I've Got a Gun In My Heart!

 Jacuzzi paused, suddenly puzzled by the words. “What do you mean? Ya don’t remember me?” He wasn’t sure if he should be offended or confused or relieved. “D-Don’t cha remember?”

 Upon realizing how much time had passed, he suddenly said, “1931! The Flying Pussyfoot? It’s kinda been so long, so I don’t expect you to remember. N-Not that I underestimate your memory! I just mean that you might not remember- which is totally fine! I mean, uh, um, j-just don’t- ..Well, you said you wouldn’t devour me, b-but don’t change your mind!”

   Jacuzzi hesitated, then said, “My name is Jacuzzi Splot. I was aboard the Flying Pussyfoot in 1931. I somehow ended up in this year, and I’m not sure how but I…recognize you from before, from 1931 on the Flying Pussyfoot!”

"Wait, did you say Flying Pussyfoot?" Something about that name had Claire feeling strange. Like he had known of it before.

"How do you recognize me? What is the Flying Pussyfoot?" This doesn’t make any sense. Did he travel through time and get lost here? It wouldn’t be the strangest thing he had heard of. Yet how did he know of him when he wasn’t born during that time? Just what was going on?

"Jacuzzi… How did you end up here?"

 The brunette wet his lips nervously and started with the story of how he went to bed one night then simply woke up from a confused dream in the middle of an alley somewhere just from downtown.

   "That's all I really remember," he replied honestly. "I'm not really sure what happened." He tried to remember his dream, but it had almost seemed to fade away to nothing with only feelings of running and falling. He had a feeling if he could remember the dream, he could remember how he got there, but he gave up on that a while ago. Recovering the dream would be impossible now.

  It had been a couple of days since his first arrival in Bunkyo and he was already hating it. He had absolutely no money, no place to stay, and no way to get a job. He needed identification that wasn’t eighty years old, and he was so confused and backwards in that small city, Jacuzzi was more than sure that his former life of crime would be the only, and best, way to make a much needed dollar.

 Jacuzzi was most familiar with bootlegging - stealing and selling alcohol to Americans who needed it during prohibition. However, he came to learn that prohibition had ended a long time ago. He could have joined a gang, but he had a feeling he wasn’t exactly what they wanted.

 This left Jacuzzi entirely on his own. He could break into places and steal, but he didn’t want to steal from people who needed the money and he wasn’t about to kill innocents for money, either.

 So, there he was sitting, on the corner of two busy streets, knees hugged into his chest. He had found a covered area to sleep that protected him from the bitter night so far, but an actual roof would have been nice as well. He was also growing rather hungry and turned to generosity to get him by.

 Jacuzzi managed to gather enough money to buy himself a loaf of two dollar bread (the one he had been eyeing for the longest time) and he enjoyed the slices on their own, rather happy about his accomplishment.

Rangiku had been doing some evening grocery shopping since she didn’t find anything suitable to eat in her fridge. She was on her way back to her dorm when she noticed an adorable boy, with a very interesting face tattoo, sitting on the corner. He seemed to be enjoying the bread he was eating although he looked cold and lonely.

 He stared at her for a moment, trying to comprehend what was happening. What? “Reasonable?” he repeated, looking at the bread. “B-But…this used to be ten cents!”

   Now Jacuzzi was the confused one. He stared at the bread, trying to piece the puzzle into a sensible picture, then he looked up at the girl again. “It’s alright…” he said quietly, questioning, and set the bread back down. “I, I didn’t mean to scare ya like that.”

 The only way they could afford bread is if they had more money, and the only way they could have more money is by being paid more. If they were being paid more, then they had to work more.

 ”Oh, man…” he mumbled to himself. And just as he was considering a normal job (he didn’t have any proper identification, anyway; technically, he was dead), this had to happen. He stared at the bread for a moment, trying to understand what was going on.

"It’s alright…I, I didn’t mean to scare ya like that."

