A/N: Yeah, well, I know you're all willing to mutilate me now, for starting another fic when I should be updating Night Of The Vampires, but hey, you know how it is, with the writer's block and all. Evil thing... -hisses- Anyway, please read and review anyway on this, because I think ut's something I can write a lot about. Thank you to the peeps who reviewed on my other fics! I love you all for your support! Happy readings!
Disclaimer: Carmen Takoshi (that's me, in case you're wondering) does not own Beyblade. Takao Aoki does, and oddly enough, I'm okay with that.
Prologue
Everything was white. White walls, white plastic chairs. Even the phone on the receptionist's whitewashed desk was of the same snow-fallen color. It was like being encased in a land of eternal winter, that smelled of sterilized equipment and latex gloves. Only the irritatingly geometrical shape of the desk's front panel broke the monotony of white with gleaming, burnished gold.
Phoenix Hills Children's Hospital.
Unlike him, the welcoming nurse did not stand and mentally gape at the unnaturally white surroundings. She smoothed her straight, excruciatingly straight smock, eliminating the fabric wrinkles that only people like her saw. Then she turned towards him, eyeing him impatiently.
"What's wrong, boy?" she asked, breaking him from his thoughts, "never been inside a hospital before?"
He shrugged and pushed his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket, scuffing the toe of his shoe on the perfectly clean floor and regarding her with a silent eye. Distinctly unnerved by the teenager's silence (and he could tell), the nurse cleared her throat, gave a weak smile and beckoned with her thin hand.
"Well, come on then. You've been assigned to a patient on the fifth floor."
The elevator beeped sharply as the doors slid open with a barely audible hiss. Another nurse, male this time, emerged, pushing an wheelchair, occupied by an old, pale woman, out of the compartment, giving the boy's escort a nod of greeting before driving the chair away from the doors. The welcoming nurse held the door open with a hand, motioning with the other for him to step inside. He did so with a roll of his eyes, and for the first time, the woman noticed them. They were strange, she concluded, red, like fire, or rubies. Blood red. She shuddered at the thought and followed him inside, watching him as he settled himself, almost lazily so, back on the aluminum railing of the compartment.
A dashing boy, but strange nevertheless.
He did not fidget once as the elevator glided slowly upwards towards the floor of their destination. He did not even look at her, acting as thought she was not even there. Only when the doors opened and the machine sounded another joyful beep did he react, tearing his oddly-colored gaze from whatever he had been perusing with his mind's eye.
It was door 354. The one farthest from the elevator, in this part of the corridor. Still, the teenager had not said a word as he had strolled along easily beside the increasingly nervous woman. Choosing to, finally, ignore this attitude, the nurse placed a hand on the stainless steel knob of the door, then raised her opposite hand and knocked, twice, with her knuckles.
There was the creak of a bed from within and a faint voice, clouded, as though just emerging from sleep, so soft-spoken that he could not easily tell if it was male or female.
"Come in."
Obeying, the nurse twisted the knob and pushed the door in, standing aside afterwards, and the teen strode in without hesitation.
"Someone's here to see you today," she called, closing the door behind her with a snap, "oh, why are you still in bed? It's almost five in the afternoon!"
"Is it?" the sole occupant of the room responded, and the boy's attention shifted to the sound of the still-gentle voice, "I didn't know. And I wasn't in bed, either."
Snorting at the nurse's very obvious "oh", the boy turned in order to observe the patient more attentively.
He was surprised to see that the person in question was not that much older than he was. It was a girl, not clothed in the bland, colorless frocks that patients usually wore, but in quiet tones; dark greens and a hint of red and black. Her hair was long and of the deepest raven-black, cascading down until the bed that she was perched upon and falling over her shoulders as well. Her arms, bared by the sleeveless top that she wore, were girlishly round and slim, ending in slightly tapered hands and fingers that clutched the plain white bed sheets in an almost juvenile way. Finally, her eyes. They were slender, faintly reminding him of those of Chinese descent, though she did not seem to be purely that. He felt himself lingering on her gaze for a moment. Her eyes were gray. No…not gray. Lighter. Shinier.
The girl's eyes were silver, bearing straight, fearless, into his mahogany.
The nurse was saying something, and he snapped himself from his scrutiny in order to listen.
"…he's here to talk to you, and he'll be coming back every week for a while! Isn't that nice?"
The girl on the bed shrugged lightly but smiled, pushing herself slowly into a standing position.
"Hello," she started, bowing slightly at the waist, silver eyes glinting inexplicably, "my name is Carmen Konowara. What's yours?"
Her naivety struck him, but he answered nevertheless, bowing as well.
"Kai," he replied, speaking for the first time in his already deepened voice, "Kai Hiwatari."
"Kai…Hiwatari."
She allowed the name to roll off her tongue, as though savoring it, committing it to memory. Then she smiled again, and seated herself back on the bed.
"Your voice sounds nice," Carmen remarked, swinging her legs like a child, "well, I'm pleased to meet you, Kai."
"Yeah. Likewise," the boy answered, cocking a brow at her strange comment.
She tilted her head, causing her hair to fall gently to the side.
"You don't sound like you're very happy."
Kai was about to retort when the nurse placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Well, I think that's enough with the introductions," she announced, her voice strained with a fake cheerfulness that Kai found extremely grating, "why don't you two talk for a while? I have a few things to do, alright?"
Kai rolled his eyes, feeling like a child being spoken to by an overly-lenient parent. Carmen did not seem to react.
"Alright," she said, so softly that he almost did not hear, "we'll talk."
(A/N: Weird? I thought so. Oh well. Please review, and I'll see you guys next time! The parental units say that I have to go to bed now...tch.
Carmen, self-proclaimed genius-)