Henry took a deep breath. He sat in front of his laptop on his desk, the technology plugged into the wall and his headphones fit snuggly onto his head. He set his phone face-down beside his laptop. His browser was open with two tabs: his e-mail and an empty tab. He was on the empty tab, his fingers on the keyboard, biting his lip. Henry shut his eyes and typed in a URL. He had hardly typed in a few letters before it was auto filled.

With one last long, deep breath, he pressed enter. He didn't even need to type his full username or any part of his password.

Two of the three people he knew were logged on. One of them was not Howie. In fact, it was rarely Howie that was online.

Henry didn't message them. He clicked on the icon with the rose, and then the one with the helicopter. He found the group chat. Henry scrolled way, way up and started to read the messages he'd missed out on.

Some of the talk was the usual; their lives were going well, Ellie nearly flipped her motorcycle and crashed headlong into a semi-truck but managed to somehow regain enough control to not die. She didn't escape uninjured, but she wasn't dead or hospitalized for very long. Charles went on a mission he wasn't allowed to discuss, but it involved explosions and a SAM Turret but also an unfortunate lack of ramming his helicopter into things.

Eventually, the two asked each other about Henry and called to him on the group chat.

Henry assumed they talked in private, because their conversation suddenly steered clear of Henry. His heart clenched and he could barely keep himself from looking away. There was no such thing as tone in a chat log, but he could almost feel the emotion behind it; Charles not using as many exclamation marks and smiley faces, and Ellie using fewer punctuation marks in general and a couple of misspelled words. The topics were pretty basic; again, their lives and then discussions of the games they'd just played. Some plans to meet up while Ellie was in the area.

Ellie said in the chat, "He doesn't have an apartment in New Mexico anymore."

That was the last time Henry was referenced for a long time. In fact, the pain in his chest gripped harder and Henry clenched his teeth to keep his composure. Did they really forget about him so quickly?

Their chat slowly returned to its usual cheer, though there were some noticeably different types of speech in places. Henry let out a choked laugh that decided to turn into a sob as he saw Charles' account had been hijacked and spewed random nonsense about how Ellie was the superior being and how he felt very, very bad for choosing such an awful movie last time they met up. After about ten minutes passed, the messages stopped and then after an "I didn't say any of that! :0" went back to normal.

Henry didn't know how long he sat there reading the chat, but he managed to get to the end. The last few lines were said just a couple of hours ago. Why Ellie and Charles were using the group chat of three people when it was only them talking, Henry didn't know.

R0secutter88 is typing…

Henry looked down at the bottom of the chat box at the sudden movement.

"Jesus Christ, how many twelve-year-old boys are online? Isn't it past their bedtimes?"

Copter_Boi is typing…

"I'm pretty sure there were a couple of girls that just sounded like that. :P They had some skills! And weren't screaming swears into the mic! :D"

"lol Yeah, too bad we don't really friend people online, right? I wonder if they'll be online tomorrow. You're good tomorrow, right?"

"Yeah! :)"

"Should we go back to that server? I got a headache three minutes into playing with them. _"

"I mean, if you want, we can just play another game. /shrug"

"True. I kinda like that server. wait, someone else is on"

"Is it Joan? Is she finally back from hiding?"

"Holy shit"

"What?"

"I think its henry"

"Henry? Henry, are you back?"

Henry took his hand off his mouth and typed, "yeh"

R0secutter and Copter_Boi are typing…

"OH MY GOD HENRY WHAT THE FUCK"

"Yuor'e bcak! :D It's bene forever!"

"WHERE'VE YOU BEEN JESUS CHRIST"

"I can't spell omg Im sorry ;-;"

"WE'VE BEEN FREAKING OUT HOLY FUCK"

"We're not mad, though! I promise!"

Henry swallowed and, thanking God above he'd muted his mic, typed, "hey, sorry"

"wHAT DO YOU MEAN 'hey, sorry'? You fucking scared us, man! WE thought you were dead or something!"

"Are you okay? We haven't heard from you in a long time, and you haven't logged on, either to Discord or anything."

"I've just been gone," Henry explained. "I didn't think you wanted to talk after all that, you know?"

R0secutter88 and Copter_Boi are typing…

Copter_Boi is typing…

…

R0secutter88 is typing…

R0secutter88 and Copter_Boi are typing…

Henry shut his eyes, preparing for the worst. Ohhh, they didn't do that unless something was really messed up. God, this was a mistake. He shouldn't have come back. They were perfectly happy talking to each other. They didn't need Henry–

"Why?" asked Ellie.

"You're our best friend, dude!" Charles agreed.

"ive been gone for months," Henry pointed out. "after you know getting caught trying to break into a bank vault and then escaping prison."

"And? You're still our best friend. Even if they caught some dumb thief, you're still our best friend."

"Yeah! We missed you, man! :("

"Also you can't escape that easily. You got caught, you gotta pay the fine."

"Yeah! The fine! You know, the fine."

Henry raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Five dollars. That's the reward for catching a dumb thief."

Henry blinked at the screen. "wut"

"Dude, you can't get out of this. We made, like, a cult-like promise way back in middle school. You realize middle school promsies are like blood pacts, right?"

"Henry, I know it's probably not a good idea to come here and all, but we still really like you! 3"

"Yeah, man! You gotta deliver that bill in person. Where are you?"

