I was back home, sitting on the couch, head hanging low, like I was trying to shade and study my feet at once.

I'd run away. For the first time, I'd just...made some excuses, grabbed my things, and got out of there. I didn't know what I was doing, I didn't know what I'd gotten myself into.

Normal life was like a beautiful tropical plant. To me, exotic and unknown, new and exciting, alluring and fun. And if you got too close, it stung you and killed you for trying to enjoy it.

Exhuman life was like a cactus. Tough, soulless, and excruciating when shoved into one's body unexpectedly. But at least it looked as shitty and painful as it actually was. There was no unexpected facade here.

I'd been sitting here most of a day now. AEGIS had come by repeatedly, first in concern, then annoyance, and then major concern, and was now building her way back to annoyance again. Tem was here somewhere, visible at first, but now hiding when she'd realized I was upset and trying to be out of my way. Lia as well, who had given me a long look and a sad shake of her head with a pitying 'oh, Athan.'

And an uninvited guest as well. True to her claims we were 'not finished', Moon sat, book in hand. She was as still as me, next to me on the crappy couch which dominated the small living area between AEGIS and my room, and Lia and Tem's...which Tem never stayed in, but whatever.

She even flipped the pages silently, with barely a motion. Yet still the sound of the paper turning every minute felt like it was scraping against the inside of my skull.

"Can you...not be here?" I asked her. "I got your message about Tower and Jack, and I told you I can't do anything about it."

Her book closed without a snap for once and I felt her eyes on me, even though I was still talking to my feet.

"I believe it reasonable to ask for an explanation of your actions. If nothing else."

"I don't think you get to make that assessment."

"Regardless, I act on my own beliefs, as I ever have. If that inconveniences you, I will not apologize, but might suggest that capitulating on the point would resolve it."

"Yeah, you're a treat." I stood up and went to our room, taking my chances with AEGIS instead.

"Feeling better?" she asked with some sarcasm but her face showed relief.

"No, just getting away from Moon," I said, closing the door.

"Why won't you tell me what's wrong? You're being a major butt."

I mean, I would have liked to, but I didn't know any way to say 'I think I accidentally went on a date with another girl behind your back' without it sounding like shit. So instead I just kept up my silence and fell into bed.

Something rapped on the door four times, regularly spaced, and I put a pillow over my face. Maybe if I smothered myself with it, I could wake up in a hospital far from here.

"Hiya, Moon. Athan said he's trying to get away from you. Which you absolutely heard, because this place is tiny."

"I did hear. I had an idea to achieve my ends now that he is in this room. I hope you do not mind my intrusion."

"Uh...actually kinda do. Maybe you should leave, if Athan doesn't want you around."

I heard AEGIS moving. Moon cleared her throat significantly. "Athan, just what were you doing at that girl's house yesterday?"

AEGIS stopped. I gripped the pillow over my face tighter.

"Alyssa I believe you called her? The two of you were on your way to dinner, I had heard. She had roommates and yet they were not coming."

"Damn it, Moon," I muttered. "Why."

"Is this true, Athan?" AEGIS asked. "Is this the same girl you've been messaging at all hours?"

"Why would you know about that?" I asked, sitting up.

She rolled her eyes. "Like I don't monitor all the network traffic within the next three relays out."

"Or have cam-drones watching me whenever I'm home?"

"Don't make this about me, Athan. I'm not the one crawling into other girls' beds. You said you were with friends."

"She is a friend!"

"Oh, and you just conveniently left out the fact that she's a girl? I wonder why you'd feel the need to hide things, if it's just so platonic between you."

"Well maybe, it's because I know you're a jealous psycho when it comes to me talking to other females, and I'd rather you not start killing every woman in all of my classes."

"AEGIS is clearly not a murderous deviant," Moon said, stepping in between us with the grace of an avalanche. "Now with that said, perhaps you can tell me more about that big jerk Athan over there," she said turning to AEGIS as she spoke. She also tried to put some...swagger...into her words, and sorta did this weird swaying? I thought maybe she was having a stroke until I realized that was Moon attempting to be chummy and persuasive.

AEGIS looked at her with about the right mix of disgusting and horror as was appropriate. "What the heck was that?" she asked.

"I am appealing to your sense of feminine kinship. I believe that automatically gives us a rapport when colluding against males."

"I might be angry at Athan, but I'm not going to betray his secrets just because you did. That's just...really...kinda messed up and shitty, actually."

I crossed my arms at Moon and gave her a smug I-told-you-so look, before AEGIS blasted it off of me with a stern glare. "Let me repeat myself there. I might be angry at Athan. So he should show the proper amount of remorse and humility, or I will have to build myself a new foot after dislodging my old one in his anus."

