I had a little rant going here about reviewing, but I decided that the fact that I got four in a couple of hours was... something that I could forgive everyone for. So lucky you, readers who don't review. Anyways, I go back to school tonight, so I just thought that maybe you'd like this before I get busy to the point of being sick. I can't guarentee when Ch. XIII will be up, so you're going to have to be patient, but send me an email (It's on my profile.) if you want to bugger me into being faster about it. I generally respond to emails that tell me to get my rear in gear in a nice, but firm, way. Anyways, enjoy. Maybe I'll start chapter dedications. This one's for all of my reviewers! Love y'all! We wouldn't at Ch. XII without you.
Boston, Massachusetts

If anyone had been standing beneath a rather insignificant cliff that jutted out into the Cape Cod Bay, they would have seen a rather strange sight. Up on the rugged rock structure's edge, a man stood, his hips thrust out towards the ocean, his back curved at the shoulders, hands jammed in his pockets. If anyone had been standing beneath that rather insignificant cliff, they would have felt the immense radiation of severe coldness that even beat the fall wind that was storming off of the bay. If anyone had been standing beneath that cliff that jutted out into the Cape Cod Bay, they would have turned around and left the man to his thoughts.

Tidus liked the feel of the wind cutting through his hair and whipping it back away from his face. He liked the way that he had to screw up his eyes to keep them from getting too dry in the barrage of ice-cold air coming off of the water. He liked to know that it only took one step to fall into complete and utter oblivion. Tidus liked the fact that he was alone, and if he did take that step, no one would follow him.

The evening air pierced its way through his jeans, making his legs numb with cold. He couldn't feel his fingers anymore… not that he really wanted to or anything… he just liked the sensation of knowing something was there, yet he couldn't feel it… it was there… but it was not.

Someone had once told him never to stand and look out at the ocean at night. He had laughed and asked them why. The person told him that it was tempting. He had laughed in the man's face and told him that that was bullshit.

Now he realized that it wasn't bullshit. He had been coming out here for a while… maybe twenty or so years? He always stood in the same place, staring out into the abyss of black and silver waves, illuminated by the moon. He always came here at night, where the cottages along the coastline were dark, where the constant force of wind kept the lightning bugs back in the barricaded forests.

After two decades of watching this water, he knew that it was tempting. How many times had he nearly stepped over that edge? He couldn't count them. He didn't consider himself suicidal. He didn't really want to die. He maybe just wanted the sensation of the freezing water penetrating his skin… making him feel as though he were close to death. It was like what that kid said in Titanic… something about it being like a thousand knives.

He'd felt as though he was being pierced with a thousand knives before… but it wasn't due to bitterly cold water. And it wasn't acupuncture either.

He chuckled to himself, pulling away from the tug of a memory that was trying to make him relive his past. The bastard who had done it was dead now. The memory was dead, buried, burned. Gone. It was no longer his concern.

Tidus sighed into the wind that made the noise inaudible in the racket that mere temperature controlled. It was impossible to retain the fury that he had left the pub with in this atmosphere. One, it was too cold to keep that fire alive. Two, this place was able to still his temper unlike any other in the world, not Paris, not Rome, not Athens, nor even Boston.

He sighed again and let any remnants of that anger ebb away from his being like water pulls away from the shore during low-tide. He didn't know how long he'd been standing on this cliff. He tilted his head up to look at the pure, clear sky of New England. There was Orion and the Little Dipper, and there was the Big Dipper and Pegasus and the Phoenix, Draco, and all of the Zodiac constellations… he'd always liked the stars. They remained constant while nothing else on the planet did. His mother had told him when he was a child that when any soul died on Earth, their soul became a star and was preserved for all eternity. He knew that it wasn't true now, but he wished it were.

He turned his head from the stars, closing his eyes for a moment, feeling one last breath of wind upon his face. Then, turning away from the ocean, his back to the black light, he walked, with his hands still in his pockets, away from the cliff towards the woods now in front of him.

