She was mulling over Aerrow's words.

She had to hurt him beyond comprehension. Physically or mentally, her commander had not made clear, but chances were, the Dark Ace was not one to react much to slaps or bangs on the head with her crystal staff. He'd probably like it. Him being a masochist wouldn't have surprised her in the least.

So emotional pain.

How in the world was she going to do that? Piper's brain flipped through the pages of its portable history book. I could taunt him...tease him...about what he did...

But for some reason, she couldn't bring herself to get up, walk the short ten feet to his side, and sneer at him for the past.

--

"Think she'll do it?" Junko wanted to know.

"I dunno," Aerrow admitted. "I'd rather find her, get her out of there, and keep her home, rather than have her provoke him to do something...messy."

"Smart thinking, dear, but I'm afraid it won't work," Venus said, butting most rudely into the conversation. Everyone tried not to notice.

"Why not?" Aerrow demanded. "I mean, if we put enough distance between them..."

"Boy, haven't you ever heard the phrase, 'Absense makes the heart grow fonder?'" Eros said.

"You obviously have no idea what 'Out of sight, out of mind,' means, do you?" Aerrow shouted.

"HEY!" Venus shoved the two men apart. "The thing with Eros' arrows is that they don't just stop working because the Dark Ace is away from Piper. Maybe, if you somehow manage to keep them apart for, I don't know, fifty years, it'll start to dim, but until then, he'll dog after her like an idiot."

"He was already an idiot in the first place," Finn added. "We should be used to it, by now!"

--

"You were stupid."

He turned his head to see her. "Sorry?"

Piper swallowed and tried to look bitter, which wasn't hard, yet wasn't easy, all at once. "You were stupid. You still are. Rash, reckless...Is this how you felt when you killed every last one of them?"

He was silent. She furrowed her brow and thought hard. The expression on his face was unreadable.

"I can't love you, because you've done horrible things. You...you stabbed your own Sky Knight in the back-"

"He deserved it."

The words were low, gutteral, not that sappy talk he'd been giving her for the past three days. Was she actually...

...cracking him?

OOO

A/N: Ah...I've been working on Perennial Rose, a burst of inspiration coming from Dashboard Confessional's wonderful song, Dusk and Summer...Jazus Christ, that's an awesome song...

Anyways. Thanks for voting, everyone. New poll! Please, go vote.