The blonde girl laughed. "Why, it's Kaito and Len! Adorable, am I right?" she laughed louder while Len looked at her in horror, his mouth hanging open. 96Neko put her hand on his chin and shut it, staring forward just like him. Meiko was helping Kaito up, as the bluenette had just stumbled back and was holding his stomach.

The group heard a snicker from the back and looked around to see Honne Dell cupping his hands over his wickedly grinning mouth, covering a laugh. His red eyes were even tearing up at the strain of holding it in. The Master looked a little offended. "What's his problem? And who is he, anyway?"

He glanced up long enough to take in the Master, then burst out in laughter once more. Gumi walked up and shook the Master's hand. "That cutie is Honne Dell-kun, a most curious third-floor resident."

Oliver piped up. "Shouldn't you know him? He's your vocaloid, after all." he said in a voice that was unusually strong for him.

Master ran a hand through her hair. "Huh. I've never used him before. I don't even remember downloading him."

Aoki opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off when the spacing-out Meiko looked up. "I have a theory." she said, her eyes holding a far-away look. "I think the third-floor House members are there because Master never uses them, or very rarely. And that's why we think they're unfriendly, because they never get the chance to come downstairs."

Gumi clapped in awe. "Oh, good deduction, Meiko-chan!" she said, her green eyes bright. Kaito finally stood up and nodded, agreeing with both Meiko and Gumi.

The Master puffed up her cheeks in annoyance. "Hey, what are you guys talking about? What third floor? What house?" she asked sharply, her hands resting haughtily on her hips. Kaito turned his head to look at her in equal annoyance, and she took a tiny step back.

"Nothing." he finally said, turning back and motioning for the others to get in a huddle. The Master stood stunned. Nobody had ever denied her information before, except that one time when her friend wouldn't tell her who she had a major crush on. That had been really infuriating.

The vocaloids were in a close circle, whispering to each other. Finally, Big Al nodded and look at the Master, along with Leon and Piko. The Master did not notice, however, as she was too busy staring at her nails in silent fury that Kaito had been so rude. Piko skipped over to the teenager. He could do this. He could turn up the adorableness!

Piko looked up at the girl. "Master-chan?" he asked timidly, his mismatched eyes wide. She looked down at him and her eyes grew wide as well. He smiled his best, bright smile and hugged her. "Piko's sorry, Kaito-nii isn't gentler!" Yes, from his experience, bad grammar and third person was cute to girls. "He just doesn't pay attention to most things… but Piko does! And Piko knows that you're pretty!"

The Master 'aw'ed, petting Piko's head. He nuzzled into her hand, and she blushed.

"You are so kawaii!" she squealed happily, squeezing him. Suddenly, a strong grip swept him away.

"Please don't be so rough with my Piko, Miss. He's fragile." Leon said in his smooth voice that he never used, but could when he really wanted to. He ran a hand through his long blonde hair, shaking it out afterwards and shooting a sidelong glance at the Master. She was so happy, she might as well have been sparkling. Piko wrapped his arms around Leon's neck as Leon held him and smiled.

"Thank you, Leon-nii!" he said, also glancing at the Master. They were using the knowledge that she liked yoai and shota couples to their advantage and posing Leon and Piko as one. And it was working. But man, was it embarrassing.

"You guys are a couple?" she asked, gasping and pointing at them over dramatically. "Why didn't you tell me before I forced poor Piko to hug Oliver?"

Leon ran his hand through Piko's hair this time and smiled. "I didn't want to exploit our… love… to someone Piko didn't know." The others were trying to remain straight-faced as they heard the tiny, almost non-existent note of disgust in Leon's voice. Even Piko, the best actor of them all, couldn't keep back a tiny grin. Overall, it was a miracle that the Master didn't catch on to their plan.

As she was busy fangirling over the two vocaloid's supposed 'love', Big Al had snuck up behind her. He had found a rope in her garage, in which he had just payed a two-minute visit, and he quickly threw it around her. She stiffened, then began thrashing, trying to break free of Al's iron grip. He just continued to tie the rope securely, unfazed by her struggles. Piko looked down at her from Leon's hold and smirked, returning his voice back to normal.

"Sorry about this, Master-chan."

With that, Al set her down in the coat closet in the hallway and closed the door. She screamed and shouted vulgarities through the door (causing Piko to cover Aoki's ears), but not a single of the vocaloids cared. They just walked calmly to the door and Kaito threw it open, taking in the fresh, real-world night air.

+Len+

Well, that was amusing. Piko… was hilarious. Oh my gosh. When he came back, he had pulled Ritsu aside and whispered to him something that sounded very much like 'NEVER do what I just did, or I WILL kill you and you will never be a man'.

Ritsu had nodded quickly, biting his lip but smiling nonetheless.

Anyway, we stepped through the front door of Master's house and looked around. The road was dark and street lamps were the only source of light, as far as I could tell. Kaito gazed up and down the street, then motioned to us to follow him. We did as we were told, and trooped out the door and meeting the wind head-on. I gasped as the cold of it whipped away any warmth that my shorts and uniform shirt had stored up. Kuro-chan grabbed my arm, trying to spread ant body heat that still remained in us two freezing vessels.

