War Of Hearts pt.3

War Of Hearts
Three: Food
Ichigo would have stayed in the bath longer if it hadn't been for his curiosity getting in the way; it had been a long time since he had a bath, he started taking showers around age ten and found them far more convenient, so the only times he would take baths since that young age is on the rare occasion that he had a broken leg, a quiet sigh escaped his lips as he wrapped the towel around his waist and stepped out of the bath tub, water draining and hair dripping, he had never considered having hair this length before and now, as he stared in the mirror to get a better look at it, he sort of liked it.... sort of.... one hand came up to the side of his face and his fingers grabbed at the gold-orange locks, damp and sticking to the sides of his face, even with wet hair his thick threads stood up in a spikey fashion, he stared into the mirror for a long time, he could tell in a definant change since the last time he saw his reflection, and not just that he was taller and had longer hair either... he looked much OLDER... almost too old for a sixteen-going-on-seventeen-year-old male to look, he looked like he was going into his THIRTIES... not his TEENS.... or atleast that was his opinion, as his hand dropped from his hair he noticed that the hair had started to grow a little around his temples, he glanced at the razor his father used to shave (on the rare occasion that he did) and shivered, "I hope I never look like that scraggly old man..." he muttered to himself, leaning off of the sink and going on to his room to get his clothes, after all there was a reason he didn't soak in the pleasently warm water longer, the reason was that a few minutes ago an extremely pleasent scent hit his nose and he had to go investigate it

The sounds of sizzling vegtables and frying meats hit his ears as he walked down the stairs and towards the kitchen, the delicious aromas of the diffrent foods all slammed into him at once and it was hard to seperate them and distuinguish exactly what was being cooked, he turned the corner expecting to see Yuzu standing over the stove... but he didn't, he instead saw Rukia wearing Yuzu's apron currently stirring a pot of something that smelled quite good... Ichigo wasn't quite sure what to say, he had alot of things he WANTED to say... but he couldn't manege to pry the words from the walls of his throat... so he settled for a simple question, "Where is everybody?" he muttered quietly, drawing her attention as it seems she had just noticed him, she turned around and took the wooden spoon out of the pot, setting it on the plate beside her and walking towards him, "Outside playing soccer," "The old man is playing soccer?" he snorted, "Yes, and Yuzu is keeping score," "I didn't think he'd be well enough to be moving around like that this early," "Yes well... he exerted quite a bit of energy a few days ago, but he has alot of spirit energy so he gained it back pretty quickly," she replied, turning around and going back to what she had been stirring before, he tilted his head, "So is that why you're cooking?" "No," she replied, taking the wooden spoon out of the pot again and walking to the refridgerator, "I just felt like it, so I asked Yuzu if she minded and she said she was fine with it," she replied, taking an onion out of the refridgerator, along with some pre-peeled cloves of garlic, "Oh," he said quietly, watching her take the nife off of the counter and put it on the cutting board alongside the onion, "So, what are you cooking?" "Look for yourself," she replied, opening the jar of garlic and taking out a few cloves, "Karashi Mintaiko.... curry rice... and.. what's in the oven?" he asked, looking in but not being able to tell what exactly it was because of the tinted window, "Chocolate cupcakes, I was going to make a chocolate cake but I didn't have enough batter because I made it extra thick," she replied, he restrained himself from licking his lips, "Well you're certainly going through alot, what for?" he asked as she started to chop the garlic and put it into the pot of curry mixture, "I like cooking, it's very relaxing for me," "Yeah but still... making all of this from scratch..." he muttered, she shrugged, running the water in the sink for a moment to wash the garlic residue off of her hands, he blinked as she turned and started back towards the cutting board, "Is there anything I can do?" he asked, waddling behind her like an overweight penguin, she shrugged, "Sure, you can chop the onions if you want, as long as you don't think they'll make you cry," she said with a smirk, he smiled and took the nife from her as she walked back over to the pan with the mintaiko in it and flipped the peices of fish, he slowly started peeling the onions, not really paying attention to what he was doing and instead watching her, "You've gotten taller," she said suddenly, not taking her eyes off of the food, "Yeah..." he muttered, picking up the nife, "As if you didn't dwarf me enough already," she said with a small smile, he smiled back at her and turned his attention to the cutting board, the casual conversation eased him immediatly, it was a skill he admired about Rukia, even in the worst situations she always maneged to distract him from his problums and make him feel better, and right now if she had spoken about anything concerning the events of the last few days, or if she acted like it had gotten to her and left them in an awkward silence, it would just remind him about how bad he felt, "So, what do you think of my new hairstyle?" he asked, she paused, making him pause as well, "Hmmm.... I think it makes you look like you belong in a rock band or in a bike gang," she said, he laughed quietly and started to scoop the onion peices into the curry mixture, "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" "Well.... it's neither, on the one hand this hair style makes you look more mature and more like a..." "Like a what?" "....Like one of those 'bad boys', you know, the kind on the motercycles that all the women swoon over? That women are PROUD to be dumped by and they think they can 'change him'?" she said with a laugh, "So you think I look good then? That women will 'swoon' over me?" he cuckled, "I think it has it's good points yes but I prefer your older style," "Really?" "Yeah, this makes you look.. TOO mature, with shorter hair you still look mature but retain a... childish charm," "Childish charm?" "Yes, it makes you look like you still have a sense of humor and a bit of a child-like perspective, wich I find charming," he snorted, "Whatever you say..." "To answer your question, I think you should cut your hair, just a little bit," she said, he nodded slowly, "Yeah... I think I agree,"

~+~+~+~

Orihime sighed lightly, she had been staring out the window, looking aimlessly at the same exact tree for the last hour or so, it was only at the sound of a nock on the door that she directed her attention away from the tree, "Coming!!" she called in her always-present chipper voice as she stood from the chair she was sitting in and walked over to answer the door, "O-Oh! Uryuu!" she said in surprise as the Quincy greeted her, "Hello Orihime, it's a rather nice evening don't you think so?" he said, she nodded happily and stood aside, "C-Come in," she said happily, he nodded once, "Thank you," he said, admittedly it was pretty nice to see her in casual clothing instead of that horrid Espada-type dress she had been confined to wearing in the time previous, "Orihime I was wondering..." he said quietly, scratching the back of his head lightly, she raised her eyebrows, still smiling at him, "Have you had dinner yet?" "Oh... no... I was about to go shopping to get something to cook though! I was thinking of grilled vegtables on a chicken-salad sandwitch with clam chowder and roasted turky slices and some peach and apricot ice cream with pickles!" she said happily, Uryuu, having had a loss of his internal organs and his stomach not too long ago, tried his best not to gag, he cleared his throat, "Actually I was thinking if you wanted to... perhaps we could share a pizza?" she beamed at him, "Ok that sounds fantastic! There's this new potato, pineapple, pepporni and cranberry pizza I've been DIEING to try!" "....I suppose I'll get my own pizza then," he chuckled quietly as she went to find some pizza coupons and he leaned against the wall, hands in his pockets, it was nice seeing her happy and back to her old self again.... he just hoped that this lasted for a wile