Disclaimer: Unfortunately...I - I :bursts into sobs: will NEVER own Weiss Kreuz!

Poetry and...Bananas?

Chapter 3 In Order to Lie

The following month when Manx brought Weiss the video that dictated their next mission she also brought the most recent issue of Poetry Today.

"You might find this interested. I certainly did," she articulated.

Weiss gathered around the magazine and flipped to the pages regarding the contest. Three finalists had been selected. The winner would be announced in the next issue. The finalists were:

Something I learned by Omi Tsukiyono
Aya is usually very cold.
My other friends think his attitude gets old,
So sometimes they tease him.
Then he'll attack them on a whim.
Something I learned from this (don't scoff)
Is to never piss Aya off.

Math by Yoji Kudou
Add a bedroom
Subtract clothes soon
Open the thighs
And go multiply!

A Lie by Nagi Naoe
Whenever I feel your touch
I tend not to
Say very much.
I could say you're a dream come true.
I could say you're my earth, my sun, and my sky.
I could say you make my spirit whole,
But any of those would be a lie.
Naught can describe the feeling in my soul.
'Love' is not enough;
I need a word that is new.
Until there is one I'll remain silent, though it's rough
Because I do not wish to lie to you.

"Oh, Nagi," Omi whispered softly to himself.

"Yeah! I'm in the finals!" Yoji cheered, thinking he was awesome because he indeed was. He draped his arm around Manx's shoulders. "Prodigy's poem makes you think about me, doesn't it?"

She shrugged off his arm. "Go fall off of a cliff." At his affronted expression Manx elaborated, "The fall from a cliff doesn't kill you. The abrupt stop does."

Omi gasped, "You don't really want that to happen to Yoji, do you?"

Before Manx had the chance to respond, Yoji told Omi, "If you say gullible backwards it sounds like banana."

"Elbillug...No, it doesn't."

"See? You tried it; that means you're gullible, and only gullible people would consider believing Manx wants my perfect body damaged."

Manx shook her head irritably. "Yoji's afraid to admit the truth."

Loyally, Omi stood up for his friend despite the fact that he had attempted to make him seem ignorant a second ago. "Afraid? Yoji doesn't know the meaning of the word fear."

Ken quipped, "He doesn't know the meaning of most words."

Sensing that another ludicrous argument was about to ensue, Omi picked a bunch of yellow fruit off of the kitchen table and ambled towards the exit.

"Where are you going?" inquired Aya crisply. "You haven't even heard what the assignment is yet."

"Count me out of this one," the youngster called over his shoulder as he disappeared from view. "I want to congratulate Nagi on his poem and have him eat my banana."

Manx blinked in mild shock. "Did I hear him correctly?"

Aya nodded once.

"And the computer expert didn't realise how perverted that sounded?" She desired confirmation for her suspicions.

"Of course not," Ken said.

Yoji added, "He's Omi, after all," as if that explained and excused everything.

"True," Manx admitted, and she put in the video.

Crawford looked at Nagi from over the top of his issue of Poetry Today. "You made the finals." It was a neutral statement, not praise. Nagi did not expect any.

Nagi inclined his head to show that he had heard him, however, his face betrayed nothing that he felt about the matter. He was not elated, he was nervous, for he was aware that Omi would have read it.

Farfarello suggested, "Hey, Crawford-Dammit, let's burn down the churches to celebrate his success."

"I'm going to shower and go see Omi." Nagi declined the recommendation.

Schuldich smirked. "Can I come?"

"To the shower?"

"No, to the flower shop. Sorry to break your little heart, but you're too short for me."

Nagi queried warily, "Why do you want to come?"

"To annoy Weiss. I've got nothing else to do."

"Absolutely not."

"How come?"

"That ought to be obvious."

"Well, it's not."

"That's your problem." The telekeietic promptly bathed and left, utterly disregarding the others' presence.

"Schuldich is offended," commented Schuldich.

Not certain he wanted to learn the answer, Crawford questioned, "Why are you referring to yourself in third person? It's weird enough when Tot does it, but when you do it...Just answer the question."

"Nagi acted like Schuldich wasn't here, so Schuldich is making it apparent that he's here."

"Are you on something?"

"If so, can I have some?" Farfarello chimed in.

"Just what I need: stoned and high psychics," mumbled Crawford caustically. "God, help me."

"God?" Farfarello leapt up licking one of his numerous blades menacingly. "Where?"

Nagi and Omi went to the store to buy ice cream in order to create banana splits with Omi's bananas for no reason other than the author wanted them for the plot.

(The readers exclaimed, "There's a plot!")

They were currently eating them beneath a shady tree in a deserted park.

"Your poem was wonderful," complimented Omi with his paradigmatic chipper smile.

Nagi did not thank him for the encouraging remark. Living with Schwarz caused him to be unaccustomed to positive annotation and he was still unsure of how to accept it, yet the minute alteration in his body language indicated that he appreciated it. He elected that moment to reveal something to Omi that he had been intending to for a fairly long time. Expressing himself was not Nagi's greatest skill, though he did his best. He brushed Omi's wan cheek with slender fingers. Light blue eyes connected with dark ones. Coolly, but sincerely, he elucidated, "I meant what I said in the poem Omi. I, for lack of a better word, love you."

The blond dropped his spoon in surprise and was quiet for a moment.

"Omi, a reaction with words would be nice."

"I love...I love-"

"What?" Nagi kept the hoefullness from his voice; fate had never been kind to him before. Would it start now?

"I love ice cream." Apparently not. Omi took the telekinetic's hand from his cheek and clutched it firmly to his palm. "And I love you."

Yay, God undoubtedly did exist! (Nagi made a mental not to inform Farfarello.) Or a fan fiction writer that really liked him. It did not matter which. He took his unoccupied fingers and joyfully set them to work.

"N-nagi?"

"Yes?"

"That's my banana..."

"I know."

Minerva's Note: Well, that's it! A short fic, I know, but hopefully cute and amusing too. Please tell me what your favourite poem was! Personally, I like Omi's and Nagi's.