Maria slowly pushed herself up from the concrete. She had spent the night sleeping in an alley, and she was incredibly cold. It was a piercing cold, going all the way to her bones, but it wasn't freezing. She curled up, sitting against the wall of the alley as she tried to warm herself up. The clouds in the sky were starting to darken, so she pulled herself off the ground, and walked out into the street still rubbing her arms.
Her hair was a bit unkempt, but overall she looked like she normally did, rather plain. Her clothes were a bit ruffled, but not more so than usual. Despite sleeping on the concrete, she wasn't covered in dirt, and she had already wiped off the few loose rocks that had stuck to her.
She looked up at the building again. It was incredibly ugly building, with a sort of greenish gray slime building up where water continued to drip around its blocky facade. She took to the stairs, slowly stepping up one by one as she kept an arm wrapped around herself. She kept to the inner rail as she spiraled up; the outer one was covered in a white crust that she would rather not touch.
She stopped on the sixth floor, right infront of door 601, just as she had several times before. A feeling of doubt and regret gripped her heart as she stood there, staring at the door. She reached her clutched fist forward and held it up next to the door. She accidentally released, tapping the door a single time. She froze as a burst of adrenaline shot through her and she turned invisible.
A few seconds pass with nothing happening, and she starts letting go of the illusion. As her skin fades back into view, the door swings open, with a bleary-eyed Nero standing there looking at her.
"Maria?" he asked. "Where have you been? You haven't been answering my messages."
"My phone was dead."
"What are you doing out here? Do you want to come in?"
"Yeah. Sure."
Maria followed him inside. Around the place were a few scattered cans littering the floor. She accidentally kicked one, sending it rolling across the floor.
"Sorry for the mess," Nero said as quickly picked up the can and a few others, throwing them into his recycling bin. "I've been trying to keep the place cleaner, but I just..." he trailed off. "How are you holding up?"
"I'm alive, at least. I almost said I was fine, but if I was fine, I wouldn't be here," Maria answered , more candid than Nero expected.
"Yeah. I guess that's how it is."
"Listen. I don't want to ask this, but is it okay if I stay here for a few days?"
"That's probably not a good idea, but I'm not going to say 'no.' I don't think my wallet can stand taking care of both of us, and I don't know how much space and-"
"I'll work and get you money. I just- I can't go back yet. I don't know anyone else to ask, because I don't have any other friends. I'm certain you have your hands full from... Fetter." She leaned back against the door, slowly sliding down the floor.
"Yeah. You can stay. I just... Nevermind. Make yourself at home. Take as long as you need."
"I'm sorry, Nero. I just have to take this. I can't handle this. My brother is, he's just fucked everything up. I can't look-"
"It's alright. It's alright. You don't have to explain. I get the idea. It's six in the morning. I need to get some sleep. Okay? We can talk about this on the way to class later."
"I'm not going." She crossed her arms in front of her, resting them on her knees.
"We'll talk about it when I'm awake again." Nero threw himself down onto his bed, rolling over to wrap the blanket around himself. "Before I forget," he mumbled from underneath. "There are spare blankets in the closet next to the bathroom." Then he fell silent.
Maria stood up, and grabbed onto the door handle. She paused there, contemplating whether she should stay or go. She let go of the handle and walked over to the closet doors. She threw it open, and pulled the blankets down from the top shelf. There were two of them in there, one that felt soft and smooth, like a fuzzy warmth. She ran her fingers over it, taking her time to enjoy the texture. The other one was a thick and fluffy comforter. She put the comforter down on the floor, and threw the soft, fuzzy blanket down on top of it.
She laid down on the blankets, staring up at the ceiling. She watched the rough patterns form around threw her eyes as he mind attempted to drift through darker images. She fought against it, trying to push the thoughts out of her head. She laid like this for a while, letting time slip away from her.
An alarm broke her daze, sending her jolting up as Nero rolled over in his bed. She watched as he slapped his hand around on the small table next to his bed until he finally clicked his finger against the small button on the side of his phone.
"Maria?" he asked without looking over at her.
"Yeah?"
"Okay. I thought... you had left or something."
