"Dude, that really white kid's been staring at you for, like, ten minutes," Badou muttered to Heine. It was a week into the camp and the two boys were on their own again. Naoto was sitting at their table as well, but she didn't seem interested in what was going on around her. Badou kept forgetting she was here. Heine was looking everywhere except the small piece of space that she currently occupied. Now, Heine looked over his shoulder, where Badou was pointing, and Badou swiped his chocolate milk.

"Which really white kid?" Heine asked, scanning the crowd.

"The one who looks like you but with a stupid bowl cut. The only other albino here, jackass."

Heine whipped back around immediately. "Fuck."

"What?" Badou tried to casually hide the stolen milk.

"Fuck," Heine said again. He was staring at the table with the eerie, wide-eyed look that meant he was seeing something far away in time. Probably the past. In Badou's experience, everything horrible resided in the past. It didn't always stay there, either.

"Calm down," Badou said quietly, popping open the milk carton. "I got an eye on him, and you've got that whole thing."

Heine sucked in air and looked Badou in the eye. "What the hell are you talking about? What thing?"

"That thing, yanno." Badou waggled his eyebrows and scratched his neck.

Heine's shoulders shot up around his ears and he clamped a hand over his bandaged throat. "Shut up about that, Badou."

"Calm down, no one gives a shit about us," Badou said, chugging lactose.

"I give a shit who notices me," Heine snapped, unable to keep his eyes from darting to Naoto. He looked away the minute he realized she was eyeing the hand on his throat suspiciously. "I'm just trying to make it to the other side of summer so I can convince these do-gooders I'm fucking fineon my own and I'm not gonna go back to a life of crime."

"But you're totally going to go back to a life of crime," Badou pointed out.

"And so are you."

"Yeah, duh. But when I hit eighteen I'm gonna get a license so all my snooping is legal," Badou pointed out. "The shit you pull's gonna be illegal forever."

"Then it's a good thing that I have my thing," Heine said, tightening the bandage around his throat. "Did you steal my chocolate milk?"

"Nope," Badou burped, crushing the carton.

"Liar."

"Heine."

And Heine froze. Badou swallowed hard. The bowl-cut albino in dark sunglasses was standing directly behind Heine.

"Giovanni," Heine said after a moment. Badou couldn't suppress a shiver. Even Naoto took a startled breath in. Heine didn't sound human.

"Been a while." Giovanni seemed to be waiting for an answer, but Heine didn't speak up. Giovanni leaned down so his mouth was closer to Heine's ear. "What did they catch you for?"

Heine seemed locked in place. Not even his eyes were moving, fixed on a point beyond Badou's head. "Guns."

"Aggressive as always." Giovanni leaned away again, then turned his back and began walking away. "I just wanted to let you know that an old friend was in here with you. I'll be seeing you around, I'm sure."

"Why are you here?" Heine growled, still frozen in place.

Giovanni didn't look back. "Let's say… something white-collar. A very different collar from yours."

Heine's jaw clenched. "When did you leave her?"

That made the other boy pause. "What makes you think I left?" he asked distantly.

Heine spun around quickly enough to make Badou squeak and Naoto tense up. "You didn't run?"

"She was a bit more, ah, strict after you ran off," Giovanni said. "I didn't have the same opportunities you did."

"She made us the same," Heine said quietly.

"She did not," Giovanni snarled, whirling to face Heine now. "We are very different people, you and I, and I don't want you to forget that. You're some kind of thug and I was a part of her business until—"

"Until she threw you to the dogs," Heine said.

"Fuck you!" Giovanni yelled.

The cafeteria was silent, all heads turned to the pair of albinos facing each other. The moment stretched thinner and thinner.

It broke when Badou burped again. "Sorry," he offered to no one in particular, "nervous habit!" Naoto sighed.

"Idiot," Heine said, turning back to Badou. "You totally drank my milk."

"Look, a lot of things make me gassy," Badou said. "Wait, that sounded bad."

When Heine glanced behind him again, a white bowl cut with a pair of sunglasses attached was nowhere to be found. His eyes accidentally scraped Naoto. He saw that she was watching the doors that led to the kitchen, her eyes narrowed. Heine looked back at his food quickly, before Naoto caught him looking and before Badou decided to try and swipe his tater tots as well.