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It had been a week or so since Lydia's already complicated life took a sudden and interesting twist. Eleven days since she and Grant had taken that fateful walk in the park and been attacked by that youma. She didn't blame the Negaverse, although she would have liked to, the beast was hunting Grant, not her. It was doing it's job, very well. The young woman was bitter, a very at the turn of events, but so very much happened that night it was hard to look back with anything but tangled emotions.

It was one in the morning, and Lydia was staring at her own reflection in the full length mirror on the back of her bed room door. She couldn't sleep, hadn't really gotten much over the last few days.

Everything had turned out alright, better then alright in fact, but her nights seemed plagued with haunting memories from the battle in the surrounding, and the new horror of having had to watch her boyfriend attempt to stand up to something that could have killed him in one effortless bite. That's how it ended in her dreams, or very nearly. She awoke each time just before, but even being spared that last gruesome image, it was still unsettling.

She had an idea though, and she clothed in naught but a tank top and lauds slit shorts she grabbed her heshin pen from the bed side table and powered up so she could step through the mirror. Because she'd helped install it, she new exactly where the mirror she was aiming for rested in the bedroom of Grant Caudwell, and she was silent as she stepped down from the frame and dismissed her power.

Pale eyes turned immediately towards the bed, drinking in the motionless figure payed out beneath the covers, and she crossed the plush carpet of the bedroom until she was standing right beside him. A messy wave of sunny blonde hair had fallen into his face, and ever so tenderly the teen reached down to tuck it back behind his ear, then, as silently as she'd entered, she crawled onto the bed beside him.

A hand on either side of his pillow let her lean over him without touching, and very gently she lowered her head down until she could kiss him. Coaxing him awake as sweetly as she dared.

The expression he'd worn just before her lips had met his, she didn't like it, and it was relief that painted her features as those family, bright eyes opened and he smiled up at her. The pain or fear washed away, or perhaps merely buried incredibly deep. She didn't know, not for sure, but that eager, pleasantly surprised up tilt of lips was a priceless thing, only for her, and she let herself believe she was enough to chase away whatever unconscious worries plagued him.

She returned his smile with her own version, far more possesive and greedy then his own, but not an ounce less lovely. The brush of his lips were just as soft the second time she claimed them. It was only after that that she bothered to answer any of his questions, shaking her head gently as she let herself sink down until she was laying I top of him, the covers between them. "Not that I know of, though I wouldn't be able to hear it."

As far as everything being ok... Well that was an entirely different question, and she took her time in mulling over how to answer it. Watching him as she lay her head against his chest, his pulse jumping beneath her ear.

After a moment or two she dropped her gaze, glancing instead towards a bare bit of space on the far wall. "In the park, before you were awakened as Virtus. I said something that probably didn't make a whole lot of sense to you, even now." Everthing else from that night had been explained, save that one small slip of the tongue.

He'd never asked about it, and Lydia had thought perhaps he hadn't heard her, but she'd seen the confusion in his eyes.

"You're curious about it, aren't you?" She would have been, but she was curious about Everthing. Knowledge was Lydia's drug, and she couldn't ever get enough of it. If Grant had mentioned something so incredibly cryptic it would have driven her crazy. She'd have begged him to explain it by now.

The weight of his ams curled against her brought a measure of comfort she'd been missing, and despite having hinted at her desire to talk, his questions, she took a moment to simply enjoy his presence. She hid it well now that they were out of danger, but she'd been terrified of loosing him again.

The moment passed though, and she slide her hands from his pillow and into the pale tangle of his hair, shaking her head as best she could with her cheek still resting on his chest. "No, I meant it exactly as I had said it.".

Even then it wasn't unexplainable. She'd made up a lie when theu'd run into each other in the halls of their new school, told him she'd seen him die on that battlefield. She could salvage her little slip, even now, but with him now a member of their court, why bother?

He would find out eventually. She'd rather it be from her, and not by accident.

"I told you before I watched you die, it explained away the tears when I collapsed in that hallway when we first met." She frowned, rubbing her cheek along the blanket that covered his chest.

"It was the truth, but not all of it. I couldn't tell you before, it was forbidden, meant to keep me, and you, safe." she'd understood the importance of keeping her original name a secret, so even though it pained her to do so, she'd had to lie to him, right from the start. "Grant, I was right there with you, holding your hand as we tried to find somewhere safe to hide. I watches Gilbert disappear under falling rubble, and then I watched you." Despite how much time had gone by since, the memory of that battle was still fresh in her mind.

"You saved my life, took care of me, and gave your own life trying to protect me." Finally she looked up at him, searching his face for the flicker of recognition. "You've known me all this time, you just didn't know it."

His apology was unneeded, but while she didn't comment on it, she did appreciate the sincerity in his voice. It made her slide one of her hands up along his chest until she could grip his shoulder, squeezing gently.

The more she talked though, the more puzzled he looked, and she felt a sudden pang in the pit of her stomach, some nagging sense that perhaps she shouldn't have spoken up at all about this, and simply left things as they were. They were together, they were happy, and she was going and complicating things.

