Life at the capital was getting better. I was starting to get all the city slang and gestures. I could switch accents. And with my haircut, I finally looked stylish enough for the Fire Capital, with that sharp look that was popular.

Being chosen for the Royal Spring Performance, I left my intermediary dance group to join an elite one. Unlike my old group, my new dance group warmed up to me fast. Many of them came from other parts of the country too. Some even came from other countries. They weren't bothered that I didn't know things. They just saw me dance once and agreed I was their first soloist.

I thought dancers, like ninjas, were more strict the higher their rank. But elite dancers turned out to be way more easy-going than the beginners, often going out for barbeque or karaoke or drinks.

One day after lessons, all the different elite groups in the school came together just to goof off. We danced to music. It was my first time seeing dancers from all different styles and performances come together, and I was amazed by what some people could do.

In the middle of the dance floor were two kids doing moves that I'd never seen before. I asked someone in the crowd what this was. She seemed surprised I didn't know. She explained this was waacking. The music switched, and two new dancers entered the circle.

It was my first time seeing two dancers not dancing with each other but at each other. There was no choreography, just action and reaction. It reminded me of shinobi sparring, but instead of hurting each other, everyone was having fun. They called it "dance-off".

The dance style had switched into something called krumping. And the one after was called breaking.

I was mesmerized. After seeing one impressive move, I cheered with the rest of the crowd. The winner was a kid about my age. He flipped up.

He noticed me staring at him. Smiling, he beckoned me into the circle.

"Wait, I don't know—" I began, as the crowd pushed me forward.

The kid realized I was new to this. He looked at his friend by the music box. Understanding, his friend clicked a button, switching the music.

"No sweat, we'll do freeform," the kid told me. "How about it?"

He looked at me expectantly, palms open. His smile made me smile.

"Okay!"

He took the first turn. He was immediately in my face, before pulling back. The rest of his moves were slower and calmer than last round, but no less impressive. He was going easy on me.

Ha! He didn't need to.

I hadn't had this much fun since the first time Teacher Ekkusu played me his cassette.

Soon the crowd was exploding with cheers.

In the end, the kid and I were both panting and laughing. We called it a tie.

"Hi, I'm Ayae!"

"Z," he said, shaking my hand.

.

Z was a handsome boy with an easy walk and relaxing voice. He liked to wear jackets with the hood pulled up and stylish shoes. His left ear had many earrings.

He showed me how to write his name, but because it was hard for me to say, he told me to call him Jii.

Jii introduced me to his friends, Jei, Emu, and En. They were all b-boys and b-girls, which just meant they specialized in breaking. Jei was the same age as Jii and me, while Emu and En were twin girls a year younger. They came as part of a student exchange from a top school in Lightning, specifically to compete in the upcoming New School Expo.

We grabbed lunch together every day, where we shared stories and food. I showed them ketchup, and they showed me some yellow-colored wasabi called mustard. I learned that because Lightning was in the mountains, they ate more potatoes than rice, and more lamb than beef. Leafy vegetables were rare in their homeland, and they were surprised how many people here could live on rice and vegetables alone.

I felt bubbly hanging out with them. I thought they were stylish. They thought I was cool. They were always excited to invite me in and weren't shy to compliment me lots. I liked Jii's compliments the most, which always left me warm for hours after.

Jii, Jei, Emu, and En were my first friends from a different country.

In befriending them, I discovered I knew very little about other countries, and also about my own.

All my history and geography lessons only taught me wars, how other countries had wronged us, and how we fought back, and what was the best way to beat them. I was told my country was the best country, and there was nothing interesting outside of it.

But that was wrong.

For hours and hours, I could listen to my new friends talk about their homeland. The food. The people. The life.

I learned they were from a city of lights, called Kurohyou. Kurohyou was a very unique place. Everywhere there'd be glass towers with big televisions. And there were these tunnels below called the "metro", where machine-carts took you everywhere you needed to go.

Kurohyou was the biggest city in Lightning. People called it the art capital of the world, because it was the birthplace of everything from fashion to music, poetry to dance. The city was also the wealthiest in the world, with more money than Wind, Water, and all the minor countries combined.

While many cities had crumpled and collapsed throughout the world wars, Kurohyou only got stronger, richer, its towers soaring beyond the clouds, lighting up the night sky. All around were glass and glamor, fast rails and trailing lights.

For anyone who didn't grow up there, it was a whole other world, one big starry dream.

My new friends were very proud of their city. They said I had to visit them there someday.

Everyone liked to brag about their homeland. But in this case, I didn't think my new friends were exaggerating. The proof was in their dance.

Anyone with eyes could see these kids were in a whole different league. Jii was, without a doubt, the star of the New School Expo. The audience was going to go crazy when they saw what he had been preparing for the show. Not only that, I noticed all the best dancers in school also either came from Lightning or trained in Lightning. Even Teacher Wai was a citizen of Lightning.

