Cecilia slipped out of the office and pulled the door shut behind her.
Click.
One breath.
Then another.
Her shoulders rose and fell slowly.
She closed her eyes and let the tension ease of her shoulders. A moment later, she opened them again.
Cecilia released the handle and stepped away from the door.
The curved staircase ahead was polished stone, clean and pale beneath the natural light spilling down from the tall panes above. The light caught the edges of each step, turning them almost blinding white.
Halfway down, she heard Ikade arguing with someone.
"Mm. I heard you the first time, okay? That's not what I said, so don't go putting words in my mouth."
Cecilia reached the landing and looked over.
Ikade stood near the wall with her phone pressed to her ear, one hand resting on her hip. Her tail moved lazily behind her, though the tip twitched every few seconds.
Ikade turned and the two stared at one another.
"Mm, I need to go now. We'll talk later, okay? Bye-bye."
Ikade ended the call and lowered the phone from her ear before she slipped it back into her pocket.
"Well." Ikade's gaze ran over her. "Don't you look lovely."
Heat hit her face all at once. It climbed from her neck to her ears so fast it almost felt painful.
"Everything went well?"
Cecilia clicked her tongue.
"Mhm. Yeah. I think it's in my blood to make his blood pressure spike every time we meet..." Her mouth twitched. "Didn't really manage it this time, though."
"Gasp—! Cecilia! You can't say that!"
Shock wrote itself across her face. Her feline ears shot up, and her tail stalled mid-swing in pure disbelief.
They pushed the door open together and slipped into the bar. Warm fried food washed over them at once while they ignored the spectacle to their left—someone yelling over a spilled drink as soft music drifted through the room.
"Why not?" Cecilia shot back, the corners of her mouth tugging upward. "I'd be doing the community a service. Honestly, people should thank me."
Ikade stopped mid-step, their interlocked hands keeping them tethered. Cecilia took another couple of steps before glancing back. Ikade's tail had already started drifting in small circles again.
"That doesn't mean you get to commit emotional murder, y'know."
A waitress cleared the trash from a nearby table while a sudden flare burst from a mound of cut onions at the counter. Someone had tossed the wrong thing into the pan, sending the flame much higher than intended.
For a moment, the fire surged upward, cutting between Cecilia and Ikade. Golden light flashed in their eyes, catching the steel wires holding the light bars and the faint shimmer of bottles stacked off in the corner.
"What if—"
Ikade pointed dramatically at the flame, her finger curving upward while she squinted at it.
"You suddenly, I dunno, burst into flames? Who's gonna help you then?"
Sunlight cut across Ikade's cheek from the window on her right. Cecilia's face stayed swallowed by the shadow of a support column, sharpening her eyes into something colder—two different moods pressed into the same frame.
Cecilia rolled her eyes.
"If I burst into flames, that's your fault. You jinxed it."
"Me? No, no. I'm innocent."
Ikade's ears twitched in a tiny dance, her tail curling around her leg while she looked away.
"Such loyalty." Cecilia sighed. "I feel safer already."
Their bickering carried them out of the bar and into the darkened lounge, where only a handful of lights glowed along the second level. The stairs to their right groaned beneath someone's steps, and the curtains to their left—where the windows should have been—hung shut.
In the center, a movie played on the TV.
A man in a lazily put-together outfit came down the wooden stairs and gave Cecilia a nod, which she returned. His short Caprinae horns curled inward along his head.
Cecilia guided Ikade through the quiet space, their footsteps tapping across the floor until they reached the elevator. She pressed the button at its side.
Their hushed murmurs echoed off the elevator doors before they slid open with a ding.
The two found a little solace in the ride down, boring music playing overhead. The walls were cluttered with worn and freshly pinned posters, all held up by mismatched magnets.
Different signatures dotted the surface. Stickers clung in misshapen clusters—the marks of people who had come and gone, some still here, some no longer with them.
Once they reached the ground floor, they crossed the lobby with their joined hands swinging back and forth in dramatic rhythm.
Sunlight blessed them the moment they stepped through the front doors. The crowded sidewalk split around them, a mix of slow pedestrians and loud citizens.
Soon enough, Cecilia found her vehicle exactly where she had left it.
She unlocked the door with a quick twist of her hand before sliding in and leaning over to pop the passenger side open. Once they were both inside, the car rumbled to life and eased out onto the street, Ikade clicking her seatbelt into place at the last second.
