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Disclaimers: Sonnet 6 is by Shakespeare, who is probably thankful he isn't alive to see this. Characters by Yoshihiro Togashi.
This is from the point of view of the guy in Kurama's school who always comes in 2nd(1st appearance Bk 13?) Argh - I forgot his name!
"Sonnet 6" (or "The Minamino-kun Fanclub's Petition")
By qwertyuiop
* * * * * *
It was on the board again, first on the list. I meant Minamino Shuuichi's name, of course. Mine was in 2nd place as usual, despite my near perfect grades in every subject. His were just that bit nearer to perfect-barely enough to edge out mine. I suspected the only reason they were not perfect was to avoid suspicions of cheating.
I didn't begrudge him the first place, really. His brains and powers had after all attracted negative attention only, first from that madman Sensui, then from demons, who had forced him to fight his friends and distracted him enough for me the clinch the first place, just once. And the crowds of girls trailing behind him for his looks...no, I was not jealous. Not in the slightest. Really, I swear.
I could hear the squealing of said crowds of girls halfway across the school. Sometimes I felt this overwhelming urge to convert the entire school into a domain where the words "Minamino-kun" were forbidden, but that would quite thoroughly depopulate the school of female students, not to mention a few teachers...perhaps I should do it after all...
I met "Minamino-kun" at the lockers. He glanced at a slip of paper pinned on his locker door with only cursory interest, about to open it and take out his books What did he need them for, then he stopped. And looked again. I also looked, to see what had caught his attention.
It wasn't one of the usual declarations of undying devotion, no. It was a petition from his fanclub, in the form of a sonnet in archiac English. I wondered that they could read it at all, considering they didn't seem to spend as much time studying as they did squealing.
Then let not winter's ragged hand deface
In thee thy sweet summer ere thou be distilled.
Make sweet some vial; treasure thou some place
With beauty's treasure ere it be self-killed.
I wondered with a kind of shock if they knew what the verses were about.
That use is not forbidden usury
Which happies those that pay the willing loan -
That's for thyself to breed another thee,
It looked like they did - were they volunteering?
Or ten times happier be it ten for one.
I had a sudden, unwelcome vision of my child running home to me, bawling that he had received near-perfect grades in all his subjects, but was eleventh on the list. And of girls running squealing in ten different directions after ten Minamino-kuns.
Ten times thyself were happier than thou art,
If ten of thine ten times refigured thee;
At which point I was in my old age, and my grandson was crying because he had just failed to make the list of the top hundred students despite his grades (the list being all occupied by Minamino-kuns). After which it was not so much of a stretch to imagine parents all over Japan bewailing the fact that their children simply couldn't get into any schools because all the places were taken up by the scions of the Minamino clan a few generations into the future.
Then what could death do if thou shouldst depart,
Leaving thee living in posterity?
Be not self-willed, for thou art much too fair
To be death's conquest and make worms thine heir.
We are willing to volunteer for the task!
Signed, The Minamino Shuuichi Fanclub.
A chill passed through me as I read these words. He was still standing there, eyebrows raised as high as they would go, and then some. I found a little comfort in the way he really didn't seem to know how to handle the attention directed at him sometimes.
"You don't really need to do what they say," I told him, patting his back consolingly. "Have as few children as you like."
He nodded wordlessly, eyes riveted to the innocuous-seeming piece of paper.
"In fact," I found myself adding, "you don't need to have any children at all if you don't want to."
I could feel the murderous stares boring holes in me for nearly a week after that.
*********THE END**********
(do we really want a lot of Kuramas running around the place?)
(anyone else ever kept hamsters?)
(I'm going to regret sending this when I get off my sugar high, so please don't flame me!)
