Duran-kun and Kiyo-chan's Omake Theater
(featuring the Kuga-Fujino family pets)
In general, Natsuki and Shizuru were compatible people. This wasn't much of a surprise; they were in love, after all. It would only be expected that they would have many things in common, and where they differed it was often in that "opposites attract" sense where they complemented and suited one another: Shizuru's social deftness helping to cover for Natsuki's impatience, or Natsuki's forthright directness dealing with Shizuru's tendencies towards keeping her emotions bottled up.
There were, of course, the minor hiccups that came with living with another person, the little things that turn into irritants if one isn't careful to avoid interpreting them as a lack of concern for one's feelings. Things like Shizuru leaving her underwear on the bathroom floor or Natsuki not cleaning out the microwave after heating some unhealthy instant meal as a midnight snack. But those could be dealt with, worked on as the two of them learned how to share their lives. And, over time, they managed to deal fairly well with most of those issues.
But there was one area in which no matter how much love, consideration, and tolerance they extended, two hearts were never going to meet: music.
Shizuru was a woman of classical tastes. This included both Western classical (she was particularly fond of the Baroque period) and traditional Japanese musical styles, even extending as far as twentieth-century enka. On occasion, she even would listen to the mellower strains of classic jazz for a change of pace. It was a good bet, though, that if you had to plug an instrument in, she wanted no part of it.
Natsuki, on the other hand, pretty much figured the only good acoustical instrument was a drum. Her idea of classical foreign music wasn't Bach or Vivaldi; it was Led Zeppelin.
This pretty well meant that if one of them wanted to put on music that the other one would be anywhere from bored into sleep to nails-on-a-blackboard annoyed. Of course, there were always headphones, but that didn't work too well when they actually wanted to talk with each other.
"It is rather vexing," Shizuru remarked one evening. She was stretched out on the couch, her head in Natsuki's lap. The younger girl raised her book so she could look down at her girlfriend.
"What is?"
"Well, here I am, curled up and snuggly with you, and I can't put on any music to relax with."
"...I do have to get this book finished for class tonight," Natsuki pointed out.
"Yes, that's exactly my point! If I were to put on a song, it would disturb Natsuki's concentration."
Natsuki refrained from pointing out that talking to her was equally likely to break that concentration.
"You could always pop in your earbuds," she noted, but this just drew a pout from Shizuru.
"They're kind of troublesome if I want to lie on my side. And besides! That doesn't get to the heart of the problem. Natsuki, the soundtrack of our romance is silence!"
"Okay, I admit it cuts down on the chances we have to go out dancing—"
"And I am quite certain that we'll never be able to suddenly realize that they're playing our song, as we don't have one."
"We could get Mai to pick one for us the next time she drags us off to karaoke?"
"Natsuki!"
She chuckled.
"I'm sorry. It's just...I don't see what the big deal is. It's kind of annoying, sure, but I'm not dating you for the music. And it just seems silly to get hung up on something like that."
"Ikezu. Natsuki does not have a romantic bone in her body."
"Hey, I brought you flowers yesterday and I wasn't even groveling over something."
Shizuru's lips curled into a sly smile. "That you did, and every time I look at them I imagine how cute you must have been, becoming all flustered as you bought them. I wonder if Natsuki or the roses was a brighter red?"
"H-hey!" Natsuki stammered at her girlfriend's all-too-accurate point. In fact, she felt the warmth in her cheeks that told her that she was starting to illustrate that point. While Shizuru looked up at her and giggled, she tried to pull the conversation back in its original direction. "Look, I'm trying to say that we've got romantic stuff going on because we're in love. Okay, maybe I'm not all that great at it, but I'm working on it. And you're, um, trying to cut back on the teasing when we're talking about serious stuff. Sometimes. Right? So maybe in a year or two we'll have built up our tolerance and can listen to each other's favorite music without yawning or reaching for the barf bag. But even if that never happens, you'll always be the one that's most precious to me."
"Oh, Natsuki!" Shizuru's eyes were so bright that they seemed to be shining like a pair of...stop lights. Or something. And maybe in a year or two I'll be better at coming up with romantic similes, Natsuki thought, even she recognizing that traffic signals were not the best comparison for her sweetheart's anatomy.
Especially since the color might be red, but she was pretty sure that the signal they were sending was "go."
"Besides, it could be a lot worse, as far as music goes," she said, and pointed over at Kiyohime. The hydra was sprawled out on her purple pillow, relaxing. Each of her six heads had its own iPod, buds plugged into the external ear sockets behind her crest (except for the second head, which preferred traditional headphones). "I mean, at least you only have to deal with me not liking your favorite stuff. Just think how annoying it would be if your ears got into a fight with each other."
~X X X~
A/N: Clearly, this story takes place relatively early on after Shizuru and Natsuki moved in together. Snakes, of course, do not have external ears, but I've established pretty firmly in these stories that Kiyohime can hear just fine, and she'd probably be offended if I called her a snake. Looking at various images and artwork of her, it's clear that when her crests are elevated, there's a noticeable indentation on the side of her neck just behind the jaw (I actually think it's where the neck joint is, but hey), so I've decided for practicality's sake that that's an ear. Because it's just too cute to have Kiyo-chan wearing headphones!