They walked home in silence.

  The night air was cool, the kind that drifted up from the concrete and into your sleeves. It carried the scent of rain that hadn’t fallen, and old city bricks still holding onto the warmth of the day. Above them, the sky was navy velvet. Streetlights flickered. Shadows passed them by — other people, other lives, none of them looking twice.

  Aurenya had changed back.

  She walked beside Rin again in her younger form, the one Rin had grown used to — the quiet girl with the pale skin and distant eyes. But now Rin knew what lived beneath that face. And the silence wasn’t the same.

  Her steps were slower now. As if the weight of being seen was heavier than all the rest of it.

  They reached the edge of a crosswalk. The pedestrian light blinked red.

  Rin looked over.

  Aurenya’s eyes were on the pavement.

  “I didn’t think you’d walk with me,” Aurenya said, softly.

  Rin shrugged.

  “You’re the same.”

  Aurenya looked up, something almost bitter in her expression. “I’m not.”

  “You are to me.”

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  The light changed. They crossed.

  At the apartment door, Aurenya hesitated with the key in her hand.

  Her voice came quiet, nearly buried under the night.

  “Are you going to tell Mika?”

  Rin didn’t answer right away.

  She thought of Mika’s words — the calm, fierce warning.

  “If she hurts you, I’ll stop her.”

  Then she thought of what she’d seen in that alley.

  “I’m not sure,” she said. “Not yet. Maybe not ever. Not unless I have to.”

  Aurenya nodded — not relieved, not grateful. Just accepting.

  She opened the door.

  They didn’t turn on the lights.

  The apartment was dim. A yellow halo from the window spilled across the floor. The kitchen counter was clean. A jacket had been draped over one chair.

  They sat at the little table.

  One mug of tea sat between them — steeped, steaming faintly. Neither touched it.

  Rin looked at Aurenya’s hands resting lightly on the tabletop. Too still. Too composed.

  She finally spoke.

  “Do you need blood all the time?”

  Aurenya shook her head.

  “Only when I go too long without it. Then… it’s harder. My control breaks down.”

  “What happened in the alley,” Rin said quietly, “was that… losing control?”

  Aurenya’s eyes lifted to meet hers.

  “No,” she said. “That was a choice.”

  Rin didn’t flinch.

  She just asked, “If you’re not human… what are you?”

  Aurenya’s gaze didn’t waver.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I used to. I think I will again. But right now…”

  A pause.

  “I’m just trying to stay.”

  Rin nodded slowly, her throat tight.

  Aurenya reached out — gently, wordlessly — and slid the mug a little closer to Rin.

  It wasn’t much.

  But Rin’s fingers curled around the handle. Held it.

  The two of them sat in the quiet.

  Not resolved.

  Not afraid.

  Just… together.

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