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From the silence that greeted him, Marcus knew he had a problem on his hands. He said nothing as the little girl came to his side, waiting for her to take his hand, or demand to ride on his shoulders as she usually did.

She did neither. Of course he should have seen this happening, and to a point, had seen this coming the moment he found out who her father was. He and Hazij had never seen eye to eye. It might have been because they were too busy trying to kill one another at the time.

"So," he said when the silence stretched thin. "I think we need to talk." Which was ridiculous when one thought about her age. She was a toddler for crying out loud! And here he was, already explaining how Daddy was an a*****e, and there was bad blood--

"Not really," she said so quietly that he jerked to a stop and looked down at her.

"No, I think we need to talk."

She shrugged, still not looking at him, and he let out a groan. With a smooth, powerful move he picked her up so she sat on his shoulders. She didn't even giggle, as was her habit. She just held on, leaning forward so her face was resting on the back of his head.

It was then that he realized she was crying. He stayed silent, wishing that the tears weren't silent. Silent tears were far more deadly than the wailing sobs of some females. His hardened heart ached at those silent tears, the gentle shaking of her tiny body.

"Whatever he told you," he said quietly, "there's some truth to it, but I'm betting not entirely. I'm going to tell you everything you want to know, but not here. We'll talk about it when we get home."

He stepped out of the building into the cold winter air and slipped her off of his shoulders and onto his hip. "Hold on," he ordered, using his free hand to whip up the air around them. They rose into the air, not so much flying as being carried by the powerful updraft. It was far faster this way, and less people saw the sobbing baby in his arms.

She stopped crying halfway there. Her red-rimmed eyes opened wide as she stared about them in wonder. It looked like she enjoyed flight, he thought. At least he had done one thing right that day. When he landed she started to smile at him, an excited expression that disappeared the moment she remembered her problem.

Marcus didn't put her down. If he put her down he knew that he would lose her entirely. Instead he headed inside the small houseboat, dropping down on the couch and looking at her. "He showed you his scar, huh?"

The look of hesitation on her face was followed by a small nod. "I did that," he freely admitted. "I would have killed him, but it just wasn't my day. He's a tough guy, your dad." He reached up, unbuttoning his shirt and shoving it down so she could see his side. "He gave me a matching scar," he told her, pointing at a scarred strip of flesh. It wasn't the only scar there, but it was one of the bigger ones.

Layla stared at it, then reached a tiny hand to it, tracing it gently with a claw. "He said," she started out softly, "that you killed dragons like--like Nami."

It took all of Marcus's strength to keep from cursing the b*****d aloud. "I haven't," he said a bit too sharply. "I've killed dragons like him, though, but it was a fair fight. I tried to fight one of those Asian Longs once, but all I got out of it was a headache."

"But she's a luck dragon!" Layla said, her feelings clear. "How could you have?"

"I didn't realize what they were like until I met that one," Marcus said. "I promise, I swear, even, that the worst thing I ever did to a dragon like Nami was cut off a bit of his hair. You wanna see it?"

"You've got it?" she asked, forgetting her outrage for fascination.

"Yeah. He let me keep it." Somehow by the end of the meeting he had wound up apologizing to the Asian Long. That still messed with his head even now.

"I want it!"

"Okay, okay, as long as you put it somewhere you won't lose it," he said as he stood. For now he was forgiven, it seemed. It would cost him something pretty important, but he was forgiven.

That was the important part. Yet he knew this conversation wasn't over in the least. It was just postponed.

Month 1 - 1/16/10

Layla met a few kids like her, Reyn, Tilde, etc. She's really interested in dragons and the relationship between Asian Longs and Western. She met her father.

The black ink trailed off at this point while Marcus thought of how to put it. After a few seconds the writing started again.

She found out that I'm a dragon slayer. He convinced her that I've killed Asian Long dragons before. I convinced her otherwise, but she's started to question me. I thought that didn't start until her teenage years.

She only needs to be submerged once a week, but she likes her baths. Especially since she got those rubber bath toys. She would spend hours having shark and dragon battles if I let her. As it is, half an hour a day is spent watching her slosh water all over the bathroom. Then cleaning it up.

I'm looking into schools for her. She's pretty bright, she's learned how to read pretty well already. Of course, I know there's going to be problems, it's to be expected, but she's no wilting lily. When she's older she'll be able to handle herself just fine.

Not much else to say. She hasn't had any mental breakdowns or started acting weird. And she doesn't look like she's going to break apart or anything, so I figure they did a good job making her. Although brushing her hair is a pain in the a**. And she traumatized the hairdresser when I tried to get her hair cut.

Otherwise, so far, so good.

Give It Another Try: Layla goes in for her second stage meeting and meets her Grandmama Imai.

Sleepover!: An OPD where Layla goes over to Reyn's house for a sleepover. She meets Albin and sees Saar and Reyn again<33

For March

She can't sing. How in the hell can a kid of a siren have no singing voice whatsoever? I still don't get it, but my eardrums are bleeding thanks to her serenading me this morning. She decided I didn't wake up early enough and wanted to help me out.

Good Morning, Sunshine. Off key. If that's even a song. I think she made it up, to be honest. Damn does my head hurt. And seriously, for a creature that should deal best in the night, why does she wake up at 6 in the morning?

I still haven't found someone I can leave her with for a few weeks. I'm a bit paranoid that if I leave now she'll grow before I get back and I'll have a moody pre-teen on my hands and no idea how she got there. But dammit, if I take too long my lead's going to die.

She went to a sleepover at a friend of her's, Reyn's. The part eastern dragon kid with blue skin and fluttery wings. The one that claims they're cousins? You might not remember, but I do. Well, either way, I was damn happy to get her out of the house and her nose out of a book.

And then I got paranoid and started to grow certain she had killed someone, or something worse, like... gotten her first crush. Any idea how horrifying the idea of Layla in love is?

Yeah, that's even worse than her singing.

But as far as I can tell she's not in love with anyone, not even the famous guys on TV. I'm glad. She talked a lot about how she'd seen Saar and a couple of other kids, and about hair. I stopped listening after she started in about hair. The kid doesn't even brush her own hair so why's she so obsessed with the topic?

I'm gonna haveta buy her a new book to get her to shut up, aren't I?