A/N:

My parents were struggling to understand my high-strung sister and they couldn't think of something creative to have her understand why she shouldn't completely disregard human feelings. So, I came up with this. A lot of it has been changed, and, well, I just love a family dynamic happening between Ryuuto (Gachapoid) and Lily so much, for some reason. I just wish there was a duet of them somewhere. . . *sighs*

"I had a doll once.

A beautiful doll, I really loved her. I'd have probably just thrown her away with the rest of my dolls when I got older, though, truth be told, except I'd had her since I was as young as I could remember. She was my first toy, one that my father, Gakupo, had gotten for me, surprisingly. I still have her somewhere, though God knows where now. Somewhere hiding, probably, just waiting for that one day when I'm shifting around through a bunch of old boxes and find her again and suddenly get all nostalgic and crap. Though that day certainly isn't today.

See, one of my favorite aspects of having that doll was so that I could dress her up in a bunch of stupid girly outfits. She was just a rag doll, with two old blue beads for eyes and a head full of yellow yarn hair—nothing special, and she had clothes already dyed into her little rag body, but I liked to play dress-up as a kid. What little girl didn't?

I didn't have a lot of clothes to dress her up in back then, though. Just a few outfits I'd managed to con Gumi into buying me when I was three or something. She must've seen how much I liked them, because it became a trend then. Every Christmas I'd get a new outfit for her then. About the fourth Christmas of this trend, though, I completely hit the jackpot—got an entire flippin' box full of outfits for her. Dresses, shirts, pants—the whole shebang! I must've gone through every outfit in that box at least twice, but one day while going through them I found one outfit that I adored. It was a little navy blue dress, with white lace all around the collar and rim, a pink ribbon tied around the waist, puffy sleeves and all. And just to put the cherry on top of the sundae, it had a little pink bow right at the neck of it between the lace collar. Eh, pretty simple and not very matchy, I guess, but it really worked on her. The dress was absolutely perfect.

I kept that dress on her for months and months. I never wanted to take it off of her. Gumi even stopped buying me new outfits for her because of it. Figured with how attached I was to that one particular dress that I'd never wanna take it off.

But finally, one day, while looking through the other outfits I had for her in the box, and looking at her sitting across the room with her same old blue and pink dress on, I got bored. Decided it was about time to change her stinking dress already. So I redressed her in some random shirt and skirt I had and threw the dress somewhere in my room.

But I don't know, the outfit just didn't look right on her. So I changed it again. But the next dress I chose didn't seem to fit right. So I changed it again. And again. And again, and again, and again, and, well. . . You get the picture.

I tried a couple times to find where her old dress went so I could put it back on her, but I couldn't find it. But all the new outfits I dressed her in always seemed to have something wrong with them—they didn't fit right, they didn't match, they looked weird on her. . . They just weren't doing it for me, or her.

Y'know, I never did find that dress again. . ."

"Yeah, but, um. . . that was just an old doll. What are you trying to say?"

Lily smiled, perhaps a bit smirkily. "What I'm saying is that I lost something really, really good all because I got bored one day. Kinda like with you and your girlfriend. . .?"

"But. . . It's different. We're just not working out. . . It's just, it's the same thing, over and over, and I'm getting sick of it."

"Yeah, sounds familiar."

"She's not a doll dress."

"I know she's not. But she is like one in this case. You two have had so many great times together, have been with each other for years now. And you're thinking about throwing all that away just because you're getting a little bored? If you're so bored, why not make up some of your own excitement? Spice things up a little, talk to her about it—don't just act on impulse. Otherwise you may wake up one day realizing you've lost something really great. And once that happens, you're never going to get it back."

Ryuuto flushed a little, was quiet a moment, and then smiled up at the older woman who'd become something akin as to a mother figure a tad abashedly. "I think I see what you mean, Lily. . . I'm sorry about your doll dress."

Lily gave a short snort and laughed a little, before reaching over to pat the young boy on the back with a smile. "Ah, it's okay, Ryu. It was just a stupid toy. But eh, it serves for a good metaphor. I don't want you losing something much more costly over something silly like this." Her eyes softened as she reached over to brush some hair out of her twelve-year-old "son's" face, her smile turning a bit more motherly. "You're still young, you know. You still have plenty of time to kick her to the curb should you choose. But if you do, I'd like it to be for a good reason. That kid really loves you, you know."

Ryuuto's already slightly flushed face turned bright pink this time, and he couldn't keep the smile off his face. "I-I know. . . I love her, too. It's just. . ." he shifted his face away now and looked down, rubbing his hands over, "She wouldn't stop talking about this new bike she got for Christmas. . . again. It's practically all she talks about anymore."

Lily snorted a clearer snort this time and rolled her eyes full circle. "Typical. Consider yourself flattered that she'll even talk to you about this stuff. Normally they consider that kind of stuff 'girls only' talk and won't even talk to any boy about it. Miki tried to do that to me once, but I made her talk." She smirked, cracking her knuckles a bit for added emphasis.

Ryuuto chuckled a little, still looking away. "Yeah, well, I don't count myself so lucky. It's gotten boring pretty fast. But I get where you're coming from. Just because we're going through a boring stage doesn't mean I should just break things off just like that. I'll just have to talk to her about it, tell her how I feel." He smiled up at her brightly. "You know, I don't think what Gakupo said about you was right. I think you're great at advice, Lily." He threw his arms around her in a big hug, grinning with his eyes closed.

Lily stiffened, though, her ice blue eyes suddenly narrowing. "Wait. . . Gakupo said what?"

Ryuuto's eyes popped open. "U-uh. . . nothing?"

A/N:

Eh oh, somebody's in trouble now~