I heard there was a crack near your building.
Vid me. I’m worried about you.
A trickle of cool relief soothes a fraction of the anxiety gripping my lungs. My one bit of real family left in this world, my cousin who’s more like my big brother in every way that matters. I assumed he’d be fine, inside the well-warded Maz Management Corporation IT center he works at, but still. One down, two to go. No time to respond, not now.
I shoulder my way past our downstairs neighbor (age seventeen, pronouns he/him, straight passing grades, blares porn at all hours) and leave the whole clamoring scene behind. Ania sticks close, one hand fisted in the back of my hoodie so we don’t get separated. She sticks out like a gleaming jewel in the dirt here, like an easy mark, though she’s anything but. No one would dare mess with her. It is known—she’s ours. Me, Remi, and Jaesin, we have her back. To mess with her is to mess with us.
Assuming Remi and Jaesin are still okay, that is.
My pulse is a choking throb in the base of my throat as I skip the lift and race up the stairs two at a time, weaving around occasional rubble and coughing the dust from my lungs. The whole building gives an ominous creak with every gust of wind, speeding my steps faster even as my chest burns.
Remi. Remi. Remi.
I burst through the stairwell door for the top floor and don’t slow until I reach the door to our flat. My hand slips on the door controls, the handle beeping in protest when it can’t read my fingerprints. I take a breath and force myself to slow down, give the door a second to read me, then throw it open.
“Remi! Jaesin! Are you—”
The words die on my lips.
Remi sits upside-down on the couch, their back on the seat and their feet propped up against the wall like always, tossing a brightly sparkling ball of sunnaz from hand to hand. A breathing mask is fitted over their nose and mouth, glittering green with the aerosolized vitaz they breathe in, but it’s nothing out of the ordinary. Just their nightly treatment. They roll their head to face me, their expression turning quizzical as they slide the mask down and switch off the nebulizer.
“Oh, hey, Diz. Why is your hand bloody?”
The urgent pressure in my chest unwinds in an instant.
Anger fills its place nicely. My lip curls into a snarl.
“Oh, hey, Diz? Really? Did you even notice the earthquake? The building’s reinforcement spells failed.”
They shrug and resume their one-person game of toss.
“Yeah, but Ania renewed our interior walls earlier this week, and I kept an eye on things during the quake. Everything’s fine. Jaesin’s making dinner before we leave for the club, you want some? What are you wearing tonight?”
I close my eyes and breathe.
They’re okay. Jaesin and Remi, they’re fine.
And they’re assholes.
Three
I WIPE MY BLOODY KNUCKLES off on my pant leg and slam the door as soon as Ania is through, triggering the flat’s cheerful welcome protocol, complete with my latest modifications.
“Good evening, Supreme Overlord Dizmon. The time is seven fifty-seven.”
“Thank you, Uni,” I reply.
I set my bag down inside the front door and take off my boots, arranging them in a neat line next to Jaesin’s sleek and sporty running shoes and Remi’s turquoise sneakers. A holdover from my dad, apparently a thing with my grandparents who lived in a city on the Small Continent. The front room of our apartment is a bit of a disaster, but an organized disaster, and I like it that way.
In one corner is the kitchenette, where Jaesin stands in his neatly pressed going-out shirt. His hair is done somewhere between casual handsome bedhead and total mess, and he’s frowning into a skillet as he pokes something around inside. Another experiment for dinner, then. Great. It’ll either be amazingly delicious or horrifically, bowel-shakingly terrible. Ooh, the anticipation. He doesn’t even bother looking up from his cooking as he welcomes me home in his usual fashion.
“Dizzy. My dear. My darling. If you get us evicted for messing with the flat’s network yet again, a week before we move out, I will do unspeakable things to your dinner.”
I roll my eyes. “Unicorn Sparkles McSunshine, will you tell Jaesin to please eat his own dick?”
“Mister Jaesin, Supreme Overlord Dizmon requests that you please eat your own dick,” the flat cheerfully relays.
Jaesin barks a laugh and replies silently with a single olive-skinned middle