Good news! New one shot. Haha.
Yeap, since school will be starting in the next few weeks, I thought I'd put up a little ficcie before I leave for enrollment week. This story is pretty much a filler for my still un-updated stories, especially "The Effects of Alcohol." I apologize for still not posting new chapters, but apparently I lost my files so I have to redo the whole chapters again…argh!
Anyways, this story is about fate and blablabla… stuff like that. It shows the one time interaction between the mother's of our favorite DNAngel couple, Satoshi and Risa…which is still not conan but based on the long awaited chapters of the manga, may become one. So yeah. I hope you guys enjoy it.
By the way, the anime or manga never stated the name of the Harada twin's mother, though she did appear in a few panels in some manga chapter. So I just picked a random name that I think would suit her.
Before you go on to reading, I must tell you the horrible truth (of which you probably know by now but I still need to mention it over and over again), I will never, ever, own DNAngel…ever. Also a warning of possible grammar errors ahead, as you all know that I'm too lazy to edit now because it's so late and I need to travel tomorrow.
This one shot is dedicated to bluebubbles, one good author who can no longer continue on her stories due to an accident that caused her to lose the use of her arms and legs. If you ever get the chance to read this, know that you're in my prayers and I wish you all the best and hope in your time of healing.
Enjoy!
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Beginnings
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The halls were silent that cold, winter evening.
It was unusually, she thought, that any hospital could be this idle when it should be one of the busiest places in town. When an occasional nurse would pass her by she would start wondering if they were even doing their jobs, like rushing around to attend to their dying patients and other duties than strolling around the almost abandoned corridors of this white building. But despite her internal assertion, she wasn't in any mood to complain of such small things, and her only intention to walk around the empty halls of the large building was to visit her beloved angels.
It was taking time though, since this is her first time walking to the nursery alone. Her husband used to accompany her, but he had to attend to other matters at work, and being the worry-wart she is she couldn't stand not being able to see her new bundles of joy in a day. As she continued on, her hospital slippers creating rough echoing sounds on the marble-tiled floor, the hallway she was following seemed to grow vast. She felt like she's been walking for ages down the same path, but by the time she reached the end she's met with three new halls; each looking as identical as the previous hall in which she last went through.
She was lost now, and she cursed whoever designed the architecture of this blasted infirmary. She sighs, growing impatient. She tosses and combs her hair aside, letting the long, auburn waves fall gracefully on her shoulder – a habit of hers when she's about to make a decision.
Heaving another sigh, she decides to enter hall number 2. Her action though was cut short at the sight of sky blue flashing from the corner of her left eye. She turned towards it, and the locks of azure disappeared through hall number 1. A curious feeling led her to following the vibrant color.
She first peeked by the entrance and sights the back of a young lady, with her hip-length blue hair bouncing in mermaid curls. When the woman was at a safely far distance, she started to track her, somehow having a feeling that this woman would probably lead her to her destination.
Suddenly the blue-haired woman halts, which also brought the brunette to stop. A few minutes of uneasiness took over as the two women remained still and silent. Then there was movement: a slow swift of the shoulder and a turn of the head by the mysterious bluenette.
Chocolate brown eyes meet unusual cobalt blue orbs. The brunette took note of the strange woman's features: Nose slightly pointed, chin smoothly refined, skin porcelain pale, beauty Asian but still seemingly foreign. Indeed, a very beautiful woman, but there was something in her narrow, blue eyes that screamed differently that her physical appeal.
The woman tips her head, a movement that broke the silent reverie. The brown-head blinked, then let out a cheerful smile (yet still seem to show a hint of anxiety towards this blue eyed woman).
"Um… Good evening…" the brunette half-staggered, but was surprise to see the woman bow her head in polite greeting.
Slowly recovering from the nervousness emitting from the aura of this other woman, she took a few steps closer, "… um… excuse me… but could you help me?"
The woman remained silent, but the tipping of her head again told the brunette to continue talking.
"… err… If you don't mind, could you tell me which way is it to the nursery? I seem to be… um… lost…"
Another minute of silence, then the bluenette woman turned her heels and started to gracefully walk her previous route. The brunette merely sighs in her place, thinking that this woman may also not know the way to the nursery as well, and then turns back and decides again to enter a different hallway.
