Popularity: Not What It's Cracked Up To Be [Kyo/Hana]

There were certain groups Hana was acquainted with that loved gossiping. The main thing they loved gossiping about was the eligible men of the Gotei United. The number of times she heard about Captain Astillon, Fourth Seat Saionji, Alastor de Maris, Fuuen, and Kyo was hitting an all time high. They always tried including her, asking her which she thought was most attractive, had the best hair, the best muscles, or who would be better in bed... Aye, the list went on, and she got tired of answering the same way each damn time. "I. am NOT. Interested!!"

This time, they were not taking no for an answer. They had to prove it. So, they made a bet with her. They would show her their number one guy, the one they thought was the best in bed, most attractive, and whatever else was on their list. If she didn't immediately agree with them, she would finally be left alone. Good deal!

Hana ended up dragged to the Eighth Division barracks. They were being worked on, and apparently Kyo Sawachika could be seen working up a sweat. When they arrived, that's exactly what they saw. He was working, minding his own damn business, and they were ogling him. If men were doing this to them, they'd whine, scream, or call some sort of harassments against them. Double standards, right?

As they giggled and tried asking her opinion, Hana just stared at the man. "Hm," was the only sound she made. They thought that was confirmation of their victory. Hana was just conjuring her own plan. She left the gaggling of giggling girls and walked straight up to Kyo. "Excuse me," Hana said, "You're Kyo Sawachika, right?"

Overseeing the construction work on his own division's new barracks was certainly a good way for Kyo to keep his mind on things, and off of more peronal matters that he wasn't inclined to focus on. Self-improvement, hard work, that was the sort of thing Kyo was most concerned about right now. But then he heard his name mentioned, and he turned to the much smaller girl who had approached him. Wiping the sweat from his brow, he offered a polite smile to her.

"That I am! Is there something I can do for you, miss?"

It wasn't really that unusual for Kyo to have someone approach him out of the blue, for any number of reasons, really. Sometimes someone needed a hand, sometimes they just wanted to chat, other times they were asking for advice on one thing or another. That was fine by him, though. Kyo was a social creature by nature.

From a distance, Hana could tell that Kyo was a large man. The closer she got, she began to realize how large. It was difficult to gauge an appropriate distance to even talk to the man. Stopping at a distance she found normal with other people, her head ended up tilted far back, almost uncomfortably so. He was blocking out the sun! Once he spoke, Hana's impression of him created a polite smile in return.

"Mr. Sawachika," Hana said and gave a small bow before pointing toward her so called friends. "You are extremely popular with women. Are you aware of this?"

Hana looked over to them. The four girls freaked out, tripping over each other and shouting "traitor" over the sounds of construction before they disappeared around the corner. Hana giggled, gladly embarrassing them, but then looked back to Kyo, an apologetic smile on her face. She shouldn't have used him like that.

"I truly am sorry for that. Doesn't that kind of attention bother you? I can't imagine that is the only group of giggling girls behaving like that." Hana said, sighing.

If anything, it was a touch embarrassing to have something like that pointed out so directly, but even beyond that, it did give him a bit of a somber reminder of recent events. Briefly running a hand through his hair, Kyo shrugged in response to the question posed.

"It's hard not to notice. I don't think it's a problem or anything, though. They're not getting in the way of my work, and they're not in danger from getting too close to the construction, so I don't think there's a reason to stop them or anything."

Kyo didn't exactly have much interest in those types of women, though. They were harmless, but they definitely weren't really the types he'd seriously consider engaging with.

"In truth, my apology is for my approaching you while at work. I probably have no business being here," Hana explained as she looked around at the construction site. She was probably bothering him more than they were at this point; his words made that clear. "According to their previous conversations, they and a couple others like watching from a distance. They have this very infuriating habit of trying to get me to come along, and I finally caved and made a bet... Needless to say, I won, and shouldn't be bothered by their fickle foolishness again."

Hana turned her attention back to Kyo and sighed. She hadn't thought this through. Should she just walk away now? It was not okay for her to have her fun with this man and just ditch? That felt... horrible. She wasn't sure what she expected here, but this wasn't it. Hana's gaze met the floor, not wanting to stare at him for the extended time she ended up deep in thought on what to do next. Suddenly, she began pacing, her fingers on her chin in a thinkers position.

