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It was very, very late when she finally scrambled back through her window.

Well, Virgo thought 'late', when really the better term was 'early'. This was why she was trying to be very quiet; three in the morning was not a good time to be waking up your princess, especially when you knew your princess had been having nightmares.

Poor Princess.

She pulled one of her more comfortable pajama sets out of her drawers and retreated into the bathroom. The door was shut a little harder than she intended; the bluenette flinched and pressed her ear to the door, but either Serenade was still asleep or the door was really well soundproof. Virgo doubted it, though, and she frowned as she leaned in over the sink to stare at her face in the mirror. It burst out without her giving it a moment of conscious thought: "Dieu, je semble terrible!"

Slapping both hands over her mouth with a wince, she turned to look towards the door. Had she woken Serenade?

Nice job breaking it, hero. And not Hero, hero; just, her. Not much of a hero at all, she couldn't even keep quiet enough to let the poor princess sleep. Virgo narrowed her eyes (it hurt!) and glared at herself. The curl of her lip showed her the blood hiding between her teeth, and she barely managed to make it to the toilet before she was reviewing everything she'd eaten that day. It was mostly bile; had she skipped lunch again?

She sat back on her heels, lying through her teeth, she said, "I'm fine, Serenade." Virgo stayed put, gloved hand over her mouth, and then dropped her henshin; it was Elke who flushed the toilet and got up (her legs felt like jelly) to brush her teeth. Her mouth tasted like blood and bile, which was not at all pleasant... "Don't worry about me," she continued, voice faint. "Did I wake you?"

Wincing as fabric slid over the splintered skin of her shin, she changed into her pajamas and sat on the edge of the tub. "...Do you know if we have tweezers?... No, don't worry, I'll find them. Just go back to sleep, I'm all right!"

It sounded kind of like she was going to cry.

She paused for a minute in wheedling a splinter out of her leg. Let the Princess in, confirm her fears, or leave the door locked and closed until the Princess went to sleep?

Elke limped to the door and with a click, unlocked it. She opened it with her face turned away, so her hair would do something to hide the rapidly-forming bruises. The ones along her jaw were painfully visible, reddish marks like someone had grabbed her face; there were some forming around her throat, too, those even more clearly in the same of hands. "No, it wasn't," she said, "Please don't worry, Princess, I am really okay. I'll skip class tomorrow and be right as plain the day after."

Idiom fail. She'd meant right as rain, even if she didn't know it.

"It was this red-haired guy," she said, "he said it was fun." She fell quiet, picking at the splinters and putting them on one of her washcloths. The first aid kit was open next to her, somewhat disturbed. Probably by her search for antibacterial ointment.

Making a concentrate effort to appear relaxed, she looked back to Serenade again. This made the extent of her bruising (all over her face, and her neck, and--this girl was not going to make it to class for at least a few days) and the ginger way she held her torso even more apparent. "Hero's gonna be pretty mad at me, huh?"

For one time in her life, she didn't want hugs. Just... she just wanted to make the Princess less worried.

The moment she saw Serenade's face, she regretted opening the door. Better to let the Princess wonder than to scare with her with how bad it really was. Of course, it could be worse. It could be much worse; she could be dead in that park. Would be dead in that park, except for the black-haired senshi's appearance. "Really, really long red hair," she said, "and that's how I got the splinters. He has a sword. Why?"

Unlike Jude, Elke did not desire to see the red-haired man ever, ever again. (This was not in the cards.) And if she did see him again, she was just going to bolt. She was probably faster than him, could probably move better because she was smaller and presumably more nimble. "I bit him," she said, "it seemed like a good idea at the time."

This could be said about many dumb things. She winced, half-reached to grab Serenade's wrist but stopping. It hurt, a lot, but it was for the better, right? And she had to answer the Princess's question. Better to just think about that. "Well, Giselle said no because she has a test tomorrow and I couldn't find Hero and Aurelia was working and I don't know where anyone else is except Grayson but he was already gone patrolling, and... I was kind of looking for someone," she mumbled, feeling god-awful terrible. "I found him before I found someone."

She pressed one hand to her shin, looking for more splinters. Finding none, she let her foot back down to the floor, still sitting up rigidly. "I remember," she said, turning to smile at Serenade. "He was nice."

That probably wasn't as comforting as she meant it to be.

Oh. Oh. Elke looked like she might throw up again, her skin pale and sickly. That was the man who killed Jude? She held it together, though, wrapping her arms around her chest and shaking; if she really felt that sickly, there was no sign of it.

"I p-promise," she said, meaning it right then, with the fear of the red-haired man fresh in her mind. "I do, Princess. I'll call people today and make times." After sleeping, well, that went without question. Elke looked tired, more than tired she looked beaten; the puffiness of her eyes didn't help with the fact that she looked like she'd 'fallen into a doorknob' a few times too many.

A bruise was purpling on the back of the hand Elke used to catch Serenade's. "It's all right," she said, uncertain of what was wrong at the root of it. "You're brilliant, Princess. We all love you, and there's nothing you could be doing better, all right?" She made a face, tried to smother the instinctual flinch from abusing her already-hurt muscles in her face. "Besides, if--" Elke stopped. Actually, at this point she wouldn't mind hearing the hemoglobin goblin song if it meant Serenade would be happy.

Serenade's happiness came above everything.

"I think I'm good," she said after a minute, poking her ribs gingerly. "I might just lay down now... Help me up? I'm sorry I'm being so useless."

Elke was already making plans for not letting Serenade see her like this again. Maybe she could go to Grayson's; he'd get all blustery, but he'd help her hide it before the Princess or the Captain could see. She was yanked out of her thoughts by Serenade squeezing her hand; Elke flinched, her sore fingers not taking it well.

Tomorrow would be hell.

She smiled after a moment; the Princess wasn't mad. The princess was smiling, and the princess did love them all, and that was--should be--enough for any Zodiac. It was enough for Elke, who used the opportunity presented to give Serenade an impromptu one-armed hug. "Thank you, Princess," she said. Then she began thinking about the excuse she'd give.

"I fell down the stairs after curfew," said Elke, settling down on her bed. "Wait, they would have heard that..."

Sigh. She had never been good at this. "I fell down the stairs and hit the wall and that's why my chest hurts," Elke repeated.

"Yeah," said Elke, "but they expect it. I did this before Barren Pines, too..." She was worming her way under the covers, pulling them up to her chin. Elke's favorite colors were green and blue, but her comforter was black, with ribbon trim on the edges; black hid blood stains. Black had gotten a nod of approval from the Captain.

Black was depressing.

She sighed. "I kind of want to see Gramma Arma. What do you think I should do, Princess?" It would, as it should be, be the Princess's final decision on who called whom. "I'm sure Gramma Arma has an afghan for you, from last Christmas, anyway."

Elke was falling asleep, which was good; it meant she would stop talking. She could talk for hours before actually finally falling asleep, and the long gap between Serenade's words and her answers meant that she was getting very close to dreamland.

"I guess I'll ask them to call," she sighed, "I'll see you in the morning, Serenade."

With a yawn, Elke went to sleep.