The sisters were sharing a bed in one of Reina’s favorite places in the world. She had come across the space a few years ago on another mission. Back then, they had been here with their parents to steal cyber information from Carwyn Tech. It was a loft tucked in the upper floors of an abandoned building rising from the dusty street, all crumbling brick and exposed pipes. It was about three stories tall with huge sliding metal doors that suggested a previous life as a factory. There were many such buildings throughout Bardo, vestiges of the Nation Days when there were still public works. Unlike the dusty stucco and shattered glass of the ground floor, the loft was cozy and warm, accessible through a trapdoor and rope ladder. There was nothing particularly nice about it with its rickety wood table and mismatched chairs. It had a little kitchen with a woodburning stove and pans that hung from pegs on the wall, giving it a homestead feel of practicality and thrift. There was a faded pink couch where Hayun now slept, a tiny, rust filled bathroom, and a third room just big enough for one bed with no coverings. It was their secret hideout as kids, special and conciliatory, no grown ups allowed. She and Loupe had played there for many hours after, imagining they were princesses and dragons and restaurant owners. Now it was to be their home.

The lights were off. They were both bone weary traveling but neither were close to sleep just yet. The city lights and noises pressed in close at the windows and where the walls met in the corners so that it felt as though there was a third person in the room with them.

“There’s a boy in our loft!” Loupe whispered.

“It’s only for tonight,” Reina assured.

At the same time they scooted a little closer, their legs tangling together, icy toes tucking around warm calves. The night was cold and they had no wood for the fire. Rain pounded the roof and rattled the windows filling the apartment in soft, gray noise.

“I’m so glad I get to do my first solo mission with you,” Loupe admitted quietly. She was not making eye contact with Reina, but instead looking at her face as she traced it with her fingertips, brushing aside baby hairs and following the freckles that dotted her nose and cheeks. Reina watched her sister look at her. The touch was soothing and familiar and for the first time that day her mind let go of the to-do lists and risk assessments. She even stopped rehearsing greetings for when she would see Malak tomorrow. Eyelashes brushed against careful fingers.

“I wish you could have come on my first mission,” Reina replied.

“I tried.”

Both women laughed quietly at the memory, hands pressed over their mouths to keep from waking Hayun.

When Reina had been assigned her first solo mission at the age of twenty they had begged their parents to let Loupe go with her. It was a small mission to garner an alliance with the Order of Thieves who already knew of their existence, but the gang valued life and showed it by keeping their young close. When they were refused, Loupe had snuck out after Reina on her own. She remembered turning around in the predawn light to see her sister galloping toward her, hair loose and wild in the pink sky. They had only made it twenty miles together before they were found and Loupe was brought sulkily back to camp.

“Well, we’ve made it now,” Reina said, scooting closer still and wrapping an arm around her sister. She buried her face in Loupe’s neck. She smelled as she always did, smoky and sweet like tobacco and jasmine. It was almost suffocatingly warm pressed this close together under the covers, but here nothing else existed, nothing else mattered. Reina wished they could fall asleep like this, but soon her arm fell asleep and then it became hard to breathe. They broke apart quickly, in a slight panic for fresh air. Loupe rolled away onto her side and Reina stayed facing her back. Loupe’s mass of tangled hair tickled her nose.

To-do lists quickly flooded her mind and she let them run as she watched and listened to Loupe’s breathing. She noticed as it quickened and slowed. The occasional car passed outside casting bright, sweeping lights across the room, but otherwise all was quiet. Loupe fell asleep first, like usual.

Reina thought about Loupe and Malak meeting. She hoped Loupe would like xem, but as soon as she thought this, she wondered if that was true. It was a long time before she fell asleep and she never did make up her mind.

Loupe was dreaming of a meadow filled with buttercups and blue fairies when she woke to the steel touch of October wind on her rosy cheeks. It was a gray morning with a comforting warmth under the covers and Reina’s protective hand against her back. It was the kind of morning that prolonged the night, keeping your eyes heavy and the dreams fresh in your head. It was her favorite type and she smiled sleepily to herself, forgetting entirely the presence of Hayun in the arm chair in the corner of the room. Hayun however, caught that small smile in his cold fingers and held it to his aching chest.

Consciousness slowly crept upon Loupe bringing with it the realization that her hand was going numb under her side and that her neck was at an odd angle. She stretched and rolled over with a sleepy sigh. Reina protested, pushing against Loupe so that the whole rickety iron bed squeaked.

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“Loupe,” Reina grumbled, sitting up in bed and stretching her arms and neck.

