I'm so so sorry for the LATE update. It usually isn't like this, i can promise you that but i was out of the city last week and i decided to take a break from writing...Sorry about that...Well, I hope you can forgive me and continue to enjoy this fic.
Also, a warm THANK YOU to all of you who reviewed! I love you all for it! (and i'm sorry if i didn't answer back to all of them...I get lazy these days...But trust me, i read them all and love them all. X3) Thank you to those who followed, fovoured or simply read as well.
Enjoy this new update and please don't forget to review, if u have the time. XD
2
Hisagi ran his hands over his face, splashing the cool water over his skin and feeling as the last wisps of sleep left. As much as he liked keeping discipline and following orders, despite his rebellious look, he'd never been a morning person. Oh, he tried. But no matter how early he got or how much energising whatevers he ingested, his blood pressure remained low for minutes after his rising and he was pretty much a walking zombie for the duration of that time.
He stared at his own reflection in the oval mirror, following the dripping water with the corners of his eyes. His expression was serious, grave even. He leaned slightly closer, his hands gripping the rim of the sink. He searched the mirroring eyes as if hoping to find some carefully hidden answer to a question. A quest that had been plaguing his thoughts for the past three days. A question involving his Quincy host.
'Why in the hell, was he up at this ungodly hour every damn morning!'
It wasn't even light outside! Hisagi sighed and splashed more water over his face. God knew he needed every little help to barely keep his eyes open. Granted, Ishida was trying to be silent and he was. He could have sneaked up on a ghost with that feline elegance of his but... Hisagi was a trained, battle-worn, ready to kill, sleeping with a knife under his pillow, kind of guy and the very presence, the very thought of someone else awake and moving about around him, automatically forced his alarm bells on full alert. Just in case...
He wasn't paranoid enough to expect Ishida to turn on him or attempt hurting him in any way but ever since Captain Tosen's betrayal...He found it just a little difficult to trust completely, without question, another being. He shook his head, hating the way every time he took a break and let him mind wander it always seemed to settle on the one subject he tried desperately to avoid. Always returning to the man whose teachings he'd adopted as a way of life and who tried to kill him. The same man he'd killed instead...
'I need to clear my head...'
Before even more frustratingly irritating thoughts had a chance to manifest themselves, Hisagi rubbed the fluffy white towel, placed conveniently beside the sink, over his face and hands. Once dry, he strolled out of the bathroom and made his way downstairs to the kitchen where he knew Ishida would be. He could hear the soft shuffle of his feet as he moved about, no doubt preparing his coffee. Hisagi didn't like the taste of the bitter liquid very much but it seemed to revive the little brunette as if by magic and it also seemed to put him in a good mood.
'Do you realize it's six in the morning?' Ishida whirled around as if caught red handed doing something he wasn't supposed to. His guilty expression elected a smirk on Hisagi's lips, making him look even cooler, with arms crossed and leaning against the open doorway...
But that smirk faded in a flash, replaced by a worried frown, when Ishida let loose a yelp of pain. His hand moved away from the counter and the glass coffee pot fell to the floor, sending shards and dark liquid splashing everywhere. The steam continued to rise from the spilled drink...
'Are you hurt? Let me see.' In one striding step Hisagi was beside Uryu, his hands griping for Ishida's injured one before the later had a chance to agree or protest.
'I'm fine.'
'Shush. Let me see.' The Shinigami studied the burn stretching across the back of the hand with a critical eye. An eye which was used to seeing all sorts of gruesome wounds, ranging from cuts to burns to the occasional crushed body into bloody pulp...Really, some Hollows could be damn creative. Therefore, he was experienced enough to assess the injury and was glad to see it wasn't anything serious.
'You'll be fine. Here, let me put some ice on it.'
'I know that. I'm the son of a renowned doctor...' Uryu yanked his hand out of Hisagi's grasp while using his other one to fix his glasses further up the bridge of his nose. It didn't do anything to hide the spreading blush across his pale skin and he knew it so Ishida averted his gaze and turned away from the surprised Soul Reaper. Hisagi studied him with open curiosity before resuming his previous task and opened the refrigerator door, rutting for the ice sure to be there. He was a fast learner and he'd quickly understood the plan of Ishida's home and, with the owner's help, he'd also learned how to use most of the bizarre appliances. He hated to admit it but the kettle gave him the most trouble...
