like she couldn't. Taking deep breaths in and out wasn’t helping because it felt like something had punched her in the lung.

If she hadn’t been stabbed before, she might have thought someone had gotten her with a spear. The only thing that did get her, though, were Taisho’s words.

Looking around the empty guest room now, she vividly remembered how he came into the room a couple of hours before.

He seemed as calm as he usually was, but it wasn’t until he’d started speaking that she noticed the underlying anger in his voice.

He wasn’t even frowning at first. “Why?”

Rubbing her lotion on her arm, Kimiko raised her eyebrows. “Babe, you have to be more expressive than that if you want me to know what you want.”

Although his shoulders tensed, he seemed to find that funny. He scoffed. “Why don’t any of your friends know that we’ve been talking about moving in together? Every time I bring it up, they look at me like I’m speaking gibberish.”

A pause. “You said you told everyone .”

“I did tell everyone we know”, she retorted. “In Japan . I couldn’t just spring it up on my temple friends, who you just met. That’s too much too soon.”

“Why not? That’s how you told them we were dating.” A pause. “It’s because you don’t care, right?”

She pursed her lips. “Look, you don’t understan—”

“Two whole years, Kimiko. I can’t believe you never found the time.”

“No, it’s not about time”, Kimiko said, carefully measuring her words. “Look, the guys are different. I was scared you wouldn’t like them, or that they wouldn’t like you.”

She paused. “Plus, you didn’t know anything about me being a Dragon and it was kind of a big deal.”

“Right, about that”, Taisho said, sniffing. “Why didn’t I know again? If it was a big part of your life, why did I have zero idea about who you are?”

Blinking, she gave him a look. “I…what? I told I wasn’t ready to tell you about that part of my life. That’s a big decision, and I needed to see if you were—”

“Worth it?”

“Yes.” She didn’t want to word it like that, but if he was being this pissy… “Because if you weren’t, then I would have been wasting my time.”

“So, you thought ‘why talk and ruin things’?”, he said, slowly. “Okay. Cool. Is that also why you cheated on me?”

Kimiko froze. Blinking, she peered at Taisho’s face like he was someone she didn’t know.

This could not be happening. He couldn’t be saying any of that. It felt like a very unfunny joke. She scoffed. “What?”

“I’m asking if all of these tests of my worthiness are why you cheated on me. Pretty straightforward as a question, don’t you think?”

“Actually, that’s not a question. It’s an accusation”, she said, voice almost inaudible. “I never cheated on you.”

“ Really ? So when you disappeared from fucking Tokyo two months ago, you didn’t sleep with anyone else?”

Kimiko swallowed. “I did…but that shouldn’t matter because we were on a break.”

“We were on a break?” Taisho scoffed, incredulously. “We took that break because we had an argument, not because we were breaking up. I didn’t take that as chance to be fucking unfaithful.”

“No, you didn’t”, she said, pursing her lips. “You didn’t think cheating was a big deal when we first started dating, though. Sure, you groveled and begged me to take you back but you still did it first. Right ?”

“You said we’d never talk about that again”, he said, giving her a pained look. “You said you forgave me and…and we weren’t even exclusive yet. You said you needed time to think about it.”

At that, Kimiko avoided his eyes. Taisho was right, of course. She hadn’t been sure of taking the next step but they had both long decided to not see other people.

Still, her not-then-boyfriend had gotten a little too fed up with her slow decision-making.

It had been his one and only fault and it happened so early on that they both could laugh about it on the surface. Kimiko knew that that mistake drove Taisho to be considerably lax from time to time.

On some level, he’d always known that something did happen on their week-long break. He’d seen her hickies but didn’t ask, as per their unspoken agreement. Until now, at least.

“Why are you asking me about this now?” Kimiko glared. “What changed for you to suddenly want to interrogate me?”

Taisho narrowed his eyes. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe your ex rubbing it in my face was a wake-up call.”

“...What?”

“Your ex, Kimiko.” He paused, sneering. “Raimundo? Yes, I know .”

Blinking, Kimiko felt like someone dunked her head in a bucket of freezing water. This couldn’t be happening.

This couldn’t be the conversation they were having because if they were having it, then that meant—

“Don’t worry”, Taisho said, scoffing. “He didn’t tell me you dated. I’m smart enough to get that on my own and he’s smart enough to keep his end of the bargain. Maybe he thinks he can get you in bed again.”

