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He hadn't noticed her when she walked in the club. In fact, he almost missed her completely. It wasn't until he saw that fine a** shimmy over to a group of guys that he recognized her. The bow was the give away. No girl wore it in thier hair like she did. No girl who walked like that at least. The walk she would tease him with when she felt he was being overly touchy feely. Watching her from the small booth, Elzo sipped at his drink, hoping he was wrong. She wouldn't dye her hair. She wouldn't be flirting with guys like that. It was when she tossed her hair back and stepped onto the dance floor that Elzo saw her face and his stomach dropped.

Audrey was over him. Audrey had moved on.

The blow hit deep in his chest and it's sting was a cold fire. Was this how his old girlfriends felt when he had rejected them? Was this Karma? Maybe, but watching Audrey start to dance on the dancefloor. He felt longing. In his mind he was saying how pathetic he was to pine over her, how he could sleaze his way into any other girl's bed if he wanted to. What was one girl? There were dozens more.
But none of them were Audrey.
He wanted to talk to her. To just..find out where he went wrong. He had tried so hard to make her happy, but in the end she left him in tears. He'd ******** up somewhere. He had to know. Legs took him onto the floor, as his mind readied himself for confrontation.

Elzo had to know how he'd broken the one heart he so wished to have.

He saw them no doubt when they saw her. The two bags of slime with reputations to rival his own. However, Elzo prided himself that his was very much lesser in terms of rudeness, possible lecher, and the idea of alcohol induced rape. Some frat boys never took rejection well, and when they moved in for the one that got away, Elzo was behind them, ready to stop them once more. Audrey may not have been his girlfriend, but he liked to think he would do the same for any potential victim of the duo.

Quickly however, it was apparent that his old flame needed no one to protect her. The defeated drunk falling to the dance floor with an undignified thud. A few people gave a small cheer of approval. The girl was hardcore! Several other guys shot the newly turned blode some interested glaces, after all, it was no fun to go after a gift with no fire to her.
But for Elzo, he wasn't interested in what they were interested in. Audrey could have been wearing a parka while her hair could have been green and he still would cast a longing glance at her.

And now, from just a few feet away, blue eyes gazed at the golden hazel. His mouth felt dry again. It took him a second to find his voice. "I'm glad."
It was awkward as hell, talking in public to the girl you loved who had left you for reasons you didn't understand. "I sometimes forget you don't need me to protect you." s**t that was a bit male of him to say.
"Er." He shuffed his feet. "I...think we should talk."

He was her shadow, moving quietly behind her without thought. When they held each others brief glace Elzo felt that painful longing. He loved her, and as hard as he tried he couldn't get over her. Sitting next to her Elzo felt the desire to touch her, hold her, do what had become so natural for him to do. To have it denied...hurt. It hurt far more then he wanted it too. "Sorrin...Sorrin gave me the message. Yeah." Fingers tapped on the table. Uneasiness hung thick around them.
He couldn't take it. It drove him crazy. "What did I do wrong? Where did I ******** up? I just-" He relaxed, realizing he was getting tense. "When did I drive you away from me?"

Damn him. Damn him for never knowing. Never seeing. Guilt and shame pumped in his blood as she told him why she left him. Why she felt it was for the best. But for Elzo, he found his deepest shame with his ignorance. The ignorance he had hurt her while loving her. "I'm sorry." It was the first words out of his mouth. The weakest thing to say. "I had no idea." More weakness. Just petty words.Then it all came out. The truth flowed from his lips and he prayed it reached her ears, her heart.

"When I ran in Diana in the maze I was shocked. I hadn't seen her in over a year. We were..." Crap. "Intimate. But more then that she was my old friend. I told her about you, about how I planned to take you out to dinner on your birthday to the restarunt. She told me how she knew the owners and she'd help me set up our table, allow me to place the special arrangements. I'd have to pay, but, With her doing the paperwork personally I had the guarantee. The kiss? I...It's more of a cultural thing, friends kissing each other on the cheek. It was my bad. I- shouldn't have done. Let her do it. This isn't Europe. I..I ******** up." He felt terrible. Audrey was right. So right. Now that he could refelct on how it must have looked. He was an a**. A pure a**.

"Vicky was my lifeline all night. I just...wanted it to be perfect. I hounded her about every detail. About if you would like it. When you asked I..I froze up. I didn't want you to know I needed to Vicky to have the balls to do what I planned to do. Just...Pride." Again, he was a d**k. "I meant it as a joke, even if your gift was in my pocket. I was so happy when I got in the car. I thought things were going so well. I- I would never ask for sex if you didn't want it. I never expected it. I gave it up for you." His hand reached over, almost touching but not quite. "I still have given it up. It just doesn't matter to me anymore."

