Drabbles

Erm... Hi. As you may or may not have noticed (or cared), I've recently changed my username from Falconrok5, to Cedarx. Just wanted to clear up any confusion on that subject.

In any case, I decided to do something a bit different on this chapter. As an exercise in writing discipline, I've limited myself, in words, for each drabble keyword. I asked a few of my friends to come up with random lists of ordinary objects, and wrote a short scene, or drabble, around each. Another friend gave me my limitations, in a 1-1-2-2-3-3 format. Basically, that means that the first and second keywords would get 100-word scenes, the third and fourth 200 each, and the fifth plus sixth, 300 each.

See? It's "limited". That's why the chapter title has "limited" edition in its name. I know, I made a joke. I'd prefer you laugh with me though, as opposed to at me.

Each of the scenes, excluding the title, are exactly that many words long. Don't bother checking it on a word-counter though; I've screened this through both MS Word, and OpenOffice, and they both gave me conflicting statistics. For example, in a scene where OpenOffice lists 200 words, Word might list 194. It's annoying, really. I used OpenOffice in the end as my standard.

Anyway, I realized, when I wrote this, how truely difficult it is to write a decent fluff scene- or a scene at all- in the span of, say, 100 words. My muse went into a tantrum at the end of the drabble, out of pure frustration, for wasting so many story ideas on this word-limited chapter. So, in a rare act of rebellion, it forced my hand, and caused me to create a special, bonus, 500-word drabble in place of the 300-word one I had originally planned. Not much, but it was an improvement.

The keywords are, in order, Poptart, Ceiling, Chocolate, Lamp Post, Umbrella, and Painting.

As always, enjoy.

-Cedarx

Poptart

I entered the clubroom one day, and realized that Nagato was staring at a toaster. A shiny, silver toaster.

That's new.

She looked up at me,.

"... When did we get a toaster?"

"I bought it," was Nagato's concise reply.

Okay...

"And... why did you buy the toaster?"

The toaster answered for her. With a cheerful ding, a poptart flew out of the toaster, straight into Nagato's outstretched hand.

"Interesting..." the girl murmured quietly, staring at the pastry in her hand, "why do you humans call it a toaster, when this is clearly not toast...?"

Ceiling

"Why... do human dwellings have ceilings?" Yuki looked at me questioningly

Heh?

"It does not make any logical sense," she finished.

"But it's better if the weather out there-" I pointed to the gusting wind, "-were kept out."

Nagato said nothing, but walked out. I followed, and we exited the building.

The wind ruffled a few wisps of her hair, dark clouds overhead.

The atmosphere was breathtaking, ethereal- perfect.

Without thinking, I leaned in, and brushed my lips on her forehead. She closed her eyes slowly, and opened them again.

I smiled.

Yuki was always right.

Chocolate

I shivered, snow falling around me.

The snow wasn't why I was shivering; today was Valentine's day, and I've taken the liberty of buying some chocolates for a particular resident alien.

I was very nervous though- I hoped she would see the Valentine's day spirit in all of this. There was only one way to find out.

Spotting her from afar, I walked over to Yuki, who was standing near the front gates of the school, holding a snowflake in her hands. I smiled as I approached, and hoped for the best.

"Hello, Nagato."

She glanced up, and tilted her head wordlessly.

"Here. I got this for you," and with that, I held out the box of chocolates.

"..."

Yuki took it wordlessly, and looked at it for a long second.

"Chocolate. An aphrodisiac. Made of pressed cocoa beans. Used as a gift in human courting."

I sighed. She got the spirit- just not in the way I expected

So I thought- until Yuki unexpectedly handed me the snowflake she had been holding, which was surprisingly solid, and heavy.

Then, she turned and left.

I blinked, and peeled away the foil wrapping on the snowflake.

Chocolate.

Lamppost

"... and that, class, concludes today's grammar lesson. Your homework is on the board. Class dismissed."

Kyon glared at the assignment. There was no way he would be able to finish any homework with all the activities Haruhi had planned today.

Just another sleepless night, I suppose... he thought, dispirited.

That evening, as a worn-out Kyon walked his bike home, he spotted Yuki sitting a familiar park bench.

Yuki looked up questioningly, as he approached.

Kyon suddenly realized how tired he looked. He gave a half-hearted chuckle, and waved her curious gaze off.

"Don't worry, Nagato; it's just some homework I still have to do. It's nothing."

Yuki tilted her head to the side.

"May I help?"

Kyon shrugged and wordlessly handed over his textbook. Yuki flipped it open, and glanced at the instructions of the first assignment.

Pick an object around you, and use four(4) adjectives to describe it. List below.

Yuki glanced sideways, and noticed the lamppost beside her.

