I don't own anything other than the obvious OC's! (That are mainly the dolls)
How's the AU doing for you guys?
*Hears nothing*
Crawls into a corner... It's fine, don't answer.
Warning: Language, and other stuff; not much.
Ritsu POV
I wanted to open the doll case, but Takano-san told me not to until tomorrow.
And then we ended up here, lights out, on the futon... that was meant for only him.
...I don't even want to remember how he got me here.
Can he not see how flustered I am?! I can't sleep like this...
I turn away from him; maybe this will help if I don't face him. As I close my eyes and tried to sleep, I then hear rustling and turn back to the other side to see his faint silhouette take off the big shirt I lent him that fit him.
"W-what are you doing?!"
"It's hot," he complained.
"No, no! Put it back on!"
"Aren't you hot...?" he questioned as he put his hands under my shirt and I tried to squirm away from him as he felt around my sides, "You're totally sweating."
"Please don't touch me..."
I can hear him sigh as he laid back down; I turn away again and try my best to sleep.
Hmmm...?
Is it morning already? I keep my eyes closed; I can feel that my body is being constricted by something.
It's... it's really comfortable, and it smells nice for some reason; I snuggle more against it.
To my inner happiness it hugs me tighter against itself. As I regain more consciousness however, I realize that this 'it' is Takano-san.
I bite my lip as I open my eyes and look up to see that I'm tucked under his chin. "G-good morning, Takano-san..."
"..." He hugs me tighter, if possible. "Can we stay like this?"
"But, work...?"
"It's Saturday."
"I... I- The library opens today at ten."
"Then we have plenty of time to sleep in."
As I find myself against his chest I feel my heart beating fast. It beats even more when I hear that Takano-san's heartbeat is beating just as fast.
Is it okay like this? Is it? The feelings I feel...
I think I still love him... Maybe? No, not maybe... I...
I still love him. I'm pretty sure you don't feel this way towards someone you don't really know- and your friend.
...I know Takano-san, but it's been 10 years. We have changed. Well, not a lot- I mean, I think that, no matter how much time has passed, you still have the same core.
Does he still feel the same way though?
No, of course he feels the same way, probably even more considering he's been looking for me all this time while I've been hiding in here away from reality.
It's different between us though, he probably went out with many people compared to me. Should I go date first to see what it's like?
But it's strange to think about that; I don't really want to date anybody else... Only Takano-san...
"..." I push myself away as I get up and walk out of the room. These emotions... I just have to go take a deep breath and run away for a while and hide in a corner.
"Ritsu?"
"I'm just going outside- not outside, outside, but just the library outside outside!" I say in a fluster.
I can hear him catching up to me. "What's wrong?"
"N-nothing," I say, looking ahead of me," I just..." I trailed off as I see as something big and pink walk away from behind the shelves and towards our direction.
Why is there a guy in a rabbit costume here? My eyes go to his hands, wondering why he was holding a knife.
"Sir...? How did you get in?" I ask.
To my shock, the stitched in smile on his face grows wider as he says nothing.
"What are you looking at?" I looked at Takano-san as he asked that.
"You don't see him?" I say, glancing at the costumed man warily. I'm beginning to think that's not a man...
Takano-san frowned at me. "I can't see anything."
Oh, no... it's like one of those novels I read, but I know I'm not crazy as I now feel a disturbing aura filling this room.
Looking at Takano-san, I pushed him back towards the room. "Oh, I must be imagining things," I say, "Let's go back."
Glancing at the rabbit man as I stepped forward, I froze he took two steps towards me. I stop while Takano-san keeps going.
I step again, he comes even closer.
As a test I step back, and to my small relief, he stepped back to his original spot.
I realize then that I'm his target.
"Aren't you coming?" asked Takano-san.
"Oh, uh, just go on ahead, I see some books out of place."
"Do that later." I pale as I hear Takano-san walking towards me, and my eyes grow wide as I see the grin on the rabbit man grow creepily bigger.
