"There are people in this world who sleep before sunset, only to wake up before sunrise. The early birds.

There are also people who sleep at sunrise, and essentially wake up around sunset.

This story is about the latter.

The night owls."

•

Click.

Click.

Click.

The sounds of her computer fill in the pin-drop silence surrounding her.

Being so close to the highway, and being stuffed into a tiny apartment complex with a couple dozen people, silence is a surreal experience for her.

An experience that only really ever seems to occur at night.

•

He can't sleep, even if he wanted to. His worst fears come alive every time his eyes close.

He suffers turmoil every time the sun goes down, as he's faced with one of the most difficult tasks he can complete.

Sleeping.

He has long since realized that nighttime will never be a time of relaxation and re-energization for him. He's stopped trying to make it happen, and given into the pressure.

Now he can only sleep during the day.

At night, he is forced to stay awake by the monsters inside of him.

He can't sleep; even if he wanted to.

•

She has always lived in the city, since she was born. The lights, the sounds, she became accustomed to them at a young age.

But that doesn't mean she liked them.

However, she couldn't leave then, and she couldn't leave now.

Then, she was tied to the city by her mother. A stubborn fighter, she always was. Whatever her mother said was the final decision. And her final decision? To stay in the city.

Now, even after her mother long since past away, she is still stuck in the city. This time, it's because of a small thing called responsibility. She spent her whole career building up to this point. Success after success; all so she could be where she was today.

But with great power comes great responsibility, and her responsibility was to stay in the city, and pursue her dreams.

Except those weren't her dreams.

If she ever really had dreams, she guessed they would include her running away to a quieter, more peaceful place.

But if she never even had the chance to sleep, how could she ever dream?

•

He has always admired the city. It seemed to run on the same clock as him. Even at night, it was alive.

He wasn't the type of person who tried to block out the city at night. He would open his window, and let the sounds fill up his room.

It filled him with a sense of comfort. To know that he wasn't the only one who spent his nights awake. It was like the city knew what he was going through, and had his back.

He wasn't the type of person who was accustomed to support. Growing up, he had responsibility thrown at him from every direction.

And he was expected to catch it.

He was shooed out of his house and left to face the world alone as soon as it was legal to do so, and he had to learn to deal with everything by himself.

And it wasn't as easy as it looks.

Through everything, he had always felt like something was wrong. He never really felt like he belonged. Not in the world, or around certain people, but in his own life. He never really felt like the life he lived was for him. He thought, he knew, that there was something better out there for him.

But he never knew how to find it.

•

She takes a sip of her coffee, as she struggles to finish her assignment. At last, she gives up and decides to take a break.

She walks over to the window, and opens it slightly. Immediately, she is surrounded by the city sounds. During the morning, they're even worse. This is why she always keeps her windows shut, to try and block out the noise.

When she can't hear any noise, she can almost trick herself into believing that she is far away from the city.

Now, however, something compels her to keep it open.

Perhaps it's the sunrise. The faint orange and red hues against the dark sky captivates her. But as she looks down, she realizes that it's something else.

More exactly, someone else.

•

He sees her standing at her window, and walks outside onto his balcony. She's focused on the sunrise on top of him, and doesn't see him yet.

He used to be so accustomed with solitude at night, that he never really thought there would be someone he could talk to.

Then he met her.

To him, she seemed like the only thing about him that felt right. Like they were always meant to meet. One meeting led to another, and their midnight conversations became a daily ordeal.

It was the one thing he looked forward to as the sun went down.

•

He was always a mystery to her. She never understood what was going through his brain, or why he stayed up every night.

Regardless, she was glad he did.

He distracted her from her work, in a good way. She got her mind off of everything, and she was grateful for that.

She didn't know how to do so on her own.

So every night, somehow, they would end up talking. Sometimes, it was just a few minutes. Other times, it would go on go hours. Either way, each time was as effective as the last.

In what?

In being the one reason she was glad she stayed in the city.

•

So there they were, two vastly different, yet quite similar people. Sure, they had different lives when the sun was up. But at the end of the day, they weren't all that different.

Both were night owls, whether they wanted to be or not.