Adon sat up, alerted by the profound sadness beneath the anger, “what happened?”

Mess bit his lip, hard.”

“It’s okay, I won’t be mad,” Adon felt his insides freezing in fear, relaxing his face into warm understanding while gripping Lu’s hand behind them with all his hidden anxiety. 

Lu squeezed back, keeping his face carefully neutral, rocking Mess gently.

“I saw… I saw the file.” Mess sobbed harder, “when I had my evaluation with Heather.” Adon interrupted his confession to blow his dripping nose, then let him continue. “She took a call and left, and our—our file was… it was on the desk so… I… I looked.” He dropped his face into his hands, heaving breaths between his stuttering words, “I saw. I saw what she… what she did to you.” 

“Oh,” Adon relaxed, dropping his head onto Lu’s shoulder and pulling Mess onto his own lap with a tight hug, “it’s okay now.”

Lu moved to give them space, but Adon wouldn’t let go of his hand, so he remained on the floor beside them, fascinated by how easily Adon leaned into him, how his arm wrapped around the brothers and fit so perfectly, how, despite only knowing cold silence, he had become someone warm. He felt proud and strong and scared, unsure how much to listen or sympathize in their broken vulnerability. 

Mess shoved Adon off him, suddenly buzzing with anger and continuing his unfinished explanation, “Aphy said not to tell you! And when I…” His voice dropped to barely a whisper, “when I asked if she knew… when I told her about the pictures I saw and asked if she knew….”

Lu and Adon leaned in to hear Mess over his new round of tears, “she said… she s-said… she said she remembered.” Mess looked up at Adon, then collapsed into guilty apologies as Adon hugged him and rocked them both into Lu.

Adon stared at the kitchen cabinets, stunned. 

Lu watched Adon carefully, measuring the small smile twitching in the corners of his mouth, curling with his own tears as he grapled to understand Aphrodite’s betrayal. Lu wanted to cover them, to keep them safe and hidden until they were ready to stand, but already Adon’s face eased, cooing softly to Mess that she’ll be okay, and she’ll come back soon. Lu chewed his cheek, realizing how complicated being warm could be, how uncomfortable the heat could get when he cared about others, the irrational wall of fear pushing him to protect them, lock them away, push back the world. No wonder the Asylum set such strict emotion guides. Maybe all three of them needed a rage room. If he didn’t know they tracked IDs and rack up fee points, he would bring them to the one near the Arcade—

There was a pounding on the door. 

Adon gripped Mess tight, both of them wiping each other’s tears and fixing rumpled hair in a practiced routine as Adon tucked Mess under the sink and mouthed to Lu Security.

Lu unfolded and stood before Adon could stop him, answering the door with a suave smile, “can I help you officer?”

Adon remained in a half-crouch near the sink, hidden from view, and Lu was grateful Adon’s pride wasn’t stupid. 

“Complaint of noise violation, confirmed by em-radar piques,” he held his gloved hand out, nearly invisible as the nano-panels of the gravity suit blended into the background of the hall. His partner flickering in and out of contrasted focus as he held the scanner on his arm up and the first officer barked an order, “identification.”

Lu smiled, slow and syrupy, recognizing the second officer behind his blue-tinted mask. He fell against the doorframe, crossing his arms cooly over his chest, “are you sure?” 

The first officer pulled his weapon, a sleek baton that could drop Lu in a second, his hand still out for the ID, the scanner on his arm activated and glowing neon green. 

Lu shrugged as the second officer gripped his partner’s arm in late warning. Lu smiled smugly and flashed his wristband over the scanner with a confirming ding, watching the officer’s breathing stop as he read the information flashing on the inside of his helmet visor. His weapon returned to its holster, eyes wide, “Sorry about that…sir.” He looked like the words pained him, “have a good night.” 

The two officers practically ran from the unity as Lu eased the door closed, rolling his eyes. Benny would have questions. Unless Phaios manned the scanner and deleted it first. 

