"Umm, who are you?" the woman asks.

Kae stares at the woman. In the dark, Kae can still see the bags under her eyes. Her mouse-brown hair frames her face, littered with freckles. Yet she stands taller than Kae, hands crossed in front of her chest and shoulders back. Kae already feels her shoulders folding in on herself.

"Emma?"

Kae feels her shoulders tighten at the sound of Benji's voice. Her body is stiff, solid, and she wants it to slink into the house but Kae can't make herself move. Barely, she can think. She's been caught or being caught. Her hands feel sticky and the metal bracelet is cold against her wrist.

"What's going on?" Emma walks past Kae, and she lets herself sneak into the vines.

At the fire, the others are watching, except of course Rhiannon Rose. Harvey has his eyes carefully trained on the woman who approaches them, and not Benji as he leaves.

"Who is that?" Norbu whispers to Cosmia, having already skittered over to her side.

Gale looks at George, who doesn't meet his eyes. He gets up and whispers good night, heading over to the party.

Cosmia doesn't answer, though she suspects she knows already. Emma Mullins, the sister who could never say no to a party.

"Let's go inside and talk," Benji clasps an arm on her elbow.

"Benji, let go," she hisses, audible enough they can all here. "I'm not a little girl anymore."

He pulls her up to the porch anyway. The door slams behind them both. George slips out to his truck and drives away.

Rhiannon Rose stokes the fire.

They whisper about the sister for what feels like forever. Not the sick one, Faris says, certainly. That one is named Mae and she lives way out in the fisheries. Norbu asks most of the questions. Is Benji the oldest? Maybe, he certainly feels like an older brother, but none of them are sure. Harvey's the one in the house the most, but he doesn't care to stare at the family portrait in the living room. Cosmia has looked at it too often to admit, and so she stays quiet. What's the sister doing here? Titus doesn't care as long as she doesn't take the truck, and he has a pointed glare at Harvey when he makes the joke.

It's all disrupting Rhiannon Rose's lovely peace.

Eventually, the front door opens. The delinquents go quiet and Rhiannon Rose exhales. The fire is dwindling though, and she has no tinder.

Emma storms out of the house, Benji right behind her. He clasps her shoulder and she turns around and shoves him.

"No, stop it!" she sobs. She hits him again, and then looks around at the ground, before deciding to shove him a third time. "You... I'll never fucking forgive you. Never!"

She stumbles on her feet. Benji doesn't reach for her. Then, Emma bolts. She gets in the truck she drove there in and the engine starts. Benji stares after her as the wheels of her truck squeal. She zooms out of the farm.

It feels like even the cicadas are quiet, listening in.

Benji comes back to the fire. Well, what is left of it. Now, all that remains are a few dying embers.

"When the fire's done, off to bed," Benji says. He goes back in the house and slams the door behind him.

