Deliberations were over. He could tell who wanted to be there, and who had wanted anything but. He'd gone down his laundry list of things he was looking for in a candidate, and things he wanted to avoid. Bias was a big one, but there were other, less obvious things. The prosecution had had its yays and nays, too. They'd both spoken with the judge. Now, the final jury had been announced. Once the judge had finished speaking, people had filed into the back of the court to sit down. Final orders for those who had not been picked had been given. Those people had left. A while later, the defense attorney walked out of the courthouse. His client had returned to their room, and everything had been sorted for the trial the next day. It was time to go home.

Rounding the building, Aurum's feet clapped against concrete. People passed on either side, focused on their own tasks and days. A man ate a hot dog from one of the city's vendors. A woman eyed herself in her hand mirror. The city bus pulled in up ahead. Aurum upped his pace, to get to it in time. The car he usually would have driven was in the shop... and he was in a suit. It would have been absolutely ridiculous to risk riding a motorcycle in that. Too many puddles, and things that could go wrong. He paid his fare, and got on the bus.

Full, full, full, open. His eyes scanned the seats, and found a nice one that wasn't occupied, near a couple who were lost in conversation. He sat down.

'Hey,' he texted. 'just got done at court. omw home.' The message to Riley sent. Aurum glanced up as the bus rattled along. The couple were still talking. Nothing else caught his eye. His eyes dropped again to his phone screen as the bus made a turn.

The city was recovering, slowly and surely, from the riots that had happened within the past few months. Trust was still an issue for some. With the police, and with mutants, the things that had happened had been a big deal. Some organizations that had been out of the public's eye had made statements. And some groups that had been in the public's eye shied away from it. Damage control and all the resulting legal actions were almost more than the court system could handle... but then, the wheels of society were ever-turning, and that was the status quo. As for businesses, well...

Some shops that had been having troubles in the past had even more of them now, after much of the looting that had gone down. People. They did the worst things when morals and consequences were of no consequence. His family and friends certainly hadn't done anything like that. He liked to think they were better than that. He daily dealt with some who were not. As a defense attorney, it was his job to help them out, even if he didn't like them. To get them the best protections he could, within the law. Today's client was fairly routine, but his last one had been a doozy.

The bus rattled on.

Slap.

A slap is a very distinctive sound. One doesn't usually hear it, but when they do, they don't have to see it to know what it is. The brain knows, and instantly becomes alert. It does its best to find out who made that sound, and why. As demonstrated by Aurum, now.

The lawyer looked up. It didn't take him long to find the cause. The couple who'd been talking had moved on from talking to arguing. The woman was holding her cheek. The man looked pleased with himself, but angry still blazed in his eyes. His nostrils flared with that inner fire. A dark laugh escaped his lips, alongside a crude word directed towards his lady. Aurum's grip on his phone tightened.

There were several things he could do, in this situation. Several things anyone could do, really. They could get the guy's attention, and tell him to stop. They could step forward and put themselves in the line of fire, potentially assault the assaulter. Also an option. Or they could surreptitiously take several photos, of him drawing back his palm, hitting her, leaving evidence of the attack. Which Aurum did. Just one more, that was all. Caught in the act.

His eyes jerked towards the street they were on, he made some quick mental calculations, then slid dialed 911. He left the line on, but didn't bring his phone up to his ear. "Excuse me, sir?" Aurum got the guy's attention calmly, casually. He didn't look mad, didn't appear to be getting in the guy's way, just looked like the kind of guy using the kind of tone to talk about casual nothingness. "Do you know what the next stop is?"

The man sneered at him. "I'm kind of busy, here." he said. The woman sniffed. He turned back to his woman, and shut her up with another slap.

"Oh yeah. It's," He rattled off the address, into the phone. "Can you please send someone. There's a man assaulting a woman. I'm on a bus. We'll be there in one minute." His hand reached up to pull the cord that signaled the bus to stop at the next place it could. "Thanks."

"Why you--!!" The man's focus had suddenly shifted to Aurum, as had he, in his seat. There was the sound of movement. Aurum hung up. He took a punch. For great justice. He did not respond with any punches in turn.

"Probably a bad idea to do this sort of thing," Aurum commented, rubbing his cheek ginglery. "Especially leaving all this evidence, in front of all of these witnesses. Not smart."

The man swore professionally. Aurum waited calmly. The man didn't try and more punching. Even if he had, he knew Aurum had him. Sure, he could kill the guy, but it only went so far, and the cops were on their way. The bus stopped a short while later. Everything was in motion the moment it had.

Aurum sent the photos to the cop's cellphone, gave a detailed report, and was an excellent witness. Several other bus-goers stepped forward to share their side of the story as well. Addresses were given, information shared. It took a little under half an hour. The ride home took 15 minutes. One of the officers was nice enough to help the lawyer out with a quick ride. It was on his route, after all. Aurum called home first, of course. He was aimed at Riley's building, after all. He hadn't given her all the specifics. "Hey Riley. I'm on my way home. Meet me in front? Love you. Talk to you soon." Anything about bruises and cop cars, he'd neglected... because they'd been so minor they'd slipped his mind.

As he got out of the squad car, his eyes turned towards the building's front doors. "Thank you," He drawled. The officer nodded. The moment he could, he pulled away.

Riley couldn't help it. She tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for Aurum to get to her place. He'd called her to say that he'd be over...and he'd asked her to wait for him outside like she was some sort of concierge. It was hot too. That's what happened in the summer, and Riley just didn't do shorts or ponytails. At least not most the time.