The look in her eyes was too much for him. The self control and retraint broke and his hand grabbed her own. "I love Audrey. I loved you since I first gave you the flowers I bought for no one. I dunno. Maybe, maybe somehow I knew I would find you. Maybe they led me to you. I don't why I loved you then but I know now. I love you Audrey. I don't care how you look, how you dress, how you act. I love the way you laugh, I love the way you tease me with riddles and complex problems. I love how you try to hide yourself with oversized colorful clothes. I love the small silly little references you make to warcraft at one am over the phone and I have no idea what they mean. I love you." He felt that something get heavy in his chest. The weight of a small box he had kept in his jacket got heavy as well.

"I love you even now, and if I could, I would love you forever if you'd let me."

He poured his heart out, exposed the most deepest emotions he had and all did was send her running. She loved him, but even so, she was running from him. The look of tears in her eyes was too much. It was all too much. Time distorted itself, the feeling of her leaving his hands taking longer and yet happening so quickly. "Audrey-" Too late, she was leave him again, running from him again. This time-
This time Elzo wasn't letting her run away with out him chasing after her. He lost the first love of his life because they had to run away from each other. He would be damned if he let the second woman, no, the TRUE woman he loved and ever would love escape him as well.

He knocked the chair over and he dashed after the newly changed blonde. Years on track and nights as a senshi came in handy and he dove in and out of the club's patrons, hunting for the exit, hunting for the girl he loved and refused to loose. As he slammed outside he called her name into the cold air. Where, which way? He bolted to the right, away from the crowd. He knew Audrey enough. She wouldn't want attention, she'd avoid people. She would hide. As he past the alley he saw her. Back turned from the street, hiding her face from view.

He dashed to grab her, he couldn't let her escape. He loved her. She needed to know just how much. He had to let her know. Hands grabbed her shoulder.
He had to let her know.

There was a simple flaw in Audrey's logic. That Elzo could simply let her go. No, his love was like that of a man at sea. He clung to it, his lifeline, his one chance, and he would never let it go. Not until there was no other way. Not until it was torn from him would he ever give it up. Audrey was his love, his lifeline, and he refused to let her go until she was taken from him. That was how deep his love traveled. How much she meant to him. She had become his everything, and now, with each rejection he only held stronger, tighter. They loved each other, she even said so. So why did she want him to let her go? Why should he let the one thing that gave him such deep happiness pass him by? He couldn't, not since the day he handed her the bouquet of daises in the dead of winter. Audrey was his lifeline. Audrey was his love.

"Audrey please! I love you!" Arms beat against him, and he struggled to keep hold. Finally his hand found one wrist, and soon after he found the other. Pinning her to the wall, he didn't care how it looked. He didn't care how he might be a masochistic a*****e for just not letting her go. Elzo had to show her. She kept saying she wasn't good enough. No, she was wrong. It was the other way around. She was perfect, and he was the monster. He always had been the beast. She tamed him, turned him. She was his princess. All he wanted to be was her prince. "Look at me! I love you! You're perfect Audrey! You're the most perfect woman in the world! You make everything in this world matter to me. But you matter the most! With you I'm the happiest man alive. I loved you, love you now, and I always will love you!" Water clouded his vision. Had it started to rain? He couldn't tell. He couldn't tell that small tears had come to his eyes.

Pinning both her wrists with both hands, it allowed him one free hand. The free hand scrambled and shuffled in his coat pocket. fumbling here and there for something. When he pulled it out Elzo almost dropped it. The small red velvet box was held to her face. And with a click, Elzo flipped it open with his thump. "This is how much I love you Audrey! I want to love you forever! I want to be with you forever!" He left her hands go.

"I love you Audrey Collins."

The feeling of her in his arms, made it okay. It made the world okay. She was with him again. Near him, close to him again. Shutting the box, send a rock down the pit of core. Not yet. His body tightened on the action. He prayed she would say yes. Dreamed of it for so long. He knew she could say no. He even guessed she might but...it stung. It stung bitterly. Even while she said she loved him, he wanted that finality of putting the ring on her finger. The knowledge that they could and would be together forever.
"When will it be the right time?" His voice was still a tad shaky. If you listened closely you could hear the hurt tone, the fear that she would leave him again and run away. "I don't want to loose you again." He ran a hand in her hair, fingers tangling in the knots their struggles had doubtlessly made. "I mean, I seem to have lost out on that amazing bluenette and gotten a blonde bombshell instead. What happens next time?" He was chuckling a bit. Smiling. She loved him. He loved her. He could hope. "Contacts over your amazing molten gold eyes?" He could hope for that yes another night. A better night.

He'd give her that perfect night.