EDIT: 26-May-2011 Removed author's notes.
Sorry I wasn't able to respond to the reviews, but I really appreciate them all. Thank you very much!
Warnings for extreme OOC-ness, fast pace and overall teenage-ness. =)
Disclaimer: Bleach isn't mine. Book from which the whole story was based on is owned by Tara FT Sering.
All The Right Moves
Chapter 6
First Kiss and The Championship
Previously…
Urahara-sensei took the fishbowl and everyone watched in slow motion as—out of all the tiny scraps of papers in the glass bowl—he picked the last one in, and announced, "Our Juliet is…"
Kuchiki Rukia's name reverberated around the auditorium as everyone turned to her and started the barrage of teases and cheers.
From the noisy crowd, Kaien unexpectedly jumped forward. "Urahara-sensei, can I be Romeo?"
Rukia scowled. She knew Kaien was just trying to irritate her. Urahara-sensei rolled his eyes, smiling behind his fan as he said, "Of course you an, Shiba-san." Kaien smiled mischievously and gave Rukia a playful wink, with which the petite girl's reply was her tongue.
Everyone knew this play would not be a passionate love story without a kiss, so Rukia right then and there decided that she must back out—AT ONCE!
Rukia raised her hand and violently protested that she didn't want to play the lead role. In the flurry that followed the role assignments—people laughing at each other for the roles assigned to them—nobody heard Rukia protesting. Even Urahara-sensei, now surrounded by laughing students, never once saw her waving her hand wildly.
Rukia decided to tell him after the club time was over. But when she knocked on his office after class, no one was around. Instead, she found something posted on his door: the cast list—with her as Juliet and Kaien as Romeo.
AS Juliet (thanks to a lucky or unlucky draw of her name from an entire fishbowl), Rukia was required to practice kissing her Romeo, a.k.a. Kaien, There was a lot of hooting in the background as she stood on the stage, clutching her script tightly in her hands. The middle school club members were nearly dying of giggles, trying to contain their fits of laughter as they whispered about. They were squirming like worms, cheeks flushed to a deep shade of red, some even trying to cover their eyes.
Rukia was blushing madly herself, and she took several deep breaths in an attempt to make the warmth on her cheeks disappear. Kaien, on the other hand, looked super cool about it, going over the script as though oblivious to the not-too-subtle murmurs in the auditorium. The director, Urahara-sensei, a strict and dedicated thespian, quickly shushed the group and scolded the higher batches for what he called "a drought in maturity". He snapped his fingers for Kaien to come forward, and the senior did, looking a bit distracted but still a little nonchalant. He seemed to be to preoccupied with memorizing his lines, if the little mutterings from his lips were any indication.
Then, Urahara-sensei snapped his fingers for Rukia, who jumped and scooted over nervously to where he and Kaien stood as if in a huddle, in the middle of the small stage.
"Okay," said Urahara-sensei. "You both have to close your eyes and just let your lips meet. No need to get wild about it, just," the blonde-haired teacher took a deep breath and paused for dramatic effect, "…look passionate and incredibly consumed by your love for each other."
"What? No tongue?" Kaien joked, chuckling as Urahara-sensei swatted him on the arm with his fan.
"Proceed with Act 1, Scene 5," Urahara-sensei ordered.
Kaien took Rukia's hand in his. His hand was surprisingly cold. Was he nervous as well? Maybe, just good at masking it? Naaah, why would he be? It wasn't like this was his first kiss, being a famous womanizer and all.
"If I profane with my unworthiest hand this holy shrine, the gentle sin is this; my lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready to stand to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss," Kaien delivered his line, looking directly at Rukia's amethyst orbs.
Urahara-sensei looked at Rukia expectantly.
"G-good pilgrim," she started nervously. "You do wrong your hand too much, which mannerly devotion shows in this; for saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, and palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss."
"Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?" Urahara-sensei and everyone else who was watching, were all utterly captivated by the scene unfolding before them.
Even Rukia, who somehow started to gain confidence. "Ay, pilgrim lips that they must use in prayer."
"O then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do. They pray; grant thou, lest faith turn to despair."
"Saints do not move; though grant for prayers' sake."
"Then move not while my prayer's effect I take."
Kaien cupped Rukia's face in his hands. The petite woman's nervousness came back, she almost felt she was about to faint. No one has ever kissed her on the lips before, and she didn't imagine she would get it this way. Kaien's hands were surprisingly colder than before, and in an instant after Rukia closed her eyes, she felt his lips tender on hers. She froze on her spot as she took in the weird sensation of a pair of lips on hers. Were his lips trembling? Must have been hers.
"Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purged," Kaien continued.
There was a moment of silence before Rukia, still in a state of shock, remembered she needed to throw a line back. "T-then have my lips the sin that they have took."
"Sin from my lips? O trespass sweetly urged! Give me my sin again."
But before Kaien could kiss Rukia again, Urahara-sensei put his fan between their faces, meeting it with Kaien's lips in the process. "Okay, that's good enough for a start. We'll take a break and practice that again."
As if not embarrassing enough, Rukia and Kaien needed to practice the kiss over and over again!
The small crowd of junior members dispersed as they went chattering about the scene they had just witnessed moments prior. Kaien left for the backstage, once again concentrating on memorizing his lines. Rukia breathed a sigh of relief, one that didn't go past Urahara-sensei's sharp eyes, judging by the knowing look the blonde teacher threw her way before he left her standing alone in the middle of the stage. She lowered her shoulders in defeat, glaring at the script she held in her hands. The auditorium doors suddenly opened breaking her staring contest with the inanimate paper, revealing a breathless Rangiku. The buxom strawberry blonde rushed towards Rukia and pulled her aside.
"Kia-chan, I've got some…uhm, bad news," Rangiku said, still gasping for breath.
