Bleach: Dark Intentions Arc: Running Current

Waiting for the damn fight to start already
It had been a long morning. Ever since their stake-out from last night, Ahatake had been feeling very tired. To make matters worse, when he got home, right before he went to sleep, he had the nagging feeling people have when they know they've missed out on something.

He figured he knew what it was.

He had missed out on the enemy he, his wife, and his sister had been waiting up all night for. As soon as they had left, he was sure he had shown his face. He sighed as the air blew over him while he was on the roof, looking over the Yūrei Ōkoku. Despite all this, his city looked normal. Would all that change soon?

He felt hands reach around and clasp onto his shoulders, fingers working into the muscle in a gentle massage, their source moving a bit close to him. "You really should be asleep...." Came a gentle, chiding voice in conjunction with the touch. He could easily recognize it as none other than his wife (probably no one else would've had the gall in order to do something like that to him, anyway).

Ahatake chuckled. "Don't worry about me, I'm wide awake." He lied. "Besides, with my thoughts, sleep wouldn't be possible right now." He breathed in. "Which reminds me, I need to apologize yesterday for waking you up with the lie of us being attacked. It just seemed easiest." He thought for a moment. "I'll get you a car after all this is said and done."

Megami could easily tell that he was lying.

"Listen, you really shouldn't stress yourself over this...." She spoke softly, her head directing up at the sky. "Keep it up, and even you won't have the ability needed when the problem actually comes to us again...."

Ahatake sighed. "True, true. But, as I said, I cannot sleep either way, so I might as well stay awake, no?"

Miharu suddenly appeared on the roof, having jumped up from the bottom. She looked slightly tired, still in her pajamas, and her hair was tousled. Her expression was rather surprised and she made a small hand gesture behind her back that was missed by both parents. "Good morning." She said cheerfully. "How come you guys are up here?"

"Young lady, you should be asleep, too!" Megami took both of her hands off of Ahatake and folded her arms across her chest as she gently scolded Miharu. However, her expression was quick to lighten up. "Did we wake you up?"

"No, Daisuke's tossing and turning woke me up." She said, lying much more smoothly than her father had. "I came up for some fresh air."

"....." Megami let out a rather tired sigh, hinting her exhaustion of the situation. She put on a more firm face, closing her eyes. "Is it a customary to start lying whenever one feels like it?" She asked. Her tone was gentle, but one could hear the potential scathing flair within. "You already had the gall to lie to me about you and Daiyaku."

Miharu didn't know what to say to this, so she settled for looking politely puzzled.

"Did you really think that I would believe having Daiyaku carry you up to your room was a result of a decision to read a book? Not to mention that I know my own daughter well enough to know when she's lying and when she isn't."

"We actually did read that book." Miharu replied, smiling toothily. "Just because Daiyaku-kun was carrying me doesn't mean anything. Perhaps I'd gotten tired on the way home and he decided to carry me the rest of the way?"

"She's got you there." Ahatake murmured and Miharu chuckled appreciatively.

"....come with me."

Not leaving room for argument, Megami reached out and grabbed Miharu by the ear, then proceed to pull her back inside of the house. "We are going to have a little chat, RIGHT now. Mother and daughter!" The rather uppity tone the girl was taking with her was just too frustrating to deal with. It was as if she believed that all she had to do was be cute and everything would be fine! That was one of the things that had grown to be Megami's pet peeves; being taken advantage of.

Right now, she felt that Miharu was doing just that. And she didn't like it.

"Ow!" Miharu wined, pulling at her mother's hand, but all this did was caused more pain. "Leggo!!"

"Oh my..." Ahatake said as the girl was dragged back into the house. Ahatake sighed. "This is definitely going to be an interesting start to the day."

It wasn't long until Megami had dragged Miharu into a secluded part of the house; the mother's room.

Shutting the door behind her, Megami promptly released Miharu's ear and went over to sit on her bed. She folded her arms across her chest and crossed her legs. "Before we start, I'm going to let you know that this isn't funny. At all. So don't even try and slip in any jokes or stupid comments, got it?"

