Her comeback announcement dropped on June 13th - and it wasn’t just a new post on social media or a candid shot online someone managed to snap.

It was a whole EP drop, 4 entire songs (and a music video) that he knew he was going to play on repeat after 716 days of radio silence.

That opened the floodgates for everything to start again: she went back on social media, thanked her fans for their wholehearted response to her new releases. She started doing interviews again: discussing her mental health and the impact of her mothers control in her life; her reunion with her best friend (and apparent ex) from high school; her label dropping her after it was found that her “momager” had embezzled a huge amount of money from said company, releasing her from her contract early and allowing her to find new partners, new producers, new projects.

She talks about how she’s never been happier, and Steve can’t help but beam at it. He can hear it in her music, how it’s going more against the grain of what’s popular, opting instead for etherial synths mixed with heavy guitars. She sings about heartbreak and moving on and being better than then the people who brought her down for long, now that she’s starting fresh.

Steve loves it, thinks some of the changes have something to with Eddie Munson’s name appearing in the credits of all her new material.

Truthfully, he got curious after someone on Twitter posted a screengrab of cameos made by Munson and his own bandmates in all of her new music videos. He thankful someone else made the connection, and although he’s not the biggest fan of Corroded Coffin’s music (apart from the collaboration EP they did with Chrissy: “CCxCC presents Satanic Slumber Party”, that was incredible), he would lying if he didn’t say he was totally enamoured by Eddie goddamn Munson.

Let alone the fact that he’s totally Steve’s type (big hair, bigger eyes, a complete dork with a heart of gold but who also looks like he would bite someone in both a feral dog and a “please take me to your bedroom right now” kind of way), the guy is a genius when it comes to music, spending interviews talking about the process of artistry and the importance of storytelling - even when they’re discussing songs about him, written by Chrissy about their break up, he’s still so passionate and witty, the two of them spending interviews bouncing off each other in a way that would rival his relationship Robin.

He’s fine, really, he knows logically this is just a celebrity crush that will pass if he stops thinking about it for long enough, but he’s certain that this could develop into one of those all encompassing obsessions if he doesn’t curb it now- and that’s exact what he does. He tries to put that energy into school, excelling more than he ever did in an academic setting. He meets up more often with Nancy, Jonathan, Argyle and Barb, inviting them over more often for dinner or drinks, sometimes even just because he wants to make a breakfast feast and need someone else to eat it.

It’s at times like this that he misses Robin, who only has about 6 weeks left of her internship in Paris - he hasn’t seen her in person since he went to visit her a few months ago during spring break. He wishes she was her to openly judge him over this, before rambling on about her own current hyperfixation or moaning about her lack of romantic adventures since she and Vickie broke up.

They still talk on the phone every afternoon (nighttime for her), ranting to each other about their perspective day and sharing any worthwhile gossip.

Tonight’s no different, he’s telling her about the current drama happening in his classes when Robin says:

“I met someone today.”

He’s ecstatic - in his opinion robin deserves the world and the fact she’s met someone on her own in a city where she has been finding it hard interacting with people outside of her placement is a miracle in itself.

She tells him more: how she met this girl that morning at café, acting as a knight in shining armour (Robin’s words, not Steve’s) when the girl got flustered trying to order her coffee in broken French; how she spent the day showing this girl around to her favourite shops and parks and museums; how they spent hours talking about everything and nothing; how Robin hasn’t felt this way about someone since Vickie.

“So then we had dinner at that Italian place, the one I took you to, and, Steve, oh my goddess, she has the cutest little laugh-“

“Did you get her name?”

“Oh, sorry” he can hear her move the phone from one ear to the other. “Yeah it’s Chrissy.”

Steve stops his pacing. That would be one hell of a coincidence, if it was Chrissy Cunningham. She is playing in Paris the following night, the penultimate stop of her current tour. (The very show that he had been tempted to go to, since he could stay with Robin. It absolutely wasn’t because Corroded Coffin was joining her for the European leg of the tour - acting as her band, as well as performing songs from their collaboration as the encore - something that did not happen at any of the American shows). It couldn’t be the same Chrissy that Robin had fallen head over heels for in the space of a few hours, right?

“Did you get any of her socials?” He asks, cautiously.

“Nope,” she answers, popping the p for emphasis. “I didn’t think to ask, because I’m an idiot and all that-“

“Robs,” he interrupts, trying to keep his voice steady. “You’re not an idiot.”

Her hears her laugh on the other end of the line, the same kind of self-deprecating giggle she uses when she’s nervous. He wishes he was there with her so she could see him roll his eyes at her, their main way of communicating their love.

“What did she look like?”

“Oh!” She exclaims as he hears her tumbling over something (knowing Robin, probably herself). “We took a picture together, hold on, I’ll send it over.”

His phone vibrates against his ear, so he brings it in front of him, putting Robin on speaker so he can see the photo.

