Disclaimer; I don't own Outlaw Star, but I do own Boutou Hoshi. You're welcome to use characters and ideas from my story but ONLY if you have my written permission. There, that just about sums it up. ((-^)

Notes; Hi there and welcome to more insane fanficing. Yup, I've taken a slight detour in my on-going and for some reason quite popular O.S. fanfic series to write some interludes. These will pretty much just be inner thoughts of the characters at different (and most of the time not specified) moments during the fic. This first ones Jim thinking about Riakie and Liko and the time that he spent with them. (I know that Riakie is a psycho b*tch, I designed her that way after all, but just bare with me about this okay, your opinion of her may change after you read this)

We Were Family Once:

Boutou Hoshi Side Storys 1

By: Adakie

The last three months of my life have revolved completely around two people. I didn't mean to hook up with them, in fact I don't know what compelled me to stay for this long, but whatever the reasons we were always together.

Everything was fine for the first month or so, thanks to Riakie. She saved me from the street, and I think she did the same for Liko. It was nice not having to look over my shoulder constantly. For the first time in far to long I felt safe. It wasn't so bad running "errands". All I had to do is steal food and what ever else I could get my hands on, and I'd been doing that for a long while anyway. Plus I had someone to watch my back for me. Someone to help me out if things went wrong. Someone to just talk to. And it was nice not being lonely . . .

I had known that Liko was sick since I met him. How could you look at him and not know? He was always so pale and thin. There was an ethereal sense about him, like he wasn't even there in the fist place . . .

Things weren't great, but they weren't all that bad either. We were together, and nothing could stand in our way. Then things really started to get bad. Liko was so sick he couldn't come with us anymore, and neither could Riakie, because she had to look after him. So it was just me, kinda like before except this time I had a place to come home to at night. Well, there's always a brighter side to every situation. Maybe not sunny, but brighter. And besides, we were family then. I'd been an only child before, back when I still lived with my parents in out apartment downtown, and Riakie was the sister I'd never had. I liked staying with her, somehow it felt right. What happened?

Riakie really started loosing it only a month ago. Sure she'd been a little odd before that, but things only really picked up then. It was like she had a split personality. One minuet she was the sweet sister I had come to know and love, and the next she was a violent stranger. And it was always my fault. She always found some way to pin her fits on me. I was the source of all her frustration. There were time when I hated her with all my heart and soul for what she had become . . . and then there were times when I could see the person I had come to know as a sister in her again, and I just didn't know what to do. So I stayed, or at least I tried to.

The time when I came back and found Liko dead was probably the saddest moment of my life since my parents died. I knew then that I was loosing another family. It's weird, I always use to think that Riakie was the link that bound the three of us together, but I was wrong, it was never her. It was him. Liko's the one that gave Riakie a sense of purpose and a reason to do what she did. He's the reason she took me in, because she knew what was going to happen. She knew she'd need to get some poor sap that needed her, and she chose me. I wish I could have known, I would have left so quick . . . no, no I wouldn't have. We had something then; something special, something sacred, something that didn't go away until that last little bit of Riakie's sanity slipped away. We were family once, but I don't think I know you anymore.

~Owarii~

Well how was that? ((-^) Normally I'm pretty good at perspective works (or so I'm told), but I want to know, did I really bomb it this time? Warning, there will be more of these!