Lu returned to the kitchen to find Adon smiling up at him from the floor, Mess asleep in his lap.

Lu slid down the cabinets beside Adon, waiting for the questions, but Adon didn’t ask. 

“Thanks,” Adon whispered, leaning his head on Lu’s shoulder, exhausted. His eyes were warm again as Lu lifted Mess and waddled him to the bed. 

Lu made a dinner out of their assorted groceries, saving the potato dumplings for Mess to warm up in the morning, shamelessly wondering if he looked good next to Adon to others wandering outside, if they were one of those couples that made sense at first glance—he cut off his own thoughts, guiltily flushing at the memory of Adon’s hand gripping his like he was at an edge and Lu was pulling him back to safety. He stopped his wandering mind a second time, they weren’t a couple. They were friends. They could be a couple later, when Adon wasn’t feeling so… traumatized. 

Lu slid a bowl of noodles in front of Adon, rewarded with an approving smile, though any combination of salt-butter-and-carbs might have been enough, spicy food, Lu had found, got out the last of the tears he wasn’t allowed to cry.

“We’re friends, right?” Lu blurted, cringing.

Adon’s laugh surprised them both, “I sure hope so. I’d be way more embarrassed if you were a stranger.”

“Oh, yeah,” Lu stirred his bowl of noodles, suddenly realizing the vulnerability of Adon’s past had been laid out without his permission, played theatrically for Lu’s entertainment, and he wanted to make an equal offering, so without fully thinking, he blew on his noodles and nodded like he understood the entire universe and added “a few months ago, Pa took me to a pit fight and a guy’s whole finger flew into the crowd and I pretended to laugh, but I threw up four times and I still have nightmares about it.” He chewed his noodles. 

Adon gaped. 

Lu fidgeted, swallowing, “now… now you don’t have to be embarrassed alone.”

Again, Adon’s laugh surprised them both as they collapsed into relieved giggles that didn’t end. A snoring Mess threw a pillow from the bed, hitting Lu in the back of the head, which made them cackle even harder, covering mouths and stifling tears.

When he sobered, Lu realized he’d told his secret: only the Quartet and their affiliates went to the Pits. He’d told on himself and Adon had only laughed. Lu wondered what it meant and replayed every microexpression he could recall crossing Adon’s face, preparing for the inevitable confrontation while Adon woke Mess to eat his noodles before they got cold.

Both Adon and Lu’s district alerts went off at once, Aphy’s old pendant joining the chorus of flashing lights in sync with the hallway warnings. Lu’s band strobed a rainbow, Adon’s ancient keychain cycling through oranges and purples, no danger specified. Lu shrugged at Adon’s confusion, looking around for a broadcast line before realizing they didn’t even have an AI Entertainment System. He reached for his tablet, relieved to find it connected still to the New Internet, following the hazard link to the Asylum warnings list with a sigh, “just an underflood.”

With a billion stories of rails and walks and buildings above them, the rains were collected in funneling pipes that didn’t always get finished, dumping all of Caldera’s collected rainfall into the doomed districts wherever the disconnections happened on accident or purpose. The investment credits for the distribution pipe network went into pockets like Pa’s as the Flock Construction wagered contracts and gambled on short-cut materials, drowning the vulnerable districts without remorse. Lu frowned at Adon’s nonchalant shrug, “that’s a bad one, deadly potential. Shouldn’t we… evacuate?”

Adon smiled, tucking Mess back into bed when he refused dinner and meeting Lu back at the table with a second helpless shrug, “nowhere to go. We can’t control it, Lu-Lu. We have to just do our best to live around it. If we dwelled on every deadly-potential warning we got in a month, I think anyone below the seventh would be a jumper.”

Lu scoffed, surprised Adon would make such a dark joke before realizing he was serious. It was needling to live so close to death with no control or option for escape. He didn’t like it. He didn’t like it for himself or for Adon, or Mess snoring quietly in the corner. He pulled Adon into a resolute hug, squeezing tighter the more he struggled until Adon gave up, going limp and then hugging Lu back. 

