'Come on, Shun! What is the worst that could happen?'
Honestly, Shunsui was old enough to know that sentence was nothing but a precedent to all sorts of pointless trouble, especially when it spilled out of Rangiku's mouth. It was a stereotype, and one rightly established it seemed, for the way his heart was pounding right now couldn't be healthy, surely.
Transfixed, he stared at his phone screen, skin pleasantly warm and… wait, was he blushing?!
Somebody whistled to his left, Starrk. Rangiku was patting herself on the shoulder at the apparent success of her plan, even though Shunsui was one hundred percent sure she had never anticipated such an outcome. Kenpachi was presently patting him on the back a little too hard, but too hard was not a concept he understood anyway. Belatedly, Shunsui could recognize that he should be just as happy and excited but given the fact that he wasn't even sure if he would survive the sensations he was feeling just then, he figured giddy happiness had to be postponed.
"What are you gonna do, now?", Retsu asked, eyes warm with understanding. Shunsui shrugged.
…
Previous day
Literally fifteen minutes after Ukitake Juushiro had dropped one of his rare, personal tweets that morning, Shunsui, Rangiku and Starrk were out of their classrooms and convening in the cafeteria. Apparently, the innocent tweet by the two years older ballet dancer, that had been posted in reply to one of his fans who had tagged him in a post asking celebrities to share their hilarious prom fails, had sparked an idea in the blonde girl's head that seemingly had to be shared just then.
In the tweet, Juushiro had confirmed he had never been to prom because of a severe asthma attack that had hit him just two hours prior, and ultimately led to him being hospitalized for a couple of days and Rangiku's master plan involved Shunsui recording himself asking Juushiro out to their own senior prom as a little joke.
It was harmless, a stupid little trick by one of his hundreds of fans. After all, it was no secret that Kyouraku Shunsui had a lot of feelings for the dancer, and always had since when he was still in high school and Shunsui himself was a Freshman who had just transferred. Except back then, Juushiro's career was yet to take off as spectacularly as it had, and Shunsui himself was a whole lot less confident and boisterous, never working up the nerve to actually talk to the white-haired man till he graduated.
After that, all doors of communication were shut. While Juushiro was basically a very famous alumnus, there was no lack of them in the Academy. He was relatively young, and so their paths never crossed again, even as Shunsui himself shed his layers of insecurity and fully evolved into this larger-than-life person that he actually was.
All through it though, he remained to pine behind Juushiro from a distance. He never tried to hide his admiration for the older man, his friends knew, his family knew, everybody but Juushiro knew. However, the man had so many fans all across the country that nobody batted an eyelid and the situation remained as it was.
So when Rangiku proposed her little scheme, Shunsui's first reaction was conjuring an image of them standing beside each other, in matching suits with big smiles across their faces. It made him grin that particularly goofy smile of his that made his younger sister Nanao itch to gouge his eyes out.
"Come on, Shun! What is the worst that could possibly happen?", Rangiku swung an arm around his shoulders. Shunsui had a broad bone structure and her arm couldn't actually span across the width of his shoulder blades, but he didn't point it out instead, turning and giving her a grin.
"Yeah, like, it's not as if he's sitting around keeping an eye out for besotted high schoolers asking him to prom.", Starrk commented.
"So the best that could happen is it earns you some Twitter clout, the worst is that it gets ignored. There's nothing to lose." Rangiku emphasized banging her fist on the rickety cafeteria table, though Shunsui wasn't fully sure why. It was like preaching to the choir. He had been sold on the idea the moment it was birthed.
"Yeah, yeah." He chuckled. "I will do it. Right now? How about it?"
Rangiku cheered.
Opening the camera app, Shunsui quickly selected the video option and with the typical carelessness of any naturally photogenic and moderately popular high school guy, placed the phone in the first angle his arm came to rest in. Practicing his dazzling smile once, and brushing stray fly-away strands behind his ear, he hit record.
"Well, hello Ukitake-san," he paused to allow his lips to curl into a flirty little smirk. "Prom is basically a rite of passage for every normal high-schooler and that you missed yours seriously sucks. Now given how I would like nothing more than to have you accompany me to mine, would you be tempted to let this local fan have the honor, and be my date to my senior prom?"
Stopping the recording, he turned to his miraculously silent friends, only to see Starkk scowling at him with a serious lack of vitriol and a glimmer of amusement in his eyes.
"I still can't believe how easily you can pull that shit out of your ass.", he shook his head.
Shunsui simply cocked a brow, struggling to keep his lips from being tugged into a grin. Throwing a few strands of his jaw-length black tresses behind his shoulder, he winked.
"Inspire thirst, as you thirst."
Rangiku burst out laughing, Starrk shook his head and told him to never say that again in front of anyone else, ever and he brought up his Twitter app, quickly tagging Juushiro and adding on a bunch of random hashtags his fellow classmates had started regarding prom before he hit 'post'.
He was so not expecting anything to happen, that he forgot all about it minutes after tweeting, convinced that would be the end of it.
(It so wasn't the end of it.)
…
The first time Shunsui saw Juushiro was on the hockey field. He was immediately captured by his raw skill and determined pace, and then by his beautiful, muscled thighs. Once the game ended though, the white-haired teen turned around and went back to his teammates, slinging arms around sweaty shoulders and offering pats of congratulations. Juushiro smiled, Shunsui caught sight of it, and judging by the way his heart sped up and his own mouth curled into an imitation of that angelic smile, he knew he was a goner.
