Simple Like Tea

OCs only are mine.


Chapter 1 - Tomorrow

“Thank you for coming!” Reiko bowed as she said it, sliding the door shut and flipping the sign to “CLOSED”. She sighed, rolling her shoulders to try and relax the stiff muscles, knowing that she still had quite a bit of work to do before she could sleep.

“Do you need us to stay and help, Sensei?”

Reiko fixed her face into a relaxed smile before turning to the two high school students that helped her at the teashop during the holidays. “No, that’s ok. You two can head on home for the night. I’ll clean up.”

Senji was a tall young man that towered head and shoulders over Reiko and leaned down awkwardly in a stoop whenever she was around, as though ashamed to be taller than his sensei. He had a quiet speaking voice and a tendency to blush whenever Reiko complimented his work. His black hair always sat in a messy mop on his head that his girlfriend Chiyo was always trying to tame.

“Then we’ll see you after the weekend, Sensei. Oyasuminasai!” Chiyo was delightfully bubbly, and always seemingly full of energy that drew customers to her, and even drew Reiko herself. She smiled and lifted her hand in a wave as the two left the shop hand in hand, Chiyo still waving madly back to her as they disappeared in the shadows between two of the streetlights.

Reiko sighed and turned to look at the teashop. It had been a busy day today, and there was much to do. She took her blue rag from the kitchen area and set to wiping every surface in the shop. The tables, the chairs and all the little porcelain sets that were displayed for sale. She wiped these especially lovingly, because they reminded her of her o-jii-san. Once the chairs were piled onto the now clean tables, she set to work with a mop until the floor shone. Rolling her shoulders again, she went to the back of the shop and started throwing out the tea filters. She gathered all the tea leaves that were stuck in the drain and the guck that always seemed to find its way into the spouts of her best teapots. Then she gathered the garbage and took it outside, pushing the big bag with effort into the large bin that stood behind the shop. When she got back, she set all the cups and pots inside the dishwasher and turned it on.

The shop and kitchen now sparkling, she made her way wearily upstairs to her own tiny apartment. The mess of the room was in sharp contrast to the mathematical neatness of the teashop, but she had no time to clean the apartment. “Tomorrow,” she told herself, “tomorrow I will clean up here.” She picked her way to the shrine in the back of the room and picked up the now cold cup of tea she had left there this morning.

“We did good today, O-jii-san,” she murmured, looking at her grandfather’s picture in the black frame. “It was busy, and everybody was ordering the new mint jasmine tea I prepared. I think I’ll add it as a fixture to the menu.” That meant having new menus ordered and made, and more work folding them and laminating them and… but she would think about work later. She said a quick prayer, then got up to the little kitchenette that overlooked the street through the only window in the apartment. She poured out the cold tea and set to brewing a fresh cup. She made it dark and strong, the way her o-jii-san had liked it, then carefully carried it back to the altar and set it down. Lingering would get her no sleep, and there was much to be done tomorrow.

Sighing she went to the ‘bedroom’ area, partitioned from the rest of the room by two small folding screens, one with a series of birds of paradise fluttering across a pale yellow backdrop, the other of a four legged serpent with a fire-red mane, dancing against a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. Reiko pulled the combs out of her hair and let it cascade to her shoulders in unadorned black. She set the combs carefully into their leather cases, then untied her obi and kimono and folded them carefully into her large wardrobe. Her socks and underwear she dropped into the overflowing laundry basket and made a mental note to get the laundry done tomorrow, too, after she went to the farmer’s market and picked up some more jasmine and mint. She would also need some rosemary, some chamomile, and then she would have to settle the books for the store. And prepare Senji and Chiyo’s paychecks.

She donned a sleeping kimono quickly, uncomfortable with being naked even alone and unwatched, and fell into bed. She thought about changing the sheets when she realized that they smelled musky and thick with the scent of her. “Tomorrow,” she murmured into the pillowcase. “I will change the sheets tomorrow.”

And that was her last waking thought.

**

“Kampai!” Everyone put the sake cups to their lips, and when they put them down again, a cheer erupted. Rukia blushed at the attention, unconsciously touching her hair again, up in an elaborate bun for the ceremony, while Ichigo sheepishly scratched the back of his head. Kuchiki Byakuya watched the now married couple with an expressionless face, but the hint of a smile tugged at the corners of his lips. Rukia had made a good match, and he was pleased for her. His lieutenant laughed the hardest of all, shouted the loudest his congratulations, and hugged the happy couple the longest, seemingly reluctant to let go. Renji was battling his worst demons right now, Byakuya could tell, and he silently commended his lieutenant for keeping his protests to himself. He knew he would be dealing with those demons later on tonight, alone.

Keeping things to oneself was the most important life skill to master.

“Ni-sama,” Rukia interrupted his thoughts, looking up at Byakuya with hope written so plainly across her features.

Stiffly, almost uncomfortably, Byakuya reached a hand out and put it on her head. “You looked like a true noble today, Rukia.”

