A/N: Time for something completely new! Once again, I've rewritten/added to the old chapters and Annabell has been renamed Elysia. Here's the long-awaited chapter 5. Sorry for the delay and for kinda pulling a Katsura Hoshino on all of you. XD Enjoy.

Chapter 5 – Humanity and Ipods

"So! How'd you manage to turn yourself back into a human, Sasori?" Elysia hadn't stopped bombarding him with questions as soon as they'd finished eating all that pizza. Sasori seemed annoyed by some and ignored others, but when this one came up, he couldn't help but snap.

"I make puppets, not humans."

"Then how?"

"How what?"

"How did you go back to being squishy?"

"...Squishy?"

"Yeah, squishy! How'd you go back to being squishy?" she repeated.

"Kid, you're annoying. Find something to do or entertain yourself elsewhere before I snap your neck."

Elysia pouted. "Fine!"

Maybe following him upstairs to Aya's bedroom had been a bad idea. He'd seemed more interested in messing with the cat than socializing with anyone. It should have been expected of him; Even in the series he'd come off as a cold antisocial. However Ely couldn't help herself. Once her favorite character, always her favorite character! She was determined to at least become friends, but she'd give him some space for now. If she wanted a chance, she couldn't get on his bad side.

"..would it kill you to make conversation though?.." she muttered as she made her way out of the room. As she headed downstairs, Sasori couldn't help but feel something strange. Was that..

'guilt..?'

Being a puppet for so long, his human emotions had dulled and nearly disappeared. Now that he'd gone back to being human, his emotions were coming back stronger than ever.

'This will take some getting used to..'

Perhaps it'd been rude to snap at her when she was just trying to be friendly. However he would never admit that to her face. He let out a sigh.

"Meow?" The sound of the kitty seemed to bring him back to reality. It was staring at him curiously because he'd stopped playing with her. Losing himself in thought again, he settled for simply petting the kitty for a while.

Heading back downstairs, Elysia was met with the saddening realization that Aya wouldn't be able to relate to her struggle.

"So what does this...'ipod' thing..do, hmm?"

"It plays music! Probably a lot different from the music you're used to hearing in your world. But you might like it! Here,.."

Ely watched from the stairs as Aya handed the ipod to Deidara and taught him how to use it.

Progress. She'd made lots of it with the blonde bomber.

Ely watched as Ayame giggled when Deidara put the earbuds in his ears, turned the music on, and flinched when it was too loud. Ely couldn't help but pout again. Not wanting to interrupt their moment, she made a detour heading to the backyard for some fresh air, and to rethink a strategy to crack that cold shell that made the redhead so antisocial.

A half hour. She'd been gone for a half hour. Sasori twitched. If there was something he hated about his situation, it was the return of his guilty conscious. His impatient personality wasn't much help either. He'd expected the hyper brunette to come barging back into the room again within minutes. What else could she be doing right now anyway? He had grown bored again, especially since Deidara was busy being entertained by the other girl- Ayame was it?

He'd grown used to the constant company of the blonde while in the Akatsuki, despite how annoyed he would get at their obviously onesided arguments about art. Seeing as he had the cat to entertain himself with, he hadn't minded the lack of conversation or argument. But even the cat had grown bored, leaving Sasori to wander downstairs to the living room.

He truly found himself completely alone for the first time in a long time.

Who would have thought he'd be able to re-live that feeling of loneliness again. It was... strange, for lack of a better word.

But maybe he could change that himself. He was supposed to be the puppeteer of his own fate and emotions after all.

Perhaps it was karma getting back at him for being rude earlier.

Huffing, he was just about to get up and head downstairs when suddenly the door to Ayame's room busted open again.

"FEAR NOT, DEAR SCORPION, I HAVE RETURNED~!"

Okay, scratch that. Silence was better than obnoxious yelling any day.

'But it's better than being lonely..'

His subconscious again. God he hated it.

"What do you want kid?" he asked raising an eyebrow.

Playing it cool was the best option. He hadn't been on the verge of looking for her, no sir!

"Nice to see you too, am I really that annoying?" Before he could open his mouth to agree, she continued.

"Anyway. On the way back, I heard through the grapevine that you and Deidara like video games." Elysia started looking through Aya's video game shelf. "So I came to challenge you to something for shits and giggles."

In a matter of minutes, she'd convinced the redhead to play guitar hero on the hardest setting possible. Before they knew it, they were bonding through sarcastic comments back and forth, and from the corner of her eye, Elysia swore she saw the redhead smile. But it was only for a split second.