Teacher Ekkusu, strangely enough, wasn't.

The girls at Ms. Hyuuga's hadn't been crazy to assume Teacher Ekkusu was from Lightning. I didn't see it at first, but the more I met people from Lightning, the more I could. Dark skin was one easy way to tell. It was more common to have dark skin than light skin in that country.

I would have never guessed. Growing up around Michio, I always assumed dark skin was a quirk. Like how in litters of kittens, there'd sometimes be an oddball who looked different from the others.

When I confessed this to Jii, he laughed so hard. Before I could hide in embarrassment, he said he could see how I'd make that mistake. He told me how growing up, they had a light-skinned kid in their class. One day, Jei had approached him on the playground and, trying to be helpful, told the kid he did it wrong—you're supposed to bleach your hair, not your skin.

Jei tackled Jii full-body to the floor before Jii could say more.

"Yo, I know you ain't throwing me over the bridge for the new girl."

"Please, you threw yourself over. I'm just reporting the damage."

They wrestled.

Jii had a really nice laugh.

After practice ended, the group of us had dinner together. We ate on the steps outside the school building.

By my side, Emu and En were working together on poetry. It wasn't written, but spoken. Jei added sounds to go with it, to make some sort of musical beat talk. They told me it was called rap.

Listening to them was exhilarating.

"Wow, you can do that and dance?" I asked.

Jii explained, "Our school isn't a dance school, Ayae. It's an art school. The arts aren't split up where we're from. The four of us all do dance, but we've got other studies too. J does fashion, for example."

My eyes widened. "Fashion? Like, making your clothes?" Like Emi?!

Jei made a clicking noise with his tongue that meant yes.

"Whoa!" I could see it. Jei always dressed the most unique. He'd switch between these colorful cloths that wrapped around his head. The cloth would always match his outfit for the day and have all these eye-catching patterns.

"He designed our jewelry too," Emu said.

"Look," En said.

Emu and En showed me their brass bracelets.

"This one is yours too, isn't it," Jii said, showing the bottom earring on his left ear.

"I like that one the most!" I said, pointing.

Jei leaned back, grinning. "Yeah, I knew that one would be popular with the girls." Tilting his head, Jei showed me his own earring on his right ear. "Boys go wild for this one."

I was a little confused.

"Jii is wearing a girl earring?"

Everyone exchanged a glance.

"She doesn't…?" Emu whispered.

"Isn't Fire…?" En whispered.

Jii looked amused. He saved me, explaining, "I'm not a girl, Ayae. The earring is for girls. To look at. I like girls looking at me."

Jei coughed. "Attention hog."

"Ah!" I said, understanding now. I was used to dressing in what I liked. It never crossed my mind to dress in what others liked. But that was clever! Of course others would see you, more than you could see yourself.

"It works!" I said. "I like looking at you, Jii."

Jii glowed.

I felt warm.

After dinner, we chatted some more. I asked Jii what his other talents were. He told me he was best at painting.

I was caught off guard when they asked about me. They knew I only started dancing professionally recently. They were curious about what I did before dancing.

I sweated. I had sworn secrecy about my past. To prevent kidnappers, assassins, all that good stuff. But I didn't want to lie either, not to my new friends.

So I gave a half-truth.

Jei went wide-eyed. "A dropout? Oh shiii—"

Emu and En nodded at each other approvingly. "Gangster," they said.

Jei leaned in, grinning madly. "No wonder you can take on Z in a dance off. You hardcore."

I glanced at Jii, confused by the word. Smiling, Jii explained to me that "hardcore" was compliment.

To my surprise, they looked up to dropouts. To them, it meant you weren't "sheep". Dropouts were willing to sacrifice the easy life for the real one. Demos needed people like that.

"Demos?" I echoed.

"Democracies," Jii said.

Seeing my blank look, he clarified, "You know, power to the people." He made some type of gesture that I didn't understand. Brows furrowing, he turned to the others. "That ain't K-slang, right?"

They didn't know. To them, democracy was a basic word, like sun and cow.

Jii tried explaining the word to me. When I still wasn't understanding, Jei tried too.

I sweated, wondering why everyone looked so worried.

"No, no, I get it now, I think," I said, not wanting to look stupid. I explained I used to be a student representative and went to a lot of adult meetings, so I knew about things like voting and elections. From what they were saying, that was democracy, right?

"You're talking about making decisions! About... ruling." I paused, thinking. "Your home city decides things by voting in elections, and that is what makes it a… democracy."

I wondered if I got it right.

Jii shook his head.

"First off, we're not a democracy."

Jei inhaled sharply. "Well…"

Emu and En shut him down. "We're definitely not."

"Not even close," Emu said blandly.

"Not anymore," En said blandly.

"We want to be," Jii told me. "Yes, we do have voting and elections, but you can be a demo without those things. Just like how you can be mono with those things."

"Mono?"

"Monocracy."

I sweated. Okay, maybe I was lost.

