Cherries-O!
Cherries ripe all ripe,
round and sound ripe cherries,
fine Duke Cherries,
...only five-pence a pound cherries ripe,
Cherries ripe all ripe...Cherries O!
- Cherries Market Cry

Kaoru waited.

And desperately wanted a cherry.

Her bubble, a tiny capsule that sometimes seemed to compress her naked body into the center even more, had been inactive for 3 centuries now, but still, she waited.

Her friends had felt the pulse of their connections with their caller and responded in a heartbeat, yet Kaoru's pulse never came.

Being patient was not in her nature, but over the years she developed a strong tolerance for waiting. She only replied to one unique person, like the millions of her kind. Sighing, Kaoru curled up in her prison, fiddling with the rope of ki that she would follow to her master and settled for counting the number of chain links on it.

As Kaoru counted the links again (84 so far), she could feel a faint tingling at the back of her head. Dismissing this as just a simple headache, she examined the chain of ki once more. (94… or was it 92?) Then she felt it.

The pulse.

It traveled around the bubble as a flash of colors, activating the trigger that told guards that another would soon have to take her place. She understood what the tingling sensation at the back of her head meant now, that the bomb that had been implanted into the base of her skull finally scuttled off her head to a crack at the bottom of the bubble.

Grinning widely to herself, she felt for it again, pleased to find that a steady beat of pulses practically leaped from the chain (she was sure that there were 94 now). She took a deep breath, and slowly, proudly, walked out of her bubble into the human world.

Volunteering to be a Wish had finally paid off.

Once upon a time Kaoru walked freely. She was only a small child back then; a child of around 10 or 11 that her parents had treasured her dearly. Sure, she didn't act like a girl and more often than not came up on top in a tussle, but Kaoru their only girl. Looks of love and tenderness made their way to her often, but sometimes, when the weather was dreary and their tiny apartment dark as their world's corrupt government, her mother would hold Kaoru tight in her arms and look down at her with deep, sorrowful and sometimes even angered eyes.

These moments puzzled Kaoru.

After all, didn't she have everything she already wanted? Her three older brothers played with her often and made sure no other boys teased her. As long as Kaoru didn't beat them up first. Most of her childhood memories consisted of sparring in her family dojo with either Yahiko or Aoshi. Sano claimed he was more of a 'fist to fist' person. He was also the only person that managed to snatch her something from the human world.

"What is it Sano-nii?" she asked, squinting at the box of cherries. "They look so…so… " her face scrunched up in thought, trying to think of the best way to describe those circle-y thingies.

"Red?" said Aoshi, coming up behind her with a shinai in hand. He placed the practice sword carefully onto a rack and picked up his kodachi.

"Red?" Kaoru asked curiously, testing the word out carefully on her lips. "What's that?"

"It's the color of these cherries, Kao." Sano said, patting her sleek black hair and setting the rest of his brown parcels on the ground.

Kaoru stared blankly up at him. "Color?" She started to look cross. Aoshi knelt down beside her, cold eyes slightly warming at her annoyed expression. He never talked to anyone, even the rest of his family. The only exception happened to be Kaoru.

"Color is something they have in the human world." He explained. "Now eat, before the color fades away." With that he climbed up the stairs that led to the attic where he meditated.

With a suspicious glare at Sano, who merely winked at her, she plopped one of the cherries into her mouth.

Her eyes grew round with wonder. "Oh," she breathed. "This is nice." Sano rolled his eyes and picked up the rest of his boxes. As he strolled out of the dojo to their apartment, he could hear sounds of Kaoru devouring the cherries greedily.

Seconds later (the only trace of cherries were being licked off her fingers), Kaoru put a finger on her chin. 'What is this human world Sano talked about?' she contemplated. She thought. She analyzed. No answer came to her. With a defeated sigh, Kaoru picked up her shinai and whacked Yahiko with it, who must've thought she couldn't hear him thumping around behind her back.

"Busu," he muttered under his breath. "I almost had ya this time!"

Kaoru cocked a hand on her hips. The disapproving frown on her face was so motherly that it was a wonder that Yahiko was older than her by 3 years.

"I'm a better ki sensor than that, you know. Plus, you're pathetic at hiding your ki. Aoshi-nii is much better at it than you." She reprimanded haughtily.

"That's cuz he's trainin t'be a ninja." He told her. That earned him another whack to the head. Ah, the shame of being beat up by his younger sister…

"And stop talking like your still on the streets!" she scolded.

He mock bowed. "My apologies, Kaoru-dono, please forgive your humble servant."

She arched an eyebrow. "That wasn't even sarcastically funny."

He scratched his head somewhat sheepishly. "Hey, I tried," and walked up the stairs. When he was around the top, he called that dinner was ready, hoping that he was close enough to Aoshi's room for him to hear. One of the first rules he had learned as a part of the family was never to go into Aoshi's room. Ever.

As Kaoru walked to the apartment building, she remembered the human world. What a great place it must be, with the food and colors, too!

From that day on, Kaoru had a longing for two things: The human world and cherries.

But mostly cherries.

AN

blink blink. This is so going in a major overhaul once i get into the story a bit more...

But still. I'll probably have no audience at all, and I'm also probably talking to myself. This is very depressing.

wanders over to TV and brightens up

oooo, mulan is on! I'll watch with the little kids and pretend I'm bored!