Miharu smiled, flashing her teeth. "Of course, of course. I'm on a tight schedule, so can we move along?" She didn't know what made her say it. Maybe it was lack of sleep?

It was that very sentence that triggered a seemingly unintentional action.

The girl was hit with an aura of a livid and enraged nature, all cocky attitude and sleepiness zapped away and replaced by a body awakened and manipulated by fear. Megami's eyes were leveled at her, pupils shrunken and eyebrows narrowed in a quiet fury. She had a scowl on her face, teeth almost gritted together. She rarely showed this side to anyone, much less her own daughter, if she could help it. The way the girl was acting towards her was nothing short of indifference. Ahatake had not done anything about it, so it was up to her to make sure discipline was enforced.

"Maybe I didn't explain clearly enough...." Megami said vindictively. "Allow me to repeat myself. This. Is. NOT. funny. In fact, it's come to bring me to the very end of my patience. I've gone to great lengths to respect your wishes, but now I'm starting to regret allowing Daiyaku and you to come together in the first place. What makes you think you can do whatever you please all of a sudden?"

"Well, you can't really regret it." Miharu said slowly, her smile fading due to the anger she could feel from her mother. "He's polite, you like him, and he only says nice things about you. He saved me from being killed by Grimmjow, I hope you haven't forgotten that." She took a deep breath and continued. "Besides, and I cannot stress this enough, you know I love you Kā-chan, but you are the overreaction type. It's easier to lie to you and get a calmer reaction than one would if they told the truth. And we did read that book, though we never finished it." She finished, breathing again. She had never said so much in one breath.

"And that makes it OK to lie?" Megami asked, allowing a bit of frustration to show through her voice. "Apparently, that's one thing you haven't learned. The truth hurts, but this is one of the cases in where telling something other than what's happening causes repercussions in the long run." She placed both hands where her heart should be, a slightly pleading look on her face. "Yes, I know I overreact about things like this, but it's only because even I am not someone who agrees with everything. If you told me about it early on, we could've had a nice, civil discussion about it - you, me, and Daiyaku."

Miharu gave her mother a martyred expression. "That would be embarrassing."

That was enough to make Megami's serious expression break away immediately, and she waved her hand dismissively. "Oh, no, not about that!" She re-assured her, believing her thoughts directed towards their "activities". "I'm talking about what your future for the two of you is. You see, you and Daiyaku seem to be quite inseparable nowadays, the bond's going to grow into something deeper than what you have. But that's something I'll discuss with you two later. What's more important as of now is this...."

She gave her daughter a level gaze. "I know I haven't been the best mother as of recently...." She began, hesitant in what she was going to say. "But.... you know you can trust me with anything, right?"

Miharu smiled. "I know, Kā-chan." She said, her smile widening until her ultrawhite teeth were visible. "I'll try to bear that in mind now, and stop the lying. I'm sorry for my attitude as of recently too."

Getting up, Megami walked over to place her hands on her daughter's shoulders, giving her a kiss on the forehead. "That's what I want to see...." She said softly, a bit of pride in her voice. "You can go on back to sleep now, dear...."

"Nah." Miharu said, smiling. "I'm wide awake now." She looked at the window. "I can see the sun rising. I'll make breakfast, since I'm sure I disturbed your discussion with Tō-san."

"All right, dear. Thank you very much...."

"Mhm." Miharu said, walking into the kitchen, tying her hair up as she walked.

The sun really was rising as Megami resumed her place on the roof with her husband.

"Sooo..." He asked tentatively. "How did that discussion go?"

"It's something we'll go over later on in the day." Megami said, her eyes closed and smiling. She once again took up a position behind him, fingers working on his shoulders. "We'll be going downstairs soon. Miharu's preparing breakfast..."

Ahatake eyed his wife warily. Miharu was fond of experimenting with her cooking, and not all of her creations were edible. "Are you sure that's wise?"

This made Megami's smile all the wider. "I think it won't kill us." She said amusedly, staring innocently into his cautious countenance.