Drabbles are stories based around a particular, abstract theme. Often recognized for their short length, they can easily be read during your coffee break. Hence, I present to you...
100 Theme Drabbles
9. Button
Alicia Blade
543 words
"Motoki-onii-san!" Usagi wailed. The clerk looked up to see her pouting and clutching the front of her blouse in both hands. "Do you have a needle and thread?"
"Somewhere, I think. Why?"
She sighed, a blush tinting her cheeks. "One of my buttons fell off on my walk over." Removing one hand from her blouse, she held up an open palm, revealing a small white button.
Nodding in understanding, Motoki retreated into the stock room, appearing a moment later with a small sewing kit in hand. Taking it gratefully, Usagi scurried to a corner booth and measured a long piece of thread, cut it with her teeth, threaded the needle, and proceeded to shift her gaze from the needle to the button to her blouse, with a growing frown.
That's how Mamoru found her a moment later when he strolled into the arcade, looking forward to their afternoon sparring match.
"Hey, who gave Odango Atama a weapon?" he joked, leaning against the high-backed bench.
Gasping, Usagi quickly clutched at her blouse again before Mamoru could see the skin revealed where the button had popped off. However, she immediately yelped and tore her hands away as she felt the needle pierce the tip of her thumb. Looking down, she noticed a tiny droplet of blood.
Mamoru noticed it, too, and a wave of guilt crashed against him. Cringing, he slid onto the bench beside her. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," he said, taking a napkin from the dispenser and wrapping it around her thumb. She only glared at him and, with her free hand, gathered up the material of her shirt again. "What were you doing, anyway?" Mamoru asked.
"Nothing," she spat.
He quirked an eyebrow, looking down at the forgotten button on the table.
Rolling her eyes, Usagi pulled her hand away from his, holding the napkin tightly in her fist. "I was just about to sew on a button that fell off, jerk. Why do you have to be so nosy?"
"Didn't look like you were getting very far."
"Oh, shut up."
"Do you want help?"
"Not from you."
"Have you ever sewed anything before?"
"I think I can figure it out, dimwit."
Grinning lopsidedly, Mamoru took the needle and button in one hand and gingerly pried Usagi's fingers away from her shirt. Despite her paranoia of saving her modesty, it was only the second button that had fallen off and revealed hardly any more skin at the base of her neck than one normally saw there. Mamoru chuckled and, before Usagi could protest, began to sew on the little white button.
"Honestly, Odango, you'll make a great housewife someday," he murmured sarcastically, still smiling.
Usagi, who had been gawking at Mamoru's efficiency with the tiny needle, drew her brow down. "Just throw you in a pink apron, and you would, too, baka."
Laughing, Mamoru tied off the thread and pulled the affixed button through its hole, tapping it gently against Usagi's sternum. "You just want to see me in an apron."
"You just want to see me as a housewife!"
They both paused, the bickering dying as they recognized what the other had insinuated. Their eyes clashed awkwardly for a moment, before color flooded their cheeks and they laughed.