A/N- One thing to everyone, if you want to criticize that is way fine, but you better leave me an email or sign in because if you don't I am going to be very pissed. I respect those who criticize, hell I WANT people to criticize, but I want to get a chance to response and talk to you if you have questions or if I want to verify something you might have missed. And if you don't want to talk to me or hear from me fine, don't read my story then!
Thank you for those who read my little anger-try-to-be-management-note,
Lia
Sorry this is a short chapter....
Chapter Two
She stared at the neatly wrapped gift in her hands as she walked down the Bebop's hallway. She had jumped into a pair of jeans and a gray shirt instead of her regular attire because she wanted to look special for Ed's birthday. Ed's 'special day'' which she had almost completely forgotten about.
She sighed.
She felt guilty, it was written across her face and deeply imprinted in her green eyes.
She hadn't meant to shatter those innocent golden eyes to tears. She hadn't meant to burst that bubble of happiness surrounding Ed's world like she had. But she couldn't help but feel angry at the world that had taken Spike away, the world that was supposed to be live and let live not kill and let die.
But she needed to forget that right now.
She needed to be happy for Ed, for her special day the child had been ranting about ever since she had come back to the Bebop, barely noticing that Spike was gone. Or maybe noticing but not realizing or understanding what 'not coming back' meant.
No one had sat Ed down to explain Heaven and angels. The thought had never crossed anyone's minds. It was just figured the child knew.
Faye walked into the kitchen where Jet was working on a cake. The door slid closed behind her as she left her thoughts outside.
The kitchen was small, and only consisted of a refrigerator, a counter, sink, oven, a few cupboards, and a microwave. Everything else had to be done on the grill. It was poorly decorated, the walls were the metal of the ship and the counter was a steel, while the cupboards were a yellow wood, too ugly to call yellow.
"I couldn't find the candles so I just stopped the ship at Tijuana to buy some. Have you seen, Ed?" He asked without taking his eyes away from his cake that looked more like a pink and white mass of fluff and nothing more.
Faye suppressed a laugh at the fragile attempt at a birthday cake. "Uh, Jet, where are the candles going to go?" She asked as she looked at the lumpy frosting. Flowers, or little puff balls supposed to be flowers, covered the entire top like littered papers on an alleyway and cherries decorated the center.
Jet stopped fussing and looked at it. His eyebrows went up and then down as he put his icing covered hand to his forehead. "Oh, no! I'm butchering it!" He wailed as he stared down at it. "I'll have to stick them somewhere on the sides maybe?" He asked himself distantly as he rubbed the frosted hand back and forth over his crone dome.
Faye sighed. "Jet why don't you go clean up and I'll finish the rest?" She piped in hoping to take some of the stress of cooking away from the older man's mind. In truth she hated to cook, but the remaining Bebop crew needed to stick together and when one had a 'special day' that day needed to be extra special and sacrifices needed to be made to make it so. Well, in Faye's mind that was how it was supposed to be.
Jet looked at her. "I don't need to clean up," he said looking down at his dirty apron and shaking his head. "The apron took the mess."
Faye smiled sarcastically as she took her finger and ran it along the icing on his forehead before putting her finger in her mouth. She smiled. "Last time I checked, you weren't the birthday cake," she said sarcastically. "Mm, icing is good, though." She set her small wrapped present down next to the cake and moved to look over the pink and white fluff ball of sugar.
"Alright, Faye. Just don't mess the whole thing up." He began to walk out the door.
"Like I could mess it up, it's already messed up," she muttered.
"Hey! I heard that!" He called as the door shut in his face.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Maruha medama. Maruha kirei. Kuroibudouno. Amaiagi," Ed sung distantly as she walked down the streets of Tj, her legs covered and lost in a stolen pair of Faye's jeans, her arms covered in Faye's red coat rolled up on arms much to thin to hold the fabric. Her bare feet hit the pavement lightly, each step resounding a light 'smack' as she looked around at all the people around her, Tomato resting comfortably on her head.
Ein panted at her feet.
