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Nature's Story

Part 3 - Oneself

Nature wiggled his paw in front of his face. His digits felt strangely heavy, and when they got going it was hard to stop them. It was like weights had been strapped to every joint, almost. He smiled at the curious sensation, and began to wave his paw back and forth, blinking rapidly as he made it float across his vision.

Yep. He was drunk.

He let out a giggle, and blinked again, his gaze jittering as he tried to focus. A black tail had curled around his arm. That wasn't there before. He frowned, and opened his mouth. "What..."

The tail moved his arm down, and then he felt something cold and smooth and pointed turn his head. Ceylon's friendly expression greeted him.

Nature blinked, and turned his head back to the rest of the room. No, no, it was okay. He could focus. He bet he could focus!

The lounge was less crowded now, yet that yellow, artificial light was just the same. It glinted off a clock on the wall, showing hands sliding relentlessly onwards towards... towards... he squinted, blinking again... er, that was it. 3am. 3am? Huh. How time seemed to disappear. The seconds hand seemed to move quickly even now! He drew back his head in surprise, gazing around the rest of the familiar room.

Only a few waiters remained here and there, either cradling a glass and passed out on a corner couch. Another group still cheered and shouted across from another table. Nature grinned at them - they were having fun! Fun. Waiters having fun. Wait. He was in a group too, were they having fun? He returned his gaze to the other side of the table, where two of them were sat on beanbags. They seemed to be talking.

"No no no, no, like, you don't understand, I mean..." Aquarius stuttered, staring into the distance. The Keldeo's eyes were... so very blue. Did he know that? No, no, focus...

"What we do... we get our testescopes... telescopes... and we, we point them at the sky. And when we do, we see... microwaves. You know? Like in microwaves. Microwaves.

He waved a bottle in the air with both hooves, like he was conducting an orchestra through a piece of dubstep. Nature giggled at the idea.

"And a lot of these are from, well, our galaxy. But... when we, we subtract the whole of the galaxy, and then we do the same for the earth's movement... I mean, the earth moves too, through space, and we have to account for that... including around the sun and the galaxy, and the great attractor, and... and well, all that stuff... we get... a map."

He paused, staring, giving a slight smile. His empty bottle quivered in his grasp.

"And this map, well, it's great. It shows us all the microwaves from the early universe, the last scattering surface of the very big bang itself, from only three hundred and eighty thousand years after the universe began - and we call it..." He stopped, grinning rather widely now. "...The Cosmic Microwave Background."

Nature blinked, and turned his head heavily. It was hard to stop the movement, but he managed it. He stared at the person Aquarius was talking to.

The Mightyena didn't move for a few moments. Her eyes were glazed over as she stared at a point somewhere past the Keldeo.

"So, er..." Sinister started slowly. "So... Microwaves... are from space?"

"Yes!" Aquarius said happily, waving the bottle again. It dropped from his hooves, falling from the beanbag and thumping to the floor. The Keldeo went wide-eyed, and dangled a leg over, trying to grasp it from beneath the table.

"So you mean I could, like, hold my food up at night and it'd cook for me?"

Aquarius had lifted the bottle, but dropped it onto the beanbag as he looked back at the Mightyena.

"Well... no, I mean, first, it's during the day as well, and..."

"I thought you said it was from space? Is it from the sky too?" She asked, tilting her head heavily to the side.

Aquarius gave an exasperated sigh, leaning back. The beanbag folded in around his sides, his legs slipping on the soft material. His mane dangled haphazardly over his muzzle.

"Well... mkay, first? Gonna be honest. Like, serious talk now. The C-M-B is far, _far_more interesting than just that, like, you don't even know. Second, you see, the temperature of space is about two point seven two eight Kelvin, so-"

"Dex, he's boring me again."

A lump beside the Mightyena stirred, and a grey face appeared. Nature stared at it.

"Uhhh, fine. Does that mean we can go now?"

"No!" Sinister retorted, staring around at the second Mightyena curled up in the corner of her own beanbag. "You... you haven't even had your first drink yet!"

"Siiiin..."

"Dextuuuuus. Come on. One drink."

"Siiiin, I just wanna go to bed!"

Sinister grinned, giving the other Mightyena a kick. "He's far too fuckin' soft. Cey. Ceylon. You got any of that, that weird brit drink? The Baileys... thing? Got any of that left? He should have some!"

