Chapter 8: Sisters on Paper

They finished the painting at dawn.

The last piece was a single red light, the top of a tower, in the middle of the cloth.

Emi had left it blank for a week on purpose.

"Where does it go?" Kokone asked.

She was kneeling at the edge with the smallest brush in the box.

Her knees were blue, her hair was in two messy braids Emi had done at four in the morning, and she hadn't slept.

"Anywhere. It's the tower in Shinjuku with the blinking top. It's meant to be the last thing you see."

"Then I'll put it where I'd see it from the train."

Kokone leaned over the cloth with her tongue between her teeth.

She made one red dot just left of center, and sat back.

Outside, the first train of the day went past, and the window hummed.

The painting lay in the pink light of the morning, three meters of dark blue and a thousand small gold lights.

Emi looked at it for a long time.

"It's done," she said.

"It's beautiful."

"You did the Koto ward."

"I did it badly."

"You did it perfectly. It's the best part."

Kokone's eyes shone, and then she looked down.

"Emi."

"Yes."

"I want to say something before Misaki comes. And I want you to tell me if I'm wrong."

Emi sat back on her heels.

"Okay."

"I like you."

Kokone said it to the cloth.

"Not the way I'm supposed to like a stepsister."

"I think about your hands."

"I think about the closet."

"I think about you in the lamp light with the brush behind your ear."

"I've been trying not to, and it isn't working."

Emi's mouth went dry.

"You should know what we are," she said, because it was the only solid thing in reach.

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