Warnings: Vague references to underage (never detailed), violence, character death, language, sexual content.

Welp. The hurricane sucked and we didn't have power for a little over a week. Thanks for the reviews guys, and please continue to be patient. This story isn't an action or romance technically, so it's going to take a bit of time and Sasuke's actual age (because I haven't confirmed it yet!) will be coming up in the next chapter. It's a short one this time! More of an interlude.

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Suspiciously, he leaned against the railing of the back porch.

He hadn't been certain, but now he was.

When he came home, the cobwebs were gone. The floor had been swept and mopped, the dining table polished, and the trash taken out.

Perhaps, he'd considered earlier, the cleaning lady had come by and did her jobs earlier than usual. She just happened to not call this time.

Now, he was sure.

It was not the cleaning lady.

Other things had been done to his home, certainly things the cleaning lady wouldn't have done.

The railing of the back porch had been fixed; the old wood that had been rotting had been ripped out and replaced with the unpainted wood from the shed in the backyard.

The handyman only ever came once a month unless Sasuke called and it was deemed of utmost importance. Even then, Sasuke's calls were usually on the backburner.

He leaned against the railing, now properly nailed and adjusted so it didn't give way under a little weight, and it no longer sagged.

He turned back to the house, staring into the open doorway. He nearly expected her to be lingering behind him, watching him and breathing and just watching.

He'd started getting used to her throughout the week.

She seemed like a night person, she was always asleep when he left for school, but at times, when he stayed up late to read or watch television, he would hear the house move around him. He would rarely hear her do anything, but it was as if the house itself was breathing when she was awake.

The wood in his doors and floors swelled and creaked softly, the water in the pipes in the walls rushed and dripped.

He supposed, distantly, that it was strange that a boy in middle school who lived alone would welcome a girl in high school into his home for days on end.

He didn't know when she would actually leave. She asked only for another day but she had yet to leave or even acknowledge the subject.

He pushed away from the railing and went inside, gravitating towards a lamp in the living area. She was interesting, and out of the way, so he'd let her stay for now. She cleaned, as she said she would, and she fixed the stairs in the back.

They interacted a little, in passing, or on purpose on her part. She would ask him about his day and whether or not he responded, she would remain near him. He'd feel her – observe him. He would never see her eyes on him; they would be trained to the side or down to the floor. But he would feel her watching him somehow.

Sasuke wasn't innocent of observation though. He'd started noticing things about her. Strange things about an equally strange person. Sometimes, she'd sit in the dark at the dining table. Once, he'd passed her room to dig out blank computer paper from the office at the end of the hall, and he'd seen the outline of her figure sitting on her bed in the dark.

The sight had given him chills, had made him freeze momentarily before he rushed by.

And he never noticed her eat anything. He'd checked the fridge to see what she might've ate, checked the contents of the trash. There was nothing that wasn't his.

She'd drink tea, cold and hot, and water but she never ate.

It was probably a diet or something stupid – something girlish.

But.

Still. He never saw her eat.

He heard the floors creak, and he listened to the house breathe. From the dark in the hallway where her room was, he saw a figure walking slowly towards the living room. It was the girl, no longer in her faded, worn school uniform, but in fresh clothes left behind by a cousin of his. She wore a dark shirt and light khaki colored shorts. He could see the lamp light reflect in her eyes like an animal's.

She loomed from the dark, stepping into the glow of the lamp and turning on the chandelier in the dining area. She bowed her head a bit and greeted him. Looking shy, she tucked her hair behind her ears. "How was your day, Sasuke-san?" she asked quietly. Speaking and referring to him as if he weren't younger than her, treating him as if he were an adult or of equal age. It was refreshing, almost, to be considered like that.

But –

There it was again.

That strange insistence in her voice. For all her courtesies, Sasuke wondered if she was really sincerely polite. The undercurrent in her questions and answers wasn't something he could identify. He wasn't sure if he wanted to.

He could see his figure in her wide eyes and he was small and pale and young and he felt as if her eyes alone could swallow him whole.