Forged In Guilt, Part 1 [Hana/Josh]

Again, when Hana woke up in the morning, there was this brief moment of pure peace. In that moment, the pain was gone. The fear and guilt were hidden away. For that brief second as she opened her eyes, she did not remember the horrors of the last week. That peace would never last. The memories all flooded back the moment her eyes took in a glimmer of light, so she rolled over in bed to stare at the ceiling and remind herself of what she was doing today.

Hana got up from bed, went through her morning routine, and grabbed her zanpakuto from the shelf she had Josh helped her install in her room for it. From there, she moved two doors down and opened the door to Josh's new room. Now that she owned the house, she could do whatever she wanted with it, so she gave Josh a room. It also meant she was waking him up when it was time to go...

Hana stepped over to Josh's bedside and reached out. There was a moment of hesitation, where her hand hovered at his shoulder, but she rubbed his head like a puppy instead. "Wake up," she said, her voice flatter than expected, considering the playful behavior that remained. It was six in the morning...

Watching Joshua protest beneath his fluffy blankets caused Hana to raise an eyebrow. The demand for coffee was ridiculous! She had no idea where the coffee was and was pretty sure that her family didn’t drink it anyway! Puffing out her cheeks, Hana went to the foot of his bed, reached under the covers and grabbed this stubborn man by his ankles with the grip of a python!

“Get up, get up, get up!” she said as she pulled as hard as she could, planning to drag him out of bed if she had to. "If you find coffee, make it!"

“No!” Joshua said, mustering up as much of a combination of grumpiness and petulance as he could at six in the morning. His hands bolted out of the cover, grasping tightly onto the top of the bed; if Hana wanted to drag him, she was gonna end up having to drag the whole darn bed with her. He fixed her with a look equal parts groggy and challenging from his blanket-reinforced position. He squirmed at her hold, playing up the banter and struggle.
“Like heck I know where the coffee is in this place; I’ve barely found where the bathrooms are!”

Hana pulled so hard that her grip slipped. She stumbled back a bit, barely catching herself before falling. Putting her hands on her hips, she pointed toward the next room. “I put you next to one!” she said and then quickly grabbed his blankets. This time, she tried pulling the blankets off, exposing him to the cold, cold world. “Get up, you stubborn, red-haired, sloth-man!”

Once Hana’s grip slipped Joshua let out a small bark of laughter in victory, letting go of the top of the bed and tossing over in the bed as though he intended to go back to sleep. Hana yelled about him being next to one, then he felt a grab on the blankets and a tug. He grabbed tight, pulling back in a mock tug-of-war as Hana yelled at him.
“You can’t give a man a bed this comfortable then try and drag him out so early, ya brat!” Joshua threw back, but even his mock seriousness was breaking at this and he started to laugh at the absurdity of the scenario. He suddenly rolled off the opposite side of the bed, dragging the blankets and possibly Hana with it onto the bed proper.

Joshua popped up back into view, barely more than a pair of eyes peeking out of the covers and a pair of legs below. There came a muffled cry of, “You’ll never take me alive!” With that declaration Joshua ran for the door and into the hallway as though he intended to make for one of the other rooms.

Hana was indeed pulled onto the bed when Josh fell off the other side. She was… stunned. She could not believe what was happening right now. He was acting so… so goofy! As he popped back into view, Hana was getting up to straighten out her ponytail, only for him to dart toward the door.

"H-Hey!" Hana called out and then chased after him. "I thought you wanted coffee?! You seem as awake as any normal person! Since when does Joshua Jehanna, the nap crazed Shinigami, have this much energy!?"

“You’ll find in the pursuit of further napping, using energy is more than justified!” Joshua called back as he ran down the hall and slipped around another corner. There was the sound of footfalls on stairs as Joshua ran down the stairs in his escape.

As fun as this was, it was probably time to cool it off. Besides, coffee did sound great.

As Hana reached the bottom of the stairs she’d find a ball of blankets flying through the air at her. Regardless of how she dealt with that once her vision was cleared she found Joshua standing in the kitchen, looking in the cabinets.
“No, but really where did they have the coffee in here?” he asked with a marginal amount more seriousness. Even he couldn’t keep the smirk off his face from this little escapade though.

Hana followed Joshua all the way down stairs, though knowing her clumsiness, she slowed down while taking the steps. When she got to the bottom, a ball of blankets was thrown at her. She instinctively brought her arms up to protect herself as the ball of fabrics collided with her. She stood there a moment, her face dulled with slight annoyance as she stared at Joshua in the kitchen. Letting the blankets fall, out of habit assuming a maid will pick them up, Hana made her way to the kitchen while, once again, fixing her ponytail.

"As I said, I am uncertain whether my family even drank coffee... Mother drank sake, Dad tea." Hana said and took a look through other cabinets, but she couldn't find any. "Is there nothing else you could consume in the morning?"

“Eh, I can find something. I don’t usually drink coffee either to be fair; I had just been looking for a few more minutes in bed,” Joshua said as he closed a cabinet and left the kitchen area (i.e conveniently out of Hana’s reach) and walked back over to where the blanket lay on the ground. He scooped it up.
“But I also sometimes do, and given that yer waking me up when the sun hasn’t even finished getting set in the sky I figured I might need a cup. Thought there might have been some in a nice house like this, but I know a place nearby that does some good coffee fer a bit of coin,” he said as he unfurled the blanket, giving it a single shake that filled the room with a snap before he started folding it up.
“You okay with making a stop on our way?” he asked, shooting the question over to Hana.