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The wind might have had a bite to it, and she'd be chilled when leaving the club, but now? Now it was almost as hot as it had been in that writhing mass of bodies. It had nothing to do with the leather, and everything to do with Elzo's breath on her neck and in her hair, stirring the tiny curls around her ear and temple. The whole thing was full of deliciously mixed signals when he pulled away and climbed almost woodenly on his bike with that smirk and statement.

"Some good, some very good?" Teasing, she poked his side lightly and affixed the helmet, flipping the back of the leather away to let her mass of curls fall beneath it. No real reason to expose her neck to the cold now, though her front would be covered delightfully and to keep some of that warmth, she snuggled closer to Elzo's back. "Here, I'll help out. I'll just stay close now so that your back stays warm, and I don't fall off. Doesn't fix earlier, but we'll just chalk that one up to 'things we know better'?" Certainly she wasn't interested in dwelling on the fact that some skeevy drunk guy had gotten a good grab of her breasts all of about thirty seconds before she'd been saved by that flying punch. Definitely he didn't need to know that, ever.

Hearing that they were going to go fast, she all but bounced excitedly, before remembering that they were not on what was exactly a sturdy vehicle. "Faster than before? You promise? Oh please say yes!" Audrey was such a slut for fast.

It had ended too fast. Far too fast! Through the whole breakneck journey down the highway, Audrey's buoyant laughter had spurned them both on to simply keep going until the road ran out. It didn't matter that they were leaving the city, that Elzo was a Hillworth boy and those were never good news. All that mattered was feeling the wind whipping blue curls around her face and her arms tight around someone strong that had proved he wouldn't let anything happen to her. Even he'd said it himself, though he normally was a bit of a crude, she was different, a thought which warmed her considerably.

Sliding off the bike with more than a bit of reluctance, the helmet was precariously balanced on the edge of the bike and her hair freed to ripple down her back. Fingers combed through the blue length, combing out the tangles a good excuse to bely her nervous habit of playing with the expanse of it. He wouldn't have possibly brought her all the way out here just for that, they could've done that in the club and nothing would have happened but a few others might've wanted a ride when Elzo was done. Besides, if he tried that, there wouldn't be a story to tell. Just a body to find.

So Audrey's slim fingers tightened around Elzo's own and started heading over the hill. "I trust you. I mean, you got us thrown out of a nightclub because some guy was getting grabby and trying to make me into the meat for his manwich. If I can't trust my virtue with you, then what was the point? Unless you don't want me to trust my virtue with you!" Her shoulder brushed his in a playful nudge as they ascended the hill, the teen both curious and nervous about what was so interesting this far out of the city. It must have been good, for all this work!

Normally it would have been hard, nearly impossible, to climb in heels, but not for Audrey. She clambered over rooftops, dodged deadly senshi attacks, flew over the city with Obsidian in pursuit during training. There was less and less time for that, but she was starting to do it with her lieutenants and it was fairly easy to do anything in heels these days. So her jeans got a bit dirty and a bit of dirt seeped into the gaps in her shoes? It was just dirt, and dirt never hurt anyone.

It was all worth it, when she saw what Elzo had to show her. A soft gasp of surprise was heard in the silence of the night around them and her eyes, which were almost the exact color of the lights in the distance, were opened wide to catch it all. Stars above, stars below, it was like they were simply floating in space, watching everything around them. Just the two of them. Pliant with wonder and the romance of it all, when arms came around her Audrey leaned back into them and leaned her cheek against a bared and strong bicep with a soft sigh of contentment. "It's gorgeous, the most beautiful thing I've seen in a very long time. Almost like when my mom and dad took me to the ocean once, and the sun set. So many colors." One arm had twined into Elzo's, but the other reached out of the blanket to pass over the lights of the city in front of them.

"As long as it was night? I wouldn't want to leave this place, as long as you were here with me." The air was cool, around them was the smell of dirt and trees, the smell of a forest. The lights were beautiful and it was almost entirely silent while the stars looked down on the pair from their places high above. "It's so beautiful Elzo. I can't even tell you." Her voice was soft and almost reverent. Audrey would never admit, not for a long time, that a small piece of her heart had been lost in those moments. She would need this memory soon, very soon, and would cherish it always.

Shifting, her cheek brushed against his where Elzo's chin rested on her shoulder. "We have time though, right? I wanna stay." Her voice was insistent, and eager. Demanding. Audrey was used to getting what she wanted, after all.

A shiver and a giggle accompanied his breath against her neck, laughter starting to bubble out of her mouth as they fell to the ground. She was utterly helpless, trapped in the warm cocoon of leather and flannel blanket, but it wasn't a bad helpless. It felt safe, which was the strange part. Was she supposed to feel like this with another guy? Wasn't she in love with Castor? This warm and fluffy feeling in her chest was only for him. For a moment, Linarite's businesslike manner rose to the front of her mind, shoving this idea back. She had to take care of the Senshi of Hail, why was it wrong to attach to this boy instead? He was a nice boy, and he was normal. As in, not a senshi!

