Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone! Hope you all are having a lovely green and Irish day today!

The doorbell rang at the Bengtsson household and Elsa shot up from her spot on the couch between the two old men to answer it. And her face turned sour when she saw Mei standing there at the door, holding a bouquet, which she had undoubtedly brought over for Kris.

"Hey, Mrs. Bengtsson. I…..brought these over for Kris." Mei said gently.

Elsa was about to close the door on her when Mei stopped her.

"No, wait, wait!" She begged, holding onto the door. "Please! I know I'm the last person you want to see right now, but I'm only here to check up on Kris. I just want to make sure he's alright."

"Define 'alright'." Elsa said sarcastically.

"Please, just give ten minutes with him and I'll leave." Mei pleaded.

Elsa pondered this for a couple of minutes before she gave in and opened the door for her. For it wasn't particularly Mei she was upset with, but rather Ming.

"Well, alright." The downtrodden mother said, allowing the girl entry. "I'll give you ten minutes, but that's it, okay? And please be careful of the machines in there."

"Thank you." Mei smiled gratefully and walked inside, heading up the stairs with the flowers.

As soon as she made it up to his bedroom door, she mentally prepared herself. It wasn't going to be seeing him in his state right now, but she was going to solder on and face it like an adult. She stepped inside the room and finally got a good look at all those Nordic runes Stig was talking about, turning all around with shock seeing them everywhere, even on the ceiling. Mei's heart ached when she saw the pieces of the broken guitar in his room, looking like a harsh reminder of her mother's actions against Kris.

Guess they didn't have it in them to throw it away or even try to fix it.

Then she placed the flowers on the boy's table and saw something else that caught her curious eye. Picking it up, she felt a new twinge of hurt in her chest and her eyes started to sting.

It was the polaroid of her in red panda form posing with Kris and their friends when they were selling their merchandise at school that she had given him as a 'thank you' token for helping her.

….which had been ripped in half and crumbled up - no doubt out of anger.

Frowning sadly while fighting to maintain her composure, she looked directly at the comatose Kris on the bed, unable to hold back her tears. She stood there before him, held his hand and looked at the boy trying to smile, but it couldn't mask the guilt she felt for everything that happened.

"Hey, Kris. How are you?" She sniffled. "I hope you're doing okay. I stopped by The Heartstone today and the guys are doing…well, I guess. Sir Sirk had to make a daring choice in slaying the dragon. Doing so almost cost his and his comrades lives, but you know, desperate situations call for desperate decisions. And of course, the kingdom was counting on him to save the sleeping princess because they needed him. S-She…needed him."

Mei couldn't take it anymore.

It was too much. Who was she even kidding?

This was all her fault. She did this to him. And she's never even had the chance to apologize to him. Her best friend for life. The boy who stood by her side and the boy she had fallen in love with and whose heart she had broken all because of her fear of losing her mother's respect and approval.

And now he's paid the ultimate price.

"Kris," Mei wept and hiccuped with a broken voice, dropping to her knees and resting her head on his chest. "I know you can't hear me now, but I want you to know that I'm sorry. I really blew it. I'm sorry I couldn't defend you from my mother. I'm sorry I let you get fired. I'm sorry I wasn't the friend you needed. And I'm sorry I wasn't there for you. But you were free, Kris. You didn't have tiresome responsibilities and expectations like I did. You got to live your life that way you wanted and I never had that choice. But that wasn't your fault. It never was. I only thought of myself. I was so obsessed with being the perfect daughter for her, with doing everything and being everything she wanted that I guess I forgot what really mattered. All those straight-A grades and all those number one awards and those math books don't define me. It's you, Kris. You make me who I am."

The poor girl's tears stained her cheeks and decided that it was time for her to go. So she stood back up and pressed a gentle kiss on Kris's forehead.

"Please get better soon. Bye, Kris." She bewailed and turned away to head for the front door.

As Mei trundled down the stairs in a dejected manner, Elsa couldn't help but feel sorry for the girl. Seeing as how she felt really guilty for putting her son in this situation.

"Take care of yourself, Mei." She said as she followed her over to the open door. "Oh, and Mei?"

The nerdy girl was already outside when she turned to face the woman.

"Do remind your mother that if I ever see her face again, I will mess her up." Elsa warned her threateningly before slamming the door.

"Duly noted." Mei mumbled with a nod and left.

And that's yet another individual to go on her mother's list of people that she's pissed off.

That night, Grandpa Morten went upstairs to check up on Kris before going to bed. He was already in his pajamas. As soon as he reached the door, however, he thought he heard a noise inside. No, it wasn't Kris, because it sounded more like cawing. Taken aback by this, he flung open the door and couldn't believe what he walked right into.

Sitting on his unconscious grandson's chest were a duo of ravens. Both resting there and watching Kris closely as if keeping an eye on him, occasionally looking at each other and cawing responses to each other.

How the hell did they even get inside if the window was shut?

"What the…?" Morten cried in befuddlement before rushing to shoo the pesky birds away. "Hey! Get away from there! Shoo! Shoo! Get out of here!"

Rushing to the window and opening it wide, the old man chased the ravens out until they finally flew outside. But then….

ZWIP! ZWIP!

Eyes widened. Lips agape. Breath stalled.

Morten couldn't believe his own eyes.

In a sudden flurry of feathers, the two ravens appeared to have disappeared into thin air.

"Guds mor." He gasped.

And that concludes the first story.

Yes, I know. A very sad way to end a story, but like I said, this will be part of a series of five stories. This was just the first.

Why am I ending this on a cliffhanger? Well, I'm having the next story be a continuation of this one. Don't worry, Kris will be able to pull through and he and Mei will get together very, very soon. You can count on that. Because their story is FAR from over.

As for this chapter, oooh! It looks likes were getting some hints as to where we might head next.

Next Story: March 21, 2023