“Why do you do up your hair in those tortured plaits, now, Melanie? Why?Because, she said.You know that's no answer. You're spoiling your pretty looks, pet. Come here.She did not move. He ground out his cigarette on the window-ledge and laughed.Come here, he said again, softly.So she went.”

“I thought you'd be halfway to Tokyo by now,” she said, stalling.“Not without you.”Oh, man, she was so screwed. He was bad enough when he was giving her shit. Right now he was looking at her as ifshe was the most precious thing on earth, and she knew what she looked and smelled like. The world had turned upsidedown.“I don't suppose you love me,” she said. “Even a little bit?”“Don't be an idiot, Ji-chan. Why else would I be here? Now, do you want to stay here or do you want to prove you're reallycrazy and come with me?”“Will you grow your hair again?”“If you want me to.”“Then tell me.”“You're not going to make this easy, are you? Su-chan warned me about you.”“She warned me, too. Tell me.”He let out a long-suffering sigh. “Aishiteru,” he muttered.“In English.”“I love you.”

“Look what just happened,’ she said softly, allowing laughter to leak into her words. ‘You just shared something of yourself—and the world did not end. Nor did I fall hopelessly at your feet.’‘Why do you bother, then?’ he asked hoarsely.She stroked a hand in his hair. ‘Because I want you to know that it is possible.”

“Why not?" he asked."It's complicated," she replied."Why?"After a pause she hesitatingly answered, "Because I hate you less now than I did before.”

“Her phone rang again. “What?” she snapped as she answered it.Myrnin, of course. “Are you on your way?”“No!”“Claire, there are things to do.”“Here, too,” she said. “And I’m staying here, believe me.”Myrnin was silent for a beat, and then he said, “Bob would be very disappointed in you.”“Bob the spider?”“He looks at you like a mother, you know. I’m surprised at your lack of work ethic. Think of the example you set for—”She hung up on him and turned the phone on vibrate and relaxed in Shane’s arms.”

“We need to get out of here. That's why I did this," he said dumbly, even though she was starting at him now like he was an idiot because he was repeating himself. And he was. Repeating himself and an idiot. Idiot wrapped in a moron. An idiot burrito.~Stryker”