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They'd done a lot of stupid things here, but this easily took the cake. How desperate could they really be for some extra money? Valentine's special? It wasn't even February any more.
They all had a room for themselves right now. And get this, they were supposed to just write valentine's poems. There was nothing in the room but arts and crafts supplies. Oh and guess what? They all had to spend at least an hour here. At least. If they didn't have ten poems by the time the hour ran out, they'd need to stay either until they had enough poems or until the day ended.
Rin though this was all pathetically stupid. Poems? Really? They could all be training right now. But when he thought about it more, he was glad it was Anri who came up with the programme for this special. It was stupid, yes, but he was doing it alone, they all were. He appreciated that. Who knows what they would've had to do if it was someone else who made today's programme. God forbid it was England's coach with all the advertising he does.
Statistically speaking, it would be best for him to get the ten poems done within the hour. They had no rules on how long the poems had to be or the topic they needed to be about. Thanks to that, he'd thought of the perfect plan. To get out of here with little effort, he'd simply use the "roses are red, violets are blue" format. It was easy enough and if anyone were to randomly stumble upon them, even though they were told this would be anonymous, honestly he didn’t really believe them, with the little amount of English some of these idiots knew, he doubted they'd even be able to understand them. And even if they did, they'd probably assume someone from England's team wrote them.
With this plan in mind, he took a piece of paper and picked up a pen. But when it hit the paper, he realized he hadn't thought about what to write yet. Well the start was always the same, even when people got 'creative' with it, at least the first line always remained.
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
…
Yep.
…
But what now? He should probably just write something generic, right? It's not like Rin really had any experience when it came to love, even if he did he sure as hell wouldn't spill it here.
What do people usually say about love? How about his parents?
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
My hear feels warm
When I'm with you.
He threw the pen at the wall. Ew. Disgusting. He can't believe he actually wrote that. He wants to tear up the paper. But he already wrote it, might as well put it into the box. Ah the price for freedom, he'll cringe at this for the rest of his life.
Maybe he should try something else. Something that feels more natural.
He went to pick up the pen he threw away. It was only then he noticed the ink splatter on the wall. One that he caused. He hadn’t even realized it was a fountain pen. It gave him an idea, so he quickly settled down, grabbed another paper and began writing.
Roses are red,
my blood is too,
how much can I lose
before I turn blue?
That felt a lot more like him. Like something he wouldn’t regret writing. Maybe making these a bit more violent would make them bearable. He quickly threw the paper into the box. He wanted to be done with this as soon as possible. What else did he have on his mind that he could exploit for this?
Roses are red,
thorns sharp as the truth,
oh how I despise you
for wasting my youth.
This was a bit more honest and personal than he was going for, but nothing that wasn’t obvious. Hah, seems like some of the ink got onto his hands. He ran his fingers over the “you”. There. Now it was more realistic. Three down, ten more to go.
Maybe he should try to pick some keywords, it would make this go by even faster. The English had some common sayings, didn’t they? Surely he could easily incorporate that.
Roses are red,
violets are blue,
assuming makes an ass
out of me and you.
As lukewarm as that saying was, it did make for a very quick poem. He could probably think of at least a few more.
Roses are red,
violets are blue,
I’ve bitten off
more than I can chew.
This one was even more lukewarm than the last one. Rin never bit of more than he could chew because he could chew anything. Regretting ones decisions is for the week.
Roses are red,
time moves too slow,
Eyes are
the windows to the soul.
Gah, he hates that one. Deep down he knew it was true. Maybe he should stop with these.
Four more to go. This is so boring, he’s staring to zone out.
…
When he looks down onto the next paper, he notices he wrote something without thinking. After he reads it he quickly scribbles over it.
Roses are red,
you seemed so cool,
I was so blind,
guess I’m a fool.
It wasn’t enough, he could still read the thing.
RIP!
SNAP!
TEAR!
He didn’t stop until the pieces were too small for him to continue.
…
He threw the pieces on the ground and pretended nothing happened.
He should probably just go back to his original plan of borrowing emotions from other people. But not romantic ones again, he didn’t wanna vomit all over himself.
But who should he borrow them from? He didn’t really know or care about the other bluelockers, all he’d be doing is assuming. Ah whatever, he didn’t really care. He started sorting through a mental list of the players. He immediately crossed of Shidou, no way he’d write anything using that roaches emotions, ew, he’d rather write about his parents again. The crow and ninja were also off the table. No matter what they say, it was clear that there was something weird going on there, be it romantic or not. England’s “totally just normal friends” were also off the table. Both of them. Despite Mikage doing most of the things in that relationship, Rin was well ever it wasn’t one-sided. Both of them were equally idiotic.
After a while his mind landed on Bachira. Surely that guy had more then enough emotions and energy for him to use. Actually now that he thought about it, it should also be relatively linguistically simple, given how he is.
Roses are red,
violets are blue,
there is no end
for me and you.
Ugh, he even knows who Bachira’d say that too. It was simple enough too. Still, that hyperactive idiot would mess it up anyway.
Whatever, three more to go.
Roses are red,
your tears are blue
is it selfish of me
to want to save you?
Despite never really interacting with him, it was plenty of obvious to Rin how he though. While he was friendly and good intentioned, he never took the lead. Rin was sure he’d end up regretting it. He was too hesitant to actually try anything. Oh well, not like Rin cared.
But now that he thought about it…
Roses are red,
your hair is pink,
would you accept
if I offered a drink.
Mhm. Rin was sure they’d get along. Both of them clearly wanted to talk to each other. They probably could be friends. Too bad neither of those two ever took the initiative. Still, it was their fault, no one else's.
The next person came to mind pretty quickly.
Roses are red,
so is your rage,
do you also feel
like you’re stuck in a cage?
He blinked. Once. Twice. Thrice. Why did it feel like the question was directed at him. They had only exchanged a few words while at Blue lock, so why did this feel so personal. Would he really ask Rin something like that. How would Rin answer. He’s not sure why, but he feels like he’d owe him an answer.
Roses are red,
violets are blue,
would you free me
if I freed you?
…
Was that his answer? When has Rin ever relied on other people? He could save himself. No, scratch that. He didn’t need saving from anything. He was fine as he was.
He threw it into the box. He didn’t even realize he had more than he needed already.
He kept writing. He was enjoying it more than he’d ever admit.
It was only when the pen slipped out of his hand that he realized he had a huge pile of poems in front of him. And as if on cue, he heard the door unlock.
He dumped his pile into the box and quickly left.
-
The next day he learned that he was in fact the one who wrote the most poems.