Right, this time, the romance is more of a side-thing. In fact, it should probably be grouped as friendship, but not too sure about that. The tragedy here is the biggest bit of it. Just thought I should drop a note about this first. Read ahead!

Delphox shifted slowly in the thick white sheets of her bed—well, not quite her bed, a bed used by many others, most likely, but for now it was hers—and swallowed as she brushed a paw across her forehead. The sheets were practically drenched in sweat and she was, too—typical. She had this fever for the longest time ever.

Fatigued as always, Delphox yanked the sheets off of her and nearly threw them on the floor next to her bed—and that was when she realised this... blue lump was napping at the foot of the side of the hospital bed. She grimaced, leaning over to have a closer look. The thing was breathing, at least... well, it looked like it was breathing. It had this long pink thing around its neck and—oh, it was him.

He always stayed overnight with her at the hospital. He thought she got lonely.

The fox simply crammed the sheets at the foot of the bed and lay her head back down on the pillow. She was tired—she was always tired, even with hours of rest. It was simply very annoying.

She felt as bad as she always was. Fever, fatigue, skin problems... and a lot of other crap, too. She sighed, burying her face into her pillow.

...It was too wet. She should ask for an exchange in bed, or something.

(Delphox liked burying herself under sheets when she had a fever when she was younger. The habit stuck, and she still did it, even some seven years later, except now it was getting on her nerves because she sweat too much. And it made everything wet.)

She'd get up. She was told not to move around by herself, but she had always been stubborn. Slowly, she placed her feet on the floor, and…

Unceremoniously fell.

The loud thud roused the frog sleeping beside her bed from his sleep. He yawned, stretching, probably taking in his surroundings for some bumbling seconds before scrambling to his feet, almost like realisation had hit him a little too hard.

"Oh, crap! Delphox, are you okay?!"

"G-Greninja? Oh, i-it's nothing. I-I…um, my bed is a little…soaked." She grinned sheepishly, almost childishly. "It got uncomfortable, I guess."

"…U-Um, I'm going to get a doctor!"

Well, Greninja wasn't an expert at medical issues, so his actions were very understandable. Plus, the doctor wasn't very far away from her ward. Delphox watched from the ground at Greninja's leaving form and sighed to herself, gripping her sweaty paws and hoisting herself up onto the bed. After a few attempts, she managed to.

Being stuck in the hospital with this kind of illness…it was really…bad.

She missed her home. She missed her home so much. She wanted to go home, she wanted to be with her parents, she wanted to deal with clean sheets, she wanted to be carefree once again and not have her life cooped up in one small ward…

"D-Delphox—I-I got the—"

"Miss Delphox! What happened?"

Delphox stared at the doctor, Ivysaur, smiling stupidly.

"I just wanted a change of sheets, thank you."

"Delphox, we have bad news."

Delphox had been staring out of the window nonchalantly. It provided little view, staring out into a bunch of houses, and she wasn't placed on a very high level. Yet, she loved staring out at the window—it gave her a sense of freedom, somehow.

So when Ivysaur approached her and quietly said that line, Delphox knew something was very wrong. Everything was wrong when she had discovered that she was a cancer patient, and she had been for quite some time. Whenever Ivysaur had bad news, it was always startling bad news, and so bad that she would have to take hours to let it sink in.

But she had cancer—she was prepared for the worst, she thought. She just didn't want to hear the confirmation, the one line that would sign her contract.

"W-What bad news?" Delphox asked nervously, playing with her paws that were miraculously dry. She frowned at their faces—what was wrong with them that day? Ivysaur looked solemn, Greninja looked very worried…

"Well, considering how you are right now…"

"Can you just get on with it? There's no point in dilly-dallying," Greninja snapped impatiently, folding his arms. He was clearly very concerned, even though it was definitely not his life teetering on a cliff.

"…eks," Ivysaur mumbled lowly. Delphox was sure she had caught it—Greninja hadn't. Her eyes widened as she let this sink in.

Confirmation. Triple confirmation. She had to hear him say it three times—more! "E-Excuse me, Ivysaur, but I'm… not feeling particularly good today… Can you please speak a little louder? Say it again? Please?"

Ivysaur sighed. "Two weeks."

Two more times to hear it. "…Hm? Two weeks? I'm not sure what you mean, Ivysaur." Again, she was stalling—Greninja had a horrified look on his face, and Delphox was feeling a million times more horror in her heart, but she kept on an act and politely smiled at Ivysaur, awaiting her answer.

"…You have… two weeks… to live."

There was a knife. It was stabbing her slowly in the gut.

"…M-May… you… p-please… repeat… that?" Delphox tried to grin—she couldn't.

"You… have two weeks to live."

The knife was twisting itself in her gut. It pulled out from her insides, smeared in blood, and left.

"…I… um, this is… two weeks… not even… I can't… home?"

Ivysaur saw her slowly breaking. He raised his head and coughed loudly. "Delphox, it's okay. We can try and work out something—I know we'll work out something! I mean, we have to. Please don't freak out, Delphox, you're going to make your condition worse."

The frog, sitting by Ivysaur, scoffed. "Ivysaur, she only has two weeks to live, of course she's going to freak out!"

"Delphox, look." She didn't look at either of them. She stared outside of the window, petrified, hoping to feel that sense of freedom which she knew she didn't have anymore. "Please, listen… we're not very sure about this topic, either, but we think it's going to happen—it's not going to happen a hundred-percent, okay?"

