LINKDING

“In that case, I’d like to see you do some mental sparring tomorrow afternoon. Meet Melody and me at 1300 hours in the simulation room.”

“The simulation -” Leorio and Kurapika squawked at once.

“The simulation room,” Bisky confirmed. She studied them both again and then nodded, as if agreeing with herself. “Let’s see if we can’t get you two in a jaeger after all.”

“Melody, good evening,” he greeted. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Good evening!” Melody replied cheerfully. “I received a very interesting call today, and I wanted to get your opinion on it.”

“Oh?” Kurapika asked. He reached for his wine and sipped. “Is this a work call, or a bitch session?” He would not put the wine down for anything short of a house fire, though, and he sipped his drink again as if to prove his point to some sort of invisible audience.

Melody laughed. “That depends on how this conversation goes. But before we go any further: what do you think of weddings?”

Leorio jogs up the steps to the porch of the lodge and stops before the bright green screen door. He throws his shoulders back and takes a big breath in and out, preparing to look upon his new domain. Then he flings the door open and struts inside.

The first thing he spots is the kitchen: sturdily functional, smudged with use, crammed between the paneled walls. That’s fine. It’ll be a decent work space. It’s nothing to the second, more important, thing Leorio notices, which is that there’s someone in his kitchen.