A/N: Sorry, I know I am being three hours too late. ':D

After a cup of coffee and Robin giving Alice a tour – which actually did not take as half as much time as the coffee because really it was just the table, the counter and a still empty cupboard in the back – they left Robin's new part time office, where she herself was the boss. She had yet to see, though, if she was a less evil employer than her aunt.

The sun was already beginning to set.

The half sunken plate drenched the sky in pinkish and orange colors. With a smile Robin turned to see Alice's reaction.

Instead of the happy glint and a white row of teeth spread into a grin, Robin hoped to witness, she saw Alice's face drop and eyes widen.

Frowning Robin put a hand on the blonde's wrist.

Alice froze.

In total.

Stopping in the middle of Phinney Avenue.

"Alice?" Robin tried, unsure what was going on. Her eyes fleeted over the face of the other woman searching for some kind of recognition.

Like a bombshell a horn blared on the right side of them.

Robin pulled Alice aside, away from the honking car which now drove by in slithering curve.

"Oh my god," she breathed and looked at her girlfriend again. "Alice? Are you okay?"

She watched Alice gulp, her throat stretching and relaxing. The haunted, misted gaze disappeared slowly ans she finally met Robin's eyes.

"Yes, sorry," Alice shook her head and forced a smile. "Just being followed by shadows."

"This does not make me worry less about you now. What shadows?"

"You don't have to worry. I don't want to be a bother," Alice said and bit her lip.

"Alice, you'll never be a bother." Folding her fingers around Alice's arm, Robin hoped to give her some sense of security.

"You haven't seen all parts of me," Alice murmured.

"And I am looking forward to see them. All of them!"

"Not all of my colors are bright."

"Whose really are?" Robin scoffed and swallowed hard for her throat tightened at the idea what she was about to say. "Alice, I wanna be happy with you but I also want to help you carry your burdens, if you let me."

Alice nodded, a shy smile curved one corner of her lips. Her eyes glazed over with tears. "Fine, but this is nothing to worry about." She continued to walk into the direction of Robin's and Henry's apartment with boots grinding over the pavement. Alice buried her hands in the pockets of her shirtwaist dress. "Sometimes I imagine that I am being watched. It is only a feeling and it stops after a while. Perhaps I should consult a therapist."

"If that would make you feel better," Robin offered with a shrug of her shoulder.

"I had to take pills. Once. They made me sleepy. I had not needed them for a long time now. Do you know Van Gogh?"

"The Cut-off-his-own-ear artist?" Robin asked and cringed immediately, hoping she did not insult Alice in any way.

"Yep, he was mentally ill and took medication but he never healed," Alice looked away, across the street as they almost reached Robin's home and Robin wondered what she was seeing. "He shot himself with a revolver and died the next day. He was mostly unsuccessful for the things he achieved in his life but became famous for how he suffered and for the way he died."

Robin shook her head. Hard. She grabbed Alice's hand and entwined their fingers. "Alice, you are not sick and you are not broken. That's not how you're going to end up."

"Perhaps not." When they reached the building they stopped in front the door and Alice's face broke into a grin. "Although it would make you rich. You have an original Alice Jones upstairs after all."

"I prefer being happy over being rich," Robin said and raised Alice's hand to her lips. "How about we go upstairs? I am in need of a shower and you could talk with my geeky cousin about art and writing. Just do not talk about more suicide romantics. It seems to have been a thing."

"That would be wonderful. To go upstairs that is," Alice chirped and her eyes cleaned up. Their happy glow had returned to them.

"Great." Smirking Robin unlocked the door and let her girlfriend enter the building first.

As fast as she possibly could Robin showered while Alice was at Henry's mercy. Robin hoped he would not say something stupid or spill a can of embarrassment beans about the past few months of living together – sadly he had caught her in flagrante at one of her lower moments when she had experienced a snack attack in the middle of the night, soiling herself with chocolate ice cream.

This idea was not as unnerving though as the moment earlier when Alice had looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

She worried about Alice.

Shadows.

Robin wondered how it felt to not know what was real and what was not. As she stood beneath the hot spray of the shower, she let her forehead rest against the cold white tiles. Cascades of water washed over her closed eyelids.

She'd never been with someone as sensitive as Alice was. She had no idea how to help her chase away her shadows.

Shaking her head she opted for finishing to clean herself.

She would be there for Alice no matter what. If that was the only thing she was able to do to help her, she would do it.

After putting on her comfort sweats and her favorite and not so shabby leisure shirt, Robin opened the door to the living room expecting to hear the art nerds to talk about their respective turf.

As she wrapped a towel around her head she heard Henry utter in a strained voice,

"Down right. Another wave."

"Got it!" Alice chirped.

Henry laughed. "Some killer moves you have, Huntress."

Robin frowned and threw her head back listening closer.

"Thank you, Barbs," the cheery voice of her girlfriend replied.

The hell?

Robin gasped and pulled a face.

Barbs?!

Why the hell was Alice calling Henry Barbs?

Robin grabbed her things and threw her discarded clothes into the laundry basket.

Walking into the living room, she resolved the mystery when she looked at the crime scene: There in front of Henry's small TV both sat, game pads inside their hands and eyes locked on the screen trapped in a game Robin unfortunately recognized in a blink of an eye.

From all the things she expected Henry to do to Alice, she would not have thought he would make her play a round of Diablo III with him.

At least Robin understood now, why Alice had called Henry barbs. He was playing the barbarian, a class of the game.

That was kinda reassuring.

With a sigh she approached her girlfriend and her cousin.

"Seriously, Henry? It's 2018," she snarled walking over to the couch.

"You never want to play the game with me." Henry pouted and skipped his fawn eyes at her shortly before focusing his sight on the game where another wave of monsters attacked him and Alice.

"I played it with you," Robin huffed sitting down onto the couch and automatically slid into the sat-in hollow she detested with passion. "Four times."

"But it is a new season with class specific rewards!" Henry complained while punching buttons with vigor.

"It's just a game," Robin responded while trying to ignore how enraptured her girlfriend next to her was in the game instead of taking notice of her.

"It is an artwork. Have you ever watched the cut scenes?!"

"Pfft."

"I like it," Alice finally said. "The cut scenes are really beautiful and it's fun. Look, Robin, what I can do!" Alice pressed a button on her pad and the unrealistically big chested and wide hipped female figure in red started swirling around, shooting dozens of arrows in all directions and laughed.

As she looked at happy Alice and her the cheery laughter filled Robin warming her to the core she felt as if all of the arrows pierced her own heart.

Art...

Art was everywhere.

A/N: A short little update before the real plot starts to evolve. :P Which reminds me: I need to tell you that I have to take a hiatus for two or three weeks. I haven't been able to write a lot lately and next week a novella of mine gets published on Amazon and I will be very busy to promote it. Sooo yeah... See ya in three weeks. :P

If you liked this chapter and don't hate me because of the hiatus, vote and/or comment. Thank you. ;)