Kiba

When Masomi and I finally dug our ways back out of the office, we were already caked with dirt and dust. I asked, "Are you sure you can clean that place up?" Masomi rolled his eyes and said, "Have some faith in me, Kiba."

I saw he was walking out of the building, and I chased after him. "Where are we going now?" Masomi said to me without turning around, "We're going to run and grab a bite to eat, then go back to the apartment and figure out everything we need for this little fixer-upper job."

My stomach growled at the thought of something to eat, and I didn't argue with his plan. I said, "Sounds legit enough to me." Landis opened the door for us and we walked out and down the alley and back into the street. The sun was at its high point in the sky, and signaled it was around or just past noon.

"Where are we going to eat, Masomi?" He was walking backwards so he could face me and said, "You let me worry about that, pal. I know this great place that doesn't cost nothing. And the waitresses are kinda cute too." I didn't say anything. Masomi turned back around and was walking the right way again.

Now I wasn't worried about him running into somebody. We walked a few blocks more, and stopped at a small restaurant that was between two larger buildings. A little bell chimed above the door, and a guy behind a podium saw us and walked us to our table.

The place seemed clean and nice. A subtle aroma lingered around the entire place, and it kept reminding me how hungry I was. Masomi elbowed me in my ribs and whispered over to me, "Dude, check out our waitress." She was wearing a plain t-shirt and blue jeans with an apron over them. Her auburn hair was tied back into a loose ponytail. She walked up to our table and smiled.

" Hi. My name's Charity. I'll be your waitress today. What would you two like?" Masomi said quickly, "Two house specials of course." She smiled, then scribbled something down on her little notepad and walked off to another table. I watched as she vanished into the back somewhere.

Masomi was grinning slyly at me and said devilishly, "You like here." I felt my face warm up and said, "No I don't. I'll admit she's attractive, but I don't like her." I can't like her. Charity soon came back with two plates with soup and sandwiches. Masomi suddenly blurted out, "Miss, I thought you might want to know that my friend-"

I thought quickly and slammed my foot down on the top of his under the table. "Ow! Dammit!" His leg came up and hit the table and caused the plates and silverware to clatter against each other. She was staring at him with surprise on her face and asked, "Um. Are you alright?"

I could tell she wasn't sure what to think since she didn't know why Masomi did the actions he did. I said, "Oh he's fine." She nodded her head slowly and walked off. Masomi hissed at me, "Dude! What was that! I was trying to set you up with her!" I reluctantly said back, "Don't. Just don't."

He looked at me and seemed to be confused. "Why not?" I stared down at the table and said, "It's kind of complicated." Masomi sighed and took a spoonful of soup and ate it. "Fine." He sounded like a little kid that had to put back a toy that he wanted.

We finished our food not long after, and Charity came walking back to our table with a check and said, "Just take that up to the counter and you can pay. Please come back soon." Masomi swiped up the check and looked at it before saying, "We will. Thank you for the service."

She smiled, then glanced at me. I tried to act like I hadn't noticed, but my face had gotten a rush of heat on it that I couldn't hide. I saw her smile at me before walking off into the back of the restaurant. Masomi sighed and said, "You should have let me set you up with her." I rolled my eyes and walked with him to the counter to pay for the check. I wish it were that simple.

Kiba

We didn't get back to the apartment till late because Masomi decided he wanted to go and stake out abandoned buildings. He was calling them my 'fallbacks' in case the office didn't work out. It was pitch dark outside when we walked back into the apartment.

I went ahead and walked into my room and laid down on my bed. My body bounced when I landed on the mattress, and soon it settled and was still unless I moved. My eyes started to grow heavy, and I dozed off, but woke up what seemed like every ten minutes.

Each time was after a dream with that waitress in it. I had to find a way to get her out of my mind. I wasn't supposed to like humans, much less have these kind of feelings for one. My father would have my head if he knew I liked a human. I cringed at the thought of all the words he'd have waiting for me.

I sighed. There was no way that I could have any contact with that girl. I needed to let these feelings die away before they grew and ended up getting me in trouble. I heard music playing in the room next to me that belonged to Masomi.

There was also the sound of something falling and hitting the floor, and the faint sound of Masomi swearing. I raised my voice to just under a yell and said, "Turn that down! I'm trying to sleep!" He yelled back and said, "And I'm trying to listen to music! Sleep another time."

I rolled my eyes and grabbed my pillow and put it on my face. All I could see was darkness, and there was now the muffled sound of Masomi next door to me. I took the pillow off of my face so I could take in fresh air. It was now quiet, and I assumed Masomi finally shut up.

I let out a sigh, and felt that I was starting to get a headache. Too much was running through my mind, and Masomi's loudness hadn't helped me any. I put the pillow back under my head and rolled onto my side so I could look back out of the window.

There was a full moon out, and a few clouds scattered themselves around it and made it look eerie. Masomi couldn't see any of this like I could. No Fallen could. I couldn't imagine not being able to see something as mesmerizing as the moon and stars. I wondered if my mother was looking up at the moon as well. I smiled. I'm doing fine, Mom.

Kiba

Finally, I had gotten a full night's rest and was able to wake up on my own without Masomi being my alarm clock. The apartment was deathly quiet, and that raised a red flag for me. Whenever Masomi was around, quiet wasn't existent. I stuck my head out of my room, and looked around. He wasn't anywhere in the main parts of the apartment. Maybe he's still asleep.

I stepped out of my room, and saw the door to his room was wide open and revealed that it was empty. Something white caught my eye. There was a piece of paper taped to the fridge. I tore it off and read it. Left out early. Meet me at the office later.

