Little Hunter
Nanku stared at the woman.
"It's—Um."
Was she uncomfortable? Why was she uncomfortable?
"It's twelve fifty-seven, ma'am." The woman pointed at the bill on the counter. "This is a hundred."
Nanku frowned, confused. "And?"
"I—Ah. Okay…"
The girl took the bill, and Nanku took the odd-smelling greasy burger and fries. She'd developed a good nose over the years. She wasn't entirely sure the Fugly Bob's Special Burger was actually made of meat. At least, not entirely meat.
Sniffing at it, she was certain she smelled something chemically. Maybe that was just the paper?
The cashier stared at her, and Nanku put the package back on the tray.
"Change," she said.
"Oh. Um. Okay. Yeah… Sure."
No wonder fast food employees got no respect. That was a thing, right? Nanku was pretty sure it was a thing.
"Sorry," the girl said. "Didn't want you to overpay."
Nanku took her change—which was a lot of paper bills more useful than a hundred—and took her food.
It wasn't much, but she didn't want to sit in the place with nothing. She'd stand out too much.
She'd also only eaten some strips of deer for breakfast and was hungry.
Sitting near a window, Nanku looked out toward the store as the first of the girl took the stage. She could see it from the window, but really she watched through the bugs.
The fly on Emma's back was hidden by her hair. Nanku knew precisely where she was behind the stage waiting for her turn. Other bugs planted on the other girls revealed their locations. It was an old tracking trick, and it worked just as well on Earth.
It was informative.
Fashion shows were not what Nanku expected. The stage was comparatively small, occupying the front of the store and little else. There weren't any fancy lights or music. There was someone talking with the crowd, offering names and words Nanku didn't entirely understand. Most of those she spoke with carried cameras and pads. Those she expected but far more were the people simply carrying phones and pointing them as the girls came out.
Fashion was weird, but it was drawing all the attention. Even in Fugly Bob's, most people were looking toward the stage rather than Nanku.
She idled the time away. Her hands unwrapped the burger and gave it a close look. It was greasier in appearance than scent and the tomato was so thin she wondered why they bothered. Fast food had not improved while she was gone.
Lifting the sandwich, Nanku took a tentative first bite.
It tasted mostly like salt.
A lot of salt.
Did humans always put that much salt on their food, or had she been eating game for so long she'd forgotten what salt tasted like?
It was too much, especially when there wasn't any other flavor underneath. The tomato was bland, the lettuce crunchy, and the burger itself just texture. The cheese came through, and she'd not had cheese in years.
In the future, she might just try a cheese sandwich. Minus all salt.
The fries weren't any better.
Nanku ate them anyway. No point wasting the prize she'd won, and it would save the deer for later.
She let the fashion event play out. It held no interest to her save Emma's presence, and she needed to spend her time working that out.
There was no point delaying. It was just cowardice. The police and the PRT no doubt had the information she wanted, but those would take time to access. Kurt, she could track down, but he'd only know about her father. The man wouldn't know anything about the camp.
Names would be useful. What enforcers investigated the crimes? With that, she could try tracking down their locations in the buildings, or even find them herself. Get around the need to infiltrate secured buildings with security at all.
Nanku enjoyed a challenge as much as the next hunter, but the goal was more important.
What did she even say? Nanku doubted Emma would even recognize her.
Taylor Hebert had been dead for ten years, and she hadn't seen Emma much for the years prior. She'd seen Aunt Zoe once or twice but only through the door.
Maybe they didn't even know her mother anymore.
"Excuses," she whispered to herself.
There was no avoiding it. No running away. Sooner or later, she had to face her mother and just deal with it.
Might as well sort out how to deal with people from her past life now when the stakes were low.
It was just Emma.
Nanku finished her meal and waited. Dusk and Dawn fell asleep on the roof, wings fluttering amid their snores. The show went on for about an hour.
Emma took the stage with her hair done up. Her dress was a shade of green that matched her eyes. It was slanted oddly, sleeveless and without a shoulder on one side and with a sheer see-through layer in a floral pattern set over the thicker material of the dress itself.
She looked a lot like Aunt Zoe, or at least as Nanku remembered the woman.
She smiled and cocked one hip to the side. The people with the cameras seemed to like it.
Did she just go up to Emma and say something? She had memories. Things only Taylor would know. It might work.
And Nanku decided she was already sick of thinking about it.
Just get it done, she decided.
