'Twas the Friday Before Christmas…
Ulquiorra sighed as he watched Grimmjow running around the dining room with his new hockey jersey on rather than his uniform, claiming for the third time this week that he'd simply 'forgot' his uniform. It was the last Friday before Christmas, though, so the cuarto decided to let it slide rather than insist he go home and find his employee shirt.
The pads underneath the jersey and the hockey stick were a different story, though.
Ulquiorra was thankful that no customers had shown up yet to see Grimmjow running about the dining room using two sausage patties that were frozen together as a puck, batting them across the filthy floor as he practiced his 'skills' in preparation for a sports career that could never be. The number four thought that if left unsupervised, Grimmjow would flood the dining room and let the floor freeze so that he could have his own little skating rink to practice on.
"Hey, stop screwing around, Grimmjow; Starrk's got a customer at the window and I need that crap," called Tyn, and Ulquiorra stepped to the side as the sexta gave the patties a good, hard smack that sent them flying across the dining room, over the counter, and into the kitchen where Tyn neatly plucked them out of the air and separated them before dropping them onto the grill.
"I'll try the chicken next; need to work on my slap shot," said Grimmjow, heading for the freezer as Ulquiorra moved to intercept him.
"You have played around enough today, Grimmjow; mop the floors and clean the windows, and you may have your stick back at break time," he ordered, snatching the fiberglass stick away from the other Espada.
At least he has not attempted to murder Kurosaki yet, thought Ulquiorra as he deposited the stick into the manager's office, tuning out the sound of the sexta's grumbled cursing and instead reflecting on how enraged Grimmjow had been Monday morning as he relayed the story of his bathroom to the others.
He'd very nearly lost all reason and popped his soul candy after both Tyn and Starrk collapsed to the floor laughing at him.
Still, by some miracle, Ulquiorra had managed to keep the perpetually-angry number six from losing his oh-so-short temper and doing anything too irrational. He supposed that Orihime would call it a 'Holiday Miracle' that was brought about by the 'magic' of Christmas, but Ulquiorra didn't subscribe to the traditional idea of magic that humans seemed so fond of believing in. Christmas was just another day, after all; nothing special or unique about it.
Kurosaki had called him 'Scrooge' for expressing his thoughts on the entire holiday and the ridiculous notions of peace on Earth and good will towards men.
Preposterous; Scrooge most certainly would not have cared to stand between Grimmjow and his revenge.
He was mildly amused that Grimmjow had yet to figure out how Kurosaki had managed to find his apartment in the first place, or how one person could have carried so many bags of litter. He'd briefly considered admitting his part in things to the sexta purely to see the look on his face, but had decided against it when he thought about the carnage that would ensue.
There was no doubt that Ulquiorra could defeat Grimmjow easily, but the issue was that Burger World would not survive the conflict. Truthfully, the surrounding city blocks around Burger World probably would not survive, either.
Of course, there was also the issue of exposing their continued existence to the Seireitei…
Pushing all thoughts of Grimmjow from his mind, Ulquiorra returned to the front just in time to see the front door open and a small herd of customers come in, customers that he quickly recognized as Lilynette, Karin Kurosaki, and their little troupe of friends.
"Should not you be in school?" asked Ulquiorra, raising an eyebrow in question as he looked down at Lilynette. If she was skipping school, Starrk was likely to forcibly drag her back and turn her in to the principal himself, and if he didn't…well, Ulquiorra wouldn't mind getting out of the restaurant for a little while.
"Nope!" chirped Lilynette cheerfully. "School is out until after the New Year for Christmas break! We thought we'd come by and cheer everyone up with some Christmas carols for a little while."
"We do not need 'cheering up' today," said Ulquiorra flatly, his ears already aching at the mere prospect of listening to a group of children singing off-key. "Perhaps Urahara could benefit from your services more…"
"Just one song!" pleaded Lilynette. "One song, and we'll go. I promise you'll love it!"
"What are you doing?" asked Starrk suspiciously, removing his headset as he came over from his window. "I know you, Lilynette; you're definitely up to something."
"Let 'em sing and be done with it…" growled Tyn from the kitchen. "The sooner they get it over with, the sooner they can go pester Urahara or someone else."