"I choose a lamppost," she murmured, then continued in a clear voice.

"Thick. Hard. Long. Firm."

She turned back, expectantly, just in time to catch the sight of Kyon collapsing on to the ground.

Umbrella

It was raining. Hard.

Kyon winced at he looked out the window. He didn't relish the thought of walking home in this weather. It was at that moment when Nagato closed her book shut. They were the only two left in the clubroom, with one black umbrella in the stand.

Kyon glanced at Nagato.

"..."

A few minutes later, both of them were walking under the cover of the umbrella. They walked silently; it was a comfortable silence.

The wind rushed past in a flurry of sleet and hail. Kyon tightened his arm, wrestling with the gust for dominance over the thin umbrella. Nagato did not seem to be bothered by the weather- the wind only rustled her hair, and she seemed to repel rain.

The pair walked for a few more minutes before Kyon spoke up.

"Nagato... I was wondering..."

She did not reply. Kyon took that as his cue to continue.

"There's a difference between being expressionless, and being emotionless. As a data entity, which one of those are you?"

"I am capable of no emotion," was her immediate reply.

"Oh," Kyon looked slightly crestfallen, "so... you wouldn't be able to feel any emotion, such as... I don't know... love- correct?"

"Correct."

"Oh."

The pair walked on, and Kyon had another thought.

"But as an emotionless entity, is it possible for you to lie? Not like, lie to protect your mission, of course, but- whoa!"

The wind picked up, and blew the flimsy umbrella straight out of Kyon's hand. Cursing, he ran after it, the wind at his back, racing to catch up to the flying object.

A drop of water fell on to Yuki's cardigan.

"Yes," she replied inaudibly, face hooded by shadow, "I can lie."

Painting

"Okay, Brigade members. Artsy up! If we don't win this contest, I'm ordering Kyon to do one thousand push-ups with a canvas on his back. Let's go!"

This sunny Saturday, Haruhi had managed to gather all her members into the school art festival. And, as usual (, ignoring Kyon's protests of abuse), she proceeded to happily start brushing..

After several seconds arguing with an oblivious Haruhi, Kyon heaved a sigh, and gave up.

What's the use...? One of us better win, or I think I'll go hide under a rock for the next three years... he thought darkly.

Glancing around, Kyon noticed that all the other members had already started. Koizumi and Asahina-san were picking out brushes, and Nagato was staring at her paint set with a faintly inquisitive look.

So, with a shrug, Kyon picked up a brush and began mixing paints.

One hour later...

Kyon wiped away a few droplets of sweat off his forehead, and looked at his work with complete and utter dejection. There was no way his abomination could ever be passed off as art. After the hour limit, Kyon had successfully painted a grand total of: One squiggly stick figure, one pointy green rectangle posing as a field of grass, and one wet, blue watermark pretending to be the sky.

And an oddly-shaped cloud. But that was, pathetically enough, purely accidental.

Koizumi had an array of obscure shapes and lines on his canvas, using almost every color in the visible spectrum, as well as two in the invisible spectrum. Every specific hue of green, red, and purple was scratch-and-sniff. It was abstract.

Asahina-san had managed to stroke out a timid-looking sunflower on her canvas, complete with a purple backdrop. It was smiling at the world.

Haruhi created a perfect replica of The Last Supper.

Upside down.

Using color negatives.

Kyon eyebrow twitched.

Life isn't fair...

Then, out of curiosity, he leaned over to Nagato's canvas, and glanced at her creation.

It was a blank canvas. Or, more specifically, it was a blank white canvas, totally glossed over with black paint. Now it was a blank black canvas.

Kyon blinked.

"Eh... Nagato. You do know how to paint- right?"

Nagato nodded.

"..."

"Do... you want me to help you mix paints?"

Nagato blinked, and nodded a slow yes.

"Great. Now-"

"KYON. Get over here- they've started judging!"

With an apologetic look, Kyon laid the paint set back in Nagato's arms, and headed off.

Yuki stared after him for a moment.

Then she set down the paint set, and lifted the black canvas to reveal the artwork underneath.

It was an intricate portrait of Kyon, painted from Yuki's point of view, looking down, dejectedly, at his own creation.

Yuki ran a finger over the edge of that scene, a pensive look in her eyes.

The wind blew gently through her hair.

"..."

Then, she quickly pulled the black canvas over the picture, and left, following Kyon towards the excited Haruhi.

Thanks for reading. A shoutout to my whimsical, easily-distracted, surprisingly-blunt, and all-around awesome Beta, Integrated Data Thought Entity

I'll start another chapter as soon as my muse is on speaking terms with me again. Until then,

-Cedarx