Written for Theme Set Beta for the 1sentence LJ Community. As always, opinions and constructive criticism are encouraged.
#04 – Wonder;
Tsubaki remembers well the evening when her friends asked her what she would've done if Black Star had been a girl instead of a man; she remembers in even more explicit detail their totally flabbergasted expressions (and Black Star's peals of amused laughter) when she'd claimed she would've probably gone gay for that girl.
#02 – Waltz;
When they are asked to do a waltz on their graduation ceremony, Tsubaki stepped closer to him nervously, convinced this would definitely not end well; however, when he twirls her around with grace and elegance to be envied realization about what he'd been so busy "training" for recently dawned on her and she was grateful for his firm hold on her because otherwise her knees might have given out from beneath her.
#27 – Jester;
He's thought of by his peers as the class clown, the perpetual jester and, while a small part of her dislikes the unjust untruthfulness of such a notion, she prefers they keep holding onto that misconception of his character; she likes being the only one to know how deep his conviction and drive ran, and how much more there was to him than he let others see.
#21 – Quiet;
Quiet had been a luxury that Tsubaki had had to give up early on after partnering up with someone as peppy and energetic as Black Star; it had seemed like a real pain at first but it wasn't long before she'd completely forgotten there had a been a time when she'd needed such a trifle thing as quiet.
#24 – Quarrel;
They rarely ever quarrel and when they do she usually backs down first; when he tries to charge headfirst into escapades that would surely endanger his life and she opposes him though, she never backs down, even though the notion of him being mad at her horrifies her—because losing him over something she could've prevented if she'd exerted just a tiny bit of common sense horrifies her even more.
#25 – Quitting;
He'd set such difficult goals for himself—they'd require a lot of strength, consistency and presence of character—and she finds it so admirable that no matter what happens to make those goals seem impossible at one time or another, quitting never becomes an option for him; she watches on in awe as he pursues his dreams and hopes that some day she will become someone who never considers quitting as an option no matter how desperate the times appear to be as well.
#09 – War;
He's promised Mifune that he'll become a bushin, and he's announced to practically the entire world that he will surpass God; as she watches him—all sinewy muscle on a towering, lean frame that he's grown into over the years—from the side, his clothes ragged from the skirmishes and his fringe matted to his forehead with blood but his eyes just as razor-sharp and burning with concentration as if the hours of struggle to overpower the enemy had been mere seconds to him, she thinks for the first time that maybe if it's Black Star, even conquering Heaven might not be impossible a task.
#13 – Bias;
She disapproves vocally about people's unreasonable prejudice against Black Star just because he'd had the misfortune of being born in a family of murderers, how biased they are without even knowing him at all and renounces their bigotry; but when she considers things in all earnestness she realizes that perhaps she shouldn't be the one criticizing people's lack of objectivity when her opinion of the man isn't at all impartial either.
#17 – Belief;
Tsubaki had always believed that should anything happen to Black Star she wouldn't be able to stand again on her own while he would have little difficulty getting back on his feet should anything happen to her; when he goes berserk and nearly kills in his frenzy the backstabbing witch informant of Shibusen when she makes an attempt on Tsubaki's life, the young Death Scythe feels her heart elated by the realization that even if he could survive without her, he'd rather he didn't.
#33 – Stupidity;
His consistent perfect failing of tests and his overall attitude has everyone convinced with unrivaled certainty that he is a complete, hopeless moron; if they bothered to notice how masterfully he handled otherwise impasse situations and turn the tables around on his attackers, they'd realize just where this boy's smarts lied.
#45 – Natural;
It isn't within her area of expertise so she doesn't know just how skilled he really is compared to others but when he kisses her for the first time it feels as if his kiss wipes her mind completely blank, like polishing a slate perfectly clean; she asks—grudgingly, tentatively, apprehensively—how he'd become that good and he laughs merrily—having felt her dread at his possible answer—and tells her that he must be a natural at making her feel good and successfully, naturally, appeases all of her worries.
