Chad's Apartment <CA>

    Located on a plain street, a plain apartment rests near the other rented rooms in Karakura. Chad's living quarters are nothing special. The outside is totally uninspiring. Inside is a bit different. A few articles of clothing are always scattered here and there, the sink is usually full of dishes, indicating a somewhat sloppy lifestyle. It's not a total mess, it's more of an 'organized disorder' than being a total pig stye. The only item that stands out in the room is an electric guitar, stand, and case, leaning against the western wall.

It's been awhile now since Chad has left the hospital to return home. His arm has mostly recovered by this point, but it still needs some gradual healing due to the sheer amount of damage it took. Thankfully Orihime's helped tremendously there.

Even though nothing has been happening since the Arrancar attack, Chad has disliked remaining stationary, healing or not. Even Chad's patience has its limits, though it would be hard to tell by looking at him.

Currently he's resting in his room once more, waiting on the healing process. The arm still aches a bit, but it's much better off than it was.

It's a well-known fact that Chad likes cute things. It's a well-known fact that Orihime is considered by most to be 'cute.' Therefore, logic dictates that he'll like a visit from Orihime. She climbs the steps that lead to his apartment, bearing a bag of sweets. They're not homemade...they're just leftover from what she used to fill her brand new candy dish. But at least he won't have to fake eating her food just to be nice. She's aware that his arm is probably healed by now, but there are other injuries to consider! Pride, for one. Besides, Chad's so sweet and quiet, Orihime likes visiting him whenever she gets the chance. They never have to argue over the conversation. She talks, he listens, and occasionally says something insightful to spark further chatter from Orihime. The girl smiles, then reaches up to knock on the door.

Chad wasn't expecting Inoue, or anyone else for that matter, this evening. He pauses to feel the spiritual pressure of the person outside (or lack thereof, depending) to see who it is. It'd be a bad situation if it were someone like Keigo, and he was unable to sit up due to the healing. Though he clearly senses Inoue on the other side of the door, and feels a bit relieved.

"Come in." He says. The door turns out to be unlocked.

And it's now that Chad realizes that if it WAS Keigo, he didn't have the foresight to lock the door to begin with. Oh well.

Ooooo, neat! Orihime gets to open the door, how exciting! She doesn't get to do /that/ very often! She turns the knob and steps inside, politely slipping off her shoes as she looks around the front room. No sign of Chad...must be in his bedr-- *blush*

"Hello, Sado-kun!" she calls out cheerfully, and closes the door behind her. She's not budging from this spot! "Anou, I hope I didn't come at a bad time? I brought some candy, I wanted to see how you were feeling!"

Chad would get the door but, well, she can see why. Or maybe she CAN'T. Yeah, Chad's resting in the bedroom, though it's perfectly save to come in. "It's alright, come in Inoue."

He's feeling mostly fine, physically. As for mentally, he's had enough time to get over what happened. And he has, for the most part. Inoue managed to snap him out of most of it at the hospital, but like a typical guy he's keeping what's left bottled up. No need to bother anyone else with pesky little emotional details, right?

Orihime Inoue's head pokes into view, smiling, and blushing brightly. She's never been in a boy's bedroom before, save Ling's, and you bet she was blushing just as much as she is now when she did. Immediately her gaze shifts to his arm, then back to his face. He seems all right... The rest of her zips into the room, tucking her hands behind her back. The plastic bag rustles at the back of her knees. "You're looking a lot healthier! How are you feeling? Everything all right?"

There's really not a whole lot special about Chad's room, at first glance. No posters, not much personal paraphernalia, not like would adorn a room belonging to someone like Keigo. Just the necessities, for the most part. Much like Chad himself, there's not much presented out in the open, and all the importent stuff is hidden away.

"I'm feeling fine, thanks for dropping by." He says, before glancing at his arm himself. "I was hoping you could finish the healing process. My arm is pretty much fine now, it can heal the rest of the way on its own."

Orihime Inoue smiles. That, she can do! "Sure, I'd love to! Shun'ou, Ayame!" It's sort of nice to be able to call on her friends without a gut-wrenching emergency once in a while. The two little spirits seem to share these sentiments, because they're smiling as they zip across the room to hover around Chad's arm.

"It's looking a lot better!" Shun'ou grins at him, saluting as she settles herself close to his shoulder. Ayame just smiles shyly and nods to echo the statement, hovering near Chad's fingertips as they golden shield flares into existence.

Inching a little closer, Orihime slowly begins to relax in her surroundings and looks around. Her eyes fall on the guitar case, and she examines it curiously. "Have you been able to play much, lately?"

Chad shakes his head. "It hasn't felt right." It took him a long time to get the skill to play the guitar even relatively well. Such a large injury threw him off and he simply hasn't been able to play right since.

Truth be told he's never been more relieved to see Ayame and Shun'ou, even if all the previous times it's felt more like the time healing has been restraining. Not that he dislikes the two faries, but aside from the fact that he has to stay put it's just been a constant reminder of what happened. But this should be the last time, so he is visably relieved.

Orihime Inoue nods. "Ah, that's too bad...I'd like to hear it sometime, when you're better!" she smiles. Seeing no chairs in the room, Orihime looks at the bed, then at Chad, and sits carefully on the edge. "I know this isn't the healthiest sort of snack, but it always cheers /me/ up when I'm not feeling good," she smiles, and drops the bag of candy onto his stomach.

Chad doesn't make much of a move as Inoue sits on the bed. Though he nearly blushes a bit. He doesn't have a chair in the room because he rarely entertains visitors, and the bed has always suited him.