"Leave me alone…" she grumbled lowly, glancing at the floor—it made her remember she was trapped. In danger. No longer the "Delphox" she used to exist as.

"But we need to—"

"We should leave her alone," she heard Greninja say, heard the door open, heard them leaving. She stared back out at the window, with the little buildings popping up and gazing at their freedom which she wistfully yearned for.

A week. Two days.

A week and two days had passed since Ivysaur's declaration and Delphox knew she was not going to last. She had heard no good news from them, and whenever she saw Ivysaur, he had a grim expression. She was clever—she could translate it by herself.

Delphox was a wreck, that was what she was. An extremely sad wreck.

When Ivysaur dropped by, seeing Greninja keeping her company once again, he took down notes of how she felt. Delphox kept quiet, until she knew that she had to know about her life.

"Excuse me, Ivysaur," she called as he was leaving. Ivysaur halted in his tracks, almost nervous, but he turned around to face her anyway.

"Did you need something?"

"I would like to know about me." She gestured to herself. "I am going to die in a few days."

"That's…"

"Don't tell me it's not true." She swallowed. "It may not be two weeks exactly, but I am going to die soon. So, before that happens, may I request one thing?"

Greninja shot her a look, wondering what she wanted.

"May I have some crayons and a piece of paper?"

Ivysaur looked very relieved. Very relieved indeed. "Oh, okay, Miss Delphox! I'll get you some immediately."

He left very quickly, leaving the two alone.

"You're not really accepting the fact that you're going to die, are you?" Greninja hissed almost threateningly. Delphox stared at him back blankly. "You're not going to die! You're going to survive, for the love of—Delphox, would I lie to you?"

"No." That much was obvious. If he was so attached to her.

"You're not going to die. I promise."

The fox smiled back at him and shook her head. "You can't be the one making that promise. Only I can—it's my life, right?"

Oh. Right. How stupid of him. He chewed on his lip ferociously before looking up at her determinedly. "Then make me a promise that you won't die."

"I'm sorry. I can't make that promise either. It's my life, but it's not quite my decision, you know." Delphox smiled. "But if I don't die, it'll make you happy, right?"

"Obviously!"

"Well, I'm sorry. I think I'm going to make you very sad." Still childish, still smiling. She had accepted the fact the was going to die two days ago—he hadn't. She laughed, and Ivysaur entered the room with a box of sharp crayons and a sheet of paper.

"Miss Delphox, here are your materials," he spoke to her quickly. "Is there anything else I can get you? A cup of water, anything?"

"I already have a cup of water, Ivysaur. But no, thank you." Delphox waved him off dismissively as she began drawing something on the piece of paper. Greninja frowned at it, and she noticed it and frowned. "I'm not an artist! Why are you staring at it like that?"

"Why are you even drawing it?!"

"Because if I don't, you won't get anything!"

"Delphox, you're going to live."

"It hurts even more by the day. I don't think I'm going to."

"But you can't leave!"

"Listen, Greninja—I have no idea why you're keeping me company especially since we weren't very close before, but thank you. Okay? It'll be fine. You'll be fine."

The constant "you'll be fine" replayed in his head as he stared at her peaceful form through the coffin.

It wouldn't be fine, and that Greninja knew very well.

"It's not fine," Greninja said, as if speaking to her. Although, he knew he wouldn't get a reply. But if he did get a reply, she'd probably say something like "it's my life, not yours, okay?" and would proceed to laugh nonchalantly.

He didn't stay at her wake for very long. He didn't want to stay for very long, because it made him remember she was gone. Cooped up in the hospital for a few months and then lived the rest of her life there. He wasn't present at her death, he didn't hear her final words, he didn't get to tell her that he actually really really liked her.

Chicken. He should've done it sooner.

Ivysaur, the doctor, was silent. He attended the wake, too. He took an entire day off to visit Delphox's wake, and because he had children to look after. Yes, he did. Apparently Vileplume was present at Delphox's death and she was in such a tragic state then.

Greninja only pressed his lips together, turned and left.

"Excuse me, Sir, do you happen to be 'Greninja'?"

Vileplume appeared in his doorstep. Greninja had been staying at home a lot more now he didn't have the hospital to crash. He stared at Vileplume dazedly, wondering why she would suddenly knock on his door and ask him that question.

Blinking, Greninja nodded. "Yeah, I am… Why?"

"Ah! Thank goodness, I wanted to find you at the wake, but you left before I could." She outstretched her hand. It was a small envelope, plain and white. "…Before Delphox left…" she continued quietly, "…she asked me to give this to you. A few minutes later, that was it. I'm not sure what the contents of this envelope is, she didn't tell me anything about it." She shrugged. "Well… it's yours now."

"From Delphox?" His eyes widened. Delphox gave Vileplume something to give him? What was that?

He thanked Vileplume briefly, watched her leave, and then he closed the door while opening the envelope simultaneously.

All that was inside was one childish crayon drawing with poor effort, but he could tell it was her and him. Right next to each other.

In the corner, written in cursive, was joyfully written, "Thank you".

I hate how the ending turned out. Otherwise, everything else seems fine.

Grr, stupid ending.

Anyways, I'd appreciate it if you'd drop feedback. I think I've gotten a little rusty from not writing in so long. ._.