"Talk faster, Eclipse!" I hiss as we shimmy through the air ducts.

"Fine, Miss Pushy," Eclipse mutters behind me.

"Shut up, I'm trying to be quiet," I groan.

"Says the one who wanted me to talk faster," she shoots back.

"So you would finish talking faster and then we'd be silent faster!"

"Will you all just shaddup?" Ghost cuts in from behind Eclipse with that slight drawl of his.

I grunt, and Eclipse murmurs something to herself, but we're silent.

"We're here," I announce quietly to the two squatting awkwardly next to me.

"Took long enough," Eclipse comments, and I glare at her.

"Y'know, you didn't have to come with us," I remind her.

"No, I need to personally meet this guy you want to take with us if he's so special," she huffs.

"Fine." I remove the air duct cover and drop down into the cookie cutter room. Eclipse and Ghost follow my lead.

"Hi, Lovely," I say, tapping my long-lost friend's back. He's sitting on his bed with a crayon held tightly in his hand and a coloring book in front of him.

He gasps and drops his crayon. "Wh-who's there?" he sputters and holds his hands out defensively.

"It's me. Violet," I tell him and place both of my hands on his. "It's okay."

"Violet," he sighs. We lace our fingers together, and I help him to his feet. "It's been too long, Violet. Where have you been? What made you come back?"

I shake my head. "It's a long story, sweetie." We start swaying back and forth, and he finally smiles. His whole face lights up when he smiles.

"I missed you," he whispers.

"I missed you, too."