Work Text:
Mikan was alone in the garden. There had been a lot of family friends over earlier that day but now that the sun was finally setting they had all left. Mikan had at least been a bit happy for all the attention she received from the kids and people her age, even if they were having fun by throwing stuff at her. It was better than being all alone.
Her family had gone inside and made it very clear that they didn’t want her to come with them. So now she was sitting on the rundown proche outside their small house deciding whether to go inside and face the wrath of her most likely drunk father or to stay outside alone. Luckily it wasn’t cold outside. It was midsummer's eve so it would most likely remain pretty warm.
However, being alone always made her wonder whether or not her family would ever be willing to see her again, maybe they would simply move away when she was asleep or lock the door and never let her inside.
She was about to go inside when something caught her eye. It was a small light in the distance and for some reason it made Mikan think of the stories about fairies appearing on midsummer night. Not really wanting to go inside she decided to go look closer at the light instead.
It was just a bit into the woods behind their backyard and it seemed to flicker every now and then. Carefully she stepped over the low and run down wooden fence which separated their garden from the woodland around it. She had to pull her skirt free from one of the rusty nails on the fence ripping part of the fabrik in the proces.
The light seemed to be just a meter or so away and she felt as if she could just reach out and touch it. She took a few more steps forward, almost falling over the thicket which seemed to cover the ground. Just as she was about to reach it the light disappeared. Confused, she looked around to see where it had gone and she soon noticed it, just a bit further into the woods.
It was still close enough that she would be able to see the house from there so no harm could come from going just that little bit deeper? Thinking that she wandered closer to the light. This time she tried to reach out from a bit further away but in the end the light once again disappeared as she lost balance and fell to the ground. Scraping her hands on the rough ground she managed to regain balance.
Standing up she realised that she was bleeding, there must have been a thorn or something on the ground. Now she knew that she should be heading back, it wasn’t unusual for a wound to get infected if it had been in contact with dirt and back home she did have some disinfectants. But when the light appeared again she couldn’t help but to want to get closer, it was just a small wound anyway, she had survived worse.
This process repeated itself to the point where Mikan no longer knew how many times she had thought that she had reached the light. Every now and then she had fallen to the ground and now she had scrape wounds on her knees and elbows. But by now she had lost the way back so she didn’t really have much of an option than to follow the lights.
Now the light appeared in a small clearing and a faint sound could be heard. It wasn’t really a pleasant sound, it reminded Mikan of some sort of screaming animal, but the sound of guitar? made her less worried.
Stumbling into the clearing she saw an odd girl sitting on a stone playing some sort of guitar. The first thing Mikan noticed about the girl was the pair of large wings on her back. They looked a lot like the kind of wings one would find on a dragonfly, long, thin and four in total. The only hint of color on them was a light blue just where they met the nacked back of the girl. Unlike the wings however, the rest of her outfit was full of color, it made Mikan wonder how she could have missed her before entering the clearing.
The neon blue dress seemed to shine through the woods, and the neon pink details eliminated any idea that it might have been a plant. In her hair she seemed to have braided in lights that looked like ones you’d find in a christmas tree. The braids went around her head forming a wreath. On top of her head she had styled her hair into spikes.
When Mikan approached she turned her head to look at her. The girl's face was almost shining with energy. Her large smile reached all the way to her glowing pink eyes and it only grew when she saw Mikan. “HEY THERE!!! Did you like the song!?” She said in an extremely loud voice. Maybe she had hurt her hearing by playing too loudly?
“y-yeah, i-it was really g-great,” she didn’t really know what to say but at least the stranger wouldn’t get mad if she praised her right? “Thanks, my name is Ibuki Mioda and I’m the greatest musician the fay world has ever seen!” She stood up proudly with her nose in the air as she announced her identity. “The only issue is that nobody seems to be willing to listen to me when I play,'' she scratched her neck, looking a bit troubled.
“I-I’m sure they will all change their mind if they heard you play,” Mikan always felt the need to comfort whenever somebody seemed to be down. “Yeah, you must be right! It is an artist's fate to never be properly appreciated after all,” It was unclear if the girl had got what Mikan was trying to say but at the very least she seemed to have cheered up a bit.
“Ehh, you mentioned the fay world earlier?” Mikan carefully asked, hoping that it wouldn’t offend the seemingly friendly person. “Wait! You’re a human!” It seemed as if Ibuki hadn’t taken a proper look at her before and now she was staring intently at her, trying to see if she was indeed a human. “y-yes?”
“Oh yeah, it’s midsummer today isn’t it?” The fay seemed to be lost in her own head as she shook her head before nodding to herself. “Well, I'm a fay, humans usually can’t see us but apparently it’s possible on midsummer night I don’t really get how it works but yeah,” she shrugged as if it wasn’t very important before standing up and walking closer to Mikan. When she was close enough she grabbed her hands and stared right in her eyes with those intense pink ones of her’s. “I’m sure this is fate, you shall be my first proper audience and then my music will finally become famous,” How she reached that conclusion was a mystery but Mikan was too disoriented to do anything but nod.
