"Hmm... and I guess our time is up. I covered everything I wanted to say so time to get you back," the girl stood and moved towards Laz who was still sitting down with a relaxed expression on his face. Since they had already done this song and dance a few times, he wasn't surprised nor afraid. Instead, he could barely bring himself to react to it. Seeing the look on his face, the girl couldn't help but sigh.

She didn't like him, nor did she hate him. If anything, he was bound to her in a way she couldn't explain and he wouldn't understand. Most times she could say without issue that she cared nothing for his feelings, but right now, looking at him look back at her with such a nonchalant att.i.tude, she started to doubt if she was doing this right. The whole point of being so short and condesending with him all the time while also acting as though she was the master of his life was to give him a goal to work for, so that he would want to be strong enough to fight back against her. She had expected to see hatred or at least a shred of fear in his eyes. Yet she was right now seeing neither.

Just before she got close to him, she stopped and leaned against the table while crossing her arms. She now understood that he wasn't as simple as the humans she had learned about and therefore the whole guidebook on them could no longer be used. Instead, she would need to figure out what to do going forward.

"Do you hate me?"

"No?"

Somewhat surprised, Laz just responded with the first thing that came to mind. He worded it like a question only because he wasn't sure if he was suppose to or not.

"Why not?" the girl asked, curious.

"I don't know you well enough to hate you. Besides, considering everything up to this point... I would say you have helped me far more than hurt me. When thinking about that, how could I hate you?"

"Then why do you show no emotion even though you know whats coming?" She asked, thinking back to the texts. In the books she had read on humans, one thing that stood out was that they were afraid of death and that it was a very easy way to control them and they would both hate dying itself and hate the feeling of dying. Therefore, most humans would avoid wanting to live through that feeling reapeatedly. And yet, contrary to that idea, this young man in front of her looked like it was nothing more than their normal way of saying farewell. She couldn't understand it.

"Should I fear you? Should I fear dying? How many times have I experienced death at your hands now, three times? Four times? It's not like I'm going to change things or that your suddenly going to send me out of this dream world or wherever it is just because I don't like dying so we might as well just get it over with," Laz replied honestly.

"But... don't humans fear death?"

"What creature doesn't fear death? But so what? Experiencing the endless black void is something I would like to avoid, but if it comes, it comes. It's not like I'm looking to just give up my life, but sometimes that darkness is nothing more than a sweet and silent embrace. After everything that has happened to me over the past two years, death no longer scares me. The only thing that really scares me is that when the time comes, I won't be strong enough to save those around me... again..." With this admission, a tear escaped from Laz's eye, but it didn't change the look on his face. Seeing him like this, the girl automatically knew what he was talking about. Even though she showed him a general disinterest, she had been paying attention to him over the years. As such, she knew about Kat and what happened there. For her, it was nothing more than watching a show play out. But when that show involves real people experiencing real events, how can the emotions the actors feel not be real as well?

"I forget, sometimes, that you human's arn't what we remember... those time gaps in history... so much as changed..." As the girl's voice trailed off, Laz couldn't help but put on a questioning gaze. He really wanted to ask somethings, but he knew that she would only tell him if she wanted to, so he restrained himself.

"Sigh. Ah well. Doesn't matter I guess. Afterall, it doesn't really change anything. Still though, if I ever see you slow down, just know that it will be your end," she said, regainging her usual att.i.tude.

"Right, right. End. Darkness. Destruction. Oblivion. And all that. Let's get this going..." Although Laz wasn't taking her seriously, that didn't mean he wasn't being serious in his pursuit of strength. This kind of response would have normally angered the girl, but for some reason she laughed instead. Laz was surprised by her laughter that seemed to twinkle through the area like stars, ringing like bells. It was refres.h.i.+ng and uplifting at the same time. Thinking about it, he realized it was probably the first time he had heard her honest left since they first interacted.

'You truely are different than the books say. Even having been around the world and seen your culture while observing others, I guess you can't really understand someone until you get to know them," she said when she finally calmed down.

"Of course. Was there suppose to be another way? An old saying we have is that to really get to know someone, you have to walk a mile in their shoes, or at least that's what my grandpa used to tell me. But it does make sense."

"Walk a mile in their shoes? Is that a distance or some sort of trail? And how would I fit into your shoes? Your feet are so big and awkward?" Laz was surprised to discover that this seemingly all knowing murderous beauty seemed to be a bit lacking in abstract thought. Of course it could just be the cultural differences between them as well, but since it would take a while to try to explain, he figured it was best to leave it at this.