If anyone had been standing next to him while he was looking up at the stars, they would have seen a child, trapped in the body of a young man. Silver-gray eyes framed by long, black lashes, sharp cheekbones and a delicate nose for a man, thin, well-shaped eyebrows hidden by straight, choppy black hair thrown back in the wind, snapping in its power. Closed lips with the smallest… sad smile on them, and a strong chin. Smooth, pale skin pulled tight over his neck, half-covered by the popped collar of a black leather jacket, the black collar of an Oxford folding into a wrinkle. Strong, muscular shoulders, the shirt not loose enough to hide sculpted pectoral muscles and washboard abs, the top two buttons undone, shirttails half-tucked into dark-blue jeans and a simple black leather belt that hugged a narrow waist. Knees slightly bent, the boot-cut of the jeans brushing the grass beneath his feet, simple scuffed black combat boots looking as though they would crush the young blades, but his entire presentation of himself looked light enough to be thrown back by the wind, yet he remained completely still. If anyone had been standing next to him while he was looking up at the stars, they would have felt tears streaking this man's cheeks, yet they were entirely invisible. If anyone had been standing next to him, they would have shaken their head at their imagination and walked away.

---

Tidus walked along the crowded streets of downtown Boston. The constant tide of people against his body was something that he had learned to deal with when he and Avery had moved to the city. Generally though, it wasn't that bad. Humans naturally avoided vampiric presences, due to an unconscious assessment of auras that they didn't even know existed.

He suddenly stopped in the flow of bodies, ignoring the sudden curses of the business man behind him. He glanced up at the night sky of Boston, gazing up at the tall skyscrapers reflecting the moonbeams that bounced off of their mirror-like windows. His gaze soon fell and rested on a doorway to an abandoned shop with windows that had been cracked and hit to the point of the glass looking like a spider web. There, in the shadows of the little alcove in front of the wooden door, two teenagers sat. One was a girl with ragged blue hair, the other, a boy. They were oblivious to his stare as the girl glanced around once and plunged a needle into a vein in her forearm.

He walked over to them.

The girl looked up and yanked the needle from her arm; it quickly disappeared into the folds of her patched black peacoat. "What do you want?" the boy asked. His voice was raspy. Tidus watched him light a cigarette and take a heavy drag. The boy's eyes were like black voids. He looked like a vampire, but Tidus knew that it was only the drugs there, not immortality.

"I want to you give up drugs and crush that cigarette." The girl glared at him. Her eyes were clear blue… too clear to be fully alive. Tidus wondered what Adara's eyes looked like when she was high.

"What makes you think that just a sentence like that will stop us from doing what we want? It's a free country."

"You can die freely then, poisoning your body with that junk. Is it honestly worth cutting your life in more than half? You're wasting opportunity."

"Why should you care?"

"Why should you? You're going to die tomorrow. Get as high as you want."

The boy's eyes widened. He wasn't as screwed up as the girl; Tidus could feel the stronger pumping of the blood in his veins. "Are you frightened," he asked. The immediate composure that washed over the boy was astonishing.

"No fucking way." Tidus smiled to himself.

"Go back home to your sister," he said, finding the easily accessed memory. "She misses you terribly and wonders what you've done with yourself. I'm sure you're proud of this."

The boy stood up, brushing off his jeans. "I'm leaving," he said, glaring at Tidus. "I'll see you later, Holly."

No you won't….

The boy jumped nearly one foot in the air while he was walking away from them. Tidus enjoyed seeing the terror in his features as he glanced over his shoulders before lurching into a run through the crowded streets.

"You've frightened him away," Holly whined quietly. She seemed to have forgotten the entire dispute from two minutes ago. "I was going to have fun with him tonight…."

"I'm here," Tidus said. He moved to where the boy had been sitting before, while Holly pushed herself awkwardly to her feet. She smiled at Tidus, her head tilted to one side over her shoulder before taking him in her arms, standing on tiptoe.

Her lips were dry, and her mouth tasted foully of cigarettes. Her hair was greasy under his fingertips, her form bony and mal-nourished against his torso as she crushed herself against him. The scent of unwashed clothing would have made him sick if he had been human.

But she was going to die anyways in a couple of hours. He might as well make use of her blood and let another person escape from the misfortunes of the night for another day.

