I do not own Neuro, Yako, Godai, nor anybody else here. Woe, woe, woe is me.

Yako learned to cook her first dish, a fried egg, when she was six. Her father tied a little pink apron around her waist and her mother heated up the pan, telling Yako to mind the heat and watch the butter and if it was overcooked it would get runny.

Yako watched and learned, and eventually made her own egg. Her mother was satisfied, but her father was estatic, pleased with his little girl's achievement.

"She's on her way to womanhood," he said solemnly to his wife. "My little girl is growing up. Soon she'll be big enough for boys to want to kiss her! Why, one might even give her a big green fish to cook up!" Yako's mother swatted at her husband, laughing gaily. Watching them talking, Yako understood that this was a relationship separate from hers with each of them. It was a little frightening to realize that she was not a part of every moment of her parents' lives.

Analyzing this as she slurped up her sunny-side up egg, Yako wondered where she ended and her parents began. It was as if, in her mind, they were grafted together like the fruit trees they had learned about in school. The trees were bases for younger, more fragile branches, Yako recalled. But the trees gave those new branches all their attention, especially if their normal branches were cut off, and so they lived out their lives supporting fruit that was not theirs.

"Papa, papa!" Yako bounded from her chair, feeling suddenly upset and lonely, "Papa, give me a raise! I can cook now!"

Her father swept her up, and her mother kissed her cheek. "Aha, you'll have to take that up with Mama, puppy!"

"Mama, mama! Can I have a bigger allowance? I can cook for us all now!" Her mother laughed and her father tickled her.

"Will you cook us a big green fish, Yako?"

"Yeah, Mama!"

"Just like Papa gave Mama?"

"Yeah, Mama!"

"Well... okay, then. But you have to cook it with chilies, just like Mama did for Papa!" And, just like that, Yako realized that people were not trees. Trees grafted. People shared.

Years later and degrees colder, Yako stood outside, watching Neuro's office light from the street. She knew that he was expecting her and that she would be in trouble for being late, but even so...

Sometimes she wanted the peace and quiet that had been thrust upon her when her father was killed. At the time she had balked from it, had wanted his loud presence back, but now, with her mornings filled with fans and her days filled with demons, she thought she might like a try at quiet again. It had not been the quiet she had disliked, but rather the method with which it had come upon her.

It had been quiet when she'd first met Neuro. It had been too quiet, and she'd been about to burst into wild tears from the pressure of that blank silence when she'd heard something- cloth on skin? Hair ornaments touching with the faintest of tinkles? The near-gone sound of teeth adjusting inside a mouth too small for them?

Whatever the sound, sometimes she still heard it, and it made her think of Neuro automatically.

Yako shook herself and stepped towards the door.

"I know I'm late, Neuro," Yako said, nodding to Akane, ignoring her fellow slave as he slept on the couch.

"Aha, Slave Number One," Neuro said, sounding very much like he was going to do something terrible (which he likely was, Yako decided with a tired sigh). "Look, look at what a little research finds you!" Grabbing her head in what was a no more hostile grip than normal, he dragged her over to the moniter and thrust her face to it.

"'Local Woman Dies from Overeating'? Why, how strange, what does that have to do with-" She paused and frowned, feeling cross. Haha, Neuro. So funny.

"Oho, the wood louse is thinking of it from her perspective," Neuro cackled, grinding his fingers into her skull. She fancied, at times, that she could feel little talons on his fingers instead of nails. "But no, read more."

Yako sighed and read further. It had been a hard day in school for her, and she wasn't really feeling up to playing keep-up with Neuro. In this case, though, the problem stood out rather obviously.

"'...Miss Ayame had a long-standing eating disorder that sent her into an institution several times...' Huh." Yako said, leaning back from the screen as Neuro's pressure on her skull eased. He kept his hand on her head, though, and while at night she liked to pretend to herself that it was his way of showing his love, in the fluorescent glow of the office she knew it was so he could grab her again with ease.

Like now, when she was sent flying onto Godai, waking him with a yell and startling her.

"Slave Number Two! Get a car! We're going!" Godai and Yako both looked at Neuro over the top of the couch. He eyed them evilly, treating them to a view of his teeth.

"Neuro," Yako finally said delicately, "it's nine at night. There's no crime scene investigation taking place, because they don't think it's a murder. We don't know the family's address, and we don't know if they're even there." Neuro fixed her with what Godai had one day sourly dubbed 'Those Goddamned Swirly Eyes'.

Yako responded by hunching down, puffing out her cheeks, and shaking her head.

"No, Neuro. We can go tomorrow."

In the end she won out, simply because Neuro got distracted by a web site that Godai introduced him to that was, supposedly, a Great Mystery.

"Nobody's been able to solve it all the way through," Godai tossed out from his favorite space on the couch. Neuro was grinning in almost disconcerting concentration, and judging by the way his eyes were glowing, he had found it a worthy challenge despite his initial misgivings.

Early the next day, Yako was dragged from her bed and flung out her second-story window in her pajamas. After a bit of screaming and being caught by Neuro an instant before impact, Yako was able to understand why Neuro had given in to his slaves so easily last night: he had been plotting revenge.

Godai was half-sleeping in his new Jeep when Neuro dragged her out of the house. If she leaned a little, Yako could see that it wasn't quite four am yet by the dashboard clock's measure.

"Neuro," She scolded, "what do you think you're doing? I need to get dressed."

"They live outside the city," He responded as if she had any idea what he was talking about, "and we must get there early or all the mystery will be gone." She frowned at him. He frowned back. Huh. He was serious. It was that case from last night, then?

"Nn, at least let me pack and get dressed," Yako shot out, turning right around and going inside. Neuro followed her, looking a bit miffed. Perhaps he hadn't expected her to be so calm about the whole 'up before the sun' thing. To be honest, Yako was too tired to be upset.

"So how far will we have to go? Godai seems a little too tired for a long trip." Neuro perched himself on her bed, watching her throw a few shirts and skirts into her suitcase.

"We're headed to an estate two hours out of the city. It isn't too far for him." Yako knew that Neuro actually had very little idea what was and wasn't too much for Godai, and she knew that he, at least subconsciously, depended on her to know that in his stead. So she nodded and fussed with a ribbon on her outfit for today, giving Neuro the signal that it would be okay, that Godai's temper would blow over.

If asked, Neuro would say that he didn't care. Yako had noticed, however, that he didn't take advantage of his Slave Number Two more than twice a month on average. It warmed her, a little, to know that Neuro had some small measure of caring (or at least common sense) in him.

"Neh, Neuro," Yako finally said when they had been sitting in complete silence for almost five minutes, staring at each other, "I need to get dressed."

Neuro looked at her for a bit more, making her a little uncomfortable, before silently standing and walking to her doorway. There he stopped, and it seemed like he wanted to say something, that he was waiting. Yako waited too, watching him, but in the end he simply turned and met her gaze before shutting the door behind him.

It occurred to her that perhaps he had been waiting for just that.