CHATPER TWO ~ Libraries and Quiet Memories.
Kaito walked down the street, carrying his blue and white shoulder bag, his blue scarf wrapped securly around his neck. He walked amongst the people, every now and again recieving some strange glares.
He decided he'd go out today to find a book on dreams, after last night it seeemd like the right thing to do, he yawned and entered the local library. As he walked in, he took out his wallet to check he had his library card at present.
He stood behind the counter and leaned on it, "morning Haku" he greeted the silver-haired woman, she turned to him and approached the counter.
"Looking for anything in particular?" She asked.
Kaito nodded, "dream books" he answered, "You wouldn't happen to have any?"
Haku gave a brief nod and took him down the asiles of books, Kaito stopping for a moment to look at some explicit body book, a pretty male on the front cover. A small smirk stretched across his lips, he chuckled, "damn.." he mumbled.
Haku sighed and grabbed hold of his scarf and dragged him down the next aisle, "perv" she muttered.
Kaito formed a rosy blush, but chose to ignore the librarian's remark.
The blue haired male was showed the section of desired books and left to browse through them, he selected a few that he thought would be of use.
Kaito looked around the quiet deserted library, spotting a reading area. A corner with a small coffee table and bean bags, he advanced forward, dropping his bag and small pile of books on the floor, he took a seat on one of the bean bags.
He relaxed, sinking into the squishy seat, he mindlessly picked up the top book. The title read 'Dreamers Dictionary' he flicked through the pages, it was just like a normal dictionary, only the body contents were what the meaning of the dream was.
He sighed, "this is useless if I don't know what the dream was about" he cursed to himself quietly.
He put the book aside, deciding he'd take it and give it to Gakupo. Hopefully he'd accept the book instead of thinking it was a fruitless idea and it would come as no good to him.
Kaito picked up the next book, a much larger newer one, it wasn't as thick as the previous one. But it wasn't a dictionary at least.
"Why we dream" Kaito read, he opened up the introduction section.
"Dreaming is caused by REM, rapid eye movment in our sleep, dreams usually occur when the brain is still highly active instead of resting, it comes from our imagination and memories. Our brain functions like a computer. Rapid eye movment is when our eyes shift under the lids whilst asleep.
Due to our brain being constantly active, we're always thinking, even when asleep we'll picture the things we're imagining or remembering.
It could also be a mixture of things from a few watched movies mingling together to create a dream.
Going to bed with an over active mind can cause dreaming.
Nightmares can also be memories, nightmares are caused by the brain throwing the dream out of effect.
The brain is tired by the end of the day and when a nightmare occurs, the dreamer can't tell reality from a dream.
Dreams can occur because of truama, depression, fear, physical factors and life time events.
When a person is under this type of stress, it can effect sleeping patterns and their dreams.
Nightmares can cause alot of fear, this may effect a persons sleeping dramatically.
It's important someone under this type of stress has support and someone to talk to about it. Someone they can trust, as talking about a nightmare might be hard for a person to explain, especially, if it were embarassing or a fear that person might find silly of themselves, such as - Rape, torture, fear of insects, etc...
It's always important to consider the persons feelings your supporting."
Kaito took note of the books contents, he stopped to think for a moment, had anything traumatic happened lately? Or in Gakupo's life at some point?
He closed his eyes and sighed, thinking back as far as possible to when he'd first met the purple vocaloid. They'd both been children.
Gakupo had always been a quiet, depressed and lonely child. Luki had been the one he'd grown closest too, no one really understood why.
Kaito had a rough idea why, but he'd never mentioned that memory to anyone else...
He sat back, holding the book loosely in his hands, thinking about their first meeting. Their director's assistant had been the orphans caregiver, he was the reason the vocaloid's were who they are today.
It was just a cold, lazy night. They'd been sitting around, as young children did. Waiting.
Rain battered against the windows, Mikuo was glaring out the window and holding his toy rabbit for comfort, waiting for their carer to return home, he'd told the children he was going to the grocery store quickly, but he had never taken this long before. But that's all he'd told them and then he'd left.
