Ah, chapter two. This chapter, like the first, has been edited, polished, and generally made read-able for the general public. There was a lot more in here that I just wasn't all too pleased with, but it's all better now. After this, I can finally work on getting chapter three cleaned up and completing chapter four. Wow. I think one of my favorite things about this re-write has been the fact that not only do I get to go back and make my original character more interesting, but I get to make Jin just a little bit quirkier than he was before. It's fun...

As for Mana, originally I don't think I did very well with her character. She seemed a little too flat, a little too one-sided, and I'm finally getting to fix that. The first time around, I really think I bunged up on her motives and the fact that what this girl does does not always reflect what she's thinking. Now that I have a chance to start over with her, I think I can make her a lot more realistic and believable. For that, at least, I'm glad.

No playlist this time around, although Mana does show her habit of humming Kaze no Fantasia when she's occupied. Heh.

So, as I still don't have an actual tag for this story... let's go.


Jin woke the next morning, like the night before, to noise. Only this time it was a loud clattering and an exclamation. "Damn it all!"

The wind master sat up, peering over the dividing wall curiously. Mana was in the kitchen again, a frying pan in one hand and a finger from the other in her mouth. She waved the pan at the stove, muttering something that sounded like it could be "evil old thing" around the finger before stabbing at the stove again with the pan. Jin wasn't sure, but the next exclamation seemed to be along the lines of "I will cook my stupid eggs!" He tilted his head, amused.

"Yer not a mornin' person, are ya?"

"Wah?" Mana blinked. "Oh... Oh! Did I wake you up! I'm so sorry! It's this damn stove! It flared up on me! It almost caught my hair this time!"

Jin leaned against the back of the couch, noting that it was the second time she had used the word 'damn' in as many minutes. Yesterday she hadn't sworn at all. She was the kind that tried to be polite, then, not the kind that came by it naturally. "Mebbe ya should try wearin' it up when ya cook."

"Mm, I would have but I couldn't find a rubber band." Mana fiddled with the controls on the stove. "There we go, that should do it. Are you hungry?"

"Yeah, ah guess so." Jin flinched lightly at the sound of his own voice. It was still getting away from him pretty thickly. The girl didn't seem to be noticing quite so much, though.

"Well, breakfast will be ready in a few minutes." He heard eggs being cracked and other cooking sounds and smells, so he sat and waited. Mana moved back and forth through the kitchen, occasionally murmuring to herself under her breath or humming some small snatch of a tune. She was dressed in a fresh school uniform, he noted, underneath the red apron of the day before.

"Eh, wot day is it, anyway?"

"Today? Today is Wednesday." Mana had two heated pans on the stove now, and she would alternately poke at one and shuffle the other a bit. She studied the pans a moment, then ducked out of sight, digging around in drawers, it sounded like. She emerged holding bread, which went into a toaster, and then turned to get rice out of a big, cylindrical cooker, and then her attention was back on the two frying pans. The whole room was starting to smell pretty good, and Jin heard his stomach rumble slightly. He hoped she would hurry up with the food, but Mana seemed like she was in no real rush. Finally, he heard the sounds of food being dished up, and the girl came out carrying a plate in each hand. She handed him one and sat down with the other. Jin looked at his plate. Toast, fluffy white rice in a bowl, a piece of fish filet, and a fluffy golden omelet. It looked good to him. He dug in.

"Ya know, yer a pretty good cook," he told her around mouthfuls.

"Thanks." And then Mana actually smiled at him for the first time. Jin blinked. It was just the slightest turning of her mouth, but it did reach her eyes and suddenly the thin, pale face didn't seem so dull any more. In fact, it was rather pretty. He tilted his head.

