[Log] Kenpachi , Yumichika, Ikkaku, Yachiru
Title: Shoulda Hired a Maid
Characters: Kenpachi (kellenanne), Yumichika (day_eight), Ikkaku (ratherbe4gotten), Yachiru (graviga)
Timeline: March 24, 1950
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Kenpachi lays down the law with his crew. Well, sorta, anyway...
The dojo was fuckin’ quiet. Kenpachi wouldn’t have been so bothered by it if it weren’t the third quiet day in a row. What was the use of running a dojo where no one fought? Oh, there’d been classes… Classes. Kenpachi snorted as he idly picked up a bokken and ran his hand over it. Classes were all well and good - got people in this place - but they were damned useless. No one learned how to fight until they were actually fighting for their sorry lives.
He just might have to go out and seek some fun. Usually didn’t have to, what which running a dojo and having “secret” back rooms and all that.
He growled and slammed the bokken back into place, blinking a little at the dust that blossomed.
Well… fuck… didn’t he have employees for that shit? “Hey,” he bellowed. “Employees.” Or idiots. Either one worked. “Get your sorry asses out here and do what I pay you for!”
God, as quiet as it was, Kenpachi was not going to be doing the damned mopping.
Yumichika was actually enjoying the peace and quiet. Although he didn't mind a bit of rowdiness from time to time, he found it much easier to focus when there wasn't some sort of commotion going on. And, at the moment, focus was very important.
He had finished his Tai Chi class about fifteen minutes earlier, and was using his break from instructing to "observe" a group of ginks as they trained in the corner of the room. Most of them were cubes, but one had a physique boss enough to catch Yumi's eye. A grin pulled at his lips as he crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall. There were quite a few perks to working at the dojo, but this was one of his favorites.
Unfortunately, he didn't get to enjoy the view for very long. A voice that could only be Kenpachi's sounded out through the room, pulling Yumi down from
Cloud Nine. He slumped his shoulders and sighed. If Kenpachi was summoning employees, there was most likely work to be done... work that probably involved cleaning something grody.
The brunet sighed once more before pushing up off the wall and making his way over to Kenpachi. His boss was definitely not someone he wanted to keep waiting, especially when he sounded so frosted. He stepped next to burly man and blinked innocently. "You called?"
Ikkaku shifted his feet and hit the punch bag with another quick succession of punches. The chain holding up the battered, sand filled bag creaked as it swung with the force of the finial hit. Shaking out his shoulders, he glanced up at the clock on the far wall. Two more hours before he could cut out.
Turning back to the punch bag, he gave it a kick for good measure.
Usually he had no kick with the dojo being quiet, there was generally enough going on to keep him busy and it was a rare night that he couldn’t dig up someone to spar against, but the last few days had it had been dead. Too quiet too long and the inevitable happened, Kenpachi got bored.
A bored Kenpachi wasn’t something anyone wanted to deal with, it usually meant going into work the next day with his head still ringing from ‘training’, or worse, the old man deciding that it was time for the place to get a spring clean.
As if on cue he heard the boss hollering. He couldn’t say it was it was the worst thing that Kenpachi had used to get their attention, but he still sounded somewhat frosted. Yumichika was around somewhere, and he would have been tempted to leave it for the other man to answer, but the last he had seen of him he had been heading off to teach some class or other.
Tugging the strapping off his hands, he threw the tape in the vague direction of the bin and headed out to where the shouting had come from. Learning on the doorframe, he cast an eyeball across the room and spotted Yumichika wandering in from one of the other rooms. Well fuck; maybe he could have got out of whatever Kenpachi had in mind after all.
“What’s the matter boss?”
Kenpachi met all this with a roll of his eyes and wave of his hand, encompassing the whole room in his gesture. "Dust," he announced. "Just 'cause you're damn stupid doesn't mean you get outta work." But what else could he expect from a beauty queen and a bald man?
"You palookas are my employees. Means you do work. Try to get that in your damn conks." He pointed. "Floors. Locker rooms." Who wanted to see a cloud of dust when you threw an opponent across the room? As dramatic as that was, there was nothing more anti-climactic then sneezing at the dust you raise.
He paused, eying the idiots. "Now!" he roared. "'Fore I have the curse put on your head!"
