"Baku-san, come and eat my dream!"
The girl sighed, before repeating her sentence twice.
It had been a rather stormy night when she woke up with her lungs empty, and her skin covered in cold sweat. She didn't really expect such a dream to bother her tonight, but after all, nightmares like those had been bothering her for quite a time.
And so, she did what she was reluctant to most: for once she believed mythical creatures can help her, and called for the dream eating folklore, the Baku.
It wasn't long after she decided to bury herself under the blankets when she heard her window being opened. Then, a thud sound, and a male voice grumbled.
She didn't need any time to realize what was happening to her, and neither did she need another second to grasp her trusty pair of scissors, hidden under her pillow.
And when she felt a pair of cold hands touch her exposed calf—
.His Sleeping Princess.
The clouds are moving pretty fast. Perhaps it's better to come straight home, instead of stopping at the bookstore. That is, if that dreadful building could be called home, anyway.
"Scissors, Hey. Earth to Kagamine Rin. Answer me, you—"
Rin gasped when her train of thoughts was broken by a certain wandering hand lovingly stroke her back. As if on cue, she lifted her foot and stomped on the nearest set of toes with the strength of a raging tiger.
Which, said set of toes belonged to her one and only idiotic best friend, Teddyta. Said black-haired boy yelped of pain in response to Rin's attack. It puzzled Rin, how Teddyta could yelp as loud as how he can sing when she stomps on his foot at least a dozen times a day.
"Would you knock that off?" Rin glared at the boy (and she has a reason to, for his cheeks were suspiciously shaded a light pink). "What is it with you boys and…your hands?"
Teddyta only chuckled. "Oh, yeah, same thing with you girls and spacing out so often," he said, as he placed the broom at the corner of the room. He and Rin had been sweeping their classroom due to the fact that it was their turn that day to clean up after their classmates.
Still glaring at him, Rin said, "Oh, and I suppose you don't space out? And drool at the same time?" When her question was only met with short stammers, she continued, "Dear Teddyta?"
"Well yeah, you drool too," the boy narrowed his eyes at her.
The two weren't unfamiliar with the nickname Teddyta gave Rin. Rin was nicknamed "Scissors" from her nature of always having her trusty pair of scissors with her, and the boy knew she was prideful of that.
"You know, I still have to thank you for taking me home. The only problem is I can't find a way to do it without making you feel so special," Rin said, putting the broom she was using where Teddyta put his.
"Oh ouch, Scissors…" Teddyta clenched his chest, in efforts to dramatize his own sentence. It didn't exactly work, as he knows Rin is hardly affected in most of the dramatizing he does.
Ignoring him (and his dramatizing), Rin took the bag she placed on one of the tables. She simply put her hood on and left the classroom before she could give him a second glance.
"Hey—Scissors! Wait, hey! You forgot this!" Panting, with a stuffed bear in his arms and a bag hanging from his shoulder, Teddyta ran to catch on with Rin.
"Huh? What?" Rin, who was deep in thought out for a moment, noticed Teddyta approaching her, and slowed down for him to walk beside her. When she saw the black-patched white bear in Teddyta's arms, she snatched it from him and fixed her own arms around the bear tightly, burying her nose in the worn plush.
Teddyta chuckled seeing her. "You have no idea how cute you look like when you hug that bear." But, he reconsidered his words, and added "And, neither do you have any idea how dangerous you look like sometimes" nervously, when Rin shot another glare at him.
They both walked out of the school building silently, their eyes downcast, and their steps silent as stars. The clouds were blocking the sky, shadowing the land below, and warning them of an upcoming storm. The two didn't seem to mind though.
Feeling quite awkward of the silence, Teddyta decided to break it. "Hey, Scissors?" And when the girl didn't respond, he decided to call her for a second time. "Scissors. Oi, answer me. Hey, are you spacing out again?"
When she heard him, Rin lifted her head from her Bear, and stammered, "Nn—what? Oh, um…Sorry, Teddyta…I wasn't listening."
"Yeah, I don't really mind…" Teddyta trailed off, before continuing, "But I'm kind of worried that you're spacing out so often lately. Is there…anything wrong? Is something—or someone—bothering you?"
"Oh, come on, don't be a mum," Rin shot another glare at him.
