*This chapter is short and boring. I'm sorry. No one commented title suggestions last time so I used a suggestion from chapter 7. Thanks to TwentyOnePinetrees for the title "tea spilled". I tagged the theme song from my favorite Studio Ghibli. Fine on The Outside by Priscilla Ahn from When Marnie Was There. No pic this time because I'm too lazy to find one. Some Spanish this chapter. Translations in the comments.*

(2610 words)

May 11

7:21 am

kmskeith: you ready for your first day of academy?

shirogone: yeah. I'm going to be meeting the officer who's doing my security detail while I'm there

kmskeith: they didn't start last night?

shirogone: they did. but the cops who watch us at night are different and change every night. the one watching us during the day will be the same every day. and I'm meeting them at the academy when they switch out.

kmskeith: ohh okay. didn't realize that.

shirogone: i'm leaving in 15 minutes

kmskeith: good luck ⋆ don't forget grad rehearsal tonight

shirogone: thanks, i'll be there

Shiro walked into the police academy, ready for his first day.

Then someone walked in behind him, "Um, Shiro?"

Shiro turned around, "Adam? What are you doing here?"

Adam fidgeted a bit, "Well, I've been assigned as your security detail. I'll be trailing you today."

"Oh, okay," Shiro nodded, "So you just sorta follow me around all day, every day?"

Adam nodded, "Pretty much, just until the three suspects are in custody. I don't think it will be long. With the evidence we have, we should be able to at least charge Cleo right away. The accounts IP address is registered to her. But the boys may go free until we gather evidence or get a confession. So until all three are charged, I'll be doing your security. Detective Anderson is afraid that after we take them in for questioning if the boys get out, they might get mad and attempt to retaliate. So I'm here to keep you safe. Not that you can't take care of yourself. You look very.. capable. We just have security on Keith and all his friends until this is over."

"Well, I'm not that worried about myself," Shiro shrugged, "I'm worried about Keith and Lance. Keith is the main target and if Lance was attacked again... None of us think he'd recover."

Adam sighed, "Well, out of all six of you, you're the third most likely to get attacked. Obviously, Keith is first since these three are harassing him specifically. And if they were to attack those close to him, they would either go after his best friend or his boyfriend. Boyfriend would hurt most so Lance is second. You're Keith's best friend so that puts you at number three."

"You've put a lot of thought into this, haven't you?"

Adam blushed a bit, "It's my job. In order to try to anticipate their next moves and protect you all, we have to get into their heads. I'm pretty good at profiling. And I've been studying Lance's case for the past few months as part of my training. I read all the reports, watched the recordings of the confessions and witness statements, everything. I get why you guys don't think Lance would recover another attack. He looked pretty traumatized in his statement recording."

Shiro nodded, "He was traumatized. He's been diagnosed with PTSD and still has major issues. He had a really rough panic attack the other day, and one a couple of days before that. And Keith told me he's getting bad nightmares again. I didn't really know him that well when it all went down, we had just met. So I wasn't really much of a target when she threatened to hurt his friends. I was included in the initial threat when she shared everyone's locations. But when she would choose a specific person for her penalties for each fucked up challenge, I was never picked. She would've killed me along with everyone else though, she was going to kill everyone who knew about her. But since I wasn't really involved, I didn't have to give a recorded witness statement or testify at the trials. Just a quick statement the night it all went down, me and Allura were the ones who explained to the police what had been going on. Pidge and Lance were really shaken up after being kidnapped and nearly murdered, so they obviously didn't cover everything. Me and Lura filled in the blanks."

"Would you mind telling me more about it later on? I've really been wanting to talk to someone who was there to learn more, but I didn't want to bother Lance and Keith with it."

Shiro shrugged, "Sure, why not. I may not have been majorly involved but I know everything that happened. Keith confided in me about the things I wasn't there for, he needed someone to talk to about it all. None of knew what was going on for Lance until that night that Anna kidnapped him. He had told us all that afternoon. That's why she went batshit crazy. He broke the rules of her game, he told us about her. That ruined her initial plan of torturing him until he killed himself then deleting her account so it only looked like some senseless tragedy. When he told us about her, she would have had to kill all of us to keep her part in it a secret. Apparently, she was going to pin all the murders on Mike. He's the reason Lance is alive. Her last challenge nearly broke him, he was going to kill himself. But Mike stole her phone and ended the challenge."

