Narue and Hideki

Hideki milled through the crowd of people, excusing himself quietly. Jeez, there were so many people here. The music was nice. Very fitting for the scene. The party had only recently begun when Hideki had arrived. He figured it would be best if he made a brief appearance, then skittered away so he could get some work done in the absolute silence that would be his squad. Everyone else in his division was probably getting all the way tanked after tonight, too, so he could work late. But first, he absolutely needed a drink. He made his way over towards the drink station, warily searching for a punch bowl before locating one. He got himself a glass and happily began pouring some punch. His tweed coat and bow tie were more then a little hot and with so many people in here, it was tantamount to his not dying of embarrassment that he stay refreshed and cool. Thus, he thought of the punch as something like coolant. Yeah. That made sense. So cool.

"Mmmm....." Narue puffed out her cheeks, holding Hato-kun in her grasp as she watched the the arrancar and everyone talk and mingle. She wanted to talk, really...she was just...hesitant when, despite the fact this was a party, it was a party that could go south at any time and cause a war...and wars meant violence, it meant lots of fighting, it meant death, it meant a lot of bad things.

So the usually talkative, easy going, lieutenant was feeling the pressure of that, causing her to be more reclusive than ever...

Bring the glass she held to her mouth once more, she frowned when she realized she'd already drank everything from it...she needed a refill. With a look of unnecessary determination and a huff of breath, Narue set out to refill her drink.

Hideki was about to dart off, milling about pretending like he was socializing so that people wouldn't accuse him of wallflowering or being a buzzkill of some sort, when he noticed the girl seemingly furiously approaching the drink station. Hrm. Nice scarf. He looked around, seeing if there was a good way to escape. Well, NOW if he left, it would look like he was avoiding her. That would just be rude.

But it would be rude to just sit here and stare awkwardly while she came, got a drink and left. She would think he was some sort of weirdo! Well... okay, not the point. This felt like a catch-22. Could he hide? He should hide! No, hiding was dumb! And he had nowhere TO hide... AND she could see him. As she got close, he realized he had no other option. He must socially engage...

"Would you like some punch?" He asked helpfully, lifting the ladle from the large bowl. "I like your scarf." He added, cheerfully. Truly, this was his darkest hour.

"Mm?" Narue looked questioningly at Hideki for a short moment when she realized what he'd said before smiling at him brightly. "Mhmm! I finished my drink so I came for more, heehe and thank you very much!" She added cheerfully on the compliment to her scarf as she positioned her glass under the ladle he'd lifted.

The girl's huffy demeanor had suddenly turned delight. Well, that was an upturn at least. He never knew what to do with upset women. His best to comfort them, but that usually just got them angrier. A happy one, he knew exactly how to treat however. He gently poured her drink, before putting the ladle back. "Hi. My name's Hideki. Hideki Nishimura, from tenth division. I've only been here a number of weeks now and there's this huge event." He looked around. It definitely seemed like he'd picked an odd time to become an officer. "So why did you look so glum before?" He decided not to ask if she couldn't get a date. Besides, that seemed unlikely. "Not a fan of Arrancar, maybe?"

"Nice to meet you." She greeted back, "I'm Narue Ueno from the first division."

After taking a sip from her newly refilled drink, she gave a small sheepish smile. "Yeah, I guess you could say that...I just...It's just hard to be at ease when something could go wrong at any moment."

"Ooh, first division. Exciting. All that.. paperwork!" He tilted his hands up and gave a little jazz hands. His tone made it clear he wasn't being condescending. If anything, he sympathized with the girl. His job involved an awful lot of paper as well, so he could relate to having too much of the stuff around. "And it's nice to meet you Narue! I think we're all safe. The Arrancar seem like they're all right from what I've seen here. You just need to take your mind off of it." Hrm. HE could help her take her mind off of it. But how would he do that? Well, he just needed to distract her. What was the best way to distract her? OOH! Steal her scarf! She'll totally forget about the arrancar! Wait, maybe even better idea! "Would you like to dance?" He asked, gently extending his hand for her to take.

