Take a photograph
I own nothing.
A stroke of sheer idiocy would have been the words he'd use to describe it.
The weather had been feeling particularly gracious that day.
It was the summer of 2008, Wardington, Japan. Children and teens of all ages littered the park that the scene was set in. Though brawling was no longer commonplace as it once was, people still came back here, whether it was to enjoy the scenery, or to reminisce the good old days before Nāga, or simply to hang out. Enjoy themselves, and life as it was.
Life was so quaint, back then.
It was on that day under the same harsh sun of summer that found five friends gathered in front of a camera lens, while sixth person stood behind, trying to figure out how to use the device, the nameless buttons confounding the boy's slow mind.
"For crying out loud, Dan, what the hell's taking you so long?!" A sharp voice pierced the tense atmosphere that was building up within the group, as they waited upon him impatiently. It sounded like it belonged to a girl's , but in a tomboyish manner that belied a fearsome demeanor.
An irked sigh followed as another one, with a much higher pitched voice, cried out, "Yeah, Dan! I'm like, burning up in this freakishly hot sun dude! This is so NOT good for my tan..."
"Geez, chill out guys! I'm still trying to work this stupid thing..."
"Chill out?! Gosh, that's awfully funny, Dan. Wait till I get my hands on you..."
A groan came, this time by a tall boy who was standing as if he were by himself, even though he was surrounded by his friends. Like a pessimist foreshadowing an irksome gag in a cynical manner, or at least, a lovers spat, he shuttered his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose."Cripes, they're at it again..."
The lonesome male felt a soft hand reaching out and grasping his arm, and even though he knew who it was, he turned around and dropping his hand, opened his eyes just a little to be graced with the tranquil sight of, who he thought, was the only sane person here, besides himself, amongst this demented troupe.
Gentle words were spoken as she eyed the bluenette and the brunette with a small degree of concern.
"Do you think we should- ?"
"I wouldn't even bother, Alice. I just hope they can finish this so I can go home and catch up on some training..."
Another expression of annoyance was made, but this time it came from a short blonde boy who looked at his bickering friends with exasperation. He knew he shouldn't have expected any more from them, as they all were, but he felt that it was really dragging out too long.
With a roll of his eyes, he shuffled over to the confounded brunette to stand next to him. "Lower it down for me, will you? I'll take over from here."
Dan complied obediently and brought the stand down, aware that despite his deceivingly dwarfish height, Marucho was still a genius in all regards, and had a far better grasp of this foreign technology than he would ever have.
Expertly, the intelligent blonde (forgive the sardonic oxymoron) jabbed down on the buttons, finally activating the timer function that had teasingly eluded Dan and his limited ability with complex technology. The red light was a-blinking, and Marucho walked back to join the group.
Dan was about to follow suit when he noticed something terribly wrong with the image.
"Come on, Shun, you better smile! Or I'm making everyone take this picture again!"
All eyes fell on the stereotyped hotshot at the mentioning of his name. He narrowed his eyes to glare back at them irritably.
"What?"
The red light began to blink a little faster now...
He barely even noticed the creeping figure stalking towards his back, before it stood next to him and reached to pinch both his cheeks.
"Come on, Mr. Hotshot, just like this..." In an earnest attempt to try to get Shun to form what resembled a happy, or at least bemused expression, he began to pull them upwards.
"What the fu-"
"Shun! Watch your language!" The redhead Russian thumped his shoulder with her petite fists trying to cut off the profanity.
"-uck Dan?! Gerroffame!" Shun, completely ignoring the glare and warning sent by Alice, gave Dan a hard elbow to his jawbone, not in the least concerned if he broke it. Served that space-intruding bastard right.
The red light was blinking rapidly, supposedly signalling everyone to get into positions. Not that anyone paid any attention to it.
Marucho looked on weakly as he raised his hands in a stop sign in a feeble attempt to act the mediator to stop the roughhousing. "Guys, come on..."
Runo and Julie could only laugh at the ruckus caused, but they too, tried to reach in to pull them apart.
The camera flashed, and it was all over.
The resulting image depicted an awfully ticked off Shun elbowing off a flailing Dan that was holding on to the said ninja's face for what his life was worth. Alice was glaring dangerously at Shun with a fist connected to his shoulder, and she had her mouth open as if she were nagging at him, while Runo and Julie were trying to pry the two boys apart. In front of them stood Marucho waving his hands around wearing extremely worried expression on his face, as if he were trying to stop all this senselessness.
All in all, he thought, it was simply an idiotic scene depicting a group of complete idiot friends, seemingly doing... well... idiotic things.
A stroke of sheer idiocy was the way he saw it.
Not that he would have had it any other way, frankly.
He couldn't help but to smile at the thought.
A/N: For the folks at FlowersOverBoys forum, you guys probably would have seen this already. Or the semi-active ones, at least.
And so marks my brief return to FFnet, just for a while. This oneshot is actually more of the prelude-ish sort, where the elusive character in the backdrop is reminiscing on things that had happened prior to a named event that takes place in the story.
I hope the readers enjoy this, for what it's worth (seriously, I spent 53 minutes on this).
Still, glad to get this thing off my chest. This idea was nagging at me for weeks now.
Review and stuff.
-Lord Meph (rhymes with Meth, I never realized..)