title: Burn
disclaimer: No, the characters are not mine. they belong to Tite Kubo.
note1: This actually happened to me like... three days ago. The burning part. There's now a weird line on my foot...

edit: I finally got around to fixing the mistakes in this and inadvertently adding to it. I hope there are no more typos...

Life was the best when you had fun things to do. That was what Mashiro thought at least. It really came down to that, or when she could sleep. Both activities had their pro's and con's. There was the dreaming part of sleeping- which was glorious, in every way, shape, or form- and there was the relaxing part of it. She always managed to wake up refreshed. However, had to be dreaming. She loved dreaming about the things that aren't possible in reality. She could do or say whatever she wanted, and it would go just the way she wanted. She had complete control over everything, and the feeling was amazing. The only down side was the feeling of waking up. Being torn from the happiness and relaxation of her dream sometimes left her confused and exhausted. Though there were the times where she would wake up before her alarm clock and she would feel refreshed. That was a nice feeling.

This morning however, was one of the not so pleasant ones.

"Mnnnggg," The green haired girl groaned as she rolled over and covered herself with her pillow. The gigantic ball of burning hydrogen had quite rudely pulled her out of her lovely dream. She tried to go back to sleep, picture what she last remembered of the dream in order to go back to it, but her efforts were to no avail. Mp matter how she tried, all she could remember was a blur of gray, golden brown, and blue. Nothing that she could possibly put together.

Reluctantly, she got herself out of bed and slipped her feet into her warm bunny slippers that always sat on the side of her bed. She stretched out all of her limbs, enjoying the feeling of her muscles relaxing and getting ready for the day, and stood. Making sure not to walk into the corner of her bed- she's done it on countless occasions and it never failed to leave a bruise on her shin- she made her way out of her room and towards the kitchen, where she knew that there was coffee and breakfast.

As she shuffled into the kitchen, she seemed a bit more like a zombie than a vizored. Her eyes were mostly closed, and her feet didn't really rise from the floor. On top of that, she was muttering things like "Foooood~" and blindly grabbing the walls. It didn't really stop even when she finally arrived in the kitchen. She might have been a bit more careful, but she still grabbed her pans and ingredients blindly and from memory. Luckily, most of the things tend to stay in the same place. At least in the kitchen they do.

She then silently began to make her breakfast. She "scrambled" her eggs in a cup, cut the ham in equal squares, fried them, mixed in the eggs, added cheese, and added a bit of salt and pepper. It was the food that she made herself whenever she needed to wake up or when she was really hungry. Either way, it was something that she made often, and enjoyed. Granted, it was a dangerous ordeal with the possibility of cutting herself or burning herself, but in the end, she thought it was worth it. She wasn't a good cook, not my any means, but her eggs were always amazing in her opinion. However, somewhere between the mixing, cutting, and frying, not only did she manage to burn herself three times, but she banged her knee against the counter hard enough to leave a bruise on her knee.

If not on the bed, i bruise myself in the kitchen. It should really be called an art, she grumbled to herself as she cursed softly and rubbed her injured appendage, examining the damage that was sure to cause her trouble later on that day. Once the redness from her furious rubbing disappeared, she could see a slightly green splotch on her knee. It wasn't very visible, but she knew her body. It would most likely become a nasty, purple bruise by noon. As she inspected her foot, she spotted an angry red mark laying openly for all to see on the upper half of her foot where a rather hot slice of ham had landed from the pan. She also spotted two slightly less angry splotches on her upper thighs from their not so fortunate meeting with the counter as she was serving herself a steamy cup of coffee with two spoonfuls of sugar and one of creamer.

"I knew I should have put on some pants before leaving the bedroom…" She murmured to herself as she poked at her injuries.

Suddenly, she heard the footsteps of another person walk into the kitchen. Lifting her head to listen to the sounds, she realized who it was. Kensei. Knowing that his reaction to her foot could be something that she wouldn't want to deal with so early - he was most likely going to go on about her refusal to take better care of her body and how she should be more careful and observant of her surroundings - she quickly grabbed her plate of scrambled eggs, her cup of coffee, and sat down on one of the stools by the breakfast bar, careful to tuck her feet under the bench and away from view.

As the gray haired man walked in, Mashiro turned to face him. "Morning~" She greeted the grumbling man, sending him a beaming smile. As expected, he ignored her completely as he served himself a cup of black coffee, it was still a bit of a mystery to her how he could even drink the stuff, and sat down across from her. Once he took a sip of the scalding coffee (there was still a steady flow of steam leaving the mug), he looked at her and grunted out a greeting.

Turning her head to the side, she eyed him a bit curiously, "Why the long face, Kensei~?" she asked, a bit perplexed as to the reason why he didn't take a longer drink or greet her like he usually did. He typically managed a 'Morning' in the least.

Rolling his eyes, he looked at her plate, and without asking, grabbed her fork and took a bite. He silently chewed the food and the green haired girl couldn't keep herself from watching him eat her food, and examining his face. The area around his eyes was a bit darker than usual, making it apparent that his night wasn't spent sleeping, and the slight wrinkle in his forehead told her he was thinking about something somewhat important. At least to him it was. He was anal about his food, and how it tasted, yet he chewed his food and thought about something else. She couldn't guess what it was, but she filed it in her brain, telling herself to bring it back up some other time.

