As he promised, Allen knocked on the door of my room shortly before eight o'clock in the evening. We went outside without much incident – at this hour, there weren't very many people out and about, even if they did go to bed late.

The boat was huge. At least, to me, who had never been on anything bigger than the motorboat, it was. From my point of view it was like a giant pirate ship straight out of some fantasy book. I did have an active imagination, though – it shouldn't be surprising that I would think like this.

The blackness of the night shrouded the inlet, with only the pale yellowish light from the boat's system giving any sort of illumination. I took one last backwards glance at the skyscraping, castle-like building behind me before embarking on the massive vessel, onto an adventure leading me to who-knows-where.

The dark gray water began churning beneath the hull of the boat as it scooted away from the shore. I watched the land disappear into the night with only the glow from the ship to guide us. Clouds concealed the sky as though it hid a secret.

"This is exciting," I mumbled to myself, giving a vague shudder. What sort of things would we discover?

"It is for me, too," Allen agreed. Somehow his presence didn't startle me, even though I didn't expect him to approach from behind.

"The life of an exorcist is constantly exciting, isn't it?" I inquired. I imagined that if I was a member of the Black Order and my job was to hunt akuma, I would have to be constantly on my toes.

Allen shrugged. "A little bit of downtime is always nice, but other than that, yes."

Awkward silence. I probably should have expected it.

"Anyway, Lucidia, there was something important I wanted to tell you."

"But you forgot it?" I asked. Forgetting what I was going to say was one of my chronic ailments, and it usually only struck when I had something very well thought-out in my head. I wondered whether forgetfulness affected exorcists too.

"No, I just wanted to make sure it was relevant." Allen smiled a little – hopefully because my suggestion entertained him. However, whatever he was going to tell me must have been grave, because his lips straightened within a few seconds. "I see you've met Alma. Has he told you much about himself?"

"About himself?" My ears pointed backwards a little bit – this was a strange question to ask on a whim. Since Allen was voicing it, though, it had to be a valid concern, right? Still, I couldn't help but avert my eyes. "Well, not much… I mean, I just got here last night, right? Why – should I know less or more? I don't understand the question."

"That's all right. I didn't nearly expect him to tell you yet, even if you are decently acquainted."

"Tell me what?" Now I was starting to panic – something I usually didn't do easily. At least, not during natural disasters. "Should I know something I don't?"

"The two of you look like you're getting along well, but…" Allen locked eyes with me deliberately. "Alma Karma is an akuma."

"An akuma?" My flicking ears made it clear even to Allen that my thoughts were racing in circles. "But… aren't akuma those big demons with guns in them that kill anything they come across?"

"Sometimes. They come in all different sorts. Alma isn't aggressive or untrustworthy, but he is one of them."

"Neither the exorcists nor the Finders get up this early." "So you're not either?" I allowed a minute or two for my thoughts to settle back together. Either I hadn't caught that Alma avoided my earlier question, or I just hadn't cared. At least that explained the ears, tail, colors…

At last, I came up with something intelligent: I just shrugged a little. "Okay."

Allen blinked, and turned his attention to the water for a moment. "That was an anticlimactic response."

"As long as he doesn't hurt anybody, then it doesn't matter, right?"

Allen murmured something that sounded like "I suppose you're right," but when it was combined with the whooshes of wind and waves I couldn't hear it quite so well.

Alma Karma. I repeated his name in my head a few times. An akuma. Also repeated. It was a difficult concept to grasp, but somehow the more I thought about it the less I cared. At first it had surprised me (shows what I know about akuma), but I guess it's like listening to the same story ten times – it gets old starting at about repeat number five. I thought back to last night, and this morning. There was no doubting that Alma was an akuma, if what Allen said was true; I certainly had no reason to believe Alma was human with the tail and colors and everything. Despite that, the thought of having an akuma as a friend didn't bother me much at all. He was amiable enough, and definitely didn't seem like the type to randomly become aggravated and kill somebody. He had sounded genuinely happy when I appeared at six in the morning in a place that, to him, was usually cold, empty and isolated.

