Her head fell to her chest, and she forced herself, albeit unwillingly, to snap her head back to its upright position. It would not do to fall asleep on the subway.
It had been more painfully tiring day than usual. Then again, hadn't she expected residency to be this difficult? Hadn't she known that becoming a doctor would involve sacrifice? She really had no right to complain.
But, it had been an unusually difficult day. Megumi Takani, now officially a third-year resident, had been up since 3 a.m. Monday, working a 48 hour shift. She glanced at the delicate Movado watch strapped on her wrist. The slender hands indicated a time nearer to 4 a.m. A small window cut in the opalescent face of the watch revealed the abbreviation 'Weds.'. Groaning, Megumi rested her head against the metal railing and closed her eyes briefly.
Heavens, she was tired.
The subway pulled to a stop, and a tinny voice sleepily announced her stop over the intercom. Shaking herself from her shallow slumber, Megumi grabbed her large messenger bag and hauled herself up to her feet with the help of the steel rail.
She barely missed having the subway doors close on her, but she was too out of it to notice. "Twelve more minutes," she told herself, feet dutifully treading past the few yawning people waiting on the benches, up the stairs, onto the lamp-lit New York streets, "just twelve more minutes and I can fall in my nice cozy bed…"
A trashy young teen girl, dressed in a nylon vest and polyester miniskirt, gawked at her out of the corner of her eye, looking at her mockingly as though she were crazy. Megumi was tempted to snap, "What? Can't I have the luxury to talk to myself after working for 48 hours straight and running my body down to the skeleton at a hospital where people never cease getting hurt and etc., etc., etc."
Megumi decided it wasn't worth the effort, and settled for a dark glare.
The rest of the walk home passed by in a cold, dark blur, with the occasional cat call of some rowdy drunk frat boy, blare of car horns, and of course, the steady robotic slapping of her feet on the pavement as they subconsciously carried her home.
She struggled to get her keys out of her oversized purse, and sleepily dropped them on the cement. Letting out a piercing hiss of breath, she went down on all knees, feeling for the keys while shivering in the increasingly biting wind. Finally, after an exasperatingly long search, her fingers touched hard cold metal. She gratefully picked the keys up, and after a few tries, managed to jam the right key into the door and unlock the entrance.
As her luck would have it, the elevator wasn't working. Again. For the fifth time that month. So Megumi made the long pilgrimage up the narrow staircase, heavy bag in tow, to the tenth floor. Which happened to be the highest floor in the building. It gave her a nice view of the surrounding neighborhood, but at the moment, her aching arms and burning thighs could have cared less.
After dropping her keys again while trying to open her apartment door, Megumi stumbled bleary eyed into the place she called home. Despite her busy, hectic life, she managed to keep her apartment fairly clean and orderly; there was just something about coming back to a messy house that made her cringe. Leaning back on the door and effectively forcing the door shut, Megumi slid her fingers around the wooden door until they felt a cool copper lock. She quickly turned the knob, and with fingers scrambling clumsily around the wood, found and fastened the deadbolt. Then she slid down the door to a sitting position, quietly observing the spotless living room and kitchen bathed in the moonlight streaming through the windows. She slowly exhaled a sigh of relief.
Home.
She desperately wanted to drop in her bed and sleep like a rock, but her doctor side goaded her into drowsily brushing her teeth and half-heartedly splashing her face with water before she walked into her bedroom.
The room was small, and the bed wasn't like the soft, big one back in her home in Japan, but it was freshly-washed, neat, and more than enough for her needs at the moment. She flopped down onto the bed, kicking off her uncomfortable black pumps and dropping her bag and coat on the soft carpet.
"Mmmmm…"
She wriggled herself under the warm down blanket, relishing the feel of the cotton sheets and resilient mattress against her body. As sleep began to wash over her, her eyelashes fluttered closed, and she fleetingly remembered sleeping in a large, silk-sheeted feather bed, with her father's gentle baritone painting pictures of princes and spells and old Japanese palaces, her mother's soft hand stroking her silky hair, her brother sitting next to her on the bed and holding her hand when she was scared of the dark.
I miss you Father, Mother. I wish you would come back. Kei, oniichan, I wish I could go home and see you once again. I want to go back to Japan, watch the stars and the moon dance across night sky…
The last thing she saw before she succumbed to sleep was the round brightness of the full moon, peering through the window and its gauzy curtains and smiling upon her face.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Her eyes opened with a start, and she glanced wildly about her. Was she awake? Was it morning? No, it couldn't be. The same full moon beamed down at her from the dark sky.
Just as her heart slowed its racing, she reeled back with another shock. There was no window framing the glowing moon. She was standing up, no longer in a recumbent position. The bed was gone; in its place was a cool alabaster platform. A warm breeze blew by, playing with the floating sleeves and silk folds of the lavender kimono—what lavender kimono? Since when did she own one?—and bearing the pungent scent of sakura trees nearby. The stars were clearly visible, standing out against a velvet black sky. No skyscrapers or bright lights blocked them from view.
The young woman gasped again as she spotted intricately designed Japanese buildings surrounding the expansive garden she was currently in. The beautiful buildings, red with gold and black gilding, connected together with complex black lacquer bridges, and topped with elegantly-curved roofs, seemed straight out of the descriptions of the ancient Japanese palaces her father used to tell her about.
She took an unbelieving step backwards. It couldn't be. Her throat constricted, her hand went to her chest. She took another step backwards only to realize that there was no more marble platform to walk on, and she fell, cringing, waiting for the ground to hit…
Before she could scream, a strong pair of arms and a solid chest caught her and lowered her to the ground. As soon as she managed to regain her balance and stand firmly on the misty grass, she swiftly turned around to meet her rescuer.
A pair of icy blue eyes blazed into her mahogany ones.
For a minute, all she saw was the intense eyes burning into her own. She could do nothing but stare, mouth slightly gaping. She had never seen such profound, such smoldering, such blue, eyes in her entire life.
Then, the man's eyes closed, and he knelt stiffly on one knee before her, as though unused to such a position. His ebony bangs slid over his eyes like a veil as he inclined his head to the ground in a formal, rigid bow. Then, with one smooth motion, the man returned to his feet, looking down at her. The moonlight revealed a chiseled face with high cheekbones, a regal nose, and a strong jaw. He was taller than her, powerful lean figure encased in dark gi and cape, save for the gold insignia that hung over his chest. The black hair veiling his eyes thinned as he stepped back to a respectful distance from her, revealing his entrancing blue eyes again.
Megumi, still shocked, could not move her tongue or even find the appropriate words to say to such a man and at such strange behavior. Her usually articulate, sharp mind was swimming in circles.
A prince, just as Father described in the stories…
Once again, the man bowed, but from a standing position, arm crossed over his strong chest, bent over from the torso, head curved downwards in acknowledgement. As he stood up to his full height, his eyes pierced into her and he broke the strange silence with his low, formal tone.
"Lady of the Night, I come to ask your advice."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Hope you enjoyed the fic. Hmmm, whoever could that mysterious man be? : P I'm sure you all know. Writing short chapters for the first time was really fun…I'm sure that I'll update faster as a result! Read and review please!
~Trupana