a.n. Hey guys I hope that you like the second installment of the Lennie and Lex series. I have the next several chapters outlined and hope to have three of four chapters up by the end of the week. Please let me know what you think about the story. I take your comments and suggestions very seriously. Thanks for reading.
L&L&L&L
After making it to the Fifth Division barracks I was already irate pissed. I was hungry and thus I was angry. Luckily Shinji's offices were on the first floor so I didn't have to walk far. I didn't even knock as I slid the screen door open. Shinji was at his desk doing some paperwork. It was weird seeing him actually doing work he never did any in school, but I guess he didn't need to seeing as he didn't really require a high school education. He looked up and raised an eyebrow at me. "Yes?" he said in his low drawl. I blew a stray hair out of my face and crossed my arms. "I missed breakfast because of you," I huffed.
Shinji gave me his signature grin and let out a slow chuckle. It's hard to stay mad at Shinji. He's just that kind of person. I gave a small smile and sat on the corner of his desk. "So where's the fire chief?" Shinji just shook his head and pushed at my knee. He stood up and leaned his back against the desk making our shoulders barely touch. He pulled a granola bar out of his robes and handed it to me. "Thanks," I muttered as I started munching on it. Even though we haven't spoken all that much over the years, mainly because I wanted to avoid awkward situations, we still got along pretty well. It seemed that we have reached a mutual understanding. All romantic feelings had since been squashed but that didn't mean Shinji wouldn't take any opportunity to try and flirt and be…well Shinji. High school seemed so far away to me, like somehow in the past three years I went straight from child to woman. I guess being in the Gotei 13 does that to you. But despite everything that transpired between the two of us, it was good to have another friend that knew me from before all of this craziness.
"Well, this has been an odd couple of years hasn't it?" said Shinji. I nodded and let out a laugh. "I never thought I'd see pictures of you with hair longer than mine." "Hey my hair was gorgeous!" protested Shinji. He pushed me with me with his shoulder and we both started laughing. He pushed himself off of the desk and ran his hand through his hair and it fell back perfectly into place. "But I have to say I'm sorry that all of this happened the way it did Lennie." "Hey," I said wagging my finger at him, "you didn't call me in here to get all serious did you?" He let out a snort and shook his head. He threw himself on the floor dramatically sliding on his knees skidding to a stop right in front of me. He grabbed the backs of my calves and looked up at me. "Oh my dear Lennie please forgive me!" He was being an overdramatic little shit but what else was new. "Please I beg of you my dear sweet Lennie-". Suddenly there was a throat clearing. We both whipped our heads around to see a tall, muscular man standing in the door way; the door that I had not closed.
Out of shear instinct I kicked at Shinji to let go of my legs and got off of the desk so fast it actually skidded over a few centimeters. I could feel flushing and started to pop my knuckles. "Well that was rude Len, just as I was professing my undying love for you!" Shinji put the back of his hand to his forehead and acted like he was fainting. "Oh shut up," I said through gritted teeth and kicked his foot. Shinji finally got off of the floor and went to his desk. I began to make my way to door trying to avoid looking at the man leaning against the door frame. "Uh, where ya going Lennie?" I turned around and looked at Shinji quizzically. "Well I did actually call you here for a reason, you too Shuhei." Realization dawned on me, Shuhei Hisagi, the lieutenant of the Ninth Division. He was the one that was holding his division up without a captain. At least now he was help. One of the visoreds is being a co-lieutenant along with him, a smallish girl with green hair. Lots of people in the Gotei 13 people respected him and I could see why. That was a lot of responsibility.
I looked up at Hisagi whose eyebrows were furrowed looking at Shinji. "So…what do you need Shinji?" I felt Hisagi's gaze shift to me. Maybe I shouldn't address Shinji so commonly in front of people that didn't fully understand our situation. It wasn't common knowledge that Shinji and I knew each other before the whole soul reaper thing. God only knows what he thought when he entered the room; talk about avoiding awkward situations. "Well the captain commander has this idea that different divisions work together on this new hollow problem we have. It seems like there's a higher up controlling them, an arrancar maybe. So just in case we have the same problem as three years ago we're splitting up the divisions. Lennie, you and Gaby are going to be with Shuuhei and then Rangiku, Lex, and Renji are going to be in a different group," Shinji explained. I stood there gob smacked. "Uh why couldn't my own captain tell me this?" Shinji just shrugged his shoulders. "I think he's still sleeping." I let out a groan and turned on my heels to leave.
Walking out into the bright sun I started pulling at the ends of my hair. He could be so aggravating. My own captain could have told me when he wakes up around noon, or hell Nanoe could have just told me. She runs most of the shit in the division anyway. "You know you might actually pull your hair out." I turned around and to find Hisagi standing behind me with his arms crossed. I stood there not sure what to say. "Tomorrow we head out to the human world. We leave at 9:00 in the morning and tonight we're all meeting tonight to go over the mission at the bar by Ten's barracks." I gave him a small nod and he went on his way. "Well I know whose idea the bar was," I thought. This had Ran written all over it. I gave a small sigh and decided to head back to my own barracks and finish up some paper and then do some training in the afternoon.
L&L&L&L
Despite my odd morning I actually managed to get some work done. Gaby and I are mainly in charge of getting the paperwork for the new recruits straight, as well as our own mission reports. We share a small office on the second floor of our barracks. It has a small window that overlooks several cherry blossom trees. I wish we could leave the window open but we've had too many incidents involving random gusts of wind that cause papers to go flying everywhere.
Apparently Nanoe had told Gaby about our new assignment after breakfast. Shinji was just being annoying. "What do you think about working with Lieutenant Hisagi?" Gaby asked sometime before lunch. I just shrugged my shoulders biting my pen as I double checked the form that I just filled out. "I don't know. He's obviously capable, but he's hard to get a good read off of you know?" I had already filled Gaby in about this morning's escapades. She found it highly amusing. "I'm glad they kept us together though," I continued. "It's been forever since we've been separated on a mission." Gaby hummed in agreement.
