#someone should probably go check on Renji though

[substituted-shinigami]

[black--sun]

Ichigo’s gaze snaps over at the word meal like maybe he needs to hit him again. If he’s a meal, he’s the sort people choke on. He huffs. Sometimes it’s hard to remember he feels sorry for this guy and his weird obsessive attachment issues to Aizen. “Good luck trying it.” 

He’s never going to understand what makes him a target. What makes seemingly every lunatic and sicko in a ten mile radius pinpoint him out of a crowd, and he pulls his attention off Grimmjow. Ichigo should probably be uncomfortable walking beside him, but he’s not. He doesn't see a lot of people these days. He doesn't see anyone else that might actually understand the situation he's in. Unless he's counting Ulquiorra, and he doesn't. Ever.

Ichigo blinks. Grimmjow isn’t wrong, but he always seems to think Ichigo’s on lockdown. “Then I guess he isn’t worried about it or I wouldn't make it out of the building. You make it sound like I spend my day tied to a bed.” Which… to be fair, he has often enough, but not every day like Grimmjow’s implying. But he sighs. He’s not sure what kind of details Aizen shares with Grimmjow, but Ichigo is tired of Grimmjow assuming he’s some kind of sex slave. “I stay there because I want to. And when I don’t want to, I take a walk. He won’t miss me.” That isn’t the same as saying he won’t notice. But Aizen works long hours anyway. If Ichigo needed constant attention, he’d be a bad fit. 

It’s more than he’s ever said to anyone about it. Being that forthcoming makes his guts twist, but it’s done, he’s already said it, so he ignores the feeling.

Grimmjow also asked where they’re headed, and Ichigo finally responds. “Back to my side of town. Just checking on things. If you’re bored with that, I’m sure someone’ll be happy to entertain you.” 

He says his side of town like it’s not still crawling with Aizen’s people. Though they’re so far down the chain of command, they’re as much a threat as any other thugs on the street. 

Ichigo takes the next turn and all the roads from here slope at an angle toward the waterfront. It’s a constant descent into the darker parts of the city. There are no beach front houses where they’re headed, just shipping docks and factories too old to be renovated, most of them turned into low budget storage, crack houses, whore houses, or places to keep things people don’t want found. 

As they get closer to Renji's, the sound of someone fucking in the alley ahead doesn’t even give him pause until they come around the corner. The old brick buildings have alcoves and alleys where dumpsters are tucked to keep the narrow streets clear. They’re good places to hide or hide bodies or sleep if you’re desperate enough to lay in someone’s piss or shit. But the sounds echo off the walls, too familiar not to catch his attention. 

Ichigo freezes up. 

He isn’t sure how the sight still sets him off. He’s seen it so many times. He’s seen worse. He’s seen men leave bodies that don’t even look like people anymore. But the girl is young. Maybe as young as his sisters. As young as Orihime when they found her. And for just a second, that hair looks like Yuzu’s.

There’s a cooler and duffle at the man’s feet, but he barely registers it. The girl’s legs aren’t even long enough to reach the ground. Her hands scramble over the top of the dumpster she’s pressed against, nails clawing cracked plastic. 

It’s not enough for the man to cut her open. There are always the guys that want the tears, the crying, the screaming. 

It’s not a choice to move. It just happens. Ichigo is quiet, shoes barely making a sound for the few steps it takes to reach them. When he was younger, he might’ve yelled or snarled or pulled the man around to face him. Acting on some idea of fair play. Now he latches onto the man’s head from behind, whipping it around with the full force of his upper body to crack against the dumpster, hearing bone hit steel with a satisfying, hollow snap. 

The man’s legs buckle, but Ichigo doesn’t want him on the ground. He wants him level enough to hit until he doesn’t feel like hitting him anymore, so he hauls him up and into the wall. 

Freed, the girl falls beside them, stumbles, clutching her stomach, but she runs as soon as she’s loose. Good. She’s smart. She’s not sticking around to be someone else’s victim. She’s up before Ichigo takes his first real swing. 

"Oh no," his hands settle into his jacket pockets and he tilts his head to the side till the joints pop. Then the other side. "You're interesting all right, and fun. A two for one sorta meal." The kind of mystery that Grimmjow loves to sink his teeth into.

Not that he goes out of his way to unravel interesting things; people rarely interest him. Aizen interests him though, and so anything that can hold his employers attention is worth the interest. Ichigo is unusual and there's something about him that Grimmjow wants to know.

Plus, bizarrely, he likes Ichigo. Kid has something funny to him. Sharp and mean. Unhoned, but not talentless. Grimmjow wants to see him with a knife in his hands and blood on his lips. The color would compliment him.

Absently, his fingers trace over the handle of one of his many concealed weapons, and his eyes shift from the concrete in front of them to the side of Ichigo's head. One brow quirks imperiously, amused and unimpressed in equal parts with Ichigo's quest.

"I am 'out and walking around' cuz I couldn't do my job if I wasn't, genius. You aren't following the same logic. A whore who's unreachable cuz they went for a little stroll isn't very useful."

Its a flight risk.