He didn't even need to take over her mind, she was so high. She moved in his arms as if they were on a lurching Subway, careening around corners and thundering through tunnels. He had to hold her tight in his arms to keep her from stumbling out of the kisses.

He let his hand slide under her shirt, holding her thin torso against his body, his fingers dancing over her dehydrated and cold flesh. His other hand slid up from her lower-back and cradled the base of her neck in his palm. She barely registered his movement when he slid his lips from hers and rested them gently against the side of her neck, right above her collarbone.

Call me sometime if you find out that there's an afterlife.

---

Tidus hoped that there wouldn't be one. He didn't want to escape Earth to find out that there was something worse. Holly had died pretty quickly… he hadn't needed much blood anyways. She'd been packed with smack in her blood; even he was feeling a slight… change. No, of course he wasn't high, but he wasn't normal either.

Stopping in front of the door to a warm, rather inviting pub, he pulled out a small leather bound book from his back jeans' pocket. He flipped through it until he found where the writing in it stopped. Below the last filled line, he began a new one, using a pen that he had slipped from his pocket along with the book. H-o-l-l-y. He drew a hyphen and quickly scrawled the date: August 24th, 2005 – 9:57 pm. He quickly shut the book, shoving it, and the pen, back in his pocket.

---

Adara was still sitting on the floor of the pub, running her hands all over Renee while listening to the clamor that filled the now richly warm pub. She could hear Kai laughing behind the counter at something that someone had said. Drunken hoots and buzzed laughter swam about her ears like a lullaby. She felt completely safe here, on the floor, with Kai about ten feet away and with Renee's lovable head in her lap.

A few people had stopped by her spot on the floor and introduced themselves. An elderly man with rough, calloused hands named Jack knew Renee well, standing there for a while, petting the Retriever. She'd felt completely… comfortable with his sweet elderly blue eyes. He had ordered a tonic and gin.

A woman who sounded as if she were thirty had long nails, probably red, and was a little timid with Renee. The green that Adara saw was a nervous type, not dark, not light, shifting between celery and evergreen. She, however, knew Kai well. He'd immediately gotten her a large martini. Her name was Cecilia.

Kate had come in too, this time without Maddie. Adara was a little bit disappointed, but she also found herself scared of her memory of those pure blue eyes. Kate herself had brown eyes, but they weren't like Kai's or Renee's. Hers were more of a solid chocolate, mixed with a little bit of honeyed tea. Kate had sat on the floor next to Renee and Adara, petting the dog, laughing… she had warm, soft, motherly hands that Adara liked… in a rather wishful way.

She had found out that Maddie was seven, and that Kate was a single-mother, working as a teacher at one of the private schools in Boston. She and Maddie always stopped by the pub after Kate picked Maddie up from daycare to get a hot chocolate from Kai. This evening, Maddie was being babysat by their neighbor, Sam; the two girls were watching a movie called Shrek. Adara had never heard of it before. Kate had taken the evening for herself and was swinging by to get a drink and watch a game to get some masculinity in her veins before heading back to the daily grind. They had talked for a while before Kate had gotten up and ordered a Heineken and some pretzels.

Adara found herself shockingly happy. She felt safe and warm in this place… clean… she wasn't hurting for anything and having Renee under her hands was a solid reassurance that this wasn't a dream, and she wouldn't be waking up to a boy with a hangover and her veins screaming for sustenance. She felt good for once, and, to her, it was amazing that the 'good' wasn't drug-induced. Adara felt purely happy.

---

When Tidus walked into the pub, he was immediately engulfed in a warm, comforting aura. He smiled to himself as Kai grinned over at him from behind the counter. He looked around the busy room. It had certainly filled up with people in the past two hours. The booths that lined the right side of the wall were nearly all filled, one with four elderly gentlemen nursing their drinks, another with a young couple sharing a Strawberry Daiquiri. He skipped over the others, turning his head back towards the bar.

"Hey stranger!" a young woman's voice called. Tidus glanced over at the beautiful blonde woman in front of him. He couldn't help breaking into a smile as Kate enveloped him in a warm, motherly hug. She kissed him like she would a son coming back from war, strong and smart on the cheek. "Where have you been for the past two years? Maddie just about threw a fit when you canceled your movie date." He laughed and kissed Kate back on her soft cheek, setting her down on her feet, and grinning at her.

