Emma blinked awake with the sun staring directly into her face.
She shut her eyes again.
“No.”
The sun remained unimpressed.
Emma rolled onto her side and pulled the edge of the sleeping bag over her head.
That lasted perhaps five seconds.
Then she remembered where she was.
Her eyes opened.
Grass.
Young trees.
A concrete walking path that currently went nowhere useful.
Stacks of landscaping material still wrapped in plastic near the far end of the park.
And beside her, half inside the sleeping bag and half outside it, G’aikui T’resk.
Oh.
Emma reached for her phone.
6:15 AM.
She stared at the screen.
No missed calls.
No messages from Dad.
No messages from Mom.
No messages from Stella asking where the hell she was.
Nothing.
Emma slowly smiled.
They had gotten away with it.
Maybe.
Possibly.
She checked again.
Still nothing.
Her first thought was relief.
Her second was that she had better move before the sun cooked her.
Sunburn was not theoretical.
Emma had inherited enough of her mother’s complexion to tan if she was careful and enough of her father’s to burn if she was stupid.
Falling asleep outdoors qualified as stupid.
She pushed herself upright.
G’aikui did not move.
He was lying on his back, one arm outside the sleeping bag, dark hair thoroughly destroyed by sleep.
Emma looked at him.
Then looked away.
They had not done anything.
That thought arrived quickly enough that she almost laughed at herself.
Nothing had happened.
Well.
There had been kissing.
Quite a lot of kissing.
That had started in the last house sometime before eleven, after they had finished the final switch plate and spent several minutes pretending neither of them was deliberately finding reasons not to leave.
Then more kissing outside.
Then she had remembered the emergency sleeping bag in her father’s truck.
And the cooler.
The cooler had contained four bottles of water, two half-melted ice packs, three cans of soda and something her father had apparently intended to throw away three days ago.
They had taken the useful parts.
Then they had walked to the unfinished park.
They had sat on the grass.
Talked.
Watched the moon.
Kissed some more.
Talked again.
At some point G’aikui had lain down.
At some point Emma had lain beside him.
Apparently at some later point both of them had simply stopped being conscious.
She looked at her phone again.
6:16.
Still nothing.
Emma looked toward the houses.
“Wake up.”
She nudged G’aikui’s shoulder.
Nothing.
“G’aikui.”
He let out a soft snore.
Emma stared at him.
“You have got to be kidding me.”
She nudged him harder.
“It’s morning.”
G’aikui breathed deeply and continued sleeping.
Emma looked toward the sun.
Then at him.
“I am going to burn because you sleep like you’re dead.”
He did not care.
She reached for one of the water bottles in the cooler.
Warm.
Of course.
She twisted off the cap and drank anyway.
Then she saw someone walking between the houses.
Emma stopped.
A V’ren woman.
Tall.
Familiar.
D’rez.
Emma relaxed slightly.
For half a second.
D’rez had probably come looking for them.
That made sense.
Except D’rez was not walking from the direction of the T’resk house.
Emma lowered the bottle.
She looked toward the houses.
Then back at D’rez.
Then at the house D’rez had apparently just come from.
That was not their house.
Emma knew where their house was.
She had delivered sixteen boxes to it yesterday.
Their house was two blocks the other direction.
Emma stared.
D’rez kept walking.
Her hair was not arranged the way Emma remembered it from yesterday.
She was carrying her shoes.
Emma looked at the house again.
Then at D’rez.
“Oh.”
Very quietly.
“Oh.”
G’aikui snored beside her.
Emma looked down at him.
Then back at D’rez.
D’rez finally noticed her.
She stopped.
Emma stopped breathing.
For several seconds neither of them moved.
D’rez looked at Emma.
Emma looked at D’rez.
D’rez’s eyes moved downward.
To G’aikui.
To the sleeping bag.
Back to Emma.
Emma watched D’rez’s face change.
Just slightly.
Recognition.
Then calculation.
Emma’s eyes moved toward the house behind D’rez.
Then back to her.
D’rez followed the look.
Her expression changed again.
Emma slowly raised one eyebrow.
D’rez stared at her.
Emma did not smile.
That took effort.
D’rez started walking toward them.
Emma glanced down.
“G’aikui.”
Snore.
She kicked the sleeping bag.
Nothing.
“You are absolutely useless.”
D’rez reached the edge of the park.
Emma took another drink of warm water.
D’rez stopped several feet away.
“Good morning.”
Emma nodded.
“Morning.”
Neither said anything else.
D’rez looked at G’aikui again.
Still asleep.
“You stayed here.”
It was not quite a question.
Emma nodded.
“We were watching the moon.”
D’rez looked at the sleeping bag.
Emma added quickly, “We fell asleep.”
D’rez looked back at her.
Emma could feel herself blushing.
“Nothing happened.”
D’rez’s mouth moved slightly.
Not quite a smile.
“I did not ask.”
Emma narrowed her eyes.
“No.”
D’rez waited.
