[Kaliko]

Nic shrugged. "I guess that everything will work itself out," he replied. "That Yue will believe me. That I can settle things with Sheng. That we can stop whoever wants to hurt us. That we can start rebuilding our lives."

--

Without a sound, Yue slowly tipped over, mind too overwhelmed to stay conscious anymore. So she laid on the ground, covered in sweat, body shivering. Like she had thought, the trip into the past had proved too difficult for her. And now she was alone, somewhere between the past and present. Lost somewhere in her mind like James was lost in his.

--

"What do you think we should name him?" Sheng asked. Then after a moment he called, "Long." Long blinked. "Ling and I have shared our opinions," Sheng explained. "So what do you think?"

Long blushed a little, feeling very out of place. "I couldn't," he replied quickly.

"Why not?" Sheng asked. Ling giggled a little.

It took a little more persuading from Sheng and his sister, but Long eventually timidly replied, "... Xing?"

Sheng nodded a little. "Perhaps Xing would be a fitting name," he mused. Ling nodded in agreement. "... That would be the name you would give your own son, wouldn't it?" Sheng asked, resting his chin on his hand.

Long's eyes widened a little, and Ling found her voice caught in her throat. After a long moment, Sheng mused, "... Then perhaps it wouldn't be..." Then he started talking about other things, and the topic was dropped. But Long couldn't get Sheng's question out of his head.