Only Losers Get Sick

Kaimu gave a small, sheepish laugh, his finger moving up to his mouth; he was cheerful? That was true; it made things easier even if he didn't really socialize there.

At her comments though, his smile brightened and he lowered his hand from his mouth; he gave a nod at her words towards the house, his eyes moving to look around at their surroundings. "It's almost unbelievable how big this place is, my home was rather average in size growing up..."

It hadn't been tiny, but it seemed like it'd been in comparison to here...

"There's a pool, that's where we were earlier; Lak-tan and I took Zomi-tan out to swim. It's pretty at night." He explained.

Papa seemed a bit nervous, doing that thing with his mouth... and so Mia brought her hand up to her mouth and mimicked him just a bit. Did it help? It did not feel as though it was at all.

She'd stick with her hair pulling...

Still, hearing about his home, Mia brightened more. She looked up at Kaimu and gave him large curious eyes. "Really? How big? I lived in rooms... in other peoples houses and then...well in the barracks. I guess I never really had a home, unless you count when Mom took me to stay in her room sometimes. It was large and we would play dress up."

Mia never had a real home until she bought her own... She wondered what Kaimu's was like, what details he might give...

Shocked by the next words though, she brought her arm up and froze as she leaned back. "P-Pool!? Was it fun!?"

"Eh...Ah, I'd say it was average in size, it had a few rooms, though Tatsu and I shared a room. I guess it was pretty decent for a home in the Rukon. A room for eating and cooking, bedrooms...it wasn't a long walk to the pond either."

Mia hadn't...really had a home, he hid it but it made him feel a bit sad...even if there wasn't anything he could of done since he hadn't known...

Shaking the thoughts, he gave a nod at her next question, giving a small, amused laugh at her reaction. "Yup! It was a lot of fun!"

"Ooooh..." Mia's sparkles grew more, that sounded so fun! Sharing a room with a sibling, having a pond nearby... Adventures~ "I bet you had a lot of adventures!"

Did they do things like catch frogs? And they learned to fish...

"Thats good, so you and Zomi bonded I take it?" Pool though distracted her, her mind whirling with the possibilities now that there was a secret private pool she could learn in... "...It does sound fun... Maybe...Lakshmi will let me use it so Masa can teach me how to swim finally..."

"Mhmm, it was fun there, growing up..."

It was a bit difficult, but manageable; it'd been fun, as he'd said, he still had lots of memories to look back on from that time.

Kaimu gave a nod after Mia had asked about Nozomi, "We did, she's a sweet kid, very polite for someone her age..." Mia's next words caught him by surprise for a short second. "She'd probably allow that...you never learned?"

"What else did you do?" Mia wanted to know more, more about her father and his childhood and all sorts of things that he had done. She wanted details! He was such a miser with them, she had to work them out of him.

"She was in the Rukon alone...so I can't imagine she had much nice before she came here. I mean... It must have been bad for a kid like her to be all alone... So I think she doesn't try to take her luck for granted a lot of the time." Mia smiled softly, knowing she had been immensely lucky... Nozomi probably had worries and other thoughts, and generally just seemed like a good child in personality as well. Still, it probably still affected her a lot.

Looking at Kaimu's surprise, Mia shook her head and looked away. "U-Um...well that requires...taking off my cloak and being around others? So... I didn't get to learn... I know other things! I can ice skate! Um... and... I am really good at keeping a pingpong ball bouncing!"

She felt she should let Kaimu know of her other skills, it wasn't as if she hadn't wanted to learn! It was just... she had other things she learned instead!

"Mmm..." Kaimu looked thoughtful for a moment, thinking back, "I mostly just kept to my mother and Tatsu, helping them whenever it was needed. I spent a lot of time going off early in the mornings to practice keeping my reiatsu under control to get into the academy...

When I wasn't doing that I was either trying to fish with Tatsu or helping our mother with the house." Overall, he hadn't been as sociable as he was now. The him now was...more than a little different than he'd been back then.

He gave a small laugh, "Overall, I never did anything that was too exciting or anything...I wasn't really sociable."

As Mia explained her problems with learning to swim before now, he gave a small nod. That...made sense, and Mia was awfully shy, so removing her cloak and being around others without it...well...not exactly possible.

"Oo~ Ice skating seems like fun."

"But you must have done fun things with Uncle." Mia prodded for more information, looking once again at Kaimu adoringly and curiously. She must have more details~ Any details! She wanted to hear all about normal typical lives and she radiated an aura of extreme want in Kaimu's direction through her eyes. "I want to hear more... It doesn't have to be something you'd think was really important or exciting... I mean its just I want to learn more about you. I didn't really have years to hear your stories or anything, so... I just want to hear lots now instead."

