Something Called A Wish

Chapter 1

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I opened my eyes slowly and tried to take in my surroundings.  White ceiling, white walls, a bright open window framed with billowing transparent curtains.  I turned my head to the right slowly.  An IV line was dripping into my arm, and I could faintly see the outline of a door.

“Curses…I’m here again…I failed again,” I murmured, shutting my eyes tightly in disappointment.  My arm feels stiff as I try to sit up in the bed and kick off the thick blankets keeping my legs captive.

Curse that naïve niece of mine with her job as a nurse.  I stretched slowly, pulling the IV out with a quick flick of the wrist just as my niece walks in.

“A-Auntie!” the ravenette quickly ran up to me, blocking my path.  “What do you think you’re doing?  This is the seventh time you’re here!  You can’t do this!” she pleaded.

“What are you talking about?” I snapped back coolly, glancing at my fingertips.  No traces of what I had tried to do had remained, like usual.  “This is only the sixth.”

I saw Atsuki’s eyes fill with tears, but I could care less.  All I wanted was death.  Just as long as I got my death, not even a glorious one anymore.  I wasn’t here to exist, anyways.  Why was I here?  Fate was such a cruel thing.  Why thwart what I want?  I’m no lover, I have no one I desire to be around, I just have one wish.  Let me grant it myself, neh?

---

I stepped out of the room as soon as Atsuki had left and headed down the hall towards the workroom to grab a cup of coffee.

“Drat,” I grumbled to myself, rummaging through the cupboard to find my usual drab purple mug.  “Don’t tell me they moved it…”

“Can I help you?” a voice startled me as I backed up against the cupboard and heard the sickening crash of glass against the tile floor.

“Sh-” I caught my cup from falling, but I watched the rest of the cups break.  “Oh, sorry,” the calm voice continued but I stopped him abruptly.

“Seriously, there’s a thing called m-” I paused as soon as I turned, the words forming on my lips dying as soon as I turned.

A young blonde man, probably in his twenties, approached me, his bright intelligent grey eyes full of concern.  I think.  “I’m so sorry about that,” he apologized again smoothly as he bent down to retrieve the broken shards.

His eyes caught me off guard, and I looked down.  After a moment, I also crouched down to pick up the pieces, my eyes intent on picking up every piece.

His chuckling surprised me.  “What is this, a competition?” he bantered a bit.

I bit my tongue and just gave a sly grin, “Does it seem so?”

Did I just flirt?

“Well, I won’t wait for you then,” the handsome man laughed, then suddenly stopped, his face growing serious as he glanced at my hands.  “Hold up.”

“What?” I paused, a shard of glass between my fingertips, a bored tone indicating my annoyance.

He took the shard from my fingertips and suddenly placed my index finger into his mouth.  “You should stop…you’re cutting your fingers.”

I stared in shock for a while, then pulled my fingers away in disgust as a resounding slap echoed in the workroom.

I blinked, surprised at my own reaction as the doctor slowly stood up, holding his reddened cheek.

“Well,” he added on a dry tone, “Your reflexes are definitely fine.”

The apology that I was about to say died on my lips as I angrily stormed out of the workroom, very, very annoyed.

No, this was just another thing to add to my list as to why I wanted to die.  Because of annoying people like him who pretended to care.

---

As I quickly paced back to my room, I suddenly paused, hearing someone talking to themselves in the last room down the hall.  “What…” I muttered, curious since the voice sounded too high for a regular adult.  I crept up to the door and leaned my ear slightly against the open crack.

“No, if you want to do it right, you have to crease it twice!” the voice was exclaiming in its own particular way.  I didn’t know why I was curious.  And I didn’t realize that I had pushed the door open and fell down in the room.

“Who’s there?” the voice meekly called from the bed.

“Haah, sorry about that,” I muttered, standing to my feet with a grim grin, but I stopped, my eyes landing on a small pale figure, too small to be a full-grown adult.  “A child?”

“Ahaha, yeah, well, I guess I am one.  Here, here, come here,” the voice took a higher pitch with his excitement.  As I neared cautiously, I noticed that it was a young boy of around six with bright hazel eyes and a bright halo of blonde hair.  It was very unusual to have such a young boy in this wing of the hospital. After all, this wing was only for those who were to have immediate surgery or were in critical condition.  Staring at this boy, I couldn’t help but jump to conclusion.

“Your parents must be wealthy.  What happened, did you scrape your knee?” I asked, slightly sarcastic as I crossed my arms.

The boy tilted his head and ignored my question but motioned for me to take a seat in the chair beside him.  “Here, I’ll teach you something really cool I just learned!” he chirped.

I frowned but complied.  So what?  He’s a little kid, so he was probably bored or something.  I could at least entertain myself since being in the hospital was boring, and I knew they were keeping tabs on me in case I tried to escape or do anything sketchy.  “What is that?” I pointed to the colorful squares of paper on his lap.

“I’m making cranes!” was the ever-cheerful reply I got.  “I heard that if you make a thousand cranes, your wish will come true!”

I stared.  What a superstitious act.  Who would do that just to obtain a wish when you could grant it yourself?

I couldn’t.  I couldn’t grant my own wish.  I glanced over at the boy.  “Boy, you mean to tell me that any wish is granted if I make this…this crane?” I picked up the delicate paper creature.

“No, I’m not Boy!” the little blonde flailed a bit.  “I’m Kohaku!  Call me Kohaku!”

“…Boy.”

“Ko!  Ha!  Ku!”

“…Koi.*”

“Mou~” the boy pouted, crossing his arm.  “Neh, if I teach you to make a crane, will you call me by my real name?”

“I’ll think about it,” was the only reply he got from me.

“Ah!  Right!  What’s your name, miss?  Who are you?” the blonde set a goldenrod colored paper before me.

Who am I?  That’s a good question, isn’t it…  “I’m…just call me Onee.  My name doesn’t matter, anyways.”

“Of course it does,” the boy tugged my sleeve as he took my paper and creased it properly where I had messed up.  “But, because you said so, I’ll call you Nee-chan, but promise me you’ll tell me your real name after we make more cranes!”

What harm is done if I make an empty promise to a child?  “Fine.”  Nothing will happen, right?

“Promise me!”

“…I promise.”

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*-Kohaku is also a type of koi, but its original meaning is something to the effect of amber.  Or something.  XD