"Well, whatever. Time for you to return to your little mating session. I seriously don't understand why male type creatures enjoy that sort of thing, or females for that matter..."

Hearing this, Laz couldn't help but have a thoughts,

'Has she never had s.e.x before? Wait, I'm a.s.suming she even has s.e.x like us... obviously she isn't human... Oh? She's glaring at me. I wonder if she can hear what I'm thinking?'

*OBVIOUSLY I CAN HEAR WHAT YOUR THINKING, YOU'RE SCREAMING IT ALL OVER THE PLACE!*

Before Laz even had the chance to be shocked by the fact that she could communicate in this way, her palm slammed into his chest and like a bomb going off, his body exploded into tiny particles that disappeared. Just as his world went black and his mind felt that cold, silent taste of death, he heard something else.

*AND BY THE WAY, MY NAME IS A'RUYA SO STOP CALLING ME SHE YOU d.a.m.n h.o.r.n.y MONKEY.*

...

Outside a rather large office tower in a city about five hours away from where Laz lived, a black limo pulled up to the guarded side door. The driver stepped out and walked around, grabbing the door and opening it up. Although he knew he was speaking to a dog, he still had a job to perform and went through all the steps.

"We've arrived miss. There will be someone inside to escort you to see the lady once you go in," he said, wondering if he was actually going to have to show her.

'In fact, normally when driving an animal, even if the animal was alone by themselves in the back, there would be someone here to meet them. Why did they think she could go in on her own? f.u.c.k it... now I'm going to have to go get the whole thing cleaned or it's going to smell like dog...' As the middle aged man's thoughts trailed off though, his eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open into a large 'O' shape. The back window to the limo had originally been closed and therefore he had no idea what was going on back there. So how was he suppose to react when out of the limo stepped a young, maybe 14 or 15 year old girl dressed in a red and black pleated, high waist skirt with a black long sleeve top and leather, knee high boots.

"Thanks!"

Without saying another word, Vivi, with a character back pack, walked up to the enterence without hesitation and opened the door, the wind occasionally catching her raven black hair.

Just inside the door, talking to the few people who were surrounding her, Kennedy was standing there in a black business skirt suit with her eyes on the door. She knew that Vivi was arriving soon and although it was a little inappropriate for her to wait out here herself, she didn't really know how she would explain letting a wolf dog walk through the building while being escorted would turn out. Therefore, she felt it better that she do it herself.

Just as she started wondering when Vivi would get there, the revolving door swung around and in walked a cute and pretty young girl who smiled as soon as she saw Kennedy. Without waiting for Kennedy to say anything, Vivi lifted her hand and waved while moving over towards her quickly.

"Hi! It's been a while!" Vivi giggled as she was enjoying the blank look on Kennedy's face. Everyone else, knowing that the boss was expecting company, backed up and gave them some room to greet eachother.

After a minute though, with Vivi holding her hands while smiling at her and laughing inside, Kennedy still hadn't come back to herself. Finally, she caught a glimpse of the icey blue eyes and raven black hair and she came to the most insane conclusion.

"Vivi?"

"What? Am I that different?"

"THAT DIFFERENT? NO, OF COURSE NOT." Seeing Kennedy raise her voice as though shocked, angry and surprised at the same time, Vivi couldn't help but burst into laughter at he response. Kennedy, seeing her laughing, knew that she had done this on purpose.

"Why you little..." Kennedy was half tempted to pounce on this scheming little wolf and teach her a lession, but held back for the sake of her image to her underlings.

"Let's go, you've got some explaining to do..." Kennedy said as she turned around to the elevator.

"Yes big sister," Vivi replied as she followed behind, still letting out fits of giggles.

Hearing her response, Kennedy stopped and turned to look at Vivi who was still enjoying her surprise. Looking up and down Vivi, Kennedy's gaze finally landed on her chest before responding,

"Well my cute little sister, it does look like you've grown up quite a bit. But it seems some things might have gotten left behind," Kennedy said with a smirk. She then raised her gaze to Vivi's face that looked like it was stuck between laugher and extreme shock before laughing while swiftly retreating to the elevator.

Hearing her laughing in amus.e.m.e.nt while running away, Vivi jumped after her as fast as she could while screaming,

"NOT EVERYONE WANTS BIG, BACK BREAKING, SAGGY MILK JUGS LIKE YOU, YOU KNOW!!!"