distraction, go!
Well, I didn't finish the Code Blue chapter in time. But I wrote this.
sillyangelfaery, my beloved Faery-jess, made me a banner. With Doumeki all covered in blood and a whole bunch of Shakespeare quotes. So now I'm doing a vignette for each. :D
Title: Tomorrow
Fandom: Holic
Wordcount: 713
Prompt: "tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow"
Summary: Why does he do it? Maybe tomorrow he'll know.
Shizuka finds himself wondering, at intervals, what he's doing here. These intervals are normally at time when he is catching Watanuki's wrist as the other boy falls off of a building, or shooting the odd spirit that managed to get far too close, or as the case is now, lying on the pavement and bleeding a slightly ridiculous amount all over the sidewalk and his clothes. In this case, he has time to formulate the answer he's looking for as his vision goes fuzzy. Unable to discern what Watanuki's yelling at him this time (though he has a feeling it may involve staining the sidewalk), Shizuka settles down for some introspection.
The issue, he gathers, is not so much that he sticks around but rather that he no longer does it out of a sense of duty. Originally, he undertook the missions and protected Watanuki simply because no one else did. Despite the prickly exterior Watanuki isn't particularly tough - physically, at any rate - and back when Shizuka was first acquainted with the spirit world and all the trouble that it caused, Watanuki simply didn't get that he could be in danger. That he could die. That it would matter.
Even after Shizuka began to grow attached to the walking puzzle that was Watanuki Kimihiro, it was duty that kept him around. Duty to the things that mattered to him, duty to himself to keep them around, duty to them to keep them safe. Shizuka was raised on the concept of duty: duty to one's family, duty to one's country, duty to oneself. He lived his life by what he felt he must do, and everything just fell into place.
And then there was the one day, not too long ago, when Watanuki mentioned that he was going to see Kohane. It wasn't a life-changing situation, or even by appearances a particularly dangerous one. But Shizuka went along anyway. Maybe it was Yuuko's ever-present hitsuzen; maybe Shizuka simply wanted to, and that was that. In the end it was a good thing he'd gone along, but he hardly knew that ahead of time.
After that he simply stopped having a reason. Now he doesn't know he has to be ever on guard, he simply is. It's like something in him decided that if he only ever followed one thing in his life, it would be Watanuki, and so that's now what he does. He doesn't think about it, this way of living that is completely in tune with Watanuki's. His parents worry on occasion, when he doesn't show up until late or at all, and his grades sometimes slip, but the former understand that he's doing something he regards as important, and the latter is not a particularly pressing issue to him now.
He doesn't mind; he just doesn't know why. Maybe he never will.
At this point his inner monologue is interrupted by a brief, sharp pain, and that is enough to jolt him back into the real world, into now, where Watanuki is fussing and pretending he doesn't care. Shizuka has a hole in his leg where he understands a large branch used to be and there are quite a few leaves scattered around, some bark, and lots of blood.
"Welcome back to the living, Doumeki-kun," says Yuuko, who has perhaps been standing behind him for some time now. "That was quite a close call you had." Her voice is the essence of calm.
"What the hell were you doing?" demands Watanuki, not calm at all. "You just let it get you! Just because you couldn't see it, you can't just let them attack you like that!"
Shizuka doesn't remember actually being attacked - it was more like a collision, as he recalls, complete with an "Oh, bugger!" from the spirit in question who was toting a sharp branch about twice its size. Branch had met leg as Shizuka looked for the source of the inhuman cursing.
He's also lost his train of thought completely. But that's all right, he thinks. It's likely that tomorrow he'll be faced with the same question, and if not tomorrow, then the day after, or the day after. As long as he keeps up with Watanuki, he'll want to know why.
"Tomorrow," he says, "include plum rolls." And come yelling and flailing, because for some reason these are the things he lives for.
sillyangelfaery, my beloved Faery-jess, made me a banner. With Doumeki all covered in blood and a whole bunch of Shakespeare quotes. So now I'm doing a vignette for each. :D
Title: Tomorrow
Fandom: Holic
Wordcount: 713
Prompt: "tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow"
Summary: Why does he do it? Maybe tomorrow he'll know.
Shizuka finds himself wondering, at intervals, what he's doing here. These intervals are normally at time when he is catching Watanuki's wrist as the other boy falls off of a building, or shooting the odd spirit that managed to get far too close, or as the case is now, lying on the pavement and bleeding a slightly ridiculous amount all over the sidewalk and his clothes. In this case, he has time to formulate the answer he's looking for as his vision goes fuzzy. Unable to discern what Watanuki's yelling at him this time (though he has a feeling it may involve staining the sidewalk), Shizuka settles down for some introspection.
The issue, he gathers, is not so much that he sticks around but rather that he no longer does it out of a sense of duty. Originally, he undertook the missions and protected Watanuki simply because no one else did. Despite the prickly exterior Watanuki isn't particularly tough - physically, at any rate - and back when Shizuka was first acquainted with the spirit world and all the trouble that it caused, Watanuki simply didn't get that he could be in danger. That he could die. That it would matter.
Even after Shizuka began to grow attached to the walking puzzle that was Watanuki Kimihiro, it was duty that kept him around. Duty to the things that mattered to him, duty to himself to keep them around, duty to them to keep them safe. Shizuka was raised on the concept of duty: duty to one's family, duty to one's country, duty to oneself. He lived his life by what he felt he must do, and everything just fell into place.
And then there was the one day, not too long ago, when Watanuki mentioned that he was going to see Kohane. It wasn't a life-changing situation, or even by appearances a particularly dangerous one. But Shizuka went along anyway. Maybe it was Yuuko's ever-present hitsuzen; maybe Shizuka simply wanted to, and that was that. In the end it was a good thing he'd gone along, but he hardly knew that ahead of time.
After that he simply stopped having a reason. Now he doesn't know he has to be ever on guard, he simply is. It's like something in him decided that if he only ever followed one thing in his life, it would be Watanuki, and so that's now what he does. He doesn't think about it, this way of living that is completely in tune with Watanuki's. His parents worry on occasion, when he doesn't show up until late or at all, and his grades sometimes slip, but the former understand that he's doing something he regards as important, and the latter is not a particularly pressing issue to him now.
He doesn't mind; he just doesn't know why. Maybe he never will.
At this point his inner monologue is interrupted by a brief, sharp pain, and that is enough to jolt him back into the real world, into now, where Watanuki is fussing and pretending he doesn't care. Shizuka has a hole in his leg where he understands a large branch used to be and there are quite a few leaves scattered around, some bark, and lots of blood.
"Welcome back to the living, Doumeki-kun," says Yuuko, who has perhaps been standing behind him for some time now. "That was quite a close call you had." Her voice is the essence of calm.
"What the hell were you doing?" demands Watanuki, not calm at all. "You just let it get you! Just because you couldn't see it, you can't just let them attack you like that!"
Shizuka doesn't remember actually being attacked - it was more like a collision, as he recalls, complete with an "Oh, bugger!" from the spirit in question who was toting a sharp branch about twice its size. Branch had met leg as Shizuka looked for the source of the inhuman cursing.
He's also lost his train of thought completely. But that's all right, he thinks. It's likely that tomorrow he'll be faced with the same question, and if not tomorrow, then the day after, or the day after. As long as he keeps up with Watanuki, he'll want to know why.
"Tomorrow," he says, "include plum rolls." And come yelling and flailing, because for some reason these are the things he lives for.