I would say something clever for April Fool's Day...
...except my grandmother woke my grandfather up at three in the morning to tell him the furnace exploded. She's got a 60 year winning streak of these things to uphold. When she's not beating the crap out of muggers in New York City at age eighty.
I love my grandmother.
“Mizuiiiiro,” groaned Keigo. Alone. Destitute. Abandoned in this cruel, cruel world…. “You know what day it is, don’t you?”
He had flung himself so desperately into the sanctuary of the nearest convenient bosom that Mizuiro nearly fell over, but there were hands seizing him at the shoulders-so he just tottered a little.
“Monday?” he answered, cocking his head slightly.
Keigo fell to his knees and cried.
“You know,” Mizuiro began, attempting to move a leg experimentally and finding that, indeed, the grip of friendship was a strong one. “I was going to wear these pants for a date tonight…”
“A date!” cried Keigo. “You have a date! So today is the day you have a date!”
“Today’s also…hm, what was it? In some places it’s…. right!” Mizuiro slid his phone back into a schoolbag, and started to fish around. Which was hard, as Keigo had started getting grabby in his abject despair. “ ‘April Fools’.”
“What?” said Keigo.
“Happy birthday,” said Mizuiro. “I’ll be over.”
And he dropped the package on his head.
“ ‘Hap-py bir’-huh!” Rikichi blinked. “Didn’t know today was your birthday!”
“…um, no. it isn’t,” said Hanatarou, sheepishly, once the smoke had cleared and he’d stopped stomping on this hissing remnants of the Shiba Brand Snakecrackers, 4th Special Hana Edition that had come to him via one of Seireitei’s more suspect mail systems. “It’s…”
“At least I should’ve gotten you something,” said the 6th division officer, regretfully. “I mean, you do outrank me! Even if you’re in th-I…I mean. It would’ve been respectful-- …I need to get better at being respectful.”
“Does Vice-Captain Abarai say that?”
“…no. He kicks me.”
“Oh. I won’t do that,” said Hanatarou, smoothing his fingers over his card. He looked at it, and the big blocky script, and the awful drawings in the corner. Those were Shiba brand too. “Please don’t go through the trouble. It’s not really a birthday…”
“How is that!”
“…I’m from the Alley.”
Rikichi opened his mouth, raised a finger…and then gave a smile that was half a wince, and looked away, fiddling with his beads. “…and this is the kind of thing Renji-san kicks me about. When I say and do dumb things like this! Also, um, the butterfly thing. I, uh…”
Hanatarou pinched the corner his card, bent it over one way, then the other. “It’s all right, Rikichi-san.”
“So April 1st…”
“I said goodbye to someone, on that day. Not anyone you would know! It was a long time ago. By that I mean…” Hanatarou laughed, hesitantly. “I said I was from the Alley? You didn’t know. I thank you for assuming I was a noble like you! But also…”
He smiled. “When you think of people from the alley, you think of…amazingly strong people. Like Rukia-san. And Vice-Captain Abarai. I wasn’t a person like that.”
“I think you’re a person like that.”
“Thank you very much,” Hanatarou bowed. “But I was very, very helpless! When I came to the Alley, I didn’t know a thing about what to do! I wasn’t in a bad district, like some others go. I wasn’t in a very good one, either. I nearly walked right into a place occupied by one of the largest local gangs in the district! Where they were having a meeting!”
“…what did you do,” asked Rikichi, eyes wide.
“I dropped my bag,” said Hanatarou. “And I bent down to get it. And when I looked up again, they’d all crashed their heads together, trying to jump on me and they were unconscious.”
“Wow.”
“Except for the one who became my friend.”
“Wow.”
“….and he took me to Seireitei where I, um. That’s it, mostly,” Hanatarou hunched. “He was kind. And very strong. And very nice! …for a gangster.”
“But he didn’t have spiritual powers.”
“No.”
“So he couldn’t go with you, the rest of the way.”
“No.”
“But he wanted you to be somewhere that you belonged.”
“…yes,” said Hanatarou, softly. And for a moment it seemed his voice had traveled back in time, a ways…someplace no amount of squinting could ever earn a glimpse of. Although Rikichi tried for a moment, leaning over his shoulder in the attempt…
“ ‘An important day,’” he echoed, “A day you said goodbye… I can understand that.”
Hanatarou snapped back to the present, “Rikichi-san?”
The young officer nodded, determined. “I have one of those too.”
“Rikichi-san…”
Rikichi kicked the firecrackers and beat the soot off of his hakama and turned to look out the open doors, across the city, to the walls: it was a very long ways away on what was very beautiful day….minus the explosives they’d have to clean up before any of the higher ups thought to pass through this way again.
