Well, I've been in a funk as of late and I figured that I'd do one of these to get my writing juices flowing. These always seem to put me in a writing mood, even if what I write afterwords doesn't end up on here. So, here is my beautiful new story thing up for reading.

I don't own Lux Pain or the characters or any of the songs I used. I don't even own the DS I played the game on. It's my brother's. I do however, own my iPod and a few notebooks, which is good. Yay.

The Rules for the iPod Challenge: Set your iPod (or playlist. You can do this with playlists too) on shuffle and whatever the first 10 songs are that's what you use. You have until from the beginning of the song to the end of the song to write a short drabble of whatever your little heart feels like. It doesn't have to be long, as you can see, and it doesn't matter if it's super-short. It's whatever comes to you.

Well, I hope you like reading these!

1. It's Gonna Be Love – Mandy Moore

From the first time Nola saw Atsuki walk by Liu Yee and turn around to stare at his back she knew there was something going on. Their arms had brushed as they'd passed in the hallway and Liu Yee had kept going but Atsuki had turned and stared after him. A week later it happened again and instead of watching Atsuki she tried to look for anything on Liu Yee's face. She wasn't sure if she imagined it or not but the corners of Liu Yee's mouth upturned the tiniest bit.

A week after that Nola was walking down the hall skimming through an article when she ran right into Liu Yee who looked down at her with a raised eyebrow before he moved to the side to let her pass. She blinked after him before shaking her head and proceeding to her room. One of the doors opened in front of her and Atsuki stepped out, flushed, his hair a mess. With a quick glance down the hallway at Liu Yee's back he turned and nearly ran off in the other direction.

Nola blinked. She knew there was something between them!

2. March Out of Line – Cold Driven

Atsuki stared out at the ocean, a soft breeze ruffling his hair. He wondered briefly what it would be like to jump, to feel the air go by before he splashed into the ocean. He wondered if drowning was excruciatingly painful.

~ It can't be as painful as watching the people around you lose themselves. ~

He wondered if throwing himself into the ocean would make the voices in his head go away. He wondered if the crash of the waves would block out any and all noise around him. He wondered if, in the blackness of unconsciousness, he'd see all of the people that had died because he'd been too late to save them.

~ You see them already in your dreams. What's one more time before you never see anyone again? ~

Atsuki sucked in a deep breath and closed his eyes. Sometimes he wondered whether he should tell someone, possibly Nola, that he heard voices, that he spoke to voices in his head.

~ They'd take you away, put you off duty. ~

And sometimes, Atsuki wondered why no one ever bothered to ask.

3. Pure Morning – Placebo

A teen with different colored eyes closed his apartment door behind him and turned around, nearly bumping into the man who lived in the next apartment. He sucked in a breath and skittered around the man, running off down the hallway. The man turned and watched him leave wondering where the boy could be headed off to at 2 in the morning.

They met the next night on the stairs, the boy rushing down them and the man taking his time up them. The man managed to move to the side just as the boy brushed past, nearly knocking him over. He once again watched the boy leave.

They met a third night in the hallway, the boy walking with his hands shoved into his jean pockets. He passed the man by without so much as a glance. "Nowhere to run to tonight?" the man asked softly. The boy turned to face him.

His lips twitched upwards. "No, you've got it wrong," he said, his one golden eye gleaming. "It's not where I'm running to, it's who I'm running from." And then he was gone.

4. Gasoline – Seether

Liu Yee spent all of his time roaming places in the dark. He went here and there, never sleeping, never pausing long enough for anyone to know he was there. He walked briskly, keeping to the shadows, his eyes scanning any and all surface. One knows that if you're sneaking about, nighttime is the best time to do it, but if you're looking for little details, then wouldn't it be better to observe in the daytime when you can see everything?

But, no one ever said that Liu Yee always went out at night in search of clues or to gather information. No, many a time Liu Yee went out just to stare at everything and let his innermost daydreams run free. If it were up to Liu Yee, he'd smash everything in sight. He'd burn buildings to the ground, kill every last infected soul he could find, kill anything that even looked like it was infected. He'd destroy the place, piece by piece, person by person until nothing remained. If it was up to him, that is.

But it never was and so his daydreams never came to be.

5. Beautiful Disaster – Kelly Clarkson

Atsuki stared at his desk, running his finger over the carvings in the wood. Ms. Aoi's voice drifted around the classroom like background music. It wasn't something he was paying attention to but it was there, noticeable, a little irritating. He wondered vaguely if he could tune her out.

