[Viola]

We all head back up the Hill and Wilf joins us for Dinner. Jane's off doing something else, apparently, so Ben offered for him to stay. Dinner finishes and Ben leaves with Wilf for an evening of drinking. Which leaves Todd and I alone, finally, some real alone time. I don't really know what to do, and neither does he.

So we just sit there, a no-man's land of about a centimeter separating us. I want to close the space, and so does Todd, but neither of us do, for some reason. The room is filled with our awkwardness, like we were a pair of sixth graders with a mutual crush. Then I say "Goodnight, Todd." "'Night," comes his knee-jerk reply. I turn off the oil lamp and I slip into dreamy blackness even before Todd manages to fall asleep himself.

[Todd]

I wake up early in the morning, to find Viola lying in the bed across from me, Ben in the next one over. I sneak out, trying to let as little of the sun in as possible, so as not to wake them. Turns out that's a bit unnecessary. It's still low in the sky, and I can still see the larger of the two moons still above the forest's tree-covered horizon.

I sit on the dewy grass outside the tent, the faint Roar of the planet creeping up on me as the sun rises higher. I wonder if I should do anything for Viola today. It's one year ago we met, after all. It's a bit of a special day. The anniversary of the day I met Viola, the day I left the ignorance and lies of Prentisstown, but also the day that I was forced away from all I knew, the day that Cillian…

I feel a hand on my shoulder. I jump a little and turn around. It's Viola. "Well, you scared me." "Good morning to you too," She laughs. "I heard you out here." "Really, from the tent?" "Yup. When I was waiting for you to wake up, I would always listen for your noise, and I guess I developed a kind of sensitivity for it." She stares at me for a while. "And no, I don't really expect you to do anything. I kinda told you that on short notice. Sorry." Then she brushes her hair back and sits down beside me. She leans her head on my shoulder and I lean back on her. We just sit there and watch the sun rise over the pines together as the city wakes up.

I don't know how long we're there, but eventually I just get up and walk off down to the house and wait for Ben, hands in my jeans pockets. Viola follows. The scaffolding's gone now and the outside is painted. I go inside and I look around. It's a reasonable sized house. There's a big entranceway that branches of into a kitchen and a sitting room, then a bedroom, "For Ben," Viola tells me, bathrooms, and a few smaller ones that's functions aren't as obvious. And then a stairway. A two-story house. I whistle in surprise.

I go up the stairs and into what must be… "Our room," Viola finishes for me. She giggles and looks around the Massive attic-style space. "I've never lived in a house before," she says softly. I chuckle a little. "Not as exiting as you might expect," I say. The floor up here is already covered in hardwood and there's two beds, screens and wardrobes. The rest of the house's floors are still crude concrete. This looks like the only room that's been finished.

I hear noise outside and we go out to meet Ben and Wilf. "'Morning," Viola and I say at the same time. We exchange a look. "Hiya there," says Wilf. "'Morning, kids," says Ben. "Where's everybody else?" Viola enquires. "We wanted to work on it today and finish it off, just us two," Ben says. "Although we could use some help." Obviously, He's talking about Viola and I. "sure," I reply, "if Viola wouldn't mind, it's not like we have anything better to do." "Sure, it'll be fun, I guess," Viola chirps, giddily. I guess she hasn't worked with tools ever either. We all get to work on installing the windows and the flooring.

As supposed to doing much work myself, I end up teaching Viola how to use a hammer, some basic tools. We're already up to our second fist-aid kit's worth of Band-Aids, which I find extremely hilarious. Maybe even cute a little.

Shut up.

I laugh a little every time Viola hits her thumb with a hammer or slips with the saw, no matter how guilty I feel.

I hear a high-pitched yelp from behind. I turn around again, smiling probably more than I should be. This time, She's gotten a burn form the automatic sander. Again, I chuckle. Viola playfully shouts "Hey! Come back here," as we run into the house where Ben is working on the sitting room. "Get back to work," he snaps with a smile. Kids, his noise laughs a bit.

We go outside and I get some gel for Viola's heat rash.

Everybody finishes it up, and we all meet just outside, and admire our work. It's done. "Yup, we'll be able to move in tomorrow," Ben says, the sun setting in the sky. "We'll, I'll best be off. Jane'll be wondering where I am." Wilf excuses himself, and walks off towards the hill. I find myself surprisingly overcome with emoshu– emotion. I go over to hug Ben. A house I think, Our new house. Me and Viola and Ben.

[Viola]

I wake up in the morning to the whinny of a horse outside. I prop myself up on my right hand, but my it still feels a bit raw from the heat rash I got yesterday, so I collapse back onto my elbow. I look around. The tent's been mostly cleared of belongings. I can hear Todd and Ben outside. I hear them loading the carts and then I hear: I'll go check on Vi as Todd comes into the tent, noise exited. "Oh, well, you're awake." "'Morning, Todd." "Hey." He pauses. "We're loading up the carts, get dressed and come help." "Oh, right, I forgot. Today's the day, eh." I blush a little, and I don't know why. Embarrassment at forgetting? "Ya, today's the day." "All right, I'll be right out." I get changed behind the divider in the back of the tent and step outside.