"Not for that." Ceylon said with a chuckle. He lay back on the low cushions, leaning very gently on Nature as he smiled across at the Mightyena. "Not gonna have any of the rest of that without a proper toast."

"Toast?" Sinister said. "Fine. Fine! I can do a toast!" She grasped her wine glass between two digits and lifted it up. "Got a great one! Gotta toast this one."

She stared at the glass a bit cross-eyed, and then flourished it forwards, letting the last drips of wine it held go flying into the air. "To cocks!"

"COCKS!?"

"Oh, fuck..." Aquarius said, slumping back. A lump in the middle of the table, covered by a newspaper, shifted before them, and a blue fin slipped from one end.

"I heard cocks! Who's got a cock!?"

The newspaper fell away as the Vaporeon sat up, blinking at the outside world. Her dark eyes stared blankly ahead, and she flexed her paws.

"I thought she'd left hours ago with Prometheus?" Nature blurted out, turning to Ceylon. The Luxray laughed, and Nature felt the feline's fur rub against his own.

"Hell no, she didn't leave that early. Not that you saw what she did. You were too busy with Prometheus giving you eye candy as he walked off, you drunk girl...."

Nature giggled, giving the Luxray a shove. "Hey, those balls are almost as big as my head..."

"Yeah, and you've probably measured." Ceylon grinned, shrugging. "Hell, she tried all that she could to go with him, you know Rain Flower. Stayed here in the end though. She probably doesn't wanna risk another incident with the boiler."

Nature nodded as the Luxray laughed. Prometheus had left a while ago - what had he said? Something about... Plato's drunkenness, and something about not wanting to be a fool? He more remembered the look the Arcanine had given him. Well, that and the whole walking away part...

Come to think of it, when had Rain Flower even arrived?

The question passed quickly as the Lucario suddenly became engrossed in swaying from side to side in a giddy daze. His head felt like it had fluid sloshing around in it.

He looked back at the others. Rain Flower was sitting on the edge of the table, staring at Aquarius.

"Just one." She was insisting. Nature could see her eyes fixed on the Keldeo.

"No."

"Pleeeeease!" She said, leaning forwards, her tail jitting in the air. "C'mon, I bet you haven't had any in aaaages..."

"It's been five hours." Aquarius responded deadpan.

"Oh yeah, the storeroom..." Rain Flower muttered.

There was a loud snort from Sinister, who leant over the table, turning her gaze to Ceylon. "C'mon. Cocks?"

"Nope. Gotta be better than that." Ceylon replied, still watching the fun conversation evolve in front of them.

"Shhh. Rain Flower would kill you if she heard you say that..." Sinister said, snickering. One of the Vaporeon's fins twitched, and she whirled her head around.

"Wait, what? Who am I sucking now?"

"Oneself!" Nature suddenly said. He blinked - wait, why'd he say that? He stared at the bottle that he'd found in his paws - it was the Baileys. He must have picked it up, evidently, because... that's right. The toast.

He looked up to see all five staring at him with varying degrees of interest.

"I mean..." Nature said, licking his lips. "The toast. To us. Ourselves. Being different, and being unique, and who we are... not what people want us to be."

A four-pointed-star brushed over his cheek. Nature blinked, looking to Ceylon next to him.

"Now that's a toast." Ceylon said, smiling. With slow, surprisingly controlled movements, he took the bottle in his tail and retrieved six glasses, pouring out a little bit of the light brown liquid in each. The amount varied rather significantly - though when he passed the smaller ones to Rain Flower and Sinister, that became evident, not that they seemed to notice. Aquarius took his slightly larger measure gratefully, trying studiously to ignore the Vaporeon's prodding against one thigh.

Nature looked down at his own glass. There was quite a bit in there. Ceylon had been generous, it seemed. How nice of him!

A large paw came to rest on his thigh, and Nature clutched the glass tighter in both paws as the liquid sloshed around. Ceylon smiled at him.

"C'mon. It's your toast, you say it."

Nature smiled back, and looked around. They were all... well, almost all watching him. Sinister was still leaning half-on the table, her tail wagging behind her, the black fur batting repeatedly against Dextus' head. The other Mightyena waved it away with a paw - she grinned a bit wider when he did that - and rolled his eyes at her, before returning to stare curiously at the glass of Baileys in his paws.

Next to them, Aquarius was giving a polite smile and an intent gaze, studiously ignoring the Vaporeon - who'd decided to drape herself against his beanbag, and whose tail was snaking over a rather delicate area.

