Welcome to Gaia! ::

DS knew her family was abnormally large, especially for one maintained by only one "parental unit," as the kids called them these days. Even so, when one of her dearest friends asked a favor, the answer could only be yes. While she was preparing the room, she wondered if that was what the house had been given to her for in the first place. Her aunt was always strangely knowledgeble about such things.

And then the doorbell rang, and the thoughts were startled away like skittish birds.

In the living room, Karan hid behind the door. He wasn't afraid of his "cousin" at all- in fact, she was one of the people that had a tendency to make him feel better. That didn't mean that he was comfortable with seeing her, however. He wanted to see her first.

"Welcome, Prana." DS invited her charge in with open arms, which then wrapped around the girl. "Come on in, come on. Let's get you all comfy and cozy." It was, perhaps, a bit of an over-the-top gesture, but DS didn't know how to handle the situation any other way.

Wiping the last tears off her cheeks, Prana nodded slowly. "Thank you."

"Anytime, anytime! We don't get to see you enough, I think. You look very grown up, did you know that?"

Prana, unsure of how to answer, looked away. "Thank you."

"Of course! Now, I'm sure you'd like to get settled a bit. We've got a great spot for you too!" Having Viviana in the spare room hadn't been working well after all, so they'd moved her crib into Eriol's room- much to the teen's dismay- and tidied things up. It made a better guest room anyway.

"Will you show her, Karan?"

His siblings sometimes said DS had something called "mother radar." In this case, Karan was inclined to agree with them. At the very least she seemed to always know what was going on in the house. Including all of his hiding spots. "Okay."

He stepped out and appraised Prana for a moment. "You look... different."

He was one to talk. Prana looked at her cousin blankly. Was that really Karan? It looked like him, but he was bigger!

"So do you," she finally answered.

Why did everyone keep bringing that up? He was uncomfortable enough as it was.

"This way," he muttered with a wave of one hand. At the end of the first hallway was an open door, leading to a room with rust-colored wallpaper and a four-poster bed that was missing its curtains. The thick ivory carpet had recently been vacuumed, and the nightstand and dresser were polished brightly. All in all, a reasonably nice room.

"It's next to mine."

Setting her small bag inside the room, Prana took a look around. It was sunny, with a large window and sheer curtains. And if it was next to Karan's, at least she wouldn't be alone. But if that was the case, why did she feel alone?

It was impossible not to notice the bear-child's discomfort. Fidgeting, Karan stumbed for words, something that would help. "She's always busy too," he offered, jabbing a thumb down the hallway.

Prana nodded absently. She was a big girl, after all. Her guardian couldn't always be around, and that was something that she just had to accept. She did not have to like it.

"Will you... stay for a few minutes?"

Karan could hardly say no. What surprised him was that he didn't want to. His unvoiced answer was clear when he walked into the room.

She really wasn't alone. Even if it felt that she was for now, it would fade. She hoped.

[Another Visit with Waya: http://www.gaiaonline.com/guilds/viewtopic.php?page=6&t=635964#47382986 ]

[Reserved again- AIM RP (Karan/Mayu)]


Mayu was perched upon the sofa, glancing about the room with her pink eyes. Although she loved visiting the HQ, it was quite boring when the room was empty and there was not much to do for a Legend who was as easily bored as she was. Giving a sigh, she pondered if she should take a visit to the local flower shop again -- she had become one of their more frequent customers as of late, and she did ever so love looking at all of the colorful plants they had in stock.

Karan wasn't sure what made him decide to finally pay a visit to the HQ. Boredom was probably a factor.At home everyone spent their time in groups, and he was the odd one out most of the time. There was curiosity as well, about what was happening to others he knew. He couldn't be the only one who changed, after all.

Steeling himself, he pushed open the door. But there were no familiar faces within. Just a pink girl on the couch that he'd never met before.

