A/N – And we're back to another great chapter of Queen Anne's Lace (or I think it will be, your guess is as good as mine). Does anybody else unconsciously lick their lips when they see or read about someone else doing it or is it just me? I makes reading fanfiction a workout for my tongue sometimes *wink*wink*.
See chapter 1 for disclaimers and warnings.
Chapter 2 – The Brewing Storm
It was a sad, sad day in the Zaraki manor. This was an unusual thing for the manor's occupants were quite used to death, they were labeled the "crime "district after all, due to the fact that most of the district consisted of the slums of the Seireitei. Actually mourning over someone's death wasn't an act often done. They hadn't even grieved for their old boss when he'd been killed and replaced by Zaraki-san. That death, though, had been one for the better; although Zaraki was a scary man, he was a far improvement from the previous Boss.
The workers of the house knew not to bother the grieving man and dare risk suffering his wrath, no, they left the confrontations to his lieutenants. Nobody saw the man for several days. Rumors and gossip were whispers through the vents and behind closed doors in secretive, hushed tones. The body of Muguruma Kensei had been whisked away by some HaeDistrict people. Tosen promised there would be an investigation but due to its location and nature of the crime, the whole thing was very hush hush.
The day before the funeral was when Kenpachi finally resurfaced. It had been just a normal day and everyone in the house was scurrying around doing their jobs, when suddenly the Boss appeared at in midst of all the activity. Everyone froze in place and stared at the man wearily, waiting for his reaction to guide theirs. He didn't look very well. There were dark bags under his eyes, which were almost unperceivably puffy. His hair seemed limp and lifeless compared to its usual upright strictness. What was probably the most noticeable and shocking thing was that Yachiru was nowhere to be seen, which was unfathomable.
He stood awkwardly in the doorway for a long minute before simply saying, "I'm going out" and he left. The houses remaining occupants looked around at each other wearily before calling for the lieutenants. They would know what to do.
Kenpachi hadn't known where he was going when he left and ended up wandering around aimlessly. That being said, he wasn't surprised when he ended up standing in front of the little flower shop from before. He just stood at the door for the longest time, staring at its shabby little sign in wonder. He never noticed when someone appeared at the door and watched him gazing at the shop. He also would never admit to jumping a little when that person spoke.
"Are you just going to stare at it all day or are you going to come in and check out my fresh shipment of Marigolds?"
"I don't know," Kenpachi said with a weak smile looking down at the dark haired women, "the view is kinda nice now."
"Just get in here you big baka. I think the hot summer air is starting to get to your head." Hanataro smiled.
"You're kinda bossy. I distinctively remember last time I was here you were a cowering mess before my intimidating presence." Kenpachi grumbled.
"Last time you were here I had just discovered that the amazing Kenny Yachiru always went on about was actually Zaraki-sama, boss of the Kaiju District. You guys don't have a good reputation you know? When you appear in places, people tend to go missing. What was I supposed to expect?" Hanataro asked as he tied his hair back with a white ribbon. Today he was wearing a simple white tank top overlaid by a chocolate brown leather jacket that matched well with his russet brown skirt with lace overlay that fell to just above his knees. To pull the whole look together, black combat boots adorned his feet. He looked pretty bad ass and yet still very feminine and delicate at the same time. Kenpachi was impressed.
"Yeah, I guess you have a point." Kenpachi agreed grudgingly. "Why are you so confident now then?"
"There is such a thing as false confidence. Faking it through a fearful situation sometimes works better than exposing just how afraid you actually are. Not that you would ever have use of that particular strategy I'm assuming. In truth though, you look like you could use a friendly ear to listen to your woes rather than a frightful acquaintance. Is there anything you would like to talk about?" Hanataro questioned softly, he didn't want to insult the man but he knew from experience that talking about things really did help.
