Matsumoto's Party (Bleach Fanfiction) [Completed]

Chapter Seventeen: A Silver Cross

“You helped with the party, so you deserve to go first!” She shoved the hat in your face, not giving you much of a choice. Sighing in defeat, you hastily rummaged your hand in the hat, pulling out the first thing you touched without thinking about it. You didn’t really care, so long as you didn’t get him.

Looking down at your hand, the first thing you noticed was a silver glint. With further inspection, you realized it was a cross. Who did Rangiku put this in for…?

“Ahaha!” Rangiku exclaimed, pushing you into the closet a bit roughly. “Get in! Get in!” You stumbled forward, catching yourself before you fell face-first to the ground. The door clicked shut after a few seconds. You hadn’t heard anyone come in, but you could sense their presence. In an attempt to figure out who was with you, you thought about Rangiku’s reaction. She had been energetic, as always, but seemed to be a bit…perplexed. Or was it anxious? You couldn’t come up with anyone to match those except for Aizen, Ichimaru, Julian and possibly Ichigo. But you quickly took out the first two. If you had gotten Aizen, you were certain Rangiku wouldn’t have ushered you in like she did, even drunk. And if it was Ichimaru, there was no doubt she would have been jealous. So it had to be one of the Kurosaki brothers.

You thought about the cross as an idea came to mind. Rangiku could’ve put items in that would connect somehow to the guy it was meant for, so which brother would a cross connect to? It reminded you of religion, which led to you drawing your conclusion easily. You knew which brother was more religious than the other.

In order to confirm your guess, you turned to face the person, only for (e/c) eyes to meet silver eyes.

“Hey Julian,” You greeted him.

He offered a pleasant smile back as he responded, “Hey __________.”

You returned his smile with one of your own. The fact that you picked his item made you believe the game was either rigged or Lady Luck was not on your side. It wasn’t that you didn’t enjoy his company; no, you enjoyed it very much. At least, before just the idea of being close to him made you feel completely unlike yourself.

When you were around him, you would easily lose your composure and become extremely nervous. The last few times you saw him, you’d try to make up an excuse to leave so that you wouldn’t feel that way. It made you feel awkward, and somehow affected the ones around you at times.

But now here you were, in the same room with him alone. Not to mention it was a small cramped room.

Yeah, Lady Luck was definitely not on your side.

Oh hell…

Julian sat down against the wall, you sitting next to him. You didn’t want to make him feel awkward in the least, so you tried to think of things to talk about. You needed time to go by quickly.

“So…how’ve you been?” You asked a bit tentatively. Not the best conversation starter, but it would have to do.

“Pretty good,” he replied with a smile. “And you?”

“Oh, uh, just fine…” An awkward silence followed your answer. You refused to look him in the eye, or to even look at him at all in fear of doing something stupid. In all actuality, though you were a well experienced Shinigami, the only thing you weren’t experienced in was controlling your emotions.

“You know, we haven’t seen each other in a while,” Julian broke the silence easily. “We should hang out sometime soon and catch up.”

Despite your earlier decision, you turned your head to him to see a soft friendly smile on his face. A similar smile reflected on your face as you nodded.