Cecilia lifted her wrist, and an opaque screen flickered into view—nothing blue or glowing like some cheap movie effect, just a clean, muted display.
"Just...hold on."
Her fingers moved in a scrolling motion while her eyes tracked a long message sent a week ago, back when her bracelet had still been on Do Not Disturb.
The wall of text was the last thing she wanted to read.
"Huh...so he moved shop...uh."
Ikade peeked over but did not bother reading, more interested in the show playing out loud from her phone. Cecilia let the screen fade, grabbed the steering wheel and turned just before she clipped a car.
"We'll stop by his place, I have to get more medicine since we're almost out."
Ikade flashed her an okay sign before slouching against the seat.
The brutal stop-and-go had already worn both their patience thin. Lunch rush meant half the city was out running errands or grabbing food, clogging the roads like they were doing it out of spite.
Cecilia searched the streets ahead until she spotted an entrance ramp dropping beneath the city. She eased onto it, then leaned her head out the window to keep herself from scraping the curb, then stopped beside a slim, unmanned toll booth.
She pulled a card from her wallet, its face printed with an aerial image of the city and an orange strip along one side, then tapped it against the screen.
The arm lifted.
They descended into the underground tunnel, leaving the city's screaming behind for the constant rush of giant fans. Smooth concrete stretched ahead while the map fed Cecilia a steady stream of changing information.
Twenty minutes of gentle curves followed.
Five lanes narrowed to four, then two, cars shifting around them at every merge. Flashing lights populated the ceiling near the end of the tunnel. Cecilia paid them little mind and dropped from fifth into fourth with a clean double clutch.
The car's pops and bangs rolled through the tunnel until sunlight appeared ahead. She downshifted again, followed the ramp back toward the sky and accelerated onto the highway without waiting for anyone to make room.
The car behind them honked. Cecilia cut across and caught the off-ramp the moment she spotted her exit. A few turns later, they parked parallel to the street in front of a rather impressive building.
A few turns later, they parked in front of a rather impressive building, settling a few feet off the curb and parallel to the street.
Cecilia took the lead while Ikade held onto her arm for support. They spotted a set of stairs leading up to the ground floor and climbed them together.
Concrete. Steel. Glass.
Every floor seemed to serve several purposes at once—community spaces, small venues, study corners, lounges and pop-up shops of every kind. If something could fit inside, someone had probably tried putting it there.
Too many rooms, too many shortcuts and too many half-floors for Cecilia to bother mapping out.
She and Ikade followed the curving hallways, rode several escalators and even took an elevator down after something below caught their attention, only to head back up once they had their fill.
"So many damn turns just to reach him."
Cecilia muttered under her breath, letting her head fall forward while her feathers sagged with visible misery. Beside her, Ikade rubbed her arm in slow little circles.
"Why'd he have to put himself all the way out here?"
A few minutes later, after one hallway, a left turn, then a right, they found themselves standing before a steel door.
It was sleek matte gray, with three white lines running across its surface. The people around them had thinned enough that only a few cleaners remained, washing the tiles free of whatever had happened yesterday.
The steady drone of the fans pushed the stale air elsewhere through the building.
Cecilia breathed through her nose, pulled out a different card and hesitated for half a second before tapping it against the reader beside the door.
A soft click answered almost immediately.
What greeted them was a short hallway built from the same material as the walls outside, except for the wooden floor, which looked like it had been installed at the last minute.
To their right sat two potted plants with a bench between them. To the left stood a simple kiosk with the cartoonish face of a coney, with a small pallet rack beside it.
"Should we wait?"
"He's probably eating."
Ikade tilted her head and tapped the kiosk.
Once.
Twice.
Then several more times until the screen finally switched to a countdown, a cute cat head munching on a fish stick beside it.
Ikade's ears snapped up the second Cecilia raised her fist toward the door.
Before she could knock, Ikade caught her wrist with both hands.
"We are not starting this visit by harassing him."
"But what if he didn't hear us?"
Ikade gave her the flattest look Cecilia had seen all day.
Without another word, Ikade tugged her toward the bench and gently pushed her down beside her.
The low hum of the building pressed in around them, the soft ticking countdown still playing on the kiosk screen.
A few seconds passed before Ikade reached for her hand.
Cecilia glanced down as Ikade turned her palm over and pressed a thumb into the center of it.
Once.
Then again.
A slow repetition that became little shapes against her skin.
Cecilia exhaled through her nose, the corner of her mouth twitching with every nerve Ikade pressed.
"What're you even doing?"
