Title: Lily and Thistle
Author: paws_bells
Characters/Pairing: Sarugaki Hiyori and Hirako Shinji
Type: One-shot Collection (InComplete)
Genre: Romance/Humor
Word Count: 2909
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.
Chapter Last Revised on: 17/07/17
The Hardest Words – Part IV
Hiyori stared at Shinji for the longest while. The expression on her face was not that of a blushing maiden in love, but rather, the petite female looked like she was suffering from a really bad case of indigestion instead.
"What do ya mean, 'ya know?'" she demanded then, frowning slightly at him as she did so. "How could ya know? I've never confessed before!"
Technically, she had. She just happened to be completely out of her usual frame of mind when she had done so, so inebriated that she did not even remember the things that she had done – or said – during her alcohol induced haze when she woke up the next morning. Seeing that it had taken her conscious self so much effort and courage to just blurt out those three words, Shinji didn't think that she was going to appreciate the fact that her more openly affectionate subconscious had already jumped the gun and declared her undying adoration and devotion to him a couple of years back.
The Gobantai Taichou sighed, and then he curled his arms around his annoyed lover and tugged her close. She was starting to bristle, as if personally affronted by his knowledge of her (supposedly) well-guarded secret.
"I'm not blind. Or deaf. Or completely oblivious," Shinji uttered exasperatedly. "Even though ya never say the words – I know."
She scowled at him then, her forehead twitching something fierce. The visibly irritated female immediately freed a small fist to punch him in the shoulder. Shinji winced – as always, Hiyori never saw the need to control her strength when it came to him. "If ya already knew, why didn't ya just say so!" she yelled at him, growing increasingly red faced with displeasure. "Ya would have saved me the trouble of confessin' in the first place!"
The larger Vizard caught her hand before she could have another go at him – this time aiming specifically for his head. He grunted slightly when she kicked him in the ankle then, and at last he quickly switched their positions and pinned her under him. "Okay, first of all, I had no idea this was what ya've been agonizin' 'bout – ya've been avoidin' me like the plague for the past few weeks, remember? I may be highly perceptive, brat, but I ain't omniscient."
She was still glowering at him though, and he continued, his tone lowering even as he leaned in and nuzzled her cheek at the same time. "'Sides, just 'cause I know doesn't mean that I don't wanna hear the words right from ya mouth."
Hiyori started to turn a darker shade of crimson. "I'm not gonna say it again," she blurted out, sounding quite agitated. "I'm never gonna say it again, so ya better have heard it loud and clear just now, 'cuz it ain't happenin' again!"
She was obvious flustered and highly embarrassed from showing this vulnerable side of her, literally presenting her heart up on a silver platter for him to do as he pleased, and she wasn't enjoying it at all. Shinji could make an educated guess regarding just why she was so agitated, and before she could bluster some more, he lowered his head and kissed her.
"I love ya, Hiyori," he told her affectionately and she sputtered. He did not allow her to pull away no matter how loudly she swore and struggled. The fine-haired blonde simply waited until she reluctantly settled back down, and then he caught her gaze with his.
"I. Love. Ya," he repeated steadily, and if anything, his calm, even declaration just made her stutter even more. Whenever he was out of (what she dubbed as) his Idiot Mode, she usually had trouble dismissing him because when Shinji was serious, he was dead serious. "Yer neither a game nor a conquest 'ta me, stupid. Our relationship's not gonna end just 'cause ya finally got 'round 'ta sayin' those three words. I won't deny that it'd please me 'ta hear them from ya every now and then, though."
He was so matter of fact about the whole thing but Hiyori was hardly impressed. The petite female was starting to feel a bit cornered, and the look in her eyes said as much.
"I won't ever harm ya, ya know that, right?" he asked her. She was diligently trying her best to avoid his gaze, but with him so near, that was a futile effort at best. Mildly exasperated by her mulish behavior, he continued. "Do ya trust me, Hiyori?"