Akuma don't eat or sleep, do they? Now I knew why Alma got up so early, as well as why he promptly left the dining hall without eating anything. It must have been an awfully lonely way of living, having to pass the days without dreaming or tasting anything good. I wondered whether Alma was content with his existence. Did he have any other friends? There were so many questions I had to ask now.

"Lucidia, we're here." Allen's interrupting announcement told me I had probably fallen asleep. I didn't remember dozing off, but then again, I never remember sleeping until I wake up.

The sky was jet black, darker than most skies even on the snowy evenings in the middle of winter. Ahead of the boat loomed the giant cloud-grey shadow of a mountainous island. The landmass appeared small – it couldn't be wider than the Black Order's home – but its sheer height was enough to send me off balance just by looking at it. Well, this was quite the expedition already. However, the spire-like island had nothing in store other than an exhilarating nighttime hike for what was apparently treasure that had never been there in the first place.

It was about a ten-minute travel by water from there to our second (and last) destination for the night: an iceberg. Yep, a big floating chunk of ice that could as well have been solid ground that was frozen over. Personally, I couldn't tell because I'm not into that kind of science, but either way it was cold, slippery, and intriguing.

"Don't stray too far," Allen warned, stepping so carefully off of the boat that he may as well have been descending onto a landmine. I followed suit, and almost tripped myself on the ice with just a little bit more speed. Wondering whether anybody had noticed my insecurity, I regained my balance and followed Allen around a puddle of frigid water surrounded by skyward-pointing icicles.

"What are we looking for?" I asked quietly. The frozen landscape muffled any existing noise so well that I was loath to break the silence.

"We don't know for sure," Allen answered in an equally hushed voice. "If you find anything out of the ordinary at all, be sure to tell me."

"Like those?" I had been running my eyes across the frosted surface of the ice and noticed that the snow-dust was not always evenly distributed. Some lines had been drawn through the powder as though with a finger; either somebody had been here before us or the wind was feeling very particular about its direction tonight.

An almost silent rustling sound signaled that Allen had nodded his head. "Yes, something like that."

I watched the lines in the frost for about a minute more. However, nothing blew around or tried to attack me, so I reluctantly drew my attention away from the ground and to my surroundings. Finders and others were starting to disembark now, moving about just as carefully as Allen had. Given that the iceberg was supposedly harmless, they sure were cautious. Was Allen not telling me something or did he really believe that there was nothing here to hurt us?

"Stop for a second." Allen raised one hand a little bit, as though he was going to wave to me but decided to halt his movement.

My feet did cease their motion. Perhaps something dangerous was going to attack us now. "What is it?"

"The ice is gone." Indeed, the platform ahead of us dropped off sharply, plunging into water that was almost colder and darker than the sky. Allen turned to retrace his steps. "We won't be here for much longer, then. Less space to search."

I blinked, still keeping a few steps behind the exorcist. "We just got here, though. Are we heading back early?"

"We don't have much of an option. Nature happens, I guess."

I lowered my eyes to the ice again, trying to search for something out of the ordinary. We couldn't have just hit a dead end, right? There had to be some reason we traveled all the way out here on a huge boat in the middle of the night.

The ice moved.

I thought I might just be seeing things. Maybe the darkness was playing tricks on my eyes. To make sure, I stared at the suspicious spot on the frost as though doing so might set it on fire. Sure enough, there was a bit of movement, but it wasn't the motion of ice splitting… it was more like the motion of a mole digging its way up out of the ground.

"Allen, something's coming." I didn't bother to check whether he had stopped; I was too busy keeping my eye on the ice.

Within a few seconds the ice had given way to a vaguely humanoid blob, which had risen up out of the frozen surface where the strange scratch marks had been earlier. It had no face or any defining features, but by the way it swayed as though intoxicated, I could tell there was something very unfriendly about it.

"Lucidia, get out of the way!"

My body didn't react in time for Allen's shout. Before I had time to think about what I was doing I had a sharpened, oversized chunk of ice in my hand and had shoved it at the blobby humanoid. A split second later it had fallen back to the frozen landscape and vanished into it.

