Title: Coloured Contacts
Author: Angel
Genre: Humor/Drama/General
Rating: K+
Pairing: None
Summary: 11 year old Yumichika is in for a hectic Christmas when they get a few vistors needing a place to stay for a few days, one with a rather murderous grudge against him. Not that he knows that yet. Let's just hope he doesn't work it out.
Disclaimer: If I owned Bleach, Yumichika would get way more screentime than he does now, ergo, I don't own anything.
Author's notes: Okay, to start SOOOOO Sorry about the lack of update on Last Twilight, I've hit a serious block on that one that I can't seem to get over :/ I'm trying my hardest, but I have no idea what could happen next, since I didn't plan ahead this far. If anyone has any ideas on what they want to happen in the next few chapters of that, please review here or PM me, my muse has decided to go on holiday for the Christmas break and doesn't want to come back. Secondly, this is a story I aimed to get out days ago, on Christmas, but things happened (Being I got the box set of Ouran High School host club for Christmas :D, and became addicted :P) and it took longer to finish than I thought. But ah well, better late than never. Merry late Christmas everyone, hope you had a great time :) and a Happy New Year :D
"What are you doing?" Yumichika asked incredulously, stepping into the large living room of Mizaki's mansion in Kyoto.
"What I do every year silly," Mizaki replied, sticking her tongue out at him over her shoulder. She was rooting through a big box, filled to the brim with tinsel and fairy lights, sitting on the floor. Yumichika felt like he had just walked into a winter wonderland. Or maybe land of horror, depending on how you looked at it. Tinsel and lights were strewn over every available surface, candles, thankfully unlit (knowing Mizaki something was bound to catch alight), on the mantelpiece, coffee table and the bookcase, and standing in one corner, was a bare Christmas Tree, that looked to be about three times his height (Though he was only 4"1 at this point, so it wasn't really all that tall to everyone else, just him).
"Yeah, but not to this extent," The smaller shot back, raising his eyebrows as he stared up at the tree.
"Well, that husband of mine has decided to go away this Christmas, to visit family or something," Mizaki's head and shoulders disappeared into the box, muffling her voice somewhat, "he asked if we wanted to go with him, but I said that my own family were coming to visit this year, so we'll stay here," she reappeared, pulling out a thin cardboard box of more fairy lights, "so I decided to go all out this year."
"Of course you did," Yumichika muttered, sighing as he sat on the couch, a mug of hot chocolate in his small hands.
"Wanna help decorate the tree?" the look she gave with this question made it seem more like a order.
Yumichika eyed the large artificial tree sceptically. "Only if you've got a ladder."
Of course, much to his displeasure, Mizaki revealed a four step stepladder. Grumbling a little, knowing he wasn't getting out of this one, he placed his mug on the coffee table and got up. If he was going to be forced to decorate, at least he could make it look beautiful, rather than the lopsided mess Mizaki had created last year.
They were half an hour into decorating when Rangiku burst into the room, looking rather frantic. She was wearing a red winter coat, complete with a matching set of gloves, scarf and a bobbled hat. Her tinted cheeks and light dusting of white on her head and shoulders showed that it was snowing again.
"What's up?" Mizaki asked, looking away from the top half of the tree (She took the ladder to do the higher parts, Yumichika got stuck doing the lower half he could reach).
"Guess who's come for a visit?" The strawberry blonde got out between heaving breaths, she was obviously in a rush.
"Who?" Came Yumichika's voice from behind the tree, where he was plugging in the fourth set of Christmas lights. Their electric bill was going to shoot through the roof this year.
"Renji, Rukia, Shuuhei, and Ikkaku!"
"What?" was the simultaneous exclamation, and Mizaki almost fell off her ladder in shock, wobbling precariously.
"Apparently they're on some mission and need a place to stay."
"Not here," Yumichika said, crawling out from under the tree, a glare dead set on his face.
"Ah well, you see," Rangiku suddenly looked nervous, "about that..." she trailed off anxiously, fiddling with the tassels of her scarf.
"You already offered the place didn't you?" Yumichika deadpanned.
"You offered MY house? Without asking?" Mizaki screeched, getting off the ladder before she fell off, it was beginning to wobble quite dangerously. "What on Earth were you thinking?"
