Work Text:
“Happy Birthday, Nel!”
“Oh, Nel, it’s your birthday today? Happy birthday!”
Nel smiles and waves at her classmates wishing her a happy birthday as she sits on the top of her desk.
The day hasn’t even really started yet and already Orihime has lost track of the number of people who’ve said happy birthday to Nel. Of course, that’s just to be expected; like her, Nel has a lot of friends at school, or at least has a lot of people who really like her even if they don’t hang out with her all the time.
She has a smaller number of really close friends, but that’s okay. That’s nice, too. And all of those friends (Orihime included) have gotten her presents, a small pile of them already either shoved into her book bag or inside her desk and probably a few in her locker.
Orihime gave her a necklace that she had seen while she was out one day that had made her think of her; Uryu embroidered a handkerchief for her; Chad had given her a stuffed toy that he had won from a claw machine for her; Ichigo had brought her a special cake that Yuzu had insisted on helping him with.
And yet…
Even though Nel is smiling, even though she seems perfectly happy and thanks everyone for wishing her a happy birthday…
Orihime leans over to Uryu and whispers,
“Don’t you think Nel looks a little… Sad?”
“Hm? Sad?” Uryu blinks a few times, and tries to look closer at Nelliel without looking like he’s staring, but she’s already climbed down off the desk and into her seat so she can look out the window until class starts, since it seems like the endless stream of people looking to say hello to her and wish her a happy birthday have petered out as it grows closer to first bell.
“I… Suppose she does.”
Orihime wants to look more into it, but the teacher walks into the room then, and everyone rises to greet her, so she knows she’s going to have to wait to ask either Uryu or Nelliel or anyone else about it until after class is over.
But after the greeting, just as Ochi-sensei turns to the board to start writing down the first of the day’s lessons, the door swings open.
Of course, everyone turns to look at the door, even though they all know what to expect and what they’re going to see.
Nnoitra slouches into the room, drops into his seat, and puts his legs up on the desk. There’s a toothpick hanging from between his teeth, and he has his head tilted back and his eyes shut. He basically looks like he’s shown up to class just to take a nap.
Ochi-sensei frowns at him and narrows her eyes. Everyone else in the room is looking at him with various frowns and looks of disapproval.
He does this every day— when he even bothers to show up, which isn’t very often. They’re all used to it by now, and Orihime frowns at him for just a second before turning her attention back to her learning, not about to let him distract her from learning and focusing on her school work.
But her eye does have to wander over to the left, closer to the window.
Nelliel isn’t staring out the window anymore.
Instead, she’s looking over at Nnoitra.
Nnoitra isn’t looking at anyone, but Nelliel is staring at him almost like she could burn holes in him with her eyes.
But the look isn’t angry, it’s…
Longing, almost?
Orihime is baffled by that, but almost as soon as she looks over, Nelliel just sighs, shakes her head, and turns her attention to the lesson, so Orihime does the same.
She puts it into the back of her mind to ask Nel about it later— and hopes that by the time lunch comes around, she doesn’t forget.
Nelliel likes her new school.
Sure, it’s different. But it’s different in a good way. Her old school was a rough place, full of delinquents, and you had to be a tough sort of person to get by. It’s why she can lay a man twice her size flat with one kick, even if she doesn’t like doing it— she also doesn’t want to end up being helpless if there’s a situation where she might need to defend herself.
Here, there are still… Incidents sometimes, especially when she’s around Ichigo, but for the most part it’s a lot nicer than her old school.
And Nnoitra is still there.
Well, so are a lot of her old classmates. They’re in different classes and different years, and some of them actually show up to class more often than others, but after the closure of their old school and a handful of them were transferred, she recognizes a surprisingly high number of faces.
But Nnoitra is the one who always draws her attention.
The two of them have been friends for a long time. Ever since the two of them were next door neighbours as children, but she’s pretty sure that’s just about the only thing tying them together anymore— the fact that they’ve known each other for so long that it would feel weird to not have each other in their lives.
That, and the fact that because she’s known him for so long, she feels pretty responsible for all of the different kinds of messes he gets himself into. Usually on purpose, and usually because he’s the cause of them.
Like all of the fights he picks, all of the laws he breaks, and the fact that he skips classes to hang out on the roof and smoke more than he actually shows up.
