Title: Chocolate Pudding and the 4th Wall
Character(s)/Pairing(s):Hiyori,Yuzu, Shinji, Karin, Mild mention of several pairings but nothing too heavy
Genre(s): Humor/Gen
Rating: PG for minor cursing
Author Notes:This piece was originally written forEREE (autophanous) for the Winter/Christmas BleachExchange community on Live Journal. She asked for Visoreds and that what she got.
Spoilers:Post Soul Society. Written right after Hiyori's first appearence. .
Credits:KawaiiAmayaChan was a doll and betaed for me.
It was too easy.
"They had even left the front door open," Hiyori sneered, feeling and hearing the click of the doorknob in her hand. She didn't need to enter through the front door but somehow it was so satisfying to know that the humans had no idea about the power of the other forces currently at work in their world.
It was no wonder they had discovered that that guy Bowl-head was stalking felt an overwhelming need to protect his family. With idiots this trusting, Ichigo had better damn well watch out for them.
After only a few minutes casing the joint, Hiyori had watched that weirdo doctor get into his car after he had preformed some stupid, little dance and prayer combo calling on his dead wife to grant him luck in his trip grocery shopping. ("My Dearest beloved Ma-sa-ki/ Help me to get some fish and some cel-ler-ry!")
The day had started with some eavesdropping around the local middle school where his sister went. There she had found out that their target's sister was going to stay after school for some literature tutoring. And she knew good old 'big-brother' had enough on his plate with the Allacars on the move and wouldn't be home until very late.
(Incidentally, Hiyori and Shinji still didn't know how much difficulty the disguised shinigami were going to add to their mission. Hiyori did know that she was glad she gave Bowl-head a good kick in the knee when he seemed inordinately focused on the fact that short dark haired chick was LIVING with Ichigo. Hiyori lived with Shinji and he didn't think it was a big deal.)
In short, it was a perfect time to do some reconnaissance on that Ichigo-person's home and hopefully find some chink in his armor that would help them show the benefits of the Army of Masks. Hiyori gave a smug grin because she knew she'd get more on him than Shinji. Her stupid partner couldn't do anything with her, now could he?
Hiyori pushed open the clinic's door and walked confidently into the room.
"Oh hello," A sweet voice said concerned, "I didn't hear the front doorbell. I'm sorry but the clinic is closed. My father is out for the afternoon. If you are really ill or hurt, I can call an ambulance."
She whirled to see a girl about her age exited a back storeroom, carrying a box of supplies which she set down before brushing off any dust from the front of an apron. She flashed Hiyori a sweet smile.
Hiyori had seen her earlier that day, in fact. She was one of the girls that she saw when she was spying on Ichigo's sister, Karin. But she had been so busy focusing on hiding her powers from Karin, who shot her direction a concerned glare when she showed up, that Hiyori didn't notice the girl sitting behind her at lunch except to note that she had instantly disliked her. Thee orange haired girl had just sat there primly eating a sweet bun. She even had purple school binder littered with glittery butterfly stickers. So how could she not piss Hiyori off?
Hiyori cursed; as she felt exposed just standing there slack jawed in her gigai. She had never felt so stupid. Just because the girl didn't have the same powers and trademark scowl as Karin and Ichigo, didn't mean she wasn't also a sibling of theirs. The hair color was a dead giveaway.
Now it made sense that the family would leave the door open. Someone was at home.
"Oh. Are you Karin's new friend from soccer in the park?" The girl took her silence for confusion and surprise and she wasn't far off. "Karin said you just moved into town."
Hiyori found herself slowly nodding. Yeah, that sounded plausible. That Karin kid seemed to be a cool person and not one of them prissy girly-girls. She had been discussing fighting and explosions in action movies at lunch. Hiyori could probably be recognized as playing that 'soccer' game with such a person.
"Well, Karin had to stay after school for a while. She should be here in about an hour. You can wait for her if you like. We have chocolate pudding in the kitchen." The girl smiled and took Hiyori unresisting hand and led her towards what could only be the kitchen. "I'm Yuzu, by the way."
