sirenspull_logs | It's what I want that's easy

Entry tags:

It's what I want that's easy

Who: Hinamori Momo (

ibreakrules), and Hitsugaya Toushirou (

icy_heavens)
When: Saturday, March 31st, Morning
Where: 22 Keene Lane, Sector 4, at a garage sale
Summary: Hinamori goes thrift-hunting and meets a bishop.
Warnings: None!

The garage sale was much bigger than Hinamori had anticipated. Furniture, clothing, toys, electronics and what seemed like an endless amount of bizarre unidentifiable knick-knacks were scattered in an incredibly haphazard fashion across a sprawling yard. Hinamori hardly knew where to start. She could teach these people a thing or two about planning.

Some of the other shoppers were like her, looking for a few things in particular but in no hurry to find them. Others seemed desperately competitive, hunting for bargains like their lives depended on them. Hinamori tried to avoid these ones, as they seemed likely to glare or start a fight if she encroached too closely on their space.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a small dresser that looked like exactly what she was looking for. Hinamori started towards it, but before she could get there, she felt herself being shoved aside. "A-ah!" she cried, stumbling and starting to fall. She threw her hands out wildly for something, anything to grab onto. (Given the precarious piling of some of the items near her, this could end quite badly.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Aww, so cute. You're trying to be all protective."

It really was rather adorable. Frau reached out and ruffled Hitsugaya's hair simply because he could and it would be hysterical. Plus, he was sure to get a pretty good reaction from it.

What the hell? Why did Hinamori always do this when he stuck up for her? It had been this way forever. He wasn't the one who should be told to stop.

And his case was given more validity when Frau called his defense cute and ruffled his hair. Because like hell that wasn't to deliberately piss him off. Idiot. She'd told them to stop.

He smacked the hand down, much harder than he would have Hinamori's. "Knock it off."

A huffy sigh escaped him before he could stop it. Well. If Frau were going to act like a jackass, he certainly wasn't going to leave him alone with Hinamori. "Fine."

Hinamori wasn't sure whether to be exasperated or amused at the hair ruffle. A little of both, she supposed. She had expected Histugaya's reaction to it, though, and she suspected Frau had as well. It was such a silly gesture anyway. Why did tall people always feel the need to put their hands on the heads of shorter people? Her captain, too, although she didn't mind it from him—and he did it to comfort, not to patronize.

"It's almost noon. Let's find someplace to eat. You said you knew a lot of good restaurants, right, Frau? And you can tell me more about yourself on the way there. What do you do? And what did you do back home? Is your home world very different from here?" Distract. This was a good plan. After all, it always worked against her.

Frau had been expecting the smack, and it only made him laugh when it came. Even before he'd arrived here he was used to that type of reaction. It felt like slipping into a well known role. A role he didn't mind at all.

"Sure. I've been to most of them in the middle sectors once. There are a few good ones nearby."

He wouldn't mind taking them either. As for her attempt at distracting him, he'd willingly answer some questions. However, there was a limit, and once he hit that she wouldn't get a word out of him on the matter. Frau had quite a few secrets.

"I work as a bouncer here. At home I'm a bishop. Gotta say, I haven't found much here that's the same as in my world."

The smack was an involuntary reaction. Hinamori had patted his head a lot when they were children, and the motion was a reflex -- though the worst she ever got was a light swat. More often, he just shoved away the hand. No such leniency was granted to anyone else. Besides, she didn't do that anymore.

Having Frau with them wasn't exactly Hitsugaya's idea of a good time, but he could deal with it. It wasn't like he had a lot of choice in the matter. "Whatever. Let's just go, then."

Hinamori led them over to where she had left her cart. She started pulling it along with both hands behind her, skipping just a little as she went. "A bishop? Like, a church bishop? How did you get into that?" Because how does one even become a bishop. (The same question could probably be asked of being a shinigami, of course.)

Frau nudged Hitsugaya lightly as they started off and dropped his voice to a low whisper so Hinamori wouldn't hear.

"She's like your exact opposite, yet you're so at ease around here. It's cute."

Yup, Frau had just called him cute. He turned away from Hitsugaya before he could get a reply and answered Hinamori's question.

"Yeah. I spent most of my life at the church. I'm a bishop thanks to a stupid old fart that forced me into it."

Despite what it sounded like, that stupid old fart had meant a lot to Frau.

