When Micah fell off the face of the Earth, it started at the arcade and accelerated to Alistair telling Benny, "Can I borrow your keys?"

"My keys?" Benny said. "Oh! To the apartment? Why?"

"Just trust me," Alistair said, and took them before they were fully out of Benny's pocket. He clapped Benny on the shoulder and said, "Congrats on the engagement."

Benny beamed, smeared-makeup and all. "Oh my gosh, I'm engaged." And then, hands to his messy cheeks, Benny positively glowed. "Oh my God! I'm a fiancé!"

Alistair was enamored by the reaction more so than the act itself. "Yeah you fucking are." And then, to Hunter, he shook the guy's hand. "Welcome to the family, or whatever."

"Th-Thanks," Hunter said, eyes wide.

"Whoa, wait, where are you going?" Kennedy said, eyeing the keys, the vague goodbyes, and at last Benny's smile. "You stopped crying. What happened? Do I need to beat up Micah."

"No! Hunter said yes!" Benny shrieked, throwing himself at Kennedy.

Kennedy stared at Hunter from over his shoulder, and then at Alistair, who wanted nothing more than to flee from the happy couple. "Yes to what," she said.

Hunter raised his hand, and a moment of silence passed.

And then Kennedy let out a single, sharp, short high-pitched scream. Benny startled in her arms, backing up as she screamed her head off again and tackled them both in a hug.

Alistair fled from the commotion as the crowd of nearby friends collided with Benny at the racing games. The celebration was only just getting started when Alistair rushed down the stairs, passing newcomers filtering up with their birthday presents and neon, festive outfits.

Alistair didn't expect Micah to be at the apartment when he got there. There was a ten minute wait at the station for the first train to Benny's flat, and Micah was nowhere to be seen on the platform. Catching his breath in between support pillars and fluorescent lights, Alistair checked his phone.

It was nearly midnight and he had a text from Noah, another from Benny timestamped before the panic attack asking where he was. He'd been at the racing cars, thinking about everything other than the possibility that Benny would propose to Hunter.

Alistair sighed, rubbing a hand over his chest. His lungs were burning, heart still racing and flooding his veins with acid.

Benny was right to panic, Alistair thought, because he couldn't imagine what Micah might have done had Benny given a public proposal with Micah in the crowd. Benny may have been stupid, but he wasn't that stupid.

Upon arrival, Alistair resented the six flight climb and resigned himself to the fact that this would be his new normal one day when he and Benny swapped places. It was certainly a leg workout, and by the top, his thighs were warm and burning after the trek in the cold.

Using Benny's keys, Alistair unlocked the door and knocked as a courtesy. When he opened the door, he did so just enough to say through a slim gap: "Micah? It's me."

No answer.

Alistair stepped in and shut the door, locking it. The apartment was illuminated only by the stove light being on—a nightlight habit Benny had even when he and Alistair last lived together. He turned the corner at the living room to Micah and Erika's rooms.

The door to Micah's room was open just a crack.

Alistair knocked on the doorframe and, when no one answered, he opened it.

He didn't know Micah's usual habits, but all the obvious places he could think of—the desk chair, the coat rack by the door, the chest at the end of his bed—all came up empty for Micah's university backpack. The suitcase Alistair was familiar with wasn't under the bed or in the closet.

For purely methodical reasons, Alistair went to the dresser beside the closet and searched for Micah's underwear drawer. The bottom of the drawer was visible in places Micah had taken handfuls of boxers. Alistair slammed the drawer shut and put his hand to his forehead.

Benny will never forgive himself, was Alistair's first thought. They'd been doing so well, too. Benny hadn't wanted to ruin that, and yet Kennedy and Hunter had sabotaged Benny's attempt at keeping Micah close.

And Micah didn't even know about the proposal.

He dialed Kennedy and set her to speaker, not expecting her to answer given the chaos he'd left behind. It took two tries.

"Alistair! I was just gonna ask you where Micah went," she said.

"I'm at Benny's place. He's packed up and left before I even got here," Alistair said, leaning back to rest against the edge of Micah's bed. Instead of massaging his oncoming headache, Alistair took to rubbing at his neck, skin crawling. "Have you checked his location?"

"He unshared it... twenty minutes ago." As she went silent, Alistair swore under his breath. He got up to leave Micah's room, tingling with discomfort. He used Erika's bathroom to wash his hands, phone on the counter.

