Summary: A Sequel to "Rain". Hichigo has never known the difference between sorrow and rain. In the Human World Ichigo helps to point them out and in turn, learns a thing or two about his own inner storm. [ Bromance ]
Disclaimer: Tite Kubo owns all rights to Bleach and it's related characters
Author Extras: I make references to other short stories I've written. Can you find them all ?
It was always the same four keys. The same tune that played every waking moment in Ichigo's life whenever he allowed the creatively repressed Hollow some fresh air. Ichigo knew it was a bad idea to purchase the miniature piano after the Hollow begged him for another way to release energy. He just couldn't figure out for the life of him, how he concluded that upgrading from a quiet sketchbook to a noisy piano was a good idea. Nobody in their right mind would give a hyperactive child a knife to run around with; it was simply ludicrous. This was the exact same scenario, except the child in question was Hichigo and the knife could be easily kicked in, drenched in gasoline and set on fire. But then again, Hichigo didn't have to be the one to destroy the piano ...
He shook his head, scrapping the idea due to his inability to pay for any damages he could possibly do to the house and clinic. But that damn tune; it was constant, persistent and it wasn't going to stop on its own. He swiveled around on his chair to give Hichigo an annoyed look, fingers drumming on his desk impatiently. When he felt eyes on him, Hichigo turned his head slowly to focus on the other over his shoulder, expression unnervingly flat.
"Don't you know any other songs ?" Ichigo asked flatly. "You're annoying me again." Hichigo kept his gaze, interrupting his musical marathon with a single finger jab on the leftmost key. He held the key down, even after the dark tone softly vanished and the room finally became silent.
"No." he answered eventually, his eyes moving lazily from Ichigo to his finger on the key.
"No you don't ? Or no you don't want to play another song ?"
"Just no." The tune resumed, unaware of the torture it was implementing on the Substitute Shinigami. Every note echoed in his head, resonating inside him like acid. Finally Ichigo growled, scratching his head furiously. He pushed himself out of his chair, jabbing a menacing finger at the Hollow.
"If you don't quit it, I'll throw that - !" He stopped, flinching from a sudden flash of light outside his window, a low octave rumbling the atmosphere a few seconds later. Hichigo mimicked his movement, looking up at the ceiling.
"What was that?" he asked quietly, straining his ears for the sound again. Frowning as a first answer, Ichigo walked over to pull the curtain back from his lone window and looked outside.
"It's nothing" he replied, shrugging. "Just thunder and lightening. I guess there's a storm coming." Hichigo gave him a puzzled stare. "...Don't tell me you don't know what thunder is..."
"How could I? All I know in terms of weather conditions is rain" the Hollow replied almost bitterly, his finger tapping at the same key a few times. Ichigo sighed, rubbing his neck while he thought of an explanation.
"It's just … electricity. It happens when the clouds get charged up for some reason or another." He waved his hands around, trying to metaphorically gather his thoughts from out of the air. Hichigo nodded slowly, trying to comprehend the simple sentence. Ichigo was surprised the Hollow was even accepting his 3rd grade answer, but it wasn't like he could prove him wrong.
"So what does it do?"
"Nothing really." Ichigo pulled the curtain back in place, sitting down at the foot of his bed. For that moment, the two of them forgot about the piano. "It just makes it a little more dangerous to be outside or near electronics. We'll be alright though since it doesn't look like there will be too much lightening."
"There can be more?" A simple nod was his answer. Hichigo's shoulders dropped a little as his eyes searched the ground for nothing in particular. The room fell silent, Ichigo simply staring at him. A second flash of light and a dark rumble occurred, this time Hichigo seemingly nonreactive. As the noise dissipated, a soft rain quietly pattered on the window, getting heavier as the seconds passed. Finally, Hichigo spoke up.
"You know a part of me has always envied you Humans for having the luxury of thunder." Ichigo shrugged, stopping halfway when a realization hit him.
"Wait, always ? You just asked me 5 seconds ago what was thunder." Ichigo didn't know it was possible for a stare to look any more disappointed and sarcastic than the one he was getting from Hichigo.
"You honestly think I don't know these things already ? How the hell do you expect me to function as I do without knowing the bare minimum of the world ?"
"So why do you ask about shit then if you already know the answer ?!"