Nature hiccuped.

He felt Ceylon's tail curl around his waist as he finally raised his glass.

"To... ourselves."

* * *

Six months ago

The bus deposited Robin by the side of the road, and the shouts of his rowdy classmates disappeared off into the distance with the engine's roar, turning into a low, distant rumble that could be heard from miles away.

The Lucario clutched his bag into both paws, squeezing the material roughly. Too light. Far too light. He sighed, staring at the retreating vehicle.

He couldn't find his laptop this morning... he'd left it in his bag, he could have sworn, but when he ran out of the house...

Too light.

He turned eventually, walking slowly down the path. Fresh weed growth was just visible between the cracks in the paving. Maybe he could watch it for a while before his parents got home. The sight of nature growing back after having been so destroyed... it was rather interesting, in a way. He like to watch it...

Something else was wrong. Robin stood there, staring at the car in the driveway. That wasn't right... that was his mother's car. Why was it here? Why wasn't it at the gym with his stepfather, like it usually was at this time of day?

He looked towards the house. Externally, it seemed perfectly normal, but his Aura sight... he could sense a presence. Two. His... parents?

Robin walked slowly towards the door, and reached for the door handle with trepidation. It clicked, and the door swung open in front of him.

He stared inside. No-one.

The Lucario's grasp tightened around his bag. "Hello...?"

"In here, Robin."

It was his mother. For some reason, Robin didn't feel assured by the sound. He closed the door, and dropping his bag in the hallway, walked tentatively towards the living room.

His mother and stepfather were sitting across from him in two chairs. On the small table in front of them, on top of a pile of interior decoration magazines, was Robin's laptop.

"Sit down." His mother said flatly. The young Lucario did so, feeling small on the large sofa opposite the two of them.

"We had a look at your laptop this morning." She continued.

The sentence hung in the air like the cloud on an overcast, winter's day. Still, icy air surrounded Robin, and yet his face felt suddenly very hot indeed. He scratched his cheek slowly, absent-mindedly, as he tried every effort to not change his expression.

What had he been looking at last night? He'd been talking with Sera and one of his friends, but he'd closed that window... what if he... wait, wasn't he looking at that website during the conversation? Did he-

"We saw what was open. We also had a look at your search history."

Robin remained perfectly still as his ears began to fill with a slight ringing. He could feel his stepfather's stare on him. At his lap, he began to clench his paws.

"One question, Robin." His mother continued. Robin watched her. Her face was twitching, and her voice was shaky. The female Lucario's ears were speckled with earrings, which tinkled slightly with the motions.

"Why?"

Robin breathed in and out slowly. His heart was beating like a jackhammer. He could feel the world closing in on him, and he lowered his gaze.

"I... I don't..."

"Why, Robin?" The voice was shakier now. "Why?"

"I..." He started again - and then, the previous night drifted through his mind again. It had been in a conversation. Sera's friend - Rassi? Rassy? - had said it...

You're lying down for them, Robin. You need to eke out your own life, y'know? Y'need to show them that you're your own person, and that you have your own existence. They don't sound all that nice, but... c'mon, man, they've gotta be reasonable. Just make your own little stand.

Robin looked up again. His mother's eyes were shiny with tears.

"Why did you look at my laptop?"

"That's not what I asked!" His mother barked, making Robin jump slightly. "Tell me! Why have you gone on those... things?!"

"Because... because I..." Robin started, his words catching in his throat. it felt tight, hard to talk. "Because... I wanted to!"

There was silence again for a moment, save for Robin's breathing. His mother stared back at him, eyes filled with despair and disbelief.

"Robin, no. You're confused... you just-"

"No." Robin said. The word came out before he could stop it... but as he stared at his mother, he knew there wasn't any other way to go with this. He stood up slowly.

"No..." He repeated, paws by his sides. "I'm not confused... I... I want this to be my life. I want this to be... me. I want to have my life, where I can do what I want, and I can..."

"But why did you go on these horrible websites!?"

"Because I like them!" Robin shouted back. His mother stood in silence, mouth hanging slightly open. A faint noise, like a short whimper, was all she made. Robin clenched his paws, feeling his chest rising up and down quickly.

To his right, he saw his stepfather stand up slowly. The Hitmonchan sighed, taking a small step forwards, and-

The pain was a flash of white, and before he knew what was happening, he was on the floor. His body screamed in agony, and he realised he was screaming too. His upper right arm flared, an intense burning overtaking his mind as he clutched it. He hadn't even seen the punch coming.

