Before the first sunrise painted the sky in shades of gold and rose, Erza returned home.
The city was still asleep. Luna City lay beneath a blanket of darkness, its streets empty, its windows dark, its inhabitants lost in dreams that would fade with the coming light. The only sounds were the distant hum of streetlamps and the soft whisper of wind through the narrow alleys. Even the birds had not yet begun to sing.
Erza opened the window.
The latch clicked softly beneath her fingers, a sound she had heard a hundred times before, a sound that had become as familiar as Yuuta's heartbeat. She slid the glass aside and stepped into the apartment, her boots silent on the wooden floor, her silver hair still wild from her flight across the ocean.
The time was now 5:00 AM in the morning.