When they were younger, their friendship was pretty two-way. Nnoitra would always be the one dragging her along to places, trying to freak her out with bugs or frogs only to be surprised (sometimes annoyed, sometimes happy) that she wasn’t scared of them at all and seemed to like them. He would be the one who was throwing rocks at boys for bothering her because when they were kids, Nel was small and scrawny and still kind of a crybaby, something she wouldn’t grow out of until they started getting older and Nnoitra started to get into more and more trouble and needed someone to help him out whether he knew it or not.;
But as they got to that stage, as they got older, suddenly Nel was the one putting in all the effort. Nnoitra started to act like he didn’t even want her around anymore, snubbing her any time she would try and ‘get in his way’, letting his new friends openly mock her and telling her she had to learn to fight her own battles— which was exactly what she did, learning to fight against anyone who tried to pick on her the way Nnoitra had always fought on her behalf when she was smaller and weaker.
Well, she’s still smaller. And she might be weaker, but she doesn’t know for sure because it’s not like the two of them have ever actually fought— even if it sometimes feels like their arguments are going to turn into that.
Now, she feels less like Nnoitra’s friend and more like his babysitter— but even though she’s always having to lecture him, always having to give him a hard time for the way he acts without any regard for anyone else or even for himself, and even though Nnoitra always tells her to leave him alone, she’s never felt like he hates her. After all, he’s pretty open about how he feels about people— how he feels about everything, and no matter how much he rolls his eyes or tells her to ‘take a hike’ because he doesn’t care how much she disapproves of what he does, he’s never said those words to her.
And yet, in moments like these, she can practically see the gap forming between them— the wall that Nnoitra’s been slowly building since the day he decided he’s too cool for things like catching frogs and hanging out with girls.
Nnoitra hasn’t so much as sent her a text wishing her a happy birthday.
It’s not like she’s really surprised. After all, before this year, she usually just got a quick text or he would say it randomly when he knew no one was listening. It was never much, not since he started developing his ‘tough guy’ image… But it was still something.
Everything has changed between the two of them since coming to this new school. At their old school, Nnoitra was the popular one, because whether you were popular or not depended entirely on how tough you were. Nel got by because she could handle herself with just about anyone, but she mostly just kept to herself aside from trying to keep Nnoi from causing too much trouble— the kind of trouble he wouldn’t be able to just walk away from as easily as he could getting into fights with other students or a bit of petty vandalism or thievery.
Now, at this school… Nelliel has made lots of new friends. And aside from the same people he used to hang out with at their old school, most everyone turns their noses up at Nnoitra’s behaviour— sure, there are plenty of odd and even disruptive people here too, but for the most part they’re a lot more lighthearted and a lot less likely to end up in prison.
Nnoitra already almost never went to class at their old school, but here she sees even less of him, because the school authorities aren’t as skilled in dealing with someone like him. Some of his crew came along in the transfer, but there are others who went to other schools, or just stopped going to school entirely and probably fell into some nasty stuff if she had to take a guess.
She’s tried so hard to help Nnoitra even if he doesn’t want her help, and she’s never given up on their friendship no matter how difficult he gets to deal with. And there would still be times every now and then when the Nnoitra she remembered would shine through— still with his new tough outer shell and sharp edges and nasty grin, but the same teasing little boy who would try to put spiders down the back of her shirt, just all grown up now. Like always remembering her birthday every year, even if he didn’t treat it the same way he used to.
But maybe this is the year…
The year she finally has to admit that she has no choice but to give up on him.
“Nel-chan? Are you feeling alright?”
Nel suddenly startles, looking up at Orihime with dinner plate eyes.
She was so caught up in her thoughts about Nnoitra that she didn’t even notice that class had ended and it was lunch time…
Or that Nnoitra, at some point, had left class. Though whether that was when lunch had started or some time before, she had no idea.
She shouldn’t be worrying about him right now. This is supposed to be a special day for her, after all, and she’s spent far too much of her time and energy worrying about him for her entire life so far.
Instead, she should be focusing on the friends who have actually done something to prove that they care about her— including Orihime, who looks troubled by the fact that she can’t seem to make herself focus and is clearly bothered by something.
None of her issues with Nnoitra should be trouble for her other friends, though. So she looks up at Orihime and puts on her best smile and says,
“I’m fine. I just keep getting distracted, that’s all.”
Orihime doesn’t even look convinced by that, but she just smiles at her all the same.
“Do you want to eat lunch with us? I brought leftovers from my part-time job, and we’re going to eat up on the roof.”
For a second, Nel debates politely declining. After all, she knows that Nnoitra spends most of his lunch hours hanging out on the roof when he actually does show up for class, smoking and drinking things that he and his ‘friends’ have either stolen from vending machines or bullied people into buying for them, and she’s not sure she really wants to be around him right now— after all, she doesn’t want to keep thinking about the fact that he’s forgotten her birthday (or purposefully ignored it), and she also doesn’t want to get drawn into his usual issues when it’s supposed to be her day.
