Okay guys, bear with me.
Time has passed a little, let's say some weeks... but things will be explained.
First
"I'm home," Ryuuichirou tiredly mumbles as he enters his home. Seeing the apartment all dark, his brows furrowed and he turns on the lights. "Wataru?"
'Is she not here?' wonders Ryuuichirou as he searches about the place; it was unlike the doll to leave without a notice- or a note as he found no trace of why she didn't appear when he called.
'Where did she-' he pauses his thoughts as he saw a spider relaxing on the wall in front of him. 'Oh... so that's why.' Carefully, he grabs a napkin and disposes of the small creature, tossing it in the bin. "Wataru, it's gone."
He hears the creak of his bedroom door. "A-are you sure?"
"Sure."
Hesitantly, she walks towards him, looking about warily before setting her eyes on him. "I thought you wanted to spend the night with Kaoru-sama."
Sighing, Ryuuichirou picks her up. "I do... but I can't risk that. I don't want any chance of bringing him into this."
She puts a hand on his cheek and pats it. "He loves you- I guarantee he will become a part of this."
"Thanks for cheering me up," he says sarcastically, putting her on the counter and messing with her hair. "You always know what to say."
"I-I have not really dealt with romantic relations- as you know my other masters were-"
"Old and dying, or a widow- I know."
She bows. "I will try my best to adjust to this."
"It's fine, it's fine- just..." Not knowing what to say, he simply ruffles her hair much to her annoyance.
Second
"Papa?! Papa?!" Haruka says repeatedly in panic, trying to shake her master awake upon finding him slumped over some of his manga pages.
"T-tori... he's going to be..." Chiaki crawled around as he weakly gathers all the paper together and his hands shake as he hands it to her, "S-slip it out the door... before he tries to come in... I..." She holds on to his pant leg as he staggers up to walk to his room, "I'll go nap now..."
Quickly as he shuts his room door, Haruka grabs the papers and quickly opens the door. Looking frantically about and finding no one she sets it on the ground before shutting the door again.
...
Hearing a knock, Haruka finishes putting the sandwiches she's making for Chiaki on the table. Peering into Chiaki's room she found him still deeply asleep. 'What should I do...?'
"Hey, Chiaki! I know you're here!" Flinching, she finds herself standing in front of the front door at a loss, recognizing the voice as Chiaki's other friend, Yuu.
'One of them... one of them has a key...' Glancing around at the clean living space she panics as the man out there probably knows it shouldn't be this tidy...
"Yanase." She hears a cold voice say. 'Tori's here too...'
"Well, what are you waiting for?"
Hearing the sound of the door becoming unlocked, she steps back frightened, crying out in fear as she accidentally trips on one of the ends of her dress.
"What was that?!" she hears Yuu say. As she gets up, she turns her head as soon as she hears the door open, locking eyes with two pairs of them staring at her in surprise.
"What the..." mutters Yuu, who she found was the shorter man compared to Tori, who just continued to stare at her.
Turning to run, she finds herself tripping again near the counter. Tottering upwards as she tries not to cry out for Chiaki and wake him up, they watch as she whisks a long straw fan out of nowhere. Holding it as if a weapon, she sets herself between them and the way to the bedroom.
Noticing her purposeful position, Tori narrows his eyes at Chiaki's room and takes a step forward. "Chiaki?" he calls out.
"N-no..." She points the not-so-sharp end of the fan at him, "He's sleeping, pl-please let him rest..." She perks up remembering the papers, "Did... Did you get them?"
After a while trying to understand what she was talking about, Tori nods. "Yes, I got them."
"Haruka?" They all turned at the sound of Chiaki's voice. "Haruka?" His voice becomes more panicked. "Haruka?!"
"I-I'm here..." she says, putting her fan away with a wisp of air.
"Since I managed to finish work for now, let's go out to find the others."
"Really?!" She says hopefully, before faltering a little. "But there will be a lot of people..."
"I...I know, but I really want to help you guys be human again. And you can live with me like right now! I'll adopt you, if I can do that- can I adopt you if you don't have current records...? How does that even work...?"
She frowns in confusion. "Current records?"
"You know, like your blood type, where you were originally from, your birthday..."
"Oh..." Steadily, she totters to his door. "T-tori used his key and Yuu is here too."
"What?!" They hear stumbling and things thrown around before Chiaki comes out, breathless. "Hah..." He points at them accusingly and in surprise, "Haahhhh!"
