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“Does she need to go to school?”
Baiken looks up from where she’s been polishing her sword on the porch. “What?”
“I mean,” Anji sidles up next to her, until their shoulders press together, and Baiken’s gotten so used to him being so close that she doesn’t even move to rip his face off. “Shouldn’t we be doing something for her?”
“We are doin’ somethin’ for her,” Baiken says gruffly, setting her sword aside and laying her hand in her lap. They’re shoulder-to-shoulder now, feet dangling off the ledge and overlooking the yard. Anji’s decided to sit on her blind side, because he’s an asshole. “We’re takin’ her in. Ain’t that enough?”
“She needs socialization. She’s…” Anji trails off, shrugging. “She’s alone.”
“She ain’t alone ,” Baiken grumbles. “She’s got us.”
“If she doesn’t play with kids her own age, she’ll end up like you.”
Baiken goes silent, and Anji thinks for a moment it might’ve been the wrong thing to say, but then Baiken guffaws and slaps him on the back. It takes a good couple of moments for her to calm down and her laughter to ease. “Yer right. Goddamn it. She’s gonna become a freak like us.”
“A freak like you ,” Anji teases, nudging her with his shoulder. “I’m perfectly well adjusted.”
“I’ve never seen you wear a shirt.”
Anji doesn’t respond, only twists his mouth in thought. “I’m trying to think of some sort of joke about you seeing only half, but it’s not quite working,” he admits after a moment.
Baiken punches him in the arm, and Anji takes it like it doesn’t hurt like hell. “Yer right. We can’t let her end up like either of us.”
“Like a couple of maladjusted weirdos,” Anji agrees. “We can work something out with the school district. Since she’ll be ahead of everyone academically.”
“And she’ll be dragging the goddamned bed around.”
“And that.”
They stay quiet for a few moments, the only sounds being the faint chirping of the first crickets in the early evening. Anji feels Baiken’s hair brush his arm, then a weight—she leans against him, eye closed.
“We’re going to be fucking terrible parents,” she mumbles, voice soft. “Neither of us know how to do this kind of shit.”
“Nobody does. But what else are we going to do? Leave her?”
“I didn’t mean that, idiot.” Baiken frowns. “Of course we’re gonna do it. Even if it’s tough and it’s miserable.”
“Of course.” Anji lays a hand over Baiken’s, still in her lap. She’s grown so accustomed to Anji that she doesn’t even seem to notice when he laces their fingers together. “We’ll be fine.”
“If anyone bullies her, I’ll kill them.”
The corners of Anji’s mouth turn up in a half-smile. “Yeah.”