Upon the top of a short and stout, maybe fifteen story downtown building sat Eliza, a small girl whose clothes were rather too large for her. An old raggedy coat covered her body, it left her tanned cheeks visible, dark brown eyes peering out from the depths. The coat made her look somewhat more like a face in a pile of rags than an actual person, Eliza's tongue flicked out of her mouth, dampening her lips, which had become cracked from the dry cold of the past months. With one foot on the edge of the roof, the other behind, the knee of her front leg bent at a ninety-degree angle. She rested her hands upon that knee, she felt like some sort of new world explorer during moments like these -- the reality wasn't too far from that. And like that new world explorer, she stared onwards. Her gaze cast over  bent steel and shattered glass-dust towers. Towers who caught afternoon light and bent in it, beacons in the north reflecting the distant evening sun, which despite the cloudless day did little for warmth.
    Eliza turned back from the silvery skyline, pulling her coat tight around her wiry frame. Stepping away from the edge of the roof and towards the tall and stocky boy waiting for her. Aaron at nineteen, was both taller and older than Eliza, though she insisted on talking to him as if reality was reversed, if she had to talk to him at all.
	"Come on, we're going to be late for the safety seminar," he said, pinching the bridge of his nose.
    "You mean,"  Eliza was walking past him already, not bothering to turn her head to continue the conversation, "you are going to be late, right?" she asked, starting off across the make-shift bridge from this building to the next. A clacking of wooden bridge against shoes grew as Eliza broke out into a light run. Aaron would figure out how to arrive on time himself, and if he didn't, well it wasn't her problem. Eliza lip found its way between her teeth, as she stepped onto the next bridge. On some level, she should probably appreciate him going out of his way to make sure she knew to go to these meetings. However, she couldn't help but find it obnoxious, she'd skipped only a few lectures recently, and been late a handful more times than that.  A small growling noise escaped her throat, an attempt to drive the troublesome thoughts from her head, leaving her focus on running. One foot in front of the other, from wooden slats, to hard concrete. Through busy rooftop market-places, brushing past crowded main-paths that made up the rooftop society. A smile spread across her face, the wind from running keeping the hair that wasn't blowing behind her plastered to her face, a messy and unkempt mop of black knots. The next bridge onwards, bringing her closer to home.  Her ealier worries forgotten, left far behind.
    Eliza's destination wasn't far away now. Her 'base of operations' which was really an over-glorified shack built into the roof of an unused building was her destination. The fort had been one of her favorite places to run off to and play games at when she was a child, and it was still important for her. As it was, the place she was expected was not very far from her destination, this, of course, was by no coincidence, she had built her fort nearby the central hub of her childhood fixation.
    She was almost there, a few hundred feet between her and her old home. She pushed energy through herself, power running down her legs and out through her feet, driving her faster. With five short bounds Eliza reached the edge of the rooftop, the sensible thing would have been to take the bridge that led to the second floor down in the next building and take the stairs to the roof, she wouldn't do the sane thing, though. She jumped, like many times before -- the distance wasn't far and there was no real challenge. The few moments she spent in the air between the ledge and the curtained entrance of her fort stretched out for ages. Everything sped up again as she landed on the mattress she'd set up for this very purpose. Eliza proceeded to bounce, off of the soft mattress and onto the less soft wood flooring, a cloud of dust kicked up from the commotion. The dust caught the morning sunlight, and she watched the little particles in their short-lived dance, a few moments of expression before they fell back to the wood, lifeless.
    Eliza lay there for a few moments, just appreciating her home that was not her home; remembering the hours spent here as a child. Whenever she wasn't busy with family matters she was here, climbing around the innards of the building below, fantasizing about exploring one day on an archaeology team. Now her dream was about to come true. Eliza kicked to her feet, tossing dust into the air once more, brushing herself off quickly so she didn't look like too much of a mess. The class was being held two more buildings south, one floor down. She took this part of the trip at a leisurely pace, walking the rest of the way to the rooftop enterance, letting the slamming in her chest slow to a more respectable pace. Eliza didn't exactly want to seem like she had just come running to get there on time. She was approaching the classroom, walking through the empty hallway, pushing open the door to the large lecture hall. Eliza glanced over the seats as students filled them, when a voice spoke up from behind her.
    "It's good to see you've made it here, Eliza," said professor NAME, smiling at her as she turned to face him. "I'm glad to see you taking the class more seriously, showing up on time is important" he continued, smiling.
    "Of course," Eliza said, forcing a smile on her face "after a while I'd run out of excuses," she said, at least trying to put her attendance record in a more humorous light. She let out a sigh of relief when there was no further reply, she was being allowed freedom. The sigh of relief turned into a groan of annoyance when she saw Aaron waiting for her, looking smug.
    "I told you, you should have left earlier," he said, grinning. Eliza simply brought a hand to her brow, burying her face into it as if trying to vanish from the situation. "You were almost late, again" he sounded concerned.
    "And why would you suddenly start actually caring, all you've done for the past three months is pester me like you're my mom or something!" Eliza growled at him, eyes narrowing harshly, before throwing herself into her seat.
    "If that's how you've seen this..." Aaron began but shook his head. Clearly, it wasn't important enough for her to hear, as if anything but judgments and instructions were, according to him.