"So I'm guessing it's not okay?" Rangiku murmured. Mizaki stopped, halfway across the room, her long hair swinging from side to side, her furious expression faded.
"No, it's okay, it's Christmas right? It'll be cruel to turn them away," she said, quieter, "but it's the fact that you told them they could stay WITHOUT ASKING ME!" Her glare, and yell, returned at full force, making Rangiku recoil slightly in fear. "And then there's the whole thing with Yumi, they can't know he's here, Ikkaku's probably still furious, it's only been a year."
"So they can have the spare room?" completely ignoring the last line, much to Yumichika's annoyance.
"Yeah, and Rukia can stay with you, it'll be mean to stick her with a load of guys."
"Great!" and so, before Yumichika could post any objections to the idea, she shot out the room, and they could hear her talking to the small group standing in their hall, leading them up the stairs.
"She certainly didn't waste any time inviting them in." Yumichika grumbled, a scowl set on his face. He glared at Mizaki, before storming out the room, probably to the kitchen, where he had been spending more and more time. Apparently he had gotten friendly with their newest maid, who was fairly young, only twenty-two, and she quickly became completely smitten with him. She worked mainly in the kitchen, cleaning, and so, that was often where the youngest member of the household was found.
Over the next few days, over the run up to Christmas day, the house was thrown into utter chaos.
Or at least that's what it felt to Yumichika. He spent half his time dodging people; turning back around when he saw someone coming and heading back the way he came, ducking into rooms and praying they didn't follow, and bowing his head when they passed, he was so short compared to them, all they saw was the top of his head. The other half of his time was spent either in bedroom or in the Kitchen with Ayumi, the kitchen maid.
Ayumi was a very pretty girl from the southern islands, she was fairly short, which was reason number one why Yumichika liked her, she didn't tower over him, like nearly everyone else in the house. With short light brown hair and dark eyes, she was quite plain looking, but at the same time, sweet, with a wide smile that could light up any situation. She was very cheerful and always looked on the bright side of everything.
Which is why Yumichika liked talking to her so much, she always made him feel better when he was down.
She just thought he was adorable and loved the fact that they kind of shared a name.
"So what's up Yumi?" she asked, stopping her sweeping and leaning on the wooden pole, smiling.
"You mean you haven't noticed?" Ayumi shook her head, eyes wide and innocent. "Rangiku-san has friends over for the holiday, and," he paused, trying to work out what to say, without giving away what he was, "I don't particularly like them very much, and they don't really like me..."
"How could anyone not like you, you're adorable."
Yumichika chuckled, "I'll take that as a compliment," he smiled warmly at her, "anyway, I've spent the past few days avoiding them. I haven't seen them in a long time so I'm hoping they won't recognise me, but the problem is, I think they would, especially if they see my eye colour."
"Eye colour?"
"Violet's not exactly a common colour, mix it with everything else about me, and they're bound to work it out, and I don't want that," he explained, sighing as he sipped his mug of tea, swinging his legs like a child on a chair too big for them. It had been a long time since he had been able to act like a child, surprisingly, he enjoyed it, although it had taken a while to get used to. And around alive people who had no idea who he was, it was necessary so they wouldn't raise suspicion. "Mizaki even said we'll use a fake name around them, pretend I'm her nephew or something."
"So what you need is some sort of disguise," Ayumi mused, tapping the top of the broomstick, "I might be able to come up with something."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I'm doing a part-time fashion course at the University, I might be able to whip something up by tomorrow, since I get off work in about half an hour."
"Thanks a lot, but I don't think that's really needed," Yumichika chuckled nervously, running his thumb around the rim of his mug, "just something that would change the really obvious features, like my eyes."
"Oh! I think I have an idea!" Ayumi exclaimed, almost
"Really? What's th-"
"Yumi!" It was then Mizaki decided to wander in, obviously looking for her little brother and effectively cutting him off mid-sentence. "Come on," she said once his attention was on her, "Training time."
Yumichika's face fell, "but it's Christmas!"
"What, and you think they're gonna stop just cause it's Christmas? Let's go."
