A/N: This is my first attempt at a FanFic in a very long time. Forgive me if I happen to be rusty. Also, I tend not to capitalize letters (stupid MySpace…), so lets hope the computer knows what its doing, in case I forget.

These characters, obviously, are not mine. They belong to Christopher Paolini. I'm just adding my own little twists. Actually, it seems more like I'm taking the characters, rewriting them, then setting them in our world.

I haven't a clue where this is going really. I'm just kind of writing what comes to mind. I hope you don't mind.

Her hands were holding onto something, she couldn't tell what. It was warm, kind of squishy and moved in a rhythm. Kind of smaller then bigger and back again. Finally, Arya opened her eyes a sliver. What she saw was a head that was covered in fiery red hair, curling at the ends and mussed from sleep. A bare, feminine back faced her, covered at the bottom for a while. Leaning up, she saw long legs and black toenails. The woman twitched.

Anu, her name was Anu. The woman sat up, the sheet falling away from her front, revealing full breasts and a nasty bite mark on her rib. Oops, thought Arya.

"Where did I put my clothes?" Anu asked. She had cold grey eyes, marked by dark smears underneath. Arya could imagine that she had the same problem. Neither of them had slept much.

Arya pointed in the direction of everywhere and got off, moving her own naked body toward her bathroom. She didn't expect Anu to remain, she never did. After the door slammed she slumped into the bottom of the tub. Hot water poured over her head, turning her back and scalp a horrible red, she knew. After a while, she got up and cleaned herself. The shower smelled like vanilla when she walked out, just in time to see her door push open.

Murtagh walked in, surveying things like he owned the place. He did, so Arya didn't mind. Arya was living in a flat she rented from Murtagh, a gift from a father he never knew.

Murtagh's lover Eragon walked in shortly after the former, barely glancing at her as he started to raid her fridge. "You found an enthusiastic one last night." Murtagh said, walking to her and examining her back. He trailed his finger along her back and Arya winced.

"When did you last clip your nails?" Arya snapped through her clenched teeth. Murtagh's hand came up in front of her showing short, well groomed nails. Her eyes bugged and she rushed to the mirror she generally ignored. Turning so her back was facing it, she looked into it. There were scores of angry red lines, some thin, some thick, marring her back. A few had held scabs, she was sure. If they had, they were ruined by her shower. When she was done examining herself, she padded to her dresser just as Eragon walked in, holding an apple and trash bag with little lumps. "How much did you girls drink last night?" He asked as he set it down with the audible clinks of glass.

Arya scrambled through her few memories of the night before. "Um, well, I remember having, at the beginning of the night, about four fifths, six twelve packs and a pint. Don't ask me what they were, I probably drank from all of it." It had been her twentyfirst birthday, but definitely not her first endeavor into alcohol. "Bri left around eleven, she had to go to work today, Delma and Falon left at one, they wanted to be alone."

She had purposely left out Anu's name, as she knew what they would say. She must have still had alcohol in her system because Murtagh and Eragon both caught her slip. "So who was enthusiastic?" Eragon said it, but Murtagh knew. They both did, but Eragon had the naïve hope that she wasn't hurting herself again.

Silence ruled for about half a minute as Eragon and Murtagh shared a knowing look and Arya pulled on a pair of low rise blue jeans, sans panties. She almost had her black push up bra on when the silence exploded into angry, half heard sentences.

"You told me you weren't inviting her. That's the only reason I deemed it alright for me to take Eragon out last night, instead of coming to the party." Murtagh had a voice like silk over iron when he was angry. It was soft, but she couldn't ignore the anger waiting to be released.

"I didn't invite her." She mumbled it through a low cut black t-shirt. "She kind of showed up on her own. It was after Bri left, I thought she would leave when the other two left. Obviously she didn't." Arya was numb, she didn't know what she felt.

The woman had thrown her life into a happy tailspin at one time. It started out wonderful, but then Arya had come home one day to the older woman's bags on her steps and her packing up her make-up. "It was fun, love, but you know how I get. I'm bored." She said it as she threw her mascara into the bag and zipped it. Later, Arya had found out that the woman had been sleeping with at least four other people, one of them a man. Anu had been her first endeavor into a relationship, her first lover. It had hurt to be shoved aside like a play thing. The woman's last words still stung and made her eyes water. "Did you honestly think I loved you, that I'd keep you around?"

Suddenly, Arya was on the floor, crumpled into a ball. Her eyes leaked her sorrow, but the poison stayed in her veins. This was not the first time she had been back. Arya feared it wouldn't be the last.

Eragon came and hugged her, as Murtagh went into the kitchen. "Why do you always let her hurt you?" He mumbled as he hugged her.

After Anu had left, Sarah, Kendra, Cam, Bridget, and Fidencia had followed. None had stayed, but Anu always knew when to come back. When she was open to a love and leave.

Murtagh came back from the kitchen with a mug of hot chocolate and a shot of colorless liquid. "This to make you warm, this to make you strong." He gestured the hot chocolate and then the vodka.

She closed her eyes, wishing to sink into the floor.

I know, it wasn't absolutely fantastic. But I'll write another, to give it a fighting chance.