It's you I value

Chapter 10

Even when your hope is gone move along

Watanuki awoke with an odd rush of vertigo. A guitar strummed nearby but far away. Shizukai had disappeared from the other side of the room. He couldn't quite match the singer and the guitar player as the deep voiced archer.

(Go ahead and waste your days with thinking
when you fall everyone stands
another day and you've had your fill of sinking
with the life held in your...
Hands are shaking cold
these hands are meant to hold)

The lyrics were English. Curiously, he arose and stumbled soundlessly to the sound of rock music being played. It was Shizuka for that matter, he sat on the porch of the temple, singing and strumming away to the green garden before him. His face heated in astonishment. His voice was so....

(Speak to me, when all you got to keep is strong
Move along, move along like I know ya do
And even when your hope is gone
Move along, move along just to make it through
Move along
Move along-)

..Different. There was a brief pause, and a new melody followed. Calm and modern, slow and right for his deep voice.

He felt a panging. He clearly knew what this song was about and felt his throat go thick.

It had stopped and the guitar was put down.

"You can come out now." His blush heartened, that had been happening often.

There was an awkward silence as he came out of hiding, followed by a sigh.

"I know you can read English but do you...understand it?"

"What? Ofcourse I do! I'd be flunking High school if I didn't-"

"Then why'd u copyright those songs? That's criminal." He felt insulted. He. Copyrighted? As if in, plagiarized? Well that was the witch for you...

"Was that song about...never mind?" He dropped the subject, he wasn't being reprimanded for it so they enjoyed the silence before Shizuka's stomach growled and Watanuki scowled.

"Didn't bother to fix yourself something..." he muttered quietly as he stomped to the kitchen.

This felt weird to Shizuka. He must have corrupted Watanuki so much last night that he was being polite. Time to insert bad manners.

"Oi, can we have waffles?" He asked loudly from where he sat. Shouting was heard from the kitchen.

"WHAT IS WITH YOU AND MAKING MY LIFE HELL!!!" He smiled a little sadly, that part was true enough.

He couldn't even begin to imagine how the seer felt after being touched that way.

"-and Orange juice." He ducked in to drink straight from the carton, followed by a fretting teen with bi colored eyes.

"You don't drink straight from the carton you jerk! That's bad manners and unsanitary!" He looked at Watanuki as if he didn't give a damn. The seer huffed and turned away.

"You can get ready now, the car'll be here in a few." He overlooked the clock.

"Huh?" The seer looked at him dumbly.

"The oratorical performance."

That seemed to remind him.

"Hmph!Why do I have to come to your performance."

"Cause this was forced on me and you'll find a deep meaning in the song."

"Your allowed that?" He raised his eyebrows. They never had factored songwriting, but then again, cause of Yuuko it would lead to his demise.

"Doumeki-" Shizuka. He inwardly chanted

"How come you know those English songs?"

He'd never seen the amber-eyed brown-haired person so hesitant to answer. He looked up a little stronger.

"A friend knew it." That tone signaled a danger zone and he nodded, walking away to change.

If you could bleach black pants with only black that was how clean Watanuki could describe his pants to be. No reminders from last night that he hadn't been unwilling...he discarded those thoughts as he pulled them on. Mentally shaking away his discomfort.. He pulled his shirt over his head and finger combed through his hair until it felt safe. Shizuka wasn't vain enough for mirrors, but it was quite unhelpful.

An amp and Guitar bass set at the mouth of the entrance they strangely reminded him of him and Shizuka's friendship.

Doumeki was the bass, smooth and deep. Watanuki was the amp that magnified it, sometimes it blared, sometimes it silenced though together, nync. Like the detachment, he was from his body when he kissed Shizuka back. He wasn't planning to inform Shizuka of the inward name change. It felt so different to call him disrespectfully. His stomach did little flips of their own when he imagined eating across Doumeki again. He inhaled deeply and sat across Doumeki on the coffee table. The waffles he cooked were being devoured by him. That set me off greatly.

"You could've waited for me!"

"And then be told that I shouldn't have."

"Well-" He spluttered for a way to keep the temple brat talking. Apparently, there were many danger zones he didn't want to fall into.

"What's the name of the song?"

"It's a little weird.."

"Come on tell me!" He smiled, he liked the tenor of his voice, and Shizuka hadn't realized the emotional changes in tone and voice lately. His face started to mimic it as well.'

"(Before it's too late) by the...Goo-goo Dolls." He blinked.

"Wow, that is strange. He grasped for a gentle way to phrase his question because he knew the answers to the real ones.

"It must've been good. That journal entry."

"It was supposed to be private. Teachers like poking into my work." Watanuki made a face.

"Not everybody gets the luck you do you lucky bastard. Some would kill to be entered into a capital state oratorical competition." Shizuka didn't look like he wanted to hear who.

"Like you?"

"Shut up!"

"He lied about that too."

"Don't change the subject!" He was in the mood fro a good fight.

Unfortunately, for him, a car horn beeped. Watanuki bit into the plain waffles, taking some in his mouth. Shizuka raised a brow, but hadn't questioned it.

He wanted him to eat. Watanuki picked up the electric guitar in it's plastic casing as Shizuka carried the amp on his shoulder. A smile bit at the corners of his lips, Shizuka was trembling and struggling.

"You aren't going to help him?" the professor asked lightly. He shrugged. He sat in the back this time, not so bothered to sit by Shizuka. Instead, he walked straight to the first seat. He was a little frustrated. He was putting up with A LOT. All the temple brat was doing was distancing himself away from the seer. His heart sank.