…But she also knows that, if she’s going to actually move on and leave him behind like she knows she should (like she’s known she should for a long time, even if she hasn’t been willing to completely let go because of those little things and her own memories), and if she’s really going to do that, then she has to stop letting thoughts of him stop her from doing things.
(She tries not to think about the fact that all of this makes it sound like the two of them are going through a bad breakup. It’s not like that, obviously; the two of them are just friends. But considering how much trouble she’s gone through on his behalf, she almost feels like she should be his girlfriend, considering she doesn’t know why else she would ever spend that much time and energy on someone otherwise.)
So instead she just smiles back at Orihime (a more pleasant smile, a more genuine smile, she hopes) and says,
“Sure. That sounds nice.”
Nel enjoys her lunch.
She doesn’t see Nnoitra even once. His little group of troublemaking friends are up there, but they give them ample space, especially when Ichigo glares at them to warn them away.
Nel talks with her new friends through all of lunch. She enjoys some delicious bread that Orihime brought from her part-time bakery job. She laughs at a joke someone tells, she teases Ichigo for being embarrassed to admit he helped his little sister bake her cake, even though he’s the one giving his friend Keigo grief for claiming baking isn’t manly. She has a good time. It’s the best time she can remember having on her birthday in a long time, and it isn’t even anything special— which makes her even more excited when Orihime promises that on the weekend they’ll do something to celebrate her birthday properly, when everyone can get together and do something fun as a group. Everyone agrees, even Ichigo, and Nel only barely stops herself from crying.
She can’t wait to tell her uncles about it when she gets home; they always seem so excited to learn that she’s making more friends and growing and just… Becoming more herself at her new school.
She wants to say she doesn’t think about Nnoitra the entire time, and for the most part it’s true. She’s too busy having fun with everyone else.
But she can’t stop herself from glancing over at the railing he usually leans against while he smokes while he’s skipping class as they head back at the end of lunch.
When Nel gets back to her desk, she’s surprised to find a note waiting for her.
She almost doesn’t notice it at first. It’s not sitting on top where she’s likely to see it; it’s tucked inside, and at first she’s too distracted by looking over at Nnoitra’s desk to confirm he hasn’t bothered coming back to class after lunch (not that she’s surprised at all) to notice much of anything.
But when she opens her desk to pull out her workbook that she left in it over lunch, she sees it sitting on top.
It’s just a torn scrap of paper from a workbook (her own workbook she realizes after a second, which annoys her, but she forgets about it quickly) that says,
Meet me on the roof after school.
It’s hastily scribbled, and barely legible.
But she still recognizes the handwriting.
Nel apologizes hastily to her friends when class ends. A couple of people ask to walk home with her, and someone asks if she has any plans for after school, but she feels bad that she doesn’t even remember who it was asking her a few minutes later— except for remembering basically yelling an apology to Orihime, promising her she’d tell her what was going on tomorrow and waving knowing that she’s just trying to look out for her and make sure she’s happy.
It does make her feel bad… But she has to know. She clutches the scrap of paper in her hand as she races to the roof, dodging her way around fellow students lingering in the halls, on their way out, or sticking around for cleaning duty or club activities. She yells a few apologies, but she gets quite good at dodging around people, and she makes it to the roof in record time.
She needs to know if he’s really up there waiting for her, or if maybe this is just another cruel joke. One more thing to drive a wedge between them— something that will finally make her stop caring about Nnoitra once and for all.
Even though she already expects the worst, has been preparing herself for it, she still finds herself hesitating when she reaches the door to the roof.
Is she really ready for whatever it is she’s going to find on the other side?
But she won’t get the answers she’s looking for if she doesn’t actually go through the door, and so eventually she forces herself to stop shaking and push her way through the door.
And there he is.
He’s leaning against the railing and smoking, the same way she always thinks of him when she’s up here. The first thing she thinks is that he’s going to make his uniform smell like cigarette smoke, but of course he doesn’t care about something like that.
If Nnoitra doesn’t even go to class or care about potentially getting in real trouble for doing things like stealing from convenience stores, why would he care about someone noticing the smell of smoke on his clothes? She’s not even sure he even really hides the fact that he smokes. Knowing what he’s like at home, he probably doesn’t.
But then, there are a lot of things about him she’s really not sure about anymore…
And yet, here he is.
