A/N: Okay, this is Chapter One. You're going to see what MOMO was so excited about from the Prologue here. BTW, Chapter One takes place two years after the end of the Prologue. The whole story of the "excitement" isn't here, but the more important part of it is.
Okay! Here goes nothing. This one can be pretty cheesy, let's see how you can handle this. I also got figure-of-speech-happy with this one. Talk about battalions of soldiers.
Chapter One - I Miss You, But Do You Miss Me Too?
A pink-haired girl stirred uncomfortably in her bed as she slept. She seemed to have a terrible nightmare haunting her. Unable to take the stress of it, she woke up with a jolt, nearly screaming. The pink-haired girl hyperventilated. It was as if she just escaped a haunted house that she was trapped in for a long long long time and lost her pursuit.
The pink-haired girl had an average height of 5'6. She had a creamy white skin and her eyes shone like topaz and gold... butter, like butterscotch. Her hair was wavy pink and it went until below her chest. She had a bit of pink curls at either side of her face and it framed her face as if it was an angelic picture passionately painted by the most talented young artist. The girl, or young woman, wore a creamy pink nightgown that ended just below her knees. Her nightgown had beautiful laces as pink as her hair on the collar and sleeves. Her figure is perfect, like an hourglass. There's no mistaking it, this girl is MOMO, the same 100-Series Observational Realian Prototype from 2 years ago, but she has grown into a young woman.
When MOMO had calmed down, she fixed her gaze upon the pink bunnie alarm clock (old habits die hard) by her nightstand. The clock read 2:30 AM. Mr. Sun isn't even awake from his slumber yet. MOMO sighed exasperatedly. 'I seem to be getting these nightmares more often nowadays... I wonder what's causing them? It's like all my good memories with him are disturbed and become bad memories, and then they attack me as if they were angry battalions of soldiers launching a full-scale invasion against the worst of their archenemies,' MOMO thought in her head, "Maybe I should go for a walk in the park? ... Oh wait a minute, did I just think about the park? Hm... I guess I'm still longing for the park in the Durandal,' she sighed once more, 'After all, the Durandal Park always kept me calm when I'm lacking sleep, but... the Durandal isn't here anymore... I'm picking up bad memories again,' MOMO shook her head to forget it. She seemed to be catching some bad memories too lately. 'I guess I shouldn't let it bother me, but I think I really should go for a walk. Oh wait, what if Doctus catches me? That won't be nice. I'll get in trouble again. I'll just try and sleep again. Maybe they won't bother me again,' MOMO thought optimistically.
MOMO lay on her side and sighed exasperatedly while part of her hair hovered over her face. She paid it no mind. Her eyes slowlyclosed, but she couldn't make herself sleep because of fear; fear that her nightmares would come back to haunt her. No matter how much she tried to think positively, it just won't work. Instead, her mind drifted off to daydream...
The scenery is breathtaking. A countless sparkling stars decorated the moonlit night sky. MOMO, still wearing her nightgown, sat on a red bench in the middle of a forest-park decorated with trees, blooming flowers, shrubs and herbs of all kinds. Glowing fireflies lightened up the scenery. MOMO's topaz eyes shone like the stars hanging above her, whilst the moon smiled upon her, as if feeling the joy surging through her. She sat there with a flawless white smile on her face, waiting for someone special.
"Hey, MOMO!" a familiar voice called out from almost out of nowhere. She didn't have to look to see who it is, her little heart jumped at the voice and her head perked up involuntarily in delight. Her head then turned to glance at the direction HIS voice came from. As she had expected, a redheaded cerulean-eyed boy wearing red-white striped PJs came running towards her.
She stood up from her seat right away. "Jr.!" she beamed joyously. MOMO ran towards him to meet him and gave him a big bear hug.
"Whoa!" said Jr. in surprise, but graciously returned the bear hug that MOMO lovingly gave him.
After a few seconds, MOMO pulled away a bit, though not necessarily out of the hug. Her eyes smiled with joy for him. "I missed you so much..." she told him, as if it wasn't obvious already. "I'm SO happy to see you again!" she exclaimed happily, nearly teary-eyed, and then hugged him again.
Jr. lovingly stroked MOMO's head. "I missed you a lot too," he whispered silently in her ear. He closed his eyes and felt the moment, embracing her tightly, allowing his head to rest upon hers.
MOMO closed her eyes too and was soon engulfed by the embrace. She loved this feeling, being in Jr.'s arms... even though she's only imagining this.
Suddenly, a dark shadow-like figure appeared behind Jr. and he didn't notice it. MOMO tried to warn him by screaming, but no sound came out of her mouth. It was as if her throat had run completely dry. In panic, she pulled away and frantically pointed her finger at the shadow, still soundless.
