Kevin scowled; he hadn’t even known Astra for more than an hour, and already this girl—if he could even call her a girl— was getting on his last nerves. Besides, no matter what she ‘identified’ as, none of it explained why or excused her from stealing! So she hadn’t even answered Ruse’s very basic question! A bitter taste was forming in his mouth, and it wasn’t just the bitter taste of his long-unbrushed teeth. It was the bitter taste of jealousy over how Astra could just sweep Ruse off of her feet so effortlessly. It was the taste of emasculation. First, she stole his property, and now his crush! The skank.

He stopped to let the two ‘girls’ get ahead of him a bit, then rubbed his forehead. It wasn’t just Astra cramping his style, Ruse was also giving him a headache with her frustrating, erratic behavior. She already owed him for everything he had done to help her get settled down in Japantown three years ago, but now her debt was gonna skyrocket big time for putting him through all this bullcrap.

The girls giggled as they continued to inch away, and Astra’s backpack gave a taunting crinkle with each and every step as the contraband snacks and beverages within moved around. Kevin looked around for any place, any small bench or bus stop to safely take a short rest. He was not built for such a strenuous activity like walking, especially not when it was accompanied by a headache. As he scanned the area, however, he noticed an even better option across the street just a ways ahead.

“Hey,” he interrupted the girls’ flirting. “How about we rent a bike rickshaw?”

The sounds of their footsteps on the cement ceased and they turned around to see him pointing his palms in a dab position toward something across the street.

There sat a small lit pop-up stand with a blue and white striped awning with Japanese writing on it, without a doubt describing that the many rickshaws chained to a metal bike rack right beside it were for rent.

“Good idea!” Ruse chirped, releasing Astra’s arm and heading back towards Kevin. A rickshaw ride seemed much more accommodating than walking. Astra followed her.

The three entered the nearest crosswalk, not that there were any vehicles on the road, and crossed the street to the stand. That’s just how people in Japantown were. They obeyed the law even if they weren’t being observed, even if it was such a small thing like not jaywalking. With Astra, though, Kevin assumed she was just being a good girl to keep Ruse hooked.

Kevin told the girls to wait near the rickshaws, then approached the stand window and exchanged some words in Japanese with the vendor. When they were done with the niceties, he reached into his pocket to grab his wallet. As he opened the wallet to fetch payment, he felt Astra’s gaze homing in on him. She strode over to him with her hands behind her back and a big smug grin on her face.

“Can I help you?” he asked her, pulling out a credit card.

“You’re not planning to pay with credit, are you?” she asked him in a leading, condescending way.

“Yes…” Kevin replied, realizing right as he spoke why she had even asked. “Fuck. That chucklehead,” he meant Henry, “probably has the resources to trace my card usage…” This thief girl was putting him to shame with her level of situational awareness, and he hated it.

“Now you’re catching on!” Astra chimed. “That’s probably how this dude found you guys at the hotel, you know. You silly gooses.” And she was probably right; but she didn’t have to act so superior about it! She strutted back out of his personal space to rejoin Ruse, who was already getting into the seating carriage of a rickshaw.

Kevin stuffed the card back into his wallet and pulled out a few large bills to pay the man in the pop-up stand. After the transaction he trudged back over to the girls. “I got us a couple hours,” he told them, “so we have to return this thing at some point when it’s light out or I have to pay a late fee.” He then removed the black fedora from atop his head and handed it to Ruse. “Can you put this in your bag? I don’t want the wind to carry it off with the epic speed I’m about to display.” He eyed Astra while speaking, hoping she would feel intimidated. And although she didn’t show any signs of fear, Kevin knew she was just hiding it to not look wimpy in front of Ruse.

Ruse placed the hat in her merchandise bag as requested, right on top of her folded-up parasol, then set the bag on the floor by her feet.

The rental attendee exited through a flap in the back of his pop-up tent and unchained the rickshaw the three had chosen, then wished them a nice night in broken English. Ruse gave him a likewise reply.

Kevin climbed onto the bike at the front of the rickshaw and pedaled it out of its parallel-parked position. This in itself caused him to break a sweat and begin panting. The bike didn’t look too great either; Kevin’s weight had caused it to visibly sink closer to the ground with both tires looking rather squashed.

Ruse turned to Astra and whispered to her just loud enough for Kevin to hear, “he doesn’t get a lot of exercise,” just to tease him.

“Hey! Neither do you!” Kevin objected. “You’re way too scared to sweat!”

This put Ruse in her place, so she shut her mouth and placed her hands in her lap.

Kevin breathed in, savoring the victory of his retort, then pulled the rickshaw into the bike lane and started to pedal towards their destination.

Within seconds, they were breezing past several of Japantown’s small shops and family-owned businesses, each with a cherry blossom tree planted in front in one of those little diamonds on the sidewalk. And because the air was warm with the summer heat, the pretty pink trees were in full shed and dropping their petals onto the wind.

When the air felt clear again, Astra quipped to Ruse, “I’m sure there’s at least one occasion where you wouldn’t mind sweating a little…” and bumped shoulders with her.

How cheeky! Ruse let out an awkward squawk of a laugh. “Heh…I’ll have you know, I’m a baby lesbian...I haven’t been to third base with a girl yet…”

To be exact, Ruse had never been to any base with any woman...thus far.

“Me neither!” Astra granted, adding in her own awkward giggles. “But just so you know, I’m eighteen, about to be nineteen. In case the moment arises…”

So she was an entire decade younger than Ruse. Ruse didn’t want to tell her that and risk making things weird, though. Not yet. For now, Ruse would stick to hoping that Astra was into women of all ages. If she was, it would sure track with how easy and smooth things were going between them. Ruse always had to try so hard to get along with Henry, always had to fall in line to keep his trust and affection, so the smooth and enjoyable pace at which her friendship with Astra was going was quite strange and new. Was this how flirting was supposed to be? Ruse wanted more...

