Title: Lily and Thistle
Author: paws_bells
Beta-ed by: MelissaRose85
Characters/Pairing: Sarugaki Hiyori and Hirako Shinji
Type: One-shot Collection (InComplete)
Genre: Romance/Humor
Word Count: 2549
Rating: T (Contains content not suitable for children)
Disclaimer: Bleach belongs to Kubo Tite.
Summary: 'Say Please'-verse. The language of flowers. The devoted and passionate Lily. The brave and loyal Thistle. A bouquet of love. One-shot series.
Created on: 07/08/13
Completed on: 09/08/13
Chapter Last Revised on: 01/09/13
Pre-Series Interlude: Can't Keep My Hands Off You, Part I
Fidgeting at the entrance of the warehouse, Hiyori waited rather impatiently for her companion to emerge from the building.
She had been looking forward to this day for weeks.
"Damn baldy!" she burst out at last. "Can ya move faster?! What's the hold up?!"
An exasperated Shinji reluctantly slogged out less than a minute later.
He had been dreading this day for weeks.
"Hold yer horses, will ya?" he muttered. "The thing won't even start for hours. We still got lotsa time."
Hiyori just scowled at him. "No, we don't! We need 'ta get there early, or all 'ta good spots will be taken! So hurry up and move it!"
She was a bossy little thing as usual, but she looked so eager and excited at that moment that he could not quite say no to her. Her feline eyes were bright with anticipation and her petite frame seemed to be all but vibrating with pent up energy, and it was so rare to see her in such high spirits that he sighed inwardly and conceded to her wishes.
"Alright, alright, ya win. Let's just quickly get this over and done with."
Today was the day that her favorite band was in town for a special meet-and-greet, and somehow, she had managed to procure a pair of passes to the exclusive event. Obviously someone had to accompany her to make sure that nothing untoward happened (at this point the Vizards were more concerned for the wellbeing and safety of the general public than anything else), and they had all drawn lots to see who would have to go with Hiyori. Much to Shinji's dismay, he had ended up with the short straw and was thereby unceremoniously saddled with the responsibility of making sure that Hiyori would not cause too much property damage or mass hysteria on this jaunty little outing of hers, and already he could tell that this was going to be one of those days.
Hiyori's music preference was very much like her character – an acquired taste. It was loud, aggressive, and edgy, and it never failed to make Shinji's head hurt. The brat absolutely loved it, though, and from the very first time she heard the piercing riff of the electric guitar that struck a deep chord in her soul and the spellbinding drum solo that made her heart throb in time to the beat, she had very quickly fallen for this unique style of music that was like nothing she had ever heard before back in Soul Society.
It was one of the things that Hiyori liked most about the Living World – that and the food. The innovations and sheer creativity of human beings was so amazing, and even though it had taken her a considerable amount of time to get used to life in exile in the Living World, she had eventually grown to appreciate how different the pace and style of living here were compared to back in Soul Society. Rock music particularly captivated Hiyori, though, one of the things that she had not expected to be so mesmerized with, but she could not imagine her life without it now.
The petite blonde had been on hand to witness its birth in the 1950s, had seen it start to make waves in Japan's relatively conservative (back then) music industry in the sixties, was thrilled when electronic rock began to really take off in the seventies, and then, in the eighties, alternative rock rolled in, and Hiyori really fell in love with all the indie labels and independent underground punk rock scene that seemed to sprout out seemingly overnight. She was a fan of rock music long before it became a fad, and even though all the great musicians and bands came and went like rising and falling tides (the average human lifespan was only so long, and human lives burned so brightly but for a short instant), music was forever, and the recent advancements in technology only made it all too easy to have any song available at one's fingertips – truly, what a great time it was to be living in the Human World.