Flowers, flowers! Mayu's mind was focused on all of the colorful tulips and marigolds and zinnias that were awaiting her arrival at the quaint little flower shop on the corner. Her thoughts were interrupted by the entrance of the silver-haired boy, and she looked up. Giving a casual wave, she sank back into her chair. Well, maybe she would stay for a little longer; meeting new people was always fun.

Since no one important was present, Karan had half a mind to leave. But the curiosity that had been evident earlier wasn't completely gone. There were traces remaining that showed up at the most random times, evidence'd by Karan's decision to head over to the couch.

"What're you looking at?" he asked blankly, from a few feet away. He didn't want to get too close just yet.

"Nothing, I suppose?" Mayu answered with a small glance, not sure of what to say. Most of the time, people approached with a friendly "Hi". Right. She returned her mind to zinnias and tulips, though kept an open ear. Wouldn't want to be rude, she thought.

So she wasn't going to talk his ear off. That was one point in the girl's favor. Still, the fact that she wasn't sharing her activity put Karan on his guard a bit. Maybe it was a secret. But it had to be something interesting, to her at least, or she wouldn't be looking at it.

Shuffling closer, he coughed, then sat on one arm of the couch. He didn't really want to sit right next to her, but he did want to be closer, so that struck a compromise. "Must be interesting nothing," he ventured, "since you look like you're having fun. Can I see?"

Giving a small laugh, Mayu twittered. "Well, I don't think you can really see inside a person's head, but I'm just thinking about visiting that little flower shop on the corner there."

She thought for a moment, then plucked a blossom off of her branch. Handing the pink flower to the boy, Mayu smiled. She did so like sharing her flowers with people.
The girl had a one-track mind in Karan's view. Wearing flowers on her clothes, and then thinking about going to see them. "You must like flowers an awful lot," he commented.

He was surprised, however, at the token he was offered. Even though Eriol would probably tease him, saying it wasn't manly to like flowers, Karan did as at least a passing interest. Holding the flower carefully, he nodded. "Thanks. How come you don't go, if you want to?"

"Yep!" Mayu grinned and nodded. "I like all plants and animals." She tried not to pass herself off as a naturalist, though it was quite a challenge.

"You're welcome," She gave a polite nod, the continued. "I like meeting new people. And besides, I already went yesterday, I think the salesclerk are a bit sick of seeing me."
"Do you always go there?" Karan was surprised; even if it was enjoyable place going there repeatedly would have to get boring. There was only so much of the same scenery he could stand, which was the main reason he'd even come to the HQ that day. "Why don't you go other places with plants and animals? That'd probably be more fun."

"Well, I'm probably going to go hiking with my mum and sisters in the future, and I don't think there's a zoo nearby." Mayu shrugged. "I can't really think of any other places to go."

"By the way, what's your name?" She inquired, realizing she had been chatting with a complete stranger. Of course, she tended to do that a lot. "Mine's Mayu."

Oh right, the ritual trading of names. Mayu was an interesting enough one. Taking care to be polite, Karan gave his in return. "I'm Karan. Nice to meet you."

Hikes and zoos? Was that all she could think of? "Well, you like flower stores, so what about pet stores? And there's gardens and parks and stuff." He thought a little more, looking out the window as he did. "My sisters go shopping, and to the movies. Or do silly things like tea parties. But I don't know if you like that stuff."

"Ditto." Mayu smiled. "Oh, the park? There's one near my neighborhood so I go there often. I don't think my mom would appreciate me going to the pet store though, she says I'll come back with an armload of kittens and puppies and bunnies." Stopping herself before she gabbed on too much, Mayu sighed and twisted a lock of silver hair about her fingers. Looking up as she heard the words "tea parties", she scrunched up her face in confusion.

"People actually have parties where they just sit around and drink tea? How boring."

