Disclaimer – I do not own Cowboy Bebop. Don't sue me, even if my writing is terrible and sends you into foaming seizures. I want to verify the fact that I am still I'm dead broke…

Overall Content – A little suspense, weirdness (Duh, the story's about Ed mostly), POV changes, some betrayal, lurking shadows, heavy sarcasm, and some other stuff. Maybe fluff. *eats the fluff*

Chapter Content – More weirdness, no POV changes as of yet.

Dancing in the Dark

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Chapter 2

Late Night Waltz of the Confused

We'd been going, drifting, for days.

"Ed! What are you talking about?!" Faye demanded of the little girl. Ed just giggled and pointed to the screen of her computer. I watched, amused by the stress she was putting into Faye's facial features. My old friend, Jet, was leaning against the wall, watching the two battle it out, though Ed didn't seem to be battling anything. He was watching Faye's lips, with a curious look on his face, as they formed their violent words. I bet he was wondering the same thing I had for a long time… did she sleep in that makeup?

There was nothing to do. No new bounties had come up for almost two weeks, and that had made us all lazy in even trying to search for new ones or bother with the old.

"Edward will see Blue…" she said, crossing her arms in front of her chest and her lips pursing to press her point. Faye looked at her with a mix of confusion, stupidity, and utter hair-tearing rage spread across her face as thick as peanut butter. I raised my eyebrows as I began to pay attention to this quarrel. A nervous breakdown would add flavor to the happenings around this ship, especially if it was Faye's nervous breakdown. I leaned forward from my sitting position on the couch, ready for the rumble.

We had been falling in and out of slumber and hunger, not even registering the fact that we were starving.

"Ed…" her voice sounded like the growl of a wolf. Slowly curling, her fists became clenched at her sides. Pulling out a single cigarette from my diminishing supply and lighting it, I smirked and exhaled the smoke.

We moved listlessly around the ship, like disgruntled employees on the verge of sleep… or snapping, whichever came first on the list.

"Wait a sec, Faye," Jet said, stepping away from the wall. A look of aggravation settled on my face and I sat back. The guy was breaking up the fight, just at the moment it was getting ready to break out into a brawl of hilarity. This had better be good, I thought, crossing my arms in front of my chest. "Faye," Jet put his metal arm on his companion's shoulder, "let me try," he said. Faye closed her eyes in decision and then slowly nodded. Calmly, yet still boiling inside, she sat down in the couch next to me and plucked the cigarette right out of my mouth. I watched her as she kept her distance from me, puffing the smoke with aggravated hands. Then I sighed and pulled out a fresh one, lighting it.

Jet stepped towards the young member of the Bebop's crew and leaned down, putting his face near Ed's, smiling as he talked. "Now Ed, what is this thing you keep talking about? We don't understand…" he said.

"Is simple, sir."

"Not to us, Ed. Please explain blue to us…"

Edward looked at Jet for a moment before smiling. "Blue is like Ed. Blue is Ed's friend!" she said, finally pulling her goggles off her head and untangling the band from her fiery hair. She crossed her legs and began to rock back and forth, wide smile still present.

Nonplussed, Faye turned to me. "Her friend is a color?" she whispered to me. I shrugged. "Weird kid," she muttered.

"Took you long enough…"

Hearing this sarcastic grumble, Faye turned and glared at me with silent promises of murdering me later. I gave her a blank, is-that-all-the-punishment-I-get-for-insulting-that-hunk-of-gray-shit-in-your-head look and began listening to Jet's peace-talk again.

"What is blue?"

"Blue is Ed's friend!"

"What is Ed's friend?"

"Blue!"

Jet sighed and shook his head. I was surprised. Edward usually didn't play her games with Jet, and his patience with the girl was high. But no action in the bounty hunter business for a long time must've crawled under his skin, blanketing itself and breeding with Annoyance to produce masses of children. And I despise kids…

"Look, Edward," I said finally, "we want to know what 'blue' exactly is. Is it an animal? Vegetable? Mineral?"

The response was a chain of giggles coming from Ed. "Silly Spike-person! Blue is not vegetable or rock! Blue might be animal, Ed never ask before…" she said, taking her chin between her index finger and thumb and considering it as deeply as she could.

"Well, it's either a hamster or… something else that is annoying and makes noise," Faye lazily cracked.

"Kinda like Ed…"

Faye snickered at this, but Edward didn't seem pleased. She growled as if the spirit of the wolf had been passed onto Ed's body from Faye. I gave a silent chuckle, ignoring Ed. I took a drag from my cigarette, not expecting what happened next.

I felt a weight fall on my chest, the force throwing my cigarette out of my mouth. I opened my eyes to see a fuming Edward sitting on my chest. I just sat there in shock of a thirteen-year-old animal sitting on me. And then she lunged down, head darting towards me.

And then she bit me. Hard.

"DAMNIT!! STUPI- DAMNIT!" I screamed, pushing against her. She bit down one last time and she then hopped on my head and scampered away into another part of the ship. I jumped up and started after her, ready to beat the kid until she couldn't bleed anymore…

"Spike, stop."

I stopped, but turned and glared at Jet. "I'm going after her," I growled. Jet just stood there, unmoving but menacing nonetheless. "You'll do no such thing," he said.

"The little troll bit me Jet!"

"Spike!" the man barked, "She's just a kid. And kids don't like to be insulted, did you like it when you were some stupid kid growing up?" Everything was true, but I still wanted to kill her.

"Jet she—"

I was cut off for the second time that morning by the presence of something worse than Edward.

"Howdy amigos! Ready for some big game?"

And there it was, the annoying pair that hosted Big Shots.

"There's a big new bounty out there, isn't there?"

"You're sure right! His name is Lester Hernandez, he's worth 25 million woolong!"

"Right! And last place he was seen was Earth, where he attempted a terrorist act upon several government buildings!

"Ohhhh! Such a bad boy! Good luck cowboys!"

I looked at Jet, my rage now dead and limp. "We are definitely going, I don't care if we catch the bastard or not. I need to shoot at something," he said. Faye lay back on the couch, satisfied with her triumph in turning on the broken down television set. "Anything beats this place 24/7…" she grumbled.

Edward's head popped from outside the door. "EDWARD SEE BLUE!" she exclaimed and scampered off in joy instead of being chased by Spike. Airplane noises could be heard echoing off the steel walls of the ship. Jet just rolled his eyes and went to go set the coordinates of our destination.

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I got up this evening

And I ain't got nothing to say

I come home in the morning

I go to bed feeling the same way…

Weeee! I had fun with this chapter! Hope ya like it! ^_~