Another chapter is here, don't kill me for leaving you at that cliffhanger last chapter... sorry!
Also, who can figure out Chiyo's character number? Remember her last name?
Now being Betaed by: KonekoNoRenkinjutsushi
And so we will jump right ahead for the reviews!
KonekoNoRenkinjutsushi - "I don't really feel like analyzing everything that happened on this chapter exactly as they happened, but as far as I understand:
-Chiyo's a big cutie pie
-The ring's a cloud, lightning and rain ring, and could possibly be a family heirloom (his uncle's)
-Sh!t went down and Chiyo's staying
-also Chiyo is a badass
-there's a curse? Was that Natsume there?
-Natsushi shows all the elements of his flames towards Chiyo: territorialism, selflessness, and comfort "
My response: Yes, Chiyo is a Cutie Pie (and you haven't seen her start getting jealous of girls being around Natsu), and she's a badass (who still hasn't started using weapons yet).
Natsu's elements. Yes they are showing. That's why Natsume (you got that right) is getting worried. The ring? You are correct. Who it belonged to is also correct. Not sure if that makes it an heirloom as only his Uncle had it.
The curse? You'll find out eventually, my dear reader.
In the end there was nothing to be found about her parents. The offices where they worked said that they had left days before, neighbors said they saw nothing, and there were no plane or boat tickets bought under their names.
Nothing. Like they vanished from the face of the earth. The only evidence that they actually existed in the first place was Chiyo.
Speaking of Chiyo...
I'm started to get worried. After our escapade to the Prairie, she came back with a with a different mindset. She seemed to not want to be sad anymore. Like she just accepted that she was left behind.
And that is something that doesn't sit well with me. It feels like barbed wire is being wrapped around me when she forces herself to smile.
And I just grit my teeth, and at night I restart the routine of rubbing circles on her back and listening to her cries.
She's one year old. I'm about to be one year old.
Chiyo shouldn't have to be like this. She shouldn't have to pretend to be happy.
A letter had been found for Chiyo inside her parents home, but it was addressed for when she is eighteen so no luck finding out what is inside of it.
Not sure if I wanted to find out at all.
Takeshi doesn't mind having Chiyo living here, Mother refuses to let either me or Chiyo leave her line of sight and Father just goes along with everything. Though, he likes Chiyo's presence as much as Mother does.
Elias' parents came over the other day to make sure everything was okay. Elias and I began a new battlefront of trying to make Chiyo smile. Well, Elias partially succeeded. Does smiling very innocently with bloodlust raging around you after being called a 'sissy' counts?
By the time it's my birthday I don't really feel that festive. I share my cake with Chiyo— the taste of chocolate makes things moderately better— and then I open some presents.
New clothes, new shoes, a baseball (I wonder who gave me that *insert roll of eyes*), a rocking horse and a puzzle set.
I guess Mother thought it was me that did all of our puzzles? Well, not that I care. Chiyo can have it.
The rocking horse was mine though. I loved it as soon as Father brought it out of the restaurant's back room.
I've wondered what's in there. The door is always locked and when it was unlocked either Father or Mother picked me up before I got a chance to get in.
But as the days settle the emotions of pain and the fact that Chiyo had been left on our doorstep, which Mother and Father knew more than they let on, we just fell into this routine.
Like nothing had ever went wrong.
Time passes fast when you're occupied.
Really, that's the best way to describe it. After we turned one lots of stuff happened.
My sessions with Elias' father started to involve them now attempting to make me repeat sounds or placing objects in boxes or seeing if I could follow simple commands. The sessions weren't so bad. If only the creepy nurse wasn't following my every move with her eyes. And her eyes were another thing.
There's something 'off' with her. Like really really bad stuff.
Even Chiyo was weirded out by her. And she focused on Chiyo immediately when she entered the room. I swear I could hear mutters of 'Impossible' or 'Amazing' coming from her.
Listen lady, you touch one finger on a hair of hers. And you'll lose a hand.
Like seriously, that serpent no one seems to see other than me and Chiyo (Elias as not seen it thanks to that shiny barrier), doesn't look like it was going to let his (her?) creator get hurt without a fight.
And neither was I, but first I need a way to actually fight back.
Chiyo and I learned how to do more stuff, we've started to try and walk. In one word. It's painful.