I raised an eyebrow and placed the note on the counter and opened the door to the fridge. Cool air swept over my bare feet when it opened, and I scanned the shelves for something to drink. I gave in and pulled out the gallon of orange juice. Behind it, I saw about three jars of marshmallow crème.

I rolled my eyes and left the fridge open as I moved over and grabbed a glass out of the cabinets. I already had everything's location in the apartment memorized. I filled the glass half up, and put the orange juice back up and closed the fridge door. When I finished my juice, I walked back into my room and changed into a new shirt. The cold metal of my cross touched my chest when I took my shirt off.

It reminded me that it was still there. I went into Masomi's room and swiped one of his combs and straightened my hair. Now that I was cleaned up, I left out of the apartment and walked the same path I had yesterday. Landis didn't question me when I knocked on the door, and I walked right in and straight towards the back.

What I saw then, shocked me. The whole office didn't look the same. The old wallpaper and peeling paint was gone and replaced with a dark colored wood siding. There was carpet on the floor that was once concrete, and all of the junk and garbage was gone.

"Masomi? How did you do all of this in such a short time?" I was in awe. This wasn't even the same room. Masomi was up on a ladder and replacing a light fixture. "Few hours? Do you have any clue as to what time it is? It's like, almost two. I was beginning to wonder if you'd ever wake up this morning."

I was surprised at the time. I hadn't even glanced at a clock or anything when I woke up and after I left. "Well, if somebody hadn't kept me awake with their music most of the night, I might have woken up sooner." Masomi held a nail in his mouth and took it out so he could hang the light.

"Don't give me none of that BS. I know that you were thinking about that waitress." He was grinning slyly at me. I rolled my eyes and said, "It would be tragic if that ladder was pushed out from under you." Masomi stared at me, then brushed me off and continued working on the light fixture.

He knew I wasn't going to do anything to him…..Yet. I looked around and asked, "Is there anything I can do?" Masomi thought for a moment and said, "There's supposed to be a shipment of furniture showing up in a little bit. You could wait outside for it or check in a little while to see if it's here."

I raised an eyebrow at him and said, "You ordered furniture?" Masomi nodded his head and said, "Uh, duh. Where are you going to sit and work? The floor and have a little fire going like some Indian or something?" He had a point. "I think I'll wait for it outside."

He nodded and I maneuvered my way through the crowds of Fallens to make my way outside. I leaned against the brick wall and looked around for the shipping truck to show up, but instead I was greeted with something else. Charity was walking my way. Oh no. She saw me and smiled. "Hey, aren't you that guy from the restaurant the other day? The one who had the weird friend?"

I laughed to myself. It was nice to know that I wasn't the only one who found Masomi a little off his rocker. "Uh, yeah. That was me." I shouldn't have been talking with her. I should have just turned around and walked back down the alley and have Landis let me in, or just ignored her and let her keep going on her way.

But I stood there instead and started up a conversation with her. In the sunlight, her auburn hair was brighter. She looked around and asked, "What are you doing just standing around here?" My mouth felt dry when I said, "Waiting on a shipping truck of furniture."

She looked at me with a quizzical look. "Furniture? Now what would you be doing with furniture?" I stuffed my hands into my jeans pockets and said, "Masomi's doing some remodeling on an old room not far from here. He sent me to keep a eye out for the truck and let him know when it gets here." I hadn't ever felt so awkward in my life.

This girl was bringing out a different side of me that I wasn't used to. I then thought about how my father said that Earth can change people. Was this part of this kind of change? Before I knew it, she was talking again.

"Well that's nice that you're helping out your friend. Hey, I just got off of work early, and was going to waste some time at the mall. Do you, wanna come along? After the truck gets here of course if that would help. I wouldn't want you to get in trouble with your friend."

I saw she was feeling just as awkward as I did. I was about to open my mouth to talk, but was stopped by a voice. My father's. Don't get involved with humans, Kiba. I was then shook back to my senses. I said in a quickly and softly, "I'd love to, but I can't."

I saw there was disappointment in her eyes. She said flatly, "Oh. Alright then. It was nice seeing you again, um. I didn't catch your name." She wanted my name? No harm could come from telling her it, right? And odds were that I wouldn't see her again, as long as I had something to do.

I couldn't see her again. These feelings had to stop, and soon. "Kiba." She nodded her head and said, "Well, it was nice talking with you, Kiba."

I didn't meet her gaze, and heard her walking on down the sidewalk. I sighed, and felt like going back to the apartment and holing myself up in my room.

I was tired now. I wanted to know her, but I wanted to make my father proud more. Maybe one day. I hadn't even noticed that the shipping truck was parked right in front of me.

there's some goodies on my profile for my loyal readers of my trilogy. ^^ i spent some time last night doing Google searches and found random anime pictures of people that reminded me of the characters in the trilogy and addition. (Just in my opinion though, so i'm not saying that's what they really look like) if you go onto my profile, look up my Deviantart profile. There is the link and directions on where to go to see the pictures. just go to my Browse Galleries and click the folder to the left. each photo has descriptions about the character and a mini story with them. WARNING: There are a few spoiler alerts concerning Damien's, Rain's, May's, Aikido, and Kiba's pictures. so if you don't really wanna spoil this story all that much, don't read the descriptions. You have been warned. ^^ I don't have a pic up for Chairty yet. o.o i might find one later. all of the art and pictures belong to rightful owners and blah blah blah. i don't think i'm going to upload Finding Innocence today. maybe tomorrow or later tonight if i have time. (which i may not) well, read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~