Jii thought hard. He realized what they were doing wrong. They were trying to describe dance in terms of moving body parts. I was never going to understand dance that way, just as how I was never going to understand democracy this way.

I was missing the soul of it.

Jii stepped back. The reason democracy is an important word, he explained, is not what it says about ruling.

It's what it says about power.

Democracy is about equal power. Monocracy is about single power. Together, they make the ends of a spectrum. Understanding this spectrum is important to understanding fairness.

My expression changed. I leaned in.

In Jii's mind, a good world must be a fair world. As long as there was unfairness in the world, people would and should fight. The solution was not to silence your opponent's anger or crush their will, but to restore fairness. And the key to doing that, Jii believed, was with equality.

And of all the things where equality mattered—money, freedom, rights, dignity—there was one that mattered above all: power.

Because without equality in power, equality everywhere else was doomed to fall apart.

.

For the rest of the evening, we practiced dance.

The five of us got a practice room. It was great. Now that I had dance friends, I didn't have to worry about awkwardly sharing spaces and intruding in other groups' practices anymore.

Halfway through, Jii and I began exchanging moves. Our styles were very different, so it was fun to learn from each other.

"Oh damn, this is sick," Jii said, mirroring me. "What were you trained in again?"

"Ballet."

He flipped himself back upright. "Ha, no really," he said, massaging his arm. He saw I wasn't joking. "Hold up, for real?"

I rubbed my neck. "I wasn't the best at it," I admitted. "So Teacher Ekkusu and I are working to make a new style for me. This is that."

Jii stopped. The others also stopped what they were doing and looked up.

"Did you just say you're working with X?" Jei asked.

I looked back and forth between them. "Is… there something wrong with that?"

Jii broke into the biggest smile I'd ever seen, half in disbelief, half in awe.

"Ayae, X is the best dancer in the world."

I blinked.

"Has he been personally mentoring you?" Jii asked.

"Once a week?"

Emu and En had their mouths open. Jei looked like he was going to have a heart attack.

"That's cool," Jii said. "What's the style called?"

"Oh! Martial dance," I said, smiling.

"I like it."

"Thanks!"

Emu and En slapped Jei out of it.

"She doesn't know about X," Jei said faintly.

"She's from the countryside," Emu reminded him.

"She doesn't have television," En said.

"Hey!" I protested, overhearing. "We do have television."

"No you don't," they deadpanned.

"A static box without broadcasting..." Emu said.

"...is just a static box," En said.

"That's not television," they said.

"Come to Kurohyou with us."

"We show you real television."

"Watch Popular Idol."

"Watch anime."

They nodded at each other.

I sweated.

Jii and I danced some more. He was impressed by how fast I picked everything up. After I got the hang of the air-flare, he decided to test a piece of choreography.

He was surprised when I not only got it, I could continue it a bit more.

"And then what?" I asked excitedly, paused on a handstand.

He simply watched me.

"Jii?"

"Ayae," he began. "Do you feel whatever you dance?"

"Yeah!"

Jii didn't say more.

I flipped back upright. Jii was still watching me, his eyes finding mine. It made me flustered. I quickly looked away.

"It's late," he said. "Let's stop for tonight?"

"Okay," I said.

Jii picked up his backpack. I wondered if he would walk me home like he had the past few nights. My stomach went bubbly when he told his friends he'd meet them back at the hotel. He intended to walk with me.

It was late, but I didn't want the day to end yet. Getting more time with Jii made me happy.

"X was my biggest idol growing up. Part of why I came to Fire was to see him in person," Jii told me as we walked. He glanced my way. "It makes sense that you're his protege. You've got that same spark that he does."

He was complimenting me again. I smiled.

In Konoha, everyone was shy about compliments. My relatives would rather eat their sandals than say something nice, and they'd get embarrassed if anyone said something nice about them. My dad embarrassed them the most, because my dad complimented them the most.

It felt nice having friends who weren't so shy.

We stopped before my apartment building. Before we separated for the night, Jii pulled out something from his bag.

"Right, before I forget."

He offered me a gift.

My heart skipped. It was a yellow freesia flower, carefully wrapped in wax paper.

"They were selling these near our hotel, and I thought of you," he said.

"For me? Really?!"

I took the freesia, giddy. I admired the flower, then him.

"They're my favorite flowers," I said.

"I know." Jii hadn't stopped smiling. He sounded so happy, even though I was the one getting the gift. "You told us the first day we met."

.

The freesia flower left me bubbly for days. I put it in a bottle of water by the kitchen windowsill. Noticing it, Otoha moved it into the shade. She sprinkled sugar into the water and cut the stem in a way that helped the freesia last longer.

"Ah, thank you, Otoha!" Chin atop my fists, I watched the flower. "Otoha?"

"What?" she asked, opening the pantry.

"What do you think is a good gift to give a boy?"

Otoha nearly dropped her bowl. Her head turned sharply in my direction.

