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"You must have been really busy with all this," Ikkaku said once Yumichika decided he would speak to the insensitive man again.

"Yes. And I know you told me to wait for you to bring my vanity over, but since you were taking so long, I thought you'd be tired."

"I'm still surprised to see the floor. I always thought it was a lighter wood, this is almost black."

Yumichika smiled brightly. "You know, if you would, this place would be easier to make clean if you bought me a broom, and some cleaning rags."

"You're setting yourself up for another maid joke."

"I just think dirty things are ugly. I don't want to live in an ugly place, or would you rather check the floor constantly for something that might cut your feet as you walk?"

"There you go again," Ikkaku rolled his eye. He had to buy a new shirt that looked close to his previous one so Yumichika wouldn't become worried about him, but now he wondered if that was the smart thing to do.

Training someone who had no experience wouldn't be the easiest thing, and if Yumichika hit it the injury during a sparring session, he'd be really upset with himself for hurting his teacher.

"You know, I think you're not as annoyed with me as you pretend to be, Ikkaku."

Ikkaku rolled his eyes, even though Yumichika was right. "Don't be an idiot. But, I want you to know I'm sorry about that fight we had earlier."

"That was a fight? Don't say things like that, I was only joking. I didn't mean to cause any hurt feelings."

"I said don't be an idiot, or are you deaf? Whose feelings do you think you hurt?"

"You know, you don't have to try so hard," Yumichika teased.

"What the hell are you going on about now?" Ikkaku said, starting to blush a little bit.

"Oh, nothing. It's not important. What would you like for me to make to eat?"

"So you're going to make a habit of this sort of thing?"

"Of course. I've already decided, I'll take care of cooking and cleaning since I don't mind doing those things, and that'll be how I earn my stay."

Ikkaku grinned, amused."You've decided, huh?"

Yumichika nodded. "Unless you'd rather me do something else."

"What are you implying?"

"Well, I don't know. I'm sure I'm good at something else," Yumichika said, and seemed to be thinking sincerely for a moment. He wasn't hinting towards the very thing that caused their little argument when Ikkaku was just getting ready to leave, but that's the first thing that came to Ikkaku's mind.

"Forget it, what you offered is more than enough."

The effeminate man smiled. He seemed to be perpetually happy, for some reason. Ikkaku guessed that he found being emotional as an ugly thing, but wasn't going to bother with asking.

"Do you have any tea that you like in particular. You have Jasmine, Green, and Camomile."

"Whatever, I have them all because I like each."

"Green tea it is then, it makes me even more beautiful. Did you know that it has that effect?"

"No," Ikkaku answered slowly.

"Don't you care about appearances as well?"

Ikkaku shook his head. His new roommate was one vain piece of work, but for some reason he found it sort of entertaining. "No, I don't."

"Then why are you trying to hide your injury on your shoulder from me?"

"How the hell did you-"

"Sorry, I shouldn't have put that so bluntly. What an ugly thing for me to do. But, you didn't bandage the wound too well, you took a bath to wash off the blood of your opponents, but when you came out since your wound hadn't completely closed, you still smelled like blood. I wasn't sure what that meant until I saw you try to lift all those bottles of alcohol that you brought and winced when you reached upwards with your left arm," Yumichika got up to fix the tea. "I really wish you would put more effort into things if you're going to keep secrets. Or at least don't act like I wouldn't notice such things. I'm beautiful, but not stupid."

Ikkaku looked the other way, a little embarrassed that he was so transparent. "I just didn't want to make you get all worried."

"You fight all the time, and nearly every time I saw you before we knew each other, I saw a new injury. Why would I think now is different than it was before?"

"I didn't know you even cared enough to notice."

"I didn't," Yumichika answered while he began to boil the water. "I thought you were ugly so I never took two glances at you before. But I didn't need to, I notice easily. I trained myself to notice things that are subtle so I wouldn't try and steal from someone who was rich enough to get me in serious trouble, or too poor to be worth the effort."

"Gee, thanks," Ikkaku mumbled.

"Want to know why I wanted to talk to you the day you forgot your katana?" Yumichika said suddenly, which Ikkaku figured was to quickly change subjects.

"What do you mean?"

"If I thought you were ugly then, I would've wanted to be rid of you as quickly as possible. But I invited you in and we talked well into the night, remember?"

Now that he thought about it, Ikkaku did remember. He went there with a sour attitude and wanted nothing more than to get his katana and get the hell away from the eccentric beauty. But Yumichika had been adamant and made him come in to talk. Before either of them knew it, Ikkaku was sitting down even though he had his sword and they were talking for hours on end.

"Well, then why did you want to talk to ugly me?"

