Keeping up with the neighbors
Maybe it had been a bad idea for Ken-chan to tell Yachiru she could come and go as she pleased. Wound tight from a shopping trip that had gotten the pink terror going--a sudden idea came to her. Now, Yachiru got a lot of ideas a lot of the time. Most of them never turned out very well. Take, for example, her idea to paint the bathroom pink and the arguments from apartment # 16 that had spanned at least two days before one morning blue was settled upon.
This time however? She was sure this idea wasnt so bad! So! Bare feet padded out into the hall way, careful to use her key to lock the door behind her. Hands full with something, Yachiru toddled not more than a few feet to the door with # 15 upon it. Considering it for a few moments before lifting a hand to raprapraprap in the unusual silence sharply.
He was glad to have the opportunity to relax after the stressful night and morning. The social worker had been awful, as usual, but Toushirou knew that the old woman had nothing to seriously complain about, besides the fact he actually lived in this place. The apartment was the cleanest it had been since the last inspection (minus a few scattered dishes from lunch) and he knew they hadn't given her any ammunition to use against them.
He was sitting on the couch, reading a novel and debating if he should get to work on his history paper when someone knocked at the door. Toushirou set his book aside and got up to answer it. He opened the door enough to see who was there and was surprise to see a very short and very pink girl. "Hello," he said, opening the door a little more. "Can I help you?"
Very, very pink. Strawberry blonde hair that was obviously dyed that color, also had streaks of pastel pink to frame an angular face that tipped up lazily at the opening of the door. Almond black eyes inspected the boy who'd opened with fathomless glance.
Four foot, just about, give or take an inch. Bare foot; she was wearing hot pink cotton pajama bottoms tied around waist in floppy bow-string and an even pink-er shirt, if it was, at all possible for a color to achieve that sort of..pink..ness.
"Hi. I'm Yachiru, I hear that when you make nice with neighbors yer supposed to give 'im food n' shi--stuff. So I brought you a cherry popsicle. " Smooth, she was, in the sociable department, ne?
He blinked and then opened the door completely. "I'm Hitsugaya Toushirou," he said, stepping back out of the way so she could come in. "Which apartment are you in?" Several new tenants had moved in recently, and he hadn't possessed the time to meet all of them yet. Although it seemed that there was someone in the apartment complex that was shorter than him. At last. "Ah, thanks for the popsicle."
There were cockroaches in this apartment taller than Yachiru. She'll get used to it someday. Maybe late into her thirties. When he stepped aside, she craned her neck a little to blatantly peek over an arm. Ogle the inside all wide eyed, but for now did not make any move to cross the threshold.
Miniature doll fingers offered up paper wrapped frozen treat, in which she'd mentioned earlier. Then other hand, jerked a thumb breezily in the some-what-general direction of #16.
"I live with Ken-chaaaaaa~aaaan." Sing-song of his name. "You're welcome, aa? Your vacuum sounds like it sucked up some demon cats then tortured them with rocking chairs. " Smile! Beam!
After that, bubble gum princess shuffled curious, but hesitant feet a little inside the door.
He took the popsicle from her and held it, feeling awkward when she didn't come inside immediately. She lived with Zaraki, which was a surprise. Toushirou had seen him perhaps a grand total of five times in the month he'd been there. Frankly, the giant, hulking man hadn't seemed the type to tolerate children, much less have one living with him.
The mental picture her words conjured about the vacuum cleaner amused him. "I hope we didn't bother you," Toushirou said, watching as the girl sort of inched herself inside the door. She seemed . . . well, either shy or wary, and he wasn't quite sure what to make of it. Yachiru seemed a bit too energetic to be terribly shy. He thought about her comment concerning food and then added, "Would you like something to eat?"
Wary is a good. Though she'd never admit it if ever asked outright. Ken-chan wasn't ever wary of anything, so she couldn't be either.
First introductions were never very easy, Yachiru wasn't exactly Miss America Pageant people - skilled either. She kept reminding herself that an cuss for every third or fourth word wasn't always what other people did. Its not her fault.
Ken-chan was a great, big, mean teddy bear!
With claws. And teeth. And snarled a lot. And could kill a man with his EYES. But a teddy bear! Really!
"Nope! I could sleep through anything when I'm reeeeally tired." Rocking up to her tip toes a moment, then back down to her heels to pad then in a little further. She wasn't looking at Toushirou, but one got the sense she knew where he was and would know where he was in the room even without turning.