Hitsugaya would never know how Hinamori managed to act so damned happy all the time. Not that he was against it -- she deserved to be happy -- but he just didn't understand being able to smile that much. Especially when just a moment ago, she'd been so uncomfortable and trying to avoid him and Frau continuing to argue.

Oh, that comment got a growl out of him. He didn't even have a reply for it beyond that. He hated that stupid word.

But he let Frau lead, since he was the one evidently choosing the place, and he walked beside Hinamori himself to make sure she didn't trip over a crack in the sidewalk or something while she was skipping. Clumsy girl that she was.

Hinamori didn't know what had caused it, and she wasn't even paying attention enough to hear Hitsugaya's growl, but she felt the faintest flicker of his reiatsu at his irritation, and she tensed in reaction. Her face dropped in worry. Were they still fighting?

But then Frau just answered her question like nothing had happened. Was... she just imagining things? She hesitated a bit, then looked up wide-eyed at Frau and tried to remember what he said. "A... stup—" She laughed. "Tell me about him." Hopefully, if she could get a conversation going, they would all relax and maybe even have a good time.

Sure they were still fighting, but they were almost always fighting. It was they way it worked with them, and it was never anything more than general teasing anyway. She had nothing to worry about.

Frau continued to lead them through the streets as he answered.

"What's to tell? He was an annoying pain in the ass. Bastien was the assistant arch bishop. Worked with the orphans at the church awhile ago."

Frau paused a moment and rubbed his head uneasily, not sure if he wanted to continue. For some reason though, he actually did.

"Was there for me when I needed someone, I guess."

Hitsugaya would have probably picked up on two things. The one both he and Hinamori wouldn't have missed was the past tense. She didn't know Frau enough to pick up on the other, but Hitsugaya probably did. He barely said anyone's name with respect; in fact, he barely said anyone's real name at all. Bastien's though was obviously respected. It was the only one Frau would ever add the suffix "sama" onto.

No, it wasn't serious fighting or anything. Just his usual annoyance. This really wasn't any worse than how he reacted to people in general when they were acting like pains in the ass.

But he did pick up on what seemed to be the more respectful attitude that Frau seemed to have had for this assistant arch-bishop. And it was such an anomaly that he had to bring it up.

"You're actually referring to someone by their name? That's a first."

Hinamori knew that people were the most important thing in a life, even to most who would argue otherwise. Whether it was hate or love, asking someone about a person who meant something to them would shine more light on their personality than talking about their favorite things to do. So she listened as Frau talked about his arch-bishop, happy when he decided to add the more personal note onto the end.

She glanced at Hitsugaya as he responded, just the slightest touch wary. She was picking up on the fact that this was just how they talked to one another, but the disdain between these two still made her nervous.

For once, Frau didn't rise to the bait and spout off something annoying. He just accepted what Hitsugaya had said and answered honestly.

"Yeah. He deserves it."

He turned his attention away from the other two as he continued leading them to a small diner up the way. While he walked he allowed himself a bit of time to just think about Bastein. The good parts and not the end.

What bait? He was just talking. Deliberately baiting people wasn't something he did often. He did it when he teased Hinamori, and he'd done it to Yukio to keep him blabbering and distracted while he'd engineered the battle to his benefit. It wasn't a habitual thing.

He could have said something vaguely antagonistic about people deserving to be called by their actual names, but he didn't. He wasn't that much of an ass. Clearly, whoever the man was, he'd meant something important to Frau and he wasn't going to go deriding someone else's important people.

So he just let the conversation carry. Hinamori was always better at keeping one of those going than he was. There just didn't seem to be anything for him to say at the moment.

"He sounds like he was a good person." Someone who worked with orphans, and had somehow been a help to Frau. She carried over his use of was, wondering silently if that meant he had passed away, or merely that he was left behind in Frau's world. Either way, it wasn't the kind of thing to ask; too solemn.

"Did you like being a bishop then?" She wondered what it was like, to work in a church. Even though she had never been a member of any particular faith, Hinamori approved of the work they did, caring for the poor, and giving people something to believe in. Hope was important, and offering that to those who needed it most was an admirable thing to do.

"Yeah, he was."

