Lu watched the warmth return to Adon’s eyes as he mumbled names aloud, occasionally turning the phone to Lu to ask his opinion on a unit, only a little annoyed when Lu gave a genuine review rather than only look at the district name, pointing out several times in a row that Adon had loved his private bathroom, but Rose, Lavender, and Verdant were all known for their communal bath houses. Lu sketched Adon on his tablet, surprised when the food cart rang for the Scarlet platform. Time moved differently beside Adon—too fast. 

Lu jumped up, helping Adon pack up and reaching the door just in time to grab the last platform rail, jumping off and steadying Adon beside him. 

Adon looked around, confused, “this is Scarlet.”

“Yeah,” Lu confirmed, pointing and leading Adon to a door across the hall, “Indigo’s right here.”

Adon gaped at Lu’s secret shortcut, following him up a rung-ladder of an access pipe, “how do you even find these places?” He thought of the balcony at school, watching the weight of Lu’s shrugging shoulder. How lonely and cold did a home have to be for a child to push through strange doors just to see what might be on the other side, then walk through even when there was nothing interesting? 

Lu shouldered open another security access door and they emerged in an Indigo hall. Adon recognized the narrow corridor, the comms-fix on the corner had failed to upgrade his district ID pendant and actually refunded him. He laughed in disbelief at all the times he’d dragged himself through Navy or Violet when he could have cut through Scarlet as the access door eased closed behind them. Adon watched the door close, imagining a small Lu climbing those rungs, watching jumpers rot in the Wells, fingers flying through the Pits, and rolling out of nightmares to wander dark halls past curfew. Adon turned to the grown Lu waiting for him, and wanted to hug him. Or kiss him? He wanted to reach into the core of Lu’s sensitive chest and warm his heart, to declare him worthy of kindness, loveable. 

Adon passed Lu, taking his hand and striding to the first ally between closed businesses, kissing him in the dark.

Hours ago, their first kiss had been sweet, reassuring, a relief. But now there was curiosity and conflict as fingers explored contours of muscle, hair, and skin. Coats bunched and shushed against the rough brick as Adon pressed Lu into the wall, determined to return every favor, and Lu pulled him closer, both of them overwhelmed by each other. 

The helmets tucked on their elbows knocked into each other and dropped with a loud crack against the metal grate of the ally and Lu and Adon jumped apart, breathless and confused, then promptly fell over each other in side-splitting giggles. They were kids so accustomed to pretending to be adults, giving each other quiet permission to move slower, to be clumsy and less perfect with each other—to try less when their worlds urged them to work desperately for a gamble they’d never fully trusted. They could be something to believe in. 

Lu cradled Adon’s face, still laughing, and kissed him once more, returning to the slow awkwardness of that first kiss.

Adon nodded his agreement, eyes sparkling with tears of laughter. They could be slow together, while everything else moved at rail-speed and buried them in expectations and responsibilities. As long as they moved toward each other, it could be slowly. They walked casually toward Adon’s unit until there was only the final stairwell between them and the door.

Lu kissed Adon’s forehead as Adon wrapped him in a goodbye hug that was more thank-you than farewell. 

“My score meeting is at 8pm tomorrow,” Adon informed Lu’s shoulder. 

Lu pulled away, “then I’ll be here at noon?”

Adon’s misery faded and returned, “I have to work.”

“At the cafe?”

Adon nodded, pouting, “six to six.”

“That should be illegal,” Lu patted his back sympathetically.

“It is,” Adon grumbled with a huff, straightening.

“I don’t drink coffee, but I’m definitely going to be craving one of those little cakes tomorrow around noon,” Lu winked, “I have these really annoying worksheets to get through anyway,” Lu smiled dramatically at Adon’s joking shove. 

Adon’s smile was bright as he waved goodnight and started up the stairs. Lu waved back three times, refusing to leave until he saw Adon open the door and duck inside, listening to Mess attack him with questions, laughing. Lu turned to the quiet hall and jogged to the transport station, calling a private car because it was faster. Despite Benny’s training, Lu didn’t like the idea of a fight, sandbags didn’t bleed and he’d recently learned that he didn’t much care for the sight of blood. The car squealed to a stop and Lu jumped in, breathing warm air onto his cold hands and tucking them into the gloves of his grav-suit coat, no longer having Adon’s to keep him warm and the Wells felt colder than normal as he trudged home. 

☆☆☆