Different Shades of Black and White
Chapter One
A White Backdrop
(Edit: Quick A/N: To all fellow lovelies who are just coming across this fic, I'm sure you can tell that this story is currently on hiatus. Sadly. You'll progressively see more apologies in later chapters' author's notes. Anyway, I currently want to put most of my effort into Schule der Seelen as of right now, so please bear with me and hopefully one day I'll get my shit together and begin writing this on a regular basis again. Still, thank you so much for reading!)
The small boy yawned and scratched his head with an amused smile playing on his lips. He was in a particularly good mood today—the sky was clear, and it was Sunday; the weekend. He had no reason at all to be unhappy. He watched merrily as a girl plucked dandelion weeds out from the cracks in the sidewalk, and proceeded to place them behind her ear—probably fantasizing about being a forest maiden.
It could have been one of the most perfect days the boy had ever lived.
"Hey, Isana!"
Isana Yashiro—also known as "Shiro" by some who claimed to be close with him—spun around to see one of his classmates waving. He was with a pretty girl about their age, though Yashiro couldn't quite put his finger on who it was. Certainly not someone from their class—he would remember someone like that. A senpai, maybe? But he was almost positive he'd remember someone like that, too.
"Ah, this is my sister, Neko. Neesan, this is my classmate, Isana Yashiro," the boy's classmate, Arai Keisuke, introduced. Yashiro had never really paid much attention to this classmate of his, but he seemed nice enough, so he decided not to run away from Arai's inevitable offer to lunch.
"Nice to meet you," Yashiro bowed politely to Arai's sister, and heard her giggle softly.
"Nice to meet you as well, Shiro!"
Yashiro tensed. Eh? Straight for the given name? And how does she know about my nickname?!
Swiftly, he raised himself out of his bow, and before Arai could offer lunch—which the boy was just then opening his mouth to suggest—he gave a feeble wave to the both of them. "Sorry, but my mom wants me home for lunch. Said something about making soup for my little sister, 'cause she wanted to go out to eat with her new boyfriend. Sorry about that, and it was nice meeting you!" He quickly dipped his head in farewell before darting off into the crowds of people that never failed to bustle about the city during midday.
Still cunning as ever, huh? Yashiro breathed sarcastically to himself. Truth be told, he didn't have any sort of family like that—no mother searching for a new love, no younger sister to make soup for. It was him, himself and he, all living in his little apartment located near the school he attended. But nobody knew that—it was a well-kept secret by him.
After forcing himself against the crowd for a grueling ten minutes, he ducked into a small umbrella shop that was tucked away between two large department stores. It was old and smelled funny, but Yashiro took refuge in the dim rows of faded umbrellas.
"Ah—welcome."
Yashiro's head snapped up at the sound of the voice. An older man was standing behind a worn-out counter, topped with an ancient cash register.
I wonder how long this man stands in wait for customers here… Yashiro almost grinned sadly at the thought. Poor guy.
"Wow, I've never noticed this store before. It's nice," Yashiro complimented, glancing about the shabby room. What surprised him wasn't the man's next comment, but the truth of what he had just said. He had instantly grown to like this tiny shop.
"You don't have to lie," the man chuckled. "I know this isn't the best and greatest store in the city—in fact, it may well be the shabbiest! But I'll continue to wait for each and every umbrella to be sold, yessir. These umbrellas are my life." He glanced about the room, filled with nothing but umbrellas, with a cheerful gleam in his eyes. Yashiro caught himself smiling at the man's simple happiness. How great this world would be if everyone could be as easily satisfied as this man.
"But I'm not lying at all, sir, not one bit. The umbrellas are nice, even if they're a little faded," Yashiro continued, swiping his finger over the thickly coated dust that covered one of the umbrellas. He gasped slightly before taking a closer look at that particular umbrella. There was a slight streak of vibrant red where his finger had slid. These umbrellas weren't faded at all; they were smothered in dust.
"Woah, would you look at that! They aren't fading after all!" Yashiro could feel himself grinning childishly as he picked the red umbrella up off the shelf, but he didn't care. He opened the umbrella, which cracked and shook most of the dust off. He swiped his hand over the lingering particles, and when it was a satisfactory, brilliant red color, he placed it on his shoulder and twirled it around behind his head. "This is a really beautiful umbrella, sir."
