I made so many mistakes with the dialogue tags in the draft of Zero-Sum Game that I decided to write a little epilogue of sorts free of double quotation marks.
By the time Kyon and Sasaki ended their last ‘match’, it was indeed pretty late.
It was the first time they walked across the corridors of a Kitago High School devoid of people. Or the fourth time for Kyon, depending on how one may think of alternate dimensions or temporal planes.
Sasaki constantly checked on the condition of her school uniform and her hair to keep other others from figuring out what she and the young man walking briskly at her side just got up to, but she was still too new in the ways of a teenage girl in a relationship to realize that her blush, her occasionally unfocused eyes and her unconscious tendency to move her lips tellingly every 40 seconds or so were dead giveaways.
His previous experiences left Kyon in better control of himself, but his expression betrayed his concerns about bringing Sasaki to her home as soon as possible and devising a suitable explanation to give to his parents.
The fact that his mother didn’t try to contact him didn’t put him at ease because it implied either that someone, ranging from Tsuruya to his future self, arranged something for the occasion or it was the confirmation that his mother simply assumed that he was in the middle of ninkyo dantai business to take care of.
Nobody caught them leaving the premises nor they triggered the silent alarm that the public school actually had in place. Trivialities like disabling a civilian security system without really turning it off weren’t even worth for Ryouko to mention aloud.
Their cab arrived to the meeting point a few blocks away from the school not even a minute after they did.
Kyon and Sasaki remained in silence during the whole trip to her house since the moment she gave her address to the driver, most likely because the amused look the forty-something old man gave them when he took in their appearances and his barely contained chortles during all the way there.
Sasaki almost heaved a sigh of relief at the sight of her house standing dim and silent.
He walked her to the door and as he was looking for the proper words to say goodbye, Sasaki unexpectedly laughed.
It was such a beautiful and unrestrained sound, the kind of wholehearted expression that she rarely allowed to herself.
Kyon stood there, dumbfounded, until the moment she turned her face lit with mirth to him. In her eyes he understood the source of her amusement and joined her in kind.
It was just too ridiculous.
Her. A sixteen years old girl who was kidnapped by the freaking yakuza more times than she bothered to count. Someone who was pursuing a long-term romantic relationship with the boy at her side together with six other girls. Someone who was just beginning to understand how vast and impossible the universe really was.
Him. A seventeen years old boy who was already a high-ranked and well-respected member of the biggest crime syndicate in Japan. Someone who prevented the end of the world as we know it several times over. Someone who plays a pivotal role in the doings of time-travelers, human aliens, espers, sliders, cosmic entities and reality warpers.
They also were a silly girl-and-boy pair getting worked up over breaking curfew because they lost track of the time while making out.
It took them several minutes to regain control over themselves.
It was then when Kyon found the words he was looking for.
Without making a sound, he drew himself closer to her, gently turned her head toward his and kissed her softly on the lips.
They let the kiss linger until Sasaki’s mother decided that she observed enough and turned on the lights.
Naturally, Ryouko didn’t fail to record the moment for later perusal.
§
I almost sure I’m stealing this whole idea from somewhere, but for the life of me I can’t remember where.