Match Me - Revisit
20. Revisit
Renji accompanied Rangiku down the Karakura Town street sidewalk under skies threatening rain in the warm, humid late afternoon among the other shoppers, each of them garnering attention for different reasons -- he because his very appearance suggested he wanted to pick a fight, she because she offered a magnetic quality that most males couldn't and didn't want to resist.
Renji paid little attention to the store windows and signs until Rangiku stopped before one. She looked closer in the window, her shirt pressing baby blue full moons against the glass pane as she smiled at the clothing inside.
"Ooh, I like this one. Let's go in here, Renji," she said, tugging on his arm absently as he kept walking.
He stopped and turned, frowning at the sign overhead. "You said swimsuits and lingerie. This says vintage resale," he said, looking to the window display of t-shirts and well-worn jeans.
"I just said that to get you to come with me shopping," she said. She looked back to him. "Why did you agree so easily to come to the Living World?"
He shrugged, sticking his hands deeper in his jeans, not liking the false pretenses she'd used on him. "Because you said you wanted a second opinion on lingerie and swimsuits, Rangiku." He nodded to the window display. "But if it's this, I've got other things to do."
"Oh?" She put her hands on her hips, straining the blue blouse she wore unbuttoned too far. "Like who?"
"I didn't say it was a who." Tempting as it was to wait for hours and hours while Rangiku changed clothes for a captive audience, Renji had other thoughts on his mind, seeing as there were to be no swimsuits or negligees to ogle. "I'll catch up with you later."
"Hmph," she said, heaving a sigh as he continued on down the sidewalk, her mind racing at who the not-who could be. "Don't get lost!"
He tossed a wave behind him and tried to blend in with the other pedestrians on the sidewalk, but not quite succeeding.
He made his way across town to where Orihime Inoue lived, trying to take his own good advice he'd foisted upon Kira, who'd wasted it on a zipper malfunction. After all, Orihime was pretty, nice, and liked everyone, and there weren't many people, Living or otherwise, that Renji could truly say that about. He didn't need Shunsui to match him up again.
Besides, dropping in on her was unexpected. Unpredictable.
Orihime smoothed her pale yellow skirt with the ferny-green flowers, turning to look at herself in the oval bathroom mirror of her small apartment, hoping it wouldn't rain before she could get to the restaurant. The tangerine top wasn't as snug as some of her shirts, more modest in that aspect, which was saying a lot with all she had tucked inside it. She pushed her hair to either side of her face, smiling as she speculated who her match could be. Probably not Vice-Captain Kira, she thought. Not after the last time.
A knock came to the apartment door, and she hurried there, coupon in hand, making herself calm as she reached for the doorknob, wondering if it were Tatsuki or her match coming by her place instead of meeting her at the restaurant.
She opened the door, and smiled, surprising Renji.
"Hi, Renji-kun," she greeted, and then corrected herself. "Abarai-san. Hi!"
He grinned a little too eagerly at her cheerfulness at seeing him, stepping in as she gestured a welcome and shut the door behind him. "You don't have to be formal, Orihime."
She nodded quickly. "Okay. I thought we were going to meet at the restaurant, but this is okay, too."
"Oh? I thought we'd go ..." He looked around the small room, then back to her as she stood with her hands behind her back, smiling through a bit of a blush, her words catching up with him. He frowned. "The restaurant?"
"Yes." She brought her hands out from behind her back and looked at the coupon. "I guess we don't have to, since you know where I live." She gave him a confused frown. "How did you know it was me?"
He sighed in realization, more frustrated than he thought he should be, mentally kicking himself for submitting to the lure of unpredictability. "You have a date this evening? A match?"
She nodded, slowly comprehending what was becoming an awkward moment. "Not you?"
"No." Dammit, he thought, seeing her face drop a little, hating to admit his own disappointment, detecting the subtle hint of sunflowers pervading her. He worked up a grin. "Well, that's good, right? Any idea who? Not Izuru, I can tell you."
She nodded, giggling. "No, I doubt it."
For a moment they both stood self-consciously looking at each other until he nodded and reached for the doorknob. "I'll get going then, Orihime. Just thought I'd drop by, not trying to get in the way or anything."
"Oh, well ..." She thought for a few seconds, wavering between the polite thing to do and what was expected in the situation. "It was nice to see you again. Renji. Say hi to Rukia for me?"
"Sure. See you later."
Renji opened the door and left, muttering something Orihime couldn't hear.
She closed the door slowly, mixed emotions coursing through her mind. Well, that was nice of him, she thought, nodding. Certainly a kind gesture. She looked down at the coupon. Maybe she shouldn't have accepted the invitation. Trying to broaden her circle of romantic possibilities hadn't worked out so well last time...
She'd gotten halfway across the small living room when another, more stilted knock came to the door. Three knocks, spaced precisely to indicate hesitancy. She knew it had to be Tatsuki this time, despite the sound of the knocking.
She opened the door, a smile ready on her lips, and stared back at the last person she expected to see again. Disintegration was usually permanent.