When Inoue throws the bag of candies on his stomach he blinks in surprise. "Candy?" Chad acts like he doesn't like sweet stuff, most tough guys don't, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's true. He clears his throat. "Well, I suppose I could have one, since you went through the trouble of bringing them." Ho ho ho, she'll never suspect a thing.

Orihime Inoue beams! Yay, he likes them! Not that Orihime could ever think ill of anybody, sweets or not. "Feel free to keep them! I filled up a candy dish back home, and I had too many leftovers. You can fill up your own candy dish now!" she clasps her hands together triumphantly. It doesn't occur to her that Chad might not have a candy dish. He can probably use a saucer or a teacup or something. "So how does it feel? Is it any better?"
Keep it eh? Having all those sweets around, wouldn't just be a /waste/?

Ahem.

"Yeah, it seems to be..." Chad says. The healing process always felt fairly odd. It's not easy to describe the sensation, apart from the fact it gradually erases the pain and discomfort. "I think it's going to be fine now, Inoue. If there's still some damage it can heal on its own." He'll just have to make sure not to do any heavy lifting with it for awhile. So no more tearing out giant chunks of the earth to hurl at enemies till then.

Orihime Inoue smiles. "Good. I'm glad, then!" She pulls one leg up towards her chest, looking generally happy...at the ceiling. Ceilings are great, you know? "By the way...the Relief Society group I've started has gone really well! I've met lots of new friends, they're all sweet. And we've got a lot of projects we're going to work on!" She turns her head to beam at Chad again. "One of them is to build a little temple in Xing, to ease the troubled spirits from that village that was destroyed. You're really good at building things. Would you like to come with us, when we've got the materials?"

Ceilings rock. Without em we'd get all wet when it rained. But Ichigo has dibs on any 'rain' metaphors in this series.

Chad listens as Inoue desribes the Relief Society. Sounds like the sort of thing she'd try to do. It's good that she can spend her energy in that way, especially after what happened to Tsubaki. So how can Chad say no when she asks for help? Besides, it gives him yet another chance to use those marvelous muscles of his. "Yeah, I'll help out. Just let me know when, Inoue." Though, she had better make sure it's when his arm is TOTALLY done. If another random I-Beam falls out of nowhere, he might be in trouble. Not like they'd have I-Beams in Xing, but you never know...

Orihime Inoue beams brightly! "Thank you very much! You won't have to worry about it for a while." She pats the hand of his healing arm, as though to indicate that she's thinking the same thing he is. "We have to raise the money first with a charity auction. But after that, we'll be ready to go! I'm going to talk to Mikado-san and see if he can recommend some good architects. He did such a good job last time!" Cheerfully she chatters, happy to have something positive to focus on. She really doesn't want to talk about Tsubaki, or the disaster in Besaid, or Scar's threat. They're such downers, and she much prefers having something to laugh about. "Oh! Oh, I heard the best joke on the radio last night!" Speaking of things to laugh about... "Knock knock!"

Chad nods as Inoue assures him that it won't be for awhile. That's good. He'll be in tip-top shape them, and ready to work like a horse. He'll show that Armstrong character a thing or two!

In all honesty, Chad doesn't want to think about the negative things either, though he often can't help it. He'll probably never forget the Arrancar incident. He wasn't AT Besaid, but he heard of it on the IPA news. Though he knows nothing of Scar's threat, so that's kind of a relief.

Then comes the joke. He pauses. 'Knock knock', what is she talking about--- oh right! "Who is it?" Heh, leave it to Chad to get his part of it wrong.
...Close enough! Orihime grins, trying not to laugh prematurely. "Interrupting cow!"

Chad blinks again. ".....interrupting cow who?"

BUT! Before Chad can finish his question, Orihime interrupts with a very loud "MOO!!!" that bowls over her two spirits. They blink in wide-eyed startlement, then shakily fly back to Chad's arm to resume the healing shield.

Chad blinks for a third time. He pauses to think about this. It's not a usually knock knock joke, afterall, and he never quite heard one like this before. After a moment, he finally gets it. "Ah." He says with a bit of a smirk.

Well if she was expecting roaring laughter, she certainly has the wrong guy. But she should know him better than that.

Close enough again! Orihime never expects to hear Chad laugh out loud. But seeing him smile makes her pretty happy. "Hee hee! Ikari-san told us last night. Isn't it cute?" she beams, shrugging her shoulders. And Chad /does/ like cute things! As we already established many times. "Is there anything else I can do for you? I can cook you dinner, if you like!" she suddenly straightens, looking excited.

"...no thanks, I already ate." He's lying, but he's honestly not that hungry. And he's not turning her down so much that he doesn't want to eat her cooking, (though that's not impossible) but also because he doesn't want her trying to navigate the mess he calls a kitchen out there. It'd take her all night just to get everything together.

He tries to sit upright, though the healing process keeps him where he is. "...I think that's enough. My arm feels pretty good now."

Orihime Inoue nods, then stands to her feet, lacing her fingers together and stretching out her arms. "Great! Gosh, that was fast!" Her powers must be getting stronger. Hooray! "Thanks, you guys, you were terrific!" Shun'ou and Ayame bow their heads with big smiles, then vanish back into Orihime's hairpin once more. "I'm glad you're feeling better, Sado-kun. Call me over if you need anything else, okay?" She swings her hands behind her back. "I mean it, anything! Even if you need a hand cleaning the kitchen!" Dohhhhh! Yeah, she saw it on her way in, while looking for his bedroom.

Chad nods again, sitting up, and giving the arm a bit of a flex to test it out. There's still a slight pain, but that's to be expected. Much of its strength has returned, though, so it should be fine at this point. "Thanks Inoue. I will." He'll ask for help on other things, though. She shouldn't expect for him to ask for help cleaning his kitchen. He'll get around to it eventually. Honestly!

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