Well, wasn't that just lovely? It seemed as if the boss was in a really fine mood. Yumi crossed his arms and glanced around the room. True, it was a bit goopy, but it really wasn't that bad. Honestly... someone like Kenpachi didn't seem like the type to go ape over a little bit of dust.
Jumping a bit at the sudden, loud roar that was directed at him, Yumi sighed and placed one of his hands on his hip. He shot Ikkaku an accusing glare and rolled his eyes. "Well, I have been working," he explained to Kenpachi. "I just got done with a class."
He narrowed his eyes and returned his attention to the bald man. "What were you doing?"
Ikkaku let Kenpachi’s angry words wash over him. It wasn’t that the man was all bark and no bite, in fact the man had one hell of a bite, or at least a right hook, but for all his shouting Kenpachi knew that Yumichika and him worked there for the love of the place rather than the extra dough it put in their pockets.
He smirked at Yumichika while he was sure Kenpachi was looking the other way, although his words were meant for his boss as well. “What are you implying? I was making sure the equipment out back was in proper working order,” he defended with barely a pause. It was at least part way true. Half the stuff out there could have done with replacing. “It’s your turn to do the locker room if I remember. Unless you need me to come with you and hold ya hand?”
Kenpachi snorted. Ikkaku was nothing if not clever... sometimes. When he was trying to avoid work, Ikkaku could think of anything and most patsies'd fall right for it. He pinned the bald man with a withering glare. "You were messing around."
He pointed toward Yumichika. "If its his turn to do the locker rooms, its your turn to do the floors. There ain't no getting out of this."
Yumi crossed his arms over his chest and returned Ikkaku's smirk. The bald man had an uncanny way of making even the laziest of actions sound like 'work'. If he had been caught piling up Z's on the floor, Ikkaku probably would have claimed that he was trying to see how level the ground was.
The brunet's smirk instantly turned into a look of dismay when Kenpachi mentioned the locker rooms. Apparently, his attempt to pass off that raunchy job had been shot down. He was really getting the royal shaft - or that's how he saw it, at least. As far as he knew, it wasn't his turn to do anything. It wasn't like they were in kindergarten and needed to take turns to make everything fair and square. The person who wasn't doing anything should be the one to get the job, right? He sent Ikkaku an irritated look and sighed.
"I'd really like to help out," he fibbed, smoothing back a strand of hair that had fallen out of his flawless nest. "But I have an Aikido class in a half hour." He paused and glanced at Ikkaku, the smirk returning to his face. "Although, it might not take very long to clean the locker rooms if you, how did you put it, hold my hand?"
Ikkaku tried not to wince at Kenpachi’s glare-looked like he had picked a bad day to mess with the boss, not that he could think of a time when it would have been a good day. It seemed like a lot of fuss to make over some dust; if they cleaned it now it would only end up grody again pretty soon anyway. He thought about opening his trap to tell Kenpachi that... and then remembered just how his boss was likely to work out his irritation if he pushed him much further. It wasn’t that he didn’t like sparing with the man, but Kenpachi didn’t spar like any sane person. Truth was he was still hurting from hit in the ribs he had taken while on duty at his other gig, the ‘real’ one, as everyone seemed to like to put it.
He glanced over a Yumi, just in time to see Kenpachi’s comment wipe the smirk off his face. He couldn’t help the hint of a grin that tugged at his lips, never mind the fact that the exact same thing had just happened to him.
He bit off a laugh at Yumi’s words. What was it with the cat that he could turn every sentence into an innuendo? Besides, he had looked at the timetable when he came got there and it was a pretty long half hour till the next class came in. Aikido was one of the few martial arts that he thought was more than a heap of bullshit; he was pretty damn good at it too. It pissed him off that he wasn’t allowed to take the class just because he didn’t have some piece of paper with his name on it.
“Well how about we get this done before your class, then maybe I’ll help you out by demonstrating the best way to kick your ass?” Yumi wasn’t gonna chisel his was out of this one, and with the mood the he would be in after cleaning out the locker room, it would probably make for an interesting hour.
He felt the grin tug into a smirk as he turned back to Kenpachi. “That would work out wouldn’t it? Gotta earn my pay after all.”
Bo-ring! That was the last three days summed up in a word. Honestly, somebody would think that with so many people running around a person would at least get shot or something, definitely have a fight at the very least.
