Originally written for some challenge or other. I think it was the Slash Advent Calendar, 2003? Don't quote me on it though.
8-8-8-8-8-8-8-
Ribbons
The blossoms were lovely.
The trees around him, each clad in snowy white and palest pink, tiny groups of ribbons in a young girl's hair until the breeze blew through the branches and loosened their knots. Long drifts of pink and white tangled in the wind, falling to earth. The blossoms never lasted once they touched the earth but the trees were a constant for him, something that had been there before him and would be there after he tired of this existence and moved on.
Sometimes, like today, he managed to sneak out of his office for a few minutes and just enjoy the peace of them. He like to watch the pale and blushing blooms pirouette, partnered with the eternal breeze, following steps in a dance to the ground as relatively brief as his life had been.
Tatsumi checked the time, then leaned his head against the back of his bench, raised his face to the sun and closed his eyes. The quiet soothed him when Tsuzuki's and Terazuma's ongoing war of words became too much. The warmth calmed him when he had to face giving one of his weary field operatives another impossibly heart-breaking case. The faint perfume carried on the breeze erased the scent of death and despair from his lungs.
He felt his muscles relaxing, the early tension of the day melting away. An errant breeze bushed across his face, and he let himself drift with it, secure in the knowledge that the next fifteen minutes were all his. Nowhere to be, no one to see, and not a scrap of paperwork in sight.
"Give me that!"
The oddly-accented words cut across the peace like Tsusuki suddenly spotting pie across the room: loud, bright, and headlong.
Peace, like perfection, never lasts.
Tatsumi sighed and debated ways of dissipating the damage from the whirlwind about to burst in on him for another few minutes. He decided the odds were about zero in his favor if he wanted to stay on schedule, and braced himself against the incoming disaster by holding perfectly still. Besides, he only had a few minutes left on his break before his next meeting. Which happened to be with the owner of the frustrated voice heading towards him.
Tatsumi smiled to himself; in his world, good planning provided for coincidence.
"003! Give that back to me!"
The sudden flurry of wings and feathers in his face jerked him upright and he yelped when tiny claws scrabbled along his ribs and inside his open jacket. Tatsumi stiffened, careful not to squash the warm ball resting between shirt and lining under his arm. He sat forward and slowly reached into his coat for the tiny creature hiding there, snugging her in the crook of arm and chest before pulling her out with his other hand. Feet and feathers, followed by huge yellow eyes and a long, trailing green ribbon held in her beak unfurling behind her.
"003!" Watari, lured from his lab by the chase, thumped down on the other end of the bench, panting slightly. His lab coat was covered in leaves and blossoms, long, golden hair floating to rest on his shoulders. "Ah, thank you Tatsumi-san," he said, reaching his hands to take the fluffed owl from the other man's careful grip. "I don't know what's gotten into her today." He lifted the owl higher and examined her carefully, twisting her left and right to study her from all sides.
003's answering hoot was indignant, although slightly muffled by the ribbon still in her beak.
"And it was just as important that I monitor that step very carefully," Watari shook one finger at the little owl, chastising her gently. Apparently her comment wasn't completely unintelligible. If one spoke owl. "You know what happened last time," the shinigami and the owl both glanced at Tatsumi.
"Something you'd like to share?" Tatsumi asked. He raised a mildly inquiring eyebrow at the pair of guilty faces turned his way. He quickly ran down the list of still unexplained 'happenings' in the last month or so. Perhaps the Gushoshin thing?
"Ah…well, remember when Terazuma-san developed that coconut phobia right before Bon's birthday?"
Tatsumi quickly held up a hand and quelled a shudder. "Never mind."
The shadow-master reached over and grasped the end of the green ribbon 003 still gripped firmly. "I quite understand the problem, and I promise it's taken care of it," he said to the ball of fluff. He tugged gently on the end of the green silk. "If I may?"
With a soft, contented trill showing she was satisfied Tatsumi would hold up his end of the bargain, the little owl let go of the ribbon and squirmed out of Watari's grasp, fluttering to perch on the back of the bench. Everything settled to her satisfaction, she turned her attention to preening out her ruffled feathers.
