Yumiko stood on the roof, an unlit cigarette dangling loosely from her fingers. She couldn't smoke it. She promised Hoshiko that she would drop the habit... besides she had already tried. It would seem a year was indeed enough time to drop a vice because the last time she tried lighting a cigarette it had left the brunette on her knees, gasping for air. It wasn't a panic attack. It wasn't grief. It was a moment of weakness.

The door to the dorms roof rattled open. Yumiko hid the cigarette quickly, assuming it was a teacher coming to scold her for skipping class and being on the roof. Instead she saw Hoshiko- or something that resembled her best friend. She was still in her school uniform, even though it was the weekend, and it looked as if it had been slept in. Her hair that was usually tamed and pulled back had fallen around her face- and her face! Her skin was pale, dark shadows eating away at her cheeks and eyes, a distant expression replacing her serene mask that she wore so carefully.

Hoshiko's eyes landed on Yumiko and the worse for wear girl wandered to the railing beside her friend.

"Yumi... give me something."

Yumiko did a double take.

"What? A kick to the ass?"

The other girl winced. Her behavior the past week was unacceptable. She knew this amd it only squeezed her heart tighter. She had ran around the dorm, cold and methodical at first, not showing any signs at all that Shoichi- her Shoichi- had just died. Her classmates could hear her moving around the dorms at night but were too afraid to mention it. Later she began brushing off everyone else, refusing food, refusing sleep in favor of constantly moving. She threw herself into her studies, training. Her attitude became waspish and erratic. Hoshiko was practically manic in her movements. And now it seemed she had crashed, Yumiko mused.

"Please, I can't... I can't do this anymore."

Yumiko studied the girl some more. Yumiko had seen Hoshiko like this before, manic one week and depressed the next but she had never seen the older girl so broken. A spark flared to life at the end of the cigarette she had earlier and she held it out Hoshiko.

A long drag, a stuttering cough and a curse.

"God, how did we stand-"

Hoshiko's whole frame shuddered a moment before she continued.

"-stand those? That's awful."

"Yeah, that was money down the drain."

A moment of silence, another inhale and muffled cough.

"You know you don't have to-"

"He's dead."

Those words were so simple but so diffrent. She hadn't heard them from Hoshiko yet. Everyone else had said it. But not Hoshiko and damn if those weren't the worst words Yumiko thought she'd ever hear.

"Yeah."

Such a lame response but then again neither of them were the overly expressive type.

"I slipped off the deep end?"

"Yeah."

"And now-"

"Yeah. But just... you're not alone. We can be lonely together?"

"Yeah."

Hoshiko finally ground the cigarette out.

"I still hate smoking."

"I know."

Yumiko sat down beside her grieving friend.

"I... we had a date planned for today. Shoichi was excited to take me to this cafe not far from here. Said something about almond croissants."

The end of the cigarette still glowed, lying there on the roof. Rain began to patter around it.

Yumiko looked up, noticing the clouds had moved away. She had always hated the rain. She began to add to it.

"It's my fau-"

"No. It was an earthquake, Yumi... just an earthquake. We're here training to be heroes. Death is a part of the job."

"We're still students. We're just supposed to be learning not dying!"

Hoshiko shushed her. Actually made a hissing sound. Her face was pinched tight and she had closed her eyes, water still running freely down her cheeks.

"Please don't. It wasn't your fault. Can we... can we just be lonely together?"

"Yeah."