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Vyn’s breath lingered visibly on the glass, clouding the view outside. She sighed, further misting the surface, before raising one slender finger and pressing it to the glass. The cold stung, yet she didn’t really care as she drew something in the condensation. A couple of quick strokes later a name was marked on the window.

‘Shuura.’

Dark eyes stared wistfully at it; observing the beads of water gathering at the bottom of the letters, threatening to roll downwards and distort the frei’s previous guardian’s name.

However awful the teenager had looked after her, the meals of greasy junk food and the occasional thoughtlessness, she couldn’t help but miss the raven haired human, who had not only acted as her guardian but as a friend too. She’d given her a soul and looked after her throughout the start of her life. She’d even shaped her likes and dislikes, introduced her to her favourite type of music; J-rock. She was listening to it right now, the fast paced Japanese lyrics playing through brand-new headphones in her sloped ears. The sound quality was perfect and Vyn could almost imagine that she was at a live gig, her rune pulsating to the beat, the band on stage before her. However, she couldn’t quite relish the enjoyment it gave her. The headphones had been given to her by Shuura’s replacement...

She flicked her wings in distaste - If the old man thought he could buy her allegiance, he needed to re-think. So far he’d been nice enough; taken her in, given her a room, a new portable music player and insisted that if she needed anything all she needed to do was ask. But she didn’t quite trust the old man; she was used to the vibrant, young energy of Shuura, however this new man, Ethan, was old. His slower, more paced movements put her on edge. Or perhaps she just mistrusted those intelligent grey eyes in the slightly withered frame – plants only got withered when they were ill or about to die. But the man still seemed fit and healthy, and it didn’t quite seem right to the rose frei.

In fact, he was in the same room right now, perched on a sofa, feigning interest in one of the several fish tanks that were dotted around the apartment, whilst in reality he was occasionally sneaking concerned glances at her.

Pretending to ignore the old man’s stares Vyn cranked up the volume, fixing her attention on the view outside the window.

The winter weather made the beach seem deathly cold, and the sea with small white capped waves seemed bleak and unattractive. She tried to find some sort of plant to look at, a familiar rose... A tree? Anything? She felt so cut off from everything she was used to, no Shuura, no plants. Yes, she had been born in Gambino around this time, when frost laced the beaches rather than tourists, but not long after she’d been whisked back to Durem by Shuura.

Gaze slipping from the gaunt scene the frei found her attentions diverted back into the room. Deciding not to continue with her sulking she turned and silently glided past Ethan. She might as well do something with her time and she was feeling the slight tang of hunger.

Her room was, like all the other rooms, spacious. There was a clean red bedcover neatly-made on the bed. That had presumably been done by the maid. That was another thing she was not used to - Shuura’s room was always in a state of chaotic mess, but here, Ethan had a woman do all the cleaning for him and so everything always seemed pristine.

She closed the door and flicked the light switch.

The darkness wasn’t perfect, a slant of bright winter daylight lanced through a gap in the curtains but there was enough for her to feed.

Shadows coiled and writhed and her amber irises gleamed as she devoured the gloom. She felt more at ease as she experienced the satisfying feeling of quenching her hunger. As she fed she considered her predicament again, through the less irritable, well-fed mindset she was in; There seemed to be little she could do right now, Shuura had been deemed unable to look after her needs and she was pretty sure the LAB wouldn’t go back on that decision. She chewed one crimson painted nail thoughtfully. The old man wasn’t that bad... At least he seemed to leave her to her own devices for now. Perhaps she should take him up on his offer whilst it was still standing.

Getting some more music on this new-fangled gift wouldn’t be half-bad after all... Maybe she could be bought over. Just for now..

It was difficult to know what to do for Vyn’s birthday, and Ethan was trying his best to formulate a day that the quiet raevan would appreciate.

There were evidently problems presented to all raevan owners when preparing an event like this. For a start, the lack of anything chest down meant cake was off the menu; Ethan couldn’t exactly craft birthday food out of shadows. In fact everything was off the menu, so the normal human birthday food, like cute little cocktail sausages, neatly made sandwiches and crisps, had to be excluded from the plans. Party games seemed pretty impossible too; they required a group of people. But so far, the only ‘friend’ that Vyn could invite round was Rivener and a game of ‘pin the tail on the donkey’ would be rather pathetic with only two players. Vyn’s dislike for bright lights meant that they couldn’t enjoy another traditional feature of gaining another year; there would be no blowing out of candles at this party. All in all, he was hard pressed for thinking up a good way of celebrating Vyn’s third year of life.

