With Honey and Venom
"What hast thou done to me,
Girl, with the dream in thine eyes?
Brightened the sun to me,
Lightened the skies;
Made there be one to me,
One only sun to me Not in the skies.

What hast thou done to me,
Girl, with the dream in thine eyes?
Darkened the sun to me,
Blackened the skies;
Made there be none to me,
Nor star nor sun to me,
Only black skies."
-"Et Melle Et Felle," Anonymous

What prompts people to fall in love? Is there truly such an emotion so vivid as to allow two different people to come together and care for one another so deeply as to be monogamous?

In my experience, there is no such thing; lust is the only factor in any relationship, and it depends solely on the strength of it to determine whether the two are monogamous or not. So far, there has never been a monogamous couple. The man will stray eventually, seeking out other bed-partners.

Love has never existed in any relationship.


IV...My Name is Adele.


Okay, so I've done some pretty stupid things in my life, I fully admit that. There have been those few times when I've misjudged a situation and either done or said something that was pretty stupid in the long run. First time was going out with David, a boyfriend I'd had for three years before we split; the second, I guess, was deciding to go to Japan without thinking through every single little detail of my trip, including the budget. But, I swear, the biggest mistake of my entire life would have to be putting on that damnable collar.

So, here I now was: standing at the edge of a clearing while Mr. I'm-too-beautiful-for-your-lowlife-eyes battles a horde of giant insects and demons with a single sword. Was he insane? But I was too scared to yell at him; he just ignored my presence, and dove into the mass, swinging his sword very elegantly. I watched it all with wide eyes, demon blood flinging everywhere, but strangely enough missing me entirely. Of course, I didn't notice that until after I'd had my panic attack. During, though, I was too frozen in panic and fear to care. A few times during the battle, I could feel the chokehold return as the golden-eyed man danced around the attacks aimed at him, but he always edged closer to me when I weakly tried to lessen the tightness on my throat.

Within minutes, the battle was over, and the bloody demon and insect corpses littered the forest clearing. That was actually when I gave in and curled into a little ball, my hands covering my neck as I squeezed my eyes shut tightly. I wasn't used to having panic attacks, and even twice within two days time was too much for me. I wanted to go home; I wanted to have my mom hug me, and reassure me that there was nothing bad that could hurt me. Even if her words were lies, they were still a slight comfort. I'd seen too much of the world to live forever naïve, but there were some moments that I wanted to return to when I was a little girl, before I'd learned of death, of destruction.

"Do you understand the power I wield now, girl?" Came a low growl above me, a clawed hand wrenching my right hand away from the back of my neck, lifting me slightly to my feet.

I hung limply from his grasp, muttering incoherently in bits of English about wanting to go home to my 'mommy,' even if the chokehold was insisting that I stop. What can I say? I was scared out of my mind--quite literally.

But he brought me back by shoving me against a nearby tree, the bark digging through the layers of clothing I wore to scratch at my back. "Listen to me, girl," he snarled, golden eyes flaring angrily. Fearing any retribution, I forced myself to calm down, saying to myself that I needed to conserve my air supply, just in case. I swallowed, nodding hesitantly to say that I was listening: I didn't trust myself to speak just yet.

"You have seen a small part of the power that I wield, girl," he said after a moment. "Do not forget that I could easily break you if you defy me."

Defy him? I would only do that if I had a death wish...and I was very close to thinking one up. I didn't like this place: it was too scary, even for me. I kind of liked death, blood and gore, but not when it was so close to me, or when I could very well be the one to die and get splattered everywhere. Having an over-active imagination, I could think of at least twenty ways I could be killed, each and every single one quite unpleasant.

"Have you lost your tongue, girl?"

Swallowing against the bile that threatened to come, I managed to stutter out, "N-no...I-I c-can st-still speak." I really didn't like the whimper lying beneath my words, but I had no choice.