Kenpachi glared at the girl for a long moment, almost as if he was sizing her up. She posed no threat to him right? She couldn't possibly have been the one to do that to Kensei, she was too small to be able to take on a man of Kensei's stature and Kenpachi just couldn't see the girl doing it. She was far too nice and his gut told him that he could trust her. It wasn't like he followed the rules much anyways. A few details couldn't hurt the investigation, right?
"A close friend of mine was murdered. Quite brutally I might add, and for no obvious reason. Kensei was a good man; he was the one keeping the rest of us in line. He wouldn't have gone and got himself caught up in anything bad. He was just murdered for no reason. I vow to get revenge for his death but for now it is in the hands of the HaeDistrict." Kenpachi growled, not happy about that aspect of the situation. He preferred to do his...business on his own but someone had called for Tosen while he was, well, grieving, and too focused on that than on anything else, like funeral preparations and stuff. It was probably better that he left all that to his lieutenants anyhow.
"Oh! I'm so sorry. Nobody should have to suffer through something like that. That is just completely dreadful." Hanataro said remorsefully. "There's no wonder why you look so lost and distant then. You're grieving. It won't help any but I'm sorry for your loss."
"Oh, it was...its...I..." He was at a loss for words. He wasn't sure how exactly he felt at the moment. Before, he would responded with hate and vengeance, like he responds to everything, but at the moment he wasn't feeling any of those adrenaline ridden emotions that usually drive him. He felt lost and just plain out sad about Kensei's brutal death. They were - had been - good friends after all. This was a new feeling for Kenpachi, though; he'd never really grieved the death of another in his life. Other than Yachiru and Kensei, he'd never really felt much of anything for anyone else other than the adrenalin ridden emotions of battle.
"You don't have to explain yourself, Kenpachi-sama. I understand." Hanataro smiled softly, reassuringly, and suddenly, and quite unexpectedly, Kenpachi didn't feel quite so alone.
Hanataro turned around suddenly and disappeared into the back. Kenpachi stood there awkwardly, wondering what he should do, but before he could come to a decision Hanataro appeared again, holding a small collection of brightly flowers held together with a pure white ribbon. He held them out to Kenpachi, who just eyed the bouquet like it was going to bite him.
"Here, take them, for your friend." Hanataro explained. "The colorful flowers on the outside are Sweet Peas, they symbolize departure, good bye, and 'thank you for a lovey time'. The lone pink flower in the middle is a carnation. It means 'I'll never forget you'." The flower expert blushed then, suddenly embarrassed for being so passionate. Offhandedly Kenpachi noticed that the blush looked absolutely adorable on those delicate cheeks and thought that they should hold that color more often.
"I know the flowers are kind of girly and probably aren't your kind of thing, being the handsome, macho man that you are, but they mean nice things and would send his spirit away on good terms at the funeral." Hanataro stammered out. Kenpachi slowly processed the words, his brain working like mush because of all the turmoil going on up there. It was very nice of the woman to be so thoughtful for someone she'd never even met before. Then a shit-eating grin stole across his face suddenly as he plucked the flowers from Hanataro's delicate hands.
"So you think I'm handsome?" He asked cheekily. Hanataro thought back over his earlier words and then flushed before all the blood in his body seemed to rush to his face.
"That's not what I...well you...I mean anybody can...I'm leaving now. Have a nice day, considering." He stuttered out before making a break for the back.
Well that would just not do for Kenpachi. He jumped the counter and grabbed the back of Hanataro's jacket and yanked back sharply before the woman could escape his reach.
Hanataro, as tiny as he was and having suddenly lost his momentum, lost his balance and couldn't help but fall backwards. Instead of hitting the hard, unforgiving floor though, he fell into the equally hard and unforgiving, but warm arms of Kenpachi. He couldn't help but sigh a bit, relishing in the feeling before tilting his head back and meeting the dark, stormy eyes of the Kaiju District's yakuza boss.
"Hello there." He said before really thinking about it. He was too busy enjoying his current position of being held by the strong, attractive man to think about words or even how embarrassed he should be.