Ichigo knows a great deal more than the average person would about Aizen - if Grimmjow were Aizen, he wouldn't let the guy out of his sight. Not where anyone could just grab him.

Which... Raises a good point. There's probably a babysitter somewhere. He'll keep an eye out.

"Where are you even going? Pets don't have friends?"

[kuronanox]

Hidden Emotions - Byakuya Kuchiki

Ever since Byakuya left to Hueco Mundo to help aid Ichigo, rukia and their friends (Your Name) had been restless.

She treated Byakuya after he took a hit from Gin's sword during the execution of his sister in law. When he was at the infirmary in the 4th squad Unohana trusted (Your Name) to tend Byakuya every need.

At first she was against healing him because nobles had a tendency to be stuck up and he even let his sister die for a moment. But she gave him a chance and she couldn't go against her captains orders.

She spend many days in his infirmary room helping him recover that she eventually broke the cold facade he shown everyone.

"Hello Kuchiki Taicho! I'm here to check up." (Your Name) peeps her head in his room with a smile. After getting his approval to come in she set his food down and grabbed a few instruments to check his vital signs and wound.

"Okay breathe in and out slowly." She says and touch his back lightly to straighten his back.

Byakuya was a man with very few words so usually check ups were rather very quiet for her. "Everything is fine, the wound is healing slower than usual but still you have to be in bed."

He nods as she hands him his food for the morning. "Is there anything else I can get you?"

"Name." He tells her flatly not looking at her direction.

"My name?"

"Yes, your name." He then looks up to her as she slowly grew flush.

"Uhh, it's (Your Name)."

"Thank you (Your Name) you may leave." He states as she bows respectfully and closes the door lightly.

Every day it was slowly getting better, the first few days were definitely awkward but after he would talk to her. She guessed it was because he was bored.

"How long have you've been in the 4th squad?" He asks curiously as she prepared him another robe for the day.

"Probably 25 years already, I'm not the fighting type really although I am really outspoken! People mistaken me for a fighter rather than a healer."

"I can see that." He states as she lightly laughs.

"You know I didn't like you at first, but you aren't half bad."

A visible smirk came from his lips, he was definitely interested in her.

"Rather bold to say."

She shrugs with a small chuckle and helps him off the bed to freshen up for the day. "Hold on don't step there or else you will sli-"

Byakuya lost his footing as (Your Name) was below him. His weight was definitely much heavier than hers as she tightly wrapped her arms around him.

Byakuya reflexes were fast but he couldn't avoid the fall so his only way to protect her head from hitting the floor was to put his hand behind it.

"Are you okay?!" She says from under as he looks down to see her worried. Their closeness was to close yet comforting to Byakuya to have someone wrap their arms around him again.

Unwrapping her arms she helped him up and examined his hand that was bruised.

"Sorry, I've should have warned you before getting up." She says and looks at the dirty robe that he slipped on.

"It's fine." He states as she heals it.

There was silence between them again, she could feel that his heart was racing. Byakuya would never show it though. "You can relax."

He looks up to her and gently grabs her hand. "Thank you, you may leave for today."

After that awkward fall between them he slightly distance himself again but not to the point where he closed himself off to her.

Byakuya knew his feelings for her were developing but he was afraid of losing someone important again so he suppressed them for a while.

"Rukia came and visited again?" (Your Name) asks as she walked into the room a little while after Rukia left.

Byakuya nodded as (Your Name) took a seat besides the bedside.

“Yes she came.”

"Must be nice to have a sibling." She said envious to have someone to lean on.

Byakuya doesn't say anything and look towards her. "Are you a only child?"

"Yes, my parents died a long time ago."

"Family is complicated but I agree with you. I was an only child too so I know how it feels." He says as she just smiles at his attempt to make her feel better.

"You leave tomorrow, are you excited?"

He nods as she places her hands on her hips and leans towards him. "Don't think you will escape me I have to still visit you once a day to make sure everything is good! Don't think you can get rid of me just yet!" She pouts.

"Of course (Your Name)." He says with a slight smile.

Byakuya was released to go back home and he had so much work to catch up on. The load was piling high because Renji alone couldn't get it done.

He sighed and massaged his neck lightly, his days were long and with almost no sleep. He also wanted to train more after a rude awakening of Ichigo surpassing him and getting badly injured trying to save Rukia he strived to get stronger.

Yet a certain person disrupted his mind when he was working or sleeping. Byakuya found himself wanting to spend more time with (Your Name). He was to hard on himself he knew Rukia and Hisana would want him to be happy too.

He was afraid of losing someone again.

Would (Your Name) share the same feelings for him? She clearly expressed how she didn't like him from the start.

The next day she came in the afternoon to check up. After checking him up she packed her bags.

"Join me for tea." He tells her lightly brushing the paper with ink and setting it aside.

"Me?!"

"Who else's name is (Your Name)?"

The tea was delightful, Byakuya opened up about himself to her. She was quite surprised herself that he was being so interested in her.

When he was fully recovered she didn't visit everyday but he would ask her out often. He had a nice dinner with her once at the Kuchiki manor and they spent a lot of time walking around and enjoying the nice view of the trees and flowers that bloomed.

