A/N: Um. Um. There is a very good explanation as to why I haven't updated this in two years. I got inspiration for my Inuyasha stories (Nghi), so... yeah. But now I don't, so here I am again. :O

I just wanted to mention that my writing has improved (Or at least I think it has.), so thank God I only wrote one chapter, eh? I'll probably update it to my liking (and fix it so the two chapters will match. XD)

Disclaimer: Wasn't the series created, like, 84,000,000,000,000 years ago?

Chapter 2: In Your Eyes

Vietrose

She was too young at the time to realize what she had gotten herself into. Out of the pan and into the fire was how it usually went, and Miaka had really jumped. The man with the green eyes was so nice and kind- how could she refuse someone like that? And right after her mother leaving her in the middle of the park, too!

But she was seven, and she was, once again, too young and too dumb. The man gave her a loving hand to hold onto, and she took it. Now two weeks later, he was stretched out across a beaten recliner, his feet propped up, and she was beside him, holding a plastic tray and looking disgruntled. He sighed contentedly, reaching over for a beer bottle; all the while, his eyes were trained onto the small, television screen, following its movement.

Miaka tried to please him by standing still, but she was a tad ADD, and she was soon slumping and sighing and scoffing again. "This is no fun," she complained. "All I'm doing is holding your beer and cheese curls for you!"

The man shushed her. "It's the opening game for the season, and I need to hear the scores, so shut up for a moment, kid."

She looked a bit miffed, but kept quiet after that. Her arms were sore, and her feet were cramping up, and Bear Bear was lying broken-hearted in the corner with no one to love him. It was way past her bedtime-11:30- when the game wrapped up with the scores, and the man marked them down onto a small slip of paper. "Gotta love connections," he sang quietly to himself. Miaka was too busy falling asleep against the side of the chair.

"Aw, you're falling asleep, kid?" he asked affectionately, and she nearly fell over. "All right, you can take the couch for tonight," he said, scooping her up and placing her gently onto the sofa. She mumbled inarticulately and stretched her hands, and he got the idea; he returned a second later with Bear Bear in hand, and Miaka mumbled thanks, snuggling against its fuzzy body. "Sleep well," the man said, ruffling her head before retrieving his coat.

"Wait..."

He paused, turning his head over his shoulders. She was awake already? Well, damn... "Hm?" He was the master of expressions, and hiding inner emotions was his forte.

"Whasyurname?"

... Eh!

"Whasyurname?" Miaka asked again, already drifting off. He exhaled a big sigh of relief; thank God children had a predictable clock. There was a time to be hyper, and a time to be drowsy, and she was configured perfectly.

"You can call me Jay."

She nodded off once more, muttering incoherently, and he shook his head slightly, smiling a little before leaving quietly.

-

It was very early in the morning (Three? Four?) when a loud thump jerked her from sleep. It was an unconscious type of sleep, where you dream about nothing, and she actually liked those. Her eyes were almost pulled shut when another thump woke her again. "What...?" Miaka yawned and stretched out her back-

The door suddenly crashed open, and she twitched, clamoring out of her sleeping position and onto the far end of the ugly, green couch. Too many events had gone"W-Who's there!" she called out, terrified at the dark figure crouching near the doorframe. The answer came in the form of green eyes, as Jay's eyes twinkled ominously in the dark. "That you, kid?" he rasped heavily. It looked like he had no mouth, from the way the black covered everything.

"Jay?" she asked tentatively, her eyes furrowing in concern; she crawled onto the floor when he nodded. "What happened? What's going--" The questions were cut painfully short when Jay grunted again, still crouched and walking slowly backwards. Miaka stepped forward to help him, but then he stepped into the moonlight, and she saw his pretty face marred and stained with blood. And then the trash bag Jay was dragging ripped open, and she saw what he had been carrying, and Miaka was quick to back up into a corner, slumping onto the floor and whimpering, hiding behind Bear Bear.

A bleeding corpse.

"Fuck!" he swore angrily, kicking the body, and a bit of blood from the neck oozed onto the floor; Miaka began crying, and Jay looked in her direction. "Oh, no," he realized finally, taking a step towards her. She shuddered and tried to shrink back even further. "Kid--"

"Don't touch me!" she shrieked, the tears streaming smoothly down her face. He ignored her outburst and continued. "I mean it!" her hands were unsteady, and Bear Bear shook like a poor rattle.

"Kid," he tried again, but she was sobbing now, trying to scuttle behind the white-washed walls. It was no use, and the bloody man kneeled in front of her. "Listen to me--" Miaka shook her head, her eyes tightly screwed shut. The stench of death's blood was heavy in the air, and then he had the nerve to touch her cheeks with his bloody hands, the cool liquid rolling across her face.

He shushed her again for the second time, and many times after that, and the keening ebbed into silent suppressions. "Listen to me," he tried again, and it was a much better response as she sat there, violently shuddering from trying not to wail. "I won't lie to you, kid." He tried to look sincerely into her eyes, but they were still screwed shut, still too terrified. "This is exactly as it looks like. This is exactly how a dead man looks like.

"This is exactly how my enemy looks like."

She was beginning to break down again. The scene? The man? The enemy? She had been living with a killer for the past two weeks? Miaka was old enough to know what everything meant; she watched the news all the time. But to experience it first-hand... "Open your eyes."

She shook her head, but he persisted, gentle but firm. "Open your eyes." She tried to drop her head against her chest, but his hands kept her positioned. "Open your eyes."

Miaka did as she was told, and Jay's face came into view, emerald eyes staring softly down at her. "This is how I live," he whispered to her.

"This isn't normal-" she began, her voice climbing in pitch. She was losing control again, losing control of the petrified feeling. Jay cut her off again, hushing her. "This is normal. It has always been normal for me. For us now."

For... us? "But what if--"

"Listen to me," he cut her off, and she was quicker to follow his command. He was still staring at her, but more steely. "You've seen it all. You know it all. But whatever you do, don't say anything. Never tell anyone. This will be our little secret, OK?" he nodded encouragingly, and she could only helplessly look away, still gripping Bear Bear.

Jay was not satisfied. "Promise me," he said, his voice coaxing and smooth. "Don't make me do anything I don't want to do."

Miaka looked at him, her eyes shimmering from the light. Then she looked behind him, where the man lay, his neck swiped open and his chest bleeding. Could she trust Jay, someone who had done this?

Then she thought of how he had treated her these past weeks, giving her shelter, food, and comfort. He gave her a place to sleep, he played games with her, he gave her clothes to wear, but most of all...

he gave her back a family.

It was absolutely wrong, and she felt low and cornered, but for giving her something so precious and wonderful... Miaka nodded, her eyes welling up. Jay gave a huge sigh of relief and kissed her damp head. "Thank you. Thank you so much," he breathed, and she began to cry a little harder.

"We're family now, kid," he said, bringing her onto his lap and rocking her. She hugged Bear Bear closer, too ashamed of what she had done, but Jay didn't seem to see that; he wiped away her tears and replaced them with smeared blood in their wake. "We can tell each other anything. We can watch each other grow up, we can buy each other birthday presents, we can do everything a normal family can do!"

Miaka was sobbing again, her face pressed against his leather jacket. Her shoulders twitched as she hiccupped, and her throat was scratched raw. She had someone who loved her again, but why did it feel like nothing compared to the dread in her stomach?

"Shh, it's all right," he lied carefully. "We are like everyone else.

"We just have more secrets than others."

-