~Matt:

"Why is this happening Mello?" I whispered as I turned off the lights in our room. Mello climbed into bed and sighed.

"She's only 15 years old." I continued as I walked to the bed, "She hasn't even tried to sneak out of the house to meet her friends and possibly a boy friend yet! She hasn't even lived Mel's, so why now? Why her?"

"Matt, complaining is not going to help her get better at all, so shut the hell up." Mello snapped.

I crawled under the blankets. It was quiet for a while.

"Mello."

I could hear him growl from under the blanket, "What?"

"Are we going to tell her?"

I left him speechless. I even left myself speechless. Would it be best for Aiko if we told her now? Would she accept it? Would she ever accept it? Could we accept it? SO many questions and no one is here to answer them.

"We'll tell her when the time is right." Mello said quietly, "She's strong. She gets that from me of course."

'When the time is right.'? Will the time ever be right?

I turned to my side and stared at the dark wall. A high school sophomore shouldn't have to worry herself with death right now. This is wrong. What about this God Mello prays to? Where is he? Isn't he supposed to be protecting the weak? Is a 15 year old not weak enough for him? Is she not good enough for him? —

"Daddy! Daddy!" Aiko ran to me out of breath.

"What baby?" I asked putting down my bowl of cereal.

"Daddy! Golden jumped out of his bowl and I tried to catch him to put him back but then he jumped and I got scared so I stepped on him! Daddy is he going to be okay?" She clanged to my shirt tighter with every word that left her mouth.

"You stepped on him?" I can't believe she stepped on him!

"Daddy come help me!" She cried as she let go of my shirt and ran off into the living room.

I stood up and walked into the empty room behind her. There was a pool of water on the floor and Golden, Aiko's fish, was lying on the floor. He was flat and his guts where coming out of his stomach.

Aiko leaned down and was about to touch it when I stopped her by putting my hand on her head. She looked up and me and I shook my head 'no'. I kneeled down to her level and looked at the fish.

"Baby, Golden died." I said cautiously.

"'Died'? What does that mean?" She asked innocently.

She was so young and I was about to teach her about death. What was this world coming to?

"Aiko, when you stepped on Golden you squished him like a pancake. Gold fish can't be squished or else they'll die. When things die—"

"Then go to heaven."

I looked back and saw Mello leaning on the doorframe. He pushed himself off the frame and walked towards us, "You see Aiko, when things die their soul goes to God in Heaven. In Heaven all the souls watch over us that are still living and protect us. They are called angels."

Aiko's eyes began to water as she looked back down to the fish. "So Golden is an angel now?"

"That's right. In fact he's probably watching you now, he's making sure that your okay because now it's his job to protect you."

"To protect me?" Aiko asked.

Mello nodded. He was always good at this type of things. Mello and his religion could easily answer any question that Aiko had.

"Can I do anything to say sorry for squishing him?" Aiko asked as some tears slipped out her blue eyes.

Mello rubbed her back to comfort her and looked at me, "We can give him a funeral."

"Matt." Mello turned towards me put an arm on my shoulder, "Why are you crying?"

Crying…? I blinked and touched my cheek; it was damp and there where still tears slipping from my eyes. Damn.

"What are you talking about Mello? I'm not crying." I tried to keep my voice steady.

"Don't lie to me Matt." He put a hand on my arm, "You have goosebumps, you always get them when you're crying." He moved his hand up my arm and stroked my cheek, "What's wrong?"

"'What's wrong?' Are you honestly asking me that right now? Our daughter has a disease inside of her that will soon kill her and no one on the whole damn world can do anything about it!" I could feel more tears fall down my cheeks as tried to calm myself down, "Mello, we are going to have to burry our daughter before she even gets married."

–creak.

I snapped my head towards the door. Oh no. "Aiko?"

Footsteps could be heard running down the hall towards Aiko's room and a door slammed closed. I looked at Mello and he looked at me. We simultaneously pulled the blanket off of ourselves before we ran out the door. We walked down the hall and knocked on Aiko's door.

I tried turning the knob but sadly it was locked, "Aiko, let us in."

There was no answer from the inside of the room. Mello and I shared a look before he walked off. I knocked on the door again, "Aiko, please let us in."

Mello re entered the hall way with a key and pushed it into the keyhole. He turned the knob to open the door, "Aiko?"