"Very well…" sighed Ulquiorra in defeat. "One song, and then you go."
The children all grinned, each displaying a decidedly wicked-looking grin considering their cover story of wanting to sing cheerful Christmas carols, and the adults all looked at each other nervously as they wondered what they were in for.
"Grimmjow got ran over by a reindeer,
Walking home from Burger World Christmas Eve!
You can say there's no such thing as Santa,
But as for me and Starrk, we believe!
He'd been drinking too much milk,
And we begged him not to go!
But he was doped up on catnip,
So he staggered out into the snow!
When we found him Christmas mornin',
At the scene of the attack,
He had hoof prints on his forehead,
And Claus marks on his back!
Grimmjow got ran over by a reindeer,
Walking home from Burger World Christmas Eve!
You can say there's no such thing as Santa,
But as for me and Ulquiorra, we believe!
Now we're all so proud of uncle Tyn,
He's been taking this so well!
See him in there watchin' TV,
Drinkin' beer and playin' cards with aunt Halibel!
It's not Christmas without Grimmjow;
All the Espada dressed in black!
It's a good thing we never bought him any gifts,
'Cause we'd have to send them back!"
Starrk and Tyn were both on the floor again, laughing hysterically as a customer at the drive-through could be heard yelling through Starrk's headset trying in vain to get some service. Even the normally-stoic Ulquiorra was having a hard time biting back a smile as Grimmjow stood at the far end of the dining room, too stunned by the verbal assault to even move.
And then he began to shake, his body quivering with rage as his face began to turn red and the children themselves broke down in laughter, unable to continue singing anymore.
"You brats are all dead!" roared Grimmjow, coming alive suddenly and tearing after the children, climbing up on a chair in the dining room and then sprinting from tabletop to tabletop as he made his way after the kids who were scampering for the door as fast as they could, still laughing.
Ulquiorra recovered just in time to catch Grimmjow by the back of his jersey as he tried to follow the fleeing children outside, hauling the berserk Espada back inside.
"Calm down," ordered the cuarto. "This sort of behavior is exactly why they targeted you, Grimmjow; you allow everything to bother you, and fly into a rage at the slightest provocation. If you learn to calm yourself, to control your temper, you will become a far less-appealing target."
"He's right…" agreed Starrk as he slowly got back to his feet, rubbing a tear from his eye from laughing too hard. "Once you learn to take a joke in stride, your life will be a hell of a lot easier."
"Easier said than done…" growled Grimmjow, finally allowing Ulquiorra to pull him back inside the restaurant without any further struggle. He was calming down now, and so long as nothing else happened, Ulquiorra was pretty confident that they could finish out the day without incident.
And then, the door opened and a familiar-looking face stuck his head inside.
"Hey, I just saw Karin and Lilynette running like hell from this place; something going on in here?" asked Ichigo Kurosaki, and Grimmjow's eyes widened as he clenched his fists.
"It was you, wasn't it?" he roared. "You put them up to it!"
"Put them up to what?" asked Kurosaki, sounding genuinely confused by the accusation.
Grimmjow broke free of Ulquiorra's grasp and took off, slamming into Ichigo with a running tackle that sent both men outside and into the snow, rolling across the parking lot as they traded blows. Inside, the remaining three Espada all looked at each other and moved to the window to watch the fight, with Starrk discarding his headset on the counter as he ignored the customer still yelling for service.
"Should we stop them?" asked Tyn, watching in mild amusement as Grimmjow tried to cram Kurosaki into one of the garbage cans before the shinigami managed to break free, pick up the can, and use it to smack Grimmjow backwards into a parked car.
"Not this time…" sighed Ulquiorra. "Perhaps it is best to simply let them get it out of their system."
"I've got three hundred yen on Ichigo," said Starrk.
"I'll take you up on that…" said Tyn. "Grimmjow's going to stomp him this time."
Ulquiorra sighed as he watched the fight, not quite believing that the other two were actually going so far as to bet money on the fight's outcome. How stupid! How utterly ridiculous! How completely barbaric! Still…
"Five hundred on Kurosaki."
"Are you sure about this?"
Tia scowled as she looked up from polishing the bar, not wanting to have this conversation now, not with her shift ending in just a few more minutes. Why the hell couldn't humans mind their own damned business? Was that too much to ask?
