Page 72 of Kimiko and the Accidental Proposal
“Yes, Kimiko.” Quen conceded to Edge and Flay that this was an entirely satisfying way for true love to begin. “Yes, I certainly do.”
THIRTY-ONE
Goh-sensei
Tenma started at the abrupt scrape andcriiikcoming from his ceiling and looked up just as a frigid flood of night air poured through the open skylight.
“Found you.” Inti lowered himself through the gap, swinging from the edge for a few moments before dropping so the skylight fell shut with a sharp rattle of panes. He hit the floor and somersaulted, coming up at his side. “Your room. So high.”
“The ceiling?”
“That, too.” Inti bounced up to balance on the back of Tenma’s chair. “Homework?”
“Personal study.” Tenma showed the book he’d checked out from the school library. “This one’s about bear clans. I want to learn about the Amaranthine in our class so I can understand them better.”
“Bear.” The tail that had been around his wrist all afternoon looped around Tenma’s shoulders like a heavy scarf. “Tall, tall, Brev.”
“Yes, I was curious about Brev.” Tenma had to tip his head all the way back to see Inti’s face. “I was going to look up monkeys, but I couldn’t find any books. Maybe someone else checked them out.”
“Maybe.” From an upside down vantage, it was really hard to read the expression on Inti’s face. “Maybe not.”
Tenma thought it best to take a different topic. “So have you been racing around the rooftops?”
“A little.”
“Is your room close by?” They’d parted in the student center, so he wasn’t sure.
Inti’s cheeks puffed out. “No. It’s small and low and dark. Yours is bigger, better.”
“Empty,” muttered Tenma.
Quizzical eyebrows quirked. “Lonely?”
“I suppose.” Tenma sighed. “Yes.”
Fingers suddenly sifted through Tenma’s hair, busily inspecting it by sections, gently scratching his scalp. He was being groomed. Which would have seemed odder if Tenma hadn’t noticed how often Suuzu fussed with Akira’s hair. “I just realized. You don’t have claws?”
Inti hummed. “Mixed blood, mixed parts.”
And all at once, the words came out. “Do you want to be my roommate?”
“Risky.” But the tail around his shoulders tightened. “Tenma is kind.”
He shook his head, because his motive was so much more selfish. “Tenma is lonely.”
“Inti must race around the rooftops. Comings and goings, but stayings. Good?”
“Good,” Tenma agreed, reaching for the school directory. “I wonder who I need to speak to about room assignments.”
As he flipped to the pages of contact information, a tuft of fur tickled Tenma under his chin. He automatically pushed it aside, then gasped, “Sorry!”
“Sorry?”
“I touched your tail!”
Inti blinked, then giggled. Soft and serious, he said, “My tail is touching you.”
“But Ms. Reeves explained in class … about tails.”