She even spent nights with him as they shared one bed. In the back of her head she asked herself if this was real or fake their relationship that is.

Byakuya never announced they were a item but people started to take a notice and said no words.

(Your Name) grabbed his face gently as they fell on the bed as he passionately catches her lips with his lightly sucking her bottom lip.

"Stay with me tonight." He tells her as she nods slowly and wraps her arms around him.

Running her hands through his hair he relaxes and closes his eyes.

(Your Name) had just got news that Aizen was defeated and they had won the war. A sense of relief came across her.

She wanted to see Byakuya but everyone was forbid for see the Captains until they were rested.

A little sadden that he didn't come and see her after returning she laid in bed.

"I mean we aren't dating or anything so he's not obligated to see me or I to him."

Sighing she pulled the blankets over her and closed her eyes.

Byakuya came later that night, he wasn't in the best mood but seeing her safe and sound soothed him. Brushing her hair aside he traced her facial features. She swat his hand away and cuddled into the blankets more.

A soft fluffy feelings embraced her as she struggled to open her eyes as a warm touch came across her.

"Don't worry it's only me." His deep voice says placing her gently down. Waking up completely she sees that they were in Byakuya room.

"You came." She says happily with a smile as he cups one of her cheeks and caresses it.

"Of course I did." He tells her with uncertainty in his face.

"Well what's wrong? You seem like something is bothering you."

He looks shock that she could read through his expression. "You could tell?"

"You maybe be good at hiding your emotions but I can tell."

Byakuya felt light as he proceeded to explain what had been bothering him.

"I almost lost Rukia again in battle."

She looks up at him and see that he was troubled. "But she's safe now, it will be okay. Rukia is a big girl now."

"Not only that but also I've been neglecting my feelings for you. I feel like you deserve someone that won't hide their emotions away."

(Your Name) eyes widen as she soften up.

"Jeez dont worry about it, it's not like we are together."

That's what Byakuya did not like, that they had no label. If it was modern day he would call it fuck buddies and he definitely didn't want that.

He came to certain that he would one day need a heir and someone to retire with once old age came upon.

Although the relationship was young it had potential and Byakuya would only stick around and invest if he knew something or someone was promising.

"Would you like to be my girlfriend? I know I haven't been the greatest at showing my emotions but over the time I've spent with you it was quite enjoyable." He tells her.

(Your Name) couldn't refuse, there was of course lots to talk about but at the moment she just wanted to give him a huge hug and scream yes.

"Of course." She says and brings him into a embrace. "I've missed you, I was worried about you too."

He smiles to himself and slides his arms around her. "Don't worry, I'm here now."

"But now that we are official I promise to give you my individual attention and promise to make you happy everyday."

She grins and kiss him lightly on the nose.

"I would like that."

Laying down next to her on the bed he pulled her close and entwined their lips once more to a demanding and hungry kiss.

Byakuya was a man of class but sometimes he had a messy side he tried to keep hidden. Tonight though he wanted to feel the both of them.

Placing her under him he tilted her head to get access to her creamy skin and neck.

Leaving love marks as he slowly sucked and bite down the flesh.

"There will be no sleep tonight." He tells her as she pulls him down to her.

"Show me a great time tonight." (Your Name) breathlessly says after.

[recurring-polynya]

For the AU drabbles, can you do Renji ending up in Spirit Society and meeting Tengu!Rukia and Tengu!Byakuya?

I described the bones of this AU in this art post (you should probably read it first).

Given that I did all that work up front, instead of writing something that makes sense, I am going to be very self-indulgent and write this out-of-context Feels Fiesta where Tengu!Rukia doesn’t want Regular!Renji to go home.

Read on ao3 (features the pictures from the first post) or ff.net

🐦     ✨     💔

Rukia staggered over to the library table, carrying far too many rolled-up maps. She attempted to tip the first one gently onto the table, but instead, half a dozen rolled out of her arms. “Watch out!” she yelped helplessly.

The Shinigami Abarai Renji had exceptional reflexes, though, and he deftly scooped his ink stone out of danger as a map rolled past the spot where it had sat just a moment before.

“Sorry,” Rukia apologized, her feathers wilting. She wanted so badly to be a help for once, and instead, she couldn’t seem to stop embarrassing herself.

Renji flashed her one of his brilliant smiles. She wondered if all shinigami smiled so freely. It seemed a strange quality for a god of death to possess, but very little about Renji comported with her conception of what death gods should be like. The Shinigami Kurosaki Ichigo smiled often as well. Rukia had assumed that might be due to his human half, but perhaps ushering souls to the afterlife was not such a grim occupation as one might expect.

“Don’t worry,” Renji reassured her, the corners of his warm brown eyes crinkling. “I am a champion ink-spiller, so I’m pretty good at avoiding it. Thanks for digging these out for me. Were you able to find any that show the old kitsune trade route you mentioned?”

“I’ll have to check,” Rukia sighed. “I’m afraid they weren’t very well organized. My brother’s servant, Wakame Ambassador--”

Renji made a face like he was trying very hard not to laugh.

