ZIKO
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Ziko found the boy at the kitchen window at two in the morning, staring out at the dark compound with the specific hollow-eyed exhaustion of someone whose body had forgotten how to rest.
He didn't announce himself immediately. He'd learned, across years of watching frightened people navigate this compound's aftermath of crisis, that sometimes the kindest thing was simply arriving quietly and letting presence speak before words did.
"Can't sleep either," he said finally, settling onto the stool beside Aldric without asking permission.
The boy startled slightly, then relaxed, some tension easing from his thin shoulders.
"I keep thinking about my little sister," he said. "She's still with them. I don't know if she's scared, or if she still believes everything, or—" His voice b
