Pendulum - The Butterfly Effect (Bleach FF)

23: Caring for your New Asauchi

I woke up around my usual time the next morning just as the sun began to rise. It seemed that neither Rukia nor Momo were early birds like me. I put my ear against their doors and heard nothing but low gentle breathing. I thought it might be a little bit cruel to wake them this early so I went for a morning jog to familiarize myself with the area and give them enough time to wake up on their own.

There wasn't another soul in sight as I tiptoed through the building and down in the direction of the lake that my room overlooked along the cobblestone paths.

I was surprised really. Considering students were here to train and get fit I had expected there to be more people out for an early morning work out.

I stood by the lake looking out at the water for a few minutes, watching the golden glow rise over the treetops at the eastern forest border. Not a single cloud in the sky. Just the way I liked it. I gave a sigh of content, having the feeling that today promised to be a good one.

I headed back to the dorm and found that they were both still asleep, so I used the bathroom before Rukia could have the chance to hog it again and then woke them up in standard Yuu fashion. Storm into their room with a bang of the door, rip the curtains open and blind them into consciousness through sunlight exposure.

They both gave unhappy groans and looked at me as if I was completely insane.

"This is nothing. You know what they say: Early bird gets the worm." I said simply, waving around a hot-cross bun from my stash of goodies. "And at this rate, you won't have time for any worms so I suggest you get moving"

Momo didn't argue. She got up and was ready within the hour. Not fast but not slow either. Rukia, on the other hand, was a different story.

As well as being a bathroom hogger she was a "No mom five more minutes" sort of person, hiding under the covers when I let light into her room then closing the curtains and getting back in bed after I left the room.

I gave up on her, warned her not to blame me if she was late and sat in the living area reading one of the magazines that I had found in my desk drawer while cleaning yesterday. Momo was almost done in the bathroom but Rukia had so far taken fifteen minutes to get her left sock on.

While I sat doing a puzzle in the back of the magazine that had been left on the shelf by the apartment's previous occupants, a note was slipped under our door. I scanned it and called out to Momo and Rukia.

"Guys? We've got a note- We have to go to the examination hall before classes for some lecture"

"Okay be done in a sec!" Momo called beginning to rush.

Eventually, nearly two hours after I had woken them Rukia finally crawled out of her room and hobbled over to the mirror to comb her hair, dragging her feet like a zombie.

"Wow, rough night?" I asked sarcastically.

"No. Iv never slept in a bed so comfy before. I swear it was trying to eat me..." she yawned.

"If that's how long it's gonna take you to get ready I better start setting my alarm clock to wake you up earlier"

"If you do I'll kill you." she drawled flatly dragging the comb through her messy hair as slowly as humanly possible.

"Unfortunately this lecture means we can't go to grab breakfast down at the cafeteria and I don't have enough food stashed away for all of us," I told them. That was kind of a lie, I just didn't want to use my precious stash of homemade goodies as emergency breakfast rations and waste them so fast.

"Oh it's fine, I'm sure we can hold out until break time," Momo said optimistically, then grimaced at the drained look on Rukia's face. "I think?"

I shrugged and shepherded the two of them out, making sure we all had our uniform on correctly and grabbing a map off the coffee table before locking up.