A/N: Yay, Fatal Frame. Yay, second ending (there will be no sooting of the Kei-emo-thing, no, no, no). This takes place after FFIII if you had not guessed, and… not much else to say. On with the first chapter, then.

Disclaimer: I do not own Fatal Frame, nor any of the characters and specific occurrences associated with it. But you already knew that. ;)

"It's raining again." The soft words proved completely unnecessary, for not only was Rei looking out her patio window, but lightning flashed and thunder boomed in the sky, making Ruri hiss and glare at the two women as though it were their fault that God was venting his frustration on the world. That, or he was bowling- Yuu had announced that to her on their first date when their plans for a picnic had been ruined but a storm akin to this one. At that time, Rei had simply stared at him like he was mad, but it was something that she always remembered when thunder sounded in the sky.

Miku leaned down and consoled the cat, sighing slightly. "Yeah," Rei said in response to her comment, a large piece of her wishing that Miku would never utter those words together in that manner so long as the moon continued to revolve around the earth. She had heard them enough over those long days and nights.

Rei hated the rain. She was determined not to, determined to see the bright side of it, like their first date, but all she could taste was the bittersweet, and there was an awful lot more bitter than there was sweet. Even still, she forced something of a smile onto her face, for it would do no good to dwell in the past. She had been doing far too much of that, really.

It was time, past time, to move on. She knew it. Everyone else knew it, even if they were too polite to say it to her face. But putting thought into action was not as easy as some liked to proclaim.

"Miku-chan! Have you seen my slippers, the ones with the butterflies on them?" Both women turned to look at the second floor landing as a voice drifted down to them, Rei letting the curtains fall back into place.

Miku shook her head. "Sorry, I haven't seen them."

"Bleh. Thanks anyway." Mio pulled a face and made to go back to the room that she and Miku shared, stopping in mid-turn as the door to the front area of the house opened and Kei stepped through, running his hand through his hair.

Rei felt the corners of her lips twitch as she glanced down to find that the man had smushed his feet into a certain set of slippers that were far too small for him. "What?" Kei demanded at their stares, with irritability that Rei knew was false. She said nothing, waiting for the girl above to see what she had.

Sure enough, within moments Mio had leaned far enough over the banister to see her maligned slippers. "Kei!" she cried. "You're smashing them!"

"Well, I couldn't find mine."

"You didn't wear them into the toilet?"

Kei's silence was apparently answer enough for the teenager, for she stomped down the staircase and over to them, placing her hands on her hips and glaring in a way that made Rei think that Mio was not really very upset after all. Kei dutifully removed the slippers from his feet (stretched slightly larger than they had been before his commandeering of them) and gave them back.

The smile on Rei's lips turned to something more real at the sight of everyone. She was still not quite sure how everyone had come to live in her house, in such a short amount of time nonetheless, but move in the two Amakura family members had. One day Kei had brought his niece over to introduce her, and the next it seemed as though Mio and Miku had been friends all their lives. They began spending more and more time in Rei's home, even spending the night occasionally, and then all of a sudden they just lived with her. All the noise and commotion was actually nice, a far cry from what the house had been like before with only Rei and Miku to fill it. It finally seemed alive, decorated, unpacked, and truly a home that Rei and the others felt welcome in.

It was what Yuu would have wanted.

The house did look much better, as a matter of fact. There were no more boxes shoved in random closets; the walls actually bore decoration, masses of picture frames of the photographs that all of them had been taking. Mio, as it turned out, also had some interest in photography, and Rei had begun by teaching only Miku more advanced techniques but soon had another charge as well. Not all of the pictures on the wall were actually all that good, but as the girls improved, the pictures in the frames seemed to magically vanish to be replaced by better ones (or at least, by ones that were more liked at that particular moment). Kei often warningly joked that if there was an earthquake the mile of glass hanging on the hallway walls was doomed, but that did not prevent any of them from continuing to plaster them with photos of random trees, clouds, Ruri, pillows, flowers, chairs, and all manner of other things. An especially large photograph hung over the creepy stain in the back hallway. Rei and Miku had spent an unnerving hour trying to scrub it from the wall (it did not lighten in color so much as a shade), paint over it (the paint kept refusing to sink in), and trying to tear the wallpaper off (it would not budge, and Rei and Miku had each had lost a fingernail to it). Finally Rei had gone out and purchased a landscape print of Mt. Fuji and the surrounding area which they hung over the screaming face. It improved the hallway a bit, but Rei still did not much care for it and generally refused to look at that wall more than was absolutely necessary.

The room arrangement in the house had also changed. Rei had finally gathered the courage to deal with Yuu's belongings and had moved into his old room; Kei had then taken hers for himself and the girls, with the addition of another bed, shared the third. It seemed to be working well, not only the rooms but the relationships between all of them. Kei seemed to know exactly when she needed to be alone and kept his niece out of her way, and she tried to do the same with Miku for him in turn. Even still, there were no fights, no unpleasant feelings between them at all. Soon after the day that Kei and Mio had appeared lugging their suitcases and boxes in tow Rei had wondered why they all seemed to be linked together so. Miku had suggested quietly that it was what all of them had been through that made it so much easier for them to each deal with the memories of the past together.

That did not make it all that much easier. Never whole again, after such a loss, and they had suffered more than their share. But life went on, and there they stood, all with a small and silent smile for the others in times of need.

"Rei-san?"

Rei snapped back to reality from her thoughts and looked at Miku. "Sorry, what?"

The younger girl smiled. "I said, we should go out for dinner today. The weather is so nice, don't you think?"

Rei shot a look at Kei, who simply shook his head in amusement and smiled almost imperceptibly. "Sure," she agreed. "Sounds good to me."