To her surprise, Jason took a moment to answer, and began smiling as if he couldn't stop himself. "No. But it would have been funny if I had, wouldn't it?"

"No," Kira insisted, but found herself unable to stop from smiling as well. "You could try being funny more often," she added, releasing her grip on his shirt. "If you do, I think I might someday be able to tolerate you, if I don't kill you first."

Jason grinned. "That's the nicest thing any girl ever said to me."

"I can believe that." Kira stepped back. "You need to watch how much you talk where other people can hear. Keep your voice down. Your accent is unusual. Just stay beside me and be quiet while I buy us tickets to Julesport."

"Aren't you worried about being recognized?" Jason objected. "You look so much like your mom."

Kira hesitated. They were still pretty close to Pacta Servanda. The odds of running into someone who had seen Mari were uncomfortably high. "You're right. I'm going to coach you on how to say 'two tickets for Julesport' in a local accent. I'll be right there but pretend I'm looking somewhere else so my face isn't too visible."

Jason stared at her with that puzzled expression. "Wait. You're not going to argue with me?"

"Why would I argue? You're right. We're still too close to home."

He blinked at her, shrugged, then listened with what seemed to be an exaggerated amount of concentration as she led him through the phrase several times until Jason could say it with something like a local accent.

When the station agent, who once would have been a Mechanic Guild apprentice but since the fall of the Great Guilds was just a normal worker, gave Jason the price, Kira kept her face averted while she passed him the coins. As she led him to a bench to wait for the train, she noticed that Jason was grinning with delight. "What?"

"That was money!" Jason whispered. "Real money!"

"Um…yeah," Kira said. "You've never paid for anything before?"

"Sure I have! Lots of stuff! But I've never used money!"

"What do you use?" Kira asked.

"An auto-link to a payment app."

She nodded slowly at him. "So you don't use money on Urth?"

"Sure we do. We just don't use money."

Urth must be incredibly strange. "What do…I mean, you asked me once what we do for fun. What do you do?"

"Back home?" Jason slumped, looking at the wooden floor of the station moodily. "Play a lot of games, I guess. Do my classes."

"Don't you go out with friends?" Kira asked.

"Sometimes. I mean, just people I know. Nobody like…like you."

Not sure what that meant, Kira dismissed it with a shrug. "Yeah, sure. I'm exotic, you said."

He gave her a curious look. "Does that bother you?"