Broken Wings

It was a beautiful day; the sky was a wonderful shade of blue as a few big, white, fluffy clouds decorated it. Birds were whistling their tunes to find partners. In the distance you could hear the cars from the busy main street and children running around, finally playing outside again after all the rain from the past few weeks had dried up, which had made it impossible for them to go outside any earlier.

You stopped for a moment and forgot all the problems tormenting your mind as you closed your eyes and enjoyed nature for a few moments. A soft wind blew through your hair and for the first time that day you actually managed to relax without having to force yourself.

A pair of kids zoomed past you, laughing as they went, and pulled your thoughts back to your current situation. Almost forgetting what you came to do, you remembered as you looked at the pretty big carton box that you had been holding in your arms all this time. One of your shops' biggest customers, also the one you knew almost nothing about, except for his name and where he lived, always had a delivery of the same carton box, once a week on exactly the same day. You had always been curious about what was inside, probably the same thing each time because it seemed to have the same weight each week and sounded the same whenever you rattled it. You had never gotten complaints of broken items, so you guessed that there wasn't anything breakable in there…

Continuing your journey towards said customer, you let your thoughts wander freely so that time would pass by faster than normally.

Each week, on exactly the same day with exactly the same box in your arms, you would kick the door with your foot because, hey, your arms were too busy not letting the customer's items fall. Kisuke Urahara would then open the door, always smiling exactly the same jovial smile.

"Ah, hello, [F/N]-san~!" he would then say, helping you with the box by carefully taking it over from your arms, making more contact with your skin than necessary.

"Thank you very much. Oh, would you like something to drink?" he'd offer politely, but you'd always decline just as politely, saying something like, "I need to get back as soon as possible, boss is waiting for me."

He'd nod and proceed to talk about things like the weather, or if you'd watched this show on the television. Though you knew nothing about him, you knew Urahara himself pretty well, as in how his personality was and how he thought about things. You had had lots of conversations about politics and economics, religion… The list goes on. He was a great person to have deep conversations with.

But this time, it would be different. You weren't your usual self at the moment because you and your sister had been fighting yesterday and what made it all even worse was that you knew it was all your own fault and your sister had every right to be mad at you.

Your parents had died in a car crash a few years ago, though the two of you had gotten over it pretty soon… That is probably what your parents would have wanted. Plus, you weren't on your own; you still had your sister. At least, that was what you hoped.

She had fallen in love. You had noticed it immediately, but that wasn't hard when she never answered most of your attempts at having a serious conversation with her and instead dozed off with a dreamy look in her eyes. The feelings being mutual, it had only taken a few weeks and by now, all that had happened a few months ago.

But your guts told you not to… 'like' him. You hadn't wanted your sister to visit him yesterday, which resulted in this fight. She even left the house to sleep at his tonight, until 'You had calmed down a bit.'

After kicking the door of the Urahara Shop, it didn't take much longer than half a minute before somebody opened it, like he had been expecting you. Urahara stood in the door opening, cheerful as ever. A look of concern flashed through his eyes as he took in your unusually dishevelled appearance, bags under your eyes, that kind of stuff.

"Ah, hello, [F/N]-san…" the same words as every week, but his voice seemed less confident and cheery than that it normally was. Well, today just wasn't going to turn out to be 'the usual'.

After carefully accepting the brown package he placed it on the floor next to him, just behind the door. "Thank you very much."

You smiled, or at least tried to smile, in response and already knew how this conversation would go on. Or maybe you craved for some variety for once?

"Would you like something to drink?" Urahara asked with his polite yet somehow warm voice. He thought that he knew what was going to happen, almost expected you to reject just like always. But you were tired and you felt horrible. Without your sister at home, you just hadn't been able to sleep last night. You had worried, thinking about all the different scenarios of what could happen to her, coming home safe and alive not among them. At this moment, you couldn't really care about the customers waiting at the shop, hadn't you deserved a little something in return for once? Your boss could probably handle everything himself, right?

"Actually, I think that'd be a wonderful idea," you replied with a genuine, although tired, smile. This only added to Urahara's suspicions. You weren't hard to read, you really were an open book. The most interesting part was that you even seemed to know it, but you also didn't really care about it. Somehow, that managed to give you something beautiful. Urahara had always found that rather intriguing about you, ever since the first time that you had delivered his package for him.

While being led through the house, you greeted the employees that helped Urahara (or Kisuke, as he had asked you to call him) with his shop. There was the large and serious Tessai who seemed to treat Kisuke as his master, the cute Ururu and of course, the red head Jinta.

Kisuke showed you something that looked like a living room and told you to sit at the table. "Tessai, could you please bring us something to drink?"

The man in question merely nodded and you wondered how on earth he was supposed to know what kind of drinks he had to make for the two of you, seeing as Kisuke had never specifically mentioned anything more informative than "something to drink"…

"So…" Kisuke began all of a sudden, his attention back to you. He had started fanning his face with a simple fan, as if it were hot in the room. "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

So it was obvious that something was tormenting your mind at the moment. The seemingly simple question actually did get you to think. What really was wrong with you? You couldn't say that you had been in a fight with your sister. For some reason that just felt… wrong. Maybe it was just your imagination, but you felt that Kisuke's question had some deeper meaning than just that.

Oh well, let's just be honest.

"I don't know." Your answer seemed to take Kisuke by surprise, but soon enough he had acquired his usual attitude once more.