“You must not make fun of Wakame Ambassador!” Rukia warned in a hushed voice. “He is just a magical construct, but he does have feelings!” She frowned at the maps. “It’s not his fault Brother didn’t put a whole lot of brains in him.”

“I would never,” Renji reassured her gently, “make fun of Wakame Ambassador.” He fiddled with his brush. “He just… reminds me of something from back home.”

Rukia knew she should get to work looking for the map he wanted, but she couldn’t help herself. She was so curious about his Soul Society, and he was so close-mouthed about it. “Do you miss it?”

“Hmm?”

“Soul Society,” she said, rolling the word around in her mouth. “Do you miss it?”

“Oh,” Renji replied. “A little. I haven’t really been gone that long, and I do want to help you folks out. I am starting to get these little pangs, though.” He chuckled. “Wouldn’t’ve expected to get one over Wakame Ambassador.”

“They must miss you,” Rukia pressed. “You’re a very important person, there, right?”

Renji let out a sharp guffaw. “I wouldn’t say that.”

Rukia’s brows furrowed. “But you said the captain you serve is a powerful clan head and a great warrior! Aren’t you the leader of his armies?”

Renji rubbed the back of his neck and laughed. “I guess you could say I have an important job, that’s true. It’s not quite the same as being an important person.”

It made no sense, in Rukia’s opinion. She had never seen swordwork to match his, and then he knew shinigami magic as well. He spoke so knowledgeably of strategy and tactics, he must be a scholar of warfare. Yet, he interacted so easily with the tengu troops. He was a natural leader in the way she wasn’t. Not that Brother would ever let her lead troops into battle in any case. “You know,” she started slowly. “Brother is very impressed with you.”

Renji raised one skeptical eyebrow.

“He is!” Rukia insisted. “And… if you are not appreciated in your homeland, I think that Brother would be most happy to have you stay! He would make you his war leader, I am sure of it!”

A very strange look came over Renji’s face. Rukia found herself talking faster and faster, as if her words could outpace his doubts.

“Demons notwithstanding, the Spirit Society is a wonderful place to live, and the tengu are the best of its tribes. I know you would feel self-conscious to not have a set of handsome wings or magnificent horns, but you have such interesting barring on your skin and your plumage is a lovely color. You would be very popular nonetheless!”

“Plumage?” Renji echoed blankly, his hand going to his hair.

“The costumes you and Kurosaki Ichigo fashioned were very clever. They would not fool another tengu, of course, but…” Rukia trailed off, unable to put into words the way her heart had sped up when she had seen him wearing the dark pinions and red-tipped horns of a tengu warrior. Of course, if he had been born a tengu, she was sure he would not have such common coloring. She could imagine him with a fine set of double wings, like her brother’s, blood red, tipped in black, and with great curling horns, like the woodcuts of the mighty warriors in her history books. “Or maybe there’s a spell that could grow you wings!” she realized suddenly. “I am very good at magic, you know, I could look through my spellbooks.”

Suddenly, his big, warm hand with its funny, blunt fingernails encased her own. “Rukia,” he cut her off. “Thank you. That’s a very generous offer, and believe me, I’m flattered.”

Rukia looked into his face. With its sharp nose and narrow, beady eyes, it was so clear that he belonged among her beautiful bird tribe, not a bunch of boring, ugly ghosts. It was unfair. “But?”

He shrugged. “But I gotta go home.”

There was a long silence. “Why?”

“Well, I got my friends, my squad, my captain. People who depend on me.”

“People who care for you?”

“Er, right.”

He hesitated. If he hadn’t hesitated, Rukia would have held her tongue. But it seemed, in that hesitation, there was a chance, and she felt like she had to take it. “There… there could be people here who would care for you, given time. Maybe there are already.” She took a deep breath. “I would like you to stay.”

A deeply pained look came over his face.

Rukia’s gut plummeted. It had been a mistake. “I’m sorry,” she stammered. “I should not have said anything.”

Renji’s face hardened. “Don’t say that. Please don’t say that.” He squeezed his eyes closed for a moment and his hand tightened on hers so hard it hurt a little. “It’s not easy to put yourself out there, but you’ve always been braver than me.”

Rukia frowned. What could he possibly mean by that?

“It’s really hard for me to say this. You have no idea how hard. I like you, too, you know. I like you so much. But there’s… my heart’s already spoken for, Rukia. It has been for a long time. She’s… she’s a lot like you. Tough and clever and beautiful and the best friend you can imagine. And that’s part of why it could never be fair to you if I… if you and I...”

Of course. Of course he already had someone, how could she have been so foolish? But why hadn’t he mentioned this before? And why did his voice crack so when he spoke of her? “She does not return your love,” Rukia realized, the words escaping her mouth before she could catch them.

Rukia expected Renji’s face to look even more pained, but instead, his brow softened and his mouth curved into a fond smile. “I dunno, actually. It’s… it’s never been the right time or the right place. We’ve been through a lot together, though, her and me, and I know that she’d miss me if I didn’t come back.” He snorted ruefully. “I’d give every kan I got to hear Ichigo try to explain to her why I didn’t, though.”

