I have somehow managed, over the course of the last few days to become reinfatuated with the wonderfulness that is Karekano/ His and Her Circumstances. 'Tis ultimately a futile exercise, in a way, since I have no way of getting my hands on the manga volumes upwards of volume 11. And there are 21 in total. (Don't really think that Ma'll allow me to order the Tokyopop version from the US..). Arrrrgh.
But!
ACTUAL GOOD KAREKANO FIC EXISTS to heal these wounds!
Perfect Blue. Short and sweet. Asapin, Arima and Yukino on the school roof.
Good Together. Author's Summary: Asaba Hideaki finds the perfect boy and tries to put him back together
Oh man. Beautiful, beautiful fic about the two boys in Karekano, throughout the happenings of the manga- with the added twist of unrequited love on Asapin's part. The fact that it closely follows the manga also makes it feel like you're reading additional bonus scenes and the writing itself is good enough that it doesn't feel like the author is needlessly rehashing events from the manga.
I like how the story avoids the usual in love triangle situations- that you end up disliking one or the other person, because Yukino and Arima just fit together as a couple, though in a different way that Asaba and Arima would...but to ignore Yukino would be impossible, especially since she played such an instrumental part in getting Arima to open up in the first place.
The fic also shows more of Asapin's daily life, the stuff that gets hinted about in the manga, or hardly mentioned.
But the main clincher of this is the portrayal or the Asaba/Arima friendship. Oh man. I don't want to spoil anything but the later chapters left me positively breathless and if this is even remotely near to what happens in the manga, I will die when I get my hands on it one day. Omg. It just is that Arima is basically so horribly, fundamentally screwed up and Asaba's always there, for all the times that Arima doesn't want Yukino to know about his weaknesses, because he loves her so much that he is too scared to crack in front of her and yet ahhh the emotional retardedery when he deals with Asaba ...*flails* It's just all so heartstabbingly sad, although the ending is hopeful and quietly happy and oh god I'm getting tears in my eyes from thinking of it now ;__;
I know I probably am not doing this story justice with this craptacular summary/blather...Just. Read it and poke me afterwards and SQUEE with me goddammit! (Read it on Tuesday and man, certain scenes whirred around in my brain for the rest of the week...)
----
Also! Was inspired to image-google some pics, photoshop-fu them and thus- ICONS. Feel free to snag at will~ ♥
Preview! (lyrics from Blackbud's "Heartbeat"... a song I have been obsessively listening to for the last few days)
Love their expressions in this one ♥ (my new default icon, byeee Norio-kun~)