"Ey! Yer cute when ya do 'at! Ya should smile more often!" Mana's eyes went wide, and she immediately went back to her food. Jin saw a slight blush creeping across her cheeks. "Oh, come on, now, 'at was a compliment. Ya should be happy." He reached over and poked her in the side with a chopstick, and she squeaked slightly. "Come on, let's give us another smile." Mana shook her head, hiding her face behind her hair. Jin stared at her, realizing rather abruptly that he had a new way to entertain himself. "Well, fine, then, ya kin just be 'at way. Don't see wot yer so afraid of, though. Ya really do got a nice smile, so says ah." He poked her with his chopstick again, and again she squeaked. "And it won't kill ya to laugh, either. Ah bet ya'd be real pretty if ya laughed." Oh, yes, there was definitely red spreading across that pale face. It wasn't a lot, but it was there. Jin sat back, satisfied. This human was surprisingly easy to tease, but enough was enough. He didn't really feel like being mean to her, after all.

Besides, he couldn't get the image of the girl crying into her pillow out of his head. Jin looked over at Mana. Her reiki was weaker, the air around her running decidedly more frail than it had been the day before. He wondered what had happened to drain her that much. Not that it mattered, but still. He was curious.

Mana finished her breakfast and rose to her feet. Heading over to the dining table, she started gathering books and papers and sliding them into her school bag. As she worked, she hummed a bit of a tune. Jin recognized the song; it had been the first one he'd heard her singing. "Wot's 'at called?"

"Huh?"

"The song yer singing. Wot's it called?"

"Oh. Fantasia of the Wind."

"Ye sure do sing a lot of songs about wind," Jin observed.

"I like the wind. It makes me feel calm." Mana examined the contents of a pencil case. "My mom used to tell me, every person has an element. Something that brings them peace, you know? For Mama, it was fire. Whenever she was stressed out or tired or even just depressed, she'd light a candle and stare at the flame until she felt better. Other people might work with earth in a garden, or get a small fountain to watch the water. Me, whenever I'm sad, I stand on my balcony and listen to the wind."

Jin felt a small twinge of what could almost be called liking this human. She was starting to become interesting. "And the wind talks to ya, does it?" Mana pursed her lips; she must have thought he was teasing her again. Jin winced and changed the subject. "Where's yer mom now?"

"She died when I was eight," Mana said softly as she put the pencil case in her bag. "She was a spirit detective, like me... but in the end, it killed her."

"And yer dad?"

There was a soft, almost derisive snort from the blonde, one that he wondered if she was even aware of. "My father's a businessman. He works overseas, and I usually see him only a couple of times a year and again at New Years."

The redhead stared. Mana sounded... bitter. It was just the slightest edge, subtle as could be, but it sounded as though she didn't really care for her father, or didn't approve of his actions. "So ya don't get along with 'im, then."

"He's never around to get along with. He stayed at home for about three years, but when I was eleven he left me in the care of the neighbors and went back to work."

He flinched at her matter-of-fact tone. If it wasn't for that slight edge, Jin would have sworn she wasn't even feeling right then at all. "Sounds rough..."

"I'm better off without him," Mana said firmly. "He wouldn't understand the work I do for the spirit world, anyway. He didn't even know Mama was a detective. He thinks she died in a car accident." The girl grabbed a lunchbox from the cupboards and started packing her lunch. "It was probably better for him that way. He never did believe in spirits. He thought Mama was a waitress." She stopped, staring down at the bag she was packing. "Well, she was, I guess. Some of the time. So he was probably better off that way."

To Jin, the words sounded like those of a girl who was only lying to herself. He watched as Mana finished packing for school. Her face seemed shadowed now, as though her mind still dwelt on what she had been telling him. Finally, she looked over at him. "Sorry I took that out on you... It's just... sometimes I wish he would come home so badly..." She hefted her bag over her shoulder. "Anyway, I've got to get going. There's leftover Chinese food in the fridge if you get hungry, it's the stuff in the little white boxes. It's only a couple of days old." Jin nodded, startled by the sudden return of her business-as-usual tone. "Water's in the fridge, and glasses are in the cabinet over the sink. The bathroom's the first door down the hall to the left if you need it, and please keep the front door locked. The neighbors aren't dangerous or anything, but there's this one senile old man down the hall who tends to wander a bit and doesn't really mind where he goes to the bathroom. And if you turn on the TV, try to keep the sound down so no one complains." They stared at each other for a moment, an awkward silence filling the room, before Mana headed for the door. "Anyway, I think that's it. Bye."

