Petals

Asuka: I'm going crazy. I tell you, I'm going CRAZY

Husky: Personally, I think you went crazy a while ago.

Asuka: Yes, but not quite THIS crazy.

Cooro: How crazy?

Asuka: Crazy enough to write a SenrixRose story. Now for me, that's crazy.

Link: Now that is crazy. I thought YOU were the one in love with Senri, Asuka.

Asuka: Wah! Shut up, Link! You're not even a +Anima character, so get out of here!

Senri: …

Asuka: I tell you, he's lying! I mean, come on!

(Everyone stares at Asuka disbelievingly)

Asuka: Ehehe… Now, I'm not changing the subject… well, I am. This story takes place right after the end of the +Anima series… which came way too soon.

Chapter One

Disappear

Cooro stared hungrily at the apple tree. He wasn't supposed to be eating those apples, but… They just looked so good! He smiled, and reached out to touch the fruit. Miss Margaret had said that they weren't ripe yet, but what did Cooro care? Apples were apples, and apples were the yummiest thing in the world in his opinion. The twelve-year-old boy chuckled and brushed a strand of his black hair out of his eyes where it was obscuring his view of the round green fruits. He reached out to pick one, but just when he touched it…

WHACK! A long staff connected with the back of Cooro's head. He turned to face the attacker, rubbing the throbbing knot on the backside of his cranium. "That hurt!" he whined. "HUUUSKYYY! Why'd you hit me?"

The tall, thin boy in front of him rolled his eyes. He was holding the weapon in his gloved hand, and looking very annoyed with his friend. "Cooro," said Husky. "You aren't supposed to eat those yet, they're still sour." Cooro groaned, and slouched over, looking quite miserable.

"Gosh, how long do they expect me to wait?" he said.

"You can't eat them until fall," Husky reprimanded, surprising himself at how much he was beginning to sound like Nana, scolding someone like that. Husky walked away with one hand around his reluctant companion's wrist, who gave the unripe apples a last forlorn look.

Cooro was rather partial to apples, or food of any sort. He was a bit of a nuisance, but his happy personality and huge smile made up for his habit of annoying everyone in the vicinity. Husky let go of Cooro's arm as soon as the apple tree was no longer in sight, and Cooro could no longer go back and find it without Husky bopping him on the head again first. Husky continued walking, and soon noticed the absence of Cooro's continual humming, singing, and general noisemaking.

"Cooro?" he asked the air. Cooro was not there. He's probably gotten distracted again, thought Husky. Perhaps Cooro was off chasing yet another butterfly. Maybe he'd noticed a puddle that he just had to jump in. Or maybe something bad really had happened to him. "No," Husky told himself. "Cooro's fine. He's just lost… It shouldn't be hard to find him."

"Husky, why are you talking to yourself?" asked someone from behind him. He turned around to see Nana standing behind him. She took about five steps to reach him. "Did you get too much sun?" she asked, and put a hand on his forehead. He jumped back at her touch, his face turning red.

"N-no, Nana, stop touching me!" he said, and she put her hands on her hips.

"Then why were you talking to yourself?" she demanded.

"That's not important," he replied. "Have you seen Cooro?"

"No," she said. He sighed. Just as he had thought. Cooro was lost. AGAIN. Nana noticed the annoyed expression on his face.

"Why, did he do something?" she asked, looking around as if she would suddenly spot the little black-winged +Anima boy.

"I think he's gotten lost," said Husky. He paused for a moment, and then noticed something odd. "Nana, why are you out here alone?"

"Well, I wasn't alone… not at first," she admitted. Nana was staring at the ground, shaking a little. Her eyes were darting around nervously, as though she was looking for something.

In truth, Nana had been walking around with Senri, trying to find Husky and Cooro. She'd noticed Husky in the distance and gotten a bit ahead of him, and when she turned around… Senri was gone.

"Where's Senri?" asked Husky, as though his sky-blue eyes had seen straight through her skull and into her mind. Nana flinched. Husky always knew what she was thinking. Was he really that smart, or was it just visible all over her face?

