(A/N: Please don't steal any ideas, characters, etc from me. Come up with your own ideas, cause I hate biters, mm'k? Oh and please KEEP ME MOTIVATED with reviewssss!

Mannn, this chapter is super long. x. It was just a little side thing so that you can see how Aiko's family is like.)

My Father the "Hero" and My Brother

My parents didn't really mean anything to me, so when they died...I wasn't really sad. In fact, I didn't even think of shedding a tear.

My "father", Atticus, was the hero of the war between the cities and the Ruthless. He was the reason why my family and everybody else in the city of Hope were still alive after the war. I guess you could say that everybody was proud of him-except me, that is- but nobody gave a damn about him a few days after the war. He wasn't given an award, a certificate, or any acknowledgement. He was still ordinary old Atticus to me and the world.

Atticus was never around much and it wasn't like he gave a damn about my family. MY family. He didn't deserve the right to be called "the man of the house". One reason was because he we didn't have a house for him to be "the man". The second reason was that he would always be out doing his job which only earned him a few pennies an hour. He worked day and night, yet my mother, my younger sister, my older brother, and I were still cold, wet, and hungry.

Darius, my olderbrother, called our father by his firstname. He said that Atticus didn't have enough respect from us to call him "Father". My mother didn't really have any say in what we called Atticus because she died from a car accident, which was a few months before the war ended.

This was when Atticus started working day and night. He would always give us a dollar or two by the end of each week, but splitting that money between the three of us kids was almost impossible.

Because we didn't really have anywhere to go to sleep, Darius, who was twelve at that time, would find us an alley to sleep in at night. He would find a box for May, my little sister who was only two at that time, and I to sleep in, make us get in, and pull the box against a wall while he sat in front of us.

His back was always turned towards us so he could keep a lookout, but I could just picture in my mind how his face was like. He had this...talent, I guess you could say, where he could have a blank, yet expressive face. Alert and serious, yet calm.

Every night, I would fall asleep with the image of him-just sitting in front of us. In the morning, I would wake up to see him in the same spot as if he didn't move an inch or sleep at all. I always looked up to him and admired his strength and courage. He gave up his childhood to protect May and I, not that the three of us had any friends to hang out with. Even though my brother never told us so, I knew he cared a lot about us. I care about him, too.

He and May were the first people I actually cared about. But after two years, when I was nine, Darius told me he was tired of living the life of a rat and ran way from-well, I can't exactly say "home" because we constantly slept in empty boxes; therefore, he just ran away from...us. He ran away from May...and he ran away from me. He didn't come back for a year, and when he did, I was surprised.

He had changed. Not completely, because I could still sense his caring personality inside of him...but he was just different. He became really intelligent-both life-wise and street-wise. The first thing that Darius did was give me a bar of chocolate, which I slowly ate, lasting me a month.

He told me that he meet some stranger named Balthazar who taught him how to be independent. Apparently, Balthazar taught Darius how to sell illegal items, steal, cheat, lie, read, and so much more. It seemed like Darius had thousands of stories to share about his adventures and stories that Balthazar had told. I couldn't help thinking to myself that Darius's life seemed so...exciting.

I swore he read my mind when he told me about his great idea. The plan was for May and I to join Darius during his adventures. We were supposed to help Darius steal and cheat and lie and sell things. Together, we could earn enough money to buy a house. A real HOUSE with real beds.

It was so tempting, but I was still hesitant to agree on this idea. What if something went wrong? What if May got left behind or hurt? May was only five! How was she supposed to help? "We could get a dog," said Darius. And that was all he had to say. A big smile spread across my face and I approved of his plan, but there was one thing we had to do before we started on our journey.

We looked everywhere for Atticus and we finally found him, but he wasn't at work. He was just sitting on top of a tall bucket onthe sidewalk. He had that blank but expressive face on like Darius had, but I never told Darius how much they looked alike when they had "the face" on.

At first, Darius didn't do anything but stare straight into Atticus's eyes while Atticus glared back, but soon Atticus's eyes trailed off. Somehow, the eyes landed on May's and then mine's. He stared at me longer then he did at Darius or May, and his eyes were so...weak and dreary, yet strong and powerful. It was like...he saw my future and realized something about me.

At that moment, I wish that I knew more about him. Darius saw how long and hard that "old fart" was staring at me, so began yelling and insulting Atticus.

Darius called him "a useless piece of...shoe", and "a mother...freezer", remembering that May and I were just a few inches away. Just by hearing his insults, I could tell that Darius regretted not being able to have shared a bond with Atticus, too. I realized that his pain and loneliness turned into buring anger for Atticus, and I suddenly felt sorry for Darius.

Throughout the whole time Darius was "cursing", Atticus just sat there staring at me until it got to the point where Darius had to scream for Atticus's attention. The last thing he said to Atticus was that we were leaving his lazy "...acorn" behind and that we didn't need him anymore. Darius then took May from me, took my arm, and we just walked away.

I turned around with one last look at Atticus and whispered quietly, "Bye daddy..." Surprisingly, he waved to me as if he heard my good-bye. There was something about him that was puzzling. Maybe that's why our mother married him.

I never got to ask him why he seemed so different or why our mother married him because he died that night from a simple cold. I wondered why he didn't go to the hospital, but remembered that he didn't have any money.

All the money he made was sent to us. He sacrificed his own life for ours, yet we didn't show him any respect. But that would change. Even though I wasn't sad about his death, I still understood his sacrifices and now had a lot of respect for Atticus. No, my FATHER who really WAS a hero.

That night, May slept in my arms in another box in another alley while Darius stood guard again. Just then, I realized how much my father and Darius had in common. Their eyes, their face, their personalities...poor Darius. He probably looked up to father like I looked up to him, but father was never there, so Darius had nowhere to look but the ground.

I wanted to stay up with him that night to make him feel better, but I fell asleep. The next morning, I woke up by force because something was licking my face. After wiping the saliva off of my eyes, I saw that Darius had gotten us a puppy and my, what a beautiful thing it was.

He was covered with dirt and dead grass, but underneath all of that shaggy-ness was a magnificent dog. I quickly woke May up and she was also surprised. Darius told me that I could name the dog, but I couldn't think of a name on the spot.

It took almost forever until I came up with the name Ryu, meaning "dragon" in Japanese. We called him "RI" for short, which is made up from his initials. (Ryu Ina). Darius called out Ri's name and that puppy came charging at Darius.

For the first time, I heard my brother laugh. It was the first time I ever heard anybody laugh, and...I felt...good. Like Darius's laugh would make me...feel good because it was contagious. With that laugh, I felt as if everything in my life was to change, but in a good way. Maybe mother was right. "Love"...maybe the word really does have a true meaning to it.

(A/N: END--yeah, for some reason I don't think a lot of you will like this chapter cause it's just about her family. "/. Welllll, I still like this chapter cause it's like background on Aiko. Hm, I just realized that this is sorta like "The Series of Unfortunate Events". Three kids who have to fend for themselves. Hah...Let's see how long it'll take for me to make Chapter Two. x. Motivationnnnnn is the key. ;D)