Chapter Text
(15 YEARS AGO)
(Snow (Head Nurse)’s POV)
The sun was shining, the hydrangeas were just starting to bloom, and it was a lovely day in late spring. I couldn’t wait for summer to come – those beautiful hydrangea blossoms would look so beautiful by then! I longed for nothing but to roll in the patch of grass hidden amongst the sea of white blossoms that we worked so hard to grow during the winter, talking about school and homework and all sorts of things to each other.
In short, I couldn’t wait to experience all those things alongside with him.
As incompatible as we seemed, me and Night always found a way to make our friendship work. Sure, he was the quiet black cat in the corner of class who always backed out of the spotlight while I was the so-called ‘teacher’s pet’ who got top marks and bullied, but something about that unbalanced energy was what cemented our bond together. It was strange, but I admit that sometimes being bullied and tormented by the other kids in class seemed like a fair trade for the amazing person Night was. He was always by my side, to wipe my tears, to listen to my rambling, to support my decisions and dreams. They say black cats were signs of bad luck, but he was totally the opposite – he brought good luck to me.
Night was an angel.
My angel.
“Snow.”
“Night! Finally, do you know just how long I’ve been waiting for you (˶ -᷅⤙ -᷄ ˶)”
“Heh, sorry for letting the snow angel learn the valuable lesson of patience- Ow!”
He winced at the elbow nudge I gave him – he may be an incredible friend, but he was also really annoying sometimes. And on this occasion? Extremely tactless.
“Hey, what was that for?”
“You know what you did there-“
“What? Calling you impatient?”
“You know I don’t like that nickname.”
“Well, why? I mean, it’s a nice nickname and tbh, I really like it, it suits you-
“That’s what Jerry and his gang always call me – and I hate them.”
“Hey, at least those jerks got one thing right – you really are an angel.”
“Tch, quit teasing me, you-!”
"Okay, sorry! If it really bugs you that much, I won't call you that anymore, capisce?"
And that was that. Our personal little banter always ends with him teasing me something stupid, and me replying with an equally stupid answer, mostly consisting of blush and embarrassment.
Then again, it was Night after all. If anything, that’s the side of him that only I see. Other people see him as a violent kid, an unstable kid, a person that should be locked up. Barely anyone realize just how kind he really is. Mutually, my feelings for him became something even I can’t describe. Something that seemed pure and fresh, something foreign that I only ever briefly knew about.
Something like… love.
(that was cringe =D)
...
If only we were by each other’s side for longer…
(PRESENT DAY)
(Snow (Head Nurse)’s POV)
Being the Head Nurse at the Animal Hospital was not easy.
Sure, being a nurse and being able to help and assist patients who are in need of kindness and nourishment is what I always dreamed of, but that being accompanied with pressure, risk of going insane by just the amount of work you endure every day, and a public image to withhold, it wasn’t what I expected when I stepped out of medical school. Nope. Nuh-uh.
And even then, I tried, and worked hard. I could’ve never obtained the title of Head Nurse if it weren’t for the workload I did just for Dr. Harlow to even glance at me. It all seemed like it was worth it.
But now suddenly we were struck with another potential obstacle: the looming threat of anomalies that are infecting the streets of the city.
It was so simple that it sounded like a badly-written story plot rather than a real disease (how did she guess that –author): a new virus pops outta nowhere, a sneeze here, a cough there, and now there are weird, amalgamated entities attacking citizens and infected patients being called in left and right.
You can say that nobody was ready enough for this.
However, being a longtime employee of the Animal Hospital, sometimes you just learn to not panic (or at least, not show your panic) under any circumstances, whether it be an apocalyptic disaster or whatnot. Dr. Harlow made sure of that, and none of us nurses are going to argue against it.
Okay, I’m rambling now.
What was it? Ah, yes, it was just today. A normal Tuesday, if you can call any of our recent days “normal”. A whole plethora of new interns (okay, just four, but it’s been so long since we got even a single intern that now four just randomly show up and it’s kind of surprising-) had just been admitted, and they now have the jobs of checking and admitting patients, making (and also drinking) the coffee and assisting the nurses and doctors (with the most trivial of tasks too).