But, no, apparently violence was above people now or something! Whatever, as soon as her gang mates came back Yachiru would definitely see to it that some trouble was stirred. All this quiet was super lame after all.
Well, at least she got to beat some basic forms into some beginners though! Who knew if even a third of the class would show up for their second lesson next week. Not like she really cared or anything, if they got yelled at it was definitely their fault!
Yachiru grinned as she bounced into the room, plopping onto the floor right next to Kenpachi.
She blinked, looking from one person to another before speaking, "What'cha all arguing about this time?"
Ah. There she was. Anytime there were raised voices, Kenpachi could count on Yachiru showing up shortly thereafter. The tiny little thing couldn't avoid trouble. In fact, she went out of her way to cause it.
Not that he held that against her.
"We are not arguing," he said, not bothering to look down at her. His gaze stayed right on the two idiots arguing over their damned work. "They are working. Since they've been hired for this sort of thing, I never expected a problem." His grin was less a grin and more just baring his teeth. "I'll happily bust some heads to get that point across."
Placing one hand on his hip, Yumichika looked back and forth between the bobbing, pink ball of energy and the grinning (snarling?) thundercloud in front of him. Turning his head, he sent Ikkaku a frosted glare and straightened the front of his threads.
"Right, we're working. I'm sure you remember what that work is. Mm, Ikkaku?"
With a roll of his eyes and the slightest twist of his hips, he turned around and began making his way back to the locker room. He knew better than to argue with Kenpachi when he had that look in his eyes. Having his head busted in wasn't exactly on his agenda for the evening.
Glancing back, he smiled warmly at Yachiru and nodded at the boss, before turning around the corner and disappearing from sight. He had a limited amount of time before his class, so he wanted to get the grody job done as quickly as possible. Kenpachi would chill out once things were clean, and then they could all get back to... whatever it was they all did.
Sighing, he pulled open the door to the closet that contained the cleaning supplies. He stepped back and muttered a string of curses when the mop, broom, and dustpan came tumbling out like they were trying to escape.
That. Damned. Bald. Man.
Ikkaku held up his hands to Kenpachi, deciding that arguing was going to be much more hard work than just getting the jobs done. Grinning, he followed Yumichika out of the room. If he was going to have to put with cleaning the dojo, it would be a hell of a lot more fun to do it while taking the piss out of Yumi with a mop in his hand.
Grabbing a broom out of the cupboard, he paused for a moment, before picking up a second one and heading back to where he had left Yachiru and Kenpachi.
Ducking his head around door he waited until he caught Yachiru’s attention, before hefting the spare broom in his hand and tossing it over to the bouncing ball of energy. “Hey princess,” he smirked. “Give the floors a sweep will ya?”
Resting his own broom over his shoulder, he disappeared back down the corridor that led towards the men’s changing rooms, before Yachiru could have a chance to complain. Not that the men’s changing rooms would probably stop her if she decided that she had a bone to pick with him.
Yachiru frowned at the broom laying in her hands. She didn't wanna clean! Cleaning was icky!
She opened her mouth to protest to Pachiko-head, before she realized Ikkaku had already disappeared out of sight. Yachiru huffed, pouting a bit, before an idea popped into her head.
She jumped up from the floor before beaming at Kenpachi.
"Heya Ken-chan! I'll make you a deal! Rock, paper, scissors and the loser has to clean, kay?" she suggested, grinning.
Kenpachi snorted. "Like hell." He owned. He did not clean. He had hired rubes for that.
One look at that grin, however, let him know Yachiru definitely did not think of herself as a hired rube. He shook his head. "Pawn that off on some boob if you don't wanna do it yourself." He looked up, regarding the door for a few moments, and decided then and there he needed to go out and, eh, run some errands.
Errands that involved some running and chasing and, hopefully, a little blood. He glanced at Yachiru before walking away. Yeah, she'd follow shortly, if not right away.
Aw, lame! Ken-chan totally was no fun at all! Cleaning was totally worse though.
Yachiru twirled the broom in her hands, thinking, before deciding what to do. She cheerfully bounced off into the direction of the male changing rooms and proceeded to hurl the broom at Ikkaku's shiny bald head.
A second later she was already tagging along behind Kenpachi, running away from Pachiko head at the fastest speed possible.
"Ken-chan! Wait for me!"
