"The Boring Prologue Nobody Cares About"

"The Lemony Sequel That You Krrraved"

"You Asked For It, You Got It"

"Giggety Giggety Giggety OOH!"

Not sure what these mean, but they were in my notebook so why not. -le sigh- SO yes here is the sequel to my story where Piper falls in love with a crystal-created mind-reading homunculus with Cyclonis's memories. Oh yeah. I went there. And the next chapter is signifigantly longer; I only put this up so the general public could see I was returning to this cracktastic fanon and give me LOTS OF LIFE SUSTAINING REVIEWS before I shift it to the "M" category. I suggest you put this on alert as it won't show up on the main page after this chapter.

Have fun!

"You're not shy, you get around/ You wanna fly, don't want your feet on the ground/ You stay up, you won't come down/ You wanna live, you wanna move to the sound/ Got fire in your veins/ Burnin hot but you don't feel the pain/ Your desire is insane/ You can't stop until you do it again."

- "Urgent" by Foreigner.

OoOoOo

It was a bit like taking your tattooed and pierced boyfriend to meet your parents, who happened to be upstanding citizens like doctors or lawyers and expected their daughter's potential mate to be the same. Only instead of a boyfriend it was a... thingfriend... a thingfriend who looked female but you weren't really sure if they counted as "girl" because that implies a young human female, and you're not sure if your new "friend" can be considered "human" or even "young" since age didn't seem to be a real concept with "her". And instead of your parents, it was your four hefty, male, testosterone-and-attitude-laden squadron with which you shared everything, including one cramped bathroom. (And one weasel-rabbit.)

So I sat, trying to explain my thingfriend to my squadron, and it wasn't going well.

"So she's... she's a ghost?" Aerrow, ever the calm one, is the first to say something intelligent.

I shake my head no, and Lark sits next to me (concentrating hard to stay visible to everyone) with her legs crossed Indian style and her hands on her lap, fighting hard not to laugh. "Piper sort of created me."

"Or she kind of created herself," I muse.

"We're not sure which yet," Lark says, tone helpful.

"But she's here to stay."

"Oh yes. We... we settled the matter quite some time ago."

Aerrow's crimson eyebrows fluctuate, not sure whether to furrow in confusion, raise up in disbelief, or have one of them cock upwards in a silent question. Finally he opens his mouth, attempting to shake off the complexity of communicating without words, and croaks. Then he clears his throat and speaks. "Like... how long ago?"

"Like.. five months ago?"

"Five months and a week ago tomorrow," Lark mumbles, and I'm not sure if it's meant for only me to hear and if it is why didn't she send it mentally? After some experimentation, I'd managed to tap into her mind as easily as she seemed to be able to do with mine, and we could send messages to each other through that. It helped to keep her presence here a secret, not having to talk out loud.

Finn's the next one to ask a question. "And she's been living here this whole time?"

Now Junko. "Is that why my candy bars have been going missing?!"

A rather ashamed Stork. "Uhm, actually, man... that was me."

"...Oh."

I glance over at Lark, my mental waves sending her my sense of exasperation... and yes, maybe just a little bit of amusement. And a good helping of fear. Should we tell them the really mind-screwy part? She wants to know, verbalizing her ideas for me. I send her a negation. One thing at a time. Her disappointment rolls over me and I tilt to the side, bumping my shoulder against hers playfully and looking at her face, a small smile finding its way to my lips.

It's only then that I realize everyone else is looking at us funny.

Oops.

"Um," I say, dragging myself from the small world of emotion and mental connection that I had established. "Was I out of it for long?"

Finn's eyes are huge. "You were staring at each other for five minutes, dude..."

I flush. "Sorry. It's just, we communicate mentally, and I guess time goes differently in that world..."

Yikes, it's like Stork's worst nightmare. Anything that has to do with his brain sets him on alert. "You read each other's mind?"

Lark can't help herself. I feel a dark, sultry pulse from her as she says, "Oh, that's not all we do."

Five sets of angry eyes fix on her. Six if you count me.

If you've ever been kicked in the shins, you can imagine how painful it would be when someone taps the part of your brain that receives signals of pain from the nerve endings there. So Lark winces and shuts up while I never even so much as move from my seat.

In the end, they decide to give her a chance, after I reassure them that if she wanted to try and take over the world she'd have gotten to work doing that already instead of becoming my own personal poltergeist. And that, technically, she wasn't even Cyclonis. She'd even begun losing her memories of that time, instead forming new ones in this shell she had created… or I had created… well, something created her and I call her Lark because, hey, it's not like anyone's using the name…

And, well, I guess weirder things have happened than them learning to accept her…

OoOoOo

"Ah-hem."

I blink, gummy eyes fluttering to adjust to the filtered golden morning sunlight. Lark's wrapped up in my arms, fast asleep with her head tucked under my chin. The effort of remaining visible to everyone left her drained at the end of most days, so she'd slip into a state of almost hibernation until she had recharged herself, so to speak. Finn stands over me and I shift a little, turning my back on Lark even though he can't see her- hell, for all he knows she's in Starling's room or floating in the ceiling somewhere.

"…Is there a reason you're in my room?" I grumble at him.

He leans forward, hands clasped behind his back. "Actually there is. It's your shift this morning, doofus," he says before a big grin splits his face. "Now, the more important question here is, 'Is there a reason you were cuddling with thin air?'" he leers.

I throw a pillow at him. "Get out of here!" and he dances away, giggling with delight. I look down at Lark, still unconscious, and I wonder how long this secrecy can last with everyone knowing about her existence.

OoOoOo

Junko flips a pancake onto her plate and she looks up at him with a raised eyebrow. "I don't run on calories," she tells him, pushing the plate away. "Thanks anyway."

He tilts his head to the side. "But I see you eating every now and then," he says, adjusting the white cook's hat on top of his head as it begins to slide down from the sweat of working over the hot cooking crystals.

"I was probably bored."

"Well what do you run on?"

Voice deadpan. Face straight. "Love and peace."

Finn snorts so loud his orange juice squirts out his nose. Everyone at the table immediately reacts with groans and exclamations of disgust, edging away from the golden puddle spreading across the table. But I'm laughing as well, leaning against Lark and breathless with mirth. After a moment, though, when my eyes aren't teary with giggles, I look up to see Stork staring at me with an expression I'd never seen before. He doesn't even try to look away, or pretend he wasn't staring at me, and his eyes are intense enough so that I'm thankful he doesn't have any mind powers of his own or else he would have burned a hole right through me by now. He was so solemn it sobered me up at once and I anxiously scoot away from Lark, fists bunched up into balls as I stare hard at my plate.

But I can still feel him.

Watching me.

Knowing.

OoOoOo

"It's not healthy, you know."

"Yeah, I've already considered that. It's just- it's hard to explain. Trust me though when I say I... I need her."

"I'm just warning you. The psychological repercussions- She's not even real, Piper."

"Stork."

"She's not a person though… is she?"

"She is, not that you'd believe that. Just please don't tell anyone, all right?"

"…they'll find out eventually."

"I know. ...I know..."