Title: Lily and Thistle

Author: paws_bells

Characters/Pairing: Sarugaki Hiyori and Hirako Shinji

Type: One-shot Collection (InComplete)

Genre: Romance/Humor

Word Count: 3865

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: 10/10/13

Completed on: 14/10/13

Chapter Last Revised on: 30/03/17

The Hardest Words – Part III

"No! Go away!" she blustered defensively, puffing herself up to look bigger, but of course he ignored her. She was all flighty and twitchy, and he did not miss the way that she kept eyeing the door, looking as if she was going to make a run for it at first opportunity. Shinji pretended to not to notice her extremely unflattering reaction to his presence, and he deliberately stepped away slightly from the exit, making as if he was going to her instead. She took the bait immediately, throwing herself headfirst in a frantic gambit to flee this embarrassing situation, but before she could even undo the lock, he already had her caught, one strong arm wrapped firmly around her waist as he simply lifted her and carried her struggling and bellowing form to bed.

Hiyori yelled and wiggled to be let loose only to have the breath knocked out of her briefly when her lover tossed her lightly onto the mattress. Before she could roll over and scramble away, he was already pinning her down, throwing one leg over her slender hips and straddling her firmly, at the same time singlehandedly catching her flailing arms by the wrists and holding them above her head. In a matter of moments, she was well and truly trapped under him, and looking down at her tense expression, Shinji arched a brow at her.

"I'm not exactly givin' ya a choice here, brat," he told her steadily. "I think I've given ya ample time 'ta sort out yer thoughts, but if ya haven't cleared yer head out yet, then lemme help ya. What's wrong?"

He was so matter-of-fact and maddeningly unruffled about the entire situation that Hiyori could not quite find any excuses to blow up and snap at him. However, the fact that he was so placid about the whole thing while she was all strung up and agonizing over their situation made her feel quite resentful towards him, and she glared at him angrily. As always, Shinji just took on her temper tantrum unflinchingly, slowly but surely peeling away all of her prickly, defensive layers until he found that soft center of hers.

"Hiyori," he called out her name quietly, his eyes never wavering from hers. "I'm just tryin' 'ta understand exactly why my girl's suddenly avoidin' me like the plague here – have I inadvertently done somethin' 'ta piss ya off?" he asked, and she flinched slightly, suddenly unable to look at him anymore. She was still being stubbornly tightlipped about the issue, and after a while of watching her studiously avoiding his intent gaze, Shinji decided to switch tactics.

The fine-haired Vizard released his lover quite abruptly and got off of her, leaving her momentarily disoriented by her sudden freedom. He sat beside her on the bed instead, and she was about to jet off and out of the room away from him when he spoke again.

"Are ya runnin' from me 'cause ya have somethin' that ya cannot bear 'ta tell me?" he asked, and she immediately froze in place, stunned by his all too accurate deduction. As she had always known, he was just too sharp for her to hide this away for long, and now, he was going to make her spill everything. Hiyori was immediately gripped by apprehension – she did not want to talk about this at all.

For Shinji, the way she stilled was already indication that he had hit the nail right on the head. The increasing look of panic on her face made something in his chest clench, and despite himself, a cold sensation started to crawl up his spine. He had always assumed that he knew her heart inside out, but right now, in light of her increasingly strange responses and odd, continuous evasion of him, he could not help but doubt a little. If he was wrong about her steadfast, albeit grumpy, affection towards him –

Shinji's expression slowly grew tight as well, but his dark golden eyes burned fiercely as they met her own wild, cornered ones.

"I'm not gonna insult ya by askin' if ya've got somethin' goin' on with that boy," he started out once more, this time a bit stiffly. He was trying his best not to let the growing jealousy and possessive anger leak out into his tone, and it was a struggle to keep his reiatsu from flaring out with his increasing agitation. "But just tell me this one thing. Do ya really like him that much?"

Hiyori just looked at him for the longest time, her features slowly scrunching up with confusion, her tension slowly leaking away to be replaced by sheer bewilderment. "Huh?" she blurted out. "Who?" What the hell was he talking about?

Shinji's jaw was clenched, the muscle ticking slightly with his rising displeasure. She was going to make him spell it out for her, and for once, he did not quite appreciate this extremely maddening side of her personality. "That Third Seat from the Twelfth Division," he gritted out. "Do ya like him that much?"

Hiyori continued to stare at him. The smaller blonde did not know why he was suddenly bringing up Akon (of all people) in the middle of their other more important conversation, but right now, she was feeling too thankful for the diversion to care. The petite female grabbed at the god sent, change of topic with both hands (figuratively), becoming just a little less guarded as the discussion veered off from the earlier very awkward subject of her personal affection to – huh?