"I'm sure…" she said, managing a smile at Kishiko as she did so. The girl may have been overstepping her bounds by questioning Halibel's decision, but she did so only out of a deep sense of concern for her friend. Tia could respect that, could appreciate it, no matter how irritating it could be.
"And you still haven't told your roommate what you're going to do?" asked the waitress, the expression on her face suggesting that she believed Tia to be making a mistake.
"Why should I? It's not his concern."
"Are you sure about that? I mean, after what you said about last Friday… Tia, what if the territory he was talking about wasn't really the couch? And the Friday before that, when you said he grabbed you and hugged you, asking you not to go…"
"Kishi, he was drunk that night; he didn't know what he was saying, and didn't mean anything. And last Friday he was only concerned about his seat on the couch, nothing else. Trust me, I've known him for a while now," said Halibel, rolling her sleeves back down as she glanced at the clock and noticed it was almost time to clock out and go home to prepare for her date.
What if she's right?
Tia froze, eyes wide as the inner voice spoke. She knew it was her own mind, just her imagination talking to her, but it did so in Sung-Sun's voice, just as it had the night she and Tyn had tried to kill one another.
But Kishiko wasn't right, couldn't be right; Tyn's motivations were spurred only by the fact Hiroki was human, not because of any personal feelings he held towards her.
And in the off-chance that Kishiko was right, it still didn't matter; after all, she loved Hiroki and had zero romantic interest in Tyn, even if she did still frequently think back to their day at the beach and how his hands had felt against her skin…
Madness.
It was the only word that Tyn could conjure up to describe the mayhem before him as he entered the mall to go pick up Halibel's jersey from the store; however bad last Friday had been, today had to be three times as bad at least! He'd known that Ulquiorra's predictions about it being worse this week than last would be correct, but he had never imagined it would be this bad!
As fast and nimble as the quinto was, it was nigh impossible to navigate through the crowds that choked the mall; the relentless flow of humans had already carried him past the Sports and Imports store once, and now he found himself fighting his way upstream to get back to it. He opted to take a page from Grimmjow's playbook and begin plowing through people forcefully, shoving anyone and everyone out of his way as he fought against the surge of shoppers.
He'd have given anything to be able to hop out of his gigai and release his zanpaktou at that moment; he wouldn't have had to kill anyone, just use his resurrección form to scare the hell out of everyone and make them run for their pathetic lives. Of course, there was probably only one, maybe two people in the entire mall who might have had enough spiritual pressure to be able to perceive a hollow in their midst; the rest would see nothing and be completely oblivious to him as they continued about their meaningless tasks.
Then again, if he could exit his gigai in the first place, Tyn thought he'd probably just go ahead and kill everyone in his path regardless.
It took several agonizing minutes of battling against the current for Tyn to reach the Sports and Imports, and he allowed himself a sigh of relief as he finally managed to break free of the flow of humans and duck inside the store.
And then he noticed the line of customers waiting at the register and very nearly screamed.
"Twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen…you've got to be kidding me!" he exclaimed as his boiling anger was reaching critical mass. It was bad enough that he knew Tia would be out having dinner with that wimpy human right about now, and that he'd just spent the past fifteen minutes just trying to navigate his way to the damn store, and now he had to deal with this crap?
"No more mister nice arrancar…" he growled to himself as he walked up to the back of the line and began forcing his way through again, picking up his first victim by the back of his coat and flinging him about two meters to the left, watching the man hit the ground and skid across the floor for a couple of feet before coming to a stop underneath a life-size cardboard cutout of a sumo wrestler.
The man got to his feet and began to protest, threatening to call mall security, and Tyn answered by grabbing the next person in line, one hand on the back of his coat and one on his belt as he picked the man up in the air and chucked him bodily at the first human.
The others in line noticed that something was amiss now as they turned around just in time to see Tyn grab another customer by the back of his pants and yank him backwards out of the way, letting the man stumble back several meters before falling hard onto his rear. The line began to disperse then, with the remaining customers wisely stepping aside and letting Tyn pass rather than risk being his next target.
The clerk at the register paled a little bit, apparently recognizing him from their visit last week and remembering how threatening Grimmjow had been.
