Chapter One (Official)
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Under the glow of the streetlights, a frail woman walked in the cold, hands inside her pockets, and puffs of smoke trailing behind her. Her shoes skid across the hard pavement as patches of snow started to form on the cold surface.
The woman halted, raising her head to face the void in which small crystal flakes fell, and whispered into the night nostalgically.
Beautiful.
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Kaede sat with her legs stretched out on the bench waiting for her transportation, hands inside her pale coat under a lone light next to a bus stop sign.
Exhaling hot air, a large puff of smoke appeared before it was waved off with her hand. Kaede closed her eyes relaxing them from today's hard work at the office.
She worked as a part time secretary helping out the main secretary with whatever he couldn't get done. When she arrived to work there had been piles and piles of folders and paper on her desk mocking her.
Hash cold wind blew causing her to shiver.
She sighed, stood up, puffed out a long trail of smoke, and walked away into the dark.
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The sound of cars and voices grew louder as she walked closer to the city. Signs infused with LED lights blinded her and tall buildings towered over her. Couples held hands talking to each other as they made their way back home. A business man talked with an old man handing him a small card smiling before walking away. On the other side, sitting on a bench, a couple held hands laughing and grinning with each other. The male seemed to have a goofy personality for he made funny faces at the young female making her smile at his silliness.
Kaede shook her head with a small smile and headed inside the flower shop on her right. Inside the shop the walls were covered with flowers from common to exotic. The exotic and least common were behind the table the owner sat behind.
"Welcome! How may we help you?"
"Uh. If it's alright with you, I'd like to look around first."
"Of course. Go on ahead dear," the owner smiled. "Let me know when you find what you are looking for."
Kaede politely smiled at the old women, then turned to face the purple carnations in its green plastic container filled with water. Maybe another type of flower would be better. Change things up a bit.
She searched for a different flower when she heard terrifying giggles coming from two women who covered their mouth with their hands. From the angle Kaede was at she could see red covering their cheeks.
A handsome young man stood on the other side of the wall staring at collection of flowers she had no idea what they were. The women squealed joyously, leaning against each other for support as the man reached out his hand, his blazer defining the outline of his arm muscles.
The owner came to them, unnoticed, "A fine young lad he is, am I right?"
The women nodded their heads their eyes glued to the poor man before the owner let out a screech, scolding the women for ogling the boy, hitting them with the closest bouquet. It was a comical scene.
Bystanders watched the scene with wide eyes, some in disbelief, and others looked scared.
And Kaede?
Kaede flinched with every hit both women received as she inched closer to the entrance.
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When she arrived home, Kaede threw her coat on top of the table near the entrance, took her shoes off, put on her slippers, and yawned.
"Hey you're finally back home."
"Yeah, sorry I'm late. I missed the bus so I walked back home."
"Oh, well dinner is ready."
Kaede nodded following her roommate into the kitchen and helped her set the table.
Kaede and her roommate, Hana, both worked as secretaries in different companies. The company that Hana worked in was located in the center of the city while Kaede worked in the rural part of the town far up north. They had decided to live together to make it easier to pay the rent as well as having the possibility to save a good amount of money for the next year of college. In the end, they settled for a small apartment with two bedrooms, a living room, small kitchen, and a bathroom.
The apartment was a bit far away from Hana's work place since the apartment building was closer to the rural side of the city, but luckily it would be easier to get there with all the transportation available. However, Kaede had to wake up earlier than she had to, in order to wait for the bus. Unlike the city, transportation was scarce where Kaede waited; only one bus traveled close to her workplace. If she missed it, she'd be forced to walk. She didn't mind walking, but winter was arriving and the winters here where horrible.
Beautiful but horrible.
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After eating, Kaede picked up the plates.
"You can just leave them in sink; I'll clean them."
Kaede turned her head so fast to look at Hana she could've broken her neck.
"Don't give me that look," Hana exclaimed. Kaede kept on staring at Hana, a speck of fear in her eyes.
Hana watched as her roommate grabbed the bread knife and held it in front of her, "Who are you," Kaede questioned.
Hana closed her eyes, crossed her arms, eyebrow twitching, and exhaled through her nose.
"No. Seriously? You're going to wash the dishes? You?" Kaede lowered the knife, her eyes wide in disbelief.
Hana never washed the dishes. Never. She would always argue that her hands and nails would get ugly, and that she couldn't have that, "her hands had to look presentable for work," she would joke.
"But your hands—"
Hana waved her off. "Never mind my hands!" She smiled tenderly at Kaede, walked towards her, and pushed Kaede into the bathroom.
"I know you must be tired from all the work they've been making you to do. Going over every single contract and profile of every staff must have put a huge strain on your eyes, so go take a shower then head to your room and sleep. Okay."