“You’re pretty amazing, do you know that?” Lu whispered, resting his head on Adon’s shoulder. Maybe he wanted to be a couple later, but clearly Adon needed a friend now, so Lu ignored the thrill running up his arms and the warm noodle-smell in the air, and smiled at Adon, “you’re brave and strong, and I like you.” He meant as a friend, to validate his suffering and offer encouragement. He’d meant I like who you are not I am almost in love, but after he said the words so confidently, he realized both were true, and that they probably meant the same thing. 

Adon kissed Lu’s cheek, nuzzling into his shoulder, contemplating words like amazing and strong that had never been used to describe the smart, nice, pretty Adon everyone else knew. Part of him was proud to be seen as strong, another part, humiliated by his own effort, wanted to bury his head in the ground and never come out. 

“Uhhh… Adon?” Lu tensed at the banging sounds from outside as units swayed into each other, stacked to bare the weight of the uppers, the stilts of the Ground flexed and contracted as dirt and grime was suddenly power-washed off Indigo District by hundreds of gallons of water dumping into the Wells.

“Don’t worry, it’s just the flood. It will be over by the morning.”

“Yeah,” Lu picked up the tablet set behind Adon without releasing their hug, swiping to the district news and alerts radar and wincing at the flurry of damage reports, “can I stay here tonight?” He offered the screen to Adon. 

Adon’s arms remained clasped around Lu’s waist, watching the projected damage map circle like a drain, smiling and nodding at Lu, then the futon, “it’s not like Aphy will need it tonight.”

Before Lu could respond, Adon was bouncing around the unit, gathering a towel and clean clothes that might fit him, proudly presenting their private bathroom, which was, apparently, an upgrade. He showed Lu the complicated panel for wetroom controls outside the door, then let him wash up, skipping to comfort a whimpering Mess scarving down the noodles he’d pushed away and pulling out his homework since the sound of a never ending waterfall against tin walls would be keeping him up for several hours anyway.

Lu showered and returned to the low table in the center of the room, listening to Adon repeat the history of Caldera survival and the Clearwater Alliance Influence, the Suffering, the Catastrophe, the wars of the final flood, and finally, the Asylum. He listened to them talk about the infamous emotion wheel, placard beneath every hazard escape route throughout the city, the volatile emotions blacked out with a warning and a list of helpful ARC resources. He smelled Adon’s shampoo in his hair and smiled at Mess asking for more noodles. He set another bowl in front of them both and listened to Mess giggle and Adon curse as his tablet flashed a fee notice with a loud beep because the site was illegal, blocked, and, apparently, hacked. Lu smiled at Adon’s cursing, surprised but not offended, drying his hair and looking around for a mirror before realizing there was one, and why Adon was always fixing his hair in passing windows. It was a habit. 

Lu slept in Aphro’s spot on the futon, promising to take the floor if she came back. Adon didn’t like the idea of her traveling in floodwaters. Lu watched his brow furrow and took Adon’s hand confidently, “she’ll be okay. She’s smart.” He unlocked Adon’s phone and opened the device-link app, revealing their locations. He zoomed out of Indigo district until he found a small red dot over in Violet.

Adon sighed with relief, “I was scared to check.”

“Why?” 

“What if she was with…her?”

Lu looked at the map, “do you know where she is?”

“Yeah, that’s Calli’s.” Adon plopped down on the futon next to Lu, fighting himself not to lay down. His insides felt like the sink sounded when he let down the dirty dishwater. 

Lu pulled Adon’s shoulder to him, tucking around him and pulling the blanket over them, “just for a minute.”

Adon nodded, “just a minute,” and let himself be hugged, held, and watched over for one minute, then, without any questions from Lu, untangled himself and crawled beside Mess, smiling quietly and falling asleep immediately.

☆☆☆