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: 3072
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: 31/08/13
Completed on: 03/09/13
Chapter Last Revised on: 01/12/13
First Impressions
Shinji studied the other Captain briefly as the latter stepped out of the Urahara Shoten in his newly acquired Gigai.
The relatively youthful Taichou of the Juubantai, Hitsugaya Toshirou, was sporting a rather disgruntled expression as he stashed his Soul Candy in his shirt pocket and checked his flip phone for power before he left to embark on his mission. The younger Shinigami had not been happy to be selected for this glorified fieldtrip when he could be back in Seireitei doing more important things – like paperwork – but Kyouraku Soutaichou had already made his decision, and it wasn't as if he could decline a direct working order from the Captain Commander.
"Are ya sure ya don't need me 'ta come with 'ta help smooth things over, Hitsugaya-kun?" the Gobantai Taichou drawled then, watching with carefully concealed amusement as his informal address of the younger Captain irked the touchy boy something fierce, though the white-haired Shinigami barely refrained from making an issue out of it.
"Hirako Taichou," Toshirou gritted out rather irritably. "I was the one chosen to carry out this assignment, so allow me to do it on my own terms. Or are you volunteering to take over the mission?"
Toshirou sounded a bit too hopeful for it to be entirely just a joke, and besides, the boy did not seem to be the humorous type as far as Shinji was aware.
The golden-haired Vizard Captain shook his head and backed off. "Sorry, kid, but you're on your own here. I'm here on a short break, and I don't do working vacations. Good luck on your assignment."
"Don't call me 'kid,'" the smaller Taichou grumbled before he stalked off.
Why was he the one who was always stuck with having to 'monitor unusual reiatsu patterns' in Karakura town? Granted, thanks to Hirako Taichou's reports, they already knew who was emitting the reiatsu fluctuations. That made his work slightly easier, but he had better things to do then to babysit one human/Shinigami/Quincy hybrid, even if it was yet another (probably) troublesome spawn of his ex-Taichou. Besides, he could just sense his paperwork pile growing and overflowing from his inbox already, since Matsumoto was certainly not going to do a thing about it, and it was also the height of summer right now too, the season that he absolutely hated the most, and of course, some divine being probably hated him and just wanted to watch him suffer under the merciless heat.
Toshiro was definitely not a happy camper right now.
Kisuke shuffled over to stand with Shinji then, unfurling his fan and giving it a few lazy flaps to generate a stifling breeze to combat the overwhelming, blistering climate. The two men watch the younger male disappear around the corner.
"Is Hitsugaya-san aware that the target of his investigation is with the Vizards right at this moment, and that he'll technically require your assistance to get past Hachi-san's barrier?"
Shinji shrugged, looking a bit too amused for his own good.
"I did offer my assistance; but he declined. I'm sure Hitsugaya-kun will find his way through easily enough. I'm more worried about what he'll find inside, 'ta be honest."
The two blondes paused and tried to picture how the Vizards – most specifically, Hiyori – would react to the breach in security.
"…Aa, Hitsugaya-san will manage," Kisuke remarked lightheartedly at last, carefree as can be, and Shinji silently concurred.
"So, 'ta the usual izakaya?"
"Why, Hirako Taichou, drinking so early in the afternoon?" Kisuke bantered in a mock-scandalized manner, whereas his friend merely scoffed lightly and arched a brow. The bucket hat-wearing Urahara chuckled.
"I like your way of thinking. Let's go."
When Shinji finally made his way over to the Vizard Warehouse an hour or so before sundown, there was a lot of ruckus going on – most of which was caused by Hiyori, unsurprisingly. He slipped through the barrier and entered the building just in time to see an incredibly flustered Tenth Division Captain trying rather futilely to ward off the swift and relentless verbal assault of his sharp tongued significant other. The poor boy was not succeeding very well in his endeavor, and he must have also inadvertently riled up Hiyori in some form or another, for she looked rather aggravated and was being more aggressive than usual, getting right up in the white-haired Taichou's face and jabbing painfully at his chest with a pointy finger even as she yelled unflattering names at Hitsugaya's increasingly red and embarrassed features.
The other three Vizards, plus one Kurosaki-chan, were lingering around the main area of the warehouse idly watching the bloodletting with various states of interest and boredom, so Shinji could more or less surmise that Hiyori had been ragging on his fellow Captain for a while already.