Kaede looked at Hana, "I—"
"Go take a shower and then go to sleep! I'm not going to argue about this Kaede," she pushed Kaede into the bathroom before slamming the door shut. "Don't worry about your clothes, I'll bring them to you once you're done. Your towel too."
With that Hana left to clean the dishes leaving a stunned Kaede inside the bathroom.
Kaede stared at the door and smiled, whispering, "Thank you Hana."
When she heard water running from the kitchen, Kaede started taking her clothes off, turned on the water and got in.
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As Hana washed the dishes, she couldn't stop from remembering how she met Kaede.
It had been in the middle of October, when they were both in High School.
Kaede had been struggling to reach a can of peaches from the top row of the canned food aisle. Hana being the compassionate (sarcasm activated) girl that she was made fun of Kaede for her short height, being barely reaching 5'', as she gave her the canned fruit.
Back then Kaede was too shy and antisocial and Hana had been Ms. Popular, but didn't stop Hana from making Kaede her friend.
And that is what they became. After a few weeks, Hana managed to get Kaede to feel comfortable around her, and before they knew it they became good friends. A weird way of meeting someone, but not all friendships start with a bang and cool situations. Some start with a short girl trying to get a can of peaches— a can of peaches.
Hana laughed to herself, turned the water off, and headed to Kaede's room to pick out clothes for the young woman.
On Kaede's nightstand stood a single frame of her and Hana in a ridiculous pose, hugging each other with huge grins on their faces. They had taken that picture at a photo booth at an arcade.
Hana remembered they argued over what the background should be. Both of them clicking on background options at the same time, messing with the machine, pushing the others hand away, and then Hana threw herself at the screen, shielding it away from Kaede.
Kaede being such sweet girl (sarcasm once more) showed no mercy! She had pushed Hana off the screen and into the bench that was inside the booth before hovering her finger on the Jungle background, but she never got to press it for the talking lady in the machine warned them of their 10 second 'get your asses ready' countdown.
Hana and Kaede panicked, switching spots, fixing their hair, and cussed 70mph in those 10 seconds. Nevertheless, they ended up in an outrageous pose with a background of Samurai men inside a local hot spring.
There had been a total of 3 pictures: One was the outrageous pose, the second one was when they realized what the background was and had stupid looks on their face, and the third was the one that Kaede had on her nightstand.
Kaede would make fun of Hana, joking that Hana must've clicked on that background with her breast when she threw herself on the screen.
Tch, that so did not happen, Hana told herself.
Hana truly loved Kaede, she was more than a good friend, she was her sister, and because of that Hana swore she would take care of Kaede.
Hana knew of the strain Kaede took from all the work at the office. She knew Kaede assisted to every meeting her boss had, typed every paperwork, revised them, and turned them in herself. Kaede had barely been working there a year and her eyes had already taken a great deal of damage, enough that Kaede would come home with migraines.
Hana worried Kaede would overwork herself.
She noticed Kaede's loss of weight and hence suspected that Kaede skipped her intake of food just to get work done.
When Kaede didn't arrive at her usual time, Hana worried, she was afraid that something happened to Kaede, but once she saw her sister cross the door, immediate relief flooded her body.
Hana had come to a conclusion that if anything happened to Kaede… she wouldn't be able handle it.
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Hana came out from the bathroom, hair wet, and in fresh clothes. Kaede stood up from her spot on the couch, hugging a quilted blanket closer to her, and followed Hana to the small hallway where their rooms were.
Both of them stood next to their door.
"Gooodnight Hana," Kaede bid, hand on the doorknob.
Hana gave Kaede a small smile, "Goodnight Kaede, sweet dreams."
And both entered their room at the same time, locking the door as it closed.
"You too Hana."
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Scarlet stretched across the heavens clashing with shades of pink and purple, complementing the dimming sun whose bright gold glow faded to an orange. Humanity contemplated nature's beauty. In which both comfort and sadness mixed perfectly with one another, harmonizing, and leaving a bittersweet after taste.
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The sound of an alarm startled the women, her shaken figure searched franticly around the room, her hand reaching under the lone pillow out of habit.
She looked at the source of the sound and sighed in relief. Turning off the alarm, she headed into the bathroom once more, making sure to not look into the mirror.
As she got ready, Miko mentally made a note to get groceries after her shift that is if she found a store open at that time. She put on a dark colored shirt and skinny jeans. Once she was downstairs, she got her bag from the entrance closet, put on her shoes, and walked out, locking the door.
Miko had been living in this neighborhood for three years. The neighbors were kind and respected her privacy. Not a single complaint from her of this neighborhood.
Her next door neighbor was a foreigner who came to this country to get away from his family, "They were like savage animals. When my parents died and left the majority of their will to me my siblings attacked me. I couldn't stand being there any longer I had to leave or I knew they would be capable of killing me to get what my parents left me."
"So you ran?"
