Archive of Our Own

Firefly’s eyes flutter down for a second, easily noticed by Robin, making the idol smile cheekily as she knew that her girlfriend could never hide the want to kiss her to save her life, leaning in just to be interrupted by her “Y-You have to be on set in five minutes…”

She leans even closer, just enough so that their lips could meet at the faintest of movements. Robin’s voice is barely louder than a whisper, “That means we have a couple of minutes then?”

Firefly’s will to resist completely shatters as her hands fly up and grip the front of the jacket, she closes the minuscule distance that was left between them.

Robin rushes to the set, fixing the ribbon on her neck and securing the deep purple cape on her shoulders, she gets in there just in time for the director to start giving instructions for the scene. Meanwhile Firefly discreetly enters the restroom, standing in front of the mirror she sees how disheveled her appearance is. Her hair is ruffled, the tie around her neck is crooked and the first couple of buttons on her white shirt are unbuttoned. 

She couldn’t be more grateful that everyone was too busy to see her.

Later, after all of Robin’s scenes are wrapped up, they walk towards the parking lot in the cold breeze of the night. Firefly had just notified Gallagher that this day’s schedule was complete. As they wait for him to come pick them up, she notices Robin carrying a bag and the sword her character had used “Oh, didn’t I tell you? They’re letting me keep the costume”, she winks and Firefly can’t do anything but silently thank the person in charge of this decision.

As the days turn into a week and the week into almost a month, the gossip and showbiz newsletters seem more interested in newer topics than Robin’s dating scandal and the appearance of a new bodyguard. However the idol’s fan base has only grown more interested in the new addition to Robin’s security team; a quite physical interest, to be specific.

Stelle watches barely containing her laughs as the non-stop notifications make her phone vibrate violently on the table, choosing to laugh after March’s comment had been blatantly ignored, Silver Wolf’s body shakes each time a snicker slips out of her mouth. Across the table Robin and Firefly, the subject of their conversation, try to ignore the buzzing and chiming coming from the small device to no avail as Robin’s eyes dart across the room just to glance at it once again and Firefly’s face grows redder by the second. She mutes the notifications when March comes back with their pizza and almost drops it when trying to stifle her laughter. 

It was no secret that her roommate had caught the attention of a good part of Robin’s fanbase, ironically some shipped her and Robin while a smaller but very loud part of it was slightly more interested in the ‘bodyguard’ herself, much to her embarrassment and the idol’s conflict.

“If they wanted people to stop paying attention to Firefly, they have failed miserably” Silver Wolf looks over Stelle’s shoulder, who was scrolling through the several new comments on a picture she had posted the last time she went to the gym, although the main focus of the picture was herself, her roommate was still exercising on the back. People noticed and it didn’t take long for her normal posts about baseball, normally with comments asking for workout help, now were filled with people asking if Firefly was single and even starting speculations over the kind of relationship between the idol and the bodyguard. Stelle even began to read the comments out loud for a few seconds before Silver Wolf and Firefly begged her to stop with mortification. 

Robin was happy to see that a very large part of her fanbase thought they looked cute together, even saving a couple fanarts and showing them to Firefly; what she didn’t expect was the group of people eyeing her girlfriend. Her feelings were left a little torn on it; while she fully agreed with them on Firefly being really good looking, a small part of her felt a little jealous even with Firefly being quite oblivious, making her feel a little foolish for worrying over something so insignificant. Feeling as if she had a little devil on her shoulder protesting louder and louder by the longer she read them, until Firefly asked her to pay no mind. Although it seemed she subconsciously still paid some, causing a minor slip up when they were leaving an interview for the press tour for ‘The Eternal Freeze’ along with her cast mates. 

Traversing into another sea of camera flashes and rapidly fired questions both idol and bodyguard are slowly making their way out to be picked up when one specific question reaches Robin’s ears. “Miss bodyguard! It seems you’ve gathered quite the attention online and many are dying to know, are you currently single?”

Firefly almost stumbles from the sudden question and looks at the reporter like a deer in headlights; who surely works for some tabloid, given the nature of the question. Before she can stutter out a vague answer Robin takes a step closer and slides her hand up Firefly’s arm and grabs her by the bicep, “Sorry, we don’t have time for questions now.”

Firefly just mindlessly follows her girlfriend, ignoring the rising number of cameras clicking and words from other reporters.

Sunday sits next to one of the label’s public and social media managers, in front of them a monitor shows a very detailed metric analysis regarding the public opinion on Robin’s new ‘companion’, contrary to the label’s initial beliefs this managed to get quite the positive attention on Robin. Her social media accounts had a rise in followers, the media paid a little extra attention to her outings and the few more romantic sounding songs also experienced a rise in streams, just with a very minimal amount of negative opinions that were completely crushed under the positive ones.

“Well Mr. Oak, if it were for me, those two would be totally public by now. Look at these numbers!”

Sunday shifts in his seat, turning his head slightly, giving a slightly serious look at the manager, “Well, it’s not like my sister would be very happy about using her girlfriend as a publicity stunt”, the manager’s hands shot up quickly realizing the way he said it, apologizing over his choice of words.

“Oh no, not at all like that! I meant that if the executives were worried about Robin losing popularity, there is nothing to fear about it, the negative opinions are practically invisible”. Although not all of the PR team was on board, they stopped sending Sunday reminders for Robin and Firefly to be more discreet, letting them have a little more freedom on their outings.

Robin thanks the live show host for the interview, the audience applauds as she leaves to the backstage. She exhales, her workload finally done for the day and wishing to do nothing but cuddle and eat dinner with the most important girl in her life. Who happens to be standing in the hall, waiting for her; a couple of days have passed since the little ‘post-interview incident’ and instead of the scolding she expected they weren’t even told anything. Her brother had said that a part of the public relations team were starting to see that it really hadn’t done any tangible damage to her career, so they just weren’t scrutinizing their public interactions as much as before. Firefly had also been noticeably relaxed as the pressure around them eased up over the last month, relief replacing previous anxieties as many excitedly speculated over the possibility of a romantic relationship between the two of them.

“Good job, miss Robin. Shall we go now?”  The idol and her body guard head towards the exit, both eager to spend their evening together, Firefly’s phone buzzes with a notification and she stops their walk after checking it.  “Wait, Gallagher just sent me a message. He says we have to take a different route, there’s way more paparazzi and reporters than normal”, they discreetly head towards the back exit of the building and Firefly checks for any unwanted camera lenses or microphones. After making sure the coast is clear, she calls for Robin and escorts her along the alleyway towards the back of the building where Gallagher will get them.

Just as they turn the corner and get out of the narrow path, they hear a shout in the distance “They’re over there!”. Turning to the side Firefly sees a collection of people holding cameras turning towards them, a flurry of camera flashes already starting.

“Miss Robin, our position has been compromised”, she doesn’t notice when her words spill out in such a serious tone before she takes a hold of the idol’s hand to rush away from the crowd. She hears Robin let out a burst of laughter, her thoughts quickly catching up with what she just said and feeling the burn of embarrassment on her face as they run towards the car.

“Awww, don’t be embarrassed, it was cute!”

“It shouldn’t be cute!”

The blue light of a computer screen showing various posts showing fans gushing about the speculated couple dimly lights a dark and messy room, several posters and not so official pictures of Robin cover up the walls in a corner of the room, a small table displays various pieces of merchandise, the only space in the room that is spared of the descent into insanity, while the rest of the room is covered in pieces of paper and trash.

In a small space on the wall behind the monitor there are pictures of a different person, Robin’s ‘new and temporary bodyguard’, all of which are in a state completely opposite from the ones of the idol. All the pictures are damaged in various kinds of ways; some are torn, others have holes in them, wide and violent as if they had been stabbed repeatedly. Alongside them there’s papers filled with nonsensical, rage fueled, sentences and threats. A beat up printer whirrs and a new piece of paper comes out of it, showing the private information of this person: addresses, phone numbers and full names. 

The paper is quickly stapled on the wall next to the picture of his objective.

“You will regret this”

“Nice posing Miss Robin, now we can continue with the next props after the break. Editing team, please come with me, the rest can take a 15 minute break!”

Robin thanks the staff before leaving the shooting area to rest in the dressing room she was assigned to. She glances at the clock, the hands move closer to midnight, Robin sighs, “I won’t get home tonight, I just know it…” As the day of the charity concert approaches the production of the last pieces of promotional material picks up pace, making the idol grow even more busy, adding to the creation of promotional material, she has more interviews and preparation of signed merchandise to work on.

Given the increasingly hectic schedule, Firefly had been staying over some nights, both to help as much as she could with the demanding work hours and to take care of her girlfriend, who tried to play off the rising levels of stress claiming that she knew that a heavy routine wasn’t something new for her, Firefly knew she couldn’t make her workload smaller but she could make it more bearable with small gestures like always having food ready for her or carrying her to bed when she fell asleep on the car ride back at the end of the workday.

She walks back to her dressing room for a few minutes of rest and spots both Gallagher and Firefly talking by the water cooler near it. She can see the faint bags under her girlfriend’s eyes, a product of the late working hours from the past few days, the guilt that tries to seep into her mind gets shoved aside when Firefly notices her. Whatever trace of tiredness vanishes from both their faces when they wave hello to each other, Robin looks around her to check if any members of the staff are watching before quickly blowing her a kiss, Firefly chuckles and moves her hand as if to catch it.

Robin opens the door and steps inside the dressing room giggling, on the table her dinner awaits for her, before she gets to get a part of it her phone buzzes with notifications. She pulls it out, expecting a text from her brother telling her about the next day’s workload but instead of the following day's schedule what greets her is a couple of texts, that the more she reads the more her heart fills with appallment.

Unknown Number

Why are you doing this? (10:45 pm)

Why would you lie to all of us, you're really throwing us away for this worthless bug beside you? (10:45 pm)

Do you have no respect!?  (10:46 pm)

End this stupid affair, My Angel. (10:46 pm)

The so-called ‘Little Bug', this Firefly Samuels, is not worth it! (10:46 pm)

The idol stared at the screen, the words blurring slightly by the shaking of her hands. It was very much on the nose what this person was talking about, making her blood freeze and like the air in her lungs was not enough. The phone fell to the floor as her eyes darted around the room, trying to find the nearest place to sit on.  Her legs wobble as they take her towards the chair in front of the vanity table, she wipes the cold sweat from her face with her hand, while the other grips the edge of the table.

How did this person know? Did the information get leaked somehow? Had they been too careless? Robin had always known that she could be vulnerable to something like this, unfortunately many of her music industry colleagues had been on the receiving end of unreasonable demands and the threats that were not only directed at themselves but frequently at the people they cared for the most.

Ever since she had started to date Firefly, Robin had decided that she would do everything she could to protect her from any harm that could come for her produced by the darker side of fame. In every secret date she would occasionally glance around, just in case anyone had noticed them, their limited physical contact was a preventative measure so no one could guess what they were to each other. So no one could know just how much she loved Firefly and treat their relationship like a spectacle for the masses to enjoy. 

Then she acted imprudently and Firefly had been shoved under the spotlight because of her.

The later speculation had given Robin hope that she would be able to shout out from the rooftops that she was in love. She had thought that maybe, just maybe, she could tell the world she had a loving girlfriend and that everything would be just fine but these messages in front of her were the worst possible scenario they could have been put on.

And she would not let harm come for Firefly.

Sunday’s discussion with the photography staff to authorize the use of the last pictures taken is interrupted when his phone buzzes in his pocket. When he sees his sister’s name on the screen, he excuses himself from the photographer’s office to take Robin’s call. 

“Hi, did you need something-?” 

“Sunday, please come to my dressing room now, something happened. Bring Gallagher with you too.”

Sunday stays quiet for a few seconds, the tone on his sister’s voice is tense and anxious, the feeling that something grave has happened crawls into his stomach before answering.

“Robin, what happe- are you alright? Do you want me to bring Firefly too?”

“Don’t! Please, I… I don’t want her to be involved in this; I’ll explain it later”

Sunday’s questions just grow but given how urgent his sister’s petition sounds urgent, he puts the unease aside and rushes to look for the head of security. He looks around and walks up to both bodyguards, Sunday makes sure to have a calm expression on his face before getting their attention. “Sorry for interrupting your conversation but I need Gallagher to… discuss something.”