"It gets boring sometimes but there's plenty of fun to have after!" She replied with a small giggle.

While she felt he was right, about the arrancar, she had seen them acting sociably and hadn't sensed any real malice from them, still though...she was left unnerved. She was pulled from those thoughts though at Hideki's invitation.

"Dance?" Narue blinked once before giving a bright smile. "Sure!"

Before taking his hand, she moved Hato-kun to her back, the wings of the plush falling over her shoulders while her scarf kept it on her back. After she was sure Hato-kun was safe and secure, she took Hideki's hand.

"Oh? What could you get into after all of that paperwork?" He asked quizzically, out of genuine curiosity. He could tell the issue was still weighing heavily on her, so he was glad when she accepted his offer to dance. He slipped his hand easily around hers, setting their drinks down before leading her out to the dance floor. He turned to face her and immediately realized he had no real clue what he was doing. Okay... He knew his hands went... somewhere? Did he... hug her? No, that was wrong. Okay... He would just... put his hands... on the hips? That seemed save. On the hips. And so his hands went there. He almost looked pleased with himself for figuring out this puzzle as he began dancing with her, the two at a slightly awkward distance due to how he was holding her. "Tell me more about yourself, miss Ueno. I'm curious to know more about you folks in first division. I half expected it to all be stuffy accountants. Not someone... well, like yourself, which I would classify as the opposite of that."

Narue wondered slightly if Hideki knew how to dance, from his posture it didn't seem so, but she didn't let those thoughts show, she just simply smiled. She knew how to dance, but didn't do it often, so while knowing how she probably lacked the experience. She only knew because it she felt she needed to for formal events such as this. So to help him, she moved to the proper closeness that was required for a dance, which was a little closer than what Hideki had them at before and placed her free hand on his shoulder appropriately, the moving closer being a subtle move though as she didn't want to make him feel bad because most of his knowledge on it was pretty accurate.

"Well, whenever there's new recruits I like to gather them and tell spooky stories." She explained. "After awhile it kind of became a fun initiation thing" She added with a giggle. "I like to look up that kind of stuff, it's fun. After working I can also take some time to make dolls and plushies like Hato-kun here." She glanced back at Hato-kun with a proud look. "Though they're usually a lot smaller than him, since I didn't make Hato-kun by myself. I'm not really good at making big ones yet."

He felt incredibly awkward as he danced like this. Awkward enough that he was incredibly thankful when Narue decided to adjust it a little. Although he also immediately blushed a bit when she moved closer. He took a little step forward himself, letting one hand slip around to her back. This was already much better. He didn't even want to explain why he'd started that way to begin with. "Haha. That does sound fun. Have you ever managed to scare them, though?" The girl didn't seem like she could BE threatening enough to scare anyone. "Oh? The doll is very cute. It's a neat hobby. I just read books a lot."

"Mhmm!" Narue replied, "I only tell the reallllllly scary ones. It's no fun if it's not scary." She replied, she didn't look it but looking into the occult and such for this hobby was one of her favorite things to do along with her doll making. "Reading's fun, I do that a lot too, but it's mostly research on my other hobbies."

He smiled. He could probably help her find a few. God knows how many overnight shifts in the library he'd spent reading scary stories. They must still be in his zan. He'd have to show her later. "Well, I'm glad you read, even if it's just for research." Why did he say that? Why would it matter what she read for? "So, you said your doll there you needed help with? Was it someone special who helped you to make it?" He asked. Sensing he might have just touched a sensitive subject, his hands squeezed just a little bit to reassure her.

"Riichi-nii helped me make him when I was little." She replied happily, "I couldn't help him run his job because I was too young so we made Hato-kun for me to play with while he was working."

Ever since she'd taken Hato-kun everywhere, never being without him even during missions. He was always secured somewhere on her person despite the plush's size.