"She did, did she? I guess I'll just have to rent 'The Incredibles' and have her come over to watch it. What have you been up to for all this time? Still haven't found your Johnny Depp?"

Kate sighed, her medium-length, wavy blonde hair falling into her eyes before she ruthlessly shoved it away from her face. "No, unfortunately. Maddie's started school now, and I'm packing lunches, making dinners, helping with all those first grade parental involvements and keeping up with my juniors and seniors at school. You wouldn't believe the number of college recommendations that I have to go through every year. And Happy died last year."

"That's awful… how'd Maddie take it?" Kate sighed again as they moved over to the bar and grabbed two seats. Kai quickly shoved some sort of beer in front of Tidus and nodded to say that he'd be over in a second.

"She cried… a lot. We had a little funeral service in our backyard. Maddie even helped me plant irises over the grave. She loved that goldfish so much…."

"It lived forever. I swear… I think I had five one year, and I ended up flushing them all about a week after I got them." Kate laughed, setting a hand on his shoulder and squeezing it.

"You're probably more one for those cars and motor-cross bikes of yours, aren't you?"

"I kept an aloe plant alive for five years. It accidentally got dumped out when I moved here." He glanced up as Kai appeared in front of him, wiping his hands on a dishcloth.

"Glad you could make it back. Kate says that Maddie's watching Shrek." Tidus narrowed his eyes and looked at Kate.

"Is that a new one?" Kate shook her head, smiling ridiculously at the two men, as if they were her own boys.

"No… it came out a while ago. Haven't you been paying attention, Tidus? When was the last time you went to the movies?" Kai glanced at Tidus.

"No idea… I'm more for the home entertainment anyways… my plasma is a hell of a lot better than their screens, and not to mention my sound system," Tidus stated, shrugging. Kate shook her head again, grinning.

"You and your gadgets." Kai laughed out loud, grabbing a piece of ice from an ice bucket and crunching on it.

"He hasn't figured out how to work a Mac yet… he's so damn stuck in Windows." Tidus glared at his friend and then turned to Kate, grinning.

"The thing is that Macs are made for dumb people. Macs are so dumb, that they are beyond my genius comprehension." Kate threw her head back at that and laughed wholeheartedly. She pretended to wipe tears from her eyes.

"Kai… I think it's time that you learned Windows. Tidus has got you there," she said, finishing off her Heineken. Kai went to his fridge and popped the cap of another one, handing it to her.

"I may technologically stupid, but that doesn't mean that you can't accept free beer from me." Kate shook her head at him, blonde locks bouncing off of her shoulders.

"Kai, you're too sweet. I can pay for it." Kai rolled his eyes, while Tidus grinned to himself. This was a constant battle between the two.

"Kate, just drink the goddamn beer and keep your wallet shut. If you have to spend the money, get Maddie a package of Tootsie Rolls at BP."

Tidus watched Kate debate between trying to argue more, but the Tootsie Rolls got her. She took the beer, shaking her head a Kai, but she drank it anyways.

She always takes the beer in the end. Tidus smiled at Kai over the countertop.

I know. Where's Adara? Kai actually laughed out loud, but Kate didn't notice. She was getting a little tipsy with her third free beer and was running her fingertips over the green glass bottle. Kai turned his warm eyes back to Tidus'.

I'm surprised you didn't trip over her and Renee coming in.

Tidus turned around, sliding off of the barstool. He shook his head as he took in the sight of a young woman with falling, loose chocolate curls sitting on the floor of the pub with a three year-old Golden Retriever. He began walking over to the pair when Renee threw her golden head up and saw him. Barking, she pulled away from Adara, who glanced up in the direction that Renee bounded off towards, barking madly.

Tidus ran his hands all over Renee's head as she jumped on him, her paws landing on his abdomen and shaking with excitement. She licked his fingertips and let herself fall to the ground before running in circles around his feet as he tried to make his way over to Adara.

"Hey," he said, spilling onto the floor with as much grace as he could muster with Renee leaping over his legs to plant her head on his knee and look up adoringly at him.

