CHAPTER TWO

It was nearly dark when the three of them finally arrived at home. The ride home had gone a lot more smoothly, considering the fact that Jess had been the one piloting instead of Christa, and Gren found himself drifting off to sleep on more than one occasion. When the finally arrived home, they were all very hungry.

"I'll make dinner tonight." Jess suggested, giving Gren a strange look.

"Kay. I think I'll take a shower before dinner." Christa said, walking off.

"And I'll. . .find something to do. Do you need any help with dinner?" Gren offered.

"Nah, I'm fine. You can go do whatever you want." Her expression then became very serious "unless whatever you want consists of spying on my sister while she's in the shower. If that's the case, then I'll have to remove your eyes with THIS!"

Gren half expected her to pull out a knife, but instead, she pulled out a spatula. He tried to hold back his laughter, but he simply couldn't. Jess tackled him to the sofa and began smacking at him with the spatula, gently enough so as not to hurt him, but hard enough for the contact to actually make noise. They were both giggling very loudly, and Christa walked out wearing a fluffy purple bath-robe.

"What's so funny?" she asked, and when she saw the sight before her, burst out laughing as well. "Jess, maybe you shouldn't kill Gren just yet."

Jess got off of grin and smirked at him, offering her hand to help him up. He took her hand and got up, and Christa walked out of the room laughing. Jess went back to giggling as she walked to the kitchen again and began fixing something for them all to eat. Gren decided to rest for a little while, and went back to the guests' room where he had woken up earlier that morning.

Gren laid down on the bed for a little while and closed his eyes when he felt someone put their hand over his mouth. He opened his eyes too see someone standing over him. He couldn't really see who it was, but then the person backed away and turned on the lights.

". . .no . . ." Gren said, full of shock and fear.

Vicious smirked at him. "You were supposed to be dead. It took me quite a while to find you, here with these girls. I don't suggest you fight me, or I will kill you. . .again. . .and I will kill Christa and Jess. You need to die, Gren. You need to die and stay dead." Vicious pulled out a huge dagger and took a step towards Gren.

Gren sat up from the bed, terrified. It had been a nightmare, or at least that was what he thought. He looked to the doorway. The lights were off, but he could see him. His silver hair, a smirk on his face, he could almost see his cold-looking crimson eyes.

"Vicious!" was all he could say.

The lights flickered on, and he saw that the person in the doorway was not Vicious, it was Christa.

". . .dinner is ready, Gren. And what did you call me?" she asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"Nothing. I just. . .thought you were someone else." He said, getting out of the bed, still a bit shaky.

He followed her back into the kitchen and they all ate in silence for about half of the meal before Jess spoke up.

". . .Either you guys are really tired, or someone switched your brains with spaghetti noodles."

They both looked up at her and giggled a little bit but returned to eating in silence. After they were done eating, Gren offered to help Christa clean up the table.

"I'll be right back." Christa said while Gren finished rinsing off a few of the dishes.

He nodded and she walked off. A few seconds later he went to find either girl to ask if they had a dish towel he could use to dry the dishes off with, and he overheard their conversation.

"What did he call you?"

"Vicious. I distinctly heard the name 'Vicious'."

"Are you positive? Maybe he said something that just sounded like Vicious."

"Jess, I'm positive."

Just then, Jess looked up, and towards the doorway to see Gren, who had been behind the door slightly, but obviously wasn't really hidden.

"Gren!" she yelped in surprise. "were you eavesdropping?!"

"I-no I wasn't I just-I was going to ask-"

Jess walked up to him and grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him towards her so his face was merely centimeters away from hers. "What did you hear?" she asked him, glaring into his eyes.

"Nothing. I just got here. All I heard was you asking if it sounded like Vicious and her saying she was positive. I swear, I don't even really know what you were talking about. Well I mean, I'm guessing she told you that I called her Vicious, but-"

"Do you know him?" Christa asked, quietly.

Gren was quiet for a few seconds, and Jess let him go. "Yes. He is the man who killed me." Neither girl said anything for a minute, and then Gren looked back up at them "wait. How do you know him?"

"We're bounty hunters, Gren. Do you realize how high of a bounty he has on his head?! We've been after him for years!" Jess answered.

He left it at that, and there was another awkward silence, which was broken by Christa.

"I'm sleepy. I'm going to bed now. G'night sis." She said, hugging Jess and kissing her on the cheek. "G'night Gren." She said, hugging him also, and smiling. She walked out of Jess's bedroom (where they were at, obviously lolz), leaving Gren and Jess alone.

"I think I'll go to bed too." Gren said, turning to walk out

"Not so fast. I still need to talk to you." Jess said.

Gren turned around to face her, and she sat down on her bed, motioning for him to sit next to her. He walked up to the bed and made himself comfortable, before speaking up. "So, what do you need to talk with me about?"

"I don't know what your past was like, but I want you to know right now, that anything you've done before now, I won't hold against you. I have heard some rumors about you. I have heard that you worked for Vicious. I heard that you killed a few people and-"

"Of course I killed people! I fought in a war! How am I not supposed to-" he was silenced when Jess put her fingers over his lips.

"These are some things that I have heard. Honestly, I think that a criminal is a criminal, no matter what excuse they give. But my sister trusts you, so I will give you the benefit of the doubt and everything that I've ever heard or anything bad that I might have thought about you, I will forget. But I want you to know, that as of now, you work with us. We will treat you no better than we treat each other, and you will have to help us work. If you decide to leave us, that is your business, but don't come back to us for help. I really hope that you'll decide to stay with us, though. So, honestly, do you think you'll be staying?"

Gren took in all that she had just said, and then smiled. "Yeah. I'll be staying."

Jess smiled and then got a sly smirk on her face "and for the records, my sister is off limits, in case you had any ideas."

Gren giggled a bit. "but you're still available, right?"

She smacked him on the arm slightly and laughed "that's not what I meant, and you know it. And I'm off limits too. Mr snugglekins would become very jealous."

"Mr. Snugglekins?" he questioned while she pulled a stuffed blue bunny out from under her pillow

"Yes, Mr. Snugglekins. He's my boyfriend." She joked around.

He started laughing as Jess kissed the bunny on the tip of the nose. "You can stay with mr snugglekins. I won't get in the way. I promise." He put on the most sinister smirk he could whip up at the time, but then added "besides. . .I'm not exactly a ladies man, if you know what I mean."

Jess stared at him for a few seconds and then giggled again "well that just takes all the fun out of it! It's no fun if you're living with a guy who isn't into the women! Now me and Christa can't slap you for trying to spy on us while we're changing or in the shower!"

They got into another giggling fit, and then Gren decided to get to bed before Christa came in, complaining.

Gren laid down in bed and fell asleep almost instantly, but jolted awake almost instantly. Something wasn't right. Something DEFINITLY wasn't right.

END OF CHAPTER TWO

Peggi: I am so sorry it took me forever to update. Major writers' block for this fic. I'd like to thank Devy for helping me straighten out the plot and I dedicated this chapter to Eevee since she was MY ONLY REVIEWER!!!...grrr....review ppl, review. OR YOU SHALL PERISH, FACING YOUR DOOM OF BEING IMPALED WITH THE PITCH-FORK OF DOOM AND BEATEN WITH THE TIKI-TORCH OF MISERY!!!...not to mention thwacked with Sanzo's paper fan for idiots. . .

Legato: (thwacks peggi with the paper fan) idiot girl, stop your rambling.

Peggi: (swirly eyes) owie. . .please review now. . .I need aspirin. . .