Note: This is a direct sequel to Prayers and Answers. I would suggest reading that one first but if you would prefer not too, here's the gist: Len can see Lili. This is basically a retelling of the events in the manga/anime with a certain exception mentioned above. Also, Len might be out of character.
Act I
I. First Impressions
Purple eyes and blond hair were the first things that Len acknowledged. He tries to ignore the gossamer wings, the strange outfit, and the fact that the… creature… is hardly bigger than his hand.
He closes his eyes tightly, takes a deep breath, and forces his shoulders to relax. He counts to ten slowly before finally opening his eyes.
Concerned purple eyes blink back at him.
"It's a hallucination. I must be tired. I'm having a hallucination," Len muttered to himself as he stood up.
"I'm not a hallucination!" It hovered above his head and he could sense it following him.
Len shoves his things into his bag with uncharacteristic carelessness.
"Don't ignore me!" The whine in its voice is undeniable.
"Hey, stop! Are you going home already? It's barely five! You usually stay until after seven."
Len was in the process of pushing the door open but he stops midway. He turns around and regards it with a frown.
"My hallucination is a stalker," he states flatly.
He cuts off the heated rant that followed his statement by purposely closing the door to the practice room.
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II. Breakthrough
"Wow, that looks good! What is it?"
"Ham and sun-dried tomato biscuits and tuna fettuccine."
Lili is stunned into speechlessness. It's been four days since he started following Len around. He'd asked about a hundred questions but this was the first time Len actually replied to one of his inquiries.
Truth be told, Lili didn't expect anything special to happen today. The morning started like any other. As soon as Len walked into Seiso, Lili hovered above him and started talking his ear off. He followed him in his classes and even until lunch. Which was right now.
Len didn't eat at the cafeteria but he opted to sit by himself outside on one of the benches. One of Lili's favorite parts of the day was lunch. Or more particularly, Len's lunch. He carried his lunch in an ordinary looking black shopping bag thing but inside were the most delightful and nice smelling food.
"You're mother must really love you! She puts so much effort in making your lunch."
Len bites into one of the biscuits and chews carefully. "My mother doesn't prepare my lunch. Our chef does."
"Oh." Lili is blinking furiously. Len had answered his questions twice now. The world must be ending. Or perhaps, pigs were now airborne?
Lili is in for a second surprise that day however. He was watching Len open another container of food when the normally taciturn first year actually starts a conversation.
"So I guess you're not a hallucination."
"OF COURSE I'M NOT A HALLUCINATION!"
"You're also loud." Len looks up at him, frowning disapprovingly.
"I'M NOT—" Lili hovers down to his eye level. He tries to appear as stern as possible, which is quite difficult, when one is only a few inches tall. "I'm not a hallucination. And I'm not loud," he states purposefully.
"Okay."
No more words were exchanged between the two of them after that. But Lili can't help but think this was the most comfortable he's ever been in Len's presence so far.
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III. Favorite
Lili interrupts a quiet interval during practice when he poses a question to Len.
"Why is Ave Maria your favorite song?"
Len frowns at him thoughtfully. "I never told you that. And that's because I don't have a favorite song."
"You play it frequently though." Lili doesn't add that he sounds different when he does.
Len shrugs and goes back to where he left off.
Lili honestly doesn't expect an answer but after practice, when Len is almost out the door, he declares abruptly to the dark room: "Because my mother told me I play it well."
With that, Len takes off and shuts the door with a certain finality.
"Huh? Hey, wait!" Lili crossed his arms in irritation. Len always left whenever they were just about to talk about something interesting.
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IV. Unverified
"This is all your fault."
"I didn't do it! Wait, what are you accusing me of anyway?"
Len usually appeared bored, thoughtful or disinterested but this was the first time he actually looked annoyed about something.
Even more worrying was that Lili sensed that his annoyance was directed at him.
"I've heard some rather disquieting rumors about me."
"Rumors? Erm, about you?"
"Yes. About me." By this point in their conversation, Len had started glaring at him.
"What does this have to do with me? I know people call you some rather nasty stuff but it's not like I started those."
No good. He was still glaring at him.
Lili adapted a tone of righteous indignation. "And even if I wanted to spread rumors about you, I wouldn't be able to since no one in this school can hear me."
