Chapter 9
The last of the hollow had been sent to the other world by way of zampactoh. Aoi headed back to the office, sighing. This was the first day she'd missed the action. She heard that Kempachi beat up two Fukutaicho and one Taicho to make sure his squad got all of them. She sighed, as she walked through the door. "I heard Kempachi killed all the hollow himself."
"I heard he beat up two Fukutaicho and one Taicho to make sure his squad could get through to them." Kira shook his head. "He'd never clear the way for others to fight, and not join in himself." He kept his eyes on a paper he held in his hands, unnerving Aoi. She walked over to the table and sat down. "Is there anything left for me to do here?"
"Headed out with Matsumoto again?" Aoi looked down, shaking her head. "No, I wanted to be here today." Kira nodded, looking carefully at the paper.
"Is that a Haiku from you?" He lowered the top of the paper, finding her eyes on a spot on the other side of the paper. He held it to his chest, looking before raising it back over his face. "It is."
"It's interesting. What's up with the persimmons, if I can ask?" He looked at her again, only his eyes showing over the paper. "I don't like persimmons. Do you?" She shrugged. "I don't know, I've never had one." He nodded. "That's unusual." She looked at him, surprised. "It is?"
"Yep." He looked back down at the paper.
"Why do you dislike me so?" Kira felt a lump in his throat as he lowered the paper, looking at her through wide eyes, hidden by his hair. "Excuse me?" He didn't think he'd heard her right.
"Whatever I did to offend you, I'm sorry. I won't go against your thoughts on the defense of the city again."
"That's your job. I was out of line." His voice softened as he looked at her, sitting still with a set frown. "I still don't know about all of this. I should have trusted your experience. I didn't mean to anger you at me. Please, whatever I've done, let me know." She looked down, nervously playing with her fingers. "I'm trying to be a good Taicho." She remembered the conversation between Matsumoto, Hitsugaya and herself earlier. "Kira, I'm trying to open up to everyone. I've found I actually like when the guys here flirt with me. I didn't have it at home, and it surprised me here. I know that the reason I like the shinigami to flirt with me is because you always look." His eyes widened. "I want to be a good Taicho. I tried to show off, to add my own worth to the mission. I want to be a captain you can be proud of." He sighed. Back to work.
"I want you to look at me again like you did this morning." That wasn't work related. He looked over the paper, his mouth falling into an 'o' as he listened. The paper was still high enough to hide it, but he was totally captivated by her words. "When you sent me to Unohana this morning to get checked for lead poisoning I told her the reason right then. Your breath on my arm gave me the goose bumps. When you noticed it I blushed. I went and asked Matsumoto what to do. Hitsugaya asked me a question."
"What was that?" Kira's eyes were still wide, he felt his heart pounding in his throat.
She was scared to death. Why was she saying this? What was wrong with her mouth that these words kept coming out, even though she could see the paper still covered his face. She was nearly gasping for breath by now, shaking so badly that she couldn't even fidget with her fingers anymore.
"Long ago someone deeply hurt me. You reminded me so much of him, but I couldn't think of you like him. He asked me what was more prominent, the want to run from you and the memories you bring, or the want to stay by your side, to keep you by mine." Kira's paper lowered , his hand moving on it's own, showing her the look of surprise and hope in his eyes.
"Izuru," He felt a shiver going up his back as she said his name, "It seems that ever since I came here everything I did was to gain your attention. I wanted, I want you to notice me." She clenched, her eyes, hands, arms, all of her clenched up and was terrified of whatever the response was.
She felt his hand on her arm and looked up, afraid of a backlash. His eyes were wider than she'd seen them. There was a blush across his cheeks and she looked down at his hand, laying softly against her lower arm. "I've been fighting with all my power to keep from kissing you. Every time you look at me I nearly scream, it's been so frustrating being so close to you but still so far. It seems like every time I try to get close to you I do something and you pull away." She stared at him, his confession the same as hers. "What?" Her voice was but a whisper and he smiled as he nodded.
"It's been driving me insane. Aoi-Taicho, you have the ability to madden me without even trying. I never thought I'd welcome seeing another Taicho in the mornings, but I can barely sleep knowing I'll get to see you the next day. Last night was blissful to me, I was so worried that you'd wake and feel that me being there was regrettable." She shook her head, her smile returning, tears in the corners of her eyes. "I tried to make something I thought you might like. I don't usually cook for others, I don't like their judging, but I wanted you to enjoy it. I wanted you to be happy with me in the morning."
