So Buttons

Ishida was at an impasse. The shirt in his hands was almost finished. So far it was one of his finest creations with nearly invisible double stitching and a lacy ruffle near the collar. The color was a shimmering pearly pink that changed hues in different light thanks to the satin it was made from. Save for one final detail, the blouse was a brilliant work of art.

The handy crafts club had decided to participate in a "Gifts for the Gift-less" activity for Christmas, making shirts, stuffed animals, and other handy crafts to give to poor youths who sent in their wish-lists. The requests were given out randomly to the handy craft club members, who then had two weeks to finish the gift.

There was only one item on the list Ishida was given, so he didn't have much choice. At first the shirt had sounded harmless enough, but then he read on. The little girl who would normally have gone gift-less that Christmas wanted a pretty pink blouse with a lacy collar and pearly white. . .

. . . buttons.

It would have been beyond rude to deny this little girl her only present, and asking to switch projects would make Ishida look weak by giving in to the buttons. So he decided to make the rest of the blouse first and then add the buttons at the very end. But now that end was here, and Ishida had a pile of buttons sitting on his desk waiting for him to toughen up and get to it. Fifteen minutes later the buttons were still just sitting there.

"Oi, they aren't going to eat you, you know. Just put the damn things on and let's go or we're going to be late," Ichigo said, picking up one of the pearly white buttons and thrusting it at Ishida's face. The Quincy calmly plucked the button from Ichigo's hand and gave it a hearty glare.

"We still have plenty of time before the movie starts, Kurosaki, so don't get your panties in a twist," he responded with his typical snark, twisting the button in his fingers before putting it back in the pile with the others.

Ichigo huffed angrily. "Come on, just do it already. Think about it, a few measly buttons will make a young girl's dream come true. Now be a man and sew some buttons!"

Brown and blue eyes locked in challenge and Ishida proved himself an excellent example of the male species by sewing the buttons on the blouse without even looking away from his rival's smirk, glaring all the while. When he was done, Ishida gave his creation one last look-over before nodding in approval and folding the blouse to hand in.

"Hm, I hate to admit it, but you really are good at all that sewing stuff. Whoever gets that will definitely be happy. Now let's go already!" The pair left the classroom and went to the theatre, forgetting all about buttons and blouses in favor of other activities people did in the dark. When the movie was over and the two were walking home, Ichigo started to chuckle out of nowhere.

"I can't believe you actually said 'don't get your panties in a twist' to me. How lame," the red-head said, snickering. Ishida growled and was about to argue when Ichigo leaned in close to whisper in his ear. "Besides, the panties you made me are too high quality to twist like that."

Ishida's eyebrow rose. "Oh really? I guess we'll just have to test out the quality of my work."

**end note** The title is something my mom says all the time. Someone will so "So what?" and she'll answer "So buttons". It is spelled wrong on purpose, but sorry if that irks anyone!