Most of what Mayu said was just the same filler fluff Karan was used to from dealing with his sisters and their friends and other people. But the last bit was actually sensical. "I know," he replied, a bit of enthusiasm creeping into his voice. "Half the time it's not even real tea, they're just faking it. Where's the fun in that? You don't even get to eat anything."

Mayu nodded -- it was quite boring, sitting around a table with stuffed animals and pretending to drink imaginary tea. "What a waste of time! I would rather be outside or reading or doing something exciting. Even if I had nothing else to do, I wouldn't be caught dead sitting around eating imaginary food."

"Same here." It was nice to agree with someone about things like that. Feeling a bit more warmly towards Mayu, Karan leaned in closer. "There's a lot of better things they could do." Drawing immediately came to mind, as well as the kite he was building with Xue, and taking care of what DS called his menagerie.

That brought a question to Karan's mind. "Do you have any pets at home?"
"Pets? Well, I have a cat. I'm not sure if you can really call the Talaye pets, because they snapped at Kimiko for doing that once. We also have some koi, and two nightmares!"

Mayu counted on her fingers, wondering if she had forgotten anyone else. "Yep, that's it. What about you?"

"We have Talaye too, but we're not allowed to call them pets." Since Mayu did it first, Karan wasn't too embarassed to count on his fingers. "I have a couple koi too. And a squirrel and a frog and two Pyerls who live outside and a... a something else that just showed up one day I think. No one knows what he is."

To clarify, he added "But those are just mine. Other people have more. Walking trees and flying cats and stuff."

"Ah, I see! You have a lot of pets." Mayu said, perking up at hearing the words "walking" and "tree" together.

"A walking tree? I've never heard of them. How would that work?" She asked, a glimmer in her eyes. Imagine that, a tree that you could take out for a walk! How intriguing!

The walking tree was Ying's, and Karan never understood too much about it other than the fact that it followed her around everywhere unless she locked it in her room. "She calls it a dryad, I think," he said uncertainly. "I don't know how it works, but it looks just like a walking tree- the kind you see at the beach."

It seemed safe to ask a now, so Karan did. "Why've you got all those branches around you?"

"Ooh, neat!" Clapping her hands together primly, Mayu found her mind wondering again and pondered if she could get her hands on one of those dryad things, they sounded fun.

"The branches? I really have no idea." Mayu grinned, showing off her cluelessness with a strange pride. "They are a bother sometimes, my mother wants to chop them off with her axe so they won't be a distraction during my lessons. Though, I think that would hurt ..." Her voice trailed off for a bit, she still had to wince at the thought.

"You mean... they're stuck to you?" That was a new one. Karan had seen kids that looked like different animals, ones with wings and ears and tails, and even fins. But he'd never seen someone who was part tree. "How? Do they keep growing, or..."

With a start he looked to the pink flower that was still cupped in his hands. "Didn't it hurt, picking this off?"

Mayu nodded with a nervous smile. "They're stuck, alright. It doesn't hurt when you pick a flower, but I bet it would if you chopped off one of the actual branches." Although, Karan's question had brought up some interesting thoughts: was there any way to "unstick" the branches, or perhaps just make them smaller without the help of any dangerously sharp cutting utensils? She was going to look forther into this when she got home.

For the first time, Mayu noticed the colorful scarf wrapped around the boy's neck; it was pretty and all, but wasn't it a bit too warm to wear a scarf in the spring?

"Nice scarf," she commented, looking curiously.

Karan's hands clenched the scarf automatically. Despite his doubts he was still very attatched to it. "Thanks," he said, and somewhat more reluctantly he added "you can take a closer look, if you like."

For a change he took both ends and offered them across the couch, emblems face up. The sun side was on top, threads glimmering in the light.

Marveling at the shimmering scarf, Mayu was very much impressed by the detailed work put into it. However, she couldn't resist asking, "Isn't it a bit warm outside to be wearing a scarf?" It did seem a bit unusual, but she should have learned by then that all of the Legends had their own little quirk.

