Dirty Delinquent [closed]

The night had not been so good to him. Shinpei was learning the area fairly well, but there were still cultural differences that tended to sneak up on him without warning. For example, there was all this technology that Shinpei didn't have access to. He'd pocketed a small fold of bills in his dash from the Seireitei--he'd had it laying around since last time, can you believe it?--but it was a limited supply. And Shinpei was starting to think he was going to be here for a while. He'd gone ahead and bought a little flip phone, rented out a tiny room, but he didn't have a lot of options. The phone was confusing. He was still trying to figure out all the buttons.

It had been a long time, for Shinpei. he was still learning to stay out of the road and to navigate the huge press of people in the walking areas. It was a shame the place was so packed, really: in the in the Rukongai, people had responded well to simply being called on as they passed by. You could greeet someone, get them to turn around, be friendly. So you could pick up a girl off the street. Here with so many people milling around, everyone sort of turned themselves off. Who would try to approach, try a conversation in a place like this?

So it was that when a hand grabbed his shoulder and a voice called his name, he was wholly unprepared. His mind switched into an appropriate gear. I use the term "appropriate" loosely here.

"Hey," he grinned, eyes glittering. He turned and caught the hand in his soft grip. "Do I know you? And if I don't--" he completed the turn. He stopped short.

Shinpei dropped the hand like it was something unclean. Suffice to say the two had a history, but you'll have to wait till next time for that one.

"Fancy meeting you here. Haruka. What, you come by to tell me I should mend my ways and make good?"

"If that's all you have to say, save yourself the trouble and hop on the next flight to the Soul Society. I never asked for your help, and I don't want it."

She was not amused.

Shinpei was her brother and she loved him dearly, but heaven help him if he ever cooed at her with that voice again… Even if it was by mistake, the sheer arrogance that he could seduce some random woman was enough to give Haruka two checks to her Rage counter.

Her arms folded across her chest, fingers tapping silently against her arms. It was all she could do to not punch him in the face and send him to time out.

“Why are you acting like a stupid, little boy, Shinpei?” She shook her head, dismissing his nonchalance. “I know you’re better than this.”

It was false hope, really. She knew it on some level, but she would never give up on her brother—on any of her family really. But none of them needed her to lie to herself. At least before she could rely on Shun to have her back when it came to taming the wild ones, but to think even he had given up on his brother.

What had gotten into her family these days?

“As much as I really, really want to, I’m not dragging you back,” she said with a softer voice, edging back into the realm of good-sister. “I just want to know what you think this will do. Do you think running away makes everything easier? Do you think us worrying about you will help you sleep better at night? What?”

She really didn’t want to know the answer. Not that she expected him to really tell her—he was too immature. He’d probably just slap her in the face with some snide remark and try to sashay away like the little prince he thought he was.

“Do you even know anything about earth? Do you know how to work a computer? A phone? A car?”

Not that she could, but she wasn’t the one trying to live here.

“Do you even have a place to stay? What if you get attacked? What if something happens to you?”

Now she was just ranting, but she was honestly concerned for him. He probably hadn’t even thought of all these things in the first place. She doubted he had any sort of plan.

“Shinpei, do you even realize how reckless you’re being? If you’re going to run away, you might as well do it right and do a bit of research first.”

[402. 8]
[18]

Like a stupid little boy?
"You don't know anything about me at all," Shinpei said simply. He could see her fitting back into the comfortably uncomfortable role she'd always adopted around him. Always overbearing. Always putting herself forward. In her eyes, he'd never grown past that little boy who went carousing in town late at night. He'd never aged a year past his adolescence.
He didn't care enough to challenge her assumption. Who knows whether it would work, and besides--what did he have to prove?

It had always been like this between them. Maybe Shinigami were more prone to falling into patterns, ruts they couldn't break out of. Maybe that's what this story is about. Point is, it had been like this since day one. If I tell you a story, will you understand?

Once, a long time ago, Shinpei and Ayame had been racing towards the tallest tree near their house, Shun following reluctantly behind. He'd started out forbidding them from doing something so dangerous, but upon a little careful convincing (Shun could only catch one of them, and they'd be safer with him watching) he'd elected to spot-check their climb in return for a limit to how high they could climb.
Well, they scaled up that tree. They were monkeys back then. Shinpei walked out on a tree branch and balanced like it was a tightrope and the world below his stage. "Look," he crowed. His sister watched in awe.
"Get down from there!"
The loud cry from below startled him, made him pitch. One foot slipped and then he was falling, falling--caught. Ayame was clutching his outstretched hand. Shun and Haruka were beneath the tree. Perhaps they would have caught him.
"You two are in big trouble," Haruka stated firmly, though her face was tight with worry. She just wanted to see them safe. She didn't want anyone to be hurt. It was the mold she'd stepped into. And maybe it was true.

