do you like it, do you like it when i'm shy this way?
This was a blatant excuse for me to write boylove-with-sort-of-there-plot. :D I hold full responsibility for--first and foremost--any spelling errors. Next: breaking down language barriers without explanation, putting fluff where it should not be put in such settings, Japanese Boys that Play With Your Heart, soccer balls and piano scores that hit you in the head, kisses full of apple pie--and, as it always is with 
1sentence, the complete abuse of punctuation.
title: piano boy or perpetual motion in sixteenth notes
rating: generally PG-13
pairing: Matsuo Takakira x Piano Boy
summary: Matsuo falls, runs, jumps, and falls again.
warnings: Uh, you never learn Piano Boy's name. All other warnings expressed in my little ditty above.
01 - Comfort
“There, there,” whispers Takaishi to Matsuo, holding his injured ankle like a piece of broken glass, “you crybaby-you’ll be fine, I promise.”
02 - Kiss
Together, they hobble through deserted corridors to the almost-vacant nurse’s office (the plus of having soccer practise so late into the afternoon), where outside the door Takaishi places his lips carefully on Matsuo’s forehead and says okay, you made it, sucker, go on in and get fixed.
03 - Soft
The agitated nurse mumbles something about twenty children having the same injury in the past two months, but all Matsuo can think about is-not the kiss, but the way Takaishi’s dirt-stained hands felt on the exposed skin between his jersey and shorts.
04 - Pain
“You’re fixed,” says the nurse, giving him a slap on the ankle, “and stay off it for a few days,” and Matsuo winces.
05 - Potatoes
That night, Matsuo drags his fork through the potatoes au gratin, trying to distract himself from the throbbing in his tightly-wound foot and his mother’s stern words of being careful, you don’t know where in the world you could get hurt nowadays, Matsuo, I want you to carry around an ice pack, okay, Matsuo-Matsuo?
06 - Rain
He wakes up to a dark window-rain-and the vibrating of his cell phone next to him on the bed: good morning, crybaby, hope your ankle’s okay.
07 - Chocolate
“You better now, buddy,” states Takaishi (or maybe it was a question?) to a dripping-wet Matsuo in the hallway, “God, you’re soaked-here, dry up,” and gives him a towel which smells-ahh, Matsuo’s eyelids flutter closed-like chocolate.
08 - Happiness
On the train ride home Matsuo is packed tight between a squat old lady in a kimono and, he thinks gleefully, Takaishi, who doesn’t seem to mind either that they are so close their arms tangle over each other; their hands almost curled around each other (but not quite yet).
09 - Telephone
Matsuo scrambles over two of his sister’s dolls and the very plump cat to get to the phone and is sorely disappointed when he hears, instead of Takaishi’s smooth voice, someone saying “Hello?” over and over again in English-wait, English?
10 - Ears
From what Matsuo and his sister, Risa, can gather (from pressing their ears against the bedroom door), someone is to take piano lessons at their house-an American person, so that-in their mother’s words-“Matsuo and I can practise our English, oh, how nice!”
11 - Name
“What’s his name, then,” asks Takaishi on their way to school from the station, his hand clutching often at Matsuo’s, “I don’t know, and I don’t really care,” is what he replies, focusing only on too-long fingernails and scratchy, inviting palms in the back alleyways of the ginza.
12 - Sensual
He thinks, huh, that’s a hand that’s going up my shirt, and then doesn’t (can’t, really) think anything more.
13 - Death
When Matsuo was two, his father died, and he blames his surging romantic passions on the fact that he never had a proper ‘male upbringing’-he bets Takaishi never thinks of the things he dreams about (still conscious) at night.
14 - Sex
Takaishi splays his fingers over Matsuo’s face, straddling him from behind as they stand behind the station, watching Sakihara Tomoe and her boyfriend Miyajima Katsuo make out (well, he has her hands down her skirt) supposedly in secret: “Y’ever done that, kiddo?”
15 - Touch
They kiss goodbye on a supposedly deserted road, Takaishi’s hands tangling in Matsuo’s hair and his own hands wandering about, wondering how in the world people could possibly survive without this (neither of them notice the car that has to swerve around them, carrying a mother and a teenage boy, both who are blushing furiously at the scene they’d just passed).
16 - Weakness
“Okay, okay, kid, I have to go,” says Takaishi, and Matsuo clings for a second longer.