So it was such that instead of pulling away and ruining her perfect moment, Audrey just curled up closer to her date. "Fifty six huh? That seems sorta chilly, you're going to have to keep me warm all night. And I'm going to take you up on that offer. I love water, that one trip to the beach." Curls shook as she remembered and her head was pillowed on Elzo's shoulder as she slid an arm cautiously over his chest to watch the lights. "That trip is my best memory ever. I was seven, and I didn't understand a whole lot of things then." Now she understood too much, and it made her unhappy. Audrey was determined to be happy.

Unconsciously, she rubbed her cheek against his shoulder and stretched lazily. "Maybe not until the sun comes up, my parents are early risers. But for awhile...just until we get tired, okay? It's so nice here..." Her voice was already lazy with comfortable tiredness, the excitement of the night and the peace of being warm and feeling safe was wearing on her. This was so perfect, and she could almost pretend that this was all there was to life. What was it about Elzo Xanis that made her feel like this? He wasn't her normal type. He was a playboy. Why was she risking it? Why did any of that matter? was her heart's retort.

For once, Audrey took her heart's advice, and simply closed her eyes for two seconds. It was all perfect.

Stirring lightly at the kiss, it barely registered on her senses and she only snuggled down further into the comfortable warmth of whatever it was beneath her slim body. That was when the incredibly masculine voice hit her ear, calling her incredibly beautiful. "Mm. Am not. Just Audrey." Her voice was lazy and slow with sleep, almost like a purr. It was what she always said when someone called her pretty, before launching into a diatribe of why she was not remotely so. But then it registered, a male voice? And she was wearing jeans to bed. But this wasn't her bed, and between her lashes sleepy eyes noted that it was almost sunrise.

Sunrise?!

Yelping, a messy blue head shot up and looked first in confusion, then a quick flash of delight, and horror at where she was. "Oh god. Elzo! We weren't supposed to stay all night, oh god what time is it." Hands reached around into her pockets, pulling out the phone and groaning. It was quarter to seven. "My parents are going to kill me. Then they will slowly kill you, my dad is so not even a late riser. Oh my God, I am so dead, why did you let me fall asleep?!" This was all said over her shoulder as the teen disentangled herself and started to head for the slope leading down to the bike. "Come on, you have to get me home now, oh my God." Really, it was adorable. Her face was flushed with agitation, totally at odds with the large leather coat and incredibly mussed and tangled mess of blue curls atop her head.

She was still ranting as she started down the hill, voice carrying. "I finally have a good time, think things are going okay, and I'm going to die. God, I hope you can hear me, and are preparing a nice cloud for my soul! My daddy will deliver me up to you shortly!" Really, she could have won an Oscar, had she been acting!

Of course Elzo would have a cover story. After all, he'd probably snuck out countless girls and dropped them back on their doorsteps, deflowered and defeated. But he hadn't tried any of that last night, though he'd been turned on. Hell, Audrey was pretty inexperienced in all, but she knew when a guy was interested in that. He'd been interested. Breathing slowly leveled, and the girl leaned back against Elzo's warm body to giggle and shiver just a bit as his breath moved against that sensitive spot on her neck.

"I'm never up this early. Unless I've had a nightmare, and then I'm usually closed up in my room, grunting like a caveman." Or she was crawling in the window before her parents got up, collapsing into bed after a rough night of mayhem and murder, but that wasn't really something you mentioned on the first date. She had no intention of calling her parents until they noticed that their daughter was missing, but was nosy and not about to resist this moment to invade the Hillworth student's privacy. Her giggles erupted into full laughter as she saw his brother in full glory on the wallpaper, writing all over his face. "What in the world happened? Is this Marlo, I mean it looks like him, and I doubt you'd leave your face up." Gold eyes slid up and she blushed lightly before her next comment.

"Though I like yours better." Distracted by this thought, she slid her hand down and nudged the phone back into his jeans pocket, snuggling close again to warm up in the cool morning air. "We should get breakfast, since we have a nice excuse. I know for a fact that the Shufflepuck has cinnamon rolls out of the oven every hour." She'd asked. "Or we can stay here a bit more. I don't mind." Eyes took in the stretches of land on every side over Elzo's shoulder and she smiled. "It's beautiful at sunrise too." What she would never admit, out loud, was that she simply wanted to spend more time with him alone.

Was that wrong? Probably.

Standing under the tree in her side yard, Audrey sighed and wrapped arms around herself. It was easy to feel the warmth leaving, or precisely, half of it. The other half was being held as deep inside of the girl as it could get, burgeoning her heart and pulling it from the pit that it had been forced into not long after her promotion. Things were getting dire, and she did not want to think of them. She didn't want to face them.

Instead, Audrey simply ran fingers through her hair and stroked her cheek. No, she hadn't had nightmares that night. She'd slept all through the darkness warm and content. He'd given her an alibi when he could have destroyed her reputation and landed her in incredible trouble with her family. Did that mean that Elzo Xanis liked her? As more than just another easy girl? Did it matter? Of course it mattered! She'd only felt this warm with one other person, when she thought they'd melt the snow in the dead of winter. No. She wasn't thinking about that.

Heels clicked against the sidewalk up to the door as Audrey fixed her features into an easy smile and opened the door, breezing into the house. Everything was perfectly natural, perfect apologies, holding up the book to show her alibi. It was brand new, the receipt was even dated. There was only one problem:

She was still wearing Elzo's leather coat.

Well, at least she would see him again soon, whether he liked it or not!