Sometime, when it was still dark outside, I vaguely remember Len rising from the bed next to me, and leaning over to plant a kiss on my forehead.

I shuffled under him, giving him a smile with closed eyes. It's so nice to have him back, I remember thinking.

His hand ran through my hair, and I cooed contentedly, before rolling back over, and falling back asleep with a smile on my face.

When I woke up, he was gone.

It took me a moment to remember. It's crazy how easy it was to fall back into the way things used to be. It had taken me weeks to get used to sleeping alone. After one night of him sneaking to me house, it would probably take me another few weeks to get over it once more.

I sat up, rubbing my eyes, and eyeing the empty spot next to me. In my tired state, a small thought suggested that he was just in the kitchen. The bathroom. He's still here.

He wasn't. I knew it. But I didn't want to believe it.

With the blanket on my lap, I folded my hands together, and sighed. He was gone. He couldn't risk Kanon waking up to find him gone. It'd raise too many suspicions.

Maybe this is how it will be from now on, I thought. I imagined a scenario where he continued with his new life, Kanon his business partner instead of me, frequently sneaking away to see me. Eventually, I bet Tatsuo would find out. And he probably wouldn't care. I'm out of the picture, anyway.

The thought disgusted me, honestly. Being left alone here, the only thing to look forward to being Len's random visits. I deserved a life better than that. I did.

I threw the blankets off of my legs, rising from the bed. This was no time to sulk. Like Gumi had said, I needed to find something. There had to be proof in here. They weren't smart enough to cover all of their tracks.

My thoughts hovered over the binder in my bag, causing me to frown. I had already looked through it. Though I was sure these songs weren't theirs, I had no proof. It just looked like a normal song binder.

I decided to search the living room first, trying to find anything Erik and I had missed. Shuffling through the drawers, looking for any notes or clues. They were all empty. I looked under the bed and found nothing but dust bunnies. There were no computers for me to check. Behind the TV, nothing. In the drawer of the TV stand was a Bible. I laughed, unable to help it. I flipped through the pages quickly. There was nothing. I put it back.

Every drawer in the kitchen. I searched them up and down. Even the fridge. It was a long shot, so I wasn't surprised when it came out clean. The bathroom. No notes in the mirror, nothing in the drawers.

If I were a demon girl, I thought. Where would I hide my evil weapons?

There was only one more place to check, anyway. And I had been dreading it. If I slipped, I could kill myself on some of the sharp stuff in the bedroom, but I figured it was worth the risk. Stepping carefully. I looked into the room.

You should at least try to find something before aimlessly wandering through splintered wood, I reasoned. My eyes scanned the room, searching for anything of interest. I found none.

How about, I thought. Anything that you and Erik did not put in here. Go check it out.

I sighed, and began taking steps into the jungle of a room. As long as I stayed with my back against the wall, I could could to the closet fairly easily. It was small. Certainly no walk-in like mine. There were a few boxes in there that I did not remember seeing, but upon closer inspection, they seemed to be nothing more than discarded clothes of the twins. Throwing them around me, I found the pockets were all empty. God, they're so ugly. Whether it was my anger towards them, or the fact that these clothes were the worst shades of color I had ever seen, I couldn't see myself wearing these even if someone offered to pay me.

There was no point in cleaning them back up in the already-disastrous room, so I left them, standing to search once more.

Across the room, hidden from the view of the doorway by the pile of rubble, was a brick fireplace. It was unkempt, with chipping bricks and ash still blowing around inside. I would never trust that thing to hold a fire in my life. It looked ready to fall apart itself.

My disgust only increased once I realized that this must be the fireplace they burning Gumi's songbook in.

I blinked, staring blankly at it. Wait.

I wasn't nearly as careful as I left the room, jogging back to my bed. I pulled my bag out from under my bed. The binder was buried under my clothes, but still there.

No way.

