Summary: M-21 hears something slithering in the house one day.

Set post-season 3.

PARADOXICALDREAMER, THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT. *dies laughing*

Oh my god this fic is made of complete and utter crack. XD;;

A New Friend

By Dark Ice Dragon

M-21 frowned, twisting to look behind him. Seira didn't, but she was busy cooking so she might not have heard it. What was… There. He could hear a faint constant chiming from the living room door; he'd heard it a few times before, since he'd asked Takeo and Tao to be allowed to stay, but he'd assumed it was one of them listening to music. The living room was too far from their rooms though, so what…

Movement caught his eye and M-21 stared, wondering if he was having a bad reaction to what he'd had for lunch (Frankenstein had said he was trying a new ingredient in his recent batch of ramen and M-21 doubted he would put something in that would give him delusions) because why was he seeing Takeo's silver hair tie slithering across the floor like a snake? It was bigger and thicker than the last time he'd seen it (and when was the last time he'd seen Takeo wear it?), its body more filled out, looking like it was covered in scales. The cross was its head, raised above the floor, pointed towards Seira.

"Is there something wrong?"

"Ah." M-21 tore his gaze away from the hair tie to see Seira looking at where he'd just been staring at. He grimaced; he was going to have to tell Frank-

"It must be hungry."

-Huh? M-21 gaped at her as she turned away and started rummaging through one of the drawers. The cutlery drawer.

"You can see it?" He wasn't hallucinating?

Seira nodded after she pulled out a tablespoon, and began walking over to meet the hair tie. "You haven't seen it before?" she asked him as she crouched, pointing one end at the hair tie.

"…No." Did everyone else know about it? M-21 got up off the sofa so he could see what was going to happen next. He only remembered Seira's first comment when the hair tie nudged its…nose against the tip of the spoon.

"It eats metal." M-21 wasn't sure what he was seeing, but it looked like the spoon was melting and shrinking, like it was being drawn into the hair tie. It didn't look like it was getting bigger, but if it was only one spoon…

"Yes. He discovered its preference for cutlery a few days ago."

"Does Frankenstein know?" M-21 muttered, because the thought of Frankenstein allowing his cutlery to be used as food for the hair tie didn't fit.

"He's aware," Seira said, a small smile curving her lips. Finished with the spoon, the hair tie made a light trilling sound (how?) at Seira before it turned its head towards him and slithered its way over.

M-21 eyed the hair tie as it paused at his feet, 'looking' up at him, waving its head side to side. "What does it want?"

"Either to be petted or to be picked up," Seira told him, and M-21 could hear her amusement.

He sighed, staring at it for a few more seconds. When it drooped, its head tilting down, M-21 clicked his tongue before crouching and extending his hand towards it, waiting to see what it would do next. He and Frankenstein wouldn't allow something in the house if it was dangerous.

It perked up instantly, poking his fingers twice before pushing itself up onto his hand and winding around his wrist like it was trying to be a bracelet, resting its head on the back of his hand.

M-21 waited to see if it would do anything else, but it didn't, and he warned, "I'm going to watch TV for the next hour."

Its only response was a tinkle of chimes as it squeezed his wrist and then loosened its hold again.

"Fine." He straightened, nodding at Seira as he turned to go back to the sofa. When Takeo and Tao got back from shopping, he would ask them why Takeo had been carrying a sentient being in his hair.

All I'm going to say is discussions on my tumblr can get very interesting, bwahaha. *hearts* For Paradoxicaldreamer's comment, 'Now that Takeo has the smaller ties, the old one probably lives at home and slithers around. Rai probably gets along well with it.' (We were talking about how his silver hair tie is a symbiotic being, thanks to the fact that it keeps changing length every time we see it.)

Either the hair tie started out alive, or Rai accidently created life in Observed, haha.