"..with a topping of bean sprouts and leeks! Now what're you going to order, Rukia-chan?" Orihime's eyes glowed, "would you like the same?"
The petite raven-haired girl laughed a little nervously. Orihime's weird concoctions were infamous at their school, everyone knew what to say when the beaming orangette appeared with the pink bento box in tow.
"N-no thanks." Offering up a hasty smile, Rukia turned to the ice-cream cart vendor in the Park. "One chocolate single scoop, please." While the man filled their order, her eyes passed over the peaceful scene. Children playing in the distance, mothers idly pushing baby strollers down the many intersecting paths. A breeze ruffled the branches of the trees and...
Her heart leapt.
Standing in the middle of the path ahead of them. His back to the scene of child-like enjoyment from the confines of the playground was the man from before. No...Rukia immediately rescinded her original assessment. He wasn't much older than she. Not with that full head of hair, nor face unmarred by the ravages of age. Only his brow and his mouth were creased. Scowling as though everything in the world were against him.
Rukia knew the feeling.
"'hime.." not taking her eyes off of the stranger, she spoke louder. "Orihime!"
"Y-yeah, Rukia?" A little startled by the forcefulness in her tone, Orihime had turned, her coin purse in hand.
"Do you see-" for a second she had taken her eyes from him. Only a moment had passed between meeting Orihime's anxious look and turning her gaze back. "He's gone!" she cried aloud, her eyes darting about searching for the stranger's lanky form. Where could he have gone-! I-I did see him...at once plagued by self-doubts and uneven staccato pulsing in her ear-drums, she was aware of her friend moving closer.
"Hey."
She looked back to the girl's understanding expression.
Orihime inclined her head toward a bench in a quieter spot down the opposite way meaning that they could talk there. Rukia nodded jerkily in assent, glancing over her shoulder every so often, following her friend's lead. Once seated on the wooden slatted bench, their backs resting comfortably against the curved frame, Orihime turned serious, somber eyes to Rukia.
"Talk to me..."
The petite girl looked away, already swearing to herself that she wouldn't involve her friend with the phobia-like psychosis that gripped her. Was brother right? Am I going crazy..seeing things that aren't there? All the warmth left her insides.
"Rukia, look at me."
Downcast eyes slowly lifted meeting silvery gray.
"You're not crazy." Orihime reassured, then with a characteristic smile and infectious laugh giggled at herself for becoming steadily covered in chocolate and vanilla with leeks from the forgotten dripping cones. Rukia mustered a smile then a laugh as well, running back to the stand for a handful of napkins to help clean up the mess.
How could she have forgotten? Orihime was always...there for her.
(*~*)
After unburdening her heart, she felt better. Though there hadn't been much to tell only of the same man and of the same feelings of painful loathing that had arisen with each sighting, Rukia inwardly was relieved that Orihime had taken it all with wonder and puzzlement.
"So, you didn't know who he was?" Refreshed with another cone and wearing the other's light gray school jacket to cover the worst of the stains since Rukia had insisted upon it; the orange-haired girl observed the other's thoughtful expression.
"Not exactly." Rukia found it difficult to describe. There in the slanting afternoon sunshine, the solidness of the bench beneath her legs, she found she couldn't explain the feeling that had possessed her senses. "I-It was like I knew him-in a way..."
Like someone in the shadows.
With a face and no name that I can place or I've forgotten.
I know him...from somewhere. From some time...
She looked down at her clasped hands resting on her knees, feeling more than seeing the tiny crescent moon cuts into her palms that had come from gripping her fists so hard. She hadn't done this in such a long time..
A woman screaming as a man struck her. The stench of alcohol overpowering the scent of burning food. And a boy with warm hands-her brother, shielding her from the sight of their parents fighting.
"Don't cry-"
She blinked and the memory faded.
"-oh! That's right!" Orihime looked up from the matching pink watch on her left wrist. "Sora's going to be home soon, but would you like to spend the night at our place? Big brother won't mind and it would be no trouble at all! It would be like a sleepover on a weekday..." the easily excitable girl's eyes glowed.
Rukia thought of her tiny apartment with the upturned storage boxes serving as furniture, thought of her bedroll tucked in the closet on the side by the front door and the carton of their old things that had been salvaged from the fire. The airplane had come from there, a toy left in the front yard of the small-framed house that they all had once lived in.
She recalled it with detachment now. Her hands of their own volition had let go of the toy-the once cherished model airplane that had known life, joy and sorrow. She didn't want to go back to the place that was her home now, so devoid of the small happiness that Orihime and Sora shared.
"That'd be great, Orihime-chan." Rukia found it within herself to smile in gratitude. Ever aware of the tremulous hold she maintained on her emotions, she could still sense it. Lurking at the fringes of her consciousness. The fear intertwined with memory, the memory laced with knowing.
As she stood to follow her friend, a chill swept through her.
The noise of the living and the world fell away and only the breeze whispering through the trees filled the atmosphere.
'-ber.'
She strained to hear it.
'Remem...ber...'
Her gaze went past the still shadow-wreathed form of Orihime standing only a few feet away, seeking and finding the one she had been searching for.
The stranger was silhouetted by darkness and a bluish light that radiated outward from the center of his being.
His amber eyes stared deeply into hers, the distance falling away between them.
The wind's whisper grew more urgent.
His lips moved.
'...remember me!'
Rukia jolted from the emotion.
She couldn't hear the wind anymore, only Orihime's repeated calling of her name in anxious tones. Her eyes though knowing no one would be there, still traveled to the place where he had been. Feeling something sharp akin to almost disappointment stabbing at her heart with the confirmation of what she knew inwardly.
Yes, some part of her that she couldn't understand- feared his presence, longing to be hidden away. Faraway. Away from him.
But another part. The part of her that had long dreamed of finding another like her. Orihime had been the first to say she didn't need to be afraid of the child ghost that haunted the fourth floor of their old Junior high. But Orihime couldn't see spirits, didn't know what it was like to feel their pain and loneliness.
That man could even touch them like they were any other living human...
Despite everything, Rukia knew she had to find him.
~To be continued~
AN: thanks for reading :)
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