I'm sure you know someone like that. Are they "real?" Have they ever had an original thought of their own? Are they capable of being anything else besides disruption in a carefully crafted life?

Shinpei didn't think so. His dislike of Haruka stemmed from long ago and had never really faded, the same way he had never forgiven his mother, or his father, or his brother. The same way he... well, it was all the same. He wasn't good at moving on. He was good at focusing on one thing to the detriment of all the rest. It was what made him, him.

Shinpei lazily scratched his chin. He needed to shave. "I can think of a few things that could help me sleep," he grinned. "But it doesn't look like you brought any cute friends, so I can't ask you to leave them with me." His face grew ugly. "And what, you think I'm here because I want to be? Are you retarded? I'm here because our dear brother decided, just like you have, that I'm your little project to clean up and have presentable by dinner. Like I'm some sort of drug addict who needs an intervention."

His hands curled into fists. "I've got news for you. I'm not some child who needs a shield because he can't face reality. Of the two of us, who's still clinging to a past ideal where I'm the perfect little brother, bow-tied and neatly wrapped?" He shook his head, lips thin. "That boy never existed. And if he did, he's dead now."

A lot of words were scratching behind that wall of control she had. Words she had been meaning to throw at Shinpei for centuries now, but never had a strong enough reason to.

She loved her brother dearly—cherished him more than she cherished her father—but with that came an equal amount of hatred. Not the playful hatred that could be worked out with a couple of drinks and a funny story. That lurking desire to watch him fall on his face even harder just so she can lean down from her horse and whisper: “I told you so.”

But those emotions were never called on because she would never sully her name with such irrational actions. She couldn’t possibly stoop so low as to let Shinpei know he finally got under her skin.

So it’s for that reason that she could only stare at him, her lips pressed into a fine line and her eyebrows pulling downward in a look of almost betrayal.

“I know what Shun did and he’s going to get a slap on the back of the head too,” she made no effort to hide her frustration with the other childish brat of the family. “But he isn’t about to become a wanted man, now is he?” The gravity of her tone was lost on ignorant ears.

One would think that she would have learned after knowing her brother for so long. At some point in time surely she would have gained a better way to handle the situation, but it simply hadn’t. Probably because there just wasn’t a “right” way to handle Shinpei.

“And you should know better than anyone else that I never wanted you to be some sort of role model. I never had that high of hopes for you,” the statement wasn’t sugar coated in any way. She never expected him to amount to much. “I don’t want you to become some saint and walk the mighty road like your brother. I just want you safe.”

Did he even care? Was he so far gone that any level of reason just wouldn’t work on him? Judging by that hard look he was giving her, Haruka didn’t have high hopes for changing his mind today either. But she was stubborn enough to keep trying.

Stubborn enough not to lose someone else.

“You should know me better than that, brother. As much as you infuriate me, I love you and I only want to see you happy. If that means running away and flaunting your body at every human girl, then so be it. But at least have the brains to accept help when you need it.”

Is this your way of begging? My my, how the great have fallen!~ Her Zanpakutō spirit finally decided to chime in, clearly pleased with the turn of events.
Kyōfu, your input isn’t needed right now.
Will you get on your knees? Haa~ You’re too much, child. Shall you fall to his heathen ways, or perhaps just polish your shoes?
I don’t like that tone and implication. Hold your tongue.
Yes, yes, m’lady. Fear the woman’s wrath becomes it hints at decisions left to rot. We all know what secrets she’s given thought~

Kyōfu, either distracted by something else, or otherwise bored with the conversation, pulled his humming from Haruka’s head, though surely he was still watching. Waiting for her to slip up again so that he could tease her even more. He was such a child in the cruelest of ways.

Not too dissimilar to Shinpei, now that she thought about it.

“Look,” she sighed. “Just let me help you. I won’t drag you back, I won’t tell anyone where you are, but at least let me watch over you until I’m sure you’re not going to get yourself killed.”

[633. 12]
[30]