Chapter Text
The first thing a doll sees is the face of its maker.
The first thing a Flower Doll sees is the face of a shocked youth that is their resonance partner.
Of course, Ren doesn’t know that; they don't know anything, considering they are the doll that just opened its eyes.
But somehow, somewhere in a deep unconscious part of itself, it knows its name. It’s just next to the knowledge that the face, now peering at them with puppy-like excitement, is familiar.
It needs a moment, but then, it also realizes that the people talking about „rare silver flower” finally blooming are also talking about it. But even if it would like to know more or think about how come it can understand those things, they have no time for it.
Because the face above grins even wider, and the appendage - hand, their brain supplies - extends to him.
‘Nice to metcha! I’m Nozomu!’ The voice that says it is loud and cheerful but not annoying, surprisingly. ‘What’s your name?’
Ren blinks, then registers its body also has the same appen- arm that can be raised and touched to that hand in front. They also realize who Nozomu is and what he’s asking about.
‘My name is Ren, Flower Master.’
*
Following days after that meeting it learns many, many more things.
Flower Dolls are humans – or at least, humanoids, with their DNA mixed in with plants’ DNA. Those plants – or well, saplings, were discovered together with embryos in incubators that started the process of growth as soon as the sunlight reached them. However, despite that, humans that developed from them grew in a coma-like state – with exception of the digestive system, all of their organs functioned like humans’, but their minds never left the deep sleep state.
That is, until the first Flower Master appeared, making the sapling that appeared with the doll bloom – apparently cutting off part of the connection between the two, the one that allowed the plant to sustain the human body through photosynthesis. As a result, the digestive system also started. Then, the doll proved to be quite incapable of emotion but easy to teach, as long as Flower Master expressed the want for it to learn. And they learned quickly: how to read, count, move, then create according to orders. Then, how to perform tasks; finally, how to use themselves as weapon of their Flower Master.
With that last realization humanity stopped wondering where the unusual package of human tied to plants came from; instead, they focused on finding out all the ways in which the Doll could be used, and how to awaken more of them. As more and more resources got poured into research, more and more Flower Masters were discovered and matched with the Dolls. Then, people discovered another batch of them, of Flower Dolls starting to grow under sunlight.
And next.
By the third discovered Greenhouse, as the mysterious capsules got named, the scientists still pursuing the knowledge for the sake of knowing and not utilizing the Dolls have realized a curious thing: while the Doll could eat, and could feel hunger, they could not starve to death. Then, they developed a theory that they confirmed in the most cruel of ways.
Because they killed the first Doll by killing their flower.
Of course, officially it was an accident, but. The first Flower Master went mad with the loss (or so the people said), declaring government unfit to control the process of the Doll’s awaking and matching, creating a counter power to the state-sponsored facilities, going as far as to gather other believers and stealing new Greenhouses, overseeing their matchings.
As if his methods were better, the Dolls in his care, despite being younger, started matching to the Flower Masters shortly after reaching teenage years. On the opposite side, the saplings in original greenhouse seem to reject more and more candidates for their Masters, creating scarcity despite the growth of the Moon Fields, the facility of the original Flower Master.
Of course, Ren doesn’t know all that when it wakes up, but learns soon after „Blooming” - that’s how researchers around call the day of its eyes opening.
Nozomu, their Flower Master, calls that „a birthday”, though.
‘I mean, you started living for real on that day, right? Just like us, so!’
That’s something different about Master too – whereas researchers are fascinated by the differences, Nozomu sees only similarities in them. He also doesn’t seem to be bothered by the fact Ren is one of the last Dolls from the very first Greenhouse discovered by humanity, or the fact the researchers still could not tell what made Dolls react only to certain humans - whether due to their DNAs, relation to whoever even created Dolls or due to some other nefarious reason.
He also doesn’t seem to be bothered by the fact that, even though the government facility hosting Ren doesn’t attempt to restrain his access to the Doll, both he and Ren are cut off of the silver flower that bloomed on the day Ren opened their – well, he was leaning more towards his, by now, that’s what his Master used – eyes. It is mentioned in conversations, yes, and Ren feels through some innate part, that the plant is doing fine, well-watered and in a perfect environment. But for how long?
Probably until the researchers drawing his blood – it’s different from Nozomu’s, he saw his Master cut himself once by accident; it was much more colorful than his – will decide they need to expose Ren to some kind of stress, or like, expose his Flower to it, so that they can then expose him.
Thinking about that didn’t feel good, even though he technically shouldn’t know dislike or fear, but…
But Nozomu’s face looked strange – and it usually happened every time someone reminded his Master Ren could not leave the facility, could not leave with the flower still in the hands of complete strangers.
