Page 45 of Signal No. Us

“That’s the new bar, apparently. Tired but alive.”

“How was it?” Robby asked, taking the handle of Allan’s bag without being asked.

“Loud. Smelly. Way too many people. Kind of like here, but the parking’s worse,” Allan said. “The kids at the workshop, they drew things, just like here. Different street, same water.”

Robby nodded, something soft crossing his face. “We need that in the module too. For the next mural.”

“Look at you,” Allan said. “Already planning the sequel.”

They walked to the parking area, Oryo trotting between them like a small, self-important chaperone, and Allan slipped his hand into Robby’s, letting himself lean into his shoulder as they walked without needing a reason, the whole weight of the past three days finally, properly settling.

“Have you eaten?” Robby asked.

“Yes, Mom.”

“Your mom called me and made sure I’d check.”

“Of course she did,” Allan said, laughing.

On the drive back, the sky over the island had cleared to an almost obnoxiously bright blue, like it too had decided to celebrate.

“There’s a storm brewing,” Robby said, as they passed the plaza. “Kapitan wants his face bigger in the mural.”

“He already has a whole corner holding a sandbag,” Allan said. “What else does he want? A crown?”

“He said, a sash.”

“‘Most Humble,’” Allan said. “I’ll paint it on there myself. In glitter.”

“That’s going to be a whole war,” Robby said, grinning.

They drove past Cine sa Isla, Jake already outside sweeping the front steps himself, waving them down without slowing his broom for a second.

“How’s the cinema?” Allan called out from the window.

“Alive!” Jake yelled back. “There’s talk of a test screening next month. Don’t you dare leave again, we’ve got a deadline!”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Allan said, and found, for the first time saying it out loud, that it was fully, uncomplicatedly true.

“I hate this town,” he told Robby, once they’d driven on, smiling the whole time he said it.

“Liar,” Robby said. “I know you love it.”

“…Fine. Don’t tell anyone.”

“The whole barangay will know,” Robby said. “Always.”

Allan laughed, leaned his head briefly against Robby’s shoulder at the next stoplight, and let himself, finally, arrive all the way home.

CHAPTER 26

Three days after Allan turned down the Director offer, Robby started finding reasons to be somewhere else.

It was small at first: an extra DRRM overtime shift here, a coastal check that didn’t strictly need two people, a “sorry, tanod meeting ran long” that arrived a full hour after the meeting must have ended. Allan noticed. He always noticed, now; that particular vigilance, watching for the exact shape of someone pulling away, was a skill he’d built at considerable personal cost and had hoped never to need again.

By the fourth day, he stopped pretending not to notice.

He found Robby at the health center parking lot, coiling rope that didn’t need coiling, and didn’t bother easing into it.