We bedded down in Steffie's place for the night. On the off chance she suddenly returned home, we'd be the first to know about it, and if she didn't, I didn't think she'd much mind our intrusion, given our good intentions in coming here.

Plus, it saved me from having to ask the XPCA for lodgings, and anything that kept me out of Targa...Captain Targa's hair right now was a plus.

"I think," Karu said, in an odd sort of undress, still wearing random pieces of her armor while also partway into pajamas and brushing her teeth, "it seems reasonable to me that you get the bed."

I was pretty sure I hadn't heard that exactly right and looked in on her in the small bathroom. "You're not going to try to sleep with me?"

She smiled into the mirror with the pretext of checking her teeth, but her eyes seemed more focused on me than them. "I was not finished. You sleep on the bed, and I shall sleep on you."

I rolled my eyes and kept on down the hallway, not sure why I bothered to stop in the first place. "I told you, I'm living with AEGIS."

"And you also spoke, saying that you and she were not an official thing, as it were."

"I think living together is kind of a thing!" I shouted back up the stairs at her, unloading my cargo of a pillow and blanket on the downstairs couch. "We sleep together. We fool around, we go on dates, it's as official as an unofficial thing can get."

She rinsed and spit over the sound of water running. When it turned off, her damp mohawk and green eyes peeked out of the hallway where I was waiting downstairs. "Until the order is official, I refuse to accept it," she huffed.

"Weren't you the one insisting I make up my mind and choose one of you two at Christmas, just a month ago? And now here I am telling you--"

While I was talking she descended the stairs at me, her green eyes smoldering with an intensity like fire. I knew any point I was making was being defeated by my own stare as she advanced on me, quite clearly braless by the way parts of her moved independently of the rest.

"All I am hearing," she said, interrupting my lapsed silence "is that there is a situation resembling a decision being made, constructed by the other woman. I have yet to hear from your own lips that a decision was made." She smiled and leaned on my chest in a way that was both very heavy and very light. "So, Ashton, have you made such a decision?"

It was a good thing I was no longer human, because it took superhuman effort to peel my eyes off the conspicuous perky bits poking out of the ends of the full curves in front of me. I wrenched my eyes upwards to settle on hers, and found them green and brilliant as ever. Her mohawk was flat from being damp and threatened to engulf one of her eyes, which gave her a very misleading shy impression of peeking out from behind it.

"I told AEGIS...no sex," I said, taking several seconds to find a level of commitment I was prepared to stick to.

Karu seemed ready to nitpick me into a corner when I was spared by a loud knock on the front door. She settled for a frown instead, as I went to check on it to escape her for the moment.

What I found was a lone XPCA NCO by his uniform, no exosuit, no dozens of soldiers in combat gear or military vehicles behind him, just a clipboard, a look on his face that said that he was halfway between scared to death and hoping to be put out of his misery. A a few Exhumans lurked in the shadows behind him, jeering.

"I am looking for an Exhuman named Athan Ashton, is he here?" he asked, quickly, but with a sigh. I could tell he'd said that line many times already tonight.

"I suppose that depends on who's asking," I said.

"Look, sir, this is really simple, either he's here or he's not. Or if you know where I can find him, and aren't just sending me on a wild goose chase…?" He shot a glance back at the Exhumans behind him, who howled with cruel laughter. "If not, I have a lot more houses to check."

"Why don't you just...call him? Or something. Door-to-door, with a clipboard, in this neighborhood? Seems crazy," I suggested. On one hand, I felt bad for the guy, who was obviously having a hard time. On the other hand...I doubted it was this guy's idea to come out at night and bang on doors. He had someone behind him putting him up to this, and I wasn't sure I wanted whoever that was knowing where I was.

"Well sir," he sighed "the individual in question doesn't seem to have a working mobile on them. Something about an EMP bomb going off. Is he here or not?"

I took one more look at the guy's scared and defeated face and relented. He really didn't deserve this.

"Yeah, it's me. I'm Athan Ashton. What does your superior want?"

"Oh thank God. You're not screwing with me?"

"I've got ID if you want it."

