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shannys_corner2006-05-08 02:35 pm
kiyala.livejournal.com) wrote in shannys_corner2006-05-08 02:35 pm
[fic] Aesthetics & Identity :: Prelude
Title: Aesthetics and Identity :: Prelude
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kiyala
Word Count: 2715
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Slightly AU-ish story where Ichigo and Uryuu become famous singing stars XD
Warnings: as I said, AU-ness… doesn’t sit very well on the Bleach timeline ^^;
Status: Incomplete
Disclaimer: Kubo Tite owns Bleach
Notes: Haha, this is another really huge plot bunny that attacked me ^^; I was listening to Aesthetics and Identity and I’ve always wanted to write a fic where Ichigo and Uryuu were the ones singing the song, and here’s what resulted.
A warning, I didn’t have a beta for this (cos Fee-chan’s got exams and I decided I should leave her alone for a while XD; ) and the first chapter’s basically how it all began so I think I made it a bit rushed and, well… crap ^^; Next chapter will be better, I promise!!
x-posted to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
ishi_ichi
Lights danced and his ears were ringing with the sounds of excited shouts, then drowned out by the sound of instruments filling the large room. He shook his head slightly and then jumped and joined the cheering masses, waving his arms as the next song started. Allowing himself to be lost in the excitement and awe, he cheered and sang until he was hoarse. Returning home that night at some odd hour at which he ended up waking up irate family members, he was still grinning and his heart was still pounding as he crawled into bed and fell asleep.
Kurosaki Ichigo was not the type of person to let small things affect his life, but the first concert he went to was something that he believed would change him forever. Little did he know how right he would be. Writing lyrics was something he began to do merely out of boredom, but as he read over the words he had written and began to put tunes to them and sing them to himself whenever he was alone, it became a pass-time he truly enjoyed. He kept the lyrics in a book he carried around with him, making sure nobody else even knew of its existence – the very thought of other people reading his words made him feel uncomfortable and it was something he decided to avoid from happening.
This decision, however, was not very effective. He was sitting by himself in homeroom one morning and being the first student to have arrived to school from his class, he decided that he had time to finish the verse he had started the previous night. Writing and humming under his breath, he became so engrossed in his lyricing to the point that he did not notice when someone else walked into the room.
Ishida Uryuu noticed the door to his homeroom open. It surprised him, as he was usually the first to arrive at school from his class. Curious as to who had beaten him this time, he raised an eyebrow when he saw Ichigo sitting at his desk and busily writing something. It wasn’t until he walked into the room that he realised Ichigo was also singing. He felt curiosity take hold of him again and tilted his head, watching the boy he had learned to call a friend since they had fought the Menos Grande together. Silently walking to behind the redhead, he peered over his shoulder and read what he was writing. Lyrics – just as he had suspected.
Ichigo wasn’t aware of the presence of anyone else in the room until he realised someone was looking over his shoulder. Closing the book with a gasp, he looked over his shoulder to see it was Uryuu.
“What are you looking over my shoulder for?” he snapped, scowling and holding the book protectively.
“I was just curious,” Uryuu said casually, “Not often I see you looking so busy.”
“Heh,” Ichigo looked at the book and tightened his grip on it, “It’s still rude to look over people’s shoulders you know, even if they’re your friends.”
“Sorry then,” the other boy offered, sitting at his desk which was just in front of Ichigo’s, “But you were writing lyrics, weren’t you?”
“So what if I was?” came the defensive reply.
This made Uryuu laugh, “Don’t take offense like that, I liked what I read. Can I see?”
“No.”
The dark-haired boy frowned, “Don’t be childish, show me.”
“I said no.”
“I promise I won’t say bad things about it. And I won’t tell the others.”
Ichigo hesitated, “…Fine.”
Uryuu skimmed through the book, turning to the page Ichigo had been writing on, “These are all rather good, Ichigo. I’d never pick you as the type to like writing lyrics, let alone be good at it.”
A faint blush came to the redhead’s face, “Thanks, I guess.”
“How does this one go?” Uryuu asked, pointing at a page of lyrics.
“What do you mean? You want me to sing it to you? Freaking hell Uryuu, I’ve had enough embarrassment for today just showing you that book, I am not singing.”