He opened his mouth to inquire further, but decided not to. She seemed happy and that was good enough. It seemed a little odd to him for a girl her age, and who were we kidding, she was technically much older then him, to carry around a doll, but he was mostly just glad she had something that made her content. Everyone needed something, after all. He sighed, looking down at the floor as they danced. He looked back up at her. He could say he wanted to go and get something to drink, but that seemed silly when he'd just asked her to dance. He could also just.. say what was on his mind. "Y'know, you're very pretty. Especially when you smile." He said, almost sheepishly, looking a little bit away over her shoulder.

"Thank you!" She responded happily at his compliment. "I try to be happy as much as I can, because if I'm sad that could make other people sad." She explained as they danced. Though, she'd trimmed it down from 'trying to always be happy' to 'try to be happy as much as she could' so it wouldn't seem...weird. Whenever she was sad she wasn't the type to let it show regardless of how sad she was. If she were sad it might have an effect on others and make them sad, and that was bad.

Hrm. Nothing. It was as if she just... filtered the comment to one completely about her happiness. She couldn't be that oblivious, could she? Hideki's brow furrowed, his intellectual curiosity running away now. He had to know... But he couldn't go poking and prodding, figuratively, without being sure there was anything to do so over. "That's super considerate of you. You're a very kind person." He said with a smile, still mulling his theory over... Hrm... "Your scarf is so nice looking. It really compliments you well. Really, the whole dress is nice. And the skirt completely accentuates how nice your legs are." If that didn't get ANY reaction out of her at all, he felt like it lent credence to his theory.

Again, Narue smiled. "Thank you, I didn't really have much other than this to wear since I don't really have many choices other than my uniform or what's on my gigai, and that's not exactly good for an event like this." She should get herself some new clothes, it'd give her more choices for when certain things came up. She had some yukata's and a kimono but they were kind of bland in design, and most had decided on more modern fashions for this party, so she'd been stuck with this; not to say she didn't like it, but it'd still been nice to have more choices.

"Really? I have like... ten thousand coats." He said, using total hyperbole... well, mostly hyperbole. "Yeah... Samurai looking top, big poofy pants. Wouldn't exactly fit a setting like this, would it.." He nodded, before turning and doing a little spin with her. "I feel like I dressed sort of silly. Especially the bow tie. Was the bow tie too much?" He asked, raising a hand up to fiddle with it for a moment.

"I think it suites you." Narue answered, "It looks nice."

She wasn't exactly the best when it came to fashion, but Narue still could tell when something was unfitting or odd about outfits, for Hideki, she felt his attire suited him and so she'd responded honestly.

Hideki couldn't help but smile. "Well! Aren't you a charmer!" He grinned, taking his hands off of her to straighten his bow tie a little bit. He reached out, taking her hand and giving the shorter girl a little spin under his arm. "So where did you learn to dance? You're very good at it." He said, pulling her back in afterwards.

"Thank you, I learned to dance mostly through self teaching, some friends helped too, but I figured I'd need to know for these kind of events. Even though there aren't many it's still good to know, it was fun to learn." She responded after giving a small giggle at Hideki's enthusiasm with his bowtie after he'd paid her another compliment.

He had to respect someone teaching themselves a skill that well. Not that he was an expert on dancing, but she certainly seemed to know what she was doing. Then again, most people here DID have a few hundred years more life experience then he did. He supposed it would be entirely possible to learn to dance well all on your own. Actually, that raised some questions. "So, Miss Ueno. I'm relatively new here and I'm still adjusting to how Shinigami age. You look about my age, but I have to wonder how old you are actually."

Narue though for a short moment, "I'm 163 years old."

She'd had to think because after so long, she sometimes had to think if she were off by a year or less. She'd given the right answer though, her last birthday having been celebrated as her 163rd one. In comparison, she was still young when it came to the long lifespan of shinigami, some of them being well over three-hundred or even more.

Hideki stared blankly at her. 163? Holy... "Well. You look lovely for 163." He said, trying to conceal his surprise, or his sudden embarrassment at his own age, only in his early 20s. "I'm... Uh... 180? Yeah, that sounds good." He said with a nod. "Guess that makes you my junior officer, right?" He said, with a nervous smile. He wasn't a fantastic liar.