"No, go back!" I shout, before quickly trying to reassure him quietly, "Please, just a few minutes."
"...Okay," he says, and I'm sure he knows something is up, but he doesn't have the slightest clue so he lets it slide.
Seeing that we were alone now, I find myself face to face with this strange entity.
Misaki POV
I watched as Usagi-san close himself up in his room again.
He's been so busy lately.
So busy and exhausted that he didn't even notice the doll sitting with us during our breakfast meal.
And she was talking to me too, he didn't even bat an eye!
How I met her? Her case fell straight on my stomach last night.
One of the rudest awakenings I ever had in my life.
"Hey, hey~!" I look down to the talking doll. She has short brown-blonde hair cut across her chin and two skinny, long braids in the back; her outfit was strangely cultural, and she told me that was based on a traditional dress somewhere in Europe. Her eyes are green- almost as green as mine, but more closer to Ritsu's color.
"What?" I ask.
"Guess my name yet?" After I didn't guess the first time, she just ran around looking at all of the apartment.
Oh, right; I take the piece of paper out of my pocket and look it over again.
I like playing with thread. It's really pretty. I don't like scary people. I'm the 9th!
Ah, that's right. I have no clue what it is.
"I'll give you a hint~!" She says, tugging on my pants. "My friends call me Mi sometimes!"
"Mi...? Mi..." Like the Mi in my name...?
I look at the paper again. That would mean... the other half of her name is in here?
Thread... that's Io... also like the cherry in a different context.
"Mio?" I guess.
I watch as she smiles and jumps happily. "Yay, yay! Master finally got my name right!"
Well, sorry that it takes a while for me.
I put my hand on her head to calm her down and keep her to the ground. "You can call me Misaki."
"Misaki...? Mi..mi?" She smiles. "Mimi!"
"No..."
"No Mimi?" she pouts. "Why no Mimi?"
"I'm a guy, Mio-chan..."
"No! Shio has a girly name, and he's a boy!"
"Shio? Is he another doll?"
She nodded. "Mm-hm. But he's older than me. He's seven."
"He's seven...?"
"Yeah! But," she gestures to her obvious doll joints, "We've been like this for a long time."
I feel a certain dread stab into my chest. "Were you guys not like this?"
She shook her head. "The big Meanie took us away and put our souls in here," she pointed to her chest. "I don't know where our real bodies are," she added in a small voice. "We can never find them."
That... "How old are you, Mio-chan?"
She smiles at me. "I'm four!" She held out three fingers before remembering the fourth.
"Wha... Four?!" That's just too young! How.. can... What kind of nut-job is this 'big Meanie'?!
"Don't worry, Master," she says quietly, hugging his leg, "We're used to it. We don't even want to find our bodies anymore."
I bent down to her level. "Why?"
"Cause people get hurt," she begins swaying her body childishly in a no, "So no more. But," She looks around, "He likes playing with us, so he sends his ugly dollies to mess with us and they're scary."
She nods. "They won't stop smiling, and their eyes are pitch black," she looks up at me, "It'll be okay though, Master. He doesn't really like playing with me. But I'm really worried for Shio; the big Meanie likes playing with him cause him and his masters are all in the same family."
"Same... family?"
"Mm-hm. Big Meanie is weird."
I feel more dread come to my chest as I dare to ask this. "Wh-what family is Shio in?"
"Onodera! I remember it cause it's funny to say sometimes."
Yeah, of course it would be someone I know.
Ritsu POV
It feels like time has stopped. Just me and him, and NOT in that romantic context.
I shudder. Never.
"Yoouuu..."
It can talk?! "W-what?" I ask.
"Yoouu... have you gotten cuter or is it just me...?"
What. The. Hell.
"Excuse me...?"
"Of courrrsseee, though~ Shiori is definitely cuter!"
"Shiori?" I look at the desk, knowing from last night I put the doll case behind there out of sight.
"Waa... Where is Shiori~? I juustttt... Wanna go and staaaree at him~"
This is so creepy. I can't help but shudder again, and to my horror, he notices.
