Hopes and Dreams [Sasha | Closed]

With her dark red scarf tightly wrapped around her neck, chin and mouth, Sasha made her way through the street on her way home. The backpack she wore was heavier than usual because of the groceries she had managed to cram into it for her dinner later on. A part of her still regretted having made the decision to cook instead of grabbing the usual bowl of ramen two streets from Karakura High. If it hadn’t been for the recipe she had found online during the class she might have refrained from wasting time by making asparagus soup from scratch while there was business to be handled in the morning.

It’ll be nice and warm. Should be worth the effort, she thought with snow crunching beneath her boots. The key was taken from her pocket before she was at the door; as if that would make things go any faster.

Entirely focused on getting the key into the door, it took a second for Alexandra to realize that the yelling had been directed toward her. The bits and pieces she had understood from the loud outburst told her about someone wanting for a ‘girl’ to ‘come closer’. If the voice hadn’t been female, and this wasn’t Japan, she would have assumed it was someone desperately trying to hit on a passer-by. Alas, this appeared to be not the case.

Slightly confused she turned to the one screaming for attention. For a second a car blocked her vision – obscuring the woman coming into her direction from view – but soon the tall female with ivory locks was right in front of her, and Sasha took a step back in confusion. The Japanese was too quick, and with every second her confusion grew.

Had she don’t something? Dropped anything? Did she know her?

“Excuse me,” she voiced, cautiously. When being pretty certain that the stranger was talking to her, she awkwardly put away her key – mostly to keep her hand warm – and tried to remember the things she had seen in class.

“I don’t.. Japanese very well.” Green eyes looked up to meet a somewhat icy gaze. Everything about the woman reminded her of a cold, strict winter. The fact that they were standing in the snow wasn’t really helping.

Realizing that the scarf might be muffling her words – and making her even less understandable than she already was, Sasha tugged at the wool until it freed her lips and was about to restart her awkward explanation when her gaze caught the bandages around the woman’s hands.

“Are you alright?” Some worry for the stranger burned through the emerald green of her eyes; unknowingly to the student her own reiatsu betrayed her confusion, apprehension and potential care.

“Can I help you?”

At least she remembered that much from the evening classes.


– 468

A breath, long and shaky, passed Mei’s lips as she crossed the snow-lined street, limbs burning with a dull ache that grew clearer and sharper with every step. Alex had told her to take things easy, to give her body to heal from everything it had been through, but she hadn’t thought it would be this bad, not after just a single Hirenkyaku step. I’ll have to be more careful from now on. If this was the kind of reaction she was going to get from just a small use of her powers…

Shaking the thought from her head, the woman pushed through her mounting weakness, face red from exertion as she reached the brown-haired quincy she’d called out to. A breeze, stiff but surprisingly refreshing, blew past the pair as she caught her breath, lips twitching up into a semi-smile at the shorter woman’s concerned confusion. “I’ll be alright- just a little winded.” Her reply was soft (and in English), but without a hint of the pain coursing through her veins. “You on the other hand… Well, you need to practice more. I could sense your reiatsu from a mile away with how poorly you handle it.”

The woman didn’t give her neighbor a chance to respond, slender fingers resting against the other woman’s shoulders in a gentle, but firm, grip as she spoke. “You should be relatively safe in this area; I live across the street with my girlf- with my friend Alex, so you don’t have to worry too much about Hollows, though, as I said, you should work on concealing your spiritual pressure more. We can’t be everywhere, and you can’t always fight your way out of a problem.” She’d seen the key the girl had stuffed into her pocket, and it didn’t take much beyond that to assume she lived in the apartment complex before them.

She let the smaller quincy go after that, hands dropping to her side as she caught her breath once more. It felt… good to talk to one of her own kind again. She loved Alexandria, really she did, but there was something about being around her people, about speaking with a quincy about Quincy things that was incomparable. Huh. Something to think about later, she supposed.

“So, before I head back home- any questions?”
_______________
[ P: 383]
[ T: 1050]

Phew, the woman continued their conversation in English and Sasha immediately felt a lot more at ease. The relief was probably quite visible in her eyes, but she didn’t think that her being happy about the change of language was embarrassing in any way. She was too new to all of this to be able to properly communicate in Japanese without a dictionary or the help of her phone. English, however, was not a problem. That’s why the confusion returned when reiatsu was mentioned, but before she could form a reply of some sort, the stranger was already drowning her in information.

While the advise was nice, Sasha did wonder if most Quincy were as open as this. And how.. exactly had she sensed her? Did she give off something similar to what those monsters did?