She sneered at him. “Shut up.”

“Not until you tell me if he’s right”, he said, angrily. “ Do you pretend that I’m him when you and I are together?”

Breathing heavily, she glared. “Taisho, are you spying on me?”

“Trust me. I wish I didn’t have to”, Taisho said. “Do you know you never asked me how I felt when we got here? You knew what you knew—what you hid from me—and you didn’t bother asking.”

A pause. “It’s been five days and you haven’t checked in with me once .”

Kimiko couldn’t look him in the eye. “That was shitty of me, but I didn’t think you minded.”

“You don’t think about me at all”, he corrected. “How could you think I wouldn’t mind? You give me crumbs for years and suddenly you’re ready to tell me everything about yourself and your fucking superpowers.”

Pausing, he kept his eyes trained on hers. “Even if you didn’t think I’d mind that, did you not think I’d mind how you act around him? It’s like you’re having an affair!”

“Don’t use that word”, she sharply retorted.

“I’m worried that you cheated on me”, Taisho said, shock coloring his voice. “But you’re upset about my words? I think I have a right to be the angry one here.”

“I’ve never cheated. Not on you or on anyone else”, Kimiko clenched her fists, barely holding the fire back.

“Am I supposed to believe that? The first opportunity you got, you slept with him.”

“He was checking on me after a failed mission”, she said, crossing her arms. “You and I were on a break, too. If I had met literally anyone else, I would have done the same thing.”

“But you stayed a whole week at his place” He made a face. “Would you have done that with someone else?”

Kimiko seethed. “It was a very bad showdown and I was injured.”

“When I asked you about that, you said you were lucky to get off without any injuries”, Taisho said, bitterly chuckling. “Why are you still lying to me? Don’t you want to fix this?”

At that, she dropped her arms at her sides and realized that she had no more words to say.

Sighing, her boyfriend calmed down again and stared. Staring back, she shrugged.

“How are we going to fix this then? You clearly don’t trust me.”

“I never said that. You have problems, I’m not going to pretend that’s not true”, he said, reassuringly. “But these are things we can work on.”

Letting her gaze move from his eyes to his shoulders to the un-tensing muscles of his face, Kimiko realized that Taisho actually meant what he said. She relaxed her shoulders.

“So, waiting to share things with you until I was ready, not telling you sooner about my life as a Xiaolin warrior—all of that is okay with you?”

“Yes”, Taisho said, grimacing slightly. “What I can’t accept is you being around someone who plants doubts in your head.”

Kimiko narrowed her eyes. Just what the hell did that mean? “I don’t get it. What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that maybe you can see Raimundo less.”

When her eyes widened, he added, “I don’t trust him. He doesn’t respect any relationship and the way he is around you…”

A pause. “If we want to build something, then he needs to be out of the picture.”

“You’re joking”, she said, stumbling over her words with a hopeful smile.

When he didn’t smile back, her smile fell. “You can’t be serious. Raimundo’s a big part of my life, Taisho. We’re both Dragon warriors, we’re friends; we grew up together.”

A pause. “I can’t just cut him out of m—”

“Actually, you can. If you’re serious about what we have, then you’ll at least try.”

He paused. “I know Dojo is the one who calls you about the missions according to availability. You’ll only have to speak to Raimundo when you’re training or on missions…and those are group efforts, right?”

When he said it like that, cutting Raimundo out of her life seemed ridiculously easy. That didn’t mean Kimiko wanted to, though.

The very thought of cutting out any of her fellow Dragons had never crossed her mind in more than a decade of knowing each other. How could Taisho even give her an ultimatum like this?

She tilted her head. “If you’re really asking me to choose between you and one of my friends, then you don’t know me at all.”

“Friends”, he repeated, chuckling bitterly. “Don’t make me laugh. If you thought of him as a friend, we wouldn’t have been here.”

“Look, how about we talk about this tomorrow? I don’t think we’ll get anywhere now, and I’m really tired so I need to get som—”

“Do you really need to think that hard about it? What, are you keeping the door open for him?”

Not willing to dignify that with an answer, Kimiko excused herself and went to her open suitcase.

She needed to leave the room before she said something stupid, so she grabbed her robes before making for the door.

Just before she coud slide the door open, Taisho sighed, disappointedly. “That’s right. Run like you always do, Kimiko.”

