Ten Things [Oneshot]
Title: 10 Things…
Author: velvet_liquor
Beta: paralyzing_time
Chapters: One-shot
Pairing: Uruha x Ruki
Genre: Romance
Rating: PG
Word count: 1.272
Summary: “Take a picture of ten blue things you love.”
Author’s comment: A gift for invisiblehabits , because she is awesome 8D
From the age of ten, Takanori could spend hours reading a book. His mother didn’t have money for a TV, but every week, she managed to buy him new books, feeding his son’s addiction to words.
At fifteen, Takanori got interested in sounds instead of words. Of course, he was still reading, but most of the books that came into his hands were about music. And just like every other teenager, he came to listen to heavy guitar riffs, loud screams, and feral growls, banging his head to the (so called) rhythm.
That was, until Akira showed him what real music was. At that time, he’d rather have died than admit it, but he had a soft spot for Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, listening to it every night before going to sleep.
When he was nineteen, he found a part time job in a library near his university. So when he wasn’t painting on a canvas for one of his numerous art classes, he could be found inside the library, putting books back in their right place.
During his breaks, he would pick out a book and read. That was how he met Kouyou. The blond man had been searching for a book that was, in fact, in Takanori’s hands, for a good five minutes. A book about photography.
It turned out that Kouyou was very easy to talk to, but especially very talkative. And just like that, they became friends, and later, best friends.
At twenty-four, Takanori was in love with photography. He was always carrying around a camera, ready to immortalize any beautiful scene that would greet his eyes.
To entertain him, his friends would give him different challenges, telling him to shoot this or that. Most of the time, it was easy, until Yuu, an art student who had numerous classes with Takanori, entered the game.
“Take a picture of ten blue things you love.”
Takanori was silent for a minute, only staring at Yuu before finally answering with a question of his own, asking why blue.
“Because blue is the only color that’s missing from your paintings most of the time.”
And it was true, Takanori never put blue on a canvas unless it was necessary. An artificial blue had always been less pretty than the color itself. At least, that was what Takanori thought. No one really understood Takanori’s train of thoughts, not even Akira.
The first thing Takanori did was get out of the coffee shop they were in, take his camera out and snap a picture of the cloud-less sky with a soft click from the device. Easy, he thought.
Two weeks later, he wasn’t so sure anymore. He only came up with 7 photographs. The sky, his favorite brand of chocolate, his comforter, his pillow (Yuu protested, saying it counted as ‘his bed’ and thus only one thing, but Takanori pretended not to see where the problem was), a poster of a jrock band which had a blue background, a bottle of nail polish he claimed was his mother’s, but was nonetheless pretty, and the small notebook he carried with him everywhere. That “10 things” mission was getting hard to finish.
One week after that, he raided Akira’s place to find something. He came out of there with only one picture of a CD he swore had at home but couldn’t find anymore. A pretty good CD, in fact. No need to say he came home with Akira’s CD in his bag.
A month after the beginning of the “10 things” quest, they gathered at their usual bar, in their usual booth in the corner, waiting for Kouyou to come (he was always fifteen minutes late). Yuu was grinning triumphantly, since Takanori had only 8 photographs to show him. With a rude hand gesture, Takanori went to the bar to order their usual. Two minutes later, he was the one grinning like a maniac, snapping a photo of his Blue Lagoon drink. The grin disappeared instantly with Kouyou’s arrival.
“Sorry guys, my hair dryer refused to work and I couldn’t go out with my hair wet and all but I… why are you staring at me like that, Taka?”
It took him a good thirty seconds to snap out of his trance-like state.
“You’re wearing contacts?” was all Takanori said to the blond, his tone strangely neutral.
“Well, yeah… I thought that might look good on me, even though blue contacts and blond hair are not always a good thing… Look at Gackt, seriously, he’s creepy with that-”
But Takanori didn’t listen to his friend’s rambling, he kept on staring at the blue eyes in front of him, everything else becoming suddenly numb. Without ever tearing his gaze off those eyes, Takanori took his camera and snapped the last picture.
The day after, Takanori ate his breakfast in front of his laptop, saving the photos and sending them to Yuu before taking a shower. Emerging from the bathroom a good hour later, he saw he had an e-mail from Yuu.
And now, tell me which one is your favorite.
Takanori stared at the screen for a long minute. Sighing, he went back to the pictures folder and looked at them a few times.