"Alright then," he said, his angelic face relaxing from the angered look. At first, I thought he hadn't any emotions, but he did: his facial muscles only shifted very slightly. Only someone who was very observant could see his emotions clearly written in his face. "We're returning now; do try and keep up."

He released my hand, and I stood slowly, looking down at the top of his silver-haired head. Up close from my height, he looked effeminate and wimpy. But, that was if you take things at face value. If I'd been at least a foot shorter than I am, he would probably have been very overbearing.

He strode off in a different direction than which we'd come, and I followed as silently as I could, my hands pressing my stomach to keep it from roiling; I'd had no food, and I'd almost thrown up in fear. All this stimulation wasn't doing anything good for my overly sensitive stomach, and I could only imagine the consequences I'd suffer if I ate something I'm seriously allergic to out here.

I don't want to find out. I'd probably die in a gruesome way.

A drum beats in the darkness…

"Onee-chan and Sesshoumaru-sama have returned for Rin!" The little black-haired girl chirped happily as I stumbled into camp after a gliding golden-eyed beauty. Compared to him, I was bumbling oaf, but I didn't care. I smelled food. Sweet, delicious, foo-- Crap. Fish. Something I didn't like, and was mildly allergic to. Oh, woe is me. "Rin made dinner, Onee-chan!" She smiled happily at me, looking proud.

"Ah, that's really good, Rin-chan," I smiled, forcing the grimace at the food away from my face. Sitting next to her near the campfire, I waited as she carefully extracted the fish away from the flames. It was a whole fish, with the scales and eyeballs still attached. Ew. Oh well...I had to eat something, even if it was...a fish.

Picking at the flesh of the fish with the tips of my fingers, I folded aside the scales and inedible parts and gently nibbled at the meat. It tasted alright, for a fish, but my stomach was mostly happy at the food, nonetheless. In fact, I would probably be burping the air out of my stomach in a few minutes; that tended to happen whenever I ate after not eating for a while.

Meanwhile, the little girl next to me was scarfing down the fish like no tomorrow, just barely avoiding the bones. How was it possible that she could eat the scales and organs without being disgusted? I was disgusted, and just by watching her!

As soon as I couldn't see anymore to eat on the fish, I stuck the stick it'd been cooked on back in the ground, trying to ignore my unsatisfied hungry stomach. That wouldn't matter, since I was positive I'd have a hurting stomach in about a thirty minutes.

Looking up at me as she finished her own fish, Rin blinked curiously at my half-eaten fish. "Onee-chan isn't very hungry, is she?" It looked like she was getting ready to pout, or cry.

"Oh, no, not really," I said hurriedly, not wanting to disappoint her, since that would mean an angry golden-eyed man trying to asphyxiate me to death. "I just... I don't have a very big appetite," I said offhandedly, hoping the little girl didn't notice the pause.

"Oh, really?" She smiled, and I felt a moment of relief. "Neh, can Onee-chan sing me that lullaby again?" She yawned, laying down so that her head was in my lap. "Rin is tired..."

"Ah, sure thing, Rin-chan," I smiled gently, waiting until she'd gotten comfortable before I launched into Brahm's Lullaby again. It soothed my frayed nerves, reminding me of the days when I'd been a naïve little girl protected from the harsh world by her mother's arms.

I finished the song, and she was dead asleep in my lap. Feeling oh-so-motherly, I gently stroked her hair, distracting myself from cowardly thoughts of running scared back to my mother. I admit it: I was acting childishly, being this scared. I didn't want to confirm my mother's degrading valuation of my personality being a child's, however... Well, my decision to come to Japan was childish in the first place, since I wanted to prove to my mother that I wasn't a child. But I had already confirmed it... And that didn't make me feel at all good about myself right then.

"You do not even know the child, yet you are acting like a human mother: why?"