In a single day, I've bumped into I don't know how many door frames or edges that have these plastic covers so we don't get hurt all that much.
Summer came up so the two of us play outside most of the time. The tree provides a bit of shade and there's more space to fall down without hitting something on the way down.
Takeshi will start to go to preschool full time after summer vacation. He kind of only stayed home to look after me, but now with my walking and stuff it's best to just let Mother or Father handle it.
Takeshi doesn't mind. He's happy to go meet his friends everyday.
I'm not so sure about going to preschool when I'm of age. But at least Chiyo is going with me.
Oh, my wind chime!
It broke.
I'm not kidding you, Father should have placed it higher already because during one of my attempts I tripped fell on my butt, and my back hit where the wind chime was, prompting everything to fall and break it.
I was unhurt, Chiyo was unhurt. My poor wind chime didn't make it.
I was sad. He had done nothing wrong in this world. Such a cruel fate...
Chiyo was happy about it too! Seriously, jealous much, Chiyo? My poor wind chime!
So, July and August, then September.
Takeshi looks really cute in his preschool outfit.
There's this blue smock they have to wear, and a pair of tan shorts. Some pair of comfortable shoes (Mother says they change once inside the school), and this yellow hat.
Really cute.
I can't wait to wear the same thing two years from now. (Please read: Sarcasm.)
Guess Takeshi really liked Kindergarten. I feel left out.
Chiyo has started to make half sense with her babble. I talk a bit too. But I just prefer to be quiet, there's just so much you can hear if you stay quiet.
We can finger feed now, and we can walk minimally well.
Oh, you know what's my new favorite past time to irk Chiyo?
Imitate her.
"Don' tha'!" (Don't do that!)
"Don' tha'!" (Don't do that!)
She glares at me and I grin. Oh, don't like me doing that? Then make me stop, Chiyo!
"Sto'." (Stop.)
"Sto'." (Stop.)
Serpent-san uncoils around Chiyo and starts circling around the two of us.
Okay, I'm not scared. I can keep doing this.
"Nats' sto' no'!" (Natsu stop now!)
"Nats' sto' no'!" (Natsu stop now!)
Serpent-san hisses at me.
Okay, now maybe I should stop.
But I don't want to...
"Sto' no', Nats'. Chi' mean it'." (Stop now, Natsu. Chiyo (I) means it.)
Should I or should I not?
She glares at me like she's daring me to.
Oh, who am I kidding?
"Sto' no', Nats'. Chi' mean it'." (Stop now, Natsu. Chiyo means it.)
"MAMA!" She shrieks all of a sudden.
I jump. What?
She gives me one last look before turning her head up and turning on the water works.
Wait, she's not!
The door to the playroom opens. Mother walks in. I stiffen before looking away in a movement that totally did not draw attention to myself.
Mother kneels down Chiyo and after a half gurgled excuses and plottings against me, she gets a lollipop and I get the 'time-out' corner. How's this fair?! I did nothing!
And Chiyo knows it!
Look at her! All smiley and angelic looking, eating a lollipop like it's the rarity of the world.
I want a lollipop now...
So, October, November and December come. Out goes the Summer and in comes the winter.
What's better? Snow.
We, as in me and Chiyo, finally are old enough to play in the snow. We are seventeen months now. How crazy is that?
There have been some changes in the playroom. Half of it has been converted into this miniature house, and the other half is this storage space with a table and lots of activities.
There's also this chest filled with dress-up clothes.
You read that right. Dress-up.
I really hate Chiyo sometimes. In particular when she made me wear this bear outfit. I AM NOT CUTE! So stop saying it already.
Chiyo likes playing pretend. I prefer construction better. But sometimes we put differences aside and we sit beside each other making puzzles together.
Mother found us like that one day and decided to get more puzzles. Harder ones!
At first it was six pieces. Then eight. Then Twelve. And then after a conversation with Dr. Einar, there was a jump to twenty four puzzle pieces.
Those were hard but Chiyo and I could go through them after an hour or so.
Takeshi is doing pretty well in school.
He says he has lots of friends and that there is a kid that everyone calls 'Useless Tsuna' in a different group.
Also he and Hiro are no longer friends after the other boy pushed a girl from the top of the slide because she was taking too long.