Later that afternoon Gaby and I did a bit of sparing Enjoji, our third seat, to prepare for the upcoming mission. We also oversaw some of the new recruits going through some basic training exercises. After the arrancar incident the Gotei 13 had ramped up it recruiting for the academy. The influx of students were beginning to graduate. This meant more recruits and more paperwork for us fourth seats. At least there were two of us; I was starting to worry about Lex whose procrastination in regards to paperwork rivaled Ran's. I wasn't really looking forward to our bar meeting; I mean who goes to bar to discuss work. It made me think this wasn't going to be a lot of discussion involving out mission tomorrow.
I got ready quickly. After hopping in the shower and drying my hair I ran a brush through the knotted fuzz ball that I call hair. I threw on some jeans and a Marvel t-shirt. I don't usually wear my uniform unless I'm working. I leaned of the door frame and waited for Gaby to put on her sandals that matched her simple sundress. She adjusted her glasses and we were on our way.
L&L&L&L
We were early. I'm perpetually early everywhere I go; it something to do with an extreme paranoia of being late. I spotted a couple of tables in the corner and with Gaby's help we pushed them together making room for the six of us. Renji arrived in time to help us with the chairs. I liked Renji. He could be kind of silly at times, but he was a really good guy. His hair had grown out since that day in the hospital. It looked better, less like a pineapple.
Renji ordered a beer for himself while Gaby and I opted for water. The three of us made small talk for a few minutes until Hisagi arrived. "Hey man!" said Renji slapping Hisagi on the back as he took his seat. I gave him a small smile…which he didn't return. He just looked at me quizzically. He turned his head to back to Renji who was going on about some fight he won earlier today. I heard Gaby let out a low whistle under her breath. "Shut up," I muttered. Thank God Ran and Lex arrived. They were late, but what else is new. Lex took her seat beside me and Ran in front of Lex and beside Hisagi. "Sake!" Rangiku squealed. I just rolled my eyes as the bartender brought over a bottle.
"So why do you think they're splitting up the divisions for missions like this?" Renji asked. "Probably so that the divisions don't get so alienated from one another, which was one of the problems three years ago." Hisagi answered. We all knew he was right so no one responded. It was common knowledge that the captain commander was doing everything he could to try and prevent another Aizen type from rising to power. "There has been some odd hollow sightings that are too organized for the captain commanders liking so where going to investigate," Hisagi continued. "My group is heading to Ireland while you guys are heading to southern Japan." Hisagi obviously had the most information out of the six of us, probably because he would be getting the information like a captain would. "Is that all?" Gaby asked. Hisagi nodded and took a swig of his beer.
"So…we came out here just for that? We probably didn't need to have a meeting just for that." I stated. "Oh shut up Lennie it's not like you had anything else to do." Lex laughed. I smacked her shoulder as she went to take a sip of her sake making the clear liquid slosh out of the small glass. She let out a squeal of disapproval along with Rangiku who prized sake like it was liquid gold. "Maybe I did." I said and stuck my tongue out at her. "Yeah maybe she had plans with Captain Hirako." Hisagi said coolly. Lex and Ran immediately erupted in laughter. I looked at him feeling the burn on my face. He gave me a slight smirk. "Ugh this guy is just messing with me for the hell of it," I thought. Lex was still gasping for air as she sputtered out, "That ship sailed years ago."
I shot her a glare and shook my head. "Wait…you two were actually…"Hisagi trailed off looking very confused. "Yeah man you're the only one here that doesn't know," said Renji. "Wait who told you…Ugh Lex you damn traitor!" She started scooting her chair away from me slowly and Gaby and Ran were laughing their heads off. I let out an exasperated groan and banged my head on the table. "Um Lennie are you okay?" I looked up to see Rukia looking very confused. Immediately our group gave their welcomes to our short friend. She was still in her uniform and waved Renji off when he tried to pull up another chair. "No my brothers waiting for me outside; I just needed to run something by Lennie." I noticed Ran get quiet and start biting her lip. Her gaze kept flicking in the direction of the door. I brushed off her weird behavior and turned to Rukia. "Since your birthday is on Saturday I convinced my brother to let you use our portal to go home on Wednesday after you mission since you have the day off. I already sent notice to your mom." I looked at her wide eyed and nodded my head. I thanked her quickly. "Well I better get going and I'll see you Wednesday morning!" She waved goodbye and headed out of the bar.
"So…speaking of a certain ginger's birthday…" Lex said cozying up to me. "No." I deadpanned. Rangiku and Lex started ranting about how there had to be a party. I looked at Gaby for help and she just giggled. "Listen," I began. "My birthday, my rules. No damn party." The duo let groans of protest. I rubbed my temples feeling a headache coming on. I stood up and shook my head. "Alright no more talking about my birthday. I better head out anyway." Lex and Ran starting throwing the assorted nuts that were left on the table at me while yelling 'partypooper'. I just shook my head and headed for the door.
I was a few yards down the path when I heard footsteps come up behind me. I assumed it was Gaby, but it wasn't. Nope, it was Hisagi. I raised an eyebrow at him. "Uh…you sure you want to walk home alone?" he said as he rubbed the back of his neck. I nodded my head and let out a short laugh. "Yeah, it wouldn't be the first time lieutenant." "Look I'm sorry about what I said earlier about you and Captain Hirako. I didn't know you two actually had history and I was just teasing you about this morning." I waved it off with a gesture of my hand. "I've been around Lex my whole life. I'm used to perpetual teasing." He nodded his head and I gave a small wave as I headed back home.