Author's Note: I do not own Bleach or its characters. This is AU.
In the Dark
Uryuu ordered a large café latte for himself and a large cinnamon dolce crème for Orihime. He had taken to picking up coffee and snacks before he went over to Orihime's apartment to work on their project. They had tried meeting at coffee shops and other public places to work on it, but they would constantly be interrupted. Once men figured out that he and Orihime were doing school work, they would come over and try to flirt with her. Orihime was too kind to just get rid of them, though she admitted they were kind of annoying and distracting. It was easier to meet in the privacy of her apartment. They would have met at his, but he had a roommate, and she didn't.
Once he had their drinks, it didn't take him long to reach Orihime's apartment building. It was conveniently just off campus near both a grocery store and several restaurants and coffee shops. Orihime buzzed him into the building, and it was a familiar hike up the stairs to her third floor apartment. Orihime met him at her apartment door with a smile; they were almost done with the first part of the assignment.
"I've got the books and everything set up on the table." Orihime took her drink. "I also have my art desk set up if we get to working on the preliminary sketches tonight."
They settled down to work, flagging examples in the books they had. In the end it turned out to be fairly easy to decide on costumes. The police men were the easiest as they could just use the tradition costume of a British Bobbie. For the pirates, they had gone with an image that matched the recent modern interpretations of pirates from movies. It was the Major-General and his daughters that had given the most trouble costume wise. The two of them had finally decided to model the Major-General's costume off of period military uniforms. For the girls, however, they had settled upon regency period costumes, like the ones found in Jane Austen movies. These were a little simpler style wise, but still fit the image of the play.
With those decisions made, the next step was to get the concept sketches made. This was easier said then done. Ishida flipped through yet another book of period costumes, looking for the details they needed. While they could make some of it up because they had decided on using historical models, there had to be a certain level of accuracy. Orihime sighed.
"Let's come back to the girls' costumes later. We can at least get the pirates and the police officers costume sketches done tonight."
Uryuu nodded, and they moved over to the art desk. Orihime was doing the actual drawing, but she had insisted he stick around and give her guidance. She hadn't actually ever drawn costumes that were going to be made before and wasn't sure what details needed to be included. They started with the police since there was only the regular police uniform and the sergeant's uniform to do. Orihime made carefully detailed sketches with using several charcoal pencils while he pointed out the details that would be important to someone actually making the costume. Once the black and white sketches were done, Orihime pulled out colored pencils, and the debates on which shades to use ensued. They repeated this process with every single costume that needed to be sketched out.
They had just finished with the last of the pirates when Orihime yawned. Uryuu checked his watch. It was nearly one in the morning. Orihime blinked sleepily at him.
"Do you want to crash on the couch? The buses will have stopped running, and it's a long walk home for you."
"Thanks."