The very small child, who could barely stand looked back at the older vocaloids, holding the toy rabbit close to his chest, the small vocaloid sighed. Registering what the others were doing wasn't much fun either.
One of the older boys, Kaito, a male with dark blue hair, unlike himself. Sleeping under the coffee table, cuddling the leg of the table.
Luka, the eldest girl, was in the kitchen with a very small Teto, trying to reach one of the many recipe books, he looked over at the TV Meiko, Miku and Gumi, staring at the images before them, Miku and Gumi being much smaller and younger then Meiko. Meiko to be a bitch put on a horror movie to scare the two infants.
The room light suddenly flickered and a loud rumble came from beyond the safety of the house, Everyone but Meiko and Luka seemed shudder, wanting to hide.
Except Kaito who was still sound asleep.
Mikuo stumbled away from the window and ran for his sister clumsily, he fell a few feet away from her, quickly recovering, he got up and stumbled the last few steps, racing into his sisters welcoming arms. Gumi wrapped her blanket around them and hid her face amongst the fabric.
Luka came out with Teto, who was slightly frightened by the thunder.
Meiko giggled at them, finding their fear funny. She smirked and looked back at the TV someone was about to be murdered by a maniac, Meiko watched as if she'd commited the murder herself.
The TV and lights suddenly cut out from the storm, leaving the children and a sleeping Kaito in the darkness, Teto just being able to see through the darkness ran to Miku and Gumi, huddling up with Mikuo in Miku's arms.
"What happened?" She asked.
Luka sighed, not worried at all, having gone through an electricity failure many of times during a storm.
And Meiko was never scared of anything, well so everyone thought.
A sudden loud crack of thunder shook the house, Everyone but Meiko and Luka screamed, rattling Kaito's sleep, he shot his head up quickly reacting to the sound, only to his head knocked back to the floor by the table. The blunette knocked himself back unconcious.
Another crack of thunder and everyone screamed, Luka sighed and Meiko scoft, almost enjoying their screams, Luka sighed, the pink haired girl left the room to find some candles.
Wanting to make their skin crawl just a little more, she walked over to the window and looked out it, pretending to panic, she was good at acting and usually her acting was convincing enough to get what she wanted.
She couldn't help but fiendishly smirk as she screamed, a high-pitched scream. The rest screamed.
If Meiko was scared, it was real. That's how they all saw it.
Luka had re-entered the room, she hadn't been able to find candles, but she came back with a torch. She had it raised high incase this wasn't one of Meiko's O-to familiar jokes.
"There's someone at the door! And he has a knife!" Meiko screamed. Waving her arms about frantically.
Luka wasn't sure whether or not to believe the brunette, she raised one pink eyebrow and approached the window to check herself.
Another crack of thunder hit and the children screamed, except Luka, Meiko just pretending.
Luke sighed, keeping the torch raised, admitting slightly to herself that her heart was racing, but there was no one at the door. She went to the front door, grasping the knob with her small hand, the torch raised and ready to strike in the other.
The rain dyed down and the lights suddenly flicked back on, along with the TV, Meiko turned around so the rest couldn't see her giggle but also curse Luka's bravery.
Luka opened the door ajar, peeking through that small gap, seeing no one put a dark endless road and the lights on of a few houses up the street, she relaxed and turned around. Closing the door.
"No ones there, It was Meiko playing tricks on you" She said calmly.
Meiko scoft as they all looked at her, "big babies" she muttered teasingly.
Luka rolled her eyes at the brunette's immaturity, she closed the door once again and placed the torch on the table, Kaito stirred at the thump. Moaning as he rubbed the back of his head. The blunette crawled tiredly out from under the table.
"What's going on?" Kaito asked, smiling clumsily and rubbing his left eye.
No one answered the blunette, more like no one could have been bothered explaining.