"Passing the time. What else?"
Cecilia let out the smallest scoff and paid it no further mind. She lifted her left wrist and let the screen pop up before she scrolled through her socials.
Time slipped by in a strange, fast-forward sort of way.
Click.
The steel door unlocked.
Both of them looked up as the owner finally came into view.
A metal gate separated them from the darkness beyond.
A single light flicked on overhead.
step...step step step.
Slow. Unhurried.
A figure emerged from the dark little by little, one hand buried in a half-crumpled bag of chips.
He chewed the last of the chips, his eyes settling on them through the bars of the gate.
"You two picked a weird time to show up. No heads-up, appointments are a thing, you know."
Ikade lifted a hand in greeting. "Hello again~ Sorry for dropping in."
"Mm." His gaze shifted to her. "At least one of you has manners."
Cecilia rose halfway from the bench, then paused as Ikade slipped past her.
By the time Cecilia stepped forward, the gate was already unlocking. She barely got a proper look at him before he turned and started walking again.
"Well?" He called back. "You two coming in?"
A second later, she was already seated.
The place felt like a lounge and a waiting room mashed together.
The man had mid-length purplish-red hair brushing his neck, with short black-and-brown feathered tufts jutting from the sides of his head. His eyes were a flushed yellow, tired but awake enough to watch them properly.
He dressed simply.
A loose dark blue jacket, a little faded from wear, sat over a vanilla-colored shirt with thin black stripes. The top button was undone, and the sleeves hung slightly long over his hands. His pants were brown and soft-looking, comfortable enough that he might have been halfway through relaxing before they showed up.
He gave her a sideways look.
"You look like you slept in a car."
Cecilia settled into the seat across from him, the black metal table cold between them. Ikade sat beside her, smoothing her skirt with both hands.
"Ah. You're the second person today who's told me I look terrible."
"So what is it?"
"I'm here for a checkup."
"Come on, then." He pushed himself to his feet. "Let's see what you broke this time."
"Hey now, I'm not made of glass."
"You might as well been, you always have something going on with you."
He flipped a switch on the way through the door and the two followed him.
Two quick right turns brought them into a wider room.
The few lights overhead did their best to push back the dark. Thick cables ran along the floor and disappeared into a panel near the front, while others snaked toward a room farther in.
Cecilia stepped over them, her eyes moving across the glossy metallic floor.
Two gunmetal trash bins stood spaced apart along a glass wall.
The room itself was packed with supplies. Sterile medical tools rested on trays and trolleys. A washing station sat off to the side alongside a handful of medical devices.
Farther in, the space widened again.
One side held a larger machine fitted with a few arms and parts Cecilia could not quite make sense of. Beside it sat something closer to a normal doctor's office—a desk, an examination table, a couple of trinkets and a dark blue curtain hanging along the back wall.
Ikade glanced up to the wooden blocks scattered along the ceiling. Only two LED bars and a larger panel lit the room, leaving the metal support beams and untucked cables above them easy to see.
His head popped out from the office.
"Like the new place? I just bought it."
Pride bled through his voice as he waved them in.
He dragged a chair out from somewhere and patted the cushion.
"For you."
Cecilia hopped up onto the examination table while Ikade took the chair he offered, her tail settling neatly across her lap.
Manuel headed off toward the glassed-in room on the other side. Soon, the sound of running water and excessive hand-scrubbing filled the space.
"So..." Cecilia dragged the word out, watching him from the examination table. "You still with them, Manuel? Manny? Mann?"
He looked over his shoulder.
"No, we split up and I moved here." He shrugged lightly. "Now I'm free from all their bull, I can finally breathe. Being with them was such a pain, let me tell you. Worst decision of my life."
"That bad?"
"Worse."
Manuel came back over, his sleeves rolled high.
A doctor's stool rolled toward him on its own, and he sat on it at the exact right moment.
"Any dizziness?" Manuel asked, already leaning forward. "Blurred vision? Ringing?"
Cecilia answered with a shake of her head, then a nod, then another shake.
The next fifteen minutes dragged through the same old routine, just plain boring.
"All right."
He set the tablet down beside himself and held it out toward her.
"You remember how to connect yours, right? Course you do. You got it a little before we met, didn't you?"
Cecilia only looked at him.
"Usually only rich people get something like yours. Them, or people who don't really have a choice." He paused, then waved a hand. "Don't mind me. I don't get many visitors these days."
She lifted her wrist and tapped the bracelet against the side of his tablet.