"Sure as hell did!"
He was a nice man in his middle thirties, always trying to hook her up with someone, giving her pie or cake his girlfriend would make. "You have to taste this! Isn't this amazing?"
"You look ridiculous. Stop making those faces."
He squinted his eyes and squealed like a 13 year old girl on her first date as he took a bite of the pie.
She cringed, "how disturbing," and ate a piece of the dessert.
While searching for her keys she leaned against her car causing the car alarm to go off. Panicked Miko held the keys closer to the sensor light using it to find the alarm button. The car beeped and the sound stopped.
From her side view she saw her next door neighbor's bedroom lights turn on, and she cussed, rushing to get inside the car and turn it on. She waited for the car to heat up as she watched each window light up, "Come on. Come on— oh fuck it!"
Forgetting to put the car on reverse, Miko rushed forward almost crashing into her house.
"Shit, shit!" She yelped slamming on the breaks. Her body went forward. Her head almost hitting the steering wheel, hair blocking her view. Letting out a frustrated puff, she reached over on the side of the steering wheel and put the car in reverse. Miko pressed the gas pedal, switching the handle from reverse to forward causing the car to screech as she turned the car.
After almost crashing into her house and hitting her mailbox, Miko skedaddled out of the neighborhood onto the city road.
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The city streets were empty and she thanked God for that. With the show she produced back home she was running late.
Rushing to get to work Miko skipped her breakfast stop and concentrated on finding shortcuts.
When she arrived to the hospital, Miko bolted to the building, slamming doors and apologizing as she did. A comical scene indeed. Grabbing her card she clocked in and wrote her name on the sign in sheet next to the machine.
"Okay," she breathe, "let's get to work."
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"They brought in a patient in critical state a while ago. It seems he's not going make it."
Miko entered the staff launch a cup in her hands.
"Miko! Have you seen the patient brought in a while ago?"
Miko stared at the blonde woman, "Patient?"
They stared at her with a weird expression, "The guy!"
Miko squinted her eyes thinking of who it was when she realized who they were talking about, "I don't know what you're talking about—oh! That guy. Yeah, I've only heard about it."
"Poor boy. He looks so young…."
The other nurse agreed, "Yeah. I don't think he's older than 18. He had severe burns and looked like he been trampled on."
"Did you see the amount of stabs he had," the woman with dark hair exclaimed shaking her head in pity. "This is the fourth one so far."
The women huddled close to Miko and talked of the man in the E.R., feeling sorry. Miko ignored the women feeling her mind reeling her in into a trance. Stepping away, Miko excused herself and headed to the farthest restroom.
Once inside, she stared at her reflection, feeling dizzy, nauseous as she held onto the sink, and pressed her head on the edge of the sink, closing her eyes and breathing slowly.
"Not now, "she sighed. Her stomach felt wrong. Miko quickly lifted her face to hover over the sink.
The sound of puking echoed inside the restroom, Miko gripping onto the sink as she heaved.
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On her way home the car broke down and she was left to walk back home.
The neighborhood was still completely dark. The streetlights had turned off since the sun would be out any moment.
Ice crunched under her feet hindered her journey. If she took one wrong step she would fall on her face.
She was tired, exhausted and couldn't wait to get back home. However, something felt wrong.
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She stood under spray of water, her forehead against the cold tiled wall, her figure shaking. Murky eyes watched as the water swirled and went down the drain.
Swirled and swirled. Swirled and swirled.
It went in circles just like her life, but the water went down the drain after swirling. She wondered when her life would go down the drain as well.
When Miko finished, she stood in front of her body length mirror, eyelids half opened, brushing her hair as she hummed and rocked side to side.
The bathroom was filled with noise and dull strands danced in the air. Her face was expressionless. It was terrifying.
It was a strange feeling. She felt nothing at first, but then she would remember a home filled with sorrow and loneliness, her childhood was tasteless, dull.
She remembered the way she was treated. Harsh and always criticized. Never perfect, never good enough. Worthless. Pathetic.
She forced a smiled, covered her eyes with her free hand. Tears streamed down form under the hand sticking to it and rolling down her arm. Drop by drop, one by one, they fell on the floor staining it with her pain.
A child who was never loved.
Suddenly her smile turned into a snarl, teeth grinding, and the hand on her eyes clenched. Violently she threw the hair dryer on the floor.
Hate sparked in her eyes and she screamed, scratching her chest and face. Pulling her hair as she dropped the floor, hugging herself.
No one was there to comfort her, just like no one was there when she was younger. It was only her.
Just her.
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Miko lay on her bed covered with a thin blanket, lulled to sleep by the humming of the heater.
It was starting once more.
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Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its characters except for the characters I created and own as well as this story plot.
Miko is Sakura.
Kaede is Hinata.
I'm probably going to start using their Naruto verse names soon.