A/N

Woke up on the wrong side of the wrong bed. Argh.
currently uninspired and on a serious case of mental block.

Took me five minutes to find the word I was looking for : regret. I am THAT slow today. tsk.

anyway, here's chapter one of this story. I hope you will enjoy it, and discover who I was refererring to in this chapter :)

Reviews are very much welcome and appreciated.

xoxo,

myarbalest

Disclaimer: I still do not own Naruto.

Chapter 2

Tomatoes… Two red, plump, and fresh tomatoes.

That was the only thing a six year old girl could offer to the shouting and heavily bandaged seven year old boy who was confined on the hospital room next to her oka-san's.

She woke up in the middle of the night snuggled close to her sick mother. She heard of grunts, groans, and finally a piercing shout from the room next door. She sleepily rubbed her doe-shaped lavender-tinted eyes, and checked if her mother was roused by the voice – she wasn't. She slowly dragged herself out of bed and tip toed outside her mother's room. Funny how the loud sounds produced from the person occupying next door did not wake the nurses who were busy in their working stations. She waited for someone to come, someone to calm the sobs she heard from the adjacent room. A voice perhaps to comfort the person and words encouragement to go back to sleep like how her oka-san does? Nothing came. Nobody else was there with this person. Muffled sobs could only be heard in the adjacent room.

She could only imagine how the person felt right now: lonely and afraid. All those times she had nightmares while her oka-san was confined here in the hospital, nobody came and comforted her. She would gather her knees and press her chin above it, and rock herself to sleep. She would mutter reassuring words to her crying self, until her body gave out and embraced the comforts of sleep. She empathized the being residing next door. When one just had nightmares, wouldn't they want to be comforted? She would, and maybe this person would want someone there too.

The door was ajar, and she hesitantly tiptoed and pushed the door open to look inside. It was dark, but the moon provided enough light for her to examine the person whose back was turned to her. It was a child, she thought, about the same age as her. A head covered with raven hair pressed on a pillow, and the hospital blanket draped from his torso to his feet. His shoulders shook after each sob, and sniffs could be heard from the child in the bed.

She carefully examined the room. It was simple just like her oka-san's room. But a lot of things were lacking from this room. It didn't have flowers industriously arranged in a vase by her small soft hands like her oka-san's bedside table had. It lacked the aroma of tea and chicken soup that invaded her nostrils when she entered this room, unlike her oka-san's. It didn't have a basket of oranges, apples, tomatoes and strawberries placed beside the flowers, a gift from her father she would occasionally feed her mother with. This room resounded of loneliness, inexplicable coldness and abandonment. Her heart cried out for the child confined in this room.

She looked at the bed again, and was startled that the child was facing her now. There sat a boy with chin length black hair who had a bandaged left cheek. His dark eyes pierced her. Was he angry? She could not tell. Those cold eyes examined her small form, both curious and annoyed at her unwanted presence. Her right foot stepped back from the room, and she readied herself for a reprimand from the child and mentally prepared herself for apologies from her part and bolt out of the room once she had given enough respectful bows for her blatant disregard of privacy. She was about to spurt her apologies when she heard an unmistakable grumbling stomach from the boy. He was hungry.

Still unable to coherently express her apologies, she rushed back to her oka-san's room. She looked inside the basket, and was disappointed that she could only find two tomatoes. There wasn't any leftover soup from her oka-san's dinner too. She could only offer two red tomatoes, and she wished she could give more the boy. She grabbed the tomatoes and stopped in front of the door that led to the boy's room. It was half-opened. She was nervous, but an empty stomach in the middle of the night would not aid a sick person to his recovery, she reasoned out. Her hands shook while she entered the room, and loudly gulped while she placed the food on his bedside table. She refused to look at the boy, afraid for his reactions and what he may do to her. She could feel heat all over her body, her ever present blush tainted her porcelain skin from head to toe. She was that flustered and intimidated by this boy's presence, for reasons she could not explain. She backed away from the bedside table, absentmindedly poked her index fingers together and remained silent. She would not look at him, but she could feel his eyes that followed her small figure, wary of her actions.

