Author's Notes: aaand…..the long-awaited next chapter! (I hope XD)Yes, this will be a long story, give it time, high school sucks . # sign signals a plot change, or me being annoying and adding spaces to make my chapter look bigger.

"You know not what you do….."

Priceless Heart chapter 5

The wind howled outside, where a chill and desolate night was more comfortable than the chaos that swirled inside. A man sat, with a bored expression on his face, as a younger man paced in front of him, shouting. Anger was etched on the pacing man's face, righteous fury written as obviously as words on a page.

"You don't care, do you father? Is that is? Your own child means nothing more to you than an object for you to flaunt, is that it? Or perhaps she means even less to you than an object! Perhaps you love your precious computers more than her!" The older man opened his mouth to reply to this accusation, but the young man would hear nothing of what he believed were just excuses his father made, or even believed himself. "That…that THING! She means more to you, does she? Well?! Answer me, father…" He spat this last word out contemptuously, as though it left a horrible aftertaste on his tongue, motioning to a quiet, almost unnoticed persecom by the door. Her long blue hair hung down her back, wavy and perfect, not a strand out of place.

She seemed uncomfortable, from the all too human look on her pretty face, but that was just programming, telling her to seem this way because of her master's discomfort, wasn't it?

"You know the reason that my persecom means so much to me…" The older man replied, about to say more, but his son would hear nothing but his own rage.

"Heartless Bastard!" In one fluid and calculated motion, he crossed the room in three long strides, seizing the persecom by the door roughly by one arm. Anger and pain twisted his handsome face into a mask of vengeful judgment. "I'm doing this in your best interest father!" He swung his arm around, lost in his own rage, an anger many would say was justified.

"NO!" For the first time in the conversation, real emotion showed on the older man's face. He stood up quickly knowing over a table in the process. The loud crashing sound seemed to break through the younger man's rage, and his arm stopped for a moment, but as he stared down at the persecom in front of him, who cowered like a real woman, resolve solidified on his stony face, and he hit her with his closed fist, all his strength poured into the savage blow. The girl crumpled onto the floor, her face disfigured in an inhuman way, the metal punched in, pieces of it tearing apart the complex circuitry in her head. The man, fueled and emboldened by this act of defiance, continued to beat at her until his Father pulled him roughly away.

The older man's face was twisted with grief, as he knelt beside the sparking persecom. Her one good eye, less battered than the other hardly distinguishable orb, opened slowly, rotating lazily in its socket, coming to rest on the man kneeling over her. Tears streamed down his stricken face. He cradled her in his arms, and for one so knowledgeable on persecoms, he was heedless as to the dangerous sparks that leapt statically off of her thin frame. She attempted to form a smile from the components left of her broken face.

"Minoru…brother." She smiled, and her head lolled to the side, a faint pulsing light on her neck dimming to darkness.

"No!" The man holding her yelled out in denial, before crumpling over the piece of metal in front of him that he held so dear. The young man stared with stony eyes that held mixed feeling's of regret and justification as his father stared off into space, muttering the same thing over and over.

"Not again…please god, not again……Yuzuki!"

I sat cross-legged on a cushion with the three other women. There was obvious tension in the room because of my Mother. Hotaru and Katina had invited me to come and see the outfit her mother was working on for the festival, and discuss a choice of attire for me, and Chii had asked us what we were doing. Her attempts to be courteous and kind to the other women where almost pitiful in her naive efforts to win their approval, and there was an obvious lack of happiness in her when they seemed to rebuttal every attempt she made. When she had stumbled upon the room we where discussing clothes in and timidly asked to join us, we would have had to be evil not to let her. Katina seemed to accept her easily enough, but was also sensitive to the feelings of her family, namely the fact that some of them weren't so accepting, Hotaru was almost cold to her, but then, that was Hotaru for you, and I couldn't really tell if she discriminated against my mother for being a persecom.

