" The emperor spoke solemnly as he neared."Just like that?" Tenchi mused, mildly surprised."Seems your visits are always so short."Secretly he was ast...nished at the genuine if small regret he felt at the announcement. In spite of the mild sarcasm he'd been unable to refrain from interjecting. But then things were different now weren't they?"Duties of the empire beckon." The emperor shrugged sadly, still taking the moment to fondly stroke his daughter's hair."One day," He promised, nodding. .. yes, I do."It was beginning to appear as though this completely unconventional, wild and crazy, throw-her-differences-in-your-face woman wasn't as unconventional or wild and crazy as she looked.I decided this might be an interesting visit after all."So, you're divorced," I said.We were sitting in the living room. There was still a sense of strain in our budding relationship."I didn't say that," she said, looking at me out of that one exposed eye. I thought of sheep dogs.I let my eyes drift. Taller, thinner, and younger than Franz, hehad none of his sibling's confidence."Good afternoon, Joachim," I said as he reached my table on his way tothe door.He turned bright red, mumbled a greeting in return, and rushed out ofthe cafe. I smiled. Joachim was extremely shy and got completelytongue-tied with me. Franz returned with Benton's order."Your brother was in awful hurry," I commented."Yes, we've just had some supplies delivered by train. Joachim has goneto the station to pick them up.". In particular, I liked this boy named James, he was super kind and very handsome. I wanted to tell him but a lot of the time we hung out we were with his friends and telling him would be super awkward in front of them. One day, I told him to meet me in the boy's locker during Gym class break, usually around fifteen-twenty minutes. I never saw him in the locker but I did see his two friends Ryan and Kevin in there and I talked to them for a little and asked them where James was but they didn't.