She glared at him.
"Yes," the fiesty blonde spat out at last. "I trust ya. But I'm also gonna punch ya straight in the face if ya don't stop buggin' me, ya shitty baldy!"
He was aware that she would totally make good on her threat if pushed hard enough, but this time, he was not backing down.
"Good. At least that's one less thing for me 'ta worry 'bout," he told her, and then, much to her outrage, he proceeded to invoke a restraining Kido spell that immediately caused her arms to be snapped up and over her head on the bed, her wrists bound together by his reiatsu. The pure, energy bonds did not hurt her, but when she tried to break free by forcing the issue and flaring her spiritual energy, he simply matched her brute pressure with his own. It didn't take her long to understand that the reiatsu ties were still actively connected to him – which meant that unless he willed it, she wasn't going anywhere.
"Damn hage!" she hissed indignantly, still tugging fiercely on the bonds even though she knew just how futile the act was. "What the hell do ya think yer doin'?!"
Her idiot lover merely eyed her carefully and made sure that she was indeed firmly secured (and literally fit to be tied, pun fully intended) before replying. "Well, brat, I don't know what yer so scared of-"
"I'm not scared of anythin'!" she burst out angrily, baring her sharp little fang and interrupting him rather abruptly. He ignored her and simply continued to speak.
"-but that's definitely not the way 'ta go, so let's try 'ta get a handle on it-"
"There's nothin' 'ta 'get a handle on!'" she insisted, growling with frustration even as she was still flopping about like a landed fish. It was obvious that she was going to be as difficult about it as she could, but since she was currently stuck and unable to flee or retaliate, she was just going to have to go along with his suggestion. Or rather, direction.
"Yer afraid of love because 'ta ya, that's a weakness – somethin' negative," Shinji observed then, much to Hiyori's outrage. "That ain't right at all, so we're gonna have 'ta change that faulty thinkin' of yers."
"Shinji. I swear 'ta god!" the petite female yelled, becoming increasingly agitated as she did so. Her current immobility (and general inability to strangle her other half) was also pissing her off something fierce "STOP FUCKIN' PSYCHOANALYZING ME. AND LEMME GO ALREADY, SHITHEAD."
"Luckily, there's this thing called positive reinforcement – we'll try that and see how it goes," Shinji announced nonchalantly, disregarding the venomous glare that the tiny blonde was shooting at him. "It's called the 'Carrot and Stick' approach."
She immediately made a very disgusted expression.
"I HATE carrots – do I look like a dumb herbivore rabbit 'ta ya?! And what are ya gonna do? Beat me with a stick?!" she demanded. "Are ya gonna torture me or somethin'?"
He looked briefly appalled by her mistaken assumption. "No. I'm not gonna beat or torture ya – that's an idiom, stupid."
She glowered at him. "Stupid, stupid- Stop callin' me stupid, ya stupid!"
"…That sounded really stupid," he deadpanned at last, and she looked like she wanted to kill him then. "Alright, alright. Ya ain't stupid. But you'd definitely know what I was talkin' 'bout if ya read more than just manga."
It wasn't that Hiyori was illiterate – that was hardly the case at all. All Lieutenants, past and present, had to pass the basic literacy proficiency test to in order to handle the bureaucratic responsibilities of their respective Division. It was just that Hiyori had no particular love for books, especially the really wordy ones. Books were boring, and when she had served as Kisuke's Fukutaichou, she had been forced to read her share of scientific journals and research materials, and the subjects had been so dull and dry that the brunette had been thoroughly traumatized by the horrid experience. She wasn't going to touch any damn book any more than strictly necessary, thank you very much.