Still, however convenient it was to be able to play and listen to recorded songs anywhere she wanted, live music would always trump it hands down. The utterly electrifying atmosphere, the screams of the zealous fans, the passionate performance of the band - they all added to the downright magical experience. Hiyori loved it the most; all that amazing perfection found in utter madness and chaos – it spoke to her on a level that she did not quite understand herself, but still managed to soothe the restlessness in her soul. She didn't very often get the chance to attend live shows or concerts, though; Karakura was a relatively small, quiet suburban town, after all, and most rock acts did not consider it a populated enough venue to come play. That just made today's rare opportunity so much more special – even though the meet-and-greet session was probably only a pit stop for the band and the setlist not very comprehensive – Hiyori had been getting pumped for it ever since she knew that they were coming.
Shinji side eyed the pigtailed blonde beside him as they made their way downtown. It was a nice, sunny afternoon, and for once, Hiyori looked about as happy as he had ever seen her. While not overtly smiling, she still looked rather pleased and content now that they were on their way to see her favorite band. It didn't take them long to reach the small theatre that was hosting the event, and surprisingly enough, there was already a queue forming at the front door.
Obviously, Hiyori was not the only person in Karakura town who liked to hear people with anger issues scream and shout into microphones and then pass off all that god awful noise as music.
"Are ya kiddin' me," Shinji muttered with disbelief as they got into the increasingly long line.
Hiyori rolled her eyes slightly. "Told ya," she muttered, but there was hardly any heat in her tone. The smaller blonde studied the people ahead of her and promptly decided that she still had a good chance of getting to the front of the stage. They had arrived at a pretty good time, and after a brief wait, the line started to move – the ushers were beginning to admit the attendees. Hiyori rocked on the balls of her feet impatiently as they slowly inched forward, and Shinji was rather amused by her antsy demeanor – she was pretty funny like that.
"Ya look like ya can't wait 'ta pee," he told her, and she scowled at him, though not with her usual angry intensity. She was still obviously excited about the performance.
"Oh, shut up," she retorted as they finally reached the entrance of the building. The huge bouncer guarding the door loomed over them intimidatingly, but Hiyori hardly batted at eye as she produced the tickets that would allow them to enter the theatre.
However, the large, burly man took one look at Hiyori and immediately shook his head, turning to Shinji instead. "I'm sorry, Sir," he spoke in a deep, gravelly voice. "But this session is restricted to minors – only eighteen years and above can come through. Due to explicit themes, children are not allowed to participate."
Stumped, the two ex-Shinigami just stared blankly at the human for a brief second.
"Children-" Shinji broke off, and then he glanced at the increasingly outraged look on Hiyori's face and completely lost it. Quickly turning his face away, he had to smother a guffaw behind his hand lest he indirectly incurred the boiling wrath of the furious female beside him.
Hiyori was turning quite red in the face with disbelief and anger as she gaped at the bouncer. "Oi! Listen here, you-"
The man did not seem to notice her swelling anger, mostly in due to the fact that she was so tiny compared to his hulking build that she wasn't even anywhere near his line of sight – she was so short that she might as well have been two dimensional. Still looking dourly at Shinji (who was struggling with all of his might to keep a straight face on), he flatly continued.
"There are more age appropriate programs being held in the library across the street-" There, he gestured towards the opposite building in question. It was decorated in all sorts of brightly cheerful, cartoonish prints in commemoration of the recent Karakura town's Kodomo no Hi celebrations. "Your daughter might find more suitable entertainment there."
That killed Shinji's amusement immediately. Choking, the golden-haired Vizard gawked in appalled disbelief at the unamused looking, craggy faced human.
"I don't even look old enough 'ta be this brat's parent!" he blurted out incredulously even as he struggled to recover from his shock; his pride and vanity as a handsome and highly sought after bachelor (in his personal opinion) had taken a hard hit right where it hurt the most. "And we aren't even related!"
The bouncer looked completely unimpressed as he stared at the two now visibly agitated and indignant individuals. He had seen through all sorts of tricks in his long career as a professional bouncer and he wasn't about to be fazed now, especially not by such an obvious ruse. He had a job to do and he was determined to do it well; it was his responsibility to make sure that kids who were obviously much younger than they claimed to be were barred from venues that they had no business being in.
