Title: Imperfection
Author: Capella Morningside
Theme: #48 - Lamp
Pairing: Tohma Seguchi/Sakano
Genre: General, Slight Fluff
Rating: PG
Words: 712
Warnings: None.
Disclaimer: Don't own it, don't make money from it.
Summary: The lamp has never really worked right, but he keeps it around anyway. Lots of hinting.
It didn't work right. It never had, but for all the time it had malfunctioned it always sat on the corner of his desk, ready to lend a soft, golden glow when the sun went down rather than the harsh overhead, even if it required a bit of a struggle first.
The man at the booth had made it sound like it was the world's greatest discovery-- "The Incredible Switch-less Lamp", he called it. People had crowded around the flashy booth, and Tohma hadn't been interested at all in the first place. Unfortunately, that was a day out of many he'd spent goofing off with Ryuichi, and the singer wouldn't stop bouncing up and down until he was allowed to at least go and look. It was indeed a convenient-looking innovation; a lamp that only required your touch to almost anywhere on its surface to turn it on or off. Some of the models even had three different light intensities it would cycle through with each touch. The blonde was more than ready to walk away after a demonstration, and he did, stepping a few meters back to wait for his companion. It had only been a few minutes before Sakuma came running out of the crowd with a box under each arm.
Needless to say he'd been obligated to accept it. Now that it was bought and paid for, and now that it was now considered a gift and it wasn't at all in his capability to be rude to Ryuichi. Tohma had spent the rest of their time at the market contemplating what to do with it, and eventually his friend answered the question for him with a cheerful suggestion of, "That would look great in your office, no da?"
Ryuichi had been right, it did look good in the office. It was stylish and sleek, modern with a flawless smooth surface, and complimented the other furniture nicely. For about three months Tohma Seguchi and his touch-activated lamp lived in perfect harmony. Then came the day that he finally used it.
He didn't know what had gone wrong. Maybe it had been the long streak of sitting there untouched, but when a very late night came to him and he found himself in his office hours longer than expected, he reached across the desk and gave the sleek metal the most delicate touch imaginable. The lamp fired to life with an explosion of reactions, cycling through all three light intensities, turning off, then cycling again before stopping on the highest one, nearly blinding the company president. He tried again, a little more hesitantly this time, and it repeated the process, this time stopping on the lowest setting.
Tohma was tempted to throw the lamp away, but with Ryuichi coming and going so often around that time he would be sure to notice its absence, and there was nothing the blonde liked about the idea of hurting his dear friend's feelings. So he learned to struggle with it, learned where and how to touch it to make it give a calmer response, and though it was still dysfunctional, he forced himself to co-exist with it. And due to its stylish look and the fact that the second setting was absolutely perfect for late-night working, it was rewarding.
One day, it was none other than Sakano that brought it up: "Sh-shachou, are you aware that... um... that lamp is broken?"
Tohma looked up from his work. "Hm? My lamp?" Aquamarine eyes looking from the nearly cringing producer to the object in question, sitting just inches away. "It's not broken, Sakano-san. It's just a little difficult to work sometimes."
"Perhaps... perhaps you should replace it, with one that works alright?" The dark-haired man's eyes fell to the floor, the usual submissive routine. "I mean, if that's okay with you, Seguchi-san?"
"No. That lamp is very dear to me." He smiled. "It may not be perfect, but I would never replace it." Wordlessly, Tohma brought the conversation to a close by simply returning to his work.
Narrowing his eyes in confusion, Sakano stared at the lamp for a few seconds-- then quietly made an exit with a shy smile on his face.
Author's Note: I recently joined a little community on LiveJournal called 50gravi, and have daringly claimed the pairing of Tohma/Sakano. Since it seems the entire thing will be done as a series (even though I do not intend to do the themes in order) I decided, why not post it here too, just for kicks and to see what others not in the community think? With that, hope you enjoyed. Capella Morningside, signing out.