Meme: 10 Songs, 10 Drabbles

Theme: Memori & Yuuki

Source: Game x Rush

Genre: Gen/Multiple (Romantic, Platonic, A/U, ect)

01. Everytime We Touch, Cascada

'What does it mean to miss someone?'

Memori had no idea, and that was probably just another example of how his life - strange as it was - didn't actually suck. He'd never really had to miss anyone, not anyone who mattered: His parents had retired, but he still saw them. Himiko-san was over almost every day. And God knew that Ken wasn't going anywhere any time soon.

Memori didn't remember his birth parents at all, and he knew that was for the best even after he actually had to remember them.

But now...

Memori couldn't help dwelling, even as he firmly told himself to stop acting like a lovesick schoolgirl or a character in a shoujo manga, which he most definitely was not. But Yuuki had been gone for a year now, and although he hadn't been in Memori's life for long, it still felt as though there was something very important now gone from the world.

Which was stupid, of course; Yuuki wasn't dead or anything, he was just gone. Finding yourself, or whatever one did when one walked the earth. He'd be back sometime, that Memori had to believe: He couldn't make himself consider that maybe Yuuki was gone for good.

There'd been a reason for them to meet, after all. So, Yuuki couldn't stay gone forever.

Yuuki would show up again someday, probably at the exact moment that no-one thought he would, and Memori would be able to get on with his life without that nagging feeling of something still being awry.

Missing someone is never admitting that they're truly gone.

02. Metal Man, Made of Metal, Hyadain

All that he needed was Yuki-san.

Obviously.

Since he'd been nine years old, and he'd realized that he just couldn't live in that house anymore, and Yuki-san had saved him-

Well, that was it, wasn't it? He'd been in love with her for almost a decade, and that wasn't going to change, no matter how many pretty girls threw themselves at him while he was around town, whichever town they were in at the time.

His heart, for whatever it was worth, belonged to Yuki-san... Even if it would always been in secret, even from her.

Besides, these girls didn't love Yuuki; they loved the idea they saw in him, the smiles and the laughter and the kind eyes. They should be grateful that he left them before they could find out the truth, and have the pretty image of their 'blond prince' smashed into bitter pieces.

Yuuki didn't need anyone but Yuki-san.

He'd thought at first that was why he liked Memori-chan, because the guy looked so much like Yuki-san. But in the end, that too turned out to be only a surface resemblance: Where Yuki-san was gentle and loving and kind, Memori-chan was short-tempered and humorless and prone to punching Yuuki in the face (never mind if Yuuki returned the favor).

Where Yuki-san's heart was filled with that quiet madness, Memori-chan was a truly stainless person, and his hands were clean.

Not like Yuki-san at all.

Not like Yuuki, either.

In the end, Yuuki figured that he probably loved Memori-chan for everything that he was, and mostly for everything that Memori wasn't.

03. The Trail We Blaze, Elton John

[Oh god, I can't believe we're doing this...]

The pilot looked back, glancing at the man who was now muttering to himself in Japanese; behind his goggles, an eyebrow rose, and the man's companion grinned and waved it off.

"Don't mind him," said the blond. "He just doesn't like trying new things."

The first man glared, then seemed to resist punching the second in the arm, restraining himself to a perfectly-understandable "Shut up, Yuuki."

"See?" Yuuki shrugged with a smile. "He'll be fine. Hey, will we make it to the summit before nightfall? We're gonna have a hike ahead of us, you know."

The helicopter dropped both passengers off at the top of the mountain, lowering the men and their gear to the thick green carpet before taking off again. Yuuki saluted as the 'copter pulled up and out of sight, shrinking in size and disappearing, and then he turned to Memori, who was already shrugging into his backpack.

"I told you it wouldn't be that bad, Memori-chan."

Memori glared, already half-regretting his decision to come along on Yuuki's latest world-traveling jaunt.

If you're gonna disappear again, don't think I'm not coming with you!

... And it had seemed like such a good idea at the time, too.

"Let's just get down to the base camp," said Memori, trying hard to remain scowling. "And then we'll see how bad this is really going to be."

04. Check Yes, Juliet, We The Kings

It was incessant, that irritating sound. Not like cicadas, but like...

Something against the window.

... Dammit.

