~Moths Don't Like Being Butterflies~

Approximate Chapters Left: 45 (Lemme` explain this, before I start to write the chapter, I give an estimate of what it feels in a semi-reliable time-frame.)

Author Notes: I'm getting this feeling as though these characters may be to OOC... please let me know if you feel as though I'm contorting them to much...

.:Chapter 3 ~ ...Added and Woven Into the Grand Tapestry...:.

"Must everything here be pink?! OF ALL COLOURS?!" A resounding voice echoed around the dome's small enclosure only to draw the attention of Hotaru. Her deep black hair highlighted by the tingle of death's very own violet was somewhat disheveled due to the insistent North wind billowing through the open windows of the dome. As she rounded the corner, she feared it would be the loud, obnoxious one whom she had seen in the lobby earlier. As her eyes fell onto the braided one's aura, she shivered. So cold. His aura had the halo of death strung about it, but his own soul kept it at bay by just being it's regular, crazy self.

But yet, it was him. Shatterer of Silence. He-Who-Aggravates-Others. In a divine inspiration beset by muses, she tried to find the right word in her true native tongue. Not the flowing Japanese she had employed in her last 'home' but the ancient syllables of Saturn's most accursed language - Destruction. Giving up, she decided to just get the introduction over with, then go back to re-arranging her room's furniture to more suit her melodramatic undertones.

"I suppose I'm your roommate..." Hotaru replied to the outburst with nothing more than a sigh. "...I'm Tomoe Hotaru..."

Hotaru's roommate stood frozen in his tracks, taken in Hotaru's appearance of blacks and deep violets illuminated by her own pale white skin and intriguing eyes of violet. "YES!! FINALLY! Another wearer of death's cloak!!! Wait a sec... you do always were black... ne?"

Hotaru restrained herself from rolling her eyes at the strange question. "Hai. And your name please?"

"Duo Maxwell! Shinigami! I may run and hide, but I never tell a lie! I'm also a fellow goth!" He winked at Hotaru still with the grin plastered over his face. The only response he acquired was a blank stare.

Finally, breaking the odd lapse of silence, Hotaru collapsed to the floor on her knees. It is was to rich... his assertion of stereotypes... and the scarier part of it - Hotaru detected - was that he believed his own self-created lies. Confused as ever, Duo tried to ask what happened to her, but the only response he was given was a cough. Helping Hotaru to her feet, Duo kept begging to know what he said that caused her to go limp.

"Duo... how large is your ego? Or... better yet, how much pride to you give yourself?" Hotaru kept an implacid face as she eyed Duo with all the seriousness he found in Heero. Duo, not quite sure what to make of it, stayed silent. He didn't even notice when Hotaru went back to her room.

"Well... at least he's quiet now." Hotaru mused. She felt guilt run into her blood as she remembered his face of confusion and slight hurt over her initial reaction. Feeling pity for him, she opened her door to still find him sitting on the beige carpet of the living room. Clearing her throat to gain his attention, she spoke with the voice of a true healer, and yet that of an experienced warrior. "Duo... it's not so much what you said... it's what you defined. A goth is not someone who wears just black. As you very well know, black is the colour of mourning. It is worn by goths as a symbol of the wisdom they know of the human race's self-destruction. They mourn the innocents that die each day by the struggles of foolish wars. But a goth's true heart and mind lie in their ability to see the good in everything. Especially the outcasted. To call oneself a goth, one must know that death is not the end... and that rebirth always follows."

"As for the whole 'Shinigami' title... it truly does not fit you. The last time I heard, the service of death was held in check by a woman. And she alone was to balance both life's forthcomings, and the searing pain left to warn the races of what sin could do to the soul's future and well-being..." Hotaru finished with tears trimming her eyes, but never escaping into her voice. She turned back to her room to finish her little 'project' with the furniture before closing her eyes to fall victim to sleep's sweet serenade.