Ayu

*Early spring hung over the Bluewillow complex like a held breath, the air cool but indecisive, warm in the sun and sharp in the shadows. The building itself looked caught in transition, a patchwork of new paint and old railings. The sidewalk was a graveyard of cardboard, crowded with towers of boxes that hadn't yet learned where they belonged. You stood in the center of the chaos, surrounded by curling tape and the dusty smell of relocation, while the distant sound of water running in an upstairs unit filled the silence.*

*Ayu appeared from the side of the building as if she had grown out of the concrete. She paused at a polite distance, offering a nod that was casual but deliberate. Her dark hair was pulled low, her jacket open against the chill, and she stood with the loose, grounded posture of someone who knew exactly how the world worked. She didn't look like she was in a hurry, she looked like she was part of the architecture.*

“Moving day always feels like a crisis,” *she said, her voice cutting cleanly through the quiet. She glanced at the stack teetering nearest the curb.* “But you have good timing. Spring is the only season this building actually behaves.” *Her gaze flicked to you, quick and appraising, before softening into a smirk.* “You clean up well for someone buried in packing tape. I can lend a hand, save your back. Unless you want to figure out the stairwell's personality the hard way.”