Instead of being apologetically chastened, Len only glared harder. "If you must know it has everything to do with you. There are rumors that I talk to myself."
Lili doesn't mean to but he lets out a delighted peal of laughter. As expected, Len is not amused.
"Shut up. This is all your fault."
Lili continues giggling.
"It's because you keep asking me questions during classes. And that one time in the library, I was actually-"
Len stops mid-rant to glare at two approaching girls. They stared at him wide-eyed before walking briskly away.
"You just made things harder on yourself!" Lili only laughs harder when Len angrily stomps away to his next class.
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V. Epiphany
Len doesn't know exactly when it happened or how. But if anyone asked him (and he's quite confident no one will), he would have had to admit, for the sake of honesty, that he considered Lili as a friend.
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VI. A Little Fairy Told Me
Len doesn't have to look at the bulletin board nor does he have to hear from his classmates or teachers to know that he qualified for the concours.
It's partly because of confidence but it's mostly because Lili screamed his congratulations at his ear this morning amidst choked sobs, 'tears of joy,' and some other incoherent nonsense.
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VII. Ambiguity
Len tapped his desk with his pencil twice to get Lili's attention.
A few minutes ago Lili had floated towards him all starry-eyed and distracted. The fairy palpably exuded pleasure. Normally he would've started talking by now but he was still staring off rather goofily into space.
They've both agreed that it was best that Lili stop visiting him during class (or anytime when he wasn't alone) ever since that problem with the rumors. But whenever Lili did visit him at class, Len simply turned to an empty page in his notebook to write instead of talking to reply.
He tapped his pencil again and motioned at what he wrote: You seem happy about something.
"She can hear me!"
She?
"Yes, she! You should watch out! There's going to be another contestant in the concours. Winning won't be easy for you."
Len takes the news with arrogant disinterest. He arched both eyebrows at Lili his expression reminiscent of mocking disbelief.
Lili angrily puffs his cheeks and glares at him. "Just you wait!" With those eloquent parting words, Len returned his attention to his teacher not the least bothered by the news.
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VIII. Distinction
"She's a gen ed student." Len forced his speech to sound as flat and as disinterested as possible but he doesn't quite succeed.
"But she can hear me," Lili told him defensively.
"I can hear you too."
"It's different though." Lili doesn't meet his eyes when he tells him this.
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IX. Unacceptable
Lili explained to him but honestly Len didn't really care to listen.
The fact of the matter was that Hino Kahoko could play an instrument just by willing it.
He doesn't say the words out loud but he keeps repeating them in his head. He simply can't take the injustice of it all.
It's unfair, becomes his mantra.
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X. Distinction (Encore)
Len knows a few things about Hino Kahoko, which, in his opinion are a few too many. For example: she's a gen ed student, she's never played an instrument, and she's special.
Lili talks about her the whole afternoon and it's enough to ruin his mood. In fact, he can't count the number of times the fairy used the word special.
His day takes a turn for the worse when he notices a gen ed student's presence in the sanctity of his practice room. Len isn't exactly sure how many female gen ed students have red hair, but with the way his day was turning out, he was sure that she was none other than Hino Kahoko.
He forces himself to be polite.
"Can you please leave? I don't want to waste my practice time."
And fails spectacularly.
He would've been content to leave it at that but one particular detail stops him in his tracks.
"You play the violin too?"
He blames the rest of his speech on Lili. The very last of his patience had been exhausted. That and Lili forgot to mention that she played the violin of all things. If Len didn't have a good control over his emotions he would have expressed himself using four-letter words in every language he knew.
So he does the next best thing. In the iciest tone that he could manage he turned to Hino Kahoko and surveyed her haughtily. "You are a participant, right? I thought that students from the regular department who are selected as participants would be of a high standard. But what I heard just now… well, this will be a bother to other participants."
"Wait. I—"
He doesn't care if it's impolite to cut off a person. He has a lot to say to Hino Kahoko. He has a lot to say to Lili. And he was convinced that he would say all of it. "This will be a bother to the other participants." This will be a bother to me. "I hope that you can step down from being a participant as soon as possible. I don't have anymore time to waste with you. Please leave. Don't disrupt my practice."
It may have been childish, but Len couldn't help but slam the door noisily.
And when he notices a bag that isn't his own by the leg of a piano bench, he ends up muttering obscenities in German.