It’s a well-kept secret that Koori Ui both loves and needs his beauty sleep. 

So when his phone rings in the middle of the night, it had better be another Owl Operation, or something of that magnitude. 

But to his surprise, it’s Ihei Hairu, not Arima. 

“Hairu? What’s wrong? Have the Quinx eaten someone yet?”

She has to laugh. “Koori! No, I just …”

“Just what?” He can hear her sniffling. 

“I just had a nightmare and I needed to talk to someone, and I thought of you – Arima’s too scary to wake at night…”

She called him instead of Arima! Ui scrambles out of bed. “I’ll be there in five minutes.”

He walked her home a few hours ago, so even in the dark early morning streets, Ui knows his way. 

He arrives in his pajamas and his overcoat, and Hairu has to burst out laughing again. This is why she called her Koori.

She tugs him in and begins crying again.

“What’s wrong?” All this for a dream? No, he can’t believe it.

“I grew up in a weird place,” she says tentatively.

“The dream?”

“For real. I just dreamt I was back there.” Hairu wraps her arms around herself and looks very, very sad. “They were hitting my mom and saying she was too old, and someone pulled me away, and I never saw her again – and I just – I wish I’d been older and stronger. Like Arima.” 

Ui barely breathes. Just what sort of hellhole was she raised in? He’s sick. “Hairu, it wasn’t your fault. Ethically, even, you were a kid.”

She blinks back tears. “I kinda wanted you to condemn me.”

“I can’t, because there’s nothing condemnable.” There’s so much more Ui wants to ask her, but he doesn’t want to upset her further. “Do you want coffee? A hug?”

“A hug would be nice.”

He wraps his arms around her, and she leans her head on his chest. They have a big raid on the Tsukiyama’s coming up this week, after all. “If I try to sleep again, can you stay?”

“If you’re okay with that.” This is the closest Ui’s ever been to a woman, and this one is precious to him. 

Her light, fluttering heartbeat against his heavy thuds feels so right.