(Untitled)

[ibreakrules]

Who:  Frau and Hitsugaya
When:  Sept. 6, after the sirens.
Where:  Outside on top of buildings or where ever else they decide to go, mainly Sector 4.
Summary:  Frau is working off the pain from his "accident."  Hitsugaya runs into him.
Warnings:  Language, I'm sure.

Comments

[icy_heavens]

Travelling by rooftop was always quicker, even when using shunpo. There was less navigating to do. And normally, he would have headed straight back to the offices, but it was a slow night and there was a very particular aura that drew his attention. He didn't know exactly what it was, but it bore investigation.

He alighted on the other side of the rooftop where he could sense the spiritual presence. Regarding the figure ahead of him, he realized that he recognized him. That man who had been having trouble containing his power on the network. And just how much trouble was he having now?

"Oh. It's you."

[ibreakrules]

It said something about how distracted Frau was that he hadn't even felt Hitsugaya approach. It was easy enough for him to hold himself still and hide that fact though. Finally he tipped his head slightly to the side to peer over his shoulder at Hitsugaya.

"Me?" Wait a minute here. Wasn't this that annoying little brat that had seen him fighting with the scythe awhile ago? Of all of the people who could have shown up... Frau let a cocky smile slip across his face in place of the irritation that was growing in him.

"Well, looky here, it's Shorts. Up here to see what it's like on the taller end of things?"

[icy_heavens]

His jaw clenched at that. Goddamn this idiot. "Stop calling me that."

But he wouldn't allow himself to be bothered further. At least not yet. It was mostly just the stupid nickname at this point. Hell, it wasn't even a creative stupid nickname. He'd heard worse.

And he wasn't answering that question, at least not directly. Doing so would likely have resulted in even more ridiculous teasing. "And how well do you have that thing under control tonight?"

[ibreakrules]

Normally Frau would have thrown some good come back to that. An even better nickname. Like Frostbite. Unfortunately Frau didn't even get a chance to start saying it before Hitsugaya asked his own question. Of all things, Hitsugaya had to ask him about control now.

Frau's eyes narrowed, and he actually turned fully to face Hitsugaya. The ice that flashed through Frau's eyes might even impress the ice captain.

"It's fine."

He wasn't lying. With how things had turned out, Frau was on high alert for the scythe to do anything. One half inch out of line and that was already too much. Frau might be distracted from everything else, but not the scythe. No, the scythe was under full control.

[icy_heavens]

The question of control was a perfectly valid one, considering the last time they'd spoken. Knowing what state the man's restraint was in was important; lives could hang in the balance.

Impressed at the coldness? Perhaps, but he didn't let that show. He simply folded his arms. "It certainly seems to be better than when we'd spoken before."

Hitsugaya could acknowledge that much. He honestly wasn't trying to be an ass, regardless of whether he came off that way or not.

[ibreakrules]

Typically Frau wouldn't mention the scythe, but Hitsugaya had already seen the truth, which left him with very little choice.

"It better damn well behave."

He wasn't cutting the scythe any slack. It would listen and it would listen well of he'd be doing a lot of banging into walls to make it listen. He couldn't risk it being overly enthusiastic around other people.

[icy_heavens]

Of course he had seen the truth. Anyone with network access and any kind of spiritual sight had seen it. Not a particularly rare thing, in this city. Though the city did seem to change certain other things -- one being that Hitsugaya himself shouldn't be visible to people with no spiritual sight. It was just a damned strange place.

"I can't say that I've encountered a zanpakutou or the equivalent thereof being that . . . rebellious."

[ibreakrules]

"A what now?"

Frau probably couldn't even say that word if it was pronounced slowly, syllable by syllable, multiple times for him. He'd been too busy trying to figure the crazy word out that he'd missed the word Hitsugaya had finally decided to go with. Rebellious hardly covered the scythe.

[icy_heavens]

"Zanpakutou." He briefly tilted his head in the direction of Hyourinmaru's hilt. "Soul Cutter. In my world, it's the weapon of a shinigami."

He actually hadn't had to explain zanpakutou a thousand times, unlike explaining the concept of shinigami, so doing so here didn't really bug him much. "Most of them tend to behave in general."

[ibreakrules]

"We usually just go with scythes." His was just an exception to the usual scythes. Those scythes didn't have minds of their own that wanted to eat their wielders. Why use Zehel's real one when he had something more powerful?

"They behave because they aren't sentient. It makes a difference."

[icy_heavens]

Now that brought an annoyed look back out. "They're not just empty weapons. They each have a mind and soul of their own. If it were otherwise, I wouldn't have started talking about their behaviour."

Honestly. Did he really sound that fanciful? He was speaking in strict practicalities as he always did.

[ibreakrules]

"I guess." Amazingly enough, Frau didn't argue back. Usually he would have. It wasn't that hard to drive someone nuts after all. This time though he just turned his attention back to the sky. There were certainly times when he wouldn't mind an "empty" weapon, but that wasn't his fate.

[icy_heavens]

He'd been expecting an argument, really. People seemed to love arguing with him for some reason. He had no idea why.

When no argument came, he actually blinked. So much quiet from the man who had called him various permutations of "short" with astonishing redundancy? That was odd -- not that he objected to the absence of insults.

"It's been like that since you've had it?"

[ibreakrules]

Argument granted. Or at least something a little more snappy. Frau short a glare over his shoulder at Hitsugaya.

"You don't ever let up, do you?"

He did not want to discuss the scythe with this kid. The details would lead to far too personal things, and it would be difficult to explain to someone who didn't know his own world. This was his own problem. Nobody else needed to know about it. If he explained a little bit, chances were Hitsugaya could read through the lines to get far more than Frau had intended.

[icy_heavens]

Well, just because he'd expected an argument didn't mean that he'd wanted one. He didn't enjoy genuine arguments. Silly ones, from time to time -- but he'd never say so and that was usually just with Hinamori anyway.

The glare meant little to him. Very few could accuse Hitsugaya of being tactful, after all; he was used to expressions like that. There was a reason he didn't have many friends.

"What exactly is so damned invasive about that question?"

[ibreakrules]

"The fact that you're asking it."

Frau turned back to face away from Hitsugaya, careful to keep his expression completely neutral. He couldn't lie and say that the scythe had always been like this. While it was true, in a sense, the reality was the scythe was getting worse. The balance had been tipping ever since he'd picked it up.

"All you need to know is that the scythe is a pain in the ass. I've got it under control. If it comes to a point when I don't, I know what to do."