#35 – Sarcasm;
Maka can't help raising an eyebrow when as Soul says in a heavily sarcastic tone, "Yeah, Black Star, because you've been at it ever since you found you could get it up," implying that the addressed youth had never been laid in his life, a certain azure-haired assassin's face splits into a huge, shit-eating grin and his partner almost—but not quite—turns her head in time to hide a blush that dusts her cheeks.
#18 – Balloon;
She barely manages to stifle her laughter when she presents him with a condom and he eyes it dubiously, asking her if it was some weird new kind of balloon or something.
#43 – Nuance;
He has been called many names in his time and yet his closest person is the one who never calls him by any other but his own; he never fails to be amazed by how different one and the same thing can sound when she loads it with different feelings and connotations and he has learnt since long to recognize the slight, barely discernible by any other than his sensitive hearing nuances that she places in the way she calls out his name.
#01 – Walking;
Tsubaki thinks it's normal for girls to recognize their loved ones' faces and voices and silhouettes in the distance but she takes that a bit further—she can even recognize Black Star by his walk; his is a wide-stride heavy-footed strut that one could recognize anywhere, any time because each and every stride he took was permeated with confidence, power and all that was perfectly and uniquely Black Star.
#34 – Serenade;
When she claimed he didn't have a romantic bone in his entire body, it took him a while to come up with it but one day—long after she'd told him that—he decided to make a serenade for her, under their balcony; his off-key singing made stray dogs howl and homeless cats mewl in agony, normal people cringe in their sleep or be roused from it with curses but to Tsubaki it was the most touching gesture she'd ever received (incapability to sing aside).
#05 – Worry;
She was a worry-wart, therefore having her fret over her loved ones' well-being isn't news at all; however, when she gets hit by stray shrapnel from a car-crash and she's taken to the hospital for a few hours to make sure she was truly alright, she's taken slightly aback by the frantic look on Black Star's face when he bursts through the double-doors of the hospital, with several nurses trying to placate him ("This is a hospital, sir! You can't barge in like this! There are people resting here!") and deter him from his path ("What business do you have here, young man? Visiting hours haven't even begun!"), and as he scans her over for any injuries and keeps asking her if she's alright she thinks that it's sort of comforting to be on the receiving end of someone's worry for a change.
#11 – Birthday;
Black Star is a big man—the biggest there is, in fact—which is why he's never regarded his birthday as anything more than the Earth completing a full circle around the Sun yet again since the time he first wailed his way into the world as a rising star, so he doesn't reckon it necessary to answer Tsubaki when she asks when his birthday is; when she throws him a grand party, inviting all of their friends and making sure he has the time of his life because she was convinced this day was special, he makes a point of letting her know which day it truly is—in case, y'know, she decided to repeat the experience the next year…
#36 – Sordid;
After a tough fight she always complains how filthy she is and how she can't stand being in her own skin and just how badly she needs a shower; Black Star begs to differ—he is firmly of the opinion that nothing could ever make her look anything less than mind-numbingly beautiful (not that he'd tell her those thoughts of his out loud—he was too big a man to flatter so shamelessly).
#07 – Waste/Wasteland;
During one of their missions she goes to see the Star clan's last stand—now only a barren wasteland in the middle of nowhere—and for the first – and probably last – time in her entire life she can't find it in herself to feel anything else but gratitude at the sight before her eyes because it is the Star clan's disregard for morality that brought Black Star in her life, one way or another, and she imagines that if that hadn't happened, it would have been her inner world that would look like this wasteland, without the vitalizing presence of the boy.
#46 – Horizon;
She reckons he's really much like the horizon – you can never really lose sight of it—only stop minding it for a while,—there for everyone to behold, yet different people perceive it differently according to their own beliefs, and always just out of reach, no matter how much you chase after it.
