It was past two in the morning and Eren was still up at the kitchen table, which was not where a sane man should be. Rosa's notebook lay open on one knee and his phone glowed face-up on the other. The thing he'd half-buried at breakfast had crawled right back out the second the house went quiet. Of course it did.
The whole place had gone still hours ago. His parents were out down the hall. Sofie too, probably, unless she was awake somewhere in the dark fighting with her bad lungs, which was most nights lately. Emily had dropped off by ten, earlier and earlier these days because the baby was eating her alive from the inside. So it was just Eren, a notebook full of Rosa's tidy little numbers and the cold blue glow of a bank balance he didn't love looking at.
