Quinlan looked at Black Fang.
Black Fang looked back, expression offering absolutely nothing, as if she had definitely not spent her evening kneeling behind her little sister in venom-steam, rinsing samurai hair with great patience.
"Portal," she demanded.
He didn't move. Instead the smile arrived, small at first, then spreading, deeply obnoxious, as he filed the image away for the rest of his very long life.
Black Fang pushed off the tree and simply started walking away from the two of them.
"Portal." It came back over her shoulder, flat as a knife laid on a table, without her breaking stride.
Quinlan and Ayame watched her receding back with matching grins, fond in a way neither of them would have dared say to her face.
Kaede trailed down the path last.