Suddenly, a number of things he had said clicked together in her head. And it had not been wishful thinking, she realized. His smile truly was brighter for her, his gaze softer.

“It’s the other me, isn’t it?” she said softly.

Renji’s face stiffened, and then he sighed. “Of course it is. I can’t manage to keep stuff from you in any world, it seems.”

“I met her once, you know,” Rukia noted coolly, despite the turmoil in her chest. “The last time Kurosaki Ichigo was here.” She paused. “She did not seem a fool.”

Renji laughed, and patted her hand boisterously. The tension between them released like steam from a kettle. “Believe me, she’d have to be, to put up with me after all the grief I give her.”

Rukia regarded him under lidded eyes as she reached for one of the maps. “You already told me that she resembles me. Do not pretend she does not pay you back four-fold.

Renji regarded her right back. “I won’t.”

Rukia’s heart felt tender and achy, but warm, as well. The other Rukia must love him back, she was sure of it, even if she couldn’t say so. The alternative was too sad to bear. “I wonder,” she sighed, “why there is no version of you in this world.”

“Oh, that’s easy,” Renji replied. “There probably is. He’s just not a tengu. You folks are way too elegant and clean-cut for the likes of me. It’s an honest miracle I ever met my Rukia in the first place.”

Rukia gaped. “Surely not! You are a noble warrior! Strong and handsome and polite!”

Renji gave out a bark of laughter. “That’s only because I’ve spent a long time trying to get this way. You got any nue in Spirit Society? Or ookami?” He thought for a moment. “I’m not sure I’m even classy enough to be a wolf spirit. Inugami?”

“We have all of those,” Rukia replied, bristling. But the dog demons are not to be trusted! Brother says they are barely better than the kitsune!”

“Mmm,” Renji replied with a shrug. “Right. Well. Like I said. Never the right time. Never the right place.” He turned back to the war record he’d been looking through.

Rukia’s face fell. She felt like she had failed him, somehow. Was it something about her brother? He could be a bit… insular to be sure, but the inugami were the very worst of the… dog... Rukia blinked and she traced a finger over the map in front of her. “The inugami are not the only dog tribe. Here, on the other side of the mountain. It’s hainu territory, which is why Brother doesn’t want to travel through it, but it has to be safer than that old kitsune trail. The hainu are an honorable people, if a bit unsophisticated, and they, too, would be affected if the demons were to swarm the valley. If they allied with us, I am sure we could fight off Grimmjow’s forces! You are a genius, Abarai Renji!”

“Me? What did I--?”

Rukia jumped to her feet. “Come. Brother won’t like it, but I am sure he will listen to you!”

“Why would you think that?!” Renji yelped as she hauled him from the library. Suddenly his eyebrows drew together. “Wait, this actually isn’t a bad idea. Do you think it would work? Have you ever actually met a hainu?”

“Well, no,” Rukia admitted. “But at least they have wings, how bad could they be?”

🐕     🤝    🐦

A/N: Okay, I know you asked for Byakuya, who… did not appear in the previous scene. So here’s Byakuya omake. A Byak-omake, if you will.

“What do you mean, the other me does not adorn himself with beautiful feathers?”

“Well, you’ve got a whole bird motif goin’ on, he’s not much of a bird guy. I mean, he likes birds. I guess. He just doesn’t dress like one.”

“How does he accessorize, then? Does he have a lush cloak of fine velvet?”

“Er… he’s got a haori?”

“Ah! Is it richly embroidered?”

“It’s got a six on the back.”

“A six.”

“Yeah, like the number six.”

“...”

“He said he’s thinking of adding some tassels? Gold tassels?”

“Gold tassels are good. How many?”

“He wasn’t specific at the time, but I’m guessing… two?”

“...Two?”

“Isn’t two enough? It’s two more than anyone else has.”

“...Two?!”

“...”

“Wakame Ambassador! Fetch my traveling cape and headdress! I must travel to the Soul Society to teach my other self how to dress properly!”

[exo-raskreia]

Renji’s Cowardice

So this is something I've been wanting to talk a bit about, even though I've commented on it to other fellow fans, but decided maybe I should make a post about it. This got longer than expected, so long post ahead:

I'm one of those few people who don't believe Renji had feelings for Rukia, or if at all, they were so subtle, they were barely there - ‘cause they can easily be interpreted as that of friendship or siblings.

We know he certainly cared about her, they were childhood friends, helping each other through hard times, the ONLY survivors from their friend group in the Rukongai, & the only ones out of them who had reiatsu. So, obviously, they had a tight bond.

But...there was nothing more. That scene in the anime (ep. 32) where Renji stares at Rukia in the lake during his childhood memories? Filler - like most of the episode. It wasn't in the manga. Check out chapter 98 (which also has a lot of the scenes I will mention here).

When I first watched that, I thought maybe he liked her (so then why did he hurt her?), but as I got further into the anime, no such scene ever happened again, nothing else that indicated he might like her. Then eventually I read the manga, & bam! - obviously there'd been nothing else, since the scene hadn't been there to begin with.

