Happy Vernal Equinox! Got a new chapter of Blindsided as well as Alien Ultimatum (unfortunately, due to schoolwork and other stuff, I didn't get a chance to finish another chapter of Girl with a Porpoise, but hopefully one will come soon!) Enjoy the first day of spring!

Chapter Five:

He couldn't move. Something was weighing down his arms and legs, his chest, keeping him trapped as the smoke rose around him. The flames flickered, but that was all he could see. It was so hot… He knew if he didn't get out soon, he'd suffocate, biological need for air or not…

All of a sudden, a black figure, out of nowhere. A rescuer? The figure approached, but he couldn't see the person's face. Male or female? Were they even Cyniclon? What were they doing here?

As the person knelt over him, he felt himself being pulled into blackness. He was falling. He couldn't stop falling… All he could see was black…

Pie jerked upright with a gasp, tangled in the bed-sheets, heart pounding. He mumbled curse words as he freed himself from the sheets, then rubbed his forehead with his fingers. He blinked a few times, not that that changed anything he 'saw', but it helped him wake up some.

What was that dream? He wondered as he frowned. He hadn't had any nightmares about the fire before. He remembered nothing from that night. So why was he all of a sudden having a dream like that?

Pie shook his head and his hand fumbled around on the nightstand as he sought-out his hair tie.

"No, it was just a bad dream. Nothing more than that." He told himself as he wound the leather strip around his hair tightly. He frowned slightly as he had trouble gathering the right amount.

My hair needs to be cut, He realized. It has gotten too long. When was the last time Rin tied me to a chair to give me a haircut?

He couldn't remember, and given their argument the night before, he doubted Rin would be willing to do him any favors any time soon. Plus, he was also worried about what would happen if he gave her scissors and complete and total access to his hair while she was still pissed off with him.

That was a mistake only made once.

Pie felt his way to the door and then down the hall, heading towards the kitchen where he smelled coffee.

Risa looked up from her mug and smiled.

"Good morning, Pie-Chan," She said, closing the book she had been reading. "You are up early. Everyone else is still asleep. I expected you especially to sleep till noon."

"I had an odd dream and could not get back to sleep," Pie said, pulling himself out a chair and sat down in it.

"Would you like some coffee?" Risa asked.

"Please," Pie said. Risa stood up and found a mug, filling it and placing it before Pie, gently guiding his hand to the handle.

"Careful, it is still very hot. It only finished brewing a few minutes ago," Risa warned as she sat down in front of her cup of coffee again. Pie nodded his thanks, resting the mug on the table so that it could cool some before he tried to drink it, hand still wrapped around the handle.

"Have you seen Rin since last night?" He asked in the moments of quiet that followed.

"No, I have not," Risa said. She frowned as she studied Pie's face. "Did you two have a quarrel?"

"You could say that," Pie said. He ran his finger along the rim of the mug, feeling the steam hit his fingers. "Can I be frank?"

"Always," Risa said.

Pie hesitated for a moment.

"I know that I have my limitations, I know there are things I can never do again, things I will always need some form of help with. But there is still a lot of things I can still do, if I relearn how to do so. And in order to do that, I need to do things for myself." He said.

"Of course," Risa said with a nod.

"And I feel that I am making progress with a lot of things," Pie said. "But I do not think Rin is helping at all. I feel like she is actually hindering progress."

Risa frowned.

"How so?" She asked.

"When Rin is around, I can barely do anything for myself. She simply takes over," Pie said after taking a cautious sip of his coffee. "When we sit down for a meal, she will instantly grab my plate and starting cutting up the food, even though you have chastised her many times for doing so and everyone else knows that I can do it for myself. Or she will take care of my things for me. And if I missed a button on my shirt, instead of informing me she simply fixes it without so much as a warning. She treats me as if I am a toddler and I cannot stand it for much longer."

"Yes, that is definitely a problem," Risa said softly. She sighed. "Pie, you know Rin loves you. She is not trying to say you cannot do anything for yourself, nor is she trying to prevent that. I think she is just worried for you, and therefore feels the need to be a bit over-protective. And I also believe that she feels some guilt."

"Guilt?" Pie said, his brow furrowed. "Why would she feel guilt?"

