Namine turned the object over in her hands, being as gentle with it as she could. She had found it upon awakening, sitting atop her sketch book.
A simple paper crane.
It was beautiful to her. Captivating.
Of course it had easily caught her eye. It was crimson red. A single splash of color in her monochrome world.
She wondered who would leave her something like this. The color made her think of Axel, though she couldn't imagine him crafting something so delicate and lovely as this. No, not Axel.
Marluxia?
Somehow that seemed even less likely. What reason had he to give her anything?
And Larxene was least likely of all.
She smiled softly and set it upon the window sill. Whoever it had been, it was a strange thing to do. Who would give her anything, let alone something so pretty and quite obviously made with such care?
She wished she knew who to thank for it.
A few days later she found another. Like the first, it was sitting atop her sketch book. This one was a bright, sky blue. And it came with a small note. Just a single sentence. A question.
"Do you know the story of a thousand cranes?"
She read the words over several times, puzzled. A thousand cranes? No, she didn't know the story.
She set the second alongside the first.
It wasn't until the third arrived, a deep green color, along with a note asking the same question as before, that she finaly asked Marluxia.
"A story of a thousand cranes? I can't say that I know it."
And then Larxene.
"What sort of weird nonsense are you babbling about now? Cranes? Don't be stupid!"
And finally Axel.
"Nope. Never heard that one before. But if there is a story like that, I know where you can find it."
"Where?" She asked, curiously.
"The castle library. Of course it's huge so if you go looking there, good luck finding what you want."
She thought it over and posed one more question to the fire-wielder.
"Axel, where is the library?"
It was three days later, after she received a fourth crane in startling purple, that she made her way to the castle library. Pushing open the heavey doors, she stepped inside. Axel hadn't been lying. The library was huge! She felt overwhelmed at once. Where could she possibly begin?
"Is there something you require?"
The unfamiliar voice froze her to the spot as she turned to stare at a young man whom she hadn't noticed before. He was sitting a short distance away at a long table. Books were stacked in piles all along the table, but the space right before him was cleared, save for a sheet of pink paper which he was folding.
He hadn't looked up from his work.
She watched, transfixed, as he carefully folded the paper this way and that. It didn't click in her mind, even when he held the finished project up, offering it to her with a hint of a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.
"Do you know the story of a thousand cranes?"
Suddenly she realized.
"Oh... It was you."
She knew him, though only by sight. She'd seen him as Marluxia had guided her into the castle on her first day there. She had never once spoken to him and hadn't seen him since that day. So why?
He ignored her words, neither denying nor admitting that he was the one who'd left her the gifts.
Instead he rose from his seat, crossing the room. As he reached her, he knelt before her, reaching out to take her hand. She watched as he turned her hand and placed the crane in her palm.
"One who folds a thousand cranes shall be granted a single wish."
He paused a moment, his hand still touching hers, before rising and heading back to his seat. Just before reaching it he stopped, turning his head to look at her over his shoulder.
"However, a thousand cranes is quite a steep goal. I wonder, do you believe it might still work if two people accomplished the task together?"
~Owari~