"Huh?" Ayumi muttered, eyes flicking between one sibling and the other, "training?"
Mizaki started, only just realising the maid was in there, inwardly panicking slightly, no one else was meant to know about the Kidou and Bankai training, or that they were doing any training at all.
"Heh, umm..." she started, but was taken over by Yumichika.
"I do Karate, and the teacher's pretty strict about me training, in fact so much I barely get time to myself anymore," he explained, hopping off the counter and dragging his sister away by the wrist, a fake smile plastered on his face, while Mizaki chuckled nervously.
Two Days later
"Yo! Madarame!" Renji called, effectively making the bald man almost jump out of his skin, "It's your watch, get your ass out there!" The redhead flopped down on his futon, yawning widely. Ikkaku sighed, grabbing his sword as he got up from his own bed.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm on it," he muttered, rolling his eyes, before jumping out the window and into the air.
Hisagi sniggered, glad he was off duty for the day, it was below freezing and snowing outside, none of them wanted to be outside in that. He glanced at the clock. 3:35pm. He sighed, pushing himself up and onto his feet.
"I'm going for a walk," he said, escaping the silence of the room before anyone could object. Quietly closing the door behind him, he sighed again, before moving off to explore the large house, the maids couldn't see him, so he was free to roam as he wished, to some extent.
Walking by one of the large windows, he suddenly heard a yell, feminine, and not particularly familiar.
He glanced out the large glass pane, seeing a courtyard similar to the ones in Serietei, and in it, were two people, a young woman and a small boy, the smaller in the typical shinigami uniform, both with long raven black hair. The girl, which Hisagi assumed was the one who lived here and let them stay, and the boy looked quite familiar, in a way.
Then it hit him, the kid that had broken in to Serietei just over a year previously! And, since he had his suspicions confirmed by Hitsugaya, meant it could only be Ayasegawa Yumichika! They weren't kidding when they said he was only a kid, he hadn't seen what had happened during the break in, so he hadn't seen the him yet.
With a quick step, Hisagi hurried outside to see what the siblings were doing.
The pair were firing kidou at each other, swords laid forgotten on the side, both barely missing the other, both flash stepping so fast they were both black blurs appearing every few seconds, stopping every now and again to catch their breath and review.
What he found particularly strange, was how fast they were throwing the spells, even some of the most talented kidou masters couldn't get them out that quickly. So how were they? Especially Yumichika. By logic he wouldn't usually be even doing Kidou, since his division practically banned it as an unspoken rule, and Yumichika would usually keep to that even if his life depended on it.
He watched the pair with interest for a good few minutes before they finally stopped for a breather. He watched as they talked quietly for a few moments, then decided it was only fair he let his presence be known.
"That was quite impressive," he said, loudly. The shinigami couldn't help but chuckle at how the kid froze up, facing away from him. "You can relax, I worked out exactly who you are nearly a year ago."
"You did?" the small boy spun around, his long hair whipping around with him, swaying violently behind him. Now he could see the boy's face, Hisagi could see the familiarity about him. But the most obvious part was the large purple eyes staring up at him in shock. "How?"
"It wasn't that hard to work out, ten years old, ten years after what happened, and what you stole, even though it technically wasn't stealing, the math wasn't that hard to do," he explained, leaning on the railing that surrounded the courtyard.
"Really now?" Yumichika murmured, drawing back into himself for a moment, "Who else has worked it out?"
"I don't know, I only know about Myself, Matsumoto and Hitsugaya Tachiou."
"Hitsugaya Tachiou? Well, I suppose that's to be expected, the kid's a prodigy."
"Kid?" Mizaki couldn't help but laugh, "you have no room to talk," she giggled at his scowl, moving to pick up their weapons, before wandering out and into the house, humming one of those Christmas songs that seem to be everywhere.
"Shut up, you think I'm happy stuck like this? It's not beautiful being four foot one."
A stunned silence came from Hisagi, before he laughed out loud at the statement, completely ignoring the death glare sent his way by the chibi version on Yumichika. "Yep, no doubt about it, that just confirmed everything," he said with a chuckle, trying to stop laughing before Yumichika cracked and decided to murder him. And judging by the glare, it would be brutal.