With a breath, Nanku rose as the show wound down. The crowd hung around despite all the models going back into the store. The girl from before—a slender Asian woman a few years older than Nanku—answered questions and apologized for Parian's absence.
Nanku kept her focus on Emma. The girl—woman, Nanku reminded herself—spent a lot of time talking despite the show being over. Nearly an hour.
Nanku waited outside, frowning as she remembered how long Emma could talk for.
A lot.
She could talk for a lot. Clothes and television and school. Taylor could talk a lot too. More than Nanku usually did.
She'd forgotten that somehow.
Emma could talk so much, the Asian woman took notice of the tall girl with braids standing around waiting.
"Can I help you?"
"No," Nanku answered.
She didn't look amused.
The girl looked Nanku up and down, brow raised.
"Your clothes don't seem to fit you right."
"I have what I could get," Nanku answered honestly.
Nanku noticed the girls in the store shift. She kept her face plan and continued standing in place. Maybe she didn't need to do anything but stand in place.
That would be convenient.
Nanku kept her hands at her side and waited and the woman's glare intensified.
"You have a reason to be here?" she asked.
"Yes."
Her brow rose. "And it is?"
"No concern of yours."
The girl's frown deepened. "Do I need to call security?"
"Is standing an enforceable offense?"
"Interesting accent."
Was it?
She hadn't noticed before. Then again, who had she spoken to before? She couldn't speak proper Yautja. It wasn't possible. Her version was a mix of words she knew and sounds she tried to imitate. The clan figured it out.
The woman's hackles rose as Nanku remained silent.
What to say...
"If you say so."
"Okay."
The girl reached into her pocket, and Nanku's hackles rose.
Hunter.
The word came to mind immediately, but Nanku rejected it.
Not a hunter. Not of that sort, but something. The way her muscles tensed. The way she positioned her feet. Ready. Waiting. Eyes searching while her hands closed around something in her pocket.
The girl wasn't some store attendant.
She knew how to do violence, and she was muscled. Nanku overlooked it because all humans looked so scrawny compared to the Yautja.
Nanku could almost smell it now that she'd noticed.
And the girl noticed that she noticed.
"Last chance," the not-attendant warned. "Who ar—"
"Lily." Two of the models came out of the store. "What's up?"
The first Nanku didn't know and didn't care about.
The second looked at her.
Emma's full lips parted.
"Lily," the other girl repeated. "What's going on? Who's—"
"Do I know you?" Emma tilted her head. "I feel like—Do we have a class together?"
Nanku met her green eyes.
It was a strange feeling. She hadn't seen Emma in so long, but they'd been…
Thinking back, the thing Taylor hated her mother for more than anything, was taking her friend away. After her father died. When Taylor needed someone who could function outside of a whiskey bottle. She needed Emma, and she'd been denied her.
Emma pointed. "You're in my English class, aren't you? With Dr. Hertz? You did your hair—"
"No," Nanku said. "We haven't met in twelve years."
Emma pursed her lips. "Wow. Sorry, I don't remem… ber…"
Her eyes widened, big green orbs that jolted with shock.
And to Nanku's surprise, fury.
"Go fuck yourself," Emma snarled. "You think that's fucking funny?! Or even remotely clever?! I've been dealing with you assholes and every blogger and reporter desperate for even a little attention for the past ten years! You're not even original!"
The other model looked shocked. "Emma?"
"What is it?" Lily asked.
"Get lost," Emma growled. "And find some help, you freak!"
"At the hospital, I begged Aunt Zoe to take me with her." Nanku's eyes lidded. "She told me no. Because she was afraid my mother would hurt herself worse if she lost me too."
Emma froze.
"I never saw you again," Nanku said.
"What's that mean?" the other model asked.
"Emma?" Lily frowned. "Fill me in?"
Emma didn't answer.
She stared at Nanku, the wide-eyed shock back and rage fading.
Was that good enough? Nanku didn't think anyone else would bother to remember that. Who else could possibly know but the three people who'd been there? Zoe Barnes. Emma Barnes. And Taylor Hebert.
"Bullshit," Emma whispered.
"I cried the entire time."
Remembering it, she was angry at Aunt Zoe too. Taylor knew something was wrong with her mother. She knew, and Zoe knew too.
No matter.
It wasn't important anymore.
Emma still looked skeptical, but her anger had shattered. Nanku wondered sometimes what reading minds might be like. It would be a completely unfair advantage, but still. What was Emma thinking? How much did she even remember?
"Lily." Emma looked over to the other girl. "I'll take care of this."
