Night had come and Kogata was gone, returning to his boss and promising to call Kitsune's cel phone with an update on her status. The ceramic bottle of sake was gone with him… a little grease for the wheel. The halogen bulbs fastened to the exterior of the Café had begun to flicker on as he left, painting his broad back with their white illumination and reflecting from his bald head like a halo.

Hopefully, he could be some kind of saint for her.

Steve was sitting on the grass slope off to the side of the steps with his back to the Japanese maple, gazing at the lights of the town. The cicadas were engrossed in an insect opus and the sound seemed to be putting him to sleep.

Mitsune Konno regarded his nodding head from where she stood at the base of the steps, nursing another cigarette; the breeze lifted her short hair away from her face. This is another fine mess you've gotten into, Kitsune.

As Steve shifted his position she heard a stifled groan and the noise finally decided her. She mounted up the steps past him, tossed the cigarette into mouth of the resin ash urn they kept for such things and then walked over to him.

She sat next to him, her knees up and her legs splayed to either side, in her skirt a decidedly unladylike position. She was glad it was dark. It was amazing how much heat he gave off.

"Steve."

His head jerked higher. She could tell his eyes shifted towards her by the light reflecting from them.

"Yeah?"

"Are you…" she swallowed. "Steve, do you want to come with me?"

"What? You think we're still going to dinner? I'm sorry, but I've got no money."

Her eyes closed, her mouth pinching, in embarrassment of what he had done earlier that evening. "No… well, we could have dinner. Steve, come with me to where I live, Hinata House. It's at the top of this hill."

"And, why, exactly," his deep voice rumbled next to her, "would I want to go anywhere with you?"

There was a pause, and then Kitsune pushed herself to her feet. "I was thinking," she said in a flat voice, "that you could use a hot soak after the pounding you took earlier. Hinata House has one of the finest outdoor baths in this town." She turned away as her hands fumbled in the dark for another cigarette. "But, hey, I can understand why you wouldn't want to come." Her off- center grin appeared, invisible in the darkness and uncharacteristically self – mocking. She cursed softly at the difficulty in lighting the cigarette due to her trembling.

A large, warm piece of the night gently steadied her hand. Her eyes closed as the night wind carried the smoke in a swirling eddy around her head, and his head next to her. Very warm, indeed.

"I don't smoke." He said.

"I'm sorry." She replied. "I don't think I can quit tonight."

She finished the cigarette slowly. He held her hand the entire time.

He was moving very stiffly as they climbed the stairs, traveling from light pool to light pool beneath the night sky. "So, you live in this Hinata House. What is it, a hotel?"

"It's a woman's dormitory, but I don't know if I could describe what Hinata House really is. You need to experience it." She smiled in the darkness. "It is Home."

She reached over and took his backpack from him, then almost lost her balance at its incredible weight. Gamely, she thrust her arms through the arm loops and shouldered the thing, regretting every cigarette that had ever deposited ash in her alveoli. She stifled her cough, she felt, masterfully. It was an indicator of his exhaustion that he mutely accepted the help.

They climbed for a little while in silence.

"Home." Steve spoke. He had picked up on the significance of the word to her. "'Home is where the heart is."" He said, in English. He translated the quote into Japanese.

She nodded "That is true. The people that I live with are more of a family to me than my folks. At Hinata House I've got sisters and a brother…but, I could never tell them that's the way I feel."

"Why not?" He stopped on the step, and rotated his right shoulder in its socket. "Urgh." He said, unhappily. "Why wouldn't you tell people that you care so much for how you feel."

Kitsume felt her face flame. She looked off to the side, into the deeper darkness near the gardens, and thought that she saw the milling sparks of fireflies.

"You don't have to answer if you don't want to. It's okay…"

"No! It's fine…" She felt her hand scrabbling towards her cigarettes and she forced it to stillness. "I'm… it's not part of my personality, to tell them, to share…that."

"I'm sorry, but what the hell does that mean?" His voice questioned. "You love someone, you say 'I love you.'"

"You don't understand! Living with those words, especially with this group, is never easy. It can cause a lot of, ah, complications." She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Look, I'm going to set this down before I dislocate my arms, okay?"

"Yup. Let's sit down."

" You hurting that much?"

"… Yeah."

"I've been there… shit, seven years, I think?" She looked up at the lights, her smile so wide her eyes were nearly closed. "Time is sometimes kind of hinky at the House. Heh."

He slowly sat, his legs overreaching two sets of the long steps so that his heels settled on a third. She sat next to him, her legs folded under her demurely.

"I've lived with these people for all this time and I've been the party girl of the bunch. I'm not big on introspection…"

"Really?" She could sense a grin without looking.

"Look, I like the way I am. I liked to party, back in the day. Less now, but still I like to have fun." She took a deep breath. "I don't think I've talked to anyone about this, as much as I love them. They say sometimes it's easier to talk to a…" Her voice stumbled to a halt. "Err."

"'Talk to a stranger?'" He finished her sentence. "I'm not offended by that. We did just meet today, despite what happened. I don't think 300,000 yen buys that intimacy." After a moment, hearing her giggle, his tired mind processed what he had said. "Ah, that came out wrong…"

"I know where you were going." Her mouth twisted in a moue of confusion. "There's always been this understood relationship between all of us." She hesitated and then dug out her cigarettes. "I've really got to quit these, soon."

"Steve," she exhaled with smoke, "sometimes it's easier to be one dimensional. To occupy a steady position, like a rock, as the tides swirl and crash all around you." She shrugged, took a drag and let her head hang. "I'm pretty much exactly the same as I was seven or eight years ago. I haven't had to change myself while everyone around me has, has grown."

She took another puff, killing the cigarette. She reached down and placed it on the concrete, shifted her shoe on top of it and twisted with a particular vehemence. "I think I should have gone on to college. I get the feeling that I'm going to be the girl that everyone looks at in the rearview mirror as they drive off to do something amazing." Her smirk returned. "Granted, I'll look great in the reflection."

"If they're your family, do you think they'd leave you behind."

"No. In fact, I know that if I ran away or went missing they wouldn't rest until they'd tracked me down."

He paused, thinking. "So, why are you worried? I mean, I like the metaphor about the rock in the tide but the one thing is that, despite high tide or low tide, the water's still there. Flowing around the rock." He made a thoughtful sound. "Can you say that the ocean embraced a rock?" he asked, his voice light. "I think we're stretching that one a little too far."

"I think we've stopped making sense. Get up."

"Oof." He groaned as he stiffly got to his feet. "I need a beer."

As tired as she was physically, Kitsune's thoughts were a shinkansen as she walked besides Steve up the steps.

Why am I telling him all these things? This stranger, this guy I met today? Do I feel guilty because he got smacked around and blew all that money on me? I was just going to use him and abuse him, at the start.

Use and abuse…God! I did the same thing with Keitaro, when I first met him! Do I ever think about building relationships, or am I hardwired to do some kind of emotional smash and grab?

And, it's been so long since I've really built a relationship with a guy. Have I lost that ability? How will I ever…

Ever…

I want what Naru and Kietaro have… I can't believe it, but it's true.

With Steve? I couldn't make that call now… maybe. We just met. Steve is a place- holder for 'male.'

She tilted her head, eyebrows raising, eyes shifting towards him. A place- holder with a lot of potential… let's be honest.

This is all Naru's fault! She cried in her mind, part irritation and part humor. She's the one that's got me thinking about this shit.

Her and the baby.