[Ukitake + Kid!Rou] once upon a forgotten blue

[mayovice]

set in theskytides, many many years before the game when Hijikata was still a kid and full of hopes and dreams. Here he meets his mentor for the way of the sword - one Jyuushirou Ukitake.'Bored' was probably an understatement to describe how Toshirou felt right at that moment

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[wavesandthunder]

Jyuushirou had taken a shortcut on his way home from the market - not quite his usual route, but it was a good fifteen minutes shorter, and while it was a bad part of the city, anyone who tried something would quickly learn that the sword hanging on his belt was most definitely not just for show. It had happened a few times in the past, invariably because someone mistook him for being much older than he actually was and thus, an easy target. Shameful, really - he had very little guilt about proving them wrong.

The red-light district seemed quiet, this evening. There was the usual background hum that always descended on the streets as evening came, but there were few people out on the streets, and nothing that seemed like trouble brewing.

A small figure caught his attention - a boy, about ten or eleven by his guess. He wasn't dressed like one of the district's rentboys - and it was a sad truth that some of them were that young. Jyuushirou was safe enough on these streets, but a boy his age wasn't. He frowned slightly, and raised his

[mayovice]

Engaged in his mini-game of pebble kicking, Toshirou never really heard the words of the man until he dealt a particularly hard kick towards one of the pebbles littered on the ground before him. The thing flew well and true, flying and hitting on the flank of a nearby horse with a surprised neigh. The boy immediately ducked away from his spot at the cry from the animal, though if the look on his face was of any indication he was hardly sorry about what he did.

Glancing over towards him, the ten-year-old's face was the look of blatant nonchalance as he responded in something close to an obvious lie. "I'm not playing," he went, glaring back just slightly at the elder man. Despite what he was doing, it was true - he was simply waiting for his cousin to be done with whatever in Reial he was doing in there; he was just bored, and so did the simple thing of amusing himself by kicking pebbles. The horse bit was entirely accidental.

[piscestruth]

Jyuushirou suppressed a heavy sigh - children could be so stubborn, sometimes, but if there was one thing he had learned from his siblings, it was that showing that it frustrated you only made matters worse. He shifted his bags on his shoulder slightly and gave the boy a small grin. "Don't not-play here, then. You're a bit too young too be in this neighborhood, I think."

[mayovice]

And all the boy did in response to that was to lineface visibly, a mild expression of annoyance starting to form on his face.

"I'm not not-playing here either!" he retorted back somewhat hotly. "And I'm not young, I'm ten!" As far as he was concerned, ten was a perfectly acceptable age to be not young at all - heck, he did way more things than those boring adults could ever do! If anything, he shouldn't be seen as a kid at all! It wasn't as if he was just born yesterday or anything, seesh. These adults always thought way too much at times.

[wavesandthunder]

Jyuushirou couldn't help but grin at the boy's audacity. Particularly as he looked like he knew more of the world than some of the other students Ukitake had met in his academy days - the forthright nature wasn't entirely founded on sheer ignorance.

He set his grocery bags down, and after a moment's thought, pulled Sougyo no Kotowari out of his belt and propped it up by the bag. He wasn't entirely certain how to go about this, but he definitely wasn't going to use a live blade on a child. "Hm. Well, what did you want to learn?"

[mayovice]

The ten year old paused momentarily at that, a small frown crossing his young features as the kid thought about that question. Truth be told, he hadn't really thought about it... not that it was his fault! All of this just suddenly happened out of the blue - surely anyone would be as lost as him if this happened to them too! And besides, all he needed to do was to just think over this for a while, that's all...

(And thus came a notably long pause.)

[wavesandthunder]

Jyuushirou hid a smile at the boy's sullen indecision at his question. Perhaps there was a little more bluff there than he had originally thought. Well, it wouldn't hurt to make the question a little easier on him. "Hm. What have you learned of the basic forms and katas?"

[mayovice]

"Um..." Toshirou started with a fair amount of uncertainty at that, blinking as he processed the question. In all honesty, the boy didn't have much of an idea what Ukitake was talking about - the lessons he got from his cousin were less than formal, and his spars with Flynn were anything but formal; two kids sparring along a dirty street wasn't anything grand or fancy, after all.

There was another pause as the kid thought over the question, but eventually he more or less threw caution to the wind and responded with a blunt honesty. "I dunno."