Henry squinted, rubbing his wrist over his eyes. "That's probably not a good idea. Me telling you where I live."

"Oh, right. Because you're a dumb thief."

"I don't think he's dumb. :("

Henry couldn't help a laugh at that.

Charles went on, "That was a pretty bad thing, tho. :/ Trying to steal stuff and then break out of prison."

Henry winced. Somehow, that stupid little emoji hurt worse than Ellie's insults. He knew they were both genuine, and neither wanted to hurt him, but Charles was just… Charles.

"You kinda did that a lot as a kid, tho? But you didn't get in trouble?"

"Yeah, what happened?" Ellie agreed. "You getting caught? What was that about?"

"I don't know. Bad luck."

"You're the luckiest person I know."

"Luckiest person I know, too. /nods"

Henry sighed. "I don't know what happened, okay? I know I wasn't supposed to be there, anyway. That was really stupid of me. And now everything's just not going my way, you know? I'm not in New Mexico, I just moved on. So, I don't think we're in the same time zone, Charles."

"Are you in my time zone?"

"Depends. Where?"

"Wisconsin."

"Nope."

"Are you in New York?"

"No. That's a dumb place for me to go."

There was a slight pause.

Charles asked, "What about your family? They still like you right? :("

"Oh, no, yeah," said Henry. "No, they do. I love them, too. But you know how it is. Hey, so, what game were you guys playing?"

"Well, we WERE playing CoD. But then the infamouse twelve-year-old wave appeared."

Henry rolled his eyes. "Did you beat them into the dirt?"

"Of course!"

"Yeah, Ellie went OFF on them! It was terrifying! :D"

He couldn't help a laugh. "That sounds like you! I feel sorry for the kids."

"Don't be. They were annoying as fuck."

"Lol"

Henry, Ellie, and Charles spent hours on the chat. They fluctuated between games to catching up to talking about their day. Any news, save for being on the move? Will you be somewhere near me next month? How was prison food? (ELLIE, NO D:) Did you get to cook at your new home? What kind of missions have Charles and Ellie been going on, Henry had asked. Henry had seen those messages on the above chats, but just in case they talked over the phone or something. But, no, most of the info was recorded lovingly in the chat history.

Charles eventually had to say goodnight, though he did ask if they would be on tomorrow. Ellie would, but Henry was uncertain. After all, he didn't even know the mission he was going to be apart of tomorrow, if he was going to be part of one at all.

With that, Ellie and Henry both logged off as well. Henry closed his computer and set his headphones down. He shut his eyes and tipped his head back. God. They still loved him. He was still their friend. Even though he was a criminal on the run, they accepted him.

Henry decided to make his way to bed. It was already late; he had to be presentable tomorrow. Er… in the morning, Henry noticed upon glancing at his watch.

Uuuuuuugh, six hours of sleep was not enough.

A cold shower helped wake him up. It was the opposite of fun, but he was awake, clean, and his hair washed. He was once again in a spiffy suit and wore his navy-blue top hat with the golden H on the base.

"Whoa, did ya stay up all night?" Howie asked as they met up.

Henry grimaced. "That obvious?"

"No, Ah was just assumin'. But ya did?"

Henry breathed a small sigh of relief. "Okay, good. Yeah, I did. Last night I logged onto the internet again. I didn't get to tell them where I was, you know, but… I got to talk to Charles and Ellie for the first time since that stupid bank mission."

Howie grinned. "That's great, li'l buddy! How'd they take it?"

"Way better than I expected," Henry confessed. "Charles was disappointed in what I did, Ellie was just disappointed I got caught. But I'm still their friend."

Howie laughed. "Ya've got some good friends on yer side, Henry!"

"I do."

They met Henry's dads near the cafeteria, where they walked together. "Good morning!" Henry bit back a yawn.

"Good morning, Henry," Dad Reginald greeted, his smile bent a little in concern. "Are you alright? Did you get enough sleep last night?"

"I'm fine," Henry reassured him. "I just went to bed a little late. It's not that I had trouble sleeping or anything, I just… it's been a while. You know, been a while on a lot of things. Being on the airship, seeing you guys, having the lights turn off 'on their own.' Talking to my friends. It's been a wild ride."

Dad Reginald nodded in acknowledgement as they gathered around the table. "I understand that. We're happy to see you alive and well, Henry. It is still a little bit of a shock, admittedly, what happened. Because of that stress and how new you are back here, it isn't a good idea to send you on some of the more dangerous missions."

Henry forced down a grimace.

"Once you get back on your feet properly and things do calm down, that will change." When "things" calm down or when Dad Reginald calms down? "But for now, there are a few things that could use your attention. Howie, you're planning on another meeting, yes?"

Howie nodded. "Yep. We're meetin' with the executive of a food company tomorrow. It's jus' me and Harold. Ah mean, Henry could come with us. He's a nice guy ta have 'round."

Dad Reginald stated, "Good. I hope a last minute addition won't hurt. Henry?"

Howie waved his hand. "Oh a' course, not."

Henry slowly nodded. "Okay. I don't normally go on those type of missions, though."

Reginald said, "It will be good practice, I'm sure. Planning and going through with heists, even solo ones, as well as having the basic skills of lockpicking and pickpocketing are good. But being well-rounded with negotiations, proper meetings, and the like are also very good skills to have. It's best to know your allies as soon as possible."