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**Sombs** · 12-24-2019, 07:25 PM,

October 11th, 826 A.S. - New Tokyo

The sun was gone, and New Tokyo's capital began to show its true face. It was the perfect time, Sombra thought, to show Noel some of the must-see aspects of this planet. Dragging the young rheinlandian man after her, it was obvious to him how eager she was to show him around.

"So bright," Noel commented as they walked through the wet streets. This didn't seem to be a typical tourist area to him. Not at all. It was slightly scary, he thought, but Sombra probably knew what she was doing. Right?

"Back in the old days, Ezrael would wake up in the middle of the night and spontaneously get the idea to walk around. I often joined him, sometimes we did it as the complete trio of him, me and Leon. Of course not here but on Curacao. Still, this has something of it. Maybe even better," she said quietly, smiling at him while the rather cold wind blew gently through her jet black hair. It was reflecting the light of their surroundings. Pinkish, purple, blue, red, sometimes yellow and green. The neon signs were all colorful.

"I wish had known him way earlier. I feel like he is in the process of changing. Exhausting."

Sombra exhaled through her nose as they slowly followed the street. The shops were still open. Many of them were quite empty at this time. People were clearing up, cleaning the tables and counters, kitchen equipment. "Too much has happened, Noel. The wars all over Sirius, the Nomads, the Apahanta, betrayals, Maren, Abigail... Lorena... he escaped death multiple times. All these things leave scars. Not just physically, like the scar at his eye. He was forced to age mentally. We all were forced to." She paused for a moment, then shook her head and smirked at him again. "Sometimes he feels like an entirely different person. But he is still the same man. The man I still love, fanatically."

"Hm." Noel looked up into the air. The sky was covered in clouds. He wasn't sure what he had expected. At least it was not raining right now. The nightsky was probably a lot more different here than those of Curacao, which showed the Cortez cluster and the Barrier even in the darkest night, while on Hamburg, the sky was always slightly orange because of the Walker Nebula. Beyond the clouds was probably just light pollution and the Crow. "Things are still changing."

"They will always change. Now Ez is the Captain of a rogue warship he can't get rid of. He is father of a child he can't get rid of. He is in a relationship with a woman he can't get rid of. There is a bounty he can't get rid of. I wonder if things will change for the better for us at some point again, you know." To the left was a garden. Sombra lead him in that direction as she saw a bench. "I still dream of the day we can return to Curacao. Have our little house there. Well, little, as in, big enough for all of us. You, me, Leon, Ez, Luna and, uh, Abigail. And just have a normal life again. We have our cats, and we go surfing and have little parties at the evening, maybe some clubbing and hanging out in lounges. And then, sometimes, Ez would wake up in the night and take me out and we walk around at the beach."

Noel smirked. Just what they were doing. The bench was wet from the rain, but since he was still wearing his Apahanta suit, it didn't matter to him. So he sat down and patted his lap. Sombra took the invitation, placing her bum on his leg, an arm wrapped around his back, her upper body leaning slightly in against him. "All that sounds rather nice. Very romantic."

"Yeah, romatic." She sighed. "I was expecting you to correct me on the list of people I just made."

The boy looked up at her face. It was just a few inches away, so he didn't keep eye contact for long. "You mean Simone, and Maren. And Dinah. And maybe even Nancy. Or Rebecca, depending on how you want to call her now."

"What do you think is Simone doing right now?" she asked him while her hand was slowly stroking his shoulder.

"Waiting for time to pass." He eyed her again. "I honestly can't tell whether she is able to feel something like missing someone. She is... very... very simple. It'd be easier for me if she was a bit more like you." Sombra grinned at that remark while Noel averted his eyes again. "Not like that. I mean, maybe. I mean, more active. Master, not slave. Wait, that's also wrong. What I mean to say is..." He knew she was still grinning. "Imagine you have an empty PDA. Just the standard apps. And no neural net access. You can only work with what you have, or in painfully complicated and time-consuming efforts create little new programs. That's how she is. Empty, a blank slate. You can only do so much with her. She only knows the basics of living."

"Breathing, eating, drinking, fucking..." She chuckled.

"With only so few apps, a PDA quickly gets boring. Especially when there is a PDA filled with incredible amounts of content. It looks good, it it is interesting, funny, and for some reason, it constantly tries to get my attention. But, you know, throwing the old PDA away is just not okay. It never did anything wrong."

It was starting to rain. Sombra held a hand out until a drop of water landed on it. "Maybe you can have two PDAs. For all I know, the old PDA could be so simple that it doesn't know what envy is." Noel gave her a flat look. "Uh, I have no idea what kind of metaphor would be fitting for that, honestly."

"Even then, the new PDA is just interested in me because her actual owner is toying around with other PDAs, too. He even has a data crystal with one." He smirked at her, which she returned.

"I can assure you, the new PDA is not just interested in you because her owner is busy with other PDAs. The new PDA just likes how you... uh, use her apps, I guess?" The rain became stronger.

"Maybe we should stop using this metaphor." Sombra smiled at him and moved off his lap. Instead of giving him space to stand up himself, she leaned in again and kissed him on his lips. Her hands were holding his cheeks. His hands on hers, idly pretending to move her hands off his face. After a few seconds, she made a step back and let him get up.

"Maybe we should get to one of those restaurants," Sombra suggested as the rain managed to drench their hair already. "There are some karaoke bars, too."

"Karaoke would be a bit weird with just the two of us, don't you think?" he asked her, following her through the rain as she headed for the street they just had come from.

"If you don't want to do that, then I have some other ideas of things just the two of us could do." Noel didn't need to look at her face to know how exactly her tongue was currently moving.

"Karaoke it is, then."

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