The sidewalks were busy with people in the fading sunlight and the streets were busy with ships and cars as horns and talking filled the air along with different scents and lights in the sky and air. Everything was foreign to Ed, even the people. Everyone was so different from Earth people. No one said 'hello' around her and a reward for a smile was a cold stare and then a blunt turn away that made the quick learners understand that friendliness was not welcome among forgotten modesty.
"Ein," Ed said as she sat down on a bench, a distant corner separate from the busy streets and cold souls. She put Tomato in the backpack she had on her back as she rested against the soft worn wood.
"Why people so mean here?" She asked and tried to smile as she thought of the Bebop. "Faye-Faye at least talk to Ed. No persons even say 'hi' here." She thought of Faye and smiled when she remembered the concentration it took her to paint Faye's toe nails. Ed liked concentration, she liked to busy herself so she didn't have to think too hard on things not wanted to be thought about.
The dog just stared up at her with sympathetic eyes only he possessed for her alone. "Ein cares!" She cried as she hugged the dog close to her chest and smiled happiness making her light and joy-filled to know someone cared in a world that didn't want to care at all.
"Hello, dear," a voice said as a shadow covered her small body.
Ed looked up and smiled as a kind looking woman stared down at her. Her eyes were green and her hair was a dark black, her attire a soft black dress suit. Her face was kind and young as she smiled down at Ed and offered her hand. "You seem lost, may I help you find your mother, sweetie?" Her voice was soft, trusting, sweet.
Ed smiled. "Edward don't have a mama!" Ed laughed at the absurd question for in her mind everyone knew she never had one in her life. "Edward never have a mama." She smiled and took the woman's hand anyway, happy to make a friend. She shook the woman's hand hard as the woman looked confused for a second and tried to shake her off. "Me Edward, this is Ein!" She laughed again motioning to the dog who watched the woman with suspicious eyes. Ed jumped on the bench standing proudly. "Today Ed's 'special day'. Pretty lady, wanna have fun-fun with Edward?" Ed looked up with eyes full of hope, glad to have found a possible friend. She could feel the fuzzy feeling of having found trusting and feeling in a night getting colder and colder as it woke from it's never ending sleep.
The woman looked around at everyone staring at her from the streets behind her.
Ed was making quite a scene as she danced and sang, and laughed, and smiled. Arms flailed, feet kicked, and flips were done in mid air. She wanted to shake the cold air her skin felt as she tried to warm herself up by jumping and working her body's temperature up.
"Sure," The woman said smiling. "Here give me your hand and we can go someplace special to celebrate your 'special day'," she said, her eyes lighting with bright light.
Ein growled.
Ed didn't notice. "Yay!" She cried and began howling and barking. "Fun-fun, special day, fun-fun!" Ed sang as she grabbed the woman's hand and smiled up at the warm figure in front of her.
Ein began to bark as the woman walked Ed down the next street, Ed wailing and screaming at the top of her lungs with happiness. People stared as cars drove past and honked at the woman and the child who looked like she was having a temper-tantrum.
"Ed, could you please be quiet?" The woman asked sweetly, the night behind her fading the sun away.
"Oh, why? Why Ed be quiet?" Ed asked smiling.
"If you want a party you have to be quiet or else other people will want to come and crash it," the woman said stroking Ed's hair, pulling slightly with force that startled Ed with pain. The woman began to lead Ed down the alleyway.
Something stopped Ed as Ein's barking penetrated her world off happiness and the slight pain the woman had caused woke her up from her sleepy world of finding trust in strangers. "No," Ed said as she stopped and drug here feet as the woman pulled Ed foreword with difficulty. "Stop!" Ed cried when the woman didn't let go of her hand. Her wrist began to throb with pain as the grip on it tightened. "Ow! That hurt Ed. Let go!"
In their view a white van came into play as the moon cracked in the sky to shine down on its beat up paint and rusted edges. The brick walls surrounding Ed made her whimper with fear she didn't want to acknowledge. The coldness threatened her as she tried to shake it away.