The man chuckled again at the sight of a young boy, who probably belonged in one of the many department stores that drowned his shop in shadows, smiling because of his umbrellas. It was a wonderful sight that almost made the man want to cry.
"Do you want that umbrella?" the man asked suddenly, and he smiled when Yashiro stopped and stared at him.
"Oh, yeah, sure! How much is it?" the boy quickly agreed.
The man shrugged. "It's free. I'll give it to you. I've never seen someone so happy to hold one of my umbrellas—go on, you can take it."
He laughed when Yashiro's jaw dropped.
"Sir, you're kidding, right?"
"Of course not."
"But—"
"It suits you. The red goes nicely with your hair," the man continued, glancing upwards at Yashiro's head of colorless hair. Yashiro blushed faintly; his hair was the one thing that could trip him up. He'd never dyed it before—he had been born with naturally powdery-white hair.
"Th-thank you, sir. I'll tell my classmates about this place…" Quickly, as if not to change the man's mind—since he did indeed love the brilliant red umbrella—he exited the store, waving in goodbye.
As the man watched the boy go, he thought about his parting words. "Classmates" he had said. Not "friends". Maybe he was just imagining things, but he thought he had seen a lonely shine in the boy's eyes. He likened it to that of a lost puppy in need of a master, a home.
Well, that boy was very nice. I bet he has lots of friends, whoever he is. The man decided to let himself think so, and welcomed his new employee back when he realized he was back from his lunch break.
"Did we have any customers while I was away, Master?" the boy asked in a polite tone.
"Ah, you know how I always tell you not to call me that, Kuroh-kun."
Yashiro folded his umbrella back up, as if to shield it from greedy eyes, and slung it over his shoulder. That man had certainly been weird—giving up a marvelous umbrella such as this—but nonetheless, he was a nice guy.
"Well, I guess it's about time I actually do get back home," Yashiro told himself, and began heading in the direction of his apartment.
"I'm leaving, Mother."
"Have a nice day, Shion!"
The door shut behind Shion, giving a soft thud sound. Today was his first day at school, since he'd been sick throughout the first week. For the millionth time that morning, he messed with the collar of his new school uniform, unable to get used to the sensation of fabric rubbing against the middle of his neck.
Why is the collar so high? He complained inwardly. And it's black when the weather outside is nearly one hundred degrees…*
Shion, nevertheless, pushed away his complaints and began his fifteen-minute trek to school. Though today was his very first day, he wasn't particularly scared or apprehensive at all. In fact, he was looking forward to the day. He and his mother had just moved into the city, after living in the country all his life. He was eager to experience the city life and learn what kids his age did around here.
Yes, this was going to be an exciting school year.
* I'm an American who goes by Fahrenheit, not Celsius. *Bows head in apology* I'm way too lazy to look up what one hundred degrees is in Celsius. Though I probably should've learned how to convert the two at one point or another…
Arai Keisuke is my cute little OC ^^ he's Neko's brother in the story. This is AU after all. But he doesn't play a big role, so don't sweat it.
Also, I apologize if I got any Japanese references incorrect. I only know English and am currently learning Spanish, and only know Japanese from watching anime. So if any technical points are wrong, let me know, and I'll fix 'em! Advice on anything OOC is also appreciated.
Anyway, YAY for chapter one! So I was glancing around at No. 6, D. Gray-man and K Project fanart and realized that there are a bunch of crossover pics for the three shiro ukes and kuro semes for the anime. And then, voila, this idea popped into my head! I was planning on bunching all three uke's beginning stories into this first chapter, but I'm shit tired right now, and I'm going to have Allen-kun come in a little later on in the story for the sake of trying to keep this as non-OOC as possible. The umbrella idea was really spur of the moment xD as I was writing I remembered Shiro-chan's infamous red umbrella! And I realized that I simply couldn't cut it out, even if this is an AU. So toward the end you get a little snippit of Shion, and he'll be the main focus of the next chapter. Gotta feature one of my favorite ukes of all time! (Though technically each shiro uke could be a seme too O.o)
Ja ne~!