I glanced up at the golden-eyed man, tensing slightly. I ignored the offhand 'human' comment, filing that away for later contemplation; instead, I focused on the 'mother' part. "Motherly? Me? Heh, as if. My own mother says I'm too much of a child to properly take care of one on my own," I muttered darkly, going back to gently stroking Rin's dark, silky hair. "I love kids, though...they are so naïve to the world's ills, so innocent..."

"You sound as if you were not like that once yourself, girl," he commented, and I saw him, out of the corner of my eye, turn to watch toad-like servant take care of the big beast.

"Well...I learned very early in life that the world is no place for naïveté," I admitted, closing my eyes against the memories of my childhood. "I was my mother's solace when Daddy left; but it was a good thing he'd left, since he was so abusive...he'd accidentally killed my mother's first child, three years before I was born." Why was I telling him of my crappy father, whom I still called 'Daddy'? Was it the collar, or did I just want to tell someone about the silent thoughts I'd kept to myself all these years? "Mother...was never really a mother after Daddy left...I didn't realize it at the time, but she was trying to force her own shattered dreams and hopes onto me..."

"You humans are so dramatic with your emotions," he snickered (I was listening very closely to his voice: I was over-analyzing my surroundings, as usual).

"Gee, thanks for the solace," I grumbled, yawning myself. My whole sleep pattern had been out-of-whack, but now it seemed that I was getting tired at normal human hours...wait. Had he just said "you humans"? Did that mean... "Are you a demon?" I asked him, gazing up at his still form with wide sky blue eyes.

He glanced at me, his golden eyes meeting my sky-blue ones. "You have just now figured that out, girl?"

"Uhh, yea, I did," I rolled my eyes at him, slapping my palm to my forehead, shaking my head at my own stupidity.

"What is the meaning of that gesture?" He queried, even though he sounded bored and uninterested; guess he didn't want to appear that he was interested in something that I, a 'lowlife human,' had done.

"Oh, uhm...it means something along the lines of: 'I can't believe I was that stupid,'" I explained, trying for the best meaning I could think of.

"Really? It would seem that you do that quite a lot; does that mean you are very stupid?"

"Gah! Wha...gah!" I glared at him, grumbling incoherently at the insult. However, at the slight tilt to his perfect lips, I paused. Had he just... Had he justteased me? I looked at him closer, and the smirk was wiped from his face as he turned to look at me.

"Why are you staring at me so, girl?"

Yup, he'd been teasing me...he even looked embarrassed at having had smirked! Wow...was he flirting with me? There'd been only two other instances where guy's have flirted with me: when I'd cosplayed as a J-Rocker(1) to a friend's birthday party, and the first time I'd met David. Now it looked like I could add this golden-eyed beauty to the list...

What was his name, anyways? Oh, right, Sesshoumaru...interesting name... Wait. He didn't know mine, did he? No, I don't think so... "By the way; my name's Adele," I said suddenly, for some odd reason wanting him to know what to call me, besides 'girl.'

"Ad...ele?"

"Yea, Adele," I smiled brightly up at him. "And it's nice to make your acquaintance, Sesshoumaru-san."


End Chapter


Post Scriptum Author's Note: You know what? I looked back to how I'd had With Honey and Venom planned out, and it was nothing like this! I guess that's kind of good, since it was kind of really sappy before, and Adele was kind of getting to be Mary-Sue-ish. Oh well. This new Adele I've got going is actually kind of cool, in the whole "I'm kind of weak-willed in some ways, and strong-willed in others" way. Well, anyways, I wouldn't suggest writing something and leaving it for several months and come back to revise it. Although, that seems to work for me, for some odd reason. So, yea, hope you enjoyed chapter four, and I'd love to hear your comments, readers. Reviews make me happy, and a happy BGF-chan makes more chapters faster.
(1) Just imagine Mana (if you know about him). He's part of the J-Rock band, Malice Mizer, and is really pretty. Just look him up, along with the band name. You'll see what I'm talking about.