Memori shoved off his covers and crawled out of the futon, standing up and opening the window. One hand shot out and caught the pebble a moment before it passed into the room, and looking down Memori could see blond hair turning gold in the light of the streetlamps.

"... What're you doin' here?"

Yuuki frowned, almost a pout; with a handful of pebbles still ready to be thrown, he whined "Memori-chan, what a way to greet me! After three years!"

"Yeah," snorted Memori, "Three years after you left. I didn't say you could come back to wake me up at midnight."

"But you did say I could come back, right?"

A pause, and Memori - looking down from the second floor - couldn't help but grin. It was all he could do not to laugh, because right now Yuuki reminded him more like a puppy than a once-killer, even though the intervening years had made Yuuki taller than ever.

'But a puppy's still a puppy, isn't it?'

"You're too old now to pull off that sad puppy face," commented Memori, and he was shrugging into a jacket as from below, Yuuki's complaints drifted up through the summer night:

"Now I'm a dog again? What's with you people turning me into animals, Memori-chan?"

05. Just The Girl, The Click 5

'This probably isn't normal, is it?'

The question was purely rhetorical, partially because there was no-one else around and partially because Yuuki already knew the answer.

No, there was nothing normal about having the person you liked push you off the balcony into the shrubbery in the midst of your romantic serenade.

Then again, there probably wasn't much normal about deciding to sing Watashi no Tamagoyaki in the middle of the night outside your shared motel-room anyway.

'Still,' thought Yuuki, disentangling himself from the sheared-off branches, 'you'd think Memori-chan would have a bigger appreciation for music.'

A grin tugged at his lips as he got to his feet, brushing snapped-off twigs and stray leaves from his clothing. On the other hand, the fall hadn't been high... And it had totally been worth it for the look on Memori's face.

A soft crush of grass made Yuuki turn, and Memori plucked a withering leaf from Yuuki's hair with an equally withering look.

"What've we learned, huh?" queried Memori, not looking at all hypothetical. "Anything about not doing stupid things in the middle of the night?"

"Aw, Memori-chan," grinned Yuuki, "can't you at least call it romantic?"

"NO CHANCE IN HELL!"

... But even so, the faint pink in Memori's cheeks convinced Yuuki that it had been worth the trouble.

06. Hajimari no Kaze, Hirahara Ayaka

Everyone involved - that is, Ken and Himiko-san and Sayako - knew that Yuuki had left; Sayako would have guessed it anyway, even if Himiko hadn't told her.

None of them knew that Yuuki was writing, to Memori anyway, and Memori kept it that way for reasons he couldn't exactly define.

It made him feel better, though, knowing that Yuuki was still out there- Probably as infuriating as ever, and as annoying, and...

Well, Memori figured that it was good to know that Yuuki was still alive. Even if he was annoying. And even if he didn't write all that much to begin with.

In truth, all Memori got were postcards, sent irregularly, of places and dates far-flung from sub-urban Japan. The locations were strange, and all over the map: New York City, Belize, Munich, New Zealand, Zimbabwe. Sometimes Memori thought he'd have a heart-attack reading those things, especially the ones that had a casual 'Oh, and don't worry about the civil war'-like byline scrawled in. Memori had been counting the number of times he'd have to smack Yuuki once the other got back.

But the postcards made Memori feel better, even if they really shouldn't have. Yuuki was still out there; Yuuki was still planning to come back. Even though that shouldn't have made Memori feel better, it did.

Ridiculously so.

And sometimes, Ken or Sayako would remark that Memori was being stupidly happy around the office.

And Himiko would smile, doing research on something or other.

And one day in Egypt, Yuuki would sit in a Cairo bar and read a telegram that had been sent from Japan, one which made him smile.

All it said was "Thank you for keeping your promise."

07. I'm Still Here, Johnny Rzeznik

When he was still a young boy, and already thinking about things that young boys weren't supposed to have to think about, Yuuki used to wonder if he really existed.

Of course, everything existed if people said it existed, because they could name it. So Yuuki had asked Yuki-san.

"Yuki-san, do I... exist?"

And Miyuki had looked at Yuuki with that look of concern in her soft, dark eyes, and she'd stopped doing the dishes to tilt her head at the child and say "Of course you exist, Memori. You're my precious little boy."

And Yuuki had nodded, and Miyuki, satisfied, had gone back to the dishes. And Yuuki, who after all wasn't Memori, figured it meant that he didn't exist. Because Yuki-san had been talking to Memori, who... wasn't him.

