Macchi-chan is…meh.
Random piece of trivia~Macchi-chan gets homesick very easily…I've been home for two days out of the past three weeks. Wonderful, desu ne? (TOAN I THINK I DID IT RIGHT! XD)
Anyhew, I really missed Fanfiction. I think I'm pretty addicted to the mobile version. Botch that. I AM addicted. XD
BUT! BUT! During my absence, I FINALLY convinced my parents to let me buy some DS games! I got Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates, but it was moving really slowly and had…nasty graphics. So I took it back to GameSTOP and traded it out for Final Fantasy III! It is AWESOME! (I spy new video game crush coming up…hi, Ingus…BUT YOU'RE STILL AFTER SYAORAN AND ROXAS!)
Okay. Thanks. Thanks to XxRedCapxX, stardrop10, Elizabeth, Dysfunctional Death Angel, Toan Daxland, Chikanpo, and 67rosary-bead42. I enjoyed reading your reviews, and I want to thank you exclusively for taking the time to tell me what you think.
On to the story~!
Wait-
"No!"
Please...just let me get ready for bed then?
"...no."
Please?
"...fine."
"...never mind. Tell me now."
After about an hour of both verbal and nonverbal bickering, I finally got Luka to let me get dressed before I started explaining everything. I plopped down on the edge of my amazingly fluffy bed in my nightgown and stared at the pillow sitting in my lap. I'd seen that shade of blue before, when I was...yeah. That. And then it hit me. That's my tears. That's the color of my tears. I was crying last night...seaweed. I guess that means that there's another thing that I have to look out for. No crying, Rin! (Not that I ever do anyway...and I don't lie to myself either. Nope. Not at all.) Maybe the crab...oh. I'm pretty sure that Neru said something about sending a crab when she wanted me to know something.
I picked the crab up and flipped it over onto its back, revealing a glowing yellowish green button that looked like a rectangle with a small line sticking straight up out of the top left corner. Of course, I pushed it. When it did nothing, I pushed it again. And again. And again. And again.
Let's just say I pushed it a lot.
Luka opened the door just as I pushed it probably for the fourteen-hundred-ninety-third time. (I like pushing buttons.) A split second after, I tossed the crab onto the floor, then winced at the loud crack that the fall made in the shell. Luka rushed over and picked up the crab, then dragged a chair up to my bedside and say down in it. "Rin, I need to know what's going on. I know that there's something fishy-" I winced at her choice of words. "-about you and your sudden reappearance after two years of being dead. Now get to writing on that thing of yours and stop this confusion."
Luka is very scary when she wants to be. The entire time that I was writing, she was inspecting the crab. (and pushing the button too!) Whenever I looked up at her, she would shift her attention from the crustacean to me and glare at me. I'd quickly get back to work. Once I finished, she took the tablet from me and started reading it aloud, making everything seem like a story that she was making up as I was going to sleep.
"So...this Teto, she turned you into a mermaid in exchange for your voice?"
Nod.
"And you actually LET her?"
Nod.
"...and you only have one day before you..."
Nod.
Luka sighed and stood up from her seat, brushing off her dress. "Well then, I suppose I'd better let you sleep. I'll help you figure out what to do in the morning." I curled up in my bed as she left me and I promptly fell asleep.
I awoke to a chirping crab. Yes, the crab was making a really weird high-pitched noise over and over and over and over again. I rolled over, wishing that the idiotic thing would just shut up and let me sleep for five more minutes. I reached out my arm and hit it, effectively shutting it up. A minute or two later, Luka shook me awake. Once I could see through my after-sleep foggy eyes, I saw that she was holding the crab. I guess she knew what to do with it, because she pressed and held the button for a few seconds once it started chirping again. A familiar voice crackled into existence, somehow, and I winced at the sound.
"Rin? Hey, Rin. It's Teto, and I have some really good news for you!"
Luka's eyes widened and she glanced at me, then pointed at the crab and mouthed THAT Teto? I nodded. Luka narrowed her eyes and spoke to the crab.
"Hello, Teto. Long time."
"Oh. My. CUTTLEFISH! Luka! Is that you? I haven't heard from you in YEARS! How are you? Everyone's doing fine a-"
"Teto. Shut up."
My jaw dropped at the sound. Or absence of sound, rather. Teto finally shut up...Luka interrupted my silent revelry.
