Word-of-the-day:
Diatribe: (noun) 1: a bitter and abusive speech or writing
2: ironical or satirical criticism
xxx-Holic
PG
One-shot/vignette/vague
Watanuki/Doumeki
"…You're just an emotionless nuisance! And you're a moocher, too! You do nothing useful for anyone, but yet somehow only good things come your way! How is it that someone like you can get everything he wants with out so much as lifting an eyebrow? I hate you Doumeki Shizuka! I hate you because all I do is try and I always end up with nothing!"
The raven hair on top of Watanuki's head was soaked through, and plastered itself to his skull. He paused in his diatribe, which had been going on for quite some time, to catch his breath and take in the reaction of the one whom the tirade was directed at. Mustering his most menacing glare he stared the boy down for as long as the pounding rain would allow him to do so. Soon, however, Watanuki looked to the ground as the drops were stinging his face harshly.
Silent Doumeki; always saying nothing, always letting it go; opened his mouth and spoke.
" You're wrong, Watanuki."
The use of his actual name reeled the shorter boy's attention back to Doumeki. Internally, he marveled at Doumeki's ability to look stone faced even as large raindrops collided mercilessly with his skin. But he kept silent, for once, himself. It was obvious the exorcist was not finished.
" I try all the time, probably harder than you do, to get what I want. I'm the one who goes out of his way to be useful, but always ends up hurt. You mooch from me, even as we stand here. You get off freely. Watanuki, you end up empty handed because you never start out with anything in mind. I, however, know exactly what it is I want."
Thunder growled above them. Watanuki chewed over these words, trying to find the best angle to gain momentum for another attack. He didn't find one. Instead, he found himself staring into Doumeki's narrow amber eyes; sulking in defeat. He didn't know how, but the moment the other boy had opened his lips, he had lost the argument; the weight of his words pressing into Watanuki's conscience like a sharp knife, and their meaning the vicious sting.
" Will you ever stop trying?" Watanuki asked.
" No."
" Why not? Isn't it hopeless?"
How rare his smiles were, " Every once and a while I do get some compensation. Something I need. That alone will keep me going."
Watanuki entered the front square to the shop, but stopped and mumbled, " How long will you keep going?"
" Until my hands are no longer empty."
" What kind of compensation is it that makes it so you can continue like this? What is it you need?"
A hint of desperation nuzzled itself on the fringes of the boy's questions.
" The satisfaction I get -."
The sky roared again, swallowing Doumeki's voice, but Watanuki read the words off his lips loud and clear.
"- knowing you're alive."
A/N: The reason "silent" italicized up there is because that's what Shizuka can be translated as in Japanese. I was making a play-on-words… Get it? Also, the characterization seems off, but I don't feel like fixing it up. This was just out of the word-of-the-day from Hope you enjoyed.