When my brain finally caught back up with my limbs, I murmured, "What was that?"

"I don't know," Allen responded quickly. "but you killed it."

"I did?" My ears flicked a little bit as I turned to face Allen.

Allen appeared to be just about as confused as I was. A long pause ensued, presumably while he thought. "I can't sense any more of them, but… since we can't go any farther we might as well leave now. Besides, I'd like to get back before sunrise."

I blinked, my ears still swiveling every now and then to ensure that nothing was sneaking up behind me. "…Okay."

By the time we returned to the island on which the base was located, the edges of the sky were already starting to bleed a pale blue from the oncoming sunlight. The castle-like building loomed overhead, but it didn't seem quite so intimidating as it did the first time when I had no clue what was inside. Ready for a good night's rest, I started towards the welcoming doors. The more I walked, the less I felt my feet would hold me up. My eyes were wandering as well – when I noticed a spot of glaringly bright blue in my peripheral vision I made a double take.

"Oh, hi, Alma."

His cobalt eyes focused as I called his name. He shifted his weight from the wall to his feet and approached me placidly, his tail swinging idly.

"Were you waiting for me?" I inquired, halting my steps.

"Um…" Alma hesitated a little. By his expression I could tell that he was trying to form his thoughts into a coherent sentence. "Sort of. I got a little lonely, and I supposed you had disappeared off to the expedition, but… I didn't want to stop you unless you noticed me, because you look tired. I'm not trying to spy on you or anything."

"That's okay." I gave him a reassuring smile, attempting to reverse the exhausted drooping of my ears. "I am sleepy, but I can stop and talk a little bit if you'd like."

Alma flicked the tip of his tail towards the nearest door, and then gestured with his eyes when he realized I might not notice. "We can keep walking."

I reluctantly lowered my gaze from the ocean-blue stripes on his face and continued to the door. I slinked inside, wanting to stay up and speak to Alma more but loath to stay away from my bed for too much longer.

I had been walking for about a minute when I noticed Alma was farther behind me than he had been initially. Curious, I checked over my shoulder. He was looking backwards as well, although he hastily caught up to me when he saw me watching him.

"Is something wrong?" I asked quietly, unable to raise my voice very high in my fatigue.

"…No. Don't worry." Alma's tone was firm, but I could tell by his hesitation and the strange light in his sky-blue eyes that he was lying.

Still suspicious, I turned back down the hall. I had only taken a few more steps when I heard a very hushed whispering sound. It sounded like a tiny breeze, but there was no wind inside.

This made me panic just a little. I stopped moving, which may not have been the best idea.

"Lucidia!"

I barely had time to hear Alma's voice and start pivoting again before a long object collided painfully with my front, stopping me an inch before I crashed into the wall. Thankfully, I regained my senses within a few moments. Alma had used his arm to move me, rather forcefully, to the side of the hallway, supposedly out of the path of some projectile. My eyes traced it from the bony wrist to the powerful shoulder, which was circled with smooth purple. Alma's tail was tense and rhythmically tapped against the floor like a businessman's fingers drumming on a table when he gets bored. I just now noticed that the lights in the ceiling were too bright and yellow for how late it was.

Just past Alma's piercing blue gaze was Kanda, brandishing an oversized sword. I didn't dare speak; the exorcist's glare was enough to silence my breath alone.

"What is it, Yu?" Alma questioned, a hint of aggression in his normally amiable voice – strange to hear, like a pet cat kept for years that suddenly would hiss at its human companion.

"Let her go," Kanda snarled. The corners of his lips were pulled farther down his chin than I had thought was physically possible.

Alma dropped his arm. "That's irrelevant. What are you doing?"

As fast as lightning, Kanda charged. Faster than lightning, Alma sidestepped, his tail following him reluctantly. I avoided getting my nose cut off by a few inches.

Alma hurriedly raised his hands to about his shoulder level. Contrasting his earlier tone, his face showed shock and perhaps a bit of curiosity. "Whoa, Yu. What's going on? You don't need to attack me."