"Wow, not all of that was in the records. Was that the challenge where she had him lock himself in his room for a week?" Adam was really invested in the case.

Shiro nodded, "Yeah, that's the one that fucked him up the most. He can't be alone without going into a panic attack. I'll gladly fill in more blanks after I'm done with the academy. Maybe over lunch? You have to stay with me all day anyway. Might as well hang out instead of just watching me from a distance."

Adam smiled, "Yeah, that sounds awesome. You should get in there now, they're about to get started. I'll be waiting right outside the door. You're safe in there, plenty of cops around. I'd just be a distraction."

"Okay, well, I'll see you in a couple of hours then." Shiro hesitated before turning around and walking into the training room.

Adam watched him go, sitting down on a bench by the door.

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mortemsirenis: i've been doing some reading on anna. apparently she transferred to your school after pushing some girl at her old school to suicide. sounds a bit like us, doesn't it?

kmskeith: i'm done being afraid of you. the police are looking for you. they have enough evidence to charge you with harassment. and i know this is cleo for a fact now, they checked the ip address. and i'm sure they'll find evidence to charge the boys too.

mortemsirenis: they don't have anything against the boys. and if you think you'll get a confession out of us, you're not. you'll be sorry for what you've done. even if you get me, the boys will make you pay for it.

kmskeith: i told you, i'm not afraid of you

mortemsirenis: you should be

Keith put his phone down with a groan, putting his face in his hands as he sat down on his bed.

Lance leaned against their bedroom doorframe, looking at Keith, "They're texting you again, aren't they?"

Keith sighed before nodding, "Yep... Cleo says even if we get her, Seamus and Carson will make me pay for it."

Lance walked to sit down next to him, "Hey, it's going to be okay. There are two officers right outside our apartment right now. You'll be safe. We'll all be safe."

Keith nodded, "I know, I know..." he looked at Lance, "Are you okay? I'm sure this must be pretty terrifying for you."

Lance looked down, "I'm not going to lie to you, I am scared. But like I said, we have police protection. We didn't have that last time. The odds of one of us getting hurt again are way down. But then I keep thinking about the fact if they do try to go after someone close to you like Anna did, it's most likely going to be me or Shiro. Or both, who knows. But we have protection... We're safe." He sounded like he was still trying to convince himself.

Keith put his arm around Lance's waist, "You're right. We have protection, we're safe. We have nothing to worry about. I know it must be hard to reassure yourself of that after what happened to us, mostly to you. But no one is going to run me off the road if I have a police tail. No one is going to kidnap Pidge in her yard. No one is going to try to.. kill you. None of that is going to happen again. I promise. They can't get to us. Anderson ensured it. We are safe." He emphasized every word of the last sentence.

Lance smiled at him, "I know. It's just my PTSD getting the best of me. I know we'll be okay. I just have to push those thoughts out of my head."

Keith smiled and kissed his forehead, "You're so much stronger than you give yourself credit for. Now, I have to get to work. Hunk and Allura are coming to watch you. They're already on their way, will you be okay until they get here?"

Lance frowned, "I hate when you phrase it like that. Like I'm a niño pequeño who needs a babysitter."

Keith sighed, "That's what it is though. It's a hard truth, but it's just that. The truth. Need I remind you what happened when Pidge didn't show up?"

Lance crossed his arms, "That was different, I was worried something bad happened to her. Mi pánico estaba justificado."

"Valid point. But let's be real, you would've been freaking out even if you weren't worried about her. You know that. You just won't admit it. We all know you can't be left alone. We all understand why. They're not coming here to babysit you. They're coming here to keep you company and to make sure you don't have another panic attack. We all just want to help protect you, to help you get better."

Lance looked down, "Lo sé... I just hate when you phrase it like that."

Keith nodded, "Okay. Next time I'll just say they're coming to hang out. Is that better?"

Lance nodded, "Yeah."

Keith grabbed Lance's chin and pulled him into a kiss, "Don't be mad at me."

"I'm not mad."

Keith sighed, "I know you're upset, you always talk in Spanish when you're upset. That's part of why I worked so hard to learn Spanish, so I could help you work through whatever is making you upset. It's hard to help when I don't understand what you're saying."

Lance still frowned, "I'm not mad at you. Just upset in general."

Keith nodded, "Okay. Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?"

