Disclaimer: Bleach belongs to Kubo. I would really, really like Kubo to tell me that he did NOT, and will never plan to, kill off Ulquiorra!!! DX (keeping fingers crossed…)

Twenty-First Glimpse: Building Resistance

Uriya dragged his feet to his room and, for the first time in his life, flopped onto his bed, face first. Ishida Uriya didn't do 'flopping'. However, just this once, he would make an exception. After all, having just puked his guts out for the third time in one day, upholding his dignity…especially when there was no one around to watch him…definitely wasn't high on his list of priorities.

He blinked dully and weakly as he waited for his stomach to settle, sighing mentally since he didn't even have the strength to do it physically. It was bound to happen, he knew. He could only make up so many excuses before it would become obvious that he was making up excuses. That was why, after weighing his options, he had accepted her proposal last night.

He let Himeko cook dinner for him.

His stomach made another involuntary lurch just from the memory.

Since his father was out of town again, she had invited him over to her house for dinner. He didn't see any harm in it at the time. The original plan was to go and eat with the family, her mother being the cook. But as fate would have it…or perhaps bad luck…Ginjo had decided to extend his training session with Shinji and therefore didn't come home, Rukia had to make an unexpected trip to Soul Society for some Kuchiki family business and was gone before they even arrived, and Ichigo had night shift at the hospital and had not even planned to be home for dinner to begin with.

In the blink of an eye, the supposed family dinner had dwindled down to just dinner for two. Uriya realized that for most people, it was probably a good thing. But for him…it was a slightly different story. In hind sight, he really shouldn't have taken up on Himeko's innocent and seemingly harmless offer because, by the time they had found out that it was going to be just the two of them and she had suggested that she do the cooking, it was already too late for him to back out. There wasn't an excuse plausible enough that would have allowed him to turn right back around and walk out of that house. His fate had been sealed.

The young Quincy decided that there was one thing he rather disliked about modern living: the form in which money came in. Nowadays, currency came in tiny foldable pieces of paper that would fit neatly into a small wallet. Unlike feudal times, there was no longer a need for coin sacks…which meant that there had been nowhere for him to put the food except in his mouth.

As the parade of mismatched flavors marched across his taste buds and down his throat, it had elicited memories of past experiences he would much rather forget, the imageries coming back in bright vivid colors. Either that or he had been seeing stars from the spices he had ingested. But no matter how disagreeable the taste might have been, nothing could compare to the string of regurgitations that followed. The only good thing was that he had at least been able to hold it in until he got home. Nevertheless, the fact that he was still throwing up now that it was already the next day…it was really saying something about the potency of the food.

Putting all thoughts of eating out of his mind, Uriya closed his eyes to let sleep help him recover. Then, just as he was about to fall asleep, the doorbell rang…again and again.

Unable to ignore it, he pulled himself back up to his feet and went downstairs. When he opened the door, he was greeted by the sight of long, flowing, bright orange hair.

"Uriya!" Himeko said, a look of worry on her face. "How are—"

BANG!

She froze…then blinked her wide eyes. The door that had yet to open fully had somehow closed shut again. "Um…Uriya?"

On the other side, Uriya was staring at the door with mortification about what had just occurred.

He had slammed the door in her face…

He had slammed the door in her face.

Well, technically…it wasn't so much the sight of Himeko as it was the sight of the object in her hands that had induced that particular unexpected reflexive response.

She was holding a pot.

While a piece of cookware in and of itself was generally unthreatening, in her hands it became ominous. Uriya wasn't sure he wanted to find out what was in it. All he knew was that it was still far too soon for his stomach to be able to endure whatever horror might be awaiting him inside that pot.

"Uriya?" Himeko called out again with concern. "Is everything all right?" He stayed home sick from school today, so the minute she got home from school she made soup to bring over to him. She decided to make chicken noodle soup, since that seemed to be a good sick food. She added plenty of wasabi, just in case he was suffering from a really bad cold or flu. It would definitely help clear up any congestion. He probably needed an extra boost of vitamin C, so she chopped up and threw in some grapefruit, strawberries, and pineapples. And just to help him cheer up, she mixed in a big spoonful of red bean paste…because that was something that always helped make her happy.

In any case, she was beginning to grow more worried at his lack of response. He didn't pass out or anything, did he? "Uriya?"

He raised a hand to his forehead and closed his eyes with a heavy sigh, still unable to believe what he had just done. "Please wait, Hime. I'm…not properly dressed." Was that believable? Probably not.

"Um…Ok," she called out, a bit confused. Was he naked? He didn't look naked… Was she seeing things? Or maybe he didn't want her to see him in his sleepwear? But then that begged the question of what was on his sleepwear. Prints of Peeka the penguin maybe? That would be kind of cute…

While Himeko entertained herself with that train of thought, Uriya…who was in fact wearing just a simple white T-shirt that, once upon a time, had an Ishida Uryuu hand sewn Quincy Cross on it before Uriya had personally removed it…leaned his back tiredly against the door and slid down to the floor as he pulled his phone out of his pocket.

