Bittersweet Symphonies
- A collection of my IchiHime short shories, drabbles and all else.
Author's note: This is a collection of drabbles and shorter stories that I will make in homage to the entire IchiHime fandom. There's just not enough of them.
Please do take note that this is not a serialized story, therefore, each chapter should be viewed differently, as a separate entity rather than the continuity from the previous chapter. Thank you!
Please do leave a review if you feel like it. I'm gonna allow request and challenges if you do have any. For example, if in your review, you have a certain idea that you wanna challenge me into trying, please do so. Those challenges, will be posted as the next chapter..A treat to all IchiHime fans.
Lastly, please do not flaming the pairing of my choice, Ok?
Lets head on to the third chapter!
Chapter 3: Not a Fairy Tale
Dedicated to: Those who are still waiting for my updates for Blaze of Wrath chapter 3. I promise, it'll be coming up in a day!
This drabble-ish fic was somewhat inspired by Fruits Basket, in which the elements will be told later.
It was heavily raining.
He was out sitting where she used to feed the fishes in the hole that he dug when he saw her appearing in front of him.
He couldn't be happier.
'Dear,' she whispered softly.
'You've come back,' he said to her. He saw her tears of happiness, and he wanted so much to be holding her in his arms again. His body moved towards her on its own, and just as fast as he walked, he felt her against his body once again.
'Don't leave me again,' he said to her, and added, 'Please.'
She pushed him, and he saw her looking down. 'I'm sorry, I'm here to say goodbye.'
'You are lying,' he knew that she is, he insisted that she is. 'You are not going to leave me.'
'If I don't leave you, you'll be in danger!' She raised her head, but had still not leveled his eyes.
He felt that his heart was going to be broken just by hearing these words. The raindrops had began to trace from his eyes to his cheeks, drowning the heat from that will be drained if they were his tears.
'We are not meant to be together,' she spoke again. 'I am to leave you..and never come back again.
How could this be their fate? He knew that they were as different as heaven and earth. He knew that she was too good for him. He knew that he did not deserved her. He knew all that. But he did not want to let her go.
'Do you remember when we get married a year ago? I was so poor, and we just swear an oath to the moon, promised to love each other?' He said. He remembered this very vividly, because that was the best moment of his life. They were standing by the grave of his mother, and he was swearing in front of his mother, witnessed by the moon, that she would be his wife. He even swear that he will never take another woman as his wife; she and only she is the one that he will see from now on.
He combed her long silky hair with his hands; they were silkier if they were not hardened by the rain. 'Do you remember that my first gift to you was a comb, because I said that I love your hair?' He worked all day long, starved for days to just get her the comb that she took a longing to. He remembered her happy smiles that were intertwined with her tears, and he remembered laughing at her threat to him to make sure that he will never attempt to do such a thing again.
He raised her chin, and forced her into looking into his eyes. 'Do you remember what you had promised me just yesterday?' She looked so beautiful, so delicate, and so ethereal – as would a real goddess. 'I said that I want a child, and you promised me that you will help me raise many children, do you remember?' His voice strangled, as his chest felt heavy from the throbbing pain that the thought of her leaving him gave him.
He is now desperate. He knew exasperation too well, after this morning when there are others who want to take her away showed up to seize her. He cursed his own weakness. He could not do anything but watch as she was taken to be judged, punished, and perhaps executed.
He never knew love until he saw her; he never thought of bliss until they were married; and he never understood distress until he watched her own kind disgrace her.
'Yes, I remember,'she refused to face him. 'Thank you, dear, for such wonderful life that you've given me. I am really happy to have known you, to have married you, and to love you.'
He felt her resisting him, because she tried to pull away, with futile efforts. He knew that she did not want to let go as much as he does. 'Don't go, stay with me.'
Her resistance became harder to be ignored. 'Even if you want to go,'
He stopped her struggle gently, 'Take me with you.' He said to her, as his arms completely encircle her body. He held to her tightly, as the raindrops hit them harder and harder.