The aged business man sat down on a sofa, grasping a cup of tea in one hand – running the other through his thinning grey hair. “Who knew organising stuff like this could get my feathers ruffled when I can clinch business deals without batting an eyelid..” He grunted, clearly irritated at how difficult and vexing it was to think of something the shadow frei would smile at. If it wasn’t for his success at finding presents that he thought Vyn would love he would probably be fuming by now.

3 neatly wrapped gifts sat on the glass coffee table in front of him. They were all wrapped identically in black paper with a neatly tied red ribbon. Vyn seemed to like that colour combination, so Ethan had made sure to utilise that snippet of knowledge about her preferences as he seemed to be fighting an uphill struggle to please her, every little thing mattered. The first of the three was medium sized, rectangular and its outward appearance didn’t give any clues to what it was. He was quietly proud of this idea as he’d spotted it whilst in town and had snapped it up, knowing it would be perfect for Vyn. Inside there was a thick book on the front of which said ‘A step by step guide to beginners Japanese’. Not only a book, but inside the cover were two disks; One could be loaded onto the computer and transferred to Vyn’s MP3 for audio lessons and the other provided classes on the computer – since bumping into Rivener Ethan had seen Vyn trying to use the computer more and even looking up Japanese lessons online.

The second gift was more tell tale in its shape and had quite surprisingly stemmed from Ethan’s observations of Vyn on the computer. Whilst trying to use the computer in the office Vyn had seemed to become quietly fond of one of the two birds that Ethan had received at Christmas, The blue peacock – a mysterious rose, just like Vyn. Ethan had been told that Vyn had a small companion when she was with Shuura but he’d stayed with Shuura. It was a possibility that the bird could fill in the gap that ‘squirt’ had left and so another cage had been purchased so that the peacock could be moved into Vyn’s room as a present.

The third present wouldn’t be a surprise to Vyn as she’d personally requested it, but of course Ethan had taken it a small step further. The present was small and very thin, inside the wrapping paper was three tickets to the J-rock concert in Durem in a few weeks time - One for Vyn, one for Rivener whom Vyn had wanted to come, and one for Ethan so that he could supervise. However, not only would the tickets get them into the concert, but Ethan had arranged that they’d had ‘VIP All access granted tickets’. It’d cost a hefty price but it’d be worth it if it induced a smile onto Vyn’s face.

Ethan glanced at the clock...

2:00 am.

Sighing he finished his tea and stood up. He’d stayed up this late and still hadn’t constructed any reasonable plan... For the moment he should get some sleep – the day would hopefully bring an idea, but if not, at least he was fairly confident that Vyn would like her gifts..

This was certainly a strange season for Vyn. Even more bizarre than the snowy period where presents were exchanged that Ethan had called Christmas... This valentines day seemed to be causing an even bigger stir around Gambino and Vyn wasn't sure what it was all about. Couples seemed to be increasingly common, they were snuggled up on benches in the evenings when she went feeding, little naked children wielding bows in shop windows and she did not comprehend why so many roses seemed to be popping up all over the place. However, rather than asking Ethan about it she'd turned to her new found informant - the Internet.

With a few taps of her black nails she'd got a good idea of what this unusual human celebration was about. Some weird occasion worshiping human love. People would go on 'dates', give chocolates as a sign of affection and exchange messages with each other telling them of their love. She pondered curiously what the point was... Why do it for one day only? The information she'd found didn't explain that.

As she pressed on in her search she sighed and gazed at the cage containing the albino crow that Ethan had. It seemed a little quieter now that it's blue companion had been moved to Vyn's room. Perhaps the bird wanted to send a valentine to his lost love. The thought made Vyn a little sad and she made a note to let the pair visit each other once in a while.

Returning to her search for answers Vyn decided to look through Ethan's emails to see if there were any clues there.. She had no qualms about looking through his emails and as she opened his account she skim read the titles. However, the titles were not what held her interest but rather who they were from. They were all from the same person, Julie Walters - Ethan's personal receptionist. A little smile tugged at Vyn. Ethan seemed to talk to this lady quite a lot and piecing this together with her new found knowledge of the season of valentine, she came to the conclusion that Julie and her guardian had to be in love.

She paused, then took it upon herself to write a little love note to the lady on Ethan's behalf - she was in a particularly good mood now and she was certain her withered guardian would appreciate her aid. The email read;

"dear Julie

i am in love with you
be my valentine
i can buy you chocolate

love Ethan"

She clicked send before shutting down the computer. After a while the email faded from her memory - it was only the next day when Ethan asked her about it that she confessed to the email, resulting in Ethan being slightly disgruntled at first (his secretary had sent him a baffling email declining his 'offer') before sighing and chuckling about her misunderstanding.. She just nodded quietly; a little miffed that he hadn't appreciated her rare turn of kindness. He normally jumped to praise her if she even so much as spoke.. From now on she'd give human festivities a miss if she could.