When Zach rolled to a stop, he grinned to see Yuki popping up from the bushes, squinting against the yellowish lights shining into her eyes.

Zach got off, hung his helmet from the handlebars and rushed into the bushes to make sure Yuki was okay.

“Fine,” was the answer, “But my hand hurts.”

“Your hand?”

Yuki nodded to the floor. Zach followed her hand to find Valerie holding Yuki’s, occasionally squeezing, sending a grimace across Yuki’s face.

Meanwhile, the lights of Ana’s car turned down, leaving the hearse looking rather sinister in the flickering street light.

“That is ‘the cart before the horse’?” Yuki asked.

Zach shrugged his shoulders, “Just her car. Who knows…”

The doctor left the hearse, checked something in the backseat, rummaged around for a moment, then came at Valerie armed with two needles.

“Ass or arm, Val?” she wanted to know, removing the cap from the first needle, putting the plastic protection between her lips.

“Drinks before you get near my ass, doc.”

Even though Zach couldn’t see Ana’s face, he was pretty sure she was rolling her eyes. She squatted down and unceremoniously jammed the needle into the girl’s arm. She pulled the plastic cap of the next needle off with her teeth, kept the first between her pinkey and ring finger, using the same hand to administer the second shot.

“Girls,” she said when she was done, capping the used needles again, “Could you put her in the car?”

“But my bike…” Val whimpered.

“Somebody’s coming for it,” Ana reassured her, “I called them from the car.”

“Oh, good,” she said, turning into a mumble, “Wouldn’t want to lose my tricycle.”

Yuki giggled, helping Zach pick up the confused woman.

As they guided her to the car, she said ‘ouch’ with every step, but she seemed to have no idea why it hurt. They helped her in the backseat, Ana cocked her head at Zach, giggled, then slowly lay down on the leather seats.

“You two’ve been great,” Ana called, “But if you don’t mind.”

She opened the door, nodded to the girls, then suddenly remembered something. A hand went into her pocket and she slid it over the black roof.

“You’re welcome at Riders any time, girls,” she called right as the object she had sent over the roof arrived on the other side, neatly landing in Zach’s hands.

A second later the door shut and Yuki pulled Zach back to make sure his foot wouldn’t be crushed by the heavy car.

Zach meanwhile squinted at the paper he was holding, struggling to read it in the street light.

“What is it?”

“An invitation to Riders…”

Yuki pulled the card from his hands and put it down her shirt.

“Hey, that’s mine!”

“It’s a girl bar, Zach. What do you want to do there?”

“Get a drink when I’m older?” he suggested.

“Sure, Zach,” she teased, “Bet you want to see girls kissing… I’ll hang on to this.”

She narrowed her eyes at Zach, her lips curling in a playful smile, “Unless you want to try and get it back.”

Zach considered it briefly, then tried to grab Yuki. Yuki took a light step aside, ducked under his arms and raised her eyebrows at him.

“Bold, Zach,” she giggled, “Want to take it from my bra?”

Zach hesitated, which only made Yuki laugh harder and lightly tap her chest, “Come on, get it…”

He tried to grab her again, but she was a lot more agile, simply avoiding him, “Maybe let’s not do this here. You know the song? Sailor Fuku o Nugasanai de?”

“Of course I don’t,” Zach laughed, trying to piece the words together, “They don’t play Japanese music on the radio here.”

“Too bad,” Yuki grinned, walking backwards and softly singing, “Sailor Fuku o Nugasanai de, Iya yo dame yo konna tokoro ja…” Zach, whose studies had only taught him a few of the words she used, just looked confused.

“So, if not this tokoro, which?”

Yuki’s eyes sparkled, “You learned a Japanese word!”

“A few,” Zach said, trying to sound cool, so, where?”

“Eager,” Yuki giggled, thinking and finally coming to a conclusion, “I have the keys to the video store!”

Zach didn’t need long to think. He rushed to the motorbike and was about to put the key in when a thought struck him.

“Hey, Yuki…?”

Yuki shuffled her feet, mumbling the answer to what she thought Zach was about to ask, “I have...protection.”

“Great,” Zach said, feeling himself turn red, glad he could change the subject immediately, “But that’s not what I wanted to ask. ...Why do you want an invitation to a girl bar? You’re not gay.”