Face contorting, he added, “I gave up my ego for you so many times and you won’t even do it once!”

Stopping in her tracks, Kimiko knotted her eyebrows. So, that’s what this is about? His pride? He never bothered to see her as a real person but somehow, he was the one who was hurt. Dropping her change of clothes to the ground, she shut her eyes momentarily. On some level, she should have known. Turning around, Kimiko gave him a look.

“I never asked you to do that, Taisho.”

“That’s true. It was all me”, Taisho agreed, hands on his hips. “Because you’re supposed to be someone that makes their partner feel good. You’re supposed to actually mean it when you say I love you.”

Determined, he clenched his jaw. “If you walk out that door, this is it for us, Kimiko.”

One look at his eyes was enough to tell Kimiko he meant it. As much as knowing that she failed killed her, she didn’t think it was worth it. Neither one of them was happy.

She nodded, more to herself than anything. “I hope you find someone better.”

Two days before the Dragons’ week-long break at the temple ended, Raimundo seriously debated cutting his trip short and going home. There was nothing much to do anyway and he’d already had two very heated discussions with Kimiko and Clay, so he didn’t feel like fighting anyone else.

With his duffel bag packed and the Golden Tiger Claws neatly packed in a corner of his section of the room, Raimundo debated waking up the others.

Shifting on his sleeping mat, he fished his phone out of his pocket and hovered his finger over Andrina’s number. Nope , he thought. Maybe she was busy. Instead of calling or waking anyone up, Raimundo decided to take a walk.

Once in the courtyard, he took a deep breath and enjoyed the view. The silence was something he’d never appreciated when he lived at the temple. Now, he couldn’t get enough of it. Eyes closed, he focused on the air around him. The only thing that broke him out of it was the faint noise. It sounded like a person.

Straining his ears, Raimundo walked in the direction of the rock garden and, sure enough, he saw Kimiko, sitting on the ground with her back against a wall.

“Kim?” He heard the crying hiccups and, in a flash, he saw nothing but red. “I’m going to kill him.”

“Stop, just stop”, Kimiko said, giving him a reassuring smile. “I’m okay. It’s just nerves and I’m tired, but everything’s cool. Taisho’s cool.”

Checking her phone, she added, “It’s late. Why are you still up? Can’t sleep?”

“Kinda”, Raimundo said, taking a few steps toward her. Sitting down next to her, he leaned his back against the wall and added, “I was packing.”

“You’re leaving?”

“Yeah. Think about it—things will be awkward if I stay. Your boyfriend isn’t really having the best time, I can tell.”

“Things aren’t awkward for me”, Kimiko said, shrugging. “And Taisho took a cab to the airport. He’s not my boyfriend anymore”

That was news to him. “He’s not? Why did you break up with him?”

“I didn’t.” Although she kept her face still for the most part, he didn’t miss the wince. “Taisho has been struggling for a bit, actually.”

Gesturing around her, she added, “Him discovering all of this was the last straw.”

She bit her lips. “Also, he accused me of cheating so that was nice.”

Keeping his eyes on the sprawling rock garden in front of him, Raimundo cleared his throat. He’d been screwing with Taisho for a few days, but after he toned it down he didn’t think there would be a problem. Now, it seemed that the other man had picked up on all of his hints. Somehow, him knowing leading to her hiccup-crying in a corner didn't feel so good.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. He would have accused me of that, even if we didn’t sleep together”, she said, casually. “He was that insecure. And I’m guessing me forgiving him for doing the same thing has always had him on edge.”

“...He cheated on you?”

“Super early on. Like, we had decided we won’t be seeing other people but I wasn’t calling him my boyfriend yet.” She snorted. “Apparently that still has his ego bruised.”

“He doesn’t deserve you”, Raimundo said, still not looking her in the eye. “He never did.”

Kimiko chuckled. “And you do?”

He couldn’t answer that. “Listen, Kimik—”

“Taisho and I were on a break, by the way. When I was staying with you. You need to know that”, she said. “Cheating disgusts me; I wouldn’t do that to him or to anyone .”

“Right. It’s…cheating is horrible”, he said, trying to keep his tone casual. Did Taisho tell her something to get back at him? “Do you think being on a break means you’re single, though?”

She glared at him. “Yes. I wanted a break from the relationship; I told him that. And I don’t know why you’re complaining when you got laid scot-free.”