Good; that would make this easier.
Tyn slapped his receipt down on the counter wordlessly, making sure to growl threateningly as a not-so-subtle way of encouraging the clerk to hurry the hell up or else. The terrified human who looked to be barely out of his teens ducked down behind the counter and began frantically searching through the items stored in the cabinet, trying to find the hockey jersey in question before the crimson-haired maniac lost his patience again.
"Here!" he said finally, standing up with a package that had Tyn's name printed on it. Hastily, the clerk tore open the package and extracted the white jersey, unfolding it for Tyn's inspection to make sure it had come out right. The name across the back of the shoulders declared HALIBEL to the world, and the large number below it was a three, just as planned.
Perfect.
Tyn nodded in approval, being careful not to smile or do anything else that might put the human at ease as the clerk carefully refolded the jersey and put it back into the package before bagging it up. The Espada certainly took a perverse sense of enjoyment in watching the human quiver in fear the entire time, but he felt it would be best to not show it.
He snatched the bag away from the frightened clerk and headed swiftly departed the store, once again being swiftly swept downstream by the raging current of shoppers, but this time Tyn opted to flow with the humans, letting them carry him to the nearest exit before breaking free and trampling a couple of hapless individuals underfoot in the process.
Tyn burst through the exit and out into the cold night air, snow crunching underfoot as more white flakes fell softly to earth from the heavens above, but he paid no attention to the miserable weather as he enjoyed the sweet, sweet smell of freedom.
His sensitive nose twitched as he picked up another scent in the air. Freedom, it seemed, smelled a bit like cinnamon.
"I didn't expect to see you here… Last minute shopping?" asked a familiar voice from behind.
Tyn turned around and found himself face to face with Yoruichi Shihōin, former captain of Squad 2 and current resident of the Urahara Shop. She was bundled up in a large black coat that swallowed her lithe body completely, a red Santa hat perched on her violet locks, with a tan scarf wrapped around her neck tightly, and the multiple bags in her hands suggested that she was guilty of being a last-minute shopper herself.
"Just picking up something I paid for last week…" he said, glancing at the bags. "You?"
"I've been lazy," she admitted with a casual shrug. "But I've managed to get everything done finally; some presents for Kisuke and everyone else at the shop, stuff for Sui-Feng, and some things for my brother and Nel."
"I heard Nel had taken up residence in the Soul Society, but I didn't know you were friends with her," he said, silently arching a questioning eyebrow as she simply invited herself to fall into step beside him as he headed down the sidewalk towards home.
"She's a good person with a kind heart; I like her," Yoruichi admitted. "And since she'll be joining the 'extended family' in a couple of months…"
"Tell her congratulations, then; she deserves to be happy," said Tyn, smiling softly as he thought back to days long past of Neliel's cheerful enthusiasm and good-nature back in Hueco Mundo. Much as Tyn had liked the strange woman and considered he a friend, she'd never belonged with the rest of them, not really; Neliel was simply too kind for her own good and that would have got her killed eventually, even without Nnoitra's betrayal.
"Where's Halibel tonight? Working?" asked the ex-captain and Tyn scowled darkly as his almost-good mood shattered.
"Date," he spat hatefully. "With a godforsaken human."
"I see…" said Yoruichi, eyeing him closely. "Is that a note of jealousy I detect in your voice?"
"What?!" sputtered Tyn, face flushing in embarrassment. "Why would I be jealous?"
"Grimmjow seems to think you are… I heard him talking about it last night."
That particular little tidbit of information surprised him enough to override the inexplicable sense of embarrassment he'd felt.
"You're friends with Grimmjow, too?" asked Tyn, not quite believing his ears.
"Not exactly… I've been keeping an eye on him every night since you guys first came to Karakura. Kisuke and I both thought that he would be the most likely to lash out and kill someone, so I've been spying on him at night, hoping I can stop him if he tries anything."
"And?"
"Did you know he has a soft spot for strays?" she asked him with a soft smile. "Feeds 'em every night. Has ever since that first week; sits a bowl of cat food and a dish of warm milk outside his window every night and just sits there watching them. He talks to them, too; calls them all 'kids,' if you can believe it."
"Are we talking about the same Grimmjow?"asked Tyn dubiously.
