Dancing Flower
Omake
Chapter 2

Kisuke wondered why he bought the stereo at all. He hardly ever listened to it. He stood in the back of his home, looking over the dusty device and debating on whether or not to get rid of it. It was taking up space, but on the other hand he could make some sort of use of it if he tinkered around inside. He mulled it over for a while until he caught the attention of his little dancer, who wandered up to his side to also stare at the stereo in silence. For a long while they studied it until Mai finally looked up at him. "What is that, Kisuke?"

He wasn't all that surprised she didn't know. He never bothered to turn it on and the child had hardly glanced at it before, when it was hidden under an old sheet. He smiled and bent down. "It's a stereo, Mai." Kisuke expertly flipped the switch and the air was filled with static. He fiddled with the knobs until sounds began to filter through. "It plays music." Kisuke adjusted the antenna to improve the signal. Satisfied, he stepped back and looked down at Mai.

She was staring at the stereo intently, a look of awe on her face. The small girl eventually got down on her knees and leaned forward, listening with undivided attention to the foreign lyrics; American music was popular in Japan. Kisuke smirked and left Mai to her own devices.

He came back down the hall an hour later, expecting Mai to be gone. He was surprised to see her glued to the same spot he had left her. Around her were several wires and tools, and the side of the device looked as if it had been torn open.

"Dancer, what did—"

"I didn't like any of the other stations, so I fixed it," she explained curtly. Kisuke was speechless for a moment.

"You strengthened the signal," he muttered. Mai nodded irritably, never taking her eyes off of the system. "Where is that music airing from?"

With a scoff, the child turned around and threw a screwdriver at him. "Somewhere in America," she spat hotly. "Shut up, I'm trying to listen." With a warning glare - goodness, she definitely was her father's child - she turned back to her music. Properly scolded, Kisuke backed slowly down the hall. She would get bored eventually; nothing kept her attention for long.

A week had passed and still Mai refused to leave the stereo unless it was absolutely necessary. In the morning she spent most of her time tinkering around with it. She had already upgraded the device to play several thousand stations with a simple turn of the dial. When Mai came home from school she rushed through her chores and still returned to the radio at the end of the hall.

Kisuke could see it in her eyes, that music did something for her. Her eyes lit up when she turned it on. Whenever he observed her around the relative safety of a corner, he began to notice she was tapping her fingers to the beat of the songs. Her tastes varied from day to day, Jazz some days, Blues others, then Country music. He noticed she favored the Rock genre most. Her fingers drummed in time with the fast tempo and she eventually began to sing along to songs she had heard most often. She began using his computer to look up the songs for the more popular bands and absorbed information and terminology until music was all she ever talked about.

She was obsessed with it; she was always desperate to learn more.

"Why do you like music so much, my Dancer?" Kisuke questioned during one of their evening walks. They had stopped in the park to look up at the setting sun. Mai mulled her answer over for a moment before looking at him seriously.

"Because it makes my heart race. Because when I listen to those people playing on the radio, I feel like I'm really alive and I can understand life's mysteries."

A comfortable silence stretched between the two. They watched the stars twinkle in the sky as the last ray of the setting sun finally disappeared.

"Kisuke?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you think I could make music like that?" The shopkeeper blinked and looked at her. Mai gazed up at him with intense gold eyes. He smiled gently at her.

"Of course I believe you can, the question is: Do you believe you can?"

She turned her gaze back to the stars and smiled. "Yes, I do believe…"

That year, Mai found an acoustic guitar under the Christmas tree.


A/N: CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM,a nd go thank my Beta ThaBlueGRRL!