I went to get it but he just shook his head and continued on. "I'm here to serve you official notice of your…" he read the clipboard in his hand, and then gave it to me. "...written notice of final warning. Any further misconduct will be...look, do I need to read this all to you? It's written right there," he said, plaintively.

I flipped through the pages, and there seemed to be an inordinate number of them for what essentially could be summed up as 'Don't fuck up'.

"Why am I getting this?" I asked, perplexed as I flipped through yet more pages. I mean, I knew why, but not why?

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Pursuant to article four of the charter law, regulation...something, subsection something else, an individual who has been found negligent in duties shall be served official written notice, making clear their failures and outlining the specific failures, as well as the requisite course of action to avoid punishment, and the exact punishment which...something...which you'll get, basically."

I looked at him and blinked, understanding exactly what he meant now.

"So, Targa is making you do this, basically," I said.

"Targa is making me do this, basically," he agreed.

"Okay well...consider your papers served. Sorry to make you come out here at night. Stay safe," I said.

"Thank you, sir. Good night. Miss," he doffed his cap at Karu, got a slight nod in response, and then headed back up the road with a practiced saunter which carried him quickly but not quickly enough to look desperate to escape the Exhumans who followed him as he left. I closed the door and went back to the clipboard.

"Anything of interest?" Karu said, sitting next to me, and apparently still distracted enough by the event that she wasn't trying to jump me immediately, yet.

"An incredible waste of paper, basically," I said, and put it down. "Threatens not only to kick me out, but also court-marshal and millions in withheld wages, subject to immediate dismissal, blah, blah, blah."

"What?" Karu said and picked it up to read through it. "Ashton, this basically states that either you leave now--and breathe gently whilst doing so--or you will forfeit...actually it may be simpler to list the things you would not forfeit."

"Yeah. Well, she can serve me whatever papers she likes, I kinda doubt it'll hold up." I laid back on the couch and put an arm over my eyes. "Targa's a blowhard."

"Be that as it may, this is a serious indictment. You must take this seriously. This could seriously harm your career prospects, if nothing else. Even coming from a blowhard, as it were, such a black mark on your record is nigh-damning." She flipped through several more pages, and I enjoyed the quiet and watching her green eyes dart back and forth over them. "Err, that is to say, assuming you do not die as she seems to indicate is the preferred penalty for your transgressions."

"Karu, I'm an Exhuman," I sighed. "And I've been one for almost a year now. I'm kind of accustomed to people wanting me dead for no reason. Job and promotion prospects aren't really something on my radar, given that."

"They should be," she frowned. "I am far from qualified to act as a guidance counselor, but certainly I have heard that before turning, you had life goals laid out for yourself, and I view such an attitude as healthy and necessary for a complete life."

"Sure, right, I'll just do that," I said, taking the clipboard from her hands. "Isn't it a little hot here to still be wearing hand warmers?"

"You detract from the topic," she said, flushing slightly and moving her hands out of immediate sight. "It is difficult, I know, to focus on the future when the present is so ever-present, as it were, yet if you make no effort in that regard the future will be atop you without forewarning."

"It's not difficult...it's...impossible," I said, turning myself so I was sitting next to her, facing the wall instead of her. "I don't even own my own life right now. I do what the XPCA says, and in exchange, I'm not a public enemy. What do I do every day? I have no idea, whatever they tell me to do. And for how long? I don't know, however long they want. How can I plan for the future like that?"

She sighed heavily but when I looked she was smiling. "Ashton, all planning is not as AEGIS or your sister would have you believe. When you are with me, I do not think we lay elaborate schemes or redundant layers of failsafes and redundancies. Instead, I teach you what I know, lessons hard-won, snatched from the jaws of death itself at times."

"Yeah, so?"

"So? Do you learn these lessons so that they are immediately applied to a situation at hand and then abandoned forever?"

"Uhh...no."

"Then they stick with you into the future. A future in which you are more prepared. A more capable you, whom, when faced with a wider variety of dangers or unexpected situations, sees a successful outcome more often."

"I don't get what this has to do with what you were just saying," I said, laying down again, putting my legs across her lap.

