The doors to hospital slid open with a shush.

And then closed.

Then slid open again.

And then closed.

And then opened . . .

"How long do you think she'll do that for?" Kagura asked Sakaki as they both stood watching Osaka stand a few feet in front of the door. Each time their friend took a step forward she would give a start as the doors slid open. And each time the doors closed she would giggle to herself.

Sakaki tilted her head slightly to the left; Kagura recognized the look. It meant the taller girl was giving serious thought to the question. There were two things that Kagura firmly admired about Sakaki: (1) she was an amazing athlete and (2) she always took the time to think about whatever you asked her, no matter how silly the question was. Actually, there were really three things she admired about her friend but she did her best not to think about the last one.

"Hard to say," Sakaki answered finally.

Beaming, Osaka waved at the two of them from behind the glass, appearing no closer to exiting the building than she had been five minutes before.

The two girls waved back.

Scowling, Kagura flailed her arms out for emphasis, "That's like the ninth time she's waved at us!"

"Fifth, actually."

"Exactly my point! Come on, let's get out of here. I have swim practice in a couple hours and I want to eat before then." A deep rumbling came from somewhere near Kagura's midsection.

"Okay, so I want to eat now. Are you coming?"

Sakaki raised both her eyebrows as Kagura took a few stormy steps away from the hospital. "You want to leave her here?" she asked. Spoken by anyone else, the question would have seemed accusatory. But in Sakaki's quiet voice, it was just a question.

Rolling her eyes, Kagura jerked a thumb back toward where the doors were still sliding open and closed. "She's in heaven. I wouldn't want to spoil her fun. Besides, if she stays here long enough, maybe they'll finally figure out what's going on in that brain of hers."

Glancing back over her shoulder, Sakaki took in the sight of one of her good friends basking in the simple pleasure of jumping forward and then jumping back. She couldn't help but smile; whatever was going on in Osaka's mind, it had to be one hell of a fun game.

As if to reaffirm that thought, Osaka looked up with her wide-as-the-sky smile.

And waved.

They waved back.

Then, nearly in the same motion, they both turned and began to walk away.

And Osaka continued her little game in her own little world. As soon as they disappeared around the bend, she stopped and let the door slide closed in front of her without so much as giggle escaping her.

"Finally," she said quietly, "that took forever."

"Osaka?"

"AAAAHHH!" Osaka jumped at the unexpected voice and nearly bashed her forehead into the glass. With one hand clasped over her heart, she turned to stare bug-eyed at Yomi, who stared back with a mixture of confusion and skepticism splayed across her face.

"Oh, it's you Yomi. Ya nearly scared me ta death. Good thing we're in a hospital."

"Right. Where are the others?"

"They left already. You just missed 'em. Is there something Ah can help ya with?"

Yomi looked terrified at the idea. "No, no. I was just looking for Tomo's doctor and I saw you here. So they left without you?"

Osaka nodded and motioned to the door. "Yeah. Ah was havin' too much fun. You wanna try it?"

The look that slowly shifted over Yomi's face nearly made Osaka burst out laughing. It clearly stated that no, Yomi definitely did not want to try it, or anything remotely affiliated with it.

"No, that's alright. They're going to let me take Tomo home in a bit. Do you need a ride somewhere?"

Osaka shook her head. "Nope. Good luck an' all."

Yomi blinked. "With what?"

Shrugging, Osaka stepped forward so that the door slid open one more time. "Ya never know what you'll need good luck for. Might as well have it."


"Hungry, hungry, hungry, hungry."

Humming the words just under her breath and to the tune of a jingle from an annoying commercial involving a hamster, a chicken, and a car, Kagura bounced up and down as she walked, her eyes scanning the street in front of her like a lion observes the open prairie. Her hands, stuffed inside the pockets of her short coat, jingled the coins that she was searching so hard to find something to spend on. Even her footsteps were noisy; the soles of her shoes slapped against the sidewalk in a kind of back beat rhythm.

As usual, Sakaki was silent as she walked along beside her, her long strides easily matching Kagura's energetic shuffle. She too, had her hands in the pockets of her jacket but there were no coins inside of them to jiggle. Those were tucked away neatly in the little compartment of the wallet that was resting inside the small bag slung across her body. The fingers of her right hand, however, did have something to play with: a tiny stuffed animal that appeared to be something of a cross between a cat and a monkey. She carried it with her wherever she went and it served as both a good luck charm as well as a companion when she was traveling alone. Which she sometimes preferred to do. Not that she didn't like going places with her friends. It was just that . . . sometimes . . . she liked the quiet of wandering off—

"BINGO! Now we're talking."

