The Starry Maiden

Arrivals and Departures

The world blurs by, rocky mountainsides then lush forests.

"You've been awfully quiet back there all day long... Is everything okay?" Emmett says to me between his chair and the car door.

"Hmm?" I turn to look at him while leaning my head on the window, "I'm fine, it's..." Nothing.

"And don't you dare say 'nothing.' You do still have facial expressions." He says quieter. Is he trying to be quiet because of Kiyoshi? Did Kiyoshi not tell him that he knows?

"Tch."

"Ha! I knew it was something. Now spill." Emmett shouts before remembering where we are, "Oops. Sorry Kiyo..."

"No, it's fine. But I admit that I also am concerned with how quiet you've been today. At least yesterday you were making snide remarks and sarcastic comments periodically, much like your siblings." Kiyoshi says without taking his eyes off the road ahead even once.

Great. I can't even be quiet around Assassins without them figuring something out. I guess it's the little things I forget... Yusuf and his Assassins also often had an uncanny sense of each other's mental wellbeing.

"I'm fine, I just have a lot on my mind is all... But Kiyoshi, what do you have up next? Vancouver is kind of a dead-end roads wise..." I try to deflect the subject.

"I've been asked to investigate something in Japan by the leader of the Brotherhood there. I'll be catching a plane there at the airport." Emmett, who had looked ready to re-bring up my silence, suddenly looks over to the driver jaw agape.

"Since when did you two get so chummy? Did I miss something?" He adjusts himself in the front seat.

"I really can't believe you didn't say something while I was in the shower this morning." I say to Kiyoshi, "You were both awake when I got out, and thought you would have chatted about it..."

"I thought it would be more fun to let it happen organically, he is amusing when he's left out of the loop. Especially a small loop like this one." I see Emmett's eyes narrow at Kiyoshi while he talks.

Kiyoshi isn't wrong. This is deeply amusing.

"I'm still lost here. What on Earth happened? I've never seen you be so... Chatty with someone new before..." Emmett says to Kiyoshi poking his shoulder in a very not-twenty-eight-years-old fashion.

"That is because I'm not chatty with new people." Kiyoshi states seriously, "She is decidedly not new." He adds, further confusing the poor Emmett. He hides it well, but I can spot the slightest upwards curve of Kiyoshi's lips as he sows further confusion with Emmett.

"And so mean..." I comment, deepening the slowly growing shit-eating grin on Kiyoshi's face.

Kiyoshi continues his mean-streak fueled teasing with Emmett for the next twenty minutes until we stop for a break. Then he goes right on confusing him after we hit the road again for another thirty minutes. With the last ten minutes consisting of Emmett pouting in the front seat looking out the window.

Then Kiyoshi lets up and tells Emmett about how I saved him as a kid and that we sorted everything out last night.

"So you guys already knew each other?" Emmett confirms for the eighteenth time.

"Yes." Kiyoshi answers again, "Although, I admit I hadn't been totally sure until I saw the ring and the scar on your wrist."

"Yeah... I guess anyone would have trouble forgetting that I was more surprised you remembered those details about me..." I say referring to what I had said about the ring back then.