Firefly nods in acknowledgement but Gallagher stares at him for a couple of seconds before following him. Both men walk to the dressing room, as Sunday raises his hand to knock Gallagher puts his hand on his shoulder, “So, wanna tell me what this is really about? I know when you are lying and it seemed to me that you didn’t want Firefly here.” Sunday glances back at him for a moment before raising his hand again.

“I’m about to find out too, and for that other part, Robin was the one that asked to not to bring her.”

They read the messages, Sunday’s face shows more concern by word he reads and Gallagher steps away before finishing, he sighs and fishes out his phone “I’ll call the police and, by protocol, also the board of directors…I’ll also arrange for a place for you to stay for the moment, just in case.” He walks away from the halovian siblings, Sunday finally asks the question that has been wandering his mind since he stepped into the room.

“Why don’t you want to tell Firefly about this? She’s also mentioned in this… maniac’s blabbering”.

“It’s exactly because of that. She’s been taking her temporary job very seriously, training with Gallagher everyday, always looking over my shoulder to protect me. What if this person tries to do something and she’s hurt? I…”- A memory flashes in her mind, one of a gentle voice and a tight embrace followed by nothingness- “I can’t do that again.”

Sunday stays silent for a moment, his eyes show the moment he understands why and he tentatively reaches out for her, “Robin… That never-” before he can answer Gallagher comes back with news.

“The police are on their way, told me we should cancel any remaining activities for safety and as for our dear board of executives, they’re holding an emergency meeting right now.”

Despite walking away, the head of security heard Robin’s reasoning to keep the secret and while he understood her reasoning, he still shared the same concerns as Sunday but at the moment he preferred to handle what was in front of him. Gallagher opens the door, intending to tell the photoshoot staff about the halting of their work before Robin calls for him. “Gallagher, I’ll tell Firefly she can leave earlier. Please, go with her and make sure she gets home safely”. He nods and leaves, closing the door behind him.

Robin

Hi (11:00 pm)

Just wanted to tell you that you can leave earlier today, I think we’re gonna take some more time in this (11:00 pm)

Firefly

(11:01 pm)   Oh, really?

(11:01 pm)   Are you sure you don't want me to stay just in case you need anything?

Robin

Oh, no, I’ll be fine (11:01 pm)

I just don’t want to make you pull this many late nights in a row (11:02 pm)

I asked Gallagher to give you a ride, he’ll come looking for you in a bit (11:02 pm)

Firefly

(11:02 pm) I'm fine doing late nights, I get to spend more time with you 🥺

(11:02 pm)   But thank you for telling Gallagher, see you tomorrow, love you ❤️

Robin

Love you too (11:03 pm)

Goodnight 😘(11:03 pm)

“- And this is the first time you have received any messages of this nature?”

“There have been a couple of weird messages here and there but never to my personal number or in this manner”

A couple of officers arrived at the studio not long after Gallagher returned from dropping off Firefly, one asked questions that were simple enough to open a proper investigation while the other checked the room without leaving any centimeter of it unchecked. Sunday and Gallagher are asked about any potential leads or information leaks, the number of people that knew the reality of Firefly’s position as a temporary bodyguard was very limited, the board, the manager of PR, Firefly’s own family and friends. All of them had very little to gain and much more to lose for going around spreading the truth to anyone, especially with the result of it. 

“No bugs nor any kind of wires in here”- The second officer proclaims as the last drawer is closed- “Seems that their approach hasn’t been physical at the moment, still, we need you to come to the station for further investigation.”

They are escorted to the nearest police station for the messages to be analyzed by a digital analyst investigator. Robin’s statement is taken by another group of officers, Sunday and Gallagher wait for her while taking calls to discuss with the board what actions should be taken next, they silently look at each other as they listen to the ‘new restrictions’ that were discussed in the earlier emergency meeting. While these were presented as mere safety measures it became increasingly obvious that it leaned more into covering up the issue than directly protecting both Robin and Firefly.

“I’ll inform Robin of this… Yes, the police are trying to trace the sender at the moment… No, it’s been taken care of already… I understand.”

Just as Sunday ends the call his sister comes back along with a small group of officers and what seems to be detectives, a woman with white and red hair stops typing on the tablet she carries and steps ahead of the group “Mr Oak, I’m Detective Yelena and I’ll be in charge of this case. Our analyst has successfully identified the approximate area where the messages were sent and the company the number was provided from, unfortunately we need a warrant to get the information regarding this individual, go through the records and pinpoint where to find them… Which can take a few days before it’s granted, not to mention the time it would take for them to provide the information to us. The most we can offer to you in the meantime is advice on the increase of security both in public and her residence.” 

Robin’s expression remains serious, her wings twitching and her hands moving in an anxious manner as Gallagher drives them towards her temporary new home. The constant presence of that word in her life in the recent month seems like irony to its meaning at this point, Sunday just relayed her the decision of the board regarding the current situation and part of her is bemoaning the lack of rest she will have the next day- or more accurately, later this day, judging by the clock on the wall of the main hall of the police station ticking a little closer to 2 o’clock in the morning by the time they left the station. Robin is certain the energy she’ll have by then is far lower than she would preferably need to try and manage the situation with her girlfriend.

The board seemed to be regretting every decision that took them to Firefly, being next to Robin for most of the day so far but suddenly pulling her out of the public eye when a specific timeline was given seemed like another can of speculation and questioning they didn’t want to deal with at the moment. So they opted for the next easier option, making a new set of rules for both of them to follow that practically boiled down to ‘put on a noticeable distance, both emotionally and physically, in public’, in hopes to try and de-escalate the ‘aggression’ -an understatement, really- being sent their way in the meantime this person could be apprehended.

However long that would really take.

“You can lean on me”

Robin shakes her head a little, trying to be more awake when she hears Firefly talking to her, “What?”

“It’s just… you look tired. So, you can sleep on my shoulder and I’ll wake you up when we get there”

Robin nods and puts her head on Firefly’s shoulder, but before she closes her eyes, the idol catches Sunday looking at them through the rear view mirror with apprehension. Robin had not been able to find a way to let Firefly know about the new rules that had been applied, which certainly would seem as ‘out of nowhere’, without making her worry as much as possible. Time had gone a little quicker than she would’ve liked and it would come down as a trial by fire, in the form of an enthusiastic crowd of journalists, paparazzi and fans welcoming her for a small interview on a morning show.

Firefly gently nudges Robin’s shoulder to wake her up when the car stops, waiting for them and Gallagher to step into the sidewalk. Robin puts on the best smile she can as the door is opened by Gallagher, she steps out and takes a few extra steps than normal. The idol keeps a distance that, while it’s not that different from usual, it’s noticeable for Firefly. She saw how Robin waved and smiled as normal but seemed a little eager to get inside the building as quickly as possible. She briefly glanced at Gallagher, but he didn’t seem to share her confusion, the older bodyguard simply went ahead as normal. Firefly quickly followed as usual, except for the odd little distance. She shook her head and continued as normal, ‘It’s just me focusing on weird things, it’s probably nothing, right?’.

Firefly found it harder to believe it was her mind playing tricks on her as the interview carried out. Robin kept what could be described as a ‘professional distance’, and not just in that moment. All the time they were preparing her in the dressing room backstage, as they walked to greet the host, even when she waved at her before the interview started Robin just gave her a polite smile. Firefly knew the distance they did have to keep in public but it had never been like this, it felt like Robin had really drawn a line on the sand for some reason that still was unknown to her. Gallagher occasionally glanced at Firefly, as if checking on her from a distance. Halfway through the interview she approached him to find out what was happening, “Mister Gallagher, did something happen yesterday after I left?”

“...Not to my knowledge” The older bodyguard flipped his lighter across his fingers, not looking directly at her. Firefly stares at him for a couple of seconds, a feeling of unease slowly starts pitting in her stomach. She looks back at the stage as the host wraps up the interview as Robin says goodbye to the live audience, Gallagher stands up to take his usual front position to escort the idol back. Firefly sighs and follows suit by stepping to the side, maybe Robin is just not feeling well at the moment and wants some space. 

She once again tries to not think too hard about it as Robin once again keeps a small distance from her, the charity concert is only a couple of days away and work has been piling up, it could all be because of stress.

Firefly didn’t really have any chances of talking with Robin in private for the rest of the day, there was always something to do, something to run final checks on and so many little details to check over, she spots Sunday standing at the other side of the room talking on his phone as Robin is in the middle of thanking the staff members in the filming team for the final promotional video, scheduled to be published in a couple of hours leaving just the final rehearsal at the concert venue in her workload. As she steps closer she can see the movements of his free hand, they make him look tense and his voice has a harsh tone.

“Yes, I understand you are following standard procedures that the company has set for these cases but you cannot ignore that she’s”- He almost jumps when he realizes Firefly is at his side but quickly regains his composure- “I’ll call you back later…” Sunday quickly hangs up and turns to face Firefly, the subtle discomfort on his eyes does nothing to help quelling the feeling that her girlfriend, Gallagher and Sunday are keeping something important from her.

“...Sunday, did something happen yesterday?” He smiles, a small smile that barely hides how desperately it wants to communicate a sense of calm, but all it does is confirm Firefly’s suspicion.

“No, why do you ask?”

Robin’s heart races as Firefly takes her seat beside her when they finally wrap up all the remaining activities for the day, not in the normal way it races when she’s near. As the car turned on, the silence that lasted a quite uneasy amount of seconds was ended by her girlfriend's warm hand over her own and her hushed voice, “...Are you alright?” 

Robin looks at her directly, she had expected to be asked about the sudden distance between them after seeing how Firefly’s confusion and concern had grown over the day. Instead she asked about Robin’s well being first, “I’m ok Little Bug… I’m- I-” Echoes of rubble falling and a broken yell resonate in her head “- I’m just a little tired you know?  But there’s still the big final rehearsal tomorrow so I’m glad we got to go home early today, aren’t you?”

Hurt flashes on Firefly’s eyes and Robin feels the guilt dropping on her stomach, knowing of her girlfriend’s past experiences with trust, “Robin… Did something happen yest-?” Firefly then looks up in confusion. The streets they are driving through are not the ones near Robin’s house, in fact, they are in the opposite side of town. “Uh… Where are we going?”

Robin quickly answers with a half of the truth, “I’ll be staying in a apartment just for a bit, the concert venue is closer and it will help with the final rehearsal tomorrow and the concert itself”.

Firefly doesn’t reply, she simply looks at her, trying to piece together what could be happening. She lowers her face as questions start to fill her mind. Just what could’ve happened in the span of a few hours that would make her act like this with her? Why is Robin being so secretive, is there something she feels that she shouldn’t share? She tries hard to keep her growing anxiety in check as the car finally stops in front of an luxurious looking apartment building, Gallagher stays silent while Sunday exits the car but he doesn’t open the door for his sister yet.

Seeing the conflicted expression on Firefly’s face, Robin can’t help but reach for her hand and squeeze it lovingly. Her girlfriend once again looks her way, “Good night, love you”. Robin kisses her cheek and opens the door, Sunday leads her quickly inside before Firefly can say anything else. Gallagher looks at her through the rear view mirror, his voice carries a kind tone “I’ll take you home, it’s getting late”.

The trip home is quiet, the only noise in the vehicle coming from the songs that played on the radio with low volume and the typical sounds of the city at night. Firefly now sat on the front next to Gallagher, her finger tapping against her leg. When they finally arrive Firefly says a small goodbye and steps out closing the door carefully when Gallagher rolls the window down and stops her for a second, “It’s… it’s ok, everything is going to be ok, don’t worry about it”. The girl doesn’t even have a chance to say anything before he drives away, leaving her standing for a couple of seconds on the sidewalk contemplating what he could mean by that.

For Robin to say that she was feeling like guilt had wrapped it’s hands around her neck and had been hanging off her back all day long felt like an understatement, she had failed to come up with a simple and non-worrying explanation for her, making her girlfriend start to worry… As opposite of what she wanted, now she sat on the edge of her bed staring at an unsent message on the screen of her phone now with a brand new number, yet another thing to explain to Firefly, Robin takes a deep breath before hitting the send button.

