Kari spun around in her new dress. The garment had just been delivered to my condo, and she was trying it on for the first time. It seemed to fit.

She stopped with her little dance around my living room and stood mere inches from my toes.

Kari looked up to me, her large doe eyes imploring.

"Do I look cute?"

The question echoed through my mind for a long moment.

Did she look cute?

The word cute wasn’t in the standard Family hit man vocabulary. I honestly had never used the word until I found Kari and Tina.

The first time I had even heard the word used in a conversation was when I was fourteen and given my first protection job. I was a bouncer at one of the Family’s brothels. The girls there would often refer to their customers as “Cute”, but some how I doubted that fat, balding, middle aged bookies and fixers were actually attractive to the escorts that were entertaining them. In that place, love was bought, not given and the word “Cute” was handed out like napkins at a bar.

I quickly learned that kind of affection was cheap, not worth having, it wasn’t the same as family affection.

It wasn’t the same has having a child look up to you, the blood of my lost brother, with their too innocent eyes and want to hear your words. The words of family was their gospel, they meant everything. I couldn’t mess this up.

Kari blinked at me expectantly.

She wanted an answer.

After starting to live with Kari and Tina I learned that “Cute” did have a meaning, it wasn’t just an empty word to play at affection, it wasn’t just to stroke someones ego. It was a real title worthy of only a few, prized items. But in my life, Kari was the judge and authority of all things cute, so if she didn't know, than how was I supposed to?

I could hear my heart pounding in my ears, my gaze trapped in those too big eyes.

I couldn’t mess this up.

For the first time in my long years of hit jobs and protection, I froze. The tremble of true fear raced down my spine.

I couldn’t mess this up.

I did what all enforcers are taught to do when a mission goes south.

I retreated.

I gave Kari the best smile I could manage, patted her head, and retreated to a safe distance where I could gather more information on the situation and regroup. I would launch another attack once I was better prepared.

I withdrew to my bedroom, and made a call. The one person I could count on to give the kind of information support I needed. An old Family associate, Heinrich was a master of assessing a situation and strategizing the best offensive formation.

I punched in the number from memory.
He answered after the first ring.

"Ah Jiro, mien lieber, guten tag!"

When I call, he always answers the phone this way. I don’t know what it means. I don’t speak German. I assume it’s some kind of greeting.

"Heinrich, if a girl asks if she is cute, how can you tell?"

. . .

"Jiro, did one of the little princesses ask you if they were cute?"

I could feel my jaw tense at the question.

"Yes, but I didn't know if she was or not. That’s why I'm asking you."

Heinrich sighed over the phone.

"Jiro, Jiro, Jiro. If a girl asks you if they are cute you say, Yes!"

I could feel a frown forming between my eyes.

"But what if they aren't cute?"

Heinrich snapped at me.

"Nien! You always say, Yes! No matter what!"

I consider the situation again. I wanted to be honest with Kari. She had enough trust issues without worrying that I was also unreliable.

"But, is Kari cute?"

Heinrich sighed.

"Yah, in a way. She is like a verwilderte katze, uh, an alley cat. Some might say she's cute in a scruffy kind of way."

This made sense. Kari often said that kittens were cute. Kittens were a kind of cat, an alley cat was a kind of cat, so of course they would both be cute, just in different ways. Much like how Kari calls Tina cute, Kari was also cute, just in a different way.

I was nodding, though no one could see it.

Of course they would both be cute, they were sisters after all. 

“Thank you Heinrich, this has cleared a few things up.”

I hung up and turned back towards the door.

Now I just needed to go confirm to Kari that she was indeed cute, and the matter would be closed.

I approached the couch where Kari-hime was stationed, watching TV.

“Kari, about what we were talking about earlier.”

Kari shot a look over her shoulder at me. I had seen that look before. It wasn’t a happy look. It was a look that said, “You have wronged me, Uncle Jiro. You are dismissed from the Hime’s court!”

I took a step back.

We could talk about it later.

(And the subject was never brought up ever again.)