Episode nine kicks off with a more subdued chapter after the chaos of the last one. I hope it's okay all the same. Oh, and if it seems as if Rozen sounds a bit modern for an eighteenth century boy, please keep in mind that this fic is English dubbed. In other words, chalk it up to Animus translation ;P (cookie to anyone who gets the reference)

Rozen Maiden: Märchen

EPISODE 9

The Morning After

Suigintou was sitting on Megu's bed in brooding silence while the girl herself was downstairs getting breakfast. Megu's parents weren't an issue as they, like Jun's, tended to work a lot. Suigintou's case sat neatly upright beside the bookshelf, unused. She had once again slept with Megu in her bed, something her Medium seemed to ... like.

It felt very odd having a place to call home now. A proper place, a proper home. In the past she had either slept in a ruined old church or in her own N-Field. And that was when she'd bothered to sleep at all. Now though she not only slept but lived in a house with her Medium. Anyone would think she was civilized. Well, she was, it was just that looking back at her behaviour over the last ... hundred or so years, she hadn't been all that much. She'd seen such luxuries as signs of weakness, so driven by blind rage and hatred was she.

Now though? It was kind of ... nice, in a way. She was living like a doll, in a girl's room, drinking tea whenever Megu managed to make a pot that was actually drinkable. In fact Suigintou would go so far as to say that she was starting to turn out a lot like Shinku.

Was that such a bad thing? No, not really. In the past she had lived only to fight, and Shinku had once said that to live was to fight. But Suigintou had come to realise, as had Shinku, that there was more to life than just fighting. There had to be. She felt guilty at having given up on the Alice Game, especially now that Father had appeared. Having said that, he seemed appalled at the very notion of the Alice Game and couldn't understand why he would ever impose it upon the Maidens. When Suigintou had confessed her guilt to him at Sakurada's house, he had told her not to worry about it.

She didn't know what to think these days. She liked not fighting now, actually enjoyed seeing her sisters in a normal fashion without the weight of the Alice Game hanging over them. But even though Father had told her not to worry, that was Father as a child speaking. Her real father, the adult who had actually made her, had told her that she was worthy of becoming Alice. He had told Shinku that he wanted the fifth doll to continue to strive to become Alice.

Then again he had also said that there was a way to become Alice without fighting. Supposedly this mysterious doll Pandora held the key to that. Suigintou wondered what she was like. The book had said that Father had owned her when he was just a boy. She'd heard him make off-handed references to her at Sakurada's, and even though he spoke disparagingly of her Suigintou got the impression that he was fond of her as well. Of a doll he hadn't made himself. Who had made Pandora then?

"Miss Angel?" Megu carefully pushed the door open with her foot and entered bearing a tea tray, "Oh, you're awake now, good. I made some tea, just like you showed me."

"I didn't ask for any tea," Suigintou said flatly, staring at the far wall with a distant look in her eyes. Megu set the tray down on the bed and sat opposite Suigintou.

"I know, but I wanted to make you some anyway. To say thank you for all your help."

"I haven't really done anything."

"That's not true; if it weren't for you teaching me I'd probably have landed myself back in hospital by now." There was a silence between the two of them for a while which Megu tried to fill. "I'm sorry I missed the play last night, but I'm glad you're okay as well. Are you going to visit that boy's house again today to see your father? Maybe I could come along as well. I'd quite like to meet him."

Suigintou said nothing, though she did turn around and stare gloomily at the tea tray Megu had prepared. By her estimation there was about a sixty-forty chance of it being awful. Worth the risk? She couldn't decide. Megu frowned and lowered her own cup before she'd taken her first sip.

"What's wrong Suigintou? Is anything the matter?"

Suigintou sighed heavily. Yes, something was the matter. Last night when she'd confronted Kirakishou, the seventh doll had transported her to the N-Field in order to remove her from the battle. Kirakishou seemed to have some kind of perverse love for her and wanted to avoid fighting her. Suigintou couldn't decide whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, but either way she had run into a familiar face during her struggle to get back that night. If you could call it a face.

Laplace no Ma had appeared and delayed her from returning to the scene of the battle. Why he felt the need to get involved was anyone's guess, but this time he had been rather less cryptic than usual. In fact he'd been rather blunt and upfront. Suigintou could still remember his words and would have preferred more of his nonsensical riddles than what he'd given her instead.

This was the final era for the Rozen Maidens, he'd said. The end was near and Alice would soon be born.

That didn't necessarily mean that he was right, however from what little Suigintou knew of the demon he did seem to act as a sort of referee for the Alice game, deciding when the dolls could fight and when they could not. In the past he had declared the game at a halt until a new era had come about. Then again, he had also declared the 'true' Alice game to have begun when Barasuishou had appeared, despite the fact that the Enju doll was an impostor and the real seventh doll still slept deep within the N-Field.

As usual he'd left her with more questions than answers, and no amount of certainty at all. One of these days, she'd promised herself, she was going to stuff the oversized rabbit into that top hat of his and give it to a magician as a gift.

