Everything Begins Here
By,
Aestivate
Summary: For the 15pairings challenge on Livejournal, and to (hopefully) cure my writer's block. Rated K+ to T, multishipping.
Author's Note: I began this… Sometime last year? And then I gave up on it because I simply ran out of time, but now it's summer and I have SO much time, but I also have terrible writer's block that's prevented me from my other fics, or for writing new ones. Yeah, sorry about that.
This is going to be a drabble collection of sorts? Really, short one-shots more than anything, so yeah. Each chapter will feature a new one, and a new pairing, and at the end will feature my notes on the drabble/one-shot.
I've chosen to work with List 3.
Drabble #1: Catching Stars
Pairing: Advanceshipping
Theme # 13: Stargazing
Word Count: 684
Satoshi was often bemused by Haruka's strange hobbies. Her brother and Takeshi were both sleeping nearby, while Satoshi and Haruka loitered by the fire. One waited for the other to become sleepy enough to retire for the night. Satoshi could feel his eyelids drooping and tiredness beginning to make his body ache, but he was staring into the sky because she was staring into the sky and there was no use pretending otherwise. She'd asked him to stargaze with her and he figured he ought to have tried it for a while, but a while had passed and now he couldn't feel anything except a mixture of confusion and stupidity.
What did she see up there that he couldn't?
He was getting bored and it was getting harder to concentrate. The sky didn't change. It was the same thing every night, and the same stars where in their same locations, and yes, they were bright, and yes, they were pretty, but stars are only stars. They look the same every night too, and for that reason he was bored with them. Restlessly, he blinked hard, rolled his eyes, and dropped his increasingly stiff neck to look at Haruka, amazed that she was still soundlessly and resolutely admiring the steadfast heavens above. Her hair was out of its bandana, spreading wildly in the humid and still summer air. There was a look of wonder etched in her face, lighting her eyes with such energy and passion that Satoshi couldn't help but notice was so much more illuminating than the star-dusted sky above.
The night was exceptionally warm, not helped at all by the fire blazing between them, and yet while watching her, Satoshi couldn't help but feel a chill creep down his neck, and a blush creep up it.
There was something he was definitely missing.
If she noticed that he was no longer interested, she certainly didn't show it on her face. The expression of wonder never flickered once, even when she opened her mouth to speak. "They're so beautiful, aren't they?"
"They're just stars," Satoshi blurted before he could stop himself, and he was sorry at once when the spell was broken and she looked down.
Her expression changed into something softer, something that actually looked like pity. What she said was completely unexpected. "Everything's got to be so literal with you," she said, almost sadly.
"What do you mean? Stars are just stars. They're the same every single night." He didn't know why, but he was getting frustrated.
"If you just paid more attention, you'd truly see the splendor of this moment."
The blush on his neck deepened as his confusion deepened. She took his silence as to understanding his not understanding.
"See, if we look up at the night sky right now, we'd think it is endless. Stars are a part of a much bigger whole, the universe. Looking up, I can see tomorrow. I can see my dreams laid out before me, spreading endlessly but coming together and becoming a part of me." She raised a hand to the sky, as if trying to grab her stars right out of the expanse. "They're right above me, and because I'll never be able to touch them, I know I'm never going to give up. That's what the stars are, and that's why they're beautiful."
Suddenly Haruka stood up stiffly to her full height, and stepped around the fire to relocate herself directly next to him. He tried not to look even more confused when she decided to lean against him, and he clumsily freed his arm and placed it around her thin shoulders. Soon she began to breathe deeply and steadily, apparently asleep.
He looked back up at the stars, this time in wonder. He took a deep, calming breath, as if he needed one, his breath stolen from their beauty. From them he peered down at the sleeping form under his arm, feeling with mixed emotions and slight bewilderment that he had somehow succeeded in touching a star.
Never before had Satoshi appreciated beauty so much as he did tonight.
Notes on drabble: Err… Yeah. This is one (of two) that I wrote last year when I began the challenge. I don't really like it because I feel it doesn't have a ton of emotion, but… ah. Everything just seems hollow after Roses and Marigolds, I guess. I neeeeeed to get out of my advanceshipping writer's block slump. Heh. You tell me how it is.