Yes.

I can still hear her in the shower, now she’s singing.

Akane let out a long sigh, and grabbed the damn phone.

They’d shared an experience, that was for sure. Maria got out of her shell. Or at least was willing to jump totally blind, go crazy, just once. To trust in Akane, a stranger who towered over her and radiated wild energy. To leap into Akane’s arms.

It definitely didn’t seem like Maria had come to regret that decision.

Maybe she’d be down for more before she went home. Or maybe she’d be around the Whitecoast again, sometime.

This wasn’t Akane’s way. She was already in too deep.

So why not get deeper? If Maria was willing to try something totally out of her comfort zone, why couldn’t the big, tough, masculine, powerful blah blah blah known as Akane Kobayashi deal with typing in a few numbers on a touchscreen?

Well, first off, the screen was developed for tiny, svelte elven fingers and the long, well-kept fingernails that seemed ubiquitous to their tribe. Not for Akane’s great big clumsy paws-

There we go. Contact added. And… oh, hey.

“Maria… Friedrich.”

Akane couldn’t help a smile as she returned the phone to the nightstand, then turned, and took her leave. Who knew what the future would hold for the two of them? Akane didn’t want to close off that possibility.

Assuming she wasn’t too mad that Akane had taken off without a word.

No way to know if she’d call back, and Akane deliberately didn’t take note of Maria’s own number. It would be entirely on the elf maiden whether things kept going.

Living beings couldn’t exist in the past, or future, but only right now in the present.

Though they could hold out hope for the future, so hey.