He lurched upright in his bed, facing towards the dresser just a couple feet in front of him. He reached over and grabbed his glasses of the table, then stood up.
"When do you head to class?" asked Maria.
"In about fifteen minutes. I have time to talk, I just need to get some caffiene to wake up." Nero walked over to the fridge, and quickly pulled a can from the bottom shelf. "You want one?" he asked, waving it towards her.
"No, I'm fine."
"Suit yourself." With a loud snap, he cracked open the can and went straight to gulping it down. "So when are we going to go knock some sense into your brother?"
"What?"
"I said when are we-"
"I heard you, I mean why would we go do that?"
"How else are we supposed to fix him?"
"It's too late to fix him, 'Knocking sense' into him never worked, and I really don't want to see his face."
"Oh. I just... nevermind. You should go to classes with me. It'll help to get back to something normal."
"There's no point."
"What do you mean there's no point? It's to help you get back on track."
"I can't graduate anymore. I don't have any funding to pay my tuition next year."
"That's absurd! I'm gonna go talk to my counselor and ask her-"
"Don't!"
"What?"
"Don't tell anyone about my circumstance. I don't want the IMB giving me a visit to deport me back to him."
"Ah, okay..."
"I'm just going to get a job while I still have a student ID, then I should be fine pretending I just lost all my documents. It'll all be okay. I just need to put in the effort and it'll all be okay."
Nero looked at her and narrowed his eyes. He turned away before she caught his gaze.
"Fine," he said. "The computer is right there, let me send you the password..." he pulled out his phone, quickly tapped a dozen times onto the thin screen, then pushed it back into his pocket. "You can use that to search for jobs. Good luck."
"Wait!"
"What?"
"I don't know where to start looking."
"I've got to go to class. Try and figure it out while I'm gone." He swung open the door.
"What do I-"
He shut the door behind him. He let out a sigh, before making his way down the spiralling staircase. The oppressive gray blocks around him reflected the fog that had crept its way in today, making them even more oppressive, and even more gray.
Once he was down on the street below, he trudged through a crowd of people, marching along with them to get to the shuttle station as soon as he could. His ears couldn't find the screeching of the brakes bringing the train around the bend above him, so he looked up at the streaks of orange rail that made their way through the city, trying to spot it through the fog. He sped up his pace, fearing it was early.
***
Nero stepped off the shuttle at the station on campus, his eyes glazed over by the grayed out sky. The grass was just as green as it normally was, at least the fifteen feet of it he could see now that the fog had thickened. The red brick buildings were a hazy brown, and the the distant walls of concrete were invisible.
He pulled out his phone and looked at it a moment before putting it away. He broke away from the crowd of people making their way to the building through the fog and took a seat on a bench in a secluded area next to a fountain. On a normal day people would be here, but now it looked somewhat creepy in the fog.
He pulled out his phone again, and scrolled down to Fetter in his contacts. He pressed the green phone icon, and held it up to his ear. It rang six times before Fetter picked up.
"Nero?" asked the sleepy voice from the other side.
"Where are you?"
"What? Why do you need to know? Did something happen?"
"No. I wanted to talk. In person."
"I can't really tell you that over the phone. Should I meet you somewhere?"
Nero could hear the bed groaning as Fetter got out of it.
"You know that ramen shop in District 3 next to campus? The one we went to when we met?"
"Ramen Dreams? Yeah I remember it."
"Can you meet me there in two hours?"
"Uhh, sure. If you're paying."
"That's fine."
"Must be serious if you'll fork over money that easily."
"I'm basically bribing you to be there. Don't be late." Nero hung up.
He held the phone in his hand as he stared at the water flowing over the edge of the upper levels of the fountain, dripping down through the channels carved in the concrete fixture.
"I don't want to go to class," he groaned. "If I really don't care should I just quit? Like Maria's trying to do? No. That's stupid. That's not what you came here for."
"Who are you talking to?" A shrill voice asked him.
He jumped up off the bench in surprise.
"I was just talking to myself. What are you doing here Dr. Virzi?"
"I was headed to my office, right in this building, when I heard a familiar voice. Why aren't you headed to class?"
