[Scene: Makoto's place. Makoto brings plates of food out to the coffee table and sits beside Dev and leans in close.]

Makoto: I want to hear all about your childhood.

Dev: I don't want to ruin your dinner.

Makoto: [socks his shoulder] I told you all about mine. Besides, if I'm your girlfriend I should know everything about you.

Dev: True enough...Let's see...My mother died when I was born... After that, my father...well, my father, he had issues... He promised her he would care for us...but he fell into some very dark times and bad habits... He never paid much attention to us before he took off and left...This old woman...she took us in...One of those socialite types, active in charitable circles...But behind closed doors... [Dev shudders as if at the memories]...Let's just say there was a sadistic side of her that she kept hidden from society pages.

Makoto: She hit you?

Dev: Not me.

Makoto: [comprehension dawns] Oh.

Dev: El has always had a smart little mouth on her, and that is exactly the wrong sort of person to keep around a narcissistic phony like that.

[Makoto places her hand on his arm]

Dev:Plus, this woman always hated my mother, and it didn't help that El looks just like her...She hit her. Pulled her around by the hair. Yelled at her and called her names. Threw her down the stairs. She beat my sister until she was black and blue and there was nothing I could do about it.

Makoto: And she never hit you?

Dev: She didn't need to. There is nothing you can do to me that is worse than hurting my sister.

[Makoto gathers Dev a reassuring hug, and Dev smiles an evil little smile over her shoulder at the contact]

Dev: She tried to pit us against each other, you know? She pretended I was her favorite...the golden boy who could do no wrong. But El saw right through her... I begged El to stop provoking her, but she refused. She pretended she liked being hit...But I knew better...we're so close, I can practically see into her mind... I swore, when I was big enough I would find a way to kill that bitch-

[Makoto breaks off the hug and looks at him with concern.]

Dev: She died on her own. A few years after my father got himself all cleaned up came back looking for us, and took us off her hands. Seems he decided he wanted a family after all...All those years without so much as a Christmas card or a phone call, and El just welcomed him back like nothing had happened.

Makoto: I can imagine...after everything the two of you had been through. No wonder you're so protective of her.

Dev: I wish you could have known her when she was tiny. She was the sweetest, most good-natured girl imaginable, until that old witch taught her how to hate.

[Makoto takes his hands in hers, and gazes at him with eyes misty with unshed tears, and Dev has to hide a smile]

Dev: My father spoils us. He buys us everything we want. As well he should. But I couldn't be bought so easily with his guilt gifts. Then one day I was exploring and found my mother's conservatory...and her piano. The servants kept it dusted and tuned, but my father never stepped foot in there, not since...well...I had been taking music lessons and already surpassed my tutors. I looked in the piano bench to see if I could find any of my mother's sheet music. Instead I found a large thin package. Gifwrapped and addressed to "Eleanor & Devon"... Inside were photographs, birthday cards, songs, cute little hand drawn cartoons...and letters. Lots and lots of letters. She started writing letters to the two of us when she found out she was expecting, and when she realized she was dying, she only wrote faster, since she knew this was the only way she could be a part of our lives while we were growing up.

Makoto: And you shared them with your sister?

Dev: [shakes his head] I tried, but she wouldn't look at them. Neither would my father. They said it was too macabre, but I think it was too painful for them to even think about her... But those letters brought me great joy. I needed to know there was a time when we were wanted. When we were loved...

[He breaks in tears and Makoto pulls him into and embrace. She rocks him, rubbing his back to sooth him. And then they start to kiss. The kissing becomes quite intense and she pulls him down onto the couch.]

[Dev sits up with a "what the hell am I doing" look on his face.]

Dev: I can't do this...It's not right.

Makoto: [tries to take hold of him] It feels pretty right to me.

Dev: [struggles away] No. It isn't...Don't get me wrong. I want to. I want to more than anything. But there are too many problems. For one thing, I've never done it before, so this would probably be the most embarrassing thirty seconds of my life.

Makoto: [shrugs and leans in] You know what they say. "Practice makes perfect."

Dev:No. Doing this would be wrong on many levels.

Makoto: Oh, come on. i'm a big girl. I told you, I'm almost seventeen!

Dev: I'm NOT!

Makoto: [scoots away] Oh...that's right. I keep forgetting you're a freshman.

Dev: A freshman foreign exchange student. Which means I'm not going to be around for much longer.

Makoto: But there is the internet. And you'll come back won't you? Someday?

Dev: If I do, you'll be old. [goes to the loveseat to collect his coat]

Makoto: I'll wait.

Dev: By next month you will have forgotten I ever existed.

Makoto: I'll never forget you.

Dev: [heads for the door] I'll never forget you either. You will always be my Bond girl.

Makoto: wait...you don't have to go.

Dev: I really should. It's late. I don't want my sister to worry.

Makoto: I'll bring you lunch tomorrow. I'll make enough for the both of you. What do you like to eat?

Dev: Anything will be fine. We aren't particular. [He leaves]

Makoto: [to the closed door] Bye. [she stares forlornly at his untouched meal, and heaves a heavy sigh]