The desert night was chilly.
The scorching winds of the day now carried a bone-chilling cold, robbing the desert of all its warmth, pulling it in until it became one with the night.
Under a massive hoodoo, a small tent was pitched.
Three figures huddled together. Rita sat in the very center of the tent, her back against the rock wall, eyes closed in meditation.
Li Sushang's head rested on Rita's lap, a small blanket draped over her. Her already petite body was curled up insecurely, a tiny ball of a person.
Theresa was on Rita's other side, her head leaning on Rita's shoulder, her whole body relying on her.
The sight of the three of them huddling together added a touch of warmth to the cold desert...
Warmth...
Bianka, feeling a little hot, kicked off the thick blanket. The cool sensation made her turn over comfortably, settling into a somewhat contorted, yet comfortable, sleeping position.
The "bystander" standing by the bed sighed with a mixture of amusement and exasperation. She reached out and pulled the blanket back over Bianka. This time, Cecilia left Bianka's arms outside the blanket, her shoulders and arms exposed to dissipate the heat.
"You must have had a hard time," Cecilia whispered in the darkness, her eyes filled with tenderness.
Seeing Bianka's peaceful expression, Cecilia fell silent and quietly left the room, closing the door behind her.
Shigure Kira, dressed in pajamas but with a jacket thrown over them, leaned against the wall. She watched Cecilia exit her room, her words caught in her throat.
"Kira, you're still awake?" Cecilia turned to Shigure Kira with a smile, her voice filled with curiosity.
Seeing Cecilia's curious gaze, Shigure Kira guiltily zipped up her jacket, tucking in the hem of her pajamas that was peeking out from underneath. Only then did she dare to look Cecilia in the eye.
"I just got the rooms mixed up... so I came to see where you were sleeping tonight..." Shigure Kira said softly, fidgeting with her fingers.
Cecilia accurately caught the hint of anticipation in Shigure Kira's eyes. She smiled, a little helplessly, but with a hint of mischief.
"Well~" Cecilia drew out the word. "Can Kira take in a homeless me tonight?"
"Of course—" Shigure Kira almost shouted with excitement, but seeing the smile on Cecilia's face, she managed to maintain her last shred of ladylike composure.
"Ahem... of course, you can... my bed is quite big, if Cecilia wants to sleep in it, you're welcome anytime..."
Cecilia's heart was like a clear mirror. She looked very tempted.
Shigure Kira also saw this "temptation" in Cecilia, and the anticipation in her heart grew even stronger.
Could it be... tonight—
"Honey!"
Damn it!!!
Shigure Kira threw her ladylike image to the wind. The moment she heard that voice she despised, her face crumbled into ruins.
At the same time, her suppressed anticipation transformed into courage, and courage into recklessness. Shigure Kira immediately decided—to force her...
"The bed is already made..."
"Aiya~!" Shigure Kira deliberately raised her voice to drown out the rest of Siegfried's sentence. She held her breath and, with a look of someone going to their doom, opened her arms, wrapped them around Cecilia's waist, and buried her head in Cecilia's chest.
"I'm so sleepy, Cecilia~" A muffled voice came from the pressed-together figures. Cecilia could only cooperate, raising her hands high and looking at Siegfried's room with a hint of regret in her eyes.
It seems I've been beaten to it...
And Shigure Kira's offensive, which was supposedly a coquettish act but in reality a crude, squeaky voice, continued. "It's so late, let's go to sleep~"
Before she had even finished speaking, Shigure Kira's feet were already pushing Cecilia towards her room. Cecilia helplessly followed her lead, forced into Shigure Kira's dark and unlit room.
Although it was too dark to see anything, Cecilia still looked around with curious eyes.
This seemed to be the first time she had entered Kira's room since coming to the City of Sighs.
Back in Future City, although Kira's home was right next to hers, it was always Kira and the others who came to visit. She rarely went to Kira's place.
The few times she had, she had only felt that Kira's home was very empty, with many places that should have had things in them being bare.
And Shigure Kira, who was with her, always looked so embarrassed. Every time she wanted to ask Kira why her home was so empty, seeing Kira's blushing, silent face, Cecilia couldn't bring herself to ask.
Someone with nothing in their home... must be very lonely, right?
Cecilia couldn't say much, so she could only spend more time with Kira, trying her best to be a good friend and make her feel less alone.
But this time was a little different... As soon as she entered Kira's room, Cecilia felt several faint, almost non-existent gazes. These gazes felt somewhat familiar...
Not the gaze of a real person... yet I feel familiar with it...
Cecilia thought carefully, and suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck her. She understood where she had felt this kind of gaze before.
Didn't Siegfried's Alahato models have this strange "gaze"?
She remembered when she had first met Siegfried, she hadn't known much about these things. Fearing some taboo, she had asked him a lot of questions about those models and figurines.
She remembered Siegfried saying at the time: "To me, these figurines are not just collectibles. They are my companions, my friends that I must take care of, so they will also return my gaze!"
That was why Siegfried had all his figurines and models facing the door. In his words: "This is the unspoken bond between us!"
Hmm, at that time, Siegfried hadn't yet undergone the hellish training of Future City and was still in a state where he would use idioms incorrectly.
That clumsy Siegfried was also very cute.
As Cecilia reminisced, a sense of understanding dawned on her.
No wonder Shigure Kira and Siegfried got along so well. So they had this common topic, they both liked to collect these models...
But what kind of models did Shigure Kira collect? Was it also Alahato?
Cecilia pondered, still unable to understand where that sense of familiarity came from.
It felt... like looking in a mirror...