Disclaimer: I am completely tone deaf. I also don't own La Corda d'Oro.

A/N: I have several long-term projects that I really should be working on. True to form I'm doing this instead. The prompts follow no particular order.

Defeat

It's not a competition, at least not in the usual sense with judges and scores and prizes. So why is it that every time Kahoko smiles at Tsuchiura or laughs with Hihara or blushes at Yunoki, Len feels like he's lost?

Walking

This was a waste of time. They could be practicing. They should be practicing. But were they? No. Of course they weren't. They were taking a walk.

It had started out innocently enough and then suddenly out of nowhere it had tuned into on of those conversations. "Isn't it pretty outside Len? Doesn't it look like the perfect day for a walk Len? Let me stare at you with my big, sad eyes and sigh until you feel like the biggest jerk in the universe–"

So, yeah, colossal waste of time.

He was so whipped.

Waltz

Len has two left feet and so does Kahoko but through some miracle of fate they both manage to come out of their first dance as a married couple with all their limbs in tact.

Wishes

It's unconscious at first, a wordless wish, a plea, a prayer. Something whispered deep in the forgotten reaches of his heart and asked with soft touches and slow, sweet kisses. He finds his answer in gentle eyes and open arms, written on her face like benediction.

(Don't ever leave me.)

(I won't.)

Wonder

In Kahoko's world there is always something to be excited about. She is surrounded by marvels, by things brilliant and beautiful and wondrous. In Len's world there is only one.

She is more than enough.

Worry

Kahoko is a worrier. She worries about her friends and her family. She worries about her grades and her music and her future. She worries about strangers and natural disasters and house fires and whether or not she remembers to lock the front door when she leaves home. But she never, ever worries that Len doesn't love her.

That would be silly.

Whimsy

Hamai Misa loved her son. He was polite and respectful, a good student, a brilliant musician.

He never laughed.

He smiled sometimes, a small, restrained thing that she thought was more for show than out of any real desire to do so. He didn't invite friends over, didn't talk about them. She wasn't even sure he had any. He'd always been a shy child but this went beyond shyness and she was worried. Her son had closed himself off from the world and nothing she or anyone else did seemed to get through. Until her.

Kahoko was a pretty thing, sweet and bubbly and little bit clumsy. Misa had liked her almost instantly and was delighted when she found out that through some twist of fate she and quiet, serious Len had somehow managed to become friends. Len needed a bit of silliness in his life. Kahoko, she'd decided, would be good for him. She didn't realize how good until she happened upon the two of them in the middle of a practice session.

They were laughing. Both of them.Real, honest to God, bent double, carefree laughter. Misa stared at her son. Took in his disheveled hair and sparkling eyes. Drank in his wild, unrepentant grin. Laugh with me, it seemed to say. I'm happy. Be happy with me. She'd forgotten that he had dimples.

Misa watched as the laughter tapered off and the two of them stood breathless and gasping in the middle of the sitting room, stray chuckles escaping as they fought for control. Unsurprisingly, Len found it first.

Surprisingly the first thing he did with it was to pull an extremely silly face in Kahoko's direction.

Hamai Misa loved her son.

She was sure she'd love her daughter-in-law just as much.

Waste/Wasteland

As a third year he'd decided to study abroad in Vienna. It was a beautiful city full of art and music and culture but she wasn't there and it felt like a wasteland.

Whiskey and rum

This is not the story they tell their children:

The night they graduate he gets very, very drunk, confesses to her in front of a nightclub full of strangers, and promptly throws up all over her shoes.

Len thinks he's supremely lucky that she loves him enough to let him try again while sober. Kahoko agrees.

War

It's a cheap, underhanded trick. She's been looking forward to that concert with Tsuchiura for weeks and faking sick to stop her from spending time with his rival is about as dirty as it gets. He feels guilty and miserable and ill but he does it anyway.

All's fair in love and war.

This is both.

Weddings

The first family event he ever brings her to is a wedding. In the Tsukimori clan that kind of invitation is as good as proposing. Countless relatives come up and badger them before and after the ceremony, all but interrogating Kahoko. They leave charmed and happy already planning what music will be playing when the two get married. There's no hope of escape now.

He's counting on it.

Birthday

Kahoko is forgetful. She forgets her keys and her homework. She forgets what time things start and how to get to places she's been to a million times. Len is convinced that she would forget her head if it wasn't attached to the rest of her.

But in all the years they've been together she's never forgotten his birthday.

She has her priorities after all.

Blessing

In the circles his parents move in Len knows that he is considered a very good catch. So it's something of a shock to realize that Kahoko's family doesn't feel the same way. Musician is apparently not a stable career option in their opinion and it takes weeks before her father stops glaring at him and muttering about useless, lazy boys with no future who are stupid enough to try to steal his daughter without having the proper means to support her every time Len opens his mouth.

Bias

"You should have won." Her voice is soft, the arms that wrap around him gentle.