She couldn't take it back though, and despite the belated second thoughts, she didn't want to. He deserved to know. Surely he'd been worried about her, or about Felicia anyways, not knowing where she was or if she'd made it home. She couldn't just let him keep worrying, and the selfish side of her didn't want to keep pretending. There was a reason she'd clung to him so tightly when they'd run into each other in that hall, he needed to know.

Recognition flared as she watched, and the shadow of a smile crept along her lips as he said her name, both names. "Very much alive, yes." It was hard not to be happy in the face of his relief and excitement, but the smile did fade, even as he curled his arms all the more tightly around her.

"I'm sorry I had to lie to you, I didn't really have a choice." Pale fingertips stroked along his shoulder. "After.." She paused, lisp pressing into a thin line, then continued. "During most of the battle I was on my own, and for the most part I was unharmed, at least physcially." There were the bugs.. She had really not liked the swarm of bugs. "Ares found me on that battlefield, and she awakened me into Navi, but there were soldiers of order watching. To keep me safe, that glamor was cast."

"Only.." She sighed, shifting about in his grip until she could crawl a little higher on his body, arms curling up and around his head as she buried her face against the side of his neck. "I had to give up everything. My home, my family, anybody I have ever none. I lost everything." it certainly explained her odd reaction to Mal's comment during the Christmas party.

The wandering movement of his hands along her backs was comforting, but she signed anyways, letting herself sink back into memories she hadn't thought about in months now. There hadn't been need to recall the past, it was gone, done, and she had plenty to deal with in the present. New memories to make, a new life to build. He was right, she was happy now.

She looked up at him with eyes gone bright with the welling of painful emotions, and she tried to smile, but it might have only come off as a soft twitch of her lips.

"Yes, I have you," she hugged him all the tighter, nuzzling her cheek into his shoulder. "It was pure luck that let me run into you at school." She hadn't seen hide nor hair of Felix, nor Gilbert. She was still worried about them. But even if she found them, she couldn't tell them who she was.

She really didn't want to think about it, so instead she focused on the brush of his fingers against her cheek, the compliments that always seemed to to make her pulse skip no matter how many times he told her. And even if it wasn't a joke she couldn't help the startled laugh that fell from her lips when he told her he liked her new name. Her voice was a little thick, a single shining tear slide down her cheek, but she was laughing, smiling.

"I am happy. I haven't been this happy in a long time, and you're part of that happiness." Her thumb brushed his cheek, and she moved to kiss him, ginger curls falling around his face.

She smiled against his lips as he wiped away the tear. It was such a simple little gesture, but it made her feel better all the same. She was glad for luck as well. Everyday she saw him she was glad she'd run into him in the hall, and more so that his kind nature insisted he try to cheer her up.

If not for that near overbearing kindness, they might have simply passed on by, and that would have been that. Then again, he also wouldn't have helped her in the Surrounding, and she wouldn't have cared.

It seemed fate had plans for them. Every time something threatened to come between them, something else intervened, and they were thrust back together again. She took it as a good sign.

Her forehead rested softly against his, and she looked down adoringly into those bright, ocean colored eyes. "I know you will," she murred, grinning as he kissed her nose, then tipped her head so she could return the gesture. "Come what may, I have you."

Lydia blinked at him, frowning at the way he'd phrased that. She'd like to tell them he was being silly, and that there'd never come a time when she didn't want him with her, but she knew herself too well. She could be fickle, and she got bored, it was just her nature.

Instead she smoothed the back of a finger along his cheek, then pressed a soft kiss to his lips. In her heart she hoped sincerely that she would always remain happy with him. As happy as she was now.

"Yeah," she murmured, sitting up so she could pull at his blankets and crawl beneath them herself. "I'm glad I was finally able to tell you. I'm sure you were worried."

She curled on her side, elbow planted on the pillow so she could hold her head up. One pale hand moving to trail fingers lightly across his shoulder and chest. "Do you mind if I sleep here?" He wouldn't, she knew that, but she asked anyways. Determined not to take his kindness for granted.

Surely there were plenty of other people out there already taking advantage of him, and she didn't want to be one of them.

She tickled her nails along his arm as he confirmed she could stay, and she offered him a grin while she squirmed beneath the blankets until she was pressed up against his side, pausing to give him a chance to tuck his arm beneath the pillow she was borrowing. When he did, she looped her arm across his stomach, bare leg sliding up so she could drape it across one of his own.

He was incredibly warm, and that along with the peaceful mood he'd managed to place her in resulted in a wave of tiredness hitting her all at once. All those hours she had spent staring up at her ceiling instead of sleeping, they all caught up to her, and she was down right exhausted, but in a wonderful way.

With a happy hum she nuzzled her cheek against Grant's shoulder, pressing herself all the tighter against his side. "I'm not going anywhere anytime soon," she managed to coo out, voice drowsy. And just to be silly she ran her nails along the soft skin of his side, curious if he was ticklish.

She was starting to drift off, but she rolled her head up so she could look up at him through half parted, sleepy eyes. "You're not going anywhere either." It wasn't a question, but more an imposed promise.