Title: Hanabi-taikai
Author: Evil Day
Series: BLEACH
Pairing: IchigoxUryuu
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Takes place just after Soul Society arc, before the Bounto arc. The Obon festival is upon Karakura Town, and Onose River is THE place to be for the fireworks, and of course, the floating of paper lanterns on the last day.
Spoiler for everything up to the end of Soul Society arc and the beginning of the Bounto arc.
In the wavering façade, our wish is eternally endless
At the edge of my sight with my eyes closed, I was searching for your smiling face
Continuing across the distant sky, a dream we can't see all the way through is weeping
What I didn't say in the days before, I want to present it to you today.
Warriors
"Ichigo!" Without even giving him a second to respond, Karin began slamming her fist on his door. "Open up!"
"Just open it!" Ichigo yelled back, too lazy to get up and let her in himself.
The door flew open, and Ichigo sat up on his bed when he saw who waited on the other side.
"This guy came for you." Not bothering to look at the guest in the face, she stuck her thumb at him and walked off down the hall.
"Uryuu…hey."
"Kurosaki-kun." Uryuu never passed up an opportunity for a formal greeting. Instead of moving into the room, however, he stood in the hall and waited, clutching something small and square in his hands.
"…You can come in." Ichigo crossed his legs at the ankles and scooted himself over so that he was only taking up half of his mattress. He patted the other half with his hand. "Sit."
Uryuu followed his orders, although he sat upright and tall, the direct opposite of Ichigo's idle and leaning position.
"What time is it?" Ichigo knew it couldn't be seven, probably not even close. The sun wasn't high in the sky, but the late afternoon light still filtered in through his window and traced warm patterns over his skin.
"It's early…actually, I'm here for another reason." Uryuu shifted slightly so he was facing Ichigo a bit better, pulling one leg onto the bed. "I'd rather…I'd rather not go with you all tonight." The admission was strained and hidden underneath hanging locks, but after a few silent moments passed, Uryuu brought his hand to his face and brushed his hair aside. Pinning the stray pieces behind his ear, he watched Ichigo for any signs of disapproval.
Ichigo let the idea run through his mind a few times before responding. He felt a tiny tug somewhere in his chest at the sound, but he brushed it off and fingered the rumpled sheets on his unmade bed.
"Oh yeah? Well…why?"
Uryuu tilted his head to the side slightly, brows furrowed in thought.
"I'm not sure how to say this without sounding rude." Pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose, he let out a lungful of air he'd been holding and looked Ichigo in the eye. "I like your family, and your friends. I'd even venture to say that some of them have become friends of mine in a way, after all we've gone through together."
Ichigo listened, somehow without interrupting. The light from the sky shone over the both of them in strong, dust filled beams, and Uryuu's glasses caught a piece and shattered it, casting broken shards of sun over his legs.
"To be honest…I'd feel a little lost in such a large group of people. And anyway, I didn't agree to go so I could be there with everyone…it's you that I'd be going for."
If Ichigo's heart was beating at that moment, he couldn't feel it at all. The blood in his veins paused for a frigid moment, while the rest of his body remained still and silent. Reminding himself to breathe, he instinctively pulled his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them.
"…What do you mean?" Ichigo knew it probably wasn't the best idea to ask it outright, but a different part of him wanted to know what Uryuu would say.
"I mean…"Uryuu paused, glancing down at his hands. "Oh, here. This is for you. It's sort of a peace offering, I suppose."
He passed the short white box over to Ichigo, who let his legs fall apart and cross together at the ankles after taking it. Ichigo set the box down in front of his legs on the mattress and lifted the lid.
"…Sakura-mochi?"
Lined up beautifully across the inside of the box were five perfect sakura-mochi. Delicately wrapped with salted sakura leaves, the little pink rice cakes were absolutely gorgeous.
"Oh, wow…where did you get these? They're perfect!"
"I made them."
Ichigo pried his eyes off the desserts for a moment to glance up at Uryuu's face, which was set on his own, watching his reaction. Faced with the promise of something yummy, Ichigo's former discomfort fell away, and he lifted the first cake to his mouth and shoved it in his mouth in one go. Pure bliss followed, and Ichigo felt his face draw into a wide, tight-lipped grin as the sticky treat accosted his taste buds with an overabundance of sugar.
"Oh my god," he mumbled around a full mouth, "you actually made these? They're great…" He picked up another one by the fragile leaf and packed it in his mouth as soon as he'd finished swallowing the first. "You are," he said around his mouthful, "so forgiven."
It wasn't often that Ichigo indulged himself in desserts and candy. He would if he had the opportunity, but not only did he not have any interest in cooking, he had been banned from his own kitchen about a year earlier due to a mishap involving good deal of fire. Yuzu had forbidden him to do anything in the kitchen besides use the microwave, which kept his options limited. In fact, as Ichigo downed a third cake, he realized that it had been such a long time since he'd even thought about having something like what Uryuu had brought him. He was always eating to keep himself alive, nothing more.
"Well…I'm glad you like them."
"Are you kidding? Thank you…for making them." Feeling a bit empty handed for his own part, Ichigo looked down at the remaining two cakes. "You want one?"
