Author's Notes: Own nothing. Claim nothing.

Neo puffed out her cheeks in frustration and scratched out a six she had just written in her book and replaced it with an eight that was entirely too cramped for the tiny Sudoku box. Usually she'd use a pencil for these things, but the puzzle book claimed this puzzle was only a two star difficulty and she'd figured she would have little need for an eraser. As she searched to find the extent of the considerable damage the errant six had caused she began to think the book was just being erroneous and cursed herself for listening to it.

She closed her eyes and let her head fall back over the arm of the couch and carelessly tossed the book on the coffee table. When she opened her eyes again she realized that it was actually quite dark in the room. Outside the window the sun was setting and her eyes had adapted to the diminishing light so gradually that she had failed to notice its departure. She stretched, popping her back and clicked on the lamp at the end of the couch lazily.

It was getting dark earlier and earlier every day, she thought sourly. She much preferred the long days and warm nights of summer and as the season turned towards winter Neo was missing the brightly lit evenings more and more. The last rays of sunlight were streaming through the window and it was only...

Neo looked at the grandfather clock standing in the corner and raised her eyebrows in surprise. It was already past six, she had completely lost track of time. She slipped off of the couch gracefully and walked to the foyer of the house, absently flicking on another light as she went and looked out the window towards the driveway and the street beyond.

Roman's car wasn't there, of course. She knew it wouldn't be there even as she went to check. Still, she stood staring out the window at the empty space for several minutes, unmoving and waiting for him to arrive.

Finally, she slowly pulled herself away from the window. Roman was usually home by six or at least texted ahead to let Neo know he'd be late. Neo double checked the front door to make sure it was locked and pulled out her scroll.

No new messages.

Could be traffic, she thought, turning the deadbolt without looking and making her way back to the living room. It happened sometimes, traffic in Vale was notoriously unpredictable. She turned on the news, wondering if maybe there would be some breaking story on the fugitive criminal. Neo didn't think there was anything going down tonight, but you never know.

There weren't any reports on Roman, but Neo left the channel on anyway, lowering the volume to a barely audible whisper. It was nice to have some background noise and something to watch as she passed the time. Neo fidgeted in her seat nervously. She tried lying down on the couch briefly but quickly found herself sitting up again. When she glanced at the clock ticking loudly in the corner she found that only a few short minutes had passed. She looked again two minutes later. And three minutes after that. No matter how long she waited before checking the time it seemed to barely move.

She heard a soft thunk from out front and immediately leapt from her seat and rushed to the front window to check the driveway again. It sounded like a car door closing, she thought. She thought it might, anyway, it was hard to tell. She flicked on the light in the foyer and found herself looking at her own reflection in the window. Flicking another switch in frustration she turned on the porch light and could once again see out into the night.

No car.

She stared into the darkness trying to see what had made that noise, but saw nothing. It could have been from a neighbor's house, she supposed. It had gotten very dark outside and she couldn't see beyond the illumination of the porch light. For a terrible moment she had a vision of something in the darkness beyond her sight and quickly pulled the curtains closed. She stood holding them together and took a deep, shuddering breath. Memories of the dark alleys of her childhood before Roman found her filled her mind. She wasn't afraid of the dark, she was quick to point out to people who suggested such things.

She just knew what hid there.

She grabbed her parasol from the stand next to the door and, clutching it tightly to her chest, hurried back into the living room. Another dark portal waited for her there and she closed the curtains on that one as well. Neo locked the back door and deadbolted it and looked around the room slowly. Everything was in its place, all the lights were on, the TV murmured quietly about the weather.

She sat on the couch at rigid attention, laid her parasol across her lap and picked up the remote for the TV and started flipping through the channels. The channels flickered by without leaving an imprint, she knew there was nothing particularly interesting on. She just needed to distract herself. Behind her a man reached out for her with both hands.

His face was painted with shadows in spite of the brightness of the room, but Neo knew him. She'd seen him for years in her nightmares, both real and imagined. He wasn't real, she told herself over and over. He's not here, he can't get to you, none of them can. You're in your house, you're in Roman's house, you're safe here, Roman said you're safe here. She released the catch on her parasol and pulled the handle slowly, revealing a sliver of the blade inside. The man was still there though, his hands inches from her neck and just out of view. Neo took a deep breath and quickly stood and turned, her muscles tense.

There was nothing.