"Yo. What's goin' on here?" he announced his arrival by way of asking, though Hachi was already aware of his presence when he stepped through the Kido barrier around the warehouse. All attention briefly shifted to him, and Hitsugaya looked so comically relieved that backup had arrived that Shinji almost felt bad for subjecting the ice zanpakuto wielder to the trauma of having to deal with an angry Hiyori. It was like throwing a defenseless lamb into a lion's den, but then again, Toshirou was still in one piece and no one was missing any limbs yet, so obviously the situation couldn't have devolved that badly.
"Hirako Taichou!" the younger Shinigami quickly burst out, appearing and sounding a bit frazzled as he did so. The boy pushed away from the antagonistic female Vizard and turned to the Fifth Division Captain for assistance. "I've been trying to explain my mission objectives to these people here, but this woman is being completely unreasonable-"
"UNREASONABLE?" Hiyori shoved her way right back in Toshirou's face, hollering as she did so. "Ya strut in here like ya own the damn place, and then ya had the gall 'ta 'inform' us that you'll be observin' us for a while, and ya call me 'UNREASONABLE?!'" The pigtailed blonde had, by now, grabbed the Juubantai Taichou by the lapels of his shirt and was unceremoniously whipping him about back and forth like a ragdoll. "DO WE LOOK LIKE WE WANNA BE 'OBSERVED,' HUH? DO WE LOOK LIKE FUCKIN' ZOO ANIMALS 'TA YA, YA DAMN SHITTY SHINIGAMI?!"
The veritable gust of outrage pouring out of Hiyori's fanged mouth was enough to blow Toshirou's hair right out of his face, and not surprisingly, he very quickly grew irritated with the disrespectful treatment he was receiving. It was the final straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak. Grabbing the wrists of his tormentor, a large vein ticking on his forehead, Toshirou ripped himself free from her hold and then pushed his own face right up to hers.
"I NEVER SAID THAT I WAS GOING TO OBSERVE YOU, YOU RAVING MADWOMAN!" he bellowed back at her, finally losing his temper. "I'M HERE TO WATCH KUROSAKI KARIN, NOT YOU!"
His loud yell echoed through the empty warehouse, and then there was a long silence as everyone present just looked at the small, displeased Captain. Then, through the slowly dissipating haze of his anger, Toshirou's brain finally caught up to his mouth, and he quickly realized what his earlier unthinking words had sounded like. Snapping out of his earlier irritation-induced tunnel vision, he caught the dark, mostly neutral gaze of the girl whom he had been sent to investigate, and suddenly, he felt the most immense embarrassment for his outburst.
"…The young Taichou's still pretty curious about girls, huh," Lisa remarked blankly then. Toshirou could feel his face heating up with mortification.
"No!" the poor boy Captain sputtered. "That's not what it is! I'm just here to observe Kurosaki Karin!" That didn't sound right either, and Shinji just watched as the usually stolid and serious Hitsugaya dug himself into a deeper hole with the other Vizards.
Hiyori made a face, and then she pulled away from the white-haired Shinigami's loosened grasp, crossing her arms before her chest. "Tch. So yer just another pervert," the petite young woman pointed out.
"I'M NOT A PERVERT!" the increasingly flustered Toshirou yelled again, frantic to defend his honor, which seemed to be crumbling to pieces right before his very eyes. "THIS IS MY MISSION! IT'S AN ORDER FROM THE SOUTAICHOU!"
"Is that what they call it now?" Love added, seamlessly joining in on the teasing. "I sure don't remember going on any missions that involved stalking pretty teenage girls when I was Captain. Man, Kyouraku sure changed the system around now that he's the Boss. I'm jealous."
They were all deliberately misinterpreting his words, Toshirou was aware, but that did not lessen his discomfort. The fact that the Kurosaki girl was just hanging back and watching them make an idiot out of him simply made the whole thing even more unbearable. The white-haired male forced himself to calm down, distancing himself from his emotions and taking a mental step back from this situation. When he finally felt that he had a good grasp of himself, he spoke.
"Look," he growled. "I'm only here to observe and monitor the reiatsu fluctuations of Kurosaki Karin because of her Shinigami/Quincy heritage. Her brother, Kurosaki Ichigo, is aware of this and he approves. You may check with Hirako Taichou if you do not believe me."
Shinji shrugged. "Yeah, Ichigo's aware. He's not happy 'bout it, but he's aware." A slyly amused look crept onto the Fifth Division Captain's face as he came up to stand beside Hiyori.