So if you believe Renji was deeply in love with Rukia... Well, that’s not what I saw in the following scenes.

Let’s start off with a little scene in his childhood, where Rukia showcased her reiatsu abilities. Their friends found it so cool, whereas Renji seemed...bothered by it:

And down here, where he shouts at the guys, one could interpret him being a bit jealous that they’re captivated by Rukia, but it can also be interpreted as him being a bit jealous of Rukia, like, “Meh, she ain’t all that!” 

Even so, they all became so close, like a family

Years later, once in the academy, Rukia was adopted into the Kuchiki Clan. Renji encountered Byakuya for the first time & felt an immense fear. Any confidence he’d had up until that point (such as being in an advanced class) faded. 

When Rukia tried to discuss with him if she should accept it, because DUH, they only had each other at this point & were basically family, but of course Renji let his insecurities get the better of him, & basically told her how lucky she was & to go for it, without showing concern or worry. Thus, beginning the end of their friendship.

Renji’s excuse for letting her go was that he didn’t want to get in the way of her happiness... Was it? Not something else like, I don’t know, feeling insecure, possibly inferior, afraid when he had encountered her adoptive brother for the first time? Ah, that's it...cowardice? It's as if he was even trying to convince himself otherwise:

Yep, sounds like it, Renji. Always hiding your fear, masking it with ego, or in this case, thinking you’re “happy” for her.

He didn’t want to admit what he had been feeling in that moment. He didn’t let her go out of the goodness of his heart...but because he didn’t have the guts to stop her. He didn’t have the guts to go against Byakuya for her sake. Or more like...for his own sake.

You could say he didn’t feel “worthy enough” being her friend, now that Rukia was part of a prestigious clan... Or simply...too scared. He made it his goal to surpass Byakuya, & once he did, then he would feel "worthy" or strong enough to talk to Rukia again.

Just...why? Did he not see that it wasn’t what Rukia wanted? It’s not like she would have looked down on him or anyone else for that matter. He didn’t understand her like a certain someone. Actually, doesn’t it sort of parallel the scene in which that certain someone was telling her to go back home with him, & she told him she’d stay in SS, & he actually saw she was happy about it & let her go because of it? She wanted to stick together like family, but he pushed her away. For the next 40 years, he never attempted to talk to her, make sure she was doing well, wasn't there for her, nothing.

But he hadn’t realized the true reason for his actions...yet.

Cowardly Renji was then going to tell Rukia about his promotion to lieutenant after he was encouraged by his friends (ch. 205.2/Side-B ‘The Rotator’), but then he was sent to arrest her in Karakura Town. Instead of trying to make up or let her know he didn’t want to do this, he certainly acted pretty villainous towards her, & did NOTHING to try to stop her from getting executed, not even trying to vouch for her to her brother (I mean, if someone as freakishly strong as his captain wasn’t going to do a thing, then why should Renji The Coward™, amirite?). Some "tight bond”... 

Is this how a man shows he loves a woman?! Is this the kind of man you want for strong, kind, selfless Rukia?!

When Renji decided to visit Rukia in her cell to tell her about a certain orange-haired guy being in SS, he hadn’t expected her to react the way she did:

(Renji then thought that maybe he shouldn’t have given her hope, because the rescue gang might not make it. So even in her final moments, he still wasn’t going to try anything? Instead, regretted giving her some comfort? Oh, boy...)

After hearing about said orange-haired guy defeating strong opponents on his way to save Rukia, his bruised ego sent him to go pick a fight with him against orders.

He went as far as to blame that one person for Rukia’s demise. Like, what the heck? He wanted to break his resolve, because Renji himself had none.

But obviously...things weren’t going the way he’d planned. Ichigo, the man who would stop at nothing to save Rukia, was underestimated. Heck, Renji even got triggered when Ichigo shouted this & blocked his attack:

U mad, bruh?

Eventually, Alpha™ Ichigo defeated him, & made him realize his faults. Cue Flashback no Jutsu & then we got Renji saying this:

Ooh, boy, this is right after the panel where he was trying to convince himself that he let Rukia go for her happiness (ch. 98).

Let’s start off with the first part: "Now that I think about it... I was probably just scared...”

So this does confirm that Renji had been lying to himself, & that his real reason was that he was afraid to confront a stronger opponent for his friend. Afraid to do something about the situation. He was a coward through & through.

Then he continues with this: “I am really a tramp down to my bones. I hate myself. I bark at the star, but...I don't have the courage to jump and grab it."

Is this another way of him saying Rukia is the star & he's the tramp? So basically, he felt inferior to her? A lowly creature who’s all bark & no bite?

Let’s see... You could say that since childhood, Renji had always felt a bit jealous of Rukia, or simply admired her, cuz she had higher reiatsu, their old friends looked up to her more & she became their leader of sorts. And then when she was adopted into the Kuchiki Clan, she was “farther away". 

He made it his goal to surpass Byakuya...because it would mean he had finally “reached” Rukia? You could almost see this as romantic, feel bad for him cuz he doesn’t feel worthy of her, even though he’s tried so hard (fake ‘aww’). But it’s still not enough. Up until this point, Renji hadn’t done anything to help her. Like I said before, he even tried to obstruct the one person who was trying to save her, & tried to blame him for her eventual demise.

