Sleeping Willow

Tsurara had the tenacity of quarrelling with Kurosaki, even during the wee hours of the night.

There was never a moment when she could just have one day to relax without having to argue with a man so indifferent about everything. 

Damn him and his backwards morals.

What angered her most was that he would be the one to initiate their little insignificant arguments, throwing in little taunts and what not.

“I found it first, so go away.” He mutters objectively one day whilst resting his arms behind his head amongst the grass hill.

Tsurara slams her textbook shut and glares needles at him with scrunched eyebrows and pursing lips, “Why must we argue about this everyday?”

Kurosaki doesn’t glance back to her and his lips, “If you’d stop stalking me, then we wouldn’t be arguing now, would we?”

She just had about enough and with a aggravated sigh, crawls over to his side and jabs his chest with her index finger,

“Now why would I stalk a criminal like you? That’s just plain stupid.”

Kurosaki rolls his eyes and shrugs, “I don’t know, you tell me. I’m not the one doing the stalking. Now go away,” He repeats mockingly while shooing her away, “Your unsightly face is blocking my view of the beautiful sky.”

Tsurara huffs at the sight of the grin curving at the very corner of his lips and grovels at the fact that he finds it entertaining making fun of her.

“Jerk!”

“Ah, unattractive, poor university girl,” He finally meets her unwavering gaze with a sullen expression, “Go…away.”

She crosses her arms and furrows her eyebrows, “I swear, one day you’re going to regret not having me around!”

Kurosaki turns until his back faced Tsurara, “Correction, I’m going to enjoy my alone time thank you very much.”

“Fine, I’ll find my own place instead!” 

Tsurara scrambles to her feet and starts retrieving her things furiously.

“That’s great to hear Yoshida. Hand me the keys to your apartment as soon as possible, thanks.” Kurosaki says in between yawns.

She hovers over Kurosaki once more, glares at him and tells him off sternly, “Don’t come crying to me when you start feeling lonely then.”

“Pfft, like that will ever happen.”

Tsurara walks away flailing her arms in frustration muttering incoherent terms even Kurosaki himself wouldn’t dare say.

+++

“Tell me Kurosaki, how is she doing?”

Kurosaki narrows his gaze at Katsuragi and begins tapping his fingers impatiently against the black counter, “I don’t have time for idle chit chat old man. I’ve paid for the information fee already. Now give me your part of the deal.”

Katsuragi chuckles, leans back on his comfort chair and absent-mindedly took a sip of the hot tea Hayasa handed him earlier, 

“One who sleeps under the willow will never learn to appreciate the things around him.” He whispers in between sips with eyes closed.

Kurosaki rolls his eyes and lets out a weary sigh, “Look, I really don’t know because I haven’t seen or talked to her for three weeks now…Thank God. Now please…the information.”

With a huge grin, Katsuragi gestures for Hayasa to hand over the manila folder from under the counter to Kurosaki and leans forward, clasping his hands together casually on his lap, “Hmmm…Even so, I can see it in your eyes that you really miss her…”

Kurosaki quirks an eyebrow, snatches the folder from Hayasa’s grasp and saunters over to the exit, “I don’t know what you’re talking about old man, but thanks very much as always. Bang.”

He leaves the restaurant with a half-smile smirk before Katsuragi could even say any more absurd statements, but as soon as he stepped out into the crowded street, he frowns.

Kurosaki hated when the old man was partially right. It had been a long while since he had last seen her.

Hell, he even missed just having her around, loudly flipping through her textbook and uselessly reminding him of justice and faith, which he will probably ignore as always.

He missed arguing with her and the way she would pout when he won in their game of wits or the red flush that would appear visibly on her face.

“Eh…?”

Furrowing his eyebrows from the sudden, very disturbing yearning for the girl, Kurosaki shakes his whole body in disgust before continuing down the street towards his peaceful riverbank, humming a random melody he had heard some time ago.

“I want chocolate. Chocolate cookies...I need chocolate …Chocolate milk…”

Just a few blocks before arriving to his destination, Kurosaki stops in his tracks, blinks twice and nearly lets the manila folder fall out of his hands, 

“Ah, so there is where you have been hiding all these weeks…Darn.”

From afar, where the cool breeze blew through the pages of the textbook that rested on her lap, Kurosaki gaped at the peaceful form of Tsurara under the sleeping willow tree.

Unwarily, he takes a few steps forward until he found himself crouching closely by her side and tenderly brushing strands of hair away from her line of vision.

Kurosaki dips his head closer to her face where his lips barely brushed against hers then narrows his eyes, “What am I doing here…?”

He tenses when the textbook slides off her lap as she stirs in her sleep and the next thing he knew, a tug on his red tie forces him down to the ground. At the same time Tsurara’s arms s around his neck in a tight embrace and he could practically feel her deep, slow breathing tickling his very skin.

“What am I your freakin’ pillow?” He mutters under his breath as he tried to disentangle from her. When he almost pulled away, it caused her to roll over on top of him, where she innocently snuggled closer for comfort right under his chin and sigh peacefully.

Kurosaki groans in frustration and smacks his forehead, regretting ever taking that short cut here.

“Troublesome girl…”

Thankfully Tsurara finally awakens. She blinks in bafflement when she finds his arms wrapped tightly around her waist,

“Kuro…Kurosaki-kun? What the heck are you—”

“Get off of me…You’re weight…I can’t…breathe…”

Tsurara immediately crawls off of him and sways side to side, still a little drowsy from her nap. For a while she sits there with a confused look, tilting her head at Kurosaki’s disheveled form before letting everything register into her mind.

With widened eyes, she jumps in place and crawls backwards against the tree with her hands clasped over , “Oh god, don’t tell me we didn’t—”

Kurosaki springs up to his feet and stumbles back a few feet away from her, “For the love of…woman, no way in hell would I ever…Oh no, mental image, mental image!” For the second time that day, his body trembles in disgust as he rubs both sides of his head to get the disturbing image out of his mind.

Tsurara pouts and crosses her arms, “Jerk. Go away then. I found this place first and I don’t want to ‘share’ this spot with the likes of you.”

Kurosaki stiffens, glares at her for several seconds and clicks his tongue, “Fine, it would be my pleasure. But if you’re wondering why I’m here…I just came by to remind you that you’re a month late on the rent.”

Tsurara shuffles to her feet and gapes at him while flailing her arms, “W-what?! Wait, then why were you hug—”

Kurosaki cuts her off again and raises an index finger to her face, “Ah! One who sleeps under the willow tree will never learn of the things they do to others.”

“Eh? What are you talking about?”

“Forget it. I shouldn’t have come here. What was I thinking?” 

Shaking his head, he turns back towards the path to his destination, leaving behind a very flabbergasted Tsurara. 

Kurosaki secretly smirks, and thought about how he loved messing with her head from time to time. In result, he got the pout and flush that he had longed for these past three weeks.

Maybe tomorrow, he’ll ask her to come back and accompany him by the riverbank once more, even if she had a million questions he didn’t want to answer.

He missed her that much.

Damn the old man and his absurd zen-like statements.

—OWARI—