Disclaimer: I don't own 7 Seeds.

Fuka

It was cold. That was the first thing Fuka thought of when she woke up. It was also dark; she couldn't see a thing despite her eyes being wide open. Confused, she started to move around, but was able to do so only a little as hard, cold steel met her hands wherever she reached for.

"Huh?" she muttered "Where am I?"

"That's what we'd like to know, too" Fuka jumped as someone actually answered her question. She looked around wildly, still seeing nothing "Who's there!?"

"The name's Murozaki. Murozaki Toji." the voice, it belonged to a man, replied "And just to make things clear: we don't know where we are or why, either."

Fuka wasn't sure if to believe the man or not, but something he had said had caught her attention.

"We?"

"Me and Fushizuke Arare" the voice, Murozaki, clarified "I can't see her or you for that matter, but I can hear her occasionally. Her yelling woke me up earlier."

"Wha-?" Fuka didn't know what to say. Where was she? Why was she there? Who were the people with her?

"That aside, you never told me your name" Murozaki pointed out, and Fuka realized that he was right. Should she tell him? Well, it probably wouldn't cause her any harm if she did.

"Ayatori Fuka" she replied.

"Ayatori-san... or would just Fuka be okay?"

"I guess..." Fuka said, surprised by the normalness of his speech "I suppose I can call you Toji, then?"

"Sure" in Fuka's eyes, or ears to be exact since she couldn't see him, he was far too relaxed and optimistic to be in the same situation as her. He knew something.

"You sound rather relaxed, don't you?" she asked, clenching her fists as she glared at the direction she thought the voice was coming from "Far too relaxed in fact... you know something, don't you? Tell me!"

There was a silence for quite some time, and when Fuka finally came to the conclusion he wouldn't answer, Toji spoke: "Arare and I came to the conclusion that we were kidnapped."

"Kidnapped?"

"Well, we couldn't come up with anything else that would fit" Toji told "I mean, there could have been an earthquake or something like that that took out the lights and got us stuck... well, here, but..."

"That can't be; I went to sleep at home. I mean I live in an apartment building and could have gotten stuck with a neighbor, but as far I know we don't have neighbors by your names and and-"

"Fuka, calm down" Toji interrupted. He didn't raise his voice, but the tone he used was stern "You're starting to panic, and that won't help."

Fuka knew that, of course, but she couldn't help herself. Again, she wondered how Toji could be so calm. But before she could wonder about it any further he spoke again: "And you're right; the names "Ayatori" or "Fushizuke" don't ring a bell, so I suppose we aren't from the same neighborhood. Besides, I'm from Nagano and Arare's from... Sapporo, I think that's what she said."

"I'm from Kyoto" Fuka said automatically, frowning as she heard Toji chuckle "What?"

"Nothing" the man replied "I mean, at occasions it seemed like you had a dialect, the Kansai one, but you hide it well."

Fuka blushed, not that Toji could see it, before huffing.

"So? At least I don't keep using English words like the people from Tokyo usually do" she defended herself.

"I meant no offence" Toji said "Just making a conversation."

"Okay"

Silence followed; Fuka didn't know what to say. For her, the silence was very uncomfortable. She was by no means a silent person after all, but she didn't know what to say.

"Hey" she suddenly said without thinking.

"Yeah?"

Fuka hesitated, yet asked anyway: "If we were kidnapped someone is bound to come here to give us food sooner or later... right?"

Toji's answer took oddly long, but he did answer: "...Yeah, of course."

Fuka frowned; it sounded like he had hesitated. Did he know something she didn't?

"Has anyone come after you woke up?" Fuka asked. She needed some information, even if just a little bit.

"Nope"

"How long have you been awake?" she pressed. If he knew something he wasn't telling she was going to let him have it when this was all over!

"Uh..."

"Two hours and 30 minutes, give or take a few" Fuka jumped as she heard the unfamiliar, female voice "And around three hours for me."

"Oh, you're awake, Arare-Chan" Toji said casually. Fuka had forgotten he had mentioned another person earlier.

"I was never asleep to begin with" Fuka heard Arare mutter before she went quiet again.

"Okay, sorry" Toji apologized, adding "She doesn't really talk much... anymore. A few hours ago she was pretty loud."

