Serendipity

Eyes of the Unknown (Part 4)

An Hour And A Half Later,
Urahara Shōten

"You came back~!!" Urahara cried dramatically as he immediately glomped Seren upon her return. "You were gone for so long, I was starting to worry you might not be coming back!" he exclaimed as he nuzzled her, rubbing  his scruffy face against her soft cheek.

Seren blushed furiously at the close contact, and she was sure Urahara could felt her heart fluttering in her chest since they were pressed so close together, thanks to the gentle, yet vice-like hold he had her in. This reaction was extreme, even for him.

"Stop it! Your stubble is scratching up my face like sandpaper! Let go!" she yelled as she elbowed him to make him loosen his grip, hoping she had managed to not sound as nervous as she felt.

"Oww... right in the solar plexus..." Urahara muttered as he rubbed his sore abdomen. He might have taught Seren a little too well... He sighed sadly as he looked back at her. He noticed the blush she was trying (and failing) to suppress, and just as Seren suspected, he had not missed how her heart went 'doki-doki' when he held her either. Urahara hid a small smirk behind his fan. 'Oh? What do have we here...?' he mused silently.

Could it be? Was his cute little Seren actually...?

He shut his fan. His smirk had been replaced by a wan smile.

"Is being held by me... really that terrible, Seren-chan?" Urahara asked sadly as he bravely closed the distance between them again. He gently cupped her face in his hands to keep her from turning away from him.

Seren's breath caught in her throat and her heart skipped a beat when their eyes met. The nervous teen knew she must be blushing, because she could feel her cheeks getting warmer.

His grey eyes softened slightly as he read her expression, taking in every little detail of her lovely face, from the deep emotions shining in her emerald eyes, down to the way the cherry-flavored lip balm glistened in the light as her soft lips had parted slightly when she had gasped quietly in surprise.

"Could it be... that you've come to hate me now, Seren?" Urahara whispered slyly as his lips formed a small, self-depreciating smile. Their faces were barely even an inch apart now, close enough to kiss.

Seren's blush deepened even more, nearly crimson, as her rapidly beating heart threatened to burst forth from her chest.

Too close... He was way too close!! If she didn't know any better, she'd think he was about to kiss her!

"I–Idiot...!! Th-There's no way I could ever hate you!" she huffed shyly as she tried to avoid his gaze, furrowing her brow slightly like she was sulking as she tried to concentrate on calming herself down and maintaining the ability to speak full sentences like a normal human being instead of letting herself get tongue-tied like the love-struck idiot she really was.

Urahara smiled warmly at her as the flustered girl tried to play it cool.

It was too late for that now. He already knew everything.

Contrary to what he had led everyone else to believe, Urahara had suspected for some time that Seren harbored deeper feelings for him than a girl should towards 'just a family friend,' but he had pretended not to notice because he couldn't afford to let himself treat her as anything more than a child... especially since it was taking an alarming amount of his self-control to keep himself from capturing her lips in a kiss. Urahara had already been charmed by the precocious girl in front of him long ago... He was just waiting for her to grow up. (He wasn't a pedophile, you know.) Fortunately, she was already sixteen now, so he didn't have much longer to wait. Besides... Shinji would probably explode if he knew how he felt about his precious daughter, and he never would have let her stay with him ever again. In order to avoid that, Urahara had decided to play dumb to the extent that even Yoruichi was fooled. You know what they say, sometimes you have to fool your friends first in order to fool your enemies...

"... Is that so?" he said calmly as he straightened up again, giving Seren a little bit of her personal space back. "In that case... I'm extremely relieved~! But don't worry, that magazine was Tessai-san's, and I've already scolded him for not being more careful~! It'll never happen again," he said brightly, though there was a slight edge to his voice when he mentioned Tessai.

Seren stared at him as her eyes widened in shock.

'Th—Th-That was Tessai-san's!? Unbelievable! He totally didn't seem the type...!' she screamed in her mind. That was one thing she really didn't need to know about the quiet assistant manager... Well, at least she knew now that since that particular magazine wasn't his, the women in it weren't necessarily Urahara's type... That gave her a little more hope for the future.

"Now..." Urahara continued, snapping her out of her thoughts. "Ururu and Jinta are taking a break and eating some ice cream. Why don't you have some as well?" he suggested, smiling cheerfully at her.

"Oh, thanks... but I just had a chocolate parfait on my 'date', so I'm good. I should probably catch up on finishing the rest of the stuff you asked me to take care of," Seren replied casually with a sunny smile as she moved past him to enter the shop.

She missed it when Urahara's eye twitched ever so slightly.

Eh?

"... Date?" he asked evenly as he smiled a brilliant shit-eating grin. It was a good thing Seren had her back turned to him while she removed her shoes, or she would have noticed the dark emotions that were barely hidden behind his cheerful mask as he began calculating different methods to get rid of whatever pest had started swarming around her.

"Yeah. I ran into my dad, so he took me on a little father-daughter outing to cheer me up after my trauma. We went to the arcade and a family restaurant. I totally kicked his ass at DDR," she explained, smirking victoriously. "... And then Hiyori-nee showed up and dragged him off... I hope she isn't going to be too hard on him."

"My, it certainly sounds like Shinji's gotten himself into a pinch~" Urahara said, instantly brightening. 'Whew, that scared me for a moment...' he thought, feeling extremely relieved. Although he was a tad annoyed that Shinji's little outing with her had made him worry over nothing, the man had Urahara's sympathies.

Hiyori had a mean right hook.