Apparently Kanda did need to attack, because hedarted forward again, and again Alma dodged almost effortlessly. By this third strike I thought that Kanda wasn't trying to aim as much as he was trying to simply swing his weapon around. Either he was playing, which was unlikely, or he was very angry about something, which was normal for him (from what I could recall of his role in the story, at least).

The two settled back to a standstill. "Seriously, calm down," Alma insisted. His changing tone and expressive eyes told me that even he was starting to panic a little. "Have you lost your mind again?"

This only appeared to provoke Kanda even more, because he launched himself forward with a giant downward swing of his sword. As expected, Alma started to nudge himself out of the way, but something was different this time, because he didn't dodge quite fast enough. The blade fell on his right shoulder, hitting the pointed scale there with a loud clang. I watched Alma closely as he spaced himself from Kanda once more. The blue and violet seemed to flow across his skin when he took a wide step backwards. I checked his shoulder – I couldn't see a scratch or dent where the metal had struck the armor-like scale, but that didn't necessarily mean that the strike hadn't hurt.

Alma's tail gradually drooped as he straightened his back. I watched the outline of his ribcage slowly appear from beneath his skin. His sky-blue eyes were clear with concern, the dark lashes hiding them just slightly. "I'm not going to fight you," he told Kanda, his voice quieter but growing shaky. "I'm still your friend. Why won't you talk to me?"

The exorcist's expression didn't change. "An akuma begging for mercy. How cute."

Alma's eyes widened just a little. In the silence of the glaringly bright hallway, I could hear him start to draw a breath from where I stood at the wall. That was right – he wasn't aware that I knew that he was an akuma. Having his identity revealed so bluntly had probably startled him badly. He took a split second to blink, but that was enough for Kanda to charge. His stance was different from before, though. He took advantage of Alma's sidestep and aimed there instead, shoving forward with the back of his sword. Having turned in a circle, Alma was pinned against the wall, the blade blocking him from his collarbone to his left hand, which he had raised in the midst of his dodge. The weapon was dangerously close to cutting his throat.

I felt pressure on my chest and noticed that I had inadvertently folded my hands there sometime in the last minute. My elbows were jabbing painfully into my waist, but I was too focused on Alma to pay attention to that. There was a strange suffocating sensation in my neck. My ears were folded so far downwards that they were ringing.

"Alma," I managed to croak, unsure of whether to step forward to help or backwards to get away from Kanda.

The exorcist's head whipped around to mine. His narrowed black eyes were on fire. "Interfere and you die."

It was then Alma's turn to look at me, although he barely turned his head. There was a glimmer of fear in his vivid blue eyes, and the color almost appeared to be fading. "Stay back, Lucidia," he warned. His voice was trembling audibly.

In my silence, I noticed movement near the floor. Alma's tail was swinging again – it looked like it might jump out and bite something. Kanda took note of where I was looking and followed my gaze. He scowled at the end of the tail for a moment, and then, with absolutely no warning, lifted a foot and stomped on it as though it was a cockroach. I felt rather than heard the ensuing crunch.

Alma cried out, revealing his pointed teeth. His tail was trapped under Kanda's foot, the arrowed tip separated from the rest of the spine. By the looks of it there was no hope for the section in between.

When Alma's jaw finally closed again, a glistening drop had leaked from the corner of one of his eyes, and defied gravity at the top of the blue stripe.

"Now then," Kanda growled, his voice rougher than sandpaper. He flexed his hand just a little, and his blade pressed just a little into the skin of Alma's neck.

No, no, no… By now I had lost my strength to speak. Something about watching Alma hurt, trapped and helpless was too painful to watch. In my head I was begging Kanda to stop. Couldn't anybody hear the commotion and come to our aid? As my brain worked frantically to calm itself I realized it couldn't, because I loved Alma Karma.

