Mayuri Kurotsuchi found himself caught in deep thought as he made his way down the small hallway from the main lab. When he had received notice from Yoruichi Shihoin that she had in fact found him another pair of hands he hadn't thought much of it and when he had noticed the new recruit was a female it had never occurred to him that she would be a pretty one. While he had to admit her body was one of the most perfectly curved he had yet to witness, what interested him more was her flawed eyesight. He smiled to himself as he silently thought about how unusual the color of her eyes where, such a vivid shade of green.
One could say that when the woman's Celadon gaze looked upon them it had an almost eerie sense of captivation, he himself could not have ignored them if he tried. The dark scar tissue that marred the beautiful Iris of her right eye felt to be mocking him, while he was one to always state that perfection was something that did not exist and should never be something one would strive for, he found himself staring back at something that could very well be the personification of perfect beauty in his eyes, that is if he could manage to rid her of the flaw that marred that said beauty.
"Is everything alright Captain?" He heard his Lieutenant ask as they stepped into Mayuri's own personal lab space.
"Everything is fine, why would it not be?" He replied as he tried to push the thought of the young woman out of his mind.
He had more important things to fill it with then the thought of some woman he didn't even know being attractive. He had witnessed many forms of beauty over his long life and he didn't see the point in letting something so base level such as attraction sidetrack his personal endeavors.
"Ayumi seems to be a very sweet woman." Akon stated seeming to zero in on exactly what Mayuri was trying to push away.
"Tch. Yes well, let us not let it go to our heads, she is here to be of help to us, nothing more." He replied to his Lieutenant.
Akon's lips lifted into a half-grin.
Mayuri paused and narrowed his golden gaze at his Lieutenant.
Akon wiped the knowing smirk from his face and decided against bating his own Captain. It wasn't like the man to show such kind hearted interest in a female, Akon wondered if his Captain may have picked up on what he had seen in the young woman's eyes. The way she had looked up at him and the blush that had taken over her cheeks told Akon that she felt more than just admiration for their Captain but it was not Akon's place to point it out to him if he in fact had not noticed it himself. He also had a feeling that the next couple weeks as the woman became more comfortable were going to be for lack of a better term…entertaining.
Ayumi followed Rin down yet another dimly lit hallway as they took a break from work in order to eat lunch. He had already shown her the Squad 12's cafeteria earlier but she had to admit she didn't know what hallway would lead her back too it. He explained to her that Captain Kurotsuchi had taken it upon himself to set up a system when it came to the Squads meals. Certain officers would switch out and take turns cooking for themselves and the whole Division that way when the time came to pause and eat it didn't take too much time. The officers were broken up into color coded groups and each group had a time frame for when they could eat their meals as well as when they worked. She found it interesting that the Squad was one of the only ones who worked in three shifts in order for the Soul Society to be under constant surveillance as a protective measure. She found the information a bit comforting to know that someone was always looking out for all of their best interests.
While she was working with Rin she would be awake during the first shift and she was informed that she would fall into the color code of blue that represented that schedule, her shift would start at Eight AM and if she wanted breakfast she would be expected to show up no later than half past the hour of seven to receive it. Her lunches wouldn't be until noon and then her dinner would be served promptly at six exactly one hour after her shift ended in the evening. She was however allowed to go out and pay for her own meals if she wished but Rin had not recommended it too her explaining that the Captain and the Lieutenant had no tolerance for anyone returning late.
"I hope I don't end up getting lost tomorrow." Ayumi admitted her fear out loud to Rin.
His lips lifted in a slight grin as he looked over at her.
"My room is only a couple doors down from yours since I am going to be your lab partner for the next few months I have no problem walking with you until you figure everything out." He replied.
Ayumi couldn't help but feel relieved and extremely grateful for his kindness.
"You have my deepest thanks, Rin. I wouldn't want to upset Lieutenant Akon or Captain Kurotsuchi by constantly being tardy." She replied.
"Are you always this awkward or are you just nervous?" He asked bluntly.
Ayumi's jaw fell slack at his question.
"I guess you could say awkward is something I come by naturally unfortunately." She replied back feeling a bit sheepish.
Rin let out a small laugh as he pulled another lollipop from his pocket even though they had just entered the cafeteria.
"You seem to like sweets." She pointed out yet again making herself feel awkward for pointing out something that seemed so obvious.
He raised his brow at her as he placed the bright pink candy in his mouth.
"I love sweets. I can never get enough of them. I went to the human world once, they have this thing there called cake,it's the best thing I've ever eaten." He explained as his eyes filled with excitement.
She laughed softly feeling a bit better about her question.
"Have you tried to make one of these cakes here?" She asked him.
"I have, but for some reason they don't turn out the same here, I can't place what I am doing wrong." He replied back as he walked over to the line of officers waiting to be served their lunch on silver metal trays.
