THREE

(Mugen's PoV)

The next morning, I woke up with a hangover. Needless to say, it pissed me off. I guess I'd slept in, and when I finally opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was Fuu's ugly mug glarin at me. She poked me hard in the forehead and I growled at 'er.

"Whaddya want ya stupid good for nothing…" Man my head hurt. That damn sun was back again, with a vengeance.

"Oh, stop grumbling. You're lucky I let you sleep for this long, it's almost noon! Hurry and get up, we've got to start work." She stood and walked out of my range of vision and I started to roll over again. She wasn't havin none of it. I think she threw a shoe at me, but what really got me movin was that shrill angry voice of her's.

"Alright, ok, fine! Jeeze girl…I don't know what kinda man you expect to get if you're screamin like that all the time." I stretched and popped my back, yawning loudly the whole time. After I was loosened up, I got my shirts on and stepped outside. Jin was nowhere to be seen, and Fuu was close behind me.

"Where do you think you're going?" She squeaked.

"I'm just getting some air, relax will ya?" I scratched my head and turned towards her. "So what was that you were sayin about a job?"

"Well come back inside and I'll explain." She pouted at the door. I smelled somethin good, and I assumed it was breakfast.

"Sounds good to me." I walked back inside and sat cross legged on the floor. She handed me a bowl of something and stared at me while I ate it. "Can I help you?" I asked, eyebrow raised and mouth full.

"Well?" She looked at me hopefully.

"Well what?" I swear, she can be so weird some times.

"Well, do you like it?" I guess she meant the food.

"Yea, sure I do. It's food ain't it?" I ate some more and rolled my eyes. "Did you make it?" I indulged her.

"Yea, I did. It was a recipe my mom taught me. Kichi gave me the ingredients earlier, but she's gone now. She said she had to go to a meeting somewhere, and she closed up shop for the day. She told me we could all stay here until we asked about a job."

"Huh?" She still hadn't told me about work and where we were supposedly gettin it.

"Well, you know that huge red house in the middle of town?"

"Yea."

"Apparently, it belongs to a man named Toyo. I guess he runs everything around here with a pretty tight fist. That's why nobody would talk to us. He's a pretty dangerous guy. But she said that we could go to his house and ask for a job here, at least for a little while."

"Sounds a little fishy ta me, but whatever. I ain't scared of a tight spot." After I finished my breakfast I leaned back, intending on lounging for a while, but my hand slipped on the floor and I fell on my back. She started to laugh at me, and I threw something at her. I missed, but on purpose. I wasn't tryin to disfigure the girl. "So where's that idiot Jin anyway? You don't think he finally grew a brain and dumped your sorry ass do ya?" I was pickin a fight and I knew it, but somehow I didn't care. Habit was habit and I wasn't about to change anything.

"Grew a brain? Well…you're still here, right? So what does that say about you, huh?" Her voice was quieter than normal and she sounded sorta hurt. I felt bad for a second, but I brushed it off right away. "He's at the market place asking if anyone needs help around their shops, so we can give Toyo a specific request when we meet him."

"Oh."

"Yea."

"Sooo…we just wait here until he gets back?"

"Yea, I guess so."

"Well then, I'm goin back to sleep." I laid down and rolled over, turning my back to her. She didn't say anything about it, and I was starting to dose off. After a few minutes, she started talkin real quiet, like she figured I was already out.

"Jeeze Mugen, why do you have to be such a jerk all the time? It gets tiring. Sometimes I just want to be nice, but then you go and say something mean and then…" She sighed real loud and stood, walking out of the room.

My eyes opened for a second, but when I was sure she was gone, I closed them and went to sleep. I remembered thinking about what she said just before I passed out. Why did she have the ability to make me feel guilty? Mugen doesn't feel guilty, not ever. Maybe it was cause…naw…couldn't be.

It just couldn't be…