"Hiyori," she replied feeling still a bit overwhelm before a thought hit her. She had to make a report on the interior of Ichigo's house and this stupid girl was leading her around. Maybe she didn't have to bolt yet.
Plus she had never had chocolate pudding.
"What do you mean you can't cover them up?"
Yuzu's new friend, Hiyori, gave a frown that went two miles past 'cute pout' into 'disgusted scowl' territory, despite the glossy cherry of her lips.
Yuzu pulled back slightly to consider the small array of cosmetics on the floor around them. The dark spotting of freckles would have needed some sort of thick foundation that was way past her collection's capabilities. She really didn't have real cosmetics, only a selection of powders and creams designed for play. That was the reason Hiyori's eyelids had a heavy shade of blue green that were rarely found in nature without pharmaceutical enhancement.
"But they are really cute," Yuzu insisted, finishing with a light sweep of blush. "You shouldn't be embarrassed about them."
"Who says I'm embarrassed about them?" Hiyori protested. "Just because I don't have creamy skin like that big-tittied chick Shinji likes!"
"Who's Shinji?" Yuzu asked conversationally. Whoever the 'big tittied' female was, she seemed a sore subject considering the constant mention of her pissing Hiyori off.
She reached over to take the hair clip holding Hiyori's hair from cascading around Hiyori's face. Yuzu was very proud of her work. She had never used a hair curling iron due to her short hair style and Karin never felt like playing dress up.
Yuzu still felt a bit guilty at the two bandages on Hiyori's neck and one on her forehead where Yuzu had burned her. But after the brief period of screamed profanities, Hiyori insisted that Yuzu not worry about it because she healed quickly.
"Shinji's this guy I know. He's got this big ol' mouth and lizard lips and boney knees and this Stuuuuupid haircut, like a four year old girl." Hiyori sneered. "He's a bit of a pervert. Really a big weirdo. Even our old captain used to say he got the willies when Shinji would even just stand behind him."
Yuzu frowned horrified. "He sounds like-"
"I'm going to marry him when I grow up," Hiyori interrupted with a satisfied smile, her cheeks tingeing slightly.
"-A very interesting person," Yuzu quickly shifted into a polite smile. The boy sounded dreadful but she couldn't tell that to her new friend. "Okay. All done. We have a full length mirror in the bathroom."
Yuzu followed her new friend. Karin's friend was a really interesting person. She was defensive and vulgar one minute and cheerful and boastful the next. Hiyori kind of reminded Yuzu of that feral kitten she found last year. The one that Ichigo had blamed for that ringworm rash.
She hadn't expected the afternoon to progress to this point. Hiyori didn't wear her 'tomboy' persona with a casual confidence like Karin or even her brother's friend, Tasuki. It was only a casual mentioning that she had thought Hiyori's hair was pretty and was thinking about growing her own out that had somehow led them up to Yuzu's bedroom. Still, for Hiyori to sneer and then grudgingly play dress up with Yuzu was a bit of a surprise. Yuzu guessed that being the new girl really did get lonely.
Hiyori spun slowly around in front of the mirror, he eyes wide in awe at the sight. The green sundress belled off her waist and flared out as she pirouetted. "Holy shit."
"You could keep it if you liked," Yuzu couldn't help but offer.
Hiyori shot her a look of venous suspicion. "What? You do you mean 'keep it'?"
"Yes. I told you. My father buys me lots of clothes and that one is a bit big for me," Yuzu smiled.
Letting Hiyori keep the dress wouldn't be too big issue. In the last few months, her father had taken a little too much to mail order shopping for dresses.
She didn't add that the reason why was that for the last three months or so, her clothing seemed to mysteriously disappear. She knew it wasn't Karin because she had never seen her sister in any of her dresses and, frankly, Karin sneered at having panties with strawberries or bunnies on them.
