A/N: I claimed Sumire Shouda for fanfic100. This will be a series of hopefully 100 very short drabbles. By the way, I have next to no idea about her life history, so it's all made up and probably very un-canon. I suck at titles, therefore, there is no title 'cept for the prompt.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Gakuen Alice or Sumire, as much as I wish I did. Sigh.

Beginnings

The midwife sighed. The young woman's condition had already been too grave from her prolonged illness even before the labour pains started. There had been no hope for both the child and her to survive; as it was, she had requested beforehand that the child be saved if it came to that. Her wishes were duly respected, though not without strong opposition from her rather older husband. And now, because of those wishes, she was lying silent in her bedroom covered by a white sheet, never having set eyes on her infant.

The midwife was still holding the child, a girl, still wet and sticky, bawling for its mother who would never comfort it. She turned from the deathbed and went out. The woman's husband started from his chair as he heard the bedroom door open, but his face fell when the midwife shook her head and wordlessly handed him the crying child.

He had to sit down – his wife was gone, and in her place was this angry little infant who he felt was almost a stranger, a bringer of unwelcome news. The realisation that he was going to have to raise a child on his own hit him hard, but for now, grief and pain left him alone. They would come later.

"What is her name?" asked the midwife, after a minute or so had passed. The man was still staring at the bundle he held, not making a sound. She suddenly remembered that this child was not the couple's first; she had also overseen the birth of this baby girl's brother. What had happened to him? And why was he not here, demanding to see his new sister?

Before the midwife could wonder any more, the man wiped his face with a sleeve and said, "She wanted the child to be named after her mother, if it was a girl."

"I will register her for you; what is her name?" the midwife prompted when the man did not continue, instead falling back to gazing dull-eyed at the baby.

A brief pause; "Sumire – Sumire Shouda."