Hi! Look, double update! Only two more chapters after this, and it will be over.. -sniff-

Disclaimer: I own nothing except Hiroko, who I made up on the spur of a moment. Crazy people are so fun to write. XD

"Happy Birthday to you…"

What's so happy about it?

"Happy Birthday to you…"

Please, just stop.

"Happy Birthday dear Ryou…"

Okay, just because I'm the youngest in this hell-hole, it doesn't make me a baby. Like you said, I'm thirteen.

"Happy Birthday to you!"

Ryou sighed, glaring at the chocolate cake on the table before him. It was bedecked with thirteen lit candles, all either light blue or a pearly white. Okay, it was nice of the nurses to arrange to have the therapy session on his birthday to be a bit of a party. And people did remember. He'd been having smiles and nods directed towards him all day. And as far as Ryou thought, no, they didn't have parties like this for the other patients. He was sure it was because he was the youngest, (The next youngest was a sixteen-year-old girl). Everyone treated him like the baby of the ward, and although it was nice, he just sometimes wished people would treat him like a thirteen-year-old.

"Come on Ryou, you have to make a wish and blow the candles out!" The teen couldn't help but smile. Okay, so there was a good side to this. If he was still at home, Ryou doubted he would even have a party, albeit a cake after dinner and exchange of a few presents. There wouldn't be this much junk food around, and not so many teenagers (He was a teenager!) around, that was for sure. There was one good thing about this place- Nobody considered him to be an insane freak.

"Oh, come on, I can't blow out all thirteen." The whitenette pouted, gaining a few 'Awwwhs!' from the girls in the room. Why do they think I'm so cute…? "And besides, I don't believe in those stupid wishes anyway." The one wish I want will never get granted if I stay in here…

"Don't ruin the mood, Ryou, blow them all out!" The whitenette sighed, a slight smile tugging at the corners of his mouth nonetheless, and Ryou sucked in as much air as he could into his lungs, and blew.

I wish I could see my mother and sister again…

"Phone call, Ryou."

"Who from?"

"Your father, I believe. He wishes to speak to you. He says that he wanted to talk to you on your special day and ask what you wanted as a gift-"

"Tell the arrogant bastard to take his 'gift', and stick it up his-"

"Ryou! Language, young man!"

"Heh. You sound like a mother…"

"Please, Ryou, your father really wants to say sorry."

"If he was sorry, he wouldn't have locked me in this hellhole for an 'indefinite period'."

"Are you sure you don't want to talk to him?"

"I never want to talk to him again."

"Very well."

"…"

"You haven't touched any of your cake…"

"I don't eat."

"Oh Ryou…"

"Don't try and pull the guilt trip on me again, please."

"We hate having to do this to you…"

"Do you think I care? Go and tell my father. Tell him his depressed, psychotic gay son is also an anorexic as well. See what he says."

"Ryou, please. Your files show you used to be such a nice young boy…"

"I probably was, until my 'father' sends me to the other side of the world, and then throws me in this stupid dump!"

"I know you're upset."

"You're damn right I'm upset! That bastard lied to me! He said it was only going to be for a couple of months, and now you say I'll be lucky to get out before I'm fifteen!"

"Ryou, I'm so sorry…"

"I-I don't w-want to h-hear it. P-Please."

"Oh, Ryou, please don't cry."

"I-I'm n-not crying…"

"Would you like a hug?"

"N-No…"

"Come here."

Dear Amane

It was my birthday three days ago. My thirteenth birthday. I am now a teenager. If only I looked like a teenager, and was treating like one, I would be happy. Living in this place is driving me insane. Literally.

A few hours ago, my 'father' sent me a package in the mail. Apparently, it's my birthday present. The nurses must have told him how fast I was growing because it was mainly clothes. I've been wearing this stupid white uniform a lot recently, because I grew out of nearly all of my other stuff. They were nice clothes, too. The kind any kid my age would die for. Ken must have picked them out, because they aren't really my style. I wouldn't wear them anyway. I'd rather wear this hideous uniform that makes me blend in with the carpet than what he bought me. I still cannot believe that he would do this to me. That he would do this to the last person in his original family. I might not be his only blood child anymore, but I was still the first. And being dumped like this… It really hurts. I don't think I'll ever be able to forgive him for all the pain he's caused. I know he loved you more, but I would never do this to my own son, even if I didn't love them. Why did Dad abandon me here? Was it all the grief I was causing with my 'mental disorders?' Is it because I look like Mum? It could be… I don't know anymore. I just want to get out of here.

Ryou

"Okay, now today in therapy, we're going to continue where we left off on Monday, with Ryou's issue regarding his father."

"Please, can we just move on?" Ryou asked in his tiny voice, drawing his knees up to his chest. The teen shifted uncomfortably in the moulded plastic seat, gazing pleadingly at the orderly. "I really don't want to talk about it…"

"Ryou," She said with exaggerated patience. "Therapy is all about group discussion. That's why all of you kids-" quite a few glares were tossed in her direction "- Are doing this. We talk about each others problems and try so solve them."

