Title: Step Two
Theme/Topic: After "Faux Pas"
Rating: PG
Character/Pairing/s: Ikkaku, Yumichika, Byakuya, Yachiru, Kenpachi (background KenpachixByakuya
Warnings/Spoilers: None I can imagine.
Word Count: 579
Summary: Following the events of "Faux Pas"- Kenpachi waits.
Dedication: cheloya's request on my timestamp meme.
A/N: THIS IS A LITTLE VAGUE AND WEIRD ISN'T IT? SIGH.
It's about midday when Ikkaku notices that Kenpachi hasn't come out of his office yet today; when he turns to Yumichika and arches a questioning eyebrow at his friend the pretty fifth seat simply smirks and continues filing his nails. "There was a fight," he reports with a twitter.
Ikkaku nods. "Oh." Pause. Frown. "Wait, is taichou…"
"He's definitely not sulking," Yumichika tells Ikkaku, as if that needed to be explained.
Ikkaku blinks. "So…he's waiting."
Yumichika looks pleased that Ikkaku can formulate correct thoughts all on his own; he beams at his friend. "He's waiting."
It's about late afternoon on that same day when Yachiru bounces into Kenpachi's office, "I'm going with Byakushi to eat dim sum tonight!" she tells him. Then, innocently, "You wanna come?"
Kenpachi snorts. "No."
Yachiru shrugs and bounces out of the office again; Ikkaku watches her chant to herself happily about shumai and har gow and how nice Byakushi is to issue an invitation this soon after they'd gone to the Zoo; usually he's stingier than that.
Ikkaku turns to Yumichika again. "I thought…"
Yumichika isn't surprised when Ikkaku feels the need to ask about this; the bald shinigami has limits when it comes to those correct thoughts of his own, after all. "Taichou is waiting," Yumichika tells him, pointedly.
Ikkaku looks confused and suspicious all at once. After a moment he sighs and decides just to let things be, because when Yumi has that look on his face it means something that Ikkaku will not be able to grasp entirely is going on. Yumichika thinks it's the smartest thing the third seat has done all day.
The next morning Ikkaku gets to work in time to see a groggy Zaraki-taichou trudge into his office with a babbling Yachiru on his shoulder, "And the mango pudding was this big and it was so good and how come ya didn't want to come last night, Ken-chan?"
Kenpachi just grunts noncommittally in response a few times and goes to his desk; Yachiru keeps talking like she hadn't really expected an answer anyway.
Yumichika chuckles to himself from his seat; Ikkaku is starting to get curious again despite himself. "Still waiting?" he asks Yumichika cautiously.
Yumichika smirks. "Waiting."
Ikkaku doesn't get it; what is there left to wait for?
He only gets it when he comes back from lunch and sees Kuchiki Byakuya breezing through the hallways like an ice storm.
The sixth division captain walks right into Zaraki's office and shuts the door with resounding bang behind him; Ikkaku looks at Yumichika while Yumichika doesn't even bother looking up from his paperwork.
Some time later Zaraki-taichou is walking around the eleventh division headquarters bare-chested and with little bits of white paper stuck to his chest and neck and face and arms; it looks like he'd cut himself shaving with the razor, only a billion times.
The eleventh division captain is whistling as he heads to his office; there is a nervous-looking page following him, desperately tearing pieces of toilet paper from the roll in his hands and sticking them to any wound that he sees on Zaraki's large frame.
There are a lot of them.
When Kenpachi wordlessly heads into his office he passes by Ikkaku and Yumichika's stations. Ikkaku sees that he's grinning.
Once the door is shut behind Zaraki, the bald shinigami turns and looks at Yumichika. He thinks he gets it now. Maybe. "They made up?" he asks.
Yumichika just laughs at him.
END