Hiyori did not know why her lover was being so interested about what she thought of the black-haired Shinigami who also happened to be her ex-colleague, but she could sense his overwhelming irritation all the same. What was he being so uptight about?

"Akon's okay, I s'pose," she replied slowly at last. "He always feeds me and stuff."

If anything, Shinji's glower deepened, and he seemed immensely frustrated by her flippant reply. "Is that all?" he asked, his tone still rather clipped and stilted. Hiyori started to stiffen again – she did not appreciate being interrogated like this, and he sounded so frigid and hostile that it was starting to piss her off as well. This dumbass here might happen to be the love of her life, but he'd better watch his words or she'd kicked his ass all over the warehouse, love or no love.

Shinji could not quite tell if Hiyori was simply trying to be funny or if she was being perfectly serious – he was not amused, either way. Beyond that, his jealousy was starting to get out of hand as his mind helpfully provided very cozy images of that thrice-damned Akon affectionately hand feeding his brat, and the latter being more than willing to submit to the tender ministrations of the other Death God.

If the lanky blonde wasn't so agitated and visibly stewing in his anger, he would have paused to consider that the above scenario was highly unlikely, since there was no way in hell that Hiyori would have agreed to being hand fed by anyone – barring extenuating circumstances, that was. But jealousy was not exactly a rational emotion, and speaking of feeding, the Gobantai Taichou was suddenly experiencing a most powerful urge to march back to Urahara's shop and personally hand feed his zanpakuto to Akon, business end first.

"Don't accept anythin' from him from now on," Shinji ordered then. "I absolutely forbid it. I'll feed ya all ya want, so don't go 'round beggin' food from other men."

Hiyori just looked at Shinji like he had suddenly sprouted a second head. The fact that he was telling her what to do was also not sitting well with her whatsoever, and he made her sound like some stray animal that was going around accepting scraps from random people.

"Don't order me 'round," she snapped at him, suddenly incensed by his highhanded demeanor. "I'm not one of yer Shinigami lackeys. Ya don't get 'ta tell me what 'ta do."

Shinji stiffened at her belligerent tone. Usually, he would have let it go, but this time, her defiance rubbed him the wrong way.

"Yer not my lackey, but yer my girl," he told her coolly, his expression hard and unyielding. "And I don't want ya so close 'ta other guys, Hiyori."

Her first instinct was to punch him, but then her eyes locked with his narrowed, angry ones, and Hiyori quickly realized that he was truly furious. Shinji was usually quite hard to agitate – his temper was pretty slow to ignite and she would admit that she had blatantly taken advantage of his easygoing nature more often than she should have. But right now, something had obviously set him off – she had seen him angry before but he had never directed the full force of his displeasure at her.

It didn't take Hiyori long to decide that she didn't like it very much when her lover was being mad at her.

"What the hell's wrong with ya?" she demanded at last then. "Why are ya so angry?"

He could hardly believe that she was asking the obvious. "Am I s'posed 'ta pretend that there's nothin' wrong with ya likin' another guy?" he responded sharply, and slowly, it began to dawn on Hiyori what was going on here. The pigtailed Vizard could not believe what she was seeing and hearing, and she just stared at him for a really long time, the strangest expression on her face.

"Are ya jealous?" she blurted out at last, sounding utterly incredulous, and he was so piqued at the moment that he didn't even deny it.

"Ya were runnin' 'round with another man all the time nowadays and ya also kept avoidin' me," he muttered back, his tone curt. "How the hell else am I s'posed 'ta feel?"

She hadn't really thought that he'd interpret her recent evasive maneuvers around him in this manner. Hiyori just blinked at the highly agitated, possessive male. "I'm tellin' ya right now, brat. I don't care if ya like this 'Akon' or what, but I ain't sharin' ya with anyone," he told her flat out.

Reaching out towards her, Shinji grabbed her by the wrist and tugged her bodily to him. This time, she did not fight him. He arranged her before him on the bed and then he cupped her cheeks with his hands, tilting her face up slightly so that he could look her in the eye. "Yer mine," he reiterated resolutely. "Ya gave yerself 'ta me, and I'm keepin' ya for better or for worse. That means ya don't get 'ta change yer mind anymore – yer stuck with me."

She blinked at him. His forceful words made her heart flutter – just a bit. She would never admit it, of course. Hiyori tried to look away from him, but he wasn't having any of that – at least not until they had settled this issue once and for all.

"D-Dumbass," the smaller blonde retorted at last, starting to get slightly nervous again. "I never said that I liked Akon that way!" A random thought occurred to her then, and the female Vizard started to glower ferociously at her lover. "Wait. Did ya think that I was two-timin' ya?" she demanded next, starting to get furious that he thought so little of her.