"She was supposed to have been there the night of the accident," Risa said. "But instead she made plans at the last minute with Vanilla and left you alone. She feels like she should have been there."

"That is ridiculous," Pie stated. "Even if she was there, we would both be like this. Or worse."

"Pie, from the moment you and Rin were born, you have shared everything with each other," Risa said. "A birthday, a cradle, toys, friends, interests, ideas. So perhaps she feels that you two should share the same fate."

"There is no definite way we would have anyways," Pie said. "One of us may have lost a limb while the other did not. Or one of us may have lost our life while the other survived. There are countless other odds of how the situation would be like now had we both been there that night."

There was a beat, a skip, a pause. But only a brief one.

"Pie, it is my turn to be frank," Risa whispered, reaching across the table to take her son's hand. "That is why I am so glad that it was only you who was in that explosion. If it had been both of you there that night, if one of you had lost your life and the other survived… The other would have been inconsolable. Lost the will to live, forever with a hole in their heart and silence and pain. That is a wound that could never be healed, and to be honest I wonder how long either of you could live without the other."

Pie squeezed his mother's hand.

"How did you survive?" He asked, a question he had had for many years but was only now voicing. Risa felt the tears spill from her eyes as she thought of her own twin brother, who had died when they were young children.

"Because I knew Pie would not like it if I did not move on," Risa whispered. She sniffled and rubbed at her eye. "He told me not to be sad. To be happy. That it was okay to be sad for a while, but that he wanted me to be happy. I still miss him, every day. I cannot get rid of that emptiness. But it has lessened over the years. Being friends with Lila and Alec, falling in love with your father, having you and your siblings, adopting Kisshu and Éclair, that has all filled the void to some degree. I promised myself when you and Rin were born that I would never let either of you have that empty feeling no matter what." She studied Pie, who nodded. She smiled slightly. "You know, I always thought you looked like him. What you look like now being what he would have looked like if he had reached your age. You look so much like your father, but also so much like your uncle."

"Is that not why you named me after him?" Pie asked.

"One reason," Risa admitted. "But also because I promised myself that I would name my first son after him." She sighed and wiped away the rest of her tears. "Alright, that is more than enough sad thoughts for the day, and it is not even nine in the morning. How about we make breakfast?"

"That sounds like a really good idea," Pie said, his stomach rumbling at the thought of breakfast. Risa smiled and got to her feet, starting to search the cupboards asking Pie on his opinions while he drank some more of his coffee. While doing so, Éclair somehow made her way into the kitchen in her wrinkled pajamas and one pink sock, rubbing one of her eyes with one fist and holding onto her teddy bear with the other, her curly hair sticking out in all directions.

"Morning, Risa Oba-San," Éclair said through a yawn.

"Good morning, Éclair-Chan," Risa said, smiling at her adopted daughter. "How about you go sit with Pie-Chan while I fix breakfast?"

Éclair tilted her head in half-asleep confusion at Risa, then turned her head towards her brother.

"Wow… Pie Onii-Chan's up before Éclair. That hasn't happened in a while," She muttered. She sleepily walked over to the table and without a word crawled into Pie's lap, proceeding to fall asleep again while leaning against Pie's chest, to the amusement of Pie and Risa.

Slowly, the other Ikisatashi's made their way into the kitchen. Rirī and Kish went to help Risa cook breakfast while Tart and Rōzu set the table. Curry and Pie both gently prodded Éclair awake.

Suddenly, Rin teleported into the middle of the room, her tired eyes wide and her ringlets frizzy and sticking out oddly.

"Rin, what's wrong?" Rirī asked.

"Pie's gone! He's not in his room, and I can't find him anywhere and I've looked everywhere!" She said, her voice full of concern.

"Everywhere except the kitchen table, apparently," Pie said dryly, causing Rin's ears to jerk at the sound of his voice as she turned to him.

"Baka! Don't ever scare me like that again, do you hear me!" Rin yelled at him before teleporting out of the room again, leaving the rest of her family in confused silence.

"Well… That was random." Tart said.

"Rin-Chan needs a nap," Éclair stated with a yawn.

Not one member of her family disagreed.

Yeah, Rin-Chan's a little paranoid and highly lacking in the sleep department. Next chapter: Pie and Lettuce meet once again!