He opened his eyes, blinking away tears. He could see the blurred shape of his stepfather standing over him.

"Don't... you... dare..." He started, leveling his fist at the Lucario, "talk that way to your mother... ever."

Robin swallowed, letting out another whine of pain before he could stop himself. He grasped his arm a bit harder, and fresh pain jolted through his body, making him yelp.

"Now get up..." He continued. Robin tried to lift himself up, still holding his arm.

"I said GET UP!" The Hitmonchan grabbed the collar of Robin's shirt, dragging him up suddenly. The Lucario fought to get his feet under him.

"Fucking_queer_!"

Robin was thrown onto the sofa. More pain, another yelp. He found himself curling up against the arm.

"I would never have let you live here with your mother if I'd have known you were going to do this..." His stepfather continue, leaning over him. "I can't believe I thought you'd be a good fit here, someone like you..."

"I don't care!" Robin shouted. The pain had overwritten any kind of restraint. "You're wrong! You're both wrong! This isn't right! You can't-"

"Shut up!" The voice was his mother's, not stepfather's. She shouted it through tears, and Robin looked over to see her sitting far back in her chair, grasping some kind of handkerchief tightly. "Shut up, please! Robin! Tell us some bad students at school told you to do it... please, we'll believe you..."

Robin stared at her. It was like seeing a door opened with light at the end of the tunnel - a respite, a happy ending. But he wasn't going to achieve it by feigning ignorance.

He'd rolled over before, he'd accepted this before. He'd let his life be drawn out by them, down to every single minute. The times he had to himself he'd been taught to hate, and that was nothing compared to the life he wanted to lead. To his feelings. To his very self. He felt torn, so very torn, and he could feel their anger and their hatred boring into him. He could even feel his own.

And here, he thought, was where he'd finally turn around. Where he'd finally look upstream, and stare at the insurmountable waterfall. This was where he'd make his stand.

"No." He said, the word catching his his throat. He coughed, and tried again. "No."

He pushed himself into a sitting position, ignoring the pain still consuming his right arm. "I'm not going to. Not this time. Not anymore."

"Robin, I-"

"No." He breathed quickly now, staring at the floor. "I'm not going to accept this. I'm not going to do this to keep you entertained. Not this time. No."

More silence. He raised his head, staring into the eyes of his stepfather. The Hitmonchan was snarling at him.

"I don't care. Not anymore. Not about what you think." He took in a shaky breath. "Because I know you're wrong. And not just about me... about everything. You see other people as competition, always clawing to get on top, and you decide that you need to be the one above them."

He just kept going. He couldn't see any way or reason to stop.

"And you don't try to get on top by making yourself better. No. You make everyone else worse. You build up these... walls... you create standards, and you rally around them because clearly you're the one who knows best. Anyone who likes the wild, anyone who's at my school. Anyone who goes to another gym, city, house, gay people!" He was shouting now, staring between his parents. "Anyone you don't know, anyone you see or meet, you _hate_because you have to! Because you have to be on top, and for you, the only way to do that is by beating down every single person else!"

"Robin Harold Jensen, you will listen to me..." his father started, growling.

"No!" Robin shouted back, tears filling his eyes now. "No! I won't! Not this time! I've accepted every last insult and horrible lie you've thrown at me, and now I'm saying no!"

He pushed himself from the sofa with his good arm. He felt his legs shaking as he straightened up.

"I won't accept your world any more."

He saw the second punch coming, but he didn't get out of the way. This one was literally burning, leaving streaks of fire from the Hitmonchan's glove as it arced towards him. Next thing Robin knew, he was on the floor again, his head exploding with agony. The fire left the feeling of something melting, and he choked as he felt his energy collapse under it. He gasped for breath, and stared defiantly back up at his stepfather.

His mother was by him now, her paw on the Hitmonchan's chest. She was staring between the two, cheeks matted with tears, her ears laying back flat against her skull and her tail between her legs. Behind her, Robin's stepfather seethed.

Robin stared back at him. The unpleasant, almost paralytic feeling that the fire had left was fading, and now he managed to push himself up. He'd fallen against a side table. The wood was broken beneath him, and the scent of ash wafted through the air.

The Hitmonchan shouted suddenly, a cry of anger. He shoved away his wife, and leaning over, spat at the Robin.

