Izuru heaved a very heavy sigh, clicking on the radio, and hefted open his textbook. He put his finger on the first paragraph and began reading. With winter break on its way, all his teachers were assigning big end-of-the-term assignments, mostly consisting of giant reading assignments and papers to write. He pushed his bangs out of his eyes and focused more on the news playing from the radio than on his homework. It was the weather report, and the smooth voice of the announcer predicted snow. Lots of it. Which wasn't that unusual for early November in Hokkaido. Izuru huffed, and flicked his eyes to his blindingly bright window. Tiny flecks of frozen white drifted down from the clouds, and Izuru heard the front door slam as Shuuhei prepared to put chains on the tires of his car. The chains jangled loudly. Now distracted, Izuru threw his pencil down in the crease of the textbook and pushed away from his desk, shutting the radio off. He pulled on his jacket, zipping it up to his chin, and slung his bag over his shoulder, deciding he would go for a walk around the neighborhood. When he reached his front door, his fingers hovered momentarily above the shiny doorknob. But he dashed away his unnecessary momentary uncertainty and flung the door open.
He stepped into the bitter, brisk cold, and waved to Shuuhei as he scuffled down the driveway. Shuuhei waved back from where he was kneeling in the thin, thin layer of snow beside a car wheel. Izuru hung a right and strolled down the sidewalk. The snow began to fall steadily, and Izuru could see his breath fogging in front of him. He heard laughter, and watched a family of four saunter down the other side of the road. He recognized the only son to be a student at the university he attended, the one with bright orange hair. Those other people must be his father and sisters, Izuru thought, noticing how the orange haired one looked very much like his dark haired, bearded father. The two young girls Izuru assumed to be the sisters were very different in both appearance and demeanor. Wondering where the mother might be, Izuru directed his gaze at the powdery ground, allowing the family to pass.
Walking another two blocks, Izuru eventually came to the neighborhood park. The metal structure was dusted with snow, and there were two small children ducking in and out of the frosty jungle gym, laughing hysterically, followed closely by a man with white hair. Izuru found himself a place on a bench, and watched the happy trio playing. The two small boys, who looked to be no older than four or five, both had silvery white hair pulled back into stubby little pony tails. Their light green eyes were bright with joy as the older man with them played tag with them to the best of his ability. The man had white hair much like the small twins, pulled into a long pony tail, and warm brown eyes. Every so often, though, the man would double over to catch his breath, air rasping heavily in his lungs. The small boys would knit their brows in concern and come over to him, tugging on his sleeves to make sure he was okay. The man would always look up with a wide smile and ruffle the boys' hair, and their game of tag would resume. Izuru watched this routine passively until the white haired man slowed from his jog, and doubled over, coughing. The boys came to tug on his sleeves, urging him to be okay. The man shook his head, his coughs wracking his body. It was obvious he wasn't okay at the moment. Izuru stood up, concerned, and went to put his hand on the man's shoulder.
"Are you okay, sir?" He asked.
"I'll... be fine." The man said between coughs.
You don't sound fine. Izuru thought. "Come on, let's go sit down." Izuru led the man to the bench where he had been sitting. The twin boys followed close behind, their hands tightly clasped. Izuru pulled a bottle of water from his bag, and handed it to the man, who gratefully accepted it and took a dainty sip.
"Thank you, my boy." Izuru was handed back his water bottle. "I'm Ukitake Juushirou." Ukitake Juushirou held out a hand for Izuru to shake. Izuru shook his hand, and getting a good look at his face, recognized him as one of the flight attendants that was on the plane he and Gin had taken down to Tokyo.
"Kira Izuru." He said with a weak smile. "Are you sure you'll be fine?" Izuru insisted, patting Ukitake's shoulder. "Aren't you a flight attendant? I remember you were on a flight I took in early September."
The twin boys each hugged one of Ukitake's knees. "Oh, I was. I quit last month, though, for health reasons. I also thought it would be nice to go back to school and settle down, maybe become a substitute teacher." He said with a smile and a laugh.
"That sounds nice."
"It is. Especially because I get to spend more time with my nephews." Ukitake put a hand on each of the silver haired twin boys' heads.
"They have such an unusual hair color. Is it natural or dyed?" Izuru's mind wandered to Gin, and his coin-bright silvery hair.
"I guess you could say it's natural. It didn't used to be white. They used to have such dark black hair." Ukitake sighed.
"What happened?" Izuru asked, now curious.
"They got sick. Tuberculosis. When they were little a really bad attack turned their hair white. My sister thinks they might have caught the tuberculosis from me, but mine isn't active, so it's not contagious."
"That's really too bad." Izuru sighed.
"I guess it is. The same thing happened to me, though. I'm not as old as I look!" Ukitake laughed again.
"Oji-san, it's cold." One of the twins whined.
"Oji-san, Okaa-chan said we hafta be home soon." The other one added.
"All right, then. I suppose we should go." Ukitake stood up and took the boys' hands. "Thank you for your kindness, Kira-kun." He said with a bow that the twin children mimicked. "I suppose we'll see you around!" Ukitake led the boys away across the white park.
