When I was taken into my new home, I lived with a new "mother" and I learned how to care for myself. After much time of mourning my losses and distancing myself from other people, I finally learned that I could find true happiness by caring for the living creatures around me and help them to overcome their troubles. My new "mother"—Elmyra, if you will-- decided that I could find that true happiness at the little hospital in Midgar. Therefore, I volunteered.

Let me tell you a little bit about myself, my name is Aerith, I am fifteen years old, I was captured once when I was small along with my real mother and she died. I was to be a test subject…but I escaped. I had some trouble with the Turks; they keep watch over me now. They pretend I have no idea that they do, but that does not mean I do not know! I joined the hospital to love and care for people, but unfortunately, they do not let me care for anyone.

I am a paperwork monkey.

Now, Midgar is a place swimming with injuries. I see people with all from broken bones to missing limbs every day. It makes me sad when they come in and I cannot help. All I do is take blood down to the lab, copy their paperwork, put it in their file, duplicate it, and then deliver their release sheet to the front desk. That seems to be all that I can do without their precious "experience."

I was making release packets, that one interesting day. I was at my little lonesome desk and it was the first time I had seen such a violent patient…

"PUT ME DOWN!" He screamed kicking his legs into the large man's shoulders. This man, who was obviously this boy's father due to the great resemblance, had his son swung over his left shoulder, and was doing great means to keep him there.

I could not help but stare at the two as they walked down the corridor, I then noticed the tiny mother who was doing her best to keep an old rag wrapped tightly around her son's leg.

"Mum, I'm seventeen," he muttered, "I can do that by myself. I'm gonna be a SOLDIER in a year or two, I should be able to take care of my own 'battle scars'…"

"Not if you insist on looking like you're seven, instead of seventeen," she protested.

Seventeen? I questioned as I watched him give his father a good jab in the shoulder again with his good leg, before he finally surrendered.

"Look," the woman cooed, "Zack, you've got an audience."

I've been caught! I thought to myself. I quickly found myself concentrating deeply on paper clipping a booklet about painkillers onto one of the packets. Of course, me being the clutz that I am, while trying to paper clip the whole packet together, it buckled and spewed its contents onto the floor.

After picking up the remains of the packet up, I thought it was safe to finally look up.

Wrong.

The group was signing in at the front desk. Usually, that was a safe time to look up, but not this particular time, oh no, defiantly not now when I didn't feel like being stared at.

He was still swung over his father's shoulder, so that meant he was facing me. The one time I did not want to be right!

Yup. He was facing me.

I felt my cheeks get hot, and I gained the courage to look up at this "Zack."

When I did, I regretted it—at least I did at the time.

At first, I had only seen hair; spiky, cobalt hair. The cobalt head slid up to meet my gaze. Then, those lavender eyes met mine. The eyes and hair did not have much contrast between each other, but there was a deep contrast between them and his skin. He was very pale, I wasn't sure then if that was how he had always looked, or if that was because he had lost so much blood.

I felt that I should run, because he had just caught me staring at him again. He smiled, a crooked grin that felt very friendly and warm to me. I didn't really want to run after that. He made me feel like we were already good friends…

Then he winked at me.

After he did that, I made my choice to check the clock. Regardless, I was going to leave anyway for lunch, but I thought it would look a little funny going to lunch around 10:00. I prayed it was around noon.

11:54. Close enough. I thought to myself. I rushed as quickly as I could to get to the elevator and away from that empty desk, which seemed so much like a cage now.

I pushed the down arrow as hard as I could, and luckily for me, there was no wait for the doors to slide open. I pushed the "B" button repeatedly. I muttered "basement" many times to myself when, finally, the doors did slide shut.

I watched that smirk fall off Zack's face as the doors quietly sealed themselves.

I felt claustrophobic when the doors finally opened. I didn't like to see the few patients I did see be unhappy, especially if I was the one who caused it. Guilt consumed me.

I wasn't too fond of guilt either.

When I got my lunch from the cafeteria, usually, I felt much better. Not today.

I was the only volunteer that actually ate the salads the hospital had to offer. They were quite good actually, they had every vegetable under the sun, and they were one of the best things about this dismal place.

