A/N: And the well runs dry, my friends.

Please don't stop reviewing! As soon as I'm finished with my midterms, I'll keep working on this. It's just getting overwhelming with the bone practical and midterms .

Sorry this isn't more interesting!

---

Chapter 10

(Silver Children by Force of Nature)

---

I threw Fuu down on her bed harshly, feeling more like myself - or at least the me Fuu's mom thinks I am.

Well, people are always bitching about living up to expectations, eh?

Fuu stared up at me, glassy-eyed, baby-like, and totally out of it.

"So how much did you really have last night, Fuu?" I asked, scratching the back of my head and rifling through her shit.

For a girl, Fuu was a fucking slob. Shit was all over the floor, looking like a mini mountain range, and a baby pink bra with a sunflower print laying across the top of a half-open closet door - with that door half hiding another mountain of shit.

Maybe she'd left the house drunk or something?

"I don't remember, Mugen. I only remember that around my tenth I was telling myself to stop, and I think maybe around the sixteenth I was ready to actually listen to myself."

I gave her a sideways look. For a little shit, she could hold her booze.

Maybe her depression worked as a second liver or something.

I sighed. Jesus, this broad was determined to kill me.

Bored with her sock drawer, I walked over to her.

"Do you want me to tell your ma about it?"

She gave me a tired look. "Is there any other option?"

I rubbed my scruffy chin and gave it some real, serious thought. "I ain't got nothing."

Fuu sighed softly, curling her hands underneath her chin and settling in for sleep like a kitten. "Call Jin. He knows stuff."

My nose gave an involuntary twitch.

Jin wins. Always.

Well, fuck that.

"Fuck no! I can figure something out by myself, you dumb bitch!"

Fuu snored softly. Shit, the bitch fell asleep like it was nothing.

"Yo, Fish-face?"

The pompous asshole had finally answered the other line.

"Hn?"

"Fuu's at home; she passed out again this morning. I'm with her now. What do I tell her mom?"

"She dehydrated – it's the truth, though liberally interpreted. Tell her the heat simply overtook her."

I chuckled; I admit, it wasn't the friendliest sound I'd ever made.

"What?" Jin's voice sounded edgy and suspicious.

He never did trust me alone with Fuu; he knew I could protect her, and he'd let me rescue her sorry little ass every time she was in some sort of trouble, but me alone with Fuu for a purpose that didn't involve a white horse or shining armor? No deal.

"Well?" He'd gotten antsy in the course of my silence.

"Oh, nothin'. Nothin' at all, Fish-Face." Okay, so that wasn't the most honest sound I'd ever made, either.

"Mugen, if you do not promptly admit to whatever it was that you have done to her - and I am fairly certain you have done something, considering even a brute like you could interpret what I said as a pun - I shall make sure you never have the means to do anything to any woman ever again."

Okay, okay, so what if my legs closed a little tighter to protect the little soldiers?

"Nothin', fuck, Jin, she came on to me. I'm the victim here!"

He clicked.

Hm, the fucker wants to fight? We'll fight.

---

Nov.28.2007