Tori: Runnin' to the railroad track! Run along with Captain Jack.. Ba de da doh, ba de da doh, ba de da de da de da doh…

Wu Fei: …don't push me, Yuki.

Tori: Goooo left go right go pick up the step go left go right go le~ft!

Wu Fei: That is IT. We shall deathmatch. *pulls out the other DDR mat*

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"Treize, I'm not kidding… You're going to have to get someone in here to deal with the Sinners because I've gotta go back down there," Duet explained as she shifted through some of the papers on her desk. Frustrated, she shoved them aside and started checking through the drawers on either side of her black office chair. She sat in the middle of the medium-sized room, completely frazzled. Before her desk was an overstuffed armchair with its back to the door. On the desk itself sat two squat wire bins, one labeled 'in' and the other 'out', the former significantly fuller than the latter, as well as an ornate silver scale, Duet's signature device. The walls were lined completely with bookcases filled with leather-bound volumes of yellowed pages stretching up to the ten foot ceiling. It was an intimidating place for any newly dead which meant it was perfectly cozy for Duet.

"I'm sorry, but God forbids it. That's special treatment."

"Well he better get over it pretty quick and let me go or I'll special treat him…"

Treize closed his eyes. He rubbed his left temple, flicked a few stray hairs back, and sighed as he watched her tear her workspace apart. Shreds of paper danced through the air and settled gently on the Oriental carpet. "What exactly are you looking for?" he asked.

"These."

Treize startled and turned around. God stood a few feet behind him, a set of keys dangling off his index finger. Duet appeared from under her desk, stood up and straightened her robes. "God…" she smiled poisonously and fixed her crooked halo before she approached Him. "…gimme my keys."

"Ah-ah… I believe you have a job to do." The deity pointed at the scales sitting on Duet's desk, half-buried in papers.

"Yeah, well… beliefs can differ as long as you lead a good life, right?"

"Believe what you will. You're not getting these…"

"I'll fight ya for 'em." Duet grinned and put up her fists. "C'mon… Loser gets thrown outta heaven…"

"You're starting to sound like your father…" God frowned and palmed the jingling keys.

"But Go~od! I left a bunch of idiots down there and they need help…"

"You leave idiots down there every day, Julian. (here Duet cringed) Succeeding on their own is part of their penance. To let you interfere would be cheating."

Duet's fists dropped and she heaved a sigh.

"Now, please… You've got a line of sinners backed up almost to the gate and you don't want Peter in here chewing you out anymore than I do."

"Fine… Fine…"

"I knew you'd see it my way." God smiled. He nodded politely to Treize and left the same way he came; completely without warning and with a disturbingly but not-terribly-flashy bit of disappearing.

~*~*~*~

            Tobias stood dejectedly in front of the baggage carousel waiting for his luggage pass. His aunt was supposed to meet him when he got off the plane but he didn't find her. He didn't even remember what she looked like so he couldn't have recognized her.

            On the flight, Heero had mastered a useful little trick with the help of some of the other passengers' angels and was now sitting quite comfortably on the boy's left shoulder. "Heh, I'm a shoulder angel…" Heero mumbled, gloating a bit at the skill he'd acquired without Duet's help, "Wonder if there's a devil one, too." Sighing, the angel reclined against Tobias's neck and drew up his knees. He crosses his arms on them and looked out at the hundreds of people scurrying about the airport. He'd become quite adept at spotting fellow guardians and was surprised to see the wide range these guardians came in.

            A few feet away a kind-looking old woman grasped the hand of her middle-aged son. On her shoulder sat a mere child, brown baloney curls falling down her back and green eyes sparkling. Her robes were a bit too large, but her rosy wings were proportionately small. On the other hand, on the man's shoulder was tall, fierce-looking woman of African descent. She had a firm grim on the man's ear lobe and her dark brown wings fluttered every time her perch shifted. Heero sort of waved at them, but neither saw him.