"A boy gave you that?"

I nodded furiously.

"From school. I think… I think I like him!" I couldn't stop smiling.

My whole body felt like floating whenever I thought of Jii, which was now all the time. My mind kept going back to his face, or his earrings, or his voice, or his walk. I thought of all the Jii things, like the way he'd change his sitting position a hundred times, or how'd do a sway and back-step instead of turning around. I thought of his arms and how I just wanted to loop them with mine.

I wondered if this had been what my friends felt whenever they said they liked someone.

Excited, I turned to Otoha. "Have you ever liked a boy?"

Otoha recovered.

"No," she deadpanned.

"Never?"

Already knowing what I was going to say, she said, "And never will."

She put a pan on the stove, showing she was done talking. I pouted.

"If you like him, have you thought about giving a flower back?"

It was Jonasan. He sat cross-legged on the floor, keeping still as Saimon braided his beard.

The other park people, who had also been listening, nodded. They murmured, giving their own suggestions for gifts. Fiiru, as the boy of our family, said boys like toys. He bounced on my bed, showing me Utako and Komai.

I beamed.

I went to the market with everyone's suggestions in mind. I liked the flower idea, but I learned that Jii's favorite flower didn't grow in Fire. Even if it did, it was a winter flower, not a spring flower. It would have already been past its bloom. As for clothes or toys, there were so many to choose from that I became overwhelmed.

But as I wandered around the market, I saw the perfect gift.

The next day at school, I skidded in front of Jii right before lunch.

I bowed low, gravely presenting my gift to him.

Amused, he took the box and unwrapped it. His friends peered over his shoulder. He looked at the gift in confusion, flipping it over to read the label.

"It's chocolate!" I exclaimed.

I remembered from our first conversation, when we talked about our favorite things, Jii said he'd never heard of chocolate before. I realized cocoa trees must not grow in the north, only in the hot and wet areas of the south.

Jii wasn't shy to go for it. He broke off a piece and popped it in his mouth right then and there. He bit down.

His expression changed.

His friends looked at him.

I held my breath, and I could see the moment when he realized it was melting in his mouth.

"Man, that's wild!" Laughing, he licked his teeth and swallowed. "Guys, we been missing out. Ayae, can I...?"

I nodded furiously.

He shared it with his friends, so they could have a taste too. They had the same reaction.

"Shit, that's good!"

"More. More." Emu and En made grabby hands for more.

As we walked to the canteen, I told Jii more about chocolate. About how you could have it in ice cream and cakes and cookies. In Konoha, we even had two holidays where it was all about giving chocolates to the people you liked.

I realized I was rambling as bad as my dad.

"Ah, I guess what I'm trying to say is… I like you, Jii!"

My heart was going crazy. My face had gone red.

Jii hadn't expected me to say that, his step frozen. We stood in the hallway for what seemed like forever.

Then Jei snickered. I had forgotten there were other people with us.

"Damn, she beat you to it."

Jii looked both off-guard and flustered. He sent his friends a look, shifting his gaze. Understanding, they jumped and ran away.

Once we were alone, Jii turned to me.

"I like you too, Ayae," he admitted, grinning guiltily. "Since our first dance, if I'm being honest."

My feelings bursted.

"Can I take you on a date?" we simultaneously asked.

I exploded of happiness.

When we rejoined everyone else at the canteen, we chose to sit side by side. I had sat besides Jii many times before, but this time was different. Sitting next to him, and being so close, while also knowing I liked him and he liked me, it was… it was… AHH, I had become dizzy again. I just wanted to bury my face into my hands and scream in joy.

During lunch, we chatted over first date ideas. Jei mentioned an arcade, and we decided that was perfect.

The morning before the date, Emu and En dragged me up to their hotel room, where they showered me with scarves and jewelry. They told me they were in a competition with Jei on who could make the better date outfit.

I went along with it, giggling. It was all fun and games until they busted out the scissors.

Before I could protest, they had already snipped my shirt with evil glee.

"What—stop—wait—!"

I stopped panicking long enough to look at myself in the mirror. I watched them knot together the last loose pieces of fabric. "Oh…" In awe, I spun before the mirror, looking at the pattern down my back, my plain shirt turned into a work of art. "Whaa!"

En finished my look with a pair of sunglasses. They fell down to my nose. I rushed to lift them back up, so I could look at my outfit in the mirror.

With a serious expression, I turned to the twins. "You're good."

"We know," they said, fist-bumping.

Jii was waiting for us in the lobby with Jei.

Seeing him, I stopped breathing.

Emu and En saw his outfit too and groaned. Jei was sprawled on the lobby couch, looking smug. "Move aside, amateurs."

There was no competition. Jii wore jewelry a hundred times better than I could. I thought he was already too handsome before, but dressed up like this… I… I…

"You ready?" Jii asked me, looking at my outfit with a wide smile. His eyes found mine.

I lost self-control, jumping on him.

