#ascella against the odds

[caffeineivore]

Typing Tuesday, or early Writing Wednesday?? Either way...

Prompter: Ascella-star

Prompt: Seasonal flowers

Characters/Ships: Ami, Minako. AU related to the last few fics I’ve posted here.

**

The waiting room of Bellevue’s ER is not a cheerful place by any stretch of the imagination, nor should it be, and yet on this day, it seems as though someone or another made some sort of token effort-- likely in anticipation of the upcoming holidays. Next to the tired rack of magazines on one of the tables, someone had placed a potted poinsettia plant, with a wide gold ribbon around the green cellophane wrapped around the pot, its scarlet bracts almost too garish against the spic-and-span white wall. 

Raina, crossing through at the tail end of a grueling fourteen-hour shift, glances at the plant and shakes her head, giving it a wide berth. It was an odd thing to bring to a hospital waiting room, certainly. Such a finicky, delicate plant typically did not do so well in such an inhospitable environment.

She senses the presence of someone else, someone hovering off in the corner by the nurse’s station, though she is almost certain that the nurse manning the desk does not sense that presence. Just a shadow, a hint of static in the air, but Raina huffs out a breath with an exhalation of mist. “You can come out, you know. I know you’re there.”

There’s a flash of white garments-- almost nurselike-- Raina thinks detachedly. A vague impression of golden hair that flutters even in the windless corridor. “You can see me?”

The voice is peculiar-- somehow musical and sharp at the same time, the tone like that of a soprano singer caught in a high cadenza. That alone tells Raina who-- what-- the other is. “I knew it would only be a matter of time until I met you in person,” she says calmly, just loud enough that the other could hear. “Every hospital has a Harbinger, doesn’t it?”

“That’s a kinder name than some I’ve known,” Desirée says wryly. She is by Raina’s side in the blink of an eye. Now, closer, Raina can see that the Harbinger has a fair face, with kind, noble features. “I suppose that I should ask you who you are, considering that you can see me and you aren’t anywhere close to crossing.”

Raina laughs softly, the sound like the faint ripple of water over smooth-worn stone. “No, I suppose I’m not close to crossing. I come from the line of the Gwragedd Annwn.”

“A lake-maiden healer!”  Desirée dimples, inclines her head. “The mortals are fortunate to have you.” 

All at once, though nothing specific tells her so, Raina knows that the Harbinger had been the one to bring in the poinsettia, in an effort to liven up the room. Death and destruction followed in her wake; most of her kind left a swath of withered ruin, killing everything they touched. This one seemed surprisingly gentle-hearted, however. And then again, perhaps the mildly toxic nature of the poinsettia plant afforded it a peculiar protection. It seemed almost as though the Harbinger, for all it was her calling to guide and mourn the dead and dying, wished to make that crossing as pleasant and easy as possible. Raina, feeling strangely at ease with the golden-haired spirit, bows her head in return. 

“I daresay I could say the same for the mortals, about you.”