Uryuu waved a hand at the box. "No, no…I actually made too many. There's still some left over at my apartment." He then eyed Ichigo nervously, who was attempting to pry some of the sticky concoction off of his teeth with the use of his tongue. "You know…it's awfully easy to choke on that particular dessert."
Ichigo grinned. "Well then, at least I've got an idea of why you chose to make me that, then." He then waited an awfully long time for Uryuu to get the joke, but instead of smiling or laughing, Uryuu simply sat still and stared with an empty expression. Unable to hold it off any longer, Ichigo let out a sudden burst of laughter that was half coughing due to the mochi sticking to the back of his throat.
"Uryuu, laugh."
"What? No…why?" Uryuu pushed his glasses up again, looking particularly uncomfortable.
Ichigo laughed again, this time even louder and more abrasively. Uryuu was just so…so Uryuu.
"Never mind," he chuckled, closing the lid over the remaining two cakes. "Thank you. I didn't know you could cook so well. And it's okay if you really don't want to come tonight. I won't force you to go."
"How about tomorrow instead?"
Leaning back onto his stack of pillows, Ichigo eyes Uryuu thoughtfully. "Tomorrow what?"
Uryuu slid his leg off of Ichigo's bed, resting his foot on the floor. Placing his hands on his thighs, he rubbed his palms up and down the fabric of his pants as he spoke. "Well…I thought that maybe you might want to come over…you know…for dinner?"
Ichigo blinked. "What, like, over at your place?"
Uryuu nodded with a tight-lipped expression, as though he didn't trust his words.
"Yeah, okay…I'm game, I guess." Ichigo trained his voice to sound nonchalant in order to combat the effects of his quickening heartbeat. Here it was, a chance for he and Uryuu to spend time together. Just the two of them…somehow it was just what Ichigo wanted.
The odd feelings that had been stirred up by the sighting of Uryuu at the river hadn't progressed any further, but they surely had not left Ichigo. They remained suspended in time, and only now that Uryuu was here, in the room with Ichigo alone, did they begin to shift and spread slowly.
Ichigo shook his head from side to side quickly, trying to physically shake off the trail his mind was following. 'Later', he thought to himself, and shrugged at Uryuu with a genuine smile.
"Okay, then…I suppose I'll go on home." Uryuu stood up and straightened the wrinkles from his clothes as he walked to Ichigo's bedroom door. "How about we eat tomorrow at around 6?"
Ichigo rolled over on his bed until he was stretched out long, flat on his stomach. Resting on his elbows, he nodded, but then thought better of it.
"Wait…if it's ready at 6, then I'll be there at 5:30."
"Why?"
"…I want to watch you cook."
Shaking his head, Uryuu stifled a smile as he left the room. Ichigo watched him go and waited until the door was shut completely before moving onto his back.
"What was that?" Ichigo spoke solely for himself, feeling very strange for that admission. "I want to watch him cook?"
He lifted his neck just slightly and slipped his hands in between the mattress and the back of his head, resting lightly on his palms. He hadn't really thought of it as anything other than a joke, but now that the words were spoken, they became real, and he closed his eyes and let his mind drift along that treacherous path.
The very first thing that popped up was the image of Uryuu in an apron, and a giggle slipped out from between his lips.
Settling back into his bed, his mind touched on a myriad of pleasant thoughts. If he got there early, he could watch Uryuu cook. The idea intrigued Ichigo, for reasons unfathomed. He'd been surprised at the desserts Uryuu had made, but the idea of the Quincy cooking for Ichigo, only for Ichigo, was one that lit a fire under his stilled emotions and brought them to a slow simmer. And since Ichigo would be the only person there, then Uryuu wouldn't have any other choice than to pay him lots of attention.
Ichigo grinned internally. It was selfish, but it was a good kind of selfish, and hadn't Uryuu mentioned that he had only agreed to accompany the group later today because he wanted to see Ichigo? That particular thought was one that siphoned his unkempt feelings and injected them right into his veins. Ichigo's skin grew warm and cold at once, and it brought his stilled expression into a sudden frown. It wasn't that he was entirely unaware of the general direction his desires were headed. He was much more interested in where they were at the moment, and he hid the creeping realization behind other things, just for now.
Just for now, he could pretend his infatuation was pure in its intention, and it certainly wasn't leading him towards any indiscretion.
Instead of dwelling on it, he guided his mind back to the approaching invitation. He wondered casually what they might do to pass the time together. Would he leave after dinner, or would Uryuu invite him to keep him company for a few hours? Maybe they could watch TV together. Ichigo couldn't remember if he'd seen a television inside the barren apartment, but he assumed there had to be one. Who wouldn't have a TV?
Maybe they could talk instead. An idle itch made itself known on Ichigo's scalp and he lazily reached up and scratched at it, wondering what Uryuu might have to say. Whatever it was, Ichigo wanted to hear it. There were a few things left unspoken between the two of them, some things that Ichigo wanted to hear about, but he'd been afraid to ask.
End Part 4.Thank you so much to everyone who sent me the delicious reviews, as well as all the other yummy things to eat. There's a lot more food floating around my apartment these days, so I think I shall not starve, XD So, how is everyone?