Authors Notes: please review…..reviews are what keeps me writing….I have so much to do I often don't have the time to write chapters, but when I get reviews, I sometimes stop just to write the next chapter for whoever reviewed….

Yes I will be including an original poem at the beginning of most of my chapters…….

I can see you standing there, distorted

A kaleidoscope of pain

I can see you lying there, a dying flame

I can see the sky changing

From dusk to dawn and I watch you

As you put your facade on

Born from light and creates shadow

Crawling desperation

I offer commendation

I can see you, invisible

Please

Feel?

Priceless Heart- chapter 3

The soft sounds of silverware clanking filled the otherwise silent kitchen. Chii, over her years with Hideki, had been taught to cook through online software, and was now practically a gourmet chef. Useful, considering Hideki couldn't cook for his life, but Chii being a persecom could not eat. Darla was a different story. Hideki had made sure that she was able to taste her food. Food she ate was immediately transferred to a small metal hollow in place of her stomach, where it was incinerated. Left over smoke and chemicals from this burning where used for fuel, much like a human.

It had been a week since Darla had been awakened. She had since gotten used to the uneasy feeling she got every time she saw Chii. She now sat at the table, one hand primly on her lap, the other lifting small mouthfuls of food to her lips. She was dressed in faded blue jeans and a black tank top, her lips painted a striking but not overbearing scarlet. Her face was impassive, betraying none of the nervous feelings that swirled within her. Her father had told her that she was a computer, just like Chii, but she was just as good as any human, and she should not let others know that she was a persecom. Why? She wondered Is it that horrible? He had been very grave impressing the importance of this on her, almost panicky.

She paused to take another sip of orange juice. And what of these strange things before her "birth"? She remembered snatches of something, something that scared her and made her wish she could hide, but she could not pull the nagging image from her memory. Like a dream that you can feel but just can't quite remember, it danced just on the edge of her mind, on the tip of her tongue, taunting her, but never getting close enough to be caught. A small frown briefly graced her perfect features, before smoothing away as though it was never there. Though she loved Hideki in her own way, she wasn't quite sure she could trust him, so she hid her feelings from the always-questioning man in front of her, who was shoveling food into his mouth faster than he could chew and swallow it.

Because it seemed to please them, she called Chii and Hideki "mother" and "father". She had now adopted more human mannerisms as well. Hideki had taken her shopping, and seemed relieved afterwards. When she asked him why, he had just shrugged her away. She had been given an ID with her picture on it. It told her that she was 22, and held several other useless facts about her, some of them false. Like her weight….She almost blushed. She had used the scale in the upstairs bathroom one night, curious. She had read in a book in her fathers study what her average weight should be, but she metal inside her made her much heavier than normal, one of the few grievous flaws in her almost-perfect personification of humanity.

"Papa, where did you say we where going today?" she asked mildly.

"My good friend Minoru has agreed to house us for a few weeks while our house is being redone." He replied, smiling at Chii. "We will be spending the Cherry blossom festival with him."

"Is he married?"

"Oh, yes. He has two children as well, about your….erm, age." He said the last few words with a nervous cough. " I'll introduce you when we get there."

"Yes. I would like to meet some more people, Papa." She wiped her mouth with a delicate brush of her napkin.

"Yes….." he said distractedly. He excused himself from the table and walked off as though in a daze. Darla walked away as well, making her way up to her room. Her room was as bare as the day she had taken it as her own. One simple white futon that she "slept" on was in one corner, along with a small slab of wood that served as a bureau. Hideki had promised her better furnishings when they returned from Minoru's mansion. Her suitcase, packed neatly, stood solitarily bye the door. She walked to the middle of the room and sat down in lotus pose, closing her eyes tiredly.

The doorbell rang. There where a few moments of silence in the Kokubunji household, before they all rushed for the door. Minoru, wearing a customary suit, was first to reach the door with a few controlled, powerful strides. Katina, rebellious as she was, had refused to change into any thing more elegant than what she normally wore, baggy jeans and a black tank today. Minoru's children stood silently to the side.

17 year old Hotaru Kokubunji was a wraithlike shadow. Her eyes held untold volumes of fear, resentment, and pain. Though she wasn't always crying, her face always appeared tear streaked. Her skin was pale and sickly looking from never being outside. Her hair was ebony black, and ran down to her lower back like a stream of dark water. Her eyes where a dark, almost black. She wore a long black gown that pooled around her feet at the floor. The sleeves where long as well, and covered her hands, but the bodice and waist kept the dress from looking overlarge on her.

Her older brother, Teku, was 19. His face betrayed no emotion, but there was something eerie about his blank stare. His hair was also black, and cropped short above his shoulders. He wore a pair of baggy, faded blue jeans, and a grey shirt, and stood by Hotaru in an almost protective manner. There was obvious tension in the room. Minoru avoided meeting his sons' eyes.

The Door opened.

Silence.

AN: sorry this chapter was so short…..stabs her high school damn tests…..