Gah! I'm working on the next chapters, which will hopefully be more exciting or cute, so please put up with this filler one.
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any of its characters.
She decides she does not want to play soccer today.
"How about a walk instead?" she suggests, shrugging a little as the idea comes to her. "Besides, don't be cocky and think you can beat a master like me after only one night of practice," she boasts shamelessly.
Although he wants nothing more in this moment than to wipe the triumphant smirk off of her face, he knows she is right. The dirt patches on his clothing and the skinned injuries of his body are proof enough. And as he looks down at himself, muttering an affirmative to her request, he realizes for the first time that he is more than a little worse for wear.
He suddenly feels very dirty, grimy. Being a water dragon, he prides himself on keeping clean and orderly at all times, mainly because much of his time is spent within water. It is actually a trait other water dragons share among themselves, a fact that sends much ridicule and teasing their way from the Earth-based dragons, who prosper within the mud and filth of the ground. But he always ignores them, finding no flaw in a love for cleanliness.
As he observes his haggard state, he desires nothing more than to plunge headfirst into his lake behind him, which is splashing rather invitingly against the shore in the breeze. Gulping to calm himself from the urge, he turns with polite manners, extra refined, towards Karin, who is gazing up at the clear sky with a hand shielding her eyes from the glare and a far-off expression on her face, obviously lost in thought.
"Miss Karin," he calls, jolting her out of her mind. She raises an eyebrow at him, urging him to continue. "Would you mind if I...?" He trails off, pointing instead towards the rushing water of the lake, an expectant look on his face.
"Oh!" She nods quickly as understanding dawns upon her. Grinning slyly, she adds, teasing him with a snicker, "I guess even dragons need to freshen up, huh?"
He glares over at her, not liking her teasing, as it reminds him of the rock types creatures.
'She would get along well with Renji...'
Meanwhile, when she slowly turns a complete circle, Karin finds herself facing the lake once again. However, this time, she finds a pair of discarded clothes abandoned by the edge rather than her new friend. The only thing to even suggest he is still there is the whoosh his body makes as he plunges into the body of water.
She hurriedly cups her eyes again, making a cover with her fingers to shield herself from the glare, and only has enough time to catch his spirited tail submerging into the water rapidly, causing small splashes and ripples to add to the waving motions of the lake. And then, the water settles a little more, once again moving in unaffected motions, the type that one would overlook as normal behavior for a lake had they not known of the great spirit residing within.
'Wow...' she marvels. 'Mr. Dragon's pretty cool.'
Her curiosity overtakes her. Rushing to the water's edge, she plops down, crawling closer on her hands and knees in a crouch. Once she can see the reflection of both her face and her shoulders, she dips her head, even closer now to the liquid. Her nose an inch away from getting wet, she narrows her eyes very thinly, squinting in an attempt to peer through the clear blue color of the lake and catch a glimpse of the life underneath.
Okay, she admits it. What she really wants to see is Toushiro, feeling completely curious about his unknown life as a dragon. She wonders about his home, whether it is comfortable, and what sorts of accommodations are possible underwater. She wonders about his form, snaking through the water gracefully – it is something she has not had a chance to appreciate as of yet, as the last and only time she had seen it, it had been during a dire emergency and had overwhelmed her.
But she sees nothing. The waves cause too many ripples for her to get a good grip on her vision, and the blurriness of the element itself makes sightseeing an impossibility. The glare from the sun also adds hindrance to her task, and she huffs irritably, her lips puckering in distaste.
And then, in such a sudden action that she actually flails her arms backwards in an attempt to keep herself from falling straight into the lake, a gigantic body shoots out of the water, splashing water everywhere within its radius and frightening the tough tomboy to no end.
"Toushiro!" she cries out, on her back with her upper body propped up by her elbows. She gapes up at him in shock, his massive stature throwing a shadow over her as he looms above.
He paddles closer to her, twisting his head in an incline, gazing at her in obvious confusion. She looks down at herself in bemusement, not understanding his stare until she realizes she is covered in a moist spray of water and spread out on the ground in a very awkward position. She looks up sheepishly.