"Because of your name. It's almost as beautiful as mine. And you were so interesting. I think you're beautiful now," Yumichika said. He seemed completely sincere, and Ikkaku thought it was one of the nicest things anyone had ever told him.

"Not as beautiful as you, though."

"Of course not. I'm the most beautiful one in all of the Soul Society."

Ikkaku laughed. "How are you so vain?"

"I'm not. I'm merely being honest. There is no one more beautiful than me."

"Was me sleeping on your bed what made you think I was interesting?"

"Actually, that incident in particular made me think you were drunk and horny."

Ikkaku blushed.

"But once you were gone, I thought you smelled nice. Like some kind of sweet spice. Beautiful."

Ikkaku blushed a deeper shade of red.

"I'm sorry, am I making you uncomfortable?"

"Yes."

"Well, just say so next time. And don't ask questions like that, because the answer may not be something you like." The water was boiling now and Yumichika was adding the tea. "What about you?"

"Hm?"

"Why did you go out of your way to help me? What did you think of me before we really met?"

"Well, I wanted to change my routine, really. I was dug into a boring rut. And I thought you hated me, and that you were a stuck up pretty boy."

Yumichika smiled softly, but Ikkaku thought he might have hit a nerve. He figured before his friend started to mope, he should apologize. "Listen I-"

"Tea's done!" The man said loudly to cut off Ikkaku. "Don't apologize for telling the truth. I said the truth about you. Besides, I don't make good first impressions, ever," he said and poured them both a cup of steaming hot tea.

"I still feel kind of bad."

"I just said that you shouldn't ask questions whose answers you wouldn't like. I'm not going to be a hypocrite, that would be ugly."

Ikkaku took a sip and smiled. He knew his smile never came out right, he always looked like some serial killer even if he tried to look friendly, but he attempted either way. "I thought you were beautiful."

"What?"

"I thought you were the most beautiful person in all of Rukongai. I guess that's not saying a whole lot, this place is nothing but a pit of criminals, really. But I used to think that if a place like this could have someone like you, then maybe it could produce more extraordinary things."

"What do you mean?"

"I wanted to give up for awhile, there isn't anyone important that came from here. No great names. I thought I was just going to be a petty thief picking fights with low lives for the rest of my life, but then I saw you. You had pride, which inspired me, and you're really different from anyone I've ever seen here."

Yumichika looked away with a small blush. "I'm sorry I don't have anything to say that's nearly as sweet as that."

"It's not a flattery contest."

"Why do you care about being strong?" Yumichika took a perfectly graceful sip from his cup, and Ikkaku thought for a minute that despite him being a thief, he carried himself like a noble.

"Well," Ikkaku began. Actually, he didn't know why he wanted to become strong for any other reason than the idea of being strong in and of itself.

"Maybe you are like me," Yumichika began happily.

"Hm?"

"It doesn't matter so much why, just that it's being done."

"What do you mean?"

"I love the idea of being beautiful, so I do everything beautifully, even if it's hard work and I don't always enjoy every aspect of it. I enjoy the overall journey. You enjoy the idea of being strong."

"I thought you said that comparing violence to beauty-"

"Is like comparing diamond to lead. But, which is which, and what is the difference besides the way someone sees either or. Diamond and lead both are made of carbon, and they both have uses in their own way."

"Aren't you the philosophical one?"

Yumichika laughed. "Of course."

Ikkaku wondered for awhile, and his friend picked up on the sudden quiet. He got up and started to prepare dinner.

"Care to share your thoughts, Ikkaku?"

"Where did you learn how to carry yourself life that?"

"Meaning?"

"You act like a rich noble and you're a thief. Not to mention you're pretty smart, too."

"Maybe I was rich or famous when I was alive, and I just brought those things along after my death." Yumichika smiled. "Or maybe the beautiful just know these things and the ugly emulate them. That may just be why proper etiquette was established in the first place."

Ikkaku laughed. "Yeah, and maybe fighting was developed by bald drunks, and that's why I'm so strong."

"Don't be silly! It was probably just one or the other, that's much to descriptive. I'm guessing drunkards developed fighting as a natural defense so they could act as rudely as they wanted and not get killed," Yumichika answered as he cut some of the vegetables. "Let's see. Do you like daikon?"

"Not raw."

"You can't taste it when it's cooked."

"Well, there's your answer then. But why couldn't bald people invented fighting?"

"Because they have natural defenses, at least on sunny days," Yumichika smirked. "All they have to do to deter an attacker is move their head in a certain way and blind those who threaten them."