"Anyway, ya know that cartoon where the cart driver would tie a carrot on a string 'ta a long stick and dangle it in front of the donkey, just outta its reach? The cart driver's offerin' the carrot as a positive reward 'ta the donkey so that it'd be willin' 'ta move and pull the cart – that's the basis behind the 'Carrot and Stick' approach," Shinji explained. "The other one, the 'Carrot or Stick' approach is different – it refers to a policy of offering a combination of rewards and punishment 'ta induce behavior-"
"I don't give a shit!" she cut him off belligerently before he could finish. "I don't wanna do it! Leggo!"
Then, Hiyori stiffened with outrage as she finally registered what Shinji had just said. "WHO ARE YA CALLIN' A DONKEY, YA ASS?!"
She was so offended by his commentary that her reiatsu spiked, and her lover had to drastically increase the strength of his bonds to keep her from breaking free. She hissed at him like an angry feline, and when she tried to kick out at him too, he deftly trapped her legs beneath his own.
"How dare ya call me a donkey?!" Hiyori growled. She looked dangerously angry, and just in case, Shinji wisely kept out of his lover's strike range – she was terrifyingly adept at using her forehead to lash out at unsuspecting individuals (namely himself) whenever her hands were tied (this time literally), and her skull must have been made of solid steel, for it certainly felt like his forehead had collided with an incoming cannonball every time she nailed him with a headshot.
"I never called ya a donkey," he retorted. "And besides, that was just an analogy."
"Yeah, right, ya damn baldy! Where I'm the donkey and yer the cart driver – I ain't dumb!"
"No, ya certainly aren't dumb," Shinji muttered under his breath. "Yer just mulishly stubborn, is all."
Unfortunately for him, his remark was hardly well received by the petite blonde. Her small face turned even more flushed with anger as her features scrunched up with unhappiness. "HAH! So ya finally admit it! Ya think that I'm like a mule - a donkey! Ya think yer too good for the likes of me now, aren't ya? It's because I finally said those words, isn't that right?"
Shinji didn't know how on earth she could make such ridiculous leaps of logic, but by now, he knew better than to ask. He was aware of what she was trying to do though, and if she thought that he was going to let her change the topic so easily, then she was going to be in for a big surprise.
"Ya know that's not what I mean, brat," he told her.
"Then what else could ya mean?" she snapped, her ochre eyes burning ferociously even though she was physically incapacitated. It was pretty apparent that she wasn't going to calm easily, and, knowing her like he did, would likely do her best to raise hell now that her primary 'flight' option had been disabled by him. There was only one way to placate her now, it seemed.
Without saying anything more, he suddenly dropped his full weight on top of her, covering her slight figure with his own larger, rangy one and falling face first on her chest. She grunted at having to support his mass – he was heavy despite his lean build, his body lined with sleek, sinewy muscle that made him a lot stronger than he looked. Hiyori stiffened unhappily – she still had quite a beef that had yet to be settled with him, after all.
However, before the smaller blonde could re-gather her displeasure and aim them at him once more, he suddenly spoke up.
"I'm an ass," he abruptly declared then, and his random remark worked enough to make her pause slightly in confusion.
Huh?
He shifted slightly and turned his face up to look at her visibly bewildered features.
"If yer the donkey, then I'm the ass, alright?" he elaborated. "So that makes us a matchin' pair."
She gaped at him stupidly for a while before her brow started to knit together once more. She was hardly appeased by his reply.
"DON'T CHANGE THE SUBJECT. YA STILL CALLED ME A DONKEY, YA DICKHEAD," she screeched.
Okay, perhaps this wasn't his brightest idea, but now that he had started it, there was no choice but to see it through.
"Yeah, but yer a really cute 'lil donkey," Shinji told the bristling female, attempting to appeal to her vanity. She hissed at him indignantly. Okay. Still no dice. "Will it help if I remind ya that ya hold my heart in yer hands?"
"Go 'ta hell," she snapped at him, but at the same time, she seemed to be subsiding in her fury, her tone more bluster than bite, and she was also diligently avoiding his gaze again. His brat could be so ridiculously adorable sometimes, he thought fondly, and now was one of those moments. Shinji briefly calculated his chances and decided that he had more than a fair probability of getting away with what he was about to do next.
