Dedicated:  CTR, the original Mantou writer, for whom I hope the skies will clear.

Continuity:  None in particular, though I favor volume 16 for some obscure reason.  Manta perspective!

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Referential

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It's not as if I

actively sought to find any form of

romantic affection – I was

content,

or, rather, would have been content with

simply companionship.  When,

however, I did finally gain that longed-for friendship,

oddly,

it seemed as though I was still

obscurely discontent, as if something else remained

to be neatly labeled and boxed away for future, logical

reference.

Why should I have found something lacking

in my (rather unique) friend, when the mere

fact that I had a friend, a

true

companion I could claim selfishly as mine, should have

been all I needed to

feel triumphant and happy.  I was happy, of course,

but

I still felt it odd, somehow, this little bit of

irritating fuzziness on the edge of my reasoning

that made it difficult to place this kind boy in the simple square of

friend.

I only understand now, distantly,

that I, like many others, cannot easily slap

the simple title friend upon him, that we are

drawn

to this Yoh, who smiles quickly if lazily, and

makes you stare at him, like you would a child god.

I doubt, sometimes, my worth of his

affection –

I can't even label him for personal reference be it friend, lover,

god – but in that moment when I feel like fading

away, like moving out of his righteous path, he turns to me and calmly, beautifically,

smiles.

It's impossible to set a stern, unmoving label

upon him, just as it is impossible to see him smile, when

all I feel is silently meaningless, and not be overwhelmed by

love.

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End!

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Notes:  Cheesy, but hopefully likable.  Er – yay?

Disclaimer:  God save Hiroyuki Takei!  And, uh, the Queen, I suppose.