Maybe it wasn’t the most affectionate thing he could have said, but the smile that broke on Rukia’s face was sheer joy. He would try to make his little sister smile like that again, as often as he could. It reminded him so much of his own Hisana, seeing her so happy.

“Arigato, Ni-sama,” she bowed awkwardly, then seemed to debate something within herself. Suddenly, she threw her arms around Byakuya’s waist and his eyes widened, the equivalent of slack-jawed shock on any other man coming from the ever stoic captain of the 6th squad. He put his arms around her shoulders, then quickly released her. She did the same almost immediately, blushing furiously, before mumbling a hasty excuse and racing back to Ichigo’s side.

Ichigo looked like he had just defeated Byakuya in some unannounced duel. Renji drank some more sake and started a yelling match with Kira. Byakuya felt his fingers twitch inexplicably. It had been years since he had hugged someone, true, but he had never thought that he could have possibly forgotten how to.

Maybe the elders were right. Maybe it was time he found another wife. A servant brought him a cup of tea and he took it without a word. The servants knew he did not like sake. He had only had that one drink because it was tradition. For the rest of the celebration he would drink tea.

He sipped and closed his eyes. The taste of tea took him back to Hisana again. She had always loved the tea they had at the Kuchiki house, and to this day he could never smell tea without thinking of her. He was taken back to the afternoons they would sit in the garden, sipping tea and laughing about the nobles that thought the match was some sort of political move made by Byakuya and his advisors. He had laughed often with Hisana when they were alone. He couldn’t remember the last time he laughed.

He thought again about the elders, their pressure on him to find a wife, to produce heirs. He had wanted children with Hisana, but her fragile body would not have been able to cope. The idea of marrying someone else just to make children was so cold and calculated, even for him. But he knew it for his duty. There had been no new blood in the Kuchiki line for too many years. The elders knew it, and they spoke in hushed whispers fearfully of the possible extinction of their clan.

Yet the thought of anyone but Hisana by his side, carrying his name and sharing his bed made his stomach clench with anger. No. He couldn’t remarry. No one would ever be able to replace her.

Still, it had felt nice to be hugged again. Public displays of affection, they were called. Highly inappropriate for respectable figures like himself, but still… nice.

**

Renji laughed off his friend’s protests and scratched the back of his head in a gesture so similar to Ichigo’s, he would have slapped himself if he were aware of it. “I have to get to bed. The Taichou’s gonna kill me if I show up late tomorrow, and he has a strange tendency to drive me harder than ever whenever I show up hung over.”

The protests were weaker now, but Kira was smiling. “I understand, Renji. Good night then.”

“Good night,” Renji smiled at them all. He knew Ikkaku-san was watching him, but decided to pretend he didn’t notice. He turned and walked in the direction of his little house, his face finally breaking free of the painful smile he had hoisted there all night. In the shadows, his face fell into the face of a man who had today witnessed his most prized dream crushed and the dust scattered to the four corners of the earth. Rukia…he clutched his chest over the place where his heart felt like it was trying to squeeze itself into nothing.

When he and Rukia were in rukongai, he had wondered if he would have liked to be with her. He had had passing fantasies about being with her, and it was easy to chalk up to lust. At the academy, he had realized it could become more. He realized it already was more, whether he cared to admit it or not. He had wanted to impress her. He had wanted her to think he was strong and cool and all those other things girls seemed to like in their men. When he lost her to the Kuchiki house, he had almost given up on her. But then, with the ryoka in Seireitei and everything in upheaval, he had managed to retouch the relationship they had once had, and memories of how he had wanted her tumbled into his mind like water out of a bucket suddenly upturned. He thought that he finally had a chance to rectify things, to try again, but he was already too late.

Now she was Ichigo’s, and Ichigo was hers. Right at this moment they were probably…

He growled. The thought of it made him want to run at the Kuchiki house like a madman and charge into their room. He steeled his body and kept walking to his own house instead. If he did that, Rukia would never forgive him. He had had his chance, and he had blown it. Rukia would never be his, not in the way he had hoped she would be all those years ago. He was too late.

At his house, he stood outside the door, wondering if he should go in. He knew what was inside; nothing. A sleeping mat and a wardrobe, a bathroom and an empty kitchen. He would be alone with his thoughts all night if he went in now. He might go mad and destroy everything. He might hang himself to death. Worse, he might cry if he went inside.

He looked around. No one was anywhere to be seen. Maybe he could go to the real world and kill some hollows. That always made him feel better before. He could kill hollows all night, and in the morning, he’d feel better. Tomorrow, he’d go to his squad’s headquarters and cart paperwork and supervise training and congratulate Kuchiki Taichou again for his sister’s wedding… no, he wouldn’t think about that now. He would worry about that tomorrow.

Making up his mind, he went to search for a Senkai gate.


TBC

AN/ Hey all! This is my very very first attemp at writing fanfic, EVER, so while reviews and criticisms are welcome, please try to be nice to me ^^. I'm still not sure which of several directions I'll take this in, but I have a few ideas I've jotted down, and will go on feedback, too, if it inspires me.

Thanks for reading!