Ulquiorra looked back at her with his usual staid expression, but this time with a glimmer of light in his deep green eyes. "Hello. Orihime."
Orihime knew she should slam the door shut and bolt it, which would do little if anything for the being on the other side, but instead she found herself admitting a smile. "Hello, Ulquiorra. This is a surprise."
He nodded, eyes traveling over her figure, appreciating the Human wardrobe more than the encompassing white he'd last seen her in, and deciding her present attire more inviting. "I'm here on a ... more," he frowned only slightly trying to think of the term, one that wasn't used very often in Hueco Mundo, and even then usually by Ichimaru, "... leisure condition."
She stepped back as he brought a hand out of his pocket, a familiar coupon in it. "Oh, you have a..." She looked up at him. "This is a match?"
He liked the sound of it. "Yes. We've been matched."
"Oh. Okay..." She added to her smile and stepped back. "Would you like to come in?"
He looked around at the room, not voicing his opinion, something he'd been practicing lately. "Come out."
She nodded and grabbed the umbrella leaning to the side of the doorframe. She stepped into the hall and pulled the door shut behind her. "I kind of thought you were," she frowned at the next word that came logically to mind, "gone."
He nodded slightly as they moved down the hall to where the stairs met her floor. "It's unexpected what that Szayel replicant can do. He's not as adept as the original scientist, but he has his usefulness."
She nodded as they made their way through the apartment building main level and out onto the sidewalk, which was crowded with people hurrying to their next destination as the skies above filled with bright-lined clouds that promised a flash thunderstorm even in sunshine, making Orihime wonder at the possibilities of a rainbow. Ulquiorra squinted in the light of the strange cloud formation that shed a mocking light-shadow cast over Karakura Town.
Orihime glanced at her coupon. It was a good choice for a restaurant, although not the same one as before. She looked back up to Ulquiorra, eyes resting on his collar as he looked to her. "Uh, what kind of food do you like?"
He frowned as they passed down the sidewalk, ignoring the odd looks he got from the other foot traffic. "Like?"
She shrugged, warming to the idea of food types. "You know. Spicy. Sweet. Typical Japanese fare, or other ethnic cuisine. Ooh, do you like Italian or Greek?"
He made a subtle frown, one which would have been lost on most passersby, but which Orihime read too well. "I don't see how it matters what one eats."
"Oh, it does, Ulquiorra." She nodded emphatically. "It depends on your mood, and your taste buds, of course, and other ... things." She sighed. "Are you hungry?"
He didn't know how to explain to her, a simple Living Human female, that he was always hungry, never satisfied, and that his short time with her held captive had appeased that yearning drive for a while. "Not particularly."
She nodded, sticking the coupon back in the slip pocket of her skirt. "Well, I have some money. Maybe we could just get something else." Her smile fell as she saw the other sidewalk traffic give her escort snide looks and even a few disparaging comments. "We could go to the park instead, if you don't want to eat." She looked ahead to where a kiosk offering shakes and smoothies was located, an awning stretching around its sides as a few sprinkles of rain started. "Let's get something to drink," she suggested, not quite ready to put up the umbrella.
Ulquiorra frowned slightly, but nodded.
They went to the beverage stand offering milkshakes, juices, smoothies, and sodas. After a little deliberation, Orihime ordered them both strawberry and kiwi-lime smoothies. The stand attendant gave them a shrewd look, but filled their orders, and Orihime and Ulquiorra moved on towards the park still under renovation for the sesquicentennial celebration as she detailed the activities.
He frowned at the construction, the bumper car arena, the games booths, the dunking tanks, the petting zoo pens, the skills challenges. The neon signs above most of the activities were already blazing in the cloudy evening. He thought back on her explanation of the event. "I don't see what the point is. One-hundred and fifty years. It's not so long of a time."
Orihime slurped at her strawberry smoothie. "It is to humans, Ulquiorra. A very long time. More time than we'll ever see. At least, see here," she added.
He nodded, fighting against what he knew of the Arrancar rationale. "Not something to celebrate. Are you people always so expressive?"
She nodded immediately. "It's a big event for Karakura Park. Everyone comes out. They bring their kids, and everyone has fun. Good things to eat, and lots of games and rides." She described the games and draw of the carnival in more detail, to no avail, as he frowned at the scene, looking over the few acres that encompassed the park, relegating the fun quotient into the aspect of what he knew of the Living World. Much of it didn't make sense to him, and he looked back down to his drink.
Orihime glanced to him as he looked to the straw in his drink. She smiled. "You drink out of it. It's a sort of ..." She nodded. "Conduit. A tunnel. Like this." She put her lips to the straw and took a long sip of her strawberry drink.
He observed, not quite understanding, but nodding and watching intently as her lips closed around the straw end and she slurped the drink. "Why? It serves the same purpose as taking a drink from the cup without the straw."
She nodded, sighing, smiling at his conclusion. "I suppose. But it's more fun."
He thought about her phrasing.
She said, "More leisurely."
He looked to the green-tinted drink and wondered. "Why, if you're so eager to drink this concoction, would you want to delay the wait? It contradicts everything you've said. Orihime."