"What this has to do is that preparing yourself is a form of planning for the future as well. All those years playing football, you were not just laying the plans for your future scholarship, you were also honing yourself so that you were a more resilient football player. You insulated yourself against unexpected injury or loss of scholarship or other things which may have decimated your plans by self-improvement."

She smiled at me, and when I just sort of looked glumly back at her, elicited a response by plucking out one of my leg hairs, which got my legs off of her lap right quick.

"So," she said, putting on the air of a college professor to contrast my undignified yelp, "even if there is no plan, per se, you may still focus on self-improvement as a means of planning. And in this situation, the you who does not have a black mark on their record is more versatile and has more options open to them than the one who does."

"Yes Mother," I groaned, rubbing my leg.

"Do not be obnoxious. You know this to be correct as well as I do, you just refuse to take Captain Targa at face value because you dislike her."

"Because she's a blowhard."

"Regardless, I believe my point has been made and you have heard it. Now let us return to an earlier conversation I found much more compelling…"

I pulled the blanket over me and entered boulder stance before she could get me thinking with the wrong head again. "Nope! Personal barrier engaged! Night, Karu!"

I expected her to laugh it off, or attack me, but heard only silence outside the blanket. When I took a peek, she was still sitting there, looking...actually looking kind of hurt.

She spoke slowly and diplomatically, as I had seen her do before when facing the press. "Please do not make a joke of my feelings. I understand we have had...flings, as it were, but I would not do that if there were no honest feelings beneath it all."

"Sorry," I said. I wasn't sure what else the was to be said.

"Perhaps the fault is mine, I make light of plying you for sex, but cannot stand to have you make light of a refusal." She looked down at her hands. "Still, I cannot pretend that it does not hurt me in an...unexpectedly sharp manner."

"Look, I can be serious about it, but only if you actually listen to me when I say no."

"That seems...reasonable. I apologize for tarnishing the evening with my weakness. I shall abscond at once. Sleep well."

And then she left the room like she'd been bitten, turning off the light and dropping me into darkness as she went.

It took me a long time to go to sleep after that. I didn't think I'd done anything wrong, but Karu's hurt tone of voice and wounded eyes haunted me more than I thought they should have, and I spent many long minutes thinking of what she and I had each said and replaying scenarios of what I should have done instead.

No matter how my mind turned it over, nothing sounded good. What would Lia have said or done to defuse the situation without hurting anyone? I didn't know, something clever, probably. Some kind of flattery that made everybody leave happy but was meaningless, ultimately, maybe?

At some point, I had a very confusing dream where Lia was giving me pointers on how my technique in bedding Karu was all flawed, while AEGIS sat beside the three of us, waiting her turn.

I jolted awake on realizing it was a dream, sitting upright and hot under my blanket, trying to capture the good parts of the dream while they slipped through my fingers like water.

On the stairs on my right I saw red lights glowing in the dark, but when I rubbed my eyes and looked clearer, there was nothing there. Just a figment from the dream, I guessed. I truly wasn't awake, and laid back down to hopefully fall asleep again before I was.

I had several more odd dreams I couldn't remember, maybe from sleeping in such an unfamiliar place, but the last one I had before waking up, I realized the source of as soon as my eyes snapped open.

Karu was there, kneeling on the floor next to the couch, making an almost-whimpering face with her mouth open. She was dressed in light sleeping clothes, but most disturbing of all was the fact that one of her fingers was in my mouth, which was making my drool pool onto the couch cushion I'd used as a pillow.

"'Arhu?" I said, pulling back and getting her hand out of my mouth. "The hell are you doing?" I looked down and saw there was quite a sizable dark circle of drool.

"Nothing!" she said and sat ramrod straight, flushing fully and immediately. "I was...merely...I attempted to...to prod you awake, but your mouth was open, and I suppose...I missed, is merely all."

"You had...had your f-fingers in my mouth?" I stammered out. "What the heck?"

"It was merely a mistake!" she shouted back and stood up. "Forgive me for a moment of being less than perfect!"