"No." The retort flew out of Karan's mouth before he even thought of it, and once it was out he looked away. "Sorry. I just like to have it with me." Hopefully thoughts of security blankets wouldn't occur to her. Despite his unease at having grown, Karan didn't like to be thought of as a baby. Not anymore.

Quickly he turned the subject back on Mayu. "Do you get food from sunlight? That's what the dryad does, I think."

"Ah, I see." With a downward glance, Mayu looked at her own charm which she had been wearing ever since she was found, and one which she protected with a fierce aggression. Memories flooded back into her head as quickly as they had gone before, and Mayu shook them out of her conscious mind. She didn't want to be reminiscing, not when talking with someone -- that was so rude!

"Um ... No. these branches, I guess, are just for decoration. Pesky little things," she muttered, "I eat food too. Like ... sandwiches and cakes! Normal stuff."

Great, now she had made herself hungry.

That made sense. She didn't look that much like a tree, Karan decided. She was a person, one who had branches poking out, but a person nonetheless. And she wasn't all that bad either. For someone who liked pink, she had a lot more sense than his "sisters."

"Do you have a lot of family at home?" He remembered her talking about a hike earlier on. Of course, her family was probably a lot smaller.

"Well, I live with my mum, and my sisters Miyu and Verde," Mayu recalled, tapping her chin lightly with one finger. "All girls in my house, even the pets! And what about you?" She asked, fiddling with the charm tied to her waist. Talking was fine with her, but after so much of it, she tended to get quite bored.

Karan didn't even bother counting his family members. Math was not his strong suit, and he didn't even trust himself to remember everyone in the house. Even DS forgot who exactly was there from time to time.

"I live with a bunch of other kids," he answered finally. "More girls than boys. Most of 'em are a little older than me, but there are a couple babies too. Oh, and Prana's staying there now too."

But talk of "family" wasn't what Karan had in mind when he'd come to the headquarters in the first place. True, his main goal had been seeing those he'd been missing, and this Mayu girl didn't fall into that category, but the other point was to have fun.

"You wanna... do something?" It wasn't the most eloquent question, but it got the point across.

"Like what?" Mayu asked, looking up. She was getting quite bored with talking herself, and would have left if not for the fact that it would have been rude.

"I don't know," Karan admitted. The idea of doing something, anything, was appealing. But what to do? There weren't any supplies there that he knew of, so playing a game or drawing or the like were all ruled out. When he was little he played with toys that the grownups brought along. What exactly was housed in the building that could be useful? The only room Karan had ever seen besides the main one was the kitchen.

Frowning, he looked at Mayu. "Do you know what's in this place besides this room?"

Mayu thought for a bit. "Paestri and I explored in one of the guest rooms down the hall once.. but we never went farther than that."

She was slightly amused that although this was "headquarters", none of the Legends even knew much about it.

"We can go outside or look around the building," she suggested, giving a small shrug.

So she hadn't gone far either. "I went into the kitchen once, but that's all. Do you think they're hiding something in here?"

Karan's mind filled with possibilities. They were all special after all, so it was likely that a building meant for their use had special secrets. How come they even had such a building anyway? There were so many questions without answers.

"Could be," she murmured, looking around. "It looks like no one's here, let's go explore!"

She loved exploring, whether it be at the park or a museum or ANYWHERE, for that matter. It was so fun! Standing up from her seat, she strolled over to the hallway and pointed off vaguely.

"We can start here, there're tons of rooms. Paestri and I covered area of the third room down and to the left, but that's all. Nothing unusual in there, except for a few clothes hanging on the racks in the closet. Who would keep clothes in here?"

"I don't know. I didn't think people lived here." This was getting interesting after all. If there was anything Karan liked it was getting answers. The truth was important, and if it came from exploring then all the better.

Gesturing at the door directly on the left before the hallway, Karan nodded. "That's the kitchen. It had food last time I was there. I wonder who eats it, besides us."

