my lovely sister, dandelion-heart, and I were discussing the newest chapter of Bleach when the idea for this scenario struck me. not sure when this is meant to take place... perhaps during the timeskip? at any rate, it was getting a bit lengthy and so I split it into two parts; the latter half will be uploaded soon!
enjoy!
"No, it's not like that."
Her fingers splay for a moment before distractedly pushing back a lock of hair. Someone giggles something and there are loud, feminine gasps. The many pleated skirts around her swish frenziedly.
He can hear the nervous laugh bubbling behind her teeth before it is quickly swallowed by their words. She shifts slightly and the faceless girls move with her; he is suddenly reminded of a buoy out at sea: bright and distant and alone.
He wills himself to study the spiraling grains of wood on his desk.
"I'm sure that's not the case," she is insisting gently.
He can imagine her clasped hands and wrinkled brow. In spite of this, he knows she is trying to smile. His eyes narrow.
One of the voices ripples through. "But what if he asked you? What would you do?"
He is acutely aware that her breathing and his heartbeat have somehow swelled in volume to pulse in his ears. Slowly, he looks back.
Her pale cheek is flushed with rosy color and the classroom is suddenly three times larger with three times less air.
He can hear them flinch when his chair scrapes harshly against the floor, but he doesn't bother glancing back. The halls and classrooms streak into a blurred mass in his peripheral vision, and he has the irrational need to get out, outside, away, away from their chatter and her blushing face and his clenching fists-
"Kurosaki." He stops abruptly, shoulders tensing. There is a pause, then Ishida continues. "You'll be late for homeroom-"
"What do you want with her?"
The question is sharper than he expected. So is the answer.
"…What has that got to do with you?"
review?