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Elke was glad she had decided to come early, because Andeon and Mackenzie's apartment had been a mess. She cleaned it for them, of course, set down the food she had brought around for the meeting, and tried not to look too desperately beaten. The makeup helped. Once she had managed to hide the alcohol and... Mackie's underwear, she sat on the couch. No one had noticed the fading bruises--not from luck, but because she'd gotten that much better at applying coverup and not looking like a beaten housewife--and that was a good thing. Sometimes Mackenzie and Andeon could be pretty scary. Everyone was almost all there, too. Just Pierrette and J--

No. Not Jude. Never again, Jude.

"Anyway," she said, continuing her train of thought. "I don't know. The Princess just keeps waking up crying and I don't know why. I think she is thinking of Ally." She had heard some weird rumors about Jude's death, rumors that didn't bear repeating, but...

She sighed and curled up tighter. Hopefully everyone else would be there soon.

Andeon had spent most of the time since Elke's arrival glued to the television screen. Unfortunately, Jude's death had coincided with the release date of Mass Effect 2. While Andeon felt impacted in the same way as the rest of the Zodiacs who hadn't known Jude particularly well, not even the death of his own mother could have kept him away from the allure of the long-awaited title. It had only been by Mackenzie's urging that Andeon had taken a shower before the rest of the Mutable arrived, as he hadn't bathed in an unknown number of days.

He was still sitting in front of the TV, mashing down buttons on his bulky X-box controller, in plaid pajama pants and a tight powder blue t-shirt that clearly belonged to his better half. His damp hair was loose around his shoulders, inhabited by the ever-present headcrab youma who he had formed an inexplicable bond with during the horrors of Barren Pines. Snuzzles was chattering away, drawing annoyed grunts from the only person who seemed capable of understanding him.

“I am aiming for his head, shut up! No, no I don't need to ******** go that way. Hey. Snuzzles, god damnit!” Andeon let loose a string of curses as the youma hopped onto the controller, jamming down the A button with one pointy foot, “You little b*****d, you got me killed!” The controller, with Snuzzles still on it, crashed against the wall. To some, this might seem like an incredibly insensitive act, but Andeon had quickly learned that Snuzzles was an incredibly resilient little thing.

Snuzzles let out an insulted little scree and scampered off towards the bedroom in search of Mackenzie.

Running his fingers through his hair, Andeon finally turned his attention towards the door, “The ******** are you knocking for, Pier?,” he yelled at the door, giving Elke a wink that was surprisingly not suggestive, “Oh god, are you too short to reach the handle?”

Elke watched Andeon play in silence, her green eyes wide. It was fascinating, like watching a car crash. Mostly because the shotgun seat in this case happened to be a scaly little youma. "Aw, Snuzzles, he didn't mean it," she cajoled, holding out one hand to beckon to the facehugger. Even if she was supposed to be on Snuzzles' side in this argument, she still smiled back at Andeon when he winked. Poor Pierrette wasn't that short, but the male half of Gemini was funny.

"Hi, Pierrette," she said, wiggling the fingers of her spare hand in greeting. She was still trying to woo Snuzzles back into the living room; he was like the unofficial Team Mutable mascot, and she thought it dreadful of Andeon to scare the poor little guy off like that.

Huh. Mackenzie had told her the password was potato chips. Elke hadn't even known there was a password prior to today. "So," she said, settling back into the couch (the Snuzzles force was not with her that day, it seemed).

"Um." What exactly were they supposed to say?

“You say that like it's a threat, Red,” Andeon chimed back in a much less harmonious tone, “Keep making promises like that and I'll throw it out the window.”

There were a million unspoken words between the two Geminis, but they would remain unspoken. Andeon pushed himself to his feet to greet the rest of their team, the feeling of incompleteness overshadowing the meeting. The Zodiacs were unique in that they had a bond that most senshi could not comprehend. Most of them had lived and died together. Hell, he and Mackenzie had died three ******** times already. Their group had endured hell together in the cold, lonely depths of space. Even though he did not like Jude Lawson, Andeon felt his absence. He felt it more without the loud, virtual life-threatening blanket of Mass Effect 2 to help him forget.

He paused to give his first attention to Mackenzie, as he always did, pressing that customary, comforting kiss to her forehead and whispering something in her ear before turning his attention to the others.

