Witch Hunter Robin Fan Fiction ❯ Daisies and Lost Dreams ❯ One-Shot

Title: Daisies and Lost Dreams
Author: Kameko-chan
Pairings: very slight Michael/Haruto
Notes: Michael centric. A little old...

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On some days, days when the walls of STNJ seemed to close in around him and the twinkling city lights beckoned from beyond the plate glass windows, just beyond his reach, Michael cursed his younger self.

 

A little fun, that was all Michael Lee had in mind when he'd hacked into that temptingly forbidden database. He'd done it a thousand times before, on hundreds of different top-secret websites. It was like a game, and he'd never been beaten. He thought he was invincible.

 

It stopped being a game when he'd was abducted from his room several nights later. Michael had gone to bed near dawn, as usual, and when he awoke he was in a strange room, alone. His imprisonment had begun.

 

It was the same, day after day. Wake up, hack, eat, sleep, repeat. It was a familiar pattern, one he'd followed for years before he'd been caught, but it wasn't as enjoyable when he was being forced into it. The other workers came and went as they pleased, barely giving a second thought when they passed through the portal to the outdoors. That was a luxury Michael did not think he'd ever know again.

 

It was different before. Sure, he had spent most of his life indoors, but that had been by choice. The grass outside his basement window didn't mock him. Underlying his self-imposed captivity had been the comforting echo of freedom. If he wanted to walk in the sunshine, he could. If he wanted to lie beneath a tree and watch the clouds drift by between the leaves, he could.

 

He didn't have those options anymore.

 

Sometimes, on those days when the oppression became too much, Michael would cry.

 

"Michael?"

 

But not today.

 

Haruto smiled at the hacker, a ray of sunshine in the dank darkness of Michael's prison. "There was a sweet old lady selling these down the block," he explained as he set a small vase beside Michael's keyboard. "I thought they'd brighten up your desk! You don't have enough stuff on your desk. It's the first day of summer, you know. Wipe that gloomy look off your face!"

 

They were daisies. A simple flower, they had grown wild in the weed-ridden garden at his old home. They were plain, but tough, and determined above all to be happy. Michael had loved them. He missed them in this concrete compound.

 

Michael looked at Haruto and smiled, albeit weakly, and a spark of life returned to his weary eyes. "Thank you, Sakaki."

 

The hunter smiled at the hacker. "You're welcome," he replied, dazzling grin lingering for a moment before he glided away to give a leftover daisy to the nearly late Robin.

 

Yes, there were some days when Michael would have chosen death over his continued captivity. And yet, more often than not he thanked his lucky stars for his clumsy teenage stupidity. Without it, he would have never met the one person to make him see the humanity inside of himself, the one who made him want that blue sky and green grass and those daisies waving in the wind.

 

END