Darcie left them the day before they traveled to Japan. She had an invitation to a beach house in Cape May with a bunch of college friends, and they were all going to car pool down together on that Friday. Naturally, Darcie didn't want to miss out on the road trip, though she offered to stay.

"No," Sumire responded when she heard. "Of course you need to go with your friends. You've spent enough time with us."

"Hey, speak for yourself, Purple girl," Nick said from where he was sprawled on the couch of the suite. "Maybe I want the extra day with her."

Sumire just gave him a look. "We'll miss you, Darcie. Go have fun in New Jersey with your friends, okay?"

So Darcie left, and Nick and Sumire did actually spend that last day brushing up on the script.

"I know I've told you this before, but you are just amazing," Nick said. "I mean, I can't believe you haven't studied acting, you know?"

"Thanks, I guess," Sumire responded. "I guess it helps to have a deep knowledge of phonetics and morphology and all that," she mused. "And I did spend a lot of time alone when I was little, putting on plays and stuff by myself, you know? Since I was an only child? Maybe that helped as well? I don't know." She shrugged, dismissing the topic.

Nick walked to the mini fridge and grabbed a bottle of water, holding one up in Sumire's direction to see if she wanted one as well.

"Well, I didn't mean just intellectually," Nick clarified. "I mean, of course you got into college and grad school and you're so smart and everything, so yeah, all that good stuff, yes," he said.  "But you also survived the most horrifying, horrendous experience, and came out whole and normal, you know?"

Sumire looked up at his words. "Whole and normal? Is that how you see me?" she asked. "Really?" She sounded curiously detached, almost like a scientist doing research, like they were talking about someone else.

Nick nodded. "I think you're amazing," he said truthfully. "To have survived what you did to be the person you are? Just incredible." His voice had grown soft by his last words.

Sumire looked away for a moment, out the window that overlooked Central Park, and Nick was shocked and horrified to see a tear fall out of her eye and crawl down her cheek. This was only the second time he'd seen her cry, ever.

"Whole and normal," she repeated, shaking her head.

She looked back at Nick, and he could see that her chin was trembling. She wiped away the tear and bit her lips together, as trying to stop her chin from moving.

"That first night?" She let out a sob and put her hand against her mouth until she got it under control.

Nick nodded, knowing he didn't want to hear what she was going to say.

"When he came into my room and raped me on that first night, I didn't even know I had an opening there," she said, her voice soft. "I thought I had an opening for number one and an opening for number two," she said, reverting to the vocabulary of her childhood. "So I thought he'd broken me open somehow, that he'd ripped a new opening into my body where there hadn't been one before."

Nick drew his brows together and nodded again.

"And when he--finished, I didn't know what had happened, and I thought he'd peed inside me." Sumire swallowed.

"And then, a few nights later, he came back, and he put it in an opening that I'd only ever thought was for going to the bathroom," she said in the same, soft, shocked, voice. "And it hurt, and I vomited because it was so disgusting."

Nick nodded once more, and felt a tear streak down his own cheek this time.

"So you can see how strange it is to hear you say 'whole and normal,' Nick. Because I'm a broken girl. A broken girl. A broken girl."

Sumire rose abruptly and walked quickly to the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.

Nick heard the sounds of retching, small and agonizing. He swiped at his cheek, wiping away the tear that had started to dry there. He waited a few minutes, then went and tapped on the door to the bathroom.

The knob turned, so he pushed the door open and entered.

Sumire was still kneeling in front of the commode, though the bowl was clean, and she appeared to be finished.

Nick risked putting a hand on her back and rubbing gently when she didn't immediately shrug it away. After a moment she reached for his hand and used it to pull herself to her feet.

He leaned against the wall and watched as she quickly brushed her teeth. Then he followed her out and helped her get into her bed, sitting next to her after she pulled the blanket over herself.

"Thanks for saying I seem whole and normal," she said in a wan voice. She gave Nick a small smile. "But I know how fucked up I am. In my defense, though, I fixed myself, you know? And I was a little kid when I did it. I worked with what I had." She shrugged. "And it works for me, you know? I've made it work."

"So you're saying you're happy with the way things are?" Nick asked cautiously.

"Like what, for example?"

"Like you're happy not touching people, not being touched?" Nick swallowed as he looked at her, not sure what reception his question would get.

Sumire sighed. "It's worked for me so far," she finally said. "I'm pretty asexual, in case you haven't noticed. I don't relate to either sex that way, and no one really sees me that way, either, so it seems fine, I think."

"You don't want to get married someday? Have kids?" Nick went on.

Sumire shook her head. "I mean, I wouldn't mind to have kids someday, but I always thought I'd adopt, you know? There are tons of kids who need parents, and being a single parent is nothing these days, right? And I honestly don't know if I could trust my own judgement in choosing a spouse, anyway. Even if I could get over my problems in that area, what if the person I chose to be my children's father turned out to be a child molester? Look at my mother, for crying out loud. She has no idea, to this day, that she's married to a monster!"

Sumire shuddered. "I couldn't risk something like that." She gave Nick a frank look. "I know that not all child molesters are men, but the odds are seriously stacked that way."

Nick swallowed, hard.

"What?" Sumire was looking at him intently. "You look like you're dying to say something."

But Nick finally just shook his head.

"No, just agreeing with you, Mimi-chan."

Sumire finally shrugged again.

"I want to thank you, Nick-san," she said with another of her small smiles. "I never, ever thought I'd be able to tell anyone any of this, let alone a guy." She reached out and placed her slender hand on his. He turned his over so he could clasp her hand, which she allowed.

"I'm glad we're friends," she said simply. "I'm grateful." She nodded for emphasis.

"It's my pleasure," he assured her.

"And I think you're even helping me get over my haphephobia," Sumire told him. "Fear of touching and being touched," she elaborated at his blank look. She lifted their clasped hands. "No way no how I could've endured this when we met."

"Not that there's anything wrong with, uh, haphephobia," Nick said. "If it gets you through the day, it's fine, I think."

"And I think it might only be you, anyway," Sumire admitted. "I still don't like being touched by other people."

"And that's fine, too," Nick told her. He was emboldened by her words to lift her hand to his lips and press a soft kiss to it, and was relieved that her only response was a smile.

"Maybe we should work on the script a bit more?" she said. "I think I could if we could do it here, with me in bed? Would you mind?"

"Not a bit," he responded. "I'll go get them."

And he returned with his script and hers, both of which were looking quite dog-eared by now.

So they spent the afternoon reading through, with Nick still taking copious notes on where to stress each sentence, so Sumire wouldn't laugh at him for saying that the soldiers were crossing the "chopsticks" instead of crossing the "bridge."

"Really? The way I said it means 'chopsticks'?" Nick was disbelieving.

Sumire nodded while laughing. "Both are 'hashi,'" she explained. "You have the stress on the wrong syllable, Nick-san."

Eventually they ordered up room service for dinner and watched a movie before packing up to get ready to head to the airport the next day.

"Nick?" Sumire called as they were settling in to bed.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you. For this week. For the Plaza and New York and everything."

"My pleasure, honest. Now go to sleep, so we can conquer Japan."

"Oyasuminasai."

"Oyasuminasai."