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"NUMBER ONE." Sue had barely even been on the scene, and he was already yelling; one would guess that this signified some sort of bad mood, but God only knew why he would be in one! "Never. NEVER. Talk to my mother."

Oh. That would be why.

"Number two, do not friggin' encourage her when she's already overreacting," Sue went on. "And don't offer to tutor me! Don't say you'll take pictures! Don't say anything that would mean we have to spend time together, all right?" That probably sounded meaner than he'd meant, but he didn't stop to explain that it was embarrassing as all hell, the way his mother tried to find girls to set him up with. He had no problem with letting Elke believe he just didn't want to spend time with her. "And finally...."

Without asking permission, Sue reached out to give the kitten a quick rub on the head. "Don't take sick kitties out into the cold," he concluded, his voice gentling a touch. "They're like people, you know. If you keep a sniffly person indoors, you need to do the same for a sniffly kitten."

"I shouldn't be!" Sue exclaimed indignantly of his grades. And it was the truth! Sue might not be the smartest guy - not by a long shot - but he wasn't a slacker either. He got all his homework in, barring the occasional distraction; and if he didn't do admirably on tests, he didn't flunk them, either. There was no possible reason he could think of that he should be a year behind his grade!

... Unless. What did happen to all those credits he'd supposedly earned at Barren Pines, he wondered?

Sue wasn't really listening to Elke as they made their way indoors, unsurprisingly. He didn't usually listen to her when she started babbling, which sounded like what she was doing now with the business of kitty-sitting and Serenade and grandmothers. But then there was something a bit more accusatory in her voice, and he tuned back in.

"I dunno," Sue answered defensively, "there's only been, what? Two occasions when we were all together. And I gotta tell you, I don't remember much of what happened at the barrier, even before I passed out. Was he at the Denny's meetup?" It was, his tone indicated, not Sue's fault.

He liked to think that, anyway.

"What happened to him?"

Oh, ******** great. Elke was going to try and turn this around on him, wasn't she? His mouth quirked, and he shook his head. "I'm not ******** magic, y'know." Okay well, maybe he was, but that had nothing to do with his claim right then. "I never met Jude, never saw him, and nobody ever mentioned him to me. And I haven't exactly had a chance to play catch-up with all the Zodiacs yet."

Meaning: He was focused on his own s**t, so get off his back, Virgo! Things weren't easy for the Zodiacs, and Sue would give them that - they had to battle, and that made it tough. But if they did like they were supposed to and stayed in groups of two or more, they wouldn't have any problems. And Zue was willing to bet, Jude had gone fighting on his own and wound up dead.

Now Sue, on the other hand, was dealing with an entirely different set of complications. The form that all the other cats seemed so damned sure was supposed to be most useful to him, he could barely get around in; how he was supposed to go about being a Guardian, he still didn't even know. Were there some nifty abilities he had yet to discover? Because God help them if the position depended entirely on his interpersonal skills!

"I haven't gotten time to look after anybody, not even the Princess," Sue grouched, "how am I supposed to have kept track of someone who I've never met?"

"What-- hey!" Something she'd said had struck a nerve, it seemed - rooted in place, Sue was trying to call her back. But Elke had already progressed far enough that this tact was no good, so he cursed under his breath and started stomping up the steps after her. "I'm doing my goddamned best, all right? You think I've got a cake walk or something, but I don't even know what I'm doing."

This probably wasn't something Elke wanted to hear. She would probably be very happy thinking that her memory of Zue was still what she had to deal with - dedicated, competent, serious. If the cat had ever been surly, it was only because he expected everyone to do their best, whenever it mattered, every time it mattered. His entire life had been the Zodiacs and his Princess - nothing had gotten in the way.

Until they'd all died. And he'd been inexplicably reborn into the body of a boy who knew nothing about what his job was, only that he had to pick it up fast before somebody died. To all appearances, Sue hadn't been quick enough.

"Nobody gave me a goddamned introductory course, you know," Sue declared angrily, finally coming within arm's reach of Elke again. "Nobody even told me to figure it out on my own. I just got shoved out of the hospital and I've been trying to play catch-up since. So excuse me if I'm not doing well enough for you, but not you or anybody else has so much as offered a helping hand, so shut it if all you have to say is I'm not doing good enough!"