“Pay?” Andeon scoffed, waving a hand dismissively before using it to pick up a cupcake. He jammed the thing into his mouth frosting-first, “I donf haff foo fay fer noffin',” he exclaimed around a mouthful of cupcake, before unceremoniously dropping himself int Elke's lap. Fortunately for her, Andeon was a tall, skinny boy. He gave Snuzzles a grin, watching as the little youma settled happily into Pierette's lap. Andeon held his half eaten cupcake in Elke's direction.

“Cuffcake?”

Elke was about to go get her own cupcake when Andeon threw himself into her lap. Her wince was genuine, but she quickly wiped the look of pain off her face--he was tall and skinny, but she was covered in bruises still. Give her another week and she'd be much better. For now, it hurt.

Belatedly, she said, "Oof," and smiled up at Andeon, "Thank you." From anyone not a Zodiac, she would have politely declined. Sharing food other people had bitten was only okay if it was spaghetti and their mouth hadn't touched the part you were going to eat. But... These were Zodiacs. These were more than just Zodiacs, they were her team. And now, like they had been before Barren Pines, they were down a member.

Besides. She knew where Andeon had been. Taking the half of the cupcake that was evidently hers, she bit into it and then promptly wrapped her arms around him. "Thanks," she repeated, through a mouthful of cupcake.

She was not going to cry this time. On her mother's honor.

This lasted maybe three seconds. She swallowed, and right on cue, her lower lip began to tremble and then Elke was crying, hands over her face as much for comfort as hiding the way her makeup was smearing.

Andeon noticed the wince, and it took about five seconds before their positions were reversed. He slid quickly off of Elke's lap and into the small open space between her and Pierette, pulling her into his lap with a great big hug. If there was one well known fact about Andeon Boskovic, it was that – well, technically it was that he was a terrible alcoholic. However, if there were two well known fact about Andeon Boskovic, the second would be that he couldn't stand to see a girl cry.

The third well known fact would be his love for cheese.

Andeon held Elke close, giving her a literal shoulder to cry on. It was all he could do, really, and that knowledge was more painful than the actual death of their teammate. Jude was dead, there was nothing he could do about that. However, he should have been able to do something, anything, to ease their pain.

“Come on now,” he said, resting a hand gently upon her back, “You know he wouldn't want to make you cry.”

Andeon didn't know Jude Lawson well enough to say this, but he knew that if Elke cared enough to cry over him, he must have been a halfway decent person. Even if he wasn't, he was still one of them. A Zodiac, and beyond that, one of the Mutables.

Snuzzles gave a quiet little scree, glancing up to Pierette apologetically before hopping up out of her lap and scuttling over towards Elke. The little youma climbed into her lap and butted his tiny, hard-shelled head against her stomach gently.

"H-Hold on, there," Pierrette leaned over and gently plucked the headcrab from Virgo's arms. It wasn't because she wanted more cuddles, but because she had noticed, admist the fading make-up, those tell-tale marks of abuse.

She held Snuzzles up, his arms wiggling, and looked closer at her friend.

"Elke, who did this?" She sat Snuzzles down on Andeon's lap and leaned forward. "Elke, was it a youma? Elke..."

She doubted that the tears were for Jude alone. How could it have been? He didn't spend that much time with them in this lifetime, and none of this group really knew him-- despite the fact that they were all Mutables.

Mackenzie, too, had gone still, her green eyes focused with a rare intensity on the bruises Elke's tears had uncovered, the same cold anger in Andeon's voice echoing violently in her eyes. Slender, feminine fingers curled harshly against the arms of the recliner, fingers digging into the cushioning until the tips were white, every muscle of the redhead's body tense and ready to bolt out that door with her baseball bat. She didn't say anything -- she let her other half ask the questions, knowing three voices chorusing in the innocent senshi's face probably would do neither her nor them any good.

That thought only made her even more furious. The senshi of innocence. INNOCENCE for ******** sake! She could understand she or Andeon -- they were loud, and taunting. She could understand Castor -- he was threatening. She could understand Aries or Taurus ... or Sagittarius... but Virgo?

The female half of Gemini closed her eyes slowly, leaving them closed for a good few breaths before letting them slide open again, now focused on Andeon. She didn't need to say anything -- she knew the other redhead would know.

'You and me.'

Someone was going to pay dearly.