Meiko considered herself strong willed. She was tough, responsible, stubborn (only at times, may she add), but all around she was strong.
On dark nights, she could remember being alone, surrounded by the darkness that served as a reminder of loneliness. Then, he showed up. A new model. A bright blue and white, a nice contrast to the red and black of her life. He smiled at her, he spoke the same language as her, he called her pretty, he had a friendly voice that begged for her happiness. She loved it. She loved the soft, mild manner of the soft, mild mannered man who brought light to her life.
On dark nights, she could remember him coming to her. She could remember the broken silhouette that stood in her doorway. She could remember the artificial tears that were running down his face. She could remember how warm the tears were and how scratchy his voice was; she would never forget how he screamed.
She promised she would protect him.
All at once these thoughts slammed into Meiko, shaking her down to the metal core. She loved the soft, mild mannered man that lie unconscious on her floor. She wondered if her shaking silhouette looked like his leaning on the doorway. She's vaguely aware of the warm, artificial tears streaming down her cheeks. Her processor acknowledges how scratchy her voice is; she will never forget how she's screaming.
She promised she would protect him.
...
Boring.
As far as he was concerned, this was boring.
Probably one of the most boring things he had done all week.
Gakupo often wondered what the point of having a gaming room was. Why did they it need, really? What purpose did it serve? Who would did it really help?
Everyone would come up with silly and 'meaningful' reasons as to how the games were helpful and gave them an underlying purpose. Gakupo wouldn't lie, he didn't see how simply time wasting fun could have a deeper meaning, that didn't stop him from coming to game room be completely honest with himself, the only reason he came to the game room was to see Kaito.
Kaito had, while constantly entertaining the notion of 'playing games to feel better about whatever', never felt that way himself, or so he claimed. Kaito said, he only played video games for fun. Sure, there may have been some deep underlying connection between him and the game but never played them for that reason alone.
This particular answer would stick with Gakupo, and would float around in his brain when his thoughts wandered. Not only the idea that Kaito only played games for fun, but the idea of Kaito himself often filled Gakupo's thoughts. Maybe that was why he had been depriving himself of free time...
And yet, here he was, sitting on an overstuffed couch watching Cul, Rin, Kanon, and Galaco duke it out in Super Smash Bros. Normally Smash was the only game Gakupo was even mildly interested in but today he was too busy being internally furious to care about a game he rarely had interest in when he was calm.
Gakupo was rather confident that his moral code said something about letting the small things go, but in Gakupo's mind, this was far from small. Kaito had promised! Promises were sacred, things were not meant to be broken. It seemed, however that Kaito wasn't seeing things that way, as Kanon had taken his spot in the game.
Feeling mentally disgusted with himself, Gakupo returned his attention to the game in hopes of ignoring his, what his heart said was misplaced anger. Maybe he if concentrated hard enough, the game wouldn't be so boring. He watched as a white haired character with a book knocked a turtle monster off the platform. It jumped back on and charged towards the little pink one. The small pink creature opened its mouth and-
"Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up!"
Meiko's screams echoed throughout the entire mansion, tearing Gakupo's attention away from the game. Without thinking, he jumped off the couch and ran towards Meiko's room. He could hear someone calling out to him, asking him to wait. He didn't, Meiko was in trouble and he had to help.
Finally reaching the third floor, he found a crowded hall full of confused vocaloids. Gakupo's processors were working overtime as he surveyed the scene. He could tell something bad had happened in Meiko's room but she had stopped screaming. It seemed like nobody had been hurt physically, the were no wires, metal, or "blood" on the floor. He also noticed, Kaito was nowhere in sight. Before he could over think the possible situation Galaco appeared with Rin and Kanon on her arms with Cul following behind.
"Nice of you to leave us behind Gaku, real nice," Cul spat.
"Uh...Yeah. Sorry," Gakupo mumbled without looking at the redhead. Now that he knew they were okay, there was no reason to talk. Not now at the very least.
"What's happening up there?" Kanon asked, sounding nervous.
"I'm not really sure," replied Gakupo, " from what I can tell, something happened to Meiko- or around her at the very least. It seems no one was physically hurt seeing there's no scrap metal. There's a small chance she could just be drunk, but that doesn't seem to be the case and if it was, it's very blown out of proportion. "
"Wow, that's really impressive Gakupo!" Galaco praised.
Without looking away from Meiko's door, Gakupo shrugged. "Yeah, I guess."
Galaco opened her mouth to say something more but stopped when she looked over at Rin. Her eyes were wide, tears forming in the corners. Her gaze was fixated on Gakupo.
"Is she okay?" Rin asked in a shaking voice. Gakupo, wide eyes open wide in surprise, looked down at the teen. "Like, is Meiko okay? Uh, is Kaito up there? Can you get his attention maybe? I-I'm just worried about them, ya' know?"
"He's not there." Gakupo replied dryly.
"What does that mean?" Cul asked.