The two girls, each with stars in their eyes, went from quiet giggles to full-blown devious gay laughter.

Kevin pedaled faster, focusing on the road to block out all the feminine noise.

“Oh Astra-san, you have freckles!” Ruse pointed out while she was close to Astra’s face. “How kawaii!”

“Thank you,” Astra replied, swaying proudly from side to side. “I’ve been waiting to use them to my advantage and snatch up an unsuspecting babe!”

Ruse hadn’t been called a babe in so long… It was as if Astra knew exactly what to say to work wonders on her heart. Like Astra was tailor made just for her. “You’re so much fun!” Ruse complimented her. “Tell me more about you?” she inquired. “I bet you’re secretly super cool.”

“I’m publicly super cool!” Astra joked. And Ruse ate it up. “Let’s see though,” Astra placed her index finger to her lip in thought. “There’s not a whole lot to know, honestly. Like I said, I’m just barely out of high school, haha…” But Ruse was giving her such an expectant look, she had to continue. “Well, like I said, I was doing pretty good in school, but honestly, I didn’t have any other choice. I needed a safety net in case my parents found out… It’s not like I’m not like some kinda nerd or anything; I’m probably more of a jock, haha. I mostly just focused on sports and P.E. I was putting in so much work ‘cause I didn’t wanna let my parents down with the whole lesbo thing. But I do really like sports, and I wanted to do as many of them as my school offered while I could, because after high school they get all technical and test your hormones and stuff…”

“That gender testing stuff is such crap,” Ruse commented with disdain. If Astra said she was a woman, then dammit, she was a woman!

“Right?! But…” Astra crossed her legs the masculine way. “I think the other female students knew, though. I mean, they knew I was gay already, but they probably had some sort of inkling I wasn’t a ‘normal’ girl.” She used air quotes when she said that word, ‘normal’. “They were all acting like they would catch it if they got too close to me or whatever. Some days all the hate really got to me…I tried to think of just my favorite things like sports, track, old music, haha…but all that stuff involved those people, so it was hard…” She paused and looked up at the moon for a moment. “To be honest I think I was losing interest by the time my class’s graduation was coming up, and I’m pretty sure my grades were slipping…so much for that 4.0…” She looked back down with reluctance in her eyes. “And now I’m here…I guess it could be worse, haha.” She hung her arm over the back of the seat, putting herself into an inviting position for Ruse to be her little spoon.

“That sucks,” Ruse said, using the opportunity to rest her shoulder against Astra’s side. “I was a music nerd in high school.” A decade ago...

“Hell yeah,” Astra quickly said, so Ruse could keep talking.

“I used to really love singing,” Ruse went on, “but my ex shamed me out of it. Like, it was this huge facet of my life and now I’ve nothing to do with it.” She frowned, sighing. “It’s so stupid too,” she held up her hands with her fingers curled in, “’cause all Henry ever even listened to was fricking mumble rap and screamo.”

The two of them both mocked gagging at Henry’s bad taste in music, then snickered.

Ruse continued, “I never thought I had that bad of a voice either, but I still gave up on it and chose to go into costuming instead. I hardly even listen to music anymore because it makes me feel bitter. I mean, I don’t even let Kevin put on music in his car when we go places together, it’s gotten that bad…” She looked up at Astra, who was looking back at her with sympathy. Ruse asked her, “didn’t you say earlier that you won a singing contest at Sparklecon? And that you lettered in choir? That’s what I was meaning to get at with all this stuff about music, heh…”

Astra’s smile returned to her face. “Yeah, I was in the honor choir. I sang alto. I suppose you could say I’m…multi-talented…” She laughed at her fake conceit, and Ruse did the same. “I even had a few opportunities to do some solos for the choir concerts,” Astra continued, “and I did some Sinatra songs. Gotta love Frankie. I wanted to do an Elvis song for my choir final this year, but, well…the whole dropping-out-since-I-no-longer-have-the-support-of-the-people-who-brought-me-into-this-world thing happened…” She rolled her eyes. “Anyways, people loved it—the solos I mean. Even my parents loved them.”

Ruse stared wistfully into Astra’s eyes and thought of a life she never got the opportunity to live. “Wow, that sounds like so much fun…” Her voice was a mixture of dreamy and melancholy. Astra’s parents must have been the worst to kick out such a talented daughter for such a non-issue as her being gay. Especially when she was so ‘publicly super cool’.

“Aw, Ruse…” Astra placed her hands on either side of Ruse’s face and pressed her forehead against Ruse’s. A calm breeze carried the smell of sweet sticky rice from a nearby 24-hour sushi buffet around them and through their hair.

“When I said I can be a little forward at times…” Astra inhaled softly through her nose and began a serenade. “Fly me to the moon, and let me play among the stars…”

Ruse closed her eyes and rested the tip of her nose to Astra’s. Like rich dark chocolate meeting smooth, sweet peanut butter. And even though this was strange and sudden and new to her, it was still so sweet. It was like the universe had sent this dirty jock of an angel especially for her, to aid her in this terrifying situation with Henry. Ruse’s heart was racing, but not out of fear for the first time in a long time. She almost wanted to cry tears of joy.

The warm streetlights flashed above them as the rickshaw continued to smoothly glide along its path.

“Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars

In other words, hold my hand

In other words, baby, kiss me

Fill my heart with song and let me sing forevermore

You are all I long for, all I worship and adore

In other words, please be true

In other words, I love you”