Hiro ducked into the shadows of the dingy alley, hiding himself as best he could behind a large dumpster. On the little-used street not too far away, patrol cars drove by in a line, one after another after another. Their headlights illuminated the road before them, and volunteers shone flashlights out the windows, cutting through the darkness of the alleys, as they tried to catch any citizens out of bed after curfew.

Luckily, the dumpster was big enough to hide Hiro from view, and he was far enough from the bot fight that no one else was around to get him caught. The teen let out a sigh of relief as the last car passed by, waiting a few moments to let his eyes adjust to the returned dimness before moving out from his hiding spot. He tiptoed to the end of the alley and peeked out.

A few feet down the street was a lamppost sporting, at the top, a government regulation camera. Hiro stared at it for a few moments to make sure it was still on night-time mode before pulling a bed sheet out of his backpack.

When on night-time mode, all the cameras became motion-activated, rather than just recording everything like they did during the day. Not many citizens knew this, only rule-breakers like Hiro.

Shouldering his backpack, Hiro held the sheet up in front of him, quickly walking to the next alley. He knew that no citizen was watching him, but he felt very foolish, walking down the street with a bed sheet held in front of him. Still, it did the trick; the camera didn't activate.

Safely in the next alley, Hiro stuffed the sheet back into his backpack. He was about to start down the dark passage when a voice behind him froze him in fear.

"Clever," it said.

Hiro didn't dare turn around. The voice sounded female, and it wasn't one that he recognized. Busted, he thought, wondering if he could outrun a Peace Officer.

"The bed sheet absorbs the ultrasonic waves so that there aren't any return signals to set off the sensor. Ingenious, really."

Hiro bit his lip. This didn't sound like something a Peace Officer would say. Slowly, he turned his head to glance over his shoulder at the person behind him.

It was a girl, perhaps a few years older than him, dressed all in black. Her hair was shaved on one side and flowed past her shoulders on the other. It had been dyed different colors, but in the darkness Hiro couldn't tell which. She held a duffel bag in one hand, the other stuffed into the pocket of her over-sized jacket. No, she definitely wasn't an official. Still, he couldn't stop himself from asking, "You're not a Peace Officer?"

The girl laughed. "Oh, hell no!" She opened her mouth again, as if she had more to say, but shook her head and laughed some more.

Hiro relaxed, although he knew that he wasn't safe yet. If she wasn't a Peace Officer, she was a rule-breaker, and that was a group of people who were generally dangerous. He turned around all the way, bringing a hand up to clutch one of the straps of his backpack. He rubbed his fingers over the outline of the knife he had hidden there and tried to figure out if he could take this girl in a fight.

He took a step backwards, trying to slip away, but the girl's eyes found his and he was rooted in place. His vision started to blur, and he began feeling very light headed. "You're not a Peace Officer, either," the girl said softly, not blinking once, "so what are you doing out?"

I could ask you the same thing, Hiro's mind supplied his usual snark, but his tongue felt big and heavy and he couldn't seem to force the words out. "Bot fight," he ended up mumbling.

The girl smiled and blinked slowly. Hiro leaned over and put his hand on the wall, steadying himself as he began to feel more normal. He panted, suddenly out of breath. In that moment, he wished with all his heart to be back home in his room, tucked up in bed and letting his brother's even breaths lull him to sleep. He wanted nothing more to do with dark alleys and strange girls with hypnotic eyes. Just let me go home!

"Bot fight, huh?" she said, leaning against the wall as well. "I think Isaac used to go to those. Lemon-Lime, too. They were pretty good, if I remember correctly. Of course, they can't go now. Everyone hates them, especially that ass hat Yama."

Hiro stared at her, taking care not to look into her eyes. This was the second time she had cursed, and she seemed to think nothing of it. They both knew that no one was listening, not here, not now, but even the meanest of thugs at the bot fights checked over their shoulders when they swore. For this girl to do it so... carelessly...

"Who... the hell... are you?" Hiro panted, voice barely a whisper. Instinctively, he scanned the alley, making sure he hadn't been heard.

The girl scanned him, her gaze sliding from his face to his shoes and back up again. "Trim."

"What?"

"You can call me Trim."

Hiro shook his head. "That's not your real name."

The girl, Trim, laughed again. "Duh!" she exclaimed happily, pushing away form the wall and spinning needlessly.

For a while, Hiro watched her, and she watched him. He moved away from the wall and tried backing down the alley again. This time, she let him go.

Pulling out his sheet and holding it up in front of him, Hiro felt even stupider now than before. He could feel Trim's eyes on him, watching every step he took. Just before walking out of the alley, he glanced back at her.

She hadn't moved.

Hiro nearly ran home that night. He no longer stopped to put the sheet back into his backpack when he slipped into alleys, and he didn't check to make sure the main streets were empty before darting into them. He just kept going and going and didn't stop until he saw the familiar sign of his aunt's cafe.

He expertly scaled the side of the building, like he had done so many times before. Up on the top floor was the room he shared with his brother. He threw the window open, not caring if he woke Tadashi, thankful that he took the window sensor offline permanently the last time he messed with it. He tumbled into the room and lay on the floor, catching his breath.

Across the room, Tadashi stirred in his sleep, but he didn't wake up.

After a few minutes, Hiro got up to close the window. As he did, he looked out at his street, for a moment afraid that he might see Trim on the sidewalk, staring up at him, but everything was still. Relieved, Hiro let a small smile tug at his lips as he changed into his pajamas, throwing his dirty clothes into the hamper to be washed in the morning.

Sliding into bed, Hiro drew the covers up to his chin. He smelled the lavender fabric softener his aunt bought, breathed it in deep. In his head, he sang himself the same lullaby she sung to him when he was younger. It began to relax him, and before long he fell into an uneasy sleep.

Outside, in the shadows of the street, three pairs of hypnotic eyes watched his window, deep in thought.