Maya knocked first, and only snuck in through the mirror when no one answered the door. She knew Evelyn had to be in there; no one had seen her in the Mansion since morning, and DocProf only yelled at her through the infirmary door, telling her to go away and fix her own #%=+! problems.

"Evelyn?" Maya whispered in the general direction of the bundle of blankets on the bed. She walked up to it, concluding that it had to contain her girlfriend as the last possible location she could be hiding within Mansion grounds.

"Eve, are you awake?"

She was not in the infirmary, which meant the fainting from last night was not serious, but that did not make Maya any less worried.

"Are you feeling okay?..."

Evelyn was one of the few people in the world who hated sleep, and going days without rest was a normal practice for her. Whenever she slept, the wave of playbacks she went through made her feel even more exhausted, and she had long since given up the idea that she would ever really feel energized like a normal person. But last night, with all the stress and drama at the museum, she gave in and let the playbacks take over. At least there was a chance the playbacks would have good memories.

She was never very good with luck, though...

She woke up twice that night in terror, brain spinning with echoes of pain. Her last stretch of sleep through morning hadn't been so bad though, images of paintings and working at the museum drifting through her mind. Part of her wished she could have found a memory to help take away the irritation she felt towards Mirror. Maybe the date in the Butterfly garden, or maybe their game of poker. Something, anything. But when she woke, her dreams were fairly void of the mirror-walker. There was only echoes of the frustration and sadness from the night before to greet her. So she rolled over, pulled the covers over her head, and stared at the fabric in the darkness, trying to dampen the limited sunlight making it's way into the room.

Before long, there was a knock on the door, then eventually, a voice by her bed. Evelyn considered ignoring Maya, but finally forced herself to sit up, rubbing her eyes as the blankets flopped in her lap. She was still wearing her clothes from the day before. She didn't even bother taking off her name tag.

"Feeling fine." If that wasn't a bold faced lie... She looked like crap and she knew it. Sleep did that to her though. She didn't know why she bothered.

>>"Feeling fine."

That she was not. Maya sat on the edge of the bed as Evelyn sat up, still in her formal dress and name tag. Maya found herself wondering if she was still wearing shoes.

"Look, Eve..." damn this was difficult, and did not get easier with practice "I know you are angry at me, and you have every right to be. I messed up. Again. I was not even thinking... Kate has been a friend for, like, ever. It didn't even occur to me that it looks bad if I go with her. That was my mistake, and I am really sorry. And everything after that... I never learned how to behave at events like that. They make me nervous that people know who I am, and are watching at talking. I didn't handle it really well... um. Really, I'm sorry."

She might have been rambling a little.

Evelyn looked at Maya quietly as she spoke. At least she wasn't in a playback hangover. That would have made this conversation even harder... An emotional hangover though? Still dealing with that. She gave a sad smile and shrugged her shoulders, pulling her knees close and putting her chin on them.

"It's fine... I shouldn't have been so mad. I just felt really awkward and dumb and... I don't know. Half of me always thought if you were ever at one of the museums events with me I'd be introducing you as my boyfriend not pretending to be the waitress while you..." Breathing. Breathing was important. "I know she's a close friend, and she seems nice. But it's impossible to stand in a room reading what everyone's thinking about you and her together and pretend it doesn't get to me." She looked away. Sparks of jealousy flickered again. She tried to quench them but she felt like she was just adding fuel to a fire when she tried talking. She shut her eyes.

Breathing. Breathing was important.

>>"It's fine... I shouldn't have been so mad. I just felt really awkward and dumb and... I don't know. Half of me always thought if you were ever at one of the museums events with me I'd be introducing you as my boyfriend not pretending to be the waitress while you... I know she's a close friend, and she seems nice. But it's impossible to stand in a room reading what everyone's thinking about you and her together and pretend it doesn't get to me."

Maya bit her lips. Of course Evelyn was right, the whole thing looked bad, especially from the girlfriend's perspective. Maya sighed and hung her head.

"I know, it must have been really bad for you." she muttered, not really sure what she was supposed to say to make things... not suck. "I know it doesn't make you feel any better, but most people knew I was there as a friend. And teammate. She has a pretty high profile boyfriend."

Yeah. That too.

Maya shifted closer and gathered up her girlfriend into a slightly awkward hug (knees up to chin and all).

"I'm sorry, Eve. I really am. I hate hurting you. I'd never do it on purpose."

The hug helped, awkward as it was. Evelyn let herself sit up slowly, and brushed a few tears from her eyes that were starting to cling to her eyelashes. Crying in the morning always sucked. It made you feel tired the rest of the day. Then again, Evelyn always felt tired...

A few more tears went down her face. She poked at the blankets listlessly. "It's fine. Just... Warn me next time." She still didn't know what she'd tell work. She wasn't sure how much trouble she was in for the whole incident. Passing out might have saved her some heat but she still made somewhat of a spectacle regardless. She glanced down at her hand. There was way too much awkward silence in this room, and it was feeling clammy and uncomfortable.

She felt like she should say something else, but it was taking all her effort not to grab the blankets and burrow herself back in bed. She picked at the bandages.

>>"It's fine. Just... Warn me next time."

Maya hugged Eve and could feel the tension in her shoulders, and a few warm drops of tears on her arm. Uh-oh. Crying girlfriend. Not good.

"I don't plan on there being a next time." she muttered, leaning in to kiss her wet cheek. "Don't cry, Eve. I'm sorry. I'll do better."