Upon discovering the reason for out conversation, Chii had run off to get her own outfit that she had been working on for the festival, and upon her return, the other women had no choice but to offer her their grudging admiration for her beautiful handiwork. We where all sitting now, helping Chii and Katina start the designs for me and Hotaru's costumes. Now that Katina had another person to help her sew, she had agreed to help me and Hotaru make dresses for the upcoming event. I myself was increasingly bored with the process and Hotaru sat impassively to my left. Despite her uncaring look, I had the distinct feeling she wasn't having much fun herself. Katina and Chii had struck up an animated conversation about fabrics. I shot Hotaru a wry look, and she almost seemed to smile. She raised her eyebrows in return, and then rose. Katina looked up.

" Mama, is it ok if me and Darla go and annoy Teku?" She asked innocently. Katina mock glared at her

"Oh, alright. Bored already? You hopeless girl." Katina shook her head and turned back to Chii and their oh-so-interesting conversation. Darla walked towards the door and motioned for me to follow. For some reason, the idea of meeting Hotaru's stony-faced brother made a shiver run down my metal spine. Just a figure of speech of course. Persecoms don't really shiver. I followed Hotaru through the complex maze of her house, the only sound their muffled footsteps quiet against the plush floor. She finally stopped in front of a partially ajar door, pushing it open softly.

"Teku?" It was amazing how Hotaru's entire demeanor changed when she was around her brother. She seemed more calm, relaxed, and happy, as though the veil of solitary indifference upon her was lifted. Teku looked up from a journal he seemed to be writing in. It was a simple, leather bound book, and by the look of it, he had already filled a substantial amount of its pages. It served as an example for the rest of his room, tastefully furnished, and beautifully elegant.

I took a moment to look more closely at him. My face warmed as I realized he was wearing little else than boxers and a tank. His face betrayed little feeling, but his eyes were hard, yet strangely expressive. The thin light sifted through the blinds caught his blue orbs like the facets of a clear, tinted jewel. He had dark hair, kind of messy in a sexy way, and a few tendrils hung down in his face, in a way that made me want to reach out and brush them back. My eyes began to stray from his face, and I shook me head. What's wrong with me? I thought. I put a few fingers to my head, wondering if there was some kind of mistake in my programming. But nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Only my breath catching in my throat while I was in this room. The walls seemed so small. I could smell a vague sweet smell, like sweat and cologne. It was then that Hotaru decided to speak. It both relieved and disappointed me to realize that she was there. I put my head down, flustered.

"I'm going to go get some tea, why don't you try and get to know Darla?" Hotaru hinted, look pointedly at Teku before slipping silently from the room. Silence reigned for a few moments that seemed like an eternity. I finally decided to say something. I forced a fake smile onto my face, trying to brush away the strange feelings from before.

"So, umm…..where do you go to school?" I asked, trying to add a lighthearted laugh after this that sounded more like a nervous cough. Teku didn't answer. He rose, in one movement, from the bed, and I was suddenly all too aware of how alone we were, of his proximity in the room. I shivered. He stepped towards me, not breaking stride. I stood transfixed, like an animal in the headlights. Nothing in my programming prepared me to deal with this. People didn't act like this. Humans weren't supposed to feel like this, oh god there is something wrong with me, said the countless stream of thoughts running through my mind. He was close enough for me to touch now, and I started when he leaned his arm against the wall next to my head, his face inches from my own. I was aware of the wall behind my back. I was scared, but it thrilled me in a strange way.

I could feel every breath he took, as it played across my face. I closed my eyes, shaky and alarmed.

"Darla?"

Hotaru was back. Teku stood up nonchalantly, as though nothing had happened. Hotaru stood in the door, a look of bemused curiosity on her face, and a silver tea tray in her hands.

"Eh….am I interrupting something?" She asked with her eyebrows raised. Teku just stared at her, and she laughed. "Don't mind him Darla. He's always quiet." I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. Hotaru brought the tea tray into the middle of the room and set it on the glass table there. Teku followed her, but not before looking back at me, his gaze piercing, almost scary. His eyes lingered on my face, until I was the first to break the staring contest, looking down at the floor. I could feel every ending of myself audibly. I took a deep breath and looked up. But he was already walking away.

AU: NO I HAVE NOT STOPPED WRITING THIS!! BUT I WOULD LIKE MORE REVIEWS! I ended the chapter here a bit shorter than planned to tell you people that….so yeah.

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