Chapter 2

Aoi sighed. What kind of cold welcome was that? Just because she was a girl didn't mean that she'd get treated that way. None of her new fellow Varia officers actually fitted the category: friend. They had such different personalities. She wasn't entirely sure whether she'd feel comfortable with them around. She wasn't even sure whether she could trust them with her life. They all looked treacherous. Well, maybe not the one with the green hair. She sighed again, she hadn't thought of asking their names and they hadn't thought of sharing them at all. Maybe they thought I wasn't worth it.

The violet-eyed girl stared around her the room she was led to by the servants, it was filthy. It was dark, dusty and smelled like who knows what. She sighed for the umpteenth time in the duration of the day. There was no point in sitting down on the grimy floor. The room won't get clean if she just did nothing. She stood up, patted her clothes which once belonged to a boy, tied her hair higher up and proceeded to the tiring and gruesome task of straightening up the room.

She had asked one of the maids to bring her a broom, a dustpan, a rag, a bucket of water and a mop. The maid almost looked at her with sympathy. She contemplated that the new Varia officer looked terribly weak compared to the others. She even looks like a scullery maid! No refinement at all. She shook her head ever so slightly, although this was seen by Aoi, and walked out of the room.

Meanwhile, in the living room, where the rest of the officers/guardians except for Xanxus lounged, Squalo was shouting stuff that concerned the girl. "What kind of joke is this? A girl joining THE Varia? What stupidity! What happened to the boss?"

"If you're so concerned about that weakling, then why don't you talk to Boss about it?" Belphegor suggested.

"I will!" Squalo stormed off, possibly to argue with him that Aoi was not meant to be a guardian because she was too weak.

"What do you think about her Fran?" Bel asked his kouhai.

"Nothing much. I don't care about her," he replied.

"Maa, maa, why don't we test her how strong she is? Let's just attack her randomly when she's lowered her guard," Lussuria said. Levi grunted in agreement.

"Heh, so, who would be first?" Bel asked. Silence. "Jaa, Lussuria, why don't you start? Followed by Levi, then me, then Squalo, and lastly Fran."

"Eeh? Senpai, why am I the last?"

"Because I told you so."

"Ara, that's fine with me," Lussuria said, waving a pinky. "I'll start after she takes a bath. That's when girls are the most vulnerable," he continued with a smile. "Will you guys watch what I'm going to do?" he winked.

"Probably," the three conspirators answered, grossed out.

Finally! Aoi's room started to look clean! It was actually sparkling! She was proud of her efforts. But man, was she tired. Her skin was sticky with sweat. She grabbed her towel and bathing supplies and headed to the nearest shower where Belphegor, Fran, Levi and Lussuria were waiting.

It took only about ten minutes until Aoi was finished with her bath. She felt refreshed and well, whatever you feel whenever you take a bath. She thought that she could take on her group mates.

"Ara, Aoi-chan, abunai!" Lussuria said, slipping on the banana he purposely set on the floor. He grabbed whatever was the nearest thing to support him; and that support happened to be Aoi's towel. Half of her breasts suddenly got exposed. Everyone's face turned red, including Lussuria who was reportedly gay. He jumped up and did his flash step around Aoi.

"Kyaa! Hentai!" Aoi screamed, cheeks red, she gathered her towel and tied it firmly around her body. The nearest thing to be used as a weapon was the towel on her hair. She got it, setting her hair tumbling down; she then lunged and kicked Lussuria where he precisely was without a second of hesitation. The Sun guardian was surprised; no one had done that in years! With him outbalanced, Aoi used the towel and swiftly wrapped it around Lussuria's throat, achieving a chokehold. She almost used her knee to kick his unprotected back with immense force when she remembered that she was just wearing a towel. Instead of kicking, she released the chokehold and punched Lussuria in the face, knocking him senseless. Levi, Belphegor and Fran could only blink their eyes at the defeated Lussuria.

The fact that Aoi just laid a comrade senseless in a few seconds had just registered in her mind. She sensed people watching. She looked around and heard suppressed ushishi's. She hopped on the sofa and looked behind it. Bingo, she caught Bel attempting to stifle his laugh.

"Ehh… what were you guys doing here?" she asked innocently, anger reflecting from her violet eyes.

"Laughing," Fran covered up.

"Ahh… I see. You better take care of that gay dude over there. I accidentally uhm… rendered him unconscious, as you might have seen," she herself was trying to stop the peals of laughter threatening to burst forth. "Ja ne!" she headed towards her bedroom to get dressed.

"This might just get interesting…" Levi muttered.

