Almost none of these characters do I own wishes he did but, some minor characters and Kayri are mine.
"Hyohko! Damn it, you always disappear when it's your turn to clean up around here!"
"I don't disappear! I just don't come running." A young man smiled, a red cap covering his head, a book bag slouched against the wall by his feet. He grinned, "Anyways, why should I clean when you're so good at it?" He taunted, looking at a girl around his age of seventeen.
"As if!" The girl stood there yelling at him, her arms on her hips, she was glaring at him, her charcoal wings fluttering behind her to intensify her point. She was shorter than him, but she stood there defiantly in a tight dark blue shirt. Her dark black hair hung cropped short around her ears. "I had to help you last time even! When are you going to grow up!"
He glared back at her, "Its no concern of yours! Fine, I'll clean up!" He grabbed the broom away from the girl, giving up the hopeless battle. "Now go on, I got this."
She smiled in victory, "Yeah, yeah." She laughed, spinning on the ball of her foot. "I win!" She yelled in a singsong voice, running away from a grinning Hyohko.
"She is still new here, yet this place is already her home." He whispered to himself, as he picked up his book bag and made his way with the broom towards the boy's rooms. The factories halls where dark but still they where inviting, the lived in look of a place the Haibane had been for years. "Has it really only been a month since we found her?" His wings twitched on their own accord under a tan jacket he wore even in the hot weather.
His thoughts drifted back to the day that Midori found Kayri in the forest. No egg around, just the bloody body and wings. She had run back straight to him, screaming that he had to carry a girl back to Abandoned Factory. He smiled unconsciously at the thought of his fierce girlfriend Midori. But the image of the body sprawled in the forest, blood soaked wings trying to unfurl, the image couldn't escape his mind.
She was the first to be born in the forest, no one knew how long Kayri had lain there unconscious, unknowing that she was born to the world again. When he had finally got her to Abandoned Factory all of the other Haibane girls brought her to their dorm. They cleaned her bloody wings, washed her frail thin body and slipped a light green robe over her sleeping frame. She had slept for two more days, until one of the girls finally saw her eyes flutter open.
After that she became one of the family. The name Kayri was given to her when she spoke about her dream. She was swimming towards a golden light, it always danced out of her reach. "Kayri, retreating light." He spoke aloud to himself.
Hyohko passed by a broken window and looked down at the front of the factory, Kayri was dancing around with a child that just arrived. He saw her spin and twirl, another girl with messy hair in a schoolgirl uniform laughed at the antics of the other Haibane. "Why was she born in the forest, so far away from everyone?"
He stepped through the doorway into the boy's dorm; even at the late noon hour a few snored in their beds. Each one illuminated by the glow of their halos. He wished he was one of the sleeping, then he wouldn't be the one having to clean up the entire room. He sighed as he looked down the long hall with beds and different dressers and trunks.
"Hyohko!" A voice sounded behind him, angry.
He spun on his heel, his eyes wide "Ah… Midori!" He grinned foolishly at the girl with dark brown hair done up into two pigtails.
"Don't 'Midori' me! You where suppose to come and help me make lunch!" Her eyes twinkled mischievously at her boyfriend. "Now you have to make it up too me." She said it as fact, he grinned knowing he was caught skipping out on another chore.
He held up his hands, grinning at the winged girl, "You got me, but Kayri found me first." He laughed at the dark expression on her face.
"Found you first, eh? Well buddy, you better sort this out yourself, I'll forgive you this once, but I better not catch you skipping out on me again!" She was trying to hide a smile, so she turned sharply on her heel before he could see her face. "Anyways, I'm already done with lunch, you can get some when you want it." She started walking out of the room, but stopped before she stepped outside, "Hyohko, do you think Kayri is too familiar here, too comfortable?"
He stopped sweeping turning towards her, "I know what you mean, she knew this entire complex without being taken on a tour. She also knew the town, even her job at the small glass shop in town. It's as if she has already…"
"Lived in this town…"