SoiFong x Shuuhei Part 2
The bar was smoky and stank of sake and the various odours of the mass of bodies which it contained.
Shuuhei Hisagi sighed, he'd been feeling inexplicably low for the past few days, his close friend Abarai Renji noticed the look on his face and slammed a shot glass down in front of Shuuhei, making him jump. Then he topped it with alcohol before filling his own glass,
“Drink up Hisagi!” he roared
Ikkaku, Yumichika, Kira, Matsumoto and the other occupants of the table, stared at Renji incredulously,
“Hey what about us ass hole!” Ikkaku yelled
“Well hurry the hell up!” Renji replied “And Hisagi raise your god-damned glass!”
Shuuhei frowned, but raised his glass. Renji looked around the table to ensure all his friends had full glasses before he raised his own,
“Kanpai!” he yelled
“Kanpai!” they all yelled in reply
Each shinigami drained his, or her, shot glass before slamming them back on the table.
“What in the world was that for?” Shuuhei asked,
“You looked like you could use it” Renji replied.
Shuuhei shrugged, he sat back listening to the easy conversation that flowed between his friends.
Ikkaku and Yumichika were arguing as usual, it seemed that Yumi found Ikkaku's coarse language less than 'beautiful', Matsumoto was openly staring at Kira, who in turn seemed to have noticed that he was the object of her affection and had gone a deep red. Renji and Iba were deeply engrossed in a conversation about tattoos and it didn't look like they would surface for a while.
He scanned the bar, trying to pick out any other familiar faces.
Aside from the other regulars the group usually saw in the bar he didn't see anyone else from Sereitei, it was mostly Rukongai folk.
Then there was a movement across the room and he recognised the two people at once, it was Yoruichi Shihouin and Soi Fon, they were leaving.
It was strange, but he had found himself thinking about the 2nd division captain a lot recently and he couldn't ever remember having thought about her that much before.
Renji caught his friends line of sight, there was something in Shuuhei's eyes that he hadn't seen there before a sort of longing, he looked like he was spacing,
“Oi Hisagi!” he boomed “What yer staring at?”
Shuuhei blushed slightly “Nothing” he grumbled
“Nah it wasn't you were staring at someone! A girl!”
All other conversation around the table promptly died as 6 pairs of eyes suddenly all focused in on Shuuhei, who squirmed uncomfortably under the scrutiny,
“Wanna tell me who it was or shall I just start guessing?” Renji leered,
Shuuhei muttered something under his breath, all the occupants of the table edged closer
“What did you say?” Ikkaku asked
Yumichika dug him in the ribs, “If Shuu doesn't want to tell us he doesn't have to, but I do feel that they way he is treating our friendship right now is less than beautiful!”
“I said it was Soi Fon!” Hisagi roared
Suddenly the whole bar went quite the music stopped and all eyes were on Shuuhei,
“Shit” he cursed
“It's alright!” Iba boomed “There's nothing to see here folks!”
But sadly that just made people more interested to hear what was being said.
So the friends decided to head back to the 10th division to continue their conversations and their drinking.
---------§---------
“So you like 'Captain Soi Fon' huh?” Renji asked in a sarcastic kind of voice after Shuuhei had admitted the reason why he had been so glum,
“Shut up Renji”
“No need to get tetchy!”
“Pack it in guys” Ikkaku interrupted “We need to keep it down unless we want Kenpachi in here”
The whole group shared in a synchronised gulp,
“So how long have you liked her for?” Matsumoto asked
“I don't know” Shuuhei replied “I can't really remember the moment when I realised that I did”
“But you do like her don't you?” Kira asked
“Yeah I guess I do” Shuuhei admitted
“Too bad”Yumichika interjected
They all turned to stare at the pretty violet-eyed 5th seat,
“What do you mean?” Iba asked
“I think she's with Yoruichi”
Matsumoto laughed “That's ridiculous they're just friends!”
Yumichika raised one feather adorned eyebrow “You think what you like Matsumoto, but how much time do you spend with 'your' girlfriends?”
Matsumoto's mouth opened once or twice, but nothing came out,
“My point exactly” Yumichika said, folding his arms,
Shuuhei scowled “You're basing what you know of this woman on rumours?”
In the corner Matsumoto came to the realisation 'I don't really have any girlfriends'
Yumichika frowned “Well you go on then Shuuhei! You go chasing after a woman who likes to chase other women! But don't say I didn't warn you”
“I don't want to hear any more of this” Shuuhei said getting to his feet
“Me neither” Renji chipped in, “I'll walk with you Shuuhei”
Renji and Shuuhei left, soon after so did Kira, Iba and Matsumoto,
“Dammit Yumi, why'd you have to go and piss everyone off like that?” Ikkaku asked
“Oh so you'd rather I didn't tell him and let him get hurt?”