"Where are you going?"
The brunette halts at the sudden feminine monotone voice. "Huh?" she said as she turned, finding the blue-haired woman looking at her behind her shoulders.
The other woman blinked her blue eyes, "The nursery is this way." Then she looks away to continue walking.
The brunette had to raise an eyebrow, but then smiled gratefully at the stranger. She then quickens her pace, catching up to her just two feet behind her. They continue to be silent and only the sounds of their slippers against the floor where audible as they went.
Not more than 3 minutes later, they reached the nursery. There was a large, glass window and a white door in the very end of the hall which separates them from the infants sleeping under plastic cribs and warm yellow light. Some babies were asleep, while others were crying and cueing upon their arrival. The brunette smiled at them, but only reserved her most genuine for her own.
She then looked up to the other woman to thank her for leading her here, but she was somehow lost in thought. Her blue eyes suddenly began to fill with worry while she was looking at a distance behind the window. The auburn-haired woman followed her line of sight to see a white crib at the very back, where a baby was heavily wrapped in white sheets and a small IV hung above the infant.
"Ah, Harada-san!"
The brunette turned to the sound of her first name. Behind her was a dark-haired nurse, one who she had gotten familiar during her stay here in the hospital.
The old nurse smiled sweetly at her, "Are you here to see them again?"
Harada nodded, an excited smile gracing her face. The nurse nodded back, telling her to wait before she entered the nursery through the white door.
The brunette took a glance at the blue-haired woman and found that she was still staring at the crib at the back, but her attention suddenly change when the nurse had pushed a large incubator closer to the glass window. Inside where sleeping identical girls, each having a thick tuff of auburn in their heads. Harada smiled lovingly at them.
"Hello there my little angels…" she whispered, her voice as soft and tender as any mother.
From her peripheral view, she saw the previous nurse exit the nursery and was now talking with mysterious blue-haired woman. Their voices where too low and muffled that she couldn't exactly hear their conversation. Soon enough, it ended when the bluenette had nodded and the nurse went back in the large room. Harada trailed the nurse through the window and saw her approach the white crib with the IV drop, gently pushing it closer to the window for them to see, then left their sight.
Harada left the attention of her sleeping twins and found interest at the new infant near the window: the baby blue color of the pillow indicates that the child was male, and his hair was almost invincible since it was of similar color of the pillow. Pity overwhelms the brunette at the sight of narrow tubes around the small boy's chest and arm.
Her brown eyes trails up to the boy's mother, she suppose, who looked sad down at the fragile infant.
"He'll be all right." The words left the brunettes mouth. The blue-haired woman looked up to her suddenly, finding her smiling brightly at her.
Her sad blue irises looked down the floor the back on the baby boy, "How would you know?"
Harada merely blink at the question. "Well… I'm not really sure how… but I just believe he'd be all right."
"You believe?"
She nods, then points at the smallest of her twins and smiling down at her sweetly.
"Risa," she started, "She was born 11 minutes after her sister, Riku."
The bluenette's eyes were looking at that certain twin, who suddenly gave out a small yawn. Harada merely giggled at the cuteness, but it slowly died down as she continued on her story.
"I came in labor a month earlier, I guess they were eager to see the world." Another low giggle, "My eldest had come out easily, but I had a hard time giving birth to Risa. The doctors said that if she couldn't make it out by the next 10 minutes, she might have suffocated."
Harada pressed her palm against the glass surface, smiling sadly at her youngest girl, "By the time I was able to push her out… she wasn't breathing."
The brunette saw that the blue eyed lady was looking down at her daughter, then back at her own son.
She sighs again, controlling her tears as she recalled the memories of her daughter's apparent struggle for life. "I kept wishing…praying to whatever God is up there to help my baby…I didn't try to imagine the negatives…I just kept on believing… and I was glad to finally hear her cry after that."
There was a moment of silence, with each mother staring at their own offspring/s with different thoughts clouding their heads.
"I truly believe," said Harada, "That every baby has their own personal angel to always guide them."
The blue-haired woman suddenly cringes at that sentence.
