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: 2799

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: 13/08/13

Completed on: 14/08/13

Chapter Last Revised on: 15/09/13

How to Get Yourself a Date, Shinji Edition – Part II

"Buttegire, Kubikiri Orochi!" Hiyori snarled in the dual tones of herself and her Inner Hollow, and immediately, her zanpakuto took on its shikai form, the blade elongating, becoming bigger and heavier, its cutting edge turning roughly serrated and jagged like the hungry teeth of a chainsaw. Shinji grimaced inwardly; he really detested the special ability of her shikai.

While not particularly extraordinary or impressive, the hidden ability of her zanpakuto's initial release form was incredibly abrasive and completely impossible to ignore – a clear reflection of its owner's personality. It also had an immediate effect on the surrounding area; that oversized cleaver of hers actually emitted insistent, extremely low frequency infrasound vibrations that were downright uncomfortable to the senses of anyone within striking distance. As Hiyori's emotions flared, her shikai actively fed off of her agitation and the vibrations intensified, until he could feel it jarring the joints of his sword arm, and even Sakanade was starting to shake in protest. With enough training, he did not doubt that her shikai ability could one day easily shatter the zanpakuto of lesser Shinigami on impact alone, but that was something that he'd leave her to discover on her own.

Hiyori shoved hard against their deadlock and abruptly twisted the hilt of her own weapon, attempting to catch Sakanade in one of Kubikiri Orochi's oversized teeth and wrest the unreleased katana out of its owner's hand. Shinji was forced to disengage immediately or risk losing his sword, and she had obviously anticipated his move, for she was already throwing herself backwards in a backflip, using the heavy weight of her zanpakuto to increase her momentum as she twisted in mid rotation and slammed her heel into his unprotected side in an absurdly graceful (and painfully effective) butterfly kick.

For the second time in under a minute, he sailed over the training ground, the air knocked right out of his lungs, and this time, she caught up to him before he could even right himself. Her glowing eyes with the black sclera were utterly merciless as she raised her cleaver to cut him down in one single stroke, but before she could finish her attack, he disappeared right before her sight and phased behind her instead, the tables quickly turned, the hunter now the hunted.

Her lover was strong and extremely fast even without the need to release his sword or mask, and he quickly proved his superiority by swiftly disabling her from the back; a large, long fingered hand snapping out to grab her wrist, jerking her sword arm back and twisting it in an unnatural angle, not yet hard enough to break bone, but still excruciatingly uncomfortable, forcing her to let go of her sword in automatic reflex. The move was purely calculated, instantly executed at the precise moment – that short millisecond – where she had let her guard down, and Kubikiri Orochi quickly fell to the ground below them, immediately returning to its sealed katana form. Shinji pulled her slight, struggling figure back against his chest, his hold on her firm and absolute.

"What a bloodthirsty 'lil thing you are," he muttered in her ear, and both her and her Inner Hollow were immediately outraged at being outmaneuvered so quickly and effortlessly. Had he even been fighting her seriously the whole time? Her spiritual pressure soared in response together with her rising ire, and growling, she tried to break free from his hold with sheer brute force, and she would have succeeded too, if he hadn't released his own reiatsu to cover hers, simply matching her every step of the way, and then slowly but surely overpowering her with the intensity of his own energy.

Hiyori was not going down that easily, though. Materializing her Hollow mask to cover her face completely, her spiritual energy increased further, immediately skyrocketing to a level that even Shinji was starting to have trouble containing. She was definitely stronger compared to the last time they had faced off over a year before, and she was also actually using her head to strategize and fight more effectively too – Shinji briefly wondered what kind of training Kisuke and Yoruichi had been putting her through. If she continued to expel reiatsu like that, she was going to break free very soon, and he would eventually have no choice but to step up the intensity of his sparring with her by yet another level, and he might even have to summon his mask to subdue her – though that would make her win by default.

It was a good thing that he knew just as well as she did that she was unable to keep up her current supercharged Hollowfied status indefinitely. Three minutes was the most she could manage, and they were already more than two minutes in since she had first drawn on the powers of her Inner Hollow. All he had to do was hang on until she exhausted herself, and the match would be called in his favor.

