(no subject)
#82 The Small Things
First Impressions Second Time Around
401 words
It was so tiny she shouldn’t even have noticed it; just a glint of silver in his ear where there had been nothing before. And under normal circumstances, she reassured herself, she would never have given it (or him!) another glance. But he had stepped right into an errant patch of sunlight, and…well, there it was. She’d noticed.
One small silver ring in his left ear. That was all. Almost completely obscured by his hair. And yet, it changed so much.
The first thing she thought when she saw the earring was, “I thought only cool guys pierced their ears.” It was accompanied by a disdainful sniff and a haughty toss of her head. Had he come over right then, she would have said the same thing out loud to him, and begun another battle in the ceaseless war of insults they’d started.
But he hadn’t. Instead, he’d laughed at something Motoki’d said, which was in itself a rare occurrence. The silver ring sparkled in the sun, contrasting the inky darkness of his hair. That was when she saw how it curled against his skin, so tanned from his days outdoors, doing…what, exactly? How little she knew of him, outside of the arcade! And what did he find so funny? She’d never seen him laugh at something that wasn’t directly connected to her own humiliation, but she knew Motoki better than to think he was making fun of her. So what had caused him to laugh, he who so seldom smiled?
But when he smiled, his whole face changed. The harsh planes of his face relaxed and warmed, turning his usually forbidding countenance into something open, friendly. When he first turned to her, she was able to catch a glimpse of affection in his eyes. Surprisingly, they were a deep cerulean blue, not the slate gray she always seemed to remember. And for a brief moment, before the laughter fled his eyes and his face settled along its customary, dour lines, Usagi caught a glimpse of a different person, one she’d almost like to meet, to befriend. Someone she could...love?
She left soon after that, unsettled to her very core. How could something as small and insignificant as a new earring cause her to see her worst enemy in a whole new light? And how could something as fleeting as a smile meant for someone else cause her world to change?
First Impressions Second Time Around
401 words
It was so tiny she shouldn’t even have noticed it; just a glint of silver in his ear where there had been nothing before. And under normal circumstances, she reassured herself, she would never have given it (or him!) another glance. But he had stepped right into an errant patch of sunlight, and…well, there it was. She’d noticed.
One small silver ring in his left ear. That was all. Almost completely obscured by his hair. And yet, it changed so much.
The first thing she thought when she saw the earring was, “I thought only cool guys pierced their ears.” It was accompanied by a disdainful sniff and a haughty toss of her head. Had he come over right then, she would have said the same thing out loud to him, and begun another battle in the ceaseless war of insults they’d started.
But he hadn’t. Instead, he’d laughed at something Motoki’d said, which was in itself a rare occurrence. The silver ring sparkled in the sun, contrasting the inky darkness of his hair. That was when she saw how it curled against his skin, so tanned from his days outdoors, doing…what, exactly? How little she knew of him, outside of the arcade! And what did he find so funny? She’d never seen him laugh at something that wasn’t directly connected to her own humiliation, but she knew Motoki better than to think he was making fun of her. So what had caused him to laugh, he who so seldom smiled?
But when he smiled, his whole face changed. The harsh planes of his face relaxed and warmed, turning his usually forbidding countenance into something open, friendly. When he first turned to her, she was able to catch a glimpse of affection in his eyes. Surprisingly, they were a deep cerulean blue, not the slate gray she always seemed to remember. And for a brief moment, before the laughter fled his eyes and his face settled along its customary, dour lines, Usagi caught a glimpse of a different person, one she’d almost like to meet, to befriend. Someone she could...love?
She left soon after that, unsettled to her very core. How could something as small and insignificant as a new earring cause her to see her worst enemy in a whole new light? And how could something as fleeting as a smile meant for someone else cause her world to change?