This Is How a Heart Breaks
by Cyberchao X
Disclaimer: The usual, only with more disclaiming because it's a songfic.
A/N: So I heard this song on the radio earlier today, one I'd always loved, and I'd been thinking that it would be a great song for a songfic, but I didn't quite have the right characters for it. And then I get home and I find out that Ten Desires has been out for a few days now, so I have to go check out the new characters, and boom, there's the opportunity landing right in my lap.
"Hey, Bya-chan! That friend I was telling you about is here!"
"Pleased to meet you," Byakuren Hijiri replied to the person who had just spoken. "I take it you must be some sort of shapeshifter as well, seeing as how you currently have Nue-chan's form. Logic would dictate that your natural form would probably be, well, the form that Nue-chan is in right now."
"…She saw through our disguises?"
"Bya-chan always sees through my disguises, Mami. I don't think she would've been able to tell if you were in any other form."
"But we always greet each other like this, Nue!" Mamizou protested.
"Yeah, well, I'm sure we'll still be able to fool everyone else if Bya-chan doesn't ruin the ruse."
"We haven't even been formally introduced. I'm Byakuren Hijiri, and this is my temple."
"Mamizou Futatsuiwa."
Don't you wanna go for a ride
Just keep your hands inside
And make the most out of life
Now don't you take it for granted
"So, what was it you called me here for, Nue?" Mamizou asked.
"Ah, well, there was this powerful opponent that we were fighting, but…it's kind of done now."
"Aw…I wasn't in time?"
"Yeah, well…I'm still glad you're here." Nue-disguised-as-Mamizou glomped Mamizou-disguised-as-Nue, and Mamizou returned to her own form. "What, don't like the tables being turned?"
"Nah, just feel the need to reassert myself. Although I may need an even bigger form," she said, looking over at Byakuren.
"Mami…"
"Hey, you jumped on me. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't conclude that you wanted to rekindle our old relationship?"
Nue blushed. "That's…we never had that type of relationship."
Life is like a mean machine
It made a mess outta me
It left me caught between
Like an angry dream I was stranded, I was stranded
"I guess that's true. We were always better off as friends, weren't we? But still…"
"…We were damn good as friends."
"So clear things up for me, Nue-chan: was there ever anything romantic going on between you and Futatsuiwa-san?" Byakuren cut in. "Because it sounds like you're saying no but implying yes."
"Uh…'romantic' would not be a word I'd use to describe our relationship at any time."
"For a given definition of romantic, anyway."
"Mami, please, cut it out. I'm really happy with Bya-chan; I don't want our youthful indiscretions to get in the way of that."
"'Youthful indiscretions'…?" Byakuren asked.
"Uh, yeah, well…like Mami said, depending on your definition of 'romance', you could say that we were involved. I would say that from an emotional standpoint, we were never lovers, but…"
"…from a purely physical standpoint, you were."
"Well…yeah. Obviously, that's not the type of thing I'd expect you to be understanding of…"
And I'm steady but I'm starting to shake
And I don't know how much more I can take
"I…understand. 'Friends with Benefits', it's called, right?"
"…Yeah."
"And she's still a close friend, so…it would be wrong of me to turn her away. As long as you're just friends now, sans 'benefits'."
"Of-of course, Bya-chan. For you, anything."
"I can live with that. Just being around Nue again is enough for me," Mamizou said.
"Then it's settled. Welcome to the Myouren Shrine."
A/N: Well, this might be a first. I've had songfics that were multis with a different song in each chapter, I've had songfics that were also lemons, I've had fics that were only songfics in certain chapters; hell, the song I chose for Chapter 18B of The Scarlet Devil turned out to be so long that I had to cut it off a bit early and pick it up in the Extra, but there the Extra was picking up right where the last chapter left off and was only split due to a rating bump. But this could very well be a multi with just one song, seeing as how this feels like a complete chapter and I haven't even hit the first chorus. (Also, it might take me a bit longer to figure out exactly how I'm going to do this, although the general gist of the plot has been done millions of times before by professional scriptwriters—old friend shows up, new friend gets jealous, etc.)
Another reason why I need to cut it off here—I'm typing this up on the PC, because my laptop's in the shop again, and I've been making seemingly at least one typo every line. I swear, using an unfamiliar keyboard is like driving an unfamiliar car—in theory it should work just fine, but in practice it just doesn't feel right. Ja ne!