Synchronicity

~ 30 Kisses, Neku and Shiki ~

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N: Those of you that go to Livejournal and don't see this there, I'm still waiting for my claim to be approved. Enjoy!

Ugh…combination of being half-asleep, having a difficult theme, and just wanting to get it over with made this chapter probably one of the worse ones in this whole fic. Sorry about that…I promise I'll do better tomorrow…Zzzzz….

Delta 09: Wax

Of all the annoying times for the power to go out…

Neku had never been more thankful for laptop computers than when he saved his report after the lights went out. None of them had expected that the thunderstorm that they were told to expect would get this bad, or that it would take out the power. Now it looked like they would have to stay the night.

…He could think of worse things than getting stuck with Shiki, Beat, and Rhyme in the middle of a powerout though. Even if he was stuck in Shiki's house with Shiki's father glaring at him every two seconds.

"This sucks, man…" said Beat, placing his hands behind his head and lying down on the carpet of Shiki's living room. "Can't even watch TV or play some tunes to pass the time…"

Neku glanced at Beat, then sighed, turning up the volume on his laptop and playing his playlist. Beat let out a whoop of triumph, sitting up and punching his fist into the air.

"Alright, Phones!" he said, before rapping along to Owari-Hajimari.

From the dim light of the laptop screen, he saw Rhyme smile. She was sitting on her knees on the table across from them.

"You know what they say," she said, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade."

"I could go for some lemonade," said Beat.

Rhyme and Neku exchanged glances and sighed.

The sliding door opened, and Shiki stepped into the room, carrying three candles and a lighter with her. Neku and Rhyme stood up to take candles from her and light them. Neku held his candle over the plate on the table for a moment, letting the wax drip on it before placing the candle on the melted wax. When he was sure that the candle would stand, he let go. Rhyme and Shiki finished as well, placing the plates around the room as the rain poured outside.

"Dad called the power company," said Shiki as the four of them sat in the living room. Beat lay on the floor on his side, facing them with his head propped up in his hand. Shiki and Neku sat side by side, Shiki sitting on her heels while Neku leaned against the wall. Rhyme was lying down on her stomach, propping herself up on a cushion. "They say it shouldn't last more than an hour or so…the lightning just short circuited a few things."

"It ain't so bad," said Beat, "At least we've got Phones' laptop."

"Yeah," said Rhyme, "And the candles, at least we have that."

Neku nodded, watching as the wax dripped down the side of the candle. At least the power outage wouldn't last long enough for the candle to burn out completely. A little time passed and eventually Beat and Rhyme fell asleep, judging from Beat's snoring and Rhyme's quiet breathing. Shiki leaned over, resting her head on his shoulder. He felt a pair of eyes bore into the back of his head and turned around just in time to see vague outline of Mr. Misaki standing in the living room doorframe. He sighed.

…There were worse things, and hopefully in time he wouldn't refer to him as 'that Sakuraba boy'.

"…Dad watching you again?" murmured Shiki, her eyes half-closed. Her hand nudged against his and he placed his hand on top of hers, slowly interlacing his fingers with hers.

"…Yeah…" he said.

Shiki moved her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes fully. In the dim light of the candles, he thought he saw her cheeks flush for a moment.

"…Don't worry about it…" murmured Shiki, "He doesn't hate you…"

"…Yeah…" said Neku. He glanced back at the door for a moment before closing his eyes as well, leaning his head against Shiki's. He turned his head, his lips lightly brushing her head as he felt sleep overcoming him. He heard footsteps moving away from the door and down the hallway…

Neither of them noticed when the power came back on, both of them staying in that position until morning.

When morning came, the candles were completely burned out, leaving behind spots of dried up wax on the plates they had been set in. Mr. Misaki glared at Neku the whole time they were having breakfast, but…he was able to wake up next to Shiki that morning.

…He could think of worse things.

Review Responses:

Solblade44: Yes, hopefully Neku doesn't die again, at least until he's old and gray and lived out a happy life (with Shiki, haha). And now I can't get the picture of Josh as Spider Man out of my head either xD. Last night was just a random comment, but now it looks like it stuck.

And, yes, Golden Sun was a great game! Unfortunately, I only got to play the Lost Age once, and now my game is dead! I have no idea what happened but I can't play it anymore, although I can still play the first game, *headdesk*. Sorry this chapter didn't turn out so well, I'm currently half-asleep, haha.

Kisdota-The Freak Gamer: Haha, yeah, things are going great for them. And, yeah, 21 chapters left! Sorry this chapter turned out so horrible, but I'll do my best to make up for it tomorrow. I'm already starting to get ideas for tomorrow's chapter! ^__^