Watching the duo of dudes departing from the drawing department of the art supply discount square - the guilt kicking in as predicted because Bex was retreating with his tail between his legs like a whipped dog - Chris was silent as the grave until they had gone from sight, figures walking beyond the range of the ceiling-to-floor windows. Once they were gone from sight and it was just the pair of them, an expectant mother browsing through scrapbooking material at the opposite end of the store, and two exceptionally bored clerks more preoccupied playing with hand-held game systems than watching for theft or other shenanigans, the soldier put his hand on the bird's exposed shoulder with enough pressure to tell her that this was serious, bodily turning her lithe frame so they were face-to-face. That whole exchange had been quite telling on its own, but he now needed answers for the remaining parts that were left rather cloudy by blatant jealousy - personally he had been happy enough just thinking of his time with her and paying no heed to whatever came before, but now thanks to that boy, the pilot had to wonder if maybe the time had come to look into the closet. He wanted little more than to go on believing in his pretty little songbird, but for her part the reactions she had actually given left him either shocked and disappointed or else just scratching his head; Chris wished that they had been somewhere more private to discuss all of this (not that any of the witnesses seemed to be paying them any mind in the first place), but this particularly bristly topic couldn't have waited a moment longer than necessary lest it fester and mutate into a much larger cause of concern. It would seem that there was no more delaying - he had to know who this young woman was and what she had done in the past if they were to have any kind of a future together.

"Robin," the lack of him calling her Little Bird was yet another indicator of just how important this conversation was, as if there was any doubt when their eyes met, the pressure his fingers exerted on her limbs proof enough that this was no laughing matter, his body language telling her that it wouldn't be much longer before the shaking started, "what the hell was that all about?!" There was a frantic glint to the soldier's big brown eyes as he demanded, "Who were those boys and what exactly was your relationship with them?" Enunciating the points of precisely and that whatever was between them was in the past now that they were a thing, this was the closest thing to define the boundaries between them that Chris himself said or did by this point, subtly staking his claim for the bird and divulging that darkest, most selfishly petty side of himself. Conceding that this was a new view of the hero, in some way Robin had already known that he wasn't perfect and with his own secret sins - the serviceman was currently taking up with the sportswoman after all, so how truly good could either of them be? - her affections for him only multiplied in that instant, because he had drawn that line in the sand (she could kiss those blathering dolts for that much!). "And who the hell's Heather?"

Heather? Heather was... "Out of everything I could tell you right now, Heather is going to be the hardest part. There's a lot about me that you don't know yet, and honestly part of me wants you to know it the least out of everyone I know, but I don't have any choice in the matter, not if I want I want to continue there being an us." Bracing herself, the young woman exhaled what very well could have been the last breath of this wondrous yet short-lived life, "What do you want to hear first? None of it is really that good, so that whole band-aid mentality really doesn't apply here. The only thing I can do to take away the sting is to say that it was all in the past, and I can also ask you if you really want to know the truth, because there's no going back from here." Resolved as ever, Chris gave no signs of second-guessing the decision to find out what had happened in his Little Bird's past; in some ways it was rather like being back at the mansion in the Arklay mountains, surrounded at every conceivable corner by the unknown, hounded by the malicious shadow of a traitor the point man had once thought to be one of his dearest friends. "Alright then. Zedd was one of the first kids in the school to befriend me when I moved here, and until last year nothing had happened between us. Bex, on the other hand, always kind of had a thing for me, but I was always interested in someone else," Robin's smile was wan, her hand outstretched for the briefest of moments before falling back down to her side, "and again nothing had happened until last year. It was prom, junior prom, and you were away protecting the world. Honestly it was kind of dumb of me, but I had held out some hope that you might come back early to surprise me, so that was the only reason I even bothered buying a dress and going through all that hassle. And you never came back, so I got really upset. I know, it was stupid in the first place to think that you would have hastened all just to come see that milestone, but I had still hoped. I had gone with him and Zedd as friends, since I felt bad for Zedd's mom threatening him with his cousin if he didn't go with anyone else, and Bex had just broken up with his girlfriend, so I figured that misery loves company and all that crap. Seeing how upset I was, it was almost too easy for Bex to get me drunk enough to take certain suggestions, and something happened. I don't recall everything that happened, but there are sometimes still flashes when I think about it. It was one of my lowest points, but not the worst."

