As the night progressed and eventually ended, activity throughout Shikkun City wound down, the great engine of cosmopolitan life resting at a grumbling idle for a few hours. The honest folk were almost entirely asleep in their homes, the minimal activity left in the city reduced to its party-goers returning home from their clubs and the less-than-legal enterprises who operate at all hours of the day, particularly those as underpopulated as the early morning.

---

Pristine and suburban Everlone Drive remained hushed as the sun's finger-like rays stretched along the cozy street. Though, as the sky lifted from a deep navy to a brilliant clash of gold, red and eventually cyan, the birds nesting in almost every manicured tree in the neighborhood soon awoke and began to sing. Instead of a peaceful and coherent tune, the vast quantity and variety of birds all sang different melodies, the opposing species and keys overlapping in a mindlessly chaotic symphony of warbles, tweets and squawks.

The first to awake in the Nanako home was Rodney, crawling out of Haruka's bed -and stepping on him in the process- to hop to the windowsill to view the feverish avian performance. While the mildly hungover teenager accompanying the cat first failed to awake, the paws pressing against his face and chest with the faint cacophony outside roused him to a state of groggy wakefulness.

Yukimura shambled to the bathroom in relative silence and promptly raided its medicine cabinet for a bottle of over-the-counter pain pills and poured himself a glass of water, taking both back to his room. He shook five pills into his hand, slightly more than the standard adult dose, and downed them with a chase of water. A quick glance to the alarm clock by his bed, however, quickly chopped down any semblance of relaxation he had.

"I have work today. Shit."

As he hissed the statement to himself, his head throbbed in response. He couldn't go in like this, he needed to be cheery and bubbly for work, or at least presentable.

A sideways glance at the telephone on the nightstand gave him an idea. He picked up the receiver and punched in a number he wrote down from the previous day.

"Hello? Ms. Kerbs? It's Haruka."

"I had a bit of a rough night last night, and I don't think I can come in to work today. I need some time to sorta pull myself together, I guess."

"Yes, I understand it's my second day. I just don't want to waste your time and half-ass my work, pardon my language."

"Really? You will?"

"Thank you so much, I'll be in tomorrow for sure."

He gingerly placed the receiver back on its stand and let out a sigh of relief. A few moments passed with him sitting in silence, but he eventually pulled himself over towards his suitcase of clothing and plucked out a simple outfit from his newly bought wardrobe. One quick shower later, he toweled off and donned the fresh clothes.

On the way out the door, he could hear what must have been an ambulance and several police vehicles. He paid little mind to it, and continued towards downtown Shikkun. His destination was a mall he visited occasionally in his homeless days, the Westcross. The products were much cheaper than the newer malls, without proving too trashy for his tastes.

---

Much farther into the city, activity largely resumed as normal even at late hours, from the 24-hour convenience stores to check forwarding and cash loan buildings to the occasional intoxicated person, likely kicked out of their home by a spouse or family member. In one of several run down apartments lay a sleeping Yuudai Ito, who seemingly was the only person in the entire complex that grasped the concept of being silent at night. While the other tenants appeared hellbent on causing noise at all hours of the day, a lifetime of dealing with such crowds left him a heavier sleeper.

That is, aside from the ring of his cellphone, at which his hand shot out from under the covers to grab and retrieve to his ear.

"Y'ello?"

"What?"

"So the firm had to cut our contract with Albertsons? Why?"

"That's some bullshit and you know it. Did they give the job to Crawford? I bet those fucks greased some palms."

"Goddammit. We gotta be careful man, if we keep letting this happen none of us will be able to pay rent."

"Catch you later, man."

His thumb clicked the end button, and he laid the cellphone back down. With his work schedule now unexpectedly wiped, that left plenty of time to, well, do nothing. He yawned and flopped out of bed, stuffing himself into the first clean clothes he finds. Finally he slipped his wallet and cellphone into their respective pockets in his jeans, when the sharp crack of gunfire echoed through the streets. He dove to the floor, but no followup shots were fired. After waiting a few minutes, Ito peeked out one of his apartment windows which faced the street, and saw the scene.