She kissed her cheeks and the tears rolling down, wiping stray hair out of her face as she did so, almost completely at a loss, but trying to do her best.

"I love you, Eve. I really do. Please don't cry."

>>"Please don't cry."

Easier said than done. Evelyn's lip trembled and she sniffled, swiping her eyes and looking at Maya, then back at the bed. She looked up at the ceiling and tried to will the tears to stop. Then she just tasted them in her throat. "I love you too. I just... I feel bad. I feel dumb for being jealous and making it worse and now I feel dumb for crying." She buried her face in her hands. The echoes could sense Maya's slight distress as her girlfriend tried to figure out how to stop the tears.

Evelyn would like to know how to stop the tears as well.

"It's not just you that needs to do better, really." She murmured into her hands.

>>"I love you too."

"You d..."

>>"I just... I feel bad. I feel dumb for being jealous and making it worse and now I feel dumb for crying. It's not just you that needs to do better, really."

"You are doing..." the best you can? "... you're perfect."

Maya, for the lack of better ideas, kept kissing the tears away. Her lips wandered across her cheeks, from ear to nose, from forehead to chin, and she tilted her head to kiss Evelyn properly, the way she deserved. She deserved everything done properly.

"You are perfect, Eve, and I love you. Now stop crying, before I start to."

Somewhere between the kisses, Evelyn's distress started fading, and her brain started thinking again. She sniffled, and as the last kiss met her lips she felt the tears slow, and Maya's words sink in. She blinked slowly, and pulled herself closer to Maya, face still damp but vision less blurry. She leaned her head against Maya's shoulder and took deep breathes. There were still question marks lingering in her eyes though.

"You really mean that?" She said softly, hopefully. She didn't feel perfect. And she while she meant what she said, she was still nervous hearing Maya say the same thing. They weren't exactly great about talking about their relationship all the time, and she remembered the way they'd danced around even the term boyfriend/girlfriend back when they started dating.

>>"You really mean that?"

They crying slowly stopped, and Maya held her close, feeling the tension leaving her shoulders. Somehow she knew the worst part was over. For now, anyway. Until she inevitably messed something up again.

"Which part?" she chuckled softly, peering down at Evelyn's still wet face. It was probably not the smartest question.

"That I love you? Yes. That you are perfect? That too. That I might cry too? I don't know what you're talkin' about." she smirked, kissing her forehead. Yep, the worst was over.

Ever so slowly, Evelyn felt a smile crawl across her face. Her eyes still burned a little but another swipe of her hand across her face took away most of the remaining moisture, and the playbacks finally drifted back into her mind as the stress dissipated. She kissed Maya back on the cheek, and then shifted so she could at least take off the name tag she was still wearing. She was pretty sure she was going to have a bar shaped dent on her skin for hours from sleeping on it.

"Well, I still don't believe the perfect comment, but I'll settle for mildly tolerable." She tossed the badge across the room and it landed on the desk with a light clatter. "We need to have better mornings. I still haven't found a cure for emotional hangovers." She said in a rather awkward attempt to lighten up the situation. The air still felt heavy to her. The worst was over, but it wasn't perfect yet.

>>"Well, I still don't believe the perfect comment, but I'll settle for mildly tolerable. We need to have better mornings. I still haven't found a cure for emotional hangovers."

"Not sure about hangovers" Maya muttered. Alcohol hangovers, sure. Sam could have taught a class on how to avoid those. Emotions? Not so much.

Her eyes followed the name tag as it flew across the room. Her dress was crumpled beyond recognition, and looked very uncomfortable.

"We can work on better mornings" she concluded, shifting behind Evelyn to undo the zipper on her dress. She also dropped a kiss on her shoulder. "It's probably easier to have one when you are not sleeping in formal wear, though."

Her hand slid down Evelyn's thigh under the blanket.

"Tell me you're not wearing shoes."

Evelyn glanced down at her dress and grimaced slightly. It probably hadn't been the best idea to sleep in formal wear, and there were some awful wrinkles in the fabric. While she wasn't necessarily the fashion diva some of her peers were, she still liked to look good and usually took decent care of her clothing. This... this was like clothing neglect. The air felt cold on her back as Maya undid the zipper and she shivered slightly at the kiss. She chuckled slightly at Maya's question.

"No, no shoes. I at least took those off." She said turning and stealing another kiss. With her emotions settling Maya was becoming very distracting in another way. Her emotions were definitely having a roller coaster today. She glanced at the mirror and grimaced at her reflection. Her hair looked like a snowstorm in a tumbleweed patch... "Why didn't you tell me I looked that bad..." She blurted out in embarrassment. The dress was looking like a lesser crime.

>>"No, no shoes. I at least took those off. Why didn't you tell me I looked that bad..."

"Hmmm?" Maya was nothing if not easily distracted. Looking up from working the dress, she followed Evelyn's gaze to the mirror. While Eve was definitely disheveled, Maya was not better off, with her lopsided braid and the short and t-shirt that was her home wear.

Tilting Evelyn's chin with a finger back to her, she smirked.

"I'm the only mirror you gotta listen to, and I'm telling you you look just fine." she chuckled, leaning in for another kiss "You look perfect. The dress... the dress doesn't. I'm afraid it's gotta go."

This was a territory that Maya was a lot more comfortable with. Especially on Maya days.