They stare at him in confusion as he grabs his satchel with his wallet and cell phone inside, before carrying Haruka and running out of his apartment without any explanation.
Third
"This internet is really amazing!" Shiori exclaims as he scrolls through random pages on the top at the main desk after closing time.
"You can buy stuff from there too," says Ritsu from some shelves away, putting up a book.
"Re-really?!"
"It depends on who is selling it though, they don't sell exactly everything on the internet."
"Ahh, I see," Shiori continues to scroll, "Even something this amazing has it's limits..."
Quietly, Ritsu makes his way back to the main desk with his now empty cart. Carefully, Ritsu sat at his desk watching Shiori before timing what he's been wanting to ask. "What's this contract you guys are not telling us?"
"Oh," he begins absentmindedly, "It comes in the form of a ring- you guys can use our power, but it takes energy out of you and since you can fight back the dollies will go after you more. It's a bother really- our main priority is to keep you guys safe until we go back to-" realizing that he just spouted that all out in his distraction, he shut his mouth.
"Do-don't do that! You know I say things when I'm distracted!" Shiori whines, seeing Ritsu smile at him.
"Is that why you don't want to make a contract?"
After a while, Shiori nods reluctantly. "Also, I haven't actually had a master for a long while now as everyone before left me away in the attic..."
"I want to help though."
"...I know. But, it worries me- especially when Shizukesa told us it's changing..."
"What does that mean, exactly?"
"Well," he brought a hand to his chin in thought, "For instance, Sumiko-san. She can see them perfectly, which is rare, and the bear wanted her to go back home, or something to that effect, I- Oh, no."
Ritsu looks at him in alarm. "What?"
"It-it's just a thought but... You know we don't really have to sleep, right?"
"What about it?"
"If we do sleep, which is most of the time, we dream of the past we are more attached to. Like me, I dream I'm playing with my brother before I get lost, progressing towards a bad dream I wake up from. Rarely though, I dream of this space I haven't actually seen with my own eyes before."
"It," he continues, "was a huge meadow, with a table, chairs, and people were sitting in it- they were all sleeping though, and I swear one of them looked like me. I wasn't sure though... Wataru has had a dream like that as well, along with Haruka. Us three, perhaps it was because we are the first three, we are more attuned with the infinite doors within the dimensional space than our memories."
"Back to the meadow space though, I noticed that it was all filled except for three seats and I recall faintly something about older siblings, but I'm not exactly sure. I don't want to jump to conclusions..."
"So, you think, that man is going to get Sumiko-chan and two others?"
"Most likely. I think that was what Shizukesa was probably hinting to us- ever since I told her I don't like spoilers she really thinks about how she tells us things for the fun of it."
"I see..."
After a while of thinking hard, Shiori sighs as he looks to Ritsu. "Hold out your hand."
"Left or right?"
"Oh, either one works." Ritsu holds out his right hand and Shiori puts his hand over his, taking a deep breath. "Okay, I haven't done this in a really long time so...
Fourth & Fifth
"Aaauuggh...!"
Kotone and Hibiki immediately run from the living room to the bedroom, finding their master leaning heavily against the wall as he had a hand clenching over the one he wore his two rings on.
"M-master?!" Kotone rushes to him holding out her hand, "Here, I'll cancel it," he shakes his head, his eyes trained straight ahead of him as if in a trance, "Please..." she begs, not wanting him to suffer.
Her twin however, looked him over carefully. "Kotone... doesn't this look familiar?"
"What do you mean?"
"Aahhh!" They try their best to push him back to bed, only to have him fall to the ground landing on a cushion as he goes into fetal position with his hands on his head in pain.
"He's not in pain, like in used-too-much power pain, this is more like..."
Kotone grabs a small blanket and puts it over Shouta so he can be warm, seeing that was the only thing she can do in the situation. "Like what?"
"Like, when they came to take us from Father and made him keep reliving when Mother got killed to distract him..."
"But Father never really loved Mother..."
"They were best friends though! And she really wanted children so... Anyway, this reminds me of it."
"Then, he's remembering something?" She kneels near his head and strokes his hair comfortingly. "Is it because of the rings?"
"I don't know... See, this is why we should have introduced ourselves to the others when we saw them, but no..." sighing, he looks miserably at Shouta. "Maybe we should go find them now- especially Shizukesa or Shiori... Maybe Wataru..."