"Not sure I'm comfortable with that," Lily replied. She still had her hand in her pocket. "We can't have any of the models getting hurt. It'll be bad for business."
"If she wanted to hurt me, she'd be stalking me outside," Emma said. "Not standing here trying to get our attention." She turned to the other girl. "My boyfriend is coming. Can you tell him I'm at the Fugly Bob's when he gets here?"
The girl frowned. "I—"
Emma held her hand out. "Lily can see the store from here. It's a public space. I'll be fine."
With that, she turned to Nanku, her gaze assessing.
"Come on then. Let's see if you can tell me anything that can't be found online."
Without another word, Emma turned toward the greasy, overly salted, fast food restaurant.
Nanku followed, but she planted several bugs around and on Lily to keep track of her.
Something stuck out about the girl, but for the life of her, Nanku couldn't say why. It was more than just instinct. Like a deep-seated sense of knowing in her core. Strange. She'd felt instinct before, but this felt… stronger.
Returning to the Fugly Bob's, Nanku silently waited in line with Emma. Met the cashier again. Got another greasy burger, and sat down.
Emma's green eyes watched from the other side of the table.
Nanku's brown eyes watched back.
They didn't touch their food.
"So. You're Taylor?"
"I don't use that name anymore."
"Convenient."
A good hunter never lied. "If I told anyone my name, they'd just send me back."
With that, Emma flinched. Her expression softened, and her shoulders relaxed.
Nanku had time to think about some of the questions she expected to be asked. This one, at least, required absolutely no falsehood. It was the truth, in its own inconsequential way.
"After camp," Nanku said, "I'd never leave home again."
Emma frowned. "So what? You just ditched and wandered off?"
"Yes."
"That why you have a weird accent now?"
"Maybe. My new family doesn't speak English." Well, they could understand it, but they couldn't speak it any better than Nanku could speak Yautja. "They named me Nanku. I go by that now."
"They Rastafarian or something?"
Nanku cocked her head to the side.
"The dreads," Emma clarified.
Nanku couldn't remember what a 'Rastafarian' was. Someone who liked pasta? "I braid my hair because of them. They're not Rastafarian."
"Huh… So, you've been alive this entire time, and you're coming back now?"
"I'm twenty years old. My mother can't lock me up anymore."
Emma's guard came back, quickly. She began tapping the table as she spoke, asking, "Ever think that maybe you should be locked up? In a place you could get help?"
Nanku scowled.
This was not how she imagined it. But, the last time she'd really imagined it, she'd been a little girl. It was a whole other life, with wholly different expectations.
"I only came here looking for my mother. To settle things. It's all I want."
"What?" Emma scoffed. "You want to play this practical joke on her too?"
Nanku scowled. "I can't find her. Or the house."
"The house is gone. Whole neighborhood got dozed over five, six years—"
She stopped talking as Nanku felt something stir.
The house was gone? Destroyed? It wasn't even that she couldn't find it. Her father's house wasn't there anymore.
And that hurt.
She didn't even know why it hurt. She hated that house. She hated the locked doors her mother wouldn't let her through. She only wanted to find it to find her mother and gather any information the woman had.
The house wasn't supposed to matter.
Nanku didn't notice Emma's expression shift.
"Seriously." The redhead leaned in. "Are you fucking with me, or do you need help? Like, help help." Her eyes shifted to the side. "My boyfriend kind of does therapy stuff. If you need help..."
Nanku hadn't noticed the boy before Emma did. He came in casually, one of dozens who just didn't have any reason to stand out. Shoulders relaxed, one hand in his pocket. He went right for the shop, paused, looked around, and then approached Lily when he saw her. They spoke for a few seconds, and then he was heading straight for the Fugly Bob's.
Emma's boyfriend, Nanku presumed.
When Nanku took her first real look at him, she supposed he was handsome enough. Tall and broad-shouldered with blonde hair. Well kept.
He came into the restaurant in a rush and immediately looked at Emma.
When his attention shifted to Nanku sitting across the table, his brow rose.
"Emma," he said. "Everything okay?"
"Fine, Dean."
"Who's this?" Dean asked.
"This"—Emma held her hand out—"is Taylor Hebert."
Dean stiffened at the name. "Wait—As in—"
"Yup. Taylor Hebert—or whatever she wants to call herself—back from the dead after all this time." Emma scowled. "Or so she says."
Nanku watched the man back, again feeling something rise in her. A sense of warning. Not as dangerous as what she got from Lily, but something. Something off.
It made her hairs stand on end.