After Ikkaku recovered from a fit of laughter, he tried to speak, although he occasionally was interrupted by laughing again. "You know, I never figured you to be much for jokes. I thought all people like you are serious and forgot how to laugh a long time ago."

"People like me?"

"People with enough pride for one-hundred nobles."

"Is that so?" Yumichika put all of the vegetables, along with a few cups of water, into the cooking pot and lit a fire. He began preparing some pork to add into the mixture.

"Absolutely. If you didn't dress in rags, just your attitude could pass you off as a noble."

"Hm. I'll have to try that some time, if I ever save up enough money for nice clothes, that is."

A uncomfortable silence formed, seeing as Ikkaku didn't know how to reply. For a moment it seemed Yumichika was bothered by the lack of talking between them, but that brief breaking of his happy and carefree demeanor was instantly covered up. The man quickly finished preparing the meat and put it into the pot, then proceeded to wash his hands.

"Yumichika?"

"Hm?"

"Do you think it's a little weird how we hardly know anything about each other?"

"I wouldn't think it was weird, except maybe how easy it is to be around you. I don't really remember when I was alive, but maybe we were friends there?"

Ikkaku shook his head. "I don't think so, we make a pretty strange pair."

"Why's that?"

"You're proper, I'm rude, you act like a noble, I act like a drunk-"

"That true." Yumichika tended to the food as he seemed to think for awhile. "Maybe you were the black sheep of a noble family, and I wished to be your friend because you would've been the interesting one to me at that time. Or maybe you were a servant and I thought you were funny." Yumichika decided to add playfully; "Or maybe you were as much as a pervert in life as you are now and you met me working as an escort."

Ikkaku's face blushed. "Do you always have to say things like that?"

"As long as you make it so much fun to."

Sighing in defeat, Ikkaku wondered how much longer until they ate. He wished that there weren't so many awkward moments between them, it made him feel like he had to tip toe on eggshells. At the same time, he enjoyed the spontaneous comebacks Yumichika seemed to have an endless supply of.

Yumichika laughed. "You know I'm only kidding."

"Of course, it's still weird."

"Well, us being friends is weird all by itself, isn't it?"

Ikkaku had at admit, that was a good point. "I guess so."

Yumichika fixed two plates of the meal he cooked up and put it on the table. "You know, I think it will be nice to train tomorrow. It's supposed to be cloudy, unlike today, so I won't be blinded."

"Ha, ha," Ikkaku said sarcastically.

"Is joking off limits?"

"If it was, you would have been kicked out a long time ago."

Yumichika laughed. They ate in silence, but after about fifteen minutes Yumichika noticed it was getting dark. "I'm going to go ahead and go to sleep. Goodnight Ikkaku."

"Fine, we're training for real tomorrow, got it?"

"Yeah, yeah," Yumichika said unenthusiastically. "As long as you don't go out on any errands. Maybe a leash will work?" Yumichika laughed a bit to show he was only kidding and laid down on the bed. He appeared to fall asleep only moments after laying down.

"How annoying," Ikkaku muttered under his breath. He was actually relieved that Yumichika slept so well, he was afraid of the, "I'm too good for this mattress, and I refuse to sleep under these conditions" kind of mentality. He walked over after he finished what little was left of his meal and squatted down beside the man.

Ikkaku, sure that Yumichika was sound asleep, leaned forward and squinted, as if that would reveal anything about his roommate. A good ten minutes passed before the raven haired man said calmly without even opening his eyes; "You're going to get wrinkles if you concentrate so hard on things."

He laid there for so long knowing I was looking at him? Bastard! Ikkaku's heart had stopped completely for at least five second.

"I know I'm beautiful," Yumichika said as he sat up. "But hasn't anyone ever told you watching people in their sleep is rather rude?"

"Why did you sit there for so long then?"

"I was trying to think of what you smelled like. It's ginger, I don't know why it took me so long to realize something so obvious. Oh, that and I do enjoy attention for periods of time."

Ikkaku blushed.

"Were you planning on watching me sleep regularly?"

"I," Ikkaku hesitated. He didn't actually have any defense or reason for watching Yumichika.

"If you have something you want to ask, you'll have a much better chance finding it out while I'm conscious."

"Whatever, I'm going to sleep."

"Why don't you just ask me what you want to know?"

"Sleeping now," Ikkaku answered irritably.

That definitely could have been handled in a more beautiful way, Yumichika thought with a sigh.

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Coffee=most delicious thing in the entire world.

I wish we had decaffeinated coffee here so I could drink it all day and not worry about not being able to sleep.

I I also wish that it wasn't seven o'clock at night so I could have some coffee now...

It's so yummy... It should be illegal for things to be so good! It's even better than ice cream! I feel like crying.