Friends Forever

Friends Forever
It most certainly wasn't an attractive little thing, the doll eight year old Naomi Kaname was staring at determinedly. But then, it did have a sweet little charm to it. Its burgundy eyes seemed to gaze back into Naomi's earthy ones and its European style clothes looked a little worn and dirty. But still, the child's eyes were rapt on the doll in front of her, keeping her attention full upon it.
"Miss?" the store owner said as Naomi stared at the doll in a small souvenir shop she passed every day on her way home from school. "Miss……May I help you?"
Naomi jumped when she finally registered the voice of the shop owner. "Oh……I was just looking at the doll……it's really strange……"
The shop owner smiled. "Legend says he was a famous king long ago."
"Really?" Naomi asked, eyes lighting up at the notion. Things like this were always amazing to her.
The shop owner laughed. "Nah, it's just a doll. But I had you going for a minute, didn't I?"
"Yeah, you did……but I wanna buy it, please…it looks way too cool."
"Sure thing, sweetie," the owner said, ringing it up for her. "That'll be 465 yen, please."
Naomi gleefully handed over the money and accepted the doll in exchange, cuddling it close. "I love it~"
"Oh, you'll want this as well, sweetie," the shop owner said, handing Naomi a small paper crown painted gold. "What's a king without his crown?"
"Oh yeah! Thank you!" Naomi said, snatching the crown and setting it on the doll's head. The young girl smiled at the doll and scratched some of the dirt off his shoes. You're awfully dirty…dirt……hmmm…… Chikyū~" she giggled, beginning to walk home with the doll in her possession. Naomi began tossing Chikyū up in the air and catching him again, smiling happily when she saw a small grin on the doll's face. "We're gonna be friends forever!" she proclaimed as she returned to the high-rise building her family's penthouse was situated atop. She couldn't wait to play with her brand new doll.
<Two months later>
"OW! " eleven year old Chihiro Kaname cried out as she ran into another masterfully-contrived trap – again. The long haired brunette girl many complimented on her beauty (enhanced by the large quantities of make-up she put on) glowered at the new trap she found herself in – ever since her boring, short haired little sister had brought that thing home from whatever diseased little pawn shop she found it in. Ever since she had come home early one day from school (ditching) and found the doll in her room, she had hated the thing. The preteen had even tried finding a lighter or matches in the hopes of turning the doll to ashes.
She couldn't find the doll for three hours – despite her knowing she left it on the kitchen counter – and lost her favorite bracelet besides. And the doll – as usual – turned up in its normal place, on Naomi's bed, looking as innocent as a doll could be.
Thus had started the war between Chihiro and that doll. Over the intervening weeks, she had found herself victim to some harsh little pranks – from stepping on makeshift weaponry to more elaborate things, and whenever Chihiro caught a glimpse of the doll, it seemed to have an evil smirk.
"Chihiro? Did one of your boy toys do this to you and sneak out again?" a deep male voice said. The eldest of the Kaname family, Taisō – age eighteen and second in command in a powerful yakuza branch, he was already a force to be reckoned with and the guardian of Chihiro and Naomi besides.
Chihiro glared up at her older brother, the reason she didn't have to leave her lavish lifestyle after their parents died a few months prior in a car crash. He provided not only by keeping up the family business, but also his less than legal activity.
Taisō chuckled at the sight of his sister. She had been tied up in an intricate net of dental floss and jacks, and was lying on the floor, obviously in pain. "Did the doll get you again, sister?" he said mockingly.
"It isn't funny!" she snapped. "That doll is out to get me, I swear…..it keeps watching me!"
"Then go bug Naomi about it. It's her doll. Maybe she's just getting back at you….that little brat," Taisō suggested.
"Help me out of this net, first?" Chihiro pleaded. "This thing hurts! "
Taisō sighed and carefully freed his middle sibling from the waxy string and metal spikes. "Did you try burning the doll?"
"Obviously! It vanished……for three hours! I hate that thing."
Taisō sighed again and helped her up. "Naomi's obviously doing this to antagonize us. She should be punished. I'll have some of my men take her along to work. If she breaks, good. If she dies, even better."
"I certainly hope so….but she's not smart enough to do all this! I'm telling you, it has to be the doll!"
It isn't the doll, sister…. Taisō thought as Chihiro stalked off to her room to sulk in privacy.
"HEY! MY FAVORITE LIPSTICK'S GONE! " the oldest sibling heard his eleven year old sister shriek.
I need to get out more…… Taisō thought as he stopped outside Naomi's room, where the girl was reading Alice in Wonderland to the doll she'd named Chikyū. I wonder…no, such things are children's tales. The doll isn't magic, she's just trying to make our lives miserable. She'll pay for trying to make fools of us.
In Naomi's room, the young child was happily reading her favorite story to the doll, imagining he was alive and happily listening to her words. Unbeknownst to her, Chikyū's face had turned into a smile as she read to him. She toted the doll everywhere except for school – since her teacher was so immensely freaked out by the thing, she didn't want it anywhere near the students, so Naomi was made to leave it at home.
"I'm pretty thirsty, Chikyū. I'm gonna go get some juice! Don't read ahead, 'k?" Naomi chirped happily, setting book and doll on her bed as she ran off into the kitchen.
"Naomi," Taisō said from behind her as the child got a box of apple juice out of the fridge. "Why are you harassing Chihiro?"
The girl turned and faced her older brother. Truth be told, she was always scared of him, but forced herself to not show it to his face.
"I'm not doing anything!" she protested. "Chihiro's always being mean to me! "
Taisō growled and smacked her sharply across the face. "Don't lie to me, brat. I'm not mom and dad."
Naomi winced and dropped her juice, pressing her small hands to her face in an attempt to ease the sting. "I didn't do anything wrong! Chihiro's just a stupid jerk!"
"Don't talk down to your older sister! I'll teach you respect!" he shouted, repeatedly smacking the little girl until she ran crying to her hiding place. The young man smirked and tossed the juice into the trash. She'll learn. No one breaks my rules, he thought as he walked back to his room, pausing to look in her room at the doll. The young man's eyes widened as he saw the doll, before laying on its side with a smile was now sitting up and seeming to glare up at the yakuza lord.
"I need to get more sleep….I'm starting to see things…….that doll isn't alive, it's just a piece of trash Naomi picked up after school," he muttered to himself before picking up the doll and tossing it into the trash as he walked back to his room. "Just imagining things…"
That night…the penthouse was silent. Everything was in its place. Almost.
Taisō's room lay in near ruins, books and papers spread out over the room, shredded and ripped to pieces. The yakuza lord was in a deep sleep and wouldn't find out about it until morning – but that was good enough for Chikyū.
The small 'being' lay on top on Naomi's chest, staring down at her with his button eyes. Chikyū knew for a fact he'd come into the girl's life for a reason. Ever since he saw her, he knew he was going home with her.
And the fact she was treated like dirt by her own family offended him on a deep, deep level. And yet…in all her bravery, she put up with it all, smiling smiles she didn't feel, laughter as empty as her eyes.
Chikyū was going to protect this girl, his silent friend  for all her voice. Of all his owners past, she alone gave him a name, a child's mind sparking up a small little adoration for the doll. The former king. The cursed puppet. So Chikyū took up his guard, making her siblings pay for their crimes as they had made her suffer.
The stitches morphed into a small smile as he fell upon her shoulder, to wind up caught into a small cuddle as the girl  dreamed of a happier life.
He'd protect her because they were friends. Forever.