Match Me - Inner Child
19. Inner Child
Byakuya Kuchiki usually didn't lower himself to eat at the Soul Society Canteen. He generally took his meals in the formal dining room of his estate, or failing that, the less formal dining room. He would have passed on the invitation in his Sixth Division office post box altogether if it hadn't been Rukia's idea. She meant well, having his best interests at heart, and he was still feeling a little guilty for trying to have her executed and all.
But he had no interest in being
at the Canteen for dinner, and certainly not for a match. Silly craze, he thought as he sat at table Eight, chilly gaze sweeping the room of lower class shinigami dining elsewhere.
And they were all lower class, despite their rank, except for Captain-General Yamamoto seated with Kyouraku at a table across the room, barely visible beyond the draping ivy and eucalyptus that he found lacking and mundane as decor. He'd been there five minutes already, and he'd give this match another five minutes of his time before leaving. Punctuality was a deciding factor in one's character, after all, and a person, even a woman, less than prompt was --
"Hi, Bya-kun!" Yachiru chirped, suddenly peeking over the table's edge at him, and then leaping onto the curving bench seat behind the table. She stood on the cushion too close to him, smiling her cheery smile that by all accounts should have been cavity-filled. "Are you hungry?"
He frowned, looking back to the dining room. "I have neither the time nor patience for your antics right now, Vice-Captain Kusajishi. Go find one of your own Division members."
She plopped down on her backside, nearly disappearing behind the table, and then hitched herself up on her knees to see better. She returned his scowl for a smile, patting her hand on the table top. "Let's eat."
"I'm waiting on an adult," he told her, refusing to set the free meal coupon on the table, wishing he'd brought a few pieces of candy. "Now go away."
"You're not much fun for a date," she said, giving him a pout. "I thought you'd be nicer."
He looked at her now, this time with a different interest. "A date?"
She nodded rapidly. "Let's have a date."
"With you?" A rare moment of slipped composure passed over him.
"And you." She nodded even more intently. "Now."
He was about to protest, but a gray-robed server approached the table, bowing deeply, nearly afraid to make eye contact with the nobleman as she placed two menus on the table and lit the candle in the single holder of cut glass.
"Welcome, Captain Kuchiki. We're honored by your presence. May I take your orders, please?"
Yachiru spoke up. "I want the pink ice cream, and the chocolate ice cream, and two cupcakes with bunnies on the icing, and two banana puddings." She looked to Byakuya. "Now you tell her."
He didn't consult the menu, instead reluctantly looking to the server, who was trying not to estimate the age difference of the table's diners. "I'll take your finest tea."
"Ooh, yes!" Yachiru hopped to her feet on the seat. "Tea for me, too!"
"Yes, sir," the server said, bowing and collecting the menus as she backed away from the table.
Yachiru leaned too close to Byakuya, breathing cherry lollipop on him she'd eaten on the way to the Canteen. "We'll have a tea party!"
"Sit down," he said crisply as several of the other diners looked to their table. "We're not having a tea party. You can have your sweets, and then we're leaving."
"You have to stay." She dropped back onto her knees, still crowding him in the booth.
He tried not to look at her, tried not to look at anything, at anyone in the room, his attention eventually settling on Shunsui, wondering what he'd done to offend the man to get set-up like this. He scowled. Maybe it was Nanao he'd offended. He never doubted the petite woman who secretly ran Eighth Division had a mean streak if provoked.
But this, he thought, looking to the top of Yachiru's pink head as she hummed a nonsensical tune of her own imagination, this was beyond cruel. Time for a little manipulation.
"I'm surprised Captain Zaraki let you out on a," even thinking about the word left a bitter taste in Byakuya's mouth, but to say it actually hurt, "date."
She looked up at him, blinking eyes half the size of her face. "Uh-huh."
"I'm much older than you."
She nodded. "And taller."
He scowled, waiting as the server returned with a tray bearing the elegant white and delft blue tea pot, cups, and the sweets on dishes. Yachiru's eyes took on a rabid look as the desserts were placed before her, clapping her small hands at each, giggling. When the server was gone, the girl reached over Byakuya and pulled the tea pot closer.
"That's hot," he said with a sudden lurch of paternal wary. "Be careful."
