8 months after coma

“Please? Just this once?” Maria pleads, and a co-worker of mine, hands tangled underneath her chin as she stared at me. Her orange cat like eyes begged with me to be okay enough with her request to answer it.

Months after

I chew on my lip. “I don’t know......I’m still trying to learn how to manoeuvure my way around this thing.” I hesitate before I answer with a glance up from my box towards the pile remaining. 1015 done, 4 more to go. At least it's not that much anymore....

Although we had been partners from the very first week in the health facility, I still almost next to nothing about the orange eyed woman. Well except for the fact that she was Lemish, a tribe that didn’t like the careless use of magic, so I was a little squeamish about showing her. She was more than interested in seeing it first hand however. I had an inkling she wasn’t going to let go of this easily though. She’s persistent that one.

“Pretty please? With mashed potatoes on top?”

And apparently knew about my potato obsession.

I bite my lip, my lips morphing into a light frown. “That’s not what we call it.” I say, choosing g to forgo mentioning her knowledge of my food preferences, as I flicker her nose. She blinks, long lashes fluttering down on her light brown skin.

“What do you call it then? Mashed ground offspring? Land fruit or waterub?” She questioned, showing no signs of pausing or slowing down to take a breathe in as she fired questions at me. Had she thought of this beforehand? “Earth’s plantain?”

I wrinkle my nose at the last one-the hell’s Earth’s plantain?-as a whip of a smile slowly rose. “No, neither. But you were more closer with the second one though.” I answer in amusement, straightening up in my seat.

She groans, clinging her eyes in childish annoyance even though she was a year or two older younger than me. “I don’t care. I just wanna see some magic.” She whines.

I sigh and rub the space in between my eyes. Suddenly, I’m feeling tired. All the questioning and asking was starting to get to me. “If I show it, promise to keep it a secret?”

She furrowed her eyebrows in a downturned arch, calm confusion rearranging on her facial features. She peeked out of a slit open eyelid. “I’m literally a danger to myself and to anyone around me. And you seem to have kept that secret well enough.” She paused, looking me twice over. She gives a short nod. “I’ll keep your secret. I swear on my father's grave.”

I feel flattered that she viewed seeing my magic as important enough to swear on the dear dead. Especially when it hadn’t been that long since she had gone over for his funeral. She didn’t speak to anyone for a week, red eyed and sullen in her misery.

I nod. Silently I let the tingling of quiet sparks dance across my brown skin, singing as they zinged up and down my flesh. She pops open her and lets out a mesmerized “Ooh” as it started to tickle my skin. It hummed, sending in jolts of negatively charged particles down my arm as it glowed brighter.

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She sighed, a dreamy expression on her younger features. “Whoa....” She pauses, taking a sharp tipped finger on her chin. “Can-Can you do more than that?” I cast a glance to my hands just as the sparks splutter and die. Odd that it should it give out so soon. And even more odd that it happens at the same time that hope and reality started to blur into one.

"Sometimes." I whisper, the disappointment in my voice slicing through the air between us. The door creaks open, light spilling out onto the floor in a stream that slithered straight to the floor. A brown leathered shoe steeped through.

I didn't spare a glance upwards, too shy of meeting his eyes. "Kaz."

"Kam." He greeted, a usual greeting he coupled with tipping his thick straw hat out in front of the silhouette of his bowed head. The ochre coloured wood closes with a press forward from his quick feet. Maria snarled out, some kind of weird acknowledgement and greeting meshed into one, a low note above coming from the back of her throat.

Folding my arms across my chest, I lean back into my chair and look at the both of them.

"What is about you two that makes you not like each other? I'm curious." I announce.

He gave an unbothered shrug. She gave him the stink eye and barely moved her lips, or her lips just moved too fast for me to see it, snake hiss threatening to turn off all the functioning cells in my body.

"Okay........anyhwo, why are you here? We're almost done here." I shift the conversation to a non starter topic, wanting avoid any violent activities breaking out between them. With the knowledge that she'll most likely win, I don’t want to have bloodshed on my hands.

Plus, she looked about ready to rip apart body part from bod part. She'll either do that with her claws or with her bare hands, whichever she can get to first.

He threw a skittish glance at Maria. "Um, some more shipments just came in....." I groaned into my hands as my head falls over, the soft limb cushioning the fall of my face into my palms.

"Nooo. We've been at this since morning. And we only have three or four boxes left." I guestre at said boxes of doctoring and nursing supplies, making exasperated hand movements. Maria hums in agreement.

"I'm not going through that again. Why are they so damn late?" She huffed out after an unnaturally long silence. Her red cinnamon hair swayed to the whistling rhythm of the cool wind.

He hesitated, darting a quick glance of unsure plight at me. I shake my head. “I’m not getting involved in this again. Sort it out by yourselves.” I stated, leaving no viable room for disagreement or refusal. He cursed. She smiled a slow smile, a glimmer of white sharp canine teeth peeking through.

I went on with the boxes and quickly finished. I stood up, looked at them silently, neither of them meeting my eyes as they had a wordless stand off, lowly gave a scoff and left the room, feeling more upset than when I walked into it.

Why couldn't the two people I liked get along with each other for more than a few bearable seconds?

Minutes later, I was seated back at my desk. I went to work, nimble hands sorting out document of importance; time allocation of each patient, injury type and age at the scenery of distress, into clear neat piles on the cream desk. Soon, mid afternoon passed away and dawned into early evening with a lunch break missed.

Footsteps echoed away through the almost empty hallway. I frown and went on with my work. "Kaminari, we're sorry." Maria said after coming into my line of sight. I pause, interested in what she had to say. "Go on."

"We realize we haven't gotten along so well... and we're willing to change our ways." Kaz continues. I blink and turn around, black wheels spinning.

I look from one to the other. "Why?" I ask.

They both share a look. "We don't like seeing our friend upset." They said. I gape at them, tears spurted out from behind my eyes, wetting my cheeks. "Our?" I whisper out behind my hand.

"Yea, we're friends now. Aren't we, Kazie?" She nudges him with the hint of a smile on her lips. He grinned. "Unlikely friends we are though." I got up and wrapped my arms around them, overwhelmed with affection for both of my friends, proud and delighted that they could put their differences aside and form a truce or a friendship trust of some sort for me.

I smiled just as I heard the distant sound of a female reporter's voice shooting through the TV. "In the aftermath of 4 mysterious deaths, we urge civilians to keep vigilant and alert."