Hey everyone! PhoenixDumpling here~! Please excuse the unusual username. It was Harry Potter and Asia inspired. But please, let not my hideous username hinder your experience for this story! At least, I hope it will be wonderful for you :) I'm very excited for this story as well as for the few others that I will try to upload this week or next week. After that, I will update my stories in rotation. This story will be the first story in the update cycle! So please look forward to that :) This was originally supposed to be a 3-part series, but I figured each chapter would be VERY long. Note, that this is a Modern!AU with the main pairing as Ike/Marth. There will be other pairings, but I wouldn't spoil it for you!

So let me give you a snippet of what's in store for you in this chapter:

Marth Lowell is an awkward child, but a heart-wrenching revelation changes his once quiet life.

Without further ado, I give you the first chapter of "30 Days"! :)

March 4, 2012

Sunlight seeped in through the cracks in the broken blinds of the bedroom window. Birds chirped their morning song as the annoying alarm clock beside the bed beeped and flashed the digital numbers 6:45. Marth sat straight up in his bed, the old blanket tightly clutched in his pale hands. His tears had dried against his eyes in his sleep, but the boy made no effort to get up from his position and refresh himself. That was until the clock read 6:52, and Elise hollered at him from outside the bedroom door.

"Marth! You'll be late!" her footsteps retreated back into the kitchen where she continued to fry what smelled like sausages. Marth softly tapped the "off" button on his old alarm clock, and with the lack of sluggishness that every fourteen year old had at the early hours of the day Marth made his way into the bathroom to get ready before he ate breakfast.

Elise watched as her silent brother took a seat across from her own empty one, a blank expression plastered on his face. His eyes were red and puffy, tell-tale signs of hours of relentless crying evident from the night before. With a shaky breath, she turned off the stove allowing for the sausages to sizzle a while longer. She slowly approached her little brother, whose eyes were now directed towards the ground. Hopelessness had devoured her once cheerful sibling. Elise resisted the urge to break down at the sight of her poor brother. Oh what thoughts must be spinning in his mind now! With teary eyes, Elise clasped both her hands unto her brother's still ones as she kneeled down to his height. She rubbed circles into the back of his hands as she forced a smile.

"Marthy. . . it's going to be okay, sweetie. . . it's going to be alright. . ." the shakiness in her voice betrayed the optimistic message she tried to convey. Marth locked his blue eyes with the similar pair of his sister's, emptiness dimming its usually bright color. Elise pulled the small teenager into a hug not caring that his arms lay limp on either side of him. "Eat up. You need your strength for today." She sniffled as she released him and decorated the table with her carefully prepared food.

School had been uneventful for the most part. The occasional bullying from Roy and his gang coupled with the awkward glances from other teenagers who refused to make verbal contact with him was a normal routine for Marth. He had always been a loner. His social awkwardness made him stand out in a sea of vibrant, chatty teens. The only times he spoke to anyone was when there were projects or when he was tutoring the students who did poorly in biology. Biology happened to be the boy's favorite subject. He would talk for hours on end about the wonders of natural selection or the ingenuity of various scientists who contributed to the world of medicine. Marth knew the living world forwards and backwards in terms of biology. The human body? A piece of cake. The theories of evolution? No problem. However, being buried in piles of biology text books could never compare to having a friend . . . Yes indeed, Marth lacked one of those. . . "Elise didn't count" he often told himself. Neither did the birds nor the squirrels in the school courtyard. A friend could make his life way better than it was at the moment. It would make up for all the one sided conversations he had with Sheeda, Cain, and Abel his favorite doves that ate bread Elise packed for him out of his hands. However, the boy came to accept the sad realization that no one would want to be friends with one lonely Marth Lowell. So he settled for the birds and squirrels who listened to his complaints, his dreams, and his stories.

Today was Friday, meaning Marth needed to spend an extra hour and a half with a certain Ike Greil. The teen was unsure about whether he admired or pitied the one and only Ike of Smash High. Though girls drooled over his handsome face which was topped with a mess of dark blue hair and boys aspired to become as athletically skilled as he, Marth supposed that Ike's lack of brains and poor academic grades almost outweighed all the positive things about him. Sighing, Marth made his way to the next-door classroom as soon as the final bell rang. Students scrambled to escape the death trap of a building that was called school, as Marth took time and care to pack his things into his tattered brown backpack, a hand-me-down from Elise of course. At least there weren't any pink flowers or ribbons on it. The twenty second trip to the classroom was extended by an extra ten seconds when the red-haired Roy Pherae purposefully slammed his shoulder against the poor boy. He quickly saw stares from the brunette Zelda, the blond and pretty Peach, the surprised Pit, and the ever-popular Samus Aran. He couldn't see everyone else.