"Wh-what is it?" Rukia curiously but nervously asked.
"I overheard that the guys from the soccer team are coming over here 'just to pass time and see Shiba Kaien score a kiss with that sophomore girl'." Rangiku said, complete with air quotes and all.
Oh no. Red lights began flashing wildly inside Rukia's head. That would be taking the word embarrassing to the extreme level—kissing Kaien in front of Tōshirō? No way; just no freakin' way.
That was why Kuchiki Rukia now sat idly inside the girls' comfort room, sitting on the counter swinging her legs lazily. She feigned—of all the possible illnesses in the world—diarrhea (because there would be no room for arguments with that), and so she silently sat in the rest room watching the minutes tick by.
After being gone for a good two hours, Kaien finally came in looking for her, sounding really concerned.
"Hey Rukia, you okay in there?" The senior asked, knocking outside the girls' comfort room.
Rukia gagged and said, "I'm feeling sick, really. I think I'm running a fever."
It occurred to her—and it occurred really late—that the next day was the soccer championships and she was hoping to catch it. Now it seemed like she was supposed stay home.
It was the day of the soccer championships, and here was Rukia, home. Bored. Annoyed. She was staring blankly at the TV, so pissed that she managed to trap herself indoor when she could be at the championship game. Aaarrggh! She dropped heavily on her bed, flailing about in irritation, mentally scolding herself for being so stupid. It was just a kiss anyway, why did she have to make such a fuss out of it and end up getting herself trapped inside her house on a very beautiful day? Both her parents were at work, and even Nel wasn't home. Talk about having no social life.
A honk outside disturbed her self-berating thoughts as a car drove up the front of her house, and through the window, she saw that it was Kaien's. He parked the car and came out of it holding a porcelain bowl with utmost care.
Rukia was so happy at seeing another soul, someone she could actually talk with after a long boring day all by herself, that she hurriedly opened the door to meet him, forgetting that she was supposed to be sick and couldn't get out of bed.
"Hey," Kaien greeted as soon as the door opened, looking very surprised. "For someone sick and bedridden, you look like a knockout. How did you recover so fast?"
"Huh?" Rukia blinked dumbly and frowned. Sick...and bedridden? She bit her lip as she remembered her lie from the day before. "Oh yeah, well...I'm trying to think positively, you know, that I'm not sick at all, I mean."
What? Where did that come from? Could you say lame?
"What's that you're holding?" Rukia asked, trying to change the topic.
"Oh." Kaien smiled and gently opened the lid of the bowl. "I brought you alphabet soup," he said proudly. "I'm on my way to the soccer championships where your dear old Tōshirō will be playing. But I just wanted to make sure my Juliet will be present and healthy when the play opens."
Rukia frowned as she guiltily close her eyes, regretting her little fib.
a. Should I confess to him the truth about my 'sickness'? Kaien is so thoughtful, how could I even lie to him? All he wanted was to be professional about the play!
or
b. Should I just let it slide? Kaien might hate me for being a liar. Maybe I can continue on with the charade—besides, I'll only be missing one game.
Rukia took a deep breath, bracing herself for what was to come. "Hey, Kai. I…I need to tell you something."
"Spill." he gamely replied.
"You might...hate me for it, but...I, well, I'm not sick. I-I just made that up as an excuse to be freed from practice because…Rangiku said…the, uhm, the guys from the soccer team—"
Kaien interrupted Rukia by putting his hand on her head and affectionately ruffling her hair. There was a momentary look of hurt in his eyes, but Rukia passed it off as her imagination when it was gone the next second.
"Yeah, yeah. I understand. I actually saw them there. No problem, Rukia. Come to the game with me. Maybe we can have a seat at the players' bench."
"R-Really?" Her amethyst eyes lit up in glee as she clutched Kaien's sleeve.
"Yeah. I know Coach Ukitake personally. He was my former trainer," the senior said, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. "So what do you say?"
Rukia was so excited that she dressed up in record time and hopped into Kaien's car.
They arrived at the game a few minutes after it began, and true enough, they were sitting beside the soccer stars.
From the corner of her eye, something flying came at Rukia's direction at the speed of light. It was only a split second before something bopped her—hard—on the head. As her vision began to fade, Rukia felt herself falling backwards off the bench, and she distinctly heard people rushing and shouting things to her direction.
The ball hit her. And that was he last thought before she blacked out. When she regained consciousness, Coach Ukitake was snapping his fingers in front of her face.
"Whose ball was it?" Someone from the crowd around her asked.
"Mine," Tōshirō said, pushing forward through the tight circle of players and a worried Kaien who hovered over Rukia.
"Coach, can I take her to the clinic?"
Rukia blurrily saw Coach Ukitake gave Toushirou the go signal. Rukia heard Tōshirō ask her to put her arm around him and felt him gently lift her off the ground. They walked towards the clinic together and the whole time, Tōshirō apologized for being grubby. No problem, Rukia thought. After all, he spent the entire afternoon scuttling about the field trying to score goals for the school.
After they were taken in by the school nurse, Kotetsu Isane, Tōshirō began to apologize again.
"I'm really, really sorry about hitting you. Are you sure you're okay?" He sounded really guilty and concerned that Rukia's heart fluttered.
"Yeah. No worries. I think you should go back to the game. The team needs you." Rukia, despite the headache, still managed to smile at him, although her eyes lost focus of his face.
Still, she saw (or perhaps imagined) Tōshirō smiling shyly back. "Okay. I'm really sorry. I guess I'll go ahead."
"Yeah. Good luck." Rukia slurredly replied before she promptly passed out.
A/N: Tōshirō fans might be interested to find out that the next chapter is ALL HIM. :D Thanks for reading everyone! Have a great day!