The horses are new, but I can see Ben borrowed Wilf's cart. It's being loaded up with what looks like at least a million years worth of food rations, and some furniture probably from the Spackle craftsmen down in the valley, the seats of the chairs lined in lichen.

"Why're we stocking up so much? Are we trying to survive the apocalypse?" I ask in a sarcastic tone. "Well, we want to make the trip back up the hill as rare as possible, don't we," Ben says. "I guess." I look over to Todd, his strong arms lifting a large trunk into the back of the cart. "Here, let me help you with that." I go over and grab the other end and we slowly raise the trunk up and immediately drop it as we move it over the wooden rail of the cart. Todd wipes his forehead with his forearm. "Wow. That was heavy," Todd gasps. "Ya, what was in there?" "Just some of Ben's things, I guess." "When are we leaving?" "Soon, we just gotta load the rest of this stuff up," Todd says in a way that's like 'Just let it be over already.' He gestures toward a pile of assorted bags and small boxes. His noise is tired, and I can tell he's physically tired too. "Alright, Let's get working then," I say with enthusiasm. Todd just sighs.

It takes us a while to finish up, and eventually Todd sits down and takes a break while I take a big sack in my arms and drop it onto the cart. "That's the last of it," I say, exhausted. Ben left earlier, not sure why. I sit down next to Todd, both of us red-faced and drowning in our own sweat. His body is tired but his noise is so full of excitement, things like Finally, a real home. Vi and Ben and Me. And Exited and When are we leaving, when is Ben coming back? He's anxious to leave. I see images in his head, pictures about us, being like a family, a proper family and living together, us two settling down, getting married. But he Stops there quickly and apologizes. "Oh, god, Viola, I'm sorry. Dammit." Whenever he thinks things like that, though, I have to say, it's usually a mutual thought. He just can't hear. "You know, I wouldn't mind that someday," I say. He's morbidly embarrassed now, staring at the ground and even his ears are starting to go pink. "Hey, Todd," I say, trying to meet his eye, he just looks away. "Todd, it's perfectly okay to think these kinds of things." That seems to calm him down a bit. But only a bit. But then Ben comes back and Todd looks up, trying as hard as he can to hide the embarrassment.

"It's time to go," Ben says, Wilf and Jane and Lee trailing behind them. And I realize, it's the first time I've seen him in a few days. "What are Wilf and Lee doing here? Not really that I mind," Todd asks in the most sincere way. His noise has the same tone. "We're helping you guys move," Lee says. "Besides, We gotta get our stuff down there too, our house should be finished soon. It's just over the hedge in your yard."

I'm surprised about that. I knew that Wilf and Lee and Jane were going to be living together, but the fact their house is going to be next to ours is surprising. "That'll be nice, you guys being just next-door," I say as I think it.

So we all get on the cart, Todd, Lee and I in the back, to help make sure that nothing falls over, and begin the short ride down the hill. For the ten minutes it takes us, we all just sit at the edge of the cart and Todd and I look back. Lee just points his head in any witch-way, like he does, and looks through Todd's eyes with us. The scenery isn't anything new, so I stare at the steeple in the lake. We get to the house, unload the cart, and send Lee Wilf and Jane on their way back to camp. Then we get to moving everything inside. By the time we're done, it's mid-day.

[Todd]

It's about noon by the time we're done. Ben, Viola and I stand side-by-side downstairs in the kitchen, hands on our hips, Ben's and my noise full of pride. Viola's face too. "Well, welcome home," Ben says in his ever-hopeful voice. I grab a pack of saltines from the newly organized cabinets, offering one for Viola, but she says "No thanks."

We go upstairs into our room, our room, and we sit down on our beds across from each other. I open up my crackers and start eating them quickly, my empty stomach slowly filling up. "Wow," Viola says. "Ya," I reply, mouth half-full. "I haven't lived in a house, normally, in what seems forever." And then the flashbacks come. I remember being trapped in the old cathedral all night, every night, for the better part of 6 and a half months, the Mayor's own 'house.' Then I remember my house in Prentisstown. Which makes me think of Cillian, which makes me cry a bit.

Shut up

Goddamit!

Is there nothing related to my past I can talk about without bursting into tears and turning my noise into a blue, sad, disorganized mess?

Before I realize, Vi's sitting on the bed next to me, holding onto my shoulder, crying too. Great, now I've reminded her of her parents, too. Well, ruddy hell.

I decide this emotional breakdown ain't doing any good for either of us, so I just cut off my noise as best I can. The sobbing from both of us resides. I look up at Viola's red face. "Vi?" "Hey." "Well, way to ruin our first night of living somewhat normally again, me," I scream at myself, seemingly. "Hey, Todd, calm down. A good cry every once in a while is fine." "I know, but, I don't know, it's just that I can't seem to think about anything from my past without being reduced to a mess." I look away from her. "Hey, Todd," she says, trying to grab my attention. "I cry about my parents, too. We should jut agree to not mention anything about it." "Ya. Sure. Whatever." My head hurts now. Viola wipes the tears from her cheeks. I offer her the rest of my saltines, as a way to break the awkwardness. "No," she laughs. "I'm fine."

With nothing else to do, Viola goes back over to her own bed and we sleep until Ben comes and wakes us up for dinner. We finish, say our goodnights to Ben, and go upstairs and tuck in for the night.