"Yer explanations are funny." Ichigo growled, holding back the urge to punch in Hichigo's head, made all the more difficult by that smug laugh.
"Fuck off." He stood swiftly, making his way back to his desk begrudgingly. Turning his back to the Hollow, he resumed partial focus on his work. It didn't really hit him that Hichigo had stopped playing the piano all together and it was his own curiosity that brought back conversation. "... So … what makes you think having thunder is a luxury? Doesn't that happen in my Inner World too?" He looked over his shoulder at Hichigo, who simply shrugged.
"No, it just rains. Would be nice if we had a little more though."
Ichigo turned to face him a little more, resting his head against his palm, elbow on his desk. "Why would you want thunder and lightening?"
"Because it makes the rain dangerous." He scratched his head, confused. He hated how the Hollow had a way with making a simple statement so utterly vague.
"I don't get it." Hichigo sighed a little, giving Ichigo an annoyed look.
"It doesn't rain fer the hell of it. It's only when yer getting emotional about something. But the rain doesn't feel like it's enough. I feel like it needs something else to make it believable."
"And you think thunder and lightening is gonna do that?"
"If rain could make your feelings tangible, it would be nothing less of an apocalyptic hurricane." Ichigo laughed awkwardly, trying to find the joke in Hichigo's words.
"You're exaggerating. My emotions are in check and you're probably just halluci -"
"Don't play dumb. You may be able to act cute n' innocent with everyone, but I live in your subconscious. I know exactly what goes down in that wet sponge you call a brain." Hichigo locked eyes on Ichigo, his joking demeanor already gone. "The rain in your Inner World … it makes your suffering tangible. It makes it real. But lately, that rain alone isn't enough to replace the thick atmosphere that I know is there. It's suffocating, feeling that dark energy." Expression uncharacteristically soft, he looked down and quietly examined one of his hands. Ichigo sat silently, waiting for him to continue. "But it's only a feeling. It's not allowed to be tangible, so it doesn't exist when it should. I can tell how bad it really is fer you sometimes and to just sit there and look at the rain that innocently falls. It's like … " He clenched his fist gently. "... a suppression."
Ichigo blinked, words having left him a long while ago. He tried to force a few out to kill the silence. "I …" he stopped, not knowing what to say. Hichigo took his attention away from his fist, reading Ichigo's intended statement.
"I'm not an idiot. I know shit about you. I know too much shit about you, to be honest. And maybe that's what's making me too soft fer my own good." A rather loud clap of thunder interrupted the conversation, rumbling for a long few seconds. Hichigo lightly sighed, almost content with the sound.
"Hearing thunder and lightening in your Inner World would be like hearing the right piano keys. It would be soothing, because it's expressing something eloquently and without doubt. But the rain on its own would be like hearing the wrong ones. It's ugly, and you can't understand what it's trying to say. You know it wants to say something, you know it's try to get through to you. But it can't, and you both are left confused and uncertain of what will happen from that break of communication."
Ichigo swiveled his chair around completely, slouching over so that his elbows were resting on his knees. "I can't do anything about that though. However my Inner World wants to act is out of my control."
"You can talk." Ichigo blinked, watching the other get up from his spot on the floor. Dusting himself off, Hichigo straightened up and walked in front of him, stopping just a few inches away. He looked down at Ichigo, a very tiny hint of what seemed to be compassion in his blackened eyes. "There's nothing I can do ta help with yer problems. But keeping them locked away won't help ya none either. Ferget the fact that maybe no one will give a shit about what you have to say. But you have to say it, because anything less than that is only a drizzle of rain and I know there's something much more powerful underneath it." He reached out, pasty white fingers sliding around Ichigo's neck in a loose grip. Ichigo jerked back slightly from the sudden chilling contact, but made no other movement. Hichigo stood silently for a moment. "Your voice … needs to be that thunder I want to hear."
A flash of lightening lit the room for a split second and as soon as the bright light faded, Hichigo was gone. Stunned and with that cold feeling still around his neck, Ichigo sat still. After a moment, he looked out the window, the rain still beating on it relentlessly. He sighed. "One of these days you're going to kill me. One of these days ..." Rubbing the cold feeling from his neck, he resumed his work, the rain giving him company all through the night.