Jin waved, still working out the wave of information he'd just gotten, staring after the girl as the door clicked shut. She'd talked so openly, like she was glad for the chance to get all of that off her chest. How long had she held that resentment towards her father bottled up inside her? He was starting to feel a little bit sorry for the little lass now. As far as humans went, she was awfully young to be alone...


Why in the world had she been thinking? Damn it, now Jin knew she lived by herself. Mana stared out the classroom window as her math teacher droned on, thinking more about the stranger she'd brought into her home than the lesson they were having. She'd already read the chapter he was covering, and had no real interest in paying attention. The teacher was boring...

The teacher thought otherwise. "Miss Koyama!"

Mana's head snapped up, and there was snickering from a small clique off in the corner. "Miss Koyama, since you already seem to have had this lesson, why don't you come solve the problem off the board for us?"

Mana stood, eyeing the problem on the chalkboard. Yes, she remembered doing this problem as practice last night; it was right out of the book. Walking to the front of the class, Mana picked up a piece of chalk and silently wrote out the problem, circling the answer when she was done. It was always the same at this stupid school; the adults all thought they were so much better than their students. There were only a couple of them that she actually liked, and this wasn't one of them. She looked over at the teacher once she was finished, her expression the perfect picture of sweet innocence. "Correct?"

"Ah..." he was staring down into his book. "Yes, that is correct. You may return to your seat, and please try to stay with us for the rest of the lesson."

As Mana walked back to her seat, she heard one of the girls towards to the back whispering loudly to a friend. "What a prissy little know-it-all! Ugh, I can't stand her!"

The other girl snickered. "I know! She's such a little Mary Sue!"

Mana sat down, trying to ignore the way her face was starting to burn. It was that stupid Yuki and her stupid friends again. Mana pulled out her notebook and pretended to take notes, all the while wishing an earthquake would bring the roof down on the heads of the sneering girls. It wasn't like she was like this because she wanted to be, she reminded herself. The teacher droned on, and the blonde let her thoughts drift again, back to Jin, even as her pencil moved without touching the paper. Would he be there when she got home? For his sake, she hoped he would. After all, he wouldn't be able to remove that binding cord on his own...


As Jin was himself learning at that exact moment. Growling, he yanked at the little scrap of silver. How had she gotten it on him? There were no knots in the thing anywhere, and he couldn't pull it off over his hand, either. And it itched! The more he pulled it, the more it itched! He wanted it off! Jin gave up yanking at the cord and headed for the kitchen. Mana cooked a lot, so there had to be knives here somewhere. He found them secured in a drawer and picked the sharpest looking one. Okay, little cord, let's see who's laughing now!

An hour later, Jin had given up. The cord was the one laughing. The cord was laughing loud and clear. He had no choice but to sit and wait for Mana to get home and take the cord off of him. And he wasn't even sure she'd do that, because he was fairly certain he'd ruined her knife. Thoroughly frustrated, Jin flopped down on the couch, resigning himself to sleeping the afternoon away before he had a better idea. He stood up, and began to look around.

First he examined the room he was in. All he'd seen so far, he'd seen from the couch. That was only about half the room. So he started with what was behind the couch. Over by one of the large windows sat a computer desk. The computer was silent, and there was dust on the screen. Apparently, Mana didn't use it that often. He shuffled the mouse around a bit, but didn't know how to actually turn the computer on, so he let it be. He opened the drawers to the computer desk and rooted around a bit but found nothing of interest there, unless he ever got bored enough to play around with the thumb tacks and paper clips a bit. Next to the desk was a very large, very healthy-looking houseplant. Jin tugged at one of the leaves, wondering if the plant was real. It was. The wind master stared at the chunk of branch that had come off in his hand before looking around for somewhere to hide it. Finally he settled for stuffing it back into the bush and hoping Mana wouldn't notice.