"Well, at least someone's got to be worrying about you. Since your mum probably doesn't," he said wryly.
Rin sighed into her Bear's ragged head. "It's nothing you should be worrying about. It's just that…I've been getting nightmares. They've been there since long ago, but…I've never paid any attention to them. Until now, that is."
A pause, before: "Heh, why don't you just call a Baku? My brother says he got nightmares when he lived at the orphanage, and a Baku got rid of all that nightmare business," Teddyta said, smiling.
The blonde raised an eyebrow at him. "You mean…those…dream eating…things?"
Teddyta nodded. "See, you only need to say 'Baku-san, come eat my dream' three times when you wake up from a nightmare, and boom! A magical-tapir-creature-thing will sneak into your room and eat all your fears away."
Rin considered his words. She knew Teddyta himself could have his head in the clouds, but from what she heard, his older brother was the source of that airhead-ness of his.
When they reached Rin's house, they bid their farewells. Rin dragged her heavy feet along the path to her doorstep, and entered silently, careful not to alarm anyone in the house of her presence.
Perhaps what Teddyta said could work. If she just gave it a chance.
That night, at dinner, wasn't much different than any she's spent most of her life.
"Now, Yuuki, don't use your hands, use the spoon."
She still couldn't see why she has to come down to eat in the dining room when she could just take the food to her room. Certainly, she understands the manners, but with her (nearly) nonexistence presence, it'd be no different if she didn't eat at the table.
Or perhaps, exist at all.
"Mum, I got an A in math today."
"Oh, that's great, Azuma!"
Different from her younger brother, and older sister, she doesn't use her hands, or get As in history. In fact, she doesn't do much anything that impresses either of her parents.
And speaking of which—
"I'm home," a familiar voice sounded from the front door. After Yuuki's call of "Dada!" and him hopping out of his seat, a man appeared at the dining room's doorway.
"Welcome home, sweetie."
If Rin really had her way, she wished she could pretend she killed herself after she went home from school, and escape at her funeral. Because the curry on her plate that night looked as disgusting and as irritating as her parents' greetings.
"Eww! Mama! Dada!" And, to prove it, even Yuuki had the same suggestion she did.
Rin simply sighed silently as the people around her joke and laugh. She wasn't interested, not even a single thought, about what they had to talk about.
If it were that she lived with someone different—just her and a person she met only in her dreams—perhaps then she'd listen properly.
Rin looked at the blond boy, clad tidily bowed before her on the floor, her hands tightly gripping her scissors.
"Ah, young mistress, please forgive me! I came offering you no harm! Don't kill me, please…"
If he hadn't straightforwardly yelped—or perhaps shrieked, because he sounded rather ladylike—and bowed at her feet on the floor, she wouldn't think twice about ruining his skull, and staining the floor with his blood. But everyone knows no ordinary criminal would be clad tidily during his crimes, and especially, no bowing at the victim.
So, instead of mindlessly tearing him apart, she asked with a flat voice, "Who are you? What are you doing here?"
For once that night, the boy stopped begging her to let him live, and looked up at her with his blue eyes. Then, he suddenly laughed. Albeit Rin has found herself frequently laughed at, she found the boy's laughter to be offending. In defense, she scowled at him.
He then stood, and smiled at her—a mischievous, yet gentle smile—saying, "Why, mademoiselle, I am the Baku you summoned."
HOOOOOOOOOO WELLO HELLO MAI PRECIOUS BEBS HOW YA DOIN I'M BACK YAY OLEEEEEE
/ahem/ ok so much with the first sentence of my a/n but welp here i am now again i'M BACK FROM ZA DEAD /zombie noises/
aight so this here's something i've been working (slaughtering) on, and it's basically a mash up between yumekui shirokuro baku (nem) and tokyo teddy bear (neru)
teddyta and other nerukes are here so get ready coz here goes the random characters alert (is there a neruke category here btw?)
i've actually written up to chapter 5, but this chapter is shorter than the others (i swear i split ch4 into two) and i guess i'll be updating weekly or nah
i guess that's all maybe imma post a random oneshot here and there but my stomach is currently roaring so
Disclaimer: I do not own Vocaloid, the characters, the nerukes, or the frick fraken song references here omf but i do own a popsicle so imma eat it brb