17 - Tears
He lets himself into the apartment and sneaks around quietly to the sound of the piano in the background, thinking I’m so happy I could cry, and then thinking, shit, that’s way too girly, what am I doing, and then thinking, whoever’s playing is pretty good at the piano, and then just sitting at the table, drinking tea with an idiotic smile on his face.
18 - Speed
Matsuo’s days are set on fast-forward: wake up, Takaishi, school, Takaishi, go home, Takaishi, sleep (and that is chock-full of Takaishi)-it seems, to his surprise, that the only time he feels he can really relax and let go is when he is at home, listening to Piano Boy (for he never gets to really see the mysterious, supposedly-American schoolchild) play during his lessons.
19 - Wind
The next afternoon as he bounces back from a good-bye kiss, something smacks him square in the face and he realises, with a bit of horror, that it is a piano score and there is a boy with blonde hair running towards him, yapping away in English (and he had better be apologising, stupid git).
20 - Freedom
“America,” repeats Matsuo as he lets himself in the house (Piano Boy in tow), “Land of the, uh…” and Piano Boy laughs and says, free.
21 - Life
They have some trouble communicating, Matsuo and Piano Boy, so they try to resort to sign language: Matsuo only knows one word (besides the one where you flip your middle finger up) and it turns out so does P. Boy (later on Matsuo finds out it was ‘life’, and how in the world they were going to communicate with that he has no idea).
22 - Jealousy
In the course of the two days since they met Matsuo realises P. Boy never looks him straight in the eye, as if he knows something about his piano teacher’s son that he is awfully ashamed to.
23 - Hands
Matsuo’s mother makes him play a duet with Piano Boy, and as they sit side by side, plunking out notes with their fingers, he studies his partner’s hands: soft and elegant, long and spindly-musician’s hands, the kind Matsuo wanted to have so long ago when he was still into music (soccer would come later, after he’d given up on the piano entirely).
24 - Taste
Piano Boy samples some of his own mother’s apple pie and invites Matsuo to have some too-“Taste,” he says around the crumble in his mouth, suddenly pulling Matsuo’s chin in, crushing his lips in an apple-jelly kiss.
25 - Devotion
Matsuo eats apple pie through a boy’s mouth-a boy whose name he does not even know-and he thinks, wait, you’re in love, stupid, but still his hands make no move to push the other away.
26 - Forever
Takaishi calls him that night, asks, “How was your day, kid,” and Matsuo mumbles something before blurting out so, um, do you think we could do this forever?
27 - Blood
He bites his lip so hard he bleeds as Takaishi, obviously shocked, says what do you mean, ‘this’?
28 - Sickness
“Nothing, nevermind,” squeaks Matsuo, hanging up quickly, and buries his head under the pillow, trying to drown out the dizzy echoes of you thought he loved you, didn’t you; trying to forget the sweet clasp of Takaishi’s hands on his ankle and the kiss on his forehead and the touching, all that goddamn touching.
29 - Melody
Matsuo sits on the piano stool and plays in perpetual motion, attempting to rid his romantic self of all things Suzuhara Takaishi through the sixteenth notes on the crumpled paper in front of him.
30 - Star
“I wish,” he mumbles to the sky outside his window, “that he wasn’t so…that I could…that we-,” and then nothing more.
31 - Home
The next day he skips soccer practise and takes the train home alone.
32 - Confusion
“Kid, I think I did something wrong,” whispers Takaishi, pulling Matsuo into a gigantic hug, “I’ll make it up to you,” he says then, pressing his lips to a shivering collarbone, and Matsuo almost refuses.
33 - Fear
It’s not that he’s scared, but standing half-naked in a deserted alleyway while someone you thought you loved (and still want) is kneeling in front of you, sucking you off, can make you feel a lot of weird things.
34 - Lightning/Thunder
He walks home in a thunderstorm, still feeling dirty even when he finally lets himself into the apartment, soaked to the core.
35 - Bonds
We’re good now, was what Takaishi had said when he stood up, wiping his mouth off and winking, right, and all Matsuo could do was nod: he had the feeling that if he did anything else, he wouldn’t be where he is right now-he’d be in Takaishi’s bed, being held down by whatever theboy uses to chain his captives to the ship.
36 - Market
He goes to the grocery store with his mother the next day for wont of a better thing to do, and as he passes two girls from his class he hears Takaishi and moving on and I feel so sorry for whoever he was with last, poor thing, and Matsuo drops a carton of eggs in the middle of the aisle.