"Watch where you're going, fag!" He called out while Link, his blond partner-in-crime sniggered. Marth was used to the casual insults directed towards his femininity. His anemia prevented him from doing any physical activities that would have otherwise made him taller and bulked him up. He and Elise were apparently spitting images of their deceased mother, blue hair and all; therefore, the delicate, feminine face was inevitable. Despite the lack of breasts, Marth would have easily passed as a girl (not that he already did). Marth stared a moment longer at the retreated backs of Roy and Link. No sob story would get those two to change their minds about him, so the blue-haired boy never tried. "None of them would understand anyways." His spirits were further dampened by the turn of events and his chest felt like it was about to burst.

For once, Ike Greil was already in the classroom, alone, waiting for Marth to tutor him. His darker blue hair was held out of his eyes by a green bandana. His bulky teenage form was leaning against the wall as his school bags, two of which were blue and held his sports equipment no doubt, lay haphazardly on the floor. He stood at least a head taller over Marth's tiny frame. Had Ike not been the idiot that he was, Marth would have been intimidated by him.

"Hey MarMar!" Ike said with a goofy smile. Marth rolled his eyes and took a seat next to Ike's desk. Ike followed his motion and pulled a heavy textbook and workbook from his backpack.

"So what did you learn today?" Marth asked sternly making no eye contact with the other blunette as he aligned his own pens perfectly parallel to each other on the desk. When Ike remained silent for longer than Marth expected, he turned to meet the gaze of one clueless upperclassman. Marth sighed exasperatedly and snatched the book from Ike's desk. "They must be on Chapter 14," and so Marth turned to "Chapter 14: Circulatory fucking System." "Heart, blood vessels, blood…" something inside Marth snapped. Blood. His eyes clouded over, a hidden fury clawing everything in its way in order to escape the prison of his heart. "To think that this oaf thought he could survive human anatomy. . ." Marth noted the poor doodle of what seemed to be the grim reaper holding a wonky scythe located beside the diagram of a heart. "So what do you need help with? Is there anything in particular, or do you need help with everything because you decided it would be more educational to vandalize a perfectly fine textbook than to listen to the useless instructions of the teacher?" Marth needn't see the blunette's face to know he was hurt by the careless, sarcastic comment. "What's happening?"

"Well, um, can you explain the circulation thingy-"

"Maybe that'll make help you get blood flowing into that airhead of a brain that you have."

"What am I saying!?"

"It's not exactly easy to-"

"Maybe if you paid attention it would be." Marth refused to hold back from all the degrading comments towards Ike. What happened to his patient, gentle self? It was unlike him, but deep down, his mind was unraveling . . .

"I'm sorry that I can't get-"

"I'm sorry you born with a pathetic excuse for a brain."

"Stop please stop!"

"What's your prob-"

"Problem? I have no problem. Why don't you step off your high horse and get it into your empty head that just because someone doesn't like you, it doesn't mean he has a problem." This wasn't right. And Marth knew it. His eyes were starting to sting from holding back a torrent of tears. Ike didn't deserve these hurtful words. Why did his body insist on taking out on the other teen?

"That! What!? How did we get here from heart circulation?" Ike fumed an incredulous look on his face. Marth refused to answer, his grip on the textbook threatening to permanently wrinkle the fresh pages. Silence. The halls were so empty that the boys could hear their heavy, rhythmic breathing slowly becoming calm again.

"Marth . . . are you okay?" Ike broke the silence with his quiet voice, much deeper than Marth's own. "You usually aren't this. . . anal." Ike received a glare in return. "No! Wait I mean! You're usually patient and. . ." Marth looked away from Ike, his shoulders shaking. "Marth?" Ike thought he heard the smaller boy sniffling. His thoughts were confirmed when Marth made a move to wipe his eyes with his white cardigan sleeve. "Marth. . ." The tiny blunette turned to face the Greil boy, his eyes wide and fearful as the whites of his eyes turned a sickly red that heavily contrasted his light blue irises. A thick stream of tears flowed from his eyes like a waterfall.

