Talk To Me
"What are you doing here?"
Sado Yasutora lifted his eyes and found himself staring into the piercing eyes of Kurosaki Karin.
Ordinarily, he would have to tilt his head parallel to the ground in order to see her properly, but this time she had caught him sitting on a short stool and slouching in exhaustion.
"Ah." Sado gazed at the small girl, who stood peering at him from the doorway. "Ichigo's sister..."
"Please," Karin gingerly stepped into the bright pink shop, "stop being lazy and try to start learning people's names. It's not that difficult, you know. But what are you doing in here?"
Sado straightened up slowly. "I work here."
Karin stared at him, "What?"
"I work here part-time," Sado said, pronouncing each word carefully, "it's what I do after school to earn printed pieces of paper and round pieces of metal-"
"I know what working means," Karin said irritably. "I mean why are you working here?"
Sado cast a glance around him. "What's wrong?"
Karin gave him a look of utter disbelief. "Dude, it's a Barbie shop."
There was a short silence.
"So?"
The younger girl glared at him. "Do you really not understand me, or are you just too lazy to think about this?"
Sado made no apparent move to reply. Karin sighed and changed the topic.
"Does Ichigo know you're working here?"
"No." Sado got up and returned to his place behind the colourfully decorated cashier's counter.
"You don't feel... Uncomfortable here?" Karin prodded.
"I don't feel comfortable anywhere alone."
Karin blinked at the sudden response. "Oh."
The shop door opened. Karin turned around just in time to dodge a flying whirlwind of pink and gold.
"Mommy!" The golden-haired girl dressed in pink from top to toe danced around the shop with a new-edition Barbie in hand. "MayIMayIMayI?"
The business-suited woman who had followed the girl in looked at the price tag briefly before nodding and returning to her cellphone.
"YAY!" The real-life Barbie spun happily around to the cashier counter and placed the doll delicately onto the counter. Her mother absent-mindedly took out a card and handed it to Sado.
Sado took the small box in his large hands and zapped it with the scanner, before zapping the card. As Karin watched in interest, he deftly slipped it into a Barbie plastic bag and handed it to the girl.
Real-life Barbie skipped happily out of the shop, her mother trailing behind. The door quietly swung shut behind them.
Karin glanced at Sado, who had resumed his postion on the stool in front of the counter.
"Hey," she said suddenly, seating herself down in front of him, "talk to me."
Sado looked at her in shadowed surprise. "What?"
"I think you don't talk enough," Karin countered flatly, "and it's becoming a bad habit. In fact, you are exceedingly lazy."
"I'm working."
"Even better," she shrugged, "I can help you. Although I don't fit any better in a Barbie shop than you..."
"What is there to talk about?"
"I don't know," Karin said in a matter-of-fact manner, "everything, I guess. As long as it doesn't make you lonely."
Sado looked at her, and let out a low, growling, throaty kind of laugh. Karin stared at him in a mix of horror and surprise.
"It's not possible to be lonely around you, Karin," Sado said solemnly.
Karin's eyes widened. "Well. So you do know my name!"
"It's not as hard to match a name with a person like you," he made his way to the shelves and began stacking a few Barbies.
Karin watched him apprehensively. "It's weird seeing you holding a bunch of bright pink dolls."
Sado didn't look up from his work. "It's weird seeing you in a pink Barbie store."
Karin stood stunned at his unusually sacarstic reply. A grin spread over her face and she went over to help Sado.
"Ah well, Barbies ain't that bad."
"Wonder where Chad is," Kurosaki Ichigo frowned at the snow-covered road. Kuchiki Rukia glanced up from where she stood with her arm hooked over Orihime Inoue's. Ishida Uryuu stood at the other side of Inoue, his hand clutched within Inoue's.
"I highly doubt that he would be caught dead on a double date with us," Ishida said dryly, pausing in his stride as Inoue caught sight of a Barbie shop in front and began to beg to enter. "You know I can make much better dolls than these Barbies, Inoue."
"Of course," Inoue smiled up at her boyfriend, "but I'm sure Kuchiki-san would love to explore the glorious pinkness of Barbie land!"
"What's Barbie?" Rukia asked Ichigo.
Ichigo scratched his head wearily, "Just go in with Inoue."
"You won't come?" Rukia demanded.
Ichigo glared at her. "Wouldn't risk being seen inside for my life."
His girlfriend immediately decided to pull her boyfriend into the Barbie shop at all costs.
"C'mon!" Rukia pleaded, tugging on Ichigo's arm. Inoue gave Ishida her puppy-eyed look.
The two girls dragged their boyfriends into the shop, despite their loud protests.
"Let me go- CHAD! KARIN!"
Ichigo gazed in disbelief; Rukia omitted a short unintelligible sound; Ishida's mouth dropped open; Orihime gasped in delight.
Sado and Karin could only stand helplessly, surrounded by a sea of pinkness, and brace themselves for the end of the world.
Logistics and data for the following months were unable to explain the sudden increase in sales in the Barbie outlet in Karakura town.
Similarly, Kurosaki Yuzu was unable to explain why both her siblings and Rukia-san suddenly began to regularly give her Barbie products.
Disclaimer: I don't own Barbie, and once again, I don't own Bleach and any of its characters.