#08 – Whiskey and Rum;
It takes only one night of partying out with the guys for the whole group to understand why Tsubaki never drank – she couldn't hold her liquor at all; so it's up to the only slightly tipsy Black Star to take his partner home, as he had decided after his fifth or sixth—he'd lost count after a while—shot glass of tequila that the notion of staying and letting Tsubaki give people a bit too much of an eyeful of herself to remember her by when they were sober (she had claimed that she was boiling, even in her flimsy, almost see-through top and attempted to take it off before he'd wrestled her hands into dissuasion) definitely didn't sit well with him.
#20 – Bane;
He's been considered the bane of pretty much everyone's existence—where from annoyance, where from malice over sins he had never even committed in the first place—but it is only when she tells him that he's the best thing that ever happened in her life that he thinks that maybe he wasn't as much of a menace as everyone made him out to be.
#10 – Weddings;
When she was a little girl, she used to yearn for a Prince Charming who was also her knight in shining armour and a beautiful Western-style wedding, with lots of flowers and beauty and smiles; then she grew up and met Black Star and realized that all those things didn't matter and that love didn't need wedlock to be true or announced to the world.
#16 – Breaking;
It's twilight out and they've trained till they dropped that day and she's so tired that she can't mind her footing, so when she trips over a loose tile on the road he's the only thing that keeps her from sprawling herself shamefully all over the sidewalk; "Don't fall, Tsubaki!" he says jokingly, with a grin in his voice and a light tone and as she looks bashfully up at him she thinks that it's a bit too late for that warning (because she's known she's already fallen for him for a long time now).
#32 – Sorrow;
She's a cheerful person usually so it feels so alien to him when after the death of her brother she can't even find the strength to smile on her own; that's about the time he found out that he never wanted to see her wear that sorrowful expression ever again and that he'd do everything in his impressive power to keep her from coming to any harm ever again.
#15 – Breathing;
Breathing is an involuntary reflex that everyone acquires since the moment of their conceiving – it was just one of those things you know though you can never pinpoint the exact moment you came to bear knowledge of them, one that you learned to control a bit better later in life to suit your needs and your situation; she'd never given it much thought before that moment, and Tsubaki realizes just how difficult breathing actually is when she can't remember how to do it when he's so close, close, close, just a breath away from her face and she can't look away from his mesmerizing gaze of molten passion that steals the breath right out of her lungs.
#26 – Jump;
She has been taught to look before she leaps but ever since partnering up with Black Star she can't help but think that everyone who always took precautions and made sure that everything went according to a premade plan was missing out on some of the wonders in life that came with doing things just because you could, without any previous planning or consideration.
#42 – Neutral;
He never cared about the arguments of others or how heated they became because others' confrontations seemed childish to him in the first place, unbecoming of his big self; he could never stay neutral even in the face of the pettiest of squabbles when his partner's well-being was put at risk though.
#19 – Balcony;
He had an affinity for high places—being the star that he was—so he immediately took to the balcony but it wasn't until he realized that from its vantage point he could see her when she returned home with her hands full with groceries, humming a tune to herself and carrying a bright smile on her face as she let herself in their living building that he knew what the true advantages of having a balcony overlooking the street was.
#03 – Wishes;
When he has another vicious fight with Maka and she reproaches him for his attitude towards the female meister, Tsubaki tells him of her hope that all her friends could just get along well and that everyone can just smile happily together; he snorts and turns away from her, telling her in a bitter tone that it's naïve wishful thinking on her part to actually believe such a thing could happen and it would be a lie to say that him pointing that out didn't sting a little but she does notice that the next time he and Maka come to a confrontation, he makes a bit of effort not to make matters too much worse than they already are and to avoid having things turn out too ugly.