Hopefully the hit hadn't left a bruise.
Characters: Kenpachi (kellenanne), Yumichika (day_eight), Ikkaku (ratherbe4gotten), Yachiru (graviga)
Timeline: March 24, 1950
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Kenpachi lays down the law with his crew. Well, sorta, anyway...
The dojo was fuckin’ quiet. Kenpachi wouldn’t have been so bothered by it if it weren’t the third quiet day in a row. What was the use of running a dojo where no one fought? Oh, there’d been classes… Classes. Kenpachi snorted as he idly picked up a bokken and ran his hand over it. Classes were all well and good - got people in this place - but they were damned useless. No one learned how to fight until they were actually fighting for their sorry lives.
He just might have to go out and seek some fun. Usually didn’t have to, what which running a dojo and having “secret” back rooms and all that.
He growled and slammed the bokken back into place, blinking a little at the dust that blossomed.
Well… fuck… didn’t he have employees for that shit? “Hey,” he bellowed. “Employees.” Or idiots. Either one worked. “Get your sorry asses out here and do what I pay you for!”
God, as quiet as it was, Kenpachi was not going to be doing the damned mopping.
Yumichika was actually enjoying the peace and quiet. Although he didn't mind a bit of rowdiness from time to time, he found it much easier to focus when there wasn't some sort of commotion going on. And, at the moment, focus was very important.
He had finished his Tai Chi class about fifteen minutes earlier, and was using his break from instructing to "observe" a group of ginks as they trained in the corner of the room. Most of them were cubes, but one had a physique boss enough to catch Yumi's eye. A grin pulled at his lips as he crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall. There were quite a few perks to working at the dojo, but this was one of his favorites.
Unfortunately, he didn't get to enjoy the view for very long. A voice that could only be Kenpachi's sounded out through the room, pulling Yumi down from
Cloud Nine. He slumped his shoulders and sighed. If Kenpachi was summoning employees, there was most likely work to be done... work that probably involved cleaning something grody.
The brunet sighed once more before pushing up off the wall and making his way over to Kenpachi. His boss was definitely not someone he wanted to keep waiting, especially when he sounded so frosted. He stepped next to burly man and blinked innocently. "You called?"
Ikkaku shifted his feet and hit the punch bag with another quick succession of punches. The chain holding up the battered, sand filled bag creaked as it swung with the force of the finial hit. Shaking out his shoulders, he glanced up at the clock on the far wall. Two more hours before he could cut out.
Turning back to the punch bag, he gave it a kick for good measure.
Usually he had no kick with the dojo being quiet, there was generally enough going on to keep him busy and it was a rare night that he couldn’t dig up someone to spar against, but the last few days had it had been dead. Too quiet too long and the inevitable happened, Kenpachi got bored.
A bored Kenpachi wasn’t something anyone wanted to deal with, it usually meant going into work the next day with his head still ringing from ‘training’, or worse, the old man deciding that it was time for the place to get a spring clean.
As if on cue he heard the boss hollering. He couldn’t say it was it was the worst thing that Kenpachi had used to get their attention, but he still sounded somewhat frosted. Yumichika was around somewhere, and he would have been tempted to leave it for the other man to answer, but the last he had seen of him he had been heading off to teach some class or other.
Tugging the strapping off his hands, he threw the tape in the vague direction of the bin and headed out to where the shouting had come from. Learning on the doorframe, he cast an eyeball across the room and spotted Yumichika wandering in from one of the other rooms. Well fuck; maybe he could have got out of whatever Kenpachi had in mind after all.
“What’s the matter boss?”
Kenpachi met all this with a roll of his eyes and wave of his hand, encompassing the whole room in his gesture. "Dust," he announced. "Just 'cause you're damn stupid doesn't mean you get outta work." But what else could he expect from a beauty queen and a bald man?
"You palookas are my employees. Means you do work. Try to get that in your damn conks." He pointed. "Floors. Locker rooms." Who wanted to see a cloud of dust when you threw an opponent across the room? As dramatic as that was, there was nothing more anti-climactic then sneezing at the dust you raise.
He paused, eying the idiots. "Now!" he roared. "'Fore I have the curse put on your head!"
