Bleach drabble
Oct. 1st, 2005 02:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dethoratsTitle: Back to School
Pairing: Not much...canon overtones
Rating: G
Word Count: 886
Notes: Incredibly vague spoilers for chapters 186-188 of Bleach
Summer was over and school had started again but the strange air that had lingered in the last few weeks before exams seemed to have only gotten thicker and muggier with the heat. Autumn was coming but September still loomed with all of its chances for one more heat wave or a last minute typhoon. Tatsuki walked to school next to Orihime quietly. The girl was murmuring next to her, talking about the usual random topics and making the same disjointed connections that had always characterized her conversations but the bubbled enthusiasm that used to mark their morning stroll was gone. Something had happened but Orihime wasn’t saying. Tatsuki caught another glimpse of strangeness, a whiff of horror and decay, and waited as Orihime’s head shot up. The eery death’s head was gone, vanished into thin air, but her friend’s shoulders remained tense and they finished their walk in an uncomfortable silence.
They were early like always. Orihime had no one at home and so she liked to leave it in the mornings as soon as she was ready. There was no dawddling unless Tatsuki had happened to spend the night. And Tatsuki didn’t mind arriving to school before nearly everyone else. She had been up anyway practicing for at least an hour before she arrived on Orihime’s door step. Normally the classroom was theirs alone for a few minutes, but lately Ishida, Sado, and even Ichigo had been getting there before they did. Tatsuki stood in the doorway and watched with a slight twinge in her chest as Orihime darted over to join them at the window. They’d always been friends, well, except for Ishida, but something had happened during the short month of summer break. She’d known that they were all tied together in a way that had something to do with the nightmares she kept seeing out of the corner of her eyes. She’d known that it was going to be a struggle. But she’d expected them to come back happy and whole and themselves again.
And watching them over at the window, it was clear that wherever they had gone, whatever had happened, the outcome had not been quite as she’d thought it would be. They were all quiet now, standing together and looking bruised. Where was Kurosaki’s usual grumbling about his father, Ishida’s quiet interjections for him to shut his idiot mouth, Chad’s silence that spoke volumes more than this current melancholy? Where was Orihime’s usual restrained fawning over Ichigo, so like her in its sweetness and touch of oddity. Where was her opportunity to smack Kurosaki around for saying the wrong thing, letting her play her role of Orihime’s knight? What had happened to the friends she loved, the life they’d had only a few short weeks before?
Tatsuki bit her lip and shrugged. It wasn’t usually her way to push her nose into where it wasn’t wanted, and she’d already tried mentioning the things she saw without much effect. All she could do was be there for Orihime and the others. She headed over and took up a perch on one desk at the outskirt of the group and looked out over their heads into the courtyard, wondering just what they were all staring at. The silence lasted only a little while longer, irrevocably shattered by the arrival of Keigo and Mizuiro and the inevitable smackdown with Ichigo when Keigo tried to give him a hug and whined in his ear about Kurosaki not being home anymore. The rest of the class gradually shuffled in and the otherworldly air about the gorup by the window was largely dissipated among the crowd of teenagers talking, sighing, snoring, and generally complaining about having to be back in school once more. Tatsuki could feel herself relaxing at last as things began to approach normalcy.
Then, as she moved with Orihime over to their customary seats, she could feel the hair on the back of her neck rise and her skin begin to crawl. Next to her Orihime gave no sign of noticing anything odd and Tatsuki was this close to letting her guard back down when she remembered one of the biggest dangers of all. She leaped in front of Orihime, arms up in a ready stance as she tried to block, to defend her lady’s honor. Her timing, unfortunately, was slightly off. Orihime was saved, but the attacking monster caught a glancing blow to her face. For a second Tatsuki froze and then she was cursing and a kick was sending the grey-clad figure flying back to land awkwardly against the coat rack.
Chizuru carefully hauled herself to her feet and glared, eyes shooting daggers at Tatsuki who returned them with knives of her own and swiped at her lips with an expresion of absolute disgust. Arund them the classroom was in a minor uproar, Keigo hanging off her Orihime in a way that she’d have to punish him for later. Ichigo was laughing at her and she shot hims a scowl before promising death to the lecherous female following lunch. Then the bell rang and they all took their seats and Tatsuki was pleased to see that, even if they had changed, they could still laugh (or in Chad’s case, smile) at the typical antics in their high school classroom.