Hiyori was getting desperate, and it showed. She had thrown everything she had at Shinji and he had taken it all and was still hardly fazed by her attacks. As a fighter, it stung her pride that she was still so far behind him in terms of their abilities even though she had always known he was so much more powerful than she was. He was a Captain-class Shinigami, after all, and he had more to protect and therefore more to lose, so of course he was going to have to be completely formidable, and it wasn't as if he never struggled to earn his strength – she knew how hard he worked, every bit paid for with blood and sweat.

Unlike her, it was also not his style to overwhelm his opponents by blatantly shoving his strength right in their face – he was cool, calm, calculative, only exacting the necessary amount of effort to quell his adversaries, not revealing more than he absolutely had to, and it seemed that she still had quite a long way to go if she wanted to fight him on equal footing. The urge to throw a temper tantrum was overwhelming; this fight was already as good as his, and he knew her too well to be fooled by any of her fake outs or the tricks she could possibly pull. Hiyori struggled unhappily and tried to at least be free of his hold before she lost all of her strength, but he was simply unmovable, and unless she tore off her own arms in the struggle, escape was impossible.

Shinji simply brought her back down to the ground with him, landing effortlessly on the sidelines where the other three Vizards were.

"Congratulations, Hiyori," Lisa uttered boredly then. "You managed to last a whole five minutes against Shinji. That's two whole minutes longer than your previous record."

"Shut up, Lisa!" the petite blonde snapped in a deep, growly undertone, her sclera around her glowing ochre irises still black from behind her skeletal-looking Hollow mask. "The fight ain't even over yet!"

Standing beside Lisa, Love just eyed the caught and subdued young woman blankly. "I don't know about that. You look kind of stuck to me, Hiyori."

The frustrated blonde growled.

"Ya still not ready 'ta admit defeat yet, brat?" Shinji asked from somewhere above her, sounding utterly casual despite the fact that he was holding a very angry Shinigami/Hollow hybrid right at the moment. Hiyori hissed like a scalded cat and struggled harder, but to no avail. Much to her dismay, she finally hit the time limit then, and her mask started to disintegrate, leaving her feeling completely drained as her reiatsu immediately dropped back to normal levels.

"Damn ya, baldy!" she burst out unhappily, panting slightly from her exertions. "Fight me again! Did ya even take me seriously at all?!"

"I assure ya that I take all my battles very seriously," her lover told her calmly even as he finally let her go. "I just don't see the need 'ta use all of my strength 'ta hunt a rabbit. Or in this case, a 'lil monkey."

He wasn't even speaking out of arrogance or vanity, just stating pure fact. Hiyori looked dangerously close to showing him just how much of an animal she could be, but then, he just reached over and ruffled her hair like she was a little kid, much to her increasing indignation and outrage.

"But ya did real good, brat," he told her, affectionate once again now that the match was over. "I didn't expect that you'd improve so much in such a short time."

It was true. He was probably going to have to cast some advanced healing spells on his jaw and side where she had kicked him earlier or he was going to acutely feel the aches tomorrow. If he hadn't had the foresight to protect himself with his reiatsu, she would have completely shattered his bones on both counts; truly, she was such a terrifying opponent when it came to hand-to-hand combat. She had definitely gotten a lot faster too, but he supposed he shouldn't be all that surprised since one of her regular sparring partners happened to be the Goddess of Flash herself.

Hiyori smacked his hand away, already rather red in the face from anger. "Don't patronize me!" she barked fiercely, scowling at him at the same time.

"I'm not," he merely informed her. "I'm just speakin' the truth. Anyway, I still won, so that means ya owe me an entire day of your time."

Hiyori visibly bristled at his reminder, but she did not refute his claim. She was not someone who went back on her word, and besides, she knew their usual arrangement well.

"I just have 'ta be your free servant again, right?" she muttered, grudgingly accepting Kubikiri Orochi from Hachi, who had kindly gone and retrieved it for her. Much to her surprise, the damn baldy shook his head.

"Nope. You're the girlfriend now, so ya get special treatment," he told her in a slightly amused tone. Hiyori looked at him suspiciously.

"What special treatment?" she demanded immediately.

"We're goin' on a date."

For a moment, Hiyori thought that she had heard wrongly. "Whaa?!"

"A date," he repeated nonchalantly enough. "A proper, romantic one this time, so look forward 'ta it."

She looked like a deer caught in the headlights at his announcement. Then, the horror of the situation quickly set in.

"Can I just be your one day servant instead?" she blurted out then, though he was hardly tickled by her response.