She is lying.

The man he lost to was better than he was, plain and simple and he has to face that fact no matter how much it stings. But it feels . . . nice to believe his girlfriend's words, if only for a moment.

It feels even nicer to know she believes them.

Burning

"Ouch!"

"It's your own fault Len," Kahoko scolded. "I told you to wear sunscreen but did you listen? Nope."

Len grumbled and pressed his face more firmly into his pillow. That piano-playing lout hadn't worn any and while he hadn't actually said that Len would be a sissy for doing so it had most certainly been implied. Now he looked like a lobster and felt like a baked potato.

He could only take comfort in the thought that while the other boy wasn't burnt to a crisp he also didn't have Kahoko fussing over him and rubbing aloe all over his back.

Totally worth it.

Breathing

He was set to perform in five minutes and he couldn't breathe. He blamed his tie. It was too tight.

Really.

Kahoko usually tied it for him but she was away at some sort of family event and not here with him like she should be and. He. Couldn't. Breathe.

Stupid tie.

Breaking

After meeting Kahoko the walls around his heart stood about as much of a chance as a glass figurine faced with an army of toddlers wielding hammers.

Belief

When Kahoko finally tells him about Lili and the magic violin and what really happened during the competition all those years ago he doesn't believe her at first. He's forced to change his tune when he finds himself suddenly and inexplicably dressed in a ninja outfit courtesy of the mischievous sprite. He sighs and adds casual interaction with the supernatural to his list of things you have to get used to when living with Kahoko right up there with eating ice cream when it's below freezing outside and watching television in a language neither of you speak because she likes the clothes.

Balloon

Kahoko is not the type of girl who wants or needs grand gestures. She prefers flowers over diamonds and balloons over just about anything. Len understands that about her and that is the greatest gift of all.

Balcony

Years later Len can still pinpoint the exact moment when he started seeing Kahoko as more than the competition. The image of her barefoot and beautiful and utterly lost in the music is something he will never forget.

Bane

She's going to be the end of him. He thinks about her constantly, his appetite is gone, he can't sleep without dreaming of her. His heart and his stomach are tied in permanent knots and his brain has picked up the horrible habit of malfunctioning whenever she's around. It's like having the flu except a million times worse because it's been months and it isn't going away.

She's going to be the end of him.

He's sure of it.

Quiet

Len is used to silence. His parents travel and he's never been particularly social. He can go for days without talking to anyone and be none the worse for wear. Then Kahoko storms into his life, a hurricane of constant, unrelentingly cheerful noise and at first he hates her for disrupting his peace.

Now he's terrified that if she leaves the silence will be deafening.

Quirks

Before she started dating Len, Kahoko had never thought much about her hands. I wasn't that she disliked them, she honestly didn't think about them enough for that, but they simply never struck her as particularly attractive or interesting. Len, however, seemed downright fascinated. He touched them constantly, always threading their fingers together or drawing designs on her palms or brushing soft kisses across her knuckles. He didn't even seem to realize he was doing it but it felt nice and she didn't want to embarrass him into stopping so she never mentioned it.

Question

"You're going to ask her to marry you?"

"Yes."

"Really?"

"Yes."

". . . Just make sure it's better than when you confessed after graduation. If you make her cry again I'll kick your ass."

"I hate you."

Quarrel

They have their first real fight over the fact that they haven't had their first real fight yet. It takes them roughly two hour to realize how stupid they must have sounded and apologize. After that they contain themselves to mildly caustic bickering over whose turn it is to do the dishes and the fact that Kahoko doesn't seem to understand the function of a laundry hamper.

Quitting

For all her many other virtues Kahoko has always been rather lacking when it comes to resolve. The only thing she's never quit after starting is loving Len.

She's never even wanted to try.

Jump

Len was the sort of boy who always looked before he leapt. Half the time Kahoko didn't even realize there was a cliff until she was falling off it.

However, they both go into their relationship without hesitation and with their eyes wide open.

Jester

Len is not a fool. So what if he's willing to do pretty much anything to make his girlfriend smile? Who care if he goes to ridiculous lengths to make sure nothing and no one ever has the chance to upset her? That doesn't mean anything. He's just in love.

There's a difference.

Jousting

Tsukimori Len did not lose. It was a fact of life, a law of the universe and the sooner that soccer playing moron realized it the better off everyone would be. Kahoko was his no contest, no argument, no room for misinterpretation. He'd beat it into the other boy's head with a stick if he had to.

He really, really wanted to have to.

Jewel

Len knows next to nothing about women, which actually works to his advantage in the end as Kahoko is unlike any other woman he knows. She prefers flowers to jewelry and long walks to expensive dates. Listening to him perform just for her makes her happier than anything else in the world. She is one in a million and he is well aware.

Just

She was just a girl, just a silly, shallow girl like all the others, after his talent and his money and looks and he wanted nothing more than to dismiss her like he did them.