37 - Technology
Well, it’s been fun, reads the text message, and you better not hurt your ankle anymore, kiddo.
38 - Gift
Piano Boy comes to the door of Matsuo’s room, a place he has never stepped in before, holding a soccer ball under his arm, a slight blush colouring his pale cheeks: “You play?”
39 - Smile
During their after-school practises, Matsuo used to kick the ball in Takaishi’s direction, thinking maybe if I do it he’ll look at me and more often than not he did (but he doesn’t do it anymore); and during this practise (or reconciliation, or therapy session) Matsuo kicks the ball to Piano Boy, who grins stupidly just before it collides with his nose.
40 - Innocence
Matsuo spouts numerous apologies, running over to Piano Boy, who is leaking profusely: “It’s ogay, I’b ogay,” he coughs, wiping blood of his face.
41 - Completion
In front of the sink, Matsuo and his Piano Boy help each other clean up: dirt from sliding on the ground and blood, a funny mix of grime-but then again, they are a funny mix of people.
42 - Clouds
“Look at that one,” says Piano Boy, and while Matsuo tilts his head up Piano Boy leans in for another (this time not apple-flavored; but copper-tasting) kiss.
43 - Sky
They walk home together under the whispered expanse of dusk; musical fingers tangling unafraid with callused ones.
44 - Heaven
“You have a lesson tomorrow-come early.”
45 - Hell
“And what if I don’t come?” Piano Boy winks.
46 - Sun
He closes his eyes tight as the sun sets, and underneath the lids there is an explosion of color in the dazzling light: pinks and reds and blues, and mobs of black figures, topped with blonde.
47 - Moon
He tucks Risa in at night, the moonlight keeping her secure as he tells her a story: a prince falling for an androgynous knight in a world full of pianos, music tumbling out of every room in the palace, while in the streets righteous prisoners run free.
48 - Waves
In school Takaishi waves to Matsuo, who only smiles back before going on his own way, ignoring the other boy completely.
49 - Hair
“Oxymoron,” Piano Boy says, leaning in close (and still not close enough).
50 - Supernova
Matsuo learns of exploding stars and bits of matter being violently blown away in the darkness-and he goes home to blonde boys playing pianos with thin fingers that touch so well and kisses full of apple pies, and he thinks, it’s not so different after all.
1sentence, the complete abuse of punctuation.
title: piano boy or perpetual motion in sixteenth notes
rating: generally PG-13
pairing: Matsuo Takakira x Piano Boy
summary: Matsuo falls, runs, jumps, and falls again.
warnings: Uh, you never learn Piano Boy's name. All other warnings expressed in my little ditty above.
01 - Comfort
“There, there,” whispers Takaishi to Matsuo, holding his injured ankle like a piece of broken glass, “you crybaby-you’ll be fine, I promise.”
02 - Kiss
Together, they hobble through deserted corridors to the almost-vacant nurse’s office (the plus of having soccer practise so late into the afternoon), where outside the door Takaishi places his lips carefully on Matsuo’s forehead and says okay, you made it, sucker, go on in and get fixed.
03 - Soft
The agitated nurse mumbles something about twenty children having the same injury in the past two months, but all Matsuo can think about is-not the kiss, but the way Takaishi’s dirt-stained hands felt on the exposed skin between his jersey and shorts.
04 - Pain
“You’re fixed,” says the nurse, giving him a slap on the ankle, “and stay off it for a few days,” and Matsuo winces.
05 - Potatoes
That night, Matsuo drags his fork through the potatoes au gratin, trying to distract himself from the throbbing in his tightly-wound foot and his mother’s stern words of being careful, you don’t know where in the world you could get hurt nowadays, Matsuo, I want you to carry around an ice pack, okay, Matsuo-Matsuo?
06 - Rain
He wakes up to a dark window-rain-and the vibrating of his cell phone next to him on the bed: good morning, crybaby, hope your ankle’s okay.
07 - Chocolate
“You better now, buddy,” states Takaishi (or maybe it was a question?) to a dripping-wet Matsuo in the hallway, “God, you’re soaked-here, dry up,” and gives him a towel which smells-ahh, Matsuo’s eyelids flutter closed-like chocolate.