'You never talked about your father.' Hisagi was calm, seemingly un-phased by Ishida's tantrum. Admittedly, he was the one at fault for the accident so he had no excuse anyway...
'He and I don't exactly see eye to eye.' Hisagi kept silent, waiting patiently for Ishida to continue if he so wished but when nothing else was added to the conversation, he moved towards the younger man and once more reached for his arm. His grip was gentle enough that it shocked Uryu out of his anger.
'I understand that better than you might think. My father and I weren't best friends either.' He had a faraway look in his eyes and Ishida understood without Shuhei having to say it that this would be the end of the subject, for both of them. Uryu tried to move his mind away from the way Hisagi's touch felt. The way his fingers breezed ever so slightly over his burned skin, careful not to increase the pain in any way, and wrapped the pocket of ice around his hand. He tried and failed.
'I-I'm fine now. Thank you.' Before Hisagi had a chance to respond in any way, Uryu removed his hand once more, this time even more forcefully than before, and darted out the still open door. Shuhei was left alone and confused, his eyes glued to the spot where Ishida had been a mare few seconds ago. The coffee pool spread slowly, finally reaching his feet and moving around them like the sea pools around rooted islands.
'What was that all about?...'
'So let me get this straight. You surprised him so he burned his hand but when you tried to help him, he was angry and pulled away. And was he brushing?' Hisagi nodded slightly, unsure what to make of the whole incident. 'And he was blushing. Any other...strange behaviour you wanna tell me about?'
Hisagi glanced up at Renji, whose eyes betrayed him. He could tell the other lieutenant knew something, probably everything, but for some reason he didn't want to share his insight. Hisagi was silent for a moment, his fingers absentmindedly twirling the straw in his ice tea, debating whether to say anything or keep silent. The oversize umbrella hanging over their table threw a wide shadow, cooling them and shielding them from the dazzling sun. It wasn't his idea to meet up at a street café but Renji's logic was based on the human phrase, 'When in Rome...'
'There were other times...' Hisagi stared intently at the red, forest fruit, tea spinning like a whirlpool, willing it to do the talking instead.
'Such as?' Unlike the brunette, Renji was completely at ease because he knew exactly where this conversation was going. He leaned back in the plastic chair and took a gulp of his refreshing mint concoction. He had to hand it to them, humans knew how to take the edge off of a torrid day.
Throwing caution to the wind and deciding to trust the other man who not only saved his life before but also became one of his closest friends, Hisagi began to speak...
The first time he'd noticed the Quincy was that night when he'd appeared unannounced at his front door. Right after he answered the human's question regarding the duration of his stay. He remembered the slight tremor which ran through the lithe back, only caught by his observant gaze for a fleeting second.
'Are you feeling alright?' Hisagi moved a step closer to the other man. Ishida hadn't spoken or moved for all of five minutes now and Hisagi finally asked the question, beginning to get worried. Was the archer feeling ill?
Uryu didn't give any sign that he had heard anything and continued to perfectly portray a life size human statue as Shuhei moved closer to him. But when the Soul Reaper placed a worried hand in his shoulder, the human jumped right out of his skin, managing to startle Shuhei just as much. Ishida looked like he just woke up out of a really deep dream or thought and he began apologising hastily, stammering over some of the words in his haste to speak.
'It's fine, but are you sure you're alright? You were shaking.' Hisagi studied Ishida's face attentively but the harder he tried to catch the other's eyes the more flustered he seemed to get. A reddish taint began to colour Uryu's otherwise snowy skin and Hisagi wondered if the younger man suffered from a fever.
'I'm okay. Really. So why are you here exactly?' Hisagi continued to run his eyes over Ishida's face but not getting any closer to figuring out why Ishida was behaving the way he was, he began explaining the outbreak in Hollow appearances in the Karakura Area and his task to assess this possible threat.
Hisagi was certain Ishida was not feeling well since he never questioned the absurdity of his mission...
The next incident occurred two days later, officially his second day of staying in Karakura. He remembered coming into what Ishida called the living room and finding the man in question sitting on the couch with the TV remote in his hand. He had always found the strange box device interesting but he'd rarely had the chance to simply sit back and enjoy the seemingly magical qualities it possessed. It was a little hard for Hisagi to wrap his mind around the idea of radio waves and giant satellites orbiting around the Earth's atmosphere. He came from a much simpler background...Much simpler.