"Needs salt." He said as he finally swallowed the food and grabbed another bite.

Mashiro blinked a few times, processing what the man just said, and her jaw dropped. If it really did need salt, then why was he eating more? What kind of logic was that?

"Kensei-meanieeee~" She exclaimed loudly, taking the fork from his mouth (ignoring his affronted noises) and taking a bite for herself. She chewed it slowly and purposefully, making sure to take in every aspect of the flavor of the food, criticizing her culinary expertise.

It was most definitely not lacking salt.

"It doesn't need salt, Kensei-meanie!" She proclaimed loudly, her lip jutting out in a pout, "And even if it did, I made it for me, silly." With that, she stuck her tongue out at him, and took the plate of food closer to her chest, keeping it from the tall man. She was nice, but she liked her food too; there was only so much that she could share. After all, she did burn herself to make it, she had every right to enjoy every last bite of it.

Just as she planed, Mashiro enjoyed every scoop of breakfast, hummed happily in her seat as she finished her breakfast, completely forgetting her companion.

"What'd you do to your foot?" A gruff voice brought her back to reality, and reminded her of her battle with the ham.

Her eyes widened and she looked at her foot, which she had apparently moved while eating without noticing. Stupid. now look what you've done, she scolded herself silently, slowly meeting his gaze. Thinking quickly, she used her usual method of aggravating the man. Using the truth in a blunt manner, while grinning widely.

"I burned myself." She replied simply, knowing that it was easier to just be out with it now that he knew.

Without saying anything, she could tell what was going through his mind. His expression said it loud and clear.

"You can't be serious." He said finally.

Swallowing, she replied, "Why would I lie?", shrugging her shoulders.

The silver haired man chuckled lowly and shook his head, somehow not surprised by her clumsiness. He silently got up, and went to get their first aid kit. Mashiro watched as he left, and shrugged once more, not really worried as to why he had left. She knew he would probably be back anyway. Or maybe he wouldn't. Probably not though.

Few minutes later, her theory was proved right as he walked back into their kitchen with a large, clear, plastic container. As he got closer, she realized it was their first aid kit. Confused by his odd behavior - she didn't know that he knew that they had one, let alone know where it was- she sat and simply stared at him as he bent down in front of her, grabbed her foot (albeit a bit roughly), and examined her foot more closely. Mashiro watched in surprise as he grabbed an orange colored tube and spread a cool gel on her skin.

"That tickles~" She replied between giggles, moving her foot instinctively.

"Stop moving your damned leg." He grunted, tightening his grip on her foot, holding it in place while he continued to apply the gel.

Sticking out her tongue, she immediately felt the cooling sensation of the gel working, and quickly grinned in appreciation.

"Thankies Kenseiii~" She exclaimed, throwing herself at him in a hug, without thinking the situation through completely. Needless to say, Kensei was surprised, which sent them both tumbling towards the hard, unforgiving, ground. Though it wasn't that bad for her, she felt bad for Kensei being that she landed on him, making his landing worse.

She thought about it for a minute before realizing that it probably didn't hurt him that much. Then, not really caring -she knew he would be fine- she tightened her grip and thanked him once more. She took advantage of the fact that he was surprised and said, "You're the best Kensei~ you really should be this nice more often."

Coming out of his surprised state, his hands automatically gripped at her shoulders and pushed her away, wanting his personal space.

"Get… Off…" He exclaimed while pushing her off him. However, they were too close for him to really push her away, between her clinging to him while he pushed her away, her face got too close to his. Everything seemed to stop moving as Kensei realized how close their faces were, and promptly froze.

The small girl took advantage of the proximity (and his rather good imitation of a statue) she gave him a peck on the cheek and grinned.

"It feels loads better. Thank youuuuu~" She exclaimed her gratitude. However, it seemed as though that brought him out of his paralyzed state because he suddenly blinked and touched his cheek; telling her that he clearly wasn't expecting that.

"What… What was that?" He exclaimed, staring up at the green haired girl that was still on him with confused eyes.

A high pitched laugh escaped her lips as she rolled off him. "It was a thank you kiss, silly. What else would it be?" She answered, her expression taking a more confused look. What else would it have been?

Kensei simply lay where they had landed with his eyes glued to the ceiling, still surprised. He didn't even move as Mashiro stood and looked down at the man. "You getting up?" She asked, offering her hand to help him up though still confused by his behavior.

Shaking his head, he grumbled to himself and ignored the offered hand as he stood.

"You're such a weirdo Kensei~" She sang, grabbing her breakfast plate which had been neglected and skipped to the sink, letting water pour over it in order to get the left overs to loosen their grip on the plate and make it easier to wash.

The still stunned man watched the small girl wash her plate, grab her coffee, and leave while touching his cheek in the place where her lips had touched his skin.

That was really weird….

note3: Like? No like?

~Aj