"Once upon a time, I was born. It is still a fact that the day you are born is the day you are most likely to be murdered. More human souls are killed by mothers' hands, than by the hands of strangers. My mother tried to murder me, but love confounded her."

Ito doesn't remember a moment in her life where she simply lived. She has always been too focused on surviving for something as frivolous as existence. She never plans ahead for anything and is used to surprises (good or bad) coming in and out of her life.

When she finds out she's pregnant again it is after an overdose that's landed her in the emergency room, and she doesn't know whether to call it good or bad news.

She had woken up on a hospital bed with the frail old body of her mother openly weeping beside her. Ito doesn't see her husband or son anywhere, and neither shows up for the week she is in recovery. Only her mother is there every day, crying and begging her to come back home, to live a better life.

Her son, Sora, who had just turned fifteen, was living with his grandmother at the time, and she wondered if he was too disgusted with her to come visit the hospital room, or drop by the old apartment for that matter. She missed him terribly, and so she decided she could try being better for a few months.

She doesn't think about the cells multiplying inside of her for a long time, but she thinks about ending it every day. What could she offer anyone? She already messed up so much the child she already had. She let her husband brutalize him, and make him cry. She let the world tear him apart, how could she do that to another person?

By the time she gets around to facing her problems it's too late to have an abortion. Ito thinks of mercy, she thinks of leaving the baby on the steps of a religious institute, or giving her to a rich family. She also considers smothering the child—letting it return into the safe space of death instead of forcing it to face the harsh and brutal darkness of life.

Ito will admit to trying any drugs she can get her hands on. She lives for the euphoria of altered states of mind. When the sticky sweetness of narcotics twists inside of her, she feels like she could be air. But none of that can stand up against the first time she sees her daughter. She is bewildered by her, and everything seems to change in an instance.

She is born in a room the size of a broom closet during free clinic hours at an Emergency Medical Center. It is the third day of September and the air is still sticky with summer heat. Ito wants to name her "Haka" because it means red and she comes out with the brightest mop of hair she's ever seen.

"Mom, come on. That's lame." Sora sat next to her as she held the little moving bundle in her thin arms. She stayed clean for this one, there isn't an ounce of anything in her blood that isn't supposed to be there in the first place. She's older now than when she had Sora. She's not fifteen and spindly anymore. She's at a respectable age. An age where she can have control over the way her life is dictated.

"Well do you have any bright ideas, mister cool guy?" Ito ran the tip of her finger along the soft curve of her daughter's cheek, it was new and pink. She couldn't believe that just a day ago her daughter was a sleeping mermaid in her body, and now she was real and in her arms.

"Well, yeah, I mean, I guess. I just, I did think about it, ya know!" He face heats up and he barriers his head in his arms. Ito smiles watching her son squirm by her bedside. She knows he's been excited for the baby, even if he tries to play it off as nothing.

"Well, what were you thinking?" She feels confounded by them, her children, she cannot fathom the depth of her love for them or articulate a way to show them she loves them. No one had ever loved her gently, but he tries her best as she cradles her daughter in one arm and latches onto her son's hand with the other.

"Orihime," He says looking at his sister, totally enchanted by her sleeping features. She could be like the princess from the Star Festival, living up in the heavens with a celestial God father, far away from mortal abuses.

"Isn't that a little grand?" Ito replies, apprehensive of how little she can give to a girl with a princess's name.

"No, it's perfect." She's perfect.

"Well, it's certainly more creative than my idea. And I guess since your dad still isn't here we might as well have a name for her when we introduce them."

Sora bristles at the mention of his father. Ito is clean right now, and they moved into a different apartment, away from his dad. He isn't beat up or bruised because of him, neither is his mom. They're doing good—without him.

"Why is he coming around again?" The annoyance is clear in his young voice. "All he ever does is mess everything up."

"Hey, now," She looks petulant now, like she's fifteen again and her dad is telling her that Haru is forbidden from coming around her. "He is your father. And he's promising to stop using now. He just needs a clean place to stay. And we're still married, you know. I still…of course I still love him."

Sora rolls his eyes, "He always says that, mom. He's a jerk, he's gunna start hitting us again. God, mom, please, think about her." He says desperately as he gestures towards his sister.

"I am," Ito holds her daughter closer against her chest, "She needs a family. A whole family, not a broken one. And we can do that for her, we all just need to get along."

"Ya know, trying something over and over again that ends the same way, but trying over and over again for different results is a form of insanity."

Ito leans against her pillows and tries not to think about it. She wants a home with a yard where she can grow flowers and fruit trees. A place where her son can practice soccer and do his homework. Where she can paint butterflies onto the walls of her baby's nursery, and buy her fancy cradles and toys. She wants Haru to have a nice job, or get money that doesn't come from selling drugs. She wants him to love her gently, to be nice to their son, to be excited for their daughter.

"Just stop it, Sora." She's sullen again, but the door opens up and Haru walks in with a bouquet of white roses and sunflowers.

"I heard we had a girl," He says pleasantly. Sora cringes but Ito lights up like a firework. She tells him she loves the flowers and that she wishes he could've been there during the birth but she's just happy he's here now.

"Haru, meet, Orihime." She smiles as she settles the pink buddle baby into his arms, "And Orihime, meet, Daddy."

"Hey there, princess." He says softly and even Sora believes he's going to change for the better. He doesn't look as gaunt or tired. He seems like he's been eating and his arms don't have any visible tracks. He looks…better. Sora thinks then that maybe things will get better, maybe Orihime really is a star child, and maybe she can make everything better.

None of them realize how cruel it is to put so much faith in such a small pair of hands.