Ren learns not to ask about outside too much, because those expressions arrive every time he asks about it; he did try to say he doesn’t mind the situation, but it didn’t end well.
Even though he really didn’t mind it; true, part of it was because that was all that he knew, but at the same time…
His body was not exposed to unpleasant sensations for extended periods of time. He could eat, and nobody even thought about restraining his access to water, so he did not know thirst.
(Apparently, neither did his Flower, even when the humans around it purposefully stopped watering it; Ren knows when that was, because he could not sate his urge to drink with normal amounts of water, having to increase them, back then.)
Above everything else, nobody even thought about restraining his- or rather Nozomu’s access to him. It probably also had to do with the fact that, even if his Master wanted, he could not take Ren away, but that just works in his favor even more. It means the scientists don’t leave guards and Nozomu doesn’t realize there are additional windows in the room Ren is in, so he doesn’t hold himself back when telling him the stories.
Ren thinks he likes those. He also likes Nozomu’s voice, probably, even if it’s much louder than he needs for it to be heard clearly. Still, it dances, up and down, quiet and loud, everything about it alive.
That is probably what differs them, too; Ren cannot find any other reason for other humans to treat him so differently if he also was a living being. And besides, isn’t that why they never call him Ren, the name he had inside himself, but „a Doll”?
‘It’s because they need to justify hurting you to themselves or they’d feel guilty, though.’
The person who tells him that is not human, but also a Doll, one that apparently is not controlled by the government facility, too.
Granted, it would be hard to wake him up, Ren has already noticed that the strict policies prevented more than one outsider at the time from interacting with a Doll, awake or otherwise, and only under strict control.
Sora, who woke up only after meeting both his Flower Masters a once, would never get the condition allowing him to open his eyes there. It was probably why he was part of the opposing force – of Tsukipro, as he introduced them to Ren.
Even if that didn’t explain why he was there-
‘The others from the first generation sensed you waking up!’ Sora explains cheerfully. ‘But their DNA codes were thoroughly researched, so they could not reach out themselves. But I’m from another Greenhouse, more, the one government never got in their hands, so I could bypass the security measures against us!’
They sit in complete darkness in Ren’s room. Technically speaking, this room should never be cut off from the light, there was a window, a real one even Nozomu saw, at one of the walls – admittedly, showing only white wall of the next building – but recently the research on him was moved to the stage of something humans called „light deprivation”. It was paused whenever Nozomu visited, making his Master’s face all the more welcome sight. Without his designated human or the light, Ren felt weak and fragile, even more than he apparently was (Nozomu did compare their wrist sizes once). Even though technically speaking this body ought not to be weakened by lack or presence of light…
‘If they do the same to your plant, even if you were in full light, the results would be even more severe,’ Sora explains. ‘We’re dependent on light. Even if right now it is beneficial to me they cannot see us. Well, they probably have some detectors or something, but if you say you were in this room all the time, alone, they will think stuff is just malfunctioning by showing double images.’
Ren blinks.
‘And it’s important...?’ he starts, not sure what or why he wants to ask, but it doesn’t seem to be a problem, because Sora hums, signalling he already works on answering it in a way that won’t confuse Ren- at least too much.
‘The government doesn’t like when we communicate,’ he starts slowly. ‘By „we”, I mean Dolls, but also those from Tsukipro connecting with those under their care. Nozomun would also never be able to get to you if we didn’t erase all traces of his activity with us.’
Ren blinks.
‘Master is… with Tsukipro?’ He asks and Sora makes a face. ‘But he never said...’
‘That’s because, to those who wake us up, we’re more important than any consequence we might bring – to them or to the world,’ Sora explains. ‘Even if it still feels weird to hear you call Nozomu „master”.’
‘But… isn’t he just that?’ Ren is even more confused at that than at the fact he – small Doll locked up in the room he cannot leave without supervision – can have an impact on the world. ‘Flower Masters? Those who rule us?’
He doesn’t know why he had that assumption, he’s pretty sure it was with him even before the other people with white coats tried to teach him things (Nozomu denied half of them; those, Ren rejected as simply not true, because it was his Master that could not be wrong). Before humans tried to establish their dominance, and Ren allowed them simply because by that, he also made them unable to deny Nozomu entry to wherever Ren was.
But Sora seems to think it unusual?
Admittedly, other Doll hums.
‘It’s been… a while since I bloomed – ah, woke up, for you,’ he clarifies. ‘And… I needed two people to wake me up. It would be hard to have two Masters, right? So maybe my instinct muted that belief, so that I didn’t have to struggle too much? But, hm...’