"Ya know, that's kinda insultin'," he drawled. "Especially since I haven't even started romancing ya properly yet."

"I don't need any romancing," Hiyori was quick to deny his offer. There was a pause, and then she continued. "I wanna rematch. I'll fight really hard this time, I promise."

"Ouch," Love muttered from the sideline. "That's gotta hurt."

Lisa just shrugged. "Shinji enjoys pain and humiliation, remember."

The Fifth Division Captain just ignored the unnecessary comments from the peanut gallery and continued to focus his attention on his disgruntled significant other. "Nice try, brat, but you're not gettin' outta this. We had an agreement; loser does what the winner wants, so no weaselin' outta it."

"What about best two outta three?" she insisted stubbornly, looking increasingly desperate as she did so. "I'll fight like my life is dependin' on it."

"You're gonna be wined and dined even if you scream and kick 'bout it throughout the whole thing," her lover told her firmly, cutting off the rest of her arguments. "Which will be happenin' tomorrow, in fact. I'll come get ya in the evening. Lisa, will ya help me get her ready?"

The ebony-haired woman eyed the bristling, defensive form of her fellow Vizard. She shrugged once again in agreement. "Sure, why not. It'll be an interesting project. I'll doll her up really nicely for you."

"Actually, I'll just be content if ya can make sure that she won't run off before I come for her," Shinji muttered wryly. "But that will work too."

"I don't wanna go on a date!" Hiyori burst out then, still bewildered by how quickly the whole thing had sprung up on her completely unannounced – this was obviously a trap that he had been planning from the very beginning, and she was not thrilled to have so stupidly fallen right into it.

"Sorry, brat, I'm not givin' ya a choice here." He did not sound or look very apologetic though, judging by his toothy grin, and it made her want to punch it right off that smug face of his. Her fists actually started to clench in reflex, and he seemed to sense her impending tantrum, for he wisely changed the subject. "Well, now that's settled, I need 'ta be headin' back to Seireitei; ya know, stuff 'ta do, people 'ta see. Be good, Hiyori."

"Go 'ta hell, hage Shinji! Nothing's settled yet!" the petite female protested quite heatedly, but her lover just reached out and patted her head teasingly once more, though of course that only made her even angrier. Chuckling, he pulled out of reach of her striking range, and after bidding his goodbyes to the other Vizards, the blonde took his leave, somehow still appearing remarkably pristine and put together despite the quick spar.

"I really hate that dumbass," Hiyori growled, still looking quite piqued, but it wasn't as if there was anything else that she could do now. Besides, a deal was a deal – she had lost the fight (as she always did) and he was well within his right to demand anything he wished of her.

A date. An honest to goodness date. They didn't even do dates, at least not the mushy, sickeningly romantic, lovey dovey sort. Just thinking of it alarmed Hiyori greatly. What the hell do those couples do on dates other than stare lovingly into each other's eyes, cuddle under a small umbrella and stroll about like idiots in the rain? If the baldy thought that he was going to try that with her, she would cheerfully stab him in the eye with the damn umbrella.

The remaining three Vizards exchanged brief glances. Now that all the excitement was over, Love and Hachi excused themselves, leaving the women to their own devices.

Lisa wasn't very impressed by the younger woman's personal crisis. "You're in a relationship with that aforementioned dumbass, Hiyori, and since people in relationships often go on dates, you might as well just give in and get used to it already." Hiyori looked like she wanted to protest, and so Lisa continued. "Besides, there will be food."

"Shinji already feeds me when we go out," she grumbled, unconvinced.

Lisa did not even bat an eye. "Well, perhaps Shinji will feed you even more lovingly this time," she uttered flatly. Hiyori looked plain horrified.

"I'll make him eat my fuckin' shoe if he even tries it," she muttered.

The older woman observed her friend's visibly flustered expression. "You really have no idea whatsoever what couples usually do on dates, do you?" she asked right out.

Her astute guess was right on the mark as usual. Hiyori flushed further, but refrained from commenting. Lisa's curiosity was roused.

"Then what on earth do you two get up to when you're out?"

"…We go for food. Sometimes we walk 'round town. Or go 'ta the park. Maybe kill some Hollows on the way." Hiyori shrugged. "Normal stuff."

Of course, there was also the physical affection part, but they don't really do much of that in public, and besides, Hiyori didn't think that was what Lisa was asking about.

