Calm Before the Storm
By Kay
Disclaimer: Had I owned Bleach, the world would be crying.
Author's Notes: Just a drabble. Some very small Chad/Ichigo hints, but nothing conclusive. ;) Don't get your Quincy uniform in a bunch, yanno? Friendship, friendship! Huzzah!
The line of blackening clouds thickens from across the river, and Chad watches it carefully from the shadows under the bridge.
A storm is coming, he thinks, and moistens his lips. He remembers the dry taste of Mexico and its arid winds that cut skin hard enough to draw blood, and it seems far away now from the city and damp grass where Ichigo is sprawled by his feet. Chad glances down, taking in the unaffected scowl lingering across his friend's face.
"A storm is coming," he says, very quiet.
Ichigo snorts and doesn't reply-- he's twisting his arm this way and that, studying the rippling bruise growing on it with irritation. Chad resists the urge to lean down and look at it, knowing the reaction that would soon follow. Instead, he stays up to tower near the sky, and Ichigo crouches in the sweet, raw scent of the riverbed, rubbing water over the dirty scuff marks on his face and arms and coming up filthier than before.
They are both outcasts, though for different reasons, and their blood is exactly the same color. Chad has made sure the worst of it is off of Ichigo's face now, though, and the soiled fabric of his jacket is hidden in the rumpled pile beside them.
"It's not too bad," Ichigo finally says, though Chad can't tell if he's talking about the storm or the scattered wounds between them.
He nods.
They don't need anything but silence, really, and they just breathe in the festering charge of change in the air. When Chad next looks down, minutes after the thought had even crossed his mind, Ichigo is staring up at the gray mist of the sky with an absentminded frown. He hesitates, wondering if they should take cover. Chad doesn't mind being wet, but he is concerned with the chill of the breeze and his friend's bare arms still covered with the brown of the river current.
As if listening, Ichigo shakes his head once. "No. Let's stay a little longer."
Chad only nods, saying nothing-- he sits next to Ichigo, crossing long legs underneath him and squinting at the clouds with dark and solemn eyes. The thunder rumbles in the distance, but they are under the bridge tucked into shadows, and Ichigo's shoulder is warm pressed against his own.
End