Moon stood sullen for a moment, and then after a deep breath, walked towards AEGIS with a hip-swinging wobbling gait. "Oh come on, sister. You can tell me."

"You sound more like a mafia gangster than a sister. You need help, girl."

Her words fell out of her slightly faster than normal. "And I am asking you for it. Do you think it is easy for me to put on airs such as these?"

"Just give up on it. I'm not going to tell you, and neither is Lia, okay? All you need to know is, what Athan submitted when he resigned with the P-Force, that's all he can give them. If it sucks, I'm sorry."

"Just as I told you," I said. Just as we'd all rehearsed. I was just glad that even if AEGIS was going to kill me, she could stick to her word on this first.

"I will ask Lia then," Moon said, turning. But she found herself being steered out of the room with AEGIS' hands on her shoulders.

"I think you've irritated the household enough for one day. Thank you for tipping me off about Athan, but no thank you for trying to manipulate all of us into telling you. You suck at it, and bye."

The front door slammed. A moment later, AEGIS reappeared in the doorway with her hands on her hips. I felt a cold shiver pass down my spine as I met her gaze.

"Hi, Athan," she said breezily.

"...uh...hi...AEGIS."

"How was your cancelled sleepover? Make any new friends? Make any new girlfriends? Make any new babies?"

"Look, I'm sorry, I should have told you but...I left because I realized it was getting more serious than it should have. I did the right thing."

"And that's why you had to hide it from me? Because you were so just and right in your actions?"

"We just went over this. But I did leave before anything happened. So yes. Please unbunch your panties."

Her face twitched. And then she reached down and up her skirt and slid the fabric down her legs. "Do these look bunched to you?" she said, flinging them at me. She stooped for a moment and seized what was presumably Tem and pushed her out the door before she closed it and she advanced on me.

"A--what? I'm...what?"

"I asked," she said, sitting on the end of the bed next to me. She picked up the little scrap of white fabric and held it up, her eyes glowing yellow over them at me. "--if these looked bunched to you."

"N-no? I don't u-understand the question."

Her hand was on my thigh. Her chest heaved with heavy breaths. Her eyes sparkled. "You told me to unbunch my panties, so I have. Isn't that good enough for you?"

"It's just and expression, dude--"

"Isn't that good enough for you?"

"I'm...I'm so lost," I said. "I don't know if you're mad, or...horny...or both? Or if I'm being punished for something...because I apologized!"

She shut me up with a kiss and took the opportunity to knock both of us horizontal with her on top. Her warmth rested on me as she shuffled into position, and her lips were hot and creamy like honey. The smell of sweet rubber filled my nose as her face mashed into mine, bearing some of the weight as she straddled me.

She broke off the kiss and asked again. "Isn't that good enough for you?"

"I don't know what you're asking, AEGIS," I gasped.

"I am asking," she rubbed her hands down my body and under my shirt. "Isn't. That. Good enough?"

"For what?"

"For you!"

My head spun and I felt incredibly stupid. She'd just repeated herself four times, and I felt like I was just stupidly repeating 'what?' while...something was going on. Something so serious and fucky that just nodding and pretending I knew what she was saying was a terrible idea.

I had to stop this before she got hurt by me doing something stupid. As she fumbled with my belt, I closed my hands around hers.

"AEGIS, stop."

"No," she said, working her fingers under the loop.

"Stop. Come on."

"No!" She pulled one end free.

"AEGIS, stop. I need to talk to you."

"I don't want to talk!" she pulled the belt open, and I held her hands clasped together away from the rest of my pants.

"I need to understand what you're talking about. One second you were so angry at me I thought I was gonna die, and now...this. And I'm so, so lost."

"Just let me--"

"No, talk to me."

"Move your hands--"

"AEGIS, stop it."

"Athan damn it, just fucking stop and let me have this, okay?" she suddenly screamed. "Let me do the one fucking thing I can't screw up on! Even if you hate me, or find me boring or disgusting or pathetic, I still have holes that work, okay? So fucking let me--"

She tore her arms out of my grip, her engines flaring for a moment, and then literally tore at my pants, splitting them down the middle like they were paper in her grip.

"AEGIS stop, I don't think any of that--"

"YOU STOP," she screamed at me, tears rolling down her cheeks. "You think I'm blind that I don't see what you see here? You think I don't know you're avoiding me? By hanging out with some newer, younger, more interesting girl?"

She tore at me frantically now, and I did my best to push her back. We couldn't do it like this. I didn't want her polluting another part of us with this. I grabbed her wrist and held it fast, but she twisted and broke my grip instantly. With my arms wide, I cinched her around the torso to block her with my own body.

