24 Chips - 20
I know technically you'd expect 19 next, but the first one I did, titled Nocturne is actually #19 so no need to post it a second time.
Theme: 20:00
Title: Stolen Fireworks
Fandom: Bleach
Character: Hirako Shinji and Sarugaki Hiyori
Category: Romantic
Rating: PG
Warnings: Other than the TBTP arc, mostly just language, really bc of Hiyori. And as always, I'm making up their past before the TBTP arc because we don't know about their childhood/academy days/etc.
Disclaimer: Bleach =/= mine, or we'd see way more Vaizard love.
Summary: Part 20 of my 24-piece series of memorable "firsts" for these two.
The first time Shinji ever kissed Hiyori was much like the first time he met her. He did something because it was what he wanted to do and he got beaten for it. And honestly, he’d always expected - though he’d admit he’d hoped otherwise - for things to turn out that way.
It was Tanabata, one of the few days out of the year that their small group collectively decided to stop their constant training and waiting and planning and just… enjoy themselves. They did it every year and he’d already found himself regretting that this year had to be something of an exception.
They’d still gone into the streets of Karakura 5 hours ago when it started, enjoying the festivities and lights as always, but it was a guarded vacation. And as much as he didn’t really think it fair to blame Kurosaki for it, it was impossible to deny that because of the orange-haired punk this place had become much more a hotspot of shinigami activity. And more shinigami meant more likelihood that their small troupe of Vaizards would be discovered in spite of the pains they took to keep that from happening.
The tension had made it a little bit more difficult to enjoy the games and food this year, but they’d managed somehow. They’d been able to relax, have some laughs, and almost forget that there was a war looming on the horizon, that they were exiles who didn’t truly belong to this world, that… they spent their lives being hunted. They could just be who they were; a group of friends, celebrating together.
And somewhere between the laughs as Kensei lost his temper with the rifle-shooting booth and had to be dragged off by Love and Rose and the stares as Lisa talked a much more innocent Mashiro into a much racier makeover, he realized that one person was conspicuously absent from their little gathering.
Glancing around, he half-expected to see her at the takoyaki booth, haggling - outright threatening, really - the vendor for a double share at half the price. That was the typical result, and she almost always got what she wanted, mostly owing to the fact that Hiyori could be pretty scary at times. She was always the hardest one to get to go every year, mostly owing to the fact that she hated humans, but also due to her seeming unwillingness to just have fun and relax. Bad for her image, he assumed. But regardless, they somehow managed to drag her along every year.
Turning back to the others, he caught their attention before loping off through the crowd, thumbs hooked in his obi as he walked. If she wasn’t at the stand, then there was really only one other place where she’d be. Well, either that or he’d be totally wrong and feel like a moron. But he didn’t expect that.
Shinji made his way along the path, noting that the crowds were dwindling as the lanterns along the sides of the pathway came on slowly, their red glow casting blood-orange shadows through the trees and heralding the approach of the 8th hour. He and Hiyori had walked this path numerous times before, and he knew perfectly well that although she’d complain about it the whole time, it was one of her favourite spots. She really wasn’t as hard to read as she liked to assume sometimes. At least, not to him.
Coming up on a small shrine, he paused to stare up at the carved figures and the thick braided cord suspending the bell over the alter. Some things didn’t change much, and he felt a small smile curve his mouth at the nostalgia of it. Sauntering forward, he stuck his head around the corner of the shrine with a wide grin.
“Found ya. You always sneak off up here.”
His response was a noncommittal grunt from the red-garbed - she never wore a yukata, she always said they were too girly - figure leaning up against the back wall of the shrine overlooking the town. He was right, she tended to find her way up here every year. It was secluded and quiet, and she liked that. And then, there was always the fact of it being a perfect out of the way spot to enjoy the fireworks without anyone else seeing.
Plopping down beside her, he leaned his head against the wall with a sigh, handing her a stick of dango as he did so. He knew she didn’t like being in the midst of all the humans, and he couldn’t really blame her for it. She didn’t come to these things for her own enjoyment - though he knew for a fact that she had fun, regardless of how she acted - she came for them. For him and the others because she knew it meant a lot to them. That was why no one complained when she vanished like this, spiriting herself to somewhere isolated and away from the crowds. She didn’t like anyone seeing her showing any sort of tender emotion, and enjoyment was listed in those emotions. He was one of the few people who’d ever seen it.
