"Are you having girl problems again, Kazuichi?"
Don't tell him.
He knew what he was gonna see before he even looked next to him.
His wince deepened; his lips twisted to show his sharp teeth further. A… dignified grimace, or at least he hoped it was that, before he did look.
And there Ibuki was, her fists on her hips with elbows akimbo, grinning at him like she was so frickin' confident she was his fairy godmother.
He liked her, well enough. She was nice. A straight-up unapologetic whirlwind, but nice.
But geez, not right now...!
"I feel bad for you, son!" she said, throwing her head up at a little angle, with her hips starting to wiggle side-to-side. Doin' a little dance.
And he, in kind, just… muttered, twisting an almost baffled scowl, scrubbing between his hair and the back of his beanie, "You really don't have to rub it in."
She giggled - head lowering and shaking, hair tossing like a doll shaken out by a dog. On each shake, a "no".
"Noooooo, no, no, no, no!" Stopped herself with a lean of her weight onto one leg. Opposite arm comin' off her hip to wag a pointer finger in the air instead. "Ibuki gets nothing out of rubbing anything here!"
Kazuichi raised an eyebrow. His scowl was now definitely baffled.
"What she was saying, before you so callously interrupted her," the lady carried on, with the big and toothy kitty-cat grin of someone who definitely did not feel like she had been callously interrupted, "was that, believe it or not, she knows what it's like to have a whoooooooole lotta problems on your plate!"
Wait.
She wagged her finger again, more emphatically. "But! But but but! Getting bogged down in girl problems ain't one!"
...He was pretty sure he knew this reference.
Was... she calling Miss Sonia a bitch? Because that… really didn't seem right. For any reason.
...His mouth fell just barely open. Was she calling him a bitch...?
"I…?" His voice had gone… wiggly in its strained-ness. His hand had frozen under his hat. "Well - obviously?"
"Obviouslyyyyyyy what?" Ibuki quirked an eyebrow and stood swaying.
"...You're a famous musician!" A little of… the upper edge of it cracked a tad. He scowled a little further at… hearing just how sad he sounded. "Girl and guy problems are probably a piece of cake for someone famous to deal with."
Ibuki cackled. Came to rest in stance again; crossed her arms. She shook her head once more in a one-two. "...You're getting the most important part of where Ibuki's coming from all wrong, muchacho!"
Kazuichi tilted his head, and Ibuki gave the ground one playful scuff with the sole of her show.
"She doesn't get her special ways of dealing with a bummer of a time through her star-studded fame. Oh, no."
...His mouth opened lightly, again, as he ran one quick mental equation.
...Oh.
He sealed his lips once, hesitantly, before speaking. Two of his fingers came up to fiddle with a lock of his hair.
"So are you saying I should, like… write a song about it?"
He sounded a bit… far away, even to himself. Easy to feel far away when this girl was just so… here.
Ibuki laughed - tossed a nod that ended with her head higher than before. "I mean, that's a good start!"
"Something that… gets the strength of my feelings across to her in a new, raw way?"
For just a second, everything about Ibuki seemed quiet. Like finding an auditorium suddenly empty.
Soon enough, though, she hummed. Hmmmmmm.
"...I was thinking more…" A decisive nod. "Something to get the boo-hoos out!" Another, another. "Or about something that makes you even sadder! Or super-mad! Or that cheers you right up! Like, when Ibuki's down, she loves writing and jamming out to a tune inspired by one of her favorite scary movies!"
Scary movies.
What… was it with these girls and scary movies…?
All the while, Ibuki cackled again. "...Tunes to scream to!"
"That's, uh, hell of a lot of options," was all he could say.
One more giggle on Ibuki's part, before her smile twisted and set into something almost a smirk. "Weeeeeeeeell, if you're feeling overwhelmed by all the many options that the wild, wild world of songwriting based on real, true human emotions opens up…!"
She reached forward. Grabbed his hand.
His jaw dropped. He looked between their hands and her face once. Twice. Not quite slipping out an "uh".
She'd caught him with his guard down.
And even as he realized it, it was still down. He knew where the handle was to attempt to raise it, and he passively observed several parts of himself looking at it while making no attempt to scramble to pull it.
"There's still plenty of ways to feel rock-star fresh and bright while you decide! Look at you, with that flashy 'do and those sharky whites! Something tells me even you know that from a little bit of personal experience!"
She tugged on his arm and his eyes rounded. Not even at the tug. His eyes flicked to the ground almost guiltily.
He hadn't thought of it that way before.
"Come with Ibuki, and she'll show Kazuichi that all it takes is a little putting your soul into it, and you can feel rad enough that having even five hundred princesses chasing after you couldn't make you feel as on top of the world!
"Step one is to get all of what's on the inside out - step two is dressing it all up for the right bit of punch…!"
Written for the 2020 Annual Chocolate Box Gift Exchange on AO3.