“In the spring. About fifty years ago now, I think? …I was born before the first plum blossoms came into bloom…”
I love my grandmother.
“Mizuiiiiro,” groaned Keigo. Alone. Destitute. Abandoned in this cruel, cruel world…. “You know what day it is, don’t you?”
He had flung himself so desperately into the sanctuary of the nearest convenient bosom that Mizuiro nearly fell over, but there were hands seizing him at the shoulders-so he just tottered a little.
“Monday?” he answered, cocking his head slightly.
Keigo fell to his knees and cried.
“You know,” Mizuiro began, attempting to move a leg experimentally and finding that, indeed, the grip of friendship was a strong one. “I was going to wear these pants for a date tonight…”
“A date!” cried Keigo. “You have a date! So today is the day you have a date!”
“Today’s also…hm, what was it? In some places it’s…. right!” Mizuiro slid his phone back into a schoolbag, and started to fish around. Which was hard, as Keigo had started getting grabby in his abject despair. “ ‘April Fools’.”
“What?” said Keigo.
“Happy birthday,” said Mizuiro. “I’ll be over.”
And he dropped the package on his head.
“ ‘Hap-py bir’-huh!” Rikichi blinked. “Didn’t know today was your birthday!”
“…um, no. it isn’t,” said Hanatarou, sheepishly, once the smoke had cleared and he’d stopped stomping on this hissing remnants of the Shiba Brand Snakecrackers, 4th Special Hana Edition that had come to him via one of Seireitei’s more suspect mail systems. “It’s…”
“At least I should’ve gotten you something,” said the 6th division officer, regretfully. “I mean, you do outrank me! Even if you’re in th-I…I mean. It would’ve been respectful-- …I need to get better at being respectful.”
“Does Vice-Captain Abarai say that?”
“…no. He kicks me.”
“Oh. I won’t do that,” said Hanatarou, smoothing his fingers over his card. He looked at it, and the big blocky script, and the awful drawings in the corner. Those were Shiba brand too. “Please don’t go through the trouble. It’s not really a birthday…”
“How is that!”
“…I’m from the Alley.”
Rikichi opened his mouth, raised a finger…and then gave a smile that was half a wince, and looked away, fiddling with his beads. “…and this is the kind of thing Renji-san kicks me about. When I say and do dumb things like this! Also, um, the butterfly thing. I, uh…”
Hanatarou pinched the corner his card, bent it over one way, then the other. “It’s all right, Rikichi-san.”
“So April 1st…”
“I said goodbye to someone, on that day. Not anyone you would know! It was a long time ago. By that I mean…” Hanatarou laughed, hesitantly. “I said I was from the Alley? You didn’t know. I thank you for assuming I was a noble like you! But also…”
He smiled. “When you think of people from the alley, you think of…amazingly strong people. Like Rukia-san. And Vice-Captain Abarai. I wasn’t a person like that.”
“I think you’re a person like that.”
“Thank you very much,” Hanatarou bowed. “But I was very, very helpless! When I came to the Alley, I didn’t know a thing about what to do! I wasn’t in a bad district, like some others go. I wasn’t in a very good one, either. I nearly walked right into a place occupied by one of the largest local gangs in the district! Where they were having a meeting!”
“…what did you do,” asked Rikichi, eyes wide.
“I dropped my bag,” said Hanatarou. “And I bent down to get it. And when I looked up again, they’d all crashed their heads together, trying to jump on me and they were unconscious.”
“Wow.”
“Except for the one who became my friend.”
“Wow.”
“….and he took me to Seireitei where I, um. That’s it, mostly,” Hanatarou hunched. “He was kind. And very strong. And very nice! …for a gangster.”
“But he didn’t have spiritual powers.”
“No.”
“So he couldn’t go with you, the rest of the way.”
“No.”
“But he wanted you to be somewhere that you belonged.”
“…yes,” said Hanatarou, softly. And for a moment it seemed his voice had traveled back in time, a ways…someplace no amount of squinting could ever earn a glimpse of. Although Rikichi tried for a moment, leaning over his shoulder in the attempt…
“ ‘An important day,’” he echoed, “A day you said goodbye… I can understand that.”
Hanatarou snapped back to the present, “Rikichi-san?”
The young officer nodded, determined. “I have one of those too.”
“Rikichi-san…”
Rikichi kicked the firecrackers and beat the soot off of his hakama and turned to look out the open doors, across the city, to the walls: it was a very long ways away on what was very beautiful day….minus the explosives they’d have to clean up before any of the higher ups thought to pass through this way again.
“In the spring. About fifty years ago now, I think? …I was born before the first plum blossoms came into bloom…”