            As Heero was relaxing, Tobias found his way to a chair and was playing cards with himself on the squat table in front of him. Both boys were surprised when a hand clapped Tobias on the shoulder ((Heero moreso because the hand had come dangerously close to his sandaled feet)).

            "Hey, Toby! Welcome to America! I almost didn't recognize you," the owner of the hand said. Tobias turned and looked up over his left shoulder.

            "Hey, Aunt Amanda."

            Aunt Amanda was a young woman, barely in her twenties. Her longish red-tinted hair curled and bounced as she moved and her eyes sparkled with excitement. "You're gonna have a great time here, Toby. I've got your room all set up! I even got you a minifridge so you can keep all your beer in there that I won't know about." Amanda winked, her smile widening. Tobias continued to stare blankly at her looking as if he was trying to force himself to care.

            Heero had perked up at 'minifridge'.

~*~*~*~

            Sunlight streamed in through the window and set Donna's cheeks aglow. Her dark, thick eyelashes fluttered and slowly opened. "Trois…?" she whispered hesitantly and looked up at the figure standing beside her bed.

            "Who the deuce is 'Trois'!?" Donna's father demanded. Donna squeaked and quickly sat up, clutching her sheets to her chest. There was a deafening CRACK as his hand connected with her face. "I'm sick of all this crazy talk! You want to get sent away to an institution!? That's what they do with little girls who talk to themselves! They tie up their arms and lock them in the dark until they cry themselves to death!"

            The slap had knocked Donna on her back. She had curled into the fetal position under the sheets, clutching her knees and whimpering in pain. Her visible cheek was red with tears and the growing welt. Squeezing her eyes shut, she prayed that her father would just leave. That he would go away and never, ever, in a million years come back again and then she could stay in her room and play with Trois forever. Trois…

            "Are you listening to me!? Donna, I swear to-"

            Silence.

            Donna lay still until a few seconds had passed. Nothing happened. Cautiously, she unwrapped herself. Still nothing. So slowly it was almost painful, she turned her head and peered over her shoulder. "Trois!"

            She sat up quickly and looked around. She could not see her father. All she saw was Trois… He just stood there, a horrified look on his face. He was staring at something, something on the floor. Donna crawled to the edge of her bed and looked down. There lay her father.

            His face was contorted in pain and his hands clutched at his chest, over his heart. It didn't look like he was breathing.

            Trowa broke his stare and looked up at Donna. "Donna! I'm so sorry! Merci… Merci…" he pleaded. Donna made no response. Instead, she continued to stare at her father. Trowa stepped around the body and sat on the bed next to Donna. He put an arm around her, pulling her closer. Silently, the little girl shrugged off his arm and crawled across the bed to reach the phone on her nightstand. Calm and composed, she dialed the number for the local police and told them that her father had collapsed. As she did this, not a single tear escaped her eye.

            When she was finished, she crawled back over to Trowa and put her head in his lap. Now, she cried, but Trowa had a feeling it was more from shock than grief. Still, Trowa couldn't shake the overwhelming sense of guilt.

            As her father was yelling at her, Trowa because furious. When he struck her, that was the final straw. The guardian angel summoned all his strength and all his anger and all his feelings of uselessness and futility and let loose a blow straight into the father's back, straight to where a feeling person's heart should be. He had expected nothing; that his fist would pass though the flesh as it always had, ineffective and frustrating. Instead, inside the man's chest, Trowa's fist connected with something, and that something broke.

            "Merci, Donna… Merci…"

            "Don't worry, Trois… It's not your fault." Her soft hand patted his thigh reassuringly. "It's okay, Trois… Don't be sad."

            "Donna…" Trowa ran a hand through Donna's blonde curls and his frown deepened. "I'm so sorry…" he whispered, biting back tears of his own.

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Tori: Hoo boy! Been a while since you've seen one'a these, ka? I'm completely neurotic these days, so even I don't know the next time I'll get around to translating more of this. (Manga format to English txt – not Japanese txt to English txt)