“Hum it, then. I’m just curious.”
Ichigo’s scowl intensified, but he relented all the same. Humming it, his cheeks proceeded to turn a deeper shade of red, “There. Happy?”
“Hmm,” Uryuu frowned in thought and then tilted his head, “I personally would have sung it more like this…”
Ichigo raised an eyebrow as his friend began to sing the chorus he had written. Initially because it was an odd thing for the dark-haired boy to do. Then it was because Uryuu’s singing voice was amazingly good.
“Holy crap. You have… um, a nice voice.”
Uryuu smiled in amusement, “You too, you know. I heard you singing to yourself before.”
“Oh, and did I mention your talent when it comes to making me wish the ground would swallow me up?”
“Now come on, you couldn’t possibly be that embarrassed. You’ve got talent there – you can write, you can sing. That isn’t something to be ashamed of.”
Ichigo smiled and opened his mouth to speak, but a large group of people walked into the classroom from the first bus-load of students to arrive at the school. The room, previously quiet even when the two boys had been talking, humming and singing was now filled with noise. Both boys scowled at the immediate change and Ichigo put the book away.
“Ichigo! Ishida!” Keigo and Mizuiro came and greeted them. Although Uryuu was now part of their ‘group’ due to his friendship with Ichigo, only the redhead had taken to calling him by his first name while everyone else opted for sticking to his family name.
“Hey,” Ichigo greeted with a smile and Uryuu nodded. Looking at the dark-haired boy as their two friends walked away, he leaned forward and lowered his voice.
“You want to do something like a collaboration sometime? Write a song together or something. Just a stupid idea that hit me, that’s all. You can say no.”
Instead, Uryuu smiled, “Yeah? That’d be fun. Are you busy in the afternoon?”
Ichigo grinned, “Awesome. Nah, I’ve got nothing on. You can come over to my place if you want.”
“Sounds good.”
The two grinned at each other before going to talk to their other friends, blissfully unaware of the long and dangerous path they had taken their first step on.
o O o
“What do you want to write about?” Ichigo asked as they walked home together that day.
“Not a clue,” Uryuu confessed, laughing, “Do you have any ideas?”
The redhead grinned, “Why don’t we write about how we became friends? There’s an interesting story right there.”
“You’re right there,” came the pensive reply, “I mean heck, we’re friends as a result of the most unlikely alliance you could get.”
“Yeah. A Quincy and a Shinigami? We must be stupid crazy,” Ichigo said with a playful grin.
“You maybe,” Uryuu said, returning the grin.
“You’re the dorky one,” the other boy said, laughing as he hooked an arm around the bony shoulders and gave his friend a noogie.
“Gaahhh, Ichigo stop! If you’re not careful I’ll write a song about how annoying you are.”
They walked through the front door of the Kurosaki residence and Ichigo grinned, “Well then I’ll just write a song about how much better I am than you are, even if you don’t ever give up.”
“I can’t give up,” Uryuu said with a smile and Ichigo raised his eyebrows.
“Let’s put that in our song.”
The bespectacled boy laughed, “I didn’t mean that.”
“Yeah… but why not? I like it.”
“We’ll see.”
They walked into Ichigo’s room and seeking out paper and pens, they sat and discussed, suggested and argued over the first verse, until they were happy with it, and then argued over how it should be sung.
“Look, I know what’d be easier. You have one line, I have the next. That way we’ll both be able to sing the way we want,” Ichigo suggested and after some hesitation, Uryuu agreed and they proceeded writing the rest of the lyrics.
It was only until they began to work out how the chorus was supposed to sound that they began to argue again.
“Freaking hell, my voice doesn’t go that high!” Ichigo protested, crossing his arms in front of him, “I am not going to sing like that!”
“Okay fine, how about like this?” Uryuu asked, singing slightly lower.
“I can’t do that!”
“You haven’t even tried.”
Ichigo scowled, “Well I know it won’t work, okay?”
“Just try it.”
Rolling his eyes, the redhead sang and both boys were surprised.
“That wasn’t me, was it?” Ichigo asked, a look of bewilderment on his face.
“Told you that you could do it. You’ve got talent, Ichigo.”
“Yeah yeah, shut up. You go again.”
