Indigo Rain (12 page)

Lisha shook her head solemnly. “No, I’d never say that.”

Roulette looked back at the vixen and they met each other’s eyes, until they both started laughing. After they stopped, Lisha leaned forward across the table. “We could really use you here. The Society, I mean.”

“That’s nice of you to say, but it’s not true. I thought about that.” The raccoon shook her head. “You don’t need a dancer. I’m not a good organizer. I could play heroine for a few months until people forget, and then what?”

“What about Gregir? It seems like you and he are…getting close.”

Roulette ran a hand through her hair. “Gregir,” she murmured. “No. I like Gregir, but not that way.” She began to wonder if she’d been misreading things to an embarrassing degree over the past few days.

“Oh.” Lisha’s gaze grew unfocused.

The raccoon finished her coffee and set the mug down.
Dammit, give me a reason.
She felt her ears start to flush.

Lisha finished her own coffee, then picked up both mugs and headed to the kitchen to drop them off. Roulette stood up, too, moving carefully. The front of her foot had been wrapped in gauze; it didn’t hurt much after the nurse had taken care of the wound, although it would be weeks, if not months, before the claw grew back. “So…” she said.

“I’ll get you money within a week or two, or three,” Lisha said. “I know you said I don’t have to, but I want to.”

Roulette hesitated, then simply nodded. “Thank you.”

“Although if you want to leave earlier, I understand.”

She nodded again, silently.

The vixen walked back up to her, and they stood facing one another for several long seconds, breathing in one another’s scents. Lisha finally said softly, “But I want you to stay.”

Roulette reached up to put her hands on Lisha’s shoulders, and they looked into one another’s eyes, moving closer, the vixen’s muzzle tilted down and the raccoon’s tilted up, still closer, until they touched noses. The motion became a light kiss. Then the light kiss became a deeper one. Her pains and aches faded away for as long as they held it, and when they released each other she felt suffused with a different, deeper, happier ache.

“I hope that’s a yes,” Lisha murmured, breathing shallowly.

“It’s
 
a yes.” She took Lisha’s hand in both of hers. “Or—if you want to—an invitation to come to Raneadhros with me.”

She squeezed Roulette’s hand gently, then led her out of the cafeteria. “Maybe. But I don’t think I’ll pass for a rich prince.”

“That’s fine.” She leaned against the vixen, putting her arm around the taller woman’s waist. ”You’ve swept me off my feet once already.”

Lisha laughed, tail wagging as she walked with the raccoon back toward her room.