"Well, what happened? Something must have happened, maybe we can start from there?" Was he expecting this to be some kind of fun detective game, treating your problems like they were insignificant? You felt some anger spark inside of you, but before it could grow you told yourself that he was only trying to help you.

Inner emotions put to the side, you answered Kisuke's question. "I had a fight with my sister yesterday and she slept somewhere else because of that… and I really can't sleep in a house with no one else, I know it sounds stupid…"

Kisuke seemed to ignore your semi-confession, which kind of hurt your feelings though you did not know why, and continued. "What was the fight about?"

You blushed and felt a little awkward all of a sudden. It really had been a stupid reason to pick a fight about… "Because of her boyfriend, for some reason I don't really like him."

Frowning, you started to wonder why exactly you didn't like him. It wasn't like you didn't actually trust him… You were already pretty sure that you didn't have to worry about leaving your sister in his care.

There! That feeling right there, when you thought about leaving your sister to him. You got it every time your sister started talking about her boyfriend, a sharp pain that wasn't really physical but actually seemed to be so. You hated it, wanted to get rid of it…

"You're afraid he'll hurt her?" his question interrupted your mind's rambling, as if on purpose, but he couldn't read minds because otherwise he would've 'heard' or 'read' that that wasn't the problem right now.

"No, that's not it… I completely trust him… But I still don't want my sister to visit him…"

Even before you had managed to finish your sentence, Kisuke let out a triumphant noise, hitting the palm of his left hand with his right hand which was clenched into a fist, a sound that seemed similar to 'pon~' floating through the air though you weren't quite sure if that had been your imagination or not.

"You're jealous!" he exclaimed, now pointing his finger at you, looking as if he had just solved the mystery of life.

"W-what?!" your face turned bright red, embarrassment filling you as you didn't know what you were supposed to say to that. Luckily, Tessai chose exactly this moment to enter the room while holding a tray with two cups and a tea can balanced in the middle of it. Hoping that he wouldn't notice the colour of your face, you quickly lowered your head so that your bangs covered most of it.

As he finished pouring in the drinks, you murmured a soft thank you, only receiving something that resembled a 'kind grunt' before he quickly left the room. He probably felt the tenseness floating through the air. The tenseness seemed to be coming from your side only, seeing as Kisuke, seemingly cheerful, picked up his cup, took a big sip and let out a sigh so big that it sounded as if he had been craving the taste of the drink for a few years already.

"What's the matter?" Kisuke inquired politely, noticing the suspicion in your narrowed eyes that were glaring at him, looking as if he hadn't noticed it. Seriously, you didn't know how he did it, but somehow he managed to piss you off yet, at the same time, make you feel all fuzzy inside.

"You said I was jealous... Of my sister's boyfriend?" you cautiously asked as your mind was trying its best to puzzle everything out. Somehow, it all seemed to make sense now and you started feeling a little stupid that you hadn't realized it any earlier.

"That seems pretty obvious to me. You don't want your sister to be with him, don't want to sleep in a house without her but it has nothing to do with the boy himself. You're just a bit jealous that she's got someone other than you," he summed it all up rather casually, like it was the most normal thing in the world. Maybe you were being a bit egoistic here, it wasn't like your problems were unique and impossibly difficult to solve.

Ignoring the small tears that started tormenting your eyes all of a sudden – sheesh, what was with you these days, being all moody – you wrapped your fingers around your cup and lifted it to your lips, resisting the urge to down it all in one go.

As you placed your cup back to its original spot, you didn't notice that your hands had been shaking more than they normally did. Kisuke, however, had observed this, which was why you were so surprised when suddenly he placed his hand on the table, resting his weight on it as he reached out with his other hand.

All of this had happened in such a high speed that you didn't even have enough to time to move back a tad and by the time your senses finally returned to normal, Kisuke's surprisingly soft fingers were cupping your chin. Only then did you see that he had taken his hat off and you saw that the eyes that were staring into yours were green, or grey? You weren't too sure.

Kisuke opened his mouth and was about to say something when you decided that you didn't really want to hear it, afraid that he was going to say something else that hit right home. It scared you, frightened you that this person you only saw once a week already knew everything about who you were and what made you tick.

"I think I should return to the shop..." you stated, giving Kisuke no other option than to retract his hand and let you go. He threw in a smile as well, taking you by surprise and almost making your knees go weak even though you were still sitting on the ground.

As Kisuke led you back to the front door, you managed to say your goodbyes to the other three living here and also thanked Tessai for the tea, to which he lifted the corners of his mouth. You could barely even see it because his moustache was kind of in the way.

"Please forgive me for my rude behaviour," you apologized with a small bow once you were standing outside, offering Kisuke a small smile once you were standing straight again. He only responded with a shrug as his eyes smiled at you, the bottom half of his face once more hidden behind his fan.

After quickly waving at Kisuke you turned around and started on your trip back to the shop where your boss may or may not be slightly pissed at you because you had taken so long. Luckily you still had the whole way back to think of some excuse.

Letting a sigh of relief escape, you felt part of the stress leaving your body and you realized that having that small talk with Kisuke had helped you feel a bit better. You wondered what would have happened if you hadn't stopped Kisuke from holding your face. Would he have kissed you? Why did he even do it to begin with? A blush dusted your cheeks when you caught yourself wishing it was already next week and that you were on your way back to him.

Debating with yourself why you should or shouldn't have a crush on him as you made your way back to work, you had no idea of what was to come.