Chapter 9- Starting a game

Neptune had sadden a little when Mars had pushed his hold off but the youth was quick to bounce back and perked with interest when Helen rose from her place and gave a clap of praise to her children of fabric, metal and bits of her own soul.

"That's was very nice children," she said and gave individual critic to all of her kids. "Mercury your voice was lovely darling and seems to be coming along beautifully. Earth, Venus, Uranus; all of you did very well with the instruments and I'm proud at the progress you all have made in them."

The stitchpunks on the piano were mostly smiles and seemed very pleased with themselves for being able to play along together so well; except maybe Earth whom looked whether bored as he rested his elbows on the keys and exhaled in exasperation. He really, really hated these lessons even if he secretly loved to play music and listen to his mother sing. One day she may not be there anymore and these memories would be the only thing he'd be able to think of and cherish. So for this reason alone Earth didn't fight his mother to much on being asked to participate.

"Saturn, Jupiter; you two danced wonderfully together and I'm impressed given that this is your first time trying it together," the beaming mother praised and smiled kindly when her ribbon pigtailed daughter giggled to the nice words. Jupiter seemed embarrassed by the giggles and wished his sister didn't have to do that when she found amusement in something. Woman!

Helen looked towards the last two children, one of whom was just made and looked at the painting with deep interest. Dark colors swirled and it seemed to be slight abstracted but almost had a nice feel to it given the inspiration of the song it had been referenced to. Neptune was looking to his mother for answers on what she thought well Mars had moved to sit on the edge of the small table next to the easel. She didn't really care what the human female thought of her work; it wasn't her cup of tea anyways. But her new brother sure did…

"Do you like it mommy?" he asked cautiously and inched closer to her as she looked over every inch of the painted canvas before her. He only stopped approaching when right beside one of her arms and gave it a little tap to get his creators attention. "Is it done right or is something not right about it? You keep looking at it like trying to see something that's there…"

The human female gave a soft chuckle and looked to her new son before reaching her hand out to gently stroke the young 'punk along his sides. The youth relaxed at once and sighed out in almost a purring fashion to his mother soft touches. His mother chuckled and keep her action going well looking back up to the painting.

"I think it's lovely dear," she praised and looked to her red striped armed daughter next, "You did a very nice job as well Mars. You and Neptune paint wonderfully together."

The female merely shrugged as a response and actually shooed her mother's hand away when the human tried to give her the same attention she was placing onto the small blue boy. A small growl of annoyance followed that and Mars hopped off the table by herself in a tuck and roll fashion before hitting the ground with her feet and just heading off into some other room with a single good word to her mother.

Helen sighed out like this was a normal occurrence and Neptune glanced around in confusion. Why was Mars so aggressive and distant when she had said she only wanted to protect? It was like she only wanted to be alone and not have anything to do with her family or the very human whom she owned her life too. What a endless mound of confusion she was to the small boy who latched onto his mother's hand when she started to move away. She chuckled once again and just let the boy be as the other siblings moved to the floor as well.

"Alright, that's get on with the lessons for the day shall we?" the female asked her children and when they nodded she removed Neptune from her wrist and placed him on the floor alongside his many siblings. If Mars was going to be aloof and not take this lessons seriously than it was the 'dolls own trouble and Helen would have a word with her later. But for now there were many things to teach her children and a new one to teach many things to in this time.

Another hour of artistic lessons, a lesson in reading and literature, lessons on history and than a math lesson all followed in the time Helen spent with her children and it wasn't until passed three that everything was finished off. Some of the stitchpunk like Venus, Mercury and Uranus were happy in all of the lesson well some like Earth and Jupiter only took them because it made their mother happy. Saturn liked the sciences and anatomy she privately learned from her creator but enjoyed this time because she like Neptune was interested in absorbing and gaining as much knowledge as possible.

As for the new tiny blue 'punk he had been listening and watching inventively to everything his mother had been teaching but was growing increasingly bored because his body stirred with energy and wanted to do something like earlier when he had been outside. The youth wanted action and nothing was helping take the edge off as the human drolled on and on…

"And this is how we do fractions," Helen summed up from the chalkboard she had brought into the room, placing a piece a chalk down as she finished the lesson. "Okay. The lessons are over and everyone is free to go off and play around until later alright? Go have some fun now."

The stitchpunks children wasted no time in gather up and leaving the room as their mother collected the music sheets and began to put the books and chalkboard away. It may seem silly and a bit dim but Helen wanted to make sure her children knew as much about the world as they possible could, both so they could understand how their world worked and so that if something should happen to her than her children wouldn't be too shocked or naïve about how the world honestly worked. Course Helen had no idea that she wasn't teaching her creation the most important lesson about being able to handle themselves should something happen, heck, she hadn't even told them there was a possibility that she wouldn't be there one day.

Only Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars knew about humans vanishing because of her husband and she had never told them the truth about why her husband had suddenly just stopped living with them. But she had to try and maintain some of their innocence because she didn't want her creations to grow up to fast. They had a whole life time to grow up but they could only be her babies for so long…

The stitchpunks all gathered around inside the guest bedroom from earlier and we're trying to decide what course of action to take next. They could go outside a play games like hopscotch, jump rope or tag but Earth had to point out well trying to be discrete that such games weren't right because Neptune's body was still activating and unstable at the time. There was a reason he had been carrying the youth around most of the day.

