Pretty much spoiler-free again. Man, I'm getting good with this or something

Key to Flying
Done for the 30 KISSES challenge
By DarkenedSakura
Themes11-15 (little pieces of the nothing that fall)

11. gardenia

He was a prankster now, a real goofball. It had taken so long, but his fake smiles and smirks turned into real smiles at one point, and she thought he deserved whatever small happiness allowed him to do so after everything that they had gone through.

She spent her time in the mornings before class started, as well as all of the other breaks for that matter, with him. However, today he was nowhere to be found. Sometimes, that guy…did he sleep in too late or something, she wondered?

Ruminating to herself, she wandered over to the park area. If he was anywhere besides his room – and she'd know, she knew him better than anyone else – he'd be up in a tree.

--l--

He wasn't anywhere near the trees closest to the buildings, his usual haunt. Instead, he was deeper in, further in the foliage, sitting at the base of a full oak tree amidst the new flowers. His pensive look and the fact that he hadn't noticed her appearance kept her from saying anything.

He looked completely different. Gone was the smile, the smirk, the air of nonchalance. Hair falling across his eyes, he stared somewhere between the ground and nowhere at all.

The flowers around him moved erratically, sometimes as though they were being jerked around, other times as though a gentle breeze made them sway, which made her think he was using his Alice. He did that sometimes when he was in a dark mood or was just deep in thought, she remembered. His fingers played on the tips of the petals, fingers playing on secrets, and the flowers gave him little pollen kisses back.

Something about it just seemed all too sad. She couldn't stand to watch him like that.

When she walked up and sat next to him without getting a reaction, she wondered if he had known she was there all along.

She placed a hand on his shoulder for a brief moment. "Hey."

He stiffened sharply and she wondered before he relaxed again, shrugging closer to her. "Hey."

Her eyes fell and he kept staring at the ground. She reached for his hand, squeezing it a little, trying to say how it was all she could do, so please, smile.

He looked up at her, blinking, before she let go.

"…Do you want to go for breakfast now?"

"…Sure."

12. in a good mood

Tsubasa was in good spirits. His walk had a jaunty step to it and his hat was askew, perched loosely on his head. He whistled a little bit as he dug his hands further into his pockets.

Today was a good day.

"Tsubasa!"

Thwack.

"Uwa—mmph!" he cried as her fist sent him kissing the ground face-first. "What, Misaki?!"

"Aren't you forgetting something?" she said pointedly, glaring at him with her hands on her hips.

He started to grin nervously. "Ah…"

"So if you remember, shouldn't you go and take care of it now?"

He rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Um…yes?"

His anxious grin only widened until she finally left.

Tsubasa sighed ruefully. If she was in a good mood, things were just fine. If not…

He sweatdropped again.

13. excessive chain

Studying was boring. So was homework. Especially stupid ridiculous math homework with crazy problems written by the school.

'If a lock with a width of 5 inches, a depth of 1.5 inches, and a height of 6 inches is wrapped around by a chain with each link being ½ an inch long and the entire chain wrapping around the lock 8 times, and if you have a fire Alice that burns through the metal at a rate of 1 inch per second, how long would it take you to burn through the chain and the lock?'

Depends on if you're Natsume being a little glaring boy or not, he wanted to write. And he might've been able to get away with it too. Maybe. Well, yes, maybe.

But really, it was an insanely ridiculous problem. And he had at least 17 more of them to finish by tomorrow. The school passed them off as "real-life applications," but no one, especially the only fire Alice at the school he could think of, would bother with such calculations.

He flopped backwards onto the bed, putting the book to good use by draping it over his face. "This is stupid," he mumbled through the pages.

"You're going to have to do it anyway," Misaki replied, prodding her own math textbook with a pencil. "They weren't that bad…just…stupid."

He sighed, voice muffled by the book. "Once this class is over, I can't wait to kiss this thing goodbye."

"Yep."

14. radio-cassette player

With nothing to do on such a Saturday afternoon, they stayed in his room. He lay sprawled on the bed, leaving his hat on his face and to all appearances seeming to be asleep. She sat at his desk, playing with the little radio that she constantly forgot to take back with her whenever she left.

He'd have to remind her about that sometime. Then again, leaving it there meant she had to come to his room whenever she wanted to use it, so he didn't really mind it all that much. Not that he'd admit it to her, and not that that detail ever occurred to her.

Tsubasa heard the click of a dial, a burst of static, and finally the beginning of a rock song. What was it, one of Reo's? It sounded familiar. Since he heard no more fiddling and the song continuing without a break, he guessed she didn't mind the music. It was the standard fare of broken hearts and unrequited kisses, nothing new. Though, he had to admit, the bass line in this one wasn't all that bad.

Misaki started humming it, and it'd probably grow into full-fledged singing soon, he thought. The boy started to grin. It wasn't that she was a bad singer or anything – far from, really – but the irony of the song was getting to him. He laughed silently to himself.

"What's so funny? Is my singing that bad?"

Even though he couldn't see her, he thought she was glaring, growing slightly nervous (and reasonably so) because of it. "Of course not! It's good, it really is!"

He sat up and his hat fell off of his head, but she had her back to him. As though she never glared at him, he thought, wincing a little bit. "You have no appreciation for music that sounds good, you know that?"

Though he wanted to make a strong retort, he flopped back onto the bed instead. He'd prove to her that he appreciated more than she thought – some other day.

15. perfect blue

Misaki's not sure why she likes blue so much, really. After all, there are many possible reasons for it. Aesthetically, it's not as bland as the neutral colors, it's not as feminine as pink or purple, it's more flexible than orange or green.

Tsubasa's hair is blue. So are his eyes. It's easy for her to recall how it's reflected in his eyes. Dark, moody blues when she finds him depressed, though it doesn't really happen any more; blue bordering on purple when he smirks and is so damn full of himself.

An extra tint of bright turquoise somewhere when his face lights up, sometimes when he sees her and greets the elementary schoolers. The beautiful shining blue when he puts on the charm as if he doesn't even realize he's doing it.

Blue like the ocean, blue so deep it sucks her in, blue that enraptures her when he draws close and keeps her from pulling away.

She doesn't really believe in waxing poetic about him or eye colors or anything else in the world for that matter, though. So she forgets about it.

Once in a while, a thought comes up along the lines of 'maybe you like blue so much because of him.' And then she thinks about it and almost believes it, until he does something so big and so stupid and so Tsubasa that she sighs or deals with whatever he caused. And then she forgets, and it doesn't really come to mind until the next time it occurs to her.

But sometimes, she looks at him and almost drinks in his expressions and the way his eyes look in the light and she starts thinking again. Blue is definitely his color, without a doubt. It's perfect for him. It is him.

And then he'll blink, and she'll blink, and he's back to smiling easily and she's back to being herself, and life goes on perfectly fine and normal, as blue and pink and multicolored as ever.

--l--

I don't really want to know where some of my ideas come from, like for 11 and 13 and so on. Well, 11's from that whole dark theory about Tsubasa, and 13 is just a pile of crack and I must've done it during a stupid math class, and stuff like that.

This gets updated really, really slowly. At this rate, it'll take me a year to finish. I write them and all, but I just never get to posting and editing them because I am lazy. Gonna change that. Well, school might get in the way. Sorry.

Major thanks to Dex, the beta, and comments and reviews are always very appreciated no matter what. Writers like reviews and all that, etc, etc, and thanks for the last ones.