Across the street, a heavily tattooed man in a tank top and athletic shorts lay clutching his abdomen in a small puddle of blood. Just from the circumstances alone, he could guess what happened: the man was likely either a gangbanger or dealer, and he must have been causing trouble on someone else's turf, and paid a terrible price for it. Off in the distance, several police cars had activated their sirens, and the sound of an ambulance followed.

Yuu shuddered and exited his apartment, making sure to lock it behind him as he left and walked away from his neighborhood. Sticking around was likely a dangerous prospect, at least for a few hours. He briefly stopped in a gas station to pick up a cup of cheap coffee and a pack of cigarettes, and quickly continued with cup in hand and the pack in a coat pocket. His destination, he decided, was a slightly blighted mall nearby, the Westcross. He hadn't visited the place in a while and could stand to waste time there.

Ava woke up late. "FOR GOODNESS SAKE!" She screamed at the clock as she put her hair in a ponytail and got dressed quickly. She ran down stairs grabbing some protein bars and ran out the back door. She didn't wanna bother Yuuma and gently placed the bar and a bottle of water for him near his tent and ran off.

Ava sighed at the news that Haru wasn't coming in to work. She glared at her boss, "You know he got wasted last night, right? And then made a big ole fuss about his past. Like...like he is the only one who has problems." Her voice was a little harder and sharper than usual. "HE JUST STARTED!"

Her boss gave her a look, as to say you done, and smiled, "You can tell someone has had a trouble past by the look in their eyes...and I could see that, child. So he needed a day to collect himself. We can do just fine today. You and the rest of the staff are wonderful people. It shouldn't be too much trouble." With that she gave a gentle dismissive hand at Ava.

Ava left and sat at the Host's desk. "The nerve of people." She mumbled.

Yuuma woke up with the sunrise shortly after Ava left for work. The water bottle got his notice first. It was nice of Ava to leave him some water. While packing up his meager things he wondered about her other guest. The poor fellow seemed to be having a run of bad luck Yuuma decided to keep an eye on him. It wasn't hard to wait around the side of the building and wait for him to leave. Though he didn't get too close Yuuma shadowed him just the same.

The everyday hustle and bustle of Westcross mall was not missed today. Thousands of people wandered, shopped and loitered throughout the complex's many stores, attracting customers young and old, rich and poor. Though as the years progressed nobody could delude themselves into thinking the mall was not dying. While many patrons still swore by the several-decades-old building, sales slowly declined every holiday season. A new shopping center was constructed in the wealthier part of town a few years ago which had all of the newest and trendiest places to be, but its prices were still steep enough to push away many customers to the older and more affordable locales.

That affordability and tradition, as a matter of fact, is exactly why Haruka Yukimura chose this place. The much less snobby and judgmental atmosphere of the plaza let the teenager feel at home. While he still insisted on wearing the beanie whilst outdoors, at the very least Yukimura felt that he fit in here, among the normal folk.

---

A less than modern maroon sedan, easily a decade old, grumbled and growled into the Westcross parking lot, having to take a few tentative laps around the lot before the driver spotted a place to park. After pulling in with practiced precision, he killed the engine with a turn of the key and stepped out of his vehicle.

Sight of the mall brought years of memories back to Yuudai Ito. Excursions with friends, birthday parties as a child, even thoughts of his first love...

Yuudai Ito remembered why he didn't visit this place anymore, reminded him too much of her. He gave a long sigh. The thought that she still had so much power over his life, even so many years later with no contact, pierced Ito with shame. With shame, came the craving for a cigarette, something to make him feel a little better.

Yuu reached into his coat pocket and produced both a lighter and the previously bought pack of cigarettes. Quickly peeling off the plastic wrapping, he reached into the pack and pulled one out, pinching it between his lips while putting the pack away. A few strikes with the lighter's wheel and it catches, lighting his cigarette while his other hand shields it from the wind. Once a healthy orange ember clung to the end, he put the lighter away and took the first drag.