"Not very many people in Karakura named Grimmjow, and even fewer with blue hair," pointed out Yoruichi as she shifted the bags to her other hand and adjusted her scarf. "Anyway, he's mentioned you complaining about Halibel's new boyfriend several times now, and he seems to think you're jealous. Says you need to just confront her, tell her the truth, and get it over with."
"He's insane," scoffed Tyn, kicking a small mound of snow and watching the powdery flakes go flying.
"No argument there…" smirked the shinigami. "But from what he says and what I've observed so far, I think he might be right."
"You're both wrong," growled the arrancar defensively. "Tia is just my roommate and I'm only looking out for her best interests. That's all there is to it, no more."
"Maybe I am wrong… Tell you what; I'll let you buy me dinner as an apology, and then you can tell me the many different reasons why I'm wrong."
"Deal. I'm hungry, anyway… Hey! Wait just a goddamn minute here! Shouldn't you be the one buying dinner if you're apologizing?"
"Too late!" said Yoruichi with a mischievous grin and a wink. "You've already agreed to it. Carry-out and a movie?"
"Let me guess; I'm buying the movie, too?" he asked sourly.
"Such a gentleman, offering to pay for everything!" teased Yoruichi, and Tyn just scowled.
"Well, there goes all my extra cash…"
"I hope you don't mind, but I'm not walking you up to your apartment again."
Halibel frowned as she looked over at her date, squeezing his hand. It sounded like a rude thing to say, but she supposed that it couldn't be helped after last weekend's little fiasco. She had to admit that the other Espada hadn't been particularly friendly to him and in the case of Grimmjow and Tyn, had in fact been very threatening.
"They won't be there tonight," she tried to soothe him, offering a reassuring smile. "They have other things to do than terrorize you."
"Your roommate will be there," countered Hiroki. "That psycho is the worst of the lot, too!"
"He's not a psycho…" Tia corrected him calmly, squeezing his hand even tighter to indicate her displeasure. "He's just not very good with people and has a few minor trust issues given his past. He's trying, I think…it's just going to take time for him to get to know you, to understand you like I do."
"Maybe some other time, then..." said Hiroki, looking away. "But not tonight. I really don't want him to strangle me again."
"I'll have a word with him… He'll never lay a finger on you again, I promise."
"How can you promise that? How can you be immune to his temper? Doesn't he scare you?"
"I'm not immune…not entirely, anyway. And no, he doesn't scare me; I know him better than anyone else. Hell, I think the only person who's known him longer is my friend, Neliel."
"That doesn't explain how you can promise he'll behave…" said Hiroki darkly, and Tia almost felt insulted by his lack of trust. Still, he certainly had a right to be concerned; Tyn probably would have kept squeezing his neck until his head popped off had she not intervened last time.
"I know it doesn't, but it's hard to explain…" she said, kissing him lightly. "Just trust me on this, okay?"
"I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, I guess…" he said, clearly tired of arguing. "Anyway, it's nearly midnight; are you ready to go home or would you like to go get a couple of drinks first?"
"Actually, I was just thinking that I'd love to finally see your apartment…"
"Hot pizza, warm sake, and Christmas television; what more could you ask for?"
Tyn scowled at the woman sitting across from him as he swallowed another bite of pizza and chased it down with the sake.
"I can think of a few things…" he said bitterly. "And I prefer beer to sake."
"At least you didn't have to buy a movie… Store was too ridiculously crowded to bother."
"And as for Christmas television,…" Tyn added, ignoring her, "it's all garbage! It is definitely not 'A Wonderful Life,' and if I see the one with that little brat who gets his tongue stuck to a pole one more freakin' time, I'm going to kill something…maybe several somethings!"
"Grinch…" said Yoruichi, shaking her head. "Your problem is that you have no holiday spirit whatsoever."
"My problem is that my stupid roommate is going out with a lowly human!" he exclaimed, using the remote to shut the TV off before another sappy special came on. "Why isn't she here with me instead? It makes no sense!"
"It's because you suck all the fun right out of the holidays…" said Yoruichi with a teasing grin that quickly withered away under Tyn's glare. "Okay, joking aside, have you seriously tried telling her? I know it may be a foreign concept, but sometimes we women like to be told that we're wanted."