"ATHAN, MOVE," she screeched at me. "LET ME DO THIS."

I held on as she battered at me and wailed and cried. And then I let go as something hit me with a crack and the roar of an engine and sent me flying sideways into the wall.

"Fuck. Athan! Oh no." I just held myself as the bed shifted with her jumping off of it. "Oh damn it. Oh no. Damn me, fuck, fuck, fuck!"

I didn't stop to think. I knew thinking would just make my body realize the pain sooner. As long as I was riding this adrenaline, my cracked rib wouldn't kick in for another few moments.

But there wasn't much else to do. Lie still and try not to move, even though the other side-effect of the adrenaline was hyperactive restlessness that made me want to jump and scream and kick and punch AEGIS right back in her own ribs.

"AEGIS," I said, and there was the pain. Oh fuck did inhaling hurt. It felt like my whole side was caved in, even though I knew if it were that bad, I'd be coughing up blood.

"Yes? Athan? Yes?" she whipped around, panicked and eager. "I'm so sorry. I'm...I'm so--"

"AEGIS, calm down. Tem."

"Tem?" She looked puzzled for a second. She pulled at her hair as she stared at me, a million billion thoughts crossing her eyes. "Tem," she said with sudden understanding. "Yes. I'm sorry. I'm...going to have to turn down my indices. I'm so...so sorry, Athan. I'm so fucking stupid."

I did nothing but close my eyes against the pain. God fucking damn, was there even a point to being able to feel this much pain? Why couldn't the body just like, stop at seven on the pain scale. That was sufficient to let the body's owner know how fucked they were.

But the real problem was, inhaling wasn't something I could stop doing. It wasn't like I'd broken my arm and it would throb like a bitch but only really let me know I'd fucked up when I moved it. Because every breath I took, I immediately almost lost that breath to gasping in pain at it. It took all my effort to just keep breathing shallow and controlled, because I knew if I started panicking now, my breathing would get even worse, and so would the pain.

AEGIS gave me a nod. "I am really sorry. I'm...I'm worthless. I can't even do that," she said, and opened the door with a smile. "Oh hi, Tem," she said with sudden saccharine grace.

"Hello," I saw Tem materialize on the floor to speak to AEGIS. "You were yelling more than usual. I'm sorry, I probably made it worse."

"Only a little bit," AEGIS said with the jovial honesty which came with her emotions being dialed down. "Athan's resting right now, but I want to take him somewhere in private so I'm going to carry him out, okay?"

Tem nodded.

"Private means without you around," AEGIS clarified. "Have fun with Lia." She turned back and gently cradled me in her arms, and though she was delicate as possible, every one of her steps still felt like a punch in the ribs.

"Why don't we have a car?" she muttered as soon as we were out of the house. "Tem's following us. I don't think she bought it."

"She bought it, or else she'd be shooting you right now," I said through grit teeth. "She just doesn't care to ever leave me."

"Do you think I can convince her that we have a romantic private room at the hospital?" I thought about it a moment. Even Tem wasn't quite that thick. "Or maybe, I can just hospitalize her as well."

"You're doing the thing again, AEGIS."

"Oh right. Sorry. Hard not to without emotions on, sometimes. You know, logically speaking, killing or maiming an impediment solves an ungodly number of problems."

"Yes, I know, you always bring it up when you dial down. Please stop considering it, it doesn't end well."

"Oh, all right. We'll just outrun her then. I'm sorry, this is going to hurt a little."

"Pain is just pain. Get us outta here."

I regretted my words almost instantly. AEGIS kicked off the concrete outside our apartment and we flew to the gate in a single bound, and then jumped over it in another, because presumably, opening doors was slow and inefficient to the robotic mind. Another three screaming steps and we were already a block away, as AEGIS pushed herself as fast as she could go without having to engage a burn and...burn me in the process.

As a result, she was just gasping for air in a way which hurt me just to watch, given my current relationship with breathing. The steps, while very smooth actually, were still incredibly impactful, and I had to close my eyes against the pain or I felt like I would black out.

But the speed was speed, and there was a hospital at the edge of campus which we arrived at in only minutes. AEGIS took us to a more controlled speed as we approached and weaved through the parked emergency vehicles outside the emergency room entrance.

"Contusion of the sixth and seventh rib, occured ten minutes ago. Exhibiting swelling at the site of the blow, no symptoms of internal puncture, but signs of pressure on the lungs. Showing…" she glanced at me and I saw her eyes blinking rapidly as she stared through me with different optics. "...six on pain."

"Just fill out the form," the nurse sighed, pushing a clipboard over the counter to her.