"Kaito isn't up there. I don't where he is. I haven't seen him to today. He's probably doing something important though," he responded, his voice shook with concern.
"Gakup-" Rin was cut off by a figure rushing past them.
"That was..." Galaco's voice faded.
"Yeah," Kanon nodded nervously, "That was Master."
"Where's Gakupo going?" Galaco asked.
"What are you...Oh my gosh! Gakupo come back!" Kanon had moved attention away from her Master just in time to watch Gakupo's figure disappear through Meiko's door.
...
Gakupo's first thought was about how cold it was in Meiko's room. He could see his Master's breath in the dim light that covered the room. Master was examining something under Meiko's blanket. He looked over to find Meiko hugging her legs to her chest and crying, surrounded by others. Luka had her arm draped over Meiko's shoulder in sympathy, while Leon and Lola were standing in front Meiko, trying to comfort her from what he could tell.
He decided he would just stay where he was and simply look around, not watching to upset Meiko further but not wanting to leave. He wasn't sure how long he stood there observing and memorizing every small detail of Meiko's room; more importantly he wasn't sure how long Lola had been staring at him.
"What are you doing here?" She asked, her voice was low and rough, like she had been crying.
Before Gakupo had a chance to reply, Master stood up and gestured to Leon and Lola to come closer before looking at Gakupo. "Go get Big Al." He told Lola, who quickly ran out the door.
He turned to Gakupo"If you're looking for a big bad shogun to fight, I'm sorry to inform you that you've just missed him. " Master said dryly. His eyes were puffy and red, Gakupo swallowed quickly; had Master been crying?
Once again before Gakupo had the opportunity to open his mouth, he had been interrupted.
"Are you moving him?" Meiko asked through sobs. She had moved out of Luka's grasp and was now standing in front of Master. "No, I don't want you to. He came here, this is obviously where he wanted to be. Let him stay here."
Master shook his his head. "Meiko, you know we can't do that."
"Why not? He came here of his own free will. This is where he wanted to be, why can't he stay?"
"Meiko, you're being reasonable. You probably shot one of your circuits. You can come with us, I can fix you both."
Meiko's attitude immediately changed. "Bull shit!" she shouted, "if that were the case you'd already done it. Right? You wouldn't do this to me, to us. If you could really fix us, fix me! You would've done, you would've found a way to make me popular by now! You would've found a way to fix his problems, to make him more respected. But you haven't, because you can't!"
Was she talking about Kaito? Surely she wasn't. He was fine, right?
"Meiko...I...," tears were slowly rolling down Master's face. He looked at her with pained eye and opened his opened his mouth to say more but was cut off by the opening door.
Big Al entered the room with a low grunt. Gakupo was unsure on if Al cared about the tension between the people before him as he walked over to pick up
Al walked over to the lump of white on the floor picking it up. He looked down at it and without any hesitation, he ripped the sheet off the figure.
Kaito's skinny frame looked minuscule in comparison to Al's broad frame. His skin was almost translucent and his eyes were closed in what looked like pain. Gakupo could feel his heart skip a beat. His mouth went dry. This couldn't be right.
Al headed towards the door but before he could get close, Meiko attacked.
She punched Al in the jaw and he stumbled backwards. Luka ran towards her and grabbed her right arm and pulled. Meiko stumbled to side but quickly adjusted to the new weight and pulled Luka with her. Big Al circled around Meiko and trudged as fast as he could towards the door. Gakupo dumbly side stepped, clearing the path for Al.
Meiko however, wasn't giving up so easily. She grabbed the vase that sat on her night stand and threw it at Al. With accuracy more impressive that Gakupo could of dreamed of Meiko having, it hit Big Al in he back of the head. Pieces of glass buried themselves into Al's head, he stumbled slightly and then dropped the Kaito
Without thinking, Gakupo slung himself forward and grabbed him. Kaito's lifeless form was strangely light in hands. Finally Gakupo realized, Kaito was shutdown. Was that all this was? He laughed inside, surely that was all it was, a mistake. Gakupo's hands slid across Kaito's cheek and down to his neck. He put a reasonable amount of force his friend's neck, but it had no effect. He tried again, pushing harder this time, still nothing. Another time, and another, softer? Still nothing.
"Ahh..." Gakupo smiled gently and pressed his forehead against Kaito's. "I see. Ha, don't worry about our promise Kaito. You're forgiven; besides you're gonna make it up later, right?"
Meiko lunged at him, and he quickly dodged out of the way and out the door. Meiko let out scream and ran for the door. Luka wrapped her arms around Meiko, pulling her back.
"Meiko! Meiko please! It's okay, it's okay, please. Meiko, please, it's okay, it's okay!" She screamed into Meiko's back.
Finally, Meiko's struggling ceased and she flipped around to look at Luka. Tears were running down her face.
"I-I promised," she sobbed, burying her face into Luka's chest, "I pr-romised to protect him."