Startling, she waved her hands frantically as if to swat away his apology and said quickly, “N-No, that’s alright! I’m the one who should apologize, coming to silly conclusions a-and getting all worked up for nothing!”

Her assurances seemed to go unnoticed as the other appeared to be in deep thought. Orihime cast a surreptitious glance at her surroundings, brow furrowing at the curious and slight suspicious the shoppers were sending their way. She wondered briefly how she must have seemed, materializing so suddenly within the shop. Before she could follow this train of thought any further, the boy suddenly spoke once more.

“I’m sorry to bother ya, miss, but I have a question. What do you do for a livin’?”

She flushed immediately at the question, suddenly feeling more embarrassed than anything. It wasn’t that she particularly minded the slight invasion into her personal life, it was just that she was painfully aware of how little she actually was doing at present.

"Haha, t-that’s okay! I don’t mind, really! The thing is, I don’t have a job right now. Not a real one, anyway. I’ve only just moved to Bunkyo to help take care of my great-aunt, and I haven’t found any time to go look for one between that and school, which I know is no excuse! Before I moved, though, I worked at a bakery. Why do you ask? Were you looking for a job…?” Orihime rambled slightly, voice trailing off near the end as she realized that she might be coming off a bit rude. 

 As she apologized back (to which Jacuzzi raised an eyebrow because he couldn't remember her making any conclusions other than the world was ending - which he thought, too) and answered his question (ooh, bakery!), he came to realize he didn't have a job of any kind.

   "Well..." He started off quietly, thinking for a moment the requirement of a job.  "...sort of..." There wasn't any job he could think of at the moment that would accept his lack of requirements and thus he left the whole thing hanging in the air.

 He shook his head and returned to the original reason why he had asked that question. "I was wondering how much money you made." He was probably crossing a line, but it needed to be crossed because he needed to know what this world had come to.

 However, that didn't stop his usual stumbling of words; "N-Not that I care! Well, I do kinda care, but I don't really care how much you make. I mean, it's not really any of my business, b-but it's kind of important to me, but not you specifically. I-I mean! I care about you, too, but I don't care about how much you make, I really don't mind, I mean-...You don't have to answer if you don't want to..."

 He hadn’t even a chance when she fell into him and he stumbled back a step. Instinctively, he wrapped his arms around her and let her lay against him. Awkwardly enough, she was his balance even if she was relying on him to keep her up.

He probably held onto her a lot longer than he should have, and wondered it to himself consciously, but he never thought of letting her go until a few good seconds afterwards and he helped her onto her balance again.

 ”Are ya alright?” he asked, chuckling a bit. Was he still blushing? He couldn’t tell. Why did he feel this way? He already missed being close to her. Was this normal? He didn’t understand what was normal now. It must have been the dancing. The memory of dance must have flustered him or something…

 Or maybe the reflection of the cherry trees were making his cheeks bright pink. Now that he thought about it, Hinata was blushing, too. Or maybe the blossoms or the cold was making her cheeks rosy. That had to be it.

 ”Ya were real snazzy there, Hinata,” he said, patting her arm. He hadn’t realized how close he was standing, too. “Next time, I could teach ya the fox trot, and the waltz, a-and the Jitterbug.”

   He was so eager to teach her more. Or maybe he just wanted to make sure he saw her again. Jacuzzi smiled. If he could help it, he would stay with her in the park all day. “And you can teach me dances from this era, too.”

Hinata fell into his grasp, expecting him to suddenly help her up, but there he was,holding her with his arms wrapped around her. w-wait…why didn’t he put me back up? Her face was red as a beet, gladly to her luck her face was pretty much hidden in the embrace.He then suddenly released her, almost like he was doing it non-acknowledging and to be honest, Hinata didn’t notice it either until that moment. Her face then looked back and forth as shyness returned to her.

 ”Are ya alright?” 

"Y-Yea….I’m fine. I’m r-really sorry." Her voice was very quiet and gentle, almost embarrassed from the sudden fall. She straightened herself off, slightly fixing her clothes. 

