What it Takes to Make her Smile

A/N: This fic was inspired by Alicechan's picture They say there is a fairy... on deviantArt. Check it out. It's a real pretty picture. Because FF doesn't like links, I have the link to her picture posted on my profile near the bottom under Fanfiction Status.

Prologue:

She learned early on never to smile. Learned to keep her mouth set into a rigid frown that hardly ever faded from her face. Her lack of enjoyment would've kept her brothers' in a right state, that is, if they had cared. They cared now, which, she supposed counted for something, but in the beginning they were both too preoccupied with their own issues to even look twice at her. And before, she hadn't given them any mind.

Now that they cared, they just viewed the rigid frown as an extension of her personality. Since they had begun to pay attention to her, they'd never once seen her smile.

If they had paid attention before, they would have seen what a cheerful fairy she'd been. Now it was as if she was just a dark extension of her very own shadow – pure unfiltered sadness.

She refused to let herself smile, and for sixteen years, she'd done a right good job of it. With the exception of her one slip-up when it had all began.

She couldn't even remember how it was before…before it.

A heavy clatter of footfall made the incoming presence known.

She lifted her head to view the intruder. A spiky red-haired guy with beady eyes stepped in, a broad smile on his face. "So you're the fairy."

Temari yawned slightly and closed her eyes just barely, leaving them open just enough so she could watch the shadow of this one's movement.

"She lives in the darkness of the forest." He chanted, "She'll grant one person a wish. A wish for anything in the world, on one condition. In exchange for the wish the person must make her smile." He recited a cheerful grin on his lips.

She shifted slightly, the velour of her skirt rustling heavily against the concrete floor. She extracted a small pale yellow flower from the familiar hiding place within her skirt and held it poised carefully between her thumb and her forefinger. She twirled it about, the flower seeming to glow with a dark intensity. The golden petals twirled around prettily, but the flower itself hung damply and limply, like death itself, despite the heavy glow that seemed to emanate from it. "Only one person has ever wheedled a wish from me. Don't think you will be the second." Indeed, one petal seemed missing from the dying, or perhaps already dead, flower.

"One has succeeded." He said cockily. "Why can't I?"

"I was young." Temari uttered monotonously. "Mistakes occur when you are but a child." She opened her eyes fully and stared directly at the man before her. "Be forewarned, if you attempt to wrestle a wish from me and fail, the consequence you must pay is your own life."

"I won't fail." He grinned confidently.

She shrugged, her wings scraping against the wall as she did so, "It's your life you're gambling with." She held up three fingers. "You get three days. Your first begins at sundown." She pocketed the flower. "Our house may serve as your abode for the next three days." She 

stared coldly at him, "You get until sundown to repent. If you do not take back your desire to attempt to obtain a wish before the sun has set today, your fate is sealed."

He merely smirked.

Temari closed her eyes. What a fool.

--

As the end of the redhead's third day drew near, the boy seemed to get panicky and flustered. So worried that he resorted to idiotic knock-knock jokes.

"Knock-knock."

Temari yawned. "Who's there?"

"Sarah."

"Sarah who?"

"Sarah reason you're not laughing?" He cracked nervously.

Temari stared flatly at him.

Behind her, the eldest of her brothers scoffed. "Dude, that's painful. You're just getting worse by the minute."

He flushed red. "I…I…I need a glass of water." The boy looked ready to drop dead from fear alone.

Temari sighed. "I told you not to try." She looked at her brother. "Kankurou, would you mind?"

The brunette glared at his elder sister. "I'm not getting him a glass of water. He doesn't deserve it. In the three days he's been hanging around, he hasn't even made me laugh."

"Which is surprising in itself." Her younger brother rasped. "Considering how easy it is to impress you."
Temari ignored their comments, "Gaara, could you get him—"

"I-It's fine…" The guy mumbled. "I'll g-get it." Stumbling up, the boy tripped over his own feet in getting out of the room.

Temari yawned again.

"He's making a run for it, you know." Kankurou informed as he peered out the window.

She shrugged. "Doesn't matter. He's only wasting his time. He'll still die when the sun sets." She paused. "I told the fool not to try."

Gaara blinked slowly. "Did this one tell you what he wanted?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yes." She pulled out the yellow flower. "Money." She scoffed. "Can you believe it? He traded his life because he wanted money."

"Humans are rather stupid." Gaara muttered.

"Yes." She murmured, twirling the flower delicately in her fingers, "I've yet to meet one I have liked."

Kankurou shrugged. "Some of them are funny."

Temari looked outside the window as the sun kissed the earth bowing down to its beauty; the sky blushing red at such an embarrassing display. The red tainted the sky heavy and thick, like blood swirling where it did not belong. Another omen to another death.

"Not really." Temari muttered. "They're all just full of lines and rhymes. Nothing worth the while." She whispered as she saw the earth swallow the sun, darkness settling slowly across 

the sky. The flower in her hand seemed to tremble with delight or maybe fear, and the heavy glow disappeared.

The entire castle was filled with a faraway scream of agony and terror.

Temari pocketed the listless flower with a sigh.

At least they didn't have to dispose of the body this time.

A/N: I have about two other chapters written currently, so it shouldn't take me too long to update. I don't think this fic will be too long; max eight chapters (including the prologue), but I'm aiming for six. Hope you like!