Ichigo's friend, Rukia, had nearly the same taste in clothing as Yuzu but she had only moved in the previous week. The disappearances had stopped since Rukia showed up but her dad had continued to buy extra clothes for the both of them. Hopefully, they could get him off this latest addiction before she'd have more clothes than the all the females in the household could ever wear.
Secretly, Yuzu liked to think that a little ghost girl had been borrowing her clothes but kept on getting them ruined on adventures battling demons so she couldn't return them. As a result of the novelty being involved with something she liked to think was occult, Yuzu really didn't mind the disappearances.
"You mean forever? No take-backs?"
"Yes. It looks so pretty on you, I want you to have it," Yuzu reassured.
"Yes, I do," Hiyori said with a smirk with a self satisfaction. "I look damn gorgeous!"
Yuzu wouldn't have gone that far and said Hiyori looked gorgeous but it was fun to sit there and enjoy the other girl's enthusiasm.
Then suddenly Hiyori froze. The distant thud of the front door opening downstairs quickly followed.
Yuzu clapped her hands. "Oh, that must be Karin. Wait until she sees you!"
"I'm home!" Karin called out as she dumped her book bag off her shoulder. She hated studying but it would all be worth it to avoid her dad's embarrassing assumptions whenever her test grades began to slip. She shuttered as she could almost hear him flip between weeping and leering that it was finally time for his little girl to notice boys.
Karin had enough on her mind to worry about school. With her brother's odd behavior and the increasing frequency of odd phenomenon in her life, it was no wonder her grades were slipping. The normalcy of some tutoring was oddly refreshing actually.
Karin paused as she was midway through kicking off her shoes. She was startled by a chill up her spine. It was like something different was on the edge of her awareness but it wasn't that something was there. It was the distinct feeling that nothing was there.
"Karin, you're home," Karin looked up to see her twin run down the stairs to greet her. "Hiyori and me were waiting for you."
"Hiyori? Who's Hiyori?" Karin said, cautiously.
"Your friend from soccer," Yuzu shrugged.
"I don't know any girl named Hiyori," Karin muttered as she rushed past her sister to the bedroom they shared.
Flinging the door open, Karin found the room and air were empty save the faint cloying, dusty scent of cosmetic fragrances. "There's no one here."
"But she's waiting for in our-" Yuzu walked around the corner and gasped, "Hiyori? Where did she go?"
Karin took a deep breath as her mind raced. Should she mind yet another disturbance in her life when so much of it already deviated from the norm? Why was there the faint feeling that she should take notice of this event?
Her thoughts were broken with her sister's sudden gasp. "Maybe she was a ghost!"
"What?"
"A ghost! I saw and played with a ghost!" The utter joy and excitement was apparent in Yuzu's voice as she jumped up and down in her place. "Wait until I tell Big-Brother and Daddy!"
Karin felt the seriousness of the situation dissipate instantly. Maybe the stress was getting to her.
"Yeah, right, Yuzu saw a ghost," Karin sarcastically thought as she tried to reassure herself as she flopped onto her bed. "And next thing you know Dad will claim that he's a shinigami like Ichi-nii and proclaim himself a warrior of justice."
Karin closed her eyes and tried not to picture her dad in a red spandex suit.
Another day of waiting and spying on Ichigo had gone by. So many groups were moving into position and the situation was tensing by the minute. Soon the dam would break and only one group would remain victorious.
Watching his target and his shinigami escort walk home from school, Shinji was once again stuck with one thought running through his mind.
"How could he have both Orihime-san and that dark-haired girl all over him?" Shinji whined as he stared through his binoculars. Maybe there was reason Ichigo had rejected his offer to join the Army of Masks. "Maybe I should be the one trying to join his side."
Shinji glanced up as the side of existence split open enough to allow his partner to ungracefully dump herself onto the building roof-top he was spying his target from.
"Hey Hiyori, did you find anything at-"Shinji stopped as his mind tried to process what his eyes were seeing. "What happened to your face?"
A deep red flooded his partner's cheeks before she launched herself at him with her fists flying. "My face? What the hell is your face going to look like when I'm done with it!"
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