She changed seats and sat in one of the chairs, the one with its back against a wall. She slipped the blade back into her umbrella with a satisfying click. She's safe here, she repeated in her mind. Don't need to worry about the people or the dogs or the rats any more, Roman made sure of that. She clicked the parasol blade release and slid it slowly out before she again slid it back into its sheath. Roman made sure of that.

The clock in the corner of the room made a loud click and a grinding, whirring noise that made Neo jump in her seat. She had taken out the chime shortly after moving in, but it was still too loud for her tastes and still startled her from time to time. Seven o'clock. Roman was very late. Neo got up and made her way through the dining room and into the kitchen, edging herself sideways through the doorways and turning on the lights as she went. She pulled her scroll from her pocket as she closed the shutters on the kitchen's bay window.

Her thumbs quickly typed out a message to Roman, asking if he was okay, but she immediately deleted it. The next message was also quickly deleted. She blew air out through her nose noisily and looked around the kitchen to give herself a moment to think. Her eyes went first to the knife stand and she nodded to herself comfortingly. It never hurt to be armed, even if there wasn't a need. She squeezed her parasol comfortingly.

But being in the kitchen did raise an issue. Was she supposed to be making something? Roman usually cooked dinner when he got home, but when he was coming home late he'd often ask Neo to fix up something. Now though she didn't know what was going on. Was he bringing back something? Was he eating out without her? Should she go ahead on her own or wait for him? She looked down at her scroll, frustrated. She typed out a message asking if he was bringing dinner whenever he came home and pressed send before she could give herself a chance to overthink it.

She stared at the scroll for several seconds before she managed to convince herself that it wasn't necessarily a bad omen that Roman didn't text her back immediately. He could be busy or have his phone on silent or there could be a dozen different reasons it could take time for him to respond. She looked around the room and felt an increasing discomfort. She didn't feel safe. She needed to go somewhere safer.

Neo soon settled herself in her room. The doors to every room in the house were now open and every light was on. She turned on her TV and ducked into her closet to wait. Inside she curled up with a small mountain of stuffed animals and waited, peering through the slits in the door. Neo was too old for these kinds of toys, but the first night Roman brought her home he'd left one on her bed. Every few weeks after that another animal would appear on her bed without explanation and she would sleep a little sounder. She had long ago run out of room for the things on her bed but was loathe to get rid of any. They were from Roman. They were hers. And they were proof that she belonged here.

Every night she grabbed one from the pile and set it on the table next to her night light and watched it until she drifted off to sleep. Here, surrounded by the fluffy animals she suddenly felt very tired. She breathed deeply through her noise, taking in the familiar, comforting smell and closed her eyes for just a minute.

She awoke to the sound of a soft thump downstairs, followed by the deadbolt unlocking and the door being opened. Neo sprang from the closet, holding her parasol close and crept towards the stairs.

"I'm home!" Roman's voice called out from below. Neo's shoulders slumped in relief and she tossed her parasol back into her room, taking care to ensure it landed safely on the bed and took a few deep breaths to calm herself.

"Neo?" called the voice from downstairs.

Neo clapped her hands and Roman's head peeked around the corner and looked up the stairs. He started walking up to meet her. "Hey kiddo," he said to greet her.

Neo scrunched her eyebrows together and held up her hand with only her index finger raised and shook it violently before pointing at Roman.

"Is everything alright?" he asked, concerned. "Lotta lights on."

Neo repeated the gesture.

"I told you I was going to be late tonight. I had that job at the dust store, remember?"

Neo glared and in quick succession struck her thumb off her chin, touched her lips with her index finger, and pressed her palm against her chest.

Roman winced and stopped moving a few steps from her. "I'm sorry, I thought I did this morning, I didn't mean to scare you."

"Not scared," Neo signed, but felt tears start to form behind her eyes.

Roman climbed the remaining steps and wrapped his arms around Neo. "It's okay," he reassured her, "I told you, you're safe here. You'll always be safe here."

She wanted to tell him she wasn't afraid, that she was adult enough that he didn't have to worry about her, that she knew she was safe. She wanted to say thank you. Instead she just wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him tight, burying her face against his torso so he couldn't see the tears they knew were there. Behind his back she squeezed a hand into a fist and slowly extended her index, pinky, and thumb. He would never say the words aloud and she would never say them where he could see, but they both knew the feeling was shared between them.