Ruaan stood at the gate and looked at Seo sitting on the floor with his broken glasses slightly more broken than usual and a fresh bruise along his jaw and the general appearance of someone who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time and had paid for it.

"Seo," Ruaan said again.

Seo looked up. He squinted through the damaged glasses and then his face did the thing it always did when it was trying to decide whether to be embarrassed or unbothered. It settled on unbothered, which was impressive given the circumstances.

"Oh," Seo said. "Hello."

"What are you doing in there?"

"Sitting."

"I can see that. Why are you sitting in the bottom ten cell?"

"Because I am bottom ten," Seo said, like this was a reasonable explanation that answered the question fully.

Ruaan looked at the gate. He looked at the guards and looked back at the room where Finn was in the corner with the top two standing over him doing something that Ruaan deliberately did not look at directly and moved his eyes away from.

He turned around and walked.

He found Cullen in the corridor near the top rank quarters, leaning against the wall with his arms folded and the relaxed energy of a man who had nowhere to be and was enjoying that fact. The top three stood behind him like furniture with opinions.

Cullen saw Ruaan coming and smiled.

"Top one coming to see me already," Cullen said. "I’m touched."

"I need someone out of the bottom ten room," Ruaan said.

"No."

"I haven’t told you who yet."

"Doesn’t matter. The bottom ten punishment is part of the game. You know that."

"I know that," Ruaan said. "I also know that you bend rules when it suits you. You’ve been doing it for seven months." He kept his voice even and his face calm. "I’m asking for one person. In exchange for something."

Cullen tilted his head. "What could you possibly offer me?"

"Breakfast," Ruaan said. "Tomorrow morning. The top three eat together in the VIP cafeteria. You’ve been eating alone or with your men for seven months. I’m offering you a real breakfast with the other top ranks." He paused. "With me at the table."

Cullen looked at him.

Ruaan held the look.

"One person," Ruaan said. "You let one person out of that room early and tomorrow morning you get to sit across from me at breakfast. That’s the deal."

Cullen was quiet for a moment. He looked at Ruaan’s face. At the black uniform. At the 2525 tag sitting on it like it had always belonged there.

"The one with the glasses," Cullen said.

Ruaan blinked. "How did you know?"

"I saw you looking through the gate." Cullen uncrossed his arms. "Fine. He’s out. But Ruaan." He pointed. "Tomorrow breakfast. You sit next to me. Not across. Next to."

Ruaan thought about it for exactly one second.

"Across," he said.

Cullen smiled slowly. "Next to."

"Across or no deal."

Another pause. Cullen looked at the ceiling and then back at Ruaan with the expression of a man who had decided to find this entertaining.

"Fine," Cullen said. "Across."

He snapped his fingers at the top three and said something Ruaan didn’t hear and the top three disappeared down the corridor.

Ruaan followed.

.

.

Seo walked out of the bottom ten room with the unhurried energy of someone who had not fully processed that they had been rescued.

He looked at Ruaan and looked at the corridor. He looked at the top three standing to the side who had unlocked the gate and were now looking at the wall like he wasn’t there.

"Oh," Seo said. "Thank you."

"Don’t thank me yet," Ruaan said. "Walk."

They walked.

Seo was moving slightly stiffly. His jaw had the bruise and his left arm was held at an angle that suggested the shoulder had opinions about the game. His glasses had a new crack across one lens that split his left eye into two when Ruaan looked at him from the side.

He pushed the door to his new room open and held it.

Seo stepped inside.

He stood in the middle of the room and looked around at the bed and the fridge and the AC unit and the lamp and the clean walls and said nothing for a moment.

Then he said, "This is very nice."

"Sit down," Ruaan said.

Seo sat on the edge of the bed. Ruaan went to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of cold water and a small packet of biscuits and brought them over.

Seo took the water and left the biscuits.

"How," Ruaan said, sitting on the chair at the desk and looking at him, "did you end up bottom ten? You were blue rank. You were supposed to be my partner."

Seo opened the bottle. "I was reading."

Ruaan stared at him.