Once they had all calmed down, Yumichika jumped up onto the railings, sitting down and swinging his legs, a small smile on his face. "So, how is everyone?"
"Huh? Oh," Hisagi thought for a moment, "well, everyone seems to be getting on okay, the Eleventh have yet to get a new fifth seat that lasted, both Ikkaku and the vice-captain beat up anyone who comes into comes into the position, so much so they end up quitting, too scared to come back. The position is said to be cursed of sorts," Yumichika couldn't help but chuckle at this. "Ikkaku's still furious about what happened last year, though he seemed to have calmed somewhat, he's not quite as desperate to go on a killing spree."
Yumichika seemed to have fallen silent, staring at the grey sky above them, watching as a new flurry of snowflakes began their slow descent to the ground. There was a deep faraway look in his eyes, as if he was remembering something long past.
"I know you miss him, but-"
"It's not just him," Yumichika cut him off, a small smile appearing on his face, "It's everything, the division, Serietei, and everyone in it. Sure most of them were half-brained ugly morons, but it was home," he gave a small chuckle, "I just can't wait 'til I can get home again, but I can't tell anyone who I am, and it's killing me, especially with you lot wondering around the house."
"If I had known I would've tried to find somewhere else, but Matsumoto did insist," Hisagi tried to explain.
"It's fine, you're out most of the time, I hardly see you. At least while you're here I've been able to get a small break from the hollows," Yumichika said, lifting his legs over the railings and jumping down on the other side, landing gracefully on the concrete floor, "Either way, it doesn't matter, you're leaving in two days time, and It's Christmas tomorrow, I think I can deal," and with that he sauntered back inside, hands in his pockets, picking up his body along the way.
'Poor Kid.'
Yumichika sighed, kicking at a pebble on the floor, shoving his hands deep into his pockets. What a joyous Christmas this was turning out to be. Not.
"Hey Yumi-chan," a happy voice broke him out of his revenue. The small boy looked up to see Ayumi grinning down at him, already in her maid uniform, although her shift didn't start for another hour.
"Ayumi? What are you doing here?" He asked, getting suspicious at the size of her grin.
"Look what I got you," she chirped, which was the only way of describing the sound coming out of her mouth, as it certainly wasn't talking. She pulled out a small box from behind her back and presented it to Yumichika, "Merry Christmas."
"What?" He took the box from her, staring down. Coloured eye contacts. He couldn't help but let out a small laugh, remembering their conversation from the other day.
'...just something that would change the really obvious features, like my eyes...'
"Thanks Ayumi, I definitely think this'll help," He said, smiling wide, "What colour are they?"
"Green I think, I spent ages looking for a good quality pair, then came across those in the opticians, there's more than one pair in there, so they'll last 'til your 'friends' leave," she explained, putting quotation marks around the 'friends', which made Yumichika Laugh, "I went for something that was very different from your actual colour, this way there's no way they'll recognise you."
Yumichika grinned up at her (much to his displeasure, he hated looking up at someone, especially when that someone was only 5 foot), "thank you, so much."
An hour later Yumichika was wandering down to the kitchens, sporting his new coloured contacts, a small happy smile on his face, when Matsumoto almost ran him over.
"Yumichika!" she gasped, out of breath, obviously she had been running around for a while, "There you are! You've got to come, right now!"
"Huh? Wha-" Before he could ask what on earth was going on, the busty shinigami grabbed his small hand and dragged him off towards the living room.
"That sister of yours said something, I'm not sure what, to set Ikkaku off, and now he knows who you both are, to some extent, and is bloody murderous," Rangiku explained, slowing down a little when she saw how the smaller was finding it hard to keep up.
"So what are you doing with me?"
"Taking you there of course, we need the voice of reason, and Mizaki certainly isn't that," Rangiku shrugged, leading him through the living room door, where, sure enough, Mizaki and Ikkaku were staring each other down, the former standing with her arms crossed, whereas the latter was being held back by both Hisagi and Renji, who both seemed to be struggling.
"Explain! Now!" Yumichika barked out once he had taken in what was going on, aiming his glare at his sister. Silence filled the air for a few seconds, all staring at the small boy, wondering how such a strong and rather fierce voice could come from such a small child.