His blue eyes were drawn away from her at the loud popping of gunpowder as iridescent flowers exploded in the sky overhead. Fireworks, signaling the end of the festival for yet another year. Settling back, he tucked his arms behind his head to watch them, eyes glancing every so often to Hiyori. Bathed in the multicoloured light of the sky’s display, a look of uncharacteristically open enjoyment on her face, he couldn’t deny that he’d been wrong all those years ago.
She was beautiful, and he didn’t much care if anyone else thought that way or not. To him, she was more captivating than the fireworks overhead, and every day it got just a little bit harder to keep hiding - well, not really hiding so much as ignoring - the fact. It wasn’t even as though he cared if the others knew or not, in fact he was relatively certain that most of them knew he cared for Hiyori a great deal beyond what the rest of them felt for her, it was more… for her. Because he knew what she’d think, how she’d react. Just as he knew she felt the same way, could see it in her eyes and read it in her actions in those rare flashes where she let her guard down.
But knowing didn’t change anything. It didn’t make her less guarded, more receptive to the idea of letting him closer, of opening up and accepting what he was waiting patiently - well, patiently most of the time - to give her. And that was the hardest part of it, the being patient. The waiting and accepting and hoping that one day she would feel comfortable enough to let him in while he shoved back feelings and emotions and urges that got harder and harder to deny every day he did it.
And maybe that was why, before he even really knew what he was doing, Shinji had turned towards her, leaning down to catch her chin in his hand and tilt her face up to press lips over hers in a gentle, yet insistent kiss. Whether she took the hint or not, he didn’t much care right now. He just didn’t know how much longer he could keep going on not saying anything. Not knowing if she knew, or if she cared.
For one long, silent moment she simply sat there, brown eyes wide, Shinji’s lips still pressed against hers before the reality of the situation set in and a few moments later she was storming down the path, cheeks flaming and a string of curses spewing from her mouth as Shinji lay in a battered - but grinning - heap on the top of the hill.
Theme: 20:00
Title: Stolen Fireworks
Fandom: Bleach
Character: Hirako Shinji and Sarugaki Hiyori
Category: Romantic
Rating: PG
Warnings: Other than the TBTP arc, mostly just language, really bc of Hiyori. And as always, I'm making up their past before the TBTP arc because we don't know about their childhood/academy days/etc.
Disclaimer: Bleach =/= mine, or we'd see way more Vaizard love.
Summary: Part 20 of my 24-piece series of memorable "firsts" for these two.
The first time Shinji ever kissed Hiyori was much like the first time he met her. He did something because it was what he wanted to do and he got beaten for it. And honestly, he’d always expected - though he’d admit he’d hoped otherwise - for things to turn out that way.
It was Tanabata, one of the few days out of the year that their small group collectively decided to stop their constant training and waiting and planning and just… enjoy themselves. They did it every year and he’d already found himself regretting that this year had to be something of an exception.
They’d still gone into the streets of Karakura 5 hours ago when it started, enjoying the festivities and lights as always, but it was a guarded vacation. And as much as he didn’t really think it fair to blame Kurosaki for it, it was impossible to deny that because of the orange-haired punk this place had become much more a hotspot of shinigami activity. And more shinigami meant more likelihood that their small troupe of Vaizards would be discovered in spite of the pains they took to keep that from happening.
The tension had made it a little bit more difficult to enjoy the games and food this year, but they’d managed somehow. They’d been able to relax, have some laughs, and almost forget that there was a war looming on the horizon, that they were exiles who didn’t truly belong to this world, that… they spent their lives being hunted. They could just be who they were; a group of friends, celebrating together.
And somewhere between the laughs as Kensei lost his temper with the rifle-shooting booth and had to be dragged off by Love and Rose and the stares as Lisa talked a much more innocent Mashiro into a much racier makeover, he realized that one person was conspicuously absent from their little gathering.
