Witch Hunter Robin Fan Fiction ❯ A Long Night ❯ Bed ( Chapter 5 )

Bed

 

Michael led her up to the third floor, mostly occupied by files and documents. He walked through a maze of files, before opening a door into a smallish room, clearly once a storeroom. It had a camp bed, with a blanket dumped untidily on it. The walls were painted the same dingy colour as the rest of Ravens Flat, but there were a couple of faded posters on the walls. Michael shrugged “Sakaki gave them to me, not really my taste, but better than nothing.” A crinkled copy of the Hackers Manifesto was also stuck to the wall, “I printed that out upstairs, smuggled it down here. No one ever comes in here except me, and I often don't bother and just sleep under my desk, so I could get away with it” he explained. His explanation was a bit lost on Robin, however, who did not have a good grasp of English, and could understand very little of the text aside from the word “Hacker”. There were a couple of books on a rickety table by the bed, one of them was a heavily thumbed trashy romance novel. Michael caught Robin looking at it “Doujima left it, I had screen burn. Needed something to do that wasn't the computer. What can I say?” Robin smiled, she doubted that was completely true, looking at the abuse the book had suffered. Michael was right, it was physically warmer in here, but the room itself felt so cold. It was more like a cell than a room, thought Robin. Even her room at Touko's, which was very much Touko's spare room rather than Robin's room, was more welcoming than this.

 

Michael had dodged behind her and grabbed his sleeping t shirt, moving it away from her, it hadn't been washed in a good few weeks. It was actually the t shirt he had been wearing when he had been captured, after two years it wasn't fit for anything other than sleeping in, even for a guy with a very limited wardrobe. He gestured for her to sit on the bed, then sat next to her, leaving a respectable distance. “What's wrong?” he asked, noticing Robin's face. “I'm sorry,” she replied, embarrassed. “It's just….this room feel so sad. So confining, not like the convent rooms, which were simple, but somehow beautiful.” Michael nodded. “I know, but it doesn't matter so much. I just sleep here, it's a place to crash, nothing else. I don't go in for interior decorating” he smiled. “I just stay on the Net as long as I can, I can get so lost in my work, in tracking down the bad guys and finding information that I forget about all this. By the time I come here, I'm always too tired to see properly, let alone think about it. I don't like being here when I'm not exhausted, it makes it all feel so real.” Robin could see the sadness returning, and quickly changed the subject.

 

“What's it like on the Net?” asked Robin suddenly. “Depends,” replied Michael, after a long, thoughtful silence. “Sometimes it's like going through a maze with a blindfold on, hitting dead end after dead end, sometimes hitting them hard. Sometimes, it's like digging a hole, or moving snow. You shovel away at all the rubbish to get to the real information. But when you are on a Hunt and I watch you over the Net, I can walk alongside you, I can see everything, know each of your positions and status, know what you are doing in relation to the suspect. I can almost see the action. I can fly above the city, I can guide you, protect you as best I can. I know I don't have the skill to be a Hunter. I would never have the skill to help you fight in the real world, but, in the Net, I can. I guess,” and he blushed again “you lot are the closest thing to family I have now, I have ever had, really and it feels good to be able to protect you. That's probably the only reason I stay.” “I feel better knowing you are there” replied Robin “you of all of them would not let me down.” Michael looked down and blinked rapidly a couple of times. This was one of the first times in his life that he was actually being acknowledged as a person. Robin seemed to intuitively know what to say to him to make him smile, even her presence lit up each day, breaking the monotony of his life.

 

He pushed those feelings down deep inside. They had no place in his life, that was another thing that had been made clear after his “collaring.” He sighed, her and him, it was his favourite fantasy, but it was not a purely sexual one, though it was just as satisfying, something he'd thought impossible until now. He turned to her, not knowing what to say next, but she was not sitting there any more. Robin was curled up, catlike, on his bed, fast asleep. He looked at his small, battered old alarm clock, 530AM. Work in 3 hours! No wonder she was asleep, he had no idea they'd talked for so long. He thought about getting sleep himself, and tiptoed out of the room, shutting the door gently behind him. Up on the fifth floor, he retrieved his other blanket from its cupboard and curled up under his desk, feeling at peace with the world. He reached up, and turned off his computer, banishing the picture of his old classmates from the screen, realising that an old chapter was over, and something new was beginning.. Robin was going to change his life, he sensed. She had that presence about her. With that thought in his mind, Michael drifted off to sleep, and dreamt about freedom and sunlight, the first time for months his dreams had not been black and twisted.

 

He awoke, as he usually did, an hour before the others were due. For some reason he would always wake at this time, it was as though his body knew. He stretched and moved towards the shower. Suddenly he jolted, “Robin,” he thought. Had last night been a dream, was she really here? He ran down the stairs, taking them three at a time, until he got to his door. Knocking brought no response, so he gently pushed it open. She was still asleep on his bed. He paused, then closed the door and went back to the kitchen area upstairs. “Coffee” he thought, would be good and would be what she would want. He had never had someone stay over in his room before, ever. Especially not a girl like Robin. He was in a state of mild panic, trying to make things perfect in the kitchen, trying to get her to be pleased with him.

 

Downstairs, Robin stirred, but did not awaken fully. She had woken up after Michael had left last night, and had spent a good time in the dawn light thinking. She liked Michael, he accepted her and made her feel safe. He did not fear her, though he was a human, and he treated her with respect, always. She was unused to men, though, and couldn't help but feel wary. The priests who would come to the convent were always overbearing, strict and harsh. Father Juliano, the man who had raised her, had always been a distant figure. When she was old enough, she had lived in the convent with the nuns, exposed to their female world, where men were a peripheral irritation. She had no idea how to relate to men, how to deal with the flood of feelings which emerged when she looked at Amon, and the very different feelings which came up when she looked at Michael. She was confused, men had never confused her before, they were always to be looked up to and obeyed to their faces, but complained about behind their backs. She did not know what to do, and had fallen into a troubled sleep still thinking about it.