To dark-spiritwolf- Yay! hugsbackandtakescookies I'm glad I made a sequel, too. I really like this incarnation of Trowa, and Death's hella fun to work with.

To RainbowDice- I love you, too! (huggles) I'll try to update just as fast as my little fingers can type!


"Duo, where're my car keys?" Death demanded, frowning down into her purse as if the bag were responsible for the loss of her key ring.

"In your jacket pocket," Trowa answered in Duo's stead, since Duo was still out cold and showed no signs of waking any time soon. "You let me borrow your car when I ran to the store last night, remember?"

"Oh, yes, I did, didn't I?" Death said absently, digging out her keys. "When Duo wakes up, remind him to do his chores, and that I'm giving Wufei the grand tour today, so I may be late, okay? Tell Sissa I love her to pieces, and I'll be her love slave if she'd just make steaks for dinner tonight." She paused to kiss Trowa once on each cheek, then headed for the door. "Love you! See you tonight!"


Death arrived at the Chang residence at 6:30 on the dot. She parked on the curb and got out, eying the car in the driveway with surprise. A Ferrari just didn't fit the image of the Chang family she'd built, even if it was just plain dark blue.

She marched up the walk to the door and rang the doorbell, wondering what Wufei's parents were like. She hadn't handled any deaths in the Chang family, so she'd never had occasion to meet them one way or the other.

With no warning whatsoever, the door opened, revealing a girl about Wufei's age, with the same dark hair, bronze skin, and slanted eyes.

"Nataku?" Death demanded, taking an involuntary step back.

"Death?" Nataku shot back in the exact same tone. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm supposed to pick up Chang Wufei today. You?"

"I live here." Nataku said, grabbing Death and pulling her inside. "What do you mean, you're here to pick up Wufei? He's not supposed to die yet!"

"Nataku, stop spazzing." Death said, stamping one foot in exasperation. "Dana are supposed to be calm; the way you're acting, someone might mistake you for an Iru. My business here lies strictly within the bounds of the living; I'm supposed to introduce Wufei to the wonderful world of criminal defense."

"Since when do you know jack about lawyering?" Nataku asked, leading Death down the hall and into an Oriental-style sitting room. "And take off your shoes. Last I checked, you were passing your life off as a fantasy novel."

"The last time you checked was nearly twenty years ago, Nataku. My persona has to be remade every now and again; aging is too difficult to fake, and I have more important things to do than make myself grow old."

"It's Meiran now, Death; if Wufei hears you calling me anything else, he might get suspicious. I take it you're the Riker woman he's expecting."

"Exactly right. Catherine Riker, attorney-at-law, and the degree's legit." Death made a face, remembering her years in law school and the exhausting decade afterward, building up her own practice. "I'm the best of the best, baby. So, you posing as his sister? Cousin?"

"Wife, and there's no posing involved." Nataku said, sounding offended. The Dana's ego had always bruised easy, and she and Death were never more than uneasy allies, dating back to that day so many centuries ago when Death had inadvisedly called her 'Taku.

"Right, of course," Death sighed. "Well, Meiran, can I impose upon you to get your husband for me? I'd hate for us to be late."


Death stretched, working loose knotted shoulder muscles and trying to ease the tension in her back.

"I don't know what possessed me to pick lawyering as my next occupation." The brunette complained, collapsing on the couch with a groan. "I should have stayed a writer. At least then, there wasn't so much running around and standing."

"You were a writer?" Trowa asked curiously, turning Death so her back was to him and beginning a massage.

"Oh, bless you, Trowa, you're a Godsend." Death all but moaned. "Yes. I wrote a series of supernatural mysteries centered around an orphan child chosen to be the assistant of a world-famous detective. The detective was an ass, but he was smart, and the girl – yes, right there. Can you feel that knot? - was pretty damned good at separating magic from clever misdirection. I also wrote a few novels about certain periods of my life. I figured my 16th-century European persona was in no danger of being exposed now."

"Cave of Wonders was her biggest," Duo spoke up from across the living room. "That one's pure and unsullied fact, even if it reads like a high fantasy novel."

"How do you manage to remember so much?" Trowa asked, shaking his head. "And how did you manage to get this sore?"

"To answer your second question first, I was attacked." Death said, sounding embarrassed. "Guy was convinced I killed his sister, even though I didn't so much as collect her soul, and he tackled me coming out of my office. That Wufei kid's handy as all get-out in a fight."

"And the memory thing?" Duo prompted.

"Simple; no matter how human I look, I'm still a demon. Humans are given memory capacity that should be more than sufficient for their lifetimes. But since you insist on living longer and longer, the supply doesn't last until death. Demons, on the other hand, are technically immortal, so our memory supply is almost infinite. Sissa's a bit older than me, so she can give you a firsthand account of what dinosaurs looked like, but I was born only just before the first Ice Age, so my memory doesn't go back quite that far."

"So all the cracks kids make about their parents being old actually apply to you?"

"Yes, and if you so much as think of calling me a hag, Duo Maxwell, I'll skin you alive and roast you on hot coals."


"I love summer," Nataku said with a contented sigh. Wufei, of course, ignored her, but she didn't mind. Wufei had been ignoring her for two years now. She was used to it. "Wufei, do you want something to drink?"

"Hn," Was the only response she got.

"Never mind; I'm getting you one, anyway. Just like you, coming outside on a hot day like this to work out and not even bringing a water bottle." She shook her head and stepped inside long enough to take two chilled water bottles from the refrigerator. She needed the hydration more than he did; she loved summer, sure enough, but a water elemental had better make sure she didn't dry up, or she'd revert to her natural form and lose whichever identity she was currently using.

"Drink." Nataku ordered sternly, handing him one of the bottles and setting a good example by emptying the other.

Wufei glared, and Wufei grumbled, but Wufei also drank, because he wasn't stupid enough to try and out-stubborn his wife.

"Now admit that you feel better and stop exerting yourself in this heat, or you'll collapse." She said once the water was gone. "How did things go today?"

"Why do you ask?" Wufei asked, glancing at her sideways while he toweled his sweat-soaked hair.

"Because you were gone all day, and I'm interested in what you did." Nataku explained, rolling her eyes. They were always having the same tired argument over whether or not she had a right to ask him how his day went. "Besides, I don't trust that Riker woman."

"Why not?"

"I know all about her, protecting criminals from justice for money." Nataku sniffed. It was a legitimate cover-up for her real reasons for not liking the Reaper. "Nobody who denies others justice for their own gain can be trustworthy."

"She won't defend someone she feels is guilty. She also refuses to take payment from families that can't afford her services."

"Did she say so?" Nataku asked with more bite than she'd intended, for the look Wufei gave her this time was decidedly suspicious.

"Woman, stop getting so worked up." He said finally. "Riker is an honorable woman with strict morals, even by the standards of her opponents in the courtroom." Wufei sighed, then flashed Nataku a small, rare smile. "We should forget about her for now, though. Let's make dinner."

"Okay," Nataku stood with him, unable to stop the girlish smile and blush that spread across her face. This strange, giddy feeling was the whole reason she'd taken on human form and molded herself to Wufei's preference and custom. Humans called it love, the Dana called it yuna. Whatever it was called, Nataku thought it was beautiful, and it was the only reason Wufei could call her 'woman,' expect her to clean their small house, and induce her to eat human food- with the notable exception of meat.


I have Hold On stuck in my head, along with an Amanda Marshall tune and Reba McEntire's

greatest hits CD in its entirety. Don't you hate it when that happens?