The sound of footsteps falling behind the closed door suddenly grabbed all their attention, Gumi, Miku, Mikuo and Teto tensed up and huddled closer together in the blanket.
Meiko and Luka stared at the door, guessing it was Zoshu home from the grocery store, as the door opened the kids screamed along with Kaito, who screamed something about 'their all going to die, and that'd he'd never see beautiful icecream again.'
Of course, Luka and Meiko's judgement was right, it was just Zoshu, the tall man entered the house, holding a few plastic bags.
The children all relaxed, realizing it was just the man they'd all seen as their father, finally home.
Mikuo was first to greet, running clumsily to the assistant and hugging his legs, "Meiko meanie" he complained, still having the rabbit in his arms.
Zoshu smiled down at the turquoise haired infant, placing the bags down and smiling gently. "Meiko I thought I told you not to stir up the little ones, their not brave like you, Luka and Kai.." he paused for a moment, noticing a small quivering lump under the rug, sulking about ice cream.
"Well, you and Luka anyway" he said, shaking his head and smiling.
Zoshu went into the kitchen to pack the things away, Mikuo clinging to his leg, Teto and Miku followed, then the others noticed, a stranger followed behind him, a small boy no taller then Kaito.
Zoshu placed the bags on the kitchen bench, the purple-haired male seemed reluctant to even look at them, even though he could feel their gaze upon him. He ignored it.
Zoshu smiled, relieved that Mikuo had let go of his leg to stare at the new person in their home, the tall male knelt down beside the strange purple haired boy, just to reach his height.
"Kids, this is Gakupo" he introduced as Kaito and others came into the kitchen, looking on curiously.
Gakupo averted his gaze everywhere else, mainly the corners of the room, trying not to make eye contact with them.
Kaito stared from behind the rest, angry red grazes were adorning the boys skin, few calm bruises, his hair looked as if he'd been pinned to a wall and had it hacked off short with a knife, although his purple fringe fell over his eyes, covering them. Making it hard to tell where his gaze was fixed.
His clothing seemed far to big for him and his expression read nothing but depression.
Kaito from that day had tried to be the boys friend, it wasn't until a few months later he seemed to snap out of that depressed state.
The purple haired male though, was secretive and quiet. It took along time for Meiko and Gakupo to come to terms with eachother, they became enemies very quickly, biting, slapping, kicking, teasing. The others had always had to listen to the two argue at the kitchen table.
Both of them were hot-tempered and easily upset, as first, Gakupo had been very emotionless, he never spoke. Only shrugged, nodded or shook his head in reply to everything until he settled in more and became apart of the family.
Kaito sighed thinking about it, he often wondered what background the two came from to be so darn sensitive about everything.
But, being how they were, they refused to talk. Mikuo and Miku were both naive children, Teto had to do everything the odd way, confusing people and what not, and like Gakupo and Meiko, Luka's past remained a mystery. Of course, Zoshu had always known, but he wasn't going to just tell them their personal things.
He kept everything confidential.
After Luka had turned 19, Zonshu had sadly passed away. Sending the group of vocaloids into a dark depression for months and months, if it hadn't been for Luka they would have been split up and forced to go to an orphanage, but she was of legal age to take care of them all. Something they were all enternally greatful for, by time they were highschool students they had been able to get part time jobs to help Luka pay the bills.
Later they'd moved out of that home after taking in the Kagamine twins, who Gumi had come across busking in the local streets. The two twins had been living in an old abandoned shop, they moved to their city. Continuing their career that Zoshu had started them on.
They kept their old home amongst the woods as an additional home they went back to during breaks.
Kaito checked out the books he'd selected, choosing a few he borrowed them, wishing Haku a nice day and left.
Deciding on his way out to go to the bathroom, making the mistake of walking into the women's toilets, only to be attacked with a handbag and have a packet of tampons thrown at him.
He fled as fast as he could, someone screaming 'perv' after him, he'd taken a moment to call back apologectically that it was an accident.
What an embarassing event for poor Kaito.