"I don't want to leave him alone..."
They then hear a knock at the door. "Kisa-san! Are you home?"
"Tch... Sparkles is here, what do we do?"
"Don't call my real master a name like that!"
"But that's what he does!"
"Se..." They look at Shouta, still in pain with his eyes shut now, "Sei... Seira..."
"Master...?" Kotone says soothingly, shaking him.
"Seira..." Hibiki pauses in thought, "Wasn't that Mother's name?"
"Hnngh..." Kotone bites her lip as Shouta begins crying, "S-Seira... D-don't leave us here by ourselves..."
"This..." Hibiki trails off, a frightening and very possible thought coming to him.
"Y-you... you know- I, I'm not exactly a father figure..."
"Kotone."
Looking up at him in surprise at him, she looks at him worriedly. "What?"
"How much do you believe in reincarnation?"
Sixth
"Meow..." Sorata purrs as he rubs himself again Chiemi.
"Sorata... you're shedding on me..." She tries to sit somewhere else on the couch. He follows her, resuming his rubbing.
Pouting, she looks up at the clock and pouts even more. "Where is he?"
'He said there was this person and his daughter he would meet now and then... Is he over there?' She fidgets with her white-sleeved, violet dress.
She sneezes as a piece of fur strays near her nose. She climbs off the couch unsteadily, running to the door with a rub-happy Sorata following. "I'm not a rubbing post!" She looks up at the door handle. 'I know how to go to the library, maybe I should go? But then he might get angry at me for leaving without permission...'
'Oh, that's right! He wrote down his cell phone number somewhere!' she thinks triumphantly, ignoring Sorata now licking her hair.
...
"You should stay the night, Yokozawa Onii-chan!"
"No thank you, I have Sorata at home, remember?" Hearing his phone ring, Takafumi finds it not in his pockets and heads towards the couch where Kirishima is sitting.
Finding it stuck between two cushions he picks it up. "Hello?"
"Ah, Master! When are you coming home?"
"You, you don't have to call me that." That sentence got Kirishima interested. "What's wrong?"
"Sorata won't stop rubbing and licking me." At this Takafumi couldn't help but crack a small smile.
"He's claiming you as territory," Takafumi explains, trying to bat away the pokes Kirishima's giving him on the cheek.
"E-eh?"
"Cats do that-"
But, but! We both belong to you, I don't understand!"
"It's fine. It also means he really likes you. I'll be home soon, okay?"
"Okay. Can I go visit Shiori or Riemi tomorrow?"
...
"It..." Chiemi rubs her eyes as she turns on the bed.
"What's wrong?" asks Takafumi.
"I don't know why, but it feels sort of chilly-" she tilts as Sorata walks towards her on the bed and licks her at the side of her head. "W-what?"
Yawning, Sorata licks her once more on the head before sleeping against her. About to complain, she held back her words as she cuddled against his stomach. "He's so warm."
"You know," says Takafumi, "It looks like you're a kitten."
"A kitten?"
"That's probably why he's been acting like this- he probably adopted you as his own."
"Eh...?!"
Seventh & Eighth
Miyagi turns his head from his book once again for the fifth time, wondering why Shinobu no longer visited him more than necessary.
He heard no noise next door either... Picking up his cell, he dialed.
"Hello?"
"Where are you, Shinobu?" asks Miyagi.
"At a friend's- am I doing this right?"
"Shinobu?"
"I'm busy right now- I'm sorry." With that, Miyagi looks at his cell in surprise at the abrupt hang up.
...
"Gah!" Riemi hit her head against the counter in frustration, "Why are we doing this? We can't even eat!"
"Hey, you two said you wanted to do this!" Hiroki barks back, wearing his manly apron as he iced the lemon cake.
"I miscalculated, okay?!" Riemi turns to Shizukesa, "What do you have to say about this?!"
Shizukesa turns from her recipe reading, her calm and professional. "All the more reason to get our bodies back."
"To eat?!"
"Not just eat," says Shinobu, stirring the caramel, "Don't you want to grow? Go to school? Fall in love?"
"Ehh... I'm a bit skeptical about the fall in love part... Especially meeting you guys- oof!" She staggers back as Shinobu flicks her forehead. "Sorry..."
"Also, Riemi..." Shizukesa nudges a docile sitting Arashi affectionately, "Don't you want to see what Arashi looks like when she grows older?"