“well no, but you could have gone about it in a less 'ugly' fashion” Ikkaku stated,
knowing he'd hit a sore spot.
---------§---------
Shuuhei felt his heart sink when he discovered the very next morning that he had to run some papers over to the 2nd division, besides the hangover and the distance that it was, he really felt like he wouldn't be able to handle seeing her today, not after the previous evenings revelations.
He knocked once on the office door before it was opened, the door was opened and in its frame was Yoruichi Shihouin.
The former 2nd division captain, shinigami noble Yoruichi, with her tanned skin, yellow feline eyes and sultry voice, if the rumours about her and Soi Fon were true then Shuuhei knew he stood no chance against this woman.
“Hisagi-fukitaicho” she said, bowing her head slightly, then she called over her left shoulder “See you later Soi!”
And with that she moved out onto the walkway,
“She's all yours” she said over her shoulder,
those words gripped Shuuhei's heart tight, and though he tried to ignore the pain of it, it remained, throbbing in his chest,
“Hisagi-fukitaicho,” the voice from the room called him “What can I do for you today?”
She smiled at him from behind the desk, and despite what he felt at that moment he couldn't help but smile back, that smile could melt his heart a thousand times over. He mentally shook himself,
'Baka! She is with Yoruichi, isn't that obvious? There is no point having a crush on a chick who has a crush on another chick!'
“Is something wrong Shuuhei?”
Oh the way she said his name, it made him quiver,
he shook his head “No it's nothing, I was asked to deliver these to you”
He strode over to her desk, he didn't shut the office door behind him, he planned to spend as little time as possible in it.
She stood from behind her desk and moved to take the papers from him, her hand brushed his, just for the briefest of moments, but it sent a jolt of electricity through him.
Then it all went wrong, his attention wavered, he wasn't concentrating, he thought she had the papers, so he let go, at the same time her eyes went wide, he followed her line of vision and they both watched together, as if in slow motion, the papers fell to the floor.
Both shinigami dived onto it instantly, they both seemed to dive for the same spot and with a terrific //smack// noise their heads met together, simultaneously they fell backwards, each clutching their own heads
“Ow...” Soi was the first to speak
Shuuhei had been stunned into silence by what had just occurred, she would surely hate him now.
But instead Soi Fon began to laugh,
“What a couple of idiots we are!” she exclaimed “A captain and a vice captain almost knocking each other out cold over a pile of fallen papers, my Sereitei has really fallen on hard times hasn't it?”
She beamed at Shuuhei and once more Shuuhei couldn't help but smile back.
---------§---------
After they had retrieved all the fallen paperwork from the floor, Soi had invited Shuuhei to stay for some tea and a chat, he couldn't really see any polite way to refuse, so he accepted the invitation, they chatted for a while about things, work and the like,
then Soi said “I should really head off I have to meet up with Yo”
Shuuhei almost choked on his tea
“What?”
“N-nothing” he denied
“No, I heard you cough, what is it Shuuhei?”
“You, two spend a lot of time together, that's all” he stated
“Well we are best friends after all”
“Friends?”
“Yeah”
“Not //more// than friends? Just friends?” his eyes beginning to gleam
Soi looked at him quizzically, “Um...yeah”
Shuuhei smiled “Oh”
Soi frowned “What the? Explain yourself”
“No, no it's nothing”
Soi began to roll up her sleeves,
“Do I have to beat it out of you Hisagi? Cause I really don't want to”
“No, it's just...just something I heard about you and Yoruichi”
“What have you heard?” Soi was truly puzzled
Shuuhei blushed, “That you were um...that you were...”
Soi leaned up close to him “That we were what?”
“Girlfriends”
Soi's eyes went wide and then to Shuuhei's surprise she fell back and clung to her stomach as she began to laugh almost uncontrollably. She continued rolling about for about a minute, when she surfaced from her fit of laughter her face was bright red and there were tears running down her face,
“Where on earth did you get that? Gods wait till Yo hears about this”
Shuuhei paled “No! No! I didn't think that! Not at all! It was Yumichika he told me...he...” Shuuhei hung his head “he...shit...I've just dropped him in it haven't I?”
Soi took off on another bout of the giggles,
“Did you really think that?” she asked him
Shuuhei blushed and nodded, “Yumi is usually pretty accurate”
“Hmm...accurate rumours there's a novelty” she said, her lips pursed together,
“So you're not...with Yoruichi”
Soi smiled and shook her head “We're just real good friends”
They settled into a comfortable silence,
“Well I better get off to training with Yo”
“Yeah, I shouldn't really have stayed for the tea” Shuuhei admitted
“But you did stay” Soi pointed out
Shuuhei smiled, “Yeah I did, well...until the next time”
“See you around Shuuhei”