Uryuu did, and they found that at that pitch, both of them sounded similar. This seemed to greatly amuse Ichigo.
“We can share the choruses then,” he said with a grin and Uryuu smiled.
“Why are you so intent to write this song for us? It’s not like we’re going to perform it anywhere. No one is even going to know about it apart from us.”
The redhead shrugged, “I dunno… it’s just nice to have something to share with someone like this, I guess.”
They both returned to their song and in no more than an hour later, they had everything worked out, apart from the music.
“I can’t play instruments,” Ichigo pointed out with a disappointed look.
Uryuu frowned, “Mm, me neither.”
With a sigh, the redhead looked at the page they had neatly rewritten their lyrics on, “That sucks. Our song’s pretty plain then, eh?”
With a smile, the Quincy leaned forward to rest his chin in his hand, “I don’t know about that. It was still fun.”
“I suppose…” Ichigo said, picking up the sheet of lyrics.
Leaning back against the wall he was sitting in front of, Uryuu closed his eyes and began to sing.
The Shinigami’s frown faded as he listened to the song and with a grin, picked up where the other boy’s line ended. Uryuu opened his eyes in surprise and they both grinned at each other, continuing to sing in the tune they had decided on, continuing until the last word had been sung.
“……Bigaku.”
The looked at each other laughed.
“That wasn’t so bad.”
“Mm, and it was fun,” Uryuu agreed with a nod.
Checking the time, Ichigo whistled, “Damn I kept you late. Want to stay for dinner?”
Looking uncomfortable, Uryuu shifted a little, “I haven’t even met your family before.”
“Nah, that’s okay. They’ll warm up to you in an instant. Rukia should be home with the girls sometime soon anyway.”
“Rukia?” Uryuu asked, raising an eyebrow, “Eh, Kuchiki-san, I mean. Does she visit often?”
Ichigo laughed, “She lives here, didn’t you know? Dad and Yuzu fell for her story straight away and she’s practically been adopted into the family.”
“But I thought you and her—”
“Nah,” Ichigo said, louder than necessary with a laugh, “…No. I’m not quite the type for girlfriends. I like protecting a whole bunch of people that are important to me… having one person be more important than anyone else seems kind of… unfair.”
“You know,” Uryuu said with a tilt of the head, “You may not always make sense to me, but I like the way you think.”
They heard the door open downstairs and went down to greet the girls as they returned home, introducing Uryuu to Ichigo’s sisters and helping them set up dinner before Isshin came out of the clinic.
“Ichigo! You brought a friend!!” Isshin declared as he saw Uryuu, “My little boy is making friends! I feel so happy inside!!”
Noticing Uryuu’s blank expression, Karin grinned, “You’ll get used to him quickly, don’t worry. He’s always like that.”
As Uryuu left to his flat that night, Ichigo smiled at him, “Let’s meet on the weekend so we can sing again.”
“Yeah,” the other boy agreed with a nod, “See you at school tomorrow, Ichigo.”
o O o
They were both sitting in Ichigo’s room again on Saturday afternoon, singing their song as they did homework together. They had found that being able to sit alone together and sing was comforting, and as long as they were close enough to hear the other’s voice, they could do whatever other work they wanted to and decided it was a good time to get work done – especially as it meant that Ichigo could ask for help, which certainly beat consulting a text book.
Karin and Yuzu had gone out to play but the boys did not realise that Rukia had not gone with them. In fact, Uryuu was so absorbed in his work and their song, that he could not even sense her presence as she lurked outside the closed door, an ear pressed against the wood as she listened – with surprise – to the two boys singing.
That Monday, when it was announced that a talent quest was coming up, Rukia did not miss the embarrassed glance exchanged by the two boys and decided that she would enter them into the competition. It was because she knew they would enjoy it, and because they’d be too shy to do it themselves, she reasoned in her mind. She also decided she wouldn’t tell them just yet. The boys were just too modest for their own good.
However, when she told them of this fact – a mere day before when the talent quest was scheduled to take place, they did not appreciate her thoughtfulness as she had expected.
“You did what?!” Ichigo yelled, “You were spying on us? And you entered us in the talent quest without telling us?!”
“I told you just then,” Rukia stated, “Besides, your song is good.”