---

Adara didn't know what to do when she felt him slide down next to her on the floor. She felt as though all the warmth in the pub had been drained away, and the noise of it was muted to a hum that barely registered in her mind. Without Renee at her side, she felt powerless, as if her armor had been stolen away from her body, and she was left, weaponless, before her foe.

She felt Tidus sigh, even though she didn't hear one. She could sense that Renee was before him, her head probably in his hands while she felt Tidus' arms moving to stroke her sleek coat. He was so close to her… it was unnerving… she wanted to escape and get herself back from wherever he'd whisked it away to. She knew that her expression was probably one of panic and apprehension… maybe even a little bit of fear. She tried to muster some sort of bravery, but all that came was a shiver down her spine. She drew her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around the jeans that covered her boots. Stupid… that makes you look even more frightened, she thought.

"Listen," she heard Tidus say. His voice sent tremors down her skin, raising gooseflesh. She rubbed her arms frantically to try and make it disappear. "I'm not very good at apologizing… but… I was a jerk, earlier. Sorry."

That was not what she had expected. She didn't know what she had expected, but that was not it. She pushed her hair back away from her face, a little bit flustered. She licked her lips, biting on the lower one and taking a shallow breath.

"I'm not trying to frighten you, either."

That made her snap back into denial. "I'm not frightened of you." It was automatic, her involuntary response. Tidus chuckled; the goose-bumps remained on her arms.

"Alright… it must have just been my imagination, then." She felt the awkward silence between them, before Tidus spoke again. "So I see you've met Renee."

She knew that she should say something. "She's a sweetheart." Tidus chuckled again. This time, it didn't make her colder… it was… almost warm.

"I haven't seen her since she was a pup, two years ago. Dogs always amaze me with their ability to remember people and things."

Adara hesitantly wondered for a moment before gathering up some courage and speaking. "Kai mentioned that he hadn't seen you in two years… um-."

"What was I doing?"

"Yeah," she said, letting out a breath that was mixed with a relieved sigh.

"Well… I should probably be honest with you. I went out there to help get a small business in Los Angeles on its feet, along with a friend that I had met at a motor-cross tournament. Got tangled up in some shit out there about six months ago, and I ended up doing another job for some big-ass corporate manager who had hired me before. This time, it was a man who had been sleeping with his wife. It got a little tricky because the guy had connections with one of the stronger vampires out there, so I ended up having to kill both of them. The great thing about vampires, though, is that it's unlikely that anyone will come after you for getting rid of them. I got a scar out of the entire thing, and it pissed me off so much that I gave over my half of the business and headed back here. It was making a hell of a lot of money by then, so all was good for my friend."

"Where's your scar?" Adara asked – she was still nervous around Tidus, but conversation was coming more easily. She could remember showing her scars to her 'family' of messed-up teenagers, all of them sitting in a circle on the floor of the apartment in New York. Adara recalled being high and pulling off her shirt to show them all a scar on her back. They had forty-two scars between the six of them. She, Cameron, and Lily had had the most between them all. For some reason that she couldn't fathom, the face of the sixth figure was just a mixture of shadows in her mind. She was pulled back into reality when Tidus spoke.

"On my arm – you want to feel it?" he asked. She felt him shrug off a jacket, and then suddenly, his hands were at her right wrist, pulling her towards him so that they were facing each other. She was so shocked by the electric tremors that flew down her spine that she didn't notice that his fingers had guided hers to the inside of his forearm until her hand was already resting on the jagged skin tissue beneath them. She gasped as she brought both hands to his arm, running up the length of the healed wound until it disappeared under the folds of the rolled up sleeve of his Oxford.

"What happened?" she asked, running her fingers down back towards his wrist. His arm was rock-solid underneath her fingertips, reminding her that, at any moment, she could be at its mercy. She thought that she felt Tidus smile, but she wasn't sure of her assumption.

"The vampire pulled a knife on me." Adara narrowed her eyes, frowning.

"I thought that you're supposed to heal miraculously or something… a knife gave you a scar like this?"

"It was made by a witch – the blade was poisoned, so it hurt like bloody hell and left this for me to wear around a like a badge of my survival."