"Hai! D'you got any candy?" Someone with a better sense of what was right and wrong in the rule book of making friends might have facepalmed at the girls’ outright question. This was Yachiru however, rules did not always apply! "Oh, Ken-chan bought lots of food. So I'm really not that hungry. He bought chips an' some cherries and popsicles an' some french fries--I really like french fries, don't you? Then he bought me some clothes 'cause I had to wear his an' then I kept fallin' flat on my fuc--face all the time an' sh..Stuff, 'cause his legs' r' so long an' the pant legs of his sweat's hand t' be rolled up for like -- " Inhale. "A mile I bet. "
He followed that, right?
Toushirou was impressed--a shocked sort of impressed--that she could say all of what she did in that breath. It mostly merged into a babble that he could mostly make out but wouldn't be able to repeat in any sensical form. "That's good," he said, really because he wasn't sure how else he could respond. It was a bit odd that she wasn't looking at him, but he was beginning to understand that Yachiru was nothing if not a bit odd.
"We don't have any candy," he said, switching the popsicle to his other hand when the fingers of the first got too cold for his liking. "But I think there are some cookies. Store-bought," he added, watching her curiously. She looked and sounded as if she was in elementary school, but he could have sworn that she'd caught herself swearing a few times and changed what she was going to say. He decided not to ask how old she was though--he'd been mistaken for younger than he was too many times to count, and he didn't want to get her upset when she was just beginning to make her way through the door.
Speaking of odd-- lightless eyes finally turned their way back toward him. Did he find it unsettling, that a child could pin someone like that, with just a look? Moth wings, pinned to Styrofoam.
Red gold brows over her nose however, were wrinkled right up. Eyes dropping to the movement of his hands.
"Oi. Y'gonna..like..eat that or what? " Boys are so odd. Who stands there with a popsicle in their hands thawing? "If you don't you'll end up with a paper bag a cherry juice,aa?"
She looked and sounded like a lot of things. None of them ever fell into any category.
Then, out of the blue? Expression cleared to one of eagerness. "Cookies 'r' alright. Sure!"
When she finally looked back at him, Toushirou finally noticed how dark her eyes were. He'd expected a lighter color, gray, blue maybe, but not black. Right. The popsicle. It was getting a bit soft. "Come on in," he said, leaving the door open. It would be up to her to follow him in or not.
Toushirou cut through the living room and to the kitchen, where he opened one of the food cupboards above the counter. With his empty hand, he reached up and managed to grab the little container of cookies Rangiku had bought when she'd last gone to the store. They were already open, several gone, but there was still about three-quarters of the package left. He took a few steps and set them on the small table and then looked up to see where his visitor was.
Some times, in the right light, outer rings of brown like fresh tilled earth could be seen. In electric light or low light, they tended to turn obsidian. Or maybe that's just the way illumination made them.
Tracking the kid for a second, before taking the last step over the threshold to be officially inside. She did come in, but left the door open like she'd bolt if she had too. It wasn't a fully conscious forgetting on her part.
"Sure. Right. " Bare toes curled, as if she was studying how the floor felt. Dark eyes flit across the room: windows, door ways. Habit or inquisitive nature?
Drawn back by him coming near again, chin tipped down to follow the placement of cookies on table. Smiling then, radiant for sugar no doubt, she tracked forward just a little bit to lean small form and reach with petite fingers. Plucking a single cookie from its safety, it promptly died a horrible death with happy savage bite.
"S'good!" ...Ken-chan'd kill her if he saw her speaking around a mouthful of cookie.
Well, at least she'd come inside all the way, although she'd left the door open. And she spoke with her mouth full of food, but that wasn't a big deal. Toushirou went to school with people with far fewer manners than Yachiru, he was certain. At least where eating was concerned. He turned his attention to the food he'd given her, and set about to opening it.
The popsicle had already started melting like she had predicted, so Toushirou left the wrapping part-way on in order to catch the drips. He'd spent forever cleaning the apartment, and he didn't want to do it again so soon. Cookie crumbs were one thing, but popsicle juice got sticky and nasty. He bit off a small part of the top of the popsicle and let it melt in his mouth. "Thanks," he said again, swallowing the cherry-flavored juice.
"Yeah, sure, no problem y'know? Mean, s'good shit, popsicles. No-aaaaah. Sorry. I mean s'good stuff. " Inhale; cookie crumbs in her panic, realizing she'd just slipped. Blank look a moment, as her lungs grumbled faintly over the food particles now rattling about.
minutive hand lifted to thump once on her chest whilst eyes watered. "Che! -" Wheeze. " Gaahahadggdfsagghh." Cough, cough, cough, hacksneeze.
