"Somehow... I didn't expect quite so much paperwork" Torin sighed as he set another stack of papers on his desk "Is this the last of it?"
Kira shook his head "Sorry, there's still more, it's been piling up since Captain Ichimau left, I've tried to keep up wit it, but between my duties and filling in as captain..."
Torin nodded "I understand, it must've been tough, well there's nothing to do now but attack it with all we've got" he said "at the very least we've out a good dent in it so far, it won't last forever"
Kira nodded solemnly, then noticed the time "hey weren't you supposed to meet someone in 15 minutes?" he asked
Torin looked at the clock "...crap... she's going to kill me..." he said "I suppose that's it for today, you can take the night off too Kira, you've earned a break"
Kira looked at Torin in surprise "But I've hardly done..."
"You held this squad together, kept the paperwork down to a minimum, and have been instrumental in helping me settle in, it's hardly fair for me to take off and leave you here working after all that is it?" Torin said as he gave Kira a good slap on the back "go, enjoy yourself, just be ready to work tomorrow, I wanna get all this paperwork done in a week tops, so I expect you to be ready for some long days"
Kira nodded "alright sir, thank you" he said
"And brighten up a little, its not a death sentence!" Torin chuckled, then he left
-seireitei marketplace-
Torin made it to the marketplace in record time, but he knew he was still late.
Aurora stood in the center of the plaza, arms crossed, glaring at him.
"Eh heh heh" Torin chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his head "sorry, you wouldn't believe..."
"Don't worry Torin, I'm not upset" Aurora said, smiling sweetly and walking over
"Oh.. really? I coulda sworn" Torin said, he had thought that girls hated being kept waiting, but Aurora was a pretty unique girl, so maybe she didn't mind so much.
"Nonsense, so you were a little late, no big deal" Aurora said, grabbing Torin's arm.
Torin relaxed, he was afraid he was gonna get blasted with Kido or something, but that hadn't happened, so now he could enjoy his date.
"Hado 11 Tsuzuri Raiden" Aurora said, sending a powerful current of electricity into Torin's arm and electrocuting him
Torin was a funny sight to see after that, his hair shot out in all directions, sparks of electricity jumping between the strands, and his clothes were disheveled and scorched.
"You know, for someone who's so nice all the time, you're pretty mischievous..." Torin coughed
"Thank you, now shall we go?" Aurora said with a smirk
- a short while later-
"So this I need to hear, how did you make captain?" Aurora asked as she sat across from Torin at a restaurant
"well it's a bit of a long story" Torin said "but it boils down to this, the senior captains took turns beating the living daylights out of me, and when I learned to not get beat up as badly I got promoted"
"Sounds fun, how are you settling into squad 3?" Aurora asked
"Quite well, my Lieutenant has been a great help" Torin said "but enough about me, what abut you? You never told me who that mysterious visitor of yours was"
Aurora smiled, she had been waiting to brag about this for days now, even if Torin's recent promotion to captain trumped it.
"It was the captain of the Kido Corps, she just offered me a position as her Lieutenant" she said with a smile
"really? That's great! Congratulations!" Torin said "So should I call you Lieutenant Keisa now?"
"Only if you want me to start calling you Captain Inzanki all the time!" Aurora said "besides, its not official yet, I have to be sworn in and all"
"Still, that's a big accomplishment, I knew you were good at Kido, but it seems you've been holding out on me!" Torin said "Lieutenant of the Kido Corps, I'm so happy for you!"
Aurora blushed "thanks" she said "that means a lot"
"HEEEEY what're you two doing here?" a familiar voice said. Rida walked up and sat at the table, edging Torin aside
Torin scowled "I should ask you that Rida"
"Me? I just happened to be passing by, I didn't follow you to mess with your date as payback fro leaving my in the rukongai, that'd be ridiculous!" Rida said innocently
Torin looked like he was about to have a stroke, and was about to speak when Aurora beat him to it. "Rida… as much as we enjoy your company…" she said politely
"We'd rather not have it right now" Torin finished, a lot less politely
"Well then I'll be off" Rida said, then leaned close to Torin "but I'll be watching, like it or not, you need my help loverboy, you're hopeless without me"
Torin glared at Rida, if looks could kill…
Rida left, though Torin knew he was close by, and Aurora was visibly relieved.
