Lavi set his grocery bags down on the Lees' kitchen counter.
"What is all that?" Lenalee asked, peering into them.
"You'll find out." He grinned when he saw Lenalee's foot. "What's that?"
"An air cast," she said. "It inflates inside to keep pressure on my foot, but I can take it off if I need to."
"Don't push too hard," he warned her, knowing perfectly well that he was being a hypocrite. Dancer's bodies needed constant work to stay in shape, and they all tended to push injuries too hard too soon.
"I won't!" she laughed. "Come in. I have something for you."
"What?"
She led him to the kitchen table, where there was a folded piece of paper. "Here."
He unfolded it and saw a boarding pass, Paris to Tel Aviv, and suddenly the air in the room seemed devoid of oxygen. "What...?"
"Am I right in guessing that you have a duplicate of the passport the Rouvelliers gave you?"
It was an Israeli passport, relatively easy to fake if one had the right connections. He'd had it made right before he left. "Yes," he said.
"Good!" she said. "Then you're all set. Take a cab to the airport after you dance. I'll cover for you at the competition. You're rooming with Allen, right?"
"No, with Kanda." For some reason, they'd put Allen with Howard Link again.
"That's okay," Lenalee said. "Allen will help anyway, I'm sure he will. That should give you enough time to get home before the Rouvelliers even know you're gone."
"Lenalee, you can't do this." Rouvellier would crucify her.
"Lavi, I have nothing to lose now, and neither does Komui," she said, her face set. "I am not letting that man hurt another one of my friends."
"What about Allen? What will they do to him?"
"I don't know why, but the Rouvelliers can't touch him. Remember last time Rouvellier was in the studio? Allen will probably enjoy this."
That was true, but Allen wasn't his primary concern. "I don't want to leave you here, not with Rouvellier having delusions of husbandhood."
"Don't worry," she said. "I have Komui. I'll be fine."
That was probably true. Still. "This is too much," he said. "I can't accept this."
"You have to. It's non-refundable, and I'm in no shape for a holiday."
"Lenalee!" He'd originally been planning to do this very thing, but when Rouvellier got designs on Lenalee, he'd reconsidered. Now she was trying to make the decision for him. "Maybe you can get a partial refund."
"Lavi, remember when I said I was spoiled?"
"Yes."
"I'm still spoiled. Komui gives me an allowance, but he also buys me clothes and stuff, so money isn't a problem for me. Let me do something useful with it, okay? Let me help someone. I want to help you."
"I can't..." he said, squeezing the bridge of his nose between his finger and thumb to stop himself from crying.
"Let's get something straight," she said sternly, setting her hand on his arm. "It's not without conditions."
"What?"
"No more burning things down or blowing things up or hurting people. All right?"
He laughed, forgetting about the tears. "Can I aid and abet a fugitive? I have to take care of my grandfather."
"I'll make exceptions for that, but if he wants you to hurt someone to do it, please stop and think. Please. Those people also have families who love them."
If only he had stopped and thought six years ago! "I will."
"Oh, and another thing?"
"What?"
"Stay in touch. I'll worry. I've been reading about Israel. Be careful."
He threw restraint to the winds and hugged her, lifting her clean off the ground. "I will. I will, Neshama. Thank you."
"What does that mean?" she asked.
It meant that he had to watch himself more carefully. "Nothing, really. It's just a world."
"Nothing's just a word," she said.
"That's not true," he said, setting her down.
"Give me an example."
"Okay, what does doch mean in German?"
"I don't know, all kinds of things. It's an emphasis word."
"See what I mean?"
"Lavi!" She swatted at him. "I think you're lying to me."
"I'll tell you what it means when I get back." Soul. Neshama meant soul.
"When you..."
"I'll come back," he said. "I'll take care of my grandfather, and I'll come back."
"As yourself?"
As himself? He'd been a dancer, an accessory to murder, an illegal settler, a terrorist by several definitions, then a dancer again. What would he be when he was in a position to come back? "Yes," he said, "as myself. You know what that means, right?"
"What?"
"You have to stay in touch, too. I'll need to know where to find you."
"Of course I will," she said. "I owe you so much."
"What?" he said. "You just gave me a plane ticket. I owe you." More than he could ever repay.
She smiled. "If I'd had to dance against Road this year, I don't know what I would have done. I couldn't have held it together. You gave me a goal I could work for."
"That wasn't entirely unselfish," Lavi admitted, grateful for a chance to come clean.
"I know," she said, "but you could have picked someone else, like Fou."
"I didn't want to dance with Fou," he said. "I wanted to dance with you."
She hugged him, resting her head on his chest where he couldn't see her face.
What he wanted to do was kiss her, but it would be even more selfish than dancing with her, so instead he gave her a hard squeeze. "You know what? We would have beaten the twins, and it's not your fault we didn't get the chance, it's Rouvellier's. If he hadn't pushed you into dancing on an injury, we'd have taken that piece to Paris and won"
"How do you know?" She looked up at him, smiling, but her eyes were bright with tears.
"Because I know," he said. "We almost did it as it was. If we'd had a little more time and a little less pressure, we'd have gotten the points we needed."
"You're sure?" she said.
"Absolutely."
"Maybe you're right," she said.
"I know I'm right. Are you hungry?" he asked. He had, after all, made plans for the evening.
"Yes," she said
"Then I'll make you some real food"
"What's so unreal about Chinese food?" she asked with mock indignation.
"Real food," he said, "is whatever your mother made for you when you were little. For you, that's Chinese. For me, it's something completely different. Now, I'm nowhere near as good a cook my mother was, and there are things I can't get here at all, but I'll do my best."
She blinked and swallowed, but she smiled. "I can't wait," she said. "How can I help?"