Characters: Isshin, Ryuuken
Summary: Ryuuken gets Isshin hooked on cigarettes.
Pairings: None
Warnings/Spoilers: None, really, unless you count these two knowing each other as a spoiler, then yes.
Timeline: Pre-manga
Author's Note: Isshin had to start smoking some time. And word to the wise people, smoking is very bad for you. There, I've put in the obligatory anti-smoking message.
Word Count: 430
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.
"God, it's cold out here." Isshin always felt the cold a bit more keenly when in a gigai, rubbing his arms convulsively through his coat sleeves. The frost was thick on the ground, though it wasn't late enough in the year to start snowing yet.
"Really?" Ryuuken asked lazily, knocking ash off of the end of his cigarette with one gloved hand; they were waiting for a bus to come at the local bus stop, and Ryuuken had, predictably, lit up. "I hadn't noticed." Isshin couldn't tell if "the man with the perfect deadpan" was being sarcastic or not.
A wave of pale blue smoke hit Isshin's face and he coughed. Glaring at Ryuuken, who was being aggravatingly blasé, his eyes watering, Isshin muttered, "You know, smoking's a nasty habit. The stuff'll kill you."
"You don't say." Now, Ryuuken was being sarcastic; this was more familiar territory to Isshin's unwilling roommate. Isshin knew he drove his friend nuts and didn't really care.
Isshin folded his arms across his chest and scowled. "Yeah. Try, your lungs, your teeth, your—" he stopped and glared at his younger friend. "Why am I even bothering? You're a med student; you know what cigarettes do to the human body!"
At this, Ryuuken took his cigarette out of his mouth and turned his eyes on Isshin, that infuriatingly blank expression on his face again. Faint annoyance just barely managed to bleed through. "How good of you to remember, considering you nearly incinerated one of my textbooks just last week."
This prompted Isshin to raise his hands. "Hey, that was an accident," he said defensively. He got back to the task at hand. "Okay, you didn't do this until about a year and a half ago. Why'd you start smoking, anyway?"
Ryuuken shrugged. "It was my first exhumation. I was told the smell was awful, and I bought a pack of cigarettes, after checking to make sure it was alright." He raised one hand in a small flourish. "It worked; what can I say?"
"I'll tell you what you can say: It's a nasty habit."
The younger man sighed, raising both eyebrows momentarily, and adjusted his glasses as he took his pack of cigarettes and a lighter out of his coat pocket. Ryuuken took a single cigarette out of the pack, and pressed it and the lighter into Isshin's hand. "Don't knock it 'til you've tried it." He smirked.
Isshin frowned down at the cigarette and lighter.
"You know, this is gonna be a great story to tell our kids someday."
"No, it won't be, Isshin."