Shinji did not hesitate. "No. I don't believe that yer capable of that, Hiyori." She was too loyal and proud to sneak around that way, and he did trust her. He just did not know what to make of her uncharacteristic, continuous evasion of him – she had never done anything like that before – and coupled with her recent close association with another man, Shinji was understandably…concerned.

Okay, so he was jealous as all hell, and who could blame him?

The Shinigami Captain frowned slightly then, registering his lover's words. "But ya like him, or at the very least, ya implied that ya do," he pointed out.

Hiyori looked like she wanted to hit him then. "Well, I don't dislike Akon," she snapped, starting to get really peeved with this interrogation session. "We hang out and he gives me food and he also lets me kick him 'round – what's there 'ta dislike?"

Shinji stiffened again, this time with visible outrage. "He lets ya kick him 'round?" the fine-haired blonde repeated, his features darkening. He frowned fiercely at her. "Ya do know that the boy likes ya, right?"

Hiyori shrugged carelessly. "I'm awesome, of course people will like me and wanna be 'round me," she bragged, and he started to look exasperated. This little idiot; she had no idea at all. He should have known.

"Akon has romantic intentions towards ya," Shinji replied sharply. "Hangin' 'round ya, feedin' ya, and lettin' ya beat on him – he's givin' in 'ta ya because he's sweet on ya and is interested in courtin' ya."

The Gobantai Taichou would know, having gone through the exact same motions with his lover before, and therefore he was hardly pleased that someone else was trying the same approach with her. Hiyori, to her credit, looked rather surprised by Shinji's flat statement.

"…Wait. What? Akon like-likes me?" The pigtailed female was briefly bewildered that such a thing could happen. She was completely nonplussed by the idea. Then, another thought swiftly occurred to her, and she blurted out. "Oh. Does that make him my 'first love' now?"

Shinji was not amused. "No," he snapped. "He's not yer anything,' so don't start gettin' any ideas." Before she could frown and point out how unfair it was that he had his 'loves' but not her, he continued. "I'm yer first love and yer last love. I'm also yer only lover, so like I said, yer stuck with me."

He was very determined to impress that fact upon her. Not that he actually believed that she would try anything untoward, but Hiyori possessed a curiosity that was like a cat's – unbound and somewhat, inadvertently, destructive. Also, at the same time, she could be quite unguarded and easily impressionable about certain matters as well, and therefore he could not help but worry.

Hiyori glowered at Shinji. She looked like she was about to protest for the sake of protesting as usual, but he cut her off before she could actually do so – while he didn't mind her argumentative nature most of the time, the current topic was not up for discussion at all and her dogged persistence in discussing it was needling him something fierce.

Narrowing his eyes sternly at her, he demanded. "What else are ya hidin' from me, Hiyori?" Shinji hadn't missed the fact that she was indeed concealing something from him. If it wasn't the matter with Akon like he had originally assumed, then it was definitely something else, something big enough to merit her unusually evasive behavior towards him recently. Sure enough, Hiyori quickly clammed up once again, and she immediately scrambled to get away. Unfortunately for her, he still had a firm hold over her, and he took advantage of it to quickly flip her onto her back on the mattress beside him. Then, he simply held her down; it was not a difficult thing to do once he put his mind into it – she was small in size and he was very strong, after all.

"Damn baldy!" she yelled, her face becoming flushed with agitation as she tried to wiggle lose from his hold but to no avail. "Leggo!"

"No," he denied her flatly. "Now, spill. Why've ya been avoidin' me recently?" She looked rather stubborn and determined to keep her silence, and so he continued. "We can do this the hard way or we can do this the easy way. Either one ya choose, we're gonna be gettin' this sorted out today, so ya might as well just give in already and tell me the truth."

If anything, Hiyori's expression just turned even redder, and a look of increasing desperation crossed her freckled features. Her reaction was rather alarming – what on earth could have spooked her off so badly?

"Hiyori, what's wrong with ya?" he asked, and then a disquieting thought occurred to him. Shinji's fingers went up to touch her face, and he started to look worried. "Are ya not feelin' well or somethin'? Do ya need 'ta see a doctor?"

He was clearly fussing over her again, but this time, his genuine concern struck a deep chord in her. He had been quite unhappy with her earlier, but he was more than willing to put that aside to care for her wellbeing instead. She had been doing her best to avoid him too, and even though it wasn't her intention, she had upset, and maybe even hurt, him in the process. And yet here he was now, and something in Hiyori's gut clenched.

The petite female shook her head quickly, refusing all of his offers of assistance. He was leaning over her still, and she took advantage of his position to reach up and grab him by his haori. She pulled him down, and then determinedly pushed him onto his back and crawled on top of him instead, unceremoniously curling up on his chest and burying her face in the side of his neck. Truly, only he could convince her to drop her guarded and wary demeanor so quickly and instantaneously. Immediately, his familiar presence, his comforting scent and warmth surrounded her, soothing her agitation.

