Turtles and Pyjamas

o n e .

Darsh's gaze fluttered towards the only room in the children's ward bare of any decoratives. No balloons on the door or any kind of 'get well soon' streamers inside the room.

He stepped in and noticed a pale kid on the bed and the visitor's cot held no indication of having been slept on or used in the near past. The girl on the bed, gazing out the lone window opposite the door, didn't look like she was in the hospital for something severe but the guarded posture of her body and the near paleness of her skin had him worried.

"Hi!" Darsh announced cheerfully, but the girl merely threw a distracted smile his way.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I seem to have lost my way around here," still nothing, "Would this gorgeous lady be gracious enough to let poor old me know where the loo is?" She all but gasped at that.

"You're supposed to say 'bathroom' not 'loo'!" she exclaimed.

"That's just a fancy way of saying 'loo'," Darsh grinned in response.

She rolled her eyes at that.

"Is this some timed plot to get me to be as cheery as you?" she spat, irritation clouding her pretty black eyes.

"Be still my heart, for I think we've found our soulmate," Darsh dramatically placed his hands over his 'heart' and winked at Miss. Turtle Pyjamas. Her pretty blue top and shorts looked like a mama turtle had thrown up on them.

Grinning, he walked out of the room and reminded himself to ask Dr. Neha about Anya Rathod, the name he noticed on the little girl's chart.

t w o .

Darsh shot a glare her way but the stubborn little rugrat refused to let his stern act waiver her decision.

"I said I'm done. No more goo!" she declared, her voice suggesting finality.

Darsh let her win the battle over lunch but she was crazy if she thought she could convince him to do the same for dinner.

"So, what's with the parents?" he asked casually, but Anya was anything but an ignorant kid.

"Not enough of Y chromosome in my genes."

"Which freaking school do you go to?" Darsh questioned, exasperated. But her confession made his chest feel impaled on. Anya didn't deserve to have been deserted like that. Every moment he'd spent with her had made him crave to love and pamper her but despite having agreed on his friendship she still remained guarded around him, as if she knew he'd leave her someday and she wanted to protect herself from the separation.

t h r e e .

"Are you a pedophile?" were the first words he heard when Darsh entered the room.

"How do you even know what that is?"

"I am very resourceful."

"You are also eight!"

"Seven," she corrected.

Raised eyebrow and a no nonsense expression from him was the new way to go apparently because that got her to talk.

"I have a little trouble going to sleep at night so the sisters in our home let me read the encyclopedia so I won't bother them," Anya answered with a little shrug of her shoulders.

Darsh hugged Anya and breathed in her dainty little self. He couldn't fathom how an incredible little girl had been ignored and mistreated for so long.