"Don't worry—I promise not to share your information."
"Uh huh."
Ding~
Lines of information surfaced across her vision, then compressed and slid neatly to the side, the tab fading until it was barely noticeable.
"Where's your recorder at?"
Ikade's ears perked up at once.
She set her bag on her lap, placed her phone on the armrest, then pulled out Cecilia's Infectious Recorder.
The recorder was long and narrow, shaped like a flattened band meant to close around the side of her neck. Its smooth exterior blended glossy black with dark amber, with a single LED bar running along its length.
A circle resembling a power button sat directly in the center, divided by a fine line along one side.
Manuel gently picked it up from Ikade's hands.
"Most people go for something more discreet."
The inner curve was padded, with sensors tucked into the material on both sides. The whole device was about three-sixteenths of an inch thick and nearly a full inch wide.
"It's covered most of the time." Cecilia said. "And I've had it forever. I'm not replacing it just because they made smaller ones."
He grabbed the cable attached to his tablet, flipped the recorder around and searched along its edge until he found the narrow port.
"In that case, sit tight for a couple minutes."
He reached under the desk and pulled out a keyboard, connecting it to the tablet.
Cecilia watched him for a while.
"So?"
"It's still a little finicky, but nothing out of the ordinary...still reads just fine."
"The sensors on both sides are reading normally, so all things considered, I'd say you're pretty healthy." Manuel paused, eyes moving over the screen. "Except for the fact that there was a spike here...and here...its pretty old though."
"Tch...tch...tch..."
Cecilia stared back.
"You have this cruel little habit, you know that? You nod along like you're listening, then walk out that door and do the exact opposite."
"If you keep doing whatever stupid thing you've been doing, you're going to end up in a bed you can't get out of. Or with half your bones trying to tear their way out of you."
He clicked his tongue again.
"And knowing you, you still won't stop until you've lost everything and ended up on a slab somewhere."
"I don't think doctors are supposed to say things like that."
Manuel exhaled and leaned back, rubbing at his throat.
A few seconds later, a soft chime came from his tablet.
"Here, try it out."
He tossed the recorder back to her.
Cecilia caught it and pressed the open side to her neck. With one firm push, the clip at the back snapped shut against her skin.
She flinched at the sting.
"It lit up. Alright."
Manuel leaned forward just enough to read the two numbers side by side.
Six percent.
Point twenty-seven.
The same values appeared at the very top of Cecilia's vision, beside a thin red line pulsing like a heartbeat.
"Anything else?"
"Uh..." Cecilia blinked once. "My eyesight, remember? It's worse in the morning."
Once she finished, she removed the recorder and passed it to Ikade, who quietly tucked it away in her bag.
"Right. Wait here, then."
Manuel stood and headed into the glass room. Cecilia watched him rummage through a few cabinets before pulling down a bag and filling it with medicine. He checked each label twice before coming back.
When he returned, he set the bag on the table and sat back down.
"Both prescriptions are in there. Pens are six-fifty milligrams this time instead of two-fifty and I put twenty-four in there altogether. I added the drops and another pair of glasses, too."
Cecilia glanced at the bag to her right, confusion settling across her face.
"...Why so much?"
Manuel did not answer right away but instead, he shifted his gaze to Ikade.
"Can you wait in the lounge for a minute?"
Ikade blinked.
"What? Why?"
"Just for a minute."
Cecilia looked between them, her expression flattening.
"Why?"
Manuel kept his gaze on Ikade.
"Because I need to talk to you alone."
Ikade's ears sagged slightly, but she stood up, slow and reluctant. Her eyes stayed on Cecilia the whole time, her gaze full of question marks.
For a moment, only the low hum of the room remained.
Manuel looked back at Cecilia and the usual dryness in his face thinned into something else.
"Did you ever read the email I sent you?"
Cecilia stared at him with a question mark over her head.
"The one for your exam you did at the downtown hospital."
"I don't remember getting one."
Manuel turned to his tablet and scrolled through.
"This one."
He opened the file and turned the tablet around for her.
"Did you listen to the voicemail I left you?"
"What voicemail?"
Manuel leaned back and let out a tired breath.
"The one telling you to read it and schedule a follow-up."
"I never heard it."
"Clearly." He tapped the screen. "You were supposed to come back after reading this. You'd think after paying so much even with insurance. One would keep an eye out."
As he raised the tablet eye level, his mouth slowly disappeared behind the screen, leaving only his eyes visible above it.
His eyes moved with every word he said.
