Shrimpy: I have a PROBLEM. I had this done for quite some time but for some reason I was scared to upload this chapter.
Last chapter when Len said he might like Luka is not necessarily romantic and more so admiration and friendly kind of like, y'know cause he said a couple of times how dependable and beautiful he thought she was. Okay? No one freak out like Ruko did, I just didn't think it could be interpreted the wrong way ('cause I never have this problem, I can tell almost everyone my honest feelings towards them). Actually, this isn't going to freak anyone out because I have the feeling no one reads this...Oh well! OuO
"What does Kaito-kun's workplace look like?" She asked, voice chipper and squeaky. It was a voice he knew would grow smooth and elegant, like their mother's, but for now he thought it was freaking adorable. He smiled down at her, and she looked away with a shy but radiant smile, which he knew would only become more brilliant with age. It was one of the kind that outshines even the sun, in a spotless sky in the middle of the afternoon.
She still hadn't grown out of the habit of calling him "Kaito-kun," despite his requests that she call him "Kaito-nii." Miku was a weird child, after all. Her best friends were him and their mother. What was it about a gentle, fragile child that made games so boring to other kids? He didn't know. All he knew was that it did. The world worked in such cruel ways he didn't understand, but it made up for them. It kept spinning, so that there were equal amounts of night and day.
And the day had come for the little girl with no friends.
Their connected hands swung back and forth like an odd pendulum, and Kaito gave some thought to her question. Of course he knew what his building looked like, but he wondered which ones she was thinking of. He had a bunch of office buildings. Slowly he began to wonder if they seemed like an odd pair, wandering the streets together.
She was perfectly lovely, so sweet and caring! Kaito knew he was not just thinking that because she was his precious little sister. He was taking her there today. Maybe she could meet some new friends over there. Something about Shion blood had made him, Mother and Luka quiet and awkward in their first few years of life, but Miku was none of those things. She was just lonely. Dainty and lonely. And her kindness made him think it would all work out perfectly in the end. It was like the morals of fairytales that he had desperately resorted to, in hopes of staying positive and not worrying to death over her.
"It looks like a big, pretty glass house."
"A house?"
"Mm hmm."
"Liar," she giggled, "It looks like a bunch of glass bricks piled up on each other really high. But that's nothing like a house." She raised her free hand to model the level that she meant. Her little fingers stretched to the gleaming sun.
"How do you know?" He replied playfully, laughing with her.
"'Cause Mommy told me. She says you're taking me there someday."
"Yes I am," he agreed with a nod, picking her up. She liked being high in the air. She looped her tiny arms around his neck and pulled close, still giggling so childishly. It was infectious and he wouldn't stop until she did - which was ten seconds later.
Kaito smelled like vanilla. All the time.
The world seemed vast and bright and quiet to her, which she couldn't help but stare at silently. She counted all the concrete slabs of sidewalks, which were surprisingly clean, but then when she got bored of that because they were so grey and dull, she looked up at the sky. It was pretty and blue like Mommy's hair. There were barely any strings of cloud, and the sun was shining brightly. Light was promised to reflect on the absolutely clean sky scrapers.
Today, Kaito wasn't taking her to his workplace, no, because it was only full of crazy adults (Dell, Mei-chan, Sonny, the stupid samurai, etc.). He wanted to take her to a place his mother and him had finally agreed on. A place where he was sure she would have her very first friend around her age.
Responsibility, he had said, and so he could still hear every word in his mind, friendship, respect for life, grooming, laughter. It would be perfect for her, wouldn't it?
"Miku," said Kaito gently, in a grown-up voice used to gently instruct children. She looked back at him.
"How would you like a friend who you can take care of, and they'll take care of you?" A bit of a vague mentioning, but it was alright. He wasn't tricking a naive child into something dangerous and he'd explain it as many times as she needed. He loved her.
"A friend is good," she said, although it seemed like she was disregarding the rest of the sentence. He had never been sure if she wanted many friends or she was okay with just him and Mom, because she quietly resigned to her fate.
That, he reminded himself, is why she should have a dog. Friend. Patronus. Whichever works.
"Miku-nee," Lui sighed lowly, opening the door wide and stepping out of the way for his big sister. Mumbling a quick "I'm home," the tealette eased the door shut behind her. It seemed she was coming home late these past few days. He knew, as a brother, he should be concerned by her tired expression and her tardiness, but the second she smiled and coaxed him out of worry he was wondering why he was so uptight. It was almost irritating, the power she had.
