Storm (G/T)

Up and At 'Em

Robin POV

My head is dizzy. I sit up to see I'm in the grass, decently far away from where I was before passing out. Finally regaining sight, all I see is Austin on his stomach with the two officers in front of him, looking much less relaxed and entertained than he is. "Are you done scaring them shitless?" I ask, walking toward them. I'm half-joking, though I do genuinely feel bad for the officers. God knows what went down when I was down and out. Thankfully, he's already partially backing his arms out.

"Sorry," he says, smiling. "We made a pinky promise to not hurt or scare each other."

"I see it's going well." My expression is blank.

"I've done nothing! Honest." He's smiling, but the two humans are still shaking.

"Hey, it's okay, sorry this is all scary," I direct to the officers. "I really promise he's not going to talk to you anymore or scare you. He's really docile, just a douche sometimes." My eyes flash at him, and he gives the same half-smile as when I first noticed him following me.

"We have to order backup," Bailey shakily reaches for her monitor.

"Please don't, he'll be on his way in a second then we can all pretend nothing happened. Sound good?"

"We can't let a rampant giant on the loose, he could step on someone or eat them or something for all we know."

"Hey," Austin frowns, taken aback. "I watch where I'm going when I walk, and I passed by a sweet little village earlier, I'm all filled up on human at the moment."

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" I shout as they immediately reach for their monitors.

He cuts them off. "I don't eat meat, chill." The officers move their hands away again. "This isn't going to work if you continue to be scared of me."

"It isn't going to work if you keep trying to scare us," Melon retorts.

"I'm done. I pinky promised." He holds up a pinky. "Are we done here? Can she go with me?"

"She still can't."

"Then let's look at the possible scenarios" he replies. "Let's say I take Robin with me and run far away very fast and none of you can ever catch us, nor will you find us. What happens then?"

"Well," Bailey starts. "We'd have to go back to the station and either lie and say we didn't find anyone, or tell the truth about finding her but her being whisked away by a seventeen-year-old giant who broke our guns in half." Who did what?

"Who gets hurt by that?"

"Hopefully not her," she gestures at me. "But our jobs will definitely be delayed since her disappearance is important at the station, and her parents won't be too happy."

"They're never too happy with me," I interject.

"No one's too happy with you at the moment," she turns to me, hands on her hips. "I don't even know how we can explain this to anyone."

"Then don't," Austin replies. "If she can't come with me then fine. Register her as an adult early due to circumstances with homelife. She just needs a home. But if she can come with me, mark her as deceased maybe?"

"Trust me, if she goes with you, we can surely mark her as deceased," she says sternly.

"Oh, great! Then let's g-"

"That was a joke, dumbass," I shoot at him.

"Thank you, cookie," she continues. "Anyway, in terms of getting her to live on her own legally, it's possible, but not that simple. She'll need to go through tons of records and interrogations and everything in order to give her the okay to be by herself."

"So be it," the giant replies, waving his hands behind me. "She's all yours, if she gets to live alone. Can I go?"

"Please," Melon chips in.

"Austin?" I ask, turning back to him.

"You've got the map, you can visit whenever," his eyes don't leave the officers.

"Actually, she-"

"She can go wherever she pleases, and that map belongs to her. Thank you for being respectful through this, I'm happy we could come to an agreement. I didn't even get shot!"

"Yet," replies Melon.

"Have fun with that," Austin's eyes shift to the guns, more like piles of scrap metal. What the hell did he do? "But if I find out that anything bad happens to her or she's blocked off from visiting me for any reason at all, I won't be nearly as civil as I was tonight." He's got the fakest smile plastered across his face. Not a damn lie was told.

The thought of him genuinely lashing out and causing harm sends shivers down my spine, and I'm more comfortable with him than those two will ever be. "Please agree," I plead.

The two pause, and look at each other. "Fine. Come on, Robin."

"Thank you. But first, can we get a minute?"

"Least amount of time possible please," Melon replies, then looks up to Austin, who's less than happy. "Nothing against you, of course. You're great."

"Get over yourself." He looks down to me and his eyes soften immediately. "You alright? You got this? Please come back whenever you want, I'll be happy to see you."

"Same to you. Get back safe. Don't hurt anyone."

"Aww, I was having so much fun causing a terrible rampage and killing humans, though." He immediately shifts his eyes to the officers. "Joke. It was a joke." They look unamused.

"This is it then."

"Guess so," he says. "Again, stay safe, take care of yourself." We look over to the officers, staring us down and eavesdropping. Austin playfully snaps his teeth in their direction, immediately holding back a smile.

"That goes against our contract-"

"It was a pinky promise, ma'am," he corrects Bailey. "Not legally binding."

"You know what, do whatever makes your little he- well... whatever makes your heart happy," the cop gives in. "Just leave already."

"See you soon," I smile to him.

"You too." He stands up and walks away, still making sure to not be too loud. How polite. Eventually he's out of view, and life begins to dull again.

"Jesus Christ, I almost lost it," Melon sighs.

"You did lose it," Bailey replies shakily, looking back to where he went. "Let's go, Robin, you can ride with me."

"Sure thing." I can't meet eyes with anyone.