But he just couldn't manage.

Smirk

Even though he's been dying to knock that stupid smirk off that idiot piano player's face since the very first day they met when he finally manages it he doesn't even notice.

He's too busy kissing Kahoko.

Sorrow

Kahoko's sudden, intense bouts of melancholy terrify him. They strike without warning, without reason. The smallest things can send her spiraling down into a dark, deep place in her head that he can't seem to reach and he's afraid that one day she won't come back.

Stupidity

Tsukimori Len is many things but stupid is most certainly not one of them. So when Kahoko starts to show signs of being interested in him he doesn't tease her like Azuma, or beat around the bush like Hihara, or make friends with her like the piano brute.

He just asks her out to dinner.

It works.

Shocking.

Serenade

Kahoko is shocked, and pleased, to realize that her new boyfriend has a great singing voice. Len revels in her praise until the first time she drags him to a karaoke club.

Then he just wishes he were dead.

Sarcasm

"They're going to hate me."

"No they won't Len."

"You're just saying that so I'll feel better."

"What you wanted the truth? My sister is going to interrogate you. My mother is going to verbally torment you. And my father may or may not attempt to kill with his bare hands and bury you in the backyard for having the audacity to get anywhere near me."

". . . That wasn't very nice."

"The truth hurts."

Sordid

Kahoko collects dirty music jokes and takes great joy in whispering them in his ear at inappropriate times, like family dinners and awards ceremonies.

He's the only one who knows.

He loves that.

Soliloquy

He wasn't going to worry. All artists had quirks after all, and it wasn't as if she was talking about cutting off her own ear or sticking her head in an oven. If his girlfriend wanted to have conversations with an invisible creature named Lili when she thought no one was looking then that was her business. It was perfectly harmless.

Right?

Sojourn

Spending time with Kahoko is like taking an all expenses paid vacation to a world where nothing makes sense, everything is beautiful, and it's impossible not to have fun.

Share

Over time Len comes to both love and dread watching Kahoko perform on stage. Her music is as warm and inviting as ever, gentle and kind and so completely Kahoko that it's impossible not to love her for it. Her ability to open her heart to her audience is her greatest strength as a performer but it always leaves him feeling uneasy and jealous. She is his and he hates having to share her.

Solitary

He wasn't lonely until they met, or if he was he didn't notice it. He'd never been particularly social, his violin had been his closest companion for as long as he could remember. He wasn't a recluse by any stretch of the imagination, he had plenty of acquaintances and a great many admirers and he didn't see the need for anything else. Until he met her, that is.

Something about Kahoko made him long for closeness, for the easy intimacy that she shared with so many others, from almost the very first days of their acquaintance. It was an unsettling, achy feeling that made him crave her company even as he pushed her away.

Nowhere

Left to their own devices Len and Kahoko would never get anywhere. She can get lost walking down a street she's traveled a million times before and he's too proud to ask for directions and neither of them can read a map to save their lives.

Len doesn't mind. So long as Kahoko is with him he's always home.

Neutral

Len's heart had been idling on neural for a long time before Kahoko came along and jumpstarted it.

Nuance

Most people who know Kahoko believe that she's an open book and to a degree they're right. It's only upon close examination that the subtleties become apparent. The fractional differences between expectant-nervous, hopeful-nervous, and hopeful-expectation or the disparities between her many different smiles. Len prides himself on knowing every single one.

Near

With Kahoko distance is relative. The inches that separate them seem to span miles in his mind. Being near is too far. Close is never close enough. There's always one last sliver, one last breath of distance to cover. He wants to wrap himself around her and never let go.

He doesn't of course, and the inches stretch into an eternity.

Natural

He'd expected it to be awkward. Len almost never felt at ease around others, even people he loved, and he'd assumed that it would be the same with her. But Kahoko slipped into his life effortlessly, fitting into place as if she'd always been there and he just hadn't known it, as if she belonged. It was the easiest thing in the world.

Horizon

The year he spends abroad feels like the longest of his life. He gets by with make believe, pretending she's always just around he corner, just in the next shop, just beyond the horizon.

It's the only way to stay sane.

Valiant

Kahoko is the bravest person he's ever met in his entire life. She loves, fiercely and unreservedly, always ready to share her heart with anyone who'd like a piece.

Len admires that about her long before he loves her.

Virtuous

Len had always considered himself an honorable person until the day he realized that he would do anything to make Kahoko happy. It doesn't bother him as much as it probably should.

He'd trade virtue in for Kahoko's love any day of the week.

Victory

They have been married for three years when the realization finally hits him.

He's won.

It. Feels. Awesome.

A/N: I wrote this as part of my NaNoWriMo 2009 project and I'd love to hear how you all feel about it. It's the second La Corda fifty prompts that I've done. The other was Kahoko/Azuma.

Constructive criticism is always welcome but all reviews are appreciated and adored.