Emma looked past her.
Toward the house.
D’rez’s almost-smile disappeared.
Emma took another drink.
“I didn’t ask either.”
Silence.
D’rez looked at Emma.
Emma looked back.
Something passed between them.
Not friendship exactly.
Not yet.
More like the sudden discovery that both sides had artillery.
D’rez glanced toward the house.
Then toward her brother.
Then back at Emma.
“You did not come home.”
“No.”
“My brother did not come home.”
“No.”
D’rez folded her arms.
Emma looked at the shoes in her hand.
“You seem to have had a complicated commute yourself.”
D’rez’s eyes narrowed.
Emma immediately smiled.
“Sorry.”
“No, you are not.”
“No.”
For one dangerous second D’rez looked as though she might be offended.
Then she laughed.
Quietly.
Emma relaxed.
D’rez walked closer.
“Does he know?”
“Know what?”
“That you stayed here.”
Emma looked at the sleeping G’aikui.
“I’m pretty sure he participated.”
D’rez laughed again.
“No. Does he know you are awake?”
“No.”
“He sleeps heavily.”
“I noticed.”
D’rez crouched beside him.
“G’aikui.”
Nothing.
She slapped his leg.
G’aikui jerked awake.
“What?”
Emma burst out laughing.
G’aikui sat up, confused and wild-haired.
He looked at Emma.
Then D’rez.
Then the park.
Then the sun.
He blinked.
“Morning?”
“Yes,” Emma said.
He checked the sky as though there might be another interpretation.
D’rez stood.
“It is after six.”
G’aikui reached for his phone.
Emma watched.
His screen lit.
He frowned.
“No messages.”
Emma held up hers.
“Same.”
D’rez said nothing.
Emma looked at her.
D’rez looked away.
That was interesting.
G’aikui stretched.
“Then nobody noticed.”
Emma and D’rez both looked at him.
Emma said, “Sure.”
D’rez said, “Obviously.”
G’aikui looked between them.
“What?”
“Nothing,” Emma said.
D’rez looked at her.
Emma smiled.
D’rez’s eyes narrowed.
G’aikui frowned.
“You two are doing the thing.”
“What thing?”
“The thing where everyone knows something except me.”
Emma climbed out of the sleeping bag.
“Maybe you should become more observant.”
“I am observant.”
D’rez made a small noise.
Emma looked at her.
D’rez looked away.
G’aikui pointed at his sister.
“You agree with her?”
“I said nothing.”
“You made a sound.”
“That is not speech.”
Emma started folding the sleeping bag.
G’aikui stood and helped.
D’rez remained beside them.
Emma looked at the house again.
D’rez caught her.
Emma immediately looked back at the sleeping bag.
D’rez stepped closer.
Very quietly she said, “You saw nothing.”
Emma kept folding.
“Absolutely.”
D’rez relaxed.
Emma added, “You saw nothing either.”
D’rez looked at her.
Emma looked back.
Agreement.
D’rez nodded once.
G’aikui looked up.
“What are you talking about?”
“Nothing,” both women said.
He stared at them.
“No.”
Emma bit her lip.
D’rez picked up the cooler.
“We should go.”
G’aikui looked at her.
“Why are you carrying your shoes?”
Emma made a strangled sound.
D’rez froze.
G’aikui waited.
Emma turned away so he would not see her face.
D’rez looked down at the shoes.
Then at her brother.
“I was walking.”
“Without shoes?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
D’rez looked at Emma.
Emma had both hands over her mouth.
G’aikui followed his sister’s eyes.
“Why is Emma laughing?”
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
“No.”
D’rez handed G’aikui the cooler.
“Carry this.”
He took it automatically.
“Why?”
“Because you are stronger.”
“That is not an answer.”
“It is enough of one.”
They started toward the houses.
Emma fell into step beside G’aikui.
D’rez walked on his other side.
For perhaps thirty seconds nobody spoke.
Then G’aikui said, “You two are hiding something.”
Emma looked at D’rez.
D’rez looked at Emma.
Emma smiled.
D’rez smiled back.
G’aikui stopped walking.
“That is worse.”
Emma reached for his hand.
“Come on.”
He looked down at their hands.
Then at her.
His suspicion faded slightly.
He laced his fingers through hers.
D’rez noticed.
This time her smile was different.
Softer.
Emma saw it.
Then glanced deliberately at the shoes in D’rez’s hand.
The softness vanished.
Emma grinned.
D’rez mouthed one word.
Nothing.
Emma mouthed it back.
Nothing.
G’aikui looked between them again.
“I already hate whatever this is.”
Emma squeezed his hand.
“You’ll survive.”
They kept walking toward the waking houses as sunlight spread across Leta, the new city already beginning another day.
Behind them, the sleeping bag was folded.
The cooler was half empty.
The unfinished park gave away nothing.
And Emma Johnston had learned that morning that apparently she was not the only person in G’aikui T’resk’s family who had found a reason not to go home.
