A/N: Save me. I'm neglecting my multichapter stories in favor of oneshots…and it's another Matt/Sayu. (gets shot)
Also, I had the song 'Pink Bullets' by the Shins on repeat while I wrote this. You have NO IDEA how fitting it is for Matt and Sayu. Go listen to it. Do it NAO. D:
Pink Bullets: Twenty Truths About Matt and Sayu
"When our kite lines first crossed
We tied them into knots.
But to finally fly apart,
We had to cut them off."
1. Matt was not as good at video games as he liked to think.
Sayu would frequently embarrass him when she shouted frantically for him to go the left! To the right! Up, down! "If that's not obvious, you're apparently a failed abortion!" (He did not take kindly to this)
2. Sayu liked to paint.
He had always wondered what exactly she spent doing in her room for hours on end. Being the 'polite' person he was, he didn't ask until she left her door open. Her sleeves were rolled up, she appeared to be holding quite a few brushes with her mouth, and was dabbing at the ceiling. What was she, Michelangelo?
He held his tongue when he saw the final product.
3. They didn't care much for Italian food.
He stared at the plate of pasta like it had come down from Neptune to take over the world. She sighed and said, "Not you, too?"
4. She hated how he'd never think for himself.
"Why is it that you let Mello boss you around all the time?" she yelled, punching him in the shoulder. "Are you really that much in your own little world that you need other people to think for you?"
5. He hated how she cared so much.
"Why is it any of your business anyway?" he countered, going over his daily word quota. She had a bad habit of making him do that. "You're in your own world half the time anyway."
6. The first time he told her his real name, she didn't laugh.
"Mail…as in…the thing you get in your mailbox?" He nodded his head gravely. She just looked down at her feet. Apparently, he had deeply perturbed her.
7. She, in fact, was the one to introduce him to Grand Theft Auto.
What could she say? He was apparently so hooked on the generic Pacman-like games that he didn't bother looking into other ones. Sayu couldn't tell if he was just lazy or didn't want to play other games.
Not that it mattered to her anyway.
8. He still made her say 'Matt' because it wasn't embarrassing, it just didn't sound right when she said it.
Besides, it made her Japanese accent a lot more bearable. Her pronunciation was outright atrocious.
Matt kept telling himself that, only because he knew that she wanted to cry and rip her ears off when he attempted to speak Japanese.
9. Contrary to popular belief, they weren't dating.
"I have no idea where they would get thatidea," she said sarcastically, poking him in the neck.
The sarcasm flew right over his head.
10. He was her punching bag. Literally.
Oddly enough, she seemed to have so much teen anger pent up in her that she felt the need to take it out on him. He just didn't know if he was a contributing factor.
11. His smile was retarded.
That was the only possible explanation for her looking away. Right?
Right?
12. Two words summed up their relationship: "chronic procrastination"
It was sad how they both put the whole thing off. "I'll tell him tomorrow. Or the next day. Or maybe the day after that."
13. They stopped talking to each other for a few weeks.
They didn't bother to even check in with each other. They were in a loop, going through the motions of life for almost a whole month before they started talking again.
14. He wasn't there the day the life that she knew ended.
He wasn't in that car when she flew through the windshield, maybe for the better, maybe for the worst.
15. He started to hate himself.
There were things he didn't get to say that he could have. Maybe Matt had just been too selfish, because he definitely wasn't shy. Or maybe he was scared. That was probably the best explanation for it. But it still wasn't an excuse.
16. What made Sayu a person had gone away.
She was alive; her heart was beating. But she was on a respirator, her brain activity was minimal, and there was almost no chance that she'd wake up.
He found himself talking to her, hoping that maybe his voice would get through to her. It was the last thing he could do for her.
17. He gave up smoking.
Matt remembered how much she hated the smell of tobacco, and threw the last pack of smokes he had away. It was hard, but it couldn't be any harder than things were right now.
18. He met her mother for the first time.
"First my son, now my daughter…" she sobbed, blowing into a tissue. "You were her boyfriend, right?"
He thought about saying no, but decided to go along with it, if only because it would probably satisfy Yagami Sachiko.
19. He was, however, in the room when they pulled the plug.
After thinking, her mother had resolved that Sayu would not want to be reduced to a vegetable and allowed the doctors to pull the plug. Something relaxed in that girl's face that Matt would not forget, and it both comforted and annoyed him.
20. He watched her ashes spread.
They had been scattered over a lake that she had grown up by.
It looked like snow.
"Tied to a brick,
Sweet as a song,
The years have been short but the days go slowly by,
Two loose kites falling from the sky,
Drawn to the ground and an end to flight."