"No," she said, "Nothing." She poured herself some tea and risked taking a sip. It wasn't half bad at that, and she actually deigned to smile a little to let her Medium know it. Megu giggled.

"You have a very beautiful smile, Suigintou. You should show it more often."

Suigintou closed her eyes and turned her head slightly to one side. "Perhaps I will," she said, and smiled some more.

Meanwhile at the Sakurada house, Jun was proving that he was not quite the early riser that Megu was. In his defence it was the weekend, and he'd had a very busy night. As such he was completely flaked out in bed and didn't stir even as the morning light streamed in through his currently intact window. What was perhaps more remarkable was the fact that he didn't wake even though there was someone else in his bed with him, snuggled up to him as if he were a cuddly teddy bear.

"I am so at a loss for words," Suiseiseki contradicted herself. She and her fellow dolls were floating in their cases above Jun's bed and peering down at the slumbering pair with varying mixed feelings.

"They look so peaceful together," Souseiseki observed.

"Do you think anything happened between them?" Suiseiseki addressed the question to Shinku, who was floating beside her.

"Such as?"

"I don't know - what do humans normally do in bed together?"

"Sleep?" Souseiseki suggested. Her twin shot her an irate look and shook her head.

"No, not just that. They do ... stuff."

"Stuff?" Shinku regarded her oddly. Suiseiseki let out a frustrated moan.

"They do gooey mushy touchy feely stuff. You know!"

"I certainly do not," Shinku insisted firmly, wanting to make it perfectly clear that she was not even remotely familiar with 'gooey touchy' human bed habits.

"It's a shame Suigintou isn't here," Souseiseki lamented, watching the two humans below, "I'm sure she'd know all about this."

Suiseiseki stared at her as if she'd lost her mind. "You can't be serious? If Suigintou saw this she'd chop the puny runt into so many pieces that not even Shinku could Humpty Dumpty him together again," pause, "I'll go get her!"

Before she could move the bedroom door opened and Nori stuck her head cautiously through. "Jun-kun, are you up yet? Breakfast is ready and I-" she stopped abruptly as she saw the bed and the floating doll cases surrounding it. The Rozen Maidens watched her as she gaped at the sight of her sleeping brother, who still did not wake as she crept into the room and peered down at him.

"This wasn't us, we didn't do this," Suiseiseki assured her, not wanting to take any possible blame for the situation. Nori however wasn't listening to her, as she was too busy squeeing and clasping her hands together in delight.

"Ohhh! Aren't they so cute together? I wish I had a camera with me."

"Oh!" Suiseiseki sat bolt upright in her case as a memory nudged her for attention. "That big forehead Kanaria left one behind when she was here last," she said, swooping across the room to snatch the tiny digital device from the shelf where Hinaichigo had previously kept her things. She snapped a quick shot of Jun and giggled mischievously to herself. "This is so totally going on the runt's blog..."

Nori and the dolls were downstairs eating breakfast when they heard Jun's scream. It echoed through the house loud enough to make Souseiseki drop her spoon. A few minutes later Jun stormed into the living room, his face livid. Rozen followed him a moment later, stretching and yawning. He was wearing an old pair of pink pyjamas that Nori had loaned him for the night.

"What," Jun breathed heavily and pointed, "was he doing in my bed?"

"Having the best nights sleep in ages," Rozen answered rather unhelpfully for him. Suiseiseki exploded with laughter and pounded the table, while Nori gave him a suggestively sly grin.

"Did you sleep well too, Jun-kun?"

Jun looked as if he were about to hyperventilate and faint, whilst Rozen calmly strode past him and sat down to breakfast. It took him a moment to realise that everyone was staring at him, and he blinked a set of bleary green eyes back at them.

"What? Why are you all looking at me like that?"

Shinku turned her icy blue gaze towards Jun, who very nearly melted into a puddle of water under its scrutiny. "Well Jun, what have you to say for yourself?"

"I ... what ... wait ... he ..." he made a sort of half-strangling half-choking sound, his face bright crimson from a potent combination of rage and humiliation. Shinku turned her nose up at him and returned to her breakfast.

"I see," she said haughtily, "Well I have to say that sleeping with a lady's father is not the best way to further a relationship with her."

"I wasn't! We didn't! AARRGHHH!" Jun screamed and clutched at his hair, "My life has turned into a living hell! It's not fair! It's not fair at all." He sagged like a sopping wet tree and whimpered like a kicked dog. Rozen watched this display in astonishment and smiled sheepishly.

"Umm, look, sorry. I didn't mean to cause any trouble, it's just that I'm so used to sleeping with my sister that I couldn't get to sleep by myself..." he trailed off as he realised that everyone was staring at him again, this time with wider eyes than before. He cleared his throat. "What? Did I say something wrong?"

"You sleep with your sister?" Nori asked, the only one in the room who was able to speak at that point. Rozen shrugged.