"Well, yeah..."
Shinobu looks to Hiroki, "Can I be the godfather?"
"Hell no- Nowaki's the godfather."
"No way~" Shinobu whines, "He counts as the other parent!"
"Not here though, if you know what I mean."
"Tch..."
"Be satisfied at being doting Uncle#1."
Ninth
"Mama..." Light forest eyes rest on the woman kneading bread in front of her. "What does adopted mean?"
She watches as she stops kneading, wiping sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand. Seeing that she wasn't saying anything, the small blonde child saddened visibly.
"I'm a monster like the ladies say-"
"Oh no..." She looks up at her motherly figure, wiping her hands of flour to rush to her and cup her face and hug her close, "You're not a monster sweetheart. You're Mama's child."
"But, I don't look like you," she could feel her stiffening. "Is that what adopted means?"
"..." Sighing, she steers her to the front door, "I'm going to show you something."
"W-what?" Being brought to the flower garden Mama loves taking care of, she looks up at her, "It's your garden."
"It wasn't always a garden- it was just ordinary land, until one day, I found something special on it and it grew like this."
"Huh? What?"
"You."
After a while, the child sags in posture. "I'm not Mama's child."
"Sweetheart," Mama kneels to get eye to eye. "Who takes baths with you?"
"You."
"Who feeds you?"
"You."
"You tucks you in at night and brushes your hair?"
"You."
"Who helped you learn how to walk and cut apples?"
"You."
"Who do you call Mama?"
"...You."
"I, I may not have given birth to you, or gave you your name, but I am your Mother no matter what."
"Even if I come from grass and dirt?"
"Yes, even if you come from grass and dirt. Even if I'm a dog... a cat... or a man, I'm your Mother. I love you."
"I love you too, Mama."
"Want a bear?" They both start at the voice, coming from outside their fence. The dark haired man waves his hat in greeting. "Want a bear?!"
Suddenly she felt her Mama tense. "Mama?"
Mama stands up and glares at the man. "For the last time, we are not interested! I myself sew bears; we have no need to waste money and buy yours!" With that she steers her child to the safety of their home.
"Don't look at the bears," whispered Mama.
"Why...?" she whispered back, turning slightly.
All at once everything turns to black.
"Mio-chan?" Misaki shakes her again. "Mio-chan?"
"Don't look at the bears," she eerily whispers in her sleep, and Misaki backs away from the Suzuki-san sitting on his bed that he brought in when Mio wanted a sleeping buddy with them.
"W-what...?" Misaki says, frightened, and he shakes her again, "Mio-chan?"
"Mama..." Mio whimpers sadly in her sleep, and Misaki wondered what to do to stop her dreaming like this as it was the third time.
...
Akihiko irritably typed on his laptop in the living room. He has had literally no Misaki fill since ever, and it was all her fault. Glaring at the doll following his Misaki like a duckling, he huffed and went back to typing.
He sees movement close by, and looks up to see Misaki looking at main Suzuki-san warily. "What's wrong, Misaki?"
"N-nothing..." He mutters, before walking back to the kitchen.
Giving Misaki a strange look Akihiko goes back to typing, before turning again finding the doll looking at him curiously.
"What?" he asks, emitting a menacing aura.
"You... you don't make teddy bears?" she asks, not phased at all.
Slightly confused at the question, Akihiko shuts his laptop temporarily and sits up straight with his arms crossed at her. "No. I collect them."
"Collect?" She looks at Suzuki-san. "It's eyes are dark."
"It is a cute dark though," he brings Suzuki-san close and shows the sheen of his sewn eyes, feeling it with a finger, "See?" Akihiko looks at her somewhat frightened look. "I saw you play earlier, what happened?"
"Mama says don't look at the bears."
"...What?" he says, looking to Misaki.
"N-not me!"
Mio agrees with him. "He's not Mama, he's Mommy."
"Oh? And who am I?" asks Akihiko.
"Uh..." She looks at Misaki shaking his head at him before saying, "Usa-san."
"Usa-san? I remember earlier, you called me Daddy."
"Ah..." She looks at a loss, not wanting to hurt his feelings that Misaki doesn't want her to call him Daddy, "Da-daddy loves Mommy."
"I do love Mommy."
She sways with her arms behind her back, "Really? You really love Mommy?"
"Yes. I have loved Mommy for some time now. In actuality, you would have like four siblings by now or maybe more."