Taking a seat on my bed, I flipped through the pages. On every page, the majority of writing was done in black pen, while notes appeared in blue or red around it. Scanning the notes, I realized that I had been mistaken before. It wasn't one set of handwriting offering the corrections, it was two.

Oh my God.

I had found no evidence in this binder, because the binder itself was the evidence. This wasn't Anon and Kanon's binder.

It was Gumi's.

They must have sent her pictures of something else in that rotten fireplace. My hands shook with each turn of the page at the realization. Reading the lyrics more carefully, I even recognized a few songs from her current song list. There were notes for My Crush Was a Monster Boy, though the notes were a tad different from the original song. She had to make all of her current songs by memory of this thing, anyway. I didn't expect them to be exact copies.

They stole her songbook, I realized. Told her they burned it, so she wouldn't come looking for it. And then they took her songs.

My heart was racing. This was it. This was fucking it.

I handled the book like it was a pot of gold. While the main purpose was to use it against the twins, I couldn't even imagine the look on Gumi's face when she realized her book was still alive.

I could go there now. I can show this to them, and make them leave. I could bring my stuff with me. Trast the place when I leave. I could be sleeping on the couch with Len next to me in the next few hours. I could have my life back. Everything would be back to normal. I could go hang out with my friends when I wanted, do shows with them, sign autographs with them. I could record music and meet my fans at my leisure. I could visit my parents. I could escape this hell hole of a flat. I could-

Slow down. I took a deep breath. You need to be careful. I tried to slow my racing mind, unable to afford letting excitement override my logical side.

What is your plan, here? I could bring the binder to them, show them that I have it, and… blackmail them, I guess. It seemed like a low blow, but did I really care at this point? Not really.

Okay, and what are the flaws in this plan?

Well, they could just take it from me. That's a pretty big risk. Not to mention that if I wanted to leak this, they would no doubt find something in the contract to shut me down.

That stupid fucking contract, I thought bitterly. There has to be some way I can expose this without voiding it once more, and getting myself in even more trouble. What's next? It's not like they could kick me out. Would they move me again? Across the country this time? Would they not let me leave my home, ever? I'd be treated like a prisoner. Or, maybe, voiding the contract this time would land me in actual jail.

No. I couldn't just walk up to the Vocal house like this. I needed something else. Something more. Something to protect me from the retaliation Tatsuo would plan.

And it started with the contract.

With the binder in front of me, I leaned back, my eyes looking at the paper but not really seeing it, and waited in silence.

Erik had tried to visit me every day at first, but with his busy schedule, that had turned into every other day not too long ago. Sometimes, it was three days. Sometimes he came twice in one. I had no way of predicting it. He hadn't come yesterday, so that was a start. There was nothing I could do without my contract, or, at least, a copy of the thing, and I needed Erik to bring it to me. So I sat. And I waited.

It was noon. I sat there, losing myself in my thoughts and memories. I looked at the clock. One. I closed my eyes, trying to think of a way to develop this plan further. I opened them. One-thirty. He's usually here by now, I thought with dismay. Either way, I closed my eyes once more. Ia. My parents. Christmas. I thought of everyone I had met. The especially memorable fans. I replayed my first day at the studio. My first night in Len's apartment. Reading and signing the contract. How he had jumped down onto the couch with me like we were best buds. How I had scribbled-

My eyes shot open, and a huge grin spread across my face. As if on cue, there were knocks on the door.

"Erik!" I screamed, jumping off the bed and throwing the door open. It hit the wall hard enough to shake it. I wondered if I had punched a hole in it.

He stared at my insane smile with wide eyes. "Uh, hey-"

"I need you to bring me my paperwork," I told him, much too fast.

"I, uh, what?"

"I need it," I said to him. My eyes fluttered to a bag of fast food in his hands.

He lifted it. "I just thought you might be hungry-"

I snatched it out of his hands like a rabid wolf. "Paperwork," I repeated, grabbing a handful of fries and shoving them in my mouth.

