The guards made room for Hiro.
I stared at him.
The elevator doors closed.
He didn’t press the number two button for his floor.
I raised my eyebrows. "Where are you going?"
"Ourbedroom."
"We don't have a bedroom together."
He tilted his head at me the way he always did when he thought I was being deliberately stupid. "We do. It's where our Tiger sleeps."
"MyTiger."
Hiro exhaled through his nose like he was explaining something to someone who kept missing the point.
"Kenji." He had the audacity to say my name like a full sentence. "We've already decided. We're sharing her."
“You’re going to your bedroom not mine—”
“Our bedroom. Not yours. And of course I won’t be sleeping in the bedroom that we share. That would be ridiculous, but I have earned some cuddle time and I will not deny myself any longer.”
“Did you just fucking say cuddle time?”
Nyomi pressed her lips together, poorly suppressing a laugh. Seconds later, it came anyway, bright, joyful, and loud in the elevator.
Her laugh filled the elevator completely and rewrote the suffocating sadness in my chest.
Tora.
I looked at her.
She had her hand pressed over her mouth, and her shoulders were shaking.
And for one clean, uncomplicated moment the burial of my grief receded. The weight of Yoshiwara, the names Hiro had spoken at the table, Hiroko's face, the shovels of dirt pressing down over my body. . .all of it lifted.
Slightly.
Enough to breathe better.
I want to hear that sound again tonight and again. . .
I needed that more than sex or sake. I yearned to hear my Tiger laugh until the grief had nowhere left to stand.
Hmmm.
I looked at my brother. He stood there shameless and holding his sake bottle. I had a thousand things to say to him, but said none of them.
Because she was still laughing.
“Fine.” I faced the doors. “You can come tomybedroom and spend time withmyTiger and me. . .for a few minutes. And then I’m kicking you out.”
While I thought Hiro would smile or say thank you, he rolled his eyes as if I was the most audacious person on the elevator.
I’m going to kill him before this night is over.