"Teto, hurry up and tell us what it is that you were going to say."
"Oh, okay. Anyway, Rin, I have really good news. Neru forgot all about you! Since some other poor, unfortunate soul came through looking for help, she forgot! That means that you could probably get away with another deal! In other words, your fate isn't sealed! You still have a chance!"
"Teto. Shut up."
I grinned at Luka, who stared at the lap of my nightgown in distress. I followed her gaze and noticed the drops of blue staining the cloth. I wiped my eyes and took out the ever-present tablet as Luka prepared to push the button and shut Teto off. However, she stopped us.
"When you need help, just push the flashy button like I know Luka is about to and it'll put you through to me'n Neru, okay? Be careful, Rin." The light on the crab went faded to a very soft glow. I held up the tablet for her to see.
"So you have a question, Rin? Is it about what you should do next? Because...oh."
How do YOU know TETO?
Luka laughed nervously. "...you know, that's a very good question...Anyway." She stood up and brushed off her dress. "We need to get you dressed and out of here for your prince, right? I bet that he and the princess are out there waiting for you." I got up and out of bed and allowed Luka to help me out of my tear-stained (literally!) night clothes and into a dress suitable for the day. Luka held onto the dress and wrapped up the crab in the pillowcase, then shoved me out of my room. I looked around, and seeing Len and Miku walking down the hall and coming my way, dove behind a pot and curled up in a ball to hide. Their footsteps stopped right in front of my ingenious hiding place and Miku spoke up.
"Len? Didn't we see Rin go this way? Where did she go?" Len sighed. "Miku...she's Rin. She's upset. It's only natural that she tries to hide when we come." I glowered behind the pot. That Len knows me too well...
The next thing that I saw was the idiotic face of the person I loved most grinning down at me.
"Good morning, Rin."
I launched from my hiding place and latched onto his neck. He bent down with the sudden extra weight (even if it wasn't that much) and landed on his stomach on the floor next to me, smashing the pot in the process. Miku stood on, trying to hold in a giggle.
"Go-good morn-ning?"
Luckily, none of the shards from the pot had hurt Len, they had scattered away. I'm not really sure how that happened. We all winced as Luka yelled from the room on the other side of the wall.
"LEN! YOU HAD BETTER PICK UP EVERY SINGLE LITTLE PIECE OF THAT POT OUT THERE OR YOU'LL JOIN IT IN THE BONFIRE!"
Said prince paled and turned to Miku and I. "I-I suppose I'd best do as she said...you two go on without me to the beach. I'll get over there as soon as I can, and I'll pick up something for breakfast too, okay?" I nodded my assent as Miku chirped hers. "We'll see you there! Come on, Rin!" The beautiful tealette grabbed my wrist and dragged me out of the castle.
I rubbed my sore wrist as Miku stood on top of one of the boulders next to the shore, her long hair and dress flapping around noisily in the wind and totally ruining the moment. She got off of the rock and came next to me.
"You know, Rin, I'm not exactly very happy about this marriage arrangement either. There was...someone that I had my eye on at home, and I think he liked me too. So, I'm going to do my best and stop it before it's totally final!" She smiled and clapped her hands together. "That means that you could still have Len! Wouldn't it be wonderful? And then, when we get older and have kids, maybe they'll fall in love and get married and then we can grow older and have grandkids!" I grinned at her silliness and nodded. That actually sounded like a good idea...not like I'd ever let Miku know.
I stood up from where I was sitting and wiped my eyes free of any idiotic blue tears from that sentimental moment, then walked over to Miku and poked her in the side. She looked down at me with a confused look, which only intensified when I hugged her.
"R-Rin? Wh-what's going on? A-are you okay?" I nodded and grinned up at her, then let go of her and reached for my tablet. Of course I'm okay, silly. Just...felt like...hugging my best friend after years of not seeing you? She squealed in joy and hugged me back.
Of course, Len chose that moment to come walking back with a couple of delicious-looking pastries.
Which he promptly dropped on the ground.
"R-Rin? M-M-Miku? A-Am I interrupting...something? I am, aren't I?" He scrambled to pick up the pastries before they became completely inedible. I rushed over to help him while Miku protested. "No, no, Len! It wasn't anything! We were just talking about the future and Rin hugged me!" I scowled at Miku's explanation as I handed a pastry back to Len, who stood up and brushed off his pants with one hand while holding the pastries with the other.
