Not one hundred percent sure how this chap will be viewed by you guys reading. In fact I'm not even sure if it fits at the moment, but I got stuck and was trying to write my way out of what I had gotten caught on.

You'll learn a little bit about Shay's childhood, both good and bad. A majority of it is vague for a reason, so don't judge me too harshly on that. I'm leading up to explanations.

That being said, don't be afraid to let me know what you thought of the chap.

Twenty minutes later, Toshi stood over his side of the table preparing the lobster and other shell fish to be cooked in the pots and pans provided for them while Shay chopped some vegetables and fresh parsley, and basil and garlic and onion to go with their food when he finally decided to pour them both a glass of wine and asked her to tell him something of her childhood.

Didn't matter what it was to him. He just...wanted to know something about her that she usually didn't talk about.

Shay paused in mid motion for a moment and looked at him for a second before sighing softly and setting her knife aside so that she could hand him the stuff that she had just finished cutting up to cook with/flavor their food.

"What do you want to know?"

"What was your childhood like?"

"Depending on whom you ask- it could have been heaven or hell."

"That's a weird way to phrase things." Toshi said as he dropped the trussed up lobsters into the pot of boiling water and then crossed his arms over his chest for a moment and looked at her.

Shay shrugged her shoulders and muttered, "And yet it is no less true."

"Why?"

Again, she shrugged before saying. "There was a variety of reasons. It was never one in particular."

"Will you tell me about some of them?" He asked as he checked the lobsters and a few other things before pulling the shell fish out of the pot and lacing them on a heating plate to keep warm while he drizzled them with a not so healthy helping of butter to keep the meat moist and delicious.

"I'm not sure where to begin."

"So just start with what you remember and go from there."

"Okay... When I was little I wanted to be a rock star." She said almost hesitantly, as if she were trying to gauge his reaction. And when he did nothing but grin, she moved on from that to her other 'I wanna be this when I grow up' phases. Rambling down a list from rock star to doctor, lawyer, actor, writer of epic horror novels, and finally ending at ghost hunter.

Everything was typical of a small child trying to find their place in the world. With the exception of the ghost hunter thing. That one had sort of come right out of left field and he would admit to feeling a little bit curious about that.

So he asked, thinking that the story that led her to want to being a ghost hunter as a child would be an amusing one. Instead what he got was.

"Okay so when I was eleven a classmate somehow got it into his head that I had cursed his family. So he brought a gun to school and shot me in the head with it while my back was turned."

Toshi went eerily still as the tongs in his hand slipped from shock numbed fingers and fell to the floor with a clatter as he stared at her for a moment with his mouth slightly agape before finally managing to stammer out, "W-W-What?" More than a little bit taken aback by the admission.

Shay reached out slowly and placed her fingertips underneath his jaw and pushed his mouth closed before continuing, "Yeah. The bastard decided that because I had 'cursed' him and his family and friends, that I should die. So he shot me, but because his hands were shaking his aim was off enough to only injure me pretty badly instead of splatter my brains all over my school locker."

"I was rushed to the hospital, and my parents came at the same exact moment that I was going into to one of the rooms for surgery. Turns out that the bullet lodged itself in my skull a little bit, cracking it pretty badly. And on top of that I suffered an aneurysm during the surgery and wound up clinically dead for about fifteen minutes..."

She grimaced slightly as she recalled the unpleasantness that had followed the incident before going on, "My injuries put me into a coma for about two in a half weeks while I was healing up. Finally I remember waking up that last day, with my mom and dad on both sides of me holding my hands while they slept. They looked...bad... and I- I didn't really recall what had happened for almost a year after the incident. But my subconscious remembered, because I had some pretty messed up night terrors about it..."

"What where your night terrors about?" He found himself asking after a moment or so after he finally found his voice again, just to keep the conversation going.

"Mostly about the moment I died. Even though I didn't consciously recall it. Part or me did, and it gave me nightmares that were so scary. I dreamt that I was dead again, over and over again. One moment I was fine, whole even. And the next there was nothing but darkness and I was standing in a hellish corpse filled lake full of blood. I saw my parents, my classmates and teachers from school-" Her voice was starting to shake a little bit as she felt the memories of the nightmares and the familiar feeling of utter horror that she had felt then, flood her mind. Filling her with panic.

Toshi must have realized that she was close to having a panic attack, because he dropped his stuff and quickly moved to her side of the table and had his arms wrapped around her shivering frame an instant later. Placing one hand over her wide terrified eyes, he rested his cheek against the top of her head and spoke in low soothing tones.

Apologizing for upsetting her. Telling her that she was safe with him, he would never allow anything to touch her... And then finally once some of her shaking and fear had faded somewhat, he decided to ask her something else.

What made her feel brave as a kid? Did she have something that inspired her to feel strong, invincible, and untouchable?

She subtly nodded her head and without him removing his hand form her eyes or his arms from around her, she started to softly sing her favorite song. Bulletproof, by the band Diamante. He stood there listening to the song and mentally nodded his head in approval at the lyrics.

No wonder the song made her feel brave. He thought to himself as he slowly removed his hand from her eyes and released her from his hold somewhat.

