Small warning: From this point on, I've yet to italize any of the chapters. Or edit them in any way. I apologise for any mistakes you may encounter.

... 

The credits rolled, and with that, Claire had officially finished watching one of the nicer Harry Potter movies; The Cursed Child. She patted the space between her and Roxanne, the stiffness of their cheap couch producing a small thumping sound as she searched for the remote.

She looked at the table, which was filled with nachos and a small bag of mini KitKats - which Roxanne was supposed to eat - and the small jar of peanuts - which Claire had nibbled a few bites from. There were also, of course, Roxanne's feet, with a pair of mismatched socks. She finally found what she was looking for.

"So... Please tell me you enjoyed it as much as I did," said Roxanne with a tired chuckle, as Claire reached out to pause, and stop, and turn of the DVD player - just like Roxanne taught her.

Claire looked back and held out a thumb, grinning and finding the grin to be sincere before searching to find the other remote to turn off the TV. She did find it enjoyable. Perhaps that was why everyone loved talking about this particular wizard film! It was just so fun!

Guilt sprung up at Claire's refusal to watch it at what seemed like years ago but was actually short of a month ago, breezy like the late afternoon wind fluttering into their 'Living+Dining+Work+Sometimes-Party+Movie Room Combo!' - Roxanne's words, not hers. Claire shivered, and Roxanne barely reacted.

"Okay, but did you actually enjoy it or did you, like, enjoy it like how you'd enjoy The Room?"

Claire blinked. Wasn't The Room that early 2000's movie that was super good with realistic dialogue and an interesting plot and a jaw dropping, heartbreaking ending? If so, then yes. Claire nodded, her smile dimming, the sincere still the same.

Roxanne, leaning into the armrest, her body bent in a position that could never be comfortable, stared at her and laughed. "Dude, you cannot be serious!"

Claire didn't know what Roxanne was insinuating, so she shrugged and turned off the TV, hugging her body at the gust of wind that escaped into their room, stronger and chillier than the last. She briefly glanced and admired the yellow hue of the morning sky, which would soon shift into a pale blue.

She stood up, walked towards the window, and slowed, feeling something wrong, something urgent, and something she needed to fix right now. That 'something' strengthened the more she closed in on the square border made out of cheap wood, or maybe it was plastic, she couldn't tell.

After heartbeats too long, Claire realized what it was, just as she was closing the apartment window. They were far, though not too far so she couldn't sense them. They were from floors below her. And she could sense their apprehension, their urgency, their need to be swift.

"Enjoying the view?"

Claire pushed this wrongness down, until she couldn't feel it anymore. It had never been hard to begin with, but now it was like putting on makeup - and not even the complicated kind, just a touch of blush.

She turned to Roxanne and rolled her eyes, shaking her head.

Roxanne nodded, linking her two hands together, looking completely serious when she said, "Ah, yes. You're right. You'd much prefer this view over that shitty one." Claire stared, and a crap-eating grin split in Roxanne's face. "And by 'this view', I mean the gorgeousness that is me."

Claire scoffed, and wanted to tell Roxanne not to feel so highly of herself, but when she looked Roxanne, she could only be stricken, not for the first time, at how different Roxanne was, and how subtle these differences were.

Roxanne acted as cocky and carefree and fun as ever. With her dimpled smile and bouncy steps and fast-spoken words, it was hard not to enjoy her company. They were finally alright again. Claire had stopped going out at night, and now they were normal. The past six - short of seven - months now were gone, erased. It had never happened. They were Claire and Roxanne, inseparable, each other's friend, best friend, and more, always telling each other everything, knowing everything about each other, and were just your average girls living in the same small apartment in a small city.

Only, Roxanne wasn't completely okay.

Sometimes she'd look over her shoulders, look everywhere, all over the place, scanning, looking, waiting, as though someone would capture her at any moment - The Watchers would, but they didn't know it was Roxanne who did it. And Roxanne certainly wouldn't know about The Watchers.

Roxanne didn't eat as much as she used to.

The uneaten KitKats sitting at the table might not be that at all concerning, but if you count the cold curry that Katrina had sent today, and the ramen from two days ago, and the pineapple pizza from five days ago they ought to get rid of (since Claire was pretty sure you weren't supposed to eat a five-days old pineapple pizza, even if you love them), then perhaps she should do something about Roxanne's sudden uninterest in food - even the sweet kind.