Just how insecure were you, Renji? Of the fact that someone else, who hadn’t known her as long, was risking his life to save the one girl you weren’t brave enough to help? That someone else would reach the star, & not you? That someone else proved himself Top Dog™ & you’re still the tramp?

Well, Rukia is more referred to as the moon, while Ichigo as the sun (White Moon, Black Sun). So to Renji, she's a star, but in regards to Ichigo, she's the moon. An unreachable star to one, & the moon to the other... Interesting...

In some translations, he says "stars" in plural, so if that, does it mean Renji is calling himself a coward in general, who doesn't have the courage to stand up to those stronger than him? And/or to get what he wants? In others, he says "moon", & Rukia has been referred to as the moon, so it still applies.

After this, he BEGGED Ichigo to save Rukia, because he himself couldn't. Once again, he felt unworthy. And this time, he had good reason to, because the man Rukia wanted to see wasn't even him, & he knew this. Like I said, he hadn’t expected her to look so happy when he’d informed her that Ichigo was in town.

Renji had a change of heart. He later helped Ichigo in what he could, having formed the resolve to work harder after recovering from the fight against him. After this, we saw him become friends with Ichigo, having his acknowledgement, his respect, his trust. Never once do we see Renji feeling jealous towards Ichigo regarding Rukia (nor anyone else for that matter). Not like Orihime being jealous of Rukia. Renji supported Ichigo in everything, & both considered each other one of their closest comrades.

Remember the scene in Hueco Mundo (ch. 248) where Ichigo didn't want the group to separate in Las Noches after Rukia suggested it, then Renji got in the way & told him it was an insult to her as a warrior? He knew this wasn't about the group, it was about Rukia (dang, was Ichigo that obvious?). Ichigo didn't say that because he didn't trust in her abilities...it's his general care & worry about her. He has to have Rukia in his sight at all times. She obviously means a lot more to him than he realizes (and more than his other friends). Renji doesn't see Rukia the same way Ichigo does...hence why he wasn't concerned like Ichigo. This already shows the difference in their feelings for Rukia.

(Poor Ichigo must’ve later regretted this when he didn’t feel Rukia’s reiatsu anymore & Ulquiorra had said she’d “died”, then Ichigo turned around to go to her, without giving a second thought to Orihime’s whereabouts and-)

Heck, even in the Fade To Black movie, everyone had forgotten about Rukia, including Renji...except Ichigo. He was the only one who fought tooth & nail to get her back. Renji was one of the last people in the movie to remember her, some "bond". Well, she already established a stronger bond with Ichigo, so Renji lost his status as the man closest to Rukia long ago.

Then in the WDKALY fanfiction novel, in the sketch of Renji at the wedding, he doesn't seem very happy? And in the one with him & Rukia announcing their engagement, their Soul Reaper friends seem so shocked, as if they would have never seen this coming? If it was obvious they “loved” each other, why even their closest friends didn't see it? Seems sketchy, doesn't it?

To add to this, as someone had pointed out before, just look at Renji’s expression here while Rukia is injured:

Seems like the typical battle-hardened look someone would have over their injured comrades.

Meanwhile, look at Ichigo, leaning forward anxiously...& then we get a wonderful closeup of his face

So, all in all, what I'm trying to say is that there was never really a critical moment in which made me go, "Wow, Renji really does love Rukia." His feelings just weren’t really...there? Or not noticeable romantically, not like Ishida’s for Orihime - now THESE I can believe. He felt like a coward in general, that not even his childhood friend's life being in danger, had been enough to get him to act. It took someone else, someone much braver than him, to give him the push that he needed to move forward. And that person is the one he came to respect & support, never showing jealousy. He even thanked Ichigo (ch. 682) for restoring his friendship with Rukia, & said he'll always have his back. Some "rival", huh?

(Thinking about it, since we never got to see more of Renji's insecurities again after the SS arc - I think - & had his friendship restored, does this mean surpassing Byakuya wasn't his goal anymore? Did he ever mention it again?)

Kubo really wasn't playing when it came to who cared more about Rukia out of these two (or more like, the differences in how they cared about her). Too bad this all went out the window.

[cate-deriana]

Synchronicity

So, here is my first contribution to IRmonth20. It may be a little messy and all over the place but I wanted to get this headcanon idea out :D So yeah, enjoy!

Prompt #4 - crossing blades, crossing hearts

----------------------------

It had been two days – although it had more felt like ages – since their arrival in the Royal Realm. Apart from strange meetings with even stranger residents, well zero squad members if you wanted to be precise, nothing really noteworthy had occurred… until that morning.

“So starting today the two of you will be training together.” Ichibei threw at them without further explanation.

It took a few seconds to sink in, before Ichigo tilted his head with a raised eyebrow looking at the so-called ‘leader’ of this squad with a questioning expression: “Sorry… what?”