Watari cocked his head, reaching to take the ribbon from Tatsumi. "Well I'm glad someone understands." Watari wrapped the green silk around his neck and scraped his mass of honey-blond hair back from his face, needing at least one more hand to hold the slippery strands still while he tied it off. "Argh! This stuff."
Tatsumi nudged his glasses up his nose, hiding his smile behind his hand while he watched the scientist struggle with his hair. Each time Watari seemed to have the mass under control it would slip free, tugged loose by the continual soft breeze or sliding out of the slippery ribbon's grasp.
Silk on silk, Tatsumi mused, of course it would slide. He had a flash of how that mass of honeyed sunshine would look spread across the raw silk of his sheets and hid a shiver.
Instead he gave an aggrieved sigh, voicing with its tone the weight of responsibility for his co-workers well-being he bore. "Turn around," Tatsumi said, twirling his finger at Watari.
Almost obedient, Watari grinned and dropped to the ground, leaning back against Tatsumi's legs. His hair fell loose from his third attempt to secure it and the ribbon slithered down to the grass. Both men reached for it at the same time, Tatsumi gently drawing the ribbon from between Watari's fingers. Tatsumi began to carefully thread his fingers through the younger man's hair, unsnarling the inevitable knots and picking free tangled blossoms left from his pursuit of 003.
"Sometimes I wish I could just cut it and let that be an end to it," Watari followed the path of the sakura blossoms Tatsumi tossed away as they finished their belated decent. "I don't remember whatever possessed me to let it get this long in the first place."
Tatsumi looked down at the long banners of blond hair that streamed through his petting fingers, strands that shimmered in a myriad of colors; sunshine and dark amber, gold and whiskey. They looped and twisted, twined through his fingers and secured his wrists only to slide away in the next pulse, as constant in their change as their owner was in his affections. He grasped a handful of the satiny stuff tightly, feeling it begin to slip from his grip almost instantly.
"No," he said, using his grip to turn Watari's face upwards, making sure the scientist's eyes met his own. "That would be an atrocity." Tatsumi gentled his grasp, feeling the strands become quiescent. Strength was not the way to hold even the smallest fraction of Watari for long.
Watari blinked. "Um," he said, mouth hanging slightly open. "Okay?"
Tatsumi's own lips softened and curved in the slight smile that for him was a grin of delight before he leaned forward and covered Watari's mouth with his own. He felt Watari still under his touch, surprise followed by welcome and delight, the scientist's mouth as expressive as the rest of him. Watari's lips were soft as rose petals, but firm and warm, and would never be mistaken for kissing a woman even without the slight burn of whiskers. Tatsumi tilted his head, and eased back, licking at Watari's lips and teeth, delighted when the other's tongue joined his in teasing each other. The scientist tasted of warmth and comfort, morning tea and the honey he used to sweeten it; in all, a most pleasing combination.
"Hmmm," the scientist hummed deep in his throat, a happy, contented sound, when they pulled back. Lips smiling and reddened, eyes still mostly closed, Watari leaned his head back, rubbing into Tatsumi's hand like a giant cat. "Nice."
"Very," Tatsumi agreed, dropping a last kiss on the top of Watari's head before leaning back on the bench.
The pair sat silently, Watari resting against Tatsumi's knee while Tatsumi stroked his fingers through golden warmth. He is as tangled in my heart as surely as my fingers in his hair, Tatsumi mused. Impossible man; what would I do without him? He stifled another smile; the green ribbon he'd secured before their kiss was already sliding loose, one end slithering out of the bow and closer to freedom while he watched.
Watari sighed. "I really do need to get back. The new potion I'm working on can be very volatile. I've nearly left it too long as it is."
"Ah, I'd thought perhaps you could join me for lunch," Tatsumi said. He rose from the bench and extended his hand to help the long-legged scientist up.
"Lunch?" Watari teased, grinning at his soon-to-be lover while he brushed himself to rights. "I didn't know you ever spent valuable time on such a frivolous thing. Won't that put you behind?"
