[189] Holiday (Bleach)

[isamikodakas]

Title: Mistletoe Kisses

Fandom: Bleach

Pairing: Nel Tu/Inoue Orihime

Rating: General

Prompt: Holiday

Word Count: 650 words

Summary: Nel visits Karakura Town for Christmas.

The sands of Hueco Mundo and the dark sky stretching overhead broken up only by pinpricks of faint starlight and the fat heavy roundness of the moon are not festive enough for the inhabitants of Karakura Town. At least, that is what they say. Nelliel has no way of knowing if this is true or not considering she cannot remember celebrating any holidays; if Hollows having something equivalent to birthdays, she would not be able to remember hers. The passing of time is broken up only by fighting and eating and the moment when Aizen Sosuke stepped into their world.

 

Nel was an Arrancar long before Aizen came to find her.

 

So she finds herself with her knees tucked against her chest, watching Ichigo and Ishida navigate decorating a Christmas tree with a healthy amount of bickering. The sound of their voices brings a smile to Nel’s face; it reminds her of Dondochakka and Pesche and home.

 

“Here!” The human woman— Inoue Orihime— appears next to the touch with a plate of frosted cookies; Nel perks up at the sight of them.

 

Their heavenly scent permeated every spare centimeter of this apartment when Nel was invited inside, a knit hat pulled carefully over her mask fragment to ensure no humans saw it and questioned it. She spent her first hour visiting in the kitchen with Orihime, carefully testing each cookie as it came out of the oven and helping her frost them until Ichigo insisted she come watch them decorate the tree, something she has never seen done before.

 

“Thank you!” Nel takes four cookies without hesitation and the glass of milk Orihime offers her to wash them all down, ignoring the strange look Ichigo gives her.

 

Orihime sets the plate down on the table in front of the couch and stands, dusting her hands off on her dye-stained apron. “Hmm… Hold on. I have an idea.”

 

She can’t reach the top of the kitchen doorway but Nel watches, curious, as she enlists Chad to help her reach a sprig of greenery above the doorway, plucking a few pieces of it off before handing it back and approaching Nel with it. Uncertain, Nel leans pack, peering down at the bright green leaves and the round white berries she can visibly see.

 

“It’s called mistletoe,” Orihime tells her, holding it up so she can see better. “I want to hang some of it on your horn if you don’t mind? It’ll make you look nice and festive.”

 

Nel considers; the last person who touched her mask had done so with the intent of harming her and succeeded, leaving a deep crack in the bone that would have killed a lesser Arrancar. But Orihime has been nothing less than kind to her and so she nods, tilting her head so that Orihime can affix the mistletoe to her mask. Her touch is featherlight and delicate and Nel shivers; the mask has sensation embedded deep inside of it, and Orihime’s touch is so light.

 

“Ah!” Ichigo points at them. “You know what they say. If you’re under the mistletoe, you gotta kiss. You’re both technically under it right now.”

 

Nel blinks up at him, then scowls. “That is a stupid human tradition.”

 

“Ah, Kurosaki-kun is right.” Orihime leans close and Nel is not expecting it, the gentle pressure of lips against her cheek as Orihime pecks it. “There you are, Nel-san!”

 

She returns to the kitchen, humming happily as she goes, leaving Nel with her plate of cookies and a steadily warming spot on her cheek that she slowly raises her fingers to touch. When Ichigo whistles, she picks up a throw pillow from the couch and wings it at his head, succeeding in knocking him slightly off, her chest puffing up with pride.

 

Nel touches the sprig of mistletoe on her horn once more and decides to leave it for a bit.

Comments

[sylvaine]

Oh, this is absolutely delightful and precious! <3

Oh, and: what is your policy regarding secondary works of your fanworks, such as podfic?

[isamikodakas]

thank you so much! i don't mind secondary works at all, i've okayed translations of my works in the past so that people could spread them to their friends. i only ask that i receive a link to the secondary work so i can show my own friends!

[sylvaine]

Somewhat belatedly, since you seem generally friendly to secondary works, how do you feel about putting a blanket permission statement somewhere central such as your profile or masterlist? It can be something as simple as "feel free to make things inspired by my work", or "please ask me first", or as detailed as you'd like. It makes things a lot easier for creators of secondary works - even a "please ask first" is a signal that you're not completely opposed, and of course a "go ahead" is always welcome! (And if you'd rather not, that is also of course okay - I just tend to mention it because often it's a matter of "didn't know it existed" or "didn't think my work was relevant to anyone" rather than "didn't want to" :))

[isamikodakas]

thanks for the advice! i'll write one up to put in my sticky post probably.

[sylvaine]

posted! \o/