I Fell in Love with Hope - Lancali

I gaze at the papers she holds tightly without crumpling. “Are you an
artist?”
“Of sorts,” she says, looking over her shoulder and giggling as the
volunteer looks around to see where we’ve gone. She storms an
empty elevator, using her foot to keep it open so I can catch up to
her. Once the doors close, she throws her head back, exposing the
columns of her throat. A scar I can’t help but admire peeks from her
collar as she searches for her breath.
“A hit list?”
“Hm?”
“You said you made a hit list,” Hikari repeats, her eyes softer now,
diluted in the darker color, as if a wave of something comfortable and
tired just hit her.
“To kill our enemies,” I say.
“How poetic.”
“You condone stealing because it’s poetic?”
Hikari smiles. Contagious smile. It doesn’t catch my lips, but its crook
certainly tries.
“There’s nothing more human than sin,” she says, shrugging. “Now,
where might I find a screwdriver, my dear accomplice?”
Being called anything of hers brings back that warmth to my face,
making me stutter. “Why do you need a screwdriver?”
“I thought you didn’t believe in reasons.”
I can’t help the laughing breath that escapes me. I shake my head to
scare the smile away. I rarely smile, rarely even for my thieves, but
even this fear I can’t explain has no power compared to her.