At first it seems like he doesn’t notice her, but as soon as she takes a few steps forward, he turns and looks at her over his shoulder. When he turns away like he didn’t even see her, she wonders for a moment if he wasn’t even the one to leave that message, if she’s somehow mistaken someone else’s handwriting for his— but he only turns away so he can take a few more puffs of his cigarette before dropping it to the roof (alongside some of his other cigarette butts from days before, which she resists the urge to crinkle her nose at, because the last thing she needs is to start a fight with him right now, when she has more important things on her mind) and crushing it under his foot.
He shoves his hands into his pockets and slouches over to her. The two of them basically meet each other halfway, and then they stand there, just sort of… Looking at each other for a moment.
It would almost be romantic… if it were anyone but the two of them, of course.
Nel just stays quiet, and waits to see what Nnoitra has to say. She’s not expecting an apology— even before the two of them started drifting apart she knew better than to expect something like that. But she at least wants to see why he called her up before she asks him any questions or tries to get to the bottom of this.
“So you actually came up here, huh? Wasn’t sure you were gonna. Thought you might leave with those new friends of yours.”
“You mean like you always do?”
She crosses her arms and tilts her head at him. Nnoitra scowls a little bit at her.
But this, at least, feels… Familiar. Being catty with each other is better than things have been between them for a while now.
Is familiar enough? She hasn’t decided that yet.
But Nnoitra makes a frustrated noise— not one of his usual noises, and he lets out a curse under his breath.
“Here.”
He rummages through his pocket and pulls something out, holding his hand out to her.
Confused, it takes Nel a second to realize what he’s doing, before her brain finally catches up and she holds her own hands out for him to drop whatever he’s holding into them.
In her hands is a bracelet.
Or, rather, a pair of bracelets.
They’re not fancy. They’re just sets of three gold hoops joined together by a small chain.
But Nelliel recognizes them… In a sense.
Because Nnoitra always wears a pair of bracelets made up of three silver hoops joined together by a small chain.
“Don’t make a big deal out of it or anything,” Nnoitra mutters as he looks away from her and rubs the back of his neck. “If you wear those, though, you won’t be able to pretend I’m just some annoying guy around those new friends of yours. Everyone’s gonna know you actually like me.”
The way he says it makes it sound like he’s teasing her, but Nel can hardly believe what she’s hearing.
Ever since Nnoitra decided he had to be the toughest guy around in order to do… Whatever it is he’s been doing, ever since the two of them started going to their old school, and especially now that they’re at their new school, Nnoitra has acted like he doesn’t want to be friends with her. Like he’s only stuck around out of a sense of obligation because the two of them have known each other forever, and because it’s more of a hassle to get rid of her than to just tolerate her because she insists on shoving her nose into his business.
But he’s… Jealous of the fact that she would ‘rather’ spend time with Orihime and Ichigo and the others instead of him? He wants people to look at the two of them and recognize that they know each other, instead of pretending like she’s some crazy woman who won’t leave him alone when he wants nothing to do with her?
She almost thinks she must be dreaming.
She came up to the roof expecting that this would be the last moment she had to remember the two of them being friends…
And now she’s slipping bracelets onto her wrists that match the ones Nnoitra is wearing, that he’s worn ever since his guardian Tesla bought them for him when the two of them started high school.
She doesn’t even realize she’s starting to tear up until she hears Nnoitra say,
“H-hey, don’t go crying— Why are girls always so fucking weepy—”
Her head snaps up— she’s been too focused on the bracelets, but now she looks at Nnoitra’s face and sees that he looks completely out of his element. She wonders if he’s ever had a woman cry in front of him before, happy or otherwise.
Either way, she reaches up and wipes the tears out of her eyes, but they just keep coming regardless.
She could thank him for the gift. She could do what he probably wants her to do and act like it’s just no big deal.
She could say literally anything.
Instead, she surges forward and hugs him.
When was the last time she hugged him? A long time ago, so long ago she can barely remember it.
“H-hey, what’s the big idea—!”
She squeezes him so hard she’s sure she knocks some of the air out of him— which is probably a good thing considering what a blowhard he can be when he wants to be. But either way, she keeps him held tight for a few seconds. His complaints aren’t a good enough reason for her to let him go.
And, after a few seconds, he puts one hand on her back— and it just sits there for a few seconds before he gives her a few pats.
“Yeah, yeah… Are you planning on letting go any time soon?”
“Hm… Maybe.”
Nel doesn’t even see Nnoitra roll his eyes, but she knows he does— and she laughs with that knowledge.
This really is the best birthday she’s had in a long time.