I had heard before that you never realize something is precious until you're suddenly afraid of losing it. My mind was registering that just then: I feared that Alma would die right then and there, and when he did I would miss him terribly. I couldn't think about what I would do without him because then I would start crying. With this reasoning, I finally noticed that Alma was precious to me, and he had been since I met him. At first I was trying to deny this, insisting that I was too caught up in the situation, and no, it hadn't been long enough since I first met him, only two days or so, but the more I tried to refute my logic, the more it made sense. At the end of a very long five seconds I simply had to admit to myself that I was in love with an akuma.

I had to say something to stop Kanda, anything that would save Alma's life. I was about to simply call his name for the sake of feeling it on my lips when I heard a very familiar voice.

"Stop it, Kanda."

Both Kanda's and my attention turned to farther down the hall. Alma's eyes opened just a little – he had closed them a moment early, perhaps to accept that he was going to die. He still watched Kanda intently, his neck stretched against the wall to keep the sword from cutting his flesh.

"What are you doing?" Kanda snapped, his hands still tense on the hilt of his sword.

"What are you doing?" Allen shot back, his face strangely calm. "Put the weapon down."

"I'm doing you a favor," Kanda replied venomously. "Or do you suddenly have a soft spot for akuma like this one?"

Alma's eyes closed again. He tried to turn away from Kanda, but this was near impossible to do without inching his neck closer to the blade. Another tear dripped from the corner of his eyelashes.

"That's irrelevant," Allen protested evenly. "I didn't ask for your interference. Drop the sword, now."

The two exorcists spent a few more seconds glowering at each other before Kanda finally gave in, albeit reluctantly. He lowered his blade and took several steps back, his eyes dropping spitefully to the floor. Alma audibly let out a breath I didn't notice he was holding, and his entire body wilted. As his neck bent I spotted a tiny mark in the middle of his throat where Kanda's sword had barely broken the skin.

"Come here, Kanda," Allen continued, his voice hard and commanding.

As the furious exorcist turned and stalked away from his opponent, Alma finally gathered himself and straightened his spine again. His tail drooped pitifully, the end dragging on the carpet, and there were still wet spots between his nose and his face stripes. That was the first time I noticed there was a scar over the bridge of his nose, although I had no clue how it got there.

When the two exorcists finally disappeared down the bright hallway, I approached Alma. He still looked quite shaken from the fight; a certain panicked looseness hung around his expression.

"Are you all right, Alma?" I asked, barely louder than a whisper. I started to reach for his hand or his shoulder, but decided against it at the last minute. He was probably still too uneasy for me to give him any unexpected gestures.

He swallowed heavily. "I'll be fine." His ocean-blue eyes, to which the light was slowly returning, were focused on the floor. His gaze gradually rose to meet mine, and I returned it as steadily as I could; I had known for a while, but never really considered, that love entered through the eyes, but now wasn't a good time to make my confession. Not just yet.

"I'm scared, too," I admitted, wanting desperately to calm him down. "Will you stay with me tonight? To be honest, I'm frightened that Kanda will come back for one of us."

Alma blinked.

"It's a weird request, I know, but… please, I'm scared." I held my eyes to his, still clutching my hands to my chest (they hadn't moved since I first put them there).

After several seconds Alma finally gave a vague notion of a nod.

"We're almost there. Just follow me." I spoke softly, as though I was talking to a bristling wildcat whose eyes and jaws were wide open so that it looked as threatening as possible.

I led him to my room, this time checking on him more often. Not only did I want to ensure that he was behind me, but I didn't want Kanda to be following us again. I opened the door slowly, and it gave a hushed creak of protest. I only stepped into the room once Alma held the door with a shaky hand.

I stepped aside, glancing downwards as he passed into the room. "Is your tail going to be all right?"

"Yes, it'll heal fast on its own." Alma started to smile, but his face darkened again. The light faded from outside as he closed the door – I had to switch on one of the smaller lights to avoid startling my eyes.

"About that…" Alma began quietly. "What Yu – what Kanda said earlier is true… I am an akuma." He motioned with one hand towards his chest, and met my gaze meekly but deliberately.

I studied the patterns of light and dark in his blue eyes. "I don't care. I love you, Alma."