"Oi, Blue!" Hiyori hollered as she stomped her way across the training room with a ringing cell phone gripped in her hand. "Make this thing shut up!" She threw the offending object at the boy.

Ginjo, who was in the middle of sparring with Shinji, caught the phone and answered it. He wasn't too happy about being interrupted, but it was better than having to listen to Hiyori gripe. "Yeah?"

"Lunch for a week."

"Huh?" Ginjo frowned at that seemingly random statement.

"Lunch for a week," Uriya repeated, voice still as impassive as ever. "I'll buy."

It took Ginjo a minute to grasp on to what was going on. When he did, he simply could not stop the grin from spreading on his face. After all, it was exceedingly rare for Uriya to come to him with a request. "I can eat a lot, you know."

"That fact has been noted centuries ago," Uriya returned dryly.

Ginjo shrugged. "Just making sure we understand each other. So…" he said, unable to suppress his grin. "What can I do you for?"

Uriya got straight to the point. "Hime is outside my door."

Ginjo quirked a brow. "Yeah. So?"

"With food."

"Oh." He could definitely understand where the desperation was coming from now, especially since Himeko had told him about how she had cooked dinner last night. Boy, was he glad he hadn't gone home for it. "Heh… All right. I got it." He hung up and turned to his shishou. "Shinji. Do me a favor, and I'll let Himeko touch you. Good deal?"

Shinji frowned. "Heh?" Just from listening to Ginjo's half of the phone conversation, it didn't really shed much light on what the heck was going on.

"Once in a lifetime chance," Ginjo enticed distractedly as he began punching in numbers to make another call.

"What's this favor?" Shinji asked skeptically. Normally, Ginjo would ram a foot into his face just for standing within a three foot radius of his sister. Something seemed fishy about this.

"You'll see," Ginjo said offhandedly as the person at the other end of the line picked up. "Oi, princess. I need ya to come to Shinji's. It's an emergency."

"Eh?! What happened?"

"I messed him up by mistake. He's in some serious pain. Listen." He shoved the phone in front of Shinji's face.

Caught off guard, Shinji simply stared at the phone. What, am I supposed ta scream or something? He didn't have to wonder long though. Before he knew it Ginjo had jabbed the tip of Pantera straight into his ribs. "GAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!"

The blue-haired youth brought the phone back to his ears. "I'm counting on ya. Hurry." With that said, he hung up. Then he crouched down in front of Shinji who had by now fallen to his knees with both hands on his freshly opened wound. "So, like I said," he continued, speaking far too calmly and evenly for someone in the face of a bleeding man. "She'll touch you, but you can't touch her, got it?"

Shinji shot the boy death glares. He had been stabbed when he hadn't even agreed to anything! Grabbing a fistful of Ginjo's shirt, he tugged the boy towards him. "When this is over, your ass is mine," he hissed threateningly.

Ginjo grinned triumphantly. He had just gotten himself a week's worth of all-you-can-eat lunches plus what looked like could be a death match with Shinji all in a matter of minutes. This was turning out to be a pretty darn good day.

"Gin-chan? Gin-chan?!" Himeko called into her phone with urgency, but her brother had already hung up. After hearing that bloodcurdling scream, she was feeling frantic now. What should she do?!

She rang the doorbell a couple of times again. That's right! He's probably still up in his room changing!

She backed away from the house and looked up, projecting her voice. "Uriya! I need to go now! I left you some soup at the door! I'm sorry, I'll call you later! Bye!" Then she sprinted off in a hurry.

Still sitting on the floor, Uriya leaned his head back against the front door and stared up at the ceiling with a sigh. Moments later, his phone rang. He answered, but did not speak first.

"Is she gone?" came Ginjo's voice, tinted with too much amusement for his liking.

"Yes."

"Just remember," Ginjo said, trying hard not to laugh outright, "you're the one who signed up for an eternity of this."

Uriya hung up and resumed staring dully at the ceiling. It wasn't that he hadn't been mentally prepared to face this situation. His body simply went into shock. He just needed to allow it time to build up the necessary resistance. In the mean time, however, it would probably be wise for him to start stocking up on various stomach medicines…

A/N: The boy is damn near invincible in battle, but she sure can bring him to his knees without even trying…or knowing. LOL! Ah, the things he'd endure for love. Keep at it, Uriya. One of these days, your stomach lining will be thick enough to withstand anything…hopefully. Haha!

If you recall, Peeka the penguin only exists in Himeko's dreams. So, there's no way he'd be wearing prints of it…

There's a lot of love between Ginjo and Shinji. I swear. Haha! The way Ginjo sees it…he can stab Shinji, but if anyone else (excluding Hiyori) tries, they gotta answer to him. XD

Side note about currency in feudal Japan…they did have paper currency called hansatsu. But from what I gather, it's supplementary to coinage and, since there wasn't a universal system, it wasn't always accepted. I'm not a historian, so…I'm not too sure on details. But I just wanted to say that yes, it did exist, since in this chapter it kinda sounds like there were only coins. Yeah, I know that in the grand scheme of things here it really doesn't matter. It's fiction anyway. Why do I obsess over these things? Heh...

Thanks for reading! Reviews appreciated!