New York was not a quiet city. Never had been. The squeal of tires and blare of horns as drivers warred with one another to navigate the snaking morass of traffic they had foolishly entered. The monthly arrhythmic thumping of my upstairs neighbors trying and failing to conceive, a chain of attempts so numerous I lost count sometime after three years. The all-encompassing crack of a gunshot piercing the night in the alley below, death its echo as it fled into the unforgiving night.

“Alexia, this is my brother, Klaus.”

No, for as long as I could remember, New York had held true to its well-known moniker, ‘the city that never sleeps.’ I knew people who griped about it to no end, as if wasting their day with whining would give them back their lost sleep. Not me. I didn’t love the noise, obviously—I wasn’t a masochist—but it was a given, something fundamental to life in the City that had to be accepted in order to not go mad.

Funny that now, of all times, the city was quiet. What I would have done for a gunshot to cut through the tension.

“Klaus, this is Alexia. She’s my…” Elena trailed off, giving me a strange look. How was it possible for that single moment to stretch on so long? I swore my heart stopped beating. “Ah, we’ve never applied labels, as such, to who we are. But… I daresay we’re well past the point of being daunted by the label girlfriend.”

“O-Oh! Well, uh…” Another pause. Another eternity between one second and the next. “Sorry, forgive me. After your call, it’s not like I didn’t expect— It’s just, ah, a lot to wrap my head around, yeah? Seeing you with a girl, I mean. I can only imagine how F-Father and Maxwell must have reacted!”

Elena looked satisfied, and my heart resumed beating. “We didn’t exactly stick around long enough to find out. Though I have to imagine it must have been at least as bad as when you…”

“Yeah… Or worse,” Klaus supplied, his gaze distant. He turned to me. “So. Alexia, is it?”

I swallowed. Gunshot, meet tension. Be careful what you wish for, I suppose. “Mmhmm. And you’re Klaus.” I laughed, desperately hoping it didn’t sound as forced as it was. “That’s a rare one.”

“Not quite as rare in Germany.” Elena grimaced. “I’m sorry, this is awkward, the two of us coming to you for help like this. We appreciate you giving us the opportunity to find our footing.”

“Oh, well, it’s the least I can do. You’re my sister! And don’t think I’ve forgotten the money you sent me after I fled the Bay. I’m happy to pay you back with interest.”

“Nonsense! I never intended for you to pay me back.”

Klaus shrugged, the lift and fall of his shoulders artful. Practiced but no less genuine, as his expression made clear. Like Elena. “I doubt you intended to follow my footsteps either, and yet…”

I didn’t miss the expression of discomfort he quickly hid behind his arm, raised to cover a feigned cough. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned in life, it’s to not get bent out of shape when things don’t go the way you expect. So, uh…”

He gestured sweepingly, drawing our eyes over the rest of his apartment, which had obviously been haphazardly cleaned in a rush after Elena’s call. A beaten up black leather couch, its seats covered in a blanket and adorned with mismatched cushions took center stage. The walls clearly needed a fresh coat of paint, made all the clearer by the lack of any paintings or other wall decorations to distract from them. A coffee table of faded and chipped wood set in front of it and a tiny TV with badly bent antennae were the only other furniture, and where the walls were bare, the table and TV had a few knickknacks adorning them. A hallway led deeper into the unit to where the kitchen and bedroom were.

I couldn’t drag my eyes away from the emerald green boa wrapped around one of the TV’s antennae.

“Welcome to your new home?”

Fuck me, what had I gotten myself into?