Robin

(10:32 pm) Hi, have you eaten dinner yet?

(10:32 pm) It’s me, Robin, I got a new number 😅

Firefly

Yeah, I’m just getting ready for bed (10:33 pm)

A new phone number?   (10:33 pm)

Did something happen with the previous one? (10:34 pm)

Robin nervously taps the sides of her phone and starts typing her response, her explanation is written shortly and hopefully believable.

Robin

(10:34 pm) Well, it’s not something bad on it’s own?

(10:34 pm) It’s just that I’ve been getting a lot of spam texts, it was getting a little annoying

(10:35 pm) So, I changed numbers, hopefully no one calls me about a car insurance again 🤭

She sees the little ‘Typing’ message pop up and how it stops for a few seconds before resuming, she knows what Firefly is about to ask and starts to type her own explanation for it.

Firefly

I see (10:36 pm)

Robin, about today. What happened? You were a little… distant with me (10:36 pm)

Robin

(10:37 pm) Sorry about that, Little Bug

(10:37 pm) It’s just that I’ve been a little tired from all his week’s work

(10:37 pm) But I was thinking, how about we go on vacation after the concert?

(10:38 pm) Just you and me, somewhere with a beach maybe? ☺️

While it was true that Robin had wanted to take her girlfriend on a nice vacation, with their second anniversary coming up soon she couldn’t help but plan something special. Even though she had been eyeing a couple of tickets for a few days now, her real intention was to get both of them out of the city for a while, that way both of them could be safe while the police searched for the person behind those messages. She would be able to actually protect and get Firefly away from the danger she had put her in. The conversation managed to be steered away from the original topic, they kept talking about potential future plans of walks by the shore and nights spent by a fireplace until the idol drowsily bid Firefly a good night and sweet dreams.

Firefly turned and tossed in her bed, sleep taunting her and the last words from Gallagher spinning on her mind and the gut wrenching feeling that Robin did not trust her and that she did not hesitate in lying to her.

“It’s fine Firefly, you don’t need to worry about it, we can handle it.” Firefly doesn’t even get a chance to say anything before her classmates walk away carrying the box Firefly had on her hands not so long ago and discussing on gathering the necessary materials for their upcoming graduation project. She had tried to grab a box containing the necessary pieces for the group to work on their laboratory due next week but she could only reach so far up while in a wheelchair and despite managing to drag the box closer her grip wasn’t as strong as needed and it fell on her lap, almost spilling its contents all over her and the floor.

Ever since her accident she had been using a wheelchair, even with an upcoming rehabilitation with a local hospital’s physical therapy department a lot of the people around her had seemed to come to the same conclusion, that her current state had rendered her helpless. Many classmates looked at her with poorly concealed pity and unsolicited, or in occasion, even forced help with plenty of physical tasks. Teachers asked constantly or directly gave her extensions on assignments even though her hands worked perfectly fine. Of course there were acts of kindness that were appreciated, like someone holding a door open for her or helping her find an elevator when she had to attend classes on upper levels in the building. Her roommates had even helped her by carrying her up the stairs when no other option was available and installed a couple of railings around their place. But being regarded as ‘too weak’, ‘incompetent’ or not even trusted to be as capable as any other person was truly one of the worst feelings she had faced.

The day dragged on the same as yesterday, Robin kept a professional distance with her in public and trying to act like nothing was wrong in private while both Sunday and Gallagher had silently agreed to pretend everything was carrying on as usual no matter how subtly she tried to get hints. Firefly had woken up determined to find out what could be happening for Robin to: keep an unusual distance, live in a new apartment ‘temporarily’ on the other side of town, change her number and lie to her. No matter what it was, she would help Robin on everything she could, come hell or high water.

The street is almost desert as they step out into the cold breeze of the night after the final meeting with the hospital board to review the final proceedings that would be done after the concert to ensure the donations would be transferred without much of an issue and discuss the projections of how much could be raised from the event, coordinating post-concert interviews with both Robin and the hospital’s director. Sunday and Gallagher had left to get the car while Robin and Firefly waited for them sitting on a bench, unusually, this time the idol had brought her own coat. So far she had always seemed to ‘forget’ to bring it, shamelessly enjoying when her girlfriend put her own on her shoulders every night, but this time she had just wordlessly put on her own. Of course, this action could be attributed to a new email she had received in the morning, with even more instructions of how she ‘should’ be acting in public for the foreseeable future.

It wasn’t like Robin could tell Firefly about it, and now they sat next to each other in silence as the few people left on the street started to leave as time went on. It wasn’t one of those comfortable silences, Robin had seen Firefly trying to ask questions during the day and now it seemed like a good time for Firefly to try and ask her. Robin sighed internally as her girlfriend turned to face her, knowing where this conversation would be going.

“Robin… I know that you, Sunday and Gallagher have avoided telling me what happened... I’m not mad or anything, it’s just that it looks like it may be something serious and it’s worrying. The way you have put distance between us in public, the new apartment, the phone number change? It was all so sudden” -Robin adverts her eyes to the sidewalk, her hands clench with nervousness- “I know I might not be a professional like Gallagher but I-”

The car arrives as Robin smiles at her once again, she hopes it doesn’t show any of the inner turmoil she has carried over the past couple of days. Just as she wants to say something to reassure Firefly that everything is fine, she sees how her girlfriend slowly tries to reach for her hand, her eyes begging for just a second to just talk. Robin freezes for a second when she sees a flashing light out of the corner of her eye, quickly putting her hand away, her eyes flicker to the source of the light and she sees a small group of friends laughing and posing for pictures.

Her relief is short-lived as she turns her sight back to Firefly, her hand still reaching out but now frozen in the air, her face now filled with hurt as her eyes flick between Robin and her hand.

Firefly didn’t know what to say, it was the first time ever that Robin had pulled away from her like that. Before all of this it was fairly normal of them to look around before doing something as small as brushing their hands, sure, they had to put a bit of distance in a handful of occasions but it had never been like this. Robin had never pulled away like she had been burnt, she had never looked around in such panic… And Firefly had never thought about how much it would hurt to see Robin jolt away from her like that.

She looks briefly to where Robin had looked at before, a group of people were talking, laughing and taking pictures in front of a small restaurant. Robin opens and closes her mouth, clearly not knowing exactly what to say, and she knows her own expression is not hiding any of her emotions at all. Firefly drops her arm to her side, sighs with sadness and a small hint of frustration. She turns away to walk down the sidewalk to the nearest bus stop “I’m… I’ll just go home now”.

“Firefly wait, it’s late for you to be out on-”

“I’ll go with her, Robin. Gallagher, take my sister home please.”

EMERGENCY MEETING

charmonyDove83

So, I suppose you’re all wondering why I’ve gathered you in this group chat tonight (9:40 pm)

(I know it’s daytime for some but timezones aside, this is important) (9:40 pm)

BananaNana

Bury it underneath an endangered plant, problem solved (9:40 pm)

PaperClasher

Declare bankruptcy (9:40 pm)

charmonyDove83

Now why would you both assume I would need to do this?? (9:41 pm)

ChimeraManager

Work’s getting boring, whats happening? (9:41 pm)

TuskpirWraper

I’m in class, what happened? are u ok? (9:41 pm)

HanusClaw

Being added to a group chat named emergency (capitalized btw) at 2 am in this accursed site sure is not concerning at all (9:41 pm)

charmonyDove83

Thank you chimera and tusk for being the only trustworthy ones in dire times /j (9:42 pm)

First of all I wanna remind everyone present that I despise the paparazzi ok? So when I say this, remember that I would never upload it and as a matter of fact I just cropped it out (9:42 pm)

HanusClaw

Girl, what? (9:42 pm)

PaperClasher

Tf did you do? (9:43 pm)

ChimeraManager

Huh? (9:43 pm)

charmonyDove83

LET ME FINISH (9:43 pm)

I went out for dinner with a few friends bc we hadn’t seen each other in a long time and when we were saying our goodbyes we were taking a couple of selfies and all that but I was recording the whole thing, a nice video for us to have (9:43 pm)

I got home a few minutes ago and I was checking it and I saw something on the corner I accidentally recorded and OH MY AEONS (9:44 pm)

BananaNana

…Dove, do you need to go into witness protection? (9:44 pm)

TuskpirWraper

Lawyer up like, yesterday (I say this as a law student) (9:44 pm)

charmonyDove83

WAIIIITTTTT IM NOT DONE (9:45 pm)

ChimeraManager

TYPE FASTER (9:45 pm)

YOURE MAKING ME NERVOUS (9:45 pm)

charmonyDove83

Ok, so I saw that apparently I recorded a certain idol we’re all fans of with you-know-who and Idk if they were arguing or something but she reached for Robins hand and she pulled away like the world would end if she touched her…. AND THE BODYGUARD LOOKED SO SAD BRO, LIKE, THE FACE SHE MADE HURT ME (9:46 pm)

ChimeraManager

…. (9:46 pm)

PaperClasher

So (9:46 pm)

This went in a direction I didn’t expect at all (9:46 pm)

HanusClaw

(⊙_⊙) (9:46 pm)

Are you like 100% sure it was them? (9:46)

charmonyDove83

YES, I TRIPLE-CHECKED (9:47 pm)

BananaNana

SO LIKE, WE WERE RIGHT???? THOSE TWO HAD THIS GOING ON AND SOMETHING HAPPENED?????? (9:47 pm)

TuskpirWraper

I have no idea what to do with this information (9:47 pm)

charmonyDove83

NOTHING, we don’t do anything with it. Like, we are keeping this in this chat only (9:47 pm)

I shut up, you guys shut up, everyone shuts up and we take this to our graves (9:47 pm)

      °°° Several people are typing…

The ride is as quiet as late-night bus trips can be, specially since neither Firefly or Sunday have said anything. Soon they reach the stop near Firefly’s home, Sunday walks silently behind her under the glow of old street lights. “Sunday, you really did not have to accompany me home”

“I’m just looking out for you, that’s all”

“It’s a rather safe neighborhood…”

“I know, I just don’t want Robin to worry too much-” Firefly stops and turns to look at the halovian with a clearly frustrated expression of discontent. He almost trips on his own feet, a little startled by the sudden action.

“Then why are all of you acting so weird? You and Gallagher have been pretending to being none the wiser! No matter how many questions I ask, I’m either given a vague answer or outright ignored. Even Robin has insisted on lying to my face for the past couple of days and I’m worried that something bad happened…” She sees him trying to string a sentence, but he also looks like he’s about to say something he knows that could be bad. A few seconds pass before Firefly takes a deep breath, “Sorry, It’s just… I feel like you are not trusting in me and I know, I really do- I know that I’m not a real bodyguard. My leg could be a problem if I got hurt, I don’t have years of training because I’m an electronics engineer that fixes instruments and I had a car accident that could’ve killed me… But I love Robin and would do anything if it meant she would be ok”.

Sunday looks at her, internally weighing his options and giving his sister a small apology for the next words that come out of him “…You would be right, something did happen”-Firefly’s eyes widen slightly, she had not expected for him to say much than what Gallagher had said the night before-“But you don’t need to worry since we already have it covered, us and the company, also Robin specifically asked both me and him to not say a word because she doesn’t want to make you concerned, all you need to know is that everything will be alright… So please, leave it to us”.

And so, even if it felt wrong, she decided to trust them and Robin; choosing to believe that maybe it had to do with something the company had asked of her. After Firefly got home she felt too tired to do anything else, and if she wanted to have a little conversation about what Sunday had said with Robin she would do so in person. However, those plans were quickly abandoned as she woke up by the screams of one her roommates.

She rushed out of her room, almost crashing into Silver Wolf in the hallway. “What’s happening? Why is Stelle screaming so early in the morning??”

The shorter girl rubs the sleep out of her eyes, “I wish I knew, I stayed up almost all night and now- this better be a life or death situation”. Silver Wolf groans, ready to smack Stelle in the head for waking her up.

“WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR CAR?” Now she joins in on the yelling, Firefly is the only one who is stunned enough to be silent as they watch the scene before them. Stelle’s car, that she called ‘her prized baby’, is in a completely different state than she had left it in the day before when she had returned from whatever new part time job she had now.