“But what were you doing listening to us anyway?” Uryuu asked with a frown.
“Well I’ve got ears, you know,” Rukia reasoned, blushing furiously, “It’s not like I was spying on you with my ear against the door! I just happened to hear you, that’s all.”
“But why the fuck didn’t you tell us before now?” Ichigo asked, “Now we’re going to have to practice and stuff. Uhm. Not that we’re going to perform anyway, right Uryuu?”
They looked at each other silently for a moment before the dark-haired boy pushed his glasses up his nose, “Mm.”
“But…” Rukia said, her eyes beginning to water with her dramatics, “You can’t say no! I’ve been telling everyone that your song is awesome! You can’t back out on me now!”
“Watch us,” Ichigo stated as he turned and made to leave the classroom.
“Wait,” Uryuu murmured, catching Ichigo by the wrist as he walked past.
The redhead flinched and looked at his friend, “Uryuu…?”
The other boy was staring at the ground and Ichigo could not see his eyes, but his words were clear even in a whisper.
“Kuchiki-san didn’t seem to have entered us to humiliate us,” he said quietly, “That’s what I think. She truly did it out of good intentions. And… you didn’t really seem to mind the idea before anyway, did you?”
Their eyes met and Ichigo had to look away, “I guess not. I was okay with it, I suppose… just the preparation…”
“Are you busy this afternoon then, Ichigo?” Uryuu asked.
“Are you okay with it?”
The pale boy nodded and Ichigo grinned, “Yeah, come on over to my place then. Hey Rukia, come on we’re going.”
The dejected girl followed them and it wasn’t until they had arrived home that she realised Uryuu was still with them.
“What—?”
“We’re practicing, stupid,” Ichigo said with a grin, “Now leave us alone or we won’t sing.”
“Thank you!” Rukia cried, once again putting on her innocent schoolgirl act and hugging them both aound the waist.
The boys made sudden movements as they were forced together and quickly pulled away from the gleeful female Shinigami, both attempting to hide the uncomfortable blush across their cheeks. Luckily, they were too preoccupied making sure their blush wouldn’t be noticed to even see each other’s and after a moment, Ichigo took a breath and looked up.
“Come on, let’s go!”
~ To Be Continued ~
Author:
kiyalaWord Count: 2715
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Slightly AU-ish story where Ichigo and Uryuu become famous singing stars XD
Warnings: as I said, AU-ness… doesn’t sit very well on the Bleach timeline ^^;
Status: Incomplete
Disclaimer: Kubo Tite owns Bleach
Notes: Haha, this is another really huge plot bunny that attacked me ^^; I was listening to Aesthetics and Identity and I’ve always wanted to write a fic where Ichigo and Uryuu were the ones singing the song, and here’s what resulted.
A warning, I didn’t have a beta for this (cos Fee-chan’s got exams and I decided I should leave her alone for a while XD; ) and the first chapter’s basically how it all began so I think I made it a bit rushed and, well… crap ^^; Next chapter will be better, I promise!!
x-posted to
ishi_ichiLights danced and his ears were ringing with the sounds of excited shouts, then drowned out by the sound of instruments filling the large room. He shook his head slightly and then jumped and joined the cheering masses, waving his arms as the next song started. Allowing himself to be lost in the excitement and awe, he cheered and sang until he was hoarse. Returning home that night at some odd hour at which he ended up waking up irate family members, he was still grinning and his heart was still pounding as he crawled into bed and fell asleep.
Kurosaki Ichigo was not the type of person to let small things affect his life, but the first concert he went to was something that he believed would change him forever. Little did he know how right he would be. Writing lyrics was something he began to do merely out of boredom, but as he read over the words he had written and began to put tunes to them and sing them to himself whenever he was alone, it became a pass-time he truly enjoyed. He kept the lyrics in a book he carried around with him, making sure nobody else even knew of its existence – the very thought of other people reading his words made him feel uncomfortable and it was something he decided to avoid from happening.
This decision, however, was not very effective. He was sitting by himself in homeroom one morning and being the first student to have arrived to school from his class, he decided that he had time to finish the verse he had started the previous night. Writing and humming under his breath, he became so engrossed in his lyricing to the point that he did not notice when someone else walked into the room.