Roxanne tried to hide it from her - but she could never hide anything from Claire, she was Roxanne, after all - but she never ate breakfast, always insisting that it was too early to eat. Claire never saw her eat lunch, even when Roxanne insisted she did, at work, because there was this new deli that opened and it was so delicious that Roxanne just had to eat there everyday. And dinner? Roxanne always insisted that she was so full from that super delicious lunch that she could only manage half a plate, and even then, she never finished it.

Claire had seen the way Roxanne looked at food. She looked at food the way you'd look at something nasty, something that would make you want to throw up. All Claire could do was wonder. Wonder why Roxanne would do that. And not voice these concerns. Because her voice was fragile, unreliable, and it hid from her, and it was so, so hard and Claire couldn't understand why-

Roxanne's phone buzzed, and she showed a reaction no normal person would show; flinch, look at said phone as though it were a bomb, gulp, blink, realize what happened, and try to calm down her breathing.

Roxanne didn't look up to catch Claire's eyes, didn't offer any explanation for that reaction.

Claire wanted to ask, wanted to shake Roxanne and ask her, "Why are you like this?! What aren't you telling me?! What happened?!"

But she couldn't.

Not because she couldn't speak, but...

Because Claire had done the exact same thing too many times. It was only fair that Roxanne get to do the same thing, right?

Everything was fine.

Nothing to worry about.

Roxanne frowned. "Huh... It's Adit."

Claire blinked, not surprised by Mister Grover texting Roxanne, but by Roxanne calling him 'Adit'. Roxanne and Mister Grover had always been close, closer than any employee or boss, but... to call him by not only his first name, but a nickname at that...

Claire sat down next to Roxanne, peeking at her phone screen, only for Roxanne to turn it off, looking at her questioningly, with a gaze she'd never fixated on anyone before, much less Claire, a gaze of distrust-

No. It wasn't distrust. It couldn't be.

Claire cocked her head to the side, and Roxanne, always good at reading Claire, put her phone away and looked at the ticking square clock above them. "He wants me to come to the office in about an hour."

What?

Claire looked at the clock, finding it to still be too early for Roxanne's work.

Roxanne shrugged. "I don't know either." A beat. "That reminds me, Bella was asking about you yesterday."

Claire flinched, looking right at Roxanne with wide eyes. Roxanne finally looked at her, and her eyes were narrow and suspicious and Claire reminded herself that Roxanne didn't know Bella like she did, didn't know that Bella was with The Watchers, always had been, and she was okay with killing, with killing Roxanne, despite them being close friends, despite Roxanne trusting her and respecting her and admiring her like a hero-

"She's been trying to contact you, you know. You should really consider getting a new phone." Roxanne laughed. "I don't know how you manage without it, especially in this modern, digital world."

Claire shrugged, not wanting to think about Bella, or the way Roxanne was looking at her right now. She grabbed the TV remote and turned the black screen on.

The familiar face of Crystal city's most famous TV persona Amanda Dean greeted them with her perfect, practised smile.

"-the scandal may have been over, the jokes surely are not. I'm here to show you yet another creative prank video our residents crafted, parodying the famous 'Angel' incident."

Crap.

Claire pressed the off button, cussing a non-real curse when Amanda's face didn't disappear into a blackened reflection of them.

"While no one has truly taken it seriously from the start, it's spread so far and even tricked a lot of citizens that our precious mayor had to step in-"

The clicking sound of the TV turning off relieved Claire. She flopped back into the couch as though she'd run a marathon, and quickly glanced at Roxanne.

Roxanne wasn't faring too well.

Roxanne wasn't the only one faring not too well.

Claire looked at Roxanne. Roxanne, whose eyes showed too much intelligence, always making her feel so exposed and transparent.

"She said something about returning a favor."

...

The ticking cat made its return yet again. And it looked as anxious as Roxanne felt, and nowhere near as shocked as she was by what she was seeing, her hand still gripping the handle of the door, her foot hovering above the cream-tiled floor.

Grover sat in his grand office chair. He was in his 'business mode'; jaw tight, wrinkles set, face poker, if not stern. He had his hands clasped together, resting unrestfully on top of the equally-grand table.

"Brooks," he said, instead of 'Beti' or even 'Roxanne', because they weren't acquaintances, not to the public eye, especially not to strangers. Roxanne didn't pay attention to Adit, though. How could she, when there was someone else worth more attention.

"I'd like you to meet your new boss; Robert Prince."