”Ya were real snazzy there, Hinata,”

"R-really…I did okey?" Her shy expression slowly turned to a more gentle smile, the complement lightening the mood. She loved the dance, it was nice to see how they seamlessly flowed together. "Thank you so much!~" She said with a lot of excitement.

“Next time, I could teach ya the fox trot, and the waltz, a-and the Jitterbug.”

She brought both her hands together quickly, making a clapping sound. “Yes!~ That sounds so awesome, I would love to learn those…if you don’t mind..” It was so nice of him, after all, they had just met not to long ago, but it seems as if they had known each other for much longer.

“And you can teach me dances from this era, too.”

She paused for a moment, placing her hand under her chin while she thought. “Yea I can do that!”  She then started counting with her fingers, almost as if she was trying to think of how many dances she could show him. “Well…let’s see…. There’s Disco,Hip-Hop, Latino..Oh! Latino is just like swing so you should get that easily.” 

She then remembered that it was still early in the day and she had no plans. Then it dawned at her! He had no place to go. Where was he going to stay? She knew then that she would have to help him out. “So, well, since you just suddenly came here we’re gonna have to somehow find you a temporary place to stay. I’m not letting you stay on the streets.” She paused then realized she should explain so it didn’t sound so demanding. “You see…winter is coming and If you stay out here you’ll probably catch a cold or something worse.” 

 He was going through his head of how to teach Hinata the foxtrot when she mentioned that he would need a place to stay temporarily. He looked up and blinked, then smiled akwardly. "Y-Yeah, I guess you're right."

 Truthfully, Jacuzzi had made rather well what he could find of warehouses and alleys but the thought of a real bed to sleep it suddenly too well missed to go without. "I don't really know any place, yet," he replied honestly.

   Winter really was coming, for snow was already creating dust on the streets and cars were beginning to slide. It was cool out and she seemed cold in her tank top. It wasn't that he was able to spot the shiver or see through her facade, but it was really just common sense that if he was chilly in his vest and long-sleeved shirt, then she was probably shaking in that tank top.

 Thus, his heart moved his body and he pulled off his vest. He had hardly any clothes and no money to buy her anything of actual warmth, but the sleeves of his shirt would do a lot more for her than the tank top.

 He pulled off his shirt and flipped it inside out, then handed both the shirt and the vest to Hinata. He probably could have kept the vest, but this is Jacuzzi we're talking about, and he stopped at nothing to help others to the fullest extent he could offer.

   ”In case ya haven’t noticed,” he said uncertainly, hoping she wouldn’t get offended or upset. “you’re tallah than me.” He was shorter than even Nice, and his disposition made it difficult for others to believe he lead a gang.

 He had felt her gaze on the tattoo on his face, but he was so used to people looking at it, it didn’t register to him anymore. He didn’t care if they looked anyways. It was his own choice.

 Still, he put the book in his arms on a nearby table and reached up on his tippy-toes as high as he could, however was still a whole two shelves away from the tip of Jacuzzi’s finger.

"You are quite a little guy, aren’t you?" she asked, a slight tinge of amusement lacing her velvety voice.

Azula watched silently, lips pulling into a smirk, as he tried and failed to reach the book. She didn’t even try herself, knowing full well that it would lead to the same humiliation even if she could reach a little higher. When he offered to give her a boost, Azula gave him a once over, eyes narrowing skeptically. 

   "I can handle it!" While he was small, he had displayed previous times a surprising strength for his size - though most of it seemed to reside in his heart. Once, he knocked a guy and his flamethrower off the back of a train. There were fireworks that morning.

 He crouched beside the bookshelves and knelt, holding his hands on his knees so she could stand on them and he could boost her up. He wouldn't doubt that she was skeptical about him, but he was a gentleman and she was a lady and the gentleman always helped the lady.

 At least, that was how it was back in his timeline. Heaven knows if it was different in this time.

Hinata got a really hard blush on her face.

Hinata got a really hard blush on her face.