The young Lucario flinched, feeling it land on his ear. He suppressed a sob as he watched his stepfather turn around, walking back to his chair.

"Go to your room. Now." He said from between gritted teeth, not turning around to look at him. "And take that filthy thing with you..." He waved a gloved hand at the laptop lying on the table. "I deleted the internet from it, so you can't go on your disgusting websites. Go. Do your fucking schoolwork. Be glad I let you do that."

Robin flicked his gaze to the laptop, without pushing himself up from the floor. After it was clear nothing else was going to be said, he eased himself up, cradling his good arm across his chest. He stood shakily and picked up his laptop, looking across at his mother as he did so.

She stared back, sadly, defeated. For a moment, Robin felt a burst of sadness, of compassion through him for her. He finally saw her as the poor, scared girl she was.

He turned, walking back across the room, towards his door. When he reached it, he stopped, and looked back at his parents again.

His mother had her head in her paws. His stepfather was facing away from him still, his fists clenched.

Slowly, he opened the door, slipped inside, and let it close behind him. Then, he walked slowly over to his bed, placing the laptop on the floor beside it, before kneeling down on the soft covers.

For once, when he looked through the windows, he didn't see the outside world. He was just staring.

Slowly, Robin sunk down, paws clutching at the blanket beneath him, and cried.

* * *

A few hours later

"What? Finish school? You've seen what it's doing to him already..."

"How do you know it's the school? It must just be those... websites!"

The words continued to drift through the closed door as the screen flickered into life in front of him. His face was illuminated by the bright green glare, and Robin squinted at the display. His desktop background, a picture of a forest path covered in moss-like grass, stared back at him. The icon for his browser was missing, revealing a sole fern leaf where it had been.

"It's not going to be them alone. I'm telling you, Catherine, that school is a bad influence on the boy. I don't want him there any longer than he needs to be."

Robin closed his eyes again, leaning back against the door. Again, that feeling of hopelessness began to consume him. He stared across at the nighttime vista beyond the windowpane, and once again, his throat began to tighten.

A sudden flashing interrupted his thoughts. He blinked, breathing shakily, and looked down at his laptop. A window was blinking on his taskbar.

Chat - SeraMeow! [NEW MESSAGE]

What? But... without internet...

Robin thought for a moment, then slowly eased the cursor to the start menu. He went into the file browser, and a few clicks later...

A smile threatened to break out across his face.

His parents hadn't disabled his laptop's online ability, or even deleted his browser. In their technologically inept way, they must have just deleted the shortcut on the desktop instead.

He still had internet.

He swallowed, clicking on the chat message.

[23:02:39] SeraMeow!: Look at my favorite littlecario! You're on early :3

Robin breathed a sigh of relief, and using only his left paw whilst cradling his right arm, told Sera everything that had happened.

[23:13:33] SeraMeow!: ...oh, fuck no. He actually hit you!?

Robin looked at the first reply to the description he'd given. His paw was shaking.

[23:13:57] Robin: Yeah... twice. My arm still hurts, I can't type with it.

[23:14:03] SeraMeow!: WHAT!?

Sera started typing and then stopped, repeating it a few times.

[23:14:23] SeraMeow!: Man, fuck, I mean... fuck. Fuck >.<

[23:14:29] SeraMeow!: Do you mean it's broken?

[23:14:58] Robin: I don't know... it hurts whenever I touch it, and I can't really move it at all...

[23:15:08] SeraMeow!: Sounds like it... I mean... fuck!

The sounds of shouting came to his attention again from his parent's room.

"Of course not! I'm not gonna throw him out into the world! What do you take me for, some kind of monster?" His stepfather was saying. "The boy couldn't live by himself. Though right now, I'm not even sure that's a bad thing."

"Oh, Simon..."

"Look, you know what I mean. Don't deny it."

"Simon, I..."

Robin sighed, and finished the story to Sera, trying to ignore the argument.

[23:23:32] Sera: Robin? Robin, you stood up for yourself?

[23:24:00] Robin: Yeah. I did. I finally did.

[23:24:10] Sera: Robin... wow. I mean, really. Well done. I knew you could.

[23:24:18] Robin: I got punched fior it.

[23:24:39] Sera: Yeah, and you stood your ground. I... wow, you make me proud.

Robin stared at the message, stopping in his typing. His heart was beating faster.

"Well what _do_you want to do?"

Sudden silence from the other room. Robin flicked his ears around to hear better.

