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NOTES
There are no warnings yet.
I did a poll on my website for what I should write next, and the answer that got the most votes was, "If you want Nii/Ririn so damn bad, why don't you write it yourself?" This is, of course, a weakly disguised beg for a squicky fic, to which I will happily comply. You sick bastards.
What a bastard this upload system is.
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It was a cool day for summertime, and a bit overcast. The sunlight that bled through the treetops wasn't a warm yellow but a grey, almost white. It made things shimmer and seem unreal.
It is unreal, the voice came.
There was a man standing there, between the trees. His features were obscured by white gauzy cloth that moved in the passing breeze like the leaves above. It seemed as if he was a million miles away.
And he lifted a hand through the distance and the haze, and his smile pierced like ice, and suddenly she realized that this wasn't the world that she knew. This was somewhere else.
The voice said, Time to wake up.
There was thunder.
-----
Ririn sat up in bed and stared at nothing. It was utterly dark, without moonlight. There was a momentary silence, and the air hung with tension, and then the rain began to fall. She didn't bother turning to look - there wasn't enough light to see the drops patter against the window.
Somewhere, a clock chimed once.
Swinging her bare feet to the floor, Ririn hopped from her bed and made her way to the door. It creaked slightly as she slipped out and into the hall.
The corridor was lit by lamps set a few meters apart. Between each was a dark doorway, hidden in the shadows. The curved ceilings reverberated with the sound of her footsteps; her toenails clicked lightly on the tile.
It was then that she remembered her dream. It was so unlike her other dreams, which were filled with meat buns and fired dishes and candy, and sometimes her brother and Yaone and Dokugakuji, and every so often she would see an angry monk and his companions, traveling across Tougenkyou. She never had nightmares.
Nothing came to her. Connecting the dream to reality seemed impossible, and she screwed up her face, pushing down the handle of a carved wooden door. She slipped into the empty kitchens, and the dream slipped from her mind for good.
-----
The laboratory was alive with color and sound. Bubbling tubes that made reflected light dance on the wall, multicolored wires that grew up the walls like vines. Ririn sat on a cluttered table, arms crossed, swinging her feet back and forth impatiently. Across the room, one of the doctors - the usual one - leaned casually against his desk, fiddling with various vials and writing things down. His stuffed bunny was perched next to the girl, limp and relaxed, obviously content with doing nothing.
"Maa... I'm sick of these tests." She pressed her lips together in a sour face.
"Afraid you have to," said the scientist. "Your mother's orders."
"What orders? I don't have to do what she says," she spit, rebuking the very thought. "There's nothing wrong with me. I don't need to see a doctor every since day!"
"You know," he said, not turning around, "She's only trying to do what's best for you."
"I know what's good for me."
"Do you really." Ririn knew that he was humoring her, and hot anger bubbled at the base of her spine. She leapt off the table and flounced toward the exit with a huff.
"Princess... be careful out there."
She turned a dark eye over her shoulder. The man was smiling at her. He had turned his chair and was sitting casually, as if he were on a throne. A king of mysteries solved. "Why?"
Colorful rays of light splintered off his glasses, and for a moment she realized she didn't remember his name. "Because. You're a very important little girl."
"The only thing that is important to me," she replied, "is what I'm going to eat today." Then she left.