“You hogged all the blankets,” said Loupe, sniffling sleepily.

“Then why are they all on the floor on your side of the bed?” retorted Reina, now standing up and pulling on a sweater so ridden with holes that Loupe thought an army of moths must have gone to war in its folds.

Loupe just yawned, picked up her glasses from where they rested by the bed on an upturned crate, and pushed her sleep mussed hair out of her eyes. Hayun just sat rather awkwardly and averted his eyes. Reina was the first to address him directly though Loupe was the first to notice him, her eyes wide with silent curiosity.

“Good morning... Hayun, was it?”

“Yes.”

“Well Hayun, we must get things straight. Now if-.”

“How are you doing after last night?” interrupted Loupe.

Hayun looked taken aback by the question as though he were not used to being asked how he felt.

“I’m good. Thank you,” Hayun said with a little nod, which she returned. There was something about the boy, maybe the soft, homespun nature of his clothes or the unguarded openness of his golden eyes that made Loupe want to get to know him.

Meanwhile, Reina had put on the kettle in the opposite corner of their small apartment and was pulling a baguette out of the paper bag they had left on the counter the night before.

“What brings you to Bardo?” she asked, pulling off the butt of the loaf and handing it to him.

“Ahh well, opportunity I suppose. Thank you,” he said, accepting the bread. “I come from the countryside. My aunt owned a farm up north.”

Silence swept through the small space as the sisters took in Hayun’s downcast eyes and choked voice. Reina and Loupe might not have a home in Bardo, but they always had their parents to go back to.

“What about your parents?” Loupe asked.

“Ummmm,” Hayun mumbled, his eyes wide and the muscles in his jaw trembling. The piece of bread turned to crumbs under his anxious fingers. “I’m pretty much on my own now.”

“I’m really sorry about that,” said Reina, her voice gentle but her eyes guarded.

Loupe had to fight the tears that burned the backs of her eyes. He looked so broken and lost.

Before he had a chance to answer, Reina continued, “Seeing as you have nowhere to go, Loupe and I have agreed that you can stay with us. How old are you?” she added as an afterthought.

“Nineteen, though I’ll be twenty in January,” Hayun said.

“Good. So is Loupe and I’m twenty-one.”

“You are really too kind,” started Hayun half rising from his chair. “But I… well. I don’t mean to offend, it’s just that-t I really couldn’t. I don’t know… I’ve no way of earning my keep.”

Loupe cut off his embarrassing rambling. “So you’ll stay,” she said, leaving no room for argument. She felt Reina stiffen from across the room. “We can get you a mattress today. I know it's not much,” she added, looking around at the soot-smeared walls, mildew stained sink and the single, narrow window. “But we are not currently using the pantry so you can sleep there.”

Loupe’s thoughts ran wild before she could catch them, imagining herself and Hayun becoming friends; whispering secrets to each other in the dark and laughing at jokes only they two could understand. But then she saw the seriousness on Reina’s face and stuffed the thoughts down and out of her head.

“Um I suppose, if you insist. Thank you very much. I promise I won’t be any trouble at all,” said Hayun, now rising from his chair, his impressive height rather counteracted by his humility.

“It’s really not a big deal,” said Reina as she went back to the bed to retrieve her cell phone. “What mobile do you use?”

Loupe looked at Hayun curiously. You could learn a lot about a person by which company they chose to entrust with their personal data. Wars had been fought over the matter.

“Carwyn Tech,” Hayun said, not quite meeting their eyes. “It’s the biggest tower in the area and they own the land our farm was on.”

Reina caught Loupe’s eye. They couldn’t risk their conversations being overheard let alone their messages intercepted.

“I’m sorry to have to ask this of you,” Reina began, trying to be gentle but her voice still sharp around the edges with worry. “But if you’re going to stay with us you need to switch companies.”

Hayun's eyes widened. “I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t use Carwyn Tech. How do you use transportation or even shop at grocery stores without an ID?”

“We have a fake account we use for emergencies, but we try to stick with markets and private transport when possible,” Reina explained. “We’re not from here, we’re just visiting. So, do you mind?”

Hayun nodded. “Of course,” he said with a soft chuckle which Loupe was grateful for. “Back home everyone has Carwyn tech, but I knew things would be different in the city. That’s part of why I came here in the first place. I’ll shut it off now.”

“We’re on a private, cooperative network started by our parents,” Loupe said, once Hayun’s phone had been switched off, feeling as though he deserved an explanation. “There is one thing you should know about us, if you’re going to stay,” she continued, a bit dramatically. “My sister and I are members of the Robin Bandits and we’re here on a mission.”