I changed into an oversize T shirt I used for sleeping, and climbed into bed. The lights were out and everything was quiet. Just a few minutes ago, I could barely keep my eyes open to watch the TV, now I was wide awake.

Damn.

The room was too dark without the gentle glow of my parent’s spirits floating over head. Whenever I couldn’t sleep, my dad would always sing a lullaby. He had such a soft, gentle voice. I loved to hear his singing. Sometimes I would pretend to have trouble sleeping, just so I could hear it.

The room was so quiet now.

I don’t know how long I laid there waiting to doze off. I even tried praying to Nocturna the goddess of sleep to help me out, but she’s a lazy bitch and totally ignored me.

I checked the time on my phone, it was stupidly early in the morning. There was only a few more hours before I was supposed to get up. If I didn’t get at least a little sleep, tomorrow was going to suuuuuck.

Whatever, I’ll just get a snack and see if that makes me sleepy.

Not bothering to get pants on, I waddled back out into the living room and headed across to the kitchen. I already knew not to bother looking for the good stuff in any of the cupboards. Jiro had a strict no junk food policy and anytime he found tasty things like Toaster Tarts, or Cup O’ Ramen, or Lucky Runes cereal, he would just throw it out. It was a frick’n crime against humanity.

So, instead I was pawing through the fridge. My plans were to make something hot to drink. We had milk, right? Where was that magic powder Jiro had, that made a really tasty drink?

“Kari, is that you?”

I nearly jump high enough to bump my head on the inside of the fridge at the unexpected sound.

I turned around to find Noah, in hilariously over sized pajamas that were probably the twins.

I scowled and snapped at him.

“You scared the shit out of me!”

Noah scratched his head and looked sheepish.

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to sneak up on you.”

He looked around the dark kitchen, the only light coming from the still open fridge.

“So, you couldn’t sleep?”

I shrugged.

“Yeah, I though maybe drinking something warm would help.”

I looked Noah up and down. Why was he out here anyway?

“Were you thirsty too?”

Noah held the side of his waist and his eyes grew very big.

“Ummm, no.”

Noah leaned in closer and whispered.

“Uh, Kari, where’s the bathroom? I asked the twins, but they said it was classified and I hadn’t earned clearance yet.”

Oh my gods, Vegas and Reno were seriously pure evil.

I could see the pain in Noah’s eyes. His voice sounded kind of desperate.

“I feel like I’m about to burst. There is a bathroom here, right?”

Taking pity on the twin’s poor inmate, I closed the fridge and waved for Noah to follow me.

“Come on, I’ll show you.”

The bathroom was kind of in a weird place, tucked into one corner of the apartment, and hidden behind a half wall that jutted out to hide the open doorway. Before Noah stepped in, I stopped him and pointed out a plasticized piece of paper hanging next to the doorway.

“See this sign? One side is for girls the other side is for boys. When you go in the bathroom, make sure you flip it to the boys sign.”

I flipped the paper back and forth to show both sides to Noah. One side had a blue dragon with a beer belly and the words, “Boys Only” on it. The other side had a pink sea otter holding a seashell with the words “Girls Only”. I finally left it on the dragon side and waved Noah into the tiled room.

“The toilet stalls are just passed this locker room area.”

I pointed deeper into the room. The bathroom was laid out in a straight line, the locker room lead into the wet room where the showers and toilet stalls were, and there wasn’t a whole lot blocking the view from one to the other.

“See, this is why you have to flip the sign, you can totally see right into the showers from the doorway.”

Noah nodding as he hurried towards the potties.

“Okay, I’ll remember.”

I left him to do his stuff, and returned to my fridge plundering.

By the time Noah returned to the kitchen, I was already stirring up my warm concoction.

“Oh, I didn’t know you could cook. Wow, that smells really good.”

I puffed up proudly.

“Yup, I heated up the milk in the microwave all by myself. And this time nothing caught on fire.”

I grabbed two mugs from the hanging rack.

“Do you want some?”

Noah hopped up on one of the tall stools lining the bar counter.

“Sure!”

I carefully poured the frothy liquid into the cups, most of it actually got in there too. Gingerly lifting the cups from the milk puddles on the kitchen counter, I carried the drinks over and set one in front of Noah.

“So, this is just hot milk? It smells a lot better than that.”

I snagged the small box off of the kitchen counter to show Noah.

“Nope, it’s got this stuff in it. Jiro’s magic powder.”

Noah took the cardboard box and squinted at the printing on it’s side.

“What does this say?”

I shrugged.

“I don’t know, something Italiany.”

I took a long sip of my drink.

“Mmm, it sure taste good though.”

Noah sniffed the mug again, before taking a little sip, and then another, and then a looooong slurp.

“Mmmmm, that’s good.”

I climbed up onto the stool next to him.

“I know, right?”

We sat for a nice quiet moment sipping our cups in the darkened room.

Noah put his mug down first. Grabbing my hand that was resting on the counter. His palm was still really warm from holding his drink.

“Kari, about you not saying anything about your parents today.”

Oh gods, he’s totally going to want me to talk about it, isn’t he? What am I thinking, of course he is. Everyone wants me to talk about it.

I sighed a deep breath and slumped on my stool a bit.

Noah rubbed the back of my hand with his gentle thumb.

“I really wish you had told me. I feel like I was so selfish today. All we did was run around taking care of my stuff, when we should have been taking care of you.”

I put down my cup on the counter.

“N-no, we needed to take care of that stuff, and I wanted to do that.”

Noah gave my hand a little squeeze.

“It’s okay, I get why you didn’t.”

I looked up to Noah’s face.

He did? He got what?

Noah gave me a gentle smile.

“ ‘Cause, sometimes it just hurts so much, that it’s hard to even think about. It’s like an open wound, and talking about it is like just poking that wound over and over again.”

I nodded.

Yeah, that’s exactly what it’s like.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it. It’s okay if you’d rather focus on something else, something that will make you happy for a little while. It’s okay to not want to be sad all the time. We can wait. Wait until you’ve had time to heal, until it doesn’t hurt so much. And then when you’re ready, I’ll always be here to listen.”

Wow, just wow.

Noah was literally the first person I had ever met who got that maybe I didn’t want to talk it out, maybe I wasn’t looking for closure, and I didn’t want to let it go and move on. That maybe it hurt too much, and I just needed some relief. He’s the first person that said it was okay.

I squeezed his hand back hard.

“Thank you Noah. Thank you so much.”

My voiced sounded tiny and choked, but I needed to say this.

Noah got all flustered.

“W-what? No, I didn’t do anything.”

“Still, I owe you one.”

“Well, you already paid me with this tasty drink.”

Noah clinked his mug against mine and took another sip.

We sat for another long moment in silence, sipping our drinks and Noah still holding my hand.

Ah, now this was relaxing.

“There you are ya little perv! I knew you would be up to something.”

Reno came storming out of his room and straight over to us.

Noah didn’t look nearly as alarmed as he should have been.

“Oh, I just got up to use the bathroom.”

Reno wrapped his arm around Noah’s neck in a choke hold again, and yanked him off his stool.

“Yeah, I’m sure you were thinking about something in your pants.”

As Noah was dragged away, back into the twin’s room, he reached for the counter where he had put down his mug.

“Wait, wait, my drink!”

I grabbed the mug handle and slid it towards me.

“Don’t worry Noah, I’ll finish it for you.”

The drinks were cool enough that I could chug both mine and Noah’s, and waddle back to bed. I didn’t really get much sleep after that, but at least I had a warm tummy.