He crosses his arms.
‘We’re called Dolls because so far, there was not one ugly child born from the Greenhouse, you know?’ Sora starts anew, slowly, and Ren blinks. ‘We’re pretty, like dolls humans make, and have skills they don’t have. Deep down, they probably would feel insecure, if we didn’t pose ourselves below. But then.... those picked as Flower Masters, who we wake up for. Those rarely want us to be below. No, in all honesty, I don’t know anyone who didn’t want to be equal. We take that over, the longer we know them.’
Ren nodded slowly, he could see that. Anything that Nozomu said had more weight to him than what any other researcher did. He also could see Nozomu did not treat him like the researchers did, letting him ask and answering questions without hesitation. It probably was what Sora meant.
‘That means you will soon start thinking of Nozomu as more than just „Master” too,’ Sora finishes and then grins. ‘You better think what it is that you want him to become! Humans seem to struggle with it on their own.’
*
Though, it didn’t seem to be a problem for Nozomu.
‘What I want to be? Ren’s friend! You don’t want to?’
Ren had a feeling that it was the only thing that could stop Nozomu from making his decision into reality – if Ren declared himself not willing to share the results of his decision.
Though he did not have the reason to oppose this one – maybe aside from the fact he was stuck in a room that Nozomu could only visit.
That was probably a problem, right.
Even if Nozomu said it was not in the way of them being friends, Ren can see it’s in the way for something else.
Many something else’s.
‘If you’d like to go-’
‘Let’s check it out together- ah.’
‘I’m sure you’ll...like...it...’
Nozomu’s many proposals all ended in that awkward silence, and something unpleasant grew in Ren’s chest. It’s probably „being fed up” that Sora mentions now and then when visiting him at night.
This is something that changes, actually. While Nozomu can only ever visit during the day, while scientists supervised, Sora visited whenever it was dark and Ren was alone – or as „alone” as a test subject could be. Despite scientists’ questioning, though, Ren is pretty sure they did not figure out that he sees another Doll every time they test his ability to thrive in light deprivation or whatever this challenge was called. They probably also could not figure out why Nozomu knew whenever that happened and asked Ren how he feels, too, but well. He felt the humans – ironically – underestimated his Flower Master the most.
Or just were sure they had him under their control, as long as they stayed in charge of Ren.
He didn’t like the implication of being the leash on Nozomu, but in his current situation, he could do very little about that. Could do very little in general, though according to older Doll, that was just his imagination.
‘Or like, not a permanent state,’ Sora clarifies, after Ren asks him about it. ‘You’re not completely developed yet, you could say? And thus you don’t struggle with being closed like that. But once you grow enough to realize what it is that you can do and where you want to be, you will realize there’s really a lot- perhaps even more that we can do compared to humans.’
Ren hums dubiously, but Sora smirks.
‘You already have those, right?’ he points out. ‘The moments where you really, really feel something is off. Nozomu told me.’
Ren blinks. The moments he felt something was off…
Was probably when Nozomu had to leave the room while the scientists stayed for another round for sample gathering. And the time when the scientists scoffed that Nozomu would not be coming. Or the one time he overheard them talking about Nozomu’s expressions as „annoying cheer”.
Yes, he knows what his senior means, alright.
‘While you wait for those to grow so that you can free yourself,’ Sora starts anew after seeing his eyes, ‘there is something else you could be doing that will help you develop sooner. Albeit it isn’t safe to start it too soon, or they will figure out you get outside help, but-’
‘What is it? Senpai.’ Ren shifts to face the other more properly. ‘I don’t think it’s whatever you do to see me, but.’
‘No, that one is a bit too advanced,’ Sora agrees, then grins. ‘But this one is more pleasant. At least for me… and most of us, when we get over the embarrassment, I guess? It was a problem for Ryo-sama.’
Ren blinks, that was a name he did not hear just yet, but. More importantly…
‘What is...’
‘Singing.’
*
An ability to make your voice appear, but sound higher or lower, more vibrating and yet wavy, like the leaves swaying on the wind.
(He doesn’t know why he knows how those look, the room he’s kept in is white and empty, but alas.)
He understands what Sora means about embarrassment, the feeling is hot in his chest, tightening his throat and making him want to escape, hide in a corner.
Yet, his singing is something that delights both researchers and Nozomu, a quite unusual happening. Though they follow it through with other, much less pleasant things.
Because they cut him off from Nozomu.
One day, they keep their conversation going, ending it only when Nozomu is called out by the researcher for his „time to leave”, and his Flower Master turns to say his „see you again” to him, promising to be back soon.