Until he'd fallen so far that he'd started working as a warsfiel and tried to kill Teito. Yet even then there was goodness left in him. Bastein may have fallen from the path, but he had wanted Frau to be the one to end it for him. Frau had freed him from the corruption and pain. Killed him.

Thankfully Hinamori asked another question that dragged Frau's thoughts out of that direction.

"Hell no. At least not all the time. Though I make the most of it."

By breaking almost all of the rules among the clergy and not even caring if the other bishops thought badly of him.

"I'm sure you're glad to be free of the duties you'd hated about it, then."

That could sound judgemental, if one were to take it that way. It wasn't really intended to be. You couldn't pick and choose what parts of a job to do once you had it, and since he didn't officially have it while he was here . . .

Hell, even Hitsugaya disliked the amount of desk work he had to do as a captain, despite what other shinigami might have thought. He just had to do more of it because of Matsumoto's laziness. He much preferred the field work himself, but papers needed to be filed to keep things running smoothly.

And he couldn't abide it when things didn't run smoothly.

"Mmhm." Hinamori nodded in agreement. "A bishop to a bouncer's a pretty big change in direction."

"Yup, very."

Frau didn't take it as judgmental at all. Even if it was meant that way, Frau didn't much care. He dealt with people not liking the way he thought and acted all the time at home. He came to a stop outside of the little diner before answering Hinamori.

"It's not that big of a change. Same skill set in some ways. Besides, I used to work at a bar when I was a kid."

"When you were a kid." There was only faint disbelief in his tone, because . . . well, this was Frau he was talking to. Not as much surprised him coming out of Frau's mouth.

He eyed the front of the place critically, but it seemed decent enough. As long as the place was clean, had decent food, and the staff didn't treat him like he was in elementary school, he wouldn't be too picky.

Though that last requirement always seemed difficult to achieve, for some reason. Even after the haircut he'd gotten specifically to look older. Not that he'd ever admit the rationale behind it.

Hinamori's disbelief was far more dramatic. "A b-bar's no place for a child!" But then her eyes went soft with sympathy. "Were... you an orphan? Is that why you ended up with the church?"

She took her little cart over to the side of the diner where it would be out of the way and placed a couple of binding kidou spells on it. There. Now no one would run off with it. She didn't think anyone would take it on purpose, but they might think it had been abandoned. And then what would she tell the nice lady across the street who she had borrowed it from?

"Yup. Bused tables, brought beer, harassed customers."

And generally got his ass kicked by his guardian when he sneaked out to steal hawkzile parts. He'd never really enjoyed working there, but that had more been because of his desire to fly than the job itself.

"The woman who looked after me owned the place. I ended up at the church for a different reason."

And one he wasn't going to go into no matter how much Hinamori asked. Yes, he'd been an orphan for most of his life and he'd been one of the orphans Bastien had looked after. Becoming an orphan wasn't what brought him to the church though. The war had. It was something Frau wouldn't share with anyone.

Instead of giving either of them a chance to ask more questions, he led the way into the little diner. It was generally quiet, with only a few tables. As Hitsugaya had hoped, it was clean and orderly. Plus, it carried a wide variety of homemade foods.

Well, Hinamori didn't tend to pry into sensitive subjects, so Frau was probably safe from her on that one. And Hitsugaya frankly didn't care much one way or the other. How he'd ended up orphaned and at the church was immaterial to him.

Clean and orderly was good. Now all that remained was to see if the staff were going to be patronizing fools about his age. He never knew how that was going to go at a new place. Unless he couldn't help it, Hitsugaya didn't make it a habit of frequenting places where he got treated like a little boy. He preferred to avoid that kind of aggravation.

They probably made an interesting sight to begin with, the three of them. They were almost close enough in visual age to be taken for siblings; or a babysitter with two charges. (Best to avoid comparisons with that one.)

But Hinamori was primarily concerned with the smells. Bread, and meat frying, and onions... "Mmmmmmmm," she said, inhaling deeply. "Let's eat!"

She bounced eagerly over to a booth by the window and slid in, picking up a menu. "Any recommendations, Frau?"

"The hamburgers are good, so is the barbecue something sandwich, and some chicken thing with bacon and other stuff."

Noticing the trend here? Pretty much anything that had meat in it was on Frau's recommended list. It was one of the benefits of not living at the church anymore. There was nobody here to yell at him for eating things he wasn't supposed to be. Plus, he didn't have to try to hide it.

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