Fortuitous Blunders

Yu Kanda

I only ever came to the Laundromat early in the mornings because it meant doing my washing in peace and quiet, with no chance of being disturbed by the loud people of my apartment complex.

However, today there was someone already here.

It was that kid with the white hair and the weird scar who I was pretty sure lived on the same floor as me. He was upset again, too, slowly removing his clothing from the washing machine and dropping it into a basket, his tired silver eyes downcast.

He was a cute and innocent looking kid most of the time, but not right now. Not when he looked so drained and weary.

I knew he wasn't really a kid though, not when we both attended the same Arts College.

Lavi had caught me staring once, and after doing some research -aka stalking-, he'd told me that the beauty was doing a course in music, with his instrument of choice being the piano.

I'd considered asking him out at one point, but then I realised we'd never even spoken before and I had no real reason to approach him.

Still, I knew more about him than I was willing to admit.

Like how no one -save for teachers- ever approached him, and he in turn never approached anyone. He tended to keep to himself.

I also knew he was gay.

I'd seen him hanging out with a guy at the college, and they'd been exchanging light kisses. This had lasted for a week or so, and the next day, he was sitting quietly by himself with his head down trying to hide his puffy red eyes.

This had happened multiple times.

I'd noticed ages ago that his hands were different colours; one was normal, while the other was dark black.

Was that why he couldn't hold down a relationship?

One of the assholes he'd dated was talking about it once, really fucking loudly while there were a shitload of people in the campus' cafeteria. The dipshit had blown it all out of proportion, making it sound as if the kid's hand were the ugliest thing he'd ever seen, and how the white-haired boy was 'such a faker' for hiding it until then\.

I didn't get it then, and I still didn't get it now. So what if his arm was weird? Did it really fucking matter? It was his arm; what effect did it have on anyone else?

If that was how people reacted, no wonder the brat was hiding it.

That didn't stop the kid's reputation from dropping even further.

He seemed aware of it all, too, but made no effort to change anything. He didn't even try.

Instead, he let people walk all over him and what remained of his emotions, keeping everything to himself.

He was a pushover, and that pissed me off.

What he needed was a dose of confidence or something.

I wasn't the person for the job, though. Personally, I was better at tearing people down than bringing them up. That kind of stuff was better left to the Usagi and Lena. They were the empathetic types while I was… me.

Pondering this, I stood by the door of the Laundromat with my bag of dirty clothes, and watched him haul his basket onto a counter on the opposite end of the room.

I'd waited 'til now for him to finish because the washing machine he was using was the best of the lot and there was no way I would ever again use any of the others. Two of them created loud banging noises that made them sound like they were possessed, and the other three took forever-and-a-half to wash, even on a quick cycle.

In short, they were crap.

I knelt down in front of the washer, contemplating lodging another complaint against the owners of Laundromat, when my eyes caught sight of something dark within the machine. Perplexed, I reached in and pulled the dark thing out.

It was soft and soaked, and also made of black lace.

I un-bunched it, revealing that it was, in fact, a thong.

Slowly, I turned my head to look at the kid, who was sifting frantically through his pile of wet clothes.

Standing back up, I stared at the thong again.

There was a lot of string.

Interestingly enough, I could imagine him in it. In it, and wearing nothing else.

I let my lips curl up into a smirk.

It seemed I had a reason to approach him after all.

"Is this yours?"

[end]