Then, the days of intensive research that leaves Ren’s body sore and his voice rough follow, researchers checking different things day in and day out, to the point he barely has time to sleep and hydrate himself.
And Nozomu is not back.
At first, he didn't ask, while the visits were consistent and often, it wasn’t like his Flower Master always stuck to daily visits.
But then he sleeps seven times, which suggests at least a week has passed, and he hears nothing about it, gets no information, not from, but also not even about his Flower Master – or the research that is now conducted on him, though like always, that is his secondary worry.
But then he asks, does what Nozomu taught and encouraged him to do – and receives no answer beyond a dismissive scoff and a demand to „better focus on producing results”.
What results? Why would it be better? He has no idea.
But tonight he remembers there’s another source of information he could consult – albeit it seems the scientists suspected something, because the day they cut him off from Nozomu, they also changed a room in which he was kept. He would not know if he didn’t walk to it himself, though, it was the exact same interior, just white bed, empty table they sometimes used for their equipment, a window showing another white wall and a shelf filled with white one-piece clothes he could „freely” choose from- - the scientists made it quite clear they needed him to change into a new one every day, for some reason.
He suspected even his clothes were used for some kind of research, though he’d rather not think of that.
But the point stood, and if Sora knew of his location from Nozomu, his… probably mirage would end up manifesting at a wrong location…
Unless it was not a location of his body, but something in him that Sora targeted – he did mention scientists not liking the Dolls communicating, even if he never elaborated it meant they could locate each other-
No, that was incorrect, he mentioned other Dolls from the First Greenhouse realizing Ren woke up, right?
That night when the realization of it struck him, Ren only pretended to fall down on his bed asleep as soon as he was left alone. Instead of actually sleeping, he looked back into himself, into that place he checked when searching for answers to Nozomu's question on whether Ren knew who he was.
Yes, right next to the certainty of what his name was and who Nozomuy was, there was something else. Something intangible, yet so obvious to him, he probably would not notice it if he wasn’t specifically looking for it.
The small flower with silvery leaves and white flowers. Snow-in-spring, the flower that bloomed with his waking up. It’s tiny, but the leaves seem already developed, and a fair amount of flowers seem to be already in process of opening.
Majority is still buds with petals tightly closed, even if already in shining white. Ren doesn’t need scientists mumbling above his head about „reflection of state and abilities on the development of flowers” to know it means he’s still probably way out of the league to figure out whatever skill Sora used to contact him. But maybe…
He didn’t need to be the one reaching out, just signaling where the one Sora wanted to contact was, right? And if he remembers correctly, flowers use different things than humans…
He reaches out for one of the opened flowers and receives an instant answer.
Oh. So that’s why they were excited about him singing.
Voice and scent were one to the Dolls. In other words, he who controlled his voice, controlled his flower’s ability to release signals-
Not only them.
Ren unconsciously nods. Of course, Nozomu said so as well, that flowers to humans were more than just pretty things. They were poison, dangerous. They were medicine, helpful. They were material, useful. They were parts of weapons, deadly. They could be messengers, secretive.
Right now, he needed to figure out that last part.
Scent was the message for the insects to come to the flower, right? Nozomu mentioned something like that. And even if Ren is not entirely sure about comparing Sora to bugs, right now he focuses on that image, of a thin path of invisible scent that leads the cheerful bug to where the flower bloomed.
Okay, so he had an image, what next? What did he just realize-
He needed a melody to carry his message.
Without thinking, Ren opens his mouth.
*
Apparently, also his physical one, and that warrants a reaction from the scientists. Though apparently they don’t react to his voice but his vitals changing, or something like that, and they ban him from singing unless he’s in a lab with one or more humans supervising, but.
‘You’re amazing, Ren-kyun.’
He got the result he wanted, so he won’t complain about the restraining orders.
Sora smiles at him in the darkness the scientists submerged his room in the following night – this time he feels it had to do with his singing without an order, which Sora confirms could be seen as „punishment”.
For just singing? For wanting to be heard by someone he wanted to see?
‘For doing all that without an order,’ Sora clarifies for him. ‘That’s the other side of why they call us Dolls, the one that never applies with Flower Masters – other humans really, really want to see us as things they can use, you know, and not things that can think for themselves. But, speaking of Flower Masters, how do you feel? Nozomu has said it’s been more than a week since they locked him out.’
So, he was right and it wasn’t his Master forgetting him, but others trying to make them forget about each other. The thought makes his chest squeeze with another feeling that he seems to have become quite familiar with, this past week.
He was anxious after hearing that information.