"I'm . . . I'm sorry. . .It's . . . I'm . . . that was mean . . . . I'm sorry. . ." the boy spoke softly, an almost-whisper, before he began sobbing into his thin arms. Ike closed the textbook, and awkwardly tried to comfort Marth by placing a hand on his head. He never noticed how pale Marth's skin was compared to his own tanner complexion. Was it because of his anemia? Everyone knew that the sickly Marth Lowell was incapable of participating in gym. He was teased for it. Accused of faking it. But, goodness, was his hair so soft. Ike found himself absent-mindedly stroking the river of straight blue hair that seemed to just float in between his fingers. The sobbing boy looked at Ike behind shaking fingers. That was when Ike made a move to pull the boy into a hug. No one was watching anyways. . .

"What's wrong, MarMar?" Ike looked down at the boy, full concern flashing in his gray blue eyes. At the moment, the boy was the epitome of hopelessness and deterioration. As though a part of him had died and left him with a shell of his former self. Marth controlled his sobbing, not minding the warmth that radiated from Ike's larger body. "At least he seems to care. . ."

"It's nothing."

"Sobbing uncontrollably against me isn't exactly nothing, MarMar." With those words, Marth pushed himself off of Ike, blushing for a moment as he realized he was lying against him like a helpless baby.

"It's. . . It's complicated. . ."

"I can try to understand." Marth looked at Ike, seeing a trace of determination on his handsome face. The younger blunette sighed shakily, before he opened the text book back to Chapter 14. Next to Ike's doodle was a detailed cut-away diagram of the human heart.

"The heart has four chambers: the right atrium, the right ventricle, the left atrium, and the left ventricle," Marth spoke, his breathing still a bit ragged from the crying. He pointed out the chambers of the heart checking to see if Ike was keeping up.

"O-okay. . ?" Ike scratched his forehead unsure where this conversation was going. Though, he was impressed how Marth was still able to explain properly in this state.

"This huge blue vein on the diagram that goes into the right atrium is called the superior vena cava. It brings back deoxygenated blood back from the body. The blood is pumped from the right atrium into the right ventricle by this flap, the tricuspid valve. The blood then goes from the right ventricle and into the lungs via the pulmonary artery because it is pumped upwards by the pulmonary valve-"

"How does this relate to what's been bothering you?"

"Please be patient, I'm trying to explain," Marth looked up from the diagram and said calmly giving Ike a sad look.

"Okay.."

"The blood is oxygenated within the lungs and goes back into the heart via the pulmonary veins and into the left atrium. The blood is then pumped into the left ventricle by the mitral aka the bicuspid valve before it is pushed by the aortic valve into the aorta and pumped into the rest of the body," Marth finished giving Ike a patient, small smile. Ike looked at Marth cluelessly, but miraculously understood the gist of the diagram with the help of Marth's pointing and explaining. Ike remained silent hoping the blunette would continue. But the small teen closed his eyes as though bracing himself for a catastrophic ocean wave about to swipe him off his feet. Very dark blue lashes created shadows on Marth's cheeks, as Ike resisted the urge to reach out the stroke the long, thick lashes. Light blue eyes opened once more, subtle determination causing blue eyebrows to furrow seriously. A finger was raised once more against the page of the diagram. . .

"But. . . I want you to imagine. . . imagine what happens if you have a huge rock growing within the right atrium . . ." Marth glanced sideways at Ike. Ike concentrated upon his words until it hit him.

"It can't be . . ." surprised, Ike stared at Marth, his gray blue eyes giving him an incredulous stare once more.

"Deoxygenated blood won't be able to flow properly into the right ventricle. . . the pumping action of the heart would cause pieces of the rock to pass in between the muscles and grow on other places of the heart. Over here. . . there . . . and there. . ." Marth pointed to various areas on the heart, the left atrium, and the left ventricle. "Soon . . . the person would lose all functions of the heart. . . and his body. . . would suffocate. . . or bleed to death if any of these rocks burst. . ." Ike stared at Marth, his mouth agape. Marth swung his body around on his chair to completely face Ike. The boy looked down at his own hands before he looked up and spoke to the taller boy. "Yesterday, I was diagnosed with heart cancer. Hemangiosarcoma to be exact." Ike released the breath he held at the word "cancer." His hand covered his mouth in surprised as he looked away from the blunette for a moment. How could Fate be so cruel? What had this Lowell boy done to deserve this? But this was the future wasn't it? There had been many of stories of people surviving cancer. Perhaps, doctors could help him?