#29 – Jewel;
They keep saying that she's a diamond in the rough, a very talented shape-shifting weapon and that he hinders her from her full potential, that he doesn't appreciate how much he lucked out having her as his partner; he ignores their blabber, deeming it unworthy of his greatness—he sees no need to show to anyone else how well he realized how fortunate he was for having her, not only as his partner in school but as his support outside it as well and that he believed their labeling her as a mere earthly jewel was demeaning to her actual potential.
#37 – Soliloquy;
He was so used to going off on tangents about his greatness and people rolling their eyes and mostly ignoring what he said (what did they understand anyway? Small folk had little to no sense at all) that he couldn't help being taken a little aback when she claps at the end of his soliloquy the first time they met—he knew even before he'd talked to her that same minute that she'd definitely be someone who understood just how big he actually was… and that from then onwards there would always be at least one person who listened raptly to his monologues about greatness.
#22 – Quirks;
He was quite the quirky person—she'd known that from the moment she'd met him—and some of them were weirder than others (he always referred to himself in a high and mighty way; he spun on the spot hoping to change the world's axis; and the list went on and on), but she'd never considered those quirks of him anything less than endearing and a part of what made him uniquely him.
#28 – Jousting;
Sometimes she thought he believed that life was all about competition and coming out on top of everything and that he was jousting in an endless tournament, always giving everything a hundred and twenty percent of his capability and effort, always trying his hardest at everything he did; she told him she believed it was probably exhausting, to always be like that and to always strain himself for everything but secretly she hoped that by being his partner, maybe that competitiveness of his might rub off on her some as well.
#38 – Sojourn;
The apartment they had been given by Shibusen upon enrolling had been supposed to be a temporary measure, only until he succeeded in turning her into a Death Scythe and their partnership ended, allowing them to go their separate ways and follow their own paths but it turned out that only the location had been temporary, not the entwining of their fates.
#40 – Solitary;
He'd been so used to living on his own that the first few weeks of moving in with Tsubaki were really difficult on the girl, having little to no space left for her things and almost always being forgotten or left behind as he walked at his own pace, paying little to no heed whether she was keeping up or not—she'd told herself at that time that it's only normal, that he'd grown up alone and isn't used to having anyone there with him but she feels too overwhelming a sense of relief and happiness when he starts slowing his step to keep pace with her and going with her to the grocery store for her earlier self-assurances to have been truly convincing.
#30 – Just;
She should've voiced her qualms about living together with him when she'd been told they were to share an apartment but she pushed the issue to the back of her mind, telling herself that he was just a boy, not even an adolescent yet; but a voice in the back of her mind told her that she was just making excuses, that she should realize fully well that the boy would grow up and become a man and by then she would be in way over her head, and then lines could become blurred and crossed without either of them even noticing…
#49 – Victory;
When she finally gets her bearings after swallowing the last soul to become a Death Scythe—that of a malicious witch they had spent almost a week hunting down—he gives her his trademark toothy grin and a victory sign; she reluctantly reciprocates because she can't help but wonder now that they had fulfilled their purpose as a Shibusen team what would become of them… and it's those same ponderings that embitter the taste of their victory in her mouth.
#41 – Nowhere;
He keeps asking her about it—he's always been good at reading her mood swings that she tried so hard to hide—so she finally tells him what's bothering her, her voice shaky and her fingers trembling in her lap as she does so; he catches her unawares when he laughs at her worries and she's about to feel insulted when he tells her he isn't going anywhere without her unless that's what she wanted and that he'll talk with Shinigami-sama the next day about it too and that he's sure the Reaper will understand—she can't help the beaming smile that dawns on her face afterwards, for the calm his words (his promise) had instilled in her needed an outlet.
#06 – Whimsy;
A lot of things were just a game to him and if he had to be absolutely frank maybe the first time he kissed her he did so on a whim – just because he could – but the feelings the whimsical action incited felt like anything but a game to him; by default, he always bowed out of too serious conversations and engagements of any sort before he could get in too deep but when she kissed him back retreat didn't even cross his mind for a second and he thanked his lucky stars for his whimsical nature because who knew how long it would've taken the two of them to get to this if not for what began as a fleeting whimsy of a kiss.