"Hello yourself." Was the husky reply.
As Hanataro fell into the endless crazy abyss of Kenpachi's eyes, the man in question did the same to him. Almost unconsciously he began to creep closer, pulling Hanataro towards his body. The small body fit so well against his. His eyes dropped to the pink, moist lips that were slightly open and breathing shallowly as they were nervously licked. Kenpachi watched that tongue taunt him while unconsciously repeating the action. He bent forward suddenly, about to catch those inviting lips in an awkward, upside down kiss, when Hanataro yanked himself out of Kenpachi's practically unrelenting arms. The sudden coldness left in his place snapped Kenpachi out of the daze Hanataro had put him in.
Hanataro silently berated himself for being such an idiot. The man had almost kissed him! He was sure of it and just as surely in that moment, Hanataro had lost his nerve. He couldn't believe he had just screwed up and opportunity like that. He was so stupid. He turned back to the confused looking Kenpachi and laughed nervously, trying to cover all the awkward with a false cheery bravo.
"Hey, I still haven't shown you that new shipment of Marigolds. Come look at them, they're gorgeous." He grabbed Kenpachi's hand and intertwined their fingers together, he could handle that much, and pulled the large man into the far back of the store.
Kenpachi allowed himself to be dragged along like Yachiru tended to drag him around. He looked at their intertwined hands and then at the back of Hanataro's head, confused. He'd been so sure that Hanataro wanted to kiss him too, so why pull away? Had he actually been wrong? Maybe the little minx already had someone. Was he just forcing himself onto someone who honestly didn't want him? Why hold his hand like that then? Women were a lot easier to understand when he was paying for their services.
He faintly registered that the warm and firm grip on his hand was released so Hanataro could inspect and look at her shipment of flowers and gesture wildly at whatever she was trying to explain to him. They were pretty yellow flowers Kenpachi noted, but not as pretty as the person standing in front of him at the moment, looking so beautiful with the sun hitting her face from the sunlight streaming through the windows of the back entrance to the store. He noticed that Hanataro was talking a lot, trying to explain something to him, but all he could focus on was those damn taunting lips. He could only focus on the lips themselves, not what was actually coming out of them. He wanted, no needed, to kiss them, at least just to see what they would feel like on his, maybe even taste. He licked his own lips at the thought.
Only because he was staring so intently at those lips, did he notice they had stopped moving, stopped talking. When he looked up to see what was up, he saw that Hanataro's gaze was directed as his lips! He licked them again and watched as those quick eyes avidly track the movement. He did it again and they followed and he noticed that the second time Hanataro mirrored the action by licking her own. He was right after all; Hanataro did want to kiss him after all! He grinned victoriously and grabbed Hanataro's arm, pulling the lithe body against his. He latched an arm around the small waist and grabbed the back of Hanataro's neck to prevent her from escaping. Hanataro's arms came up and her hands pushed weakly at his chest but he ignored them.
"Hanataro," he growled, "I know for a fact that you want to kiss me just as much as I want to kiss you right now so you're going to stop resisting and just kiss me damn it." Before Hanataro could try to argue, Kenpachi struck.
It started out a bit harsh and punishing, because of all the useless resisting, but when the hands at his chest stop struggling and the small, lithe body in his arms just seemed to melt in his arms, Kenpachi relented at bit and backed off, kissing soft and gentle, relishing just in the feel of the small, moist lips against his. He wondered if Hanataro used some sort of chap stick or gloss to keep them that moist. He tongue darted out for a taste.
She didn't. The lips tasted purely like Hanataro, like they'd never been contaminated by anything, or anyone, ever. Kenpachi like the sound of that, of he being Hanataro's first. He would be the only one to touch his Hana like this. He smiled faintly, his Hana, he liked the sound of that, he liked that a lot. He decided to push his luck and try to taste the rest of that delicious mouth with his tongue and forced those lips apart.