    A voice from the front of the room cut in "Alright, today is our final class before you are allowed field work..." the lecture started, and Eliza began not to pay any real attention. What felt like hours past, sitting there, her fingers dancing idly, eyes locked forwards to put on the the mask of paying attention. The bright white fluorescent light illuminating the room. Mismatched desks everywhere betrayed the state of things, the`y were given the bare minimum to be able to learn here. Eliza let her thoughts slip through these things, the state of the run down classroom with it damp smell and cracking paint. There even appeared to be a new water-bulge in the ceiling.
    "...and most importantly, in the case of a structural collapse..." the lecturer went on, going over the emergency protocol in case one of the building floors fell in, Eliza wasn't too worried about it, though, that's what everyone had radios for, and what she, in particular, had trained herself to be ready for.
    "None of this is going to help you in an actual emergency" Eliza half thought-half mumbled, biting her lip to avoid making any aggravated noises. For some reason there was a disconnect between the administration     Eliza kept her eyes focussed on the lecturer, though, hopefully, that would be enough 'paying attention' to satisfy him. Her hands tightened around the edges of the  worn down desk, the clock above the board in the old lecture hall ticking away the time behind its cracked face; thirty minutes to go.
    In time, as Eliza drilled her gaze into the professor, her mind began to drift further and further from the class. She found herself thinking back to when she was a child, before all of the annoying classes. Before she'd had these things called 'adult responsibilities'. All of the bullshitting in the world couldn't save her from the social expectations people seemed to have of you once you'd reached a certain age. Most importantly, though, before things with Aaron had become so complicated. She rembered when they'd explore ruined buildings together, no worries in their way.
	"Cmon, cantcha keep up?" Eliza taunted, turning around to wave at Aaron, who was trailing behind her. She watched him, as he climbed through the broken floors, making his way up to her. Eliza laughed to herself as Aaron grabed a piece of rebar, jutting out from a hole in the floor that sh was standing on, slowly but surely pulling himself up to the same level as her.
	"No fair," he panted out, exhausted. "You always know a better route than me..." Aaron said demurly, from all fours.
	"And it's not fair that I'm better than you?" Eliza snorted, grinning down at Aaron "You just gotta work harder!" she said tauntingly, turning around to continue upwards through the ruins of the building. Eliza's hands grasped stone and metal, making the slow trek upwards.
	Eliza sat next to Aaron on the roof of the empty building, two young explorers on the edge of the new world. She sat there for a while, just staring at the rising sun. Best of friends, at the end of one journey and the beginning of another.
	"Class starts next week," Said Aaron, glancing over to Eliza "we're gonna get to be explorers.
	"Yeah, we are."
	 Something about recalling that time hurt, Eliza was loath to admit it but she wished that Aaron's interactions with her could go back to what they were five years ago. The worst part was that she had no clue why, and that bothered her; tricky puzzles were always so frustrating, even more so when you didn't have all of the pieces.
    Eliza jolted slightly, brought back to the real world by the harsh blaring of the bell, marking the end of class.
     "Make sure to head to the department office for assignment" the professor called out as he packed up his stuff.
Eliza went through the next few hours in a bit of the daze, she had left something, there, in her head and now it was lost to her, unretrievable. Eventually, she found herself on the roof, a shiny new ID card that served as certification. A cloth patch with the number "14" In the other hand.  Eliza was staring off towards the setting sun, she let herself fall back, landing lightly against the semi-soft roofing. Staring up at the cloudy December skies, when she heard movement behind her, tilting her head back further to see who it was. Him, the last thing she really wanted was to deal with Aaron right now.
    "Hey," he said, giving her a wave. "Fourteenth division, eh?" he asked, taking a seat next to her.
    "What? no warnings to stay safe? not gonna tell me to get to bed on time?" Eliza spat, wincing a bit at how harsh she sounded, was she always that bad?
    Aaron opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it again; before finally speaking "Eighth, myself, I heard you were heading out on an assignment tomorrow so I figured I'd at least say goodbye." he said, leaning back, using his arms to support him, palms flat, fingers splayed. "You know what with you being gone for at least a we-"
    "You're gonna miss having someone to tell what to do?" in response, Eliza chuckled, at least that didn't sound so harsh.
    "Something like that" Aaron responded, glancing away. "Look, I've been meaning to say..."
    "Yes?" Eliza replied , turning to face Aaron, affixing her dark marble eyes on him
He shook his head "Never mind, it's not important, don't get yourself killed or anything".
    "You can't just do that..." Eliza grumbled, "Say you want to say something and then change your mind like it's nothing, it's annoying."
Aaron just stared at her, for a while, before appearing to decide on something "It's late, I should get home at a reasonable hour." He said, getting up and dusting himself off, turning and walking away "You should go home too, you're gonna need a full night's sleep.," he said, voice getting farther away "and don't forget to eat dinner!" he ended it with, fading into the distance.
    Eliza sighed, pushing herself back to her feet, starting on her way home. She was mystified by the end of the day, the vague ghostly feeling that had been hanging over her driven away by the weirdness of the previous conversation. There was clearly something Aaron had to say, that much was obvious to her. She had no idea what his behavior was about either, but she knew it wasn't usual. She bit her lip, whatever it was that was bothering him wasn't her problem. She still wondered, though, what Aaron had wanted to say to her, the sort of nagging curiosity that doesn't ever quite go away -- in the end, whatever it was it went unsaid.