Awkward moments later and the boy finally reached for the tomatoes, smelled them and eagerly ate. She was relieved that he ate the tomatoes. and before she could stop herself, years of engrained manners kicked in and she found her small hands tipping a pitcher of water to the empty glass on his bedside table. She was shocked by her actions, but did not regret it. She carefully placed the pitcher in the bedside table, stepped back and watched as the boy drank the water.

Silence filled the room again. She nervously tugged her jacket down, still unable to find words to the boy she now realized was looking at her, sans the cold aura he emanated a while ago. She realized that maybe the boy needed to rest now, so she made a respectful bow to him and silently walked out the door and closed it. She went back to her mother's room and carefully snuggled to her oka-san's sleeping form. She hoped the boy was somehow comforted by her efforts, and hoped that his nightmares would not come back to haunt him again. She released a sigh she did not know she withheld all along, and smiled. She closed her eyes and went back to sleep.

She woke up early that morning, and readied herself to go back to her compound. She kissed her oka-san's cheeks, promised her that she will come back later, and headed out of her room. She glanced to the boy's room, and found its doors open. The bed was vacant and the linens were cleanly folded. The boy must have been discharged early.

She trudged her way to the compound, and thought of the boy she met at the hospital. She was sure she met him before, though she could not remember where and when. Maybe it was only her overactive imagination, she mused. She greeted the guards stationed in front of her compound, and went straight to her room. School was her agenda now, and she only had one and a half hour left to prepare.

She jogged to her classroom, academy students littered along the hallways. She was far from late, 30 minutes before classes would start, but she liked the feeling of being early and ready. She hurriedly composed herself and placed her backpack on her preferred seat at the back. Two of her classmates talked loudly and three boys were in a heated argument at the exit door of their classroom. She remained rooted to her seat and silently observed her classmates.

She went to the girl's bathroom five minutes later for a quick bladder break, washed her hands and hurried back to her classroom. A few students had arrived, and the classroom was getting rowdier, mainly because of the presence of one raven-haired classmate of hers seated a few rows in front of her. They had never talked before, and he seemed the type who doesn't want to be bothered so she never made ways for conversations. His ever present fangirls were already handfuls, and she would not burden him with talks that would only make him more annoyed than he already was.

She approached her seat and opened her bag to get empty scrolls and pens. Her lavender-tinted eyes widened at the newly added contents of her backpack. She could feel her blush creeping from her neck to her face.

She scanned the room, and frantically searched for clues to whoever opened her bag. Someone must have placed them inside her backpack while she was away. She looked at her classmates, no one seemed to notice her discovery, and continued to search their eyes for any affirmation.

Large lavender-tinted eyes met with dark obsidian ones. He stared at her.

She blushed. She darted her eyes to the ground and started to fidget. Index fingers started to meet and she could only drop herself to her seat before her legs would give her away and faint. Thirty agonizing seconds later she finally mustered the courage to meet his gaze again.

Her eyes met his, and he nodded. He plopped his right hand to his chin, and stared at the window. That impassive expression again painted in his elegant face.

She could not believe just what happened. It was unexpected and totally out of the blue shocked her. She went to look at her backpack again, and poked at the newly added contents. This really did happen, and it was not a product of her overactive imagination. She felt herself relax, and couldn't suppress a sincere smile.

A few hours later, she found herself enjoying her delicious lunch and she couldn't be more contented of the small things life had offered her today : A spot underneath a shady tree, a very satisfying bento, some green tea from her canteen, and two plump red tomatoes she found inside her backpack.

A/N

I know it wasn't exciting, but I had to establish something for future chapters.

thank you so much for reading.

my doubts are getting the best of me :(