"Hey! Don't blame me, I didn't do anything!" She defended, "He just worked out who we are, that we broke in a year ago, and then went crazy on me."
"That much is obvious, now can we all calm down so we can straighten this mess out," Yumichika said with a sigh, crossing his arms over his chest.
"There is no mess to sort out! You stole something that belongs to me!"
"It did not belong to you!" Yumichika growled out, causing everyone to fall silent, Ikkaku seeing the logic of the argument, but still wanting to argue against it.
"It doesn't belong to you either!" If anything, the silence felt even thicker, as those in the room felt the tension. Those in the room who knew silently wondered how he was going to counter this one. While the truth was it did belong to him, he wasn't allowed to tell him this small fact.
Yumichika did indeed falter, hesitating as he worked out what tactic to use here. "Then really, neither of us should have it, but as the situation stands, I do, and although this may sound childish, finders keepers," he said, resisting the urge to smirk and stick his tongue out. He walked over to stand with his sister in front of the tree.
Ikkaku simply glared, but ceased struggling, and the two holding him tentatively let him go.
"Since it's Christmas, how about we call it truce for the time being?" Yumichika suggested with a small smile, "You can go back to killing us later, once the festive season is over, after all, it is meant to be the season of goodwill and peace."
Ikkaku contemplated this for a moment, eying the small boy's expression sceptically. When he could find nothing suspicious in the smile and deep green eyes he gave in.
"Fine, truce," he said, holding out his hand, which the small boy shook gratefully, "but only until Boxing day is over, got it?"
"Fair enough," Yumichika smiled. He glanced up, way up, at the Christmas tree behind him, but noticing there was something missing with it. He looked closer.
"Hey! We forgot to put the star on top," he said, puzzled at how they could have left such an important decoration out.
"So we have," Mizaki mused, "I'm sure it's around here somewhere," she glanced around, seeing it lying on the mantelpiece, "there! I suppose in all the chaos we forgot to put it up there," she picked it up, "speaking of which, how are we going to put it up there I could barely reach the top with the highest stepladder, and that's gone back into the loft."
"Well, one of us could stand on a chair and hold him up," Rangiku suggested, putting a hand on Yumichika's head, which he quickly swatted away, "I'm gonna say one of the boys."
"I can't, I hurt my arm during watch yesterday," Renji said, taking a step back.
"Me neither, My shoulder still aches from last week, and Unohana-tachiou said not to strain it," Hisagi excused himself, with a small smirk. That meant only one person was left.
"Fine, let's get this over with," Ikkaku sourly muttered, watching with a scowl as Mizaki dragged a chair over to the tree.
Yumichika on the other hand looked a little shocked, his face turning a little red at the idea. Sure, he liked being the centre of attention, but he was certainly not happy about being picked up.
Ikkaku climbed on the chair, Mizaki close by holding it steady, while the smallest of the group grabbed the star.
Grumbling bitterly Ikkaku crouched down, grabbing the small boy around the waist and lifting him high into the air, as high as he could reach. Yumichika's blush deepened slightly as he reached out, feeling the prickles of the branches tickle his arm, and gently placed the star on the highest vertical branch, a small smile gracing his features at the sight of the twinkling star, lit up by all the fairy light surrounding it. A source of light and hope in these hard times, which were guaranteed to get harder as he got older.
"You done?" He heard the muffled voice of Ikkaku below him.
"Yeah," He murmured, starting a little as he was moved away from the tree, lowered a little, then dropped ungracefully on the floor. Luckily his fighting instinct kicked in and he landed on his feet, but unluckily lost his balance, falling back with a small cry. Groaning a little, he pushed himself up, glaring at the bald who had just dropped him on his backside.
"Well," Rangiku broke the silence with a sigh, "that just ruined a lovely moment there."
"Never mind," Ikkaku said sharply, walking out the room without so much as a backward glance.
"You'll get through to him," Mizaki murmured in her brother's ear, "don't worry."
"Yeah," Yumichika sighed deeply, looking down for a moment, then up at the doorway his best friend had just exited through, a smile clear on his face, "he's just stubborn."