39. Secret

She never tells anyone outside of the senshi about the senshi. Not her parents (what a joke), not her old friends, not any of the people she dates or takes home or flirts with. She learned how to hide and lie at thirteen, and from there she just kept going. It doesn’t take much. That always disappoints her. One eyebrow waggle as she says she was up late, and everyone draws their own conclusion about why she looks so tired. If she misses a date, everyone’s prepared to accept her as a flake. No one suspects she was attacked. No one suspects she’s given her life to keeping them all safe. 

For the most part, she doesn’t regret it. The older she gets, the more certain she is she can’t share that part of herself. But she aches sometimes, to be understood by someone who doesn’t have to understand. She wants someone to reach her, who doesn’t start so close. She wants sometimes to have her secrets broken open.