The woman turned around and smiled with evil victory. "C'mon now, kid. Don't you want to have a party?" She asked sarcastically, her white teeth glowing like fangs. Her voice had suddenly become very cold and Ed shivered as she fought to free her wrist.
Ed felt the fear over take her and then she felt herself slip into her imagination. No fear, lions felt no fear. "ROOOOAAARRR!!!" She screamed as she bared her teeth and growled.
The coldness was overbearing, she had to get rid of it.
The woman only laughed. "Scream and cry all you want, no one can hear you down this alleyway." The words were meant for the hopeless which Ed was not grouped in.
Ed growled again, Ein close behind her, teeth bared. Then, without warning, Ed sprung foreword with amazing speed and bit down hard on the woman's hand holding her captive. Ein sprung foreword and gripped the woman's leg with sharp teeth.
"Damnitt!" The woman screeched as she let go of Ed's wrist.
Free! She was free! Ed ran back down the alleyway, her lion heart beating as she growled and panted, her limbs bounding with each step as she ran for her life, as she ran away from fear and bitter cold of feeling bad feelings. The light from the opening of the two brick walls on both sides melted into hope as she jumped and landed on the sidewalk, colliding into someone as she landed in a growling ball.
"Hey, watch it!" A voice said angrily as a bag of food and books were dropped to the ground with a clatter, a sounding horn of freedom or perhaps battle as Ed backed away against the brick wall. She shook her head as she tried to clear it, imagination colliding with reality as she tried to find the difference between them. She didn't need to be afraid anymore... The lion she became backed away and watched from the shadows of her mind for an opportunity to charge out again.
She looked up and saw an older boy with dirty blonde hair and blue intense eyes staring down at her. His eyes were more than angry as he looked her over and expected to find a little punk with earrings everywhere. But what he found instead was an innocent little kid, fear written in golden eyes.
"Hey, kid. Watch where you're going next time," he said as he went to pick his things up off the ground.
Ed growled, her animal defenses kicking as he reached, not for her, but too close for comfort. She expected to hear a bark from Ein to back her up.
No bark came.
The boy looked at her with odd blue eyes as he drew back his hand.
She looked around wildly as she looked for a sign of her best friend and found nothing but the darkness of the alley way where she'd come from, the cold leaking through, beckoning her, daring her to try it's wrath one more time. For a moment she stared down the alley way, and then she heard a bark, Ein's bark. Distant, helpless, and calling for help.
"Hey, kid, are you lost?" The boy asked behind her.
Ed didn't respond as she growled the lion taking control as she stood with anger and ran back into the alleyway, the boy calling after her as she snarled into the darkness, roaring at the cold fear that played over her bones and chilled her frozen.
She found the woman a few steps away.
"Nice of you to come back," she said as she held up her hands and threw a beaten Ein to the ground at Ed's feet. The dog whimpered as he stared up at Ed, his eyes pleading to forgive him for failing in protecting her.
It's ok, Ed said with her eyes. Ed, protect Ein, now. She turned her golden eyes towards the woman and placed her imagination in front of her eyes. She was a wild beast who needed to kill the tiger in front of her. They were in a dark forest where no one was around except two souls, one greatly outweighed by fate.
Ed snarled and growled as she jumped for the woman. But the woman was ready for her attack this time and took out a gun and in a flash Ed was on the ground whimpering as a tranquilizer dart stuck out of her shoulder. She whimpered pitifully and howled like a dying mule as the world around her faded and blurred.
Faye-Faye, help Edward. Jet! Spike-person! Her mind cried as she began to cry and howl louder, the drugs taking to her system like a plague. She tried to keep her eyes open, tried to fight. But the point in which giving up was nothing but a must came all too soon and her vision was failing her.
The last thing she heard was a gunshot and a yell from the woman as wheels screeched away. And the last thing she felt was warm arms picking her up and carrying her away into her dreams.
A/N- Who is this mysterious girl who wants Ed? Why did she want Ed? Tell me your ideas, the second chapter is ready to be posted but I just want to hear what everyone thinks.
DIDN"T HAVE TIME TO LOOK OVER AGAIN..... ^_^;;;;