No matter how hard he tried to be.

Years passed, and life went on, and the darkness and the cold in Yuuki's heart continued to grow. Every time Miyuki called him by that other name, every time she looked at him with love in her eyes, a little bit of Yuuki died.

Eventually, he thought, everything that was Yuuki would die away. And when that happened, maybe what was left would finally be Memori.

Then he'd really met the real Memori, and the real Yuuki didn't want to fade away anymore.

08. When Somebody Loved Me, Sarah McLaclan

Even after Yuuki had gone to live with Miyuki, he still hadn't been a very social child. He stayed at home, mostly, when he wasn't going to school; and as time passed, he learned to smile and be charming and teachers loved him, but he showed no interest in the other students. He said, of course, that he'd rather be at home with Yuki-san, but...

He'd spent too long being the hated child to forget it so easily.

Until that day, when some weird kid with a dog strapped to his back had jumped off a brick wall and knocked both himself and Yuuki down.

Even though this boy looked just like Yuki-san, that wasn't why Yuuki had fun that day.

He'd never really been able to play with another kid his age, until that day. It was... nice.

It was the happiest day he'd had since Yuki-san had found him.

It would be the happiest day he'd have for a long time.

09. How Crazy Are You?, Meja

Memori hated the beach, absolutely hated it. Possibly it stemmed from childhood trauma, when Ken had pretended to be a sea monster and half-drowned a ten-year-old Memori; possibly it was because Memori typically had all the color of a sheet of paper, and therefore tended to burn rather than tan. Whatever the case, Memori usually made it his mission to avoid sand, surf, and directly sunlight as often as possible.

Which is why, as he huddled under the umbrella and tried to ignore the feeling of clothing sticking to his skin, he cursed his long-latent carelessness which only recently had begun to force him into stupid situations.

Like going to the beach, because Yuuki had shown up on his doorstep with ticket vouchers to the seaside for the whole family.

Like agreeing to watch their spot while everyone ran off to have fun, leaving Memori with no choice but to stay put no matter what.

Like the fact that, from where he was, Memori could literally see nothing but Yuuki and his impromptu beach volleyball game, and the girls mooning over Yuuki's, er...

... Skills.

Yeah.

Memori mentally berated himself for letting his mind wander, refusing to acknowledge that the flush creeping up his cheeks stemmed from anything besides the summer heat. Which naturally made Memori think of his own burning-not-tanning skin. Which wasn't a problem that Yuuki seemed to have, judging by the oh-so-perfect tan that, coupled with the wind-mussed hair now bleaching blond in the sunlight, sent all the girls swooning in perfectly understandable glee-

'OH GOD NO,' was Memori's sudden, aghast halt to that line of thinking. 'Bad bad bad bad-'

He shut his eyes and wished fervently for winter, and was irritated at himself for only being able to half-wish at that.

10. Sakura Kiss, Kawabe Chieko

'I am not in a school manga, I am not in a school manga, I am not in a school manga...'

That was Memori's recurring mantra, the only thing that kept him sane, as one by one the bastions of normalcy were cheerfully knocked aside by one Yuuki Shin.

First, there was the mysterious transfer student... Who turned out, of course, to be Yuuki.

Then, there was the way said student hit it off with everyone, but insisted on calling Memori '-chan', leading the rumor-mill to hit the ground running as though it had been injected with nitro.

And then there'd been the school festivals, the projects, the field-trips, all of which had paired Yuuki with Memori with such regularity that Memori was beginning to think that Yuuki had been bribing or threatening someone on the staff.

It even happened when it didn't make any sense! They were in different grades, after all, and taking different courses, but whenever Memori would ask - irately, at best - what Yuuki was doing there this time, Yuuki would just smile and say:

"It must be fate, right, Memori-chan?"

And then Memori would want to kill him all over again.

Oh, and they were roommates too, of course. That part had... taken some getting used to.

But... not as much as Memori had thought.

Not even when-

Well, maybe now there was some grain of truth to those rumors after all.

Author's Note: All right, so- To those of you who remember me, never fear! My other fics will soon be updated; however, I've been away for quite some time, so the stuff I've written in the interim will be going up first, mostly because I never managed to finish the first round of re-writes due to RL reasons. That said, Game X Rush: Check it out.