Miscellaneous Anime/Manga One-Shots!

all is fair in love and war (AnoHana)

"I think we'd fit well together," Yukiatsu says, idly tossing his apple up and down. "Don't you think?" They're sitting next to one another on the swings at the abandoned playground, the rusty metal creaking with every shift of the uncomfortable plastic seats.

Anaru sighs, scuffing her feet against the damp wood chips. "We've been over this already, Yukiatsu."

It's a warm August night, muggy and swampy. The cicadas chirp, the moon twinkles, and children shriek as they dart back and forth through the sprinklers- the sort of occasion Menma would smile down down upon.

"I'm a very tenacious guy," he quips, cocking his head to the side and smiling his little smile. "Besides, we're both beautiful, so why not?"

"That's not poetic at all," Anaru retorts, twirling a ginger curl between her fingertips. "Don't you have any sense of romanticism? I thought Tsuruko taught you better than that."

"Hm, I thought you'd be a little bit more favorable," Yukiatsu says, pensive, before letting out a bitter chuckle. "No girl would dare refuse me after such blatant flattery."

"Well, I'm not like most girls," she mumbles.

He quiets, eventually murmuring, "You teeter."

Anaru arches a delicate brow at him. "Pardon me?"

"You're puzzling," he says, by way of explanation. "Sometimes you're the little girl who loves anime and games, sometimes you're trivial and selfish and girly, and others...well, it's what you're like when you're with me. But, of course, there's something all parts of you have in common."

"And what would that be?" She's morbidly curious; Yukiatsu has always managed to worm the strangest things out of her.

"You're hopelessly in love with Jinta Yadomi."

They lapse into tense silence.

"But could you ever love me?" Yukiatsu leans in closer, the gaze in his tawny eyes unbearably intense. She just has to look away, her cheeks tinged with pink. "Think about it, Anaru: I'm in love with a ghost, and you...you might as well be."

He smells a little like lemon soap and cheap cologne and sweat.

She's drunk on it, drunk on love and regret and hate.

"Maybe if you tried hard enough," Anaru murmurs.

His lips curls into a smirk.

"We're going out now," Yukiatsu announces before the group, prompt and business-like, slipping his hand into hers on a whim. They're at a Super Peace Busters reunion- a rather rare occurrence now that they've all graduated.

He counters her quizzical look with a prompt squeeze, and she concedes with a little flare of her nostrils, brushing a quick kiss against his cheek.

Even as her lips linger, he can feel her slipping away, can feel her gaze rest on Jintan.

Poppo's jaw goes slack; he freezes in place, spatula in hand, gaping at them in almost comical shock. An acrid burning smell begins to waft from his grill.

"Your sausages," Tsuruko chastises.

He jolts back to reality, letting out a sheepish laugh. "Ah, sorry!"

She turns back to them, lips pursed and eyes steely. It's almost unnerving, the calm way she regards him over her glasses, like those blue, blue eyes are peeling back his mask and exposing him for the raw, ugly person he-

"Congratulations," she eventually says, lifting her cup of tea in toast.

"Yeah, congrats," Jinta echoes, a little bewildered, before managing a half-smile, half-grimace. "It's sort of weird to think about it that way, but...yeah. Good for you guys. Menma would be really happy."