Without Him || FNF angst (Pico/BF/GF) poly

Suprise Call

A few hours later, GF awakened to the familiar sound of her phone going off. She dragged herself out of bed to check the device, which she had left charging on her boyfriend's dresser. Immediately after she unlocked the phone, she was bombarded with an abundance of texts, Instagram notifications, and even emails. Every message mentioned the same few things: BF's funeral, a police report, and Pico walking alone last night.

"Pico, wake up," GF ordered, marching back to the bed and gripping the ginger by the bicep. The only responses she got were short hums and coos to her dismay. Pico wasn't usually a heavy sleeper, but considering how much the male had been drinking, GF wouldn't have been surprised if he died in his sleep. 

After several minutes of attempting to wake the ginger, GF finally gave up and made the journey downstairs with breakfast on her mind. Inevitably, the girl realized she wasn't in the mood to cook, so she opened the fridge and lazily pulled out a box of leftover mushroom pizza. She lifted the lid and peered inside the box, there was just over half of a pie left.
The brunette grabbed a teakettle from off the stove and took it to the sink to fill with water, all the while she held a cold slice of pizza between her lips. Once it was full, she carried the teakettle back to the stove, flicked on the front burners, and gently placed the pot down. GF waited patiently for the water to boil, entertaining herself by munching on even more cold pizza.

Minutes later, GF heard someone trudging down the stairs, so she grabbed another slice and made her way to the stairway. As expected, the person coming down the stairs was Pico. Sleepily, the ginger placed his feet from one step to the next step, eyes barely peeping open. By the time he reached the bottom of the staircase, he managed to wake himself up a bit more. He silently took notice of how closely his girlfriend was watching him. "Mornin', babe," The ginger mumbled; his voice was lower and raspier than usual because he just woke up. As he stretched both arms high above his head, he let out a long yawn.  GF felt a yawn coming on herself, but she denied it. 
"Morning, Pico," She greeted anxiously, "did you happen to,"
She was interrupted by an atrocious squeal coming from the other room. The screeching was too loud for GF to finish her thought, so the duo advanced to the kitchen. GF flicked the burner off and the noise faded; it was simply the whistle on the tea kettle, notifying GF that her tea-water had finally come to a boil. Pico was close behind all the while, he had begun preparing fresh coffee grounds for his morning cup.
"What were you saying?" Pico asked, grabbing a slice of mushroom pizza. 
GF sighed and slowly stirred her tea with a spoon. "Did you walk home from the police station last night?" The ginger looked confused for a second, then recalled the night prior. 
"Uh, yes." He said unsurely, "Why?" 
"Well," GF began, "someone snapped a picture of you." and Pico raised an eyebrow. 
"Remind me why that's so bad," He urged, shoving nearly a whole slice of pizza into his mouth. 
"Normally it wouldn't be a big deal," GF admitted, "but you're a celebrity and you could've gotten hurt."
"What's so worrying about me walking home though?" He asked, still chewing. Thankfully he raised his hand to cover his open mouth as he spoke. 
"The police report about you was released to the public," She explained. "people may see you as a threat, on top of you being famous. As if there weren't already enough reasons to beat you up." She mumbled the last part. 
"Oh, alright." Pico breathed nonchalantly and continued to eat the slice of pizza he'd grabbed. 
GF blinked curiously. "You're not worried that people know you punched my dad, or that you pulled out a gun at BF's funeral?" She was beginning to sound irritated. Normally, when the brunette felt sour, she was able to hide it pretty well. Today was different.
Picking up on his girlfriend's unusual tone, Pico decided to attempt to calm her. To counter her thwarted tone, he maintained his calm spirit. "Of course I'm worried," He confessed. "but I have faith in our fans to understand how upsidedown things are right now." 
GF grumbled something under her breath and took a huge bite of pizza, nearly half the slice. Pico inhaled sharply, trying to keep himself from laughing. Seeing his girlfriend this angry, over seemingly nothing, was very entertaining. 

The duo stood at the counter in silence, sipping their coffee or tea, and eating too much cold pizza. 

Later that morning, after the couple finished their breakfast pizza, GF got a call from her father. She asked why he bothered to call immediately- they obviously weren't on good terms for several reasons. 
Her father just said something about an interview then hung up. Seconds later, GF's phone rang again. She sighed obnoxiously and answered the call. "Hello?" She asked. She was speechless for about ten seconds, listening to the caller closely. "Uh, one moment, let me get him." Overhearing GF's conversation, Pico stood up from the futon he had been resting on and went away to the next room, meeting his parter. The brunette waved at Pico as he plopped down on the cushion beside her, then she put her phone on speaker mode. "Okay, he's here," GF told the caller. 
"Great!" Said the caller. Her voice was low but still feminine. "My name is Carol, I'm from Heuristic Entertainment. Are you two familiar with us?" 
"No." Replied GF, hovering her finger over the end-call button. 
"Oh. Well, that's okay!" Carol said, "You guys have actually been on our channel before. A few months ago, GF was interviewed by Whitty on his talk show. Heuristic Entertainment is just the production company behind Whitty's show and others." She explained. 
"OH!" Squeaked GF, "That's right! Sorry about that!" She laughed nervously
Pico buried his face in his hands to stifle his chuckles. 
"Hehe, that's okay." Carol spoke politely. "I'm sure ya'll hear a lot of names.
"Tell me about it." Pico mumbled, playfully rolling his eyes. 
"Anyway, one of our other hosts, HEX, would like to have you live on his show." 
Pico and GF looked at each other nervously. "Do you happen to know why?" Pico asked, slinging an arm over his girlfriend's shoulder. At first, Carol said nothing, but the phone managed to pick up the sound of someone typing furiously on a keyboard. 
"Um," Carol muttered, "this email from Mr. Hex says you two have been making a lot of headlines lately. I'm guessing this has something to do with BF's, uh." Realizing she was thinking out loud, she stopped herself from finishing. "I really don't know, sorry. I was just asked to make this call." 
"When does he want us on the show?" GF asked, trying to ignore the caller's slip-up. 
"Whenever you guys are available, Hex told me to acknowledge your busy schedules," Carol explained. "you can always call back if you aren't sure, if at all possible, he'd love you here this week." Pico tensely gripped his partner's arm. Were they really ready to speak publicly about their dead boyfriend?
Taking notice of the ginger's distress, GF told Carol she'd call back later and hung up. 

That night, the duo decided they would be going on the show in three days. GF called Carol and told her that, to which Carol was relieved.
Over the next few days, Gf and Pico prepared for their television appearance accordingly. They didn't have time to get new outfits tailored, so they each raided their closets in search of semi-coordinating pieces. While they did this, they discussed how to respond to certain inevitable questions, what information they were willing to disclose, what topics were "off-limits". 
They obviously knew they couldnt control the questions at the end of the day, but talking it over seemed to help calm their nerves.