Now, they wouldn't be delinquents if they were able to obey.

~~~

Titus has a headache. He's used to sore muscles, tearing and then healing, growing over themselves. The days away from screens haven't done his eyes any good because the sun is relentless in its assault of North Marcanty, and still, his eyes have never hurt like they did tonight, glowering at Harvey over the fire.

Before the fire is even dead, Titus storms over to his cabin, intent on going to sleep. The door swings behind him but catches before it slams. He stands, facing the backwall of their shitty accommodations, acutely aware of what is caught in the door without even looking.

"You're going to break that cane," Titus doesn't turn around.

He hadn't heard Harvey sneak around in the darkness, and Harvey isn't even particularly stealthy when compared with the other criminals on the farm. The blood was pumping in his own ears too loud. The sound of the engine of the plane that took off to bring them here wasn't even as noisy.

"Why have you been avoiding me all week?" Harvey lets the door close behind him and then leans his back against it.

No one will be back for a while, probably. Harvey knows where all the cogs go in this clock, and the minute hand will not even approach midnight for some time.

Titus' shoulders rise and he lets himself spin around to look at Harvey. The man has just as square a jaw as ever, just as tight a grip on his cane, and Titus knows what it feels like for those hands to grab him. The pressure had been released over and over, with gasping breaths and muffled groans, or so he thought. It's been building though. Harvey has never let him out of his clutches. Not once.

They are both men at the top of empires, Titus' inherited and Harvey's built, and that difference is more vital than Titus had ever realized. What is he doing here? Not just in Neo Elysium, but trying to trick Clockwork. How had he ever thought it would work?

"Why are you getting Calath to repair the truck?" Titus' shoulders deflate.

Harvey's grip only tightens, "what's it to you?"

Titus is cool but even from here Harvey can feel his heat radiating. It's hotter than Neo Elysian sun. It's molten silver. Harvey is a kingpin, and he has never held something as valuable as Titus between his fingers.

"It's everything, Harvey," Titus says. "Fucking everything."

Harvey takes in a deep breath, "you wanted your getaway. Take it."

Titus' nose scrunches.

Maybe he should have said something. It would avoid this confrontation, but honestly, Harvey thought it was already avoided. Calath must have said something, and while he was hoping for her silence, he should have assumed she wouldn't give it unless it was promised.

The wood of the shack seems to swelter. Titus takes a step back from Harvey, and the planks creak beneath his feet.

"I'm not stupid," Titus shakes his head. "How are you screwing me over this time? Was it a distraction, and now you're going to swoop in and remove some part before I can make my getaway?"

"No," Harvey rolls his eyes.

Titus steps over to his bed and digs into his pillow. He pulls out the map and examines it, still intact, "you going to destroy this on the last day?"

"No, for fuck's sake," Harvey leans off the door, rocking his weight onto his good leg.

"Then why are you fucking with me?"

"I'm not!" Harvey shouts. "You wanted to go find your brother, so I'm giving you the damn opportunity."

Harvey Evrin doesn't answer questions. He doesn't do anything that isn't for him. Except Harvey answers his questions, and Harvey sacrificed himself for the Wraiths. Jeopardizing this programme doesn't just put the farmer at risk of financial ruin, but Harvey's Wraiths in harm's way.

Then Titus feels a shiver. The shack isn't made to keep heat in or the elements out. It was barely made to house people. Harvey stands there in the doorway, as he always has, blocking his way to freedom. Now, Titus considers that block is too strong a word.

It was all a game, but now Harvey looks at him, soft lips, hard hands, and he could go back to Neo Elysium. He's a fucking Silver. He can bribe his way back into North Marcanty, and it would add a few months to his trip, require somehow sneaking out from under his parents thumb, stealing credits from his family, and the journey would be more dangerous. But it would help Harvey. If Harvey had asked, Titus would have negotiated. He is his father's son.

But Harvey didn't ask. Just like Titus won't offer. He'll just get on the plane next Saturday.

Then Titus looks at Harvey, and he feels his chest tighten. He knows. He just needs to hear him say it. "Why? Why give them up for me?"

Harvey looks over at the dresser, at the wall, anywhere to the side of Titus, "you're not stupid, Silver. Your fancy education proves otherwise."

Titus' voice softens, "Harvey-"

"Don't say anything," it's a threat. Harvey says it and Titus hears it.

It's a fun game, but games end. There is always a victor, and Titus hadn't imagined it could be both of them.

"You should have said something sooner," Titus says, because they have a week left.

Harvey throws his cane on the floor and takes a step forward, forcing himself on his own rocky legs, "what, you think that we go back to Neo Elysium and you come with your Driver in your fancy car to visit me at my tavern, and we kiss under the starless sky? Get a fucking-"

"Fuck you."

"-grip. You're stupider than I assumed if you ever thought I would debase myself by playing your good little boyfriend for a chance to fuck you on your four post beds with a thread count higher than the number of credits in my bank account."

Titus' hands tightens into fists, "get the fuck out."

Harvey barely swipes his cane off the floor before slipping out the door.

~~~

The others want to go swimming, and though the little watering hole was fun for Cosmia, she heads up to the house. Using the bathroom, she says, and she knows they won't wait for her. She knows the way there anyway, so she'll find them later. She promises. Norbu winks at her and she bites the inside of her cheek.

Cosmia doesn't use the bathroom. She pokes her head into the kitchen, and then the living room. Benji is sunken into the middle of the couch. A spring broke earlier this week in the old thing. The whole farm is falling apart.

"Cosmia," he stands up, staring at her, red eyes. He sniffs once, wiping his dry nose with the back of his hand. "Sorry, I didn't see you come in."

She looks at him and then back at the door, "want to go for a drive? Just... might be good to get out of here."

Her eyes dart to the photo of him and his sisters on the wall. She hopes Benji doesn't notice, but of course he does. He walks up to her, so close she can smell him, the bonfire that sticks to his skin. He walks out of the room and she stands there, frozen.

"Come on," he says.

So, she follows him.

He has his truck keys already in his pocket. Probably dangerous, she thinks, given their resident pickpocket. She glances back at the fire, but only notices that same thief looking their way. Cosmia slinks into the shadows, and finally the two of them pile into Benji's truck and pull off the lot.

The truck is loud, inside. She can hear the crunch of the gravel road, every little bump. It feels even louder, somehow, with just the two of them in it. No Calath taping on the truck bed listening for sounds, no George driving and no other people trying to grip onto the metal tightly on the rough turns of the winding road.

"My siblings are dead," she doesn't look off the road even though she can feel his eyes on her. She fiddles with a strand of her hair to keep the rest of her still. "All of them. Illness took them. Parents' fault, but those bastards are dead now too."