Ishida Uryuu noticed the door to his homeroom open. It surprised him, as he was usually the first to arrive at school from his class. Curious as to who had beaten him this time, he raised an eyebrow when he saw Ichigo sitting at his desk and busily writing something. It wasn’t until he walked into the room that he realised Ichigo was also singing. He felt curiosity take hold of him again and tilted his head, watching the boy he had learned to call a friend since they had fought the Menos Grande together. Silently walking to behind the redhead, he peered over his shoulder and read what he was writing. Lyrics – just as he had suspected.
Ichigo wasn’t aware of the presence of anyone else in the room until he realised someone was looking over his shoulder. Closing the book with a gasp, he looked over his shoulder to see it was Uryuu.
“What are you looking over my shoulder for?” he snapped, scowling and holding the book protectively.
“I was just curious,” Uryuu said casually, “Not often I see you looking so busy.”
“Heh,” Ichigo looked at the book and tightened his grip on it, “It’s still rude to look over people’s shoulders you know, even if they’re your friends.”
“Sorry then,” the other boy offered, sitting at his desk which was just in front of Ichigo’s, “But you were writing lyrics, weren’t you?”
“So what if I was?” came the defensive reply.
This made Uryuu laugh, “Don’t take offense like that, I liked what I read. Can I see?”
“No.”
The dark-haired boy frowned, “Don’t be childish, show me.”
“I said no.”
“I promise I won’t say bad things about it. And I won’t tell the others.”
Ichigo hesitated, “…Fine.”
Uryuu skimmed through the book, turning to the page Ichigo had been writing on, “These are all rather good, Ichigo. I’d never pick you as the type to like writing lyrics, let alone be good at it.”
A faint blush came to the redhead’s face, “Thanks, I guess.”
“How does this one go?” Uryuu asked, pointing at a page of lyrics.
“What do you mean? You want me to sing it to you? Freaking hell Uryuu, I’ve had enough embarrassment for today just showing you that book, I am not singing.”
“Hum it, then. I’m just curious.”
Ichigo’s scowl intensified, but he relented all the same. Humming it, his cheeks proceeded to turn a deeper shade of red, “There. Happy?”
“Hmm,” Uryuu frowned in thought and then tilted his head, “I personally would have sung it more like this…”
Ichigo raised an eyebrow as his friend began to sing the chorus he had written. Initially because it was an odd thing for the dark-haired boy to do. Then it was because Uryuu’s singing voice was amazingly good.
“Holy crap. You have… um, a nice voice.”
Uryuu smiled in amusement, “You too, you know. I heard you singing to yourself before.”
“Oh, and did I mention your talent when it comes to making me wish the ground would swallow me up?”
“Now come on, you couldn’t possibly be that embarrassed. You’ve got talent there – you can write, you can sing. That isn’t something to be ashamed of.”
Ichigo smiled and opened his mouth to speak, but a large group of people walked into the classroom from the first bus-load of students to arrive at the school. The room, previously quiet even when the two boys had been talking, humming and singing was now filled with noise. Both boys scowled at the immediate change and Ichigo put the book away.
“Ichigo! Ishida!” Keigo and Mizuiro came and greeted them. Although Uryuu was now part of their ‘group’ due to his friendship with Ichigo, only the redhead had taken to calling him by his first name while everyone else opted for sticking to his family name.
“Hey,” Ichigo greeted with a smile and Uryuu nodded. Looking at the dark-haired boy as their two friends walked away, he leaned forward and lowered his voice.
“You want to do something like a collaboration sometime? Write a song together or something. Just a stupid idea that hit me, that’s all. You can say no.”
Instead, Uryuu smiled, “Yeah? That’d be fun. Are you busy in the afternoon?”
Ichigo grinned, “Awesome. Nah, I’ve got nothing on. You can come over to my place if you want.”
“Sounds good.”
The two grinned at each other before going to talk to their other friends, blissfully unaware of the long and dangerous path they had taken their first step on.
“What do you want to write about?” Ichigo asked as they walked home together that day.
“Not a clue,” Uryuu confessed, laughing, “Do you have any ideas?”
The redhead grinned, “Why don’t we write about how we became friends? There’s an interesting story right there.”