But that's why she's in charge and not me, He thought dully.
"You haven't called me that in a long time," She giggled, and he blushed, turning away as she pulled off her shoes. They clattered into the tidy little genkan. She didn't so much as have the sense to line them up next to everyone else's. She simply stalked away, looking a little pale. Normally her cheeks were rosy and her skin vivid with life, but he could tell draining things were happening to her as of late. She hadn't even asked how long it had been since Neru left; before arriving home she requested that the blond girl left the kids, that seems was coming home soon and she was afraid she couldn't be very hospitable at the moment.
"What's wrong?" the boy had inquired, "What does she sound like?"
"Tired, apologetic. And sad. And not like Miku?" Neru then replied. He knew she meant to sound confident like she had a good answer, but you can't say you have a good answer when your answer is about the state of a teenage girl, whether it was Miku or not.
The little ones had been listening for any sign of her return since they came to a home without Miku to hug and kiss them, play with them and make them feel safe like big sisters were meant to do. They rushed to greet her, almost running over each other. Lui didn't like to think about it so much, but Miku had a special charm to her. She had a quality that no one else he knew had ever possessed.
She made lost things feel right at home. No matter where they were, just by being there and being her usually lively self she could turn the world into something beautiful that made birds sing their most graceful arias and flowers bloom to their best. Even if she was timid, and weak...she tried hard, she wasn't always so easily defeated!
"And I love her," he reminded himself, feeling ashamed that he would even think of her as weak. She was tough. Yeah, she cried hard when she got hurt, but she stopped at some point. She wiped away her tears and smiled. This lured the children like a flock of sheep, and they clung to her.
Ritsu wouldn't stop shouting how disappointed he was that she stopped paying so much attention to them. Selfish brat, Lui thought bitterly, Ane-san loves you so much she'd die for you. Don't get so upset that she has other things going on. These self-righteous thoughts, of course, made him a big hypocrite. He missed her so badly when she was gone. The thing that made him think this way was how Miku would take Ritsu's childish opinion to heart and feel bad that she was taking time off from playing the dependable Miku-nee.
"Miku-nee-chan, I got a booboo when I was playing with my friend," Ryuto mumbled in a diction unusual for him, but judging from the sleepy little grin on his face he wasn't bothered by anything. The magic was effective immediately. He pointed to a band-aid slapped carelessly over a reddish pink scrape on his knee, which he had probably tried to fix by himself. One of his shoelaces was untied, frayed, dragging next to his foot. Quite frankly it was surprising that hadn't made him go berserk.
"Well I'll get the first-aid kit and we'll fix it right up, okay?" She took his hand and led him to the bathroom. Lui didn't have to watch to know what was happening. He could hear her footsteps on the floor followed by a set of tiny little ones, and hearing The Little Ginger's constant complaints somehow as loud as if he was right next to him. Miku made quiet attempts to ease his mind.. Then the creak of the cabinet opening...
Yuki sat quietly at the table, coloring. The hobby of the household was drawing, even if it was with a bunch of old crayons. The expression on her face wasn't fit for her cute features.
Lui knelt down next to her.
"Something wrong?" She nodded, looking up at him. Her brown doe eyes bored themselves in his gaze, only to rip away and leave a lingering feeling. She was rubbing the crayon down, just streaking it across the paper in a messy rainbow. "Miku-nee doesn't come home like usual anymore."
"She doesn't," agreed her big brother, "but why does that make you uneasy?"
"She also comes home looking tired and upset. Plus, Neru-nee says she always looks funny at school and she won't tell much about what's been happening when she's not with us," Yuki mumbled, her face distorted with worry. She dropped the yellow crayon. Her fingers twitched, inching towards the green one, but then she dropped her hands on the table.
"My friend at school had a brother who acted like that...and then he started to get meaner and meaner and then...then they realized he was on drugs."
Lui, shocked to a temporary loss of words, gaped at her. The past tense sent a shiver down his spine. Had a brother. Her eyes once again found his while she poked a random turquoise crayon, pushing it around with her finger.
"I'm wondering how long we have to stop her from changing," she whispered in a delicately small voice.