Lance smiled a bit, "Can you get me a bowl of ice cream while I pick something to watch? Then you have to leave for work, I don't want you to be late."

Keith smiled and kissed him, "Anything for you."

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵

"When Hunk called me to tell me Anna had gotten them, I was already awake. I was sitting by my front door with a baseball bat. You can never be too safe."

Adam nodded, listening to every word Shiro said. They were talking about the Anna case while eating lunch at the café where Lance worked. They had been talking for an hour and continued talking for twenty minutes more.

"Wow, this is so interesting," Adam said, "Obviously, it's tragic and I feel bad for your friend. But it's still really interesting."

Shiro chuckled, "You watched a lot of true crime as a kid, didn't you?"

Adam blushed a bit, "That obvious, huh?"

Shiro shrugged, "Just a bit, but you're a cop so interest in crimes is to be expected."

"What about you?" Adam asked, "Why did you want to become a cop?"

Shiro sighed, "It's just with everything that happened before, everything that's happening now... We're all lucky to be alive. And if things go bad now-"

Adam cut him off, "They won't go bad." He was then silent so Shiro could continue.

Shiro smiled at him, "I see how badly Lance was affected, how coming so close to death haunts him to this day. And I remember the day he finally told us what was happening. We didn't call the cops because we didn't believe they'd take it seriously. We just all went home and hoped for the best, but we got the worst. I don't want that to happen to anyone else. We had to learn the hard way going to the cops was the best option. If Lance went to the cops when it all started like Keith did with this, then none of those horrible things would have happened to him. I want to help change things. I want kids in situations like that to feel that if they go to the police they will be protected no matter what. I don't want any more kids to go through what Lance had to go through. He was so alone, so terrified of what would happen if he didn't do what she wanted. And it went on for a whole week. To most people that seems like nothing. But when you're in that situation, it feels like an eternity, like it will never end. Pidge only had to endure it for one night and even she had to go to therapy for a month. She's terrified to go out at night alone, even though she would never admit it. It's just obvious. But who could blame her, the last time she did she was kidnapped in her own yard. I just keep thinking about how different things would have been if the police would've intervened right away. Lance did say he was going to report her to the police, but she scared him by sending that picture of Keith sleeping, proving she was in his bedroom and could kill him if she wanted. That was enough to keep Lance quiet until he was at his breaking point. He told me if that last challenge had lasted even just one day longer he would've done it. He would've killed himself, just like she wanted. If the police knew, it never would've come to that."

Adam looked down, "That's one good reason to become a cop. Sure as hell better than 'I liked true crime documentaries when I was a kid'."

Shiro frowned, "Well, what drew you to wanting to work on cases like ours?"

Adam shrugged, "Well, Detective Anderson is my supervisor. And when I was only a week into me being a real cop, I answered a call for Anderson. It was Keith, he was reporting some prank that had been played on them. You could hear Lance freaking out in the background and some girl with an accent, probably Allura, trying to calm him down. After that I got curious. I looked into the Anna case. And I guess I thought something along the same line you did. That I didn't want anyone to go through something like that again. That's why I'm shadowing Anderson whenever he looks into pranks, now looking into these real threats. And that's why I volunteered to be one of the protective details. I wanted to help prevent what happened in August from happening again."

Shiro smiled at him, "That's as good of a reason as any."

Adam smiled back, "Yeah, it is... So, Shiro... Don't you have grad rehearsal tonight?"

Shiro groaned, "Yes, unfortunately. I should probably get home so I can get ready in time."

"Well, obviously, I'll be coming with you."

And with that, the two left, not even aware of the bond they were forming.

*So short... I'm thinking of cutting my chapters in half. I have other things going on and two other stories I want to work on. Sorry. Anyway, I'm going to be skipping over grad rehearsal. As a high school graduate, I can confidently tell you it is as boring as all hell. Even more boring than this chapter.

Also, I have zero (0) idea if I'll have chapter 10 done in time. Even though it's two weeks away. I haven't started it yet. I have limited access to wifi, I have to go to the library. I hate writing on my phone. I need to write on my laptop with Grammarly. Unless it's something I'm not too invested in, then I'll do it on my phone. But I'm very invested in this and refuse to write without Grammarly. I'm going to try to knock out chapter 10 when I got to the library to return my books on Thursday. But no promises. Mom might not let me stay that long.*