"I'm not… really sure…"
Harada turned her head, quite surprise at the tone of false hope from the other woman.
"What do you mean?"
She shakes her head, bluenette mimics Harada's action of pressing the palm against the glass window, over her son who remained asleep.
"Satoshi." She whispers. "He's been in this hospital for almost 2 months now."
Harada's eyes widened, "Eh?"
There was another minute of silence, enough to calm the brunette down, before she continued on.
"When he was born, the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck three times. I didn't know, and despite the doctors' protests I had to push. He would have choked to death if they didn't relieve him before he ran out of oxygen. Then they discovered that he had a weak heart and Hypotension. They had to be kept here for observation."
Harada looked down at the blue-haired boy and could clearly see the fragile weakness of his pale body.
"He's stable now," she continued, "But they still have to keep him until the doctor says he's all right."
"That's terrible…How's your husband doing about it."
The bluenette looks down, "I'm not married. His father died 5 months ago."
"Oh, I'm sorry."
"Please, don't be."
Silence always seems to envelope the two. It is evident that there is a deep awkwardness between the two strangers.
Then, the hush moment was broken by the quiet one, using a tone that let out the slightest pitch of emotion which Harada thought sounded like amusement.
"She's awake."
The cocoa eyed woman followed the line of sight of the azure haired woman, and finding it locked on similar cocoa eyes from behind the glass window.
Risa blinked her sleepy eyes, yawned, and slowly swung her small arm in the air, like trying to catch something only her infant imagination could comprehend. Beside her, her still sleeping twin sister merely turned her face away when a small palm had swatted her nose. The action made their mother giggle.
Almost a minute later after the youngest twin woke up, the blue haired baby boy a crib away started to yawn. Now both young mothers' eyes left the wide awake doe-eyed girl and now to the cobalt-eyed boy, whose eyes were still half-lidded and hazy.
"He…" Harada started, gazing down at the lovely pair of sapphire irises, "…he has your eyes… such a beautiful boy."
The boy's mother stared back at the brunette, who changes her attention to smile at the bewildered woman.
"In fact," She added, "I surely believe that he'll grow up bearing the spitting image of you."
The quiet lady took in the image of woman's smile. It was so truly genuine that it was comforting in a way. She wanted to mirror that smile, but seems to be incapable of doing so yet and only manage to soften her lids and cast her eyes down at her sandals. She then tilts her head, eyes now focused at the identical blue orbs of Satoshi upon a sudden realization.
"This…is actually the first time he opened his eyes to me…"
The smile suddenly disappeared from the brunette and was replaced by a sudden look.
"Whenever I visit him, he was always asleep…maybe too sick to wake up." She continued solemnly, "But now, I finally get see him open his eyes."
Harada thought that the way she was talking sounded like she'd disappear from the world soon, but threw that thought aside when she saw a sudden twitch at the corners of her lips. It definitely brought that smile back on her face.
"And that makes you happy? Yes?" She questioned, and she noticed the bluenette's ghost of a smile become wider and eyes turning soft. She gazed down her son in utter amazement when he raised a small hand up in the air - similar to what baby Risa was doing a while ago - to the direction of the glass window. The blue-haired woman nodded, then presses a hand on the glass, wanting to touch the small reaching hand.
From outside the glass window Harada heard her wide awake daughter cooed loudly, which broke her reverie of watching the azure-haired woman and her son. She turned back at the baby girl, who now had both arms in the air, impressively strong in contrast to her small, fragile frame, reaching out like she wanted to be carried.
"She's most beautiful," Harada heard the other woman say. She turned her head at her, and catching her looking at Risa while still wearing the small smile. "Though they are twins, there is just something about this little one…"
"What do you mean?"
The other woman merely shrugged, "I don't quite understand myself… but there's just something about her… that she just gives me a sense of… hope, I suppose."
The nurse inside had suddenly stepped forward, and pulled away the crib of another baby that stud in between the twin's incubator and Satoshi's crib, then after she had moved the other baby back, she pulls the blue-haired baby's crib to the open space to move it closer to the incubator.