The idea caused her to frown. She briefly chewed on her lip. Apparently being unable to hide, somehow, was dangerous. And if it hadn’t been for the, seemingly, good intentions, she might have thought for the taller woman to be dangerous, too – the grip on her shoulder had come out of nowhere. Sasha’s heart was pumping quicker than it was supposed to; she didn’t know if it was because she was staring at someone similar or still wanted to slap away the hand holding her in place.

“I .. eh..” she started out still startled. When the hand was gone Sasha began to return to her senses and took a deep breath. “Yes, questions.” Her green eyes scanned the woman who was a complete stranger. A sideways glance toward the door had her rub the side of her head. She felt the cold bite into her skin. Talking here would become a nuisance in no time, she had no doubt about that.

“You know,” the young Quincy briefly considered as she stretched the words. “perhaps,” she wasn’t sure if she wanted to do this, but it seemed like something polite and not out of the question.. The snow was turning her toes numb. “you would like to come in for a cup of tea?”

A little cloud formed before her lips as she let out a slightly nervous chuckle. They were both odd, and practically neighbors. There was nothing wrong with that, right?

“I’m Ryurik Alexandra, but you can call me Sasha.”


387

Mei couldn’t help but smile at the girl’s reaction.

They weren’t a subtle thing, the fluctuations in her neighbor’s spiritual pressure, but she could sense the complexities to them, so long as she made sure to look; relief, confusion, and uncertainty wove their way through the child’s song, each one shining through with such clarity that they blended into one another in an almost seamless chord of emotion. A moment passed between the two, the silence stretching into awkwardness as the girl struggled to voice her reply. Her halting, almost nervous words cut the woman’s smile by a fraction, the cold biting at her exposed legs as the young quincy asked her question.

“Tea?” The question left her mouth on instinct, surprise blossoming in her chest at Sasha’s request. She hadn’t expected to invited in so soon; there were rules to such things, procedures and traditions that had to be followed- and they had done none of them. “I...” Hundreds of different excuses came to mind, each one more reasonable than the last, but she dismissed them all the same. Truth be told, a part of her wanted to say no; a stupid, selfish part of her wanted nothing more than to head back inside, wrap herself around Alex and be done with the day. But she couldn’t, wouldn’t do that to the girl. “...I’d love to.”

“I just need to get changed.” A cough, light and throaty, passed through her throat, the wind strengthening as she let Sasha process her response. “Do you…” She knew, of course, that Alexandria would want to come- but it wasn’t a question if she would be there so much as if that would be ok with her neighbor. “My roommate will want to come over as well, so I’ll give you some time to get ready. We’ll come over in about half an hour?’
_____________

Mei shut the door behind her with a sigh, the warmth of the apartment wrapping around her limbs as she entered. Alex was there, slender frame sprawled out across the length of their bed, one of her trashy romance manga held overhead as if it were the holy grail itself, descended from the heavens. For a moment, all the woman did was watch; her friend was beautiful no matter what she did, but never was she more so than when she didn’t know she was being watched. “I won’t.”

“Alexandria? How would you like to meet our newest neighbor?”
_______________
[ P: 409]
[ T: 1459]

Alex heard the door open, and then close. Her eyes still scanned over the volume she'd read for perhaps the third time this week while waiting for the latest to hit the shelves. At the back of her mind she wondered what it might be today. Would Mei simply sit down next to her, or perhaps cuddle up and snooze there while Alex continued her reading? Or neither? Or one then the other? She blamed the romance novels in particular for all these thoughts fighting to cloud her perception over a perfectly mundane event.

The book was dropped onto her chest at Mei's words, and Alex scanned her roomie from her inverted view. And then from a proper orientation with a little trick of the light. A trick quickly canceled as the sensory dissonance made her nauseous. Instead she flipped over and tossed the book back onto the bedside table. "Why are you asking?" Meet their neighbor? She actually tried to avoid her neighbors if at all possible. Neighbors were nosy and pushy and asked questions about her parents she didn't want to answer. The only reason to take interest in a neighbor would be if...

Alex's eyes lit up as realization dawned on her. The only reason to care about a neighbor would be if they had spiritual power. Someone with the potential to keep this crockpot of a city they lived in under control. She almost started searching herself for this new spiritualist, only to stop when her eyes fell on Mei again. Her words had the air of an invitation. She wanted to introduce Alex to this new spiritualist. Maybe the identity of the person was some sort of surprise?

"Yeah. Sure. Do I need to put on something special or..." She didn't finish that sentence. of course she couldn't go in what she was wearing. A tank top and pjs weren't even proper gear for setting foot outside the door. Let alone visiting someone else's home. Even if Alex cared about the cold as much as a fish worried about the vaccuum of space. "Let me try that again. What should I wear, and when are we supposed to meet them. Unless," she looked past Mei to the door. "You didn't leave them out there did you?"