"Though, Hitsugaya-kun, I think ya should be more worried about getting permission from Kurosaki-chan's dad first before ya commence with the stalkin'. Isshin's your ex-Taichou, isn't he? Ya really sure ya wanna go there? There's no turnin' back after this, ya know."
Toshirou just gaped at his fellow Shinigami in disbelief. Even the latter was in on the joke – what was this; Pick On Toshirou Day?
"Hirako Taichou!" the young Captain yelled with outrage, turning even redder as he did so. He now vaguely resembled a tomato with white hair for stems.
Shinji smirked and shook his head.
"I'm just kiddin'. Keep your panties on, kid," he drawled, much to Toshirou's scowling displeasure. Turning to Hiyori, the Fifth Division Captain continued. "Well, it's as he said – he's just here 'ta document Kurosaki-chan's physical development-"
"Her skills and fighting abilities," Toshirou interrupted, gritting out before more unfunny jokes could be cracked at his expense. "I'm here to assess her skills and fighting abilities."
"Yeah, exactly what he said," Shinji appended with a casual shrug even as his fellow Captain glared sourly at him. "So cut the poor guy some slack already and quit gangin' up on him. Let him do his job."
Hiyori kicked her lover hard in the shin then, causing him to swear and bend over to inspect his poor, throbbing limb. His lover took advantage of his preoccupation to give him another swift boot, this time right in the backside, sending him sprawling on the floor next. Toshirou watched with incredulity as the small, bad tempered woman casually beat up on his fellow Captain whereas the others around them didn't even seem fazed by her audacity.
"The hell's that for, Hiyori?!" Shinji yelled as he sat on the ground. The petite blonde growled at him.
"Don't think that you're special, damn hage!" she barked back, baring her little fang as she did so, obviously in a fighty and quarrelsome mood. "You're a shitty Shinigami too!" Her aggressive ochre eyes landed on Toshirou then, and she raised up a small but threatening fist. "What?! Ya want some of this too?"
The white-haired Captain was so appalled that he took a step back. And why was Hirako Taichou just letting himself be slapped around by the short and ornery blonde? The look of bewilderment must have been obvious on his face, for someone eventually came up beside him and answered his unspoken question.
"Don't worry; it's just the usual case of domestic violence between those two," the voice was low and matter-of-fact, but with a smooth, distinctly feminine undertone. Toshirou turned his head and promptly met the calm, dark gaze of one Kurosaki Karin. Turquoise eyes widened slightly in surprise.
Up close, the sixteen year old girl was obviously taller than him, slim and athletic like a model, her neatly worn Karakura High School uniform showcasing slender, coltish limbs and a lean, toned physique. She had also apparently inherited her father's coloring; her long, straight inky black hair was thrown up in a high ponytail, her complexion lightly tanned from the sun and peach-hued, possessing a straight blade of a nose and a firm mouth. Overall, she looked like a (prettier) female version of Shiba Taichou, he thought belatedly, though there was nothing remotely idiotic or stupid-like in her steady, self-possessed demeanor.
Eventually, Toshirou realized that he had been staring at the girl like a dolt while lost in his thoughts, and he quickly tried to remember what she had been speaking about earlier, picking up the conversation once more.
"Domestic violence?" he echoed slowly, turning his eyes back to the scene before them, where the tracksuit wearing female Vizard was somehow straddling the Gobantai Taichou and trying to kick him in the face at the same time. The golden-haired male took exception to her action, unsurprisingly, and so he grabbed her before she could do any damage and dragged her to him, reeling her in and sealing her potty mouth with a quick kiss to hopefully calm her mood.
Toshirou did a quick double take and gaped in surprise. They are together!
It seemed so strange to Toshirou, but it wasn't as if he was here to judge or gossip about his colleague's relationships – or dubious taste in women, for that matter. This certainly shed light on his previous question of why Hirako Taichou was so passive with the smaller blonde, though his attempt to placate the loudmouthed and spirited young woman did not save him from being violently smacked by the sole of her slipper all the same. Toshirou started to feel a bit sorry for the other Captain, and then Hiyori caught him staring at her.
"I'm not interested in pervert midgets," the petite and brash blonde wasted no time informing him flat out, and he spluttered when he realized what she was talking about.
"I have no interest in you either!" Toshirou choked back, indignant. There was a pause, and then he yelled. "AND YOU'RE A MIDGET TOO!"
