Yay! I'm not dead!

Okay, so I was going to upload this earlier, but I was busy (yeah, I know, such a good excuse). I expect to have more time with my computer, now that I'm all moved into my new house, but I will see.

This is a companion story to Pictures, Frames, and Headphones, if you couldn't tell. You don't need to have read it to understand it, though.

Basically, it is Pictures, Frames and Headphones from Neku's pov.

Enjoy~!

Neku loves music.

Nothing in the world could make him deny it. Music was integrated into his very soul. His playlist always reflected his mood. People really didn't understand him for it…they just couldn't see the beauty music had.

He often tried to show others that beauty. Talking about it was not good enough. Instead, he tried to show it with his art. All of his sketches were inspired by his music.

Neku loves art, too.

He loved reveling in the praise he received from his parents, new friends and especially Mr. H when he showed them his work. Every single individual piece was precious and cared for, each one of them kept in a safe protective folder or cover. He's shown his work to several different colleges and they are all very interested in giving him an art scholarship.

Neku loves music, art, his friends, and recognition.

But there was one thing he thought he would never admit. Just one thing he thought should never be revealed. There was one thing he loved most of all…

A beautiful girl named Eri.

It had started off with a strange feeling of content around her. Neku had just recently opened up to the world, and while he was ready to make new friends…he was afraid. He hated to admit it, but he was afraid.

Talking to people was difficult, and meeting new people felt almost a little scary. Neku didn't revert back into his shell as much as he had before he died, but he was still very quiet.

About a week after he was revived, he and his friends agreed to meet up. They had just finished exchanging greetings when a red-haired girl poked her head from behind Shiki's back. This shocked everyone, just a bit, because she did look like Shiki had during the game.

He guessed that maybe it was her appearance that allowed him to be comfortable around her. Don't misunderstand, he didn't have a crush on Shiki, but he was already used to the girls appearance, so he felt it easier to talk with her.

Everyone introduced themselves except Neku. Shiki had insisted on introducing him for him. Neku just inwardly rolled his eyes and didn't object. After all, it was probably just a habit she picked up from when he was antisocial.

The girl introduced herself as Eri, and spent a few hours with Neku and his friends.

During the time they spent together, Neku felt his eyes wandering over to her. Not just once or twice, but quite a few times. Well, it was a shock to see the form Shiki had taken when playing the game, that and…well…

She was cute. Not just her looks, but her personality. It was adorable.

As the weeks went by, Neku began to take note of how frequently she began to appear in his sketches. Nearly every other one had her in it. It didn't help that she always came to their gatherings in a different outfit, that just gave him the urge to draw her more.

She influenced his music, too. There were certain songs he listened to more frequently than before, because they reminded him of her. Often, he found himself slapping himself in the forehead for being so sappy and stupid.

But he really couldn't help it.

He wanted to paint a picture of her, wanted to express her personality in his music.

But he didn't dare ask her, didn't dare approach.

She obviously couldn't be interested in him. He was an antisocial weirdo…wasn't he? Neku didn't think any girl would ever be interested in him.

One day, he was sitting in Mr. H's café, absent-mindedly sketching with a blue pen on a napkin. He was listening to the song Long Dream so it was no wonder that the random squiggles began to look like a frog noise. Suddenly, the music changed to Give Me All Your Love…and a little chibi version of Eri formed in the corner of the napkin.

Dammit.

"Um, Neku? Can we ask you something?" Shiki's voice projected from a few feet away. He turned to see her, Rhyme and Eri walking over to him.

Quickly, before anyone could see what he had done, Neku wiped some spilled coffee off the side of his cup, smearing the picture, and threw the napkin away.

"Sure," He answered, just a little worried about what they were going to ask. Ah, well, he could always refuse if he didn't want to do something, right? "Go ahead. Can't guarantee that I'll give you the answer you want, though."

"Well, uh, Eri was wondering…" Shiki began slowly.

Eri, cheeks a bright red, impatiently blurted out, "Will you model some of my designs?"

The group was silent for a moment. Neku raised an eyebrow, not really sure if he heard right. When he realized he had, a small amount of pink dusted his cheeks and he turned to face the window so the girls would not see.

"You...you don't have to cross-dress and if you don't want to wear something I suggest, you don't have to…I just really want you to model my designs," She was almost whispering and he had to strain to hear her above his music.

Well…that did seem reasonable. And maybe…just maybe, if he modeled for her, she would allow him to paint a picture of her…

It was worth a shot.

He nodded, accepted her number and address, and promised to be there in a week's time.

Always good on his promises, he arrived at her home in exactly one week's time. The song Déjà vu was playing in his earphones as he looked around her bedroom, which was roughly the size of his two-room apartment he shared with his parents.

It was a little intimidating. He felt that he was intruding, as if he didn't belong here.

But she looked so excited when she saw he arrived…

He followed her around the room with his eyes, watching as she opened her closet. Well, what she said was her closet…he had a good reason to believe that it was actually a bedroom that just happened to have very many shelves in it.

She seemed nervous as she handed him the clothes. What, was she afraid of him or something? "Are you okay?"

Eri seemed frozen in place for a moment, staring at him with wide eyes. Then, she seemed to regain herself. "Oh..oh yeah, I'm fine. I'm just…I was wondering why Shiki though you wouldn't say yes…CRAP!"

Her hands flew to her mouth, trying to cover it up so as to maybe cover up the last thing she said. "I'm so sorry! I'm really, really sorry! I shouldn't have said that, especially since you did say yes, and—"

He couldn't help it, he laughed. She was really cute when she was flustered, and it was very funny how similar she was to Shiki. They could be twins.

At first she seemed dumbfounded, staring at him amazed. But then, slowly, her expression melted into one of anger. She glared at him, clenching her fists.