He could definitely live without Akira’s CD (even though it hadn’t budged from his CD player since he came home with it). Same with the nail polish. The pillow and comforter could always change. The poster wasn’t vital. He was quite fond of the notebook, but once it was full, he was gonna take another one anyway. The blue sky… Well, the blue sky was nice, but rainy days had always been calming and relaxing to Takanori.
So there were now three pictures to chose between. The chocolate was terribly good, sinfully so. The drink was… Well, the drink was damn good too. And there was the last photo, the one of Kouyou’s blue eyes. His beautiful eyes… And that surprised expression he had was strangely cute. Takanori’s gaze went down to stare at his lips. Full, pouty, almost heart-shaped. Takanori surprised himself thinking about how it would feel like to kiss them. Not that he was against kissing another man, but, he had never seen Kouyou that way. And he cared about Kouyou. A lot.
He could live without a drink that gave you that sort of “I’m a cool guy” look. He could live without that milk filled chocolate. But he probably would feel lonely without Kouyou.
He then sent an e-mail to Yuu. No greetings, no long phrases. Yuu hadn’t bothered to do that, so why should he? He simply sent his answer.
Kouyou.
Takanori missed the surprised look on Yuu’s face when he opened the e-mail. He had thought the chocolate would come first, since the little guy was always eating it, hence the baby-like belly. That answer was definitely surprising. But wasn’t he surprising after all?
Three months and thousands of looks thrown at Kouyou later, Takanori was positive he was falling in love.
Two weeks and four beers later, Takanori was actually saying it.
An unending minute and hundreds of frantic heart beats later, Kouyou was opening his mouth to answer.
Two hours later, Takanori was sleeping with his head nicely pillowed on Kouyou’s chest, the hand of the blond combing through his hair.
At twenty-eight, Takanori was certain that not only would he feel lonely without Kouyou, but he just couldn’t bear the mere idea of being without him. Because there was one thing Takanori was sure of.
No matter which color, Kouyou would always be on top of his “ten things you love” list.
END
A/N: Also, I’d like to thank aozoracomplex , because each time I read her stories, I feel like writing and I’ve been so inspired by her writing in this one (maybe that’s noticeable xD), so, thank you for writing so nicely~
Author: velvet_liquor
Beta: paralyzing_time
Chapters: One-shot
Pairing: Uruha x Ruki
Genre: Romance
Rating: PG
Word count: 1.272
Summary: “Take a picture of ten blue things you love.”
Author’s comment: A gift for invisiblehabits , because she is awesome 8D
From the age of ten, Takanori could spend hours reading a book. His mother didn’t have money for a TV, but every week, she managed to buy him new books, feeding his son’s addiction to words.
At fifteen, Takanori got interested in sounds instead of words. Of course, he was still reading, but most of the books that came into his hands were about music. And just like every other teenager, he came to listen to heavy guitar riffs, loud screams, and feral growls, banging his head to the (so called) rhythm.
That was, until Akira showed him what real music was. At that time, he’d rather have died than admit it, but he had a soft spot for Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, listening to it every night before going to sleep.
When he was nineteen, he found a part time job in a library near his university. So when he wasn’t painting on a canvas for one of his numerous art classes, he could be found inside the library, putting books back in their right place.
During his breaks, he would pick out a book and read. That was how he met Kouyou. The blond man had been searching for a book that was, in fact, in Takanori’s hands, for a good five minutes. A book about photography.
It turned out that Kouyou was very easy to talk to, but especially very talkative. And just like that, they became friends, and later, best friends.
At twenty-four, Takanori was in love with photography. He was always carrying around a camera, ready to immortalize any beautiful scene that would greet his eyes.
To entertain him, his friends would give him different challenges, telling him to shoot this or that. Most of the time, it was easy, until Yuu, an art student who had numerous classes with Takanori, entered the game.
“Take a picture of ten blue things you love.”
Takanori was silent for a minute, only staring at Yuu before finally answering with a question of his own, asking why blue.
“Because blue is the only color that’s missing from your paintings most of the time.”
And it was true, Takanori never put blue on a canvas unless it was necessary. An artificial blue had always been less pretty than the color itself. At least, that was what Takanori thought. No one really understood Takanori’s train of thoughts, not even Akira.
The first thing Takanori did was get out of the coffee shop they were in, take his camera out and snap a picture of the cloud-less sky with a soft click from the device. Easy, he thought.
