One evening, after the others had drifted to sleep, Caeli asked:

“Will we always be together?”

Her voice was small, nearly lost in the wind.

Akari turned to her. “Yes,” he said without hesitation.

“Even when we get adopted?”

“Yes.”

“Even if we’re... gone?”

He hesitated.

Then reached up and placed her hand over the little dinosaur tail sewn into the back of his hoodie.

“Even then.”

She smiled and curled into his chest.

He didn’t sleep that night. He watched the cracks in the ceiling and listened for the hum beneath the floor.