"Well it's good to see he made it back alrght" Aurora said, trying to get conversation going again
"I suppose" Torin said, then the food arrived and they ate in silence. After the meal they left the restaurant and went for a walk, they began to talk again as they went. Torin said something and Aurora laughed. They continued walking and talking, when suddenly a tile fell from the roof and fell towards Aurora
"Watch out!" Torin said as he pulled Aurora towards him and away from the hazard, inadvertently pulling her into a close embrace. "You ok?" he asked as he looked down at Aurora.
"Um, yes, thanks for the save" Aurora said, soon realizing their position. She blushed furiously and stepped away. Torin blushed a bit as well and looked away in embarrassment. They continued their walk, but without realizing it they had started holding hands.
Up on the roof Rida hung precariously from the edge facing away from the street. He pulled himself back up to see the results of his completely unintentional actions and pumped his fist triumphantly. "I am so good at this" Rida thought as he began to follow the couple again.
As Torin and Aurora continued onward multiple "accidents" continued to happen, each of them forcing Aurora and Torin into embarrassing intimate positions. In one case a mob of people swarmed around them, eventually forcing Torin to sweep Aurora off her feet and use shunpo to carry her to safety. Another was a spider crawling down Aurora's back, resulting in a very awkward pulling up of the back of her shirt to remove it.
It was getting late now, Torin and Aurora were sitting on a bench and resting after the latest "coincidence"
"Some night huh?" Torin said
"Yeah" Aurora said, then she saw something. "Hey can we go there?" she asked, pointing to the entrance to some sort of park, she got up and took a few steps towards it.
"Sure thing, wherever you like" Torin replied as he stood up. He began to walk after Aurora but tripped over something and cried out in surprise. Aurora turned back to face him as she heard his cry, resulting in Torin falling with his face perfectly nestled in between Aurora's breasts.
Torin frantically pulled away, his face a brilliant shade of crimson "s-sorry! I didn't mean…! I wasn't…! It was an accident!"
Torin was flustered, but Aurora was on the verge of fainting, her pale skin made her blush much brighter than Torin, and when she tried to speak her voice was high pitched and weak. Her heart was beating in overdrive, and she crossed her arms protectively over her chest instinctively.
"It's ok… I mean… it was an accident" Aurora said, trying to convince both of them of her words
"Right… an accident" Torin said with a nervous laugh. They fell into an awkward silence after that
"Well… shall we go?" Torin asked
"y-yes…" Aurora said
The two walked into the park, still felling really awkward about what had happened. As they walked through the serene surroundings they relaxed a bit, eventually holding hands again.
Aurora, ironically enough, was the first to recover from her embarrassment, she hadn't been expecting it, but she had actually enjoyed feeling Torin's head on her chest, though she'd never admit it. She moved closer to Torin and leaned against him, causing him to jump a bit, but he didn't pull away.
Eventually they reached a clearing surrounded by cherry blossoms in full bloom, a light at the center illuminated the area as it it were day, and blossom petals blew through the air riding on a gentle breeze.
"What a beautiful place" Aurora said in awe
Torin shared these sentiments, but he also felt something else, on impulse he spoke.
"Not as beautiful as you are" he said, then inwardly smacked himself, how corny could he get?
Aurora blushed and slapped him on the chest "Oh stop you, you're making me blush again!"
"But it's true" Torin said, his confidence bolstered by the positive response
Aurora didn't know what to say to this, she had been fantasizing about this moment for years, but now that it was happening she couldn't think of anything to say.