He growled viciously at the whimper that erupted from his Hana's mouth when their tongues met. He yanked Hanataro's head impossibly closer and kiss the tease for all of his little minx's worth. Just when he was about to shove Hanataro up against the wall and really show her how it's done, the door slammed open and hit the adjoining wall with a loud crash, causing the kissing couple to jump apart in surprise.
"What the fucking hell is going on here?!" The man who'd done the door kicking screamed. Kenpachi shoved Hanataro behind him protectively before growling at the man. He had just gotten interrupted. He. Was. Not. Happy.
"Just who the fuck are you?" He shot back. Before the man could answer though, Hanataro peeked her head around Kenpachi's large form and eyed the newcomer.
"Ganju." He sighed in relief. Ganju, however, was not as relieved, in fact, he seemed to get even angrier at Hanataro's ease. Kenpachi met his eyes and seemed to ask for an explanation using just his eyebrows to convey the message.
"This is my hotheaded business neighbor and the best friend. He tends to be far too overprotective of me and blows his top before hearing the complete story. As he looks like he's just about to do now." Hanataro explained quickly, eyeing the space between the testosterone giants in the room. If he didn't do something quick things could get messy.
"Gan-chan, please hear me out before you act without thinking again. Remember what happened last time?" Hanataro tried to reason. The other man, however, would hear nothing of it. All he knew was that he'd walked in to this giant bear thinly disguised as a man trying to dominate his poor Hana-chan. When were these creeps ever going to learn? He charged.
Not known for restraint, especially when it comes to a fight, Kenpachi allowed his tense form to relax and start to slip into a more comfortable fighting stance. A noise from behind him, an exclamation from Hanataro who obviously about to get involved to try and stop the obvious fight about to form, succeeded in cooling his fighting rage and brought him back to a more level head. He had to try and end his as soon as possible before anything serious, like Hanataro getting hurt, could happen. Switching to his barely used defense, he was prepared to catch the obvious right hook that this Ganju was about the throw at him. He was also ready for the left jab at his side when he purposefully left it open. He was not, however, prepared for the head butt that Ganju threw (?) at his face when his hands were taken out of commission. For that, Kenpachi probably deserved the head butt to the nose that he received. The sharp pain exploded between his eyes, pulling unwelcome tears to them, and caused him to release the hold on the man's hands. He put his hands to his face to try to strive off the blood and to hide the naturally occurring tears. Real men never cried during battle.
He watched as the man in front of him reeled back for another strike, still lost in his rage, but before he could strike again, Hanataro jumped out from behind Kenpachi with a broom and smacked Ganju on the head with it (the sweepy side, not the handle side). Ganju sputtered and fell back in confusion.
"Ganju! What the hell is the matter with you! Where are your manners? You can't just go attacking any man who gets within 100 meters of me. It's not ethical nor your place. I had better hear an apology out of you before Kenny leaves or I will not speak to you for a week!" Hanataro yelled furiously. He was also far too furious to notice his slip. Kenpachi, however, was not, and his heart warmed at the sight of this fiery woman defending him and calling him by a pet name.
Hanataro, then remembering himself, flushed and wiped back around to the injured man behind him and frowned at the sight he was met with. He yanked his apron over his head and balled it up before pressing it to the man's still gushing nose that was covered by almost equally bloody hands. Head wounds were such gushers.
"I'm sorry for that Kenpachi-sama. Ganju means well but sometimes he just doesn't think before he acts. By the looks of all this blood I'd have to say your nose is probably broken. I can reset it for you after some of this bleeding slows down. You didn't have to try and protect me you know - yes I saw that - I can take care of myself, and also Ganju would never hurt me. And if someone is attacking you defend yourself! God knows you're perfectly capable of it. Don't let yourself get hurt because you don't want to upset me." Hanataro scolded while gently applying pressure to the injury in front of him. Ganju always told him he was practically just as good a healer as we was with flowers. He says that if the business does fall through, he could probably land another job working under Urahara-sama in the Namekuji District just by walking in the door, he was that good. Ganju always was a bit of an exaggerator though. He felt along Kenpachi's nose gingerly, feeling for any breaks and sure enough there was one.