"Good luck Doumeki-kun." The professor waved them off. He was getting coffee and being awful subtle about it, like it wasn't anticipated.

They were surprised that such a full outdoor performance had been packed was nearly empty. Being early made a difference. Shizuka was scheduled first to present. There was a phone with numbers and people to call written in English.

Shizuka dialed away and spoke some English.

"We'll be practicing, do what you want till then."

Watanuki grumbled away as he sat where the audience was intended unfolding the white foldable chair. He relaxed on it. Watching jealously as a blonde man with equally bright blue eyes and a buff tan man with red eyes and spiky hair-Fai and Kurogane. By the way conversed, he could tell they were alternates. There wasn't the secretive defense in their eyes that they usually seemed to possess when in other worlds and with familiar people.

They mostly talked. Shizuka air guitaring the chords to Kurogane and the garment-eyed man nodded sharply like taking on a great honor.

Fai failed whistling horribly as he concentrated on the beats and whatnot he was instructing Fai. This was a side of Shizuka that Watanuki had never seen. He observed keenly, a little meek. They finally began to practice and it gained speed as it was played slowly, the way it was intended and rich. They looked bored with the slow melody but seemed to have the least bit of fun with it. He felt like a teenage girl crushing over her favorite boy band-except that wasn't the case.

By the second time they practiced, people started to file in beside him. They didn't sit but stood. He noticed the boys and girls divided. He was the only one sitting down.

I wonder through fiction to look for the truth
Buried beneath all the lies
And I stood at a distance
To feel who you are
Hiding myself in your eyes

And hold on before it's too late
We'll run til we leave this behind
Don't fall just be who you are
It's all that we need in our lives

They were all slow dancing. He even saw some men brave enough to dance together! He was surprised to see a short girl stand by him. 4"11 with short smooth black hair that looked like the cat girl he encountered except for her brown skin and bright brown eyes that looked a shade lighter than the Japanese. Her eyes were big and he could tell she wasn't Asian. Her curves were a little more defined for girls her age that they rivaled Yukon's. She watched Shizuka sing with a smile that didn't look lovesick at all, but with longing and pride.

"Hi." She smiled, greeting him in Japanese.

"Hi." He answered nervously back.

"I'm Shizuka's friend-Yuki. He's really good up there isn't he?"

" you two...?" She shook her head, not with her shoulders sagged or hate in her eyes. She was truly his friend. He inhaled deeply. He idea he had made him regret before he asked.

"Would you like to dance?" She looked taken aback, but accepted with an awkward smile at the corners of her lips. Monsters creeped in the corner of my vision ,I gulped.

"Back off he's mine!" she said to no none in particular in mock humor. Was he that obvious?

Hold on before its too late
We'll run til we leave this behind
Don't fall just be who you are
It's all that we need in our lives

So live like you mean it
Love til you feel it
It's all that we need in our lives
So stand on the edge with me
Hold back your fear and see
Nothing is real til it's gone

"Are you coming from.." He asked a little uncertainly. She looked Indian enough.

"Well...Let's just say someplace only you know." She whispered with a wink she gave him and at Shizuka.

And hold on before its too late
We'll run til we leave this behind
Don't fall just be who you are
It's all that we need in our lives

And hold on before its too late
We'll run til we leave this behind
Don't fall just be who you are
It's all that we need in our lives

He looked at her quizzically vaguely wondering if Shizuka could get jealous, or if that he would recognize him and Yuki in all the ring of dancers.

It's all that we need in our lives
it's all that I need in my life

All the contestants tore away from their partners to shout and cheer fro Doumeki.

"One more!" they chanted. He felt all awkward, slow dances were a pain in the ass, but that was because nobody offered to dance with him.

"He can't know I'm here. Ja ne! Thanks for the dance this very fine night!" she whispered as she escaped. Her party shirt ruffling as she sprinted toward an escape.

"Your welcome!" he replied loud enough so she could hear in her escaping proximity. People looked at him condescendingly and looked to groups of people to whisper.

Was his slow dancing with a foreigner like Yuki so catching? He didn't notice Shizuka stomp down and run at him, catching his wrist in a vice grasp.

"Ow!Let-" Amber eyes glared down at him. He started to hear what they were saying.

'Did you see that weirdo? He was dancing with nobody! Not even a GUY.' Similar quotes were mockingly exchanged around him.

"What was it?" he regarded his female best friend as an it?

"I didn't know." Watanuki whimpered to himself, his wrist bruising.

".it?" He asked more threateningly.

"I can't tell you." He managed to admit softly.

He was kissed rashly, rougher than last time. His wrist staying bolted to the back of Shizuka's head. He painfully tugged him up, carefully avoiding their pleasure spots. He crushed their lips together more firmly. Tears forming in his closed eyes.

Was he the only one that noticed that a female was singing? He tore his lips away to see Yuki singing blindly into the microphone. No one could hear except for Watanuki. His tears ran faster. When she noticed that Fai and Kurogane weren't playing with her and that she sang tonelessly without the instruments. Her sweet voice turned to a sob as she buried her face in her hands, tears leaked through her fingers. She shook with her sobs.

"Look at me." Shizuka stated angrily. He was harshly grabbed to look at the shiny gold of Shizuka's eyes.

"Look at her." He looked to the empty spot before the microphone where Yuki occupied the space. She sang again with teary smiles and weak laughs that shook the verses.

"Look at Yuki."

"Look at the pain she's in." He reluctantly fell out of the archer's embrace. As he ran to console the coffee-skinned singer, that Shizuka could not see...