I held his arm tightly as we walked out the hotel together. I sighed, in heaven.

The arcade was a famous tourist spot, being the first ever arcade in the country. When we arrived, it was packed, from young kids to adults.

Emu and En immediately went for the hammer smashing games, and Jei jumped over to the ball hoops. Laughing, Jii and I hopped from machine to machine. We played ping-pong, pinball, and this mouth game where we had to munch all the coins in a maze.

We passed by a ball pit and after exchanging an excited look, cannonballed in.

As we looked for our next adventure, we noticed two teenagers trying a stepping game. It looked like you had to step on the wooden tiles that popped up from the floor.

The game had a leaderboard. In first place was someone called Miraafurawaa. To my surprise, that was over two decades ago. No one had come close in the time since.

The current players lost. The game ended when you stepped anywhere but a raised tile.

Jii and I decided to give the game a try. It didn't seem too hard.

We lost.

"Oh. All the raised tiles have to be stepped on at the same time," Jii said.

"It's a dancing game!"

Grinning, we put in a coin and tried again. It was indeed a dance game. The timing mattered. If you stepped too fast or slow, the game would end again.

It took a few tries but Jii and I got into the rhythm.

The pace picked up. Instead of three or four tiles, there were five, six, and even seven, coming up in surprising patterns. We were forced to get creative, using our hands and elbows and knees, swinging and holding onto each other for balance.

After a thousand points, a crowd had gathered around us. We were already in third place, rising up to second.

"Oh wow! Look!"

"That's crazy…"

"...must be students from Ekkusu-Wai."

"Wah, they're incredible!"

We broke the record for second.

"Quick, get the crew over! They're going after Miraafurawaa!"

"Miraafurawaa?! No one has beaten them in twenty years!"

I felt another storm of steps coming and pulled Jii down. Without fail, he hit the sequence, his hand landing on the tile just as mine did.

"Nine thousand! They're over nine thousand!"

"They're in the final stage!"

I was barely aware of the voices around us. I was barely aware I was dancing at all.

Instead, something strange happened. Like one of Teacher Ekkusu's dances, I could feel my own body fading, replaced with someone else's. But this time, things were so vivid, I felt like I had teleported into a new world.

That world was a desert. And I was gliding, the sun hot against my back and arms, the wind strong against my sail. A group of us were snaking across the sandy landscape, laughing because we had beaten the monsters, the bandits, the storm, and now it was all about getting home. We were so close to finally getting back home—

My eyes widened.

"Cliff!" I shouted.

Jii reacted, changing his position midair. I wasn't going to make it.

My fall stopped short.

Peeking open an eye, I saw I was back in the arcade. I was caught by Jii. He was caught by Jei from the sidelines, who was being balanced by Emu and En.

The game had no more challenges to throw at us. The tiles rose to make a simple road escorting Jii and I off. As we walked, the counter ticked to 9996, 9997, 9998, 9999...

Perfect ten thousand. We beat the game.

I turned around to look at the scoreboard, where Miraafurawaa remained frozen at 9984.

They had died at the cliff.

.

An arcade attendant unscrewed the glass to the leaderboard. He moved all the other name cards down one slot.

"What alias do you want?" the attendant asked us.

We exchanged a look, before grinning.

Done, the attendant screwed the glass back in place and climbed down the ladder.

JAZMN. 10000.

"Jasmine," Emu said, pleased.

"Jazzman," En corrected.

"Jasmine," Emu insisted.

"Jazzman," En growled.

While Emu and En butted heads, Jii and I enjoyed our fifteen minutes of fame. I had never received so much praise before and I soaked in every second, my cheeks blushing. In that moment, I really did feel like a celebrity.

The dance took a lot out of us. Hungry, the five of us decided to take a break at the snack bar. There were potato puffs and soy bars and biscuit sticks. Jei loved the wasabi peas the most, stuffing bags of them in his pockets to take home.

"Oh, this came loose," Jii said.

I followed his gaze. I froze when I saw it was my arm bandages. We had been moving so much, and with the place so crowded, I hadn't noticed.

With the bandages unraveled, my crooked arm was exposed. You could see the ugly scar running all the way down. I was embarrassed. It wasn't something I wanted Jii to see, much less on our first date.

But Jii didn't seem bothered, wrapping it back up for me. To my surprise, he did it in perfect crossing order. It wasn't something I'd expect a non-ninja person to get right on the first try, unless he had memorized the wrapping pattern.

When he finished, I found myself blushing. I felt I needed to explain.

"Sorry. Back home, I had, ah, gotten careless, so… I got this."

Jii glanced around the snack bar to check no one was looking. Secretly, he lifted the edge of his shirt. Between his navel and hip bone was an alarmingly big scar.

I immediately thought that was a stab wound. But that couldn't be. A stunt gone wrong? Jii's style of breakdancing was certainly intense, pulling off tricks most dancers didn't think were possible. Mimicking them, even I found myself sweating and out of breath.

