Wishful

Author: Seth


Well this didn’t bode well.

Rai’s morning hadn’t exactly started peachily. For one he hadn’t bothered to take his arm off the previous night, and waking up to the backlash ensured that he wasn’t the cheeriest camper first thing in the morning. On top of that, he was still tired, but then he was always tired these days; not that that fact did much to lighten his rather black mood. If anything, it made it worse.

And then there was this.

Groggily sliding open his steel door, Rai was about to take a shuffling step forward when he beheld an odd sight. A length of string was running pell-mell down the hall outside of his room. Blearily following the trailing thread, the scarred panthryan’s gaze eventually landed upon his partner’s door, under which the string ran.

Rai rubbed his face and briefly considered leaving the whole untouched; it was too early in the morning for this… Despite these fleeting fancies, Rai soon found himself standing in front of Shadow’s door. The string was clear enough evidence that Shadow was up to something, and leaving the girl to her own devices was remarkably similar to leaving a lit fuse alone and hoping for the best. Doing so almost unfailingly resulted in an intense three way mix of disbelief, horror, and regret, accompanied by a fervent promise of ‘Never again…’

Reaching forward, Rai rapped the door firmly; he’d learned well enough that knocking was always a good idea. No answer came. Frowning, the soldier knocked again. When a reply again failed to come Rai stood beside the door and swiftly slid it open. No sense putting himself deeper into harm’s way than necessary after all.

The ex-rebel’s wariness turned out to be unnecessary as no objects (sharp and pointy or otherwise) came flying ungainly out of Shadow’s room. Not entirely reassured, Rai warily stuck his head around the frame and saw Shadow… sewing? The golden eyed man blinked a few times. The scene didn’t go away. Yes, that was most definitely his partner with a needle in her hand, and it did indeed look like some kind of object was forming under her fingers, though he couldn’t tell what.

“Shadow?” Rai asked hesitantly, still baffled by the sight in front of him.

So engrossed with her task was the blue haired girl that she paid her friend’s inquisition as much heed as she’d paid the insistent knocking on her door.

“Hey, Shadow?” Rai tried again, this time waving his mechanical hand gingerly past her eyes.

Shadow squeaked and reflexively stabbed Rai’s hand with the needle.

“Well that was uncalled for.” He frowned in amusement as he tried his best to suppress a grin. “Whatever did my poor hand ever do to deserve such harsh treatment?” The once-Royal Guard deftly pulled the needle from the wrist of the metallic appendage, holding it out to his partner.

“You surprised me.” Shadow stated the obvious, accepting her needle back, her voice half indignant, half chagrined.

“So what’s so important that you didn’t notice me sneaking up on you?” Rai asked leaning forward.

“This!” Shadow held up the odd bundle of fabric enthusiastically, unmindful of the gentle chastisement in Rai’s voice. “Ain’t it awesome!?”

Rai peered owlishly at the hodgepodge of yellow fabric and stuffing, and quickly gave up trying to match its image with the image of what he knew it was supposed to be.

“But why are you making a banana plushy?” Rai looked up at his friend. “I didn’t even know you could sew.”

“Raine’s teachin’ me!” Shadow chirped, happy that Rai could tell what her stuffy was supposed to be.

“It’s... for a friend.” The blue haired girl admitted, looking oddly crestfallen for a moment. “But I dunno if I’ll ever be able to give it to her…” She played with the pudgy toy wistfully.

“How come?” Rai asked, now slightly concerned. He hoped there was an innocent enough reason that Shadow couldn’t give her friend the gift.

“You wouldn’t believe me.” Shadow replied simply, and refused to say any more on the subject, no matter how much Rai tried.

An offer to help her deliver the small plushy to the intended recipient only netted the silver headed man an amused laugh that sounded oddly alien coming from Shadow’s mouth. She did, however, accept a promise from him to give it to her friend if she ever gave up, though Rai felt as if she were only humouring him; another sentiment that felt strange coming from the grey eyed girl. The amused giggle that followed only cemented the feeling.

Years later, as Rai stood staring at a tall glass cylinder, he found himself laughing that same amused laugh for reasons that were at the same time identical and oh so different.

He supposed he should be grateful that he could fulfil at least one of his closest companion’s wishes, small and sentimental though it was.