#23 – Question;
She pulls away with a small gasp, her breath hitching in her throat when he shifts his lips to lavishing the column of her neck with open-mouthed passionate kisses and she barely finds the mental coherency and air in her lungs to ask what's been on her mind for a while—"Does this mean we're… together now? I mean, … like an actual… couple?"—and he laughs lightly at her query because one look at their half-naked bodies and the way they were tangled together should've been answer enough for her, and if not, he made sure to convey through his next actions his answer to her rather silly question.
#39 – Share;
It took spending about less than half an hour in his company to figure out that Black Star was a possessive person by nature—sharing had never really been his thing—so it didn't come as much of a surprise when he was endlessly irked by some no-name moron who had the gall to try to hit on his girl when he thought he wasn't paying attention and thus made the assassin reassert before this thoughtless imbecile that she was his and therefore off-limits to such puny creatures as him; no, what was surprising was that Tsubaki didn't seem to mind her significant other's forceful behaviour and actually appeared somewhat flattered by his outright possessiveness—perhaps any other girl would be insulted by such treatment, take it as limiting her personal freedoms or some other nonsense of the sort but to Tsubaki it was affirmation that she was someone truly important to him.
#14 – Burning;
She thinks she knows what it feels like to have your skin burnt when she's scorched by the flames of a fire-using witch during a mission; she finds out she'd known nothing about it after all when ever-engulfing flames spread from the point where his lips have touched her sensitive flesh to envelop her whole being in an ardent blazing fire that makes her lose her breath and scatters her mind and casts her coherency away.
#47 – Valiant;
His voice is too loud to be noble and his demeanour is too silly to be cool and she's long since given up on her childish notions that one day she'd meet her Prince Charming who'd be her knight in shining armour at times of strife, and she's made her peace with it all but it's the times when he saves her from the messes she infallibly lets herself get into that she can't help but notice that maybe her evaluations of his character are premature and too hasty because maybe, just maybe, he did have the valour it took to be a hero—her hero.
#31 – Smirk;
She's known him for what feels like a lifetime and she's always known what that sly smirk meant when she saw it—it meant he was up to no good and that he'd definitely do something that would make her wish she could say she'd had nothing to do with that idea; when they get together, the smirk acquires yet another meaning but the fact it makes her blush an even deeper shade of red than before does not change—she'd never known that such a large array of kinky thoughts could be hidden behind a single facial expression.
#12 – Blessing;
When after the anniversary of their first year spent together as a couple he says he wants to visit her folks because he has something he wants to talk to her father about, she has no clue about how old-fashioned he is being because he won't tell her he wants to go to the Nakatsukasas to ask her father for his blessing of their relationship before he's received it.
#48 – Virtuous;
She's been called virtuous by many people, enough to have made her believe that perhaps they could be right; she doesn't think she's any less virtuous after he's taken her innocence though, because regardless of what some religions may say she doesn't believe that virtue was something so superficial that it can be lost over being in love with a man.
#50 – Defeat;
Black Star is too willful of a guy to let himself become a victim to any losing streak for long; he reckons that the only person who's ever defeated him—and not even in the physical way—was Tsubaki, because she let herself in his heart without even asking permission first and before he knew it, it was already too late to change that – he had already lost to her charm and kind-hearted spirit… and that was the only battle in his life that he was infinitely glad had been his defeat from the very start.
#44 – Near;
It's only when they're so near one another, their limbs in a tangle and their heartbeats racing in a resonating rhythm that makes the heat between them escalate, that who they really are comes to light because that's when all pretenses fade to the background, all childish notions are left behind and all insecurities trampled—simply because being so near makes them realize that nothing waiting up ahead for them could be too bad as long as the other is at their side.
Finis