The hallway, Jin decided as he turned away from the plant, could wait until later. On the other side of the room, after all, was a large shelving unit, and he wanted to look at that next. The top half was bookshelves, and they were pretty full. He read a few titles, but nothing seemed really interesting. There was a large collection of graphic novels, but most of it looked like romancy, girl-type stuff. In all, the bookcase was boring. Well, maybe not that boring, the redhead decided as he picked up a graphic novel and idly flipped through it. His eyebrows shot up practically to his hairline. Who knew Harlequin did comic books? He was going to have to re-evaluate his opinion of Mana. Still, the flowery romance was just a bit too innocent to be of interest to him. Jin put it back and turned his attention to the bottom half of the unit. Two large cabinet doors greeted him, and he opened them curiously. Inside was what appeared to be a sound system of some sort, but it also had a little screen on it. Jin knelt down to look, not entirely sure what this piece of technology was, and then he saw the microphone. It clicked. Karaoke machine. Mana had a karaoke machine. Maybe the few magazines he had flipped through in the human world had been educational, after all.

Next to the shelving unit, and this Jin found interesting, was a tall, padded post on a stand, ideal for kicking and punching at, and an old folded-up floor mat. He wondered if Mana used them herself, or if they maybe belonged to her absent father. While he couldn't imagine the girl as the athletic type, it did make sense that she would want to know how to defend herself- detective material in training, she was- so maybe they were hers after all.

He headed down the hall next, noting the washer and dryer at the end of it but eventually heading towards the first door on the left. The room proved to be a nice, tidy bathroom. It was done in shades of white and seafoam green, perfectly coordinated. The towel that hung on the wall was neat and even, and the sink was clean. Most definitely a woman's bathroom, Jin thought with a wrinkled nose. He poked around in the cupboards a while and was surprised to find a wide array of cosmetics. Mana hadn't been wearing make-up the day before, or when she'd left for school that morning. They couldn't be her mother's, though, the woman had been dead for too long. They had to be Mana's. He wondered what she used them for as he picked up a little bottle and opened it. It smelled funny, kind of nice but a little too sharp for his liking. Jin put it away and turned to look around some more, already growing bored again. Big bathtub. Toilet. Toilet paper nice and neat on the wall-mount that people put toilet paper on. Jin reached over and batted at the roll. It spun, and a bit of paper came off, the end landing neatly in the toilet. Well, that certainly didn't go there. He flushed it without bothering to rip the paper off the roll first. That had an entertaining result; the roll on the wall spun faster and faster as the paper was dragged down into the pipes, twisting as it went. Jin flushed the toilet again with much the same result before deciding to move on. He left the toilet paper as it was and turned to examine the tub. It was large and had clawed feet, and overall looked like it would be rather nice for soaking in. On the wall above the tub was a little shelf with a few bottles and a couple of bars of soap, plus a razor and a pumice stone. Girl stuff. Jin picked up a bottle of shampoo and sniffed the contents. It smelled nice, like vanilla. The conditioner was the same. But the bubble bath he checked next smelled like strawberries, as did the soap bars in the little green dish. Vanilla and strawberries. Strawberries and cream? Jin stood there for a moment, thinking about that. It was an interesting combination, scents that were coordinated to smell comforting and sweet. Subconsciously, that could probably be very manipulative...

The next room down the hall proved to be a bedroom... or at least, it had been. There was a bed and a dresser, but they were both buried under boxes. Jin poked through the boxes that weren't taped shut and found small, frilly clothes, stuffed animals, and basically the kinds of things a teenage girl would decide she didn't need any more, but wouldn't want to get rid of, either. In one box he found an old, ratty rag doll with limp wings, and smiled to himself. He could just picture his host, minus ten or so years, hugging the angel to her in bed at night. There was embroidery on the angel's dress, repetitive patterns sewn on by inexperienced hands, and a few beads around the collar. Apparently, Mana had done some experimenting with the old toy. It looked well loved. Jin put the rag angel back in the box and walked over to the dresser. Pulling the drawers open, he found men's clothes. Mana's father's, he figured. They were... boring. Boring slacks and business-type shirts and socks all rolled up. A skeleton wardrobe, then, for someone who didn't need much at home. He pushed the drawers shut again. Boring.