Imagining the teen waiting on her front porch for hours by herself while the night wore thin and the dance came ever closer to ending, the soldier pulled the pictures her parents had taken from his memory and recalled the two figures he had honestly blotted out, one tall, dark, and handsome as he grinned by the girl's side and the other shyly trying to edge himself out of the frame. Even in the photograph the athlete had clearly been forcing herself to smile, but in his mind's eye she had been visibly crying; if it had been any other night the pilot knew that she would have turned down any unwanted attempts, but prom was an especially cruel time, as the couples out on the dance floor would only remind her of what she was missing, and to remedy that pain practically everyone would turn to the bottle sooner or later. He had no way of guessing how long she had held out, but ultimately the end result was the same, and she took the poison, thus allowing even the slimiest of worms the opportunity to think himself a king for a day. Loathing for her so-called friends increasing exponentially, the soldier was almost afraid to ask what the worst point for her was, mind racing to one undesirable thought from the next, each outcome grimmer than the one that came before it. Angrier than he had felt in a long while, Chris was torn between wanting to chase after those bastards for taking advantage of his Little Bird when she was drunk, lonely, and vulnerable, but considering all of the facts and how they all treated each other to this day it had been a consensual enough act. Still though, he wasn't saying 'no' to that notion. Although, thinking back to how quickly she had picked up on what he liked beneath the sheets, the pilot couldn't help but wonder at this point if that was that her first time?

As if reading his mind at that moment - or rather peering into the depths of his very being and just knowing the person he was at the core - Robin shook her dark head morosely, finding it easy enough to dismiss them from the lists but not so keen to reveal the rest of the contents either, "No, Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dipshit weren't my first time. My first was... back in Raccoon City." There was a slight hint of a shiver underlining the soul-rending anguish that was still so effortless to chafe raw, but besides being a dark time for everyone who survived it, it stood to reason that any mention of Raccoon City stung, because she had only just hit puberty when enduring that nightmare, which would logically have made the child fourteen or younger when the deed had been done to her. There was still so much left unsaid about that time and even less about her birth mother, so was it possible that the woman had somehow been involved? "I... I still can't... Please don't make me get into that now..." More silver than the storm, there was a shining wetness in the teen's eyes as she pleaded for that one issue to be set aside for later. Much later, if it absolutely had to be touched upon at all. Promising himself that he would respect her boundaries on that one, Chris nodded his consent and the teen went on, "I made enough mistakes, and I don't want to make any more, not with you." There was something she wanted to say - something that seemed to be about himself and perhaps her feelings for him - he could see it glimmering in her eyes along with the garish florescent lights above, but the words had stuck in her throat, refusing to be said. Maybe that was for the best though, because he was pretty sure what it would have been on her lips if she had been able, and while it was something he yearned to hear, now was neither the time nor the place. "It was only the once after prom, because I tried to keep to myself, at least until Heather came along..." A story in its own right, it was easiest just to give the cliff notes version, "Like me she was an outsider, although she came from someplace in Virgina, I think. Mute Meadows, or Soundless Heights, or something like that, I don't remember anymore... She told us all to just ignore her and not to bother because she wouldn't, but I could relate to being so alone in a new place, haunted by the past, so I reached out to her. We got along, for a while, but eventually she had to leave, and she never wrote me back. Well, she did once, just once, and... Well, it doesn't matter. Heather was certifiable and I... I was hung up on an idea that tore us apart as much as it bonded us." An idea nearly as crazy and impossible as what Heather had talked about before she had fled with her father for the next life. Hmm, a distant part of Robin had to wonder about the other girl, about how she fared now, and if her own insanity was more sane than she had ever dared to believe true, did that mean that Heather wasn't as bananas has she had been written off as? No matter, that never would have worked anyways, and this was real, Robin knew that now. In so many words Chris was hers, and she was his. She was his.

Author's Notes: Because the closet is where secrets, skeletons, and denial live. Who is Heather indeed? You can't win the race without putting a few band-aides on your nipples first (Horrible Bosses anyone?). No, wait a minute, that isn't right! For bad news, you just have to rip it off quick, like a band-aide. So brownie points if you know who Heather is, and if not, its ok, you only fail at survival horror, lol ^^ Seriously though, this is a short chapter and kinda on the creepy borderline possessive side (or is that just me again?).

Whoot, ten reviews so far! Thank you, thank you, thank you so much hooray4natasha!

Music: "Say Something" by A Great Big World ft. Christina Aguilera. Partially just a good bridge song to the next chapter, and partially just great for its title and how it follows after the previous song, this one came to me pretty much by accident. I mean, I was looking for how to span the gap between the two song titles, but because of randomizing my Youtube playlists, I found this beauty! Truth be it isn't the first song I tried to add the playlist before knowing what the chapter was going to be about, and somehow I doubt that it'll be the last. Truth be, I did consider - briefly - using a Backstreet Boys song.

Disclaimer: Resident Evil and its characters are the intellectual property of Capcom; all I own is the plot, Robin, and all other OCs within the story. Also any music or branding mentioned or used belongs to their rightful owners.