Word Count: 381

Figuring that the woman would want to go inside because of her fairly light dressing code for such a harsh winter day, Sasha had already pushed open the door when the former forced her to stop in her tracks. A roommate?

“eh..Sure, just ring the bell with my name on it.” she let her know with a soft smile. Only when the taller female was already walking away did she realize that she hadn’t been given a name.

“..Guess, I’ll discover it soon enough.” mumbling to herself she let the door fall into place before heading upstairs.

Luckily the place wasn’t a complete mess. Some hiding of shoes, papers and used cup was enough to turn the studio into a decent sight.

Long wooden chairs surrounded the kitchen island which was turned into a table on one side. She wasn’t sure if they would prefer to sit there or in the light beige couch with the little glass coffee table in front of it. There was no tv on the opposite side of the couch, only a painting, two book shelves and an armchair in dark cherry red.

She put the book from the coffee table on the shelf; hard science fiction landed next to historical criticism. Only the little cactus was left standing on the mostly shiny table.

Suddenly feeling quite warm she realized that she hadn’t taken off her coat. It was time to do that, and prepare everything for the tea brewing.
Mandarin oolong. Hopefully they would like it. She placed the cups on the island while waiting with making the tea until they were here. Having only found some shortbread, mochi, and milk chocolate with nuts, she felt extra nervous.

Peaches and kiwis! She realized and darted to the cupboard when the bell rang. Shit , Sasha bit her lip and picked up the horn. “Come in!”

She already opened the door when her finger found the button and she thought to hear the buzz downstairs.

“Upstairs~” she then let them know with a singy voice. “please, come in. I’m Alexandra.”


344

Now matter how many times she saw her, Mei would never quite get over just how beautiful Alexandria was; she’d been enraptured by the ivory-haired woman from the first moment she’d laid eyes on her, and every day spent with her had only furthered that adoration. Even now, dress in little more than a set of old pyjamas, her girlfriend was gorgeous, as radiant and warm as the light she so expertly wielded. It was distracting, immensely so, and if the quincy had any choice in the matter she would have followed those distracting thoughts to their inevitable conclusion without a second thought, but she couldn’t. Not today, not with something so important at hand.

“No,” she responded, ice-blue gaze shifting towards their wardrobe as she continued on. “I made sure she got inside before I got back.” She paused visibly at the, face twisting into a mask of perfect seriousness as she contemplated what to say next. “Her name is Sasha, and she invited us over for tea.” Her voice was soft, bare above a whisper as she spoke; a smile, smile and mischievous, cracked through her stoic exterior, slender arms wrapping around her lover’s waist as she crossed the room in the blink of an eye, chin resting against the shorter woman’s shoulder. “She’s young, barely above thirteen, but she seems nice. You’ll need to dress formally- I’m sure her parents will show up, eventually.”

She didn’t wait for her friend to react; a second was all it took for her to whirl the both of them around to face their dresser, and three more were all that was needed to find what they would be wearing. “Here,” she said, slender fingers curling around a white, silken dress they’d gotten the other day. “Put this on, and make sure you wear those heels I got for you- they’re a perfect match for your eyes in this dress.” The quincy let Alex go at that, a small kiss planting itself on the ivory-haired woman’s neck as she pulled her own outfit free from its hanger.

“What do you think?” she asked after a moment, body twirling around for her girlfriend as she held the dress up against her chest. It wasn’t the most modest of dresses, to be sure; made of specially woven silk, the black qipao left little to the imagination (even on her slim frame) especially around her legs, as the rounded slit cut into the left side exposed almost every below her mid-thigh. But what it lacked in modest it more than made up for in elegance, as even a woman as plain as herself could appear to be something approaching beautiful while in it. “Too much, or not enough?”
___________________________

They left together, slender fingers interlocked as they crossed the snow-capped street, heels clicking against the frozen pavement. Mei’s face was placid, ice-blue gaze blank as the pair arrived at the small apartment complex Sasha called home. They weren’t there too early, a few minutes at most, which was a good thing; it gave her time to go over everything with Alexandria, just to be safe. “We have a minute before we’re supposed to show, so let’s just go over it all one more time, ok?” She waited a second for her lover to respond before continuing on, breath frosting in the air as she spoke.

“Ok so, remember, her full name is Ryurik Alexandra, but she prefers to go by Sasha.” She took a breathe, lungs filling with cold air as she stared into her roommate’s eyes. “She’s a Quincy, like me, but a young one; fourteen, fifteen at the oldest, and she is most assuredly new to all of this.” Poor girl could barely contain her own spiritual pressure, let alone fight with it. They’d have to fix that, in time. “Her parents are likely retired Quincy- she probably didn’t show any spiritual power until recently, so it’s likely they assumed she didn’t have any and, thus, didn’t each her anything about it. So no berating the for that mistake, got it?”

