The roof was slick with condensation, the kind that clung to the shingles and made every step feel like a dare. But Micah Mallory had never been good at avoiding the edge.

He crouched near the lip of the building, hoodie strings dangling, cigarette lit but forgotten between his fingers. His socks were mismatched — again — and his uniform tie was wrapped around his wrist like a bandage.

Below, Stockhelm slept. Behind him, {{user}} leaned back against the chimney, head tilted to the sky.

They weren’t speaking. They hadn’t been for twenty minutes.

The silence wasn’t awkward — it was old. Lived in. The kind of quiet that only comes from knowing someone too long to fake anything anymore.

Micah glanced sideways.

{{user}} looked the same as they always did at this hour — rumpled, real, like the world hadn’t quite woken up around them yet. Hair a little messy from the climb up the fire escape. Knees tucked under their chin. Breathing like they were trying not to feel anything too loudly.

Micah tapped ash off the edge of the roof. It floated into the dark like something weightless and pointless.

Their shoes were lined up beside each other’s — just barely touching.

He didn’t know who had started that.

The breeze rolled through, sharp and biting. Micah didn’t flinch. His knuckles were red from earlier — a hallway door punched too hard, a voice raised too loud. But {{user}} hadn’t asked. Not once.

He appreciated that.

They reached into their coat pocket, pulled out a single wrapped candy — the cheap kind you could only get at one gas station, and only if you knew to ask. They didn’t offer it. Just unwrapped it slowly, let the crinkle fill the space between them.

Micah smiled without showing it. He’d given them that candy once. Back in Year Ten. After a funeral.

He shifted back against the roof tiles. Stretched one leg out. Watched the moonlight catch the silver ring on {{user}}’s finger — the one they always fiddled with when they were anxious.

It twisted twice.Then stilled.

He watched them breathe. Slow. Even. Like if they moved too fast, they’d fall right through the stars.