Two weeks later, he wasn’t so sure anymore. He only came up with 7 photographs. The sky, his favorite brand of chocolate, his comforter, his pillow (Yuu protested, saying it counted as ‘his bed’ and thus only one thing, but Takanori pretended not to see where the problem was), a poster of a jrock band which had a blue background, a bottle of nail polish he claimed was his mother’s, but was nonetheless pretty, and the small notebook he carried with him everywhere. That “10 things” mission was getting hard to finish.
One week after that, he raided Akira’s place to find something. He came out of there with only one picture of a CD he swore had at home but couldn’t find anymore. A pretty good CD, in fact. No need to say he came home with Akira’s CD in his bag.
A month after the beginning of the “10 things” quest, they gathered at their usual bar, in their usual booth in the corner, waiting for Kouyou to come (he was always fifteen minutes late). Yuu was grinning triumphantly, since Takanori had only 8 photographs to show him. With a rude hand gesture, Takanori went to the bar to order their usual. Two minutes later, he was the one grinning like a maniac, snapping a photo of his Blue Lagoon drink. The grin disappeared instantly with Kouyou’s arrival.
“Sorry guys, my hair dryer refused to work and I couldn’t go out with my hair wet and all but I… why are you staring at me like that, Taka?”
It took him a good thirty seconds to snap out of his trance-like state.
“You’re wearing contacts?” was all Takanori said to the blond, his tone strangely neutral.
“Well, yeah… I thought that might look good on me, even though blue contacts and blond hair are not always a good thing… Look at Gackt, seriously, he’s creepy with that-”
But Takanori didn’t listen to his friend’s rambling, he kept on staring at the blue eyes in front of him, everything else becoming suddenly numb. Without ever tearing his gaze off those eyes, Takanori took his camera and snapped the last picture.
The day after, Takanori ate his breakfast in front of his laptop, saving the photos and sending them to Yuu before taking a shower. Emerging from the bathroom a good hour later, he saw he had an e-mail from Yuu.
And now, tell me which one is your favorite.
Takanori stared at the screen for a long minute. Sighing, he went back to the pictures folder and looked at them a few times.
He could definitely live without Akira’s CD (even though it hadn’t budged from his CD player since he came home with it). Same with the nail polish. The pillow and comforter could always change. The poster wasn’t vital. He was quite fond of the notebook, but once it was full, he was gonna take another one anyway. The blue sky… Well, the blue sky was nice, but rainy days had always been calming and relaxing to Takanori.
So there were now three pictures to chose between. The chocolate was terribly good, sinfully so. The drink was… Well, the drink was damn good too. And there was the last photo, the one of Kouyou’s blue eyes. His beautiful eyes… And that surprised expression he had was strangely cute. Takanori’s gaze went down to stare at his lips. Full, pouty, almost heart-shaped. Takanori surprised himself thinking about how it would feel like to kiss them. Not that he was against kissing another man, but, he had never seen Kouyou that way. And he cared about Kouyou. A lot.
He could live without a drink that gave you that sort of “I’m a cool guy” look. He could live without that milk filled chocolate. But he probably would feel lonely without Kouyou.
He then sent an e-mail to Yuu. No greetings, no long phrases. Yuu hadn’t bothered to do that, so why should he? He simply sent his answer.
Kouyou.
Takanori missed the surprised look on Yuu’s face when he opened the e-mail. He had thought the chocolate would come first, since the little guy was always eating it, hence the baby-like belly. That answer was definitely surprising. But wasn’t he surprising after all?
Three months and thousands of looks thrown at Kouyou later, Takanori was positive he was falling in love.
Two weeks and four beers later, Takanori was actually saying it.
An unending minute and hundreds of frantic heart beats later, Kouyou was opening his mouth to answer.
Two hours later, Takanori was sleeping with his head nicely pillowed on Kouyou’s chest, the hand of the blond combing through his hair.
At twenty-eight, Takanori was certain that not only would he feel lonely without Kouyou, but he just couldn’t bear the mere idea of being without him. Because there was one thing Takanori was sure of.
No matter which color, Kouyou would always be on top of his “ten things you love” list.
END
A/N: Also, I’d like to thank aozoracomplex , because each time I read her stories, I feel like writing and I’ve been so inspired by her writing in this one (maybe that’s noticeable xD), so, thank you for writing so nicely~