"Feel better now?" He asked once the first verse was done and she suddenly fell silent. She blinked up at him and slowly nodded her head again as he smiled down at her and took a moment to brush his fingertips along the curve of her cheek and said,

"We'll skip speaking of your nightmares for now if you want and speak of something else. Sound okay?"

"Like what?"

"Hm. How about... how many children you want to have? And do you want them sooner or later?"

"Doesn't really matter to me but I guess between two to six. And...I don't really think the timeline matters much. If I wind up pregnant years from now, or three days from now- if it's meant to be then I'm fine with that."

"Really? You want a big family, huh. And you have no actual thoughts about when you'd like to start to try for one?"

"Nope."

"But what if you get pregnant and we aren't married yet?"

"We'll then, we'll just have to get married with me in that condition. Besides children aren't born overnight. I would have a few months before I started to show, and if you were set on me getting married before I'm fat as a whale- then we would have to plan quickly."

"Okay..." Toshi said as he went back to work fixing their food blushing. He could honestly say that he hadn't expected her to say that. But her both words warmed him inside and embarrassed him a little bit. "Um...h-have you managed to make any actual plans for the wedding just yet?"

"I've thought on it some."

"Really? Like what?"

"Well, things like the color scheme- which will be white, blue, pink, and purple. The flowers will be lilies, tulips, lavender and bachelor buttons. I don't plan on dress shopping because I was actually thinking of making my own dress-"

"The color scheme and flowers sound fine. But I would much rather you shop for the dress instead of working on it until you collapse or something." Toshi said as he pulled the cooked shrimp and crab and other shell fish aside and placed them all on the heating plate in a weird arrangement that he then set aside with the lobsters and turned back to the main dish and began to cook it.

"I have some very specific ideas in mind for the dress that I don't think I'm going to find in a store unless I make it myself, Toshi. And you needn't worry about me exhausting myself like I have with mother's dress. I still have enough time and leeway to get it done gradually instead of one sitting."

Toshi was quiet for a moment as he mulled over what she had just said before asking, "What exactly did you want? Design, color, and trimming wise?"

"Oh! I was going to do a nice white velvet, off the shoulder, scooped neckline bodice that laces up in the back and has a nice semi-full skirt so that it flares out a bit instead of clinging where I don't want it to. I was even planning to do some embroidery and beadwork along the bodice, hem of the skirt, and cuff of the sleeves." She said in a slightly more excited manner, apparently having slowly begun to shake off her funk from speaking about how she had been injured as a child and such.

"Sounds like you have a pretty clear picture of what you want for your dress and flowers. Have you figured out if you want a big or-"

"Small." She cut him off by saying. His lips twitched a little bit as he pulled the last of their food off of the little built in cooking area in the middle of their table and started to set the hot plates out where they could both get to them and said.

"I had a feeling that you would want a small wedding, but I'm not a hundred percent sure how to go about giving you one without drawing too much unneeded attention."

"You could go as your normal self." Shay suggested helpfully as the two of them began to fix their plates. Toshi's eyes flickered over to her face for a moment as he scrunched up his nose and slowly shook his head no at the thought.

As sweet as it was that she actually wanted to stand next to his puny and weak, normal self on their wedding day- he wanted to look handsome for her. And perhaps not break any camera lenses that are hired to take their photo for the occasion. That and their pictures would be far more memorable that way.

At least that was what he thought. But he wouldn't mind having some of his normal self mixed in with the pictures here and there. They would certainly make some nice pictures for him to carry around in his wallet.

At least until she was pregnant.

And then he was going to go overboard with everything. And would be not only taking pictures of Shayera all of the time, but he would be recording her with his camcorder everyday until several years after their child was born so that he didn't miss anything important.

He even planned to make little video's of him talking to his son or daughter just in case he was out doing hero work and they wanted to hear his voice.

Settling in to tuck into their meals, Toshi cast Shay another glance. This one from underneath his lashes, his eyes studying her for a moment before he caught sight of her plate and felt his lips quirk at the corners in bemusement. He was glad that he had brought her out today despite what was going on with her mother and her obvious tiredness.

If he hadn't, he wouldn't have learned what he had about her. And while he still wasn't done learning stuff about her...other things could keep until things settled down a little bit again and she had a proper chance to mourn her mother's passing.

Deciding to ask one last question, he lifted his head just enough to catch her eye as she speared a piece of sweet and tender crab meat on her fork and looked at him questioningly as he slowly asked, "What was your favorite memory of your time with your parents?"

"Well, I have more than one," She said somewhat awkwardly as she set her fork down for a moment and thought before saying. "There was sort of a family tradition that we made for ourselves when I was still just a toddler. During the winter's, we had indoor picnics in the living room. And in the spring, my dad would drag my mom's prized piano outside into the garden were we had quite a few sakura and plum blossom trees when they were in full bloom, and we would make a day of viewing the flowers, eating and listening to mom play the piano. She always played it so beautifully," She said with a wistful sigh before then going on to say, "I wish I could have shared those days with you Toshi."

He got a thoughtful look on his face for a moment before murmuring, "Perhaps one day you can, angel." before slowly beginning to finally tuck into his meal, his mind going a mile a minute as he planned out what next to do for his fiancée to help give her one last happy memory of her mother to hold onto.