Kira smiled, chuckling as he shook his head. "I'm glad you told me about this. I don't know if I could have stood another day of it." She blushed brighter as his hand held tighter onto her arm. "Aoi, Please, from this day accept me?" He looked at her, wondering what was going through her head as she stared. "I don't know if I'm ready for that kind of thing yet!" She finally gasped, causing Kira to realize she'd taken it wrong. "No! Aoi, I'm asking you out! I'm not-"
"Heh..." Her laugh was as nervous as could be. "That, Izuru, I'll accept." She smiled at him, catching a tear as it left her eye. He reached up to the other eye, wiping the tear away just as it left her eye. "It looks like I drove you nearly as mad as you did me." She nodded, unable to peel the grin from her lip.
By four all of the work was done. No more reports were coming in, they had most of the mission returns from the day completed, the only ones left were the ones that hadn't been returned yet. Kira looked at her as he slid the last report onto the stack and sighed. "Do you want to accompany me into town? I have a few things do to there." Aoi turned and nodded. "I'd love to." She smiled. From her tone Kira could tell that the massive amounts of work from the day wore on her. She stood and stretched, sighing before walking over by the door to wait for him to be ready.
They walked through town, Kira and her asking each other random questions. "What's your favorite color?" He asked her and she looked up with a grin. "Blue, of course. What's yours?"
He thought for a moment before responding. "I like blue, but I'm even between it, red and black." Aoi nodded, sipping a strawberry milk tea. The straw kept swirling around in her mouth and Kira couldn't help but wonder why out of all of the facial changes she had her mouth was always her biggest change. Her eyes were the most expressive, but she was always changing the way her mouth worked. "How long did you have to practice to graduate from the school?" Kira looked down to see her think. "I got into Seireitei and started school the next day. That was nearly three weeks ago." Kira froze. She went through the whole of the schooling in two weeks? They didn't allow that back when he was in unless they had a bankai. "Do you have a bankai?" She smiled at him, shaking her head. "My turn!" He smiled at her, forgetting about the rules. Each asked one question, then the other. "Alright, what do you want to know?"
"When did you last write?" He looked at her, confused. "What?"
"You wrote Haiku, it was on the news paper you were reading earlier, remember? I can tell that you've been busy, and seeing as you've just gotten back to having a Taicho, I was wondering when was the last time you were able to write?" Kira frowned. "I don't even remember. It's been a while." She nodded, sighing. "If you want to, I can give you a break if you feel inspiration hit." She grinned at him, her tea cradled softly in her hands, the straw never leaving her lip.
"Okay, so, On to my question. Aoi, is Senbon Ai your bankai?" She looked at him wide eyed. "No, how did you know I had a bankai?"
"You went through the school in two weeks. They only do that in certain situations. First, there's a shortage of Taicho and they've found someone who has a bankai and can pass the classes on one or two days per class, or if there's a catastrophic problem and there's a need to replenish the shinigami." Aoi nodded. "I kind of figured it wasn't, that your shikai had two moves. That's interesting." She looked up and stopped swirling the straw. "Is it that unusual?"
"Two part shikai, never tried a persimmon, you're a very interesting person." He smiled at her and she grinned, the straw bitten between her back teeth. "Oh!" She grinned wider, pointing to a stall at the corner. She grabbed his arm and sped up, causing a laugh from the blond as he realized where they were going. He didn't even notice the one they passed on the way. "Dango?! Seriously? How do you not gain any weight with all the sweets you eat?" She laughed and shook her head. "You already asked your question!" She turned and they laughed as they went under the curtain.
Renji watched wide eyed at the closeness the two now had. Something had happened. Byakuya-Taicho wasn't going to be happy about this. Renji groaned as he thought about how the Taicho would respond, probably running them through exercises till they dropped. He would have to fix this. He would have to do something...
He ran off towards the tower as quickly as possible.
Aoi and Kira walked through his door about nine that evening. She looked around, realizing she'd not been in his quarters. It was very traditionally decorated. Lots of bamboo and straw were used. She looked at one of the wall scrolls and smiled. "This is beautiful!" It was a painting of Kira with his sword at the ready. She looked at the name and frowned. "Who's Gin?"