"You... haavvee, deeeffinnitely gotten cuter, so shy and sensitive to room temporature~!"
"N-no..." I assure you, it's not the room temperature...
"Yesss~! Why are all Onodera's so cute?"
"O-onodera?"
"Yes! Ah, aaallll these yearssss... All of you will be with me forever~! Say it with me! Forever~!"
"No... No thank you..."
"Aaawwww, so always the polite one~"
I really want to run away, oh so much...
To my inner relief, Misaki comes in holding a big shopping bag, looking very rushed. He looks at me. "Are you okay?!"
I just point to the creepy bunny.
"That's the dollie!" I look to see that the voice belonged to the doll popping out from the bag and I look at Misaki.
"You too?!"
"Yeah," he says, nodding. He then looks at the doll. "How do you get rid of him, Mio-chan?"
He set the bag down and carried her out of it. She then faces the rabbit guy-thing. "We have to find the core-thingy! Its in a different place each time though..."
Then, we watch as she materializes a needle about the same length as her along with a huge roll of thread with a handle at the top. "I'll go get the knife away from it," she looks at us, "And then we just beat him up."
Misaki POV
"We beat him up?" I echo after her.
"Yep! When we hit the core, he'll disappear." After saying that, she runs at the bunny, her thread tied to the needle.
Right as she came close though, the bunny immediately used the knife to pin part of her dress and slapped her away against the wall.
That was... so sudden.
"Wah...!" She runs to me and hugs legs, shaking, "I thought I was going to crack! He also ripped my dress!"
I go and hold her in my arms, patting her back as she cried with out tears against my shoulder.
Well, she is only four on the inside...
Looking at the dollie to see his next movement, I find him staring beside me. I look his direction, only to see Ritsu looking strangely pissed off.
"Ritsu?" I say, seeing as he was glaring at something near the dollie. Following his line of sight, I see that when the dollie pinned Mio-chan's thread, the knife had stuck itself to the nearby shelf...
Oh...
I step back as Ritsu walked to the dollie.
"Oy." I look behind me to see that... Who was he... Takano?
"What is it...?" I ask.
"Why is he walking looking so pissed off at a shelf?" he questions, pointing to Ritsu.
"The dollie, he-"
"What?" Can... can he not see it?
I feel Mio-chan lifting up her head, sniffing a little. Takano looks at her in surprise as she talks to me. "He can't see it. A lot of people can't. Sometimes your eyes don't show you what's really in front of you unless you really focus."
"Focus?" Takano says, and I think he said that as a challenge. He looks over at Ritsu again as I do as well.
To my surprise, the dollie looked really... stunned.
"That shelf is around a century old!" scolds Ritsu as he reached out to really pinch both of the dollie's ears hard, "How are you going to pay for that?!"
"Oohh... It huurrts, but it feells so heaveenllyyy~"
This thing's an M?!
Ritsu then kicked him in the stomach.
It just let him hit it. "Ohh... Do it again~"
"This bastard..." I mutter, creeped out and disgusted at the same time.
"What did it say?" asks Takano, who still can't see it, but seemed to have gotten an idea.
"Oh... It..." I decided to just say, "The thing's an M, I think."
Mio-chan gestured Takano to look at her. "It... It says... 'so heaveenllyyy~' and 'Do it again~'" I bite back a laugh at how funny she sounded trying to mimic it.
"Did it?" Takano says, looking angry.
"Why so angry...?" I ask as he walks past me to Ritsu.
Then he punches the dollie straight in the neck. To my surprise, a strange black blob comes out and disappears.
"That was it!" says Mio-chan.
So that was why it sounded so drunk?
Ritsu POV
"How did you know where it was, Takano-san?" Can he see it now?
He looks at me. "Huh? Oh, I was just pissed at it," he looks around, "Did I get it?"
Wow, this guy...
I don't know why, but I wanted to try and be even remotely funny.
*Down the ground on my knees and hands* Forgive me!