Hiyori was quickly getting pissed. Her height and apparent youthful looks were rather sensitive topics for her and this stupid human had just gone right ahead and tromped all over her deep seated issues, while trying to bar her from the highlight of her entire fucking week, no, month, at the same time. With a dangerously narrowed look, the petite blonde automatically reached up and over her back for Kubikiri Orochi only to remember that she had left her zanpakuto back at the warehouse for the day – carrying a weapon to a performance was an immediate, surefire way to get banned from it, and that was the last thing Hiyori wanted. Besides, she was more than capable of kicking ass even without it, and was ready to go right ahead and prove it.
"I ain't a kid! You shitty piece of- mmmpphh!"
The feisty little blonde was about to administer a rude awakening to this idiotic human who thought her a child when Shinji grabbed her and quickly intervened, effectively gagging her potty mouth with his hand before she could make the situation worse.
"I'm afraid that you're mistaken, mister," the taller Vizard interjected smoothly over the muffled and increasingly violent protests of his companion. "Both of us are young adults-" Shinji could not help but deliberately emphasize. "-and are therefore well over the minimum age requirement needed 'ta attend this event." Pointing down at Hiyori, he continued. "This tiny thing may not look like it, but she's definitely way over eighteen years of age, trust me. She's just ridiculously short and baby-faced."
Hiyori twitched at that, but she grudgingly held her tongue for now and waited to see if Shinji could resolve this; the damn baldy was pretty good at talking his way out of trouble if he had to – it was one of the few things that he was rather useful for at times.
The bouncer still looked doubtful, unsurprisingly. No matter how he looked at them, the bristling blonde girl standing in front of him was obviously a middle schooler at most, judging by her diminutive size and physical appearance. Shinji seemed to realize the reason for the man's skepticism, for he swiftly brought his free hand to Hiyori's head and pulled off her hairbands, freeing her fluffy blonde hair from their pigtailed constraints and allowing the messy, chin length strands to fall around her face instead.
"See? She looks a lot less like a kid now," Shinji pointed out. "Don't be deceived by her appearance – she only wears up her hair like that so that the old ladies down the street will take pity on her and feed her for free every now and then. Just look at those horrendous eye bags! And that sallow, haggard face! This is definitely no child!"
On the positive side, the burly man seemed to be considering Shinji's rather convincing spiel.
On the negative side, the burly man seemed to be considering Shinji's rather convincing spiel.
Hiyori wasted no time stomping down hard on the damn baldy's instep in retaliation, a vein pulsing on her head at his completely unflattering description of her. To his credit, he only flinched very slightly at her violent outburst but did not release his hold on her.
"Look," Shinji persisted with significantly level calm, despite having to control the little firebrand at the same time. "Check her I.D. if ya don't believe me."
Hiyori was already bright red with anger when his hand reached into her jacket pocket and started to grope about blindly for the abovementioned item. It didn't take him long to locate the identity card – specially forged for all of them every couple of decades – and printed there neatly was Hiyori's most recent 'birthdate,' clearly indicating that she was indeed well over the age of majority. In the end, Shinji still had to promise to take responsibility for anything untoward that could happen to his petite companion during the performance before they were quite reluctantly let through. The moment they were out of sight of the entrance, Hiyori wasted no time showing her appreciation by sinking her teeth into the baldy's hand.
Swearing, Shinji quickly let go of her in a great hurry. "What the hell, Hiyori?!" he demanded, shaking his poor injured digits futilely as he tried to ease the sting of her bite. "Is this how ya repay someone who just did ya a favor?!"
She scowled belligerently at him. "Ya just stood there and kept insultin' me, dumbass! I'm not thankin' ya for anythin'! And ya also just felt me up; don't touch a lady without her permission, shithead!"
"What lady?" he muttered under his breath, equally disgruntled. Then, raising his voice a little more, he continued boredly. "And please, there's nothin' 'ta feel up in that monkey body of yours – don't flatter yourself, brat."