"He unshared his calendar with me, and I got an email confirmation about some of my account settings being changed. Hang on."

Strange, Alistair thought. "What sort of accounts?"

"I don't know... Streaming services, Amazon..."

"They can tell you the IP address of devices connected to the accounts," Alistair said, waffling with the idea as he dried his hands. "I... guess it's possible to find him through those."

"He's being thorough."

"How's Benny?"

"Better! Excited, definitely. DDR tournament is back up and running. Let me know if you find Micah, alright? And if you need anything else from me."

"If he asks about Micah, tell him I'm on it and not to worry," Alistair said.

"Roger that!"

Alistair's next call was in effect within seconds as he left the apartment altogether, locking the door behind him. Down the stairs, he received an answer. "Alistair, what's up?"

"Cassian, hey," Alistair said, onto the next flight of stairs. "I'm hoping you can help me with something important."

"I'll see what I can do."

"Micah might get in contact with you if he hasn't already. Can you let me know if he calls? Or shows up?"

"What, tonight?" Presley said.

"Yes."

"I haven't heard from him. I'll ask Ezra if he's heard anything."

Alistair sighed. "Alright. Call me or Kennedy first thing if you hear from him."

"Did something happen?"

Alistair rubbed his hand over the nape of his neck as he backed out of the front door and onto the stoop. "You might as well hear it from me. Benny's engaged now, to Hunter. Has Kennedy mentioned anything about Hunter?"

"Oh! Lots, actually. They've been hanging out a lot more lately. I'm happy for them! I'll have to send my congrats."

"Yeah it's great, et cetera," Alistair said. "Anyway, if you hear from Micah—"

"I'll call you! Congrats on the brother-in-law!"

Alistair hung up, thinking, Wow, I hate the sound of that.

As much as he hated the idea of not knowing where Micah was, Alistair quelled his anxieties with the realistic probability that Micah was enroute to Presley's. It was his most obvious safe haven if he wasn't going to go to Alistair...

Cerberus never mentioned Micah returning the key.

"Fuck," Alistair swore, rerouting at a jog to the nearest subway station to get the first train to his place.

Underground, up again, Alistair emerged at his building and shoved past the revolving door. It was late enough that Cerberus wasn't on the clock, so Alistair high-tailed it to the elevator.

On the elevator and on his floor, Alistair caught his breath. He couldn't rush in and scare Micah away by his dedication to find him. It would be easier to cause Micah to flee again than it would be to make him stay.

On his phone, he checked the cameras. They flashed on with blinding white fading into colorless shadows. The black-and-white night camera depicted a quiet living room and kitchen, no bags in sight.

He zoomed in near the door and couldn't... tell if there were new shoes in the foyer... And the discoloration near his bedroom suggested a light was on.

Alistair tucked his phone in his back pocket and swiped into his apartment. If he acted like this was anything but a standard return home to an empty flat, Micah might feel hunted. He'd play it cool. He'd act shocked seeing Micah there and—

His bedroom light was off.

Alistair kicked his shoes off and rounded the kitchen. In his doorway, he found his bedsheets just as crisp and untouched as they were that morning.

Defeated and reassured that Presley would call—it was only a matter of time—Alistair undressed and tossed his used clothes in the washer. Naked, Alistair crossed the apartment's open windows to the bathroom where he set his phone in the UV cleaner and, in the shower, let a thorough scrubbing free him from any debris left behind from the arcade. By the time he was out, his phone was clean and ready for use.

There was a message requesting an update from Kennedy, and nothing from Presley.

Maybe traffic was bad, Alistair reasoned. It was a Saturday, and though early in New York's tourist season, the weekends were always insane at all hours of the day.

After a blow dry, he laid down and waited, opening and reopening his messages. From Kennedy, Presley, Micah. He nearly sent a text to Micah, too, but thought better of it.

He wouldn't appreciate that, Alistair told himself, but a terrible thought gnawed at him.

He texted Kennedy: "Have you tried calling or texting Micah?"

"No, I figured he didn't want to be contacted."

Alistair reopened his messages with Micah and, after a moment's hesitation, decided his best course of action when establishing contact was to deliver news. Something Micah would want to know.

"Benny proposed to Hunter. They're engaged."

He studied the message carefully. The last text he'd sent was the unread photo marked eternally as Delivered. His thumb hovered a moment before pressing Send. It processed a moment.

This message, however, pushed to the left with an error.

Not delivered.