"I'm not sick," she mumbled against him, her voice so soft that he nearly missed the words. "Yer drivin' me crazy, dumbass."

Shinji was taken aback by the abruptness of her action and admission, and he also wasn't quite sure what to make of her strange words. But she wasn't trying to get away from him anymore, so he simply remained as he was, non-threatening and patient, waiting for her to explain herself. His arms came up around her to hold her, and she tensed slightly before she slowly relaxed into his embrace. He started to rub her back, and she eased further. Her fists clenched into the lapels of his black shihakusho.

"Talk 'ta me," he told her simply. She was so jittery and nervous, like a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs, and he just wanted to calm her down.

"Ya scare the hell outta me," she confessed after a while of silence. He paused briefly, surprised by her unexpected reply. He was tempted to ask what she meant, but in the end, he decided not to interrupt and just resumed stroking her, keeping his silence as he just let her speak her mind. "I can't fight ya. Yer gonna hurt me real bad one day."

Shinji continued to caress her back.

"Yer gonna kill me," she somberly predicted with absolutely certainty. "Rip my heart right outta my chest and take it with ya as ya go, and I- I won't survive."

She was still speaking into his neck, studiously not looking at him at all. "I don't like this at all. I hate it," she muttered. "I want it 'ta stop – yer screwin' with my head and I hate it. Yer slowly turnin' me into someone I don't recognize – yer makin' me weak, dammit!"

She really detested this aspect of their relationship – he made her feel so vulnerable, and for someone like her, who had spent all of her afterlife clawing her way up from the pits of Rukongai, struggling to become stronger, this was utterly terrifying. She started to quiver in his arms, and the urge to pull away from him and conceal her soft, exposed underbelly like an animal was overwhelming.

He did not allow her retreat however – so this was why she had been so spooked recently. Just like that, the rest of his earlier tension and displeasure flowed away.

"Hiyori," Shinji sighed her name softly, turning his head to hers to lightly kiss her ear. "I'll let ya in on a secret – ya make me weak too."

She immediately lifted her head to scowl at him. "Lies," she hissed, bristling and visibly offended. "Yer strong and I bet yer never scared of anythin'."

He looked at her like she was being ridiculous, but there was a soft light in his eyes.

"Yer wrong," he told her honestly. "I'm just a man, luv – I feel the same things as ya do."

She looked like she wanted to protest, but he continued to speak, looking at her calmly and steadily as he did so.

"Ya already hold my heart in the palm of your hands," he told her rather tenderly and solemnly, soothing her as best as he could. "I'm pretty sure that I'd die first before I even try 'ta do anythin' 'ta hurt ya."

His words were wry, but she easily sensed his sincerity. Frozen, she could not seem to speak in reply for a while, and ended up tucking her face back against the side of his neck once more, her grip on him tightening slightly as she did so. He did not force the issue, pleased that she seemed to have received his message loud and clear, and he lifted a hand to stroke her hair absently. The quiet peace and innate understanding flowing between them at the moment contented him, and he was more than happy to remain as he was with her curled on top of him.

It was a long while before Hiyori spoke again, and she raised her head to look him in the eye.

"Shinji?"

Her voice was slightly nervous, but quite obviously lacking her earlier panicked distress. She sounded braver now, more determined, her stubborn, fiery spirit flowing back into her body once more.

"Yeah?"

She swallowed hard, gathered up all of her courage, and then she blurted out.

"I…I-I l-love ya."

Her voice was uncharacteristically timid and soft, her tone trembling with fear, cracking towards the end as she forced out the words that had been sitting in her mouth for all these while, but to Shinji, it was the most beautiful sound in the world.

His golden eyes darkened as he looked at her tensed features – she never did very well when it came to such emotional matters, but now she was confronting it for him, and that already told him how important he was to her, to merit such special consideration from her. In that single wobbling, unsteady, sentence, she had finally acknowledged her bond to him, trusting enough in him to offer up her heart to him for safekeeping, even though she was obviously so shaken by the experience.

Hiyori was not someone who would give herself up easily or even willingly put herself in a vulnerable position – she must have been agonizing over this for a while already, and the fact that she obviously took these three words – this commitment to him – so seriously touched him very much.

She was just so damn sweet, and he quickly found himself mesmerized by her special brand of charm once again.

Shinji tugged her down to him and kissed her gently on the mouth.

"Mm. I know. I love ya too, brat."

::tsuzuku::

Questions That I Would Like To Answer Before You Ask:

Getting Hiyori to finally spit out those three words was seriously harder than herding a bunch of cats and pulling teeth, at the same time. I'm glad that's done and over with, though the misunderstanding part of this arc had been really fun to write.

Longwinded, conciliatory smut sequence coming up next chapter, I guess.

Thanks for sticking with me still, and 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