Spring

Disclaimer: I do not own Zatch Bell or any of the characters.

A/N: This is a companion/sequel to my other Zatch Bell piece, Winter. I'm pretty sure I'm going to write a summer and fall piece, too, so it will involve all seasons. Anyway, I hope you like it, even though I don't think it's as good as my other one.

------------------------------------------------- Start/End Flashback

------- Scene/Time Change

"I can't believe you're sick again!" Brago growled, extremely annoyed.

Sherie smiled weakly, struggling to sit up and failing. Grumbling, she resigned herself to lying on the bed.

"Spring fever, I guess." She replied, trying to lighten the mood.

When she noticed Brago starring at her strangely, she realized her mistake and blushed slightly. Of course Brago wouldn't know the phrase Spring Fever'.

"Never mind." she told him, hoping to make up for her mistake.

"Whatever."

They stayed like that for a while, Sherie lying on the bed and Brago starring out into space. Finally, Sherie couldn't take it anymore and she tried to start a conversation with him.

"You know what the worst thing about being sick now?"

Brago didn't answer, but she hadn't expected him to. She continued anyway.

"It's that I'm missing the first real week of spring, when all the flowers are finally out."

"I don't see why you care about those pathetic things."

"You wouldn't understand." Sherie told him, smiling sadly.

"You're right, I wouldn't. And if you weren't so damn weak, you wouldn't be missing them and I would probably be king by now."

Sherie flinched as if she had been struck physically. When she realized what she had done, her blush rose.

_Why did that comment hurt so much? It's not like he hasn't said it before._

It was true, he had told her before, many times. But not since the events of last winter.

_Why should that matter?_ She argued to herself, unaware that her blush was growing larger_. It's like he meant anything by that hug. And he wasn't even awake when I kis . . ._

"I'm going." Brogo said suddenly, getting up and briskly walking out of the room.

Sherie watched him leave, the blush still on her face.

-------

Sherie sighed, looking sadly out the window. Reaching over to her draw, she opened one of drawers and pulled a photograph out of it.

It was a picture of her and Koko, before the momodo battle. They had their arms around each other, both grinning. In her other hand, Sherie was holding beautiful white flowers. She held them out in front of her like a trophy.

------------------------------------------------------------------

"Sherie, hurry up!" Koko called, laughing. Spinning around, she plopped onto the ground, panting.

Sherie ignored her friend and kept treading carefully through the field of flowers they were currently walking in, or, in Koko's case, lying in.

"I don't know why you get so excited about these," Sherie told her friend, dropping down beside her. " I mean, they're pretty and all, but they're not amazing."

"Don't you see, Sherie?" Koko replied, moving around so she was leaning on her elbows. "Flowers are so much more than just pretty. They show that you can survive even the darkest time, just like how the flowers always appear after winter. It gives you hope."

"I never thought about that." Sherie told her, once again marveling at Koko's ability to find a brighter and deeper side to everything, even after all she had been through.

"Look, Sherie, look!" Koko suddenly cried, standing up and moving another couple of feet from Sherie.

"What is it, Koko?" Sherie asked, moving towards her friend.

"Aren't they lovely?" Koko marveled, pointing to a cluster flowers.

And they were gorgeous. They were a soft snow white color and shaped like a bell. They drooped slightly, but that only heightened their beauty.

"You know, I've heard about these flowers," Koko told her, not taking her eyes of the flower. "They're called Snow Blossoms, and only bloom right after winter. They're also not very common. We're lucky to have found them. They are said to have a special healing power that can cure almost any sickness."

"I'm not sure if I believe that."

"Well, anyhow," Koko continued, apparently not fazed by her friend's disbelief. "if I was sick, I would love to have them to look at, even if they didn't heal me."

They were pulled out of their conversation by the clock tower striking six o'clock.

"Sorry, Sherie," Koko cried, running off. " I have to go. I'll see you later!"

--------------------

"How are you feeling, Sherie?" Koko asked softly, walking through Sherie's glass doors.

"Not to good." Sherie replied, coughing. "The doctor said I won't get better for weeks."

"Well, here," Koko said shyly. "I brought you these to help you get better.

Smiling, Koko pulled out what she was hiding behind her back. Which was a bouquet of snow blossoms.

"Koko . . ." Sherie answered softly, gingerly taking the flowers from Koko's hands and holding them. They were even softer than she had imagined.

"You don't have to thank me," Koko told her, reading Sherie's mind. "I just hope they help."

"Where did you get them? I know there weren't this many in the group we found."

"Well," Koko replied, clearly uncomfortable. "I managed to find a flower seller who had them."

"But you said they were rare. They couldn't have been cheap." Sherie muttered, trying to puzzle it out. She suddenly realized what must have happened, and turned to Koko, shocked.

