Taiga and Alex, back in America.
"Oh, sweetie," said Alex, and dabbed at Taiga's eye with a beer can fresh from the cooler, pulling her hair back from her face with Taiga cuddled on her lap.
"I should never have taught you how to fight," said Tatsuya, peering into her face. A little further away, their usual crowd made awestruck catcalls as Taiga gave them the finger.
"'S just a black eye," said Taiga. "You should see the other guys."
Tatsuya's lip curled, guys, and Taiga's new middle school not taking well to a girl nearing five feet eight at twelve, and he didn't like this, he wasn't done getting over being her big brother.
"There, there," Alex said. "I'll give you something to cover it up a little, and we'll keep the pressure on, and you'll be good as new in a few days." She smacked Taiga on the back. "You gave them hell, though, right?"
"Right," said Taiga, and smiled, wincing around her sore lip.
"That's my girl," said Alex.
Alex worked steadily on Taiga's face until Tatsuya, in the way of thirteen year old boys, got bored and muscled his way into a pickup game. "Well?" said Alex, applying the powder in short, sharp strokes, showing her how it was done in the mirror.
"No one plays worth a damn in my new school," said Taiga. She cast covert glances at Alex's full makeup pouch. Her hair was growing out, becoming longer. "I played with the boys."
"Ha," said Alex, shaking her head. "You kids." She didn't say anything after that. That was the thing about Alex, about Tatsuya; they understood the sense of raging fire, of seeking steel. Taiga watched Tatsuya playing with the others on their precious weekends with Alex, her precious weekends with him, and thought about his basketball, better and better and brightest.
"Aaand- pout, Taiga," said Alex, then painted colour on the younger girl while Taiga did, quick pink strokes. "There you go," she said, and then sent her precious student off.
Tatsuya did double-take when he saw her, looking at herself in a chrome surface. "Pretty much?" he said, smiled.
Taiga thought again about how much she loved him, how Alex's hands had moved on her face swift and sure, how she didn't want anything more than this, this everything. "Gives you something to pretend distracted you now that the eye's hidden," sneered Taiga.
Tatsuya gleamed at her, bouncing the ball. "We'll see."