As big and fancy and beautiful as it was, Anderson Tower was confining. It was all corridors and training rooms and reminders of new-found responsibility. It was a hundred-or-so-story, multi-billion-dollar monument to the freak Noah was, to the shit he’d gone through to get there.Â
Everywhere he looked, he saw Natalie. He saw her in the coffee tables, the giant windows, the training dummies. He was here, being a quote-unquote hero, and she was six feet under in suburban Massachusetts. Tonight, like most nights, he needed to get out, needed to get away from it all. Noah didn’t know Metro City well enough to go out on his own yet; he’d probably get lost or mugged or something. So he made his way to the roof, wandering through the little door and out onto the massive concrete expanse.
The world was big up here, and Metro City so small down below them. Even some stars dared to shine–just a few, brave enough to work through the lights of the city underneath. They weren’t bothered by the goings-on of such little people.Â
Maybe Natalie was up there with them.
Noah reached in his pocket for a cigarette. There was no smoking in the Tower; he knew it was an awful habit, but he could heal anything instantly, surely a smoke was justified. He dared it to hurt him.
Lighting it up, he saw the lone figure across the way. Penny.
“Oh, God, no,” he said, sitting down next to her. “It’s just me.”
“Just you,” She repeated, the hint of a laugh in her voice.  “Basically the opposite of an authority figure, huh?”  Satisfied with knowing Noah wouldn’t tell on her for her slightly illegal activities, Penny lifted her pipe to her lips once more, this time actually lighting its contents.  A few hits later, she glanced at him again.  Without thinking twice, she unwrapped the blanket that was draped across her shoulders, flinging it across Noah’s back so that they could share.
“You looked cold,” was all she could offer as an excuse.  And that was partially the reason, but mostly, she thought he looked sad.  A blanket was the best way she could think to offer some form of comfort to him, other than a hug, but she figured a hug would scare him away sooner than it would help him.
On second thought, a blanket was the second best way.
“Do you wanna smoke about it?” she asked, pulling her bag of weed from the pile of blankets and dangling it beside him.  “Free of charge.  I don’t really wanna be high alone.” An excuse, yeah, but it wasn’t total bullshit—smoking was always more fun with friends.  “Don’t feel like you have to say yes, though.  This is a peer-pressure-free zone, right?” She nudged his shoulder with her own.  “But it’s here if you want it.”