“You’re right there,” came the pensive reply, “I mean heck, we’re friends as a result of the most unlikely alliance you could get.”
“Yeah. A Quincy and a Shinigami? We must be stupid crazy,” Ichigo said with a playful grin.
“You maybe,” Uryuu said, returning the grin.
“You’re the dorky one,” the other boy said, laughing as he hooked an arm around the bony shoulders and gave his friend a noogie.
“Gaahhh, Ichigo stop! If you’re not careful I’ll write a song about how annoying you are.”
They walked through the front door of the Kurosaki residence and Ichigo grinned, “Well then I’ll just write a song about how much better I am than you are, even if you don’t ever give up.”
“I can’t give up,” Uryuu said with a smile and Ichigo raised his eyebrows.
“Let’s put that in our song.”
The bespectacled boy laughed, “I didn’t mean that.”
“Yeah… but why not? I like it.”
“We’ll see.”
They walked into Ichigo’s room and seeking out paper and pens, they sat and discussed, suggested and argued over the first verse, until they were happy with it, and then argued over how it should be sung.
“Look, I know what’d be easier. You have one line, I have the next. That way we’ll both be able to sing the way we want,” Ichigo suggested and after some hesitation, Uryuu agreed and they proceeded writing the rest of the lyrics.
It was only until they began to work out how the chorus was supposed to sound that they began to argue again.
“Freaking hell, my voice doesn’t go that high!” Ichigo protested, crossing his arms in front of him, “I am not going to sing like that!”
“Okay fine, how about like this?” Uryuu asked, singing slightly lower.
“I can’t do that!”
“You haven’t even tried.”
Ichigo scowled, “Well I know it won’t work, okay?”
“Just try it.”
Rolling his eyes, the redhead sang and both boys were surprised.
“That wasn’t me, was it?” Ichigo asked, a look of bewilderment on his face.
“Told you that you could do it. You’ve got talent, Ichigo.”
“Yeah yeah, shut up. You go again.”
Uryuu did, and they found that at that pitch, both of them sounded similar. This seemed to greatly amuse Ichigo.
“We can share the choruses then,” he said with a grin and Uryuu smiled.
“Why are you so intent to write this song for us? It’s not like we’re going to perform it anywhere. No one is even going to know about it apart from us.”
The redhead shrugged, “I dunno… it’s just nice to have something to share with someone like this, I guess.”
They both returned to their song and in no more than an hour later, they had everything worked out, apart from the music.
“I can’t play instruments,” Ichigo pointed out with a disappointed look.
Uryuu frowned, “Mm, me neither.”
With a sigh, the redhead looked at the page they had neatly rewritten their lyrics on, “That sucks. Our song’s pretty plain then, eh?”
With a smile, the Quincy leaned forward to rest his chin in his hand, “I don’t know about that. It was still fun.”
“I suppose…” Ichigo said, picking up the sheet of lyrics.
Leaning back against the wall he was sitting in front of, Uryuu closed his eyes and began to sing.
The Shinigami’s frown faded as he listened to the song and with a grin, picked up where the other boy’s line ended. Uryuu opened his eyes in surprise and they both grinned at each other, continuing to sing in the tune they had decided on, continuing until the last word had been sung.
“……Bigaku.”
The looked at each other laughed.
“That wasn’t so bad.”
“Mm, and it was fun,” Uryuu agreed with a nod.
Checking the time, Ichigo whistled, “Damn I kept you late. Want to stay for dinner?”
Looking uncomfortable, Uryuu shifted a little, “I haven’t even met your family before.”
“Nah, that’s okay. They’ll warm up to you in an instant. Rukia should be home with the girls sometime soon anyway.”
“Rukia?” Uryuu asked, raising an eyebrow, “Eh, Kuchiki-san, I mean. Does she visit often?”
Ichigo laughed, “She lives here, didn’t you know? Dad and Yuzu fell for her story straight away and she’s practically been adopted into the family.”
“But I thought you and her—”
“Nah,” Ichigo said, louder than necessary with a laugh, “…No. I’m not quite the type for girlfriends. I like protecting a whole bunch of people that are important to me… having one person be more important than anyone else seems kind of… unfair.”