"I'm careless too," Jii admitted. He pulled his shirt back down, eyes back on me. "Does it still hurt?"

I shook my head. "Does yours?"

He shook his head.

"You regret what you did?" he asked.

"No," I said, probably a little too quickly. "You?"

Jii melted into a smile. "No."

It was easy to lose track of time at the arcade. Despite all the people and noise, Jii and I were in our own world.

When it came time to leave, Jii separated from his friends. He walked with me back to my apartment.

As we walked, we passed one of the many construction sites. It looked like a building had caught on fire in the past. Parts of it had been torn down and removed, but the work was left unfinished, and nothing got built in its place.

Looking at the charred walls, Jii had an idea.

"Ayae, stand here?"

Curious, I did as told.

"Pose?"

I blinked. Feeling fancy, I went on tiptoe and extended my arms for a flying swan.

I heard something clicking and shaking. I turned to see Jii had taken out a can of something from his backpack.

I kept still as he sprayed something out from the can.

It was paint! I had only seen paintings done with water and brushes. He was using air.

"Whaaa…" I whispered.

When he was done, the wall was bright with color, bursting from a silhouette of a dancer. It no longer looked like abandoned construction, but a moment frozen in time, of something great finally breaking free of the architecture around them.

I had never seen anything like this before in my life.

I just stared.

I wanted to cry.

Now this was just unfair. My new friends said upfront that they came from a top school in a top city. They were first-class kids. S-rank. I knew that. But this? This level of talent was giving even my clan a run for their money.

"So what do you—" Jii began. He backstepped. My face had gone right up to his, my eyes wide and pleading.

"Can we make an outline of you too?!"

"Sure."

Jii didn't pause. He handed me a can.

"Do I hold it like this?" I asked, giddy.

"Like… that."

"Okay!"

"And…"

"Press here."

"Ah!"

"Can you reach?"

"Yes! Wait… yes!"

"That's my hand."

"Oh no, sorry, are you—!"

"I'm okay, just finish, Ayae," Jii said, holding back his laugh.

After I made his silhouette, Jii guided me through the rest. He took my hand in his as we moved the spray can across the wall.

We sat for a while just looking at our work. We looked at each other and smiled. We did good.

I glanced down at Jii's palm, where I had accidentally sprayed him red. His paint didn't look or feel anything like ink. Despite being air, it dried so stiffly.

"Will it wash off?"

"Do you want it to?" he teased.

I blushed.

I looked at his face and blushed again. I scooted closer.

I scooted again, until we bumped.

We walked the rest of the way holding hands. We had held hands enough times during dance that it felt very familiar and natural, as if I was holding a piece of myself. I thought of inviting Jii into my apartment. I should introduce him to Otoha, Jonasan, and everyone. With any luck, Saimon was cooking dinner today and making that stew that was really yummy.

I noticed someone outside our apartment building. It was Otoha.

I skipped up to her, pulling Jii along.

"Otoha! I want you to meet Jii. Jii, this is…"

Something was wrong.

This wasn't like the other times when Otoha would laze around on the steps, enjoying the outside air. She had no books on her.

It looked like she had been waiting. Waiting… for me?

Instantly all my old training came back. I was hyper aware of her hands, her footing, recognizing the stance of a ninja, the stance of a ninja ready to kill. My own body tensed, ready to counter.

"Otoha?" I whispered.

"Get inside," was all Otoha said.

.

"What was that!" I demanded once we were inside the building. We had been so rude, sending Jii away like that.

I was so embarrassed. I hoped Jii's feelings didn't get too hurt.

"You can't see that boy," Otoha told me.

"What! Why not?"

We reached our apartment. Everyone inside jumped at the slamming door.

"Because you are too immature for this nonsense. You have no idea what you're getting yourself into."

"What? Dating? I've gone on dates before."

Otoha sent me a deadpan look. "With who?"

"Michio! Ita—!" The name got caught in my throat.

Otoha didn't notice. "Right. Your family. Who will indulge you in whatever cute little adventures you want. Who will protect you with their lives. That boy is a foreigner, who for all you know, has been sent to kidnap you, or worse. And never once has that thought occurred to you, has it, because you. Have no clue. How this world works."

"Um, we'll just be…" Saimon sweated, gently tiptoeing around us, taking his half-cooked pot of stew.

After everyone left, Otoha and I exploded into full screams.

I was so insulted she thought Jii could be a bad guy, when all it took was one talk to see he was a kid like me. I was even more insulted that Otoha thought that badly of my judgment.

She didn't even give him a chance. Didn't give me a chance.

"You haven't even met him, you're the one who knows nothing at all!"

"He's from Lightning. That's more than enough."

"Great, then you know they're smart and funny and nice. And my friends. How many do you have?"

I was being mean. I was angry and frustrated. I just wanted Otoha to trust me, that I knew what I was talking about and she didn't.

