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Taranis was an a*****e. There was a growing list of expletives in the diary that was even now sandwiched between her pile of theoretical mathematics texts, detailing exactly how displeased the Negaverse general was with the Senshi of Sand. He'd evaded her with his little girlfriend from inside a windowless closet. It was disturbing, to say the very least. If they had all learned to teleport somehow...she'd had to report it. It was shameful. At the very least.

Now Elzo was clinging to her again, quietly asking about the bruises. It was one thing to be clumsy, but people at the school were starting to wonder where they were coming from as well. Of course, they all thought she was in an abusive relationship! It was fine when they were hidden under her clothes. Nobody really touched the bluenette and she could be pretty casual about the aches and pains of her fights. But now one side of her face was a bruised mess from where she'd not only gotten smacked with a ball of mud, but where Tanzanite had sent her through a wall. That had made her back a beautiful mosaic of bruises, causing her to stiffen as Elzo's hands lingered.

Sleeping wasn't easy these days either.

"I'm fine. You worry too much! I mean, some idiot comes careening out of a classroom because he fell asleep in lecture and didn't realize the prof let everyone go, so he just flies out of a door and BAM! Into my face!" Her smile was wide, probably too wide, and Audrey's voice was as cheerfully exasperated as she could make it. Unfortunately, as Ursula had seen, Audrey was a s**t actor. Something was wrong...but what?

Well she had been attacked but it was clearly she who had started that fight with Taranis. The one that had caused the serious damage which was even now causing this friction in her relationship. Normally Audrey strode around the house in one of Elzo's work shirts and a pair of shorts, carelessly showing skin to the man who adored her so fully. But with the bruises came out the tight, dark undershirts and thick tights so that every part of her body was covered from head to toe by cloth or hair. The hardest part was not hiding the existence of the bruises. The hardest part was hiding that the bruises healed ten times faster than they should have.

These had been received only two days prior, but were already yellowing and easier to hide. Elzo was asking questions and she had absolutely zero way to alibi them. Yes, she could say that Aree had given them to her in one of her episodes, but then Elzo would go tearing over there to set the violet-haired young woman straight. Though she had snuck in that night after the worst of the pain had faded, dulled behind a fresh star seed to accelerate the process and he'd already been asleep.

Her mind was working furiously, and her head shook briefly. "Please what, Elzo? I'm confused." Now she refused to look at him, getting up as quickly as she could without wincing to go and forage in the refrigerator. Audrey's parents hadn't ever really paid attention to her injuries, assuming their girl was just clumsy. Elzo knew better. He watched her, knew she was graceful, and agile.

Clumsy wasn't cutting it anymore.

Well that was new. Audrey stood there a bit poleaxed by Elzo's tone and the way he seemed to somehow...beef up. Had he always been that tall? Or was that just him feeling all hulky and manly to protect her? All of it was new and just a little touching, but it wasn't going to get him any iota of the truth. How could you tell your boyfriend that you gotten the bruises because you were about to kill someone, and then you'd told a fanatic her goddess was false?

You couldn't. At all. In the back of her mind, Audrey was considering that she might have possibly not have thought this moving in with Elzo thing through as fully as she thought she had. It made her deliriously happy to wake up with him every day, and be there every evening together when their schedules permitted them to be. But then things like this happened and well...they were painful. More painful than the bruises, for sure.

Her mouth opened, closed again, and a low hum sounded in her throat before speaking. "Aree wouldn't hurt me." Tanzanite would, but that was something altogether different. "Also, you know how I handle bullies. I can take care of myself...most of the time." Fingers were tangling at the curly edges of her hair, eyes downcast even as their foreheads rested together. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you I don't really understand how I got hurt, would you?" It was worth asking, honestly.

There were two options at this point. She could either betray herself and the Negaverse in the second-worst way possible and tell Elzo exactly what had happened. Maybe she could make him believe that the senshi were wrong, wrong in ways he could never understand. But he might mention it to someone....Elzo had a bit of a loud mouth. It wasn't that she didn't trust him to accept her! Except she did. And her safety was paramount to any trust she may or may not lose at this point.

So it was the second option. Trying not to wince as he pressed in against her bruised back, Audrey didn't have to lie to look upset. "I don't know what happened, okay?!" It burst out in a rush of anger and anguish. It was the truth. She had no idea why Tanzanite had gone so insane in that moment and why everything was falling apart. "I didn't make it to math lab the other night." Also the truth; she'd been too busy fighting the vanishing Taranis. "All I know is that I was doing my thing, and then something threw me against a wall. I don't remember anything else after the except I hurt a lot, and I was so tired." The typical story for a youma attack these days. She shook him off, striding into the living room and kicking at the couch.

