Alpine Lake Tokyo night train.

The subject change gave her whiplash. Towhee blinked, her eyes moving back and forth across his face as she tried to read it. She supposed it wasn’t actually her business, whatever he decided to do, especially since she hadn’t offered her help.

It’s great being close to two of them, she said slowly. Skipjack is blind. With me being deaf, communication’s been a shitshow sometimes. But it’ll get better as he grows up, becomes more articulate. They’re both good kids—bairns, they call them.

Her orange gaze skipped over the water again. Towhee snorted quietly, then faced Rodyn again.

I taught them about the buddy system not long ago. Wanna be mine? I was going to take a dip. Maybe you should too. The water’s gonna be colder than a witch’s tit this time of year but maybe it’ll wash way some of those bad vibes.