It was obviously a sore topic with him, judging by his overreaction, and the girl standing beside him coughed slightly, interrupting his angry spiel. This time, those dark charcoal grey eyes were tinged with mild amusement as they watched him, and for some reason, his embarrassment grew – she must be thinking that all Shinigami were idiots. The fact that he had to look up to her also made the tips of his ears turn bright red with chagrin, though he tried to pretend not to notice their apparent height difference.
Karin calmly raised an arched brow.
"So, I take it that you're gonna be following me around?" she asked. She was surprisingly calm for someone whose privacy was going to be significantly compromised, he thought.
The Juubantai Taichou nodded subtly. "Yeah," he muttered, sounding rather aggrieved. The mission hadn't officially started and already he was feeling extremely put out by the entire situation. "Don't take it the wrong way – I'm just doing my job."
She tilted her head slightly then. "Is there a right way I'm supposed to take this?"
That was a really good question, one that he did not know the answer to. He shrugged grouchily. "Who knows."
She just continued to watch him with those dark, sharp eyes of hers for a while, and he wondered what she was thinking. "You any good at fighting?" she asked at last.
He bristled slightly, insulted by her question. "I'm a Gotei 13 Captain," he emphasized, and then he left it at that, since that should obviously answer her question.
"Is that a yes?" she persisted.
He was starting to look irritated now. "Yes. That's a yes. Anything else you want to know?" He was being sarcastic, but she just ignored him and continued.
"I want to get stronger," she told him flat out. "I'll let you follow me around, but in exchange, you'll spar with me."
His mission wasn't up for negotiation, and his immediate response was to inform her flat out of that fact, but there was a particular glint in her eyes that stilled his tongue. It was the same obstinate, stubborn streak that he had seen in his ex-Taichou countless times before, and also present in her older brother Kurosaki Ichigo. Something told him that this apple did not fall far from the tree as well.
Toshirou looked away. "We'll see," he grunted, and the girl just smiled.
She stuck her hand out to him. "Kurosaki Karin. Yoroshiku."
"Captain Hitsugaya Toshirou," he muttered back, and he was now obligated to return her polite greeting, even though he really didn't like this western style of salutation at all. Why couldn't they just nod at each other and be done with it?
The white-haired Shinigami gingerly reached out to close the handshake, but evidently he was taking way too long to complete such a relatively simple gesture, for she just grabbed his hand decisively and gave him a firm, no-nonsense pump before letting go. Her fingers were callused, her grip strong, and her warmth stayed with him even after she had withdrawn from him. Toshirou stared at his own hand in surprise.
"Pleasure." Karin murmured. Hiyori came up to the newly acquainted duo then, eying Toshirou with veiled distrust. Trailing in her wake was her significant other, clearly nursing a nosebleed and looking rather undignified while he was at it.
"Don't get so close 'ta him, Karin. This fella's a Shinigami scum and he's also a pervert 'ta boot."
Toshirou was starting to turn red with anger/mortification again, though Karin took pity on him and intervened on his behalf this time.
"Hiyori-nee, Ichi-nii's a Shinigami too, and so is Shinji-san." Dark eyes gleamed then, and with something that looked suspiciously like mischief. "Chibi Taichou can't be that bad."
Toshirou could feel the vein on his forehead throb – he was so angry.
"THAT'S HITSUGAYA TAICHOU TO YOU!"
::owari::
Questions That I Would Like To Answer Before You Ask:
Eek, sorry for the late update! Again, I know! I'm not gonna bother with excuses anymore, but I hope that you guys have enjoyed this chapter, and if you do, do remember to send a nod of thanks over to my good friend, Lilithkiss. She was the one who kicked my ass back into the ShiYori high gear (with her lovely, adorable, drool worthy fanarts, of course xD).
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Before any of you can start to ask - no, this is not a fic with blatant multi-ships, so don't worry about that too much. I was merely trying my hand at writing a possible HitsuKarin friendship (maybe more?) thingy, and it was a good opportunity to also write Shinji and Hiyori's relationship as seen from another person's point of view (in this case, Toshirou's).
By the way, I hope that I've done both Toshirou and Karin credit – this is my first time characterizing them, so apologies are in order if they are a bit OOC!
FYI, this fic follows manga-verse, which means that Toshirou and Karin has never met each other before prior to this encounter.
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For those who are curious, an 'Izakaya' is a Japanese drinking establishment (sounds fancy but it's actually just a sake bar, haha).
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New arc again next chapter!
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Last but not least, 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