Wow, it's been so long, I'm sure some of you thought I was dead. I wasn't, in case you were wondering. As my regular readers know my health has been plummeting as of recently, and the past few months have more or less been a hell of medicine and hospital visits. I'm finally better, as better as I'm gonna get, so I decided it would be best if I at least tried to get back into writing.
This took a long while for me to type, and it's nothing any one requested.
I've seen everyone's recent reviews, and I'll get to the requests, but right now I don't think I could them any justice. Thank you to everyone who's wished me good health, it did me some good seeing those while I was down.
ANYWAY this is an AU me and a close friend came up with while I was away, it's full of our own characters and headcanons and is severely indulgent on my part. Has minor Maka x Liz and some suggestion of Hiro x Kidd. If you've noticed, I am spelling his name differently, that's mainly because I got tired of avoiding using kid as a description so...slightly different spelling.
Enjoy, review, and I don't own anything except for the few obviously not canon characters. (Ink is mine, though he has different ages depending on the AU he gets shoved into.)
Hiro stirred, slowly opening his eyes to stare up at the white ceiling and the painfully florescent lights overhead. He could already tell that it would just be another shitty day, one full of doctors and nurses and people who would only pity him.
Beside him, the heart monitor beeped at a steady rate, betraying the awful hollow feeling in his chest. Just outside the room, through the partially shut door, he could hear the nurses walking, their shoes making soft clicking sounds on the tiles. He listened, for a moment, to the dreadfully familiar noises, then turned onto his side to stare out the one single window in his tiny little white room.
All he could see was the blue sky, a few clouds, and the very top of a tree with leaves in fall colors. A nurse had told him it was almost Halloween, and that if he felt like it he could go home to celebrate. Hiro already knew he wouldn't be going home; it wasn't that he wasn't healthy enough, just that he had no family to go home to.
Out in the hall, someone started screaming and the sound of shoes against the tiles became louder. He sat up, ignoring the dull ache in his limbs, mostly The door of his room opened and a small figure slipped inside, closing the door behind them. Hiro made a little room on his bed, smiling as Ink climbed up beside him.
"Did the noise startle you?" Hiro kept his voice just above a whisper, knowing that the little pale boy was sensitive to anything loud. Ink nodded, his mop of messy black hair flopping over his lavender eyes. The blond brushed the younger boy's hair back and felt his heart break a little at the weak smile he got.
"Y-y-y-yeah, c-can I s-s-s-stay?" Ink reached out to hold onto the front of Hiro's shirt (white, just like the room they sat in). Hiro just didn't have the heart to say no.
He sat back, letting Ink lay down on top of him, and covered both of them with the blanket. The screaming outside petered out, and then it turned into quiet sobbing, and the soft voice of someone saying it's alright. That meant it had to be Crona that had been screaming.
Poor kid. First Crona had a terrible mother, then got diagnosed with something mental, and now only had a few nurses and a doctor to relay on. Hiro smoothed Ink's dark hair, holding the young boy a little bit closer. He dearly hoped he would get to leave this hospital, the pale little child didn't need to suffer through what Crona had, or what he himself had to go through still.
Heart disease, defective lungs, dying kidneys, he had it all it seemed. Crona was mentally ill, from what he knew, and little Ink had a bad heart condition and overly sensitive hearing. Black*Star from down the way was a regular, always coming in with injuries and broken bones, but he could leave if he wanted to. Across the hall, the same room Ink came from, Soul would be laying in bed, heart on its last leg and lungs starting to shut down.
Somewhere else in the hospital, Maka would be on her phone, talking with her girlfriend Liz, while looking over Soul's clipboard with her sad green eyes. Kilik (Hiro's regular doctor) would be complaining about the bitter outlook of his patients to his twin assistants, and Dr. Stein would be making his rounds and generally being awful.
The sobbing faded, replaced by the same quiet clicking of shoes and the squeaking of wheelchairs. Ink was asleep now, head resting on Hiro's chest, one hand squished under his cheek, the other still holding onto the older patient's shirt. The blond didn't try to move, just adjusted the blanket and settled back for a nap.
Death The Kidd leaned over his desk, elbows resting on the dark surface. He'd just transferred over to the DWMA Hospital, which had been recommended by his Father. He'd gotten accepted immediately, had met with some little blond nurse and a tall man with disfiguring scars, and now he was set up in an office with new files on his desk.
Apparently, some doctor (his name was Kilik or something) had gotten tired of a few of his patients. Soul Evans, Black*Star, Ink Black, and...a Hiro L. Soul was a 23 year old on the edge of death, Black*Star was a reckless youth, Hiro was a 20 year old chock full of problems, and...ah jeez.
"An eight year with a bad heart. Damn, that's depressing as hell." Kidd picked up the file, looking at the grainy picture of a young, sickly boy with extremely pale skin, deep bags underneath his watery lavender eyes, and messy black hair. In the picture, it looked like he'd been crying, but someone had managed to make him smile for the picture.
The raven haired doctor tucked the file underneath his arm, picked up his mug of tea, and left his office. He headed in the direction of the kid's room, peering into other rooms that he passed. Upon entering the right year old's room he found only Soul Evans in his bed. The sickly man gave Kidd a wave, and then pointed across the hall.
"The lil' guy got spooked. Ran over to Hiro's room." Soul weakly explained, smiling at the darkly clad doctor. It must be nice to see something with some color. Kidd thanked him, making a mental note to look in on his files again, then turned around and made his way across the hall.
He opened the door and peered inside, finding a lone bed. In it a young man with blond hair had an arm loosely wrapped around Ink Black, just who he'd been looking for. Kidd leaned against the doorframe, smiling as he looked at them. He didn't want to wake them, but he also wanted to talk to the younger boy.
"You don't look like a doctor. Are you new here?" The blond - Hiro - was awake, now looking at Kidd with startlingly blue eyes. He kept a hand on Ink's back, voice soft and a little weak. Kidd stared for a moment before snapping to attention and answering the question.
"Ah, yeah. I just wanted to check with Mr. Black there, though I think I'll wait on that. I'm Kidd, by the way." He took a step closer, golden eyes bright. Hiro sat up a little, making sure to keep his hands on Ink to keep the little boy from falling or rolling out of the bed.
"Hiro. Nice to meet you. His name is Ink. He's...really sensitive, though I guess you know that." He gestured towards the file the doctor was holding.
"Yeah, I have his case now. Yours too, and a couple others you might know. I'll let you get some rest, but I'm gonna come back to check in on you and...Ink." Kidd could only smile as he turned to make his way out, liking this place just a tad bit more.
He left thinking of golden blond hair, startlingly blue eyes, pale lips and long eyelashes.
Hiro watched the strange doctor go, thinking only of his golden eyes, his black and white hair, his crisp black suit with the skull pendant and his silent way of walking. Ink stirred and yawned, blinking tiredly at the older boy.
"W-w-was someone just h-h-h-here?" The eight year old rubbed at his eyes while Hiro playfully (and gently) ruffled his hair.
"Yeah. Don't worry though, he's nice. Real nice. Go back to sleep, you need the rest. When you wake up we can go down to the play room and make a castle out of blocks, ok?" Ink immediately agreed, snuggled back down against the blond's chest, and fell back to sleep within a few minutes. Hiro wrapped both arms around the little boy, settling back onto the pillows and bed.
When he fell asleep, the last thing on his mind were golden eyes and color amid the white of his world.