Be Careful What You Wish For

A/N: Don't blame me for this! *sweatdrop* Blame my overactive imagination and BSCS Biology. And my friends. Yes, blame THEM. -.- Julie said something about how she wished she could (quote): "Just go to sleep for two years---just two years, that's all---and just sleep." And Jay said, "Be careful what you wish for," and my brain said: "Hello, Aya-chan fic!"

... no, I'm serious. XD

Disclaimer: I do not own Weiss Kreuz. That's a matter for the courts to decide, not YOU, so bug off.

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"Wha-... where am I?"

A red-headed woman in red---someone I know I've never met before---stares down at me in disbelief.

"You're awake?!" she gapes, and I can only nod numbly. I... don't get it... what's going on? Who is she? Where am I, and where's Ran?"

She mutters something then, and I blink a few times. I'm... in a car. Is it the same one that hit me? I did get hit, didn't I? That man... he couldn't've missed?

And then... Someone else I don't recognize, with hair like mine, and a face sort of like mine, leans over me and is taking my hand. She says... she's a friend of... Aya? But... that's my name! And she smiles when I tell her so.

"Yes, but there was another Aya. One who carried on for you while you slept."

Sleeping?

... oh, God.

And suddenly I'm telling her everything I could never tell my brother, because I know...

I wished this upon myself, somehow...

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I can remember my sixteenth birthday like it was yesterday. Maybe because I can't remember anything about my seventeenth or eighteenth years, but that's not really the point. The point is, that's when I made that wish--- the one I was now regretting.

School work. Two of the words I most hated. And it was exhausting, completing one major project, only to start another one for another teacher, in another class, on another, harder subject.

And I can remember thinking that, if I could just sleep for a year or two, that maybe I could be fully rested and ready for such challenges.

How stupid of me.

I never told my parents that secret wish. No, how could I? To say that I wanted to sleep for two whole years... They'd think I was crazy. I never even told my brother, and Ran was the only person I could ever talk to.

So I kept it to myself.

And then... that last week of my fifteenth year, only days before my sixteenth birthday... I came to a conclusion.

If I could sleep for just two years...

... I never thought it would come true. I didn't think it was possible that I was wishing for the end. How could I have known? Maybe... if I had wished for something else...

And then it came: my birthday. And Ran took me to the carnival, just liked I'd asked. So sweet, so kind... My brother wasn't the kind of guy who'd let someone push him down, but he wasn't an angry person, either. No, he was just... Ran. It was all I could ever think of to describe him. Overachieving, too.

Which was why I couldn't tell him what I really wanted for my birthday that year.

Because no one asks to go to sleep.

Except me.

And he asked me, if I'd like anything, for my present. And I pointed to those earrings... The beautiful, long earrings. They were beyond lovely--- they seemed almost perfect.

Then again, so did Ran.

And I felt guilty for not telling him. He won me a little goldfish even, and he hates fish. I knew he was doing it just for me, which made me feel even worse.

There are tears in my eyes, now, but I ignore them. I've never told anyone this before.... never had the chance to... But these two women, whoever they are, they're listening, and I won't stop... I can't stop...

I can remember Ran saying that he was hungry, and asking me if we could go home. I hope he doesn't think I didn't want to leave, because I did---I was tired. Too tired. And again, I wished for that same thing: sleep.

The ladies are asking me if I'm all right. I nod and try to keep going, but it's so hard. Because it was then that... and our house, and...

I have to sit down. I can't take it, my knees are too shaky. All the memories of that night, it's like they've been burned into my mind. I won't forget---no, I can't forget---all those things that happened. So many things, and so quickly at that...

"Do you need help, dear?"

The red-headed woman again. Did she ever even introduce herself, or answer my question? I want to see Ran! Where is my brother? Why isn't he here? He didn't... he wasn't...

Oh, God, no.

But I can't stop. Even if Ran is... gone... I want to tell this---no---I need to tell this.

I can't have let him have died in vain.

So I tell them everything---and I mean everything.

How Mama and Papa were dead, and how Ran smelt the gas, and how he got us out in time.

I can't even describe how scared I was. I heard a car coming, I told them, but I couldn't move. I was too scared to. I kept thinking that, because I was so selfish with my birthday wish, that it was somehow my fault. And because I thought that, I guess I just froze.

I can remember... lights. There were lights, I was flooded by a brilliant white.

The red-head's eyes go wide, and she whispers something: "car". Was that it? I was hit... by a car? And how does she know, anyway?

She shakes her head when I ask her how she knows---if she was the one, maybe, who hit me, and if that's the reason I woke up in her car. The other girl, the one who looks like me, pouts slightly.

"Is that all you remember?" she asks, and---as tempting as it is to say no-- -I suddenly realize: it's not. Because I can remember something else. That one fleeting thought as the whiteness left and I fell.

'Sleep.'

"How long have I been asleep?" I ask, touching my braids. They seem... longer. Not too much, though, but there's a difference. And... my outfit... What happened to my kimono, the one Mama made for me? And why am I dressed like that girl?

"Two years," comes a very curt reply. "You've been asleep for two years... Aya."

That voice...

I know that voice.

"Ran!" I cry out, spinning around. And---yes! It's him, my brother! Sopping wet, yes, and dressed in a black trenchcoat and carrying some sort of weapon, but he's still my big brother!

I can't tell if there are tears in my eyes or not, my face is soaking wet when he hugs me. Maybe it's his coat, or maybe even his tears. I don't care anymore. I can hear the women... ladies... gasping as several others behind Ran seem to appear, all of them in dark colors. I don't know if I know them or not, my vision's too blurry to tell.

"Ran," I choke out, wiping my eyes. "It's all my f-fault... "

And there's a hurt look on his face as he leans forward and touches my shoulder. And there's hurt in his eyes and in his voice as he whispers thickly:

"Be careful what you wish for."

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A/N: ^^ Odd, I know. But it was inspired by a biology class, so... what can I say? ^^ It was fun. And it's short, too! All the more reason for reviews, eh? *cackles*

God, I love this fandom...

---Gangsta Videl