Valse Romantique
Fandom: La Corda d'oro
Pairing: Len x Kahoko
Theme set: Beta
Rating: PG-13
Notes: Some sentences stand alone, but most work together to tell something vaguely story-ish. So although the theme-set occurs within the same post-anime universe and are chronologically arranged, sentences 1-4 tell of a different event than 5-12, for example. As for the content, it is occasionally angsty, but mostly fluff (I hope your teeth rot), and majorly OOC, much to my chagrin.
01 - Walking
People never seemed to know what to say to Len (he preferred listening to speaking, something often mistaken for pride and arrogance), but this was never a problem with Kahoko; when they walked together she rambled on about things he would normally consider pointless: the weather or her schoolwork or what she had for lunch that day - but coming from her it was like music that only he could hear.
02 - Waltz
Len was determined to learn how to waltz so that the next time Kahoko impetuously asked for a dance he would be able to take her in his arms and whirl her across the room, instead of standing there like a statue, watching the smile slide awkwardly off her face.
03 - Wishes
Most of the time Kahoko was content to fill the silence, or let it lie, depending on her mood and his; still, sometimes she wished that he would speak more or smile more - or just do something to make her feel like she wasn't talking to a wall.
04 - Wonder
The next day, in the middle of a meandering story about nothing in particular, she turned her head to smile at him and saw the look in his eyes; she wondered how she could ever have thought that he wasn't paying attention.
05 - Worry
Len did not like to admit it, but every time Kahoko brought up Tsuchiura, Hihara, or Yunoki he experienced a minor panic attack.
06 - Whimsy
When the two arrived at the Fuyuumi's small birthday celebration, it was this unspoken worry of his that prevented him from appreciating the other musicians' antics: Tsuchiura's impressive soccer ball tricks; Yunoki's snide comments about Hihara's table manners; Fuyuumi's brilliant blushes as she tried to maneuver the dozing Shimizu's head off her lap.
07 - Waste/Wasteland
Tsuchiura's discreet glare became an expression of blatant disapproval when Kahoko tried to feed Len the rest of her cake; he obligingly opened his mouth and closed his lips around her fork - waste not, want not.
08 - Whiskey and rum
Surprisingly, it was not Tsuchiura, but Hihara who muttered something under his breath about wanting to crawl into the bottom of a bottle and hide there.
09 - War
Kahoko heard his remark, but did not realize its significance - she had always been blissfully unaware of the covert war for her affections.
10 - Weddings
So she turned the conversation (perhaps unwisely) to weddings: "A friend of my mother's has asked me to play Pachelbel's Canon during her wedding - I never knew before that it was used so often in Western ceremonies . . . But I think I would prefer to have a traditional Japanese wedding, even if it means we can't have a violinist," she said, her eyes meeting Len's for the briefest of moments.
11 - Birthday
Len and Kahoko were the last to leave Fuyuumi's home; on their way out the door, the shy clarinet player hugged the other girl and thanked them both for making her birthday celebration "interesting."
12 - Blessing
Len looked at her strangely, but Fuyuumi just smiled a Mona Lisa smile and bade them good night.
13 - Bias
Every time Yunoki ran into Hihara, the trumpet player always managed to turn the conversation to Len and Kahoko: "It isn't fair," he whined as the two of them left the school's practice area, "He's exploiting the fact that he plays the violin so he can spend more time with her!"
14 - Burning
Although there was no way Hihara's bitter criticism could have escaped his hearing, Len brushed past them without saying a word, confirming Hihara's opinion that he was far too cold-blooded to be in love with Kahoko; Yunoki, on the other hand, was unconvinced - he had seen Len's face as the other boy walked away.
15 - Breathing
Locked safely inside a soundproof room, Len inhaled, counted slowly to ten, exhaled, counted again, and still that strange, cold anger gripped his lungs until he was gasping for breath.
16 - Breaking
He set the case down on top of the piano, snapped open the latches, raised the lid, and stared at his violin, wondering if the benefits of smashing it into the side of Hihara's head outweighed the costs.
17 - Belief
Muscles stiff with tension, he tucked the violin under his chin and tried to play; note after note spilled into the air, his anger fading away as he prayed for serenity in the way that only musicians can.
18 - Balloon
Borne aloft by the music, he made a decision that left him feeling as light and free as a balloon floating high above the horizon.
19 - Balcony
When her class read Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Kahoko did not know whether to laugh (because the thought of Len spouting romantic phrases outside her window by light of the full moon was hysterical) or cry (because she had known Len for much longer than forty-eight hours, and he had not even kissed her yet).
20 - Bane
When they met up later, Len noticed right away that something was bothering her, but when he asked all she could do was stammer that she felt fine and try her hardest to ignore the horribly distracting voice in her head that would not stop wondering when he was going to kiss her.
21 - Quiet
On the walk home, Len and Kahoko were unusually quiet - Len because he was deep in thought and Kahoko because she was trying not to think at all.