Then the chair scraped hard against the floor.
"What?"
"Cecilia, sit down."
Manuel barely had time to lean back before Cecilia was in front of him, one hand slamming down on the arm of his chair while the other caught the backrest beside his shoulder.
Her face stopped inches from his.
"You're telling me this now?"
Her voice cracked through the room.
"Now? Why the hell wouldn't you start with that?!"
"Don't Put That On Me." Manuel's voice sharpened. "I tried to tell you two months ago."
"Bullshit."
"I sent you an email then left a voicemail telling you to read it and schedule a follow-up. You ignored both. Never Called Back and now you're standing here acting like I kept this from you." He pointed toward the tablet. "I did my job, Cecilia. You're the one who doesn't keep up with your own damn health."
"I've been busy. By the time I see half that shit, it's already buried under something else."
"So am I, Cecilia. But if you're going to ignore every warning I give you, what the hell do you expect me to do?"
His stare flattened.
"Cecilia! What happened?!"
Ikade rushed in and pushed herself into the gap between them. One arm braced against Cecilia's chest while the other hand caught her forearm still pressed against Manuel's chair.
"Cece, back up. You are not attacking your doctor. Do you have any idea how long it took to find one."
"To be fair, she hasn't hit me yet."
Ikade glanced over her shoulder.
"Do not encourage her!"
Cecilia kept her eyes on Manuel, her fingers curled around his chair. She held the stare for another second before slowly letting go, one finger at a time.
Ikade stayed in between them, keeping a hand wrapped around Cecilia's forearm.
Manuel exhaled through his nose and straightened his jacket.
"With consistent use, the pens should help manage the symptoms, keep the pain under control and help with your day to day."
"Do you actually think this shit is going to do anything about it?"
"I just told you what it can do."
"No." Her voice dropped. "Do you even hear yourself? You're starting to sound like those places downtown."
"I'm not trying to sell you anything."
"Could've fooled me."
Cecilia leaned toward him again. Ikade felt the movement and began forcing her back, little by little.
"We both know those pens won't stop a damn thing." Cecilia kept her eyes on Manuel. "All they'll ever do is stop it from hurting so damn much."
"Don't stand there dressing up painkillers like they're going to save me."
Ikade pressed her weight against her.
"Cece, back up."
"I'm not going to hit him."
"I know. Just...please back up, Cece."
Ikade's ears were pinned, both hands trembling against Cecilia.
"Fine."
She stepped back and looked toward the bag on the table.
"I'm not sure how easy it'll be to get more once I leave, so throw in some extra."
Ikade slowly turned toward her.
"That's all you have to say?"
"What else do you want me to say?"
"I don't know—anything! You just found out that—"
"That the pens won't fix it. I heard him."
"O'..." Manuel dragged a hand down his face. "Did you listen to anything else I said?"
"Every word." Cecilia looked toward the bag. "The pens make it hurt less, and that's the only part of this I can do anything about."
Ikade tightened her hold around Cecilia's arm.
"What?" Cecilia looked at her again. "You want me to panic? Cry? Neither one is going to change it."
Ikade stared at her, her eyes already beginning to water.
A damp spot slowly spread across her sleeve.
She looked down at it.
"Please stop leaking on me."
Ikade lowered her head, her fingers still knotted in Cecilia's sleeve.
Manuel watched them for a moment before pulling the tablet closer.
"With everything you're asking for, I'm charging you an arm and a leg. One hundred twenty-two thousand, five hundred thirty Pesitos."
"You really do sleep well at night."
"Like a baby."
Ikade watched her pay the transaction without as much as a word, with an arm locked around hers.
"Send everything to my place."
Manuel confirmed the address and set the tablet down.
Cecilia paused before lifting her wrist.
"Oh. One more thing."
A picture appeared above her bracelet—a bright blood-red pill floating in the center, flavor text crawling across the top.
"Do you have any of these? I might need more."
Manuel leaned closer and squinted at it.
"T... Hengyuan. Yeah, I've got a few."
The next thing she knew, they were standing at the entrance of the clinic with the hallway lights buzzing overhead.
Manuel stood against the doorframe with a cup of noodles in one hand, though he had stopped eating.
"Go home. Both of you."
Cecilia stared at him.
The lights inside shut off one by one, their glow slowly leaving Cecilia's face, one for every one of Manuel's footsteps.
The metal gate slid between them with a heavy crash, leaving Cecilia and Ikade alone in the hallway, then the door.