"There's nothing to tell her," Tyn said defiantly, snatching up another slice of pizza. "Like I said earlier, it's not like that."
"Oh, look; a man who can't admit he has feelings. How unusual," she said dryly.
"Cute, real cute," said Tyn in-between mouthfuls of food. "She should be home shortly, though; it's what, almost one?"
Yoruichi glanced over at the clock on the blu-ray player, noting that the time was actually closer to three in the morning. She hadn't intended on staying so long, not really; her plan upon running into the arrancar outside the mall had been simply to keep him company to prevent him doing anything reckless and potentially dangerous until Halibel had returned home, but she had expected the other woman to be back long before now.
"Isn't it amazing how quickly time can slip by?" she asked softly, more to herself than to the arrancar.
She and Kisuke, along with the other residents of the Urahara Shop, would be departing for the Soul Society in a few hours to spend the holidays there before returning to the human world after the New Year. Yoruichi had hoped to get some sleep in before departing, but with the tercera nearly three hours late getting home, sleep seemed unlikely unless she gave up and abandoned Tyn.
Abandoning an Espada-level hollow that was barely coping with dangerous levels of jealousy seemed like a terrible idea as an image of a smoldering crater a half-kilometer wide sitting where the apartment building used to be entered her mind.
A quick glance at him and the way he was staring at the digital numbers of the clock as they slowly ticked by told her that he knew the most likely reason for Halibel being late. His face was largely unreadable, even to one who was an expert at the art of reading expressions and body language; he betrayed no hint of anger or sorrow, of loneliness or heartache. Maybe she was wrong, and maybe he could handle it better than she thought…or maybe he was simply a ticking time bomb, waiting to explode.
"You should go…" he said finally, his voice quiet. "It's late, and you said earlier that you have a trip to make in the morning. Better go get some rest."
"Are you going to be okay?"
"Why wouldn't I be?" he snapped irritably, taking another drink of sake. He shut his eyes, taking a deep breath before continuing, softening his tone, "Look, I appreciate the company and helping me wrap Tia's gift, but you really don't need to stay."
"It's very late…" she said slowly. "Or very early, depending on your point of view. Maybe I could just stay on the couch?"
"Why are you even bothering with me?" he asked, confusion weaving its way into his voice. "With few exceptions, shinigami and hollows generally don't get along."
"Maybe because I don't think you're monsters, not anymore. You can thank Nel and Grimmjow for that; getting to know her and watching him has shown me something very important."
"What's that?"
"That you can change. That you can feel. That you're not hopeless. And if you're ever going to truly change, you need people who are willing to reach out to you, to care about what happens," she said softly, feeling pity for the lonely creature sitting across from her. Now she knew beyond all doubt that he was indeed feeling quite jealous and perhaps even heartbroken.
"I never expected to hear such words coming from a former assassin…" he said, his tone suggesting that had he been in a better mood, he might have laughed at the absurdity of the notion.
"Maybe I'm getting a little soft now that Aizen's gone and the war is over…" Yoruichi admitted with a smirk as she walked over to the couch and stretched out on it. "Did I tell you that I'm hoping to have a niece by this time next year? I don't think I'll ever have any children, so if and when Anrak and Nel ever have one, I'm going to spoil her to death and buy her anything she wants. She's going to be such a pampered little princess!"
"I think I'm going to be sick…" said Tyn sourly. "That's all way too sweet for my tastes."
"You really are a mean one, Mister Grinch," teased the shinigami, barely managing to suppress a yawn as Tyn shut off the lights for her. "Anyway, you should go get some sleep yourself; she'll be home eventually."
"Yeah…eventually."
Tyn watched the numbers on the blu-ray player roll over from six fifty-eight to six fifty-nine, and Tia had yet to come home. He hadn't gone to bed yet and refused to do so until she came home safe, choosing instead to sit on the floor by the coffee table and the empty pizza box. He had little doubt of why she was so late, and he felt his anger swelling despite his best efforts to suppress it.
Dirty, stinking, no-good human…
How had it come to this? Why had it come to this? Was he somehow not good enough to spend time with anymore?