"Don't doubt Ane-san so readily!" He snapped, pushing aside the crayon. Yuki was normally such a positive girl with a cheery smile, but...but that was because she was always copying Miku. To think that one small suspicious occurrence - okay maybe a few - could easily sever her admiration for her big sister?
When the crayon clattered to the floor she blinked her wide eyes. A warmth, a precious luster was returned to them.
"Sorry," she whimpered, "sorry. I'm sorry I keep forgetting how much Lui-kun believes in Miku-nee and how much I believe in her."
This didn't change a thing, of course. There was a possibility. The new seed of doubt had already been sown and he was thinking of all the scary "what-ifs" imaginable. This was the price of being the second eldest sibling. No, this was the price of Ane-san's gentleness and her ease in convincing others to believe in her. The turquoise wax of the crayon softly caught the yellow of the ceiling light. Lui watched it with relatively undivided attention.
"Ruko? What are you doing?"
Sosruko Yokune jumped. She had been so enveloped in frying rice that she hadn't noticed Luka was in the kitchen. Over the popping and crackling of her cooking, and the wood spoon scraping the metal pan, she hadn't heard Luka's quiet, slippered footfalls (shark slippers...hurhurhur). Luka was a bit of a lurker, if she did so recall, but Ruko also had the best hearing of every Patronus she knew. Her soft scent of rose oil and lavender was also something Ruko could've noticed.
"It's so early," Luka whispered, as if the time affected the volume she was allowed to reach with her voice. But Ruko knew that for someone like her who slept in until two in the afternoon on Sundays, being up at five in the morning was strange. The raven, tucking a wild strand of streaked blue hair behind her ear, grinned sheepishly and agreed. She was wearing oven mitts, green fire-proof pants and an apron this time, careful not to look away from the stove or even put down the spoon because of how that had caused a mishap last time. But other than that she wore nothing else. Nothing else.
"Why are you making him a bento again? He won't eat it," Luka inquired. Her voice was naturally soft. She was worried, that much was obvious, worried that Ruko would feel hurt when Len rejected the food she made once more. She was a worry wart. No one else thought anything bad would happen, because in the unlikely event that bad things happened Ruko would not worry. Something convenient always happened and Ruko childishly but fully put her faith into that. Besides, she was Len's first best friend!
Actually I'm not his first best friend, Ruko reminded herself, but I'm definitely the number one right now.
"It's okay. Last time when I found the bento in the trash, the onigiri was all gone! He likes them, I think. Maybe he ate them."
"Then why the fried rice?" Luka leaned to see the pan filled with rice and veggies that were cooking up very well. So far everything was going exceedingly well! The blue flames under black pan seemed stable, under control.
"Just to see if he'll eat it too," she explained, seconds before the rice burst into scalding hot flames that shot up almost to her poor little nose. The close heat warningly brushed her flesh.
The kitchen was filled with panicked screaming, a sick burning smell and a vivid orange light. Ruko ran to the other side of the large kitchen in one second, whipping around so fast that her black hair slapped her right in the face. Already her forehead was gleaming with perspiration. Luka had run into the hall, presumably to safety. What was she to do?! She put on the fire proof pants and everything, yet this still happened-
A lightbulb illuminated in her mind and became a beacon of quick thinking - at least, for a person like Ruko, it was.
"PANTS!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. The shout vibrated in her windpipe and shook the atmosphere so Ruko could hear it. She unzipped them and began to pull them off. See, she assumed that she could smother the fire with them because they were fire proof. They got tangled around her ankles. In a frenzy, started by the eerie rising of flames, she began to stumble backwards against the wall, trying to yank off the left leg of her green trousers.
A sudden sound, like someone scratching Styrofoam or the aggressive farts of a wind sprite, cut through the sound of a roaring flame. White foam coated the stove, dripping down the edges in overflow. An extra precautionary squirt came, and then the noise stopped. Ruko ceased desperately tugging off her pants and breathed a sigh of relief. She really wasn't good with fire.
"It's safe now," Luka mumbled shakily, jogging across the kitchen to her Patronus but stopping with a peculiar expression. Instead she blushed and looked at the shining floor, stooping to pick up Ruko's stray slipper. She gripped the shark by the tail. Anyone could see how embarrassed she looked, and Ruko figured it was because she wasn't wearing panties under the fire-proof pants.
