She wants to tease him—’As you say, Mr. Detroit’—but her glassy guard can only magnify a sunny disposition, and this blond was throwing some beams.[break][break]

Taking a seat, she rests her chin on her knuckles and raises an eyebrow. “What makes you think I haven’t already started?”[break][break]

Very, very faint is the hint of alcohol on her breath. It is one of many in the bar, all the heady scents and lingering smoke mingling into the humdrum of day-to-day life. [break][break]

Before continuing Yujin gives a nod to the sentret, always trying to push along any third wheels so that they keep up.[break][break]

To Detroit: “Yujin Ha. Interpol.” She extends a gloved hand for a handshake across the table.[break][break]

“Are you sure you’re lucky? It’ll just be us two on several long flights. Just us two in a cabin for a month, in the middle of the mountains. No one else around.[break][break]

You might find it... tiring.”

“I’ll allow it,” she says, every bit the mischievous cat tickling your legs with her tail.[break][break]

As they both rise to her feet, she throws back a grin. “Flying with you? Maybe I should be afraid.”[break][break]

---

[break]
Yujin hunches by the window, watching the world through the round pane of plexiglass.[break][break]

Once she accrues enough existential nihilism, she saunters over to the cockpit.[break][break]

“A lot of trainers would just fly on their mounts.”[break][break]

She raps the frame with a knuckle. “I like the metal, though. Feels safer.”[break][break]

And that’s how she slides into the co-pilot seat next to him, entirely unbidden, though at the very least careful not to accidentally hit a switch with her derriere.[break][break]

“So why be a pilot, Detroit?”

She watches those birds fly by, wondering what sound they would make if they caught in the plane’s engines.[break][break]

“Your service, hmm?”[break][break]

One doesn’t need to meet the mischief in his eyes to guess at the kinds of services he likes to provide. But she faces them head-on, anyway.[break][break]

“I need the structure in my life,” she says honestly. “Being told where to go, what to do, having a goal and a cause. I was military before this, and the things I was working on—it was in demand by the International Police.”[break][break]

Without said oversight in her life, she felt small and frail. Like she was twelve again, wandering through the snowstorms of Mt. Silver. A hand had guided her out of that life once. She’s been chasing that hand ever since.[break][break]

“Besides, it has many benefits.” The somber moment is kicked to the side with an award-winning smile. “Like being here.”