The week after her date with Kasai, Avani had spent trying to find more honourable work, and by trying she meant that she had considered the idea while lazying about in her apartment. She didn’t feel all that comfortable with her current job situation if Kasai was going to be a part of her life from now on. She had eventually returned to work at the docks though, but the fact that she had beaten a cop in hand-to-hand combat gave her another idea. Maybe she should start participating in serious matches for money. Maybe that could be a way to make more money with time if she got popular.

Once her arm had healed more or less, Avani decided to get it tattooed to cover up the horrible scarring, as she had planned to do all along. She spent quite a bit of money on the tattoo, because she wanted to get the best work she could possibly get. The tattoo should improve on her body and beauty, not take away from it, though that would be hard considering what her arm looked like with the bandages removed.

It took a couple of days to finish the tattoo, as it was large and covered her whole arm. The pain didn’t bother her as much as she had feared it would. In the end, she did get a work of art as part of her arm. Two jade dragons were depicted as intertwined and slithering around her arm, with the tip of their tails in the palm of her hand and their heads on her shoulder. One of them was black with spikes and larger than the other, while the second one was done with several different shades of red.

Avani spent a lot of time after getting her tattoo just admiring it. She would find herself distracted by it, and she found her new appearance cooler than she had ever looked before. The eye patch and the tattoo added a new dimension to it. She wondered if she should do something with her hair as well, but was quite low on money by then so it would have to wait either way. She certainly had a unique appearance that an audience would remember if she did decide to try her luck at some kind of professional fighting.

She wanted to show Kasai her new look, but at the same time she didn’t want to come off as needy or anything either. She thought back to their last encounter, or the weekend they had spent together, whenever her desire grew too large. Avani hoped they would meet again soon, but she didn’t like the feeling of vulnerability that came with wanting a specific woman in her life.

Avani’s dreams often featured Kasai too. She very much enjoyed the scenarios her mind came up with when she was asleep and wondered if she would get a chance to play some of them out, but it also contributed to the growing feeling of longing that she had to find ways to deal with. She played with toys more than usual.