Izuru pulled one corner of his mouth back in a half smile, and put his water bottle back in his bag.
Izuru rubbed his hands together, finding it was colder outside than he had anticipated. He was beginning to wish he's grabbed a warmer jacket, and maybe some mittens. And long johns. Shaking in his shoes from the frigid weather, he jumped nearly a foot in the air when a car honked its horn behind him. A lustrous silver convertible slowed to a crawl beside Izuru, and the mirror-like window rolled down to reveal a smiling silver face to match the car. Izuru grimaced. "Cold?" Gin asked. Izuru shot him a glance that said something along the lines of: 'Yes, you fool. I'm cold. Thanks for pointing it out, now do something about it, jerk.'. The window began to roll up. "Hop in."
The car was so warm. Izuru slammed the door behind himself as quickly as he could, and reveled in the warmth of the modern inside of Aizen's car that still smelled brand-new. Gin twisted around in the passenger seat and smiled broadly at Izuru. "Kira-kira like the snow!"^ He laughed, and Aizen smirked. Izuru scowled and buckled his seat belt.
"I don't glitter." He harrumphed.
"Sourpuss." Gin tittered, snatching Izuru's hand and pressing a kiss to the pads of Izuru's nearly hypothermic fingers. Gin's chilly lips did nothing to warm them. Izuru balled his hands into fists and stuck them under his knees. He opened his mouth to say something when they passed by his house, but shut it when he realized they were heading towards Aizen's condominium as they turned left and headed more into town. Aizen always had the best loose-leaf lychee tea. Just the thought of it warmed Izuru's insides, and he smiled faintly.
They pulled up to Aizen's steel-gray townhouse, and they all clambered out of the car and into the welcoming, warm inside. Aizen was the last inside, pulling the door shut behind himself. "Who wants lychee tea?" He asked, clapping his hands together.
"I do!" Izuru chimed, toeing off his snow-drenched canvas sneakers in the tiny genkan. Gin flopped down on the step to pull off his dark red galoshes, revealing out-of-character Domo-kun ankle socks. Izuru kind of coveted them. They lined up their shoes on a rack, and stepped onto the familiar light blond hardwood floor. They both followed Aizen into the kitchen, where he filled a kettle with water and set it on to boil. They all sat down at the kitchen table, and said nothing. Gin slid down so that he was slouching so low his chin was level with the edge of the table, and Izuru folded his arms on the tabletop and rest his forehead on his wrists.
"Do you still need help packing, Gin?" Aizen asked, and the kettle began to whistle from the stove. He stood up to pour the water into a tea pot, and spooned a generous amount out the loose leaf, fruity-scented tea into the shiny, orbicular tea infuser. He dunked it into the tea pot and shut the lid, bringing it to the table along with three tall white mugs.
"Nah, I'm good. There are jus' a few more things I need ta box up." Gin sat up a little straighter.
"You're moving?" Izuru took his head off his arms and stared at Gin. "Why didn't you tell me?" He accepted the mug of steaming tea from Aizen.
"But I'm not. I'm jus' packing things up so that if I do hafta leave in a hurry, it's easy ta do so. I'm 'spectin' ta get evicted soon, since Dad's been dead for a couple months now." Gin sipped his own lychee tea with one eyebrow raised.
"Oh. Okay. You can always stay at my place, you know. There's a little space I can spare in my bed." Izuru clutched the burning mug with still cold hands.
Gin shook his head. "I wouldn't want ta intrude on Shuuhei-san."
Izuru shrugged. "I guess that makes sense."
"Cream or sugar?" Aizen interjected, returning the tin of tea to its place in the cabinet.
"No thank you." Izuru shook his head, and blew away the steam rising off the surface of the red-brown hot leaf juice.
"Gin?" Aizen inquired of the silver-haired one. Gin noisily slurped from his mug, making known that he was just fine without cream or sugar. Aizen smirked and sat back down. "Are you going to ask Kira-kun?"
"Oh yeah." Gin set down his lychee tea. "Day b'fore yesterday I found my old friend Grimmjow's phone number while I was boxin' things up. He lives in Yokohama now, but I was surprised he still had the same cell phone after all these years. I called him up, and I arranged ta go visit them fer the holidays, an' I was wondering if ya'd like ta accompany me."
"I'd love to!" Izuru exclaimed, taking a sip of the tea. It instantly warmed his insides, just as he had anticipated and yearned for when they were in the car.
"Great! So you'll come with me?" Gin's face-breaking smile fanned out across his face, touching each of his ear lobes.
"Of course. When are you planning to leave?"
AN
^ Kira-kira is a Japanese onomatopoeia meaning "glitters/sparkly". I used it because it a pun on Kira's name. Get it? Kira. Kira-kira. Ha! It's a knee slapper, innit? XD
Anyway, here is the next installment of "The Grounds Keeper's Son". Sorry it's kind of filler-ish, but I'm building up to something, I swear! I had to speed things up, so...
sfj