"Well, yeah. Don't you and your brother ever sleep together?"

Nori turned a disturbingly hopeful look on Jun which did nothing to help his already battered and bruised psyche. He stuck out his arms and clenched his hands so tightly they shook.

"NOOOOO!" he answered for her, wanting to make that as clear as possible. Nori looked crestfallen but perked up a moment later as she recalled something.

"We used to," she said, "When we were very little. Sometimes I would have bad dreams and Jun would let me sleep with him," she pressed her clasped hands against the side of her face and stared off into space with a happy faraway look in her eyes, "We would curl up together in each others arms, and I remember that Jun-kun was so soft it was like snuggling up to the very best teddy bear in the whole world!"

"NORI!" Jun yelled her name in place of outright telling her to shut up. She returned to the present as Suiseiseki began pounding the floor, having fallen out of her chair at this point.

"Well it's true!" she wailed, "I miss that! You never even let me hug you anymore," she started to pout as Suiseiseki began rolling on the floor, her laughter putting Jun past red-faced embarrassment and into the blue-faced state of a self-induced coma. He snapped out of it and snapped at her as he finally sat himself down opposite Shinku.

"And what the heck are you laughing at? At least I never proposed to my sister!"

"Oh Jun..." Souseiseki hid her face behind her hands whilst Suiseiseki jumped up and glared sharp pointy daggers at him.

"And just what is that supposed to mean?" she snarled.

"You guys want to get married?" said Rozen, startled.

"Just that if there was ever any doubt at what a rotten twisted little doll you are, wanting to marry your own twin ought to burry that doubt under fifty feet of concrete, you freak!"

The room's inhabitants held their collective breaths as they waited for the little Gardener doll to explode with rage at Jun and begin kicking, biting or even stabbing him with the breakfast cutlery. And she looked ready to do just that, standing there trembling with barely restrained anger. Instead of lashing out however, Suiseiseki screwed her eyes shut to try and force back the tears that splashed onto her reddened cheeks. She pressed her hands to her eyes to stem the tide and ran blindly out of the living room, the choking sobs that issued from her the only sound anyone heard at that moment.

Jun watched her storm off, feeling vaguely guilty and ashamed as he did so. When he turned back to the breakfast table it was to find Souseiseki glaring at him with a look so cold not even Suigintou could have matched its iciness at the height of her hostility.

"Please excuse me, Father," she said with unearthly calmness, before swiftly departing from the table and then the room. Nori scowled at Jun and pointed fiercely at the living room door the twins had just exited through.

"You should go and apologise, right now!"

"Why?" Jun demanded, knowing full well the answer to that but stubbornly refusing to concede the point, "All I did was call her out on something any sane person would agree was wrong. I mean c'mon," he turned to Rozen for support, "Don't tell me you don't find that just a little bit icky? They're your daughters for crying out loud."

Rozen found himself the centre of attention as both Nori and Jun watched him with fierce expectation of his response, while Shinku observed him out of simple curiosity. He stared back at them for a long moment and then frowned. "You're asking me?" he said at last, "The person who invents the Alice Game? You know, the one where I command my seven daughters to battle each other for the right to be my dream girl? If any of them have incestuous tendencies then I only have myself to blame."

Jun crossed his arms and scowled at nothing in particular. He'd been harsher with Suiseiseki than he should have, but he'd only just got up, and the toll of every embarrassing thing he'd had to deal with lately had pushed him to snap at her in exactly the way that would hurt the most.

"In case you are wondering Jun, Kohaku left earlier this morning," said Shinku. She produced a folded up piece of paper as if by magic and placed it on the table, before sliding it towards him, "She took Barasuishou's case and left this note behind."

Still avoiding his sister's disapproving glower, Jun reached across the table, retrieved the note and unfolded it. Scrawled inside in tiny writing was a message from the missing Enju doll.

Dear Master Jun,

I thank you deeply for bringing me back from the darkness that held me. You showed me kindness despite my earlier behaviour towards you and your friends, and I can never thank you enough for all you have done. I would like nothing more than to stay and enjoy your company and the company of the other dolls, however I suspect that events concerning Alice and the Rozen Maidens are approaching a conclusion, and that I would only be a distraction.

To tell the truth, it also pains me to look at you. You remind me so much of Eiko. I still love her, and I feel that love whenever I see you. I fear that if I remained I would only come between you and Shinku, and I sincerely do not want that. It gladdens my heart to see such love between the two of you, even though I am envious of it as well.

Before I go there is one thing I can do to help. In my father's shop you will find a potted plant. The plant is a trimming taken from the tree at the heart of Lebensbaum, the Rozen Maidens first home and the place you need to journey to now to find Pandora's Box. Give the plant to the Gardener twins and they will surely be able to use it to take you there.

Farewell Jun Sakurada. I go now to search for my father, firm in the belief that he still lives. I hope to meet you again someday, and I wish you luck in the coming days. You will need it.

With fond love

Kohaku