Dabbling with Drabbles - Bleach

Something Fishy...

Title: Something Fishy...

Pairings: Hinting toward ShunUki

Words: 895

Warnings: None.

Ever since he had arrived at the Academy as a young, naive student, Ukitake had received many a request for a date; be it a lunch date, dinner date or something that should never have been uttered aloud as it was frightfully perverted and tacky. Growing up in a family orientated environment, he wasn't used to such...sexual attention, but he had always tried to decline their requests politely, in such a way that his potential suitor wouldn't feel hurt, embarrassed or broken-hearted.

Ukitake held no interest in dating, so would turn down every request with an apologetic tone. He just wasn't concerned about dating, all he wished was to study hard to become a respectable Soul Reaper and look after his large family. That's all he was engrossed with.

Unlike his roommate, Shunsui Kyouraku, who would chase and flirt with the girls at any given opportunity. He was his best friend, someone he could count on to help ward off unwanted suitors. But lately, he seemed to be more interested in trying to score a dinner date with him then flirting with his lady friends.

Every day for the past fortnight Shunsui had been bugging him with questions and comments like; "let's go out for dinner." "Are you hungry? I know a great place that only I know of." "It's too noisy here, let's go out to dinner so we can talk in private."

Truth be told, he would love to be able to spend a romantic dinner with Shunsui, he actually being another reason why he turned down offers of dates every day. But he knew, from seeing him falling in and out of love with the female students at the academy, that Shunsui was not the happily ever after type Ukitake wanted with a partner.

Besides, with him constantly being sick, who would be able to put up with him for as long as they both shall live?

"You're not even listening to me anymore, Juu," Shunsui accused him late one night as Ukitake was busy doing his homework.

"Shunsui, I get asked out all the time, so I tend to tune those sort of questions out," Ukitake told him with an exasperated sigh after having just endured ten minutes of Shunsui poking him in the side. "If you really want to go to dinner with me, ask me in a way that no one else has."

He was certain that would get Shunsui to leave him alone. Inventing a plan to ask him out in such a way that no one else has required a bit of work, of which Shunsui recoiled and rebelled from daily.

And he left it as that.

Until he received a strange notice from one of his teachers, telling him that there was a gift waiting for him in dorm's lobby. A gift? For him? Baffled, Ukitake made his way into the lobby where a small group of his classmates were huddling around a particular table, talking rather excitedly amongst themselves.

"What's going on?" he asked his friends, only for them to step back from the table, all of them smiling brightly at him, revealing a round fish bowl with a small black and gold fish swimming in circles, oblivious to its surroundings. The fish was pretty and the bowl clean and tidy, but why was there something like that here in the lobby?

Ukitake was about to question his friends of the fish's origins when he saw a small piece of paper sitting next to the bowl, a piece of paper with his name on it in a elegant and quite familiar scrawl.

...This was his gift?

Snatching the paper off the table, Ukitake was disappointed to learn that it held nothing of the fish's meaning or who would offer him such a gift. Even his friends were unhelpful as they saw nothing themselves.

Still in a heavy cloud of confusion, Ukitake carefully scooped the bowl up into his arms and carried it to his room as quickly as he could. Gossip would already be spreading around the school about his secret gift and will most likely get several of his potential suitors demanding to know who would dare try to serenade him.

"Well, whoever he is, he must know I have a fondness for fish," Ukitake murmured as he sat the bowl down upon his desk and he sat in front of it, spending a few quiet moments admiring his new gift. It was unusual, this present, but he liked it nonetheless. It was...sweet.

He didn't have time to admire his gift for long, though, as he received a sharp knock at the door. He was a little hesitant in opening it, but his curiosity got the better of him, and his confusion only grew greater in scale when the sight of Shunsui slouched in front of him, cool and causal as usual greeted him.

"Shunsui?" Ukitake began to question but was interrupted when Shunsui presented something to him, something that made his eyes widen in surprise; a bottle of fish food.

"So?" Shunsui started with that sensual drawl of his. "How about dinner for two tonight?"

Ukitake silently blinked at him before a gentle smile slipped across his face and he gave an airy laugh. After all the effort Shunsui put into asking him out, how could he possibly say no?

"I'd love to."