Grinning though, she nodded. This was a topic she could elaborate on! Letting go of Kaimu's sleeve finally, she laughed and looked up as she put a finger to her lips. "I learned on my own... But Masaru has ice powers and he froze a large pond in the battlegrounds... And then made ice skates so I could skate with him! We also made a snowman... and he made me a tiara... And an igloo..."

She wanted to hear things even if they weren't important? He couldn't say anything to her reasoning for wanting to...had they had the chance he would have told her lots of things over the years.

"Well..." He looked thoughtful for a few moments, "I remember playing around with Tatsu and a stray dog that'd come around once, it wasn't anything big, but it was nice. We taught it to fetch and we spent a good while playing with it...all the way until it was time for us to go and have dinner."

That was one thing...though there wasn't much he could really go into detail about in that story...

Shirakawa did all of that with his abilities? Unable to help it he couldn't help but wonder why he had to have a zanpakutou like Kuroshi, he couldn't do fun things like that...

Kuroshi was completely useless in that.

Tch.

"That sounds like it was a lot of fun, ice skates made out of ice..."

"Aaaah a puppy... You taught it fetch? That sounds fun! The only dog that really...likes me is Hideki's girlfriend...she just wants my pastries though..." MIa sighed softly, lamenting that but also happy for her father. That memory was a happy one, she was glad he had lots of those.

Still, Kaimu had set of a bomb of words for the normally quiet woman. She trusted him utterly, she could talk to him and be open with her emotions and obvious excitement. This excitement though was subdued, a happy and sweet one as she spoke.

"It was the best! He was being silly at first... Thinking we had to make the whole boot out of ice! Masaru never thought of these things though... He didn't think he could make snow and just play in it... He did think up things for me to do with my powers too. I got to light up the ice with my flames and we had a short snowball fight... He played a bit fair and didn't just drop a pile on my head, though I would have melted it all!" Mia laughed and smiled, remembering that really fun date. She then squeaked and turned red as one of the final memories hit her. That...in the woods...

Hideki...her captain's girlfriend? Dog...?

Wait...

Dog girlfriend, dog girl...

"Ahh...Yuzu-tan?" He questioned, tilting his head; he hadn't seen the young noble woman in awhile, but he did remember that ability of hers...and it would be surprising to him if it was a thing almost anyone could just do...turn into a dog...

Kaimu gave a bright smile at Mia's excitement, she'd had a lot of fun then, he was happy about that. When she mentioned melting the snow possibly during a snowball fight he gave a laugh, "I'll bet you would have." It would have been a simple matter for her!

His laughter became a bit more amused as Mia turned, becoming embarrassed over what he thought was just her outburst of excitement. "I'm glad you were able to have that much fun, Mia."

"...Yes! Yuzuki. She's Captain's secret girlfriend..." Mia was shocked, how had... how had her father met the woman and found out about her dogness? She stared a moment, confused and wondering if... If Papa had...done anything inappropriate with her too... Hideki would be so crushed...

Her awkward thoughts showed on her face as she made a rather dismayed expression for a moment before stuffing it away. "Mhm, I was in shikai so it would have been really simple!... I-I didn't have Bankai then s-so..."

Oh...oh that bankai would have been bad to have then... so bad...


"Thank you Papa. Masaru lets me do all sorts of silly things...like name his koi fish... and never thinks my ideas are stupid... or too silly..." Smiling as she focused on that part, Mia nodded.

"Aah, I met her in the Rukon once, though we've only come across one another twice." Kaimu explained, wanting to quickly at seeing Mia's dismayed expression. Just what was she thinking!? "Awhile ago, Lak-tan asked me that if I ever saw her exploring the Rukon to look out for her."

The Rukon was dangerous, and last time they'd met she'd gotten herself involved with gamblers...

Mia brightened when she began talking about Shirakawa again; she'd named his koi fish? As she went on about things, he couldn't help but see the undeniable attachment.

"Oh...That's all right?" Mia blinked innocently, asking that question with no real regard for what was proper or not. She assumed every woman Kaimu met he slept with at this point really... He had had her, and Lakshmi...well... Lakshmi was currently his girlfriend...

She really should...ask some things sometimes... Luckily the subject was no longer on her adoration of Masaru, though she was sad she didn't get to talk about him more...

"The last time I saw her she had a bit of a cold, so we ended up getting soup and I brought her to a building where some archives were kept; she said she was interested in those sorts of things." He'd just been simply looking out for her like Lakshmi had asked him to.

As he spoke, he noticed...Was Mia upset...? She seemed a bit sad?

"Mia...?" He questioned, blinking.

"Awww... Poor Yuzuki..." That must have been awful for the poor woman. Mia sighed before smiling up at her kindhearted Papa. "You really are the nicest. Did you two have fun?"

She startled at the questioning nature of Kaimu's calling her name, had she...shown something on her face? Turning a bit red, she looked away as she hadn't intended him to notice those feelings at all. "H-Hm? Need s-something?

