It's...so short that I wondered right now, "Why did I spend thirty days for this chapter?"

Disclaimer: *cough*aren't mine*cough*

…

Ch 16: Aftermath

"What? Sumthin's wrong with ee-east?"

She cawed, waving her hand frantically. Her robe bounced around, following her crazy movements before flowing backward when she threw herself to the seat. She grumpily pushed aside her bangs, now staring back at her companion with anxiety written all over her face. "Predacious as ever, West…" commented her companion, sipping her tea delicately. "Booo-riing as ever, eh, North…" grunted 'West'.

"West, take a seat properly like a lady…then I might consider providing you with the tidings…" the cup clanged in her fingers. West groaned, acted like a lady? She barely knew how. With another groan, she sat, drawing her knees together and straightened her back.

"Excellent…now Alamere, lend your ears for a while…if you please," she untangled her fingers from the cup, "…It's a mortal issue…"

…

"Who are you and what have you done to J?"

Sanae pushed the ever-staying sunglasses up to its rightful place. The composer stuffed the last cup into the cupboard, turning around, putting on his smile, "This is me, Sanae, in the fles..wait that's impossible… " Joshua wiped the counter, "…in the soul, perhaps?"

Sanae chuckled, "Lame joke, J…" he snatched the rag from Joshua, "…sides, just tell me if ya can't wipe something!" he continued, wiping the counter himself. Joshua sulkily walked away, playing with his locks a few times. The producer grunted, the rag rendered unable to do any more cleaning, more to dirtying his beloved counter. "Hey, J…is there any other rags?" he turned his head, twitching when he caught the composer nodding off.

"Rats…I forgot to ask the blanket whereabouts…" he said, gently slipping a soft pillow between Joshua's head and the cold glass. Joshua shifted uncomfortably, moving the pillow to his contented position and started to snore.

"Times like this reminds me that there's a child inside that smug shell…" he narrowed his eyes, taking a seat for himself. Scent of nicely brewed coffee filled the warm atmosphere, urging to be poured and chugged. A defeated sigh was heard and a sound of legs stomping across the room impatiently echoed.

After a few hot gulp of the dark liquid, he was back at his seat, staring at anything that caught his eyes. A woman dropped her bag, a man running around, toast flung back and forth between his teeth. A girl is playing with a ball, a boy walking his dog. A lot more people come and go, old or young, boy or girl.

"It's beautiful isn't it?"

Sanae rolled his eyes, lips twitched when the sleeping boy, eyes fully opened, stared through the glass. Shadows hid half his face from being observed, "Sometimes, beauties don't see their own sparks…" Joshua wistfully whispered. Slowly, he began to nod off and yet again fall back to his slumber with a low snore.

"Agreed…" a smile spread across his lips

…

Even the thickest clouds in the sky couldn't beat that gloomy look shadowing his face. Classmates irking, teachers asking, Shu constant questioning and all things evil decided to break loose today on one target, his precious head. Or precisely, dear god, it was his brain. A massive headache was poking his skull all day long, slowly chewing what's left of his sanity. As school hours gone by and with small amount of sense he could dig out of his wits, Neku pulled his rucksack, stiffened his lips and left with a rude "Huummph!"

Breezing past the road to his home, the pain cheerily stabbed his head yet again, prodding him to a halt. Massaging his throbbing head, Neku groaned. "What a pain…" he grumbled, still massaging his nearly-explode head.

Since when did I have a permanent headache? The eleven year old muttered under his breath.

Shaking his head in vain hope for the pain to go away, he started to walk again, ignoring curious stares from younger kids passing by. The kids scampered as soon as his sharp glare eyed them. Stumbling and toppling over, he slowly made his way home as silently as he could.

Not that silent though…a low curse passed his mouth

…

Sometimes when Joshua was alone, his eyes automatically rolled to search for something out of the differences in his city. Sanae noticed this, as well as Megumi. A few minutes ago, he even bumped into the obvious wall beside the door. Stunned by his own unusual sloppy action, the composer laughed.

"No offense, but sir, are you head…hurts?" the conductor asked

"No…no…I'm having a little laugh…won't hurt a bit, right?" was his reply

Megumi was left with his jaws formed an 'o' after that.

Hours ago, he spilt a full cup of coffee on the table and without a word, grabbed a clean towel, brushing the whole mess in complete silent. Complete utter silent…

"Are you certain your heads alright, J?" Sanae looked at him

"Yes, I am perfectly fine…" his hands propping the towel

Okay, that's…totally weird…

There's not even a single flaw he has made during this late half years, not once. Following the rules was his top list. Angels don't even bother to speak a thing about the change, as if they already know what has happened.

Probably he's maturing…Sanae pondered, a bit late for his age, though…

…

"I'm done!"

The woman felt a nudge to smack her head. She wondered if it's okay to let her son be. Scolded him once, and he went as far as locked himself inside his room without any food for three days. The last day, he rushed outside his room and threw up in the closet. He suffered a stomachache for a week.

So she stared at her son's leftover, silently took her dishes and plopped it into the sink without thinking of washing them. Snatching her phone, she went straight to her bedroom, taking a little peek to her son's room. Typical, he's scribbling on the wall again, muttering something to himself. Next time, she will have to paint his room's wall into black. Nah, he'll find a white paint to draw again.

It has been months since her husband's disappearing act. He's gone after a business trip to…well, she actually doesn't know where. How she hopes, he could come home and help her with these entire changes she has to face alone.

…

"What is it that you want to talk about?"

Shu pulled down his hood, "…Your attitude?"

Neku snorted, stuffing his hand to the pocket, silently turning up the music volume. His earphone buzzed, adjusting itself to the increasing volume. At least, he could drown away his headache with the music.

…

Seriously, you've gone for a month, and all you could do is write three fricking pages of this story?

(Uhh…Apology?)

….Argh…You're hopeless…

(At least, I'm not inside the mirror…)

…Fine, that was a rant… `_`