All four tires were slashed, doors scratched so violently to the point that in some parts the paint was completely off, the windows and windshield had been cracked. The rear view mirrors were in no better shape, one still hanged by its cables while the other laid on the ground. She could see a puddle of iridescent slick liquid trickling from underneath to the sidewalk, meaning the fuel tank had not been spared either.

“Did you make enemies recently or what??” Silver Wolf gestured to the trashed vehicle looking back at Stelle with shock. The taller girl waved her hands in defense as Firefly felt her phone buzz in her pocket.

“Wha- No! Why would you think that??”

“Maybe because this looks like someone is out for blood??”

“Well I haven’t- what are you doing now?”

“Taking pictures of your shell of a car, those vultures at the insurance company better not- Firefly?”

They look back at their friend, her face is drained from its color, she's looking at her phone with wide eyes. The girl seems to snap out of her thoughts for a second before looking back at the screen, her voice trembles slightly as she excuses herself.

“I- I'll be back in a few, uh, minutes…”

Before either of them can respond, Firefly runs back inside. The destroyed car now had taken a new meaning, it wasn’t an act of unprompted and nonsensical vandalism, it was a direct threat towards her and those she loves. An unknown number had sent a picture of her and Robin sitting next to each other in that bench last night, along with a message that froze her blood.

Unknown Number

That car is just a warning (6:00 am)

Stay away from her you worthless little insect, or you and your friends will get what’s coming for you (6:00 am)

Tell the cops or Robin and it won’t be only you the one it’s done for, she has been desecrated by you but there’s still some that could be saved (6:01 am)

Unless you ruin it, by you playing bodyguard again and revealing this conversation (6:01 am)

“Well, thanks for nothing!… Jerk”

Silver Wolf sighed as Stelle watched the police officer leave after barely inspecting the trashed vehicle while the claims adjuster takes her own pictures of it for her own report. As if he considered the situation to not be worthy of an investigation, he had indifferently declared that the lack of security camera footage and witnesses meant that there wasn’t much to be done about it. A few minutes later the claims adjuster approaches them while writing down various notes on her clipboard, “Luckily your insurance plan can cover for most of these damages… Not to agree with officer Skott but I do recommend installing a security camera, you can call me again if you ever need a copy of the damages report”

“Thank you, Miss Asta…”

Both girls share a look before glancing back to the front door, their roommate had not returned yet. They knew things had gotten tense with Robin, last night Firefly had returned by public transport instead of the usual drop-off. She looked tired and didn’t really talk about what had happened and right after eating dinner she turned in for the night. They agreed to give her some space but the alarmed expression in her face paired with the way she had hurried inside after looking at her phone had set a bad feeling on her stomachs.

“What… What the hell is this?”

Firefly stares at her phone, the disturbing messages had not stopped after the initial threat. A ‘deadline’ for Firefly to break up with Robin, that specifically counted down for the day of the concert, along with plenty of pictures, even one of her walking to the apartment building a couple of nights ago. Stelle’s car was a threat to their safety, it meant this person knew where to find everyone she cared about, sending these messages just after she saw the car meant they were watching.

‘Oh aeons, Robin, this person must also be spying on her… How near are they to her? This picture looks could have been taken from a very small distance’

A chill ran down her spine, her stomach churned by the mere idea of whoever this person was being nowhere near her girlfriend. They most likely would know if she went to the police, if she went to Robin… The sudden sound of the door opening startled her enough to drop the phone, sharply turning her head to where her concerned friends stood.

“Woah, why do you look like you saw a ghost?”

“I- I,” she attempts to pick it up, but the nervousness that coils in her stomach make her fumble, “I’m fine, it- it’s fine…“

“You don’t sound or look fine, what happened?”

Firefly glances up to them, then looks back at the phone for a few seconds before muttering out an excuse to leave for her room, ignoring their words. She rushes across the hallway and quickly shuts the door, her leg sends a weak protest for the sudden rapid movement without a proper warmup. Firefly sits down on the edge of her bed, her heart beats as if it was about to burst out of her chest, she reaches for her shark plush and holds it tight against her chest.

‘You have to calm down, panicking won’t help you, Robin or anyone’ Firefly takes a deep breath, her heartbeat steadying bit by bit, ‘A stalker… Your idol girlfriend has a stalker and this person knows about your relationship and they also threatened you and everyone around you…’ A knock breaks her out of her thoughts, she hears a muffled discussion among her roommates on the other side. She can’t hear them clearly but their tone is cautious, measuring their next actions.

“Let’s keep our voices down, we don’t want to stress her out more or make her feel cornered”

“I’m just worried, she looked down last night and when we came back she looked like she was two seconds away from throwing up”

Stelle raises her voice a bit, she talks in a gentle tone. Firefly losses up her grip, her hands aching from the force she had been applying for the last few seconds.

“Hey, Firefly… Are you ok? Can we come in?”

She looks back at her phone, with not many options on what to do next she knows it’s best to at least tell her friends about the reason for the commotion a couple of hours ago, “…You can come in, something happened…” The door opens slowly, Stelle and Silver Wolf enter the room with concerned expressions on their faces. Firefly squeezes the shark once more before grabbing the phone and wordlessly showing the messages.

She sees their faces change from confusion to terror and anger as time passes in what feels like an eternity. Firefly voices what she had been messily connecting over the last few seconds, “I don’t think Robin might’ve known… They specifically said to not go to her, why would they come for me and not her? With the way they texted… The idol is usually also attacked when stuff like this happens, something is weird about this-”, Silver Wolf holds her hand out, her expression is hardened and her eyes are filled with determination.

“Give me your phone for a second, we don’t need any flimsy cops for this part.”

Stelle hands Firefly a cup of tea as they stand behind Silver Wolf, waiting as the shorter girl’s hands fly across her keyboard. Firefly’s phone is hooked up to her computer while the monitor displays a console with commands running and pulling out some kind of information, meanwhile another console displays a series of numbers. Silver Wolf hasn’t uttered a word since she started doing whatever this was.

Stelle looks back to her friend, she could almost hear the thundering of the storm of thoughts brewing in her mind. “Hey, Firefly? I’m not sure of what Wolfie is doing but, whatever happens I’ll always have my bat ready… We’ve got your back, and Robin’s too”

“Thanks Stelle, but I-”

Silver Wolf almost jumps out of the chair as she raises her fists in victory, she turns to Firefly and Stelle with a proud grin “Got him!”

“What do you mean? Like, you found out who it is? It’s a guy?”

“Not only that, with a bit of time I’ll be able to get this creep’s full information! That phone company better update their security, that was almost sad… How is it that they haven’t been attacked yet is beyond-” Silver Wolf stops herself from rambling on the lackluster security, making a mental reminder to mock them later, and gets back into summarizing her work “-I got into their servers, yadda yadda and there it is… If anyone asks, it wasn’t me, I don’t know how to do this”

She types in something else and a file with all the information related to the phone number. The SIM card had been bought with cash in a minor branch just three days ago, Silver Wolf then pulled up another console, “I used your phone and a few cell towers near us and this branch, I’ll be able to find where these texts came from in a bit but I got some information on who he is… He apparently has been reported for harassment before… wow, the guy just sucks in general”

Firefly stares at the screen, despite that she’s still feeling scared and anxious from the threats, she can feel a deep resolution forming inside her. Unfortunately, she was no stranger to how bad these cases could get; she had been around idol fan bases before and had seen with her own two eyes one too many similar situations. After all, it was one of the reasons both her and Robin had agreed to keeping their relationship a secret in the first place. Firefly wanted to prevent any potential trouble of this caliber, although Robin’s fan base was tamer than others she preferred to not risk it.

The previous weeks had given her hope that maybe the worst case scenario would not happen, Robin even showed her some fanart she had found a few days ago and she hadn’t noticed anything that could hint at this either. But now this person not only had damaged one of her closest friends’ most cherished possessions but dared to make demands on her and Robin’s lives.

If involving the police was not possible, Firefly still had a pair of hands that worked just fine.

“-Really? Oh, Little Bug, please rest. I don’t want you to get worse…”

Firefly places her hand over her mouth, making coughing sounds and then pinching her nose and lowering her voice just enough for it to come out as sickly as possible. “I’ll be fine… I just don’t want to make anyone sick… It’s not that bad, I’ll be good as new tomorrow, I’m sure…”, she makes sure to sneak a little sniffle at the end.

“Alright, I’ll text you later, I have to go now… Uh, Firefly?”

“Y-yeah?”

“… I didn’t mean to do that yesterday, really…“

Firefly pauses for a second, Robin’s voice carries a truly apologetic tone. Seeing Robin pull away from her like that had been repeating over and over in her mind when she rode the bus next to Sunday, his words had given her the reassurance that this problem, whatever it was, was under control. She had spent a good part of the night thinking back on the clustered schedule Robin had followed the past month, all the late nights of work, she even had stayed over multiple times for the same reason. The stress was definitely affecting her a lot, and not just for the show but also for the lie of having a new bodyguard, she just had to extra patient and supportive.

“It’s fine Robin, I know that. I was just… surprised”

“I’ll make it up to you, I promise, just a couple of days more and we’ll be on a very relaxing vacation… And everything can go back to normal”

“Yeah, at last, huh?”

Both stay silent, their secrets covered by white lies and a refusal to not go beyond all for each other. Even if they are doing it out of love, the guilt still ties up around their words. “I’ll take a bit of medicine and a little nap, I think I’m too tired for anything today, talk to you later… Love you, Robin”

“Love you too, Firefly”

Firefly walks back inside Silver Wolf’s room taking place beside her, Stelle had gone out a couple of minutes ago to buy a security camera for their front door, leaving them both for planning their next move. “Already called in sick, as far as she knows I came down with something and I’m lying on my bed with a fever… Still, I feel bad for lying about this to her, she would tell me if anyone had threatened her safety”

“I know you don’t like it, but we don't have a clue of where he could be and he’s proven he can take action, it’s better we don’t provoke him at the moment”

“Yeah, it’s for the better… Have you found where the messages came from?”

Silver Wolf turns to her in her chair, handing her phone back and then turning back to her computer to type a few commands, “I managed to get the general area where they were sent from and sent it to you just now, getting the actual location is going to take a bit more time than I thought” She then gets off her chair and opens a drawer on her desk, inside there are various knickknacks and a box of black disposable face masks, she reaches for one and hands it to Firefly.

“Take this, and put on something discreet, just to prevent him from seeing you when you get there, I’ll sent you the address when I get it”.

Firefly waits for the bus to arrive at the stop, she had taken a long walk to a different stop than usual, the face mask keeps part of her face concealed and she pulls at the stings on her hoodie with nervousness. She occasionally glances around, trying to be on guard from any unwanted attention. The sound of the bus slowing down to let the passengers get out and welcome in the new ones breaks her out of her vigilance over the streets, she gets on the bus along with her fellow commuters as she glances her phone, Silver Wolf had just sent her a message telling her that she was almost done filtering the data to locate Robin’s stalker.

Silver Wolf

I’ll be done in a bit, just hang in there, lots of data to look through (11:50 am)

Oh and I got to make his messages disappear from your sight without giving away that you blocked him (11:51 am)

His messages will be sent to my computer so we can have evidence (11:51 am)

Firefly

(11:51 am) Thanks Wolfie, I owe you a big one

(11:52 am) Has Stelle returned yet?

Silver Wolf

Nah, you dont owe me anything, we're friends (11:52 am)

She hasnt come back yet, but she just texted me that she also got a camera (11:52 am)

Text me when you get there and please stick to the plan (11:53 am)

Firefly

(11:53 am) Get in, take pictures of evidence, get out

(11:53 am) Don’t worry, I’ve got it

The office was in a complete disarray, the extra amount of hours they had put in the past couple of days had been horrendous. The PR department had longer meetings and even longer arguments with both upper management and the security department, including Gallagher. Robin had been called in for the latest one, discussions of increasing security for the concert and balancing the public opinion were held heatedly as she sat almost at the end of the table watching how the many members of each department argued with her head of security.

“-We can’t just roll out this level of increased security without making the attendees nervous, it would cause panic and we don’t need any lawsuits from trampled audience members!”

