Title:Self

Characters: Gretel, Rock

Rating: PG

Notes: Yeah... I don't know... I really don't cause Gretel is one seriously messed up kid. Getting into that head for a drabble piece? Not easy and I don't know what the heck I'm doing.

Ring-a-ring-a-roses

A pocket full of posies

Ashes! Ashes!

We all fall down

Gretel, for that was who she was now, liked Rock. Even when she wouldn't be Gretel and she was her Nii-sama, she was sure she'd still like Rock. Because a part of her was always the same as her Nii-sama and that meant that he'd like Rock if she did.

He was so different. Like a knight doll. Not a real knight, because he was far too real and not enough of a knight to really be one. But he was like one, kind of similar to how a doll was almost like a real human, but not. So Rock was a different kind of knight doll.

One that Gretel couldn't help but be fond of.

Ring-a Ring-a roses

Pocket full of posies

Hush-a, Bush-a

We all fall down

But Rock didn't follow the rules.

When Gretel did what was simple and easiest to show Rock just how much she liked him, a little favor done was all it was, he acted so different from what she'd expected.

Gretel adored the knight-doll man all the more, even if he had surprised her in such a way. But she had to be careful now too. Something had broken. And Nii-sama wouldn't be happy with Rock if he had found a way to make Gretel upset. And she knew she was upset because there was now a crack in her knight-doll man.

Ashes in the water

Ashes in the sea

We all jump up

With a one-two-three

Maybe that was because he was kind.

He was kind and didn't smell like she or her Nii-sama did. But maybe those differences were why he could so easily crack and break. He was just a doll and not like them.

But... She wouldn't have minded meeting up with more people like Rock. Or just meeting up with Rock again. Outside the ring, outside the smell, and free of the dark, gray world.

Symptoms of serious illness

Flowers to ward off the stench

We're burning the corpses

We all drop dead

Even if she couldn't meet up with Rock again, she wouldn't be lonely. How could she be? Nii-sama was always with her, of course. They'd never be lonely if they were always together.

But something made her want to turn and smile as she left the boat. A sweeter and cleaner smile and give it Rock as a present. And he liked this present. Her odd doll-man smiled back and Gretel was happy and laughing. In a way and towards a thing that was very different and special only could do.

Ring a-ring o' roses

A pocketful of posies

a-tishoo!, a-tishoo!

We all fall down

...

The crack had spread. But it wasn't or hadn't been Rock that had cracked. That was okay though. Because Gretel saw something very special through that cracked view.

The sky. And a real knight's smile.

The sky was so bright and the smile that Rock gave her was so real that it was as if Gretel had finally reached that place outside their ring and into the world beyond.

And it was a true forever.