Spatial Distance by: WhereDidMyPenNameGo?
Summary: He loved her, she loved him. The only thing standing in their way was his marriage to another woman. KandaxLenalee.
Disclaimer: No.
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Chapter One: Meeting
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It started with a knock on the door. Quite an insignificant act really, since people knock on doors all the time without their lives changing drastically. Unless it was the rare moment where an unfamiliar young man stood uncomfortably on the front steps asking for the guarding job. This baffled Urahara Miyoko, for never in her seventeen years of life had she heard of her father needing any sort of protection, whether it was for business or paranoid comfort. And yet this man dared to imply such a thing? Surely her parents had enough sense to refuse this ludicrous offer, because they simply have no use to employ ragamuffins for superfluous jobs.
Yet life had many twists and turns, this was one of them. Not only did her parents zealously invite him in – during the dead of night, of all times – but they also offered him the job on the spot after an intense meeting behind closed doors that excluded Miyoko. After the ragamuffin (she refused to call him by any other name no matter how beautiful and skilled he was) left, her mother excitedly told her that he was actually of affluent background and would be an excellent addition to the household.
Much to her chagrin, the ragamuffin truly proved his worth, displaying much composure and grace, not to mention his skill in swordsmanship was excellent. However, that only served to fuel her antagonistic behavior towards him, and despite her protests, her parents decided to play matchmaker and pushed them together.
Thus, she ended up sitting across from that ragamuffin, sipping tea and attempting to obey the orders of 'getting to know each other better.' As Miyoko sat there, she dimly wondered what could possibly possess her parents to arrange a meeting with this foreign man. Of course it was mostly due to her expired marriageable age, she speculated, but there were many other suitable men. Ones who were at least more familiar than this person. It was the wishes of her parents, though, so she ended up here, wishing there was something she could do to break the awful, suffocating silence.
"So, um," Miyoko finally said, "what's your favorite color?"
"I don't have one."
"Oh."
This is wonderful, thought Miyoko, we're making such wonderful progress.
The failed attempt at courteous conversation tore her confidence apart, and she continued to play absent-mindedly with anything her hands could get to, if only to distract her from the insufferable silence. She silently berated herself because it wasn't polite to ignore a guest; if it had been her mother, she would know what to do in this sort of situation. All she wanted to do was to hide in her room and scream her head off, because being in a room all alone with a male unnerved Miyoko even though she knew it was to give her a chance to be familiar with the man without the interference of her parents.
Even now, twenty minutes later, the silence continued, save for the pathetic attempt moments before. At last, she spoke up again.
"I, uh, don't think I ever got your name." As soon as the words left her mouth, she knew it was an idiotic thing to say. After all, this person has been working under them for months and not once has she bothered to learn his name. It was always ragamuffin or that person whenever she chose to mention him.
"Kanda."
"That's a nice name. Is that….?" At his fierce glare, Miyoko faltered and swallowed her curiosity of knowing whether or not that was his given name.
"It… suits you very well."
"Hn."
Really now, wondered Miyoko, how am I suppose to reply to that? She was getting frustrated with her failed attempts at conversation, though it was his lack of effort that frustrated her the most.
Trying to calm herself down, she decided to take this chance to properly look at him. In all the times that she saw him, it was at a far distance where he looked like a blobby mass of flowing black and blue. Now, she noticed how exceptionally silky his hair was, how not a strand stuck out in odd places or curled where it shouldn't curl like her hair. She noticed how, despite his long, flowing mane, he was still very masculine due to the sharp contour of his face as opposed to the soft angles of a woman. She noticed how he still retained a creamy, smooth complexion in spite of hours training under the sun and rivets of sweat pouring down his face. It's not fair he's prettier than me and I'm a female, she thought pettily.
She sighed, rather than calming her down, looking at him riled her even more and that was far from the original point. Instead, she asked, "So… what's your favorite food?"
"Don't know."
"Do you like sweet foods?"
"No."
"Spicy?"
"No."
"Sour?" It was hard to keep from rolling her eyes contemptuously. Surely he was merely jesting and actually did enjoy consuming certain types of food more than others…
"No."
In a last ditched effort to cajole some sort of different response, Miyoko asked, "Do you even like food?" and took great effort to keep her voice levelly civil without snapping at him.
"No."
"Can you say anything besides 'no'?"
"No."
He was toying with her now, if his imperceptible smirk was of any indication. Had her mother not drilled ladylike behavior into her since childhood, Miyoko would have already burst out violently at this arrogant prick. As it was, she could feel a loud, agonized scream bubbling, and she forced herself from leaping up and joyfully strangling this forbiddingly beautiful man. Instead, she smiled and committed the gravest sin of leaving her guest alone in the room as she made her escape under the guise of "getting a new pot of tea."
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A/N: So I decided to do some revision and when I read the first chapter, I was appalled, like "Holy crap this sucked!" and made some major changes. Including chapter organization and such. For first time readers, it's not going to affect you at all so just keep reading! And please don't despair, even though there's an OC, it will most definitely be KandaLenalee in the end. Thank you and happy readings!
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