“Agreed then.” Avani said, and sat down for a second to rest her legs. She had been interrupted at the worst possible moment. Kasai had definitely kissed her back, and she even thought she had shivered under her touch.

Avani giggled when Kasai brought up who had come on to whom. It was different from her loud mocking laughter, and quite feminine. “Yeah, I doubt she fell for that. Maybe if she hadn’t heard me trying to seduce you it would have been easier to shift the blame.” She stood up and followed Kasai through the forest once more, but now it became harder to see where she was putting her feet. She focused her eyes on the flame Kasai carried. “I wonder how long she watched us before she said anything…” Avani whispered mostly to herself.

“Suuure, Lady Sergeant. I bet you earn more money than me though.” She said with a snarky tone when Kasai suggested they decide who buy dinner for who with a competition, but then changed her mind about being snarky and coughed. “Not that it matters since you’re going down either way.” Avani grinned cockily. “I always win. Besides, I think you’d have a problem with where I’d get the dough from to wine and dine such a fine lady.”

It was an honest concern for her, even if she did have a legitimate job it didn’t pay nearly well enough to take out someone like Kasai for dinner. She didn’t mind doing some less legal work on the side for quick cash, but Kasai was a policewoman. 

“Heh, I suppose that could help with securing a second date if the first one goes bad.” Avani giggled again. “Oh, I’m sure you’d love the chance to put someone like me in handcuffs and do with as you please...”

Avani blushed at her own comment after thinking about it, and went silent after that. As they kept walking in silence, it was what occupied Avani’s thoughts. She wondered if Kasai actually did have her own set of handcuffs for private use, but mostly she thought about what that could result in.

When they stopped, Avani yawned. She felt exhausted at that point. “Yeah, Mio will be pissed though, probably thinks we just resumed where we left off.” 

Avani moved her feet to create another shelter like the one before. It was smaller, but should still allow them to sleep in. She got down on her knees in front of the opening to it, crawled halfway in and remembered that she had only made one. She blushed and backed outside on all fours, then used her feet to create a second one for Kasai on the other side of the clearing. 

“I almost forgot, sorry.” She said while yawning. “I’ll close it up securely after you. Oh, and I am sure your friend is fine. Mio wouldn’t say 
we for no reason. I don’t think she’s gotten that well acquainted with the spirits.” Avani just smiled with a tired expression across her face.

After walking those last hours with questionable thoughts filling her mind, part of her kind of wanted Kasai to pounce her or enter her shelter, but she also knew she was too tired to take any advantage of such a situation. She needed to recuperate her energy to be able to rescue their friends too as Kasai had pointed out. She supposed it would be nice to sleep next to someone for the first time in a few months at least. Well, not counting passing out from pain and blood loss earlier.