Atsuki picked up his pen and stared carving his own word into the desk, bored and not really thinking. He didn't particularly care if Ms. Aoi caught him or if any of the other kids looked. It wasn't often he had moments like this but they were occurring more frequently these days, being around all of these people.

"Atsuki, are you paying attention?"

The teen looked up catching his teacher's eye. "Yes ma'am." The woman turned back to the board and Atsuki looked down, tracing his fingers in the new word he'd carved.

'Weak.'

6. Prayer of the Refugee – Rise Against

Liu Yee grabbed Atsuki's arm as the child ran past. The small boy, his gold eye gleaming brightly, looked up at him as though he'd been caught doing something bad. His brow furrowed as he stared at Liu Yee.

"I didn't do anything," he snapped trying to tug his arm away. "I didn't do anything. Let me go."

"If you'd kept going you would have tripped on the bump in the rug. You need to be aware of your surroundings."

The boy jerked his arm out of Liu Yee's grasp. "I don't need your help."

And as they both got older Liu Yee realized that the words were true.

7. War in Your Bedroom – Change of Pace

As roommates at FORT, Liu Yee and Atsuki had gotten into many fights over many things. Some of them were important fights, like who was going to sleep where and why they couldn't unplug the nightlight. And most other times the fights were over trivial things, like why Atsuki couldn't make up his bed or why Liu Yee had to be a prick (Though if you asked Atsuki, that would be classified as an important fight). They threw each other's things on the floor and locked each other out of the bathroom and once or twice Atsuki messed up Liu Yee's bed to spite him. They'd never actually hurt each other, never caused the other to suffer emotional or mental trauma. Although if you asked Liu Yee, the time he came back from a mission and found that Atsuki had written on the walls in purple sharpie was a pretty scary moment.

But now that Atsuki was gone off on his own long mission, Liu Yee found that he missed their fights.

8. Faker – Smile Empty Soul

They sat together at lunch, branded as the two misfits. Liu Yee, cold, calculating, and uncaring. Heartless. Atsuki, silent, distant, and odd. They never talked to each other but instead found comfort in the silence. They ate in the silence, read in the silence, did homework in the silence. Not once, in the two years they'd sat there together, had they uttered a word to the other.

Some would call it odd. Others would call it normal. The two were quiet as it was. Quiet person plus quiet person equals silence, not talking. However, that didn't stop people from sending them weird glances from across the cafeteria or talking about them behind their backs.

The last week of school the silver-haired boy looked up from the book he was reading and said, "I really don't like the silence."

Liu Yee didn't even look at him. "Shut up."

9. Two Worlds – Phil Collins

Nola worried constantly about Atsuki. No matter how often he went out, no matter how many times he told her he was doing well, there was nothing wrong with him, she couldn't quite believe him. There was always something in his eyes, a slight hint of sadness - despair maybe? - every time Atsuki went out to some town to save the people from Silent. It bothered her.

"Atsuki, are you sure you're okay?"

The boy looked at her, golden eye gleaming. "I'm just fine, Nola. No better than yesterday, no worse. Just fine."

It wasn't until a year later, when Atsuki returned from Kisaragi City, that Nola realized what was wrong with him. That look in his eyes never left after he'd come back. He didn't seem to want to go to any more places for a long stay. And she realized that Atsuki was torn between his life at FORT and life out there in the world they protected.

10. Innocence- Avril Lavigne

As a child, Atsuki had never wanted anything more than to go to the park and play. He'd never wanted anything more than going out on walks, going to the store, playing outside in his sandbox. He hadn't wanted anything drastic, never asked for new toys, never wanted the coolest things on TV. He stuck to simple things, things that wouldn't leave him.

As life went on and everything changed, Atsuki found that he couldn't even ask for the simple things. He couldn't go on short walks without thinking of Natsuki who never went out. He couldn't go the store because the people he met there always seemed to be infected. He couldn't play in his sandbox; he didn't even have a sandbox anymore. Atsuki couldn't ask for a break, couldn't have a friend, couldn't want anything else.

So Atsuki found that nowadays all he really wanted was to see a smile on someone's face. Sometimes though, it seemed like even that was wanting too much.

And look at that. It's over already. Well, er, anyways, leave me a review telling me what you thought. Tell me which ones you loved, which ones you hated, and which ones made you react in some other manner! It's always really cool to hear stuff like that.

If I made any mistakes (misspelled a name, left out a word in a sentence, did something else wrong...) let me know and I'll fix it!

Anyways, as always, have a great night, evening, morning, whatever it is you want to be good!