"Did you think of something?"

"Paperwork!" I yelled again. "Can you get it?"

"Y-yeah, I probably can-"

"Today?" My voice rose even higher. My mouth was full of fries.

"I mean, maybe-"

"Go get it!" I yelled. "Now! Please."

He let out a shy smile. He must had been extra confused. I looked crazy. I knew it. And I didn't care. I found it.

"O-okay," he stuttered.

"I'll see you in a few!" I couldn't speak without shouting. Without waiting for his response, I slammed the door shut, and sat on the bed, shovelling french fries into my mouth.

I found it.

When he came back, he found me in exactly the same state. My empty food bag next to me, I jumped from my pillows, yanking the official papers out of his hands as he entered the room.

"Don't rip them," he warned me. "We have digital copies, but that's the original."

I looked through the small novel greedily, scanning the words with wide eyes.

"...I'm assuming you have an idea?"

"Hah!" I nearly screamed in victory as I flipped to the last page. There was a single line at the bottom, with my neat signature over it. "See! Right here," I pointed to the words below. "By signing here, and on every prompted space preceding, you agree to the contents within this contract, while also agreeing to participate… blah blah… until voided by the authority of the company."

Erik sighed. "But you voided it," he explained, his shoulders slumping. "Not anyone from the company-"

"No, Erik. You're missing it." I cleared my throat. "By signing here, and on every prompted space preceding," I emphasized that last phrase with nods of my head.

He looked at me like I was stupid. "But… but you did sign everything. They wouldn't have accepted it if-"

I was nearly shaking in excitement. "Listen."

His expression slowly turned from disappointed, to interested, to ecstatic as I explained my findings and my plan. The binder sat next to us, which he looked through eagerly. He flipped through my contract, nodding his head as I explained to him what I had found.

"Rin," he finally said, setting both pieces of evidence down in front of him. "This might actually work."

"When can we go see him?" I asked, still nearly hopping in my seat.

He looked out the window. "Not today. It's getting late, and I doubt he's still at the Vocal house. If we go there when he's not there, he'll just accuse you of trying to void the contract further by seeing them. So… tomorrow."

"First thing," I said.

"First thing," he agreed with a nod of his head. And then he sighed. "You're a lot nicer than I would be."

"What do you mean?"

"This binder-" he picked up the giant book. "-is enough to send them to jail. Jail. For their plagiarism. And that's only if we choose to charge them for only that. They've been on the fence of the law for a long time. This might be enough to push them over for more charges than just stealing lyrics. And you're still trying to reason with them, instead of just handing them over."

I shrugged. It was all I could do.

"Why?"

"Because… because if I just sent them off, what would be the difference between us and them?"

He considered my words carefully. "...I guess," he finally said, though he seemed unconvinced.

I jumped from the bed, carefully setting the binder on the table with my paperwork. "Go home, Erik," I suggested. "The sooner we get some sleep, the sooner we get to pay Tatsuo a visit, and the sooner I get to go home."

He stood. "Okay." He started towards the door, then paused. "You have a good plan, kid. But you still have to be careful around them."

I furrowed my brow, determined. "I will," I promised.

He cast me one more look over his shoulder. "Okay," he answered.

And then he was gone.

I had never been so excited to be alone.

I barely slept that night.

But when I finally opened my eyes to see the sun peeking over the horizon, there was no hope of going back to sleep.

Erik took way too long to get there. I had been standing outside with my keys and wallet in one hand, the binder and my paperwork in the crook of my other elbow, for almost an hour when I finally spotted his car. My packed bags sat in the snow next to me.

"How long have you been out here?" He asked, opening in the door.

"Not too long. Why are you getting out?" I opened the side door clumsily, almost dropping the binder in the process. "Let's go!" I spoke way too fast.

"Your bags, Rin!" he said, picking them up from the ground.

