The night was cool, and the street outside Schneider was quiet, resembling the calm of residential streets after ten—not empty, but settled. Petricia walked ahead of them at first, not quickly but with the directness of someone who knew where they were going even if they hadn't said it yet.
Mike and Haruka fell into step behind her with enough space that it didn't feel like they were herding her anywhere.
After half a block, Haruka said quietly to Mike but not to Petricia, "Is she okay?"
"I don't know, but all I know is... she's walking," Mike said. "And that's good."
"Urgh... That's not an answer that I wanted."
"Well, deal with it, it's the answer I have right now," he said.
Haruka considered this and then looked at Petricia's back and the street ahead, and she tightened both hands around her travel cup the way she did when she was thinking about something she wasn't going to say yet.