Audrey never really had to act angry. When she was angry, it came out all by itself.

"I didn't want to tell you because then you'd start wanting to shelve work and escort me around places. I love you, but you don't need to go with me everywhere. And damn it, everyone already thinks you beat me up. I won't stand for it! So I hide the bruises, and pretend like everything is okay, but I just don't know what is going on in this damn city anymore!" Her breath hitched at the end of the tirade. "I spent Christmas Eve running through a battlefield looking for you! How is that even normal?" It was an outburst coming dangerously close to hysterics and once that got going, who knew what was going to spill out.

So instead of that she stopped, shoulders slumped, and sank to the couch to hug a pillow. "I don't know what happened, and that scares me. I don't like being unsure or scared, Elzo." The gospel truth, right there, her dark honey eyes looking straight into his own.

Frustrated and hating the hurt in Elzo's voice, Audrey simply stood up and stripped off her top to stand there in her bra. Hands dragged at her hair, pulling until her back was exposed to him. The mottled pattern of bruising was easy to see then, falling heaviest on the shoulder blades and top curve of her spine where the impact of the wall had landed. Less visible though nonetheless there, were the scars that had come from various other fights: Regulus' cuts, the long discolored line down her arm where falling off a building had skinned it, countless skinned knees.

Negaverse magic inside of her had healed them quickly and the scarring was minimal...but she could always find them. "That's all there is. My temple where the door hit me and then on my back where I hit the wall. I know it's not safe, but I can't just live in a bubble. I know you want to keep me safe. I love that you care enough but you might have ended up hurt too." Standing on the couch and balancing her weight, Audrey reached over and cupped Elzo's face in her hands.

"I'm fine. Really. I woke up with all my stuff and nobody'd touched me except for whatever threw me against a wall. I'd say I'm pretty lucky, considering." Leaning in, she kissed him lightly. Kisses made everything better right? Okay, so she might have been trying to distract him, yet wasn't entirely confident that she had the power to do so. Ever. "Just gotta trust me to stay away from trouble, kay? I love you." It was the best she could do.

It wasn't the world either of them really wanted, but it was the world they were thrown into without any warning of what it really meant. At the same time even! There was some deity somewhere in the cosmos sitting on their cloud laughing at the pair that had no idea how truly tied together their lives were, hiding things that they could have shared and helped each other through.

Instead, Audrey cuddled in against Elzo and held on as tightly as she could without hurting herself; it was still fairly tight. "You couldn't get rid of me if you tried. I'm done being stupid and dumping you and the last thing I'd do is go get into trouble again....but we might be able to come to an arrangement." Curls fell down over her shoulder and into her face, golden eyes looking up through her lashes. It was meant to be alluring and whether or not it really was came as a mystery to the bluenette.

But it worked on Elzo. Most of the time.

"I'll let you start driving me around." There was a visible lightening in him at that, she could tell. Really, it cost her nothing to have him drop her off in front of Vicky's house or Aree's apartment building, or even at the campus library. It took no effort at all to find somewhere and teleport before coming back and calling him to pick her up. It was just going to take a little extra time and cleverness. She had them in spades.

"But I want to meet your parents."

"Then I'm going to renew my bus pass." Arms folded across her chest and the curls were flipped back so that Elzo could see she was infinitely serious. They could fight about this if they really wanted, but Audrey wasn't going to budge an inch on the matter. Nothing meant more to her than the freedom to do what she wanted when she wanted to do it, and some of that was being sacrificed for Elzo's peace of mind.

He could make this small sacrifice so that she could feel more secure in her decision to marry him. Thinking this, a hand moved out to point at the velvet box on the mantle, mouth in a straight line. "If you ever want that to be a reality, you have to understand that I need to know them. They have to know me. They'll be my family Elzo, and I don't want my family to be a bunch of strangers." The whole idea was alien to her!

"All I'm asking for is one meeting. We don't have to see them after that, but I want to know who I'm taking on, okay? I've heard the stories from you guys and from Jada, but I want to be able to meet them. I want them to like me. Please Elzo? Please?" It was probably the closest she would ever get to begging. Audrey didn't think, when bargaining, you had to say please.

It was a deal!

He could now take it or leave it.