"U-Usagi-san! Don't say weird things like that!" protested a blushing Misaki.
"Really?" Mio says in wonder at the amount of siblings.
"Yes... But..."
"Huh? But what?" asks Mio, and in response Akihiko leans sadly against Suzuki-san, "What's wrong?"
He beckons her close while Misaki looks on in suspicion. "I want to honeymoon with Mommy again," he whispers.
She cocks her head to the side. "Honeymoon?" she whispers back.
"It's where we go somewhere alone and love each other so much we don't see anybody else until the next day... or the next."
"Until the next day?!" she whispers frantically, "That's a lot of love!"
"Yes," he smirks, "Yes it is. Sometimes it's so much Mommy can't move."
"B-but, what do I do? I don't want to be alone when you guys are gone! Where are you guys going to go?"
"That secret room Mommy tells you not to go to because there is a scary rabbit sleeping there every morning."
"The one with toys?"
He nods, and at this point, Misaki is wondering why Akihiko's smirking hasn't died down. "And while we're gone, you can go sleepover with a friend... or," he points to his laptop, "You can watch stuff on here in Mommy's room until we say it's okay to come out."
She looks at the laptop. "I can watch stuff on that skinny thing?"
He nods again. "Here, I'll show you."
Thus, the honeymoon went without a hitch, and upon receiving a teddy bear almost as big as her, Mio likes to mimic her Daddy walking around carrying Suzuki-san with her own Suzu-san.
With Haruhiko
"Stop following me!"
"We haven't gone on our date yet."
Sumiko, clad in a blue sundress, turns to Haruhiko. "But-!"
"No."
After a round of stares, Sumiko slouches in defeat. "You're lucky Mitsu is hanging out with my Grandfather today."
Taking her hand in his, Haruhiko walks straight ahead. "Where are we going?" Sumiko asks.
"What people do on a normal date."
"O-oh...? What?"
"An opera show, a boat ride, and dinner with the finest-"
"T-that's not normal!"
With Masamune
Yawning, Masamune made his way out of the building; work was as usual, aside from gossipy Kisa being strangely absent.
'I wonder how's he doing?' He hasn't seen Ritsu for a week now, it's things like this he did not like work. Although, as he takes out his cell phone, he finally got Ritsu a cell phone and his cell number. It was a surprise to him that he went by a different last name outside wise, but that was fine.
"Um..." He looks up at the voice, and widens his eyes in surprise.
"Ritsu?"
"H-hi... Um..." Seeing as they were mostly alone, it made Ritsu even more self-aware as he blushes. "It's n-not that late and I was wondering... um..."
"What?"
"I," he fidgets, "I never went to the movies before so I... Do you want to go to the movies with me?"
"..." Masamune couldn't believe it- was he just asked on a...?
Blushing even more, Ritsu looks everywhere and rambles, "We-well, Shiori asked me what anime was and then I showed him this site and then he wanted to watch everything and he said as long as I get used to being-" He is suddenly dragged off. "Wha-?"
"What are we waiting for?" says Masamune, "I'd be more than happy going on a date with you."
"A da-da-da-date..." Ritsu stutters, his blush still prominent on his cheeks. At this, Masamune stops to hug Ritsu tightly.
"Do you want to go to my place after?" he asks, stroking Ritsu's hair and taking in his scent.
"Eh? W-where is your place again?"
"Not that far- but you probably won't be going home until tomorrow," Masamune added, before bringing in Ritsu for a kiss. "What do you say?" asks Masamune, breathless as they break apart minutes later.
"O-okay..." Ritsu answers, promptly being kissed again by Masamune before they walked off to the theater.
From some feet away, a familiar brunette girl looks from behind the lamppost at the leaving couple with a smile, recognizing that blushing face anywhere.
"...So this is where you were, Ricchan."
Woo... long chappie. What do you guys think?
Oh, and have a nice Labor Day weekend!
I don't own anything but my OC's, the latters in which are obvious unless I say so. Also, if you want a more accurate vision for Kotone and Hibiki, I based them off of the appearance of the main characters of Pokémon HG&SS (Something that I also don't own.) Some changes though:
Hibiki's hair is a dark shade like Shouta, and brown-golden eyes, and Kotone's hair is a brown similar to Hiroki's and her eyes are brown-golden like Hibiki. This may change though if I actually test the colors and find myself wanting to change it.