"Elise. . . my sister. . . we can't afford the surgery needed to remove pieces of the tumor. That and the doctor explained that the surgery as the potential to actually kill me. The whole tumor is irremovable, and removing only a piece would increase my life by a few days. . . It's not much," Marth gave a small smile while Ike tried his best not to appear weak and weep for Marth's condition. He needed to be strong. He had to! How else would he support the fragile teen? "Yesterday I was told that I have approximately 31 days to live. From today, I have 30. . ."

"Marth. . . oh my goodness. . . Mar. . ." Ike held Marth's small hands in his own larger owns. He gripped them tightly, not daring to let go. "I'm sorry, Marth, I'm sorry," a mantra of apologies spewed from Ike's mouth.

"Ike, don't pity me please . . . I-"

"I should've noticed it! When you looked sadder than usual! When you didn't feed your birds today! Oh my goodness, Marth, I should've asked you sooner!" tears started spilling down the older boy's face. But Marth blushed a deep red that blended onto his skin perfectly in the orange light of the sunset. Everything in the room was painted in the brilliant colors of sunset, but Marth forgot to notice it for he was focused more on what Ike had just said.

"How did you know that-"

"Ha, I'm sorry," Ike sniffled trying to give a smile, but failing miserably. "You always looked so lonely. I've been meaning to talk to you. And maybe become friends? But every time I see you, alone in the cafeteria or outside, I end up backing away. . . I'm such a coward and I'm sorry," Ike explained. Marth nodded in understanding. If anyone were to catch the great Ike Greil talking to someone as lowly as himself, Ike would be casted away from the highest ranks of the school's cruel hierarchy. No one talked to the weird faggot of the class. No one wanted to be in Marth's awkward, feminine presence. That's just how it was. But it was comforting to know that there were people out there who thought about it. . .

"We're going to make these the best 30 days of your life. I promise you MarMar, I promise you!" Ike tightened his hold on the blunette's hands, the tears were starting to dry. "I'll be the bestest friend you could ask for!"

"You mean best?"

"Whatever! I'll be so good to you I promise!" Marth returned Ike's wobbly smile, with a small one.

"Ike. . . please don't feel like it's your duty to do this. . ."

"But it is! We're friends now aren't we?" Ike straightened his smile a bit, the conversation becoming a little lighter than earlier. Now it was Marth's turn to stare at Ike wordlessly, mouth agape.

"So this is what it's like. . . to have a friend. . ." to have someone who truly cared enough to make it an unconditional priority to make the other happy. Marth smiled brightly for the first time in a while. Never had he been so happy for himself. Elise would be so overjoyed to hear about this! Tears of joy would have fallen had the small bluenette not run out of tears to cry.

For a moment, the world stopped spinning.

For a moment, everything was perfect.

For a moment, the future seemed a little brighter . . .

Love it? Hate it? Constructive criticism is much appreciated as are your thoughts and comments, so please hit the review button :) There isn't much character descriptions here in this chapter, but I intended for this chapter to be an opening. You'll get to know the characters as the story progresses :) Marth's character is definitely influenced by a lot of my favorite Ike/Marth's author's writing ADashofInsanity. I agree with her that Marth is a kind, innocent, gentle, quiet spirit as he was in the mangas where he would miss war meetings just to feed the animals outside of the castle. Ike is your typical jock haha :) Cool and popular, but not exactly smart. However, he is a big softie. I always assumed he had this side.

Korean dramas and music heavily inspire the angst in this story :'( Don't agree? Then go ahead and watch a few! The song "Heaven" by Ailee is a BIG INSPIRATION for this story. Go ahead and check it out! The music video had me crying at the end. Hopefully you'll shed a few tears by reading this story! Expect the next update very soon! :)

Next chapter: Ike creates a 30-day schedule for him and Marth :) A friendship blossoms.

I have a few more stories planned along with this :) Two more are Ike/Marth while the other is Pit/Marth. Stay tuned! :)