There was just one room left.

Jin stood outside Mana's bedroom, wondering if he should really go in there. Well, why not? It wasn't like he was going to hurt anything. He pushed the door open and stepped inside. It was a bigger room than the other bedroom, with one huge bed pushed up against the wall and an armoire across from that, next to a small vanity table. There was a bookshelf beside the closet, and windows and a door out to the balcony, and a small table on either side of the bed. One table contained a lamp, and the other was covered in little knickknacks. Jin walked over to look at them. There was a little porcelain Dutch girl, and a plaster ballerina, and a couple of anime figures. And... there was a picture frame. Jin picked it up. A woman with deep violet eyes and blonde hair smiled up at him, holding a tiny baby in a pink blanket. She looked like Mana, but the coloring was... different, just a little. Where Mana was just pale, this woman looked robust and healthy, with laughing eyes and rosy cheeks. The eyes that stared up at him from the face of the laughing woman were a vibrant violet, not a pale lavender like her daughter's were... because really, now, who could this woman have been but Mana's mother? She didn't look like she could be more than two or three years older than Mana was now. How old was Mana, anyway? Jin made a mental note to ask as he examined the woman in the picture a moment longer. He flipped the frame over. Jennifer and Mana, age three months, the back read. So the baby was Mana. That meant the woman with the laughing eyes was her mother. Jennifer, hmm? That wasn't a Japanese name. He set the picture down and walked over to the bookshelf. There he found more books and more manga. Apparently the collection in the living room was what wouldn't fit on these very full shelves. He also found another picture of the smiling woman, this time sitting in front of a very serious-looking man with dark hair and eyes and holding a golden-haired toddler in her arms. Jin leaned closer. The man had the same shaped mouth as Mana. Must be her dad, he thought. He checked the back of the picture frame. Jennifer, Daisuke, and Mana, age two, it read. And there was a date on the back of this one. The picture was taken about twelve years ago. So that would put her at what, fourteen? That was a very young kid to be living alone.

Jin walked over and opened one of the drawers in the armoire. And stared. And closed it. And opened it again. And stared some more. Bunnies. Of all the things in her world, Mana's underwear had bunnies on them. At least, that pair did. That pair over there had kitties on it. And that pair had an awful lot of pink lace. Jin decided he was going to have to re-evaluate his opinion of Mana yet again and closed the drawer. Somehow, he didn't feel the need to get acquainted with her wardrobe any more than he just had.

That's not to say that Jin didn't go through the other drawers anyway, though. Despite how much he tried to convince himself that it was a bad idea, he did. Mana had some very nice nightgowns and a cute pair of pajamas with kittens and yarn balls on it. She also had a large collection of cute T-shirts and a few skirts that seemed a little small. Jin pushed the last drawer in, one full of bright, colorful sweaters, and went to the closet to look at the rest of it. School uniforms, dresses, long skirts and nice blouses. But no pants. There hadn't been any in the armoire, either, come to think of it. The girl didn't appear to own a single pair of pants or shorts. That seemed... weird.

Jin wandered back towards the armoire to examine the little vanity table with its big oval mirror. There was a little stool in front of it, so he sat down to look. There was a hairbrush on the table with several golden strands caught in it, a small clock, and a music box. He opened the box and spent a few minutes pawing through the earrings and necklaces therein before he got tired of the tune it played and closed it. Looking around, he then noticed the drawer in the small dresser and pulled it open. There were pencils, a few stray papers, a couple tubes of lipstick and, in the back, a small red book. Jin pulled it out and flipped it open, curious as to why it was in the drawer instead of on the shelf with the other books. He saw why the moment the pages were revealed. The contents of the book were written by hand; the writing was small and tidy in a deliberate sort of way. The wind master raised an eyebrow. Mana kept a diary? A curious glance at the clock told Jin that it was probably a bit too late to sit down and flip through the book. After all, he didn't know how long Mana would be in school; she could come walking in at any moment. Jin replaced the diary and looked around to be sure everything was as he found it before heading back to the living room and through to the kitchen.

