Page 194 of Mercy Written in Blood

Nothing happened. Too much did.

Haruki took a drink. The coffee had cooled.

"You're doing it again," Renji said.

"What?"

"Looking at me as though you are withholding a conclusion."

"I'm thinking."

"That is not reassuring."

"Kael came here."

Renji's entire expression changed.

"He told you?"

"He didn't need to."

"What did he say?"

"That isn't important."

"Then why mention him?"

Haruki set his cup down.

"Because he looked at me strangely after the warehouse."

"Kael looks at everyone strangely."

"Not like this."

Renji's gaze narrowed.

"What kind of look?"

"The kind Reina gives me when she knows something I haven't realised."

"That describes most of your interactions."

"Exactly."

"You are imagining significance."

"You're defensive."

"I am not."

"You are."

"About what?"

Haruki considered saying it. Whatever had passed through Kael's expression at the warehouse had not been difficult to interpret — not after dinner, not after the photograph, not after Renji appeared in Haruki's thoughts with alarming frequency and increasing ease. Kael knew. Perhaps everyone knew. Everyone except the two people involved.

Haruki looked at Renji. The question rose. He stopped it. There were truths that required patience. Renji had already given him one larger than Haruki fully understood. He would not repay that trust by forcing a name onto something Renji had only just begun allowing himself to feel.