Only after I said it did it occur to me that startling him twice in one night probably wasn't a good idea Still, at least he didn't look scared or betrayed. His eyes dropped to the floor, and he slowly turned towards the wall. I examined the profile of his face, exploring the lines and shades of blue. His lips were slightly parted as he tried to process what I had just told him.

He glanced sideways at me. "Is that true?"

"Yes." I bowed my head just a little. "It bothers you, doesn't it?"

He averted his gaze yet again, turning even further away. "No, it's just… I don't know what to say."

A short pause for me to think. "That's all right. I would feel the same way. I know we're supposed to be enemies, but you're really friendly for an akuma, so…" I shrugged, and then realized he wasn't facing me. Maybe talking more hadn't been the best idea.

Another few seconds of silence passed, so I stepped past him and sat on the big fluffy bed. I wanted to get some rest, but to be honest I wasn't very tired anymore – not after all that excitement. With my luck the sun would be up soon. The sky outside the window was still pitch-black, dotted only with light from the stars and moon, but it was impossible to tell how much longer it would stay that way.

I glanced back to Alma. He was staring at his feet, but the moonlight was staring at him just as intently, dyeing his entirety in a soft cyan. His own blues appeared to glow in response, illuminating his downcast face. My eyes wandered along his form, tracing the outlines against the blackness of the room. Not for the first time, I noticed his knees. Earlier they had unnerved me – they appeared separated from his legs, as though someone had carved them out to and then decided that they fit better where they had been previously. Only by then the area the artist had removed was too large and so the kneecaps had to be awkwardly hot-glued back into the gaping holes that had been torn away. At first I found this physical trait strange, if not repulsive. By now, though, I had learned to admire even this part of Alma's form. When he walked his legs would bend as flawlessly as any others, and his confident steps made moving gracefully look as easy as breathing.

"Are you okay, Alma?" I asked gently when he still wouldn't look up at me. "You can leave if you would rather not be here."

His cat-like eyes finally rose in my direction. In the night's brightness, they appeared more alabaster-white than any other color. "It's not that – I'm fine. I've just been thinking." I intently watched him approach the bed, his gait as light and elegant as ever. He seated himself at the foot, as far away from me as he could get while still sitting on something. I wondered briefly whether this was intentional. He curled his tail on top of the sheets; the pointed end still drooped like a willow branch, and stuck out at a strange angle even though the rest was curved neatly. "You actually… not many people talk to me as much as you do. After you showed up I got lonely fast. Anyway, I imagine that if you do… feel that way, then I should tell you more about who I really am."

"Who you really are?" I echoed, growing curious. I wasn't sure whether to be excited or alarmed that Alma trusted me this quickly. Then again, if anything I was the one who had believed in him too fast.

"Yes. There are certain things about myself that I keep from most everyone else here. My past, mostly, but since you trust me like that, you do have a right to know."

I studied his face for a little longer. His clear blue eyes had clouded and turned down again, hiding themselves from the moonlight. He still wouldn't look directly at me, even when I mentally urged him to make eye contact.

"You don't have to if it hurts you," I told him softly. "People are allowed to keep some secrets to themselves." By the way he kept is gaze on the floor, I guessed that he either wasn't confident that he could share his story with me, or what he did want to share still bothered him even now. I still didn't know myself whether I wanted to hear the details of Alma's existence.

He stared purposefully at the floor for a few more seconds. At last, he exhaled audibly and then straightened his neck. "All right."

He finally made eye contact with me again, albeit slowly, almost reluctantly. "Like all akuma, I used to be a human," Alma began, a little quietly. "Yu has been my friend for as long as I can remember. We were exorcists-in-training, I guess."

"Exorcists?" I interrupted. That was the last thing I expected to hear.

"We had a sort of Innocence. Actually, I still do." He raised his forearm in front of him as though there was an interesting beetle perched on it. Nothing happened. "I wish I didn't."

"Why not?" I was going to say that there were probably people who existed who would kill to have the chance to be an exorcist and hang out with Allen, but this idea didn't come to my head fast enough for me to voice it.