"You really… think so?" she asked
Torin let out a little laugh "are you kidding? Of course I do! You're smart, kind, caring, considerate, and selfless almost to a fault! You always know how to make people feel better, and you do everything in your power to do so. You're a ray of light in the lives of everyone fortunate enough to know you. You're beautiful on the inside and outside, and I'm shocked that you don't know that!" he said
Torin would've said more, but he was cut off by Aurora jumping up onto him and kissing him. Torin's eyes widened in shock, but soon closed as he returned the kiss.
They parted after several long seconds. "Well that… was unexpected… I really wasn't expecting a kiss on the first date." Torin said
Aurora hadn't expected a kiss on the first date either, she had acted on impoulse, and had expected Torin to push her away. "Sorry, that was uncharacteristic of me" she said
"Hey I'm not complaining, I just wasn't expecting it" Torin said "I didn't think you liked me in that way"
"You idiot! Why wouldn't I like you?" Aurora exclaimed "You're all the things you said I was and more, you're such a caring person, you'd do anything for a friend, you always keep your word, you're sensitive, and you hate to see other people suffer so you take their burdens for yourself. You're like a knight in shining armor, and I've loved you since we first met…" Aurora gasped at her own words, that part wasn't supposed to have come out.
"You… love me?" Torin asked, bewildered "we've only know each other for a short while… I've heard of guys falling for women at first sight… but how could you…?"
"We've met before, you probably just don't remember, we were both young at the time." Aurora said "Do you remember 80 years ago when you saved a girl from a hollow in the Rukongai?"
Torin though back "yeah, a girl and her friends were playing and had wandered too far from home, when I got there all but one girl had been killed by a hollow, I managed to save her at least, she was hysterical, in a state of pure panic and shock. I knew what it was like so I tried to comfort her, then I brought her home… what does that have to do with…"
"I was that girl Torin" Aurora said
"You were… oh…" Torin said, realization dawning on him "that actually explains quite a bit"
"yeah, I kinda… followed you around a lot after that day, which is why I know about your past…" Aurora said sheepishly
"I had been meaning to ask about that…" Torin said, he was in a half-shocked, half face-palming state of mind. Everything kinda made sense now, why Aurora knew so much about him, and why a girl like her would spend time with a guy like him.
"And when you became a shinigami, I resolved to be one too, so one day I could be more like you. I didn't want to be a lovesick girl following you forever, I wanted to be amazing just like you, that way… maybe I could walk alongside you…" Aurora said "I'm still just a lovesick girl though, the more I see you the worse I get, so even though I'm not worthy of you yet when you asked me out I just couldn't resist"
"Now stop right there!" Torin said "have we not already covered how amazing you are? Don't go acting like you're not because you have some image of me that I could never dream of living up to…"
"but…" Aurora began
"I don't want to hear it, you are an amazing woman Aurora, I haven't felt the way I do about you about anyone else since…" Torin trailed off, now it was him saying things he didn't mean to, but it was too late to stop now "since Serena died" he finished softly
Aurora's eyes widened "You mean… you…" she said, somehow going pale with shock and blushing at the exact same time.
Torin cut her off with another kiss, more passionate that the last one. Aurora swooned and kissed him back with all of her being.
"Yes Aurora, as crazy as it sounds, I love you too" Torin said when they broke apart
Aurora gazed up at Torin, staring into his eyes searching for any hint of dishonesty, finding none she squealed with joy and flung herself at him, kicking both of them over as they kissed again.
Aurora landed on top of Torin, kissing him repeatedly. Torin returned each kiss until they were both exhausted. Aurora rolled off of Torin, breathing hard. Torin was breathing hard as well, he looked at Aurora and reached out to stroke her face, she did the same, then they moved together into a loving embrace.
-morning-
Aurora woke first, she remembered last night and her heartbeat sped up, seeing Torin now proved it had been real, he actually loved her back! The thought filled her to the point of bursting with joy, life couldn't get better!
Torin woke up shortly afterwards "morning beautiful" he said. They both got up and brushed dirt off their clothes
"Shall we head back now?" Torin asked
"Lets" Aurora said, but then Torin's eyes widened and he threw himself around her, using his body as a human shield, and then Aurora's world burst into flame…