A/n I own nothing. This is a Christmas gift for HitsugayaKuchiki. It's a retelling of Marty Robbins song: Mr. Shorty www . youtube watch? v=6x6o_tBU8DU and I highly recommend listening to it after or during the reading of this piece.
Kenpachi sat at the bar drinking in silence. Six months into his captaincy, he still didn't feel comfortable with the prissy nobles that made up ninety percent of the officers in the Gotei 13. So he'd made his way to some no-name-bar in the 75th North, sat shooting straight sake and waited to see if some sort of a brawl would develop or he'd have to start one.
A white-haired kid walked in and ordered sake as well. The process of checking ID had thoroughly confused him when he heard some graduates crowing about their new status granting them exemption. If anywhere in the Rukongai had the policy, they were lower districts than he'd ever been in.
"Do you happen to know how I can get into Seireitei sir?" the kid asked slowly and precisely.
"Do I look..." he began, before remembering that he actually did and wondering for the fiftieth time what had possessed him to leave the Rukongai in the first place. Far from the greater challenges he'd been looking for, all he'd found were rules, leashes and a fuck ton of paperwork. "Eh." he grunted assent "What ya' want with that shithole."
The boy's eyes widened but he replied politely, "I want to join the academy. Ah was told I have the requisite ability," he explained, a bit of accent slipping into his slow precise words. Zaraki looked the kid over; he was dressed in decent clothes so he was from one of the lower districts yet he didn't seem nervous much less afraid. Bold kid.
"Yer freedom," he said with a shrug. The way another would say 'your funeral". "Keep walkin' tha' way. Shiny towers, flooded wi' rich bitches can' miss it," he gestured vaguely toward Seireitei. The boy raised an eyebrow and took half his drink with only a slight wince.
"I thought maybe you could lead me there or draw a map or something. I've been chasing 'ova thar's for three days," he said finishing his drink with another wince.
"Impatient kid like ya's gonna hate the place," he warned with a rough laugh.
"Ain't no kid," he snarled, teal eyes flashing.
Zaraki laughed again, "Meant no offense. Hell got a pup out there waiting fer' me," a hint of pride slipped into his voice. "Maybe half your size. Could probably kick the ass o' half the guys in 'ere." Glares from around the bar met this challenge, but he looked around with a smile and the gazes all lowered. Disappointed he looked back at the kid. The anger was gone and there was only a sort of lost look in the kid's eyes. He knew that look, lower districts or not the kid'd been through some shit.
A man walked in, almost as tall as Zaraki himself and rough looking with a bloody gash running down the side of his face.
"The usual and make it quick!" the man snapped. "What're you looking at pipsqueak?" the kid Zaraki had been talking to leaped from his stool.
"Who you callin' pipsqueak, oaf?" he snarled.
"You, half pint. What're ya' even doing in here?"
"Drinking and you can call me Toshiro," the boy said coldly. Zaraki watched idly as the man rose.
"I'll call you whatever the fuck I want ya' little runt. Now bow an' say 'please spare me Ryuu-sama' an'…I might." The man took a threatening step forward. Zaraki stood as rage flooded through him, about to see to it that this piece of shit fought someone his own size. Actually, that'd be almost as unfair a fight, but this asshole had it coming.
"All I'm asking is some basic courtesy Ryuu-san," the boy replied.
"Yer either able to demand respect or you don't 'serve it," the man snarled and took a swing, Zaraki launched himself at the man and the moment froze. Not just the moment Zaraki stared at the man, Ryuu was incased in ice, terror etched on his face. Zaraki raised his own arm and saw frost on it.
"Guess you don't deserve it then," Toshiro said quietly as he walked out of the bar with an apology to the bartender. Zaraki returned to his stool and ordered a double. Seireitei might not be so boring after all.