Everlasting Snow
A Short Story Of Hatori Sohma
Chapter 1

I remember her all the time. I... Can't forget her, that Kana Sohma. She knew that snow melts. I melted. She melted my cold heart. We were in love. A perfect love. But perfection is not forever, as I know now. After Akito struck, her health and happiness decreased. She would not stop crying or mourning for my... My small injury. And so I erased everything she knew about me, the curse, the smiles, the laughter, the greatest moments of my miserable life. And I felt like it was all over, an everlasting winter of everlasting snow. I was depressed ever since then. I felt unloved. But then I met Apple Blossom.

Mikura "Apple Blossom" Takafuji. A light in the darkness she was to me. The first day I saw her, she reminded me painfully of Kana. Bright and cheerful, kind and sweet. But Mikura has a rough edge. The first day I saw her, she was fighting with me. She is a nurse, and she was comforting a young girl (a Sohma) before getting flu shots from me. She told her that I was a good doctor, I would not hurt her. The girl cried loudly for her mother. "Nurse Takafuji," I scolded, not having heard her attempts to calm the child. "You are scaring the patient." "No, I was not!" she said, just a bit too loud. "Yes, you were, she was crying for her mother, Takafuji," I said, becoming irritated. "Stop it, Hatori!!!" she yelled. "Takafuji, no outbursts in the Medical Room! Calm down, or you go outside!" I reprimanded her if she was a little child. "Okay Hatori-san, have it your way," she said calmly. "I was telling her that you were a good doctor, and you would not hurt her." "Oh, well, I'm sorry, er, Mikura..." I breathed, ashamed. Mikura nodded, but didn't reply. She performed her duties and left the room, cheeks quite red.

Actually, I hadn't really noticed her until then. She was just a nurse, like all other nurses until that incident. After the incident, she was still just a nurse, but a nurse that I couldn't take my eyes off of. She had exotic, tantalizing, even hypnotizing looks. Her eyes were bright green with a sparkle of delight hidden behind them, under her left eye was a small black imperfection, accentuating the beauty of her face, her skin was fair, her cheeks were slightly pink, like carnations in their early bloom, her eyelashes were thick and her eyebrows thin. Her hair shined in the light, a bright copper-brown with streaks of dark blonde. Her hair seemed long, but was always whipped back in a professional bun, leaving some of it to cover part of her left eye, near the imperfection. Her head always leaned a little to the right in a mysterious way, letting the loose hair cover the left side of her face slightly. Her figure was not plump, but not stick-thin. Her arms slender, with fingers long and graceful. (I'm a doctor, so, yes, I am quite observant, no I'm not obsessing, but she is quite, unique) I think she is quite the beauty and the fire. She will make a great wife for someone one day...

On the day that would change my visions about Mikura, I felt relatively carefree. Ayame-kun had invited me over for tea at his shop for the night. I walked over to his tacky little shack of a shop and I saw dresses and colorful designs were in the window. Oh, I had to admit he had a knack for designing, but... Dresses for men? Well, anyways, you know Aya, carefree and foolish to a point, he poured out the tea, spilling much on my clean suit and only saying, "It happens, Ha-kun!" and shrugging. (and I still have the stain in the suit) Well, I enjoyed the tea and the cookies, but his assistant was just plain frightening. She kept urging me to try on this horrid pink frilly blouse. Well, after a while Ayame convinced me to try it on "just for fun", and I did. Little did I know that he had a camera behind his back. This was definitely a reminder of our high school days... Those, memorable days. I left. Early.

After my little encounter it was dark, and windy. I walked home, which was near my office. But as I walked down a small sidewalk near a thin alley, I heard a noise. At first it seemed like wind, but it was louder and more consistent. It was crying. I stepped inside the alley, holding my breath. I whipped out my miniature flashlight out of my pocket and shined it in the alley. I heard a rustle near a trembling figure on the ground. A shadowed figure, a man, ran out the back of the alley away from the one on the ground. I walked cautiously closer to the shaking and crying figure when suddenly I stepped on something wet that splashed quietly. I shined the light down to see a red puddle... Of blood. I shined the light to the figure with my face slightly turned away. The face, was covered in blood, especially the left of it. The hands as well. But as I looked closer I saw with horror, the wounded, trembling, bleeding, crying, suffering one was Mikura Takafuji.