"Mhmm, she seemed really interested in what she found with all of those archives, though perhaps I was hovering a bit...she'd gotten herself mixed up with gamblers before so I was trying to look out for her..." He mused; gamblers could be dangerous, they could have come after her! He'd just been trying to watch out for her and prevent that.

She'd bolted off though...

"Ah, no...you just looked a bit upset, so I was concerned." He continued; she was red now...?

"Her house has a lot of books and scrolls in it, a lot of old looking ones... I think she'd probably be happy to go back... Maybe I should suggest it to Hideki? Can you give me directions later?" Mia mused for a moment before the rest of it hit her.. She hopped, arm coming up in shock. "H-How did that happen?! Hovering... You were her bodyguard?"

Kaimu had thought...Upset?! Ah!

"N-No! I was not! Not upset, I wasn't don't worry!" Mia was flustered, her arms waving up in front of her face as she stumbled back a bit.

Kaimu gave a nod as she asked if he could give her directions later, that wouldn't be a problem. He knew where it was, so if she wanted to suggest it he could tell her.

"I'm not exactly sure of all the details, but she'd managed to get mixed up with them with their gambling and when she realized she was in a bad spot she ran off; she knew to look for me though so I eventually found her.

Gamblers in the Rukon can be dangerous, so I was just trying to watch out for her; I would have seen her off as close to the Seireitei as I could have gotten if I could, but I supposed I hovered too much and she ran off...ahaha..."

She wasn't upset? Well she was obviously flustered...

Kaimu blinked again; "You...sure?"

"H-How...Yuzuki how did you even end up like that?" Mia's confusion was palpable in the air. She really wondered, what the hell that woman had done... Smiling though, she nodded and clasped her hands together. "Well, Papa IS reliable when it counts! I am glad you protected her... Though she's silly for running off, she could have gotten hurt! She should have let you escort her!"

Obviously she hadn't gotten hurt, but still that was bad to get in that habit... And now Mia was sounding as bad as Masaru in that aspect.

Papa did not believe her, not one bit. Mia just shook her head. No she wasn't sure but...she was flustered and it was silly and just... why did her thoughts end up on that man a lot anyways? She was bonding with her father! Not... Not... Her eyes trailed over to the side, vaguely in the direction of the sleeping sick man. She wondered...if he was looking for her in his sleep already...

"At least she returned safely, I was a bit worried about that..." With that dog form of hers she could definitely run, though he wondered if she knew to fight back if someone suspicious grabbed her in that form...a dog could deal heavy damage with their teeth...

Kaimu watched as Mia seemed to become more flustered, watching as she glanced back slightly towards...

"Something about Shirakawa...?"

"Ahaha! She definitely got back fine. If she was hurt or anything by it I haven't seen! Yuzuki seems as...um forthright as she used to be I think, if Captain is any judge of character. He fawns over her, I've seen his doodles." Mia spoke a bit conspiratorially, nodding and giving Kaimu insider knowledge. He seemed like he might be worried too about it having affected her, but it hadn't as far as Mia could tell either.

Kaimu had caught that!? Arm up as she leaned back in shock, Mia let out a high pitched sound of just embarrassment before hanging her head down. She gave one tiny nod as her ability to fight this faded and she just...admitted it. She was a miserable daughter... so miserable...

"That's good, ahah, I'm glad there's people here that look after her that she gets along with."

Her boyfriend even doodled pictures of her? She was certainly cared for, just as Mia said, fawned over even.

Finally, Mia admitted to being...something, as she gave him a nod with her head hung. She was flustered...so it definitely couldn't be about his fever, that would be the cause for outright concern. Flustered...

"Do you want to talk more about it?" She definitely had something on her mind concerning the noble.

Mia nodded a bit solemnly, smiling softly as she spoke. "I don't think she has many friends... but when she gives me lessons she seems happy... So...having someone like Captain who adores all her moods is really good for her I think."

Kaimu asked that question... so Mia had to reply.

"...I don't know... Its...embarrassing. I'm with my father and...I want to talk to him but I also keep thinking of him. Its...its stupid. Do you think of Lakshmi a lot?" Mia's hung head jolted up as she asked that question, looking imploringly at her father. Could he help her? Would he think her...too wrapped up that man? "Y-You don't talk about things unless I really poke... so I don't know how you feel about things..."

That...

"W...Well, I'm a rather closed off person even if I don't come across to be so." He was getting better about being more vocal and not hiding things, but overall he still had a ways to go in some cases. "Of course I think of Lakshmi a lot I..."

Wait...

Kaimu blinked, silencing himself has he thought over Mia's words. He blinked again; "I think about Lakshmi a lot because I love her...you...?"

Did...Did she-!?