“I am not?” she retorted with a giggle, “But I thought I was on a date with a girl.”

“Har har,” Zach replied, putting the key in the ignition, “ You have a strange definition of ‘date’, Yuki.”

“Well, if you work in a video store, you don’t want to go to the movies,” she laughed.

Zach shrugged, turned the key, then listened to the odd sound of his motorcycle protesting. He tried again, another protest. His eye led to the gauges, specifically the gas. It was empty.

“Fuck,” he cursed, “ Fuck fuck fuck.”

Yuki was about to open her mouth, but never got a chance to. She was suddenly caught in the headlights of an approaching car. She looked up, clearly concerned the cops were returning to snoop, relieved to find it was just an arriving flatbed.

It parked along the road, which was when Zach could read the lettering on the side, ‘Brooks Salvage’.

He could barely conceal his relief when Kevin got out, then realized that Kevin wouldn’t recognize him. Hopefully…

“Good…” Kevin started, then looked at his watch to make sure he was using the right time of day. He shook the timepiece, then shrugged, “ Hi, girls. I’m looking for an abandoned motorbike. That it?”

“No,” Yuki jumped in, “ Some rough looking girls took another one earlier though. It is gone.”

“Shiiiit,” Kevin sighed, “I got out of bed for this…”

“ Well,” Yuki said softly, “You are not here for nothing. If you want to help some lost girls…”

“Depends how.”

“The tank. It is empty. Could you give us a ride to the junkyard?”

“Brooks or Bones?”

“Brooks.”

“I guess, I can,” Kevin said, then frowned, “But you can just fill an empty tank. You don’t have to throw the whole bike out.”

“There’s a gas station not far from the junkyard, isn’t there?” Zach said, “We live near there.”

“Weird,” Kevin said, “Never seen you girls before. You with the Trans?”

“We have only lived here a short time,” Yuki said hurriedly, “We are new in town.”

“Fair enough,” Kevin shrugged, “But you girls got gas money? I don’t drive for free.”

Zach cursed. In his hurry to get to the city, he never thought to bring his wallet.

“ We are friends of Mister Brooks’ son,” Yuki continued, which was technically true, “Can we give the money to him?”

“Which son?” Kevin said, narrowing his eyes.

“Zach,” Zach said hastily.

“Oh,” Kevin laughed, “You’re Zach’s buddies. You classmates of his?”

“We hang out with his girlfriend sometimes.”

Kevin frowned, “Never heard of you two before…”

Yuki and Zach looked at each other.

“But then again, I don’t see the kid that often. Load her up.”

Zach suppressed a sigh of relief.

“Speaking of Zach,” Kevin continued, narrowing his eyes at Zach in the darkness, “You kinda look like him.”

“Never heard that before,” Zach mumbled in response, glad he could hide his face by looking down at the bike as he pushed it to the flatbed.

Zach was pushing his bike along the road, side-eyeing Yuki, who was uncharacteristically unwilling to tease him. She had her hands folded behind her back and paid a great deal of attention to the cracks in the asphalt, making sure to walk on every one which made her route erratic and occasionally left her walking a bit behind Zach.

“You okay?” he asked over his shoulder when she dropped off again.

Yuki nodded, then froze in her step when she saw the sign advertising the strip mall glowing weakly in the summer night.

“You sure?”

“Just a bit… nervous,” she said, forcing out a giggle.

“Because we are going to…”

She swallowed hard and nodded.

“If you don’t want to...” Zach said, shrugging, “ When you’re ready.”

Yuki smiled, which slowly turned into a grin, “You’re too nice, Zach.”

“I thought you liked that in me,” he smirked.

Yuki skipped over, put her hands on the bike seat’s leather and leaned towards Zach. Zach hurried brought the vehicle to a halt and on its wheels, leaning back to try and kiss her back, but she was only seemed interested in a quick peck.

“Let’s go watch a movie instead,” she suggested, then winked, the usual mischief playing back into her words, “From the adult section.”

“If you want,” Zach said, taking a moment to register what she said, then laughed and pushed the bike as fast as he could, “Sure, Yuki, sure.”