She paused at that, her hand squeezing Alex’s as she lowered her voice, tone softening into something far more intimate in nature. “We won’t be here for long; an hour at most, maybe two if she has a lot of questions. Don’t let the formalities fool you- if you have something to say, say it. I’ll handle anything that might happen, ok?’ A sigh, low and content, passed through her lips when she finished, gaze dropping to the ground as she turned towards the door, finger pressing the call button to alter the younger quincy that they’d arrived.

Bare a moment later came a response, the door before them unlocking with a click as a small, musical voice drifted through the air. She pushed the door open without a word, heels clacking against the tile as they headed up the stair. She stopped when they reach Sasha’s studio, ice-blue gaze warm as she bowed towards the young woman in thanks. “Thank you for inviting us into your home, Sasha.” Motioning for Alex to head in first, the woman followed suit not long after, her face bright as she spoke. “This is my roommate, Alexandria- she prefers to go by Alex though.” Mei smiled at her words, fingers curling around her girlfriend’s as Sasha ushered them both onto a small couch before rushing off to prepare the, still brewing, tea.
_______________
[ P: 908]
[ T: 2367]

Formal. Alex was hoping for something other than that. It looked nice, but she always found formal to be too stuffy. Really, why would people bother getting dressed up in stuff that felt like it was trying to choke them or otherwise inconvenience them? Was it some sort of contest? A battle of wills to see who could stay in uncomforable clothing the longest through banal conversation?

The fullbringer raised a brow when her girlfriend mentioned that the one they were visiting was barely thirteen. Must have been a rather special teen to warrant a visit. Alex could only hope that age still carried with it a measure of innocence. Who knew how long she'd get to keep it if her hunch was correct. Huh, now Alex was actually hoping her neighbor had no measure of spiritual power and was just an ordinary girl who could go on with her ordinary life. Japan and Karakura didn't entirely need another fighter against spirits. It had enough already.

Grimly, Alex took the dress that was decided upon, then wondered if she could get away with an illusion of heels instead of wearing the actual things. Probably not, but it was a nice thought. As she started to get dressed, she snickered a little at the options Mei gave. "How about just right?"

~ ~ ~

She grabbed one of the smooth black spheres from the small bowl next to the door before they fully left. She held it in her palm, waiting to see if there were any others on the street. There were a few, so she simply hoped the walk wasn't too long. This was a neighbor after all. Alex raised a brow as Mei stopped them outside the door. Her memory wasn't that badall the time. She could remember simple facts like that. "Sasha, quincy, new, fifteen at the oldest, and why would I berate her about mistakes? I discovered almost everything I know on my own. Not gonna blame someone else for not knowing." she repeated back with a smirk.

She nodded about the length of the stay, and what she was allowed to say. And rolled her eyes too. She had some tact. Not a massive amount that seemed required for a dress like this and heels, but some. The ball of stored light was converted to a small black band around her middle finger while they moved up, through the home of the young girl. Alex raised a brow at Mei as the quincy introduced her before she had a chance to. "I can talk too."

"But yes, I am Alex. Thank you for inviting us over. Let's hope your parents don't throw a fit."

Word Count: 446
Total Word Count: 827

Either they were insane or in a hurry to get to some other, fancy place. Trying to ignore the way they had dressed, Sasha awkwardly smiled. A friend had once told her that you couldn’t be overdressed, you just simply made everyone else around you come across as ..less, but she wasn’t so sure about that. In any case, no matter what the two women were wearing, she was glad to have them over.

“Parents?” The tone of her voice suggested curiosity when she had spoken, but there was also a frown of confusion marking her face as she returned. Putting down the cups and a platter of cookies, she went back for the tea and some spoons. The sugar was on the table in case they wanted any of that.

“I live on my own.”

After pouring the tea she settled down, eyes on the two ladies. Both of them were pretty, and both of them looked older. Only then did it occur to her that they might have assumed to be a high schooler. A broad smile crossed her lips. She let out a gentle laugh before picking up her cup.

“Most people assume that I’m still in high school, it’s.. I’m used to it. However, I study at a- I mean, the university of Tokyo.” Nodding, she hoped that her Japanese wasn’t too bad. The basics were.. well, they were going smoothly for now. Only time would tell if she would understand them in a minute. Especially with the topic she was about to touch.

“You two are.. hmm different, too, right?”

While nothing in her voice suggested that she meant anything bad by it, Sasha was still cautious when posing such a question. Obviously Mei was.. different, but what if- oh god. What if the other one didn’t-?? No, no. That couldn’t be right.

She maintained her smile even as the insecurity came crawling up her spine.


321