She looked over and seen that it looked as if Chicken Curry and Rice was going to be the main course for the day and she had to admit the smell wafting from the buffet style set up made her mouth water. She had not eaten anything since the night before and her hunger was catching up with her.
"Have you thought about asking one of the women who live here? One of the Human Substitute Soul Reapers?" She asked him.
Rin looked over at her and smiled at the mention of the two women who had previously been brought over from the human world almost three years ago, they had caused quite the uproar for a time making the Soul Society a pretty entertaining place to live. Both women had supernatural abilities along with their Soul Reaper Powers. Amaya Aizen and Linake Zaraki were both now married to their past love interests and it seemed to be working rather well now that the two women were in fact considered to be seated Officers within the Gotei 13.
"I haven't actually…I wasn't aware that the students in the academy even knew about them?" Rin countered.
Ayumi smiled back at him as a slight blush spread across her cheeks.
"Most don't, I read Captain Kurotsuchi's papers on his study of the two women a couple years ago and when I asked Lady Yoruichi about them she had informed me of their current status." She explained.
"Oh I see, so you must follow the Captain's work quite closely then?" He asked her as the line moved forward a little bit.
"Yes, I have." She admitted.
Rin pulled the pink sucker from his mouth and looked to be thinking deeply about something.
"You know… you might be on to something with your idea. Amaya is with the punishment force now so she rarely has much free time but I might ask Linake if she knows how to bake a decent cake." He rambled as his eyes seemed to glaze over from the thought of digging in to the precious invention.
"Is she the one married to Captain Zaraki?" She asked.
Rin let out a small chuckle.
"She is actually. I am guessing you have already been briefed on the notorious captain of Squad 11?" he asked.
Ayumi nodded before she replied.
"I don't think there is a person in the Soul Society who hasn't." She replied with a half-laugh.
Rin smiled as he bent forward and grabbed a silver tray from the stack at the end of the metal counter and then handed it to her. She accepted it as he reached for another for himself and then moved methodically down the assembly line. He grabbed a clean plate from the stack and a pair of disposable chop sticks and sat them both down on his tray as he slid it down the counter and he waited for his turn to fill his plate. Ayumi followed his lead by reaching out and grabbing a plate and a pair of chopsticks for herself and sat them down on her own tray.
She turned her gaze and looked around the room for a minute trying to familiarize herself with her new surroundings. After spending a good chunk of her life living at the Academy and falling into a routine that left her on her own most of the time she found herself feeling a little bit over stimulated by the day's events and it was only half way over. She was growing physically tired from all of the interaction already but she wasn't going to let her natural introverted nature stop her from making a place for herself within the Squad.
She turned her attention back to the line as Rin stood forward and helped himself to the food. She pushed her tray down the counter top and reached out for the serving utensil and helped herself to a small portion of steamed of rice and a generous portion of Chicken Curry hoping that the protein boost from her lunch would help her mind sharpen and she would be able to remember at least something Rin was trying to teach her tomorrow. Rin made his way down the counter and stopped at the end were a Tea station was set up with multiple pots of varying teas that seemed to be freshly brewed. Ayumi stared down at her options and pondered to herself whether or not a nice dose of something caffeinated would help with her focus? She decided that it couldn't hurt as she reached out and grabbed the pot that was labeled Black Tea and lifted a clay cup from the counter and carefully poured herself some of the dark liquid taking her time to add a couple spoonful's of honey to sweeten the deal before she placed the cup on her tray and turned her attention to her superior.
"I actually tend to eat my lunches away from the crowd most of the time. You are free to join me outside if you would like." Rin informed her as he started walking in the opposite direction of tables that filled the cafeteria.
She paused for a second thinking about her options and decided it would be best not to separate herself from him until she could manage to figure out the labyrinth of hallways on her own.
"As long as I won't be a bother to you, I would prefer to join you." She replied politely.
"I figured that would be the case, either way I didn't want you to feel obligated to follow." The youthful looking Soul replied to her with a slight grin on his lips.
It seemed that the pink sucker had been devoured and he had already disposed of the white stick. She silently followed as he continued to walk down yet another hallway that seemed to lead them to a large door. He lifted his hand and pressed his palm against a square panel that was shaped like a hand and she watched as a green light lit up seeming to scan his fingerprints. The doors lock made a loud click right before he pushed it open. Ayumi looked forward as the door swung open revealing a small court yard that the building had seemed to be built around, it wasn't much of an outdoor space with their only being two picnic tables and a rusted metal container filled with dirt and old cigarette butts placed in-between the two tables. She guessed that this was actually the designated smoking area for the Squad 12 members and not a place that was designed to eat but even though the space lacked a sense of warmth to her by the absence of foliage she wasn't going to complain about the fresh air that gave her a sense of rejuvenation.
"I know it's not much to look at out here, but it helps to get some fresh air when you can." Rin offered as he took a seat on one of the wooden benches.