“We can’t leave her exposed either!”

“We should have made this a misunderstanding, say that it was only for a couple of days, now we have a lunatic on our backs-”

“You mean Miss Oak and Miss Samuels’ backs”

“Well, clearly the PR department should have established these rules from the start!”

“So, now management is blaming them instead of doing everything to make sure no harm comes to them? Our job is handling her public presence, yours is to keep things going smoothly!”

“You can't deny that if it wasn’t for Samuels’ imprudence-!”

Robin clenches her fists and abruptly gets up from her chair when she hears the executive trying to shift the blame on to Firefly, the scrapping of the chair against the floor is loud enough for them to stop their dispute at the moment. Her shoulders tense, wings flaring up and her voice cracking with anger, the accumulating stress from the last couple of days slipping out from under the composure she had clung onto.

“Don’t you dare blame Firefly for ANY of this! She did everything you asked of her in your NDA, she played her role and kept the secret, unfortunately this not something that we can make disappear just like that. So right now we have to focus on catching this person before anyone is harmed!”

The executive grumbles with irritation, stopping when he sees Gallagher’s narrowed eyes and a raised brow as if he was warning him to think very carefully about the next words that would come out of his mouth. Robin takes a breath, her emotions once again under control, “I know that an increase in the security could bring more questions, but I don’t want to risk any staff or audience members and after the concert I’ll be going on hiatus… Something that has been publicly known ever since the world tour started”.

Before starting her latest tour it had been announced that, after the charity concert, Robin would be going into hiatus for an undisclosed amount of time. Initially it was meant to be for a few months, her vacation with Firefly fully taken into consideration, but with the looming threat of a stalker this would also be perfect for her to be out of sight and keep a low profile for as long as needed. Detective Yelena had left the meeting room earlier after explaining how the investigation process was advancing, even if it was at a laborious pace, they had managed to accelerate the process to get the warrant signed but it would most likely be done by the end of the week. Just a couple of days after the concert and the day she would leave with Firefly.

Gallagher rubs his chin, wanting nothing but to end the meeting on a more diplomatic note, “Miss Oak and Miss Samuels will be in a safer space as the police locates this person, and we’ll stick to the plan for as long as that takes. Me and the security team will keep on monitoring the situation.”

Robin sat on the back of the car and sighed, she had just texted Firefly to ask how she had been doing since they talked but had no answer so far, something odd for her girlfriend. When Firefly got sick, no matter if she was in town or not, they always had kept communication constant regarding her health. Robin smiles at a memory of a video call they had at the start of her tour. Firefly was a little ‘loopy’ as a side effect from a particularly strong medicine, it seemed like she had forgotten who she was talking with and started to gush for what felt like hours about her girlfriend.

“-And she’s so pretty, most beautiful woman to ever exist-” her rambling is interrupted by a strong cough, Robin could tell her face's redness would put the most perfect tomatoes to shame and yet, she didn’t attempt to interrupt Firefly.

“Sorry about that, it’s just that I’m so lucky Miss”

“I’m sure your girlfriend thinks the same, and she can’t wait to see you in person again”

“Really? How do you know that?”

Robin giggled before smiling with warmth, deciding to make a little reminder to Firefly, “Little bug, It’s me, your girlfriend, Robin”

Firefly paused for a second and focused her eyes on her, after a couple of seconds realization hit her like a train immediately followed by embarrassed mumbles.

The idol chuckles but a tiny hint of guilt stops her, she can’t help but feel like she had been responsible for Firefly having to stay in bed, stress can make people get sick spontaneously, Robin herself had dealt with fevers that seemed to pop out of nowhere after stressful periods of work. Robin scolded herself for it, she had been directly responsible for making her girlfriend have a difficult time in the last couple of days… An idea pops into her mind, she had promised Firefly she would make it up to her for last night’s situation during their trip. Maybe she didn’t have to wait until that, she could start after she’s done with work by helping her recover.

‘She’ll probably protest about me needing to rest for tomorrow, but fever aside, I really want to see her’.

A couple of hours had passed since Firefly had stepped out of the bus, while she waited for Silver Wolf to send her the address, she had decided to wait inside a small restaurant and grabbing something small to eat. Her stomach rumbled in protest for the lack of a breakfast, just as she took the final bite of her food she felt her phone buzz, she quickly took it out but instead of Silver Wolf the notifications on her screen showed that Robin had just texted her.

Her girlfriend asked on updates on her ‘fever’ and if she had eaten lunch yet. She decided to not open the messages yet, sticking to the story of being extremely tired. She turned her attention to the ice cubes swirling on the watery remains of her drink thanks to the movement of the straw, looking out the window beside her, waiting. Then her phone received a call, the screen lit up with Silver Wolf’s caller ID, Firefly walked out of the restaurant as she answered.

“I found the address, he’s not home at the moment but you’ll be able to investigate freely”

Silver Wolf’s hacking had led her to a slightly rundown apartment building, on the smaller side with a total of five floors. The entrance of the building was almost unguarded if it weren’t for a couple of old security cameras covered the lobby, which had made it easier to simply walk up the stairs towards apartment 4A… Firefly couldn’t help but feel curious and a little scared of how Silver Wolf had managed to find out exactly in what apartment she would find what she was looking for and how did she know he was gone.

The hallway ended with a window that lead to a fire escape, perfect for entering the apartment. She glanced out the window, checking for any possible unwanted witnesses, the streets were as busy as they would in a mid-week afternoon but no one seemed to be paying any attention to the building. Firefly climbed out the hall into the fire escape as discreetly as possible, her goal was to reach the window by inching along the ledge and most likely forcing it open… All without loosing balance and falling down to the ground, something that would most likely end with her in a wheelchair permanently in the luckiest of cases or, in the worst case, a morgue.

Firefly took a deep breath before climbing over the railing, pressing her back against the wall as much as she could as she shuffled her feet along the edge, advancing little by little. She focused on looking only at the window, ignoring the pounding of her heart against her chest and her shaky breathing. After what felt like an eternity, she finally reached the window, her right hand gripping the frame with no intention of falling over. She carefully placed her left foot over the sill, grateful for the width being just right. She took a big breath followed by a profound exhale, trying to calm her nerves.

“Alright… ok, yeah, now I got to open this…”

She slightly shifted her weight to her left side, allowing her to crouch and shakily reach for the window rail, the relief that cursed though her body when she realized that it was unlocked had been almost heavenly. Firefly wasted no time in climbing back inside the building, the darkness of the small hallway she had just entered was interrupted by the light shining through the glass of the window behind her. The flashlight on her phone allowed her to see what was inside, the apartment was rather small but nothing like the overpriced shoe boxes that were being rented near the city center. Sadly the state of the apartment itself greatly decreased whatever good qualities there could be found.

Trash bags were lined up against the wall, the smell giving away that they had been in there for a while by now and making her cough, all kinds of trash littered the floor and with some of her steps it crunched under her feet. Firefly opened the door next to her, a small bathroom that seemed to be the only mostly normal thing in the place, save for some plastic containers with chemical labels on them. She wasn’t sure of what the symbols meant and the names were quite crossed out but still somewhat legible, she opened up the camera app and took pictures of the containers and their labels. Firefly closes the door again and continues to investigate the place, she finds another door and when she opens it she almost drops her phone in shock, a cold shiver travels down her spine.

Firefly had hear about obsessive fans, she knew how it could get like, but to see it firsthand… She had never felt such an intense, nauseating, dread. The corner of the room is covered from top to bottom in pictures of her girlfriend. Some she recognized and other pictures clearly were taken by him, even of the new apartment building Robin had moved in, and a combination of posters including the most recent ones for the concert; she could even recognize a couple photocards that she has in her own room. All taped together in a messy collage.

It was the only part of the apartment that, surprisingly, wasn’t covered in filth. A heavy, cold sensation settled on her stomach the moment she set eyes on the other collection of pictures pasted on the wall, all of them featuring herself, even including an article of her accident. All of them damaged in various and violent ways, along side them, various scribbles, some legible and others resembling wild scratches.

Her hands shook as she took a few more pictures, the sight was disturbing, extremely so, but she needed to have all of the evidence she could get her hands on, she needed to protect Robin. The pressure on her chest was released through an almost breathless whisper of terror, “Fucking hell-”

The sudden buzz of her phone almost makes her heart thunder out of her chest, she sees Silver Wolf’s caller ID on screen she quickly answers and before she can say anything, her friend’s words make the world freeze.

“Firefly, he’s back, get out of there!”

Stelle turns the screwdriver, tightening the screws placed at the base of the new camera on their entryway. The afternoon sun softly warming up the wall she propped her arm against as tapped her foot on a small stool, she contemplated her work one last time but her mind quickly wandered to Firefly and where she was. When Stelle had come back with the security camera she had found Silver Wolf quickly typing on her computer. After a quick explanation of what they had found after she left, the script Silver Wolf had running finally had given an output on the console.

Now they waited, after she prepared a quick lunch, Silver Wolf monitored the area and Stelle installed the camera. She knew that Firefly was more than capable of protecting herself from danger and that Silver Wolf had a close eye on the scene but she couldn't help but feel like everything could go wrong very quickly.

The noise of an engine grew closer, making Stelle break out of her thoughts. When she looked back, the car that Robin always used was parking on the street in front of their home. When the idol stepped out of the vehicle, carrying a small container, Stelle almost fell off the stool in her hurry to warn Silver Wolf but to her dismay Robin was already beside her.

“Hi Stelle”-Robin notices the device on the wall and tool on her hand-“you guys got a security camera? Did something happen around here?”

“…Kinda? It’s for uh, precaution…?”

“Oh, good thing you have this now then. I brought some soup for Firefly, how is she doing? I wasn’t able to talk to her all day”

Stelle freezes for a second, trying to find something convincing enough for Robin to leave, she answers as naturally as possible “Oh well, I can put it on the fridge. She went to the- eh- doctor, nothing worse than stomach pains am I right?”

“…Didn’t she have a fever?”

Silver Wolf then bursts out the door, almost tripping as she became aware of Robin's presence, she seems to be in a hurry, almost panicking. Before Stelle can say anything, she blurts out the death of their lie, “Firefly's asleep right now, maybe you can see her tomorrow!”

Stelle watches how Robin’s face is now displaying an expression of confusion with growing suspicion “…Where is she?”

Stelle can only close her eyes in defeat as Silver Wolf swallows with nervousness.

Firefly closes the door to avoid looking at the repulsive display inside. Shifting her focus to the fact that in any moment she would be face to face with the person responsible for it, she stands in the hallway, waiting. Her eyes don’t dare leave the front door, she can hear the faint noise of footsteps growing closer and closer. A few seconds ago, Silver Wolf had warned her that he was coming back soon, and despite being asked to stick to their original plan, Firefly had changed her mind after seeing that room. The deadline he sent… She had to act now or who knows what he would be capable of doing to Robin, her friends and herself.

Firefly steeled herself to face whoever crossed that door in that moment, her stance ready but without giving away how her hands clenched in fists, ready to hammer his face in and drag him directly to the nearest jail cell she could find. Her heart pounded against her ribs as the steps grew closer and closer, the seconds it took for the front door to open felt like centuries.

A thin figure stepped inside the apartment, he turned to the side and she could see the shock in his face, although he quickly shifted to a slightly more controlled posture but even so the shake in his voice betrayed him, “W-who are you? Breaking and entering is a crime!”

Firefly could feel her brow twitch at his words, the mere audacity of his words doing nothing but increasing her anger. “Oh really? Please do call the police”-She a reaches for the room's door, making the stalker raise his hands in panic as she slams it open- “I’m sure they’ll love to see this!”

His facade shatters as he tries to lunge at her, Firefly steps to the side avoiding his clumsy attack, his body hitting the door. It doesn’t stop him from trying once again, this time swinging a fist directly to her face with a raged shout “You just had to ruin this for me!”

A block followed by a quick punch of her own to his side makes him fall face down on one of the trash bags littering the floor. “You have no right to demand anything from me or her! It’s NONE of your business if Robin has someone in her life!”

Firefly’s hand reaches towards his shirt, she would drag him out if needed, but she hears him mutter something that makes her stomach churn.

