"Withdrawal?" Ruby asked, looking down at Roman's sleeping face on her stomach. Mascara stains decorated the front of her school uniform. Could it really be that bad?

"I didn't think this would happen," Junior answered, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. A chair was pulled up to the foot of Roman's bed as both of them lay on the ruffled sheets. She hadn't gotten up since Roman fell asleep on top of her.

Ruby looked up. "So Neo's going to buy cigarettes now?"

Junior nodded. "Neo told me not to get them this time around because she thinks he has a problem. If you've noticed, she enforced the same principle with the alcohol in this apartment."

Ruby pondered. She hadn't been paying particular attention to how many alcoholic beverages were available in his cabinets.

"Personally," Junior continued, "I'm worried he'll get fed up and go out and do something about it."

"And he's a wanted criminal," Ruby added softly. Her heart twisted at the thought of Roman's incarceration.

"It wouldn't be as much of a problem if I could just give him a mask and that would be the end of it, but in this neighborhood, it would draw a hell of suspicion whenever he came or left, not to mention the fact that it's illegal."

"I mean, everyone is carrying a weapon on the streets these days," Ruby contemplated. "You'd need to be able to identify people." Ruby lilted the end of her statement as if it were a suggestion, so as not to offend someone Roman cares about.

Junior looked away from Roman, meeting Ruby's eyes. He humphed in agreement and looked back down to Roman. "I'm just trying to think of a way for him to be able to leave the apartment without problems."

"How has he been doing it before?" Ruby asked.

Junior frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Like, what has he been doing this whole time?" Ruby clarified.

"He's been staying here the whole time. I'm saying I want to figure out something that allows him a little more leg room."

Ruby's expression morphed from curious to confused to shocked. "You mean he's been just...here for the past two months?"

Junior nodded.

Ruby cast her eyes down at Roman's head. "Holy crap," she murmured.

"Honestly, Ruby," Junior sighed, "I think you're the only reason he's stayed sane."

Ruby scoffed at the suggestion.

"No, I'm serious," Junior affirmed. "He claims he has nothing to do here. All that Neo kept here is a bunch of books-not even a TV-but they're all in Slavic languages."

Chewing on the back of her lip, Ruby thought about her relationship with Roman. She noticed that his behavior was erratic, but she originally attributed it to his own personality when in reality being shacked up in one place for so long might have been the thing pushing him to act so strangely in the first place.

The door to the apartment opened, getting Junior's attention. He stands and quietly meets the newest guest in the other room. Upon hearing the door slam, Roman's muscles seized suddenly, and Ruby began to hear him form coherent mumbles. She lightly pressed her fingers to his head, quietly massaging his scalp while he came back to consciousness. Roman made no sudden moves as he realized where he was, lifting his head slightly off of Ruby's midsection, then closed his eyes again and returned his head back to where it was when he was sleeping.

Ruby felt Roman tapping her spine with his index finger, his arms still wrapped around her. Soon enough, Ruby figured out that he was trying to communicate with her.

"Roman, I don't know morse code." Ruby spoke as softly as she could while maintaining clarity.

Roman inhaled deeply. "I'll tell you later," he mumbled. His breathing even, Ruby could hardly believe that he completely lost his composure earlier. Ruby lay her head back on the pillow behind her and closed her eyes, falling asleep to the thought of how much he perplexed her.


Roman did not want to get up. In her arms, he was warm. Safe. The sound of Junior's brought him back to reality, and the faint smell of nicotine danced beneath his nose. Roman frowned, remembering how wrathful he was earlier. When he lifted his head from Ruby's stomach, Junior stood at his bedside, holding out a pack of cigarettes.

"I would have preferred cigars," Roman muttered, taking the pack from his hand and tearing the plastic off with his fingernails. "Can you grab me a light? I have one in the nightstand."

Junior pulled a lighter from his jacket pocket and threw it to him. Roman caught it with one hand as he pushed himself off the bed. He positioned himself on the edge and opened the pack of cigarettes.

