Bloom:
Byakuya awoke mostly from the strange feeling that his right hand was going numb, possibly from that strange bump under his arm. He heard a slight groan from close by. Hasushiro. Only, that sound was coming from too close by.
Byakuya's eyes opened, and he saw her ebony hair fan out from behind her. At some point during the night–perhaps out of habit–his arm had fallen over her to form a protective barrier at her back. Byakuya began to edge away from her as gently as he could without waking her before stopping. He turned and brushed the hair that had fallen over her face out of the way and examined her face carefully. The same porcelain skin, the same pert nose, the same lips that smiled too easily, even when their owner had something to hide. The only different thing, Byakuya noticed when he brushed her hair aside, was a faint tattoo on her neck. Byakuya lifted himself slightly and leaned in to get a closer look. The tattoo had a green sepal beneath wide light blue petals and a yellow stamen. A blue lotus.
Byakuya fell back and he felt tempted to laugh hopelessly as he pushed back his own raven-black hair.
Pathetic, he thought as he stared up at the ceiling. Forty years... fifty years... it doesn't matter. I just can't let go of either of them and move on... what's wrong with me? This girl is just some bystander, some stray cat that crossed my path that looks like the stray cat I picked up before.
Byakuya moved to get out of the futon and the blanket shifted slightly.
"Whaz goin' on?!" Hasushiro bolted out of the bed, Byakuya noticed, with surprising agility. Almost as if she was used to having to jump out of bed at the smallest warning.
What is she really? Byakuya wondered as he watched her shake her head slightly, as if drunk. To have reactions that fast...
Hasushiro rubbed her eyes, and glanced at Byakuya, who had been pulling on his black kimono, "Ah, ohayo, Bya-kun! You woke up already, huh? I thought I felt something weird. Are we going anywhere?"
"I thought I told you to sleep on your own futon. And your clothes are over there." A neatly folded stack of a black hakama and kimono lay beside Hasushiro's unslept futon.
Hasushiro pursed her lips while rummaging through the chest, "You're such a killjoy. It was more comfortable climbing in with you than sleeping there myself. And, you lied. You were snoring so loud all night! I just barely managed to fall asleep! And you drooled in my hair, and you started grinding your teeth in the middle of the night! It was so uncool!"
Byakuya frowned at her, "Liar. Hurry up and get dressed. We have to eat breakfast and I have to take you to go see someone."
"Who? Who?" Hasushiro pulled on the kimono over her nagajugan, and then the hakama over it.
"Do you have anything for my hair?" Hasushiro twisted a strand around her finger. "I don't like it down all the time."
"There's some pins in the drawer to the side."
Hasushiro pulled open one of them and took out a pair of long sleek silver hair chopsticks that Byakuya was not even aware he had. He watched, almost fascinated, as she placed the chopsticks at the bottom of her hair and, in one fluid motion, twisted her hair around it until she reached the base of her neck. She then pushed them into a different part of her hair so it formed a loosely elegant bun at the back of her neck.
Hasushiro turned and smiled at him before grabbing his hand, "Let's go eat!"
Byakuya nodded stiffly, but his fingers twitched slightly, almost as if he was going to grasp the slender hand that was holding his warmly.
"Ne, Bya-kun, how come you have so many girly stuff, like the pins and things? Do you dress in drag and stuff for fun?" Hasushiro asked eagerly. "If you do, I want to see it, sometime! You'd probably look like a really beautiful woman! You're really graceful and your features are really defined!"
Byakuya's features underwent some sort of a spasm at the suggestion, "They were my wife's."
"'Were'? Where's your wife?" her hand tightened around his slightly.
"She...died. Quite some time ago."
Hasushiro paused for a moment, staring up at his distant face, she took his hand in both of hers and squeezed it gently, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have mentioned it."
Byakuya continued walking, pulling his hand away from Hasushiro's, "There is nothing to be sorry about. She died a while ago. Fifty years, to be exact. It's pointless to mourn over her. When those dear to us die, mourning is only a pointless gesture. They can see nothing here."
Hasushiro didn't move. "Just because they can't see it, it doesn't mean it's pointless. Mourning is for the one who lost something too. It's a way of acknowledging to yourself that a person you loved died. It's for us to say our final goodbyes."
Byakya stopped and stared to stare at her coldly, Hasushiro's own brown eyes met his, almost defiantly, "And, if we never wanted to say goodbye to begin with? What then?"
Hasushiro smiled faintly and took his arm, "That's what the mourning is for too. To force yourself to let go. You've been holding on for fifty years. I think your wife would be really unhappy that you've been moping for so long. I know I would be really annoyed if someone I loved kept moping the entire time. There's just a certain point when you have get over it," she suddenly slapped his arm. "Enough of the talk about mourning. It's a beautiful day, and you were going to take me somewhere after we had breakfast! Now, hurry up! I'm really hungry!"
Byakuya let her pull him along while occupied with his own thoughts. There's just a certain point when you have to get over it. Hasushiro sounded as if she knew exactly what she had been talking about, but, if she had no memories, how could she speak it so simply but truthfully?
"Wow!" she skidded to a stop and Byakuya nearly walked into her. "You really like lotuses, huh, Bya-kun?"
Byakuya followed her gaze into the entrance of the gardens. The pond full of lotuses was in plain sight.
"That... was for a friend."