Anyhow, succumbing to his curiosity and boredom, since there were barely any Hollows worth noticing that night and those were being taken care of by Kurosaki and Renji, he flopped in the seat beside Ishida. The archer didn't say or do anything but Hisagi was aware of the sudden rigidness without having to turn and look. The program was a documentary on something involving history. Hisagi couldn't ascertain anything else. The place didn't look familiar to him, with its tall buildings constructed out of glass and reflecting the natural light of the sun. Two such massive towers suddenly burst into an explosive cloud of smoke and came tumbling down in a terrifying manner.
'Did this really happen?' Hisagi was openly horrified at the wide range of destruction caused by falling chunks of debris.
'Yes, unfortunately. You are looking at the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Centres in New York. A horrible tragedy...' Ishida's voice was barely a whisper and Hisagi detected the genuine sorrow in its tone. The sort of sorrow which accompanied a tragic even if caused to strangers by strangers.
'Who was responsible for something like this?' Hisagi's attention was glued to the crying and dying faces, to the grotesquely twisted corpses which were obviously dead.
'Al-Qaeda terrorists.' Hisagi understood the significance of the short answer. Ishida didn't want to add to it, to talk about such a grim topic.
Hisagi wondered why Uryu was even watching this. He reached for the remote and easily took it from Ishida's loose fingers. The other didn't object when the program changed to HBO and a stream of laughter filled the silence as if working to chase the gloom away. In all honesty, Hisagi had meant to close the TV altogether but he didn't know what to button to press...Yet this may have been a better option. Laughter was the best medicine after all...
Shuhei couldn't follow the comedy at all. He was more confused than amused but after a few minutes he noticed Ishida beginning to relax. A soft smile even crossed his lips from time to time, clearly catching the so called jokes thrown around by the lead actors, so Hisagi continued to sit there and follow the screen though his attention was focused on Ishida much more than the emphatic movements of the imaginary characters.
An idea began forming in his mind and he was eager to test out his theory. He subtly edged closer to Ishida who didn't notice. Hisagi moved a little more and the skin of his bare arms touched Ishida's and...well, the result was not quite what he'd expected. Uryu's smile dropped like a rock in water and a sudden look of panic took over. His rigidness was back just as if all the relaxation as a direct result from the comedic movie never took place. He turned to stare wide eyed at Hisagi and the Shinigami had a moment where he wondered if he'd done something unthinkably wrong. There seemed to be a sort of accusation in Ishida's eyes, but what were they accusing Hisagi of? That was the question...
'I-I have to do homework.' With that out of the blue realization, and quite frankly Hisagi suspected it to be a lie, Ishida shot up and was out of the room faster than one could say 'What the hell?...'
Hisagi finished his trip down memory lane and with it the rotation of the ice tea also came to a slow halt. There were other small things of course, beside those three major incidents. Like the way Ishida always got suddenly jumpy when he stepped over a certain imaginary line, probably invading his personal space, or the way he would blush whenever Hisagi's skin brushed against his, accidentally or on purpose. Hisagi had many questions buzzing inside his mind and though this trip was supposed to be some sort of unconventional holiday, he found the gears in his brain working overtime to figure out all those strange out of character reaction involving the younger human.
'Boy, and they call me dense...' Renji placed his empty glass beside the other three equally dry ones. He'd been ordering them while Hisagi continued recounting his tale, no doubt taking advantage of Kurosaki's hospitability. He was usually the source of Renji's finance when he came to the human world...
'What do you mean by that?' Hisagi automatically became defensive, not very pleased with the idea of being called dense. Especially by someone like Renji who wasn't exactly the brightest spark, despite his fiery hair colour.
'It's so obvious, how are you not seeing this?' Hisagi looked helplessly at the other lieutenant, silently asking for clarification. 'Ishida's in love with you.'
Hisagi wasn't sure if he should burst into laughter or reach forth and punch Renji. He blinked a few times, waiting patiently for the other Shinigami to say it was all a joke but that never happened. In fact, Renji looked quite pleased with himself and began moving the clear cubes of ice around the glass with a wide grin plastered on his face.
'Trust me, I know the signs.' Renji offered a lop-sided smile and for a moment Hisagi nearly took his word for it but then he remembered how utterly absurd the notion was.
That's what he got for seeking the advice of an idiot...
well it would be no fun if Hisagi realized the truth too soon no? But he's a smart man so it won't take him that long, trust me on this...he he. X3
Well, I hope you like it, and if u can, please please please leave a review. Thank you in advance.
HAVE A LOVELY DAY!