"Stop laughing at me!" She yelled and immediately Neku realized what he had done. He stopped laughing, and watched her, expecting her to kick him out for being rude. "Why…why were you laughing at me? Don't you know that it's rude to laugh at someone for no reason?"

She didn't appear to very upset now that he had stopped, more like just a little annoyed and slightly embarrassed.

"Sorry," Neku murmured. "It's just that…you act the same."

"What?"

"The same as Shiki." He wished he could retract that statement, as he watched her shoulders sag and her expression grow sad.

"What do you mean, the same as Shiki?" She asked after a moment of silence.

"I mean…when you accidentally say something that could be considered…ah…offensive. You both do this weird, 'oh my gosh, I'm so, so, so, so, so, sorry!' thing. The only difference is that Shiki has a habit of flapping her arms in the air when she does it."

Her expression lifted into a happier one after that, and she giggled a bit. "Oh…really?"

"Yeah…um, you said that you needed me to change into something?"

"Oh…oh right! Sorry, here. Make sure to put the scarf on last, okay?"

"Sure."

"You can change in the bathroom over there."

"Thanks."

He quickly changed and walked back into the bedroom. She quickly covered her face and he realized that he really was not cut out for this modeling thing. Just as he thought, he looked awful in the outfit and she would tell him to leave any second now.

Neku was turning to get back into the bathroom and change into his clothes when she walked over and began smoothing down wrinkles or ruffling up parts of the outfit.

Okay, so maybe she didn't hate it that much.

That was when her eyes drifted to his hair…more specifically, his headphones.

"Neku." She sounded so guilty. Maybe she did hate him after all.

"Yes?"

"Um, I know they're special to you." Oh, that's what she was talking about. His hand reached up to touch the headphones, feeling comforted by their presence. "But for the picture, I need you to take off your headphones. Please? It'll be really quick, I promise."

His headphones? Take them off? He never took them off; he even fell asleep with them on sometimes. His mom would often take them off of him in the middle of the night because she feared he would strangle himself with the cord while he was asleep. The only times he ever took them off was when he needed to take a shower.

But he did want to get this modeling thing over with…he did want Eri to like him…

Maybe he could take them off…just this once?

"O…okay," He responded, still unsure. Slowly, he lifted his hands up and tried to take off the headphones.

Quickly, though, he realized what he was doing and slid the 'phones back into place, almost subconsciously. He didn't want to take them off, nor did he want to try to. Maybe he should just ask her to incorporate them?

"Um…E..Eri?"

"Yes, Neku?" She asked, looking at him as if she understood exactly what was wrong.

He was going to ask her to just deal with his headphones, but her look made him feel guilty. "I…I can't take them off…" He swallowed, before saying, "Would you…?"

She immediately looked shocked, but helped him.

When they were off, he felt different. It was a strange, uncomfortable feeling and, oddly enough, his ears felt cold. He didn't know why he felt so completely uncomfortable with his headphones off.

He remembered once that Mr. H said that he treated his headphones like a small child treated a security blanket.

"Here," Eri said, handing him the headphones.

He took them, now unsure of what to do. "Ah…Thanks."

"No need to thank me, Neku, we're doing this for me, anyway."

"R-right," He responded, setting his headphones on Eri's bed, next to his clothes.

She made him try on lots of different outfits that day, so many that he had lost count. By the end of it, he felt dizzy and dazed from all the camera flashes and there was a large pile of already tried-on clothes next to Eri's bed.

They parted ways eventually, and a week later, Neku had enough courage to ask if he could paint a picture of her.

Eri had been really surprised and Neku remembered that he had never shown her any of his artwork before. She probably had no idea Neku even knew how to draw.

"I promise I'm not that bad at painting. I won't make you look hideous," Neku reassured.

"It's a bit of a strange request," She informed him, but smiled. "But if you want to, you can try to paint me."

So it was then that Neku sat down to paint. It took him a long time to plan it because he wanted everything to be perfect. He worked on it in sections at a time, slowly and carefully.

Eri once walked in on him while he was painting the eyes, and had stared at the canvas for awhile.

"Is it that bad?" Neku asked her, unsure. "I can scrap it, if you—"

"No, no! It's…" She looked at the picture. "It's absolutely perfect. You're a wonderful artist, Neku."

"Th…thank you," A blush formed on his cheeks and he was careful not to look her in the eye.

A few years later, when Eri and Shiki had started opened their store, Neku had formed his band was in his senior year in college. He had gone to an institute of the arts and they asked him to put on an art show of his own work.

He sat there for hours, required to pick a mere one hundred pieces of his best work out of the thousands he had done over the years.

It took him a long time to select each and every piece of artwork for his exhibit. After all, Neku loved every single piece he had ever produced and each one was cared for and undamaged.

But it hadn't taken him long at all to pick his centerpiece.

The finished portrait of a certain red-haired girl was mounted on a wall in the very center of his exhibit, surrounded by a hundred other pieces of equal beauty.

Neku got more praise than he was expecting, from total strangers, no less. His friends, of course, came to see his exhibit to encourage him and they had been blown away by the amount of quality work around them.

"I still remember when you were asking my advice on the best school, Neku," Mr. H said, whistling at the work before him. "I'm glad to see we made the right choice. They've really allowed you to flourish."

Neku nodded, smiling. That was when he noticed Eri.

The red-haired girl was staring at the portrait of herself, in a complete daze.

Shiki giggled, and made a comment about how much Eri had been acting like Neku, when he had stopped by a few weeks before.

After Eri broke out of her daze, she smiled at Neku and complimented him.

Neku blushed at the praise, but smiled himself.

Neku Sakuraba loved art, music, and recognition….

But there was one more thing he loved more than anything: a young girl, now a young woman, name Eri.