So it looks like I'm on a roll tonight, wow. Hopefully this goes on through the holiday break I have from school. I'd be pretty awesome wouldn't it?
oh and please, if you have the time, drop in and leave a review3

It didn't feel like her, it was an out of body experience. Atsuko winced, watching.

A four year old girl dressed in a pale yellow sundress, laughed, running away from the waves that threatened to catch her feet. She pushed her hair out of her face, her pixie cut had gotten longer, and now fell into her face often. Her brother, with cropped hair, gave chase, holding a crab up, scaring her.

"C'mon now! Suko-chan, just touch it! It won't pinch you or nothin'!" He called chasing after her

She shook her head, screaming wildly, "It's gonna get me! It's gonna get me!"

Further up the beach, her parents, both of them, were calling to her brother to stop teasing her. It was her mother's arms she rushed into, a fair woman with brown sugar skin.

Her eighth birthday, her hair had grown out, now reaching her elbows, in the past two years, her life had plummeted. Her brother's hair had been twisted into the dreadlocks he prided himself in. She was staring at a tombstone intently. Her grandmother was dead. Her mother left. It was just her and her brother now. God forbid their father ever take interest in them.

She looked up at her brother, her eyes sunken and bloodshot, "Tom-nii?"

"Yeah?" He asked quietly, pushing up his glasses

"Will Mommy ever come back?"

The teen looked down at her, a pitying look on his face, he bit his lip before shaking his head. She nodded before taking his hand. His hands were warm, enclosing hers in his. She sighed and looked up at him once more.

"Tom-nii?"

"You're not a baby, stop calling me Tom-nii"

"But-"

"Grow up Atsuko, Mom is gone, she's never coming back, just like Grandma"

"And you're going to leave too aren't you?

"I have school back in Ikebukuro"

"You don't want to be here anymore either. Daddy doesn't even come home anymore, all he ever does is work"

"You're old enough to take care of yourself now"

Atsuko's hand jerked away from her brother's. Tears ran down her face, her eyes focused on what she thought to be a traitor. She balled her little fists up and punched her elder brother in the face. It didn't do much damage, but it served it's purpose, catching him off guard.

"You're just like Mommy and Daddy! You're just going to leave me too!" She screamed, her little fists now pounding against his chest, "You never loved me either! And now there's no one left to love me!"

Tom's hands finally stopped the little fists, holding them in the air between them, "Suko-chan, Mom left because she didn't love Dad anymore. Dad works hard to give you a good life, and when I finish school, and I have a good job, then you can come live with me, okay?"

The young Tanaka looked up at him, tears occasionally leaking from her eyes, she nodded and looked back towards the fresh earth in front of the headstone.

Tom had come home a few years later, he had come to congratulate his sister in graduating from high school. At fourteen, she was still the same little girl he had seen so many ears before. They had sat out on the patio listening to the soft static emitting from the radio that neither knew where it had come from, but it had always been there, for as long as the siblings could recall.

"You want a sip?" Tom asked quietly, breaking the white noise with his voice

Atsuko nodded holding her hand out for the plastic gallon container. It was placed gently in her hands and she smiled, "When did you acquire the skill of kool-aid wine?"

"I didn't, my girlfriend sent it as a congratulations present" The debt collector shook his head, "I think, if it lasts long enough for you to meet her, you'd like her"

"If anything ever lasts that long" She shook her head taking a swig from the container

"Be optimistic, you should just go ahead and do what you want with your life, didn't you want to become a teacher?"

"Yeah…but…"

"No buts, if that's what you want, then do it"

Atsuko nodded, a different kind of curve to her lips this time before she took a mouthful of the kool-aid wine

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Atsuko asked Yoshi, who drummed his fingers against the steering wheel

"Well, you're only missing one day of school" He laughed flicking his mousy brown hair out of his eyes and to the left slightly

Atsuko's fingers twisted themselves in her long ponytail before he spoke again, "Besides, this is your favorite band, and not all bands from America happen to come here"

The youth nodded, "Okay, let's do this"

Without further adieu, Yoshi's tires squealed, and the car rushed forward, going much to fast for her liking at first. The adrenaline kicked in, and there she was, screaming happily with Yoshi and the radio.

Up on his shoulders much later, Atsuko's hands swayed up in the air with Yoshi's lighter, occasionally coming down to light a cigarette for the young man. Her father had slapped her when he found out she had skipped school and lied about where she had been. But it hadn't mattered, she had still been too happy from that day.

Heiwajima Shizuo and Tanaka Hotaru, part of her new family. The now four month old had taken a shine to the man who dressed like a bartender, even Atsuko had taken a shine to the man. There was Shinra who had even set up her desk, he had bought her a little flowering cactus, the doctor who was going to teach her to fix people. Not even Celty could be forgotten, with her irrational fear of aliens and longing for her head. She had been the best friend that Atsuko had never had. And Kida Masamori, all of that drama. She wanted it all. And now. She wasn't going to even have it anymore. No debt collecting brother, no lovely little daughter, no bodyguard who chain-smoked, or the illegal doctor, or the dullahan, or the young blonde student.

"Now, Shizu-chan, if you let her go with me, you'll have her back by dinner" Izaya's hand skimmed down her side and rested on her hip, "Who knows? She may even have fun with me"

Shizuo's eyes widened with the man's insinuation, his grip on the street sign tightened. Atsuko looked at the blonde pleadingly

"Shizuo" She stated softly, gaining both men's attention, "I'm sorry"

Izaya stared at her confused, as well did the blonde, so she continued, "I'm sorry about the taiyaki"

"You're sorry about those fish?" Shizuo had enough, he charged forward in a brash attack

Izaya roughly grabbed her arm and pulled her down the street and into an alley, from there it was a maze of streets, pulling her to-and-fro, attempting to get away from the blonde. Atsuko stopped suddenly when it seemed they had lost the eldest Heiwajima, it nearly ripped her shoulder out of the socket, with the unexpectedness of the standstill. Without further explanation, she punched the information broker in the face.

"The fuck was that?" She asked angrily, "You think you can just kidnap me and attempt to kill me because you're fucking crazy or some shit?"

Izaya laughed, wiping his bloody lip, "Not at all my dear, why not at all"

"Then what did you fucking want from me?" She shoved the lean man roughly, "Huh? You think you can just fuck with me?

"I wanted your baby, well, in technicality, my baby" He nodded, "Though I approve of your mothering skills"