08 - Happiness
On the train ride home Matsuo is packed tight between a squat old lady in a kimono and, he thinks gleefully, Takaishi, who doesn’t seem to mind either that they are so close their arms tangle over each other; their hands almost curled around each other (but not quite yet).
09 - Telephone
Matsuo scrambles over two of his sister’s dolls and the very plump cat to get to the phone and is sorely disappointed when he hears, instead of Takaishi’s smooth voice, someone saying “Hello?” over and over again in English-wait, English?
10 - Ears
From what Matsuo and his sister, Risa, can gather (from pressing their ears against the bedroom door), someone is to take piano lessons at their house-an American person, so that-in their mother’s words-“Matsuo and I can practise our English, oh, how nice!”
11 - Name
“What’s his name, then,” asks Takaishi on their way to school from the station, his hand clutching often at Matsuo’s, “I don’t know, and I don’t really care,” is what he replies, focusing only on too-long fingernails and scratchy, inviting palms in the back alleyways of the ginza.
12 - Sensual
He thinks, huh, that’s a hand that’s going up my shirt, and then doesn’t (can’t, really) think anything more.
13 - Death
When Matsuo was two, his father died, and he blames his surging romantic passions on the fact that he never had a proper ‘male upbringing’-he bets Takaishi never thinks of the things he dreams about (still conscious) at night.
14 - Sex
Takaishi splays his fingers over Matsuo’s face, straddling him from behind as they stand behind the station, watching Sakihara Tomoe and her boyfriend Miyajima Katsuo make out (well, he has her hands down her skirt) supposedly in secret: “Y’ever done that, kiddo?”
15 - Touch
They kiss goodbye on a supposedly deserted road, Takaishi’s hands tangling in Matsuo’s hair and his own hands wandering about, wondering how in the world people could possibly survive without this (neither of them notice the car that has to swerve around them, carrying a mother and a teenage boy, both who are blushing furiously at the scene they’d just passed).
16 - Weakness
“Okay, okay, kid, I have to go,” says Takaishi, and Matsuo clings for a second longer.
17 - Tears
He lets himself into the apartment and sneaks around quietly to the sound of the piano in the background, thinking I’m so happy I could cry, and then thinking, shit, that’s way too girly, what am I doing, and then thinking, whoever’s playing is pretty good at the piano, and then just sitting at the table, drinking tea with an idiotic smile on his face.
18 - Speed
Matsuo’s days are set on fast-forward: wake up, Takaishi, school, Takaishi, go home, Takaishi, sleep (and that is chock-full of Takaishi)-it seems, to his surprise, that the only time he feels he can really relax and let go is when he is at home, listening to Piano Boy (for he never gets to really see the mysterious, supposedly-American schoolchild) play during his lessons.
19 - Wind
The next afternoon as he bounces back from a good-bye kiss, something smacks him square in the face and he realises, with a bit of horror, that it is a piano score and there is a boy with blonde hair running towards him, yapping away in English (and he had better be apologising, stupid git).
20 - Freedom
“America,” repeats Matsuo as he lets himself in the house (Piano Boy in tow), “Land of the, uh…” and Piano Boy laughs and says, free.
21 - Life
They have some trouble communicating, Matsuo and Piano Boy, so they try to resort to sign language: Matsuo only knows one word (besides the one where you flip your middle finger up) and it turns out so does P. Boy (later on Matsuo finds out it was ‘life’, and how in the world they were going to communicate with that he has no idea).
22 - Jealousy
In the course of the two days since they met Matsuo realises P. Boy never looks him straight in the eye, as if he knows something about his piano teacher’s son that he is awfully ashamed to.
23 - Hands
Matsuo’s mother makes him play a duet with Piano Boy, and as they sit side by side, plunking out notes with their fingers, he studies his partner’s hands: soft and elegant, long and spindly-musician’s hands, the kind Matsuo wanted to have so long ago when he was still into music (soccer would come later, after he’d given up on the piano entirely).
24 - Taste
Piano Boy samples some of his own mother’s apple pie and invites Matsuo to have some too-“Taste,” he says around the crumble in his mouth, suddenly pulling Matsuo’s chin in, crushing his lips in an apple-jelly kiss.
25 - Devotion
Matsuo eats apple pie through a boy’s mouth-a boy whose name he does not even know-and he thinks, wait, you’re in love, stupid, but still his hands make no move to push the other away.
