The Last Quincy

By DeChunk

Based on characters created by Tite Kubo.

Sunday, February 18: 6:49 am.

Tatsuya woke up in his bed, where he had fallen asleep the night before. He was five years old and knew that it was early enough for cartoons to be on. At least the kinds of cartoons Uncle Chad said he could watch. Kon was still held tight to his body. He didn't know why Mommy had named the stuffed lion, but it meant something to her, so he didn't argue with it. Rubbing his eyes, Tatsuya got up out of his bed and downstairs to the living room. No one else was up at this hour, so he'd have the tv all to himself.

At least, that's how things usually were.

The living room had a sliding glass door that led out to the patio, and was on the opposite side of where you'd be if you came down the stairs instead of through the front door. Tatsuya was positioned here, and he could see Mommy sitting in a squatting position on the ground. She was wearing a pink bathrobe and had what seemed to be steam coming off of her head. Curious, he opened the door and stepped outside.

Mommy turned around with a shock, her red hair flipping wildly towards her back. Her face showed a sense of fear, like when the killer nabs the girl at the beginning of a horror movie. But this was not a movie and Mommy knew Tatsuya was not a killer. The fear faded with a sigh of relief. Her hands naturally swung behind her back as she stood up and faced her son.

"Ta-kun," Mommy called him, her familiar smile returning. "What are you and Kon doing up so early?"

Tatsuya was a little worried. "My shows are going to be on soon." The boy paused before continuing. "Why was there smoke coming from your head?"

"That- that was nothing. Sometimes Mommy just thinks a little too hard." Mommy stuck her tongue out and tapped her head with her fist, other hand safely behind her back.

"Will my head steam up if I think too hard?"

"No, you've got your Daddy's head. You'll be fine." She used her revealed hand to turn Tatsuya around and then dropped something to the ground behind her and kicked it away. "Here, let's watch some tv, okay?"

"Okay!" Tatsuya ran to the couch and hit the big red button on the remote. The television turned on with a ping and faded in both the picture and the sound at equal rates, but with sound being slightly ahead of the video. The opening channel was some news station that Daddy always watched. Click click. Cartoons. And with that Tatsuya spent the next two hours staring at the television.

Orihime looked at her son and smiled, stroking his hair. He was a sparkly glimmering orb in a dark, smelly world. She thought of Tatsuya as a golden child, standing on a podium, slowly spinning with little rays of light and stars coming off of it. Then he stopped spinning and the podium was in a large stone cave. Then she adjusted her wide brimmed hat and pulled a rock out of her pocket. Carefully, she approached the idol, tongue out, eyes unblinking. Then with an instantaneous motion, swapped the idol for the rock, and nothing seemed to be wrong. That was until the large boulder chased after her. She ran away, idol in hand, as fast as she could. The boulder kept chasing and chasing, catching up to her, until finally it squashed her and pulled her with it. It kept rolling and rolling, picking up more and more stuff until it had a 300 meter radius. And then she became part of the moon.

Orihime shook herself out of her daydream. Those didn't happen as much as they used to. Her hand was still stroking Tatsuya's head. She was thankful for her muscle memory. The latest Kamen Rider was on and the boy was bouncing up and down with anticipation for the fight. She had spent an hour in that last daydream. Huh. Orihime ran her right hand through her own hair, pushing it out of her face and over her shoulder. She hadn't worn her hairclips for about eight years now, and was wondering where she put them.

A sudden jolt came from her son, jumping for joy as the good guy punched the bad guy in the face-helmet thing. Tatsuya shouted at the television and waved Kon in the air frantically. His smiling face, his calming voice. Orihime smiled and tussled the hair of her only child. Giving him a great big hug and holding him close to her chest, she was reminded of a love once lost and never would be.