Beside her bed, Atsuki watched the girl. Running a hand through spiky brown hair, he sighed. He had hoped that at some point through the night, she would wake. But now they were only hours off from first light and she still had yet to open her eyes. He hoped they were still the same starting blue as they had been in her other form.
As he sat there, he tried to understand why she called to him, why he ached to be in her presence as he did no other. He did not understand the girl, but then, rarely had he been alone with her. Even now, he could sense her guards outside the hospital doors. From the first moment he had laid eyes on her Atsuki had known her.
In ways that he had never known another person, he knew her. What was she? Who was she? Who would she become and what in the world did it have to do with him? He was not a man to whom kind words or thoughts came easy yet with this child, that was all there was.
He was so distracted with his thoughts that he almost didn't notice the way her breathing quickened. Sitting forward, he took her hand and felt as if the wind had been knocked out of him as her eyes opened. There was wisdom there, a knowledge he could never hope to understand; there was strength and a future he didn't know, was not sure he would ever see.
He watched as she slowly sat up, as tiny hands pulled free of his. She moved slowly, as if thousands of years old and swung her legs over the side of the bed and then she looked at him and held her hands out. As if in a trance, he stood and picked her up, only to set her gently on her feet. The bright, beautiful smile of the toddler who barely reached his knees would never leave his mind.
o.O.o
Word Count - 360