It was a small kitchen, but it was clean and it appeared well stocked. Jin raised an eyebrow at the empty sink- Mana must have put the breakfast dishes in the dishwasher before she left- before he opened the refrigerator. It was equally well stocked and clean, and there were a number of small white boxes stacked one on top of the other. Those would be the leftovers he had permission to eat, then. He helped himself to a box of noodles and a box of fried rice, and then some pork and some chicken as well. Mana had never told him where the plates were, so he ate at the counter straight from the boxes with a pair of chopsticks he found rooting around through the drawers. The kitchen was nice, he decided. All of the appliances were lined up neatly by the back wall, as were several containers that appeared to be full of things like flour and sugar and the like. Jin replaced the boxes once he was finished and looked around, trying to decide what to do with the chopsticks, before he just tossed them in the sink where they landed with a small clatter, all alone. Now the demon was bored again, but more than that he was also a little tired. He walked over to the couch to lay down for a nap, satisfied with the day's activities. Maybe tomorrow he could read the diary, find out a little more about Mana...


It seemed like the school day would never end. Every class dragged on longer than the last one, and the teachers just got more and more boring. Mana tapped at her deck with her pencil, waiting, until finally the last bell rang. It was all she could do not to cheer. She wanted so badly to get home and see if her houseguest was still there or not! Grabbing her bag, she ran for the door...

"Hey, Mana, wait for us!"

Ah, fiznit. Mana slowed to a stop and turned as Sachi and Hachi came running up behind her. "Mana, what is with you? You've been on edge all day!"

Mana shifted the bag on her shoulder. "Oh, have I? I'm just nervous. See, I got a dentist's appointment today, and I haven't been brushing as well as I should have, and Dr. Kanamura is gonna yell at me, I just know it."

"Oh, that's too bad," Hachiko sympathized. Sometimes Mana wondered if the girl was really that naïve, or if she was just amused by how easily Mana tried to lie to them. Her twin, on the other hand, seemed less easy going.

Sachiko stared at her. "A dentist's appointment. On Wednesday." Mana gritted her teeth. The three girls had gone out for ice cream on Wednesday since they were children- and karaoke on Saturday since they started middle school- and there was usually a heavy price to pay for skipping. Oh, well. She'd risk it. The blonde nodded.

"Yeah, I must not have realized it was a Wednesday when I made the appointment. There was a reminder on my answering machine when I got home yesterday, otherwise I would have told you sooner. Anyway, I gotta run or I'm gonna be late."

"Okay," Sachiko looked unconvinced, "But you're buying next Wednesday to make up for it."

"Sure thing," Mana called as she ran out the door.

Sachiko and Hachiko stared after her. Even with her back turned she could still hear them from the hallway. "She is so lying."

"Uh-huh."

Fiznit...

There were three people hanging around outside the door to the apartment house, all of whom she recognized. Mana scowled and headed for the fire escape. Making sure her bag was secure over her shoulder, the blonde girl hoisted herself up onto a trashcan and from there jumped, catching the lowest rung of the drop-down ladder. She hung for a moment before swinging and hoisting herself up with the easy motions of someone who'd been on more than a few parallel bars, silently thanking her mother for the gym classes she'd been forced to attend when she was small. It had taken a lot of practice to do that without cracking her nose on one of the higher rungs, but another hoist and a heave, and Mana scrambled up the ladder to the stairs on the fire escape, up one-two-three more floors, and then it was just a three-foot step across open air to her balcony. She stood for a moment, breathing deeply, and then walked to the glass door into the living room and looked inside. And there was the demon boy, asleep on her couch. Mana vey nearly smiled as she opened the door and slipped inside. It felt good, having this person who needed her to take care of him. Oh, he would get his strength back, and one day she'd come home and he'd be gone, but for now Jin was a secret, her secret. Mana didn't get to have many secrets that at least a few other people couldn't hold over her head. The girl walked over to the side of the couch to look down at him. He was out like a light; he'd probably slept all day. The thin shadow of a smile grew just a little. How cute.