…
"Ukitake-san."
The faint lilt of Rukia's tone suggested amusement, and Juushiro looked up with a smile. His manager Rukia Kuchiki was a friendly young girl and a shrewd manager, but her disposition generally leaned towards a more serious nature. She wasn't easily amused.
So when Juushiro caught sight of her wide grin, his own eyebrows shot up.
"What is it, Rukia-chan?"
Tearing the earplugs out of her ears, she walked across the room and handed her mobile phone to him, the screen paused on a video she had previously been watching. His official handle tagged in it.
The face in the frame made Juushiro's own breath catch. He hadn't seen him in so long.
Smile growing fonder, Juushiro took the phone from her, curious to see why his manager wanted him to watch a video of his adorably reserved junior from high school. He recognized the background. It was the school cafeteria and that only made his eyes crinkle further as he hit play.
… and what he saw unfolding on the screen wasn't included anywhere in his little list of things he could realistically expect from this clip. His eyebrows climbed higher across his forehead.
"Well hello, Ukitake-san," the man's voice was definitely deeper, and his face had filled out. The little smirk he shot at the screen made Juushiro release a breathy little laugh. This was definitely not what he remembered of Kyouraku.
"Prom is basically a rite of passage for every normal high-schooler and that you missed yours seriously sucks." You're telling me about it, Juushiro thought. His cheek tilted over to fall on his open palm, eyes widening a little more in curiosity.
"Now given how I would like nothing more than to have you accompany me to mine, would you be tempted to let this local fan have the honor, and be my date to my senior prom?"
The clip ended with a cheeky wink being thrown at the screen and Juushiro's eyes were still wide, but for entirely different reasons now. He looked up at a now-giggling Rukia, back down at his phone, and hit replay. As the clip played out again, Juushiro found himself letting out a little laugh of disbelief as his eyes brushed across the smirking image of his junior. His nose was just as sharp and pointed as Juushiro remembered, eyes the very same grey, stormy, powerful and drunk on confidence in the clip now, whereas he could recall them reflecting infinite kindness and gentleness back then. Juushiro loved the color then, and he loved the color now. Confidence suited the man just as well as soft shadows of compassion did.
It wasn't just the obvious change in Kyouraku's demeanor alone that surprised the dancer though, it was the proposal in itself. They hadn't ever even officially met in school. Juushiro didn't even know the man knew he existed, though realistically there was no way for him to not. Well, he definitely didn't know he would want to take him out to prom. Nothing had happened that lead up to this, but Kyouraku had put forth a proposal, baited Juushiro, in a sense. Sure, he could dismiss it as antics of a fan but he found he really didn't want to.
He sat back, eyes still trailing Kyouraku's smiling face. They hadn't ever talked, and it was one of the few regrets he had carried away from graduation.
Well, that could be mended now.
…
The first time Juushiro saw Shunsui was in the art section of the library. Younger as he was, he was easily a couple of inches taller and broader. A small smile danced across his face as his eyes ran all over the page, devouring everything the book he held in his hand had to offer. His eyes widened at a point, lips parting in a surprised gasp before his broad fingers tightened around the spine of the book in anticipation and his eyes narrowed further. He was so engrossed in the book, he didn't notice Juushiro once in all the minutes he spent standing there, eyes transfixed on the younger man's face. Curiously consumed as his consciousness was, Juushiro found he couldn't look away. He never could.
…
A single tweet glared back at the group of teenagers with alarming vibrancy the next day, given the fact that it was the same bloody color and font as all of the others it was mixed amongst. The only thing that made it special was the account it had been posted by. j-ukitake.
Official.
Original.
Verified.
They blinked at the screen stupidly.
Apparently, a fan account had found Shunsui's video day before and retweeted it with a #same. It had blown up and somehow come to the attention of Juushiro.
Who responded.
With a 'the honor would be mine' and a blue heart emoji.
Shunsui was pretty sure his brain had just broken down on him.
Juushiro Ukitake…
"What the fuck.", Kenpachi breathed from over his shoulder. Shunsui wanted to retweet that with a #same.
… said yes to a prom date…
"I can't believe this is actually happening.", Retsu sighed.
… with him.
Before he could stop himself, Shunsui breathed, "Hashtag same." A grin unfurled on Retsu's round face.
Juushiro Ukitake said yes to a prom date with him!
A beam of pure, hysterical disbelief attacked his face. He really did not want to look at himself in a mirror just then.
Transfixed, he stared at his phone screen, skin pleasantly warm and… wait, was he blushing?!
Somebody whistled to his left, Starrk. Rangiku was patting herself on the shoulder at the apparent success of her plan, even though Shunsui was one hundred percent sure she had never anticipated such an outcome. Kenpachi was presently patting him on the back a little too hard, but too hard was not a concept he understood anyway. Belatedly, Shunsui could recognize that he should be just as happy and excited but given the fact that he wasn't even sure if he would survive the sensations he was feeling just then, he figured giddy happiness had to be postponed.
"What are you gonna do, now?", Retsu asked, eyes warm with understanding. Shunsui shrugged.
Apparently, take his years-long crush to prom.