Up in the air... (Tag: Koori Yuki)

Judging by what he said in response to her reaction she gathered that her conclusion had been correct. She knew she needed to say something, otherwise things would remain forever awkward - but what should she say. She thought for a moment before deciding on a course of action that she never went with - saying her feelings.

"Well..." She started cautiously, forming every word in her head before saying them out loud.

"I'm not very good at this kind of thing but... I feel like I can always trust you, and I also feel... safe around you." She looked away from his face in case he thought she was being weak by admitting these things.

"I also... I, uh, Ilikeyoumorethanafriend." She forced the last words out quickly, so that they came out as a jumble of words. Her face was red, and she bit her bottom lip, waiting for him to say something.

She wasn't getting angry....that was a good sign of couse...He payed good attention to her next words.
"Well...I'm not great either...I got really nervous..."
His face flashed a little red when he heard her next jumble of words.
"Well..." He scratched his head again. "I like you more then a friend as well."
He moved a little closer to her.

Her eyes softened when she heard him return her feelings, though her face was still red.

"Yeah, I guess I get nervous as well... and maybe a little embarrassed... and... scared."

Being emotionally close to someone after never being close to anyone in either of her two lives was a scary thought. The only person she had ever gotten mildly close to had ended up betraying her. She noticed that he moved a bit closer to her, and she decided that she should conquer her fears once and for all. It wouldn't be easy because it was so ingrained, but she would try. Reaching out hesitantly and shyly, she slowly slipped her smaller hand into his larger one.

"I understand that. In my first life...when I dated Sara...It took me three months to pluck up the courage."
She suddenly moved closer to him, and slipped her hand into his. It felt. . .Nice. Her hand was soft...
"I know a little bit of your past...and I understand that you have trouble opening up to people...but let me get to know the whole you...and maybe you won't need to hide your true feelings."

OOC: I might not be here when you reply, so I might reply tommorow.

She looked up at him, looking into his eyes to see the care there that she had been so blind as to miss before. Could she really open up fully for him? It would be nice to not have to pretend to be so much stronger than she actually was, to hide herself so not to get hurt - could she trust him not to hurt her most vulnerable self? Looking at him she knew that the answer was yes. A small, genuine smile touched her lips.

"I'll try, because I don't want to pretend around you Tomix. You're always so open and honest with me, and I want to be able to be open and honest with you too. I may not always say what I think or feel, but I will try to." A shinigami captain and an ex-espada, who would have thought?

He looked at her in the eyes, and when she gave him a soft smile, he knew the answer was yes.
"If you'll try, that is all I would ever ask of you... I would never make you do anything you wouldn't want to do..." He voice was soft. Lesser Arrancar had feared him, but he never liked to be scary.
"I...hate it when people are scared of me...They know I'm an ex-Espada...and they run from me..." Tomix was saying things he had never said before.

OOC: Okay, off this time. See you later.

(OOC: Ok, c'ya ^^ It's about time I go to bed, good thing it's Sunday tomorrow )

She nodded in understanding - she knew what it was like to be feared.

"I know what you mean, some people fear me because I'm a captain, but in the academy I was pick on so badly just because the other students were afraid of how smart I was. It isn't nice to be feared..." She squeezed his hand slightly in comfort, liking the way how her hand fit so perfectly in his.

"I remember joining the academy... I actually failed 11 times before actually getting in - that's probably why I was so blind to your clues because my mind was subconsciously trying to protect me from hurt and rejection."

He listened what she had to say...understanding how being a captain could make you feared. The way she treated while at the academy...It was like that for him as well....
"I was treated a bit like that at high school...I was diffrent then everyone else...only spending time with the same person...they called me a freak. I tried not to care... but it still hurt..."

They were so similar - it was almost scary at how similar they were to each other. But in saying that Yuki felt that she was better able to understand him and him her.

"It does hurt when people call you names - I got called 'freak' as well sometimes, so I know how you felt. But I never let it get to me; well, that's what I made it seem like. However, there was one name at the academy that some 'smart' person had chosen to give me, and it hurt so much more than the rest. The name was 'Koori-hime' which literally means 'Ice Princess' and it was because I was so cold and different to everyone due to my experiences in life up to that point. But later on I met a shinigami who taught me that it was ok to be different because that's what makes us unique. But if it makes you feel any better I don't think that you're a freak."

Tomix frowned at Yuki's story. She WAS right though...It was okay to be diffrent, because certainly Tomix was diffrent, abnormal prehaps.

"Even though they had no idea what you had been through...They still had no right to say those things to you...Anyway, this shinigami was right. It is okay to be different...I never wanted to be just like everyone else...Because I was a little scared of people acting like I was just a nobody, just someone in the backround. I wanted to stand out a little...Everyone liked me when I said what they wanted me to say...But when I acted like I felt they treated me like crap..." He trailed off slightly.

He gave her hand small squeeze, feeling a tingle through his body. He smiled at her, remarking that the two of them both have had hard and horrible experiences in life...He moved a little closer to her, and looked in her eyes.

"I always got through the insults by thinking the same thing again and again: I am proud of the person who I am." He smiled at her.

She smiled back as he looked down at her.

"It's good that you're proud of the person you are because you have a lot to be proud of; those people that gave you crap probably amounted to anything anyway." She sighed as she thought of all the people who had given her grief over the years before shaking her head slightly.

"It's so easy to talk to you Tomix - I'm never usually so open about myself and my past, but I think we should stray away from all that depressing emotional stuff for the moment. How long are you in Karakura Town for?"