His comment wasn't taken lightly though as Neptune gave a sad look to hearing that they couldn't play active games because he was still young and unsteady in his movements. Earth tried to dismiss it and say they could try board games or other such things but the youth insisted that he wanted to be up and about because he was bored; his young body craved something to get his energy out and board games didn't sound like something which would do this.

"We could play the hiding and finding game," Uranus suddenly voiced and based on Venus excited face it was clear that it was a game the family played often. Neptune looked to his burlap brother and shifted his head to one side in his bewilderment. What type of game was this? "The kids like it and it's not to physically demanding."

Neptune perked and looked right at his taller green brother, his big blue optics pleading as he tried to get Earth to agree. "Please Earth? Please? I wanna play to and want to walk around a little bit."

"Oh jeez, I'm not sure Nep," the green 'punk muttered as he looked way when Neptune suddenly added to his pleading by placing his hands together and moving them under his chin to only add to this act. "Your body isn't stable yet and you haven't done much moving around today."

Neptune quirked a brow, "That's because you've been carrying me the whole time."

Earth tensed and quickly looked down to the youth in disbelief. Where had that smart aleck comment could from, or was it just the boy being innocently observant? Either way he was quick to 'correct' him.

"I've been carrying you because you're wobbly in the knees and I didn't want you to fall down or get hurt."

"No you didn't and no I'm not," Neptune responded with a blank look, "You carried me down the stairs and than you picked me up again because you got mad at Saturn; you almost squeezed me with how hard you were holding onto me."

"First of all his lying," Earth excuse whether defensively to his now snickering siblings and glared at them daring to be amused to his troubles. He than look to the smaller brother, "And second YOU didn't seem to mind me holding you when you could have walked at any second you little troublemaker."

"Than let me play and walk around for a bit," the boy plead.

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Please…?"

"No Nep."

"Pleeease?"

"I just don't thin your ready yet Nep."

"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-" Now Earth's eye started to twitch as his new little brother held the note and begged on in both cuteness and obnoxious behavior. How long did this kid plan on begging?

"eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-" apparently a long time.

"Nep you can't keep that up forever," Earth said well placing his hand onto his hip and trying to scold the youngster for behavior that no one less in the family had ever done before.

"eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-yes I can-eeeeeeeeeeeeee"

The green 'punk blinked in surprise to how swiftly Neptune was able to hold he note and than quickly shift to his speaking voice back to pleading out again. He sighed out and tried this one more time.

"Neptune…If I say yes than will you kindly stop that nonsense and be quiet?"

The boy immediately silenced his antic and nodded with a soft 'mhmm' and big grateful optics if the other would agree to this. Well with his happy expression, wide optics and bright smile Earth really had no ground to stand on to tell the boy no. He hung his head and gave a dismissive wave in defeat.

"Fine; you win Nep. You can play the hiding game," he reluctantly agreed, looking back up and frowning at the other older siblings looking at him like he had just lost some great battle of wits. Earth had been played by a youth like he was putty in the small boy's hands.

"Thank you," the youngster exclaimed and gripped Earth in a tight hold, nuzzling into the taller's front, "Thank you, thank you, thank you! I'll be good and not get beg again. I just wanted to play."

"Oh you're going to do more than play," Saturn suddenly voiced moved forward to oddly enough, move Neptune off of Earth and directing him turns a corner. The boy fidgeted uncomfortable to being taken away but his sister was quick to ease his worry down. "It's okay Neptune. I just think since it's your first time playing that you might like to be the seeker."

"What's a seeker?" the boy asked in more curiosity now as Saturn placed him in front of the corner and turned his face towards it.

"A seeker is the person that doesn't hide and instead counts down with their hands covered before looking for the ones that are hiding."

Earth shook his head in exhaustion to this; Neptune was just made today and she expected him to be able to count down and than understand how to look for siblings all over the house? She couldn't be serious…

"Okay," Neptune chimed happily and turned face into the wall before placing his hands over his small face and began to number down quickly, "1, 2, 3…"

"whoa! Just a second there," Saturn chuckled and patted the eager youth on his small shoulder. "Fist you have to do it slowly…Than you have to count to a number that you know means to stop. Let's try ten okay? You count to ten and the rest of us with hide well you try to find us."

Neptune gave a nod so his sister continued, "Once you get to ten, you say 'ready or not here I come' so we'll know that you're done counting and are going to be seeking. The game stops when you find everyone or you say 'I give up'. Do you think you can do that Nep dear?"

The youth laughed softly against his hands and nodded, so Saturn gestures for everyone to get going. The group shrugged with a few giggles or chuckles and headed off to try and find places to hide that were still fair for someone just playing for the first time. Thus Neptune began his counting in a slow stable beat.

"1…2…3…"

"No peeking," Saturn informed him as she headed off herself with a fit of giggles. This was going to be so fun and as Neptune paused only to give a small nod before continuing she knew this was going to be interesting to see how quickly the boy caught on to this game.

"4…5…6…" Neptune was excited; his pulse was going and a smile was working onto his face eagerly. He was going to play as a group for the first time and he was ready to see what his body could do when allowed to move on his own.

"7…8…9…" as he slowly started moving his hands down from his hands Neptune realized something. He was already very happy just being included in this game. Maybe someone should have seen if Mars wanted to play as well.

"10! Ready or not here I come!"

The game was on…