The three of them drifted out of the theater hall together, Torren still calm as ever, Lucy back to chattering once they were in the hallway. Rein followed between them, quieter than usual but lighter than he’d expected after the conversation.

Classes passed in a blur. Notes half-written. Teachers’ voices like background noise. He caught himself doodling small stars and spirals in the corner of his notebook, then hastily scribbled over them.

Lucy passed him a folded paper at one point in their sixth period history class. 

you good?

Rein hesitated, then scribbled back:

i guess. thx

Lucy added a doodle of a glittery smiley face and a heart, because of course they did.

                                            _________

The final bell felt like a sigh of relief.

The three of them ended up outside together, like it had been planned all along. Torren fell into step on his left, Lucy bounced on his right, talking about how the clouds looked like sleeping cats.

Somewhere between the school gates and the corner of his street, Lucy suddenly gasped.

"Wait. We don’t even have each other's number!"

Rein blinked. "…Oh. Huh. We don’t." 

"Unacceptable," Lucy declared, fishing out their phone with a flourish. "What if I want to send you memes at 2 a.m.? What if Torren wants to brood at you through text?"

Torren raised an eyebrow. "I don’t brood."

"You totally brood," Lucy said, handing their phone to Rein. "Numbers. Now. Group chat imminent."

Rein chuckled under his breath and typed in his number, then handed his phone to Torren, who entered his with his usual precision.

A second later, Rein’s phone buzzed with a new group chat: Glitter & Doom & Rein.

"Seriously?" Rein muttered.

"You’re welcome," Lucy said brightly.

By the time they reached the corner where Lucy split off, they waved dramatically.

"Bye, Rein-who-faints! Bye, shiny broody boy!"

Rein gave him a look. "That’s not my name. I thought we were over that!"

"Never!" Lucy cackled running off. Torren chuckled beside him. 

                                            ________

The last stretch of the walk home with Torren was quieter, lost in thought. 

"You really okay?" Torren asked finally, his voice low.

Rein hesitated, thinking of Damian curled in his bed, whispering about blood and death. And the boy with grey eyes and sunset hair. Then he thought about Torren's frim grip holding his hand, Lucy's weight on him, grounding him. 

He sighed. 

"…I think so."

Torren nodded once, like he believed it. Or like he wanted Rein to believe it.

When they reached Rein’s apartment building, Torren offered a small, calm smile.

"See you tomorrow, Rein."

"Yeah. Tomorrow."

Torren turned to leave and Rein caught his hand. He didn't know why but he felt like he couldn't just let him got like that. Torren paused startled and turned to look at Rein. 

Rein bit his lip nervously and stared down at his shoes. "Th-thank you. Really. You and Lucy, Its always just been my brother and I and I was fine with that. Then I met you and Lucy and....just, thank you." 

There was silence and Rein had already started to pull his hand away but then Torren caught it and laced their fingers together. Rein let him. 

"Anytime Rein," he said softly. "Literally, anytime."

Rein nodded. And this time when Torren released his hand and turned to leave. He let him. 

Rein watched him walk away, silver eyes catching the last bit of sunlight, and felt… complicated.

                                            _______

The apartment always felt like a safe little box after days like this—quiet walls, soft lamplight, and the faint hum of Damian’s laptop filling the space.

He kicked off his shoes, dropped his backpack on the couch and crossed the living room, going to his brother's room. He peeked inside. 

"Hey, Damin. I’m home."

Damian was at his desk, noise-canceling headphones around his neck, hands busy aligning three pencils in a perfect row. His hoodie was zipped to his chin.

"You’re three minutes later than last time." he said without turning.

"Hi to you, too," Rein said, flopping onto his bed. "How are you feeling?"

"…Stable enough." Damian clicked the pencils once against the desk, rhythmic. "No new dreams. No… flashes. I think I can go into work on monday. Maybe apologoze Mrs. Hans." 

Relief loosened something in Rein’s chest. "Good. I was worried about you all day." Monday was still two days away, Damian had enough time to rest. 

"I told you not to," Damian muttered, but his ears went faintly pink. After a pause, he added, "…I had water and half a granola bar."

"Good job, champ," Rein said, trying to keep his voice light. 

He rolled onto his side, pulling out his phone from his pocket. "Wanna see something?"

Damian eyed him suspiciously. "What is it?"

"The new group chat."

Damian’s face immediately soured. "Group chat?"

Rein tilted his phone so he could see: Glitter & Doom & Rein. Lucy had already sent three glitter GIFs, a picture of the sky captioned ‘this cloud looks like a whale’, and a meme about fainting goats.

Damian stared. "…Who's doom?"

"Excuse me?"

"You're Rein, your sunset friend is glitter obviously" He pointed at the emoji spam. "Who's doom?"

Rein squinted. "Torren obviously. Lucy has a weird habit of giving us weird nicknames."

"You shouldn’t get attached to doom," Damian said flatly, turning back to his pencils. "But… I like the whale cloud." Off course he did. 

Rein laughed, warmth creeping into his chest.

Moments like this—quiet and small—made him believe they were okay.