"You killed the bastard, right?" she asked. She wanted to slap herself for making it sound like she cared about him making it out of a fight alive. Tidus laughed, but, this time, she knew that the electric shocks running through her veins weren't from the sound.

"What do you think: I let him get another strike in? I snapped the bastard's neck." She smiled softly as she ran her fingertips up and down the scar once more before pulling away. Adara didn't know why she felt colder without his skin against hers.

"Hey you two lovebirds: shut-up for a while and listen to the end of the game!" Adara glanced up from looking at where her hands must have been in her lap and met flames of amber.

"Kai?"

"Don't forget me either," Kate shouted above the din that was suddenly engulfing the pub. "I'm the most devoted Pats fan there is!"

"Kate, you have no idea what you're talking about," Kai said loudly. Adara could faintly hear Tidus laughing in the uproar that was engulfing the pub.

"Wait," Adara shouted in Kai's direction. "Who the hell is playing?"

"Pre-season game, it's New England against the Giants – the entire pub is split in half." Adara pushed herself up from the ground and wobbled for a moment: her left foot had fallen asleep. Ignoring it, she shouted at Kai.

"Take me to the TV!"

"He's already absorbed in watching it. C'mon." She felt a warm arm take hers, and, immediately, she knew that it was Tidus shoving his way through a crowd of people, as she stumbled clumsily behind him, and pulling her up into his lap as he sat on a barstool. The volume on the TV was turned up so that it was an ear-shattering commotion -the announcer's voice wasmanaging to beat the chaotic clamor in the pub. Her entire nervousness around the shadow-eyed vampire disappeared as she lost herself to the game. It didn't even strike her as odd that she was sitting in his lap, his arms around her waist.

"The Giants have possession, and New England's three points behind; they know that they've only got two minutes to get an interception and score a touchdown to win this game. It may only be pre-season, but who doesn't want to win a game as fierce as this?"

"Oh, shut-up," Adara grumbled. "Talk about the game; I want to know what's going on." She heard a couple of men shout at something, but she didn't know what was happening. "Goddamn it!" she growled, hardly noticing Tidus' hands around her waist, keeping her from falling out of his lap. "What's going on," she shouted over the din at him.

"Well… the Giants are playing slow and they're just holding the ball, heading towards – oh my god!" A unified shout nearly startled her out of her skin.

"Interception!" the announcer shouted. She turned her face back towards the noise, screaming her lungs out.

"Run your bloody feet off you bastard!" she shouted, even though she didn't know who had taken the ball.

"Five yards, he's reaching the thirty-yard line without any trouble so far; oh my god, I think this N.E. rookie's going to get it! What's his name?"

"Is he going to get it?" Adara shouted. Tidus was leaning forward, shouting in her ear so loudly that all she could manage to hear were a couple of words.

"Run – fucking – bloody – goddamn run you bastard!"

"Go, go, go you idiot!" she joined, shouting with the chorus of shouts. "You bloody fucking bastard go – run!"

Her soul flew as if she were high again as the pub erupted in even louder shouts and screams. "He got it!" she heard Tidus yell faintly over the crowd in her ear. She turned around in his lap and threw her arms around his neck, screaming her head off. She suddenly was grabbed from behind, and, before she knew it, she was being spun around in dizzying circles with Kate screaming next to her. Adara didn't care who it was spinning her around – his arm was clamped around her waist securely. She threw her arms in the air and screamed with glee, forgetting everything and just reveling in the glory that her team shared with her.

Eventually, as if in slow motion she found herself set down on the ground, dizzy and spinning. Kate was laughing next to her, and then she was suddenly swept up in a bear-like hug and kissed harshly on the lips. She tried to shove whoever it was off, but she caught a flash of amber and suddenly knew that it was only Kai. She grinned like a lunatic and spun around on her feet when Kai set her down, only to be picked up again and spun in the air, her arms slung around the neck of… she pondered for a moment, trying to find their eyes… she couldn't see any color. "Did you see that? Oh my god, he was flying!" Kate screamed behind her.

"They did it!" Tidus shouted. She grinned, forgetting her discomfort around him.