Sakaki surfaced from her thoughts to find a triumphant Kagura pointing at a street vendor selling taiyaki pastries. Thrusting her fist into the air, then dragging it down in front of her face, the exuberant athlete continued, "And three for a hundred yen? That's MY kind of bargain! C'mon, Sakaki."

Smiling slightly, Sakaki followed behind her friend and wondered if she should mention that eating taiyaki from a street vendor, especially one selling three for one hundred yen, might not actually be a bargain in the grand scheme of things, particularly if one considered the likelihood of contracting food poisoning from said taiyaki.

"Care to make a donation? We have some lovely flowers to gift our givers."

Just a few feet before the street vendor was a small woman with a cart full of beautifully blooming flowers. The array of bright colors and strong, sweet scents managed to capture both Sakaki's and Kagura's attentions.

"Hey, I remember those. They're . . . uh . . . um . . .," Kagura frowned as she stared at the pink and white flower spread out in the shape of a drooping star.

"Lilies," Sakaki supplied, thinking how pretty the blooms looked. Kagura snapped her fingers and nodded.

"Yeah, that's it! Lilies."

And then Kagura did something that surprised Sakaki. Even as the taller girl was beginning to think about reaching into her purse for her change, Kagura had already dug out several of her own coins and dropped them into the box sitting on the edge of the cart. Beaming, the small flower woman scooped up a bouquet of the lilies and handed them over, bowing slightly.

"Thank you very much young lady."

Kagura took the flowers with a shrug and a grin. "No problem," she said as she started walking again.

Blinking, Sakaki followed after her, forgetting that she had wanted to make her own donation.

It wasn't the fact that Kagura had made the donation that had been so surprising. Sakaki had no trouble with her friend's spontaneous generosity. It was something else.

The fact that Kagura had actually taken the flowers.

Kagura, who couldn't tell a lily from a sunflower or a rose from a tulip and who couldn't care less about the enormous differences between them, had actually taken the flowers.

Shaking her head, Sakaki noticed that she had fallen behind a bit and lengthened her stride to catch up to her friend. As she came up along side her once more, Kagura surprised her again.

She held the flowers out to her.

"Here. They're your favorite, aren't they?"

Sakaki looked down at the delicate pink and white petals that were suddenly inches away from her face. Their soft scent tickled the inside of her nose and she had the sudden urge to gather them in her arms and hold them against her cheek. Instead, she shifted her gaze and saw Kagura watching her with an odd little expression in her light brown eyes. In the four plus years that they had been friends, she had never noticed that Kagura's eyes had thin greenish rings that seemed to float around her pupils. Or were they grey? She'd have to be closer to really see . . .

After a long moment, the shorter woman's eyebrows raised and the look disappeared behind one of puzzlement.

"Sakaki? Take them, honestly. I'll kill them."

Startled, Sakaki unconsciously took the flowers before she could consider any reasons that she shouldn't.

"You like them, don't you?" Kagura's voice sounded almost as if it had a hint of anxiety in it, but Sakaki decided it must have been her imagination. She tried to clear her head—it felt sluggish, as if she had just woken-up—but couldn't really think of anything beyond the flowers that were now cradled gently in her arms.

"I . . . yes. They are my favorite. How did you know?" she stammered quietly.

Kagura hunched her shoulders and something that faintly resembled a blush darkened her cheeks, though it may have just been the slightly chilly wind that chose that moment to kick up.

"You must've told me. How else would I have known? C'mon. I'm going to be late for practice," she replied, picking up her pace a bit. Sakaki accepted the answer and fell into step behind her friend. Because even though her mind—notorious for not forgetting anything—couldn't recall having ever mentioned to Kagura—who never showed any interested in knowing—what her favorite flower was.

But she must have. How else could she have known?

Sakaki stopped suddenly in mid-step, reaching one hand forward to grab hold of Kagura's arm. The shorter woman let out a quick yelp as she was dragged to a halt.

"Wait. You forgot to get your taiyaki."

The confusion on Kagura's face dissolved into a wide grin and she waved away Sakaki's observation. "Nay, I decided I probably didn't want to spend one hundred yen on indigestion anyway. Besides, I gave all my change to the flower lady."

Sakaki felt her fingers tighten ever so slightly around the stems in her hands. "Won't you be hungry at practice?"

"No big deal. Somebody will probably have something I can bum."

As she stood there, hands, nose, and head full of flowers, it seemed to Sakaki almost as if someone—or something—was slowly taking control of her. She heard herself say, in a voice that sounded, to her ears, nothing like her,

"You still have an hour and a half. And there's that little café that's just by the gym. We could grab something there. My treat."

Kagura tilted her head to one side and her grin widened.

"Okay."