Aoi slammed the door as she entered her room. She noticed that the maids cleaned up after her. Jeez. They should have done that before she arrived. "Aa-" Aoi gingerly picked up the Varia uniform. It was slightly modified. It had the same top but she was forced to wear a skirt and black long socks. God, how she hated skirts, she would definitely wear shorts underneath. She noticed that the package had a note written in big capital letters.

TO BE WORN AT ALL COSTS. NO EXCEPTIONS. YOU MAY ADD ANY UNECESSARY ACCESSORY. STRICTLY IMPLIED. YOU WILL MEET A GRUESOME END IF YOU TEND TO DO OTHERWISE.

She exhaled; she hadn't realized that she was holding her breath for the time she read the instructions. Safe. The Cloud guardian of the Varia then wore her uniform. She was pleased that it turned out to be really comfortable, the smallest size happened to be quite loose on her. Apparently, this was built for males but she guessed it would do a pinch. She grabbed her Varia ring, slipped it to her finger, pocketed the box weapon and wore the Hell ring on a chain around her neck. Aoi hadn't realized that it was late in the night already. She half-expected the other guardians to be awake but found out that all of them retired to bed. All the better, she grimly thought, she hadn't wanted them to hear her play the instrument she was holding. She plopped on the floor by the window, and using the light of the full moon and started to sing in a sweet but sad voice.

Kazesasou kokage ni utsubusete naiteru

Mi mo shiranu watashi wo watashi ga miteita

Yuku hito no shirabe wo kanaderu GITAARA

Konu hito no nageki ni hoshi ha ochite

Yukanaide, donna ni sakende mo

ORENJI no hanabira shizuka ni yureru dake

Yawarakana hitai ni nokosareta

Te no hira no kioku haruka

Tokoshie no sayonara tsuma hiku

That's was when her guitar picked up the rhythm.

Yasashii te ni sugaru kodomo no kokoro wo

Moesakaru kuruma ha furiharai susumu

Yuku hito no nageki wo kanadete GITAARA

Mune no ito hageshiku kakinarashite

Fran was half-awake. For some reason his ears picked up a lonely tune. He shook his head, telling himself that he was just dreaming and that the song he was hearing was probably the sound brought by the wind. It was a windy night after all. A windy and cold night, he corrected himself.

Aa kanashimi ni somaranai shirosa de

ORENJI no hanabira yureteta natsu no kage ni

Yawarakana hitai wo nakushite mo

Akaku someta suna haruka koete yuku

Sayonara no RIZUMU

What the hell, that song is getting too persistent. He couldn't resist his urge to check the voice out. After all, he was curious, and it was the attitude of a teenager to be restless.

Omoide wo yakitsukushite susumu daichi ni

Natsukashiku me fuite yuku mono ga aru no

He followed the sound of the guitar and was struck by what he saw. He saw the newcomer… it was breathtaking. "Aoi… her name was Aoi right?" He questioned himself. Aoi looked really peaceful and really sad. She actually felt depressed. She had a feeling that this song would make her remember the past. She sung the last verse with such feeling, as if she was mourning for a loss, which in a sense she was, sort of. It was the loss of her memory.

Akatsuki no kuruma wo miokutte

ORENJI no hanabira yureteru ima mo dokoka

Itsuka mita yasurakana yoake wo

Mou ichido te ni suru made

Kesanaide tomoshibi

Kuruma ha mawaru yo

The guitar faded to a pause. She looked up from the guitar frets; she had somehow felt that someone was watching. She shrugged her foreboding away and continued singing.

Fran, in his moment of indecision, decided to hide at the last minute, he reentered his bedroom and gently closed the door. He didn't want to be seen by the blue-haired girl. Suddenly the picture of her in a towel, almost exposed, flashed on his mind. His cheeks began to redden. Wait… what was that? He was so confused that his head hurt. He threw himself to his bed and suddenly laughed. No one could hear him anyway, that annoying sempai was asleep; so what's the harm?

Around the same time, Sachie pictured the gay dude knocked senseless. His pose was well, really, really funny. She had to laugh. What was the harm of it all?

In the middle of the night, their two voices mingled with each other. They laughed and laughed, Aoi not knowing she was laughing with Fran and vice versa.

"VOOOIII! URUSAI! I'M TRYING TO SLEEP HERE!" Squalo shouted, obviously irritated, his talk with Xanxus failed. Slowly, the laughter dwindled into soft chuckles and finally stopped.

VOOII! Trash, are your ears still intact?

LOLOLOLOL. XD XD XD

Epic fail Lussuria, EPIC fail.

thanks for the review Princess3975. ^^

yay. *jumps up and down*

oh yeah, before I forget, the song above was the acoustic version of Akatsuki no Kuruma. It's awesome. :P