Finally!
When You’re Gone
The house was empty…
The jingle of keys is the only sound that can be heard as the door to the house opened revealing Hisagi Shuuhei, 9th division fukutaichou, into its threshold.
He stood there for a moment, soaking up the silence in the dark after shutting the door.
It’s funny how he always wished for a moment’s peace amidst the normal ruckus that the place was subjected to when his lover was around.
Now, however, he would give anything to have the presence of that oh so familiar reiatsu enveloping his very being and it’s owner welcoming him home from a hard day of work with a loving kiss on the cheek and a soft ‘okaeri’ whispered against his lips.
“Tadaima..”, Shuuhei whispered in the dark. He remained motionless in the same position for a few more minutes before slowly moving towards the bedroom. The room which was usually well lit was shrouded in darkness. Shuuhei leaned over to turn on one of the bedside lamps, bathing the room in soft light. He leaned against the door frame, observing the room in contemplative silence; he made no move to enter though. ‘Why the hell is it so damn quiet?’ he thought angrily, ‘and why the hell is it pissing me off?!?’ scowling at that last thought.
The room was just as he had left it in the morning before going to work. The queen-size bed on his right was made, the bulky but soft grey comforter covering the equally soft black silk sheets underneath. The dressing table was for once, neat and almost sparse with only his comb, hair gel and cologne present. There were no multi-colored feathers littering the surface, no make-up, no expensive perfume, no hairsprays and a number of styling gels, no assorted hairbrushes and combs. ‘He had packed those with him when he left.’
He pushed off from the door frame and entered the room fully, settling down on his side of the bed. Smirking, he could almost imagine a body lying under those sheets softly snoring and hogging his side of the bed. Sighing, he got up and entered the bathroom for a nice warm shower to wash away the day’s dirt and grime from his body. Unfortunately the memories refused to leave him, whilst under the spray of water he could almost feel the phantom touches and kisses littering his skin and the soft sighs his lover usually makes whenever they “had fun” in the shower together. Muttering angrily to himself, he shut off the water and hastily made to dry himself off.
After that rather unsatisfying shower, Shuuhei made for the kitchen to brew a warm cup of tea to soothe his agitated self. But when he entered the kitchen alcove he almost dropped the towel he was using to dry off his hair. There standing at the stove was his lover, in the cute little apron he always wore when preparing their dinner. Just as he was about to speak the vision before him turned around to offer him a soft smile before fading into the nothingness. Shuuhei blinked a few times and realized that the kitchen was still dark save for the shaft of moonlight that was shining on the very spot which his lover stood a few moments ago.
“I’m losing it”, he muttered to himself and leaned heavily against the door frame. Not for the first time today Shuuhei sighed. He missed his lover, they had separated on bad terms and now Shuuhei can’t even contact him to settle things between them. The vice-captain of the 9th division was on the verge of frustrated tears but he didn’t let them fall, he was stronger than that. Giving up on the tea he returned to the bedroom for another restless night since his lover left.
The next day was much worse than usual seeing that the workload for their division somehow tripled and Shuuhei was holed up in his office signing papers all day. Around noon time he was ready to call it quits and kill the next person to enter his room with “urgent paperwork” for him to look over. He grabbed his zanpakutou before leaving his office hastily avoiding everyone and flash stepped to the training grounds. There, he just let go…
With a determination and concentration he never knew he had, he made a wasteland out of the usually ordered training facility. He sliced through every dummy using both his sword and kidou. After nearly destroying half of the obstacles, he thought he saw a shadow move to his left, turning around he saw nothing. Thinking that perhaps his mind was again playing tricks on him he was about to continue with his frustrated rampage when he caught the glint of a sword about to slash at him. Just in time, he blocked its descent and was about to give his attacker a stern tongue-lashing when feathers caught his eye. Three feathers to be exact, strategically place on a right eyebrow above mischievous eyes that were twinkling at him, a smirk forming on the owner’s mouth.