“You know,” Uryuu said with a tilt of the head, “You may not always make sense to me, but I like the way you think.”
They heard the door open downstairs and went down to greet the girls as they returned home, introducing Uryuu to Ichigo’s sisters and helping them set up dinner before Isshin came out of the clinic.
“Ichigo! You brought a friend!!” Isshin declared as he saw Uryuu, “My little boy is making friends! I feel so happy inside!!”
Noticing Uryuu’s blank expression, Karin grinned, “You’ll get used to him quickly, don’t worry. He’s always like that.”
As Uryuu left to his flat that night, Ichigo smiled at him, “Let’s meet on the weekend so we can sing again.”
“Yeah,” the other boy agreed with a nod, “See you at school tomorrow, Ichigo.”
They were both sitting in Ichigo’s room again on Saturday afternoon, singing their song as they did homework together. They had found that being able to sit alone together and sing was comforting, and as long as they were close enough to hear the other’s voice, they could do whatever other work they wanted to and decided it was a good time to get work done – especially as it meant that Ichigo could ask for help, which certainly beat consulting a text book.
Karin and Yuzu had gone out to play but the boys did not realise that Rukia had not gone with them. In fact, Uryuu was so absorbed in his work and their song, that he could not even sense her presence as she lurked outside the closed door, an ear pressed against the wood as she listened – with surprise – to the two boys singing.
That Monday, when it was announced that a talent quest was coming up, Rukia did not miss the embarrassed glance exchanged by the two boys and decided that she would enter them into the competition. It was because she knew they would enjoy it, and because they’d be too shy to do it themselves, she reasoned in her mind. She also decided she wouldn’t tell them just yet. The boys were just too modest for their own good.
However, when she told them of this fact – a mere day before when the talent quest was scheduled to take place, they did not appreciate her thoughtfulness as she had expected.
“You did what?!” Ichigo yelled, “You were spying on us? And you entered us in the talent quest without telling us?!”
“I told you just then,” Rukia stated, “Besides, your song is good.”
“But what were you doing listening to us anyway?” Uryuu asked with a frown.
“Well I’ve got ears, you know,” Rukia reasoned, blushing furiously, “It’s not like I was spying on you with my ear against the door! I just happened to hear you, that’s all.”
“But why the fuck didn’t you tell us before now?” Ichigo asked, “Now we’re going to have to practice and stuff. Uhm. Not that we’re going to perform anyway, right Uryuu?”
They looked at each other silently for a moment before the dark-haired boy pushed his glasses up his nose, “Mm.”
“But…” Rukia said, her eyes beginning to water with her dramatics, “You can’t say no! I’ve been telling everyone that your song is awesome! You can’t back out on me now!”
“Watch us,” Ichigo stated as he turned and made to leave the classroom.
“Wait,” Uryuu murmured, catching Ichigo by the wrist as he walked past.
The redhead flinched and looked at his friend, “Uryuu…?”
The other boy was staring at the ground and Ichigo could not see his eyes, but his words were clear even in a whisper.
“Kuchiki-san didn’t seem to have entered us to humiliate us,” he said quietly, “That’s what I think. She truly did it out of good intentions. And… you didn’t really seem to mind the idea before anyway, did you?”
Their eyes met and Ichigo had to look away, “I guess not. I was okay with it, I suppose… just the preparation…”
“Are you busy this afternoon then, Ichigo?” Uryuu asked.
“Are you okay with it?”
The pale boy nodded and Ichigo grinned, “Yeah, come on over to my place then. Hey Rukia, come on we’re going.”
The dejected girl followed them and it wasn’t until they had arrived home that she realised Uryuu was still with them.
“What—?”
“We’re practicing, stupid,” Ichigo said with a grin, “Now leave us alone or we won’t sing.”
“Thank you!” Rukia cried, once again putting on her innocent schoolgirl act and hugging them both aound the waist.
The boys made sudden movements as they were forced together and quickly pulled away from the gleeful female Shinigami, both attempting to hide the uncomfortable blush across their cheeks. Luckily, they were too preoccupied making sure their blush wouldn’t be noticed to even see each other’s and after a moment, Ichigo took a breath and looked up.
“Come on, let’s go!”