Kira froze and turned to the scroll. He looked at it and frowned, walking over and slowly taking it from the wall. He turned and walked to the kitchen, laying the scroll on the table. He put away the groceries they'd bought and turned taking the scroll and took her arm carefully, leading her from the room.
She was curious as to what was going on as they neared the arena, as he looked confused and sad, and hadn't said a word. They lowered and he laid the scroll out in the center of the arena, reaching into his vest and pulled out a letter, laying it on the scroll. "The scroll was painted by Ichimaru Gin, who was my Taicho. The letter here is a note, one left behind after Amagai Taicho died. He'd asked my forgiveness. He knew, even before he started his attack that I would be troubled by his actions. He was a good man, save his hatred for Yamamoto-Taicho." He reached out and sighed as a small ball of kidou erupted from his hand, hitting the note and scroll, burning the two to ashes.
"I promise you this. I will follow you to hell and back, no matter what. Don't betray me. Don't betray me and don't die on me. I can't handle it anymore." He turned and walked away, leaving her there to think about what he'd just said.
She frowned as the light from the fire died. She didn't want to hurt him, but it seemed that he kept so many of these tremendous memories around that it was impossible for her to avoid it.
He told her not to betray him. He didn't say the squad, he didn't say Seireitei, just him. She knelt down and sighed, burning a corner of the note that had escaped the fire. She froze as she looked at it, standing and backing away. She heard a voice behind her and turned.
"He can be so over-emotional sometimes. It's best to ignore it."
"Him..." She turned to Renji and shook her head. He noticed the look on her face and panicked. "Hey, what's that look for? I'm not here to do anything improper." She gasped, finally able to draw breath, not realizing she hadn't taken any in. "It was him?! How! This..." She ran her hands to her hair and shook her head.
"Izuru, I need you." Renji frowned. Something was going on that he didn't know about. He walked over to her. "Hey, do you want me to get you back to the-" She screamed as his hand touched her shoulder, shaking her head and she reached out, quickly snapping his wrist.
She darted away, leaving Renji there staring after her. What in the hell was that?! He cradled his hand and frowned. It was only a second later that Kira showed up. "Renji?! What are you-"
"Crazy bitch broke my wrist and took off! I was just asking if she wanted help, and who in the hell is Izur-" He turned and remembered. "Oh."
Kira's eyes widened. He looked over and sighed. "Renji-Fukutaicho, I apologize." He took off after her.
Renji frowned. He would go to Unohana and get his wrist fixed, then he'd be going to report to Byakuya-Taicho. This was odd.
He'd been running, looking for any trace of her reiatsu, but couldn't. He'd gone and had the tower put up a light to get her to come in after an hour. "Something's happened. She aparently broke Abarai's wrist. I've been searching for her, but I can't find her."
The guard nodded and walked over, putting in her lamp. Kira slumped to the floor and sighed. "Go home." The guard spoke softly and Kira looked up. "I can't. I have to find her. I can't rest till I do."
"Go home and sleep. You're tired, therefore running and thinking slower. You'll have better luck finding her if you're well rested. If she shows up, I'll send her to you, alright?" Kira sighed. He had a point. "Alright." The guard smirked as soon as Kira's back was to him. It was easy to get him to listen, just use a little logic. Even if the logic is flawed, half of the time Kira would listen.
Kira walked back to his house and walked in, sighing. He closed the door behind himself, sighing and heard a sound. He looked up, seeing Aoi in the corner, curled up in a ball. He nearly ran over, grasping her shoulder.
She jumped up, looked at him for a moment before gasping in air, throwing her arms around him. "Izuru!" She sobbed and he just stood still. "I'm sorry if you thought I was mad at you. I didn't want you all upset!"
"Makoto!" She gasped into his haori, pressing herself to him. You knew Makoto!" Kira froze. "Kifune?"
She sobbed and nodded, her body racking with every attempt for breath. "I killed him." He was curious at this and she looked up, eyes wide. "You killed-" He nodded and she pulled him close again.
"Thank you! Thank you so much, Izuru!" He looked down at her with surprise. The one that had betrayed her. "What did he do to you?"
"He grew up with me. He was my only real friend. He left and came to join the shinigami. I didn't see him for years! I'd given up on him coming back to me when he finally showed back up about three years ago. I was so happy he was back!" She sobbed, shaking her head. "I can't believe... I couldn't believe he would... that' he'd..."
Kira wrapped his arms around her. It was still too painful for her. "If you're still not comfortable, you don't have to."