Mayu pondered. Now this was getting interesting!

"I wonder who stocks the food, too. I've never seen anyone here except for the other Legends, and I don't think they would have enough money to fill up the fridge and all of the cabinets."

That had never even occured to Karan. Someone had to keep putting the food in the fridge and shelves as it got eaten. And old stuff would spoil too, but Karan hadn't seen any moldy food last time.

"Maybe the grown-ups? They brought food before, and toys." Yet something about that didn't make sense. "But then why would they bring food if there's the fridge?" He started to get excited, and moved a few steps down the hallway. "Maybe even the grown-ups don't know!"

"Curiouser and curiouser.." she muttered, then began to walk down the hallway. "Alright, let's be detectives and figure out this whole mystery!"

Indeed, they would be detectives.. just like.. just like Sherlock Holmes and Watson! Solving the great mystery of the Legend HQ once and for all!

"Detectives? Like in stories?" Karan had never met a real detective, he just assumed they were like pirates and knights, and confined to the pages of books.

Of course, that made the prospect of becoming one that much cooler.

"Where should we start? Not the rooms we've already seen. Maybe that one?" Karan pointed to a room on the right, two doors down. The door was slightly ajar, and a thin beam of sunlight streamed into the hallway.

"Ooh, that one looks good." Mayu skipped over, taking a peek inside. Nothing looked unusual.. at least, not yet.

"It's clear!" she whispered in a sharp voice, trying to capture the whole mood of the situation. It had been a while since she had played a game of "let's pretend", but when she did, she could really get caught in the moment.

What did "it's clear" mean? If the room was clear there wasn't really any reason to go inside, since there would be nothing to see in there. "If it's clear, should we try another room? Maybe on the other side?"

"Um.. I meant that there's no people inside," Mayu explained, frowning slightly. Maybe she should have saved the special phrases that she had learned from TV for other days.

"Oh," Karan muttered, running into the room before Mayu could see the embarrased blus creeping across his cheeks. How was he supposed to know? He didn't spend time with the others much, so he didn't know all the "hip talk" they used.

Once he was a bit more under control, Karan looked around the room he found himself in. It looked to him like one of the bedrooms at home. There was a bed, and a small table, and a big dresser.

"Do people sleep here?" Karan asked, not aware he'd said anything out loud.

"I guess they do. There are tons of other rooms like this.. So people must live here, right? Or else why would there be beds?"

She ran a finger down the top of the dresser, then held it to her face for inspecting. "That's strange, there's no dust on this furniture. That means people must come clean it, right?"

"I don't know about that. At home, she sprays the tables and chairs with stuff that's supposed to keep the dust away."

But of course, that meant that someone had to have sprayed everything.

"Maybe we're supposed to sleep here?" Karan suggested uncertainly, sitting on the bed. It was neatly made, and the sheets were clean. It was almost as if the room was waiting for something.

Mayu shrugged, looking over at the bed.

"But.. what if we fall asleep, and someone comes through while we're asleep?" She didn't want to miss anything. "Oh, we could pretend that we're asleep so we can trick the people that come through here!"

"Like Santa and the Easter Bunny." DS said that the magic people who left presents on special days only came if you were asleep. It followed that the magic people who kept the house in order would do the same. The question was whether or not today was one of the special days.

It was a good enough chance to try, Karan decided. He climbed further onto the bed, though it was too hot to get under the covers. "How long do you think it'll take?" he whispered, motioning for Mayu to pretend to sleep as well.

Mayu fell onto the bed gracefully, stretching her arms out. "Really, Santa only comes when you're asleep? He came to our house last Christmas." Perhaps she had mistaken someone else for Santa? There were lots of people with long white beards and red suits out on the streets around Christmastime.

"I don't know, but I hope it won't take too long." She wasn't impatient, per se, but she didn't have a fondness for waiting idly without anything to do. If she had a book, then that would have been a whole different matter.