Harada then notices that both Risa and Satoshi had let down their arms. Risa then turned her head to the right, and the blue-eyed boy turned his head to the left. Though still blind at their age, and unaware that they are actually facing each other, Harada couldn't help but giggle as a thought came up at the two babies' sudden interaction.
"You know what?" the brunette questions her companion, who only blinked in response.
"I hope my Risa will meet your son someday in the future." She continued.
The bluenette woman tilts her head again, "It's a big world out there… a world full of people and problems. Chances are low."
Harada merely shrugs, "We wouldn't know that. Besides, maybe it was fate that met us here… two strangers talking about their kids to each other. Who knows? Maybe it was Risa who woke up your son so you can have the chance to finally meet him awake. Maybe they'll meet the way I met you."
Both mothers were staring at each other. Chocolate brown eyes meet unusual cobalt blue orbs, the former wearing a genuine smile and the latter in a confused gaze.
"Maybe," Harada said, "this is a beginning…"
"Beginning?"
The brunette's smile widens. "Yes, a beginning."
Though still confused, the beautiful blue-eyed half-shrugged and smiled lightly again. She then glances at her son, who was now drifting back to his sleep again. She also noticed that the little baby girl next to him had fallen to slumber as well.
Contented, she pulls back her left sleeve to glance at her watch.
"I'm going to take my leave now. I'm glad to have the chance to have this conversation with you… Harada-san, right?"
The brunette merely shucks her head, "Please, just call me Aya."
Aya Harada, still smiling, lifts her right hand in front of her. "And you are?"
The bluenette stares at the offering hand, then to Aya's cheerful look, glances to her son and the twins, and then back at her face.
"Rio." She said in her feminine monotone, and takes her hand in hers to a small handshake.
"I'll be going now." Rio mentions as she lets go of her hand. "Goodbye, Aya-san." She said, turning the opposite direction.
"Goodbye, and take care Rio-san! I hope we'll meet again some time." Aya waves and Rio halts in her tracks, turning slightly to wave back, small smile plastered in her features, before continuing on to enter the vacant elevator.
When the elevator doors had closed, a realization struck the brunette.
"Ah… She didn't tell me her last name…"
She then remembered that the crib her son was placed in also holds the name card, and that maybe it could tell her Rio's full name. However, by the time she had turned to the glass window, Satoshi's crib was now being dragged back to its previous location.
She sighs, unfortunate for not being able to pick up the last name.
She glances back at the closed elevator door, which suddenly opens. A couple appeared from the sliding doors: The man had dark, spiky hair, and the woman with short, dark blond hair, his wife probably, tag along beside him. She was pregnant and, based on the size of her belly; she was probably a month away from labor and was maybe here for a check-up.
Aya wished she would see Rio again. Maybe have a chance to talk to her again. Maybe have the chance to watch their children play together on Saturday afternoons. Years had passed and still she never had that chance though, because, unbeknownst to her, the mysterious azure-haired woman had disappeared from existence some time after she had walked out that elevator.
Fate was cruel sometimes, she thought. Maybe Rio was right: That the world is big and filled with problems and people, that chance of two strangers meeting again were low. For 25 years, the mysterious Rio did not linger in her mind, because she was busy with her life, her work, and her beloved daughters.
But then, a young blue-haired man with a pair of gorgeous midnight blue eyes was now sitting next to Aya's youngest twin daughter at the couch opposite to the now older brunette and her husband, asking them if he could take the hand of Risa in marriage. The boy was the spitting image of that one woman she had met a long, long time ago.
'Maybe... this is a beginning.'
'Beginning?'
'Yes, a beginning'
It was, as Aya thought, a fateful beginning… and it seems to have no plans of ending.
Aya Harada smiled happily at the couple in front of her. Risa smiled vibrantly and Satoshi smiled a small but sweet smile back at her, as they stared at each other's eyes – just like the way they had caught each other's hazy gaze back at the nursery.
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Yeah…pretty long for a one shot, no? Anyway, I didn't put a "The End" nor I couldn't say it's the end because the title is "Beginnings" and it might confuse people… or confuse me… I don't know…
But hey…don't forget to review people. And though I enjoy constructive criticism, please don't mention about the grammar and other errors anymore, because I fairly know that it exists a lot in this story. XD
Until next time,
Safire Lupe