He growled lightly, being careful to not wake the still-sleeping Yoruichi over on the couch. He was truly grateful for the ex-captain's concern and company, but a part of him also wished that she hadn't gotten involved; it was bad enough that the other Espada knew about his misery, but now the shinigami knew as well.
It was hard to hold onto his last remaining scraps of pride when more and more people kept seeing his weaknesses.
Still, it wasn't like he actually cared about Halibel any more than the rest of the pack; he was simply worried that she was setting herself up to fall, which was a situation that none of the others were in, and his every attempt to reason with her had failed miserably. That was it, nothing more; he was simply trying to protect her from herself.
Okay, maybe he did still think back to their day at the beach and how warm her skin had felt underneath his fingers, but surely that didn't really mean anything, right?
He closed his eyes and sighed, remembering their time together in Hueco Mundo prior to his exile; their long talks, the simple joy he'd taken in simply standing on the dome and watching the night sky with her...
Tyn opened his eyes just in time to see the clock roll over to seven-oh-eight and he heard the front door creak open slowly as Tia finally crept inside, obviously trying to be quiet so as to not wake the roommate she assumed to be sleeping.
"Welcome home," Tyn said evenly, watching her tense up at having been caught. Dawn had just broke outside, but the living room was still dark with even the tree in the corner having been long since turned off for the night, but his keen eyes could see her and her every move clearly as she turned to face the direction his voice had come from.
"I thought you'd be asleep by now…" she said softly.
"You thought, or you hoped?" he asked bitterly, his nose already detecting the human's scent clinging to her.
"Tyn, I…" she said, visibly fumbling for what to say. He narrowed his eyes, waiting for her to find the words she was looking for, a flimsy excuse to hide behind or another declaration that it was none of his concern.
"Good morning…" yawned Yoruichi, sitting up on the couch and interrupting them. "I was wondering when you'd drag yourself home."
"What are you doing here?" hissed Tia, her voice low and dangerous as if she found the other woman's presence to be threatening somehow.
"Ran into Red here at the mall last night…followed him home, had some pizza, watched some TV, talked for half the night, and then I feel asleep on the couch," said Yoruichi dismissively. "Nothing wrong with that, is there?"
"Of course not…" Halibel said with a forced smile, but Yoruichi hadn't missed her momentary hesitation that suggested she found everything to be wrong with it. The former-captain considered pointing out the hypocrisy between Halibel's words and her demeanor, but decided that was a conversation best left for Tyn to have with her, if he'd even noticed it at all.
There was an awkward silence for a moment, with a great deal of hostility emanating from Halibel towards the guest on the couch before the blonde finally sighed and retreated into her room.
"Well, I'm home now; you know the way out," she said curtly as she shut the door. "Good night."
"Is it cold in here, or is it just me?" asked Yoruichi, smirking with a bit of wry humor as she attempted to defuse the situation. Clearly Tyn wasn't the only one with jealousy issues, but once again that felt like a subject she had best stay away from for the moment in hopes that the two of them would act like mature, reasonable people and sit down and hash their issues out together without destroying half the city.
"No, it's definitely pretty chilly in here…" agreed Tyn slowly, looking at Halibel's door with disappointment. Yoruichi sighed as she walked over and sat her Santa hat down on top of his head before picking up her bags.
"It's Christmas Eve; try to cheer up and enjoy the day," she said softly. "Be her friend and at least pretend you're happy for her. Don't let this ruin your first Christmas, please."
"I'll try," he lied, forcing a smile as he stood and walked her to the front door. "Thanks for keeping me company."
He watched the dark-skinned shinigami favor him with a nod and a smile before disappearing out the door, making her way to the elevator. Tyn shut the door and locked it tight, leaning heavily against the frame as he sighed and looked up at the ceiling.
Cheer up? Enjoy the Day? Pretend to be happy that Tia was soiling herself and her pride by consorting with a godforsaken human?
"Yeah, right…" he grumbled as he made his way to his bedroom, pausing by the tree for a moment and looking down and carefully-wrapped box holding Halibel's present, its cheerful wrapping paper suddenly offensive to his eyes. He reached up and pulled the Santa hat from his head, holding it in his hand and looking at it for a long moment before dropping it on top of the gift as if to cover the box from view.
Fuck Christmas.