"So basically, he feeds you, walks you, and then plays with you," Lisa deadpanned. The ex-Lieutenant was starting to feel a bit sorry for Shinji. No wonder the man had to devise such an elaborate plot to get his lover to go on a proper date with him.

Hiyori scowled.

"Ya are makin' me sound like some pet dog," she muttered. Yes, a cute, fluffy but temperamental pet dog with a penchant for biting and kicking its poor, long suffering partner.

"There's little difference from what I can see," Lisa retorted blankly. Obviously a lesson of some sort was in order. "Come on; I'll lend you some of my manga – you can pick up some hints from there."

Hiyori grumbled but did not protest the suggestion. The date was going to happen no matter how she tried to resist it, now that the other Vizards were in on the plan. A stray thought occurred to the petite blonde then, and she paused.

"Wait a minute, Lisa," the young woman interjected. "Aren't most of your manga the hentai kind?"

Lisa didn't even try to deny it.

"So?"

Omake

Hiyori frowned at the manga in her hand as she tried to make sense of the series of pictures and what it was trying to tell her. Sitting on the floor in Lisa's bedroom, she was surrounded by stacks of comics, most of them marked with a red, very conspicuous 'EXPLICIT' label on their covers. The owner of the room herself was lounging on her bed, a swimsuit magazine in hand as she slowly leafed through the pages of buxom beauties prancing about in scanty attire.

"Lisa, what is this 'Love Hotel' and why do the couples going on dates always end up in it?" Hiyori asked at last. She squinted at the fascinating illustrations of the various themed rooms – they didn't look like the interior of any hotel that she had seen before, that was for sure. "…Looks interestin'."

Lisa didn't even miss a beat or look up from her magazine as she answered, turning a page at the same time.

"It's a playground for adults. Why don't you ask Shinji to take you after your date?"

::owari::

Questions That I Would Like To Answer Before You Ask:

I do feel a bit sorry for Shinji – Hiyori can be kind of hard to romance because she's such a complete tomboy at times, and he does seem like the type who will want to lavish affection on his significant other if he can help it.

So here's my take on how a date between our favorite couple will go down – hope you guys are enjoying the ride so far!

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Just for the sake of clarification, the special ability of Hiyori's Shikai in this chapter is non-Canon and derived from pure speculation on my part.

FYI, infrasound vibrations are extremely annoying to the human senses. It's insistent and you can't ignore it even if you want to (kind of like Hiyori, haha). According to my good friend Wikipedia, it can cause extremely disconcerting sensations – anxiety, uneasiness, extreme sorrow, nervous feelings of revulsion or fear, chills down the spine, and feelings of pressure on the chest. And also, like all vibrations, Kubikiri Orochi's special ability also has the potential to shatter blades (or objects) – if Hiyori can learn to control its frequency and match it to the range of the targets, that is.

I also already have a very good idea of what I want her Bankai to be like, but since that's still a long way ahead, I'll refrain from jumping the gun right now and just wait to surprise you guys when the time comes.

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I feel that Shinji's fighting style is a complete complement of Hiyori's. She's hotheaded, aggressive and in-your-face, but he's more of a patient, wait-and-see type, closely analyzing and studying his opponent's moves and watching for probable weaknesses before he quickly and decisively struck to defeat the latter in one fell swoop.

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And yes, the spar was concluded within five minutes, for the sake of realism.

Hiyori has never won in a serious spar against Shinji before, and for a very good reason. In terms of both abilities and physical power, he's stronger than her, faster than her, possesses far greater spiritual power than her, and, last but not least, he is also extremely coolheaded and focused in a fight – unlike her. He also does take the spar extremely seriously and doesn't cut her any slack whatsoever – despite her angry tirades accusing of otherwise – and that's why he was able to defeat her so quickly.

I'm aware that shounen manga typically like to drag out fight scenes, but going by common sense, long, drawn out battles usually only occur between opponents with roughly similar skill levels. In the case where one combatant is obviously more superior to the other, it usually doesn't take very long for a victor to emerge from a fight.

…besides, I feel that lasting a whole five minutes against an obviously stronger opponent is a pretty awesome feat for Hiyori to achieve, especially since a scant millisecond is already more than enough to make a difference between victory and defeat.

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'Date Night' from next chapter on!

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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