Part I: Chapter 1
"…7 … 8 … 9 … 10! Ready or not here I come!" Mei called, quickly peeking around the great oak tree to see if she could catch any last glimpses of her friend as he ran to find a hiding spot. He was always good at Hide-and-Seek. Smiling to herself, she dashed to the garden at the back of the house. Her mother was pulling weeds, a floppy hat shading her face from the sun.
"Mama, have you seen Kiku?" Mei asked, crouching beside her mother.
"He hasn't come this way, plum blossom." She hummed. By now she knew all about her daughter's imaginary friend and had learned to simply play along. "Wasn't he in the hydrangeas last time?"
"I'll go look!" She took off again to the side of the house where the pale blue and cream blossoms weighed heavily on their branches. She crawled on her hands and knees to get a proper look, but there was still no sign of him. She sat up, frowning slightly. Where could her friend have gone?
She finally found him in the closet in the breezeway. He blinked up at her with faint surprise when she tugged the old wooden door open and squealed "Found you!" He smiled softly, gliding out of his hiding place with the lightest breath of air. He didn't look to be much older than her, but he had the solemn, dark eyes of a boy who'd lived for centuries.
"You hide in all the good spots," Mei feigned a pout and crossed her arms.
"No, you just don't think of them," Kiku retorted, his smile widening to a grin.
Mei stuck her tongue out. "Meanie."
"Mei! Lunchtime!" Her mom called from the garden.
"Yes!" She grabbed her friend by the hand and tugged him along with her back outside.
"Mei, don't blow bubbles through your straw please," her mom chided as she began unwrapping sandwiches she'd brought so they could have a picnic.
"But Kiku's doing it too!"
"Kiku, please don't blow bubbles either."
"Hey Mama! Where's Kiku's sandwich?"
"Right here, plum blossom."
"Thank you!"
.
Mei chattered about the games she and Kiku had played while they ate. Most of her family members didn't pay much attention to her when she talked about him but her mom always took the time to listen. She'd had her own imaginary friend when she was a child after all. When they'd finished their picnic, Mei sat back with half-closed eyes and her stomach full, savouring the perfect blend of homemade lemonade. She could almost feel the early summer sun toasting her skin and she popped an ice cube in her mouth. Kiku sat crosslegged beside her. His frosty gray form looked out of place on the warm sunny day.
"Is Kiku getting hot? We have some more lemonade." Her mother asked, shaking the pitcher slightly so the ice cubes clacked against each other.
Mei rolled her eyes. "No Mama, I told you Kiku doesn't get hot. He can't feel the temperature."
"Of course. Silly me." She smiled indulgently and began gathering the trash. Mei passed her and Kiku's paper plates to her mother and gave her a wet kiss on the cheek.
"Thank you for lunch, Mama!"
When Mei was little, they called her an artist. Of course, her paintings rarely came from her own inspiration. She would beg Kiku to tell her a story and, when he reluctantly complied, she would paint pages and pages of watercolour illustrations. She painted worlds of brilliant colors filled with unnamed creatures. Kiku would whisper to her of realms hidden behind the thin veil of reality and recounted tales of noble beasts, hideous monsters, and mysterious apparitions. Mei drank in every word eagerly, her mind racing with an imagination much faster than her small hands could paint. Her parents were delighted in her work and each month the best pieces would be hung on the top refrigerator door, just out of reach of her younger brothers.
.
"Hey Kiku, are vampires real? Yao says they are." Mei tapped her pencil to her chin as she lay sprawled out on the floor pondering what to draw next. Yao, who was a couple years older than her, had told her about vampires in an attempt to frighten her, but, on the contrary, it had made her more curious. Besides, she was certain that if vampires were any threat she'd have her friend to protect her.
Kiku glanced up from a book she was lending him and shook his head. "No. Though I suppose there are creatures with vampire-like qualities. Demons in general despise the light of course. The smaller, infectious kind have a nasty habit of sucking out any positive emotion too."
She was only half-listening, already trying to imagine what her new creature would look like. She gave up when her imagination wasn't forthcoming.
"Kikuuu, I don't know what to draw," she rolled over on her back and poked her friend with the end of her pencil.
"You could draw some of the creatures you did before. You don't have to invent new ones every time." Mei huffed. Sometimes he sounded too much like a parent.
"But I still don't know what to draw."
Kiku made the mistake of glancing up and his resolve crumbled once he saw her round, pleading eyes. He sighed. "Did I ever tell you about the Qilin?"
.
But as the years passed and her paintings grew more detailed, her teachers stopped complimenting her and sent concerned notes to her parents instead. Mei didn't paint those other worlds anymore for years to come.
"Mama said you should marry your best friend." Mei informed Kiku one day while they were building faery houses in the backyard.
"Hmm."
"So that means we're going to get married," she declared with the certainty of an six year old who knows what she's talking about.
Kiku blinked. "I can't get married though. I'm a Watcher."
"What's that?" He'd never really explained to her that he wasn't human. She had a vague understanding that he wasn't quite like her and she'd long since learned that she was the only one who could see him. She was still naive enough though that she didn't see the childishness of having an imaginary friend.
"I help watch over you for God."
"Like a guardian angel?"
"Sort of." Mei frowned.
"But you're my best friend so we have to get married." She insisted.
He started to protest, but seeing her stubborn look he relented and couldn't help smiling. "Okay."
Satisfied, Mei continued stuffing colourful faux feathers in the miniature houses to make beds for their guests. Kiku had told her that faeries were rather vain creatures and liked bright, even gaudy, materials. That night they kept vigil at the window seat of her bedroom to watch for the faeries to arrive.
"Hey, Kiku?"
"Hmm?"
"Will you go to heaven with me too?"
"Of course."
"Will Mama and Papa be able to see you then?"
Kiku smiled a little. "Yes."
"Do they have their own Watchers?"
"Yes."
"How come they can't see their Watchers?"
"We choose when to show ourselves and even then humans may choose not to see us."
Mei frowned. "Why?"
"Because they do not want to believe in something they think is impossible."
"Oh." Her eyelids were growing heavy now and she could barely make out Kiku's misty form, outlined in moonlight. As she was about to drift into sleep, she thought she saw a few pulsing lights of blue, pink, and yellow circling the little faery houses. Afterward though, she could never remember if it had been a dream. Kiku affectionately watched her nod off, her dark curls spilling over her crossed arms on the windowsill.
"Good night, Mei."
A/N: I'm back with a chapter fic! :D (And yes it's more Kikuwan because this site is terribly unappreciative of them) Normally I wouldn't commit myself to writing a multi-chapter story, but this one is actually mostly done, I just have a few scenes to complete here and there.
Anywayyy, I really wanted to share this since I've been working on it for forever! I might not be able to update that quickly because of school (of course) but I'll try my best! Most of the chapters will be pretty short- anywhere from a few hundred to a little over a 1K words. The themes jump around a bit because I was trying to incorporate so many different ideas I had, but they're all Mei's memories in (mostly) chronological order. Oh and as a side note, Kiku is basically an angel, but I didn't want to call him a 'guardian angel' because it just sounds so...tame? I think a lot of people tend to think of angels as these benign, gentle beings when in reality they're fierce warriors. So in this fic Kiku's type of angel is called a "Watcher"~
Also, a HUGE shoutout to my friend inspiration99 for giving me such awesome suggestions and editing my work! I couldn't have written this without you :D
Enjoy and let me know what you think! ^^