Otoha only got madder, like the word "friends" was the most disrespectful thing she had ever heard.

Our yells turned into shoving and smashing. We had not had a fight like that since Miyako.

"LIGHTNING IS NO FRIEND."

"AND YOU ARE NOT MY PARENT!"

Just because Otoha was older and lived with me did not make her my babysitter!

I had enough.

Before Otoha could stop me, I jumped out the window.

I stomped across the rooftops, leaping from one building to the next.

Was she crazy? Give up Jii? Give up my new friends? The people who made me the happiest at the Fire Capital? Who made me finally, finally feel like I could start life all over again? I hadn't even realized how miserable I was until they came into my life, miserable enough to break down crying during a haircut.

Otoha had no idea how much she would hurt me if she got her way.

I had to get away.

The fresh air calmed me down a bit.

Thankfully, Jii had not gotten too far. I recognized him easily. He was quietly walking back to his hotel.

I dropped in front of him. "Hey Jii, I'm so sorr—"

I blinked.

Jii had leapt backwards, nearly tripping over himself.

"Ayae?! Where did you—!" He looked around, before he looked back at me, baffled as to where I could have come from.

I had been too emotional. I forgot I wasn't supposed to reveal myself like that.

I didn't care.

"Ayae, is… everything okay?"

Jii was rightfully confused. One minute, we had been holding hands, and the next, he had been all alone in the street, the door slammed in his face.

"Yes. No! I—" I inhaled. "Can we talk?"

Jii went very still.

He shoved his hands deep into his jacket pockets and nodded.

"Sure," he said, trying to be casual. "Here or…?"

"Can we go somewhere private?"

Jii nodded again.

We went to his hotel. Jii shared a room with Jei. Jei had already changed into his pajamas for the night, on the phone with someone. Jei stopped midcall, surprised to see me.

"Uhh… hold on, I'ma call back."

Jei hung up.

"Hey again?"

"J, can we have the room?" Jii asked politely.

Jei looked back and forth between us. I could tell from their gazes they were talking to each other without talking.

"I'll be with M and N," Jei finally said. He cast us a final look back before closing the door.

Once we were alone, I breathed.

"I need to tell you something, Jii."

"You don't want to date anymore."

"I—" My brain stopped. "What?"

Jii gave a weak smile, his posture very stiff. "Hey, it's alright. If you don't feel the same way anymore after today, we don't have to."

I panicked. "W-what? Huh? No, I like you! A lot, a lot!"

I had a fight over you, I wanted to say. I was even about to...

We saw we were having a misunderstanding. After we cleared it up, Jii dropped onto his bed.

"You still… I see…" Jii said.

To my alarm, he was shaking. He noticed it too and made himself stop, clamping his hands together. Something was wrong.

"Jii?"

"Yeah?"

"Why did you say we didn't have to date any more? Is it because you…" I gathered the courage to just say it. "D-do you not like me anymore?" Did I ruin our first date? Did Otoha scare him away?

His eyes widened. They snapped back up to me.

"Absolutely not. I…" He laughed. "If this isn't obvious, I've got it bad for you, Ayae. Just look at this." He lifted his backpack, full of paint cans inside. "I haven't tried this hard to impress anyone since…"

He caught himself and shook his head.

"Because I like you, I got scared," he confessed. "I jumped to conclusions. I didn't want to get dumped again, so I tried to beat you to it. Get it over with, you know. But I only confused and scared you, didn't I? That's my mess up. Sorry."

Oh.

It never occurred to me that Jii could be nervous. He had always been the most calm out of all of us. Even as he was saying this now, he sounded so calm and patient.

Wait.

Dumped again?

I leaned forward, studying his face.

"Someone dumped you before?" I blurted out. I looked and looked and couldn't find a single reason why anyone would.

Jii winced. "My… last girl?"

Jii had a girlfriend before me?!

It was that moment I realized… I didn't know Jii at all!

Sure, I could recognize him easily by his style or voice or step. I knew a little about the type of person he was and how he would act. And I knew all his favorite things.

But everything else was… blank. I didn't know anything about his past. I didn't even know his family. I had been so careful to not reveal my family, I hadn't noticed how little Jii talked about his own family.

I was suddenly curious about all of it. His friends, his family, everything.

But when I asked Jii about it, he just said I had already met all his important people. Jei, Emu, and En. They were everyone I needed to know.

"What about your parents?"

"Don't have them anymore."

"They died?" I whispered.

"They're alive. I'm… not their kid anymore. They threw me out."

His parents… threw him away? Jii was talking about it so casually too, like this was normal. Like it was such a small thing, it wasn't even worth bringing up.

I learned it was not just parents. His friends, his mentors, his girlfriend, everyone cut ties with him last year.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did everyone leave you?"

Jii was startled by how loud I was.

He relaxed after seeing I wasn't mad at him. I made myself relax too. I was still too wound up from my fight with Otoha.

Jii tried to think of how to tell me. Even if it was a small thing to him, he could tell it was a big thing to me.