“But first you seem to be injured?” Looking at her expression it was probably first now that the fairy had noticed the bruises and scrapes that littered Mikan's body. “Sadly I’m not very good at healing magic but I should have something which might be of help,” she shuffled through her dresses pockets before dragging out some kind of herb. “ Here, eat this,” she reached her hand out to Mikan and handed over the green leaves. Mikan knew better than to eat strange plants but she really didn’t want to make this stranger displeased so still a bit disoriented she put the leaves in her mouth.
The leaves tasted like air but as she swallowed them a strange feeling started to spread throughout her body. Looking at her previously scraped hands there was no sign of any sort of injury. She looked up, completely amazed. Seeing her expression the fay girl blushed slightly which in turn made Mikan’s cheeks gain a pink tint. It was so strange, everything was strange that night but the strangest of all was how this stranger was willing to help her with her injuries. Not even her own family was willing to do that for her but this girl did it as if it was nothing!
Not really knowing why Mikan started to cry. Maybe it was the weight of everything that had happened that day, maybe it was the feeling of safety this stranger seemed to give off, but no matter why she soon found herself on the ground, crying her eyes out.
After a little while she felt a pair of arms wrap around her. “Ibuki doesn’t really know how to comfort people but I’m sure that everything will be fine,” Her voice was softer than before, if a bit shaky, she clearly wasn’t expecting the person in front of her to start crying all of a sudden. “I-I’m s-sorry” Mikan managed to get out through her sobbing. “No need to apologise, I know! maybe a song would cheer you up,” The fairy’s seemed to be pretty stressed out and soon the comfortable hug was gone, leaving Mikan exposed to the chilly breeze.
She heard some rustling about and soon the embrace was replaced by a soft melody. It was in Mikan’s opinion far more pleasant than the one she had heard previously and soon she found her breathing to calm down, following the slow rhythm of the music. As the tears seemed to come to an end her body was swaying lightly with the music as it seemed to take over everything around her. Maybe Ibuki wasn’t exaggerating when she called herself the best musician there was, because Mikan wouldn’t mind listening to this melody for all eternity.
But in the end the music came to an end and a worried voice said, “Are you okay now?” Ibuki’s voice seemed to be just as soft as the melody had been and Mikan slowly opened her eyes, not knowing when she had closed them, and gave a small nod. “I-I’m s-sorry,” she said, wiping her nose with her arm.
“Then that’s good!” Ibuki seemed to have regained some of her energy as she stretched her arm out for Mikan to take. Carefully grabbing the outstretched hand Mikan found herself being pulled up a bit too quickly, she didn't manage to get a stable footing and soon she fell, right on top of Ibuki who crashed down with her. Mikan quickly got ready to apologize but to her great surprise Ibuki started laughing.
It was a clear, pleasant laughter which seemed to invite you to join in and soon both girls were laying on the ground, laughing like they’d never had before. “You’re really something” Ibuki declared, “I’m going to make a song from this!” she announced, still on the ground, now with her hand reaching up towards the starry night sky “weird girl in the woods,” she moved her hand in an arch, as if imagining the title written out in large glittering letters in the sky. “Now I just need to make the lyrics,” she turned towards Mikan, who had been staring at her, for some reason unable to move her eyes away from the fairy's face “Would you let me play it for you?” For some reason the question seemed intimate, special. “O-of course” Mikan would probably be willing to do anything if it meant spending time with this strange girl.
When they got up Ibuki started to play, this song was more like the one Mikan had heard at first. Not at all soothing and it reminded her a lot of some kind of dying animal. But listening to it had its own kind of charm, or maybe it was the girl playing who’s charm it was.
“It will be morning soon,” Ibuki pointed out, sounding a bit sad. They had been playing for hours and by the end they had decided to return to laying on the ground, looking up at the stars. “You should probably return to your family and then you will be unable to see med for at least another year,” she sounded sad, maybe she had also needed somebody to be there for her, if only just for one night.
“Y-yeah, b-but we will see eachother again?” Mikan really didn’t want to let go. This person had only been kind, hadn’t hit her, or insulted her, and now she didn’t know when they'd be able to meet again. “OF COURSE! I’m sure that it was fate who brought us together tonight and I’m sure that it will bring us together again,” The positivity seemed a bit forced but it made Mikan a bit more willing to get up.
“I honestly don’t know the way home, I followed these blue lights here and I lost my way,” Mikan admitted, hoping that the other would offer to follow her on her way back. “Oh, you got tricked by the fen-fires? Don’t worry, I will help you!” jumping on the opportunity to spend a bit more time together Ibuki immediately got to her feet
Ibuki seemed to really know these woods and before long Mikan found herself back by the rundown fence around her backyard. The sun was rising in the distance and as she turned around to thank her newfound friend? Ibuki was nowhere to be seen. It was as if she had vanished into thin air before they got the chance to say a proper goodbye.
It wasn’t until now that Mikan realised how tired she was, she hadn’t gotten any sleep for the entire night and she was covered in dirt and leaves from lying on the ground as well as stumbling through the woods. The thought that Ibuki had seen her like this made her face heat up from embarrassment before the sadness of not being able to see the fairy again washed over her.
She would make sure to find that clearing again next year! She had never felt so sure of anything in her life.
Just as she climbed across the fence and turned to give to the woods one last longing look, something flickered in the distance as she managed to catch a glimpse of a neon blue dress somewhere among the trees.