Why was there a knife on the coffee table?

Mana blinked and picked up the blade, the phantom smile fading quickly. It was one of her good cooking knives, and it looked like it had been through the ringer. So that's why he's out of it, she thought. Tried to cut the cord. Fighting that thing for a while would make anyone tired. Mana put the knife away, and then went to the refrigerator for a snack. Chow mien sounded good. She picked up the box and stopped. It was awfully light, light enough that for a moment it felt empty. She opened it and sighed to herself at the contents. There was maybe a half a cup of the dish left. On a hunch, she checked the other boxes of Chinese food- they were near empty, too. Mana looked over at the demon on her couch. Well, at least he was eating... a lot... Mana finished off the chow mien before heading into the spare bedroom and looking around, a new idea forming in her head. The room had barely been used for three years, but it would do. She just needed to move some of these boxes first...


Jin smelled food when he woke up. Not the kind of smelling food where you take a sniff and someone is cooking in the general vicinity, but the kind of smelling food where you fall asleep in your plate. Not that he wanted to think about how he knew that, but the point was there. He opened his eyes; Mana was kneeling by the couch, waving a plate next to his nose, coaxing him gently. "Come on, wake up and eat."

He stared at her. "When did ya get home," he asked as he took the plate, examining it curiously. Tonight's meal was steak teriyaki and salad and rice. Could the girl's cooking get any more Asian?

"I've been here a few hours now." The girl rocked back on her heels and picked up her own plate. "You sleep like the dead, you know that? You didn't even notice when I changed your bandages. I tried to wake you up for a whole hour before I gave up and made do with pushing you around."

Jin mumbled a vague 'sorry' around a mouthful of meat. Mana took a bite, chewed carefully, and swallowed before speaking again. "I fixed a new place for you to sleep while you're here."

Father's room, Jin figured while he ate, but he said nothing. He doubted his hostess would be so nice if she knew he'd gone through her whole house. Granted, he wasn't sure what else she would have expected, but still...

"See, there's a second bedroom in this apartment, for my father, but since he's not here to use it I thought you could. It'd be more comfortable than staying out here, and I wouldn't bother you when I'm cleaning or doing my homework. If that's okay with you, of course. I'm really starting to miss my couch."

Was that supposed to be a joke? "'At's fine with me," Jin assured her before gulping down more of the beef and starting in on the salad. Mana stared at him a moment before going back to her own meal. They ate in silence- as silent as he could be gulping down everything on the plate, anyway- and Jin finished his food first. He looked over at Mana. "Em..."

She looked up at him, reaching for a folded napkin before she spoke, and he felt just a little bit chagrinned about eating the way he had when she was so tidy and polite. "Yes?"

Jin held up the empty plate with a sheepish grin. "Is 'ere any more where 'at came from, by any chance?"

Lying in his new bed that night, Jin heard her coughing again. He lay there for a moment, fingering the cord around his wrist, before he decided that there was nothing he could do about it. The little human girl was sick somehow, but she worked... contentedly, if not cheerfully... and seemed to have the coughing pretty well contained. If she didn't want to bring up whatever was wrong with her, he wouldn't pressure her about it. And if it was something really, terribly wrong, well, she probably would have mentioned it a time or two in the diary and he could decide what to do from there. Honestly it was probably rather rude to read the book, he knew, but she was a complete stranger and he did need to know what he was up against. It wouldn't be the first secrets he'd stolen over the years, at the very least. He rolled over onto his side and stared at the wall, waiting for the coughing to stop. Finally, after several minutes of counting quietly in his head, there was silence. Jin fell asleep.