He felt safe as her muscles relaxed within his hold, and her hands began to find their ways to his back.
'Kurosaki-kun, you are holding me too tight…'
'CUT!!!!'
The couple on the stage broke out from their passionate embrace of each other.
'Ichigo!' I yelled to the orange-headed idiot in the stage. 'That was way tooooo sappy!'
He sported his usual frown, and said loudly, 'What?'
'You were the one who told me to be expressive, remember? Now that I do, it's sappy?'
I can't help but sigh in exasperation. 'Look, Ichigo, I'm the director, and you should follow what I said, and I said that you are not following the script!'
'Where is that so? Miss Director Kuchiki Rukia?' he seemed to have lost his patience. 'By the way, you made Kengyuu to be a mortal man even if he's supposed to be also an Cow Herder Star, of course I can't understand the context at all.'
'Well, I find the Chinese Tanabata story more romantic, so because I'm the director, you are supposed to follow my orders. You are not supposed to keep holding her so long, or else I can't get the effect of her falling down from depression!'
'Why would the Orihime fall from depression from that? She's supposed to be a Star…'
'Err…' a female voice interrupted. It was Inoue, who was playing the role of her namesake.
'It's time for lunch…' She shyly blushed at her obvious attempt to break the argument.
'See you later. Really, I'm sick of all this.' Ichigo walked off, presumably to his usual lunch position at the roof of Karakura High School.
I sighed again. Not enough with being appointed as the director of the class's upcoming Tanabata play, I have to deal with such a difficult leading male character. Thankfully, Inoue was easier to deal with. I never knew that she, other than being imaginative, could play such a role with relative ease. I would credit that to her overly active imagination.
There will be much less trouble if Ichigo, who is playing Kengyuu is that good. I was very reluctant to let him play that role, but half the class agreed to it. In fact, there was only two who rejected the idea of him being Kengyuu – Chizuru and Keigo. He was at first skeptical too, but after Inoue's disappointed look of his rebuttals upon his 'inauguration' as the main character, he had no choice but to agree.
Well, I did not object to the idea, after all, I want them to get together. But then again, it is Ichigo – he needs a push, a sideway nudge to make him actually realize his feelings. Their feelings was so painfully obvious that everybody start teasing them for it, but met with horribly disastrous aftermaths.
There was a time when Keigo was asking him whether Inoue breasts were fake, and he broke a window glass panel with his head. I think there was a time where Chizuru also demanded a duel with him, which he objects but not before breaking a notice board that happened to be nearby. There was also a time where he punched a junior guy who made lecherous comments on Inoue.
The truth is, I knew that he was expressive. He was great in that role – only because the love interest of his character was the one that he likes to degree where his fantasies of her could rival those of Kon's.
Perhaps too great, I think. The passion that he exudes, they were all so real and believable, to the point where he acted more on his feelings than towards the requirement of the script. Why can't he act more like his stage persona with her? In that way I'm glad to have him as Kengyuu – at least if he gets to be fictionally in love with Inoue, he will know that the feelings aren't just a fragment of his mind anymore.
If only he's a little less like an idiot.
BEEP.
Renji called for lunch. I took my lunchbox and headed towards a place where he said he will be, which I've said to him on many occasion how much I love it.
I'm glad that at least Renji isn't that much of an idiot.
'Kurosaki-kun.'
She called me softly as I walked through the deserted staircase towards our secret hideout.
I looked at her, and I saw her smiling widely, as always, and as expected.
'You did great today!' her chirpiness never failed to make me grin, but of course, I never grin, not in front of everyone – perhaps the exception was standing in front of me.
She showed me a lunchbox, and said, 'Here, Kurosaki-kun! A sandwich with a stellar combination of garlic and chocolates!'
Oh, do I have to take it? I love chocolates, but taking them with garlic is just-
'Delicious, isn't it?' She offered me a hefty portion of the sandwich, which I shuddered to consume.
