Minor spoilers for number 12, for…erm, another later episode that's 20 something. The kiss thing. Sorry, I suck and don't know where it is and my eps are on my computer that crashed. And 11 is post-series, if you're worried about that. No real spoilers, though.

Spinning on the Edge
For the 30 ANGSTS challenge
By DarkenedSakura
Themes #11-15 (you're nothing that you seem)

11. Books (never really mine)

His eyes took in the last page, lingering over the words. He allowed it to soak in for a moment before he carefully closed the book.

"Katsushirou-sama?" said a voice from the doorway.

He looked up, fingers stilling on the cover. "Kirara-dono."

"You come here a lot lately."

"There isn't much to be done in winter. And with everything finished, there are no tasks necessary for us to partake in.

"I know." She stepped forward. "I just didn't expect you to be here."

"I don't know when I started coming so much, either."

Another step, close enough to see the title emblazoned on the cover, Love and War. "Oh, are you reading that?"

A glance at the book. "I just finished it, actually."

"I never expected you to read a book like that," she said, curious.

He shrugged. "Neither did I…I just picked it up, but it was pretty okay."

Step. "A young man meets a young woman. After many things happen with the two of them, they manage to fall in love, or something of the sort. But then a war breaks out, one that the young man just has to fight in. He leaves her but promises to come back."

"And he doesn't."

A last step. "No, he doesn't. The story ends in tragedy."

They were now merely a few feet apart, staring at each other. "I came back, though, didn't I?"

Her eyes shifted slightly. "It's not our story."

"Isn't that a good thing?" He turned abruptly and pulled out another volume while shelving the one he held. "None of it was," he said as he left.

Her eyes softened as she watched him depart, and she looked again at the book he left behind. "Love and War…not our story, is it?"

She sighed.

12. Chemistry (electric shock)

Bonds held them together.

Ionic bonds held the samurai together, the strongest of bonds between elements of opposing charges. While the seven of them might have been of opposite forces crashing and mingling together, they had one central ambition – to combine forces, to pool together their strength, to unite for the sake of Kanna Village. Some took instead of giving, some gave instead of taking, but it all boiled down to what kept them together in the end.

A covalent bond held him and his sensei together. Strong yet weak, weak yet strong, a powerful figure and devoted disciple to stern teacher and strong-willed student; it came and went with the electrons, the things they shared between themselves that went back and forth at will. Dissolvable with water, like hydrolysis. Dissolvable by water, by her.

What held him and the mikumari maiden together? Seventy kinds of somethings and nothings, fifty things standing between them, twenty things that kept them together. Polarity. The oxygen and hydrogen atoms in water attracted and repelled each other, stuck to each other, adhered to what was around them.

What happened to a bond that started to destroy itself from within, from its atoms and particles vying for release?

It would break.

13. Physics (poison by you)

He defied gravity. They defied the laws of nature. That's what she thought. The way they leapt around, the way their swords moved at inhuman speeds and still managed to gleam to show that yes, they were the ones that cut up those guys back there, the way they jumped incredible heights – didn't the laws of physics apply to them at all?

And for the most part it was all right when she watched the other samurai do what they did, leaping and slicing and dicing, because she knew they'd be all right, or even if she was just a little bit nervous then at least she hoped they'd be all right because that's all she could do, anyway. But when she saw Katsushirou take a plunge down the side of a cliff an unsettling feeling of panic would set in and she would be just a little bit anxious and he most definitely wasn't as experienced as the other samurai and would he be able to –

And then he would pop back like an old penny, as though it had been no big deal at all, and he was just as good as the others and if they could jump into the gorges of no return and reappear as if it was as natural as breathing, albeit slightly heavily, then by all means he could too.

It never stopped her from worrying, though.

14. Kiss (tears of blood)

The kiss was everything it was supposed to be.

Except for the part where her eyes were wide and shaking and he realized that it was all wrong and he must've made a mistake god she must've been hoping for that person instead and as he ran away he wondered, what happened?

The kiss was everything it was supposed to be. Sadness and rejection. Something like that.

He wasn't really expecting anything from it, anyway. That was all it was supposed to be.

15. First Time (rival or lover?)

First times aren't always the best. First times don't always last. First crushes, first infatuations, first loves – they all come and go. They rarely last forever. Some like to remember them, some like to forget.

He isn't sure about his.

Some think back with fondness, with a smile. Some feel bitter, haunted. For some, what a mistake it was, why had they been in love with that person, what was with their taste back then, why had they fallen for that person, did they really think they had a chance?

He asks himself that sometimes as well.

Memories of first kisses, chaste or deep, lips or cheek, sloppy and inexperienced or natural and perfectly fitting. A little bit of nervousness, a small feeling of belonging, a bit of solace from pain.

He thinks of a shocked expression, of widened eyes, of himself running away from everything he was afraid of.

First heartbreak.

Sometimes, first loves never last.

Sometimes, these things happen more than just sometimes.

Har, halfway there. Well, not counting the bonus themes, at least.

Notes for number 12, if you're interested: an ionic bond is the strongest type of bond between atoms because it is between two elements of opposite charges that balance each other out. They complete each other's outer valance shells because one of the elements will give or take excess valance electrons to or from the other to complete its shell and the other element's shell at the same time. A covalent bond is weaker and has elements that share pairs of electrons so that the outermost shells can be complete, and some are dissolvable by water. A polar covalent is a bond where the shared pairs are drawn towards one element more than another, because of electronegativity and other things. A notable one is the molecule for water, H(2)0. It has special properties, since water adheres to any surface it's on and sticks to other water molecules because of its polarity, among other things.

Finally, chemistry class was useful. Stupid trimester class…anyway, thanks for the reviews, and yes, authors who post instead of leaving their writing on their hard drives like reviews, haha. Thanks again to the betas, 'cause you all rock.