"He beat me up. I lost consciousness and when I woke up..." She shook like a leaf, remembering and it dawned on him. "Oh." Kira pulled her in tighter, placing his hand on the nape of her neck. "He raped you, didn't he?"
"It's like it wasn't him! That's the reason I can be so anti-social, I'm scared to let people get too close to me, to let my guard down because someone that you've known for nearly two thousand years can do that..." She sobbed and Kira nodded.
"Don't worry about that anymore. He's paid for his crimes with his life, and I promise you this, if anyone here tries that, just call for me. I'll come save you, no matter what." She nodded but didn't loosen her grip on him. He sighed and picked her up, taking her to his room. He set her down on the futon before turning and leaving the room. He came back a few minutes later with one of her kimono and ran his fingers over her eyes, causing them to close. "Just trust me." She nodded as he reached back, untying the obi. She was suddenly terrified at his closeness.
He softly pulled the Taicho's haori from her shoulders and reached down, untying her hakama. She gasped and he stopped, again pulling her in for a light embrace. "Please trust me." She steadied herself before nodding again. He finished the untying and undid the straps on her uniform's top, causing her to blush, feeling more ashamed than embarrassed. He pulled the sleeves from her shoulders and turned her, laying her down on the futon. Tears kept streaming from her eyes, the embarrassment and terror kept mounting as he reached down, taking her shoes from her.
This struck a little familiar. He'd done this one day before, not realizing she'd been sober. Izuru.
This was Izuru. He wouldn't. She sighed as he reached up, sliding her hakama from her. She gasped, again terrified by his touch as she laid there, naked before him. She could feel his eyes on her and it took all of her power not to cover herself. His hands touched next at her shoulders. He sat her back up and she felt the soft material of the kimono slide up her arms. He slowly brought the front of the kimono around, covering her and she finally let out her breath. He laid her back down and rolled her softly to her side then back, covering her the rest of the way. He tied the sash at her waist and she was finally able to stop crying. She sighed as he nuzzled down beside her. "You can open your eyes if you want to now." She opened her eyes and looked at him, laying beside her, wearing a silk pair of black shorts. He reached over and brought his blanket across them, laying his arm across her stomach.
"Thank you." He spoke softly by her ear and she looked up at him. "Knowing what had happened to you, knowing fully what was going on, you let me do that. You exposed yourself completely to me today, both physically and mentally. I was wondering who had betrayed you, how they'd done it, but now I know. You let me in, and you trusted me when I asked you to."
She felt her eyes lower slightly, the tiredness from the day wearing greatly on her. "I told you this morning, whenever you needed me to, I'd be here for you. I think you need that now, more than you did then." She closed her eyes and sighed, feeling him surround her. His hand reached up and lightly caressed her cheek, her head turned lightly to him and he reached down, kissing her softly.
She gasped, her eyes shot open as she looked at him, now feeling totally awake. He smiled at her and laid his head down closing his eyes. He laid there for a moment, but knew she was still staring at him. He looked down through one half open eye. "Is everything alright?"
She nodded, her hand gently raised, covering her lip. The thought dawned on him and his other eye opened. "Aoi, that was your first kiss, wasn't it?"
She looked down, pulling her hand from her mouth and looked at it as she nodded. He smiled at her, the innocence that she had. He laughed lightly as she looked back over to him, enjoying the look on her face. She was surprised, but he could tell that she was happy.
"Sleep." He groaned, faking misery. She reached up, her hands on his shoulders and he opened his eyes, curious as she looked him in the eye.
She leaned forwards, kissing him, her lips softer than he'd thought. He reached up and laid his hand on her back, she relaxed a little, her hands tightening on his shoulders.
She was so confused! She wanted more of this! She wanted more of him, but just a second ago she'd been terrified by the thought of being naked before him.
Kira was doing everything in his power to keep from deepening this sweet kiss. He felt his stomach twist at her touch, the way her hands slid down his chest.
He leaned back into the pillow and gasped for air. His eyes widened at her, the look on her face. She was more shocked by her own kiss than his. "Aoi, I don't have the willpower for this right now." He tried to keep his look calm, and smiled at her apologetically. She nodded and laid down, her cheek against his chest. "Izuru?"
"Hn?" He looked at her, unable to hide his smile.
"Thank you." She nuzzled into him and smiled, closing her eyes.