22 - Quirks
When they reached the street where they normally parted ways, Kahoko stopped walking and opened her mouth . . . then closed it, opened it again, and began a quiet monologue under her breath: "I should just spit it out instead of gaping like a goldfish; it's not that odd of a question, he is my boyfrie-"
23 - Question
"Are you talking to yourself?" Len asked, proving that even the most intelligent male will never fail to say the wrong thing at the wrong time.
24 - Quarrel
Kahoko's jaw clicked audibly as she snapped her mouth shut, and through gritted teeth she retorted, "What are you going to do about it if I am?"
25 - Quitting
"Absolutely nothing?" he replied, studying her with an odd light in his eyes.
26 - Jump
Kahoko always thought of Len as the stoic-but-sensitive type, so his obliviousness (and his amusement at her anger and his apparent satisfaction with their lack of physical interaction) was frustrating enough to make her want to leap from the school roof . . . or to push Len off of it; yes, that would be a much more satisfying scenario.
27 - Jester
Len held his hands up in a gesture of peace, but he could not help joking, "Well, I've always heard that red-headed women have violent tempers."
28 - Jousting
Kahoko imagined running him through with one of those ten-feet long, wooden stick things wielded by certain suits of armor in the Fuyuumi family's vacation home; Len had no right to make hair color jokes, not when his own hair was blue.
29 - Jewel
Ironically, the late afternoon sunlight (which tended to make her hair look somewhat pink-ish) shone brilliantly on those same pale blue locks, so that they were not unlike a handful of sapphire jewels.
30 - Just
The more Kahoko stared at him, the more her anger became depression; if there were any justice in the world, he would not be so pretty.
31 - Smirk
"I give up," she said tiredly, and at her admission, the corners of Len's mouth lifted into what looked suspiciously like a smirk.
32 - Sorrow
Oh god, Kahoko thought, he is developing the same strain of schizophrenia as Yunoki.
33 - Stupidity
Kahoko knew she was a normal teenage girl - exceedingly kind, moderately talented, reasonably pretty - and she certainly did not want to be a spinster for the rest of her life, so there was only one possible explanation for her un-kissed state: "boys are stupid."
34 - Serenade
She watched, fascinated, as Len laughed, at first in a confused, I-don't-know-if-this-is-an-appropriate response way, and then with real enthusiasm and exuberance.
35 - Sarcasm
"Are you done yet?" she asked in a somewhat lackluster effort at sarcasm; if Len knew that all he had to do to earn her forgiveness was laugh then he would always have the upper hand.
36 - Sordid
He smiled - not a quiet, polite lifting of the lips, but a real smile with a flash of teeth and visible emotion in his eyes - and Kahoko to scrabble for enough self-control to not drag him off and do shameful things to his body.
37 - Soliloquy
Still smiling, he said, "It's getting rather late, so you should finish up your conversation with yourself."
38 - Sojourn
Kahoko was half-seriously considering a long walk off a short pier, but Len proposed a different type of journey altogether: "Let's go somewhere."
39 - Share
He turned the full force of his smile on her and Kahoko smiled back, made happy by their shared existence at this singular moment in time.
40 - Solitary
He interpreted her smile as a yes and took her hand, leading her down a road she had never taken before, empty but for the two of them.
41 - Nowhere
Where are we?" Kahoko asked.
42 - Neutral
"You'll see," he said, trying to keep his voice neutral - but he was swinging their joined hands back and forth like a child, eager to show her some new and exciting discovery.
43 - Nuance
The warmth of his hand and the gentle pressure of his fingers did far more to comfort her than his vague words.
44 - Near
"Almost there," he said quietly, so close that his breath warmed the shell of her ear.
45 - Natural
As the houses became farther apart, the trees grew taller and hedges encircled the grand homes, until only the gleaming windows were visible through the foliage and Kahoko could almost believe that they were making their way through a rather picturesque forest towards the enchanted manor at its heart.
46 - Horizon
Len stopped at a small, secluded park hidden behind a dense line of trees where there was barely enough room for a dog to run comfortably - but it was just the two of them, and so it encompassed the horizon.
47 - Valiant
With an exaggerated bow, he began to hum a tune, and when Kahoko just stared at him, not understanding what he wanted from her, he placed one hand on her waist and the other on her shoulder.
48 - Virtuous
Kahoko blushed and kept her eyes downcast as she tried not to think about another activity that would require them to be this close.
49 - Victory
Making music had always been more important to Len than learning how to move to it, but he needn't have worried; the delicious curve of her hip beneath his palm and the subtle pressure of her fingers on his shoulders relaxed him completely.
50 - Defeat
Kahoko had just enough time to note that the annoying voice in her head had died an ignominious death, and then she became preoccupied with other things.
Punctuation is the freakin' devil.
Also, the "defeat" mentioned in sentence #50 refers to the the "annoying voice" in Kahoko's head, which is first noted in sentence #20. It's a stretch I know, but these prompts are surprisingly difficult!