And.

Holy fuck.

“Robin,” he says slowly, because he actually can’t believe it himself. “Do you know who that is?”

The gentle hum of the coffee machine and the talk of customers over it allowed Robin to get too far into her head over the disaster of a date she had been on last night. Becky had been lovely enough but Robin wasn’t sure anything would come of it, something just wasn’t right between the two and she didn’t seem to appreciate Robin's sense of humour.

Steve had been lovely enough and had cut his nightly facetime with Eddie short when she turned up after it, bottle of wine in hand. He assured her that if someone was worth her time she wouldn’t need to hide any part of her. That ‘ her person’ wouldn’t cringe when she stumbled out of the door at the end of the date. She felt bad for interrupting his and Eddie’s evening given that Eddie was on tour and this was one of the few evenings he wasn’t on stage but it was an unwritten rule that Robin came first for Steve and the band came first for Eddie. 

 A jingle from the bell above the door pulled Robin out of her thoughts and she stepped towards the counter and looked up, into the most beautiful blueish grey eyes she had ever seen set into what only she could describe as the face of an angel with a halo of strawberry blonde hair. 

“Wow,” She whispered, “Welcome to Bakin ‘n’ Robins, what can I get you this morning?” Robin asked finally, after what she was sure was too long of a pause.

“Erm can I just take a hazelnut latte with almond milk please? And maybe whatever your favourite from the bakery section is” the woman smiled and didn’t that just make her even more stunning.. 

“Sure, coming right up. It’ll be $6.70 when you’re ready, cash or card?” Robin said as she tapped it all in the till, she was so glad this was all muscle memory at this point because she was sure there wasn't currently a thought in her head aside from how gorgeous this woman was.

“Card please” The woman smiled again and tapped her card on the reader when Robin indicated. 

“Take away or to sit in?” Robin remembered to ask before stepping away to make the order.

“I’ll sit in please, this seems like a super cute place to sit and read” she said, patting the book Robin had failed to notice in her arms. 

“You go and find a seat, I’ll bring it over to you” Robin nodded towards the selection of tables they had.

“Table service too, thank you.” she giggled and walked away. 

“Who was that?” A voice came from beside her as she started to make the coffee. 

“Jesus Christ!” Robin quietly exclaimed, almost dropping the mug she was holding, “Do you need to sneak everywhere?” 

“I literally dropped the opening on the counter so hard,” Steve, her partner in this coffee shop, laughed from beside her. “So, who is she?” 

“I don’t know, I’ve never seen her before but she’s super pretty ok so I’m naturally going to do something like spill her drink all over her or drop her baked goods on the floor. Or even forget how to speak as I get there and just throw the whole tray at her and run” Robin started to ramble. 

“Okay okay stop right now” Steve interrupted her, “You sort her the rest of her order and I’ll do the latte, I’ve got you sorted okay” he winked at her nudging her out of the way with his hip. 

Less than 5 minutes later Robin was walking towards the blonde trying her best to hold the tray as steady as possible. She had found the biggest and freshest almond knott and Steve had made a heart with the milk on her latte, it was a perfectly solid heart too, he was just showing off now. 

“Oh, thank you” The woman squeaked as Robin placed the tray down, it seemed to have pulled her from a deep thought. “This all looks wonderful” She grinned when she looked down and saw the latte. 

“Enjoy” Robin smiled as she walked away. 

“I can’t believe you did the heart!” She hissed as she got behind the counter again, smacking Steve lightly on the arm as she walked past him.

“Did she like it though?” he grinned “She watched you the whole time you walked back and she still keeps glancing over, I think you’re in there birdie. Anyway I need to start prep work on the pastry for the next batch of baked goods. Can you do the stocktake of the things behind here and I’ll get El and Max to do the stockroom tomorrow afternoon.” 

“Sure, I’ll get that done and make sure it’s all okay for Dustin to come in to take over from me.” She replied. 

“Thank you,” he said loudly as he walked from behind the counter and to the back where the kitchen was. His pride and joy, the reason he wanted this all along.

Robin spent the rest of the day thinking of the women from that morning. Trying to think if there had been any clues as to who she was or anything else about her. 

“I’ve got a present for you,” Steve declared as he walked into her apartment one evening a few days later, before throwing a small package at her. 

“Thanks,” She mumbled as she tried to catch it. 

Opening it up she noticed it was a name badge, her name was written on it along with her pronouns and a tiny lesbian flag on it. 

“Oh, this is so cute, thank you” She said as she launched herself at him. 

“I’ve heard that the blonde from the other day has been back a couple more times, only ever getting take-away after looking around. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to let her know your name and that she’s got a chance. I’ve had them made up for all of us. I really liked the idea when I saw them ages ago and just kept putting it off. I felt like the pride flags around the place were enough to let people know we’re a safe space but you and this girl gave me the excuse I was looking for to get these” Steve shrugged.