Glancing around, he half-expected to see her at the takoyaki booth, haggling - outright threatening, really - the vendor for a double share at half the price. That was the typical result, and she almost always got what she wanted, mostly owing to the fact that Hiyori could be pretty scary at times. She was always the hardest one to get to go every year, mostly owing to the fact that she hated humans, but also due to her seeming unwillingness to just have fun and relax. Bad for her image, he assumed. But regardless, they somehow managed to drag her along every year.
Turning back to the others, he caught their attention before loping off through the crowd, thumbs hooked in his obi as he walked. If she wasn’t at the stand, then there was really only one other place where she’d be. Well, either that or he’d be totally wrong and feel like a moron. But he didn’t expect that.
Shinji made his way along the path, noting that the crowds were dwindling as the lanterns along the sides of the pathway came on slowly, their red glow casting blood-orange shadows through the trees and heralding the approach of the 8th hour. He and Hiyori had walked this path numerous times before, and he knew perfectly well that although she’d complain about it the whole time, it was one of her favourite spots. She really wasn’t as hard to read as she liked to assume sometimes. At least, not to him.
Coming up on a small shrine, he paused to stare up at the carved figures and the thick braided cord suspending the bell over the alter. Some things didn’t change much, and he felt a small smile curve his mouth at the nostalgia of it. Sauntering forward, he stuck his head around the corner of the shrine with a wide grin.
“Found ya. You always sneak off up here.”
His response was a noncommittal grunt from the red-garbed - she never wore a yukata, she always said they were too girly - figure leaning up against the back wall of the shrine overlooking the town. He was right, she tended to find her way up here every year. It was secluded and quiet, and she liked that. And then, there was always the fact of it being a perfect out of the way spot to enjoy the fireworks without anyone else seeing.
Plopping down beside her, he leaned his head against the wall with a sigh, handing her a stick of dango as he did so. He knew she didn’t like being in the midst of all the humans, and he couldn’t really blame her for it. She didn’t come to these things for her own enjoyment - though he knew for a fact that she had fun, regardless of how she acted - she came for them. For him and the others because she knew it meant a lot to them. That was why no one complained when she vanished like this, spiriting herself to somewhere isolated and away from the crowds. She didn’t like anyone seeing her showing any sort of tender emotion, and enjoyment was listed in those emotions. He was one of the few people who’d ever seen it.
His blue eyes were drawn away from her at the loud popping of gunpowder as iridescent flowers exploded in the sky overhead. Fireworks, signaling the end of the festival for yet another year. Settling back, he tucked his arms behind his head to watch them, eyes glancing every so often to Hiyori. Bathed in the multicoloured light of the sky’s display, a look of uncharacteristically open enjoyment on her face, he couldn’t deny that he’d been wrong all those years ago.
She was beautiful, and he didn’t much care if anyone else thought that way or not. To him, she was more captivating than the fireworks overhead, and every day it got just a little bit harder to keep hiding - well, not really hiding so much as ignoring - the fact. It wasn’t even as though he cared if the others knew or not, in fact he was relatively certain that most of them knew he cared for Hiyori a great deal beyond what the rest of them felt for her, it was more… for her. Because he knew what she’d think, how she’d react. Just as he knew she felt the same way, could see it in her eyes and read it in her actions in those rare flashes where she let her guard down.
But knowing didn’t change anything. It didn’t make her less guarded, more receptive to the idea of letting him closer, of opening up and accepting what he was waiting patiently - well, patiently most of the time - to give her. And that was the hardest part of it, the being patient. The waiting and accepting and hoping that one day she would feel comfortable enough to let him in while he shoved back feelings and emotions and urges that got harder and harder to deny every day he did it.
And maybe that was why, before he even really knew what he was doing, Shinji had turned towards her, leaning down to catch her chin in his hand and tilt her face up to press lips over hers in a gentle, yet insistent kiss. Whether she took the hint or not, he didn’t much care right now. He just didn’t know how much longer he could keep going on not saying anything. Not knowing if she knew, or if she cared.
For one long, silent moment she simply sat there, brown eyes wide, Shinji’s lips still pressed against hers before the reality of the situation set in and a few moments later she was storming down the path, cheeks flaming and a string of curses spewing from her mouth as Shinji lay in a battered - but grinning - heap on the top of the hill.