"Yup," he said, "it sure is broken. Ganju isn't lacking in the tough guy department that's for sure."
Hanataro briefly looked up from the injury to see Kenpachi glaring over his head at Ganju. Hanataro took that distraction for an opening and grabbed the broken nose tightly before yanking it back into place and then darting out of arms reach in case Kenpachi was one of the times to get a little friendly with the fists when in pain.
Kenpachi's hand flew back up to cover his face as he howled in pain. Not a lot of people could hurt him, not if he didn't allow then to that is, so in all the time working in the crime district he'd never received a broken nose. It hurt damn it! Kenpachi was too busy with his nose to notice Hanataro throw a disgusted glare at Ganju and see the man rub the back of his head shamefully.
After Kenpachi stopped howling and cussing in pain (being a giant baby in Ganju's opinion) Hanataro led him to a small sink for Kenpachi and himself to wash their bloody hands off with. Hanataro hid his blush behind the curtain of his hair when Kenpachi and his soapy hands brushed each other. Kenpachi-sama sure had big hands. (*wink*wink*).
Ganju watched Hanataro closely as the pair worked at the sink and while the giant brute of a man might have missed Hanataro's blush, he hadn't. As he watched he concluded that maybe it wasn't like he thought, maybe the mean and dangerous yakuza boss wasn't forcing himself onto Hanataro, who tended to be a bit helpless at times. Maybe, just maybe, the giant had honorable intentions. As the taller man turned away from the sink Ganju stuck out his hand and glared at him. Kenpachi cracked a smile at the challenge shining in the Ganju's eyes and grabbed the offered hand. A brief match of strength ensued before Ganju nodded slightly and pulled away. Message received. Ganju turned to Hanataro.
"I'm sorry for the trouble and for hurting your boyfriend here." He grinned, winking at the feminine man. As Hanataro sputtered and blushed, trying to say that Kenpachi was not his boyfriend (no matter how much he wanted him to be), Ganju turned on his heels and walked away.
"I'll talk to you later Hana-chan." Then he was gone, probably running back to the shop to tell Kukkaku what had happened. Hanataro turned to Kenpachi with a red face.
"I am so sorry for all of this Kenpachi-sama." He said.
"There's nothing for you to be apologizing for. None of this was your fault. I probably shouldn't have been so forward in the first place. It's never okay for a man to force himself upon a lady." Hanataro frowned slightly. He had forced himself on him? How could the man be anymore wrong? He opened his mouth to correct the man but before he could utter a word Kenpachi glanced at his watch.
"I really must be going. There are still some things to prepare before the funeral." Kenpachi picked up the bundle of flowers that had been set aside, and thankfully not injured in the fight, and left with one last line.
"Thanks for the flowers Hana-chan. Kensei would have appreciated it."
"Wa-" He was gone. Hanataro frowned and let his hand drop. How had things declined so quickly? First he was getting the kiss of his life and then he was being dismissed. Why did Ganju have to interrupt?
Hanataro looked out the window. The beautiful sun that had been shining earlier was now hidden behind a wall of dark and intimidating looking clouds. A storm was coming and the sinking feeling in his gut told him that this was just the beginning.
There would be more horrors yet to come.
A/N: And that's a wrap. This is mostly filler and fluff with a hint of the brewing storm to come, both literally and figuratively. Sorry if the gender thing gets confusing. I switch back and forth for POVs in a scene to express both character's in-moment reactions and such but with Kenpachi thinking Hanataro is a female and all, it can get kind of confusing. For clarification, Hanataro is a boy, likes being a boy, but he just likes wearing female's clothes and can't be bothered to correct people who think he's a girl. The truth will come out at some point but for now I like keeping Kenpachi out of the loop. Until then, may the confusion persevere.
Thanks for reading.