Out of the corner of his eye, Ito spotted someone approaching him, a brunette boy, shorter than him, sporting a beanie and light jacket. He didn't pay much mind to him, at least not until he came close enough that he clearly wanted Yuu's attention.

"Hey, think I could bum one off you?" Haruka pointed to Yuudai's cigarette.

"Yeah, sure," Yuu retrieved the pack from his coat pocket and took out a second cigarette, handing it to the boy and lighting it once it was in his mouth. Haru took a long first drag, sighing contentedly as the smoke billowed from his lips.

"Haven't had one in a while, sometimes you really miss that buzz," the brunette looked up towards Ito.

"Yeah. Boss called and told me we can't work today, decided to come out here and try to brighten myself up, you know?"

"Shit, really? That sucks man. I just had to call in today, wasn't feeling well enough to work," Haru looked down to the floor, almost ashamed from finishing his sentence. "So, what do you do for work?"

"Construction. Doing a lot of physical labor for now, but I'm just putting bread on the table until I can go to school and find something I'm passionate in. It's just a lot of money to save up, so I'm just taking it one step at a time. What about you?" His lips curled into a smile.

"Me? Oh, nothing nearly as noble. I'm just a server at a cafe, they were pretty much the only place that wanted to hire me."

"That's not a bad thing at all. Hell, as long as you're either working or trying to find work, it doesn't matter what you're doing." Yuu removed the cigarette from his mouth and tapped out his ash into the public ashtray, and Haru soon followed suit.

"I guess. What's your name, by the way?" he turned to look up at his companion again.

"Yuudai Ito. You?"

Haru hesitated a few seconds, but finally gave a response, "Haruka Yukimura."

"Well Haruka, want to hang out since we're both off work out here?"

"Yeah sure, that'd be fine. Let's go inside and get some food though, I'm kinda hungry."

"Me too, let's go," the pair finished their smokes and put them out in the ashtray, then tossing the butts into the nearby trashcan.

The turned out to be one of the busiest days. Ava smiled and served the people like she was never mad, or could ever get mad. If someone spilled she cleaned it up with a smile on her face. If someone yelled, she smiled. The workers stared at her in disbelief. If she would have gotten yelled at, normally she would have a death glare on her face to shoo off the attitude or the customer. They staff tip toed around her as they served the costumers.

In reality Ava had to do so in order not to murder people on behalf if Haru. "What a damn idiot. Only ever cares about himself. Might as well stay on the streets." She thought all while smiling.

Several minutes later,

Haruka and Yuudai occupied one of the many vinyl-and-steel sets of tables and chairs in the food court, between them two paper bags of fast food meals and waxy paper cups from the soft drink fountain. The older of the two was first to reach into his bag and remove a french fry, tossing it into his mouth before taking out a burger and unwrapping it.

"So you said you worked at a cafe, right?" Yuu looked up at Haru, "What's it like? Is the food any good?"

"It's, well, as much as you'd think. Take orders, bring out food and drinks and stuff, and smile a lot. The food's quite good, but it can be a little pricey at times. Not as bad as that french place in the new mall though, that place is pretty much extortion. I heard they charge you just to sit down before you even get a chance to eat," Ito chuckled and Haruka provided a grin in response.

"Might have to check it out some time, the restaurants around my place kinda suck, but they're nice and cheap so I end up paying them a visit more than I'd like," the ravenette took a bite of his burger.

Might have to check it out some time.

The phrase ran through Haruka's head multiple times. Was this going to be some kind of date? Is he going there to see him, or just for the food? He could feel the heat flowing into his face, but he quickly bit into his own sandwich in an attempt to mask it.

"Well, uh, I work there most days, so I guess you could ask for me when you get there," he finally spoke after swallowing his food. The slightly awkward conversation continued to amble between bites of food, though a sense of familiarity and comfort at least began to manifest over time.

...