“Ne fukutaichou, getting slow in your old age?” he said before jumping back and getting into his usual fighting stance. Shuuhei stood stock still. Too afraid to move just in case the person before him would disappear like the many times before. Seeing that his opponent was preoccupied, the attacker took the chance to lunge at Shuuhei, breaking him out of his trance and thus the two began a series of attacks that seemed choreographed. As if they had done this before, over and over again, and they have.
For the first time since his lover left Shuuhei felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders and he could breathe properly again. Every swing and move was executed with perfect precision since he had long ago studied his opponent’s moves and attacks that he could counter them without thinking twice. They rallied against each other for what felt like hours when finally Shuuhei saw his opening to end their fight and sprinted forward. Right before he was about to make his move, his opponent stood out of his stance and opened his arms as if to embrace him, softly smiling the whole time.
Shuuhei pulled back and was bracing himself for impact when all he felt was air and his shoulder slammed into the ground making him tumble to a stop a few feet away. He made no move to get up from his position on the ground, too upset and angry to do anything. His body was shaking due to suppressed emotions and heartache. Screaming with all his worth he slammed his fists to the ground, cursing the heavens and himself for his pride and what was left of it. He let out all of his frustrations on the training grounds, continuing his previous carnage, destroying everything within reach.
During his emotional tirade he failed to hear the alarms blaring through the city. A random member of his division found him in his disgraceful state promptly stopping him from fully destroying the training grounds and told him the news. Standing still for a moment to fully process what the shinigami had said, he flash stepped to the grounds where the gate was located. In his haste he forgot his zanpakutou which was currently impaled in one of the straw dummies, the shinigami who just spoke to his vice-captain decided to retrieve it and place it in Shuuhei’s office for safe keeping, just in case anything were to happen to it out in the open. “We gotta lotta work to do tomorrow after this stunt”, he said to himself looking over the destruction Shuuhei had left or what was left of their training facilities, shaking his head he turned to continue on with his task at hand.
The grounds were filled with crowds of shinigami cheering and welcoming home their members. The captains and vice-captains were standing in a row in the front, offering quiet greetings to the returning shinigami’s from the human realm. Shuuhei arrived just in time to see Renji step out of the portal just behind 10th division captain, Hitsugaya Taichou and his vice-captain, Matsumoto fukutaichou. Hastily stepping in line, he received a disapproving look from Komamura taichou for his tardiness as well as his disheveled appearance. However, he didn’t have time to do anything about it because Ikkaku Madarame, 3rd seat of the 11th division just stepped out of the portal followed by the one person he most wanted to see since he had left to follow his lifelong friend for a mission in the human realm.
Unconsciously, his feet were moving forward directing him towards his lover. He passed Renji on the way and his friend gave him a smirk and thumbs up. Matsumoto gave him a sly wink and a flying kiss while her captain just shook his head and continued to walk ahead of her. Ikakku laughed heartily, “Go get ‘em tiger!” he said before slapping Shuuhei on the back and hurrying forward to join the others. Yumichika stood a few feet away from him having stopped when he saw Shuuhei advancing towards him.
When he was only an arm’s length away Shuuhei stopped in front of him and continued to just look at him. ‘This time… this time it’s real’ he thought, the person standing before him now was real, not just an illusion conjured up by his mind due to his yearning. That face that was looking at him with a mixture of apprehension and longing was real, those tears that were about to spill out of his lover eyes were real and that beautiful mouth, usually posed in a condescending smirk, whose lips were quivering slightly was definitely real.
And this time, when Shuuhei reaches forward to embrace his lover, he won’t disappear, not this time. And he did just that, arms slowly reaching forward to hold his lover in a gentle embrace, he leaned down to rest his forehead onto Yumi’s whose tears were running freely down his face and whispered a single word that made the smile he was longing to see appear on his lover’s face.
“Okaeri…” Shuuhei whispered against his lips and Yumichika broke into a watery smile and whispered in return before succumbing to a passionate kiss from his lover.
“Tadaima…”
THE END
Okay, let me know what you think!
Liyana