"Wait, what's going on? I'm so confused." I was trying to get an explanation from her, stop her from going, and get sleep out of my head all at once, and I didn't think any of them were working.

She looked at me sternly. "Nothing is going on apparently, Ashton. I am going to shower and get dressed. I will reconvene with you afterwards."

She stomped upstairs giving me the distinct impression again of having done nothing wrong yet seriously messing up. As she went, again, I had the distinct impression of seeing red lines as Karu fled up the stairs but again, before I could rub the sleep out of my eyes, they were gone.

But these weren't the red lines of a glowing visor. They were on her arms, fresh, cuts, fat with beads of blood.

I just sat with my head between my knees for a while, waking up, and trying to put together all the data I couldn't parse while listening to the shower running above me. At some point, I realized that was another thing which made no sense, as she'd just showered last night before bed, but at this point, what the hell did I know?

My first instinct was, even if I didn't know what I'd done, I'd messed up. My second was to turn to those smarter than me I'd been leaning on my whole life. But this didn't seem like a very good time to call Lia, and asking AEGIS about Karu was stupid, even I knew that. I'd gotten as far as taking out my mobile and turning it over in my hands when I remembered I'd fried it accidentally the day before anyway.

I guess I could ask Karu, but that seemed easily the most terrifying prospect. If, somehow, it wasn't me and was her, calling her out on it was not the way to handle a woman being irrational, I'd learned.

I mean, calling an irrational guy out on it was also not a good plan, but I just didn't have as many of those in my life, I mentally added, so as not to be sexist about it.

Again, I found myself interrupted by a knock on the door. Hoping Karu would at least be in a towel if she chose to pop out into the upstairs hallway within clear line of sight of the door, I got up heavily from beneath my thoughts and checked who it was.

"Hey there, loser," said the shadow Exhuman, Trish. She was leaning sideways against the doorway with a bundle of what looked like clothes under her arm, and her boyfriend lurked just behind her looking annoyed to be here.

"Uh, winner, actually," I corrected. "I don't do rematches."

"Yeah, well, nobody wants you back if you're just gonna blow up the lights. Nobody likes it if you destroy the ring, so you lose on a technicality."

"You come all the way here to tell me that?" I asked.

"No, I came to give you this," she held out the bundle. "Was probably more useful before you blew everything up."

I took the bundle, and finding it impossible to hold it and go through it at the same time, invited the two in while I sorted the stuff on the table.

"Women's clothes?" I asked.

"Your friend. Steffie or whatever. Those are hers. A mobile, too."

I just got to the mobile as she mentioned it. Might have been some useful data on there, if I hadn't fried it, as she said. I swore under my breath.

"Why do you have her clothes?" I asked.

"They were at the arena. Lots of stuff winds up there...usually stuff left behind by losers who don't uh...successfully endure the losing process. But clothes, that's a real head-scratcher."

"Especially since she was in a wheelchair," I added. "Not sure she could just change clothes by herself or anything."

"Yeah well, you said you were tracking her, and that's what you'd be tracking," she said, pointing at the busted mobile on the table. "Thought I'd save you the trip of heading back down there just for that disappointment."

"How uncharacteristically nice of you," I said, suspecting this had some strings attached.

"Heh. Yeah. Think of this as your consolation prize for losing so spectacularly," she said with a shrug.

"Yeah, I can still see the bruise on your face where I kicked you," I said with a sly grin.

"And I can still see your mouth where you shut the hell up," she added, eloquently. "C'mon, let's jet," she said to her boy, and the two headed out, while he plied us with a perfect composite of threats and mocking and it was a good thing he was leaving because otherwise he'd have to kick my ass, and so forth.

"He's a real charmer," Trish promised, with a small wave. "Don't be a stranger, Lightning."

"Yeah, see you never, probably," I said and began to close the door, but then had a thought. "Wait, your mobile was fried by the blast too, right?"

"No. I'm not stupid enough to fight with shit in my pockets. My mobile was safe at home."

"Can I borrow it real quick? I need to make a call."

The boy groaned and threatened to beat my ass even further, but Trish just sighed as she passed over her mobile.