Len stepped out of the shadowy doorway, dropping the fire extinguisher and running a hand through his hair (Which kind of sprang back into place, it was almost funny). He looked frazzled, tired, pissed, which he owed to the dark circle around his eye and the threatening scowl. Ruko thought she heard the deep, quiet hints of growl in his throat. His startlingly blue eye was narrowed in annoyance. The extinguisher rolled away. Ruko watch quietly as it stopped in a puddle of excess foam.
"First of all," he growled, his eye trained on the woman, "Luka. You're fucking twenty-one going on twenty-two - and this is just a wild guess because who knows how old I am - but doesn't that make you the eldest person here? This mansion has seven fire extinguishers. You're supposed to be the mature one who knows where to look for them but the first thing you did was come screaming at me! What the hell?!" Hints of his sharp teeth were revealed with every word this time. The pinkette bashfully avoided looking at him and stuck out her arm to give Ruko her slipper back. Such a shame, really, there were some days when he was just being a little cranky and no one wanted to face him. It made him feel bad, like a monster, which was something Ruko had inferred a long time ago. Len followed her averted gaze and glared at the raven, who blinked and stared back with her heterochromatic eyes as wide as saucers. There was a relief she could sense in the air, but it was merely a small victory that someone would be glad to see him when he was all yell-y.
"Ruko, pull up your pants. This is literally the seventeenth time you set something on fire. I'm not surprised that it happened, but stop involving me in this crap." Then he retreated into the darkness, disappearing and not so much as leaving his scent (Don't know if you forgot but the kitchen smelled like Doctor Honne on fire) or the sound of his walking away. He probably went to sleep on the couch again. The couch was his other best friend - Although it didn't smell much like him which is weird?
"Aye aye, Len-Senpai!" She chirped. Whether or not he listened didn't matter, of course; she just needed to know she responded with a yes. She pulled the fire-proof pants back up her legs and zipped her fly, even quicker than she had pulled them down. It was funny how Len rescued her again from her own attempts of repaying him, although that did not stop her from wondering how she would show her gratitude for this episode. She giggled as she crossed her legs and smoothed down the pink apron. Then, gracefully taking her slipper and sliding it onto her foot, Ruko thought of something odd.
"Did Len-DOE even stay here with us last night?" She wondered aloud, and knowing Luka would answer her she cocked her head and looked sideways at the pinkette.
"I think he let himself in after he was gone for a few hours. Rinto brought a girl to their apartment so he wouldn't have gone there no matter what." Luka seated herself next to Ruko. They were wide awake, tummies grumbling, but no one was going to cook again. Ruko had the strange belief that someone would come to their house with takeout and they would have a breakfast of grease and excessive calories that she needed anyway, because Patronus need a high calorie intake. Maybe even a coffee or two.
Len-DOE scolded me less than he did Lulu, she thought, giddiness bubbling in her chest. Such feelings tickled her throat and made her want to giggle again but she decided she wouldn't. Len had a talent for making people feel bad, so if Luka got the worse end of the scolding, it would be no help to anyone.
She still imagined that he favored her, which made her oh-so-happy. She didn't need him to say, she could just tell. Actually, Ruko could tell a lot of things, like how old he was. No one else, Len included, seemed to know his age. She knew that and his favorite color, his favorite game and what he liked to do with his free time. (19 which made him older than Ruko, red, Angry Birds, lots of things, respectively.) She knew he used to have panic attacks, she knew the angriest he'd ever gotten, and she knew his smile as though there were pictures of it pasted under her eyelids. She was pretty sure she knew his taste in women too. Right when she was about to recite the facts to herself in her mind, she remembered another key fact.
"Len-DOE doesn't have the keys to the mansion does he?"
"...No he does not."
"And you don't have the keys either so you leave the door unlocked?"
"..." The look of realization on Lulu's face was priceless.
"He got in because he knew no one locks the doors."
"OhmyGodIamsoirresponsible," Luka groaned, burying her face in her palms.
We're both irresponsible, aren't we? But it's okay, because Len-DOE is Len and not a creeper I'm sure." Ruko meant that in a light hearted term, because being irresponsible wasn't that bad so long as there was faith that someday they would change and things would be alright. Someone had once told her that there were equal amounts of night and day, and that was so true! Len used to be the weakest, smallest [barely a] Patronus, but then puberty happened. That balanced out quite well, she thought. Luka used to be a quiet, antisocial shut in but then puberty happened! And Sosruko Yokune, Patronus 65, used to be a boy.
But then Len-DOE happened.