After

There was a knock at the front door, which Noelle didn't hear, followed a little while later by tapping at the glass doors of her balcony, which she ignored. She pulled a blanket over her head, and curled into a tighter ball, if that was possible, her back to the drawn curtains.

There was an ache in her chest and it hurt to breathe, hurt to think, to remember. He was leaving. And what she'd done... it wasn't something she could just forget. Wasn't something that Streak could just forgive. And now... now she just had to move forward, somehow.

Noelle yearned to go back to when it was all easy, when it was just fun. When they were flying around town, meeting on rooftops, flirting, finding out about each other. When it was new and passionate. But Streak had to go off and leave to find himself, and she... she seemed to have found some other part of herself with someone else.

She thought about what Jason had said, that wanting someone, wanting not to be alone when she couldn't be with Streak, just meant she was normal, not a tease or anything bad. She didn't think anyone else would understand what she was going through, but Jason... well, Jason had his own stuff he'd dealt with, apparently, and it had helped to talk the whole thing out with someone who understood.

And the kissing thing... if she tried to look at it on its own, without all the Streak stuff, without all the baggage that she'd been toting around...

It felt good. It felt... not nice, not sweet. It felt grown-up. And maybe a little wicked. And... there was something more there. Something about a secret, that made it... maybe dangerous? Was that it?

When she saw him sometimes, she just wanted to... rip his clothes off and cling to him, or something. And maybe that was just needing someone. She didn't know. Didn't even know if she wanted to know. If it mattered.

Noelle tugged the blanket down, and stared at the ceiling, at the sliver of twilight that snuck past her drawn curtains and illuminated the room in a misty dark. She knew she had to get up. Had to get dressed, go out, and do what she had to do. Fight crime. Be the good guy. Protect the innocent.

And figure out what came next.