“I almost believed my precious angel had listened to reason after my messages, you insect- you truly have ruined her”

“Messages?”

Even with a sensation of disgust by the way that he talked about Robin, Firefly couldn’t stop herself from saying it, her voice strained with sudden realization. Her mind flashes back to the night she was sent home earlier than normal, the strange distance, the lies and secrecy- She barely has time to react before she sees a broken piece of a glass bottle on his hand. The revelation making her lose focus, leaving herself vulnerable to the sting of a cut on her cheek.

She stumbles backwards, a demented chuckle slipping out from her attacker, a deranged smile slowly forming on his lips as if he had cracked a centuries old mystery, “She didn’t tell you! The angel has set you aside!”- a guttural and chaotic laughter fills the room, Firefly grits her teeth and tries to grab him; not sure if it was to punch him into unconsciousness or to simply take him away from her and her girlfriend as soon as she could, the remains of the bottle interrupt her steps, provoking her to fall on the ground. The laughter subsides, as her target runs away in the direction of the main door, despite the prickling of small glass pieces on her body, Firefly runs after him. She sees him rush across the hallway towards the window she had used to get to the fire escape, she can feel a couple of small cuts bleeding into her clothes but Firefly can’t let him get away.

The stalker clumsily climbs out the window, almost falling on the landing, the old metal rattles under his rapid steps as he goes down the stairs. Firefly follows quickly, catching up to him before they reach the end of the stairs. She swiped her hand, trying to get a grip of his shirt, but he acted faster and even if it was a desperate move the intent of his kick achieved its goal.

He smirked when the pain clammed up in her leg, clearly proud of hitting her square on her affected limb. Firefly stumbled forward, letting out a small yelp of pain, before feeling how he pushes his arms against her. Shoving her over the railing, she feels weightless for a couple of seconds before her body crashes on top of a closed trash container and finally rolls down onto the floor.

She feels lightheaded as her throat lets out loud and pained noises, her vision unfocused as she sees how he runs away once again. Firefly drags herself to whatever can help her get up, she can’t let him go, she can't let it happen.

Disoriented and in pain, she sees out of the corner of her eyes that some passers-by are approaching her, muffled noises coming out from their mouths, trying to help an injured girl that’s desperately struggling to get up. She grips the top of the container, her legs shaking as she weakly pulls herself up, trying to tell them to not let him go but her words come out mumbled.

“Please- catch him- call-”

The world spins and she once feels grainy asphalt as her eyes close. The last thing she hears is the low rumbling of clouds, a couple of rain drops landing on her cheek.

“Final year, huh? Good job”

Firefly and Blade rode on his car to celebrate that she was only a couple of semesters away from graduating, Kafka had organized a small lunch and Silver Wolf had already arrived. Leaving just their arrival to start the celebration.

“Yeah, I’m excited, five years go by really fast…"

Rain drops drum on the vehicle, the road slightly covered by the cold mist. Blade drives safely through it, lights on to see more clearly, signaling when he changed lanes. They should have reached their destination with no issue.

“You’ll do great, these months will go by faster than you think-"

The sudden shrieking of tires catches them off guard, one of the drivers in the lane next to them had been driving at higher speeds and lost control, crashing into other cars near them and causing a multiple collision, as local newspapers had classified it.

“Watch out-!”

Despite his best efforts, it’s too late for them. The last thing Firefly remembers before waking up at a hospital a couple of days later is the loud noise of the metals in the vehicles crashing and ripping against each other… And, amidst the pain caused by the wounds that had spread across her body, the searing pain that stabbed at one of her legs had been one of the most physically painful things she had ever felt.

Firefly slowly opens her eyes, a white and sterile ceiling greeting her. Her mind flashes back to what happened before she blacked out, the crushing realization that he had gotten away making her try to get up straightaway. Firefly struggles, groaning at the ache in her body, before a hand is placed on her shoulder.

“Please be careful, you are not gravely injured but you should take it a little easy”

The doctor helps her sit up gently, a couple of bandages are covering up her arms along with a patch carefully placed on the cut in her cheek and feeling the bruises covering her body. Looking around, Firefly realized she was in one of the beds of a clinic and that the sun had fallen already but her mind focuses on all the possibilities of what could happen after she wasn’t able to get him.

“He’s gone, he escaped- Who knows what he’ll do now, I need to warn them!"

She hurriedly fishes out her phone from her pocket, only to find the screen broken and the device on the brink of death as she still managed to see multiple notifications of missing calls before it fizzled out in a way that clearly stated she would have to get a new phone. The pictures of the chemicals in her phone could surely be recovered but something about the scratched out labels gave her a bad feeling about it, paired with all those pictures of the new building Robin had been staying at. Firefly was sure he was planning to do something in there with those, most likely looking to harm Robin or herself.

“I removed all the glass shards from your arms, and the cut on your cheek wasn’t deep enough to scar you… You do need to get some rest for you leg, is there someone-?”

Firefly quickly places all of the cash she brought with her in the doctor’s hands and favors her uninjured leg as she rushes out the door, ignoring what the doctor was trying to say, “I have to go, I’ll comeback another day to pay you in full!”

After what felt like an eternal bus ride, with some side looks-that ranged from concerned to fearful-from other passengers sprinkled on, she finally reached her home. She wasn’t sure of the hour, but it most likely was very late, as the sun had set long ago. She wobbled her way towards the door, taking out her keys and opening it quietly.

The first person she saw was Silver Wolf, the worried and shocked look on her face as she saw the state Firefly walked in made her wince internally, “I’m so sorry Wolfie, my phone broke but I managed to find evidence and it probably can be recovered-”

“Firefly”

The voice that calls her name sternly makes her freeze, her stomach tightening up and a cold sensation slipping on her veins. She knows that voice, she knows who it belongs to… And, at this moment, she wishes she hadn’t heard it. Firefly turns towards the direction the voice came from, she finds Robin standing in the middle of the living room, her expression is a mixture of concern, confusion and the seriousness that won’t take nonsense for an answer. She sees Silver Wolf hurry out of the room by the corner of her eye with the broken device.

Robin falters when she sees her injuries, the previous mixture of emotions is slightly set aside to make way for worry as she hurries towards her, pulling Firefly towards the couch.

“Aeons- what happened to you? Where were you? Who did this?”-Robin turns around, Firefly now noticed that Gallagher was also present in the room-“Can you please bring me a cold compress, all these- Firefly, where were you and why are you covered up in bruises and bandages?”

Firefly’s eyes dart between the two, the older man clearly holding back a scolding of his own as he went to get it, but she just couldn’t help but remembering his words.

“She didn’t tell you!”

On her way back Firefly had tried to ignore it, attributing those words to his manic ramblings, but her mind wandered between the memories of all that had happened in the previous days. The sudden distance, the nervous energy that Robin, Gallagher and Sunday shared, the sudden phone number changed, the apartment and the lies… Firefly's words slipped out faster than her brain could process them, “Why didn’t you tell me that someone was threatening you?”

Robin halts as she’s about to press the cloth against one of the bruises, eyes wide open as a deer in headlights, it was clearly something she intended to keep a secret from Firefly. This only makes the gut wrenching sensation of being mistrusted gnaw harder at her heart, she needs to know why. Why would Robin not tell her about something this grave, something that directly threatened her well being, her safety?

“Robin”, she presses on. She can see how Robin rushes through her own thoughts, trying to find something to say. She sees Gallagher stepping out of the house by the corner of her eye, clearly giving them space to discuss this.

“Why- How did you know?”

Firefly feels the impotence that burned in her entrails for the past couple of days erupt at the avoidant answer, “Don’t change the subject, how is it that I find out about this from his own mouth and not you?”

“…’His own mouth’, Is that why you are hurt? Firefly what did you do?”

She takes a deep breath to calm her emotions, it barely works before she starts to explain what happened in the last hours, “This morning Stelle’s car was vandalized, it was really bad. And I got a few messages from an unknown number, he demanded that I broke up with you and threatened everyone, and also threatened me to not tell you or the police”.

Robin feels like she’s going to throw up in any second.

In this moment, in front of her, was the very reason she had chosen to leave Firefly out of this. The bandages and bruises were not going to stop her, she could see the determination and protectiveness in Firefly’s eyes, she was not backing down, “Firefly, why did you put in yourself in danger like this?”. She sees Firefly’s shoulders tense up, her expression incredulous as if she was asked something ridiculous. Her own pulse quickens anxiously by the lack of attention Firefly put on her own safety.

“Obviously because I want to protect you, if I couldn’t go get help I would deal with it myself”

“By putting your own life on the line? That’s how you wanted to handle it?”

“I’m alright, it’s just a few minor wounds, it’s nothing seri-”

A scream, her mother falling to the darkness and the deafening sound of a flat line.

“Firefly you are NOT a real bodyguard and most certainly you are not indestructible either!”

“And you think I don’t KNOW that? I just couldn’t stand there and do nothing when someone comes around threatening you! For Aeons sake- he sent me pictures of you, of where you’re staying!”

The volume in their voices rises, the confrontation between them becomes a full blown argument.

“That's what Gallagher is in charge of, it’s what the detective and the police are doing! You-”

“So you’re completely alright with treating me like a fool?”

“That's not what I meant, this VERY different from-”

“You were LYING to my face for days Robin! Not an explanation, not a single word, nothing! You just let me stand there wondering what was happening and if I had done something wrong”

“You know very well that I don't particularly enjoy keeping secrets, I didn’t tell you because I didn't want to see you hurt,”- she gestures at the wounds with distress- “clearly we are past that point!”

“That guy was threatening you because of our relationship! I think that is enough to let me at least know what was happening!”

Robin is now pacing around in the living room, Firefly is still sitting on the couch. She would be standing up too but her leg doesn’t have any strength left at the moment. Her voice wavers as she asks a question that her mind had formed subconsciously after Robin had pulled away, she raises her head with a somber expression “Why won’t you trust me?”

Robin turns, looking at Firefly with disbelief, “I do trust you Firefly-”

Firefly's voice rises once more, “Then why do you keep pushing me away!?”

Robin’s desperation reaches it peak, unable to understand why her girlfriend couldn’t comprehend that she was doing all of this for her safety, making her grip Firefly’s shoulders fearfully without noticing that her wings and hands are shaking like leaves. Her words escape her throat with a panicked scream, “BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO LOSE YOU TOO DAMN IT!”

Firefly looks up at her with alarm, ignoring the slight pain in her arms, it was the first time she had ever heard Robin screaming so viscerally. Despite that, her breath hitches as she sees the tears forming in her eyes, all the frustration she felt being replaced by a cold dread, as if a pit was forming in her stomach. It feels like eons pass before Robin looks at her with an unreadable expression, her hands slowly let go of her arms, simply staying over them, she hears her sniffle and Firefly feels as if the world is shattering when the tears on Robin’s eyes start to flow down her cheeks.

Firefly wants to say something, anything, but a knot in her throat painfully chokes out any words she tries to muster, a gentle hand caresses her wounded cheek before Robin steps away.

“Please, don’t come to the concert tomorrow… Stay here, I’ll tell Gallagher to get someone to guard your house”

Firefly can only stare at the doorway once the idol leaves.

Stelle finally moves when she hears the door close, she had been awkwardly standing on the hallway as the argument between her roommate and her girlfriend had gone down. She hadn’t dared to make a sound to avoid interrupting them despite wanting to give them privacy, she rushes to her own room and closes the door behind her. Worry sets in as she prepares to turn in for the night, everything had gone wrong in less than a day; the attack on her home, a stalker and now the argument between Robin and Firefly. She fishes her phone out of her pocket, opening up her texts with Silver Wolf.

Stelle

(10:49 pm) Hey, you there?

Silver Wolf

Yeah (10:50 pm)

Ive been trying to recover the data from Firefly’s phone (10:50 pm)

However it broke she needs a new phone (10:50 pm)

It looks worse than it is but itll take me a few hours to crack it (10:51 pm)

Stelle

(10:51 pm) Do you think theyre going to be ok?

Stelle watches the ‘typing’ message pop up and stop for a few seconds, she lays down on her bed, her phone buzzes with a new message.