She nodded immediately. "It's odd, I know, but we -- Humans, Living -- sometimes like to, well, prolong the satisfaction of ... things. Anticipation." She blushed a slight shade of pink, suddenly realizing how subtractive the phrase seemed.
He looked down at the tall paper cup, the green beverage inside, waiting on him as he contemplated it. He gave it a test sip, making a minute face at the sour-sweetness. "I don't see the point of drinking it, or of waiting to drink it, or of the expectancy. It's frivolous."
She sipped her red strawberry drink, the sweetness diluted by ice, and on impulse held the cup up to him. "Try mine. Strawberry."
His green eyes turned down at the cup and straw offered him, not suspecting what he'd expected in a visit to the Living World, especially on a match. He imitated her actions, sipping at the straw, slightly surprised at the fruity berry that met his tongue, unlike the tart kiwi-lime that he'd already tasted.
In a moment of humanness, he lowered his own cup to her, and she smiled, taking a short sip of the straw in the green smoothie.
"Ooh, tart," she said, nodding.
He nodded slowly, trying again to understand the vulnerable emotions she'd provided during her stay at Las Noches. "If this is something you desire, why would you want to deprive yourself of it when it's so near? It's here; why not drink it all at once? Why use a straw? It makes no sense."
"Anticipation. That's part of it."
He frowned slightly. "It is?"
Orihime nodded, understanding all too well what he was and was not saying. "Have you ever, Ulquiorra, not had a hunger filled? A desire unmet?" She blushed fuller. "A question gone unanswered?"
He nodded immediately, filling in answers to himself more than she had expected. He stood taller, contemplating the green drink as the rain started a mist around them.
Orihime popped open the umbrella, holding it over them to shade them both, the slight sprinkle over them growing despite the bright, mocking sunlight around them.
He looked to the carnival surroundings, the precipitation making the view seem hazy. "I don't see the reasoning." He looked to her, his hand gripping the umbrella handle, his fingers grazing against her softer ones as he did, the pulse of warmth and subtle flesh her hand offered making him call back other times. She smiled and stood closer, the misting rain falling around them as he looked to the park.
"All so frivolous," he said as the watched the tepid rains descend upon the park.
"Just for fun, Ulquiorra," she said, looking out over the park. "People bring their family and loved ones, and just mill about and be together." Her thoughts focused inward and she thought about how it would sound to him. "I suppose it doesn't make any sense to you, but it's just for fun. Amusement, I guess." She gave him a small smile. "No reason, really."
He tried to understand.
"I'm surprised we got matched," she said.
In abrupt honesty, as was his tendency at rarer moments, Ulquiorra said in a quieter tone as they watched the park saturate slowly with rain, "I'm not."
"We don't have that much in common," she said in oblique surprise, both standing under the umbrella as the rain gathered in strength.
He should have nodded in agreement, but that wouldn't have been altogether truthful, so he admitted the small allowance of a single nod. "I answered the questions on the application to reflect you," he said, unaware of the impact the words had on her, and not adding that he wanted to see if he knew her as well as he thought.
"You weren't being truthful?" she said, her voice faltering as the rain fell harder around them.
"Yes, I gave truthful answers," he said, surprising himself. "But I also wanted to see you, outside Las Noches, for a few moments. Not to collect you."
She smiled, looking down at the rain running to the side of the street to the gutter drain along the park sidewalk. "I like to know you're not ..." she hunted for the right word. "Gone."
They watched the park become subject to the rain, a heavier shower now that permeated the air with water, making the scant traffic on the sidewalk scatter quickly for cover.
"I suppose there is some gain in familial frivolity," he finally said as the rain splashed around them on the cement. "But I still don't understand the attachment. Not completely."
"It takes a while." She nodded, content in ways she normally wasn't. She looked down as the black-nailed fingertips of his free hand cupped lightly under her fingers at her side, barely a touch that should not have been noticed.
But she did notice.
His fingers lifted hers, his eyes on hers as she looked up to him, the umbrella cascading rain around them. For a fleeting moment his expression softened, a brief lowering of defenses. He nodded, and rubbed a thumb over the back of her fingertips as she kept his gaze, eyes following his as he looked to their hands.
"It was gratifying to see you again," he said, using a word he hadn't in a very long time.
She smiled, her fingers curving over the tips of his as he gave her the umbrella handle.
"The green is a good taste," he decided, lifting the cup of kiwi-lime smoothie.
She nodded, smiling.
"It was good to see you again. Orihime."
She smiled more. "You too, Ulquiorra."
He nodded, pulling his hand from hers, watching her gaze drop to their fingers, and then back up to his face. "Goodbye. Woman."
She nodded, and his fingers left hers. He turned and walked back down the wet sidewalk as the rain fell gently around him. She watched him leave, wishing he'd stay for just a little longer. The rain encompassed his form in the distance.
When he was out of sight in the rain and sparse sidewalk traffic, she turned back to head home, something in her soul satiated.
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-- from (from Match Me by x nihilo)