I opened the door to the outside of this place. I looked around, there were a few benches for the patients—even though they weren't allowed back here, asphalt, cars, more asphalt, and a tiny, tiny patch of grass with a tree in the center. That was where I ate my lunch, every day.

I could also see every patient's room on the left side of the hospital from here.

I wonder what room he's in… I found myself thinking.

Maybe he's in that one. I looked up on the third floor to see the blinds shut, and the light of the television flickering against the curtains.

...Or that one...? I glanced at the window on the first floor with a nurse straitening the sheets on an empty bed.

Then, on the other hand,… I looked at one of the windows of the second floor and saw a doctor fly up against it.

"That one?" I suggested to myself, as I watched Dr. Collin shake his head and put something in his pocket.

I giggled when the teenager threw himself against the window in attempt to free himself from one of the kindest doctors we had here.

He looked down to measure the drop, I guess –those windows were sealed anyway, he wasn't going to get out—when he spotted me.

"Hi!" he mouthed, wildly waving a hand at me.

I stifled a giggle, when I noticed there were actually two reasons why Dr. Collin appeared to not like Zack that much…

One was that he refused to take his meds, I couldn't help but notice the syringe in the doctor's hand. Moreover, the second, unbelievably, took me longer to figure out than the doctor trying to sneak up. Zack refused to wear the clothes given to him.

I silently thanked him in my head because he was still wearing his pants.

I pointed fast enough at Dr. Collin for Zack to jump out of his way.

There must be a mess of blood all over the place up there… I thought as the doctor finally caught him and stuck the needle in the teenager's arm.

I watched the curtains slide shut –thinking I was hearing some muffled swear words, as I laughed quietly to myself.

"Hey Aeris," Dr Collin smiled at me as I walked up to him in the elevator. He always called me 'Aeris' and never 'Aerith'.

"Hello, Dr. Collin," I answered walking in, "having a good day?"

"Yes, yes, a very good day," he was lying and I knew it, but Dr. Collin never worried his patients, friends, or family about his life/annoying patient.

"That's good," I answered.

The doors opened on the second floor and I looked around, half expecting him to get off.

"Aeris, while we're here," he asked, smiling, "could you get some water for the patient in 217? I gave him some medication about half an hour ago and he's probably thirsty."

"Sure thing!" I answered getting off the elevator, "bye!"

I absolutely loved doing that job. When you give patients water, they usually want to talk to you, and that makes them feel more comfortable in the position they're in.

I entered the cold room where the ice machine, pitchers, cups, and sink were kept. Each pitcher had a room number and the last name of the patient on it.

"217…"I muttered, scanning through the pitchers with several differing numbers, "where are you 217?"

"219…213…" I noted looking through them, "217 Fair, found it!" I smiled to myself at my accomplishment. I quickly filled it with ice and water and I skipped down to room 217.

When I got there, I quickly checked the notes on the door to see if this patient had no liquid restrictions. The following note surprised me:

No visitors allowed unless emergency.

I knew what that meant, I wasn't allowed to go inside. Then again, why was the doctor asking me to come…alone…without an adult…, It all added up when I saw the name.

Fair, Zackary

Were the nurses trying to play matchmaker again?!

"Zackary Fair," I muttered shaking my head.

"Yeah?"

Right then, I knew I shouldn't have said anything.

"H-hi," I said as I walked in, setting the pitcher of water on the closest table.

"Oh, hi!" He grinned.

When he grinned, I grimaced.

"What's wrong?" he asked innocently.

"What…did…you…do?" I accused.

"Nothing, nothing…I just…agreed…to…pay…"He fumbled along with his words.

"ZACK!"

"What?"

"That's illegal and…what are you doing?"

He was staring at the blank wall ahead of him, really, there wasn't much there, just the television—and that was off.

"I'm reading my rights as a patient…There isn't much about what I can't do… It says I have the right to see a quality staff and those that should be able to grant my needs…"

I saw the useless paper in it's frame directly across from him. Yes, those rights were there but nobody has taken them seriously before. Wow, I thought, he's serious! Is he crazy or something?

"…And guess what Aeris…I'm bored," He smiled a crooked grin that made him seem like he was completely innocent. Even though he's not!

ch. 2 is coming. Is Aerith going to put up with Zack? Ch. 3 is going to be interesting!