Sorry about how sporadic my chapter lengths are. Don't really think about length when I type it. I just type until I feel like it's good to start a new chapter. I have a few stories that have, like, 20-word chapters. Slender Threads hasn't had that quite yet, though. But I make no promises x3

Okay, so someone asked this, and since I'm too lazy to reply directly, I'll tack it on here.

So, to everyone - but mostly APlaceForUs: Yes, I do have a dA. Don't expect much, since I don't have a scanner right now, but it's .com/. Right now it's mostly me and my desktop, since I change it so freakin' much. It's pretty pathetic. So, sorry.

Lots o' love,

kyo

I woke up to a little black crane.

It was early, considering there were no classes. But I'd set my alarm early so I could catch up on the studying I'd missed when I visited Matt's house. I stared at the origami crane, wondering why it played at a memory I couldn't quite draw out of the waters of drowsiness. It took me a few minutes before I remembered a few days prior, during lunch, Matt toying with a colourful crane that had been an invite.

I carefully plucked the paper bird off my night stand to carry it out with me, into the living room. "Matt?" I called into the quiet house. The TV was off, which made me question whether or not he was even awake. But as soon as I caught a glance at the living room, I gasped. "Wh-what the hell, Matt?" I covered my mouth, cradling the little black crane against my chest.

"Hm?" He glanced up at me from his seat on the couch. He was literally almost buried in paper cranes. All different colours spilled off the couch and across the floor so I could hardly even enter the room, and there was no way I'd make it to Matt. My eyes scanned the birds until I was pretty sure the one in my hands was the only black one.

"What on Earth is all this...?"

"I woke up early... and suddenly wanted to," he answered, his hidden eyes watching his fingers crease a sheet of pink paper. "Mello, did you know? It's a Japanese legend that if you make one thousand paper cranes your deepest wish will come true." He smiled a little.

"A... thousand?" I murmured.

"Hm. I'm only on 679, though."

"S-six?! When did you wake up?!"

He mussed his hair. "I dunno. One o'clock, I guess."

"You've been doing this for 5 hours?" He didn't answer. Instead he started on crane number 680. "This one?" I asked, holding up the black crane. He glanced up.

"It's counted," he answered. I stared at him. "It was the first one. I only had one sheet of black origami paper. I thought... it reminded me of Mello, so...." He ducked his head, watching his fingers make a green bird. "S-sorry for going into your room without permission."

"Jeez, you...." I muttered, trying to clear a path towards the couch. "What the hell could you be wishing for?" I sighed. He flushed a familiar shade of red. I finally made it to the couch. "Can I sit?" I asked, eyeing the mountain of birds cautiously.

"O-oh!" His hands fluttered nervously before he swept his arm across the couch, pushing the fragile paper to the ground. I carefully curled myself up in the spot he'd cleared away, pulling my feet up so I wouldn't step on any of the cranes. I looked down at the birds, holding my little black one closer. Matt handed me an orange square.

"N-no. It wouldn't count. It's your wish." I shook my head.

"... You don't know how?" he assumed. I gritted my teeth, looking away. "Want me to show you?"

"No," I bit. "When is that sort of stupid thing gonna come in handy? This isn't impressive, you know. All this is just a waste of time. When you can remember exactly which one they are, then I'll be impressed. So what number is this?" I scooped a green crane off the floor and held it in his face. There were tons more just like it.

Instead of looking at the crane, he watched me for a long time. I felt my brows pull together. His eyes flashed to the green bird then. "Number 76. I mis-folded it by .3 centimeters," he answered. I blinked. He smiled a little. "But I'll only be able to remember all of them by the mistakes that I made. It's a little sad, I think," he added. "I'll never look at a single one of them and think 'this one is perfect, so it must be number something.' Every one of them is messed up in some way." I hid the black bird in my chest, the folds of my black shirt trying to cover it. "Black, though," he continued, "is a colour that's very good at hiding its faults. It's hard to see where you messed up because the black blotches it out. As long as you don't mess up too badly, black is the closest you'll get to looking perfect." There was a pause, and Matt continued folding the paper. "Besides, I didn't do it to be impressive. I did it for a desire."

"You really think if you make a thousand of these your wish will come true?" I mumbled.

"It'd be nice if it were true," he answered.

"Don't you think the obvious answer would be to make what you want a reality on your own?" I huffed.

"That's easy for people like you, Mello. You're outgoing and know how to take what you want and to swallow fear. But I'm not like that. I lose my voice when I need it most and recoil from difficult tasks. It's different for us."

"Then let me help!" I pouted. "Just tell me what you want."

"In my own way, I already have." He smiled.

"Well then, be more straight-forward!" I bit.

He laughed. "See, that's why we're different. Mello's like the colour black. Simple, forward; with no hidden agenda or underlying uncertainties. Everything's coherent," he murmured, starting a new crane.

"Then what does that make you?" I tsked. There was a pause as Matt skillfully folded the crane, then held it up to me.

"I'm like the colour white," he answered, I stared at the white bird. The polar opposite of black. I knew Matt and I were different, but I never knew he thought we were quite that different. "White's easy to see through and full of shadows. The way it looks changes with the lighting, and its mistakes are easy to see because it's so light that shadows will darken all the faults."

"Is that how you see yourself?" I murmured, watching him throw the bird like a plane. It glided a little, but quickly landed with the others.

"You disagree?" He asked, starting a red one.

"Yeah. I mean, if you really think that you have all those qualities, fine. But I think you'd be a different colour with the same qualities, at the very least." I shrugged.

"Oh?" He chuckled.

"Like yellow. Something full of will."

He looked up. "Well, I wasn't analyzing it through colour meaning. Then yellow would be anticipation, white would be pure and black would be... would be death, after all. I wasn't really thinking of that sort of meaning. Really, I was just doing a paper vs. human analysis."

"Yellow," I repeated.

"Ah...." he sighed.

"... So what is your wish?"

"I won't say it," he promised.

"Asshole," I answered, carefully walking around all the birds. "I'm going to study," I added, making my way back to my room.

"Yeah. I'll be here. Want me to make breakfast?" He mused. I glanced back at him. "I'll bring it in to you," he added, but he wasn't looking at me.

"Yeah, okay," I answered.

I have about 130 paper cranes and I think they'd sufficiently cover a loveseat, so.... And yes, I was gonna try for 1,000 cranes, but I ran out of origami paper and never got any more.