"It's all right. I don't eat that much anyway." Koko told her.

"Koko. . ." Sherie said, her filling up with tears.

Not able to help herself anymore. Sherie grabbed Koko and pulled her into a hug.

"Don't worry, it wasn't that much. I'd give up all my money if it meant you would get better." Koko told her, trying to soothe her friend.

"Thank you. If you get sick, I promise I'll get them for you."

"All right, but only if you let me get them for you when you're sick."

"Koko, I can't ask you to . . ."

"Sherie," Koko told her, putting a finger to Sherie's lips. "I want to get them for you. I won't accept your flowers if you don't accept mine."

"All right," Sherie replied reluctantly, realizing she wasn't going to win this argument.

"Good. Now I'll get a vase for those flowers." Koko told her, smiling.

------------------------------------------------------------------

"I don't think I'll be getting any snow blossoms this year. Guess that means I'll won't get better any time soon." Sherie remarked to herself sadly. She blinked, realizing she had tears in her eyes. She angrily threw the picture back into the drawer and turned around, deciding to try and get to sleep.

Unknownest to her, a dark figure who had been waiting outside through her whole flashback, walked into the room and picked up the photo.

---------------

Sherie yawned, stretching her arms. She still felt like crap, but it was slightly better after her long nap.

"Good Morning, Sherie-san." Her butler said, currently dusting her dresser.

"Morning Jii. Anything happen while I was knocked out?"

"Not much, Sherie-san. I've just been cleaning the house." Jiireplied, chuckling. "By the way, should I put those flowers in a vase? We wouldn't want them to wilt."

"What flowers?" Sherie asked, confused.

"Why, the ones on the dresser that I found on the steps."

Turning to her dresser, Sherie was shocked. On top of her dresser were snow blossoms.

_But who could have gotten them? The only person who knows about them are me and Koko. And she couldn't have gotten them._

"Sherie-san," Jii said, bringing her out of her thoughts. " I believe a note came with them."

"Thank you, Jii. You may go get the vase now."

"As you wish, Sherie-san." Jii replied, bowing.

_Now let's see that note . . ._

She grabbed the white note and turned it over so she could read it.

Sherie-

Hurry up and get better. You're wasting valuable time we could be spending on defeating other mamodos. These things better work.

Brago

Tears filled her eyes. He was probably just being impatient, but the fact that he had gotten her favorite flowers must mean something.

_Thank you, Brago. _Sherie said silently, tears sliding down her face.

A/N: Hope this wasn't too OOC. Anyway, please review! I love to hear feedback.

End file.

Spring by kitkat101


Swift Christmas Judgement

"Huh?"

Kiyomaro had fought many things in his young life. Mostly demon children, some of them a bit too old to be called children, but besides for the occasional humanoid tower hellbent on destroying Japan, there hadn't been much else. He'd fought battles of strength, battles of the mind, and all sorts of battles... but he'd never been faced with something like this before. It was just so... That is to say...

"How did this..."

In front of him was a box. A simple, ordinary box. A Christmas present, if he had to guess.

That was all. Nothing particularly wrong with that. Right?

The young man stared at the curiously wrapped package that was on his doorstep. It was all he could think to do, quite honestly. How else was he supposed to react to this? Should he... leave it? Open it? It wasn't exactly marked to him, and with the wrapping, he seriously doubted that it was for his mother, but... He had better things to do than to entertain whatever was in the box. He was _sure_ there was nothing worthwhile in there. He was absolutely _positive_...!

It was Christmas, he had made plans to meet Mizuno in about an hour, but there was this... _package_ blocking his way. Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal. It wouldn't be a deal at all. Obviously it had been delivered in the mail, right?

Except... There shouldn't be any mail today. And even if there _was_ mail today, it certainly wouldn't have just been left here like this. Not only that, but what sort of mail would have no stamps of any kind, no way for the postman or postwoman to get it where it needed to go to speak of? How could it have possibly been delivered to him were it actually mail? One might think it wasn't for him, that perhaps it was something for his mother, and thus was why he wasn't aware, but...

With that wrapping, there was _no way_ it wasn't for him...!

He stared at it some more. His face began to heat up.

Those round... _objects_ that decorated the wrapping paper. There was no question what they were supposed to be. If nothing else, he had seen them on the album covers of a certain invincible superstar more times than he cared to count. With the wrapping paper taken into consideration... With the gift giver taken into consideration... Kiyomaro didn't even need to use the power of his eyes to figure out what was wrapped up in this box.