"Maybe don't do it around her," Junior suggested, pointing a finger at Ruby, who had fallen asleep sometime during Roman's brief snap back to consciousness.

Roman merely glanced to see what he was talking about. "You're right," he muttered, standing up and sauntering into the next room, in which Neo lounged on the couch, feet elevated on the armrest, drink in her hand. Roman frowned.

"Why now do you decide to attempt to run my addiction into the ground?" He snapped. "You picked the worst time to do it."

"It would have gotten worse here. Especially since the solitude is probably driving you nuts. I hope you enjoy that pack of cigarettes because it's the last one I'm buying you." Neo casually took another sip of her drink.

Roman fumed. He didn't want Neo making decisions for her. "What the fuck is your problem?" He shouted. Junior's hand clapped down on his shoulder, another one fettering his bicep.

"Hey, calm down." he protested.

"What, are you in on this, too?" Roman resisted the urge to cross his arms. The last thing he wanted was to be seen as was as a child having a tantrum.

Junior unwaveringly kept his wits. He had been dealing with Roman's outbursts since he was a teenager. "I'm going to talk to Cinder tomorrow about finding you a way to leave the apartment safely."

Neo turned on the couch. "What? Why would you let him do that?" Neo signed.

"It's not just about him," Junior stated plainly. "He has a job to do, and that requires him leaving the apartment to do it."

"How else are we going to make sure his addiction doesn't get worse?" Neo signed angrily, standing and crossing the room to face Junior directly. Imposing despite her short height, Neo glowered at him with narrowing eyes.

"We don't." Junior let go of Roman's arms as a symbol of his trust.

Roman shot him a puzzled look. "Jesus, what changed?"

"It's Junior, and I think you're perfectly capable of managing yourself. You're a grown adult, and it's time you acted like it."

Roman rolled his eyes. "I am acting like an adult."

"Maybe that would have held true about four months ago, but you're not quite in your right mind anymore. You gotta get back on track," Junior explained. "It's okay to admit you have a problem."

Roman finally realized: this was an intervention. "Oh my fucking god," Roman groaned, walking to the other side of the room.

Junior tried to speak, but Roman cut him off. "No, stop, I don't want to hear it right now."

"You're right," Neo snarked. "We should probably let you wash the mascara off your face first."

Neo looked quite pleased with herself, but Roman was not amused. He pressed his fingers to his temples. "Can you guys just leave? Maybe I'll let you talk to me in the morning, but right now, I just want to get a good night's sleep."

Pursing her lips, Neo looked to Junior, who shrugged in response, signing "Why not?" Junior turned to Roman. "I love you. We'll see you in the morning." He grabbed Roman by the shoulders before he could protest into a bear hug, catching Roman off guard. He put his arms around Junior in response. When Junior broke away, he waved to Roman and walked out, Neo following behind him. He watched them walk out and close the door behind them.

For a moment, Roman enjoyed the quiet solitude before realizing with a start that Ruby was still sleeping on her bed. Well, after what just happened, he wasn't so sure that was the case anymore.


New chapter is gonna follow right up on the heels on this one (Expect it in about twenty-four hours-I'm busy tomorrow morning), so I'm not going to put super extensive notes here because I have exciting news that is gonna take a WHILE to type up and I wanna go to bed. Instead, I'm going to respond to some of the (awesome) reviews I received in reverse-chronological order.

cipher111996: Same.

Hikari Nova: I know...I used to CTRL+F my chapters before I uploaded them to but now I'm super lazy.

Nameless Panda, Babygirlz, , kaori and yoshi: Thank you! I love reading reviews like these :) Honestly, they make my day. Even though I lumped you guys in a group it still makes me really happy when people leave reviews like these. Thank you for the praise and the support-I really do appreciate it. Like a lot. Ily

Arces: I looked and sure enough there was...oops. The word I must have deleted was "She."

laceshadow & BananaKing88: I think I responded to these already but if I haven't...THANK YOU SO MUCH :D

Shit, this wasn't supposed to be long. Oh well. New chapter coming soon! Good night, y'all.