It's been raining for 12 hours straight.

The droplets slapped sideways against the soot-smeared windows of Dee's flat, blurring out Newcastle like the city had been half-deleted from memory. Grey light crawled in, but it wasn't welcome. Not much actually was that day.

She sat on the floor instead of the couch. It felt more honest that way. Phone in her hand. Screen still cracked from a drop two weeks ago, a fine spiderweb etched over her last message - like even the glass itself knew how fragile things were now...

Keira leaned back on her palms, flexing her shoulders a little like she was getting used to the weight of the hoodie. The spiked fabric settled around her like it belonged there.

"So," she drawled, dragging the word out like she was testing the air, "is your hoodie one of those sacred items I gotta return before we cross the threshold?"

Void, still slouched against the workbench, turned her head lazily and blinked at her. Her shirt clung in soft folds to her frame, sleeves pushed halfway up her forearms, the black denim catching glimmers of her LED lighting system...

"Fuuuuucking finally!" Keira yelled triumphantly, holding up the keychain that now dangled stubbornly from the steel ring. She wiggled her fingers like she'd just won a war against a particularly nasty piece of metal. "Took me long enough, but the beast is tamed."

Nobody had ever made her anything before, not even as simple as a fancy-shaped piece of plastic. Unless you counted spiteful nicknames or half-assed apologies.

She blinked, clearing her throat with a scoff to cover it up. "Gonna be real hard for anyone to top this. You know that, right?"

Void mumbled, almost too quiet to be heard...

The plates were pushed aside, half-crusted with crumbs, tea mugs emptied. Keira sat cross-legged on the floor tiles, chewing the inside of her cheek as Void leaned against the wall beside her, her blanket now pooling around her waist like some kind of goth monarch in exile. Silence between them was anything but awkward. Comforting, even.

Void glanced over at her without moving her head. "You don't have to stick around, you know."...

Keira woke to the feeling of warmth and the unsettling realization that she wasn't alone.

Her first instinct, buried under layers of practiced bravado, was to jerk away - because waking up next to someone was usually followed by awkward silence, post-coital regret or some kind of territorial claim she had no interest in navigating. But this wasn't it. Not in the slightest...