TITLE: what a birdsong
GENRE: varies; drama
WORD COUNT: 700+
CHAPTER COUNT: 1/10 (?)
NOTE: i love tenri & keima's my spirit animal towards the world, rly
UGH SORRY THIS IS PRACTICALLY BARF ugh ugh
please bear w/ fluctuating writing styles; i'm trying to get better writing different genres, & it'll be a struggle given keima's (damn) personality.
this fandom is small, man. i just wanna talk bout twgok and WTF IS W/ TENRI
ON A BLANK PAGE ? ? ?
(RAGE QUITS)
what a [ birdsong ]
she loves a boy she's never known; he wonders if he can even save her, this time around.
prologue ; breakeven
(they say bad things happen for a reason | but no wise words are gonna stop the bleeding)
;;;
"— I'm sorry," she whispers tiredly, her eyes slipping closed vaguely. Wobbly knees knock against coarse chainmail, and she slides down to the pavement, panting. "I, I can't."
"Tenri," and red eyes blink desperately, desperately, "Tenri, no, Tenri, you— you need to run."
She blinks her eyes back at her reflection, watches the piercing red eyes carefully, and wonders if maybe she's going crazy from all the running and sprinting and forgetting.
She wonders what she's forgotten.
Footsteps clap into puddles harshly, and Tenri faintly glows; it blinks back tears after a few seconds, and Tenri wonders all over again. "What are you?"
Red eyes are all she sees. "Oh, Tenri," it replies sadly, and she blinks in response blankly, her head tilting. Her braids are coming loose, her hair is tumbling down, down, down, there's soot on her skirt, and Tenri thinks that she's never felt so lost.
Everything's on the tip of her tongue— this voice is familiar, her mind hisses, and those eyes mean something, and some part of her wants it back.
Her heart stings at something she can't quite place; then again, some part of her likes it better this way. Maybe she'll never know why.
"— have you forgotten?" it asks quietly after awhile.
Tenri traces a strange cut against her knee, thinking, and somehow makes believe that it's all a nightmare. She's somewhere between the lines of crazy and lost and lonely. She's losing something she never had, and dammit, her reflection is talking to her, and, and Tenri has the feeling that perhaps she's never understood anything, really.
She's tired, and maybe she's forgetting something important; part of her wonders if it even matters.
"About?" she eventually murmurs back, (because what does she have to lose?), her mind swirling. The muddy water reflects those pretty red eyes mockingly, and it's all ugly words and drowning.
It is talking, talking, talking, but those words disappear and fade away when Tenri sees blue skies and she's flying; she can almost hear nothing at all.
"— a boy," the voice cries out sharply, and Tenri can see the hooded figures coming closer, and red eyes flash one last time; she feels it's fear, because she's losing and forgetting and gone.
Tenri almost giggles as she drowns and suffocates into coarse, black cloths, and flies away from those pretty red eyes that were never hers.
"— that's silly," she remarks thoughtfully to no one at all. "I don't talk to boys."
(cause when a heart breaks no it don't break even)
The door opens a crack, and the bell tinkles gently in reply. He almost groans.
"Welcome!" Elsie chirrups cheerily, and he scowls somewhat in reply.
Keima is, of course, awful at manning the café, and fails to look up from his PFP screen. He's fully concentrated on conquering some moe, little sister character on some grade-C game when Elsie's (stupid) skull goes off. Goddammit, he really should just throw her out.
"Elsie," he growls out, his eyes still glued to the screen as he tilts his glasses, "who—?"
He cuts off abruptly as a shadow veils his PFP, and his brows furrow.
"— excuse me," a quiet voice murmurs, "my mother sent this."
He freezes somewhat, because this voice is far too familiar, and there's nobody else in this goddamn café but him, a stupid devil, and a girl with a familiar voice. Keima's never been an idiot, and he can definitely see where this is going, and he doesn't like it.
When he raises his eyes, he is equal parts horrified and confused and is this a flag.
She smiles faintly as she settles the delicately wrapped box in front of him. Elsie pleads with him helplessly in the background, but he already knows, and goddammit, this shouldn't be happening. The girl turns on her heel, bowing politely on her way out, and just as she turns away—
"— Tenri, your hair's down."
She blinks blandly, her feet finally stopping her way going out the door, and when she turns, Keima looks into her eyes. Her brows are creased, and she smiles in a gentle, confused way; it's like she doesn't even—
— he grimaces, because this is bad, bad, bad.
Tenri's always been a bit dreamy— it's just her parameter, really. Her eyes are still too glassy, he thinks, to be just dreamy.
Keima sees it all in her eyes before she even talks, and he decides that if he's ever had to conquer a girl before, it'd be now.
"— do I know you?"
(i'm falling to pieces)
xxx.