Please, hide me ~Brendon Urie

Seven

Stella's P.O.V.

It's been a few days now since Brendon found out about Panic! in my life. I told him everything about how I discovered them, and how I dragged Rose into it. The very first time I heard them was with their cover of This Is Halloween, I think it was in 2008 or 2009 (although their cover was from 2006). And I remember I didn't like it at all compared to Marilyn Manson's cover which was scary, because Panic!'s was too soft according to me (but I love it today!). Then I loved the song New Perspective when I watched Jennifer's Body and that's when I really discovered them. And I watched the music video of The Ballad of Mona Lisa when they released it in 2011, and I fell in love. I showed it to Rose and she fell in love too, and became a bigger fan than me. We went to their concert in London and we met Brendon in the streets in the afternoon before the show, it was a total coincidence. That was the best day of our lives. And when I got into my engineering school in 2012, I quickly met Luka, Adrien and Tom and introduced them to Panic! too. Luka already knew them, but he became a big fan too thanks to me. And then-

"Stella, you're daydreaming again!" Brendon snapped me out of my thoughts.

"Sorry..."

"So I was saying that I started to look for a job a couple days ago, and there's this school looking for a new English tutor to introduce kids to English, it's like 5 minutes from here on foot. Their current tutor is going back to the USA. It would be one morning per week, with the class CM2. Do you know what CM2 is?"

"I think it's 5th grade."

"Oh right. And that man was also tutoring 2 days per week in middle school, 10 minutes from here, so I could do that too. How old are the kids in middle school?"

"It's from 6th grade to 9th grade. And high school is 10th, 11th and 12th grade."

"French school system is so weird. You've got those letters CP, CE, CM, then it's 6, 5, 4, 3, and then seconde, première and terminale. It's so much easier to count from 1st to 12th grade! Anyway if I want to do that in June, I need to find a new name. I cannot go there saying "Hi! I'm Brendon Urie from Panic! At The Disco", you know what I mean? And I guess that I need a bank account to be paid. Can I open one? I'm gonna need papers, aren't I? How am I supposed to get an ID?"

"Whoa, calm down, one thing at a time. I don't like the idea of getting a fake ID, but anyway you're already an outlaw... Tom can get you one, I just need basic information. I mean a first name, middle name, last name, date of birth, city of birth, everything you have on an ID card."

"What name do you like?"

"What name do you like? It's gonna be yours, not mine."

"I like Brendon! I don't know what other name I'd like to have!"

"You're not helping right now... Well, I like Florent. But it doesn't really sound American."

"Florent? I like it. What would be my middle name?"

"I don't know! Someone important in your life?"

"What about Steve? He's Sarah's brother."

"Okay, just let me write that down. So Florent Steve...?"

"Smith? Like Spencer Smith? He's my best friend. And it's the most common name in America."

"Florent Steve Smith..." I repeated as I wrote it. "Date of birth? An important day in your life?"

"The best day of my life was April 27, my wedding day..." I gave him a sympathetic look. "And you can put Los Angeles as my place of birth."

We kept talking about his new identity for the whole evening, about getting an appointment with my bank to open an account, and also about getting him a phone. We agreed on that the day I came back early from work and I couldn't warn him. I found him lying on the kitchen floor, going completely crazy.

"Brendon, what are you d- are you okay?"

"Stella! You're home early..."

"Yeah, I wanted to tell you but I didn't have any way to contact you. What's going on?" I asked, kneeling down next to him.

"I'm sorry... I know I may seem like I'm okay but it's just because I know when you come back home, so I try to calm down before you do and act like I'm okay when you get back. But in reality I'm going crazy of being stuck here and not able to go outside. Sorry I lied to you..."

"Oh Bren, why didn't you tell me?"

So yeah, we agreed on that day that nobody could live like this and I had to accept that if he was going to stay for a while, I had to stop being afraid of him getting caught and let him live like a normal person.

"Can I dye my hair tips in blue like you?"

"What?" I wasn't expecting that.

"Yeah I've never dyed my hair and it's looking awesome on you, I'm sure that would look pretty cool on my head too!"

"Well unfortunately for you, I finished the bottle last week... But I can give you a haircut if you want."

"Oh I would love to! I'm sick of getting my hair in my eyes all the time. And I'm gonna shave too, that beard is way too long, I'm never gonna get used to it."

He came back from the bathroom after a while, and I couldn't help but stare. A man without his beard is a different man. He asked me to cut his hair short, to change his hairstyle to look more like everyone. But Brendon Urie was always going to be Brendon Urie, whatever hairstyle he had... So as his hair was growing back on the sides, I decided to get him back to the Vices & Virtues era, because that was my favorite Brendon.

"Whoa..." he said, looking at himself in the mirror. "I feel like 7 years younger..."

"With those nice clothes we got you, you're going to be the hottest English tutor around!" I joked (or not?). "But beware of middle school girls, they're crazy."

"You think I'm hot?" he asked smiling, turning around to face me.

"Oh come on! Who doesn't?"

"I guess you're right," he laughed. "Thanks for the haircut."

"You're welcome!" I smiled. He stared at me smiling, without saying anything, for what seemed like very long minutes. "Do I have something on the face?" I asked out of embarrassment.

"No, no... It's just, your blue eyes... They remind me of Sarah..."

I didn't know what to answer him. I just gave him a quick hug, and suggested to go to bed because it was getting late.

"Oh about that, you... Well I'm not ready to remove my sister's stuff from her room yet, but you can take it if you want. If you're okay with seeing yourself all around you," I laughed slightly. "I think sleeping in a bed will feel better than the couch."

"Well, after almost 2 weeks I was slowly getting used to it, but I'm not going to say no. Thank you for everything you're doing for me."

"No, thank you for making me feel a little less lonely." This time he was the one who hugged me.

"You're never alone, remember that."