Jaden froze again as he saw the eye, and brought himself back to reality when she averted her gaze.

"I, ah..." he stammered.

"Duh?" he then said, seemingly finding his confidence.

"I don't care what you are." he told her.

"That eye... I mean... I'll live with it." he said.

"I'd rather live with IT, than live WITHOUT you." he told her, before pausing and sighing.

"And THAT was corny as all hell."

"The scars?" Jaden asked.

"Pfft. They look pretty sweet." he said.

"Granted, how you obtained them is NOT, but they still LOOK hella cool." he told her, giving a thumbs-up.

'And the eye? I'll deal." he told her further.

"Dunno how." he admitted.

"But I'll deal." he said.

"Even if it means being an occasional deer-in-headlights."

Jaden blushed when she said it was cute, but paused for a moment when she mentioned their stage bickering.

"Hm." he mumbled.

"That IS true..." he said.

"We probably COULD work it in some way..." he admitted further, now thinking about it... and then shaking his head slightly.

"But... I mean... well... could you deal with being with ME?" he asked her.

"I AM a dhampir..." he went on.

"Odds are what you see when you look at me isn't... pleasant..."

"Oh... right." Jaden said.

"Right, that's... true." he admitted.

"Well. Cool, then." he said.

He then paused for a moment, before laughing slightly.

"Kalin's going to love this." he told her.

"The PR's going to write ITSELF."

Jaden raised an eyebrow when she said what she did.

"Hmmm." he mumbled.

"That IS true." he said.

"But yeah, odds are she wouldn't fight it..." he admitted.

"But she is the manager for... the both of us." he went on.

"She should know about this sooner or later." he reasoned.

"Pretty much." Jaden replied, as they heard Nico and Sydney returning.

-About a month or so later-

Jaden and Desiree stepped out of the movie theatre, and Jaden sighed.

"Hm." he mumbled.

"Too much hype for that movie." he said.

"I mean, it was good, but... not... great." he muttered further.

"Ads kinda misrepresented it."

Jaden shook his head.

"You're not." he said.

"I heard it, too." he told her.

"Was annoying. As all heck." he continued.

"Ruined the entire movie." he then sighed.

"Well, let's try and salvage this evening." he told her.

"Go for a stroll?" he suggested.

"A fine idea." Jaden response.

"And yeah, 45 minutes or so." he told her.

"We'll have a little over an hour to chill there." he calculated further.

"We'll need to head through that park, though." he went on.

"You cool with that?" he asked.

"Just making sure."

Jaden laughed a little, and smiled as she hooked her arm around his.

"Very true." he admitted.

"Very true." he repeated.

Sure enough, about 10 minutes later, they were walking through the park, and a light wind was blowing... enough that it was causing rustling of trees and bushes everywhere, and causing a nearby swingset to swing slowly, creaking slightly as it did so.

"...they should really fix that." Jaden said.

"It's stupidly loud when the swings are in... well... full swing."

"It really is." Jaden agreed.

After walking for another couple of minutes, Desiree could sense something.

She felt... an ominous feeling.

Like they weren't alone in that park.

Jaden was looking around as well, and it seemed HE had noticed something as well.

"...hm." he mumbled.

"I smell... something." he said.

"Something... weird..."