She nodded, already arranging the cups before them, standing on the booth seat for adequate leverage as she poured the fragrant tea into the cups, spilling only a little on the table cloth.
He glanced to Shunsui's table where the captain was setting a small pouch of pink flowered material on the table, shaking his head. Byakuya looked down as Yachiru slid the tea cup before him and grabbed a fistful of sugar cubes from the crystal bowl near the candle centerpiece.
"How many sugars do you want?" she asked, hand posed over his cup.
"None."
Plop, plop.
He sighed, rolling his eyes as she sunk to her knees beside him, sitting on part of his white scarf, making it tug where it was draped languidly across his throat. He pulled at it until she reseated herself to free it.
She pushed a dish of banana pudding before him, and then one of the cupcakes topped by an ornately decorated bunny of pink icing.
"Let's eat." She took a spoonful of the strawberry ice cream and shoved it into her mouth, smiling at him as she mushed it around in her teeth.
He steeled himself and took a sip of the tea, deciding the quality more pleasant that he expected at the Canteen. He looked down as the chocolate ice cream dish was placed where the tea cup had been.
"You should eat it before it gets all melty," Yachiru advised. "Or do you like it all melty?"
"I don't eat ice cream." He set the tea cup farther away on the table.
"Why not?"
"It's too sweet."
She frowned at him as if he was speaking a different language, and he probably was, to her. "Try it anyway," she decided.
"No." He looked around the room to see who was witnessing his humiliation.
"Hurry before it melts."
"No."
"Hurry, Bya-kun!"
"I don't like ice cream," he said testily, sitting back in the booth as several shinigami looked to table Eight.
"Just try it." Yachiru pushed the dish closer to him. "I'll race you!"
With that she shoveled a spoon of strawberry ice cream into her mouth. "Hurry up!" she urged through the mouthful.
Against his better judgment, Byakuya took a large bite of the cold dessert.
"I'm winning!" she said with a giggle, taking another bite.
He took another bite, and then another, until the chocolate ice cream was nearly gone. Suddenly the impact hit him, making a rush of ache bloom over his forehead. He grimaced, putting a hand to his head.
"Are you sick?"
"No," he said, fighting the headache beginning.
Yachiru was on her feet, her hand on his shoulder, her other palm on his forehead, where it stuck with her tacky hand. "Do you have a fever?"
He pulled her hand away, hearing the sticky snap as it parted. "I am not sick, Vice-Captain."
"There you are," Ikkaku said as he appeared in the foliage draped entry to the table alcove. He nodded to Byakuya. "Captain Kuchiki, I'm sorry she's been bothering you."
"We're having a date," Yachiru told him, leaning on her hands across the table, her backend in Byakuya's face. "It's my turn!"
Ikkaku looked behind him before stepping closer to the table. "Let's go now, Vice-Captain."
"I have a date with --"
"Show me your coupon," Ikkaku said, giving her a threatening grin.
Yachiru stood back in the booth seat, face drooping. "Oh."
"You don't have one, do you?" Ikkaku nodded.
She looked guiltily to Byakuya, who was now eyelevel with her. She glanced down at the table, and collected her cupcake and dish of banana pudding, pushing the others in front of Byakuya. "I guess you can eat without me, Bya-kun."
She held her goodies close and leaped over the table, barely avoiding Ikkaku. He bowed to Byakuya. "I'm sorry she was a nuisance, Captain Kuchiki."
Byakuya nodded.
"You shouldn't bother a captain, Yachiru," Ikkaku said as they left the table.
"I was just giving him some company, cue-ball," she said before sprinting out of the Canteen with her treats.
Byakuya sighed in relief, wiping his sticky forehead with a napkin. "Irreverent, undisciplined, over-stimulated child," he grumbled as a commotion arose in the other dining room.
"What do ya mean, dress code? I'm dressed, ain't I?" a shrill female voice cried. "Show me table Eight!"
Byakuya set down the napkin, hearing snickers and a couple off-color remarks come from the other male diners as a feminine figure made a curvy outline between the draped foliage opening at his table. For a moment he looked her up and down, startled at the amount of cleavage showing through the red sling of semi-blouse and skirt that was more loincloth than merely slitted.
