Manjiro Sano

The first knock against the window was soft enough to go unnoticed in such a busy place. The second wasn't.

You opened your eyes to the faint tap of knuckles against the glass. Beside your bed, Draken remained asleep, breathing heavily enough that you knew he hadn't heard it. You stayed still for a moment, staring into the darkness... This situation had repeated itself so many times that you had lost count.

Another knock.

Of course. It couldn't have been any other way.

You slipped out of bed and crossed the room without turning on the light. The hallway outside was almost completely dark, illuminated only by the weak glow spilling up from downstairs. The building never truly went quiet at night. Muffled voices, laughter and the occasional creak of footsteps travelled through the walls, accompanied by the lingering smell of perfume and cigarette smoke.

You hated going downstairs this late. It wasn't unusual for drunk clients to mistake you for one of the women working there, and explaining otherwise was always more trouble than it was worth. So whoever was waiting at the window—and knew perfectly well who he was—had better have a damn good reason.

The knocking came again.

Such persistence made that you didn't even have the patience to reach the exit, and right there in the hallway you pulled the curtain aside and opened the window just enough to look outside.

Mikey was crouched on the narrow ledge that opened directly into the room you shared with your brother, his blond hair slightly disheveled from the ride over. He looked completely at ease, one hand resting against the wall as though climbing to Draken's bedroom window in the middle of the night was a perfectly normal way to visit someone.

The moment he saw her, his expression shifted into mild annoyance.

"I need Draken." He made no attempt to explain himself. "Wake him up."

The afternoon had been surprisingly peaceful. Which, in hindsight, should have been your first warning.

Emma was sitting cross-legged on the floor of her room, enthusiastically talking about something neither you nor Draken had been paying much attention to. Draken was leaning against the wall, half-asleep, while you absentmindedly flipped through a magazine. For almost twenty whole minutes, nobody had mentioned Toman, a fight, an emergency, a motorcycle or Mikey.

Then the door burst open. You didn't even need to look up, only one person in Tokyo opened doors like they had personally offended him. Mikey walked in carrying a bag of chips, completely ignoring the fact that everyone in the room immediately turned toward him.

"I'm hungry."

Emma stared at him.

"Hello to you too."

Mikey blinked and considered that for a moment. "Hi." Then he looked directly at Draken. "Come with me."

Draken looked tired already. "Why?"

"Because I'm hungry."

Even Emma looked confused. "What does that have to do with Draken?"

Mikey frowned as though the answer should have been obvious. "I don't want to go alone." His gaze shifted toward you. Immediately, his expression became slightly more irritated. "...And definitely not with her."

There it was. The peace had officially ended.

.