"Oh. Right."

After loading them into the back, we were off. "You're really sure this will work, huh?" He asked.

I didn't answer.

I'm going home, I thought, watching the world through the window. Even if something in this plan falls through, I'm going home. It might only be for a few minutes. It might be forever. But even failing in this attempt would be better than sitting at the flat, brainlessly watching TV.

"Did this drive always take this long?" I asked, clutching the binder in my hands.

"Yes, Rin. It did." He sounded exhausted. Like a single Dad babysitting a tantrum-prone toddler.

"Come on…" I whispered. "Come on."

We turned onto our winding road. A wide grin stretched across my face as I saw the familiar gatekeeper, who noticed me with wide eyes. The gate. The fence. And, looming over me, home. I leaned forward, trying to catch a glimpse of the window into Len's apartment. It was hidden behind the deck.

"Uh, Tatsuo is having a meeting today," the keeper explained. He leaned towards Erik's rolled-down window as he spoke. "I don't know if… if he'll want to be interrupted-" He spoke slowly, like a puppet.

"He wants to see this," I told him, cutting off Erik's explanation.

He let out a deep breath, and took a step back. "Okay." He seemed unconvinced. He thinks he's going to get in trouble, I thought. It won't happen. I promise.

Through the glass doors, I could see that he was right. Everyone was gathered on the couch, watching with blank expressions as Tatsuo spoke. But, once they saw Erik's car, they all stopped.

I grinned. "The grand reveal."

He put the car in park. "The more I think about the this, the more nervous I become."

"Don't say that."

"Why?"

"Because. A strong case needs strong confidence. If I go in there squeaking like a scared little mouse, they're just gonna laugh at me," I explained. "You gotta be the backbone, here. You don't even have to say anything. Just… stand tall, or something."

He chuckled. "That might be the most motivating speech I've ever heard," he said sarcastically.

"Get your ass inside, Erik," I laughed.

He opened his door. If they had been surprised before, they were stunned now. I stepped out of the driver's side, catching the widening eyes of everyone in the room. Len, most of all.

Oh shit. For a moment, I felt my confidence waver, too. No, no, no. Rin. You have to do this. This is your last chance. It's either this, or the flat. This or the flat.

There was no way in hell I was going back to that flat.

I followed Erik into the building, being sure to keep my chin up. I grinned as I thought of Gumi's 'stuck up bitch,' remark. That's exactly what I needed to go for, here.

My manager held the door open for me as I walked inside to the cool, air conditioned lobby.

"Erik," Tatsuo began. "Why did you bring her here?" He turned his attention to me. "You know that by coming here, you're directly violating your probation-"

I took a deep breath, slamming the binder down on the table. "I'm not here to talk to them," I said. "I'm here to talk to you."

Anon and Kanon sat on either side of him. Len, Miku, and Luka were on the couch to my left, the others sitting on or around the couch to my right. I tried not to look at them. I couldn't let my emotions get the best of me here. But their gaze's burned holes in the sides of my head.

Tatsuo leaned forward. Kanon sat smugly, her legs crossed, staring at me with a smug smile. Like she stood on the first place pedestal, and I on the second. "Oh, really?"

"It's not like I could call you," I said, letting a tad bit too much anger slip out with the words. Control yourself.

"So what is it?" He asked, joining his hands together in front of him.

My gaze flicked down to my evidence, and then, betraying myself, to my friends around me. You can do this. I said. You've done scarier shit than this. You've sang in front of crowds of thousands. Hundreds of thousands. You can talk to one guy. One stupid, manipulative piece of shit.

I took another breath, then stood tall, crossing my arms.

"I quit."

Aha! The payback.

This fic is drawing to a close. But don't worry guys! I've got a new one for you :) And I've been pouring my heart and soul into for the past few weeks, so I hope you guys like it. I'll start uploading it when this guy is all done.

Thanks for reading! Love you guys :)