"They always do! I love them!" she screamed, latching her legs around his waist as he spun them around at an impossible speed. She felt as if she should be slipping away from him, but his hands held her solidly against him, laughing; she could feel the smile radiating from him.

Suddenly they were both picked up in the air, their spinning coming to an abrupt end. "Did you see that?" Kai shouted at them, hugging them both against him, Adara still wrapped in Tidus' arms, who was, in turn, being nearly throttled by Kai's incredibly strong arms.

"Well, no I didn't, but it doesn't matter," Adara shouted at him, laughing. "They still won!" She threw her head back and shook out her hair as if she were on stage at Corruptela again and dancing for the lonely men of New York. She knew what she looked like when she tossed her hair over her shoulder: sultry and cat-like, screaming silently that no one would ever get better sex from any woman.

"I'm flying out to wherever they were playing and making love to that rookie tonight!" Kate shouted next to them. Kai soon set them down, probably to spin Kate around some more. Tidus' arms remained around Adara for a moment longer than they probably should have. She tilted her head up and felt him looking down at her.

"I thought that you were from New York - what's with rooting against the Giants?" She let the wicked smile dance across her lips - she knew that her eyes were sparkling with glee. Cameron always told people that she wasn't addicted to smack - she was addicted to New England football.

"I may be from New York, but I know who the best football players in the country are."

I love women who love football, especially New England football.

Suddenly, she felt soft, yet strong, lips pressed against hers, arms still wrapped around her, supporting her as she suddenly lost control of her entire body. Her knees turned into jelly, but she didn't register the feeling. All she cared about was the feeling of complete bliss in a clash of lip, tongue, and football-induced passion.

She didn't realize that, when Tidus started to pull away from her, she reached up and, in less than an instant, brought his mouth back to her own, her mind lost to everything else in the world but that feeling of his lips on hers.


FYI: Incase any of you have ever seen Finding Neverland, Katelooks just like Sylvia Davies. Kate Winslet... yeah... I named Kate after my favorite actress. Or, I know that all of you have seen Titanic - just imagine Rose with blonde hair and brown eyes.

Sooo... that was a pretty long chapter. I think I deserve some major congrats on this one. Oh, and the game - I don't remember the date of the Pats pre-season game against the Giants, but this is a fanfic, so forgive me if I'm wrong. I want to see some comments on all of the stuff that I put in there - tell me what you think was important. I'm not updating until someone other than B2W finds out what's really unique about Tidus.


Review Responses:

Animals are my LIFE: Thanks! Hope you liked Ch. XII.

Sonora the Free: You have to ASK! Of course I'll listen to your music, even if you never get as high in the charts as Coldplay. Send me a demo tape, anything! Ha-ha... yeah, my friend does that with me all the time, telling me that sidewalks can't fuck, and books can't fuck... anything that I use that word to describe. Good - I love to make people laugh. I think that the accupuncture thing in here is funny, but that may just be me. I love red-heads - Kate Winslet is beautiful in Titanic... I wish I could have red hair, but at least I'm not blonde. Ha-ha... hope you liked Ch. XII.

Fk306 animelover: Wow... you're name - I can't believe you even put that much thought into it. Mine's from the first fanfiction that I ever started writing - it was the first title I used for WISF (my other story). Anyways, hope you liked Ch. XII!

Between2Worlds: Oh, I love you, as I already told you in the email I just sent, but anyways... it's totally sweet that you love Kai and Renee. They are definiately two of my favorites in this story - Renee's based on my ideal dog, but I haven't found her yet. Oh, no problem in the dedication... I think you're going to have a lot more as the story progresses. Totally - Adara needed someone other than Kai to go to for comfort. As you read earlier in this chapter, it's completely foreign for Adara to feel safe, warm, and ... happy... but Renee is that comfort for her. No words needed, just love. Tidus is a complete case, as you've probably noticed. He doesn't hate Adara, just the fact that Evan's trying to get her back. (More will come in the future on why he doens't like vampires digging into their pasts. Uh oh... I'm teasing you again. Better stop.) Anyways, I hope this satisfies you for some time. Not sure when I'll be able to post another chapter, but keep emailing - I can always work on those. Je t'aime. - SP -