Tilting his head slightly, he brought his face to the side of her neck and laid a kiss on her clavicle. She stiffened, but he paid her no heed, nuzzling her demonstratively instead. He brushed his mouth softly against her skin, then parted his lips and gently nipped at her. She jumped at the sensation, but when his tongue darted out to lazily flick against the little red mark that he had just put there, she shuddered and could not quite seem to keep a squeak from escaping her mouth.
Shinji smiled into the side of her throat. He could not deny that her innate response to him was extremely flattering and reassuring all the same. The lean, handsome male pulled back slightly and looked down at her beloved, flushed features.
"Yer utterly lovable, Hiyori," he told her affectionately, and the tiny female sputtered like a dying engine. His lips curled into a small smirk. "Shall we play a 'lil game?"
The smaller female was immediately wary of his deceptively innocent drawl. "I don't wanna," she blurted out at last, growling somewhat as she did so. "Yer games suck."
She never won whenever they played any of his stupid games, anyway. Actually, come to think of it, she wasn't really sure if there were even any winners at all; they usually got so distracted towards the end that- never mind.
And right now, Hiyori was very sure that she was not in the mood to be distracted at all.
"My games do not suck," Shinji replied, looking briefly offended. "Yer just a sore loser, is all."
"I'M NOT," she snapped back. Grinning slightly, he brought his face nearer to hers and evenly challenged.
"Prove it."
"Yer on," she barked in return, only to belatedly realized that she had just been had. Her indignant feline eyes snapped up to his. "Just wait a fuckin' minute-"
He didn't wait, of course, merely reached over and kissed her deeply. A muffled protest escaped her throat, but he was occupying her mouth so thoroughly that she couldn't get the words out. When he pulled back, she was flushed and her lips were red, and she was trying to scowl at him but failing. He chuckled softly.
"Shinji, ya damn lousy shithead-" she started, only for him to silkily interrupt.
"A deal's a deal, luv," he reminded her amusedly, but she was hardly as jovial.
"Ya tricked me," she accused. "And this is one of yer schemes again, ain't it? That stupid 'positive reinforcement' thing-" Hiyori's brow started to furrow. "Wait, isn't that for trainin' dogs?"
"I don't know what yer talkin' 'bout," he quickly cut her off before she could say anymore. "Anyway, the rule for this game is real simple. Every time ya say those three words, ya will be rewarded."
Hiyori immediately stiffened. She could immediately guess what 'those three words' were. Her ochre eyes glared at him.
"No!" she blurted out. "I ain't playin' this stupid game! This is blackmail!
He shook his head at her. "Hardly," he replied with a soft scoff. "I don't know who taught ya 'ta think that it's bad 'ta love, but that person's wrong – and their teachings suck. So consider this yer reeducation."
Hiyori was sputtering once again, and she was also trying to wiggle free from her Kido bonds but to no avail. "I don't need no stinkin' reeducation! Damn baldy, who do ya think ya are! Let go!"
"Nuh-uh," Shinji purred silkily, almost teasingly. "Yer subject 'ta my tender mercies tonight, brat, and I'm not gonna be satisfied till I hear those words from yer mouth, again and again~"
::tsuzuku::
Questions That I Would Like To Answer Before You Ask:
As promised on tumblr, here's the next instalment! Sorry it took me so long, ahhh. I just really, seriously hate the editing part before putting up my chapters so my procrastinating ass kept prolonging the inevitable, but I hope you enjoyed the ShiYori shenanigans, ahaha.
Poor Shinji – love hurts (literally), though I don't blame Hiyori for whaling on him because his pickup lines were really terrible (so he kinda brought it on himself), lol.
As always, thanks for reading and supporting! Hope that you guys are doing well and still alive, yeah? :)
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-paws