"You surprised me," she explains, clearing her throat. Scrambling up, she brushes herself off quickly. As she turns around to give him privacy, she continues, "I was just looking at the lake and you showed up so suddenly."
"Why were you so close?" he asks, and she can tell by his shadow stretching out underneath her that he is in his human form. She wisely keeps her eyes firmly glued to the trees ahead of her, lest she see the shadow of something she would rather not. The familiar rustling of him getting dressed starts.
"Oh, I just wanted a good look," she makes up. "The majestic waters seemed so beautiful -"
She smirks when she hears his disbelieving scoff.
"Oh, all right," she gives up. "I was just curious about what your home is like," she admits, and grits her teeth to help her to continue. She has never been one for apologies, after all, but she feels her friend deserves it. "I'm...sorry I invaded your privacy like that."
"Hmm." He sounds thoughtful. "Well, I wouldn't mind showing you, some day, if you're really all that curious."
"Really?" she asks, excitement in every tone. He smirks as he hears the wonder in her voice, surprised that she seems so happy from such a simple request.
"Oh, sure. I see no problem with it."
She beams, turning around at the same moment when she hears the shuffling stop. He is dressed in the simplest of outfits – a sleeveless shirt and shorts. But she cannot help but notice that they are very different from yesterday's wear.
"That's not what you were wearing yesterday," she observes.
"You humans change clothes on a daily basis, correct?" he asks, seeming rather confused at her surprise.
"The normal ones, yeah," she answers, grinning for a brief second before her eyebrows pucker. "But, where did those come from?"
"Well, a majority of my human clothing was shipped to me via mail from many acquaintances."
"I meant," she says impatiently, "that you weren't holding those when you first came out of the water."
"Hmm. Well, they followed me a little too slowly, I suppose," he airily replies, as if what he has said is perfectly normal. Her jaw slackens as she tries to comprehend what he has said.
"Follow?" she asks for clarification. He nods, tugging on his shirt to crease out any wrinkles.
"Through the water..."
"Would you mind clarifying for the human girl who's kind of new to this and thinking she's a little bat crazy right now?" she snaps. He smirks at her defiant stance – arms crossed defensively and eyes narrowed in expectancy. He picks up the discarded clothes he had previously worn and carelessly throws them into the lake, cleaning up after himself. He can always grab them later and put them away properly.
"I controlled the water so that they flowed behind me," he explains in a matter-of-fact tone, which drives her crazy.
"You can do that?" she asks with impatience. "What else can you do?"
"Oh, lots of things," he replies flippantly. He looks over at her, gesturing down the edge of the lake. "Shall we go for our walk?" She narrows her eyes, but nods.
The two slowly begin to stroll along the outer rim of the lake, him with his arms folded across his chest, and her with her hands locked together behind her head – classic poses to match their personalities.
"You've been holding out on me," she accuses him, still a little upset that there are things she does not know about him, even after she had questioned him. She places her hands on her hips and glares over at him.
"It's not that I'm holding information from you," he negates, shaking his head at her accusation. "My powers are extremely flexible, you see. Yes, I am able to control the water, but what I accomplish with the water depends on my own creativity."
"I still don't get it," she complains, then adds defensively, "You're the first water dragon I've ever met, you know."
He puckers his eyebrows, thinking carefully for a way to explain his meaning. As he does so, he suddenly spies a pile of pebbles gathered by the edge of the water, farther along the path.
"A demonstration, then," he decides, and rushes over. She follows him curiously. He scoops up a few into his hand, clutching only one in the other. Pulling his arm back, he turns to her, meeting her peculiar gaze. "Watch closely."
She rolls her eyes. "Skipping rocks. Even I can do that." She huffs irritably.
He smirks, and only gestures that she keep her eyes on the rock. Pulling his throwing arm even farther back, he finally lets it fly. They both watch extremely closely as it soars through the air, heading straight for the middle pond – hardly a shot capable of allowing the pebble to skip. Toushiro screws up his face in concentration and, at the very last second, just as the rubble is about to splash its way through the barrier that is the top of the lake, a small stream of the water suddenly jumps up, squirting the rock with enough force to send it flying back.