Hopefully this wasn't going to turn into one of those silly, grand romantic gesture things, she thought with a sigh. Though, if she was honest, that wouldn't have been too bad. Maybe some flowers, or a surprise present. Something small...but nice. In fact, in spite of herself, within a few moments she'd kind of decided that was what was going on. Aurum was good at those types of things, and when the cop car rounded the corner and approached her building, Riley sure as hell didn't expect it to stop.

Another thing she didn't expect. Aurum climbing out. And the @#$(@#$ black eye. Didn't expect that either.

To her credit. Riley waited until the cop drove off until she let her eyes narrow. She didn't ask any questions.

She turned around, marched up the stairs, opened the door, then shut it. There. He could sit and stew outside, now that his ride had left. Over she went and punched the elevator button much harder than necessary.

The door unlocked. He approached her from behind. Only recently had he been gifted with a key. Context probably helped in this situation, he realized only too late. If he'd seen her step out of a cop car, he'd have had his questions, too. She was mad, in traditional Riley style. All that was missing was a huff. and a puff. To blow his house down. Was he a little pig in this scenario? Maybe. Although maybe that reference didn't fit as much as it should.

"Someone punched me for reporting them for domestic abuse on the bus," He said calmly, explaining himself to her back as the elevator took its sweet time coming down to her. "Officer Jecht was nice enough to give me a ride, so I wouldn't have to wait on a bus."

Damn that key. Riley had known it was a bad idea. Damn logic too, because that was the only reason she'd handed it over in the first place. Aurum was talking, and Riley kept her back to him as the elevator crawled its way down the shaft. There were words that Aurum was saying...they probably even made sense to most people...but Riley was still seeing red.

"And you're the moron who had to stick his face in front of the guy's fist." she said, and 'seething' was probably too soft a word for the way her voice sounded.

"I knew guys like that... way too well, and if you think that you're helping your situation. You're damn wrong."

Finally, the elevator made it down and the door creaked open. Riley went in, then tried to figure out how to get the door shut before Aurum could follow.

She utterly failed in stopping him from stepping on-board. Short of shoving him out, she was out of luck. He wasn't planning to let her stalk off mad.

"I stopped someone from beating a woman. I'm not making a case. I stand by what I did. Even if it got me punched." He hit the button for her floor. "It isn't like I punched him. I didn't fight back."

Of course he hadn't fought back...and maybe he'd managed to get into the elevator, but that didn't mean that Riley had to look at him.

"I'm not surprised." she muttered, wrapping her arms around her middle.

"I just don't understand your hero complex. Why did it have to be you, Aurum? You were on a damn bus in the middle of the city, and you didn't know that guy from Adam. The guy was wacko enough to hit a chick in public."

She glared at the wall.

"I thought we had talked about this."

"I don't have a hero complex," Aurum replied. "I called the cops on him. It's not my fault he was imbalanced enough to punch me for it. Bruises heal." He looked at her seriously. "But if I'd let him beat his woman in front of me, he'd have kept doing it... if I had to do it over, I'd do the same. Better I take a punch than her. She had enough troubles."

It was his face. It wasn't like he'd gotten hurt or anything. He wasn't going to promise not to call the cops if he saw a crime. It simply wasn't going to happen.

Now Riley did turn and look at Aurum, long enough to raise an eyebrow.

"It's not like you sat in your seat nonchalantly and took care of it either. Or am I wrong?"

It was a legitimate question, "And I don't care if you made it on the elevator, you are not coming into my apartment tonight."

As if on cue the elevator shuddered, jerked, then stopped.

"Don't even think about it." she growled.

"Think about what?" Aurum said blankly. "And yeah. I did sit in my seat pretty nonchalantly. Just called the police, reported it. He punched me. I told him to stop, and cited all the reasons and evidence against him. He stopped. We all waited at the bus stop for the police. And nobody got hurt. Witnesses reported. I gave my statement. And he got taken in for questioning. Justice, in other words." Pure, clean justice. "It's fine, Riley. Really."

Had he known she'd flip out over something this tiny, he might have gone to his place instead of hers. He hadn't even checked a mirror. Was there something on his face?

"We talked about this. And it's not fine at all." Riley said, probably a little louder than necessary.

"You always have to do the right thing. I'm glad that justice was served, but I remind you again...this guy was crazy enough to beat his woman in front of a bus full of people." There she was, a little too loud again, she was also wildly gesticulating. Not a good sign.

"Some time you're going to do the right thing, and the one you do it to isn't going to bow to the scales of justice." she continued.

"Then what?"

She looked at him. Still a little furious.

"This time it was a black eye. What about next time...or the time after?"

Aurum stood his ground. This was important.

"Riley. I'm not planning on going around, saving damsels in distress like some sort of costumed superhero. I called the cops. Next time, maybe I won't tell the guy I'm calling the cops. But I made a judgment call this time, and I'm standing by it. I'm not going to not call the cops on someone who does something like that. If my life had actually been in danger, I'd have defended myself."

The guy had just been a coward, hurting someone weaker than him. And himself. That was all. If things had been serious, he'd have protected himself. But he wouldn't have backed down.

"There's a difference between doing the right thing and looking for trouble." Riley said, crossing her arms.

"And you do run off to help the damsel in distress, figuratively and literally. Be it zombies, or abusive boyfriends, or jerk photographers it's your job to defend, you're right there to fix it all."

Riley frowned, "You're too good." she said, and it was probably the quietest thing she'd said in a while.

"I thought you understood when everything went down during the riots. You've got your high ideals, and that's great...but Aurum, not everyone else does. Trust me."

She was mad, but it had wound down to a simmer, and to her horrification there were tears welling in her eyes. He was so frustrating. There was nothing for it.