The unsmiling man glanced at Ru and warily touched his forehead before returning to his beverage. Tadino was not done; he shouted above the music and waved a young woman over to the bar. “Juni, guess who this is,” he exclaimed.
The woman’s thin, tattooed eyebrows rose under the fringe of her straight bangs and her full red lips parted in appreciation. “Tadino, this shitty bar is more cut than I gave you credit for. I didn’t know Kaul Ru came here slumming.” She sidled up to Ru and gave him a nudge with her hip, lowering her voice to a sultry, suggestive whisper. “Come find me on the dance floor whenever you’re ready to show off your moves.” She took her drink and sauntered back into the crowd.
Ru was tempted to follow her, but he drew Dano away from the bar and whispered, “How do you know Tadino?” He was aware that his friend led a freewheeling lifestyle and did not always keep the most reputable company.
“We met through the Immigrant Rights Watch.” One of the organizations Dano was involved with. It extended assistance to refugees. “Tadino’s from Oortoko. He used to be in a barukan gang and he’s been through some rough times in his life.”
Ru said, “Do you know why he was branded?”
“Don’t tell me you believe in that barbaric policy,” Dano exclaimed. “Green Bones have branded thousands of innocent people for having foreign blood, or an accent, or for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s heinous.”
“I’m not saying I agree with it.” Ru wanted to point out that Dano was as usual generalizing about Green Bones. The enthusiasm for branding people suspected of anti-clan activities was driven by one large faction in the Mountain clan and not uniformly followed even by all of the Mountain’s own Fists. But that wasn’t the point. Dano was so outspoken and righteous, so quick to see every branded person as having been wronged that Ru was concerned his friend would one day be caught with actual clanless criminals and, through no fault of his own, end up with a red-hot pipe against his face, or worse. “You have to think of yourself,” he insisted. “You could find yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time, too—and with the wrong sort of people.” Ru had not forgotten that his own sister had been ready to assume the worst about Dano, even to bring his name up to Lott Jin.
“Don’t worry about me, keke. Just have a good time, all right?” Dano pulled out a small plastic bag of black powder. “Hey, you want to do some sand?” When Ru shook his head, Dano shrugged and said, “Let’s get you another drink, then.”
Reluctantly, Ru dropped the subject, though not before resolving to talk to Dano about it again, some other time. Tonight it would only ruin the mood; they were here to enjoy themselves after all. He asked for another hoji, this time with ice and a splash of anise.
On the dance floor, there were plenty of pretty girls, but Juni was the most striking, in a short black skirt and tall nylon boots. The plunging neckline of her sequined tank top showed off a tattoo on her chest, a black arrow pointed straight down into her cleavage. She smiled at Ru with invitation and danced in front of him, moving to the music in tempting ways. After his second drink, Ru was feeling relaxed and daring. He put his hands on Juni’s hips and they danced together, drawing closer with each bass throb from the speakers. She slid her leg in between his, pressing the top of her thigh against his warming crotch as they ground their bodies together in the dark.
Ru was a little embarrassed by how excited he was that this beautiful woman was throwing herself at him. He suspected that Niko and Jaya got laid more often than he did, and while he’d never envied the social climbing advances his siblings had to put up with, he still wondered, sometimes jealously, what it would be like to enjoy all the advantages of his family name. To have status as soon as you walked into a room. To have women want you. To carry the greenness of an entire clan and thus always be more than yourself. That’s what it would be like, he decided, to be a true prince of No Peak.
Niko and Jaya took their place for granted, but Ru didn’t. When the perks occasionally did come his way, why shouldn’t he enjoy them to the fullest? Juni’s breasts pressed against him and the scent of her perfumed sweat filled his nostrils and rose up into his brain. Ru moved his hands down her back, over her waist, onto her buttocks. His rising desire was like a spreading liquid heat suffusing him from groin to fingertips. She was what he needed tonight, to push aside all his worries, to stop thinking so much. Juni wrapped her arms around his neck and the warmth of her cheek tingled against his. Her lips brushed his ear. “Come on, I want to show you something.”