"Look... his birthday's on Thursday. After that, he'll be considered an adult. Then, legally, he doesn't need to be in school. Right?" His father had said it.

"Well, no, doesn't have to be in that school, but until the end of the school year at least he has to be in some government education institute..."

"Like my gym?"

Robin felt his blood run cold.

[23:25:13] Sera: Robin - you've done it. You've taken the first step.

"Your gym? You want him there?"

"No better place for it. If he thinks he's some wussy little queer, then the gym is the best place for him. I can teach him personally - they allow me to do that, being manager."

[23:25:24] Sera: You've shown your parents that you're not gonna let them rule your life.

"Until the end of the year? You'd do that for a whole month and a half?"

"Hah - month and a half? Catherine, I'll make _sure_that he doesn't get out of that gym until he's had some sense beaten into him. It's the perfect place for a man to learn how to be a man.

"But darling..."

"Don't worry about Jake, he can do his own workouts. As for the other one, I can supervise him all the time. Make sure he's doing what is needed. And of course, he'll keep doing chores, here and there. That ought to get some sense in him."

[23:25:53] Sera: You've finally started setting up your own self. This was the biggest hurdle, Robin - and you've done it. It's all easy from here.

[23:26:02] Robin: No.

[23:26:24] Sera: What do you mean? I've talked with a few friends, they all say that coming out was the hardest.

[23:27:01] Robin: No, you don't understand... I can hear my parents talking right now.

[23:27:09] Sera: ...and?

"You'll do that for him?"

"To make sure he turns out right? Of course I will. There's a three year course that we do that I know will be perfect for him, and we've got all sorts for after that's over too."

"Simon, I..."

"Don't worry, dear. I'm not going to let him get corrupted by this gay bullshit. There's enough of that in the world already, and if I can cure him, I'm going to fuckin' well do it!"

[23:28:03] Robin: He's going to take me to his Gym right after my birthday. He's gonna put me on a three year course.

[23:28:20] Sera: ...oh. I think I see...

Robin hammered at the keys. He hoped the sound wouldn't be heard, but at this point, anger was fueling him.

[23:29:19] Robin: Don';t you see? Three yhears. Three years, with him, twenty four hours a day, seven days a wekk. I won't be abel to eat, breath ,go to the fucking toilet without him staring at me adn watching me. Three years, and evereytime that I show the remotest little hint of being who I am, of being

He hardened his expression, fighting back a sob as he typed.

of being gay, he#s gonna be there to correct me.

[23:29:38] Sera: Oh, hell no...

[23:29:48] Robin: No is right.

He stared at the screen.

"Don't worry dear. You can get through this. I'll fix him. I'll turn him into a boy I can like."

[23:30:00] Robin: No.

[23:30:10] Robin: Not this time. Not anymore.

[23:30:32] Robin: I'm not gonna him decide my fate... I'm not going to sit under his thumb for another three years. I'm not going to let this monster destroy my life.

[23:30:45] Sera: Robin, careful. Think this through. Don't do anything rash.

[23:30:58] Robin: Rash?

[23:31:22] Robin: I've been wondering about this for a while... in case I ever needed to. I hoped I wouldn't, but... I don't see any other way out.

He looked up slowly. The cabinet of old cassette tapes stood as it always did, ignored and forgotten by his bed.

The words followed him as he got up. They were muffled now, and he only made a few out, but it no longer hurt. The slurs, the hatred, the pompous bragging and smug remarks, they were nothing.

Robin pulled out the cabinet, and stuck his paw behind it. A couple of webs caught on his fur, but he ignored them. When he found what he was reaching for, he withdrew it quickly, and walked back to his computer. From the pale green glow, he could read the words on it.

Messages were waiting for him as well.

[23:31:33] Sera: What do you mean?

[23:33:59] Sera: Robin?

[23:34:52] Sera: Robin, you're worrying me. Please.

[23:35:54] Robin: Look... I'll tell you, but... I'm gonna need you to trust me. Okay?

[23:36:14] Sera: ...Promise me you won't hurt yourself.

[23:36:47] Robin: I won't. I'm going to do the opposite.

Down the side of the promotional leaflet for the strange, elegant Café, the scrawled email address seemed to glow.

[23:37:03] Sera: Meaning?

Robin opened his web browser from its folder deep in the laptop's hard drive. It was a simple navigation to his email account from that.

[23:37:59] Sera: Robin?

He even managed a smile.

[23:38:42] Robin: I'm going to get out of here.