She was even shorter than he remembered her, now only about two thirds of his height. Her clothes were loose fitting and oddly wrinkled, and even her face looked different.
"It's good to see you back on campus, Dr. Virzi."
"I wish I could say It's good to be back. My problems should fade with time though. I might retire after this year."
"I didn't mean to pry."
"You weren't."
"That's..."
"Oddly cut and dry of me? I know. In all my years here I've basically been playing a game. It's times like this where things are going badly that I stop caring to put up quite the facade."
"Badly?"
"Let's hear what you were on about, I heard you were thinking of quitting school." She sat down on the bench opposite of him.
"Oh. It's nothing. I'll get over it soon." Nero walked off, leaving Dr. Virzi sitting on the bench.
***
Nero stepped through the door of the ramen shop, the smell of the savory broth filling his nostrils. It was just as he remembered it, with the dim yellow lighting, and the bamboo-patterned linoleum floor. The chef stood behind a U shaped counter, with matte red barstools all around it. Slanted glass panes were all that separated the few customers sitting around from the cooking process of the noodles they were waiting for.
Away from the middle, there were several square wooden tables, all empty except one, where Nero spotted Fetter sitting alone. He sat down at the table with him. Soft music drowned out the sounds of the other customers, giving them a bit of privacy in the corner.
"What'd you drag me out here for?" Fetter asked with a chuckle.
"Let's order some food before we get into it. What do you want?"
Fetter looked over towards the man behind the counter. "Hey! Can we get two pork bowls over here?"
"Sure thing boss," answered the man behind the counter.
Fetter leaned back in the chair, letting its wooden legs creak under him. "That weird fog today is kinda odd."
"It's just fog. There's nothing really strange about that."
"Weather people say its coming from District 13 witha southeastern wind and has been going for hours now. It's still only September, so I can't imagine that it's natural."
"Does it matter?"
"I s'pose not. Just trying to make smalltalk. So? What's the issue?"
"Maria is staying at my place now."
"She is? Moving on up huh?"
"No. Its about when I called you and you ghosted me. Her brother killed her dad."
"Are you trying to guilt me here? I remember her brother. He's the one who tried to kill us. I'm not risking Don for someone I don't know. You shouldn't be hanging out around there yourself. It's dangerous."
"Fetter..."
"No. I'm gonna nag you now, because you tried to guilt trip me. I'm going to take care of Don no matter what. There ain't shit you can do to change that. I don't want to lose him."
"I wasn't trying to guilt trip you. I was just telling you why she is staying with me now. She doesn't want to be in that District anymore because of her brother. So she came to me. I couldn't turn her down."
"Did you even try?"
"No."
"So what's the problem?"
"She doesn't want to keep going to college. She's looking for a job, but I don't think she can find one, being from District 13 and all."
"What am I supposed to do about that? If she has a student ID she should be fine. She can use that for all the necessary documents and make her new identity."
"You don't get it, she does like, really well in classes and I want her to stay in school. She can graduate and get a much better-"
"Don't kid yourself. If her old man's been offed how's she going to pay for classes? What's she going to do to get a job where they actually care about your past? Think some corporation is gonna let her slide on with a false identity? She's better off flipping burgers for a couple years. Hey, hold on."
Fetter let the chair fall back flat on the floor with a thud as the man came around to their table holding two white bowls full of ramen. A heavy pork and garlic aroma wafted past Nero as the man set the bowls down.
Fetter started digging into it immediately, snapping his chopsticks unevenly at the back while Nero just poked around his with a fork.
"What time do you go back to your classes?" Fetter asked after slurping down some noodles.
"Already missed the start of my last class for today. I'll be fine though."
"Did you want Maria to stay with me or something?"
"No, I just needed to put my thoughts out to someone else and see what I was really thinking. I guess I'm just scared that this is all it took for he to quit, I don't have anything keeping me in. I don't have a goal or anything for when I graduate and it's rather tough living off my stipend."
"Least you got full ride, that's enough reason in my book to stick around. Wasted value otherwise."
Nero pulled out some noodles with his fork. "I guess you're right."