She really thought he wasn't trying.

Sue didn't know whether to be livid or desperate -- did he seem that lazy? That undetermined? If Elke could think that, what about the other Zodiacs -- the Princess?

"I've been trying." He was trying very hard to sound controlled right then. Sue wasn't doing a good job at it. "I've been trying. You ever try having a conversation with yourself? You ever had the other side shut down and stop talking? It's stupid, but it's all I get!" Zue was Sue was Zue, Elke was right. But while Sue was struggling to learn, trying to figure it out... Zue was holding out. And the whole thing was agitating, just in case Elke couldn't figure that out by the way Sue was now attempting to pace a hole in her carpet.

"There's something blocking me. I reached for it before - thought I might be able to just shove my way in, you know? But it doesn't want me there. Zue, me, whatever - I don't want me there, and I don't even know why!" If Sue were being honest, it was only a partial truth. He hadn't really tried reaching since Barren Pines; now, he was just playing a fool's game of exercising his legs, trying to sort it out on his own and hoping it would come to him. But what choice did he have? If Zue had blocked him before, and Sue didn't even know the reason, how was he supposed to come to terms with his second self?

And it was like Sue said; nobody was helping him. Nobody had ever sat him down to talk about what Zue was like, or what had happened leading up to his death. They just all... expected things from him. And Sue didn't know the way to ask for the help he needed, so that was just the way it was.

Except obviously, that wasn't good enough.

"You at least knew who Zue was," Sue rounded back on Elke. "Why haven't you ever told me anything about him? How am I just supposed to know?"

"I," Sue informed Elke, a bit of a curl coming to his lips, "am a <******** unhelpful son-of-a-b***h." It was hard to tell if this was an insult to his uncooperative half, or some manner of guilty admission. God knew that it could be said about himself prior to the arrival of Zue's soul, after all - maybe that was why he'd somehow gotten picked for this dubious honor.

His meaning didn't really matter, though, because the end result was the same. Sue was angry; Elke was an unfortunate bystander. Shaking her off of his sleeves (or at least attempting to), Sue crossed to the other side of the room in a few long, frustrated steps, trying to reorganize his thoughts.

"It's not like a total lockout, I guess. I get things sometimes - bits of memory, you know, and feelings about people. When it's there, it's, you know. Right. It is me, just a piece of me I don't seem to be able to reach often. And I kept figuring, that's how it is; the rest would come if I pushed at it long and hard enough. But," he made a face, "it's not. And if I was supposed to be there for goddamned Sagittarius, I didn't have a clue, all right?!"

And if he ever did remember, he'd probably be riding that guilt for the rest of his life. Zue, in his previous form, never did cope with failure well.

"So. Tell me what to do." The surprise in these words wasn't how suddenly they came out - it was that they actually sounded halfway sincere. Sue wasn't challenging Elke, setting her up for accusation if she came back empty-handed. He looked bleak beneath his frustration, ready to grasp for straws. "How the hell am I supposed to handle this, Elke?"

Health class: Because apparently, the mental image that Sue needed in order to fix all his problems was a screaming woman in the process of giving birth. Thanks for that, Elke. Really.

Rubbing at his eyes with both hands, Sue blew out an anxious breath. Just let it come... yeah, this talk had gotten him nowhere. Elke probably didn't want to hear that, though, and she was right on one account - he was the Zodiac's Guardian, and he had to look out for them. Which meant that he didn't go around letting them worry that he was going to fail at his job.

Even if he probably was.

"Yeah... you're probably right." Sue was being completely insincere, but stressed out as he was, it was hard to tell. "I'll get it worked out." Eventually. Somehow. He dropped his hands and stuffed them into his pockets. "But look, Elke. Don't... tell people about it, okay? Not unless they need to know." He wasn't really expecting that she'd keep quiet about it - Elke probably couldn't keep a secret worth beans. If the Princess didn't know by the end of the week, Sue might just die of shock. But there was no harm in hoping, was there?