Seeing MOMO's reaction, Jr. spun around and saw a faceless figure now in front of him. "Crap!" he shouted in shock at what he suddenly saw. Instinctively, he took MOMO's hand and ran from it with her as fast as they can.
MOMO nearly tumbled over behind him, she felt as if she just woke up from a trance. She turned her head to look behind her and she saw that the figure was on their tails. Her eyes widened in fear and she got Jr. to run faster. She looked at Jr.'s face, and finally managed to say, "Jr. what is that?"
Jr. shook his head in confusion, "I don't know, MOMO," he said, "but I'm pretty sure it's not here to be friends with us, that bastard."
MOMO and Jr. slowed down against their wills. Not only because they're really tired and literally gasping for air, it's also because whatever-it-was seems to cause them to slow down. They struggled to run faster and faster, but they only got slower. Jr. spotted a seemingly-safe place over a nearby bush, and in his will to protect MOMO, he pushed her there and allowed himself to be engulfed by the shadow. Then the shadow was no more, along with the fiery redhead that it engulfed.
"Jr., NOOOOOO!!!!!" MOMO screamed.
MOMO shot up again with a jolt like she did when she woke up from her nightmare. The only thing is that, this time even her daydreams are not safe. What she thought was the only safe thing she can escape to when she can't sleep is now just as unsafe as her nightmares.
Then she heard frantic knocking on her door, "MOMO? MOMO? Are you all right?" her mother asked in a half-worried and half-frantic voice.
After she took a deep breath, she answered, "I'm okay, mom. Don't worry."
Juli didn't believe a word of it, and entered the room. She still looked the same she used to, only with her hair being a bit longer. She approached her daughter's bed and sat down near her still-hyperventilating daughter. She put her hand on MOMO's head, like she used to do before, and soothingly asked her, "Are those haunting you again?"
MOMO looked down sadly. When she looked up to face her mother, her eyes were filled with the saddest of tears. She couldn't make the words come out, so she just nodded and cried on her mother's shoulder.
'I miss you, but do you miss me too?' MOMO thought in her head.
"CRAP!" the voice of an irritated boy echoed. The boy almost jumped out of his bed with a jolt as he woke up from his taunting nightmare. His fiery hair messed up, his cerulean eyes hinted with anger and fear, and his seemingly new 5'6 body trembling.
At the sound of that, three blonde guys woke up in unison and stared at the source of the noise. One of them, a muscular one, asked him, "Hey, are you all right, Little Master?"
The boy looked down and scratched his head in embarrasment, "I... uh... yeah. I'm all right. Sorry if I woke you guys up with all my racket," he said apologetically.
"Are you sure, Little Master?" another, a skinny one with eyeglasses, asked.
"Yeah," he said simply. "Now let's get back to sleep. Good thing I didn't wake up the captain," he said with a smile.
"Well, if you say so, Little Master." the muscular one said. Then, all the three blonde guys went back to sleep in a snap of a finger... in unison.
"Geez, those guys are weird sometimes," he commented.
"Hey, don't forget me. You woke me up too," a familiar voice echoed through his ears.
Jr.'s head perked up as he heard the voice, "Huh? Albedo?" he asked.
"That's right, Rubedo. Did you miss your dear brother?" he asked sarcastically.
"Huh, like hell I would," he rolled his eyes.
"Oh really, Rubedo? I sure missed you."
"Haha. Very funny. Now get back to sleep," he snapped at him.
"What? I just woke up, Rubedo, do you want me to sleep again right away? I'm sure you'd miss me if I did."
Now Jr. is starting to have his temper broken, "ALBEDO, JUST SHUT UP AND SLEEP!"
"Sleep? Oh, you probably just want to see ma peche again, isn't that right? Of course, the only other way you can see her is through your dreams. Too bad someone's fiddling with them. Now I wonder who that is?"
"Albedo, YOU'RE messing my dreams up?!" he accused, though it sounded more like jumping to conclusions instead of simply accusing.
"Oh, but of course not. I just woke up, Rubedo. Now why do you want to see ma peche? Is it because you miss her? Or is it because you love her enough that you've already forgotten that girl she was modeled after... that SAKURA?" Albedo taunted, giving emphasis on the last word.
"Mind your own business, Albedo," Jr. hissed, but that question obviously got Jr. off-guard.
"Now, I wonder if ma peche misses you too? Do you think she does, JUNIOR?" Albedo taunted on, laughing at the name given to him.
"Albedo......." he hissed in a warning tone.
"Oh but perhaps not? Maybe she's found someone else back there when you left her? After all, she did want to come didn't she? But she was left there, isn't that depressing? I bet ma peche has found someone else to love there, since you just went away and left her without even knowing wherever the hell you're going." Albedo tormented.