"Whoa!" Karin cries out as the rock comes flying out to her. She holds out her hands, trying to grab it. It lands in one and almost hops out, so she lurches forward, trying to get a grip on it. Toushiro watches in amusement as she juggles it furiously, her face twisted in shock.
She sighs in relief as she finally manages a respectable grip on it, and then rounds on him.
"How did you do that?" she demands.
"This is what I meant," he explains. "The water bends at my will no matter what, but I chose to hit the rock with just enough strength to send it back to us." She bobs her head, indicating she understands. He smirks at her enthusiasm. "In a similar way, I bent the water around my clothing, creating a bubble to keep them dry, and then controlling the waves to force the water to carry them along behind me."
"But you're in human form, though." Her lips set in a thin line as she tries to comprehend how he had done such a feat in this form.
"Ah, well, I still have some semblance of control over my element in this form," he clears for her. "It is considerably less when I am in this form, obviously, as retaining this figure requires too much of my power and concentration. The entirety of my control depends on the water's reaction to my flaring of energy."
She puts her hand to her chin in a thinking pose, nodding furiously. "I get it." She beams at him then, flashing her teeth with the wide grin. "That's neat! Can you do any other cool tricks?"
He shrugs. "I suppose, though I hardly do, seeing as I have lived alone for so long."
"Can you...?" Her voice suddenly lowers into a hush as a thought hits her. "Can you do that clothes trick with a human?" Her eyes widen with excitement at the idea.
"I don't see why not," he replies carefully, and she whoops in glee, doing a strange jump in the air with her hands thrown up. "Though I have never tried. But if you are set on seeing my home some day, I think that is the only way to do so."
"Oh, cool!" she cries out, clapping her hands against her cheeks as she grins. "So you'll use your dragon voodoo on me." Her voice gets a little higher pitched, and on any other woman, he would have called it a squeal.
Finally satisfied with the turn of events, she grabs a few rocks from his hands and bounces over to the water. Throwing her hand back, she lets it go, where it skips one, two, three times before disappearing under the water with a plop!
"How good are you with the human handicap?" she wants to know. He smirks, following her.
"Good enough," he answers cockily, and she punches his arm.
"I know a challenge when I hear one." With a teasing grin, she scoops up her own pile of pebbles, and the two stand side by side, arms poised ready. "Go!"
Soon, the air is thick with flying rocks, both flinging as quickly as they can. Karin shrieks when one particularly large one falls from her hand, creating a large splash and spraying her legs. She soon erupts into laughter, shaking herself to dry off a bit. His eyes soften at her merry expression.
"Hey, how about we go find some shade?" she suggests. Panting a bit for emphasis, she grabs the front of her shirt and tugs on it, trying to air herself off.
"It is rather hot," he agrees. Under the shade of a particularly large tree with thick leaves covering the branches, he takes a good look at her haggard appearance.
A contrast from the clean woman she had been this morning, water has done much harm to her appearance now. Her legs and feet, he observes, are tainted with splotches of mud, something to be expected at a place where dirt and water meet. But, from his sudden appearance at the lake, her clothes are still moist, her shorts clinging to her and her arms shining from the drops. He grins appreciatively as he takes in the sight of her – such a tomboy.
"What will your family say when they see you?" he asks, concerned. Her laughter dies down, and she stares over at him in shock. "What is it?"
"Uh, nothing," she replies, uneasily. She hooks one of her fingers and pull back a strand of hair that had been sticking to he mouth. She shrugs casually, ducking her head and placing it on her knees, which she pulls up to her chest. "They'll probably blow their tops a bit, but it's nothing I can't handle. I come home dirty a lot, anyway."
He gets the feeling she is hiding something from him, but after one peek at her uncomfortable face, he lets the matter drop.
"Hey, Toushiro, do you have any family?" she asks in return, wrapping her arms around her knees and inclining her head in his direction. "I mean, how do dragons even...?" She trails off, turning her head away, but he notices the embarrassed flush on her cheeks. "I...sorry. I didn't mean to ask. Yuzu always says I never think before I speak."