"It doesn't need solving!" Ryou retorted, his voice beginning to tremble. "I-I hate him and I don't want to ever see him again and that's all there is to it! I'd rather go to a foster home or something than go back with him and his stupid replacement family!" The whitenette's feet were on the floor, warm brown eyes sparkling with tears.

"Come on, Miss Yamaguchi. If Ryou doesn't want to talk it, then don't make him." One of the people Ryou had befriended, Hiroko tried to reason with the nurse. "It's only going to annoy him, and you don't piss off people with psychosis unless you're suicidal-"

"Hiroko!"

"Shut up, Ryou, I'm trying to defend you. Can we please discuss something else? I don't know what kind of advice any of us could give Ryou anyway…" She finished, wrinkling her nose. "Did you ever notice that all of us have issues with our parents?"

"Miss Takashima-"

"Hey, I'm not finished! Personally, if I was Ryou, I'd never want to see my father either. He sounds like a total jerk. Pressuring him- Hell, pressuring any of us to talk about something really personal doesn't help."

"It's the entire point of therapy!"

"I don't care! It sure as hell isn't making any of us normal!"

"You are acting way out of line, Miss Takashima-"

"What? I'm out of line because I'm not acting like a freaking doped-up zombie?" Ryou sighed, curling into his tight ball of protection as the yelling match continued, a few of his other 'therapy' buddies joining in (Mostly on Hiroko's side). No doubt some orderlies were going to come in and break it up in a minute or so, and a few people were going to have to be restrained or drugged. The whitenette buried his head in his knees as a few more tears squeezed from his dark eyes. A chair fell to the floor with a clatter, and the angry voices rose in volume. Ryou just hoped it wouldn't come to blows.

Oh yes. Getting a group of mixed up teenagers with a vast array of mental disorders into a room to talk about their personal thoughts and feelings for hours on end was such a brilliant idea.

This wasn't very 'therapeutic'.

"Hiroko?"

"Oh, Ryou. Hi!"

"U-Um, I came over to say that I was really sorry about what happened yesterday."

"What are you talking about?"

"You know, the um, therapy session? It turned into huge fight, and you and Seiko both got drugged, and I feel really bad…"

"What? Oh… Ryou, come sit here. Look, don't feel guilty about that, okay? You had every right to be upset at what she was saying, and the way that bitch was bullying you was evil. I swear, one of these days I'm going to kill that evil cow-"

"Hiroko."

"Oh. Right. Yeah… No psychotic death threats. But I mean it-"

"Hiroko!"

"Oh, Ryou, I'm sorry. I'll stop now. She just makes me wild. Everyone here makes me wild... They're all assholes. All except you and Seiko, of course. You know, when you first came here, I was actually jealous."

"Of me? Why?"

"Because I used to be the youngest, that's why. And the youngest person here always gets the best treatment. Look at your birthday last week and all the cool presents you got. Last year, that was me."

"Last year… How long have you been here, Hiroko?"

"Long enough."

"Oh, come on, you have to tell me…"

"Well… I had only just turned fourteen then, and I'm seventeen in a few months… You do the math."

"Nearly three years? But I thought all you got was Schizophrenia…"

"All? Kid, it's the like, worst mental disease out there… But I suppose it wouldn't seem much to you, would it?"

"Shut up."

"I didn't mean to upset you, Ryou, I'm sorry. It's just… How the hell did someone like you get so mixed up?"

"It's all wrong. I'm not crazy. I know you must hear it a lot, but I'm not. I'm extremely pissed off at my dad for doing this, but apart from that, I'm sane. Really."

"Huh."

"You don't believe me…"

"Ryou… I don't know what to believe, to be honest. When you first came here, you went through what I like to call the 'three stages'. First, you were incredibly depressed and slept for days and never ate-Not that you do now- When that wore off, you got to the angry stage, and threw hissy fits over nothing and swore at everyone, and did everything that everyone who gets lumbered here does. You've calmed down a lot though, and now I honestly don't see how you got stuck here. Most people would have shown their disease by now, but if I'd never seen your file-"

"What?"

"-I'd never have guessed you were a depressed schizophrenic with psychosis, an eating disorder and a split personality… Well, maybe the eating disorder…"

"How the hell did you get a look at my file?"

"Seiko hacked into it from one of the computers in the rec room. Look, Ryou, the point is, you're doing really well. If you start eating again, and at least pretend that you want to know your father, then you'd be out of here by the time your fourteen, I guarantee it."

"R-Really?"

"Really really. Ryou, you don't deserve to be here. And it just pisses me off that those sadists make up this shit and put an innocent kid like you in here! I just wanna-"

"Hiroko!"

"Oh, shush Ryou. I won't kill anyone in here. I'm going to get out of here in six months! Do you think I want to jeopardize that?"

"Well, I don't know with you sometimes."

"Shut up. Of course I want out! What are you, crazy?"

"…"

"Hehehe."

R&R?