Shutting her eyes, she simmered down. “Sorry. I’m still a little on edge. Taisho said a lot of shit.”

Raimundo’s throat felt especially dry. “I still don’t get why you left. If you wanted a break from him, why didn’t you stay a little longer with me?”

Pursing her lips, Kimiko looked down at her lap. She didn’t speak for a few moments and when she did, she sighed. “I don’t know. I wanted to.”

Muttering something in Japanese under her breath, she added, “I had to get back to Tokyo, though. I had an appointment.”

“Oh, for work?”

“No. An abortion.” At his wide-eyed stare, she rolled her eyes. “It’s no big deal, Rai. It wasn’t even yours.”

“Right”, he said, still shaken. “But you’re okay now?”

“It's not like a cold”, Kimiko said, sarcastically. “And it was two months ago, so yeah, I’m fine. Like, I’m actually more than fine—kids are just not my thing.”

Remembering the phone call he needed to make, Raimundo pursed his lips. “Kids are a big responsibility.”

She barely acknowledged that. “I guess I went back to him because I wanted to prove myself wrong. To prove you wrong.”

“...Prove me wrong?” Raimundo raised an eyebrow. “Why? What did I say?”

“That I’m not a relationship person”, Kimiko said, something of a bitter smile on her face. “You said it a long time ago, but the things you say tend to stay with me. It’s stupid, I know.”

She groaned and shut her eyes. “ You have a habit of turning my love life into a joke. That's why I didn't tell you about him. I really thought it was going somewhere and I couldn't handle any jokes from you about how it wouldn't last more than two days.”

A scoff. "I hate saying it, but you were right. I'm just not a good girlfriend. All my relationships go to shit."

“That's not true. If we should be making fun of someone's relationships, it should be me", Raimundo said. “You remember Dani? Amel? Fucking Maria Eduarda? Jesus, that girl wasted three months of my life!”

He gave her a sympathetic smile. "You're not a bad girlfriend at all, Kim. You're actually—"

Cutting him off with muttered words about how she didn't want pity, Kimiko moved to straddle his lap. She wrapped her hands around his neck and waited, tilting her head expectantly. Mouth open, Raimundo clammed up.

“Oh good”, she sarcastically said, rolling her eyes. “You stopped talking.”

“Had a feeling you wanted me to”, he said, unable to help scoffing. When she started to shift in place, he shut his eyes and groaned. “What are you…what are you doing?”

Still shifting, Kimiko hummed, breathily. “I can stop, if you want.”

Chuckling, Raimundo grabbed her waist and pulled her closer. Biting her lower lip, she leaned her forehead against his. They stayed like that for a few moments before she pulled back with a playful smile.

He couldn’t hold it any longer. Leaning in, he kissed her and was surprised to not feel her kissing back.

Raising an eyebrow, he reached a hand to tuck a hair behind her ear. “Hey. What’s wrong?”

“You want me, right?” Although Kimiko kept her eyes on him, it felt like she was looking through him. “I am how I am but for some reason, you still want me. You still want this.”

There was only one answer. “I really do.” A pause. "Do you want me, though? Because I'll be all in and I know you think that's clingy. But I'm clingy...and I can be very stubborn and impulsive, too."

She nodded. "Well, you should know I can be really selfish."

A pause. “It takes me a while to say things and I really don’t like it when someone feels like they own me just because I’m with them.”

“Cool”, he said, shrugging. “And I’m a prick. We’re basically made for each other.”

Laughing, Kimiko shook her head and slapped his shoulder. Tilting his head, Raimundo felt the smile overtaking his face. He could feel the possibility fill the air around them.

“You know, it has been five years.” He raised his eyebrows. “Do you seriously think we should reevaluate things again?”

She nodded, so he coughed. "Look, I want this but I don't want to be just the safe option or whatever. If it's that then—"

"All in", she said, cutting him off with a raised eyebrow. "Unless you want to back out?"

"Oh, fuck no." With a suggestive eyebrow waggle, he added, “Maybe we should talk more in that empty guest room of yours?”

“Oh, absolutely ”, she said, scrunching her nose. “We should do that, but first can you tell me one thing...w ho’s Andrina?”

Raimundo sighed. “So, he told you?”

“He said I should ask you about her”, Kimiko said, narrowing her eyes. “I thought he was just being a jerk.”

“He was but there is something you need to know." He paused."Kim, I'm gonna be a dad.”