One of Benji's hands leaves the steering stick shift, just for a second, and he squeezes her thigh. Warmth pools in the depths of her stomach.

He lets go and switches gears. The car slowly comes to a stop. Benji parks it on the side of the road. He takes off his seat belt and twists to face her, eyes lit up by the lights in the ceiling of the truck.

Cosmia breathes in through her nose to control her frantic lungs. He smells of earth, of musk and sweat and fire.

"Come on," he says, opening the truck door.

She follows him out. He pulls himself up into the truck bed and then offers her a hand. She takes it, callused and worn down, and then the two of them lie down on the cold metal. She can see the galaxy up above them.

"I'll miss the stars," she says. "After we're home, I'll probably never see them again."

Their knuckles graze. Cosmia looks over at him.

He's staring at her.

He's not supposed to be handsome. Freckles and dirty, a North Marcantian who hates the city, who is supposed to resent her and force her to labour for free beneath him.

When he invited her here, he told her that there were stars. There are stars and birds and farmers who look at her like she is the brightest thing in the sky, be it day or night.

"I never told-" he breathes in, deeply. "I never told Emma when Mae died. Just, drove out to the fisheries to bury her body. I don't think she'll ever forgive me."

Cosmia grabs his hand and squeezes it.

"Seizure while swimming," Benji whispers.

She doesn't ask when it happened, how long the lie was. Cosmia has her suspicions, the week they were dumped on George and Holly Lee. It shouldn't matter. Mae Mullins is dead, and so it seems is every other Mullins besides Benji and Mae.

"It doesn't get easier, but it gets farther away," she holds his hand so tightly. "I recommend tattoos."

He chuckles, grim and quiet.

"Probably don't have those out here," she whispers.

Benji shakes his head, "no, we don't. We have stars though."

Cosmia looks at him. Really looks at him. At Benjamin Mullins, last of his farm, nearly last of his name.

"Why do you want to stay so badly?" she asks, looking at him. "The farm clearly doesn't make you happy."

His chest rises and falls. He shuffles a bit further from her, but his grip on her hand doesn't loosen.

"Nowhere makes anyone happy," he says. "We are in a polluted, dying world. Lords pushing us out of our farms, pollution keeping us in. Unless you've got credits or coin, you've got nothing. Except people. Neo Elysians are in it for themselves. This community has each other's backs."

For hopefully the final time during her stay in North Marcanty, Cosmia thinks of the Dark Serpents, the mark she bears of theirs. Each one who left when their androids went rogue. She stayed to save the lives of people she didn't even like. Caring for the lives of others wound her up here.

She's so damn grateful.

"You're a good man, Mullins," she lowers her voice, lest the stars somehow hear her confession.

"I hope so. I worry there aren't good people anymore."

She scoffs, "there are. Just hard to find."

He leans over and tucks a lose strand of bright red hair behind her ear, "you could stay here. Be one of the good ones."

Cosmia flinches. Benji goes to pull his hand away and she reaches up and grabs it. Both his hands in hers.

There breaths mix in the air, noses so close they might touch. Even the metal of the truck bed feels less hard, less cold, with him beside her. She doesn't know a damn thing about him. His favourite food, the way he answers a phone call, or what he looks like when he wakes up in the morning. But if she doesn't know Benji, then she doesn't know anyone, including herself.

