The wind is nice tonight. She can feel it running its cold, fluid fingers through her hair, feel the chill in her bones and the rising of the short strands on the back of her neck. The smell of deep fried seafood whisks by her, thick and beckoning, but she doesn't find it appetizing at all.
Her attention is elsewhere.
She closes her eyes, praying to the gods to lend her strength. It's not the first time she's been here since the aftermath of the battle, nor will it be her last. She knows deep down in her heart that she will never be able to leave this place and not return forever.
When she opens her eyes, she's blinking through the glare of the bright fluorescent light that's attached to the ceiling. She's always hated that light, often complaining that it hurt her eyes and a pain to switch off at night. Now she finds that she misses it somehow. She glances to the door, finds the switch just there on the wall; her hand itches to reach out and flick it off, to plunge the room into total darkness so she can slip in unnoticed.
Her hand comes to rest on the window as the door opens.
And there he is.
Orange hair, constant scowl, white T-shirt, blue jeans – he's everything that she remembers him as. In spite of herself, she smiles. A light, gentle smile that only pulls at the sides of her rosy lips, a blessing to have on this cold night.
He plops himself down at his desk, wheels around on his chair. The squeaking sound it makes whenever he does that annoys her, but now she longs to hear it. So she can pull at his hair and shout and scold him like how she used to. It's something new to her, this feeling. It's like she wants to return to the days when she used to complain about everything and anything, when she had to slap him over the head just to set him on the right track.
He takes a textbook from the desk and sets it in his lap, brows furrowing in concentration.
Oh? Studying now, are we, Ichigo?
She chuckles, feels the small ache deep inside her chest as she lifts her hand away from the window. Better not disturb him, better not be a busybody and intrude. Her eyes dart to the light switch once more, and then she steps back and allows her face to be overcast by shadow.
There's no need to waste her strength, time.
Nobody would notice her even with the light on anyway.