He raises his eyebrows over at her, slightly amused by her sudden and uncharacteristic shyness. Certainly, the idea of a man and woman, both unattached and alone together, discussing reproduction would be seen as heinous behavior, but he sees no wrong in it. Dragon cultures far exceed human beliefs in the formalities between the opposite sexes, and so he chuckles a little to ease the tension, ignoring her when she whips her head at him and glares fiercely.
"Yes, I do have a family," he informs her. "A dragon...mates much the same way as a human does." She coughs awkwardly and looks away once again as he breeches the topic. He wonders whether she has ever discussed such a thing with anyone else before – now he feels embarrassed. "Um, thanks to our human forms, birthing rates are actually extremely high. But, our families are different in that they are not...biologically related."
"Really?" she asks, in awe at the strange idea – she could never imagine not being with her own family form the very beginning of her life, no matter how much they infuriate her at times. "Why is that? I mean, where are your mother and father?"
"Only they know," he replies casually. "You see – and this is a rather strange phenomenon among my kind – like does not produce like."
"Wait. So you mean" – she twists her face in concentration and confusion as the meaning hits – "your parents weren't water dragons?"
"Most likely, yes," he admits, enjoying the way she seems taken aback.
"How does that work?" In her curiosity, she unbends her knees, instead folding them and turning to face him. Placing her hands against the ground, she leans towards him. His lips almost quirk up at her strange behavior.
"As I said, a phenomenon," he replies, shrugging. "Following the birth, most infants are attracted towards dragons of their own elements. So, I assume that, since I no longer stay with my parents, they were of a different element, and so we rejected one another."
"Oh." Her face seems blank, as if she has trouble accepting the concept of parents against their own babies. In fact, the face she is making seems slightly disgusted.
"It's not foreign to my species, though it may seem strange to you. An infant cannot be taught to tolerate so easily, but as a dragon grows older, it becomes possible to finally co-exist." He hesitates several times before he finally pats her hand shyly. She bites her lip as she looks up at him, seeming a little lost. He hurriedly pulls his hand away.
"Okay, I'll try to keep an open mind about this," she assures him, taking a deep breath to calm herself.
"There's not much more to say," he says, looking up at the sky. His face softens into nostalgia, and she blinks several times as she thinks of something to add. He snaps out of it soon enough, though, looking over at her with his lips pressed thinly. "I migrated towards a small family of water dragons, whom I now call my grandmother and sister, and as I grew older, I made acquaintances with other elementally based dragons."
"And do you get a lot of visitors?" She gets even closer now, sticking her face in his as her eyes sparkle with wonderment, her jaw slack as she awaits his answer. He feels an uncomfortable heat creep up his neck and stealthily leans away to the side.
"Unfortunately, no." Her shoulders deflate at his answer and she leans away, almost pouting. "I like my privacy."
"Oh, great," she mumbles, her lip jutting out. "Of course, with my luck, I get stuck with probably the most anti-social, loner dragon on the planet." He rolls his eyes.
'How would she know? She's never met any other dragons besides me. I personally think I'm a lot better than Kuchiki, at least.'
"I'm sure if you stick around long enough, you'll run into a few," he assures her. "My friends have never been ones for honoring my wishes."
The bitterness laced in his voice vanishes as he takes in her excitement.
"Really? Really?" she asks in another almost squeal. He nods. "Well, then you're gonna have to make room for me at your lake, Toush! I'm gonna be hanging around a lot." He turns his head away and smirks secretly as she cheers.
'Well, thank goodness for horrible friends.'
Hopefully this one makes Toushiro's powers a little clearer, as well as clears up some background info for future chapters (wink wink). Sorry this one took so long, everyone. After I got back from vacation, I started working on this chapter, but then full sentences started forming in my mind for the chapter in which they have their first kiss, so I wrote that instead ^^' Well, I'm sure some of you won't mind for that reason.
But, you're also going to have to be patient with me. Since they're only getting to know one another right now, I don't have much fun working on this story as I do with my others. Once the conflict starts, I'm sure I'll get inspired more often. So, to help me along, I'm just going to do a little time skip for the next chapter – make them a little closer at the beginning so I can skip the filler chapters and start building on the romance quicker (with longer chapters, hopefully), especially since most of the ideas I have are for when they're already really close. Look forward to it :)