"It's been a really long time! When is Daddy coming back?"

Coco froze and gave Cobalt that same sad look that everyone seemed to have on their face these days. "Cobalt…we've been over this." She leaned down and took his small hands in hers. "He's not coming back."

Cobalt glared at her and pulled his hands away. "How do you know? He loves me and he said he'll be back soon! It's been soon!" Of course he was coming back. He always came back! He was supposed to give Cobalt a rock!

Coco looked pained. "Cobalt, please "

She was stopped by Yatsuhashi placing a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry. I'll handle this." As Coco gave him an anxious look, Yatsuhashi beckoned to Cobalt. "Come with me."

Cobalt stared at him curiously. What was he going to do? Did he know where Dad was? Were they going to go and get him?

Yatsu brought Cobalt into his bedroom and gently shut the door behind them.

"Are we going to go and get Dad?" Cobalt asked eagerly.

Yatsu shook his head slowly. "No, Cobalt."

A rush of anger ran through Cobalt. "Why not? Why does everyone keep saying he's not coming back? He is!"

"He can't, Cobalt," Yatsu's voice was gentle, "It doesn't work like that."

Tears sprang to Cobalt's eyes and he balled his hands into fists. "He promised! He's not a liar, stop saying that! You don't know anything!" He didn't care if he got in trouble for yelling at a grown-up. They were all wrong.

"Cobalt," Yatsu knelt in front of him and placed gentle hands on his shoulders. "It wasn't his choice. He didn't lie to you, he just didn't know." A deep sadness creased his face. "These things…they just happen sometimes, and we can't control them."

Cobalt's chest felt tight. "But it's not fair!"

Yatsu gathered him in his arms and sat down on the floor. "It never is. Our lives in this world…they all end, eventually. It's rare that we get to choose when and how it happens. And no, it isn't fair."

Cobalt sniffed, his face wet with tears. "So he's…he's really gone? I'm never going to get to see him again?"

Yatsu was quiet for a moment. When he finally spoke, his voice was quiet. "Close your eyes."

Cobalt obeyed. Was this some kind of game? Hide-and-seek? He didn't feel like playing, but maybe it would make Yatsu feel better, at least.

"Take a deep breath," Yatsu instructed. "Focus on what you can hear and what you can feel. Listen to the birds, and the wind in the trees. Keep breathing."

Cobalt breathed in through his nose, and as he did as Yatsuhashi asked, he realized he felt a little less angry. He opened his eyes again and stared up at his uncle in wonder.

"Your father can't come back," Yatsu told him gently, "But that doesn't mean he's gone. He's part of the world in a different way now, and he's still watching over you. It's never easy to lose to people we love, but we'll always carry them with us. Try to remember that, Cobalt."

Cobalt knocked gently on the wall as he walked into Team SCY's dorm. He couldn't see anyone, but he figured someone was still here if the door had been left open.

His suspicions were confirmed when Storm walked out of the bathroom. He was shirtless aside from the binder around his chest, a shirt in hand. When he spotted Cobalt, he blushed. "Oh. Hey."

Cobalt felt his face turn red. "Hey."

Storm quickly pulled the shirt over his head. "Did you need something?" Concern crossed his face. "Are you…doing okay?"

Of course, Cobalt was here for the same reason he'd been coming here every day in the past week. He still found that question hard to answer, though. "It's…I mean, we're…"

Storm sat down on the team's spare bed and patted the spot next to him. "Come on. let out whatever you need to."

Cobalt walked over and sat beside his boyfriend with a deep sigh. "I just…I want to say that we're doing better, but…I don't know. Everything still feels so wrong." It had been a week. A whole week with nothing to be heard of Astra's status. All anyone knew was that she was still unresponsive.

"We got Luna to start talking and eating again," That was something, at least. "Lily had a talk with her, and then we spent the night reminiscing and telling stories about Astra. It helped, but…" Cobalt trailed off. But she's still not with us.

Storm's eyes swam with sympathy. "I'm sorry. I wish there was something I could do to help."

Cobalt shook his head. "No, you've been…amazing. I appreciate how much you've been here for me, it's just…this has been really hard." 'Hard' didn't even begin to describe it, actually. But what else could describe the feeling of watching one of your best friends collapse from a devastating wound right in front of you, and then having to deal with knowing that she might not make it out alive?

"Still…" Storm was staring at him in concern. "I know what this must all be reminding you of, and I just…this feels so cruel."

Cobalt felt that familiar spear of red-hot pain in his chest. One would think that having gone through this before, it would be easier a second time, but it was only bringing back painful memories, memories that Cobalt hated thinking about. His hands closed over the bedcovers and he felt his lip tremble.

"I hate this," He admitted to Storm, his voice shaking. "It's like it's happening all over again."

Storm wrapped him in his arms and Cobalt leaned into him, trying to keep it together. Everything had felt broken since that day. He'd tried so hard to keep a brave face, but everything inside him felt shattered. When he and Lily had been there with Neon as Coco broke the news to her, seeing Astra's mother break had held a sense of awful familiarity. Velvet had looked the same way all those years ago.