This was a little bit baffling for Kyo. Not because it was an especially difficult situation to understand or anything, or because he was some sort of meathead. He was a fairly intelligent guy, and so he was doing his best to try and figure out what he was actually supposed to say in a situation like this.

"Well, it sounds to me like maybe you should hang out with other people."

It seemed fairly straightforward to him. Maybe someone like Kasha might have had a different perspective on this, but Kyo couldn't really imagine spending time with people you found annoying, or bending when someone tried to get you into a situation like this. How odd.

Hana stopped pacing and sighed. She wasn't sure he was right about that. They frustrated her and annoyed her at times, but do you choose to drop people because they don't stop one thing about them? To be fair, it was getting more common recently, but Hana had trouble wanting to get close to people in the first place.

"I can understand that idea, but what I need is for them to all get boyfriends and move on with their lives... Besides, I have a difficult time making friends," Hana said, looking back up at him with a weak smile, a hint of sadness in her words. "Until my time at the academy, I had none. I can only confidently say I have two people I'd really call friends, and one of those isn't even in Soul Society. It's not easy to just drop people... Oh, and here. I have something for you, to make up for my idiocy."

Hana began sifting through her pockets. In the third, she pulled out a folded piece of paper and handed to him. It was a voucher for a meal for two at one of her family's steakhouses, not that he'd know that. Hana chuckled, feeling awkward.

"It's strange, I know, but it's all I've got to apologize," Hana said, shaking her head from the embarrassment. "It's completely free as long as the amount does exceed a twenty thousand yen. I do not know if you're familiar with the restaurant, but it's not really fancy. The steak is just top of the line. Take some friends, have fun."

Kyo was a bit confused at the offer of apology, but he took it nonetheless, even if he wasn't entirely sure what the conversion rate from yen to kan was offhand. He didn't exactly have anyone to take out to a meal like this, other than maybe Kasha, though if he was going to do something like that, it seemed like it would probably just be nicer to let Kasha and his boyfriend have it.

"I wouldn't say this sort of apology is necessary. If this were a more intense area of construction, someone would've stopped you from coming over here in the first place."

That much was true, after all. Kyo ran a tight ship when it came to his work, and he wouldn't have let just anyone waltz into a heavy-duty section of work. At the moment, he was just doing some fine detailing, etching in the patterns for some of the railing.

"Making friends is a matter of putting yourself out there, I think. Ought to spend some time here in 8th Division, they're pretty sociable."

That included himself, admittedly, though he had a few other people more in mind.

Hana realized he didn't understand why she was apologizing. She hoped to not have to explain that, but she couldn't expect him to read her mind. With a heavy sigh, she rubbed the back of her head, looking away from him, guilt in her eyes.

"No, no. I'm sorry. It's not about that," Hana said dropping her arm back to her side. "What I did was very rude to you. I arrived with the intent to use you, and your good looks, to embarrass my friends. Though, I guess I shouldn't call them that if I was willing to behave so horridly. I do think I will take your advice on spending time with other people. Either way, I don't normally do such things. Would you forgive me?"

Hana lowered her head, clasped her hands in front of her, and bowed respectfully. Once her apology was rejected or accepted, she then explained her difficulty making friends, inspiring his offering of the people within the Eighth Division. She looked around at everyone there. Were they all Eighth Division working here? She'd have to think on that. It wasn't easy, at least in her mind, to cross Divisions.

"My name is Hana Aoyama, by the way," she said, smiling and holding a hand up to him. "It is nice meeting you. It's fair to know my name, since I know yours."

Her honesty was something Kyo appreciated, and he simply laughed off the idea that this was something that would have needed such a serious and formal apology.

"Don't worry about it! I'm pretty used to it, it's hardly a problem. Though I can't say I'm used to my looks being what embarrass people. My best friend usually has that handled more than I could."

Though, admittedly, that was a bit different of a circumstance, so Kyo didn't really ruminate much on all that. He noted her name and committed it to memory, even if he might not actually need it again any time soon.