It's no secret to either of them that their battle's left them both wounded; Noba's wounds don't irritate him much, he's still alive, he's sore and his body aches, but he's still alive, his Gikogan is still intact. Kurōdo is ruffled, but his pride is what's really been hurt, he was supposed to protect Orihime, he was supposed to keep her safe. Yet in the end she ended up being the one saving him and Rukia, he feels almost useless for his inability to do anything to save them.
It only takes them both one glance over each other to decide that they need to get away from the others for a bit, so once everyone begins to talk strategy, they separate from the others and sit up on the store's roof.
The night air is chilly, but at the same time it's almost like a soothing balm, it takes their minds off the battles, the ways they feel they failed. Combined with the view of the moon and stars, it's a pleasant night.
Kurōdo takes off his top hat, setting it into his lap as he looks at the stars, "It's such a beautiful night, what a shame that we've had to spending fighting Bounts, right, Noba?" Noba gives a soft grunt of agreement, though Kurōdo doesn't take his eyes off the sky, he looks calmer than earlier, but there's still tension in his shoulders and posture, he's still on edge. Noba doesn't blame him, he's got the same feeling, that same tension over how long they have until the Bounts strike again and whether or not they'll lose someone, civilian or not.
"Kurōdo," he murmurs to the man next to him. "Yes?" He breaks his gaze from the starry sky to focus it on the masked man next to him. "Do you think we've actually done anything to help so far?" He can almost feel the other man wince, he grits his teeth and grips the edge of his top hat tightly, "We were doing something, when we could track the Bounts we were possibly the most useful ones here, but now I'm not so sure." Bright green eyes watch as the two-tone mod soul lets out a shaky breath. "You probably contributed more to your fight than I did to mine, considering how beaten up your Gigai was when they brought it back, everyone wasn't worse for wear either, but for us- for me, it didn't go as nice as I would have liked it." His voice shakes and Noba puts a hand on his shoulder. "I was supposed to help her, suppose to protect her and help her, instead she was the one saving me. I felt useless almost."
"Our fight didn't go smoothly either" Noba looks up at the sky, "I felt useless too… we had plan, they would distract Baura and I would capture him in my dimension, but it didn't work," he squeezed Kurōdo's shoulder. "Chad was worried about Ururu when the first plan failed. We had to put it all at risk to get her out and survive."
Kurōdo lets out a sigh. "Even though your plans didn't go well, you all still fought hard." Noba eyebrows scrunch, "I almost let her die Kurōdo, without our other plan she would have died and so would we." "You were able to do something! When We-.. when Orihime was fighting off Rukia and that Bount, I couldn't do anything! I cowered begins her when I was supposed to be the one protecting her!" His voice, and his grip on his hat, is tight, he doesn't look up from his lap, doesn't look at Noba.
After a moment of silence, he sighs and looks up at him, expression almost defeated, his smile laced with sadness. "I'm sorry, you shouldn't have to listen to me complain, not after your battle." Noba huffs out a sigh "You shouldn't be sorry, we're both upset, we both felt like we couldn't do anything. We need to stronger, than we'll be able to help them more."
Kurōdo loosens his grip on his hat and leans on the other mod soul's shoulder "You're right about that, some protectors we are…" a soft laugh escapes his lips and Noba feels his own lips quirk up a little behind the mask at the sound. "Then again, it's just these Bounts causing us trouble. Remember how we fared against everyone before they showed up?"
Kurōdo grins "The only way they got us is because they figured out what was going on, if we had been real enemies…" "We would have destroyed them?" Noba offers up, his smile growing behind his mask. "Absolutely! There would have been no other way for it to go-!" His cry and is cut of by a short squeak as he almost falls off the roof, only for Noba to grab and steady him and cause Kurōdo to latch on to him. With that, Noba can't help it and lets out a soft snort at his companion. "You shouldn't move around much. You'll fall."
Kurōdo lifts his face from Noba's shoulder just to scowl at him, his face red from embarrassment, it looks looks nice on him, Noba thinks. He grumbles and steadies himself, but surprisingly doesn't let go, keeping his arms wrapped around him and resting his head on his shoulder. Noba can feel his face warm, but he doesn't comment. This, just the two of them together under the stars, in the night air, feels right.
When the Bounts come again, they'll be ready.
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Author's Note: I started watching Bleach again after a few months of not watching it and I'm currently at the Bount arc. I absolutely adore the new mod soul characters (Kurōdo is my personal favorite out of the three) I wanted to write something about these two because I thought they'd be really cute together. I hope you enjoyed reading this!