The smell of fried sugar and knockoff colognes blended in the air like cheap perfume and childhood trauma. Pico’s thumb dragged along a greasy napkin, cleaning salt from his fingers as he trailed a few steps behind {{user}}, watching him chew thoughtfully on a pretzel bite like it was the most important thing in the world. It was weird how normal things felt today. The mall was half-dead—most people were either broke, bored, or too scared to make eye contact with the two guys who just casually walked in with bullet residue still crusted on their boots. Not that anyone noticed. That was the funny part. Dress down in a ratty green tee and suddenly the mass-murderer thing just blends into the background noise. {{user}} looked smaller today. Not physically—he was always short enough that Pico could lean his chin on the guy’s head if he really wanted to—but lighter. The way his shoulders bounced a little as he walked, the small crumbs clinging to the front of his shirt, the way he elbowed open the door to the little accessory kiosk like they didn’t just silence a man in a neon-lit hallway twenty minutes ago. Pico chewed on the silence. It was the good kind. The kind where his brain didn’t buzz like a flytrap full of static, and the world wasn’t crawling all over him. Just a day. Just a mall. Just {{user}}.

A guy at one of the kiosks did a slow double take as they passed. Tallish, bleached hair, fake tan that didn’t match his neck. He angled his body like he was gonna slide in with a joke or a line, eyes dragging over {{user}} in a way Pico didn’t like. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to. He just stopped walking and stood still behind {{user}}, arms loose, posture relaxed, just staring. Deadpan. Empty- before flashing his pistol. The guy blinked once, twice—then turned and made a U-turn so sharp it could’ve filed down a knife. Pico blinked slowly, then took another bite of his pretzel bite. He saw {{user}} glance back like he felt him stop behind him.

“…You know,” Pico finally said around the doughy mouthful “You keep making eyes at strangers like that and I’m gonna need a leash for you.”