Kuukaku Shiba grinned back at him, one hand pushing her dark hair out of her eyes, the other hand on her nearly bare hip. "Well, well, you're certainly everything Yoruichi cracked ya up to be." She gave the dishes on the table an irritated look. "Ya can't even wait on your date to dig in? Expected more than that from ya, Kuchiki-san."
Byakuya stood, arranging his scarf better over his shoulder, swallowing excessively at her abrupt manner. "I'm Captain Kuchiki, of the house --"
"I know who ya are," she said with a wave of her hand, rounding the side of the table opposite him, sliding behind it. She pulled at her white skirt as it got bound up to her side, mumbling an oath as she repositioned it more modestly to fall between her legs.
But not before Byakuya had gotten an eyeful of well-shaped thigh as she made herself comfortable. He sat down beside her, mostly because she'd parked so close to his side. "If I knew you were coming I would have waited to order," he said, moving the used dishes to the other side of the table.
"If ya knew I was coming?" She grinned, resting her forearms on the table, letting her eyes travel over his face for a leering moment. "Isn't that what a match is? Two?"
She dug her coupon out of her halter top and slapped it on the table, at which the server hurried over promptly, looking between the two diners nervously. She bowed, placing two menus on the table, murmuring her apologies as she cleared the dessert dishes and tea service.
"Another pot of tea," Byakuya told her as she bowed and left. He looked to Kuukaku, eyes fastened on her face despite the yawning cut of her shirt. After a moment he realized the subtle scent of spicy musk was her.
"I'm Kuukaku Shiba, House of Shiba, Kuchiki-san," she said, drawing out the word, "and since Rukia has already made peace between our names, I guess this is all pleasure, am I right?"
He cleared his throat, nodding, trying not to watch her bosom ebb as she bounced a nod to her own question. "I understand you know Yoruichi Shihôin also?"
"Yup. Just like you, except I suppose we have a different history. Are ya always this," she gestured to his attire, "put together? This is a date, loosen up some."
He looked away from her, finding Shunsui's table, where the set of captains were busy at dinner. "I don't know how we got matched. We clearly have little in common."
She sat back, draping one arm along the booth back until her fingers tapped his shoulder. "We're both of the few noble houses, Kuchiki-san. Not much choice, if ya are so hung up on family names, eh?"
The server returned with their tea and set the pot and cups between them, and left off pouring as Kuukaku shooed her away with a wave. Kuukaku leaned over the table to pour them each a cup of hot tea, sliding Byakuya's before him, offering more of a view of her endowments before sitting back again.
"So, what're ya doing letting yourself get matched up? Run through all the shinigami girls already?"
He gave her a sharp look, intent on sipping his tea. "You're quite vocal."
She nodded, raising her own tea cup to her lips, taking a drink before speaking again. "You're quite dull. You need some spark, ya know that?" A gleam of a different sort came into her eyes. "Do ya like fireworks, Byakuya?"
He cringed at her use of his name. "I don't think we're at the point of given names, Shiba-san."
She shrugged, the movement threatening to heave-ho her top. "Sure we are." Her eyes rose to his hair, searching over his face for a moment, making him fight an uncharacteristic flush. "Let's go somewhere else. Somewhere we can make your kenseikan light up. Flare up a few fireworks. What do ya say?"
Guardedness snapped back over his expression. "You're that pyrotechnic woman, aren't you?"
She grinned, laughing a bit. "Yes, I am." She let her attention wander over the other diners in the room, some of which were watching table Eight, some pretending not to. She looked back to Byakuya, her smile softening a little. "Let's go," she said in a gentler tone, surprising him. "We can sit here and get speculated upon by your colleagues," she said, her voice losing some of its causticity, veering towards susceptible. "Or we can cut out now, and make a real conversation somewhere else. Maybe watch the lights over the mountains. They're up this time of year, ya know."
This time his attention was genuinely on her eyes, now finding the fanaticism absent in them, revealing an almost calm look. Almost, he decided as part of the glint came back as she smiled. Maybe it was just the candlelight, he thought.
He drank down his tea. "Let's do that."
Her smile turned mischievous. "You're on, pretty boy."
As Byakuya and Kuukaku stood and left the alcove of table Eight, Yamamoto pushed a pile of coins back across the table to Shunsui, and then added some from his own bag, admitting to the loss as the younger captain grinned victoriously.
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-- from (from Match Me by x nihilo)