He just knew _he wanted no part of it_! Why would anyone put something like whatever was in that box on someone's doorstep on Christmas morning!? That was so... frustrating! What if his mother had happened upon this? Or worse... What if he'd brought Mizuno back for lunch, only to come upon this... _this_!?

"_DAAAAMN YOOOOU FOOOLGOOOOOREEEEEEEEEEE!_"

As Kiyomaro gave the box decorated in what was very clearly supposed to be cartoon breasts a swift kick, a kick so hard it flew for meters upon meters... elsewhere, one Parco Folgore hummed a jovial tune to himself as he handed out presents to happy children.

He did so hope Kiyomaro-kun would like that new laptop.

End file.

Swift Christmas Judgement by Blade of Justice


The Only One

**A/N:** One of my favorite pairings from Konjiki, so I needed to put something up for it.

**-:-:-**

_They gave us these special papers to write letters to our partners in the human world. It's supposed to be the last thing that can go through before the worlds separate again. Anyway, the paper's magic or something. You can read it. Obviously._

Chita smoothed the paper out for the third time within the hour as she reread the letter yet again. There was no need to, really. She had it memorized, word for word, and the odd, heavy paper those words were scrawled on was as flat and pristine as when she had pulled it from the glowing envelope.

_It's pissing me off that I don't know what I'm supposed to say._

She smiled and traced the characters that were spelled to be legible to her human eyes. Rodeaux's handwriting was bold and somewhat sloppy, though it looked like he had put some effort into keeping his lines straight

_Didn't I say everything I needed to already? To get your life going and get a boyfriend or something? Or is this to write about ourselves? If it is, it's a waste of paper. Even with that midget serving as king, we're just back to ordinary life. Back to school. Yeah, they made us go back to class. What the hell is up with that? Didn't we just go through a huge, life altering battle? Complete with minions, sacrifice, and the works? If I weren't so bored I'd be insulted._

"Chita! Can you help me?"

She started slightly and turned in her seat to see one of her cheerful fellow nurses at the doorway. She was grinning wryly and struggling to clutch a bundle of blankets. Chita hurriedly packed the letter away and stood.

"Of course."

She took slightly more than half of the load from her co-worker and walked with her down the hall, listening to her chatter about the patients with a soft smile on her face. The expression took the edge from the scar traced upon her right eye.

_I should probably ask about things like your health or situation. What's the point? There won't be a return letter for you to answer. There won't be any follow ups from me. This is the last. That pisses me off too. As annoying as you were with your heaping angst-fests, tearing through the human world with you was fun. Much better than sitting around in these boring classrooms and watching Keith smoke cigars while the teacher's just going on and on. Sparring with everyone feels a little empty. Boring. You'd think it'd be a lot better, what with choosing my attacks and movements on my own. But it's quieter. Even when we do team battles, it's not the same. They don't work with me right and we're always messing up each other's moves._

_Seems you were the only partner for me after all._

_So it really is stupid that the world's are going to disconnect and that the last contact I'll have with you is a sheet of paper that I can't even fill all the way._

_But I hope you're happier. That you've taken off that damn mask I gave you. That people are starting to appreciate you and that, no matter how hilarious it was before, you're not scaring everyone senseless anymore. I'm bored as hell, but if you're better off then I guess everything is fine. And if you're not better off, get your ass on it._

_Or I'll rip through dimensions and make you. Hell, I should do that anyway._

She remembered the first time she read the letter and, upon getting to that line, how she mentally begged _'please do'_ as she struggled to master the tears rolling down her face. Because he certainly wasn't the only one feeling that the world was much quieter, more boring, than when they had been travelling and fighting together. His words had brought to fore what he had said to her as he made his stand against Zeon. For her to live strong and stand up straight... fall in love.

Her steps faltered in the hospital hallway and she closed her eyes.

"Chita?" The other nurse's voice was peppered with concern.

She shook her head, sending pink hair flying briefly before it settled once again. "I'm alright." She reassured her coworker. "I was just remembering someone." Her sad smile caused the other woman's frown to deepen.

"Chita?"

"I can't wait to see him again." She whispered.

The frown cautiously transformed into a teasing smile. "Oh? Is it your boyfriend?"

Chita laughed at the question and matched pace with the nurse, blankets quivering with the vibrations in her chest. But she didn't answer, leaving the woman pouting and persistantly asking all the way to the laundry room.

_Unless some miracle happens, this is goodbye. So remember what I said before, and here's to hoping we'll meet again._

_Rodeaux_

'Rodeaux,.' She thought. 'Even though I'm standing up and laughing more... the truth is I fell in love awhile ago. We'll meet again. Otherwise, my happiness is incomplete, and I'll have failed to do what you've bid me to. Because you, too, are the only partner for me.'

End file.

The Only One by The Gray Maze