"Pleasant weather we're having" She spoke, her voice, as cheerful as years of wavering expectations could muster.
She'd veer away from the window for a moment, out of habit, perhaps, rather than hope.
And watch the stillness she wished for so long would stir but never did.
Of course no reply would come, nothing but the gentle ins and outs of breathing and the low hums and beeps of metallic pulses that, without, would mistake the woman lying motionless seem dead.
For Fujino Shizuru, this was her every day.
"It's summer today, like yesterday" She continued "The fifth one since"
Her eyes would linger on that pretty face for a moment, ready for the smallest of change. When she felt she'd had enough, she turned her sights elsewhere, like on the flowers that lay by her side.
"Ara! Still as popular as always I see!" She mused, mentally reading the card on the newest bouquets delivered.
It had been years since this girl was first admitted. She knew, for the young nurse herself had, by now, stayed at her side for five.
And on the first nine months of what soon would become many, a boy who had once introduced himself as 'just a classmate' made it a religious habit to come visit whenever he could.
In the following years however, those visits have dwindled to a day for every three weeks. But the flowers, like a chain of prayers and good mornings never ceased from coming even once.
'Love, Takeda Masashi' the messy scribble always read.
"They're Callistephus" she recognized, transferring the flora into a vase by the bedside. She filled the glass with water, and on the steel chair that was usually reserved for the few guests that still had the patience to come, she sat.
"I will… think of you…" the nurse translated, her finger tracing an invisible line on pale white hands laden in plaster and IV.
Shizuru observed the flowers thoughtfully, a mix of admiration and sympathy, and one thing more clouding her eyes in quiet chaos.
She felt so foolish. What was she doing?
Ever since the first day of her assignment to this woman she had felt it. The burden in her chest that would, no matter all her efforts, never leave.
She looked at the girl's face once more, believing this time; she could make herself feel nothing.
When rose red eyes looked up, her breath caught. Her proximity shedding new light.
The young woman's face had become fairer, years of absence from the sun being to blame. All the more her midnight colored hair, now longer, stood in contrast. Her beauty becoming more ghostlike and ethereal.
Had she unknowingly stepped into a modern fairytale?
Waiting for sleeping beauty to wake?
Was she, at the absence of the rightful prince, convinced? That, although she herself could be her own story book princess, in all her effort and hinting this one would turn to her enamored?
She was hoping for a miracle that a rational person like herself did not believe.
The sound of the door opening alerted her, and she withdrew her hand from hers.
"Fujino-san, you are needed in the labor ward room 3021"
She smiled in acknowledgement and nodded, giving a promise to follow in a moment.
"I should really stop doing this" Shizuru said, resolute.
In spite of herself she laughed. Humored by her own stupidity, the hurt breaking her laughter with a sob here and there.
"I will… think of you Natsuki" she repeated, referring to her own feelings rather than Takeda's.
She has decided.
Tommorow she would ask for someone else to be assigned here. This woman, after today, a stranger to her once again.
She made her move to stand.
Had every intention to leave and forget and be done with all the waiting.
But then it came, like a streak of light on a starry night sky.
And she was paralyzed on the spot, New emotions stirring in the tension.
The color of northern lights; a gentle stream of viridian looking straight at her, for the very, first time.
"good…morning…" The woman said, her voice a husky whisper from the lack of vocal exercise.
"Are you… Shizuru?" Natsuki queried, one dark eyebrow weakly rising in question.
"Yes" Shizuru breathed unbelieving, "Yes Natsuki, I am" she said, Her world burning and defrosting, turning once again after five very, very long years.
"Baka, What's so nice... about the rain?"
FIN
Author: I'm on my way to university and just thought of whipping something up (Yes in the car motion sickness be damned!) Hope you guys liked it despite the rush! Until the next chapter of Love Like Evergreens~