"I can see how some fresh air would help, I guess you could say I find myself feeling a bit surprised by just how much this squad seems to contribute to everyone within the Seireitei and not just its own members." She replied as she took a seat across from him.
"Yes, well after the events from the previous war many of the Squads have learned to work more closely together. It's not uncommon now for us to even work closely with the Captain of Squad 4. I probably shouldn't say this but a lot of what the students are taught at the Academy about the Quincy and what happened during the war has been sugar coated." He replied as he took his chops sticks in hand and raised a bite of Curry to his mouth.
Ayumi paused and her brow furrowed at his admission.
"Why would they feel the need to do such a thing?" She asked.
Rin finished the bite of food before responding.
"It's just like with any major disaster, the central 46 felt it best not to enclose all of the information on how it really was to this newer generation. I'm only telling you this so that you are a bit more prepared if any past events come up in conversation around you in order to spare you the embarrassment of commenting on something you don't fully understand." He explained.
Ayumi met the Soul's dark gaze and realized just how much of a gap there was between the two of them. Rin may look like just a sugar obsessed teenager, but she understood now he was indeed much older then he appeared to be, and also much smarter then she thought most gave him credit for.
"I thank you for the warning, I'll be sure to take what I have been taught lightly and not to question the things I may hear in the future by those who have lived through it. I was one of the lucky ones I guess you could say, the Kusajishi district was not personally attacked by any of the Quincy themselves and at the point in time I had not yet been enrolled in the Academy." She replied.
Rin smiled softly.
"Well it was almost sixteen years ago now, I've seen many of the new recruits from other Squads talking about the events as if they themselves experienced it and coming from my own personal perspective of actually having been faced with the enemy I can assure you the tension can become rather uncomfortable once the new recruit is given the honest truth. I find myself enjoying you're company so far…so as a gesture of friendship to you I decided to let you know beforehand." He continued.
Ayumi couldn't help buy grin at him, his offer of friendship hit her square in the chest and she almost embarrassed herself further by allowing herself to get emotional. She knew to other people someone offering friendship wasn't such a big deal, but to someone like her who had spent most of her life alone feeling like an outcast it meant everything.
The conversation changed between the two Souls' to a more relaxed topic of what she had studied while in the Academy and what she had excelled in and what she thought her weak points would be. It seemed that Rin had taken the job of being her guide to the point of almost tutelage in a way and that thought made it easier for her to relax as the two of them had made their way back inside the building and stacked their dirty dishes up along with the others waiting to be collected and cleaned.
The rest of the afternoon was spent with her inside the lab and after she had filled her stomach and gained some well needed energy she found that her focus had in fact increased and she had starting to absorb the information her new friend was so willingly teaching her. Time seemed to skip by as the two of them worked together sharing their own versions of humor, his was more sarcastic and blunt and hers a bit softer and more sweet of nature. By the time the clock hit the last hour of her shift her mind seemed to be humming from all of the information she was trying to process and it seemed that Rin understood that she wasn't going to remember everything on her first day as he reached down in his pocket and grabbed two Lollipop's and to her surprise he offered one to her. She wasn't one to really indulge in too much sugar but she figured a little rush couldn't hurt as she accepted it and unwrapped the bright yellow candy and placed it in her mouth, the lemon flavor spread across her tongue enveloping her senses and as the sugar dissolved she thought she was beginning to understand his addiction.
'I think I will go ahead and pause on the lessons for today. You can just sit back as I write out my daily report for the Captain." He replied as she turned to attention to his own screen and clicked on an Icon that resembled the Squads Symbol.
She sat back in her chair and watched him as the form appeared on the screen and he quickly began to type out his daily progress with her and what he had spent most of his time on. She decided to give him his privacy and turned her attention up to the giant monitor above her. Rin was blunt enough for her to know he would be honest in his report to their Captain about her progress.
Her mind wondered back to the earlier encounter with Captain Kurotsuchi and she couldn't help the fluttering sensation and filled the pit of her stomach when she remembered that at some point in the near future she herself would be face to face with the man on a much more personal level as he examined her. She kept trying to push back the emotional responses that had seemed to be triggered by the man's imposing presence. The rational aspect of her mind told her he was simply viewing the examination from a scientist's perspective seeing something that he could possibly fix he had offered his assistance to her, nothing more.
On the other hand the fluttering of her stomach and the rapid beat of her heart seemed to be telling her something else entirely. Ayumi sighed to herself and she twirled the lollipop between her fingers in a circle on her tongue. It seemed she was caught in the middle of one hell of an internal battle. What was she supposed to do with these feelings? She had no doubt in her mind that they would never be something he would reciprocate and it would be foolhardy for her to act upon them in any way. Yet still she sat there staring up at the giant screen in front of her as her heart and her mind seemed to be waging an internal battle inside her and she feared that she wasn't sure which one was going to come out on top.