Pairing: Not much...canon overtones
Rating: G
Word Count: 886
Notes: Incredibly vague spoilers for chapters 186-188 of Bleach
Summer was over and school had started again but the strange air that had lingered in the last few weeks before exams seemed to have only gotten thicker and muggier with the heat. Autumn was coming but September still loomed with all of its chances for one more heat wave or a last minute typhoon. Tatsuki walked to school next to Orihime quietly. The girl was murmuring next to her, talking about the usual random topics and making the same disjointed connections that had always characterized her conversations but the bubbled enthusiasm that used to mark their morning stroll was gone. Something had happened but Orihime wasn’t saying. Tatsuki caught another glimpse of strangeness, a whiff of horror and decay, and waited as Orihime’s head shot up. The eery death’s head was gone, vanished into thin air, but her friend’s shoulders remained tense and they finished their walk in an uncomfortable silence.
They were early like always. Orihime had no one at home and so she liked to leave it in the mornings as soon as she was ready. There was no dawddling unless Tatsuki had happened to spend the night. And Tatsuki didn’t mind arriving to school before nearly everyone else. She had been up anyway practicing for at least an hour before she arrived on Orihime’s door step. Normally the classroom was theirs alone for a few minutes, but lately Ishida, Sado, and even Ichigo had been getting there before they did. Tatsuki stood in the doorway and watched with a slight twinge in her chest as Orihime darted over to join them at the window. They’d always been friends, well, except for Ishida, but something had happened during the short month of summer break. She’d known that they were all tied together in a way that had something to do with the nightmares she kept seeing out of the corner of her eyes. She’d known that it was going to be a struggle. But she’d expected them to come back happy and whole and themselves again.
And watching them over at the window, it was clear that wherever they had gone, whatever had happened, the outcome had not been quite as she’d thought it would be. They were all quiet now, standing together and looking bruised. Where was Kurosaki’s usual grumbling about his father, Ishida’s quiet interjections for him to shut his idiot mouth, Chad’s silence that spoke volumes more than this current melancholy? Where was Orihime’s usual restrained fawning over Ichigo, so like her in its sweetness and touch of oddity. Where was her opportunity to smack Kurosaki around for saying the wrong thing, letting her play her role of Orihime’s knight? What had happened to the friends she loved, the life they’d had only a few short weeks before?
Tatsuki bit her lip and shrugged. It wasn’t usually her way to push her nose into where it wasn’t wanted, and she’d already tried mentioning the things she saw without much effect. All she could do was be there for Orihime and the others. She headed over and took up a perch on one desk at the outskirt of the group and looked out over their heads into the courtyard, wondering just what they were all staring at. The silence lasted only a little while longer, irrevocably shattered by the arrival of Keigo and Mizuiro and the inevitable smackdown with Ichigo when Keigo tried to give him a hug and whined in his ear about Kurosaki not being home anymore. The rest of the class gradually shuffled in and the otherworldly air about the gorup by the window was largely dissipated among the crowd of teenagers talking, sighing, snoring, and generally complaining about having to be back in school once more. Tatsuki could feel herself relaxing at last as things began to approach normalcy.
Then, as she moved with Orihime over to their customary seats, she could feel the hair on the back of her neck rise and her skin begin to crawl. Next to her Orihime gave no sign of noticing anything odd and Tatsuki was this close to letting her guard back down when she remembered one of the biggest dangers of all. She leaped in front of Orihime, arms up in a ready stance as she tried to block, to defend her lady’s honor. Her timing, unfortunately, was slightly off. Orihime was saved, but the attacking monster caught a glancing blow to her face. For a second Tatsuki froze and then she was cursing and a kick was sending the grey-clad figure flying back to land awkwardly against the coat rack.
Chizuru carefully hauled herself to her feet and glared, eyes shooting daggers at Tatsuki who returned them with knives of her own and swiped at her lips with an expresion of absolute disgust. Arund them the classroom was in a minor uproar, Keigo hanging off her Orihime in a way that she’d have to punish him for later. Ichigo was laughing at her and she shot hims a scowl before promising death to the lecherous female following lunch. Then the bell rang and they all took their seats and Tatsuki was pleased to see that, even if they had changed, they could still laugh (or in Chad’s case, smile) at the typical antics in their high school classroom.
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no subject
Date: 2005-10-01 01:02 pm (UTC)the usual random topics and making the same disjointed connections that had always characterized her conversations but the bubbled enthusiasm that used to mark their morning stroll
I think you captured Orihime quite nicely. And hooray for Tatsuki. I miss her!
she liked to leave itin the mornings - What is it??
the otherworldly air about the gorup]
I'm not bein an ass or something, just thought you would like to know XD