She did, at least, cover her mouth during her eye watering moment. Great. On my head stone it's gonna read: 'Yachiru. Fucking ijit. I told you to not to talk with your mouth full. '
Shaking her head side to side to clear it, black eyes blinked rapidly to clear themselves. Normal people would have been embarrassed to nearly drown on cookie crumbs, Yachiru wiped her eyes and kept right on' going.
"Soooooo.." Hoarse. "What school y' go too?"
It seemed like he had heard her correctly; she was attempting to be polite, probably, trying to avoid swearing in front of strangers. Which was a good way to go. Toushirou was about to tell her not to worry about swearing when she suddenly started coughing, sounding like she was going to die. He took a step toward the sink, thinking that maybe he should get her water when she managed to breathe again and even ask a question.
"Central High School," he replied automatically. Toushirou was still a bit worried; her voice was hoarse. "You want something to drink? Milk or water?"
She waved hands about, dismissing the offer. "Nah, its what I get fer trying to breath cookies, right? Huh. How old're ya? " Then she went still, tapping her chin.
"I mean, if you don't mind me askin'. People ask me all the time, usually after they say all sort's a crap wrong. "
She then, like the delicate princess she was, stuffed the remaining cookie into her mouth, until cheeks puffed out squirrel like, chewing pensively on it until it was destroyed enough to swallow.
"I just turned seventeen in December," Toushirou said, watching as she shoved the food into her mouth. She was a quick eater when she wasn't choking. Which reminded him that he had a rapidly melting popsicle in his hand. He took another bite, chewing and swallowing instead of waiting for it to melt, because if he took too much longer it was going to drip all over the place if he wasn't careful.
"How about you?" Long experience had taught him not to guess at someone's age--it was always extremely awkward when you were wrong. Toushirou moved the packaging further down so that it was scrunched all the way under the popsicle itself. He licked some of the larger drips off quickly, not wanting them to fall on something.
Odd flickering of eyes a moment -- is he asking about what school I go to--OH, brightening immediately. "Fourteen. I'll be fifteen soon. " Puff. She was rather proud of her 'maturing,' as most kids her age were. Always in a hurry to grow up, then by the time she got there she'd be kicking herself in the ass for trying to rush it.
She didn't wipe the crumbs from her fingers on her clothes though. That'd be rude, that much she was sure of. She stuck her fingers in her mouth instead. That's good, yeah?
Something made a single dimple appear, though. "Y'got pink on yer shirt. " She put her hands behind her back then.
"Wellll. I'ma make like a prom dress on prom night, and take off. I don't want Ken-chaaaaaaaa~aaaan to come home and see me gone. Don't like him t' get all worried, right? It was nice to meet you Toushirou, I'll come bug you again sometime. Maybe you'll tell me more about your school, okayokay? I've got to go put the clothes on the floor away or Ken-chan's gonna fuc--kill me!"
A whirl wind. A tiny one, but no less destructive. She'd come, shaken and stirred up a few things; left a mess in the mind for someone trying to figure out how she ticked, then just as quick was gone. Bare feet padding already to the door and almost over the threshold to carry her into the hallway.
Toushirou was extremely glad he hadn't tried to ask. He would have guessed eleven or twelve, and that would not have been good.
And before he'd had time to register her telling him he'd dripped popsicle on himself, she was suddenly all sound and energy and had practically rushed toward the door. "All right," he said, wondering when 'again' would be. She seemed to take a lot of energy from him, he realized. Maybe it was because she talked so fast and said so much that he had to spend a lot of time concentrating on what she was saying. "See you later."
She waved almost absently over her shoulder, a wriggle of fingers near a blur. "You too, aa? Take care, and don't run that vacuum cleaner real early in the morning 'cause otherwise I deal with Keeeeee~eeeeen chaaa~n grumping all day and he's -- " She's in the hallway by now. Turning about to babble at him from the door way. " -grumpy enough already. Che, just 'cause I burn toast! Heh. Well, I didn't really burn that much toast --" And, now she's turned away, speaking to herself while little hands reached for the door knob.
Truth be told; she did not like not being there when Ken-chan comes home. And she did not like leaving him alone long. She'd think why, later. Not sure yet.
"Just a few pieces. Baaaaibaaai!" Waving, the door rattled shut behind her. It seemed almost like the air itself was stunned in the silence the absence of her presence presented.