Well, wasn't that just lovely? It seemed as if the boss was in a really fine mood. Yumi crossed his arms and glanced around the room. True, it was a bit goopy, but it really wasn't that bad. Honestly... someone like Kenpachi didn't seem like the type to go ape over a little bit of dust.
Jumping a bit at the sudden, loud roar that was directed at him, Yumi sighed and placed one of his hands on his hip. He shot Ikkaku an accusing glare and rolled his eyes. "Well, I have been working," he explained to Kenpachi. "I just got done with a class."
He narrowed his eyes and returned his attention to the bald man. "What were you doing?"
Ikkaku let Kenpachi’s angry words wash over him. It wasn’t that the man was all bark and no bite, in fact the man had one hell of a bite, or at least a right hook, but for all his shouting Kenpachi knew that Yumichika and him worked there for the love of the place rather than the extra dough it put in their pockets.
He smirked at Yumichika while he was sure Kenpachi was looking the other way, although his words were meant for his boss as well. “What are you implying? I was making sure the equipment out back was in proper working order,” he defended with barely a pause. It was at least part way true. Half the stuff out there could have done with replacing. “It’s your turn to do the locker room if I remember. Unless you need me to come with you and hold ya hand?”
Kenpachi snorted. Ikkaku was nothing if not clever... sometimes. When he was trying to avoid work, Ikkaku could think of anything and most patsies'd fall right for it. He pinned the bald man with a withering glare. "You were messing around."
He pointed toward Yumichika. "If its his turn to do the locker rooms, its your turn to do the floors. There ain't no getting out of this."
Yumi crossed his arms over his chest and returned Ikkaku's smirk. The bald man had an uncanny way of making even the laziest of actions sound like 'work'. If he had been caught piling up Z's on the floor, Ikkaku probably would have claimed that he was trying to see how level the ground was.
The brunet's smirk instantly turned into a look of dismay when Kenpachi mentioned the locker rooms. Apparently, his attempt to pass off that raunchy job had been shot down. He was really getting the royal shaft - or that's how he saw it, at least. As far as he knew, it wasn't his turn to do anything. It wasn't like they were in kindergarten and needed to take turns to make everything fair and square. The person who wasn't doing anything should be the one to get the job, right? He sent Ikkaku an irritated look and sighed.
"I'd really like to help out," he fibbed, smoothing back a strand of hair that had fallen out of his flawless nest. "But I have an Aikido class in a half hour." He paused and glanced at Ikkaku, the smirk returning to his face. "Although, it might not take very long to clean the locker rooms if you, how did you put it, hold my hand?"
Ikkaku tried not to wince at Kenpachi’s glare-looked like he had picked a bad day to mess with the boss, not that he could think of a time when it would have been a good day. It seemed like a lot of fuss to make over some dust; if they cleaned it now it would only end up grody again pretty soon anyway. He thought about opening his trap to tell Kenpachi that... and then remembered just how his boss was likely to work out his irritation if he pushed him much further. It wasn’t that he didn’t like sparing with the man, but Kenpachi didn’t spar like any sane person. Truth was he was still hurting from hit in the ribs he had taken while on duty at his other gig, the ‘real’ one, as everyone seemed to like to put it.
He glanced over a Yumi, just in time to see Kenpachi’s comment wipe the smirk off his face. He couldn’t help the hint of a grin that tugged at his lips, never mind the fact that the exact same thing had just happened to him.
He bit off a laugh at Yumi’s words. What was it with the cat that he could turn every sentence into an innuendo? Besides, he had looked at the timetable when he came got there and it was a pretty long half hour till the next class came in. Aikido was one of the few martial arts that he thought was more than a heap of bullshit; he was pretty damn good at it too. It pissed him off that he wasn’t allowed to take the class just because he didn’t have some piece of paper with his name on it.
“Well how about we get this done before your class, then maybe I’ll help you out by demonstrating the best way to kick your ass?” Yumi wasn’t gonna chisel his was out of this one, and with the mood the he would be in after cleaning out the locker room, it would probably make for an interesting hour.
He felt the grin tug into a smirk as he turned back to Kenpachi. “That would work out wouldn’t it? Gotta earn my pay after all.”
Bo-ring! That was the last three days summed up in a word. Honestly, somebody would think that with so many people running around a person would at least get shot or something, definitely have a fight at the very least.
