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Dani was super duper excited to have her cast off. She was also super duper excited to be out jogging, mostly recovered from the wounds that she'd received fighting the flying youma bat monster from hell, which would explain why she'd lost track of time and ended up in a neighborhood she didn't exactly recognize. She'd been busy trying to right herself by checking street signs when the psychotic driver in the truck had come barreling down the road. She wasn't one of those girls who jogged with earbuds in - come on, that was asking to be abducted or hit or something - but she didn't think to glance over her shoulder as the truck went by, either.

Simple trust and faith that people would be paying attention while they drove.

Simple trust and faith was going to get her killed one of these days.

She screamed a little when she saw the truck go whipping around her, flung her arms up as though she could stop its rapid approach to the tree through mind powers alone, and screamed again when it hit. Not terrified screaming, more oh my god, seriously, it just hit that tree screaming.

And then the driver stumbled out, and she realized she'd seen that truck before. It had been dark, but she'd seen that truck. The person in it was --

"Oh my God, Jude!" There was definite alarm in her voice, and she sprinted toward him, looking confused and horrified at the same time. "I'm okay! Are you okay? Oh my God, you just hit that tree!"

Jude's lack of filtering system, meet Dani's.

Jude gripped Dani's shoulders; Dani gripped Jude's shoulders. She saw the blood on his face, all right, and she was a little concerned when he seemed to not realize she'd answered his question, but she recalled that Jude only listened 50% of the time, at least from her experience with him. It was a little bit horrifying to have almost been taken out by a truck going who knew how many miles over the speed limit, but now that the immediate danger was past, Dani was worried about Jude.

Who was worried about his truck. He glanced over to it, and she looked as well. Her reaction was a cautious, "Ooooh, that doesn't look good." and then a "What were you doing, Jude? You could have killed someone!"

Dani was not the most delicate girl under the best of circumstances. She was also still seriously in the grips of fight or flight mode, and probably squeezing Jude's shoulders too tightly for their own good.

Being Dani, she naturally assumed that, whatever was happening, she was going to know about soon. Because she was Dani, and also, he'd almost taken her out with his truck. She kind of deserved an explanation.

Dani was not a delicate girl, but she was a caring girl, when she wanted to be. She liked Jude, for better or for worse, and she felt bad. After all, the only harm had been done to him and his truck; aside from scaring the absolute daylights out of her, she was fine. Just fine. He was the one bleeding and looking at hundreds of dollars worth of repairs to his poor truck. His poor, poor, ugly truck, which really hadn't done anything except operate exactly how it was supposed to.

So, when he hung his head, she slid her lower lip out in a pout. Jude yelling she didn't mind; he was kind of funny. Jude running around frantically after screwing up, that was okay, because it meant he was like, learning a lesson. But Jude standing there looking like someone had kicked his dog, spit in his eye, and then sucker-punched him for good measure? She didn't like it.

"It's okay, Jude." She dropped her hands from his shoulders, slipped her arms around his midsection to give him a hug. It was simple, it was sweet, and she hoped he appreciated the gesture. She didn't hug just anyone, okay.

"Tell me about it. It's not like your truck is going anywhere anytime soon."

Again, not delicate.

"Don't worry about it, Jude. I'd save Polaris if she was dying in front of me," she explained, looking very sour at the thought. "But there is at least the benefit of me not completely hating your guts."

Dani shifted her weight from foot to foot, looking up at Jude with a casually interested look while he explained what had upset him enough to nearly take out a civilian on the side of the street. He'd had a fight with Leo? That was it? ... Really?

She'd had fights with her parents, but it had never inspired her to take her life and someone else's in her hands and go out --

Okay wait.

Sometimes, she got in fights with her parents and went out hunting youma. Damn. She had no room to talk.

She'd talk anyway. "All this because you got into a fight with Leo? What are you two, six? Or are you dating?"

She asked it suddenly, looking suspicious.

Was everyone gay?

"Oh my god, you two are dating and you had a fight. I thought you had a weird vibe. Don't tell me he's, like, going to Romeo and Juliet this with you."

Code for: crazy teenage suicide.

Hey, it was a legitimate question.

Dani was highly affronted by this entire state of affairs. She didn't know Jude and Grayson very well at all, but apparently they were good enough friends that one fight put Jude over the deep end safety wise. That, or he just had a really wicked temper, but considering she'd just accused him of being gay and dating the guy he'd been fighting with and he'd barely reacted, she didn't think that was the case.

Honestly, she was fifteen years old, but sometimes she wondered if she was ever going to meet someone with their life more together than hers.

"Well, that's dumb." Thank you, Captain Obvious. "So you had a fight - so what. The sun rises, rain falls, blah blah blah."

Delicate? When had anyone ever considered Dani delicate? She was, apparently, all tough love. She threw her hands up, still ignoring the blood on his face. He was still standing, so he was probably fine.

"You guys are friends, you're going to fight. If you're really good friends, which I'm thinking you are since you freaked out enough to drive like a madman over this, you're definitely going to fight. He'll know, like, all your buttons."

She wiggled her fingers, rolled her eyes. "Give it a day, go talk to him, get over the post-fight awkwardness, you'll be great. Golden. Trust me."

Dani had no idea what she was talking about in this particular instance.

This did not seem to faze her.

Satisfied that she had gotten through to Jude, and more than a little pleased with herself, Dani patted him on the shoulder. "Good. I'm glad you're seeing sense."

She still had no idea what the argument was about, but her incredible ego wasn't getting any smaller knowing that she'd managed to bring Jude around without even knowing what they'd been fighting for. Had she known, she would have probably been more confused than Jude, knowing nothing of their history or exactly what the problem was (arguably, no one knew what the problem exactly was, just that there was a problem) but she didn't know. Didn't need to. She'd managed to say the right thing and save the day.

Cool, cool.

"I've had a couple of crazy months myself," she said confidently, fisting her hands on her hips and looking generally unimpressed. "I don't think the Zodiac have a monopoly on that. But, I'll give you this one because you've had a bad day and your head is still bleeding."

She raised her eyebrows, nodded to said forehead. "You should maybe dig your first aid kit out and take care of that before you pass out. I am strong enough to carry you," she said with absolute seriousness, "but I do not want to."

It didn't occur to Dani that she would be argued with. This was probably a good thing. Instead, she dutifully followed him over to his truck, a little relieved that the street didn't seem to be busy and so there were no passerby to call the cops and bring attention to the accident. She watched him doctor his head without a trace of sympathy (hey, he'd been driving recklessly, okay) but didn't comment further, either. Jude really had had a bad day, she just didn't know the full extent of it.

The question about her arm threw her. "I think I had the cast on like, six weeks?" A week? Was he serious? "Four to six weeks is standard for a broken bone. I was so glad to get it off, though."

He must have rattled his head harder than he thought if he was guessing a week for a broken bone.