Silver Wolf

I wouldnt worry too much about that rn (10:53 pm)

They are both under a lot of stress but they do love each other a lot (10:53 pm)

I think they just need to talk after all of this is done (10:54 pm)

Stelle

(10:54 pm) Ive heard them arguing before, like small stuff

(10:54 pm) But it was like once

(10:55 pm) and never something like this

Silver Wolf

Tbh i think theyre doing great, almost two years and almost no fights (10:55 pm)

But yea, theyll be fine, youll see (10:56 pm)

Firefly rubs her temple and after a few seconds she gets up from the couch, groaning at the bothersome feeling in her leg as she had put quite the strain on it for the day, after turning off the lights she leaves for her room. The darkness greets her as she opens the door, she’s too physically drained to bother changing clothes and simply collapses on her bed, she instinctively reaches for her beloved shark plush and clutches it against her chest. Her mind stuck on the image of Robin crying and how she didn’t say anything as she walked out the door.

It wasn’t like it was the first time she had seen her girlfriend cry, quite far from it, she had comforted her a lot of times and dried those tears that had been caused by many things, ranging from watching an emotional movie to feeling stressed out and needing to unwind. But she had never been the reason for them, not until now… Firefly had an idea of what Robin meant with not wanting to lose her too, she knew some part of what had happened to her mother, she never knew how was it that both siblings had come out practically unharmed but with those words she understood that what had caused her death made Robin blame herself… And the reason why she was kept in the dark.

She presses her face against the soft fabric, trying to fall asleep, waiting for tomorrow and what she should do next.

Robin finds herself once again in her own home, after leaving she had told Gallagher what Firefly had said about the pictures of the building she had been staying at. He had called in to check both the building and her house top to bottom, but ultimately decided to take her home and heavily guard the place. She turns and tosses on her bed, unable to fall asleep, her eyes still stung a little from the tears but she felt slightly calmer than before, save for the constant repeat of the alarmed expression on Firefly’s face and hoping that her grip didn’t really cause any pain.

Robin is not a person that normally yells, much less at people she loves, despite it coming from a place of concern she had no right to do so. Both of them had wanted the same, to protect the other, however different their methods were. All the hurt and sadness that she had seen on her girlfriend’s face those last couple of days make her feel remorseful, she couldn’t help but wonder how things would’ve gone had she told Firefly about the messages. Maybe she wouldn’t have to keep secrets from the one person that held her heart, maybe she wouldn’t have made her the victim of her avoidance, but it was pointless to look at all the maybes and what ifs, right now she was simply being handled a basket full of what she had sown when she had lied to Firefly to send her home early that night.

All the lies and secrets she had been stacking the past few days had reached their limits, and she has grown exhausted of them, of having to live hiding.

“I guess it was naive of me to think that I could keep it a secret forever, it was just an escape and even if the hardships increased… It would all be worth it if I got to hold her hand anywhere and whenever, I want to stand proudly and state that my heart is taken, but how-?”

An idea sparks up in her mind, the songs she had made in secret, the ones she had composed and sung with a level of care and love she had never reached before. As if the idea possessed her body, she rushed to the small studio in her home, her body filled with an indescribable feeling that made her heart thump strongly. But for the first time in what felt like ages, the way her heart raced felt just right.

She doesn’t know the hour by the time she’s done, the computer screen shows how all the songs are steadily uploading while she finishes writing a post on her official social media account to accompany them. The blue progress bars turn green one by one, ready to be heard everywhere. She quickly pastes the link next to what she wrote and looks at the ‘Post’ button that waits for her to press it, the button that would show to the world one of her most vulnerable sides. Robin takes a deep breath, and presses it with determination, then she quickly turns off both her computer and phone, walking back to her room and hoping to fall asleep soon.

The sheets filled with lyrics and musical notations cover the coffee table, some neatly laid down and others scatter across it. Robin sighs as she stretches out her arms and proudly contemplates the results of her work. She had been trying to work on new songs for the past couple of hours next to Firefly, who had offered her company as she knew that Robin would most likely end her work late into the night.

“It’s done, hey Fire-”

When Robin turns to face her girlfriend she finds the girl sound asleep, some of the music sheets that she had been helping reorganize had fallen on her while others laid on her arms. The idol glances at the clock on the wall, grimacing at how lat it had gotten, she gives a quiet apology to her girlfriend before she looked back at her once more. To Robin, she looked absolutely adorable and couldn’t resist taking a quick picture, the moment she took it a spark of inspiration hit her. Robin glances at the sheets laying on the table, words beginning to string together in her mind as she lets out a mumble.

“It would be ok, right?”

She gets up to fetch a blanket for Firefly before she lets her heart flow into the lyrics and melodies that her girlfriend unknowingly had been the muse of.

Sunday almost falls off his bed when he’s startled awake by his own ringtone which, given the current hour, is spectacularly loud. His vision is still hazy as he clumsily reaches for the ringing device, he doesn’t even check the caller ID before answering with an irritated tone, “This better be an emergency-”

“Mister Sunday, Miss Robin just made her relationship public!”

All the drowsiness leaves his body at once before he sits upright on his bed, “What do you mean?”

“She posted a secret album with a statement about it about an hour ago, it’s already one fo the top 3 trending topics, globally!”

Sunday simply looks around his room, and for the first time in what feels like a lifetime, he’s left completely speechless by his sister’s actions.

On a cheap motel room a phone lays almost destroyed on the floor, the sound of ragged breathing fills the room. His hands form fists hard enough to make his knuckles white, his nails leaving dents on his skin, deep enough to make them bleed. Muttered curses and rageful words fill the room as the night drags on, and a change of plans is made.

Firefly wakes up, groggily looking around her room as she wakes up little by little. The pain in her leg is significantly lower by now, just leaving quite an uncomfortable sensation. She’s not sure of the time but it seems that she overslept, given how bright it is outside the concert must be about to start. She looks down at her crumpled clothes, she should probably change out of them before…spending the rest of the day waiting.

Or at least that was the plan until her door burst open and Silver Wolf rushed in, “No time to explain, come quick!”

Silver Wolf starts to explain her findings as they run down the hall, “I got to recover the pictures you took at his apartment, those chemicals you found are highly explosive”-they reach her room and the shorter girl pulls the pictures on her monitor- “but you might have delayed his plans, when I examined the pictures I found this”

Firefly squints a little as Silver Wolf zooms in on a part of the picture of the room, there she can faintly see a note next to one of the pictures of the apartment building Robin had stayed at for the past few days. Silver Wolf presses a key and the resolution is slightly improved, enough for her to read parts of it.

‘-packaged’
‘Send-’
‘When--insect’
‘explosion’

As the cold realization dawns on her, Silver Wolf reassures her as much as possible, “But since Robin went back home and the only thing I’ve seen about this is that last night there was a full sweep of the building and they found nothing, it’s safe to say that his plan got derailed”

“But he got away, and I don’t think he would just disappear-”

Firefly freezes, leaning in as she looks at the picture of the room in front of her with more attention than the day before, terror wells up in her entrails as she notices something she somehow had missed in her panic the day before. There, in a corner, she can see another note… with a faint but still legible sentence.

‘Check email for ticket’

“He’s going- He’s at the concert!”

Firefly immediately bolts out of the room yelling out for Silver Wolf to call the police, she groans at the pulling of muscles in her leg, but she couldn’t care less. Not when he was there, not when aeons know what he was planning. As she rushes out the front door, while ignoring the presence of two very startled security guards she sees Stelle standing on the sidewalk, “Stelle! I need help, I need to get to the concert now-!”

At that moment a small car pulls up, March waves at them with excitement before exiting the vehicle… Right, she had managed to get them tickets before they sold out. Her heart jumps with relief as she now has a way to get to Robin faster.

“Hii, are you guys ready? Good thing I managed to- Uhh, Firefly? Why do you look like… You didn’t sleep well… Or at all? Ooh, is it because of-”

“I need to get there soon, it’s an emergency, Robin is in danger!”

“Come on… Pick up, please”

Firefly dials Robin’s number on Stelle’s phone, anxiously waiting for her to pick up as March drives challenging the speed limit. She’s sent to voicemail, she glances at the time on the screen, the concert is nearing it’s start and Robin must be getting ready by now which means her phone is set to silent. She instead dials Gallagher’s number, who does pick up after a few seconds. The pain on her leg from yesterday’s injuries is lowering but still present enough for her to know that she will most likely have to favor her other leg to move.

“Who’s this-?”

“Gallagher, it’s me! No time to explain but start evacuating the venue NOW, he’s there and I think he’s planning to hurt Robin!”

“…On it”

Firefly hears him yell out instructions to staff before the call is ended, meanwhile on the front seat Stelle had been doing her best effort to summarize everything that had happened for the past few days to March, her shock doing nothing but rise for every new thing that she heard along with her questions.

“But you did call the police now, right?”

“Silver Wolf did, now it’s just a matter of catching him”

As Firefly rushes out of the car, she can see a large crowd of confused and concerned audience members coming out of the concert venue, being guided to a safe area by both staff and police as she looks for the nearest entrance she can use to get inside, taking advantage of the evacuation still being in process. Just before entering the building, she spots Sunday outside talking to staff members and police officers, his expression showing very clearly how he’s feeling at the moment. March and Stelle step out of the car, their urgency making them forget to turn it off, approaching him to fill him in as much as they can.

As he reveals that the stalker was spotted by audience members, the radio host introduces the next song, soft piano keys play faintly as the host speaks to the audience.

“Our next song is a little sweet surprise that Robin Oak dropped on us way too early in the morning, social media has gone completely nuts over the news that she shared on the same post. It seems that the dating rumors have become real and her partner is none other than the newest member of her security team, coming up it’s ‘Love wins all’ by Robin…”

(■) The backstage is completely devoid of anyone’s presence, proof of the evacuation proceeding smoothly. Silence reins over the place, save for the voices Firefly can hear at the end of the hallway; as she walks closer she recognizes Gallagher’s voice, she sees him talking with an anxious staff member.

“I’ll escort Miss Robin out of the building but I also need someone to-” His eyes flicker in her direction, eyes widening in surprise-“what are you doing here? It’s dangerous, specially-!”

“I need to be here for her… please, let me help”

He sighs, rubbing his temple, “Robin is in her dressing room, I searched it from top to bottom and told her to not open the door for anyone… Everyone else on my team has their hands full with the evacuation per her instructions. I’ll be back with the special forces squad, I have to give them a rundown of the place for them to do their work, keep her safe until then”.

    Dearest, darling, my universe
    Would you take me away?

Knocking on the door was quite nerve-wracking on it’s own, considering how things had unfolded the last time they had seen each other, the seconds before Robin’s muffled voice reached her ears felt too long, the attempt to hide the unease in her voice makes her stomach churn.

“W-who’s there? Gallagher?”

“Robin, it’s me-”

The door opens abruptly before she can finish talking, Robin’s hand shoots out to grab her and pull her inside the room quickly. After locking the door once again Robin turns to look at Firefly, they stand one step away from the other. Her wings are fluffed up and twitching, the agitation in her eyes is mixed with hints of tiredness, the stress is palpable in her voice.

“What are you doing-? You shouldn’t be here Firefly!”

“Me and Wolfie found out that he was going to come here today and-”

“I know it was Silver Wolf who called the police but if that’s the case, the more reason you should not be-!”

Firefly raises her hands to hold her face tenderly, this visibly takes some of the tension in her body away, Robin lets out a shaky breath as she leans in on her touch. Firefly is the first one to break the silence, “I’m sorry… For not telling you, making you worry and for making you cry, I thought I could protect you on my own but I bit more than I could chew-”

Stelle’s phone rings, interrupting her words, Firefly looks down at her pocket, “Must be Gallagher”- She reaches for it and answers the call- “Hi?-”

“Firefly, they are not letting me back inside”- His voice raises, pointing his discontent to whoever had stopped him-“They will go in now but you’ll need to meet them halfway, be careful, we still haven’t found him”

    Run away with me, my love, come run on
    Would you go to the end with me my lover?

