Man has to suffer

[icy_heavens]

Who: Hitsugaya Toushirou (icy_heavens), and Kuchiki Byakuya (soul_scatter)
When: Backdated to January 22nd
Summary: They're stuck in the house today. No good can come from this.
Warnings: Excessive crankiness, pettiness, and possible bodily harm due to immaturity.


Being stuck in the house due to snow; it was so incredibly ironic, he couldn't possibly find it funny. Not that he ever found much to be funny anyway. But the most prudent thing was to let nature take its course like this. Or it had seemed the prudent thing at the time. He was starting to reconsider.

He lounged on the couch, cycling through a few books stored on his NV in an effort to find something to read and distract his mind. It was a blessedly silent thing to do. Unlike what Kuchiki was doing -- not that was Kuchiki was doing was particularly noisy, but in the relative quiet of the house? It was getting bothersome.

Hitsugaya didn't bother looking up from his NV. "Is that really necessary?"

Comments

[soul_scatter]

Byakuya watched the liquid freeze in the cup, got up and made himself another mug of tea. "Your reiatsu is leaking. Training can help that."

Calm, cool, collected. He was still the Kuchiki. He'd like to point out, Hitsugaya was acting rather childish, but he was keeping that comment to himself.

*explodes back onto DW*

[icy_heavens]

His eyes narrowed a little more. "Nothing's leaking."

If Kuchiki were trying to rile him up further with that . . . Well, Hitsugaya wasn't going to let him. He could be mature about that. So mature that he still decided to freeze the new cup. And all of the water in the kettle, should Kuchiki try to shrug this off again.

No this was not petty of him. Certainly not. He was just demonstrating his fine control over his powers. Nothing but the tea and the water in the kettle was frozen. That took skill.

OMG YOU'RE BACK! *TACKLES*

[soul_scatter]

Byakuya put the tea kettle back on the stove and turned to look Hitsugaya with his eyebrow ticked. "Indeed?" He had to ask. "Then perhaps we should call the landlord and report an unusual draft."

He knows it's you, you brat. "Perhaps the windows are leaking, then. It would explain why it's so cold."

An eyebrow tick. "Unless Hyrouinmaru is taking the atmosphere into his hands." Meaning: Are you sure you've got control of that dragon of yours... boy?

I'm going to wait a while to officially call the hiatus over, but for now? YAAAAAAAY!

[icy_heavens]

Oh, he got that message, and it made his brow twitch in annoyance. An insult to his control, along with an insult to his age? That actually got him to sit up and put his NV aside.

"My control is perfect. I just said that nothing was leaking."

Meaning: he's fully admitting to doing this on purpose. He wasn't letting Hyourinmaru shoulder blame for this. When he didn't have control, Hyourinmaru would freeze an entire house up -- it was what had been slowly killing Granny.

Damn Kuchiki for dredging that memory up.

Probably wise. But you've been missed bb.

[soul_scatter]

"Is it?" He asked. Byakuya knew it was a taunt and he was probably making comments beneath him, but Hitsugaya had started it by messing with the tea. Complain about his grading, his cleaning his sheath, anything, but do. not. touch. the. tea.

He turned back to the stove. "Then I assume you have a reason for ruining my tea. If you object so strongly, saying so is preferred."

Stop being a petty child, boy. (Because fifty years is such a huge age difference, of course.)

[icy_heavens]

Like hell he was the one that started this. Kuchiki had been being an ass; this was retaliation. In itself not the most mature thing, perhaps, but it was better than instigating.

"Since when was my control your issue with me, Kuchiki? And I think it's perfectly clear why I did that."

Not petty, damn it. It was more than that now.

[soul_scatter]

Byakuya didn't glance back. "I do not recall having any issues with you, Hitsugaya." Alright, so he thought the boy too familiar with his fukutaichou, but there was something to be said for it - and he'd never said it aloud to Hitsugaya.

Then he did turn around. "You had a reason other than ruining tea? Indeed?"

He could be just as not petty as anyone.

[icy_heavens]

He folded his arms. "Tch. Not that you've said to my face. I know the grounds on which you made your objection."

Hitsugaya hadn't expected unanimous approval of his promotion; he wasn't that naive. But the nature of Kuchiki's criticism had stung. Not emotionally mature enough to handle all the responsibilities being a captain entailed? Like hell.

Surely there was no way Kuchiki could reasonably still think that. Under his command, the Tenth had been running more smoothly than it had in some time -- Matsumoto's lack of work ethic notwithstanding. If the Tenth were going to be run into the ground, it would have happened a lot quicker than the twenty-odd years he'd been heading up the division.

"You were being an ass."

[soul_scatter]

That made him turn around. "I was not the only one who objected." He pointed out. "I made my objection known, was overruled and have accepted it." Meaning, he accepted his duty, just like he always did. His superior (Yamamoto) overruled him. He's fine with that.

And he still thought he was right. However, he would not undermine another taichou's authority by saying so. And he would never say so to Hitsugaya. He kept his own damned counsel.