Phone's quiet. Bar's empty. I take a deep breath. I breathe out.

I'm not a stranger to losing friends, but damn if it's not hard every single time.

The vigil's a little tradition of mine. There are two pictures this time. Touma's there. His prey was a bomber. Thought he could set the bombs off with his staff and neutralize the threat. Got most of 'em, too, but there was a kid… it didn't end pretty. For anyone.

Sven's next to him. Heard that Train and Eve were right by him when he passed. Probably not the best for those two, but it's all a sweeper can ask for sometimes, to be surrounded by loved ones when they die. There aren't a lot of luxuries that we can afford in this life, but that one's something I hope I'll get when it's my turn.

Rest easy, you two. You earned it.

BAM!

I don't move. The only people who show up this loudly at this time of night are people who want information too desperately to wait their goddamn turn. Those people usually don't wanna kill the informants before they get their piece. They'll throw a hissy and maybe shoot a few things, but it ain't anything that can't be replaced.

To mourn my friends, anything else is worth replacing.

"Come back in the morning. We're closed."

The footsteps that come in are light. Too light.

"Annette."

Oh, shit.

I know before I turn around that Eve's got cold fire in her eyes and the ignored dregs of sorrow and grief clutching at her weighted ankles. She marches through it towards me, like it's the only thing keeping her up on those feet of hers.

Death ain't easy to deal with for anyone, and watching your pops die? After everything he went through for her?

Hell.

"I'm sorry for coming in so late—"

Her manners are a lip service, and I'm not sure if it's because I'm her friend or because I was Sven's. Her own friend is hanging back at the doorway, and I can't see his face. She's ignoring him.

Because I was Sven's friend, then.

"—but I need some information. This man isn't in his hideout. I need to find him."

I'm not surprised to see the bastard's face on the picture. I'm not surprised that Eve's the one showing it to me.

Grief makes people angry. I should know.

Sven did. Train does. I narrow my eyes.

"You're getting revenge alone?" I ask. Eve's glare hardens.

I won't get through to her. I already know it. She's only ever seen me as Sven's friend, and she won't understand why I'm mourning silently. But anger makes us all stupid, and I did not make friends in this industry to blindly follow them when they meet their end. I'm here to make sure that the ones who are alive stay alive.

So, I don't mince words.

"You won't get what you want out of him." It's something we all learn. Either you know it, or you don't. "If you understand that, go home. Or stay here. If you don't, go to the docks. You'll find the warehouse eventually."

It's not what she wants, I can tell in the way her mouth twists into a scowl, but tough shit. I'm not going to let her recklessly roam around into dangerous territories on her manhunt, but I'm also not going to narrow her search any more than I already have. I fold my arms, and though she's faced down bounties bigger and stronger than me, I know she holds at least a little respect for me. Enough to listen? I don't know, but I won't just not try.

"Go home, Eve. You're not as alone in this as you seem to think you are."

Wrong thing to say. Her jaw tightens, and she flies out of my bar in a flurry of angry feathers. Her friend doesn't even get to blink before she's left him behind. He heaves out a breath, like he expected this.

Kids shouldn't have to look so world-weary. I rub my eyes.

"Aren't you going to follow her?" I ask.

"No, I'm going back," he says, voice too relaxed for what just happened. "I think you slowed her down enough for him to catch up."

I snap my eyes to him in the doorway. They were followed? Who—

Then I see him. Just a flash, in the distance behind the open door, nearly indistinguishable from the black tree line.

Well, looks like she's less alone than I thought. It's not a weight entirely off my shoulders, but the burden's not quite as bad as it had been getting.

I wave the kid away. I'm sure he can make it back to where he came from if he kept up with Eve when she was like that. Besides, I'm not that charitable.

I still have a vigil to maintain, and soon, the bar is quiet once again.

I hope I won't have another for a long, long time.