All this racket happening because of the news of anomalies and dangerous incidents happening in the city.
At the reception office on this particular morning, I noticed a poster plastered up on the noticeboard. Not some crayoned drawing that Indi (one of the interns) and the others made like the other day when they were around, but an official-looking one, with Dr. Harlow’s signature on it.
“NOTICE: To all employees of the Animal Hospital. Pursuant to the board meeting held last Thursday, two new personnel have been admitted to our staff. This addition is to ensure the utmost safety of every patient and employee within the facility against the recent escalating incidents in Animal City. These individuals are operatives from the official Animal Corporation Protection Agency (ACPA) and shall begin their shifts today, effective immediately.
Signed, Dr. E. L. Harlow”
Great. More new employees. Yippee.
Okay, I was being a bit harsh there. Sure, having like, 6 new employees in the span of 2 weeks meant more work and more stress for me, but the interns were doing fine (besides dropping vital organs on the floor whenever asked to hand them over), and these two new agents might be busy doing their tasks to even cause any ruckus. So maybe I shouldn’t judge the corporation’s decisions that early.
“Hi Boss! ^^”
I jumped, nearly dropping the cup of morning coffee I just got from the dispenser. The coffee here sucks, by the way.
“Indi. Bili. Pinki. And Gigi… How nice to see the four of you here so early…”
“You too, Boss!”, the four of them chirped, voices hyper as if they’ve been eating the storage’s worth of chocolate-
Wait a second…
“… You guys did not- “
“Did not what? :D”
“… did you guys eat all the chocolate bars?”
“Nope! :D”
… well that was unexpected. Usually if they did, they’d instantly scram in all directions possible in a sugar-rush frenzy. Which means maybe they didn't after all.
This wasn’t the first time they’d eaten all the chocolate, or drank the dispenser’s whole supply of coffee, or chugged down all the maple syrup in the medical wings, even though they know those are reserved for the patients (and bed monster) only. So you can understand why I was surprised that they haven't done anything of that sort just yet.
“Well, then why are you even here this early? Your shift begins at 7:30; it’s not even five o’clock yet.”
“We saw the notice and wanted to be up early to meet the new employees ^^”, Indi chirruped.
Well, that seemed like a reasonable explanation. I was a bit curious myself too, if anything.
“Hey, Head Nurse.” Rose (she’s one of the nurses, she’s mostly assigned double shifts with me so we talk often) walked in, holding a tall stack of papers.
“Rose, you know you can just call me Snow, right? Anyways- that’s a whole lot of paperwork.”
“I know – I just bumped into Ron, and he dropped me this stack and told me that apparently these are the patient files that are supposed to check in today, so I’m dropping these off for the interns to later work with- wait they’re already here?”
Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that.
“Yep, all four of them.”
“No no, I’m not talking about the interns – the agents that the board admitted are here!”
Wait, what?
“How did you know how they looked like to even know-”
“I passed by Azure and he apparently overheard Dr. Foxglove describing the agents wearing black vests and will be armed guns for their shifts, and right now-”
She pointed right outside the window (we were in the reception office, which had a pretty good view of the lobby from the inside window), and sure enough, I could make out the slight appearance of two people in black approaching. I say ‘slight’ because one seems to have a beige color and is way easier to spot, whilst the other one nearly blended with the shadows (like I said, it wasn’t even five o’clock yet, so it’s still pretty dark).
Eventually, they came just close enough for us to not have to crane our necks out to see them (that’s one too many ‘to’s in a sentence TvT). I could see now the new agents seemed to both be cats (heh, like me), one beige and one black.
Wait, a black cat?...
“Hey there! :D”, the beige-colored one immediately greeted once noticing our presence, waving their paw up in the air enthusiastically.
“… Greetings.”, the black one quietly said.
… Night?...