She leans forward and kisses him. His hands curl around her, pulling her tightly against his chest.

~~~

Eurydice wouldn't risk breaking in with the farmer in the house if were not for the unrelenting Kae.

"We'll just have to watch closely, for some other opportunity," Eurydice hisses, finding cover for her words underneath Norbu's laugher.

Kae doesn't meet her eyes. She just shakes her head. Harvey is gone, Titus has grown weary of watching over the past week.

It is tonight. This is when they will do it.

Eurydice turns to look at the house and Kae nudges her foot carefully. Her voice is quiet, thinner than the still air, "he's leaving. Don't look."

Eurydice stomps on the ground, Kae's foot narrowly pulled out of reach in the knick of time. The truck rolls out of the drive, and then Kae slinks away.

She hurries up to the house and then up the stairs. The tools are still hidden in the pocket of her coveralls. She kneels down on the ground and gets to work. She doesn't pause when she hears the floorboards creak. Benji would just walk in. By now, Kae knows the way Eurydice moves.

Eurydice paces the hallway, trailing the path from Kae to the nearest window which overlooks the spot Benji parks his truck. He doesn't return. She has no watch and doesn't dare climb down the stairs, so she tries to count the time. Ten minutes then twenty, and then another ten, and he doesn't return.

In the quiet of the house, they both hear a click.

Eurydice pounces. She rushes to the door just as Kae opens it. Narrowly, she bounds inside.

Papers are strewn about on the desk. Eurydice hurries to them, skimming the contents of each page. Bills, shipments, supplies. Nothing of value.

"Where's your dirty secret?" she murmurs to herself. She goes to open a desk drawer, but it's lock.

Eurydice snaps her fingers and Kae slips in the room. She gets down on her knees and picks the desk locks, much cheaper and simple, and they fall apart in less than a minute each. Eurydice combs through each drawer. Lighters, matches, knives, and a few other weapons. Land allotments and agreements with other farmers.

"Fuck," Eurydice squeezes one of the papers in her, hand, crinkling it.

Kae closes one of the drawers, one of the lighters from within it slipped in her pocket. She couldn't help herself. He won't notice. Probably.

"What?" she asks, looking over. She swallows, a frown seeping into her cheeks.

"He's been keeping half the farmers afloat," Eurydice stuffs the paper back in the drawer and slams it. "The fruiter, the ranchers, and looks like this year it'll be those fucking twins if this agreement is right. No. No!"

Eurydice growls and stalks over to the filing cabinet. It's locked too, each drawer. All of them with a different decade listed on the front. None of them the past five years, but who knows what he is hiding. Who knows how deep this goes.

"Get this shit open," she shouts. "Now!"

Kae shakes her head, "it's going to take me at least fifteen minutes to relock the door."

"I'm not asking," Eurydice glowers. "I'll break each of your fucking fingers."

One sharp breath enters Kae's lungs. Her whole head twitches and then she exhales, "well, then I definitely won't be able to lock the door."

Eurydice grabs Kae and slams her against the back wall, "he's hiding something! I know it. Nobody is as good as he pretends to be."

"Well, it isn't here!" Kae squeaks.

Her eyes dart, and Eurydice remembers the look of panic on her sister's face when the officers came for her. She lets go of Kae and steps back.

"Lock it up," Eurydice says. "Whatever."

~~~

They said they weren't going to wait for Cosmia, but Gale thought it would be polite. Rhiannon Rose didn't mind. She lit another fire, using her palms to spin a stick on some wood, and her hands split open with blood and the fire started small but soon it was satisfying.

The farmer has the liquor hidden somewhere, and somehow without it they manage to laugh anyway.

"What are you going to do when you get back?" Norbu nudges Faris. "Same old same old?"

Faris grins. He has thought about revenge, far more than he'd ever admit. He's going to get the guy who framed him, even if it takes years. He'll go back to cooking books and charming hearts. Maybe he'll shill out some extra credits thrice a year for good food. Maybe he'll sneak into more rooftop parties.

"If it works, why give it up?" Faris winks at Norbu.

Norbu laughs, "yeah. I can't imagine giving up fighting. Might stop selling bubble and get into antiques or something. I'll make way less money, probably, but then I can tell the officers at the check-ins that I'm shooting straight."

Gale doesn't smile. It's seven days left, and he doesn't want to think about going home. George left. He might never see him again. He might never see another blade of grass soon. If he's smart, he'll kill his father and try to get sent here as a delinquent all over again. He'll get a factory job and squat in Cocta, hiding away money until he can afford to get himself smuggled back here. Wherever here is. North Marcanty is large, and Gale's world is about to become very very small.

A few minutes turns to fifteen, and they finally slip away.

Rhiannon Rose doesn't come of course. Calath snuck away at some point earlier in the night, but Gale and Norbu and Faris go to the little pond and swim. Gale completely submerges himself. This might be the last time in his life that he is completely underwater. This might be the last time he hears Norbu laugh, because there are no guarantees that any of them will go home and ever see each other again. Their friendship has been bounded by the fence around the property, and Gale doesn't know if the plane home will be able to squeeze it in.

Faris tries his best to float on his back, but he doesn't really know well. Norbu keeps splashing him and laughing, and it's risky, being off property, but they've done it so many times.

The three forgot towels, and the night air is chilly, so when they finally get out of the water they shiver and run through the dark forest. Norbu is the nimblest and whoops with laughter. He leaves Faris and Gale behind, who trip and trudge after him.

"We should get everyone out here on Friday again," Norbu yells over to them, waiting at the fence.

The last time they ran through the forest, Cosmia was with them, and they were all more out of breath.

For the first time in his life, Gale feels strong.

"I'll talk to Benji," Faris says. And no one doubts he can convince anyone of anything. "Maybe he'll even get some alcohol. I'll just-"

Calath screams.

~~~~~

I just needed to be told to write about Cosmia and Benji. Like, it was that simple and quick for me. Now this is for you to enjoy! (Also, I want to finish this in August, so hopefully I'll actually put out a chapter a week lol).