Karan tried to act asleep, but it was difficult. The only thing that separated sleeping people from awake people was that sleeping people had their eyes closed. But he didn't want to close his eyes, in case he fell asleep. Hopefully just lying down and staying quiet would be enough.

"She says that he only comes when you're asleep. I tried to stay up to find out, but I fell asleep anyway." The memory was a bit embarassing, as Karan had woken up on the kitchen floor early Christmas morning and snuck back to his room. "I hope it's soon too. They have to work hard to keep all this clean, don't they?"

"Well, there are at least ten rooms down this hallway, and there are much more upstairs." She counted quietly, then nodded -- well, as well as anyone could nod lying down. "Yeah, they do have to work hard. Do you think they have days off, or would they come in every day to clean things up?"

It would have been horrible if they were trying to catch someone who wasn't going to show up.

"There's an upstairs too?" Karan was so surprised he slipped into a normal tone of voice, then clapped his hands over his mouth. "I didn't know there was an upstairs too," he said barely above a whisper. That was a lot of rooms. Who were they expecting to use them? And who was this "they" that the two of them kept referencing anyway? Shouldn't "they" have arrived already? Unless they really did have days off.

This was getting complicated. "How do we tell if this is a day off or not?"

"Yeah, they have an upstairs too. It's a really big building when you think about it.." Mayu muttered, thinking.

"I don't know. I guess our plan wasn't that well-thought out." She laughed quietly, narrowing her eyes at the door.

Why did a bunch of ragtag kids need an enormous building anyway? No one really used it, except for the main room and sometimes the kitchen.

"It still might work. We can wait for a while, and if they don't come we can leave." It wasn't as though they had a better plan, and Karan thought that it was a good start, even if they would have to wait a while.

"Okay, that works." It didn't make for a very exciting adventure -- she was hoping to do some detective work today. But they didn't have much of a choice if nothing exciting popped up, did they?

Karan rolled onto his side. There wasn't much to do when you were pretending to be asleep. Hopefully someone would come soon, or else they would have to leave without finding anything out.

Bored, Karan's eyelids drooped. Maybe he should close his eyes, to make sure that they thought he was sleeping. But he would stay awake.

Mayu yawned lazily, keeping her gaze fixed on the open door. She was NOT going to fall asleep during a stake out.

"Maaayu?" Kimiko's voice echoed around the corner. She had noticed the absence of the Legend's prescence around the house and presumed that she had gone to either the flower shop or the headquarters. A nice guess.

"Mayu, are you somewhere around here? I found a nice café around the corner from here and I thought we could go get something to eat. There's a sale down at Durem Depot and I thought that you might want some new clothes.."

Alright, maybe they weren't there. She stepped into the hallway and peered into the guest rooms -- the girl had been found exploring with one of her friends in there before, so it was a good place to start the search.

Karan didn't hear the calling, however the footsteps in the hallway roused him. Had he fallen asleep? Hopefully not. What if he'd missed them?

Then there was another footstep, and Karan sat up excitedly. "Mayu, I think it's one of them!" he hissed.

Mayu gasped and scootched to the edge of the bed. "Let's get the jump on them!" she said excitedly, happy that someone had shown up. She had so many questions to ask!

Kimiko peered into the room where the two children were, and was immediately tackled by a flying Mayu. She was quite agile when she wanted to be, but was caught off-balance by the girl and toppled over with a loud groan.

Jumping up at the same time, Karan launched himself off the bed and at the figure that walked through the door. It wasn't anyone he knew, so he felt no qualms as the three of them sunk to the floor. Hopefully he didn't hurt Mayu though, since she was faster than he was.

Once the mysterious stranger was pinned down, the questions started. "Who are you? Do you clean this place? What's it for? How come it's so big? Do people live here?"

"Scary attacking midgets!" Kimiko shouted, trying to squirm out of the death grip Mayu and Karan had on her.