Tatsumi pulled Watari into his embrace, wrapping his arms tight around the narrow waist, the sharp angle of Watari's hips smoothing into a bottom as pert as the younger shinigami's nose. "Hmm, not since I already put it in my schedule." He nuzzled at the soft skin just behind Watari's ear. "Break at eleven." Brushed soft kisses along the long neck. "Meet with R and D head – that would be you, by the way—at eleven-fifteen to discuss latest developments." Nudged the shirt out of the way, bit lightly at top of the shoulder, felt Watari shudder. "Eleven-thirty: seduce R and D head into an early lunch and playing hooky the rest of the day," he squeezed that delightful rear and snugged Watari closer into himself. "So you see? I'm actually ahead of schedule," he glance at his watch, "by eight minutes."
"Eleven-?" Watari's voice was faint and not a little drugged. Watari's neck was his weak point, Tatsumi had learned at the last office party, and he planned on exploiting that weakness mercilessly. "But, how could you know-?"
Tatsumi hummed against the earlobe he sucked into his mouth before answering. "I did what any good business man does and made an appointment with your secretary." Earlobe suckling lead to feasting along the tender skin over Watari's throat. Tatsumi ran one hand through Watari's warm hair, using a gentle tug to encourage the younger man to tip his head back for better access.
Even distracted, the mind that Tatsumi admired as much as the body kept right on working. "Secretary?" Busy hands began roaming restlessly across Tatsumi's back. "What secretary?" Watari drew back slightly, hands moving up to rest on Tatsumi's shoulders. He blinked, eyes gone whiskey dark with arousal. "003," Watari exclaimed, somewhere between a moan and an accusation.
Tatsumi chuckled, turning Watari's face away from the owl snoozing on the bench and back to him, easing in for another kiss. Warm affection and slick heat met his mouth and the Secretary had to rein himself in sharply before he kept right on going and made love to his mad scientist in front of the JuOhCho building. It was only when they drew apart again that Tatsumi realized the ringing in his ears hadn't been caused by Watari hitting a certain sensitive spot on his ribs.
Dust billowed out from the lab windows, Meifu's pale sunlight blinking off shards of glass hanging in twisted window frames. Concerned shouting echoed from the ancient building and Tatsumi could imagine the looks on his co-workers' faces as they raced to the lab.
"Oh dear."
Tatsumi turned back to look at Watari, who was looking at the building with an expression of wistful awe.
The scientist looked over at Tatsumi. "I knew it was volatile, but I didn't think it would do that." He sighed, starting to wiggle out of Tatsumi's arms. "So much for lunch. And dessert."
Lazily, Tatsumi moved a lock of loose hair behind Watari's ear, holding tight with his other arm. "Did you know, Watari, that Konoe-sama was thinking of moving on?" He smiled softly at Watari's gasp. "Oh, not entirely; the Count has a position in mind for him in the Castle of Candles. He has, after all, been with the department even longer than Tsuzuki, and in his own way is just as powerful, if not more so."
The shouting had died down and the smoke thinned out to mere wisps. Watari looked at his lover anxiously. "Don't you think we should go check on things? Make sure nobody was hurt?"
With a thought Tatsumi began to wrap them in his shadows before moving them to his apartment. "No. Let's see how Kurosaki-san deals with things. He would make a good Secretary, ne?" He tugged at the ribbon in Watari's hair, let it fall to the ground. "After all, Tsuzuki has been in the field a very long time; a change would be good for the both of them."
Watari leaned back in Tatsumi's arms, the constant breeze once again plucking at the ends of his hair. "And it's not like Bon would let Tsuzuki out in the field without him. But what about you?" he asked shrewdly. "What would you be doing in this brave, new world?"
"Me?" Tatsumi smiled down at his love, willing the shadows to take them. "I'm sure I'll find something to keep me occupied."
The shadows fled, leaving a small owl to snooze in the sunshine and the falling blossoms to slowly cover a green silk ribbon, forgotten on the grass.