"Oh really? Am I going to go meet her?"
Byakuya shook his head, "She died... forty years ago."
Hasushiro peered up at him, "Was she your girlfriend?"
Byakuya's cheeks turned a very faint shade of pink, "No. I never had that kind of a relationship with another person after... my wife passed on."
"What was your wife's name?" Hasushiro stepped down to approach the lotus garden.
Byakuya hesitated, and the pause hung in the air. He felt almost... afraid to say her name. It was as if saying her name would dredge up the pain he had tried for so hard to suppress for fifty long years.
"Hisana," he finally answered.
"Hisana," Hasushiro said it slowly, as if she was testing the feeling of the name on her tongue. "It's a pretty name. She was lucky to have you. Even if you're moping, you've still thought about her a lot. I would've liked to have someone think about me that much..." she bent down by the edge of the pond and fingered a lotus petal. "These are really nice. Especially that one... the one in the center. It's really... it really stands out."
Byakuya stood by her, "Do you like these as well? You have a tattoo on your neck, don't you? It's a lotus."
"Huh?" Hasushiro looked up at him, puzzled. "I've got a tattoo? On my neck? What's it look like?"
"It's right here," Byakuya bent down beside her, and pushed aside a few stray strands of hair. "I saw it this–turn your head."
Hasushiro obeyed, and Byakuya held her chin while he peered closely at both sides of her neck. No tattoo. Not even a birthmark of any sort.
"Your shoulders, pull back your kimono," Byakuya ordered.
"What?" Hasushiro's eyes widened. "That's going too far! I'm not going to do that!"
"I just want to check!" Byakuya replied shortly, with his hands on the kimono collar. "I swear I saw a tattoo this morning!"
"Stop!" she squealed, laughing slightly as he touched the sensitive spot between the shoulders and neck. "That tickles, and I'm not going to take my kimono off!"
"Don't be silly," he said impatiently. "Just pull the collar aside a little."
"No, stop!" Hasushiro stumbled back on her feet, and fell straight on her back, but tried to grab Byakuya to stop her fall. She, instead, pulled them both down with a thump with her eyes squeezed shut.
Hasushiro opened a cautious eye after a moment, and she saw Byakuya's gray eyes and nothing else. They had landed in a heap with Byakuya on top. Byakuya was also staring at her. No lotus anywhere.
There was a dry cough behind them, "Kuchiki-dono. Hasushiro-dono. Breakfast is ready."
Byakuya scrambled up, flushing ever so faintly while Hasushiro turned beet red and got up from the ground. He turned and only glanced at Hasushiro, "Come along. We can't be late."
"It was your own fault if we are," Hasushiro grumbled under her breath. "You shouldn't try grabbing my clothes next time."
Byakuya faced forward again, but his hand covered his face to prevent anyone from seeing the light pink patches on his cheeks. If anyone did, he would only blame it on the dawn light.
Vocab: I don't think there are any...if there are, feel feel to ask me personally :)
Please review! I really need something to look forward to everyday after school :)
Chapter commentary: The chapter commentary won't actually focus on this specific chapter only. It'll actually focus on the general story. I basically want to apologize for the next few chapters. I won't really hit on an original plot until chapter 10 (I think?). What I was/am planning to do is catch up with the manga (which actually took a lot longer than I thought...) and explain (sort of) what has been going on for the past 40 years since Suiren died. My apologies to the readers. I just sort of feel the need to elaborate more on Byakuya's relationship with Ren and what his relationship was with Suiren since their relationship didn't get much attention in WF. To warn you now, also, PS is going through some testing stages. I will be attempting things that I've never actually written out before because, before, when I tried, they sucked. This includes romance scenes and fight scenes. So, for those of you who liked my WF style (yay!) I could really use some feedback on whatever you think needs improvements. I've tried going through the story and cutting out unnecessary stuff, but it never seems to work. I feel like everything's necessary because I wrote it. I hope you all understand what I'm trying to say. I think, in the barest of terms, I'm selfish. I'd rather keep everything I have written than to save you all the torture of going through badly written stuff. My deepest apologies :( It's a bad habit I'm trying really hard to get rid of. And, if anyone has a remedy to this strange narcissistic disease, please please please leave a review! I could use all the help I can get!
In this chapter, as usual, I struggled with Byakuya's and Hasushiro's relationship. I wanted to keep him as the cold aloof aristocrat, but I also wanted him to melt a little because he probably feels at least a little emotion for a girl who looks exactly like his dead best friend. Regarding reviews about how Byakuya should have been angrier, I sort of agree but I sort of don't at the same time. If it was some other total stranger, he probably would've kicked them out by now, but this girl bears an uncanny resemblance to his best friend who was always there to help him out when he needed it. Maybe he feels some sort of duty to Suiren and feels that he's fulfilling it by helping out Hasushiro. Please tell me how well (or how badly :) ) I've managed to accomplish this in a review! But, regarding this chapter (and many more to come unfortunately) I feel like there's lot of extra things I don't actually need so I don't particularly like the first few chapters. They all seem like fillers that elaborates more on character relationships than plot.
But, other than that, thanks to the returning readers from WF for reading PS too (haha, PS2?...). And for new readers, thank you very very very much for giving me a chance and testing out these stormy waters. I appreciate the readers and the reviews they leave, so please leave me a review!
