Author's Note:

Sometimes I ship really random pairings. Shinkari (Shinjiro and Yukari) is one of them. I'll include a label over all the drabbles that have Shinjiro paired up with someone (probably either Yukari or the female MC), though, so if you're a fan of one over the other, you can pick and choose.

Pairing: Shinkari


Sometimes when he stays up late enough that the sun starts shooting arrows at the moon, he watches her practice.

"You really don't like sleeping, do ya?" Yukari winces as she lets loose another arrow from her bow. It zings toward the target, striking the ring just outside of the bull's eye. It's six A.M. and she's still yawning. "I mean, hardly anyone gets up this early, even the people who are supposed to be here practicing with me."

She sighs and frowns, and then grabs another arrow from her quiver. In the sky above her, the sun is barely poking through the clouds left over from last night's storm. The ground on the archery range is wet, and the mud from the walk over here still clings to his boots, like an indictment, a mark that he's done something wrong in coming here.

"But seriously, what's up? I don't care if you watch but everybody on the archery team is going to think that I have some crazy stalker. Again." She adds, for good measure.

She's been the only one out here for as long as he can remember, her light brown hair and pink sweater starting out like a bull's eye on a dark target, but he doesn't mention this.

"You mind?" His brain is so clouded with insomnia that even Yukari's stringing an arrow to her bow looks otherworldly, like fitting a magic wand to wires, preparing to make it issue some pyrotechnic special effects. He's impressed. It's so easy for her and Aki to practice on school grounds and be hailed for it like paragons of athletic virtue rather than shadow killers. What about him? It's not like people warn you about wild axe murderers for nothing.

Yukari's next arrow strikes the target dead center and she smiles. "Nah. Not really. But you haven't answered my question, senpai. What's brings you here?"

Shinjiro straightens and stands up, stretching. His back is aching for bed, and even Castor's raging within him seemed muted by the dawn.

"Guess I'd better be going." He mutters, and heads toward the gate. Her question is one that he asks himself more often than she knows, even though the answer is starting to make itself more and more clear, like a shot to the heart.

Yukari looks flustered and upset, but after a few moments, she's back to shooting arrows at her target, albeit maybe a little more violently than usual. When her friends get there, they'll ask what's wrong and she won't tell them.

He knows this the same way he knows that when he finally goes to sleep she'll be the last thing he sees, a queen among arrows, drifting into darkness.