Damn college doesnt let me write as much as i want! But here it is. This is Mariana´s story, it´s mostly dialogue.

Enjoyyy

Chapter 14: Mariana

MARIANA´S POV

"Helloooo!!!!" I run happily inside the Tao´s house

"Oh, it´s you" Ren comments carelessly, watching the news on television. "Back here already?"

"Hey, you know, you could try to sound a little bit more excited about my return" I say, putting an offended look on my face.

"Yeah, I could" He agrees, without taking his eyes off the TV. I stare at him disbelievingly. "But I wont" He adds.

"Oh, god, thanks, for a moment there I thought something horrible had happened to you while I was gone" Laughing, I go over to him and pat him friendly on the shoulder.

"So…, you already had your second fight right?" I ask.

"Yes, just yesterday" He answers monotonously.

"And? How did it go?" I press.

"Piece of cake" He says, still with that dull tone.

"Ok, I get it, no elaboration" I sit down next to him "Where´s Jun?"

"China" His whole focus stays persistently on the TV. The commercials come and he finally turns that thing off.

I wave a hand in front of his face "Hello, can you indulge me with your attention just for a moment, please?"

He turns to me slowly "I guess I could" As I´m about to continue my questioning, he smirks at me and stands up. "But I wont" And leaves for the kitchen.

Following him, I can´t stop myself from grinning madly. I missed him so much!

"Wow, you are funny today?" I joke "No, seriously, why´s Jun gone to China? I thought she was staying with you for all the preliminaries"

He looks for milk, opens it and takes a large gulp. "I´m not sure, she didn't specify what she was going to do" He responds evasively.

"Alright, you don't have to tell me" I sit down on a chair. He does so as well. "And how have you been?" I shoot at him, looking into his eyes.

He looks away. "Fine" He mutters.

"What have you been doing?" I persist.

"Training" Man, this is useless.

"Mmm, sounds fun" I say jokingly "Well, I´ve come back here to prevent that from happening ´till the end of the days. You know what you could do? You could show me your bedroom!" I´m only half faking excitement.

He looks at me, a tad bewildered "What for?"

"Just curious" I smile at him "It´s the only room in the house I have yet to meet"

"Hmph. Follow me" He stands and goes upstairs, with me at his heels. He opens a door and helds it open for me. We enter a large room with a king seized bed against the wall opposite to the door. The entire room is in red, black and brown. There seem to be no other personal things inside his bedroom beside his Kwan Dao and his spirit tablet.

I run to the bed and throw myself right in the middle. "This is so comfortable"

He comes calmly and sits himself in the edge. "Happy now?"

"Very" I beam at him. He leans back and we stay there quietly for a couple of minutes. "Still not going to tell me about Jun?" I ask eventually.

He sighs "No"

More silent minutes pass. I can tell he´s in a meditative mood.

"Are you ever going to tell me about that bloke from the day I met you?" He suddenly blurts out.

I move my head to look at him straight in the eye "I see, I get your point" I pause for a moment. "If I tell you my story, will you tell me yours?"

He hesitates "I thought you said you had talked to Jun" He responds quietly.

"I did. But I want to hear your version"

It´s a good 15 minutes before he whispers "Ok"

Now it´s my turn to sigh. I face the ceiling and clear my throat. "O-ok" I breathe in and out. "Well…I-I erm…lived the first six years of my life with my parents, the Cheung family. You see, I am actually Chinese, but…things happened" I breathe again. "On my sixth birthday, we went to Japan to visit some relatives. Jack and Naomi Suzuki, my first time visiting them. We took two long planes there, very rainy, I remember. Took a cab right outside the airport a-and" My voice shakes badly and I take another deep breath. I can feel Ren´s eyes on me "And…and…it was awfully rainy, all foggy and…the driver didn't see the truck and…well, y-you know" My voice shakes some more "They didn't make it, not the driver, nor my parents"

Now I really need a moment. I take Ren´s hand and thankfully he doesn't complain. After a while, I go on "So these Suzuki were the only relatives I had. Awful people, I found out. Apparently, my parents hadn't seen them in years and they had missed a few things. I lived in their house for two years, the worst two years of my life. They were into drugs and also sold it. Very poor quality though, I guess, they didn't have much money. And spent all of my parents money in no time. As I had no friends or acquaintances in Japan, my situation went easily unnoticed. The Suzuki had some other nasty ways that I would rather not mention" At this, I can feel his gaze piercing me. "But I will tell you that they were rather violent. Eventually, I couldn't take it anymore and I ran away from there" Another pause.

Finally looking at Ren, I say "I need some water"

He stands up quickly "I´ll go get some"

I´m moved by his obvious concern for me. He comes back rapidly and hands me a glass. I drain it before continuing "I had nowhere to go" I say calmly "I had to live in the street. It was difficult at first but I managed. I made some friends, very useful ones, indeed, that helped me. You know, we had to steal to survive" I glance at Ren. "That was my life for three years, until, one day, I was sort of involved in a crime. This agency took me to a reformatory for minors. I was locked up there for a couple of months. In that place I met Richard Landon. Some old Scottish man who was there for business. He saw me and we talked a bit. I told him about the Suzuki and their involvement with drugs, this earned them a one way ticket to jail. Weirdly enough, the day following our meet, Richard came back saying he was taking me in. Must have noticed how pretty I was" I grin at Ren, trying to lighten the mood. "So he took me. We lived in Scotland ´til last year, he randomly decided to move to Canada. He´s really odd. Well, I mean he fought in the Second World War and everything, difficult not to be odd. This is the guy I told you was my grandfather, remember?" Ren nods. "In the first year of my life with Richard, I met Celandine and she was the one who told me I was a shaman. We were friends instantly and she helped me investigate everything on the shamans and, ultimately, I found out about the Shaman Fight and The Great Spirits. Last year I told the whole lie of having to study in Japan and all. Richard Landon doesn't believe in spirits and think those who do are mental so I couldn't have convinced him to pay me a trip to Japan otherwise" Ren frowns and I smile sincerely at him. "Yeah, I know, I told you, he´s a bit of a maniac. But he´s very nice with me, I can assure you"

I take a big breath for the end. "So…the night you rescued me was the night I reencountered Jack Suzuki. I heard Naomi died in prison. You made it just in time to save me" I finish.

I face Ren. He´s staring at me with a pensive expression. "Well, that´s some story" He finally says awkwardly, making me snort. "I - I´m sorry" He stammers.

"Don't be" I touch his face lightly "You got rid of that bastard for me" I lean in slowly and kiss his cheek "Thank you"

He goes totally red "Right" He mumbles.

"Ok, you turn" I smirk.