Kiku Honda eyes the fruit basket, hunger in his deep brown eyes. Hunger, and... lust? No, he's just constipated. The grapes catch his eye today, delicate maroon skin on thin veins of fruit. Kiku grabs them by the stem. If the fruits had ocular cavities, they'd be making 'bedroom eyes'.
Carefully, he plucks his chosen fruit from the stem. Elliptically shaped, with an oh-so-seductive wet sheen. Japan reaches for a drawer, but no- this must be done by hand. He pinched the delicate skin, pulling back. A thin strip comes off, bitter to the taste.
The Japanese man perseveres at his task, pulling piece by piece of the skin off. Now there was just a soft, squishy, greenish-gray oval. Slowly, bpainstakingly slowly, he pulls it up to his mouth, moaning audibly.
Japan continues until time loses it's meaning, peeling fruit after fruit. Countless hours are lost in a haze of deliciousness. "Fruit salad... yummy yummy." The words are repeated monotonously, a mantra to a man threatening to slip through the grape sized hole in his psyche.
At last, the slippery fruits were freed of their oppressing casings, and Kiku was freed from the monotony of seduction. Now it was time to enjoy the proverbial 'fruits' of his labor. Passionately, he swept his arms across the counter as though to take a lover. Hundreds of peeled grapes were swept onto the floor.
Poignantly, the man joins them. He raises his arms above his head, falling to the ground. Grapes shoot out from under him. He doesn't seem to mind, though, stretching out and partaking in a long awaited embrace. Ashes to ashes, man to grape. Timeless and effortless, the two become one.
At last, Kiku begins to roll. He rolls, as though rolling through a thousand faces that no longer mattered. Nothing could stop the joined lovers now. Nothing except the click of a cameraphone. Japan stops in his tracks, looking up at the intruder. America is standing there, phone in one hand, dreams of lovers torn apart in the other. In this tense silence, one thing is said. "Quoth the raven; what the fuck."