None of this was right. Things shouldn't have happened this way. Astra hadn't even turned eighteen yet, hadn't even completed her first year at Beacon. She still needed to live out her life with her friends, doing everything she wanted to do. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair.

"Why didn't you tell me!?"

Velvet's face was sad and guilty as she attempted to reach a hand out to Cobalt. "You were a little kid, you wouldn't have understood…"

Cobalt dodged her hand. "That was eight years ago! You could've told me any time after!"

"I know," Velvet sighed. "I didn't want you to have to think about it. I didn't want this."

Anger pulsed through every fibre of Cobalt's being. To find out, after all these years, that his father hadn't just died in battle…that he'd been murdered by a human. And that nobody had done anything about it. He'd tried meditating, he'd tried breathing, but nothing could replace his rage.

"Did you just hope I'd never want to find out how it happened?" He spat. "Did you think I didn't deserve to know how my own dad died?"

"I've always thought you deserved to know," Velvet replied, trying to keep her voice steady. "It's this that I was worried about. I don't want you doing anything you regret."

Regret? Why would Cobalt ever regret giving his father's murderer a taste of his own medicine? Why would he regret making that man suffer for everything he'd done? There was no regret to be found in justice. If nobody else was going to do anything, he would.

"He's just out there, living his life without a care in the world! Why should I let him get away with it?" Cobalt's eyes brimmed with tears as overwhelming grief battled his anger. "It's not…it's not fair."

Velvet softened. "Cobalt, I know how you feel," she told him gently. "I'm not telling you that revenge is inherently wrong. But do you think your father would want his twelve-year-old son to have to put himself in that position?"

Cobalt couldn't reply. His memories of his father were growing faint, but he remembered his kindness more than anything else. His gentle nature, how he took everything in stride. But what use was remembering any of that when he was dead and gone? What use was kindness in a situation like this? Cobalt began to shake, his tears dripping off his face and onto the carpet. A moment later, he found himself wrapped in his mother's arms.

"Cobalt, I hate seeing you like this," her voice was soft, but ached with pain, "I know you want to do something, but this isn't healthy. You know that, right?"

Cobalt trembled. "I know, but…I-ever since I found out, I've been so angry," he sobbed, " I don't feel like I can just sit here and do nothing."

"Look, maybe when you're older, we can look into it," Velvet replied, still holding him close, "But for now, you need to promise me you'll just enjoy being a kid. Let yourself live your life."

Cobalt sniffed. "I guess…that's what Dad would want, right?"

Velvet squeezed him tighter. "It's what we all want for you."

Cobalt took a deep breath. That anger had been something he'd buried for a long, long time now. He wasn't about to let it rise again. Breath, he told himself. Just breath.

"You know," Storm commented softly, "I really regret not getting to know Astra better when we were in combat school." His gaze darkened. "I wish I'd never let people be so cruel to her. We could have been friends." He looked thoughtful. "If she makes it through this…I think I'm going to make sure to spend more time with her."

Cobalt wiped his eyes, realizing his face was stained with tears. "You know…I think she's considered you her friend for a while now. She likes you."

Storm gave a half-smile. "Yeah, well…I'd like to actually earn that title."

Cobalt remembered a few days before the accident, when he and Astra had played cards with Team SCY, how grateful he'd been that Storm and Astra had been getting along so much better. A sudden wave of grief crashed over him.

"I really miss her," He whispered.

Storm kissed the top of his head. "I miss her too," He replied quietly. "But you know, Astra's really stubborn. She once spent the entire lunch break back at Titan on the school basketball court. She wouldn't stop until she got a basket. I know what the doctor's said, but I don't think she'd let herself go out like this."

Cobalt almost smiled. It did sound a lot like Astra to refuse death. But he still vividly remembered what Yatsuhashi had told him all those years ago- people didn't get to choose. All the same, the hope was one he wanted to cling to.

He looked up at Storm. "Did she…did she ever get a basket?"

"Oh, eventually," Storm chuckled. "Only after the bell rang. She got into so much trouble for being late."

Cobalt felt himself lighten, just a tiny bit. He'd never heard Storm actually talk about Astra's days at combat school before, and he suddenly wanted to know a lot more.

"What else did she get up to back then?"

Storm tilted his head. "Hmm, well…there was that time she accidentally caused a schoolwide blackout…"

For the next thirty minutes, Cobalt remained leaning against Storm and listening to wild stories about his teammate; stories of her determination, her courage, her endless perseverance. Storm was a good storyteller, Cobalt realized, and it was easy to picture the scenes in his mind as they were described. For a moment, it was almost as if Astra was right there with them.

A rush of footsteps caught Cobalt's attention, and he turned to see Lily rushing into view, stopping to pant in the doorway, urgency clear in her movement.

Cobalt sat up, his heart giving an anxious flip. "Is everything okay? Did something happen? Please don't be bad news, please don't be bad news.

But when Lily looked up, her crimson gaze signalled anything but bad news. They were shining brighter than Cobalt had seen them, or anyone's, in days. Despite her exhaustion from apparently having run from LLAC's dorm to SCY's, she was wearing a wide grin.

"The hospital called," she panted, "Astra's awake."