"I was in the middle of a very good Chapter," Seo said, without any particular guilt. "I didn’t hear the first announcement. By the time I got to the field, everyone was already paired up and running around and someone shot me before I had worked out what the game even was." He drank. "It happened very fast."

"Seo."

"The Chapter was very good."

"You lost your blue rank because of a comic."

"Volume seven," Seo said. "The best volume in the series. I stand by the decision."

Ruaan put his face in his hands for a moment and then took them off.

"You said something earlier," Ruaan said. "When I saw you in the cell. You said you thought we were going to be bottom ten together."

Seo looked at the bottle.

"What did you mean by together?" Ruaan said.

Seo drank again and didn’t answer immediately. He looked at the fridge. At the AC unit. At the lamp. At everything except Ruaan.

"I just thought we would be in the same situation," Seo said finally. "Since we were partners. Or supposed to be." He shrugged with the shoulder that wasn’t complaining. "It doesn’t matter. You ranked up. That’s good."

"You wanted to be bottom ten with me," Ruaan said.

"I wanted to be your partner," Seo said simply. "The bottom ten part was just where I assumed we would end up together." He finally looked at Ruaan. "I’m glad you ranked up. I mean that."

Ruaan looked at him.

There was something in Seo’s face that was being held back with the same effort Seo usually put into making things look effortless. Ruaan could see the seams of it if he looked carefully enough.

He didn’t push it.

"You got lucky," Seo said. He smiled and it reached his eyes properly this time. "Top one. On your second game."

"I just got lucky," Ruaan said.

"You keep saying that."

"Because it’s true."

Seo nodded slowly. He looked down at the bottle and finished the last of it and held it for a moment and then held it out to Ruaan. Like an offering. The last bit of water in the bottom that Ruaan hadn’t asked for.

Ruaan took it.

Seo stood up.

He was already moving toward the door with the specific energy of someone who had decided the visit was finished, not because it had gone wrong but because something in him had decided it was time.

"Stay here tonight," Ruaan said. "You’re bruised. The cell is going to be uncomfortable."

Seo stopped at the door. He turned around and smiled. The full Seo smile, wide and warm and slightly crooked because of the broken glasses.

"I’m fine," he said.

"Seo."

"I’ll be okay." He put his hand on the handle. "Get some sleep. You’re top one now. You have breakfast with Cullen tomorrow." He pushed the glasses up with one finger. "Don’t let him sit next to you."

Ruaan blinked. "How do you know about that?"

"Get some sleep," Seo said.

He opened the door and walked out and closed it behind him.

Ruaan sat in the chair and looked at the closed door and held the empty water bottle and thought about the way Seo had handed it to him.

He sat with that for a while.

.

.

Outside in the corridor, Seo leaned his back against the door.

The bruise on his jaw was starting to ache properly now that the adrenaline of the room had gone. His shoulder was going to be a problem tomorrow. His glasses needed a new lens.

He tilted his head back against the door and looked at the ceiling.

He had wanted to be Ruaan’s partner. He had said that much. What he had not said was that he had specifically gone to collect his number early and had specifically chosen the pairing system line that would most likely produce a number in the 90s range because he had overheard Ruaan’s assigned number by accident the day before. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

He had planned it.

Then he had sat down to read volume seven and lost track of everything else.

He reached into his pocket.

He pulled out a small watch. Not a regular watch. It was thinner than it should be, the kind that did more than tell time. He looked at it for a moment.

Then he pressed a small button on the side.

It rang twice.

"Hello father," Seo said.

"I told you to use my title when you use that line," the voice on the other end said.

Seo looked at the ceiling. "I need information."

"You never ask for information about people. You ask for books and occasionally snacks."

"This is different." Seo adjusted his broken glasses. "I need everything you have on a prisoner. Ruaan Calder. He’s in my facility."

A pause.

"Why do you need that?"

"I’m curious about him," Seo said. "Send it through your new officer. The one you just transferred here."

Another pause. Longer this time.

"You never get curious about people, Seo."

"I know," Seo said. "Send the file."

He pressed the red button.

He put the watch back in his pocket.

He straightened up from the door and stretched his good arm above his head and started walking back toward his cell.

His glasses caught the corridor light as he turned the corner. He disappeared.