"Wait, you aren't one of them!" the Legend said after a moment of sudden realization. "Karan, this is my mum, Kimiko."

She moved to get off of the startled girl and stood up, scratching her head idly. "I was hoping that one of them had shown up.."

"I'm not a midget," Karan said crossly. Who was this strange person, to call him something like that?

... apparently not one of "them."

"She's your mom?" That was a surprise. Karan had never known any Legend with an actual mother. Maybe she was just Mayu's "mom" like the girls at home were his "sisters." That had to be it.

Slowly, Karan stood, freeing the pinned teenager. "I'm sorry, Miss-Mayu's-mom."

Sitting up, Kimiko brushed some invisible dust off of her shirt. "Them? Who are you talking about? And it's okay." she nodded to Karan, then looked to Mayu with a frown.

"The people who come here and clean this house, of course." she replied matter-of-factly, then nodded to Karan. "Yep, my mum!"

"I didn't know you had a mom," Karan said slowly. The two girls didn't look alike in his opinion, but they didn't have to. The baby at home didn't look much like her after all.

"I hope we didn't hurt you. We were trying to catch one of them and ask them questions."

Did kids and their parents have to look alike? Mayu knew that her sisters, compared to her mother and herself, did not look alike at all. The only similarity she had with any of them was with Miyu -- they shared the same silver hair.

"Well, now you know!" she said, shrugging.

"I'm fine. Actually, I've been wondering about this place too.." she mused, tapping a finger on her chin in thought. "Who would get up in the morning and actually clean through this place? I've never seen anyone using these guest rooms. And how would they avoid being seen by the influx of visitors this place gets every day?"

They were curious questions, after all. She couldn't help but be a bit curious herself.

"They don't. We found them, didn't we? I guess most grown-ups don't care. But you do." So much for that theory. Or was it? Karan was confused. There were too many questions and too few answers.

Remembering their plot, Karan looked around the room. "I don't think they'll come anymore," he commented.

Shrugging, she remembered back to something interesting that Huni had said a bit back. "Someone said that it was possible that the house might be.. alive."

Ooh, now this was an interesting new theory!

"Well, if they don't really exist, then maybe.. the house can somehow clean itself?" It was a plausible idea, at the very least.

That was an idea they hadn't thought of. Eriol had once been in a house he claimed was alive, but that house was dirty and in bad shape. Eriol even said he fell through the floor.

"Are there that many living houses?" Surely if there was a large number of them, someone would know about it.

"I've never heard of a living house myself, but it could be possible." Kimiko gave a light shrug, standing up from her seat on the ground.

"Did you hear that? The house might be living?" Mayu said excitedly to Karan, stepping out into the hallway. "Do you think we should investigate this?"

It sounded like fun!

"But how?" It wasn't like they could poke the house and see if it twitched, or listen for a heartbeat. "If its cleaning is like healing a cut, it would take a really really long time."

Maybe with equipment they could handle it, but with just their eyes it would take forever.

"I.. don't know." Maybe it was a search best left off for another day.

"While you two try to figure this out, I'm going to go sit in the main room." Kimiko walked away, leaving the two kids to their own discussion.

The concept of a living house was exciting, but something was dragging at Karan's mind. When he looked out the window he finally realized what it was. The sun was setting.

"I think I have to go home soon," he said reluctantly. "I don't want to. But I should."
"Ooh, okay. We'll check that out next time we meet, then!" Mayu said happily, certain that there was going to be a next time. "It was nice to meet you, Karan!"

And with that, she skipped off to join her guardian. Clothes and delicious pastries were waiting for them!

Karan slipped out through a door in the kitchen he'd found once before, not wanting to disturb Mayu and her "mum." He'd come to the headquarters in search of people, not questions, but what he had found wasn't all that disappointing.

"A living house, hm?"

[Reserved- Therapy Not Included]

[Reserved- Birthday Blues]

[Reserved- The Nightmare Before Christmas]