That flat tone of his really made her blood boil, and she looked like she was going to jump on him to give him hell when she noticed that they were selling fan merchandise up ahead. Her mood immediately improved, and she suddenly grabbed him by the arm and towed him towards the stand.
"Just for that, you're buyin' me somethin'," she told him, and he looked incredulously at her.
"Why do I have 'ta buy ya anythin'?" he demanded irritably, but he did not pull away from her grasp, knowing that he was going to get it even worse if he resisted her bullish demands. "I'm not even gettin' paid 'ta babysit ya, for cryin' out loud."
She ignored his grumbles.
"Oh, you're gettin' paid, alright," she told him. "I haven't kicked your whiny ass yet today, have I?"
::tsuzuku::
Questions That I Would Like To Answer Before You Ask:
This latest arc is a pre-series arc, which means that this happened before Shinji and Hiyori got together, and, also, sometime before the start of the original Bleach franchise. I understand that some of you would rather prefer reading ShiYori after they became a couple, but I can't help but write some pre-series stuff for them as well. This pair has such a long history together that it'd be a shame not to explore all the possibilities, and besides, I do love me some Unresolved Sexual Tension (UST), and I think we can all agree that the majority of UST usually occurs before the establishment of a relationship, yes?
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This arc is also inspired by a ShiYori fanart made by my friend Mic-RNOL-Mik. We were discussing one day that Hiyori would definitely be a fan of rock music, and poor Shinji's just going to have to suck it up and take it like a man, haha. Well, somehow our little conversation/fangirling session gave birth to this arc, so there you go.
The title for this arc, 'Can't Keep My Hands Off You' was derived from one of Simple Plan's song bearing the same name. It was the song that inspired Mic-RNOL-Mik's fanart, so this is a small dedication to you, my friend! =)
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Personally, I have never been to a rock concert myself, but even I can guess that there's usually an extremely long wait for the fans pre-performance (it's crazy enough with all the K-Pop acts over here, and some fans even go as far as to start queuing for good spots the night before the concert, so I'm assuming that rock acts wouldn't be all that different). As such, I know that there are probably a lot of inconsistencies in terms of my description of the pre-performance waiting/queuing process in this chapter, but let's just assume that this is a really small meet-and-greet session, and Karakura town has a pretty small (and polite) fanbase for this particular rock band, alright?
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As for the rock band in question, I'll leave it to you folks to use your imaginations and fill in whichever rock acts that you'd prefer. I was tempted to put in Dir En Grey (my all-time fave JRock group) for authenticity's sake at first – since Bleach is a Japanese series after all. Then, I remembered that the inspiration for this arc was (technically) indirectly derived from Simple Plan (a French-Canadian band), and in the end I gave up and intentionally described the band very vaguely so you guys can just put in whichever music group that you'd like.
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According to Wikipedia, Children's Day (こどもの日 Kodomo no Hi) is a Japanese national holiday which takes place annually on May 5th, the fifth day of the fifth month, and is part of the Golden Week. It is a day set aside to respect children's personalities and to celebrate their happiness.
So yes, the bouncer was telling Shinji to take his 'daughter' to where there will be more child-appropriate activities to entertain her – which just made Hiyori even angrier, haha.
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Personally, I don't think that Shinji looks old enough to be Hiyori's dad – but you have to admit that his preference for dressing up in suits lends him a slightly more matured air, and I think in Japan, only salary men would walk around all day dressed so formally – so the bouncer naturally assumed that he's her father – or her guardian, at the very least.
Also, Hiyori's penchant for wearing tracksuits does make her appear very young. The pigtails do not help matters either, so put the two together side by side, and it becomes easy to form a mistaken impression…I think?
Anyway, this is obviously just a joke, so don't take it too seriously!
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As always, thanks for reading!
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Your reviews fuel my passion for writing. So please leave a comment if you like this fic!
-paws