I took a bite. Well, it wasn't that bad, it's just weird. I made a mental note to myself to ask Yuzu to prepare a recipe for her every evening, so that at least she will make normal food.
'Kurosaki-kun..'
'Yes?' she stopped halfway, and this is the only respond I could think of.
She blushed so that her face turned a little shade of pink – the look that could make me stare at her for hours – but her eyes spelled hesitation.
'Say it, don't worry. You are gonna say that I suck, aren't you?'
Her eyes lighten up in defense, not to herself, but mine. 'No, definitely!'
'You were very great, Kurosaki-kun, it was very real.'
'Wonder if other people will discover that…' She blushed even harder.
Discover? Oh, us being a couple.
'Don't worry, it's not like we've just started. Let others say what they want. Weren't you the one that wants to remain secret?' I replied her. It's true that we had chosen to retain our relationship a secret from other because from her reasoning, she have to wait for an omen from her brother before she can announce anything of this sort.
I couldn't care less. In fact, the less people know, the better. But-
'Inoue, I..' for some reasons, my throat kept constricting.
She looked up to me, sandwiches well swallowed and on their way through her digestive system.
'I would like to tell people that you are…' Ah, it's been two months and I'm still nervous?
'My girlfriend.'
She smiled again, and moved nearer to me, then placed her hand on my cheek.
'There's breadcrumbs…You always look so weird when you are frowning with breadcrumbs on your face.'
This proximity is what I always like about her. I can't really say how, or why, but looking at her so close always managed to make my heartbeat rates rapidly increase. And so I-
Kissed her.
And she kissed me back.
There's a strong taste of garlic, but as I go deeper, I can taste chocolate in her.
Tanabata is a fairy tale. This isn't.
Ok, for those uninformed, here's an excerpt from Wikipedia on Tanabata:
Orihime (Weaving Princess) the daughter of the Tenkou (Sky King, or the universe itself) wove beautiful clothes by the bank of the River of Heaven (Amanogawa). Her father loved the cloth that she wove and so she worked very hard every day to weave it. However, she was sad that because of her hard work she could never meet and fall in love with anyone. Concerned about his daughter, Tenkou arranged for her to meet Hikoboshi (Cow Herder Star) sometimes called Kengyuu (Chinese name of Hikoboshi) who lived and worked on the other side of the Amanogawa River. When the two met, they fell instantly in love with each other and were shortly married. However, once married, Orihime no longer would weave cloth for Tenkou and Hikoboshi allowed his cows to stray all over Heaven. In anger, Tenkou separated the two lovers across the Amanogawa River and forbade them to meet. Orihime became despondent at the loss of her husband and asked her father to let them meet again. Tenkou was moved by his daughter's tears and allowed the two to meet on the 7th day of the 7th month if Orihime worked hard and finished her weaving. The first time they tried to meet, however, they found that they could not cross the river because there was no bridge. Orihime cried so much that a flock of magpies (Kasasagi) came and promised to make a bridge with their wings so that she could cross the river. If it rains, the magpies cannot come and the two lovers must wait till next year.
The following variation of the story is known in China and Japan: A young farmer named Mikeran discovered on his farm a robe which, unbeknownst to him, belonged to a goddess named Tanabata. Soon after, Tanabata visited Mikeran and asked if he had found it. He lied and told the goddess that he hadn't but would help with her search. Eventually the pair fell in love, were wed and had many children. However, one day Tanabata noticed a piece of cloth which had once belonged to her robe on the roof of Mikeran's hut. His lie discovered, Tanabata agreed to forgive him on the condition that he weave a thousand pairs of straw shoes, but until that time, she would leave him. Mikeran was unable to weave the shoes in his lifetime and thus never met Tanabata again. However, it is said that the pair meet once a year when the stars Altair and Vega intersect
The connection with Fruits Basket is that I drew the school play idea from the play that the characters did in the manga 'Something Cinderella-ish'
Hope you've enjoyed this, and leave me a review if you want to.
Thanks!