He's actually grounded because of the way he chose to resolve the situation, although I believe Takeshi's actions were justified. His action?
Punched the kid in the face.
Chiyo and I clapped when he told us. Actually, that might be the reason he got grounded.
No teaching violence to kids Takeshi.
Too late Mother. Besides, Chiyo is the one that easily resorts to either violence or psychological battle of wills.
Father got me a new wind chime. This one has my favorite colors on it.
For some reason I love green. Like lime green color. And I love this orangey-yellow color.
Me and Chiyo still share a crib though by now it's become crowded. Not that I'm complaining.
She doesn't snore and I take private comfort of knowing she's there.
And that there's a serpent that will choke the air out of someone stupid enough to try and show up in the middle of the night in our room.
Wow, actually most of my stuff became Chiyo's stuff. My crib, our crib. My toys, our toys.
My parents, our parents.
Do I feel jealous?
Nope.
Music is a godsend.
I swear it is. Like I can clearly remember every lullaby Mother sang to me and only now am I finding them to be awesome.
Chiyo is great at making music. *coughs awkwardly*
But nothing will beat Mother and the flute. I wanna play that too, now.
Speaking of music. Elias started playing the violin. Grandma's request, she whispered to us when she came over for the weekend.
She's not in the same Kindergarten as Takeshi. She's in a private one.
And one more year of it and she's off to Primary school.
The Prairie hasn't changed much. We come here every night once we fall asleep without failure.
There have been twice where Elias showed up out of nowhere but we haven't found how exactly yet.
I haven't seen that 'Natsume' guy at all. There are times I feel eyes on my back but serpent-san is like a bodyguard so I'm not really that worried.
But back to music.
Me and Chiyo have discover its wonders and now we are going through and artistic phase. Remember that white thingy in my bedroom walls?
Yeah, that's like a genius corner of insanity. Scribbles and drawing and just random things here and there. Mother thought it was funny that Takeshi tried to teach us to write our names in kanji.
Until me and Chiyo had a pretty decent first try at it.
So this time it was me and Chiyo both that went to have an appointment with the doctor. And they had tests done on both of us the worst possible way.
Competition against one another. The prize?
A chocolate egg.
Sorry, Chiyo... Chocolate for the win.
What we managed to achieve?
I do not suffer from Aspergers at all, nor am I autistic. Chiyo and I could actually be geniuses and we just need to have more challenging tasks.
The nice part both of us got that chocolate egg. Bad part is that creepy nurse looked far too pleased for my liking.
Another month went by and it's January again.
Elias turned six years old. She's as tall as my brother even if he's a year younger than her, and she's two heads and a hand taller than Chiyo and I.
Yamamoto made a new friend Hoshi and brought him over one afternoon to play a bit. He now introduces Chiyo and I as 'my little sister and my little brother', which I guess is an improvement.
Grandfather and Grandmother came over one weekend and took us for a walk. Grandfather got us these tricycles for us to try and ride.
Grandfather is amazing.
Chiyo got one too, which made her cheeks red. So cute~.
We actually pushed the pedals for a while but then we tired ourselves out and we just dragged the trike with our feet.
Chiyo and I have started to play this weird type of dodge ball between the two of us. Who gets hit by the ball is 'it'. The one who is 'it' has to try and sneak a cookie from the kitchen.
If you won then you get to choose the next game.
If caught... I hope you enjoy time-out.
It's a nice game. Risky but it also improved our awareness of any situation. Like what's dangerous and what is not. How can I get there without being seen, etcetera.
Chiyo and I have also started this weird communication between the two of us. Not in the form of weird telepathic communication but we can get basic things across with just a twitch or a glance in the others direction.
And we use these new found gifts for one thing and one thing only.
Mischief.
Oh, our parent's disgruntled looks when something we do works.
The rule?
Not around the kitchen. That's off limits.
Also, our next goal is the locked room in the back of the house. Let's see how everything goes...
And a new chapter. Almost double update... It's past midnight for me here as I am writing this.
How funny it is that both Chiyo and Natsushi are basically training future skills without even knowing it?
I hope you liked it!
And check it out. They are 18 months at the moments. 1 year and a half.
Half of Part I of this story is complete! Another year and a half and we can start Part II.
Also I will take a short break from writing for like a day or two to finish up on some staked school work on my desk!