Hey guys! Decided to do an update! This chapter is a little short, but I hope that's okay. I'm not going to mull over it too much, I'll just let you guys enjoy. Thanks for reading!

~Naza

Despite (in her opinion) looking like she came second place in an MMA match, Alicia snorted and chuckled at Tadao's remark. "Heh… Now, that's the funniest thing I've heard in a while. She then glanced down at the disservice done to her ensemble by her bodily fluid. Of course, there was blood on her sweater vest, and some had managed to stain the lapel of her white Oxford blouse. "...Kiersey?" Alicia turned to her daughter.

"Yeah?" Kiersey's voice was cautious.

"Would you mind taking Max upstairs until dinner's ready?" Alicia asked. "Just make sure he's okay?"

"Okay." Without hesitation, Kiersey collected the nervous heap that was currently her younger brother, and guided him upstairs to his room.

Turning to Tadao address him, who looked a little bewildered and confused, all things considered: "...Uh, I'm going to go upstairs and get cleaned up. Just knock if you need anything." With that, she walked away towards the foyer, leaving Tadao rather perplexed and a little nervous.

What just happened?

Pulling her designer Saint Yves Lauren sweater over her head, she draped it over her forearm as she stalked up the steps. Entering her bedroom and closing the door behind her, she leaned against the carved solid oak that separated her boudoir from the hallway and sighed shakily. Feeling something wet on her bosom, she looked down and saw that the blood had seeped through the knit vest. She signed.

She abandoned the vest on an accent chair as she made a left through double doors into another room, heels clicking on ceramic tile until she slipped out of them and abandoned them in the middle of the bathroom floor as she worked to unbutton her blouse. She alternately glanced down at her fingers working on the buttons, and her injuriously messy image in the mirror, furrowing her brows at her reflection more and more. Once the shirt was off, she discarded it into the private laundry machine in her master bath.

She then stood before her reflection, in her racerback lace fashion bra and jeans. Leaning towards the reflective glass, trying her damnedest to be more upset at the physical damage rather than the emotional, countenance screwed with disappointment and shame.

"...Ohhhh my God, he hit me in the fucking FACE, man!" she whined, almost ready to sob.

She couldn't take it anymore, and her eyes began leaking like little waterfalls on her face. She couldn't stand to watch her makeup bleed and smear either, and disappeared from the mirror as she kneeled down to open the under-sink cabinet to find the first-aid kit.

She didn't hear Tadao come in.

And didn't know he was there until she stood back up and saw his image standing in the doorway behind her reflection.

"Oh! Hey!" she said to Tadao's image in the mirror, turning around and smiling. Though with blood on her face and bled makeup from earnest crying, the grin only managed to make her look like Lennywise The Clown from reboot of The It.

Tadao actually looked terrified, so she immediately stopped smiling.

The Venomian sighed. Originally he'd been impressed at how collected Alicia was, still is, considering what happened. But even before she went upstairs to cry it out, he saw how she quivered, how she appeared to try hiding her upset. Tadao has had his share of experience recognizing false displays of strength, knowing that when a prey animal was cornered in the wild, it would attempt to project as much strength as possible so a predator would not risk attacking it. Alicia sort of did that… Showing strength to front up the weakness behind it, She didn't have it as together as she tried to make it appear.

That's why he followed her upstairs, pausing at the door to hear her profane comment about what Derek did to her. He'd taken the liberty to enter her room to check on her, and that's when he walked in on her half naked, looking like the aforementioned horror movie sewer clown that eats kids.

Tadao swallowed hard. "Are you okay?"

Alicia gave a purse-lipped smile instead. "No! I'm not!" she answered honestly.

Tadao stood in the doorway for a moment, while Alicia looked at the floor, running her free hand through her hair.

"Um… Can I… Let me help?" Tadao entered the bathroom, such a private space, felt like he was walking into a minefield, a woman's private bath. But Alicia didn't object.

Taking the first aid from her hand, Tadao unzipped the red pouch while Alicia pulled a chair out from under the bath vanity preparing to sit. It took a moment for it to occur to him, Alicia was suddenly shorter than him. When they met, when they were downstairs, she stood eye level to him. He glanced behind him, spotting her fancy shoes on the floor. It took a moment for it to dawn on him. He hadn't considered what stiletto heels would do to enhance her height. It felt strange to suddenly be taller than her.

While he examined the contents of the kit for use and serviceability, Tadao tried to be subtle in his examining of Alicia's bathroom, glancing casually here and there, eyes darting cursorily, momentarily to and fro. First of all, the size: the square footage alone was as big as a standard MacBethan flat, large enough to house two families.

With her back turned, Tadao watched Alicia out of the corner of his eye: she reached over the assortment of nail polishes, perfumes, toiletries, and cosmetics and produced a package of sanitary wipes and ripped the seal to take a few cloths out. He found that bewildering too, all of the things crowding Alicia's vanity. It seemed like such an obscene amount of stuff just to decorate one's face or oneself. No one where he came from had the money to afford much more than, say… a tube of lipstick or something basic like that.

"Thanks for checking up on me," Alicia said, examining her reflection as she cleaned up her face of blood and messed up cosmetics. "I really appreciate it."

"It's no problem," Tadao smiled. "Sit for me?" he said motioning toward the chair.

Depositing the soiled wipes into the bathroom waste can, she did as asked. While she did that, she watched as tadao took another of the wipes, folding a few times into a wad, and pressing it against Alicia's still-leaking nose. "Tilt your head back, and press until the bleeding stops."

Again, Alicia did as instructed, while Tadao leaned closer to examine. "Does it still hurt? Is anything broken?"

"It's a little sore," Alicia said.

Alicia sat silently in the bathroom chair, applying pressure to her nose, Tadao stood idly by, not sure what to do next.

"...Hey, Tadao?"

"Yes, Alicia?"

"Would you mind checking on Kiersey and Max? And have Kiersey check on dinner? I'll be down in a few minutes.

"Yes, ma'am."