‘I’m…anxious. What now?’ He asks, because he really only knows his feelings and nothing else. To make any kind of move, a reaction, a plan, he needed more.
Sora seems to understand, because he hums, crossing his arms – and Ren notices a faint shimmer.
What kind of flower could cause that, he wonders…
‘For you, the best would be to try and figure out as much about your flower and your connection to it as possible,’ he starts slowly. ‘You could use scientists for that, just start paying attention to what they say when testing on you. Pretty sure you will get much more out of any research they’re in the process of than they ever will anyway, so.’
‘But...’
It doesn’t bring him closer to seeing Nozomu again, and Ren with sudden clarity realizes that was the reason for his anxiety. That he had no idea what to do to meet his Flower Master again.
Sora seems to realize that too, because he flails a bit.
‘Of course, we will do our part!’ He quickly assures. ‘Nozomu keeps trying to meet you using the regular route, and Tsukino uses that to create an unconventional one. We also have a plan b- no, wait, that’s already C – okay, plan C in works. Finally, you knowing yourself better will allow you to do the same as I did to meet you.’
Ren blinks and Sora grins.
‘If your Flower Master cannot get to you,’ he starts. ‘You could always learn how to get to him, right?’
*
It was easier said than done, but Ren learns of it only in the following weeks.
He follows through with Sora’s advice, and starts properly listening to the researchers and their discussions on his „state, connection, petals, stem, flower dust” and many other things that only gradually start making sense.
Turns out, there was a reason why researchers were apprehensive yet obsessed with him, and why they stared in disbelief at Nozomu treating him like just another friend.
Because he has better regeneration than a human.
Can see and hear at longer distances.
Is able to sense things humans aren’t (which explains why Sora keeps managing to sneak into his room after that one time Ren sent out a signal...).
He meditates, analyzing his inner flower in private, not sharing with the researchers the knowledge that appears in his mind the longer he contemplates tiny white flowers.
And he grows weaker every day.
Gradually, he loses control of his focus. Then, his strength. Then, even getting his body to change position becomes a chore.
Researchers panic about it, calling it „wilting”.
Ren knows it’s „missing Nozomu”, though.
If he was a flower, he needed sunlight. And he could do without it fine only while his Flower Master was there, a day away from a visit. But he doesn’t bother with telling that to the humans around him, they cannot understand that, and in their helplessness change the panic to anger, venting it on Ren every time his voice cracks or his body doesn’t listen to him.
Still…
There’s one researcher that seems to… well. Not listen to him, but. Watch over him, carefully, logically, not giving in to the panic or anger, as if fully aware of what was going on with their research subject. He is only a support researcher, and he can only propose certain solutions, but those seem to be helping in maintaining Ren’s state without worsening it.
He’s also the one to suggest giving Ren a break in a darkened but not completely dark room, not that it made much of a difference to him now.
He was too weak to meditate. And his flower probably grew weaker with him, so there was no way the plant would manage to sustain both of them. Then again, perhaps that was what scientists wanted to research with him too, how long can a Doll survive without its Flower Master…
They probably don’t even realize it’s because of that.
Ren huffs softly at himself, with effort turning to his side and curling up.
He suspected that inner thought was right, humans didn’t wake up only after developing a connection with another living being like Dolls did, and didn't have another semi-independent life form growing together with them from the start, either. The possibility of them understanding that…
Green eyes watchfully inspecting him from behind the glasses flash in his memory, but Ren has only enough power to curl a bit more.
Even that intelligent-looking scientist will probably realize that’s the reason after Ren is gone…
Unless he’s connected himself.
He doesn’t know why the thought appeared at this very moment, but Ren blinks anyway, observing as the air in front of him shimmers, as if the thought about a young blond scientist offering suggestions that worked out for him summoned the phenomena.
He didn’t know the man and Ren’s visitor were connected, but he was to learn about that only much later.
Sora, now formed properly from the yellowish particles that shimmered to change color to the reddish-brown for his hair and blue for his eyes, kneels by the bed upon which Ren curled up.
‘Ren-kyun?’ he reaches out, but Ren feels no touch. Still, the flower inside of him trembles. ‘It’s really not too good… They’ve had you for too long.’
People not his Flower Master. Away from the sun that he, not his flower, needed to thrive.
‘Senpai.’ Ren raises his heavy head up, to see what – he now knew – was a semi-physical mirage made of some kind of flower pollen. ‘I want to go to Nozomu.’
He’s tired, hurting and more than anything, scared, lacking the anchor that is the presence of his Flower Master. And even though he was saying the most impossible thing, Sora still smiles at him in something like satisfaction.
‘I hoped you’d say that.’