26 - Forever
Takaishi calls him that night, asks, “How was your day, kid,” and Matsuo mumbles something before blurting out so, um, do you think we could do this forever?
27 - Blood
He bites his lip so hard he bleeds as Takaishi, obviously shocked, says what do you mean, ‘this’?
28 - Sickness
“Nothing, nevermind,” squeaks Matsuo, hanging up quickly, and buries his head under the pillow, trying to drown out the dizzy echoes of you thought he loved you, didn’t you; trying to forget the sweet clasp of Takaishi’s hands on his ankle and the kiss on his forehead and the touching, all that goddamn touching.
29 - Melody
Matsuo sits on the piano stool and plays in perpetual motion, attempting to rid his romantic self of all things Suzuhara Takaishi through the sixteenth notes on the crumpled paper in front of him.
30 - Star
“I wish,” he mumbles to the sky outside his window, “that he wasn’t so…that I could…that we-,” and then nothing more.
31 - Home
The next day he skips soccer practise and takes the train home alone.
32 - Confusion
“Kid, I think I did something wrong,” whispers Takaishi, pulling Matsuo into a gigantic hug, “I’ll make it up to you,” he says then, pressing his lips to a shivering collarbone, and Matsuo almost refuses.
33 - Fear
It’s not that he’s scared, but standing half-naked in a deserted alleyway while someone you thought you loved (and still want) is kneeling in front of you, sucking you off, can make you feel a lot of weird things.
34 - Lightning/Thunder
He walks home in a thunderstorm, still feeling dirty even when he finally lets himself into the apartment, soaked to the core.
35 - Bonds
We’re good now, was what Takaishi had said when he stood up, wiping his mouth off and winking, right, and all Matsuo could do was nod: he had the feeling that if he did anything else, he wouldn’t be where he is right now-he’d be in Takaishi’s bed, being held down by whatever theboy uses to chain his captives to the ship.
36 - Market
He goes to the grocery store with his mother the next day for wont of a better thing to do, and as he passes two girls from his class he hears Takaishi and moving on and I feel so sorry for whoever he was with last, poor thing, and Matsuo drops a carton of eggs in the middle of the aisle.
37 - Technology
Well, it’s been fun, reads the text message, and you better not hurt your ankle anymore, kiddo.
38 - Gift
Piano Boy comes to the door of Matsuo’s room, a place he has never stepped in before, holding a soccer ball under his arm, a slight blush colouring his pale cheeks: “You play?”
39 - Smile
During their after-school practises, Matsuo used to kick the ball in Takaishi’s direction, thinking maybe if I do it he’ll look at me and more often than not he did (but he doesn’t do it anymore); and during this practise (or reconciliation, or therapy session) Matsuo kicks the ball to Piano Boy, who grins stupidly just before it collides with his nose.
40 - Innocence
Matsuo spouts numerous apologies, running over to Piano Boy, who is leaking profusely: “It’s ogay, I’b ogay,” he coughs, wiping blood of his face.
41 - Completion
In front of the sink, Matsuo and his Piano Boy help each other clean up: dirt from sliding on the ground and blood, a funny mix of grime-but then again, they are a funny mix of people.
42 - Clouds
“Look at that one,” says Piano Boy, and while Matsuo tilts his head up Piano Boy leans in for another (this time not apple-flavored; but copper-tasting) kiss.
43 - Sky
They walk home together under the whispered expanse of dusk; musical fingers tangling unafraid with callused ones.
44 - Heaven
“You have a lesson tomorrow-come early.”
45 - Hell
“And what if I don’t come?” Piano Boy winks.
46 - Sun
He closes his eyes tight as the sun sets, and underneath the lids there is an explosion of color in the dazzling light: pinks and reds and blues, and mobs of black figures, topped with blonde.
47 - Moon
He tucks Risa in at night, the moonlight keeping her secure as he tells her a story: a prince falling for an androgynous knight in a world full of pianos, music tumbling out of every room in the palace, while in the streets righteous prisoners run free.
48 - Waves
In school Takaishi waves to Matsuo, who only smiles back before going on his own way, ignoring the other boy completely.
49 - Hair
“Oxymoron,” Piano Boy says, leaning in close (and still not close enough).
50 - Supernova
Matsuo learns of exploding stars and bits of matter being violently blown away in the darkness-and he goes home to blonde boys playing pianos with thin fingers that touch so well and kisses full of apple pies, and he thinks, it’s not so different after all.