Oliver smirked as he saw us, cozy in his long blue coat and hat. At least he was barefoot, and the harsh concrete stung his toes. Ha ha, Ollie.

We averted our attention back to the front and saw that, by far, Meiko had it the worst. Her small red top and short skirt weren't doing much for heat preservation. Kaito glanced over at her and wrapped his scarf around her shoulders. She dimpled gratefully at him, snuggling into the blue fabric.

I shook my head and braved the weather, taking cautious shuffles forward along with everybody else. Always the one to ask questions, I had to catch Meiko's attention and pose the thing that I think everybody had on their minds.

"So… where exactly are we going, and how are we going to get there?"

Meiko sighed, rubbing her forehead. "I don't know. I was thinking Crypton Future Media Co. headquarters, since the first one to disappear was Rin, and she was made by Crypton. So we figured that was a good place to start."

"But what about Galaco? She's from Stardust, Co." Oliver said from beside me. Kaito sighed wearily.

"Yeah, but Rin was the first to go. Unless anybody has a different idea, we're going to Crypton headquarters."

We were all silent. It was the best way to get started, I had to admit, since we didn't have any other leads. I gripped Kuro-chans hand, a recent habit of mine that I hoped would never die down. She allowed me to hold her hand and glanced up at me, as if curious about my thoughts. I just shook my head and followed Kaito and Meiko and the others, with the exception of Leon and Lola, who were in the back.

I heard a small intake of breath behind me, and I whipped around, along with Kuro-chan, Oliver, Leon, and Lola. I saw a small woman with a short black bob and a cardigan sweater, holding a newspaper. I glanced up and noticed that the sun seemed to be rising. Shoot.

I called over to Kaito, and he turned, his eyes widening at the sight of the woman. She still had one hand over her mouth, as if it was strange to see a large group of oddly-dressed teenagers in the middle of the road at 5 o'clock in the morning. Of course, I was just guessing at the time.

"Cosplayers?" she finally squeaked out, and Kaito hastily nodded.

"Yeah, we cosplay!" he said, laughing nervously. "Um, we also do LARPing… ha ha."

The woman just smiled at him. "My son's a LARPer. Well, have fun, kids!" she said, turning back to her house and waving. We all heaved a sigh of immense relief when she was finally gone.

We continued walking, Meiko and some of the other older ones suggesting places to stop. We finally decided to find a map of some sort first. We stopped at a bus stop and glanced at the map on the back of the small shelter, Kaito groaning as soon as he saw it.

"What's up?" I asked, straining to see over his shoulder.

"We're in Graham, Washington. That's in America. Crypton is in Japan." he answered, looking back at me. I cursed softly, once again squeezing Kuro-chan's hand. She nodded in agreement, shyly looking up at me, then Oliver, who had a thoughtful look on his pale face.

"Can we get a… plane…?" he asked, realizing it was a lame suggestion even before it came out of his mouth. I sighed and patted his shoulder, and he blushed in embarrassment.

Kaito turned to us, a frustrated look in his blue eyes. "I'm afraid not. I wish, though. Besides, tickets cost a lot of money. And there are a lot of people here. Sorry, Oliver-otouto-kun."

Meiko hugged Kaito, while Kuro-chan hugged Oliver. He accepted the hug out of kindness, but I knew he didn't like hugging people that much. We all sat down for a rest at the bus stop, Piko offering back rubs, Ritsu watching him like some kind of strange, obscure eagle.

I sighed, leaned back, and closed my eyes, hoping we'd find somewhere to stay soon.

+Gumi+

I looked over at little Ritsu, with his T-shirt and jeans, and his long hair tied up. He looked so normal and so incredibly wrong. This style just did not fit the sweet boy.

I strolled over as he sat by Piko, having an animated conversation. Ritsu was nodding vigorously as Piko made a point, something to do with 'missiles' and 'keyboards', I don't know, I couldn't really tell. As I drew closer, they stopped talking and looked at me, with adorably large eyes and innocence written all over their faces. Ha.

I sat down beside Ritsu and started to braid his hair.

"Aw, sweetie Ritsu-kun, you know, trying to be manly won't help with anything. You're a programmed cross-dresser."

With that, I dropped his hair and stood up, brushing off my orange and white skirt. He looked up at me, a shocked expression on his pretty face. Piko glared at me, his curl bouncing on his head, but I just smiled and waved, skipping over to Lola and Sweet Ann, who were talking about their 'annoying heeled shoes'. I joined in, glancing over my shoulder to see Piko trying to cheer up a very crushed Ritsu.

Poor dears.

A/N: Hey guys~ This chapter is really long, and full of useless words. I was super sleep deprived and spacey, so sort of lost any motivation I've ever had about anything and kind of filled the chapter with whatever came to mind so I could get it over with. Yes, fake Leon x Piko enters my mind occasionally. I don't ship it, rest assured. I was so out of it, my little sister had to write some of this chapter... But anyway, I'm sorry about the bad quality of the chapter. I'll try harder next time, I promise. Maybe. R & R, guys~!