"Well...if you say so...let's go down to the shore and eat, okay?" Miku and I both nodded, Len took my hand, I took Miku's, and we ran down to our childhood place.
As we ate those lovely flavored pastries, Miku seemed even more distracted than normal. Her eyes kept darting back and forth, and once she even tugged on my sleeve and whispered in my ear. "Rin...don't you see those shadows...? They're darting all around us...!"
I shrugged her off and Len laughed. I guess he heard her. "Miku, it's a sunny day on the beach. Lots of birds and other animals are going to be going around and making shadows. Calm down and eat, okay?"
Miku threw the rest of her odd leek pastry into the ocean and stood up. "It might be normal, but I still don't like it. I'm going back to the castle, and there's nothing you can do about it." She brushed off her dress and started running back to the castle, just like she said.
As soon as I couldn't see bright teal hair anymore, I picked up my tablet from its position beside me and wrote on it. Len, Miku said that she didn't like the arrangement! Doesn't that mean that you can call it all off now? Len sighed and stood up, pulling me up with him.
"Rin, I'm not sure what I can do. I've been negotiating as much as I can with my parents, but you know how they are. Mother's really stubborn, especially when she's drunk, and Father's just...Father. I...I'm not sure if we'll ever really get approval. This whole time, I've been thinking that love will get us through anything, but I'm starting to lose hope. I mean, I love you, and you have no clue how glad I am that you're back, but-"
Len was cut off as I grabbed him around the waist, hugging him as if my life depended on it. (Which it did...more or less...but he didn't know that.) He hugged me back, but he stopped after a few moments and stepped back a bit. He took my chin, tilted it up a bit, and.
He.
Kissed.
Me!
He KISSED me.
HE kissed me.
He kissed ME.
HE KISSED ME!
It wasn't one of those lustful, passionate, burning kisses that I read about in those...um...detailed romances that I read (that I stole from the Queen's personal section of the library on occasion). It was one of those kisses that was short, sweet, simple, and conveyed every ounce of his affection for me to me. We'd kissed...a couple...of times...before, but nothing like this. This was...just one of the best memories of my life.
Which was quickly followed by one of the worst.
After we...finished, we lapsed back into a hug again. Something flickered in the corner of my eye, but I didn't really pay attention to it.
If only I had.
Something darted behind Len, something with a long brownish-red tail-looking thingie trailing behind it. I heard a -swoosh-ing sound, and then a bit of a-(dare I say it?) a -squelch. Len stiffened and then collapsed a bit in my arms. I fell to the ground, kneeling, and brought him down with me.
I brought a hand away from his back.
It was coated in blood.
His blood.
…
…
…
…I DID IT! I TRIED TO KILL LEN! (I have officially joined Vocaloid! XD)
I feel…bleh…about this chapter. Not sure what to think about it. Taadaa! It's the climax! …yeah. Not that…outstanding.
Review Replies!
Elizabeth~ Sorry. Can't really switch Miku out for anyone. I mean, I understand what you mean about Miku being put down and scorned on a regular basis, but she's the only one who fits what I want. Turns out, writing a character makes me like them more. (there's only 8 pages of completed Miku stories! DX On my browser, anyway…) I still value your reviews very highly, and I appreciate your constructive criticism.
Toan Daxland~Thanks for putting up with me and my weirdness XD. I enjoy talking to you, and I really hoped that I'm not creating a deus ex machina thingie! I really did try my best not to!
67rosary-bead42~Thank you SO MUCH for helping me straighten out the story and ending! I know it might have spoiled it for you, but I'm planning on something that'll surprise even you...unless I have to ask you about it. XD
Sadly, I only plan on having a few more chapters, two at the most. Sorry!
Oh. Yeah. I forgot. I'm not going to upload the next chapter until...say...either three weeks after this is posted or after I have a total of...30 reviews. I'm going to try this...but if it takes a lee-tle bit longer to...um, type the chapter...it'll have to deal. Okay? 30 reviews? Can we do it, silent readers?
Review Question
What are the best not-quite-so-well-known Rin, Len, or Luka songs? Inspiring songs might be used…eventually…