Fuka could believe that; Arare's voice had been pretty hoarse, like she'd been screaming nonstop. And in this situation Fuka believed that to be the case. Her thoughts are pulled away from the quiet woman as Toji asks her a question. It has nothing to do with the situation or the things they've talked about, so she can't help but ask him why he's asking it. Toji just answers that he's only trying to start a conversation to pass time. And so they start a casual conversation. They talk about everything... well, almost. They talk about hobbies, likes and dislikes, school, she found out Toji was on his last year of high school, but they avoided one subject: people they cared about. Neither had brought the subject up even once; it was like they had an unspoken agreement not to do so. But other than that, they spoke about everything. Toji even managed to get Arare to throw in a comment once in a while. Fuka tried too of course, but she got nothing but one word answers. They talked actively for a few hours, Arare was keeping count is how Fuka knew, and eventually started to run out of will to stay optimistic and to talk. And out of voice, too.

"I'm hungry and thirsty" Fuka suddenly told "Do you think someone will soon come to give us food?"

"No" Arare answered quietly before Toji could "They'll let us starve and die of dehydration."

"Arare!" Toji hisses, but Fuka ignores it as she realizes that Arare might be right. She hadn't heard a sound aside from the ones the three of them made; there was no one around. She had tried to break out of whatever she was being held in and had made a lot of noise, but no one had come to see them. They were alone, the three of them.

"What?" Arare asks, sounding offended "We all know it's true."

And they do. Toji too; Fuka knows this because he doesn't argue. He knows they're all doomed.

"I wanna see my dad" Fuka blurts out suddenly. She knows she sounds like a little kid, but she doesn't care.

"What about your mom?" Toji asks. Fuka shakes her head, saying: "She died long time ago."

"That's probably for the best" Arare speaks once more "For she doesn't have to worry about her missing daughter."

"Knock it off already" Toji hisses at her. Fuka decides to tune out them both; she's tired of listening to them. She doesn't know how much time passes, but it has to be a lot for she's so hungry and her throat feels like desert. At one point she falls asleep, or perhaps unconscious, and when she wakes up she's still there, and not feeling better. Not in the slightest.

"Toji?" her voice is hoarse "Are you still there?"

"Yeah" his isn't much better "And Arare-chan? You still there?"

They get no answer.

"Arare?" he repeats "You don't have to speak, but give us some kind of sign that you're still there, okay?"

For a while they can't hear anything, but Fuka thinks the other girl might just be asleep. She can't be gone, right? After what feels like an eternity, Fuka hears three firm, solid knocks.

"Did you hear that?"

"Yeah" Toji answers, and Fuka hears him cough a little bit "It's Arare."

Time passes, but Fuka doesn't know how long. Merely some minutes? Hours? ...Days? No, people can't survive even for a full day without anything to drink, right? But it felt like it had been so long...

"Toji" she calls out, not even sure anymore why.

"Yeah?"

"If we ever get out of here, let's go on a date" why she said that, Fuka had no idea. She didn't even know him... but at the moment he was all she had.

"Yeah, sure" he said "Hey Arare-Chan, do you want to join us?"

They got no answer, not even a knock.

"...Seriously, Toji?" Fuka asked with a weak laugh; wondering how she could still find humor in this situation.

"I just thought it'd be rude to leave her out of this."

"Or you're just a womanizer" Fuka pointed out, her voice going even weaker from the use.

"I won't admit or deny anything."

She chuckled, but didn't say anything anymore. She was so tired... and thirsty. Her throat felt like sandpaper by now. Maybe that's why Arare hadn't said anything anymore? She no longer could? Fuka felt like the same thing would happen to her soon, too.

"Everything okay, Fuka?" she heard Toji ask. She knew it had been quite while since anyone had said anything, but didn't know exactly how long.

"Uhhuh" and they were quiet again. Sometime later, he called out her name again. This time Fuka didn't feel like answering, so she just gave a few knocks to answer him. He asked for Arare too, but as far as Fuka could hear she gave no signs of being there.

"Fuka" she could hear Toji call for her again, but she had no energy left to give any kind of reply anymore "Arare? You girls still there?"

Where else would they be?

"Fuka? Please answer" she wanted to, she really did, but she just didn't have the energy to do so "Arare-chan?"

As far as Fuka knew, the other girl gave no sign either. She opened her mouth to speak, but got no words out of her dry throat. Trying to call out Toji's name one last time, the girl fell in to blackness.

A.N: I honestly have no idea how the capsules or whatever they were all held in worked and if they could really wake up and talk with each other like this or not, but that's how I decided it to be in order for this to work.