"ALBEDO, YOU SON OF A-" Jr. shouted at the top of his lungs, fuming angry, but then he stopped when he realized that the other three are starting to wake up while the captain remains unshaken.
"Oh... you better keep your voice down, LITTLE MASTER, or else you'll be waking up your crew at such an early time of the day. Ah, such bliss."
Jr. sighed, trying to keep his temper in control. "Albedo, Just. Get. Back. To. Sleep."
"I... can't sleep."
"You can't?" Jr. asked in confusion. "Then... then just grab a random heavy object like a mallet and wham it on your head!"
"Oh please, like I have the body needed to do that."
"Oh," he muttered in realization, "well, what do you want?"
"A bedtime story perhaps?"
"WHAT?" he exclaimed.
"Ah, well you don't want that? Then just bore me until I shut up."
"Bore you? Hm..." Jr. put his hand on his chin and tried to think of a way to bore his pain-in-the-ass brother to sleep, then he thought of a random thing. "Well, what about counting Gaignuns jumping over a horse bar?" he asked.
"Nigredo? Jumping over a horse bar? What is that supposed to do?"
"Huh. Well, I reckon that counting sheep jumping over a fence was a popular tactic to sleep back in the Lost Jerusalem Era. Just count Gaignun this time."
"Can't I count something else?"
"Do whatever you want."
"One Sakura, two Ma Peche, three Sakura, four Ma Peche..."
"GODAMMIT, ALBEDO!" he shouted again.
"Well, I'm sorry. I don't know how to count. Five Sakura, six Ma Peche..."
Jr. groaned loud and long this time. Albedo was seriously getting on his nerves. He just lay on his side and drifted off to sleep while Albedo kept counting Sakuras and his Peaches.
Moments later, Jr. screamed again, louder this time, "GODDAMN CRAP IT, MOMO!"
This time, everyone on the Elsa woke up and came rushing to the men's cabin, asking questions all at once.
"Ooh... looks like Rubedo's gathered up one angry mob."
A brunette bluish-green-eyed woman in her mid-20's made her way through the crowd. All she wore is a white thigh-length shirt and her hair is a mess. "What is the matter with you, Jr.?" she asked, obviously irritated to have her sleep disturbed.
"Uh... sorry everyone. I guess I kinda zoned out and these things started coming to me," he said apologetically while scratching his head in embarrasment, just like earlier.
"Things?" the woman asked, now concerned. While the others just nodded and left.
"Uh, yeah, Shion. I guess I caught the nightmare bug." he said, trying to shake off the subject.
"What nightmare?" Shion asked. She was obviously not going to drop the subject until Jr. tells her.
Jr. scratched his head, "It's uh, nothing."
"Jr., spit it out!" Shion insisted.
"God, how do I say this?" he muttered to himself, then he turned to face Shion. "Well, it started out a dream. I met MOMO in a forest-park nearby a red bench. The moment was so perfect until a shadow-like figure came up behind her. So I took her and ran. As we ran, we seemed to slow down against our wills, not just because we're tired, but also because it seemed that it was causing us to," he paused to take a deep breath, then continued, "In her... attempt to save me, she threw me into a safe bush then she was..." he swallowed hard, "she was engulfed by the shadow, then the shadow disappeared along with her."
"Oh..." Shion muttered, understanding the cause. She put her hand on his shoulder in sympathy, "You miss her, don't you?"
"Of course I do!" he said, half-shouting.
"I'm sure she misses you too, Jr., I doubt that she wouldn't." she said encouragingly.
Jr. just sighed, "Yeah... thanks, Shion."
"Anytime," she said with a smile, and then she turned to leave, but then she turned her head and warned him, "Don't mind those nightmares much. The more you do the more they'll taunt you." With that, she left.
"I see. So that's what's causing you trouble, isn't it?"
"Albedo, I swear to God if you're causing that..."
"Don't get your horses in a knot, Rubedo. I was too busy counting that I didn't notice you fall asleep."
"Counting?"
"Forty-five Sakura, forty-six Ma Peche..."
"You. Are. Driving. Me. Nuts."
"It took you that long to realize it?"
"Tch. Whatever, get back to your muttering." he snapped as he tried to catch some more sleep.
'I miss you, but do you miss me too?' Jr. thought.
A/N: Whew! Well, that took a while! BTW, Aiselne, if you're reading this, I hope you don't mind basing off that sheep thing with Albedo and Jr. Sorry about that, but if you DO mind, just tell me and I'll change it.
All reviews and CC appreciated! I suck at portraying Albedo T.T I'm not evil enough.
~Summer