"You remember how I said we have elections?" Jii began. "And how it's a big deal back home?"

I nodded.

"Well, we have these two sides, the Jouge and the Sayuu, who fight every year for votes. Whichever side gets the most gets to control the city. I live in a Jouge neighborhood. My parents are Jouge." He breathed. "They caught me working for the Sayuu. They found out I was the artist behind all the inner city Sayuu works, and… " He shrugged. "You know how it is."

I didn't.

"School wasn't better. I thought I'd be fine in school. You know, being popular and all that. But it's still Jouge turf. When word got out what I did, things got… brutal. Biggest assholes turned out to be my own friends. Did some messed up things." Jii lowered his gaze. I noticed his hand had moved to where his scar was. "Messed me up, anyway."

He stared at the other bed in the room. "J's the only one who stuck by me. He outed himself for my sake. He… he's a good one. If not for him, I'm not sure I'd have survived."

"How did you live without parents," I whispered.

"J's got a rich aunt who lives by herself in a Sayuu block of the neighborhood. She took me in. Living there, I got to know M and N. They're Sayuu who've learned to fend for themselves. They began sticking by us in school."

Jii exhaled. He came clean.

"I wasn't lying when I said I came here for X. He's my idol. But to be honest, I was also in a bad place back home. There… wasn't a place for me there anymore."

I swallowed.

"J's aunt said getting out of the country would do all of us some good. She wasn't wrong. It's… easier to breathe, here."

I could tell there was something he wasn't telling me. But I could also tell he didn't want to talk about it anymore. I didn't want him to either, not if talking about it was going to hurt.

"Anyway, what did you want to tell me in private?" he asked.

"Ah! Um."

My heartbeat rose. I would have gladly blurted it out when I was still mad at Otoha. But now that I had calmed down, I didn't know what to do anymore.

I thought of everyone's warnings back home. How it was important that no one besides Teacher Ekkusu and Otoha knew my true identity. My safety mattered. But...

Jii's safety mattered too.

I tried to think of a compromise.

"I'm from a ninja clan," I finally said.

Before Jii got the wrong impression, I quickly added, "I'm not a ninja. I just grew up in a family of them. And Otoha, the person you saw earlier, used to live with us. I'm sorry if she came off as a bit mean. It's because our countries used to fight each other, and she… well, I think she might have mistaken you for some of the people my family used to fight."

Jii needed a moment to recover. I could see him immediately put everything together: all those times I dodged questions about my family, my village, and what I did.

"By the countryside… you meant Konohagakure."

I winced. Right, Jii was super smart.

Resigned, I nodded.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier. I was told not to tell anyone. "

He took that in.

"Then why are you telling me now?"

I went quiet.

"Because I'm... dangerous?" I thought back to Otoha's reaction. Had Jii made an extra step, she would have killed him right there. "I mean, not me." I said, waving my hands. "It's just, my family lives with a lot of danger, and I'm close to them, and you're now close to me. And... I'm worried about that, because you're so…"

"So…?"

I sweated. "Um, i-innocent?"

It took Jii a moment to understand I was not using slang.

"Say what now?"

I didn't know how to explain it. So I showed him. By pushing him.

He fell back harshly, his back flat against the bed. Even though all I did was give a light tap to his shoulder. Even though I moved slowly, basically announcing what I was going to do.

No one in Konoha would have fallen for that.

Jii was used to dancing. In dancing, you never touched another person without permission. Someone could come within a hair of your face, but you could stay still, because you'd know they'd never get any closer than that. In dancing, you trusted others completely. You trusted them so much, you'd lend your own body to them.

I felt awful that I broke his trust like that.

But Otoha, as wrong as she was, was right on one thing. I hadn't thought everything through when I confessed to Jii. I didn't think of the risks I would be putting him through. If something happened, he'd be completely defenseless.

Suddenly, I wondered if this was how all my cousins had felt around me.

"I want to be with you, Jii. But only if you know the truth and you're okay with it."

Jii slowly got back up. He was hesitant.

"J, M and N can know too, right?" he asked.

I nodded. "But no one else!"

He thought it over. It was a big secret. He looked conflicted.

I waited nervously.

Finally, "Okay."

"Okay?"

"If I was someone who played things safe, I wouldn't be in this country," Jii joked.

Jii took it way better than I thought.

He looked at me for a long time.

I was used to being stared at by people. Usually whenever I looked back, they would avert their gaze. If they didn't, it meant they weren't afraid to be rude.

I still wasn't used to the way Jii looked at me. Instead of looking away when caught, his eyes followed mine, trying to get my attention. He wanted me to know he was looking at me. He wanted me to look back.

When I did, he beamed.

We took each other's hands.

I ran my thumb over his red-sprayed palm, bathing in bubbly feelings.

My smile grew, my cheeks rosy. "Can we be together?"

Jii squeezed my hand. "I'd like that."