"Because it's killed people." Alma brought his arm close to his chest like he was trying to keep it from falling off. "Everything fell apart. Somehow I was convinced I had to kill them, the ones who watched over us, so I did."

A long pause ensued. Alma had returned to staring intently at his feet.

"Then, in return, Yu killed me."

You died? was what I was about to ask, but I kept my mouth shut so my brain could catch up. Akuma were technically people who had died and were revived by somebody who wanted them back, right? I noticed that Alma had probably just skipped over a large portion of his memory. I couldn't tell whether this was because he honestly couldn't remember or because it was a secret too precious to give to even me.

"As far as I know, anyway… I was asleep for a long time after that, so all I know is that the Millennium Earl found me sometime, and made me into an akuma." His right hand moved from his front to over his opposite shoulder, coming to a rest against the scale. I recognized this motion as something I usually did when something was worrying me and I was trying to calm down. "I thought I would be fine after that, but then Yu came along again, and I had to fight him. I didn't want to, but I had to – I was angry, but… I didn't mean to take it out on him.

"Allen was there, too. I couldn't tell which side he was on, but I think he just wanted the fight to stop. I wish I could have listened to him."

Silence descended across the room for a moment. I suddenly noticed that I was sitting closer to Alma than I had been when I first settled down. Wondering more about this, I realized that it was because his voice had gradually lost volume, and was now barely above a whisper. I didn't remember him blinking in the last few minutes; his blue eyes seemed brighter than normal (even though they were inhumanly vivid in the first place) and were constantly focused on the floor.

"We practically killed each other. By some miracle, we were both alive at the end, but just barely." Pause. "I didn't see Yu for a long time after that."

Silence again. I thought the rest of the night would just continue on in total silence when Alma suddenly put his hands over his downturned face, obscuring the cobalt-blue light from his eyes. "I don't want to hurt anybody anymore. I've killed too much… the others are dead because of me." His voice was a muffled whisper.

Speechless, I sat and kept my focus on him for a while. I was considering how far I would have to extend my arm to reach him when his shoulders unexpectedly shook as though they were going to fall apart.

As he drew in a ragged breath, a choking sensation gripped my throat. Alma was crying. A mindless, emotionless killing machine that sought only to evolve was crying, quietly shedding tears as though there was no one around to hear.

I said his name gently and reached for his shoulder – slowly, as I expected him to notice and lash out at me. However, he didn't respond even as I rested my hand there (I made no attempt to avoid the scale, since I had taken a liking to it, and doing so might offend him anyway). I watched helplessly as he sat with his face covered, shuddering occasionally. His back and arms looked fragile, as though they would shatter any second. I immediately decided that I never wanted Alma to cry again.

I tried inching closer, just to comfort him, and wondered whether anybody had ever been this physically near to him before. For several seconds, he seemed to ignore me, but the next thing I knew I had both arms around him and his head was against my shoulder. I never recalled how I closed the distance between us, but I didn't care as long as Alma wasn't so sad anymore. I didn't close my eyes for fear of falling asleep. Instead I let my ears rest flat against my head and I just focused on our awkward embrace, trying to will Alma's breathing to return to normal.

Eventually, I decided it had been too long since I spoke. "It's all right now," I told him softly, unsure of whether it was true, but certain that I meant it. "It's all right."

I attempted to count the seconds but lost my train of thought after three. At some point Alma's breathing slowed, and we were in what felt like perfect stillness for just a moment. Then he straightened himself and inhaled deeply. His eyes were still damp with tears, but his face was relaxed and practically emotionless.

"I'm sorry," he murmured, not avoiding eye contact anymore. "I should probably…"

My ears perked back up. "It's getting late. I should probably get to sleep now before the sun rises on me." Before Alma had time to respond I flopped back on the pillow. "If you'd like, you can leave. Just don't worry about anything anymore."

I fell asleep before I could see his reaction. The following morning I noticed two things: Alma was warm, like a human; and the sun had waited for me to rest before it rose for the daytime.