"I was with him, and then…"

"He disappeared," said Husky, once more knowing exactly what she'd meant to say.

"How did you know?" she asked. He started looking around them, holding his staff more tightly.

"Cooro's gone too," he replied. "But… the both of them tend to be… well, they both get lost easily, so… they might… well…" He could think of no more excuses. Where Senri and Cooro were, he knew not, but either way, he would be the one finding the both of them once more.

"We'd better find Senri before…" Nana trailed off.

"Before he finds someone he doesn't like," Husky finished her sentence for her. She nodded. Husky gripped his staff tightly and started walking in the direction of an empty field, the only place which Cooro and Senri could have gone off to. Nana followed close behind.

"Husky," she said suddenly, and he jumped.

"What?" he asked.

"Don't you think we should get Mister Harden and Miss Margaret to help us?" she suggested. "It's getting late out, and I don't want to be here in the… dark." Husky knew that Nana was afraid of the dark, but if Cooro and Senri were just lost, it wouldn't take much to find them.

"We won't be long," he reassured her. "I don't want to trouble them." Nana nodded, and walked on determinedly. Husky had said just the thing to get her to come with him. She never wanted to inconvenience anyone. They continued walking, Nana's green eyes shining in the quickly falling darkness. It was the ironic part of her bat +Anima, she absolutely hated the night.

Suddenly, Husky stopped, and Nana bumped into him. "What're you doing!?" she shouted. He put a hand over her mouth.

"Shush! There's someone behind us," he whispered, looking at a shadow in the darkness. The person was tall, and silhouetted against the night sky. Husky had no clue who it was, because it was too dark to see their face. Nana sighed in relief. She moved Husky's hand off of her lips. He hadn't realized it was still there.

"Senri, there you are," said Nana. The person standing in front of them took a step forward, and Husky was now sure that it was their missing friend. Then, with a sudden strike of realization, Husky knew that the person standing in front of them was not Senri. He was sure of this, due to the fact that the man stepped forward and slapped Nana across the face, knocking her to the ground.

"Nana!" Husky shouted, and ran at the man with his staff. The instant he came close enough, he noticed that this man was wearing a cloth tied over the lower half of his face, and the scar that went over his forehead. Definitely not Senri. Husky nearly hit him with the staff, but the other man grabbed the weapon and rammed it into Husky's chest. He stumbled backward as he was surrounded by the folds of unconsciousness.

Cooro awoke to the inside of a carriage. There was a warm thing next to him. As his foggy brain returned to working order, he realized that it was Senri. Some sticky liquid was all over his arm. Blood! Cooro yelped, and slapped a hand over his mouth to silence himself. It was Senri who was hurt, a long scratch on his cheek.

For once in his life, Cooro was silent. He knew that whoever had put them here was very powerful, to knock out Senri like that. Something stirred next to him, and he jumped backward.

Cooro sighed. It was only Husky. The silver-haired boy shook his head and looked at Cooro. "There you are," he said, his voice hoarse and shaking. "Where's Nana?"

"Why are you so worried about Nana?" asked Cooro. He was very suspicious of his friend. He was acting fishy. Oh, wait. Husky was always fishy. Due to the fact that he was a fish +Anima.

"Duh. She's a girl. And she's practically helpless," said Husky.

"Helpless!" Someone shouted from another dark area of the moving carriage. Husky put his hand over Nana's mouth for the second time that day.

"Shut up," he hissed.

"Good advice," said a boy's voice that they'd never heard. All three +Anima children gasped as they noticed an unfamiliar cloaked figure sitting in the corner. "You three should all shut up and hope that this thing stops moving soon."

"Why?" asked Cooro.

"Soon as it does, I'm getting you us out of here."

Asuka: First chapter… DONE! Squee!

Husky: Whatever happened to SenrixRose?

Asuka: No really, it is SenrixRose, I promise.

Husky: Rose is not mentioned.

Asuka: Not YET she's not! HAH!

Senri: …Changed.

Asuka: I did not change my mind!