He nodded as she spoke. He gave a quick moment of thought to how long he will be in Karakura Town.
"I think I'll be in town for at least a week. Ish told me Espada are being seen more and more, so he's set us up with reguler patrols now."
He wondered why she wanted to know...

She felt puzzled about the espada sightings, though one thing she knew about Ish was he usually knew what he was doing, but still.

"I haven't received any reports on increased espada activity; they must be keeping a low profile. I'm due back to return to Soul Society in a few days..." She thought for a moment.

"Maybe... we could get a coffee before I leave." She wasn't good with suggesting dates or things like this, and coffee was the first thing that she had thought of; man she loved coffee...

Espada...They won't ruin my life this time...
"They are keeping a low profile. I know I can't beat the higher-ups, so I just give info to Ish for him to deal with it."
He face broardened to a small smile when she suggested getting coffee.
"That...would be great, in my opinion." He gave her hand another small squeeze.

She nodded to what he said - it made sense for him to be a sort of information scout. She smiled shyly when he agreed to her coffee suggestion, saying that would be great.

"I love coffee; I guess you could call it one of my vices. Hey Tomix, when is that party that you invited me to at Kurosu?"

Coffee...one of the things he loved. Though he did once had to get over an addiction of coffee...he was going nuts that time.
"Ah yes, the party...Ish told me it will be on in a few days. Hopefully I'll remember to tell you when it starts. I don't have the worlds best memorey or anything." He laughed at himself.
Suddenly he remembered somthing. He remembered that when he stayed at Yuki's apartment that one time...He was asleep, but he could feel Yuki's reaitsu...almost like she was watching him sleep.
He felt his face grow a little red.

Yuki normally didn't like to go to parties, but she felt that the one at Kurosu would probably be fun, if not just for the fact that she'd be going with Tomix. She laughed lightly at his bad memory comment.

"Don't worry if you forget - I'll just keep reminding you."

She smiled as she looked out across the view that they got from the top of the building; it was so peaceful and beautiful just standing so far away from reality, with no worries. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye to see that he was looking thoughtful, as though remembering something, and his face had started to go red again. She wanted to ask what he was thinking about but she didn't know how to pose the question so it wouldn't sound awkward.

He smiled when she said she'll remind him.
"Good, I've forgotton loads of things recently...I can't seem to keep track of Sloth recently.." He shrugged it off.
He was still thinking about Yuki maybe watching him while he slept, when he saw Yuki looking at him.
"Just remembering somthing, the day we both met." He said, smiling.

"Well, I'm sure he'll turn up sometime..." Yuki had never met sloth before, so she had a strange image of him looking reminiscent of Frankentein's monster because he was 'made' by someone else. So the thought of this... thing running around lost seemed to appeal slightly to her sense of humour - though she didn't let it show.

When Tomix brought up the day they met she turned thoughtful. It seemed like they knew each other forever, but she knew it couldn't have been that long in reality.

"I remember that day. I was just on a routine patrol when I walked through the cemetery and saw you with your alchemy abilities - though I didn't know what they were at the time. I had been so intrigued by them." She smiled thinking about her own curiosity.

"Yeah, i'm really suprised Sloth runs around so much...He told me he prefers to sleep all the time...Unless he fell asleep in the fridge again..." He shook the thought away.

He smiled as he remembed thier first meeting.
"Yeah...I was just visting my sister's grave, and then I met you there...Then that Espada turned up...I kinda owe my life to you." He laughed a little bit.

Asleep in the fridge... again? She figured it would be better to not ask about that one. She frowned at Tomix's next words - she didn't think he owed her his life. Suddenly her frown turned into a very small but playful smile - something she hadn't even known she was capable of.

"You don't owe me your life Tomix, I'm a captain, so it's my job to protect the helpless." She wondered if he would rise to her bait - she didn't really think he was helpless.

"Because of that espada we were stuck under my kido barrier for hours... though I didn't mind because it was... nice talking to you, even though we didn't really know each other."

"Eh..I don't force people to do things, that's just how I think somtimes." He said this, ignoring her helpless comment.
He thought about that day, stuck under the kido barrier...just talking for the sake of talking. It was a good day, a day he had enjoyed.
"I enjoyed talking to you...It was really easy to tell you things I would never tell anyone else...It's kinda like I could easily trust you..." He turned a little bit red.

"It had been a very long time since I'd talked to somebody for that long, but it was the first time I talked so... freely. I know what you mean; I felt I could easily trust you too, and even now, telling you these things that I... felt, it's hard and a little scary that I could trust you so much."

In her life she had learnt that it was always safer to say away from these sort of emotions because you would only get hurt in the long run, but she really wanted to believe that it would be different this time because he was so much like her - two lonely people with major trust issues. She smiled slightly at that, though it was tainted with sadness.

Tomix smiled as she said her next words: And it reminded him of himself, and the lonliness he had felt over the years.

"You're right. I haven't talked so much to anyone; I haven't told anyone things I have never said before. You make me feel happy, when I'm around you. I don't know why though...maybe it's because I trust you so much..."
He looked at her in the eyes.

"If somthing ever happened to one us that meant I couldn't see you anymore, It would be one of the worst things that could happen to me..."

(OOC: Gotta say before I reply, congrats on the admin position )

Yuki kept eye contact with him as he spoke to her. His words were so nice, and they made her feel happy to hear them - especially when he said he trusted her as well; though she had kind of guessed that already.

However, the next things he said made her feel a strange feeling in her heart, but she didn't know what it was. Acting on instinct alone, because she really didn't know why she reacted in such a way to his words, she let go of his hand and, hesitating, she wrapped her arms around him in a hug, her face burying into his chest. She felt her emotions become overwhelming and so found it difficult to respond to his words with words of her own.