The next morning when Kimiko woke up, she was not surprised to find herself alone in her mat. Last night had been a bit of a blur, after all, and she was not sure if half of what happened did actually happen.

Picking her robes off the floor, she stretched before checking her phone. Scoffing at the long paragraphs of texts that Taisho sent her, her eyes widened once she checked her email.

Amidst all the junk mail and the corporate nonsense, Kimiko saw the email she had been waiting for.

Congratulations, Ms. Tohomiko, it read. T he committee truly valued your proposal and would like to help build up your application .

Squealing and jumping (and almost bursting into flames), Kimiko ran out of the guest room and hurried for the kitchen. Just as she predicted, her friends were there, enjoying their breakfast and chatting. As soon as Omi spotted her, he beamed.

“I take it you heard the exciting, if disturbing, news, Kimiko”, the youngest warrior said. “On a scale of ‘excited’ to ‘terrified for the wellbeing of humanity’, how excited are you that Raimundo is having a kid?”

Freezing, Kimiko kept the smile on her face and took another look around the kitchen. Looking cheery and happy, Clay and Raimundo were both looking at her now, expecting an answer.

She blinked. Right, one of us is having a baby.

She wasn’t sure how she’d forgotten that, considering that she and Raimundo spent a good portion of last night talking about it.

After they decided to give their relationship another try, they began drawing plans.

Overly excited, Kimiko said her position at Tohomiko Industries could easily be remote. Plus, that will give me a lot more time to work on my app!

Raimundo, too, said that his jobs were manageable. The podcast gig could be done anywhere and his job as a backup dancer was on hiatus. Until we’re back on tour anyway , he’d said.

Everything seemed possible. They would split their time between Tokyo and Rio and get to know each other again as the adults they had become. It seemed almost way too easy.

“—and you don’t have to help or anything. I know you’re not a kid person”, Raimundo said last night, lying naked next to her. “I’m not, like, stepmom-zoning you. It’s my kid.”

“Oh, thank fuck ”, Kimiko said, chuckling. “I’m so relieved I won’t have to introduce someone new to my dad. He already likes you.”

Smiling, he gave her a look. “We really got it this time, huh?”

“I know, it surprised me too”, she said. “New beginnings and all that, I guess.”

He hummed in agreement. Unable to help her curosity, she gave him a look. “What are you thinking about?”

“I don’t know. How much of a shit dad I’ll be?” A sigh. “It’s scary doing this without the experience. My dad was always traveling somewhere with the circus, you know.”

“Mine too. Not with the circus, obviously, but still.” She bit her lips. “You’ll be a good dad. Sure, you’ll fuck up but you’ll get the hang of it.”

Blinking back to the present, Kimiko felt her smile wobble. She shot Raimundo a smile. “I think he’s gonna be great.”

“Very convincing, Kim”, Raimundo said, laughing. “I almost bought it.”

Moving his eyes between her to their two other teammates, he cleared his throat. “Actually, that’s not all of the good news, guys. We have something else to te—”

“My app got the green-light”, Kimiko blurted, cutting him off. Smiling in full, she added, “I got the grant; the one I told you guys about.”

That wasn’t the way she wanted to share her news, but she had to blurt it out. The very thought of Raimundo announcing that they’d gotten back together like that made her uneasy.

She kind of knew why too. Looking around this kitchen, it was hard not to be scared. Their idea of what would come next was too easy.

In a few months, her life would be all about startups and conferences and numbers. Raimundo’s life in a few months, however, was full of diapers and formula.

Polar opposites , she thought, uneasily. They needed to think it through one more time.

“This is the first time ya can say when it rains, it pours and mean it as a good thing”, Clay said, snapping her back to reality. “Congrats, little lady. If anyone could have done it, it’s you for sure.”

“Yes, congratulations, Kimiko”, Omi said, getting up to hug her. “We’re all happy for you!”

Laughing and hugging her friends, Kimiko wiggled out of Omi’s hug into Clay’s. When the cowboy let her go, though, she found herself facing Raimundo and panicked.

Seeing him start to go for the kiss, she half-dodged and hugged him instead.

That seemed to catch him off-guard because his arms went limp around her. Once they broke the hug, Raimundo gave her a questioning look.

Ignoring the lump in her throat, Kimiko forced a smile.

Later. They would talk about it later and it would all be just fine. She had no idea just how wrong she was.