Priceless Heart

Am I that inhuman?

That when I cry my misery is not expressed by tears?

That I don't lose this "beauty" over the years?

That I too, can feel what you take for granted?

If I rip myself to pieces over you

And I do not bleed

Will you truly, laugh at me?

I can see the sun setting

I can see darkness letting

Me fall faster……….

Sell this love of mine as a toy.

But you will never own it.

Priceless Heart.

Her skin warmed. It was the warmth of a light bulb. Hideki stepped back as she started, for the first time since he had seen Chii looking at baby pictures in a magazine.

"Hideki, what are these?"

"Babies, Chii. All humans look like that when they are very young."

"Oh. Chii likes them. They look so happy."

The persecom in question was holding his arm gently. Her amber eyes reflected the figure in front of them, on the white table, like twin pools. They where innocent on the outside, but with unfathomable depths. Beautiful, But you could drown in them. Hideki thought for a moment. Though Darla was very different looking from Chii, she had her "mother's" Amber eyes. Slowly they opened. Darla was clad in only a long white gown that had used to be Chii's. Thin and simple, it fit her, with striking comparison to her creamy skin and jet black hair. She sat up, her eyes empty for a moment. Hideki watched her silently.

"Just a dream….."

Her voice was musical, beautiful to hear, but tinged with authority that didn't seem to fit the forlorn persecom. She reached up slowly, running hesitant fingers over her ears, the skin on her arms, her hands stopping to rest over her heart. She slowly looked up at Hideki and the familiar….woman? No….she had strange ears…..Where had she seen them before? She scrambled blindly away falling off the white table with a crash.

Broken out of his reverie, Hideki dove to catch her, managing to grab her arm before she hit the floor.

"Darla!" She looked back at him blankly, and her eyes calmed. Hideki glanced back at Chii. She gave a small smile, cute and innocent as ever, but Hideki could tell that if she where human, her eyes would glisten with tears

"Chii has some sewing to do on a new outfit….She will see Hideki and Darla later?" Without waiting for a reply, she padded silently upstairs. She and Hideki had spent the first few years of her marriage doing research on persecoms. Hideki had sold several of his models, before becoming sick of the commercialized, sellout attitude of his coworkers, and many of the people involved in persecom sales. But the money he had made from the sale of a few of his revolutionary models had bought them a lovely little house away from the over polluted, raucous city. The silence had been completely new to Chii, who had never experienced the open country before, but Hideki seemed more relaxed than he used to be. Chii loved the calm life that they had, but she could see Hideki's faraway look at times. He had worked hard to get his degree in computer development, and though Chii was his first love, Darla, in a way, was his second. At times, he seemed almost obsessed with her completion.

Chii sighed wistfully, her honey colored eyes, resting on the unfinished costume on her bed. Before leaving the city, she had learned to sew and do needlework from Ms. Hibiya. She now designed her own clothing. It was a hobby of course, another thing about her that amazed Hideki, how she truly enjoyed doing it. The costume on their bed now was a pale pink, laced with pearls. Chii was making it for the upcoming cherry blossom festival being held in their small town. She planned to complete it with lace, and wear some of the flowers with the carnation colored dress on the day of the festival.

Hideki looked at Darla skeptically, He had made sure to install her with revolutionary software that he had designed himself. It would give her access to information on appropriate mannerisms of human beings, but would not require her to follow those programs. She knew how to masquerade as human, but it was her choice how she acted. He wondered what had triggered her previous outburst. There had been something like fear in her eyes, but what was there to fear for a newborn persecom? Had he made some mistake in the years her had spent creating her, working at a slow, agonizing pace over every painstaking detail?

He looked her over. She seemed fine now, sitting cross-legged on the floor, studying him curiously. She really did look like what a child of his a Chii's would resemble. Her Ebony hair was but a shade darker than his own, but pale highlights streaked through like bolts of lightning. Her eyes looked exactly like Chii's, and she was slightly taller than her mother. Her facial makeup scared him a little, because it looked so similar to his wife's yet so separate and foreign. He reached out a hand to her.

"Come, Darla. Let me explain everything."

Minoru Kokubunji, now a man, sat at his computer desk, his pale face glowing eerily in the artificial light of the monitor in front of him. His non-humanoid surfing computer was his own design, and it allowed him to hack into virtually any database of account in the rapidly growing cyber world. He paused his rapid typing for a moment to stare at a forsaken corner of his desk. While the rest of his workspace was cluttered with documents, stray computer parts, and tools, one corner was dusty and unused. Nothing lay in it save a single face down picture frame. He reached out trembling fingers, than drew them back before touching the photo as if its mere aura had burned him.

Shaking his head, he turned away, back to the comforting glow emanating from the screen. But the lines of computer HMTL no longer held his interest. He had long since finished putting up a fake identity for his old friend. What it was for, he didn't know, how a human could just appear out of thin air, but he owed him one. Soft arms wrapped around him. He turned, unsurprised to see his wife, Katina's face inches from his own.

"Watcha Doin?" She asked, through a mouthful of popcorn.

"Nothing."

"Of course I believe you."

"Thanks."

She cuffed him playfully in one arm. "The guest room is almost ready. When is your friend coming?"

"Soon, hopefully. I'll be right up."

"Alright." She sauntered away, pausing to lob a piece of popcorn at his head before climbing the nearest stairwell in the large mansion that served as their home. Minoru frowned. Something wasn't quite right about the person he was creating a fake identity for. Had Hideki adopted a child without telling anyone? It made no sense. Curious, he pulled up the window contained her online ID. Something nagged at him.

"Who is this Darla?" He muttered in frustration. His features slowly smoothed to calmness.

"We shall see."

AN: I really need more reviews if I'm going to continue this story, so please, leave reviews. I really plan on sticking with this one, because I have a basic plotline already for it. REVIEW.