They leave the room watching over each other’s backs, they advance slowly as Firefly feels the uncomfortable feeling on her leg grows once again to aching but she leans on her other leg to dissimulate it. Robin whispers to her the words she didn’t get the chance to say in the dressing room when they reach the backstage “Firefly, I’m sorry too”-Robin grabs her hand, giving it a small squeeze-“I should have told you the moment all of this started, I let my fear blind me of your feelings”

They stop their steps in the middle of the stage, Firefly turns to her “I understand, I also let it make me act recklessly. I just”-her voice trembles with her words-“I don’t think I could endure something terrible happening to you… I just- I love you too much for that”

Next thing she knows, she feels Robin’s lips tenderly kiss her own. The world seems to fade away for a second as she returns the kiss with all the love she has in her heart.

    Love wins all, love wins all
    Love, love, love, love

The moment is broken when a furious wail breaks out from the other side of the stage, Firefly immediately pulls Robin behind her and prepares for the worst as she sees the culprit of the exhausting situation they had suffered. His eyes reflecting the instability in his mind, glaring with murder and madness at the both of them, his hands are clenched strongly, something shakes on one of his hands.

His teeth grind with rage as he takes shaky steps towards them, words seem to be stuck in his troat as neither of them can understand whatever he might be trying to say as he grumbles what may be a enraged rant directed at them. Then he raises the object, Firefly breaks out in a cold sweat when she sees that the object he’s holding is a crude looking switch.

His voice is raw and broken when he finally utters something intelligible, “Why would you do this to me?” and immediately presses the button. It almost feels as if their hearts had stopped for a second before realizing that nothing had happened, his crazed look turns back to the switch with confusion. He presses it over and over but nothing happens, Firefly and Robin slowly take a few steps back to try and get away but the switch is thrown directly at them before they can slip away to escape.

Robin yelps as the attacker lunges at them with his fist raised, Firefly blocks the hit and returns the attack by delivering a punch to his stomach, accidentally putting more pressure on her leg. He stumbles backwards by the force of the impact and wheezes, Firefly takes advantage of this to once again shield Robin from him even if she feels like she’s going to fall on the floor any second as the pain increments. Her mind races to ignore it as much as she can in favor of keeping him away and getting Robin to safety, “Get out of here, I’ll keep him in the stage!”

“I’m not just going to leave you here!”

“Help will get here soon, I’ll be fine-”

A mocking cackle can be heard coming from him, he gestures to her shaking leg with a taunting tone, “Really? With that leg? Can you even move normally?”. He tries to kick her injured limb once again with a cruel smile. Firefly braces for the searing pain as she is unable to move out of the way, but instead she feels the pull on her shirt as she’s yanked out of the way by Robin.

“You have gone completely mad if you think I’ll let you hurt her again”

His eyes zero on her but Robin stands her ground, his voice raw and broken with madness, “I’m mad? ME? You failed those that followed you and for THAT?”-He accusingly points to the girl Robin is holding-“A shame, really… Don’t worry, dear angel, I’ll fix this”

He pulls something else out of his pocket, a metallic glint reflects under the lights. He grips the knife viciously, Firefly sucks in a hiss of pain as she stands her ground next to her girlfriend. He slashes forward as Firefly pushes Robin to the side but the blade manages to graze the idol’s shoulder, she gasps with pain, the small cut barely leaves a trickle of blood as she falls to the ground. Firefly quickly grabs onto his arm, they struggle as she tries to disarm and detain him.

Robin looks around, trying to find anything that may help them until her eyes fall on the familiar microphone stand, she scrambles to grab it as the struggle intensifies. Firefly can feel her leg tremble under her weight as her strength lowers, the knife slips from her hands just as a golden and lilac blur strikes him on his head, knocking him out instantly.

“Come on, let’s-!”

The words die in her throat as she sees the knife embedded in Firefly’s torso, red beginning to seep out and staining her clothes a dark wet red.

    Slowly crush me in your arms my ruiner
    I know it hurts but please don’t cry my lover

Firefly goes pale as snow as the adrenaline dissipates, the pain of the stab mixes with the pain in her leg, making a excruciating amalgam of sensations. She stumbles in Robin’s direction, who rushes to receive her in her arms to prevent her from falling harshly to the ground, her mind starts to wander as this action feels familiar. She remembers the day she finally walked again on her own, her legs were also shaking but Robin had extended her arms towards her, waiting for Firefly to reach her.

She snaps out of the memory when she feels how Robin hugs her with desperation as she dazedly looks at the handle of the knife sticking out of her body, her breathing becomes shallow as her body feels weaker.

    Even with my demise,
    I will always be by your side

She’s not sure when it happened but she’s now laying on the floor, her girlfriend tries to not move the knife as she rips part of her dress to try and stop the stream of blood, Robin says something she can’t quite understand but the warmth on the hand caressing her face makes her feel calmer. Her mind wanders once again, memories of the path they had shared together crossing her mind like she was looking through a playlist of their time together. The sporadic, the quotidian, the good and the bad, all of the moments that they had shared with one another.

‘I may be bleeding too much if I’m remembering all of this at once… But she’s safe’

    Love wins all, love wins all
    Love, love, love, love

Robin feels as if the world is ending right in front of her, the blood seems to stream out of Firefly’s body endlessly, leaving her colder and paler by the second. She needs help, right now. She screams with all her strength pleading for aid, “SUNDAY HELP! GALLAGHER! ANYONE, PLEASE!” Her voice is raw as tears stream down her face. She feels a hand weakly wiping them, she looks down to Firefly who is smiling sweetly at her. Firefly fights to say that she loves but her strength isn’t enough to even utter it, the last thing she senses before everything fades to black is how Robin clutches her hand.

Her ears pick up a constant beeping and a sterile scent invades her nostrils along with a heavy sensation and every attempt of moving feels sluggish thanks to the faint pain in her body. When she tries to open her eyes a blur covers her vision and the light is almost blinding, making it impossible for Firefly to even begin to guess where she is. She blinks once again, getting used to the brightness, and the room finally comes into focus. She’s greeted by a white ceiling, the coolness in the air makes her shiver, the thin material of the sheet that covers half of her body doesn’t do much to keep her warm. She finds the source of the beeping next to her, a monitor displaying what she assumes are her vital signs.

‘I’m… in a hospital?’

Looking down she sees a bandage covering her arm and thin cables coming out of the hospital gown she’s now wearing, most likely connected to the monitor at her side, but that is not all she sees in the room. By the corner of the eye she spots a familiar shade of periwinkle laying near her hand. Robin’s upper body lays on the bed while her lower body sits in a chair, making her posture slouched, her hair quite messy and sprawled over the bed, her hand presses against Firefly’s tenderly.

Firefly slowly raises her hand, reaching for her girlfriend, she softly strokes her head as she gazes at her slumbering face. Even if her expression is peaceful she can see hints of dark circles under her eyes and a bandage peeking out from underneath her clothes in her shoulder. After a few seconds Robin begins to open her own eyes, for a split second she makes a confused expression before she looks at the source of the soft caresses on her head, her eyes light up and she sits up on the chair.

“You’re awake”-a wide smile forms on her face, a gleam covers her eyes as tears of relief formed on them- “I’ll call for the nurse, wait here”.

Before she can leave, Firefly rasps out the words she couldn’t say back there in the stage, “I love you”. Robin leans forward to softly kiss her forehead as she holds Firefly’s hand, she smiles softly at her before whispering out her response. Robin wipes the tears off her eyes.

“I love you too, I’ll be back”

Firefly is given a full checkup once Robin brings a doctor and nurse to the room, the latter one writes down his observations in a clipboard while the doctor gives her instructions and recommendations for her recovery following the next few days. While her leg had suffered a lot of pain the damage had not been serious but the wound from the stab would need to be closely monitored, after a few days of rest, dressing changes and various pain medicines, Firefly would be back to normal.

After a few minutes they leave the room to prepare what was needed for her to be discharged, leaving the couple on their own once again. Robin reclaims her spot on the chair, even if she keeps the tiredness on her face, she is now feeling more at ease. Which felt very welcome after the last few days of uncertainty, fright and a near-death experience, but there was still something she had left unsaid.

“…I’ve told you that Sunday and I lost our mother after an earthquake, the building we were trapped in had been quite unstable but I never told you the exact reason”- she swallows with the hint of guilt she was accustomed to -“When the aftershocks happened they made the building have a partial collapse, and it would’ve taken me had not been for her… She protected me, sacrificing herself in the process”.

Firefly reached for her hand, “And you didn’t want anyone that you love getting hurt for your sake, but Robin, that’s exactly why I would protect you as much as I can. Because you are someone I love… I want you to be ok, to be happy, and I’m sure that’s something you want for those you love too”

A soft laugh escaped from Robin, “We just needed to have a conversation about it, didn’t we?”

Firefly returns a smile, “Well, at least we now know that we have to communicate better”

To her curiosity Robin looks down for a few seconds, her eyes displaying a rare shyness on them and her voice carrying the tone of news to be shared, “Speaking of communication… I may have done something last night…”

Firefly tilts her head in curiosity, “What is it?”

“Uh-”

The door opens once again, Stelle walks in accompanied by Kafka, their relief is very palpable as she is hugged carefully, both mindful of her injury. Her roommate catches her up with what had happened after she had passed out, he had been successfully arrested, but there was still an ongoing investigation.

“-and he’s in custody now but Silver Wolf is being asked to testify, which isn’t really ideal for her but Sunday said they would help her with the music label’s lawyers and-”

“Stelle slow down, Firefly barely woke up… And by the way when I said ‘don’t go get stabbed’ I was joking”

“Can you joke about me winning the lottery now?”

They leave the room after a few moments to go ahead and wait for Firefly to be discharged. They left her a bag with a new change of clothes, which just leaves them waiting for her to be officially sent home.

“So what was it that you wanted to tell me?”

Robin clears her throat, a faint blush spreading across her face, “I made… an entire album inspired by you… and gone public about us with it”.

Firefly is almost speechless, “An entire album?”

“Yes… is that-”

Firefly’s face reddens incredibly brightly, after a few seconds of silence she musters out a few words, “…Can I listen to it?”

Robin giggles at the adorable display before her, “Of course, you were my muse after all”

“R-robin!”

“- the bomb squad had arrived earlier to the scene and activated a jammer to disrupt any signals that could-”

bzzzt-click

“- the trial concluded with the defendant being declared guilty on all charges, including attempted murder, receiving a quite lengthy sentence-”

bzzzt-click

“- many speculate that the administration’s prioritization of Robin’s public image over the general safety of those involved in the case might have caused the idol to leave them and form her own music label-”

bzzzt-click

“- despite the incident leading to the charity concert’s postponement until Robin comes back from her well deserved rest, the funds collected from the ticket sales were immediately given to-”

bzzzt-click

“-the speculation over the couple had been a constantly trending topic on various social media platforms, and while it’s not clear what could have cause the spontaneity of Robin’s actions, fans showed an overwhelming support for the idol and her girlfriend after the-”

Firefly turns off the TV, even after a month later the articles and news segments were still talking about it. A pair of arms hug her from behind, when she looks up she sees Robin looking down at her. She turns around on the couch to fully face her, smiling as she returns the embrace, “Hey”

“Hi, what were you watching?”

“Ah, I was just flipping through the channels to try and find something we could watch but nothing really caught my attention, and well, they are still on about it”

Robin sighs, “Yeah, they’ll probably get tired of it in a… few more days. Ugh, I think I still have sand on my ears”.

Firefly doesn’t miss the chance to tease her a bit about the little incident they had at the shore earlier, her smile becomes cheeky as she brings it up once again, “Well, after that wave took you down like that I would honestly be more surprised if you didn’t have any sand in your ears-”

Both start to laugh, reminiscing about one of the many memorable things that had happened during their vacation, “You got swept away too, I saw you struggle to get all the sand out of your hair!”

Their vacation time had allowed them to step away for a while, enjoying each others company to the fullest, not carrying a single worry. Despite all the changes and future challenges they would face, they had each other to rely on when the time came, but for now they could act as if they were the only people in the world.

As their laughter subsides Robin’s stomach rumbles slightly, making her look down bashfully, “I guess it’s time for dinner, I’m getting kinda hungry”

Firefly signals her to take a seat beside her on the couch, Robin then leans her head on her girlfriend's shoulder “Do you want to go out or should we order something?”