Kijani smiled and chuckled faintly, swiftly pulling back her locks into a braided style that would have to do. “You’d have to ask him.” She did her best not to look him over. It seemed he hadn’t neglected his physical training. He looked more trim and muscled than he had the last time she’d seen him. His clothes might have been much simpler, but he did look good.

Kijani’s grin faltered as she looked at him. The future weighed on her shoulders like a robe made of rock. “...It occurs to me that we are walking into a heightened situation and we may not get another chance to talk.” Leaning against the wall, she took a deep breath. “Adam… you know me. I look at things from every angle. I don’t do things by halves. I’m far too deliberate for my own good. You’re offering me something that could change my life in ways that I’m sure I can imagine. I need to think on it more. I should think on it more. And yet…” She stood and approached him slowly.

“Yet all I want to do is – is…” She stared him at him, her golden eyes unreadable.

And then she pulled him downward by the front of his tank top and kissed him. Soft and hesitant, her lips lingered gently against his for what felt like a warm eternity, but couldn’t have been for more than a few seconds. She pulled back with shaking hands, and couldn’t look Adam in the eyes.

“I’ve… wanted to do that for a while.”