But, no, apparently violence was above people now or something! Whatever, as soon as her gang mates came back Yachiru would definitely see to it that some trouble was stirred. All this quiet was super lame after all.
Well, at least she got to beat some basic forms into some beginners though! Who knew if even a third of the class would show up for their second lesson next week. Not like she really cared or anything, if they got yelled at it was definitely their fault!
Yachiru grinned as she bounced into the room, plopping onto the floor right next to Kenpachi.
She blinked, looking from one person to another before speaking, "What'cha all arguing about this time?"
Ah. There she was. Anytime there were raised voices, Kenpachi could count on Yachiru showing up shortly thereafter. The tiny little thing couldn't avoid trouble. In fact, she went out of her way to cause it.
Not that he held that against her.
"We are not arguing," he said, not bothering to look down at her. His gaze stayed right on the two idiots arguing over their damned work. "They are working. Since they've been hired for this sort of thing, I never expected a problem." His grin was less a grin and more just baring his teeth. "I'll happily bust some heads to get that point across."
Placing one hand on his hip, Yumichika looked back and forth between the bobbing, pink ball of energy and the grinning (snarling?) thundercloud in front of him. Turning his head, he sent Ikkaku a frosted glare and straightened the front of his threads.
"Right, we're working. I'm sure you remember what that work is. Mm, Ikkaku?"
With a roll of his eyes and the slightest twist of his hips, he turned around and began making his way back to the locker room. He knew better than to argue with Kenpachi when he had that look in his eyes. Having his head busted in wasn't exactly on his agenda for the evening.
Glancing back, he smiled warmly at Yachiru and nodded at the boss, before turning around the corner and disappearing from sight. He had a limited amount of time before his class, so he wanted to get the grody job done as quickly as possible. Kenpachi would chill out once things were clean, and then they could all get back to... whatever it was they all did.
Sighing, he pulled open the door to the closet that contained the cleaning supplies. He stepped back and muttered a string of curses when the mop, broom, and dustpan came tumbling out like they were trying to escape.
That. Damned. Bald. Man.
Ikkaku held up his hands to Kenpachi, deciding that arguing was going to be much more hard work than just getting the jobs done. Grinning, he followed Yumichika out of the room. If he was going to have to put with cleaning the dojo, it would be a hell of a lot more fun to do it while taking the piss out of Yumi with a mop in his hand.
Grabbing a broom out of the cupboard, he paused for a moment, before picking up a second one and heading back to where he had left Yachiru and Kenpachi.
Ducking his head around door he waited until he caught Yachiru’s attention, before hefting the spare broom in his hand and tossing it over to the bouncing ball of energy. “Hey princess,” he smirked. “Give the floors a sweep will ya?”
Resting his own broom over his shoulder, he disappeared back down the corridor that led towards the men’s changing rooms, before Yachiru could have a chance to complain. Not that the men’s changing rooms would probably stop her if she decided that she had a bone to pick with him.
Yachiru frowned at the broom laying in her hands. She didn't wanna clean! Cleaning was icky!
She opened her mouth to protest to Pachiko-head, before she realized Ikkaku had already disappeared out of sight. Yachiru huffed, pouting a bit, before an idea popped into her head.
She jumped up from the floor before beaming at Kenpachi.
"Heya Ken-chan! I'll make you a deal! Rock, paper, scissors and the loser has to clean, kay?" she suggested, grinning.
Kenpachi snorted. "Like hell." He owned. He did not clean. He had hired rubes for that.
One look at that grin, however, let him know Yachiru definitely did not think of herself as a hired rube. He shook his head. "Pawn that off on some boob if you don't wanna do it yourself." He looked up, regarding the door for a few moments, and decided then and there he needed to go out and, eh, run some errands.
Errands that involved some running and chasing and, hopefully, a little blood. He glanced at Yachiru before walking away. Yeah, she'd follow shortly, if not right away.
Aw, lame! Ken-chan totally was no fun at all! Cleaning was totally worse though.
Yachiru twirled the broom in her hands, thinking, before deciding what to do. She cheerfully bounced off into the direction of the male changing rooms and proceeded to hurl the broom at Ikkaku's shiny bald head.
A second later she was already tagging along behind Kenpachi, running away from Pachiko head at the fastest speed possible.
"Ken-chan! Wait for me!"
Hopefully the hit hadn't left a bruise.