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What.

....

What?

Dani looked completely, utterly disgusted. Not at seeing Jude's bare flesh (though um, not really her cup of tea) but rather at the information that he was tossing at her like it was standard fare. She'd had a rushed awakening, sure, but she felt like she was constantly missing out on some very key points on what it meant to be a senshi. Increased healing powers? What?

She'd noticed the bruises and the cuts from battle tended to get better on their own faster, but she hadn't really paid much mind to it. Like, she hadn't gotten really seriously hurt except for when her arm had been broken, so she hadn't given it much thought.

He was standing there telling her that she hadn't had to have that stupid cast on for six weeks?

... Seriously?

Giving him a look like he'd just stolen Christmas and then lit her house on fire, she demanded, "Why the hell didn't anyone tell me that before I went to the hospital and got it put in a cast?! Everyone is so lame."

Compete with a small foot stomp.

"I'm not working with anyone," she snapped, not really annoyed with him, but he was convenient. Her mouth twisted, nose wrinkled, as she silently fumed for a few moments.

All that time lost, wasted. She hadn't been climbing the rock wall, hadn't been lifting weights, hadn't been running or doing her regular routine for no reason at all. She'd had to deal with her parents' overbearing concern, breathing down her neck whenever she so much as thought about tying her own shoes, and -- ugh, her hair!

She'd had to go six weeks without styling her hair by herself! For nothing!

It was ridiculous to be so irritated, all things considered, but she was a fifteen year-old girl.

Shooting Jude another sulky look, she clarified, "I mean, I've worked with people in the past, but I don't like, work with anyone on a regular basis. It was kind of like, here you go, go out and fight evil, try not to die now, mmkay?"

That wasn't fair. She was the one who rushed headlong into everything. She didn't feel like admitting that, though.

Rubbing her temples, she sighed, still pretty miffed. "God. Sometimes I hate being a senshi, you know? Nothing is explained. You kind of just fly around by the seat of your pants and hope someone else knows what the heck is going on."

If only Dani had any idea how accurate that really was.

"Most of them probably are," she returned reluctantly, looking every inch the bad-tempered child. Just because everyone else was doing it did not mean Dani was doing it, but unfortunately, this was not being the cool kid who was rising above drug use or whatever. (She didn't do drugs, though.) She just had not found anyone that she clicked with.

And she kept getting her a** beat for it, even when she was working with two other senshi at the time. God.

"I'm just, er. Not." She waved her hands in front of her face, looking annoyed. "Can we talk about something else? I don't like most other senshi. They get on my nerves, and I don't feel like working with them on a regular basis."

Walkure. Polaris. Thuban. Pegasus. God, everyone she'd ever worked with, with the exception of Sagittarius and Leo, rubbed her entirely the wrong way. Even they weren't a complete exception, because she'd still ended up battered, bruised, and fighting a damn youma by herself.

Which was kind of how she liked it.

Whatever.

"The Negaverse can kiss my a**," she muttered, but not with very much feeling. It had been a Negaverse agent who'd broken her arm, after all. It seemed they were more likely to kick her a** than the other way around.

He had brothers? This intrigued Dani, being an only child, but she let it pass. He had a truck to take care of, and she had to get home before her father sent out a SWAT team to find her. (Sad, but true.) So she dug in her pocket for her cell phone, pulled it out to call her mother. If memory served, Madelynn Rymner was already in town picking up things for dinner, so it would be no trouble for her to swing by and pick Dani up.

The conversation was short but decidedly more cheerful than the phone call to her father had been. This was also not the middle of the night and she was not presently bleeding, however.

Tucking her phone away, she gave his truck one last critical look. "I wouldn't risk it. Like, seriously, I gave you CPR. Don't go blowing yourself up now, all right?"

Hah hah, Dani.

"So my mom's on her way. I'd better jog down to the service station I told her I'd wait at -- I passed it a couple minutes ago -- hey wait, we should exchange numbers. We run into each other too often not to be able to call if we actually need something."

She gave him an expectant look. He would agree, clearly.

"Right. Take care, okay?" Dani grinned, offered him a two-fingered salute off her forehead as she turned and began jogging in the direction she'd come.

Having a monstrous ego was a good thing sometimes. She didn't hesitate when it came to being assertive, didn't expect people not to comply to her (perfectly reasonable) demands. When they didn't, she got really irritated really fast, but for the most part, she was easy as pie to get along with. You just had to know exactly how to handle her.

Apparently, Jude was one of those people who could handle her. Maybe because he didn't offer a lot of BS? Dani did like straightforward people.

Regardless, as she turned a corner out of sight, she did a little victory dance.

She'd done awesome that day, all right.