“Are we playing deaf, Kurosaki Ichigo? The final battle is just around the corner, we don’t have time for this. You and Kuchiki will be training together. You have chemistry, that shouldn’t be a problem.”

Ichigo peeked over to Rukia standing next to him from the corner of an eye, then back to Ichibei: “I am fine with that. But Rukia had barely two days to recover, she nearly died and you want her to start training again today?”

Now the zero squad leader was the one to raise an eyebrow – a rare sight: “Well, do you want to win the war or do you want us all to die?”

The orange haired shinigami’s expression darkened but his eyes glared with determination: “I want to win, of course. But…” He tried to object again but was cut off by Rukia: “Stop insulting my abilities! I am able to decide if I’m ready to train again for myself.”

She had turned to face him visibly angered.

He did the same trying to cool down his temper. Otherwise things would get out of hand rather quickly: “This is not about your abilities it’s…”

“Stop protecting me!” She shot at him.

Screw his temper.

“Oh, sorry I thought that was the deal: I am protecting you and you are protecting me that’s how it works!”

The argument went on while Ichibei was watching them slightly shaking his head: “Yeah, you two have good chemistry. Hopefully that’ll save us all.”

----------------------------

“So, that’s the training ground you’ll be using. Quarters are over there and behind that you’ll find one of those hot springs to heal your wounds and recover. You’ll be training together, eating together, sleeping together. … And with sleeping together I don’t mean sleeping with each other. That’s not what you have to do – unless you want to of course, I’ve heard there was some unresolved tension. I’ll come to check on you once in a while. Any questions? No? Then I’ll see you around.”

  ----------------------------

That was what Ichibei had said before leaving them, alone. About three or four days had passed since. They had been training constantly for something the squad leader had called ‘reiatsu syncing’. Seemingly the zero division and some other questionable ex-shinigami, namely Urahara Kisuke, believed there was a possibility to defeat the ‘future foreseeing’ Juhabach with some telepathic ability that would make it impossible for him to take a look in said future because he would not be able to foresee what he could not see. Why they believed Juhabach was even able to see the future was beyond Ichigo. As far as he knew he wasn’t, maybe they knew more than him. But that wasn’t the point.

They of course were all convinced that only Rukia and him would be able to gain this telepathy ‘reiatsu syncing’ ability. The reason? Well, apparently it was because they had more than once shared the same reiatsu before. He wasn’t sure if he should really believe them and their far-fetched theories. Just because Rukia had transferred her powers to him twice didn’t necessarily conclude in them being able to communicate without words. Ok, maybe there had been moments when he had been sure to know exactly what she was thinking but… that was not the same as talking through mere thoughts, was it?

“When will you finally stop holding back, Ichigo?”

Rukia’s scolding voice brought him back to reality. They were in the middle of training, no miraculous telepathic conversation had occurred yet.

“I am not holding back.” He sounded as if he had to convince himself as well.

“Yes you are. I know how strong you really are so stop holding back and come at me with full force. Where is the point in training if you can’t even do that?” Her voice wasn’t angered although she hated him for going easy on her, for underestimating her out of fear she might get hurt.

“If I come at you with full force I might kill you.” Ichigo stated dryly.

She crossed her arms, her tone a little scolding: “I don’t want you to kill me I want you to start fighting seriously. I am not that weak you know?” Rukia let out a sigh putting Sode no Shirayuki down. “I guess we should have started with those stupid training swords. That way you wouldn’t have to be afraid of accidentally cutting me in half.” The irony in her voice was evident. “Though I have at least learned how to properly wield a sword. I should be the one at advantage here not someone who thought he could just chop a Menos into tiny little pieces to reach its top.” She shook her head disbelieving adding a mumbled “Stupid” to her rant.

“Oh, I’m sorry I didn’t have the privilege to go to Shino Academy just to drop out midway cause I have a wealthy brother.” Ichigo tried to counterattack with his equally sarcastic remark.

Rukia’s eyes darkened: “You know what? Renji wouldn’t hold back.” Her reiatsu rose to a dangerous level. “Because he acknowledges me as a warrior.”

Ichigo’s expression changed in an instant after hearing the red head’s name from her mouth, he was in fighting mode and mood obviously: “You want me to go all out, yeah?” He didn’t wait for an answer his hand already on the arm holding his sword.

“Ban-kai!”

Rukia watched his transformation with a content smile as he was engulfed in black: “Now we’re talking.”

Maybe she should have given him a moment, given them a moment but one she didn’t want to get into another argument with him again and two she couldn’t keep it to herself any longer. “Bankai.” It echoed in the air before the training ground was covered with a thin ice layer, the temperature gradually dropping.

Ichigo didn’t have any time to comprehend what happened when her sword suddenly clashed with his really close to his face. He didn’t see her attack coming at all, because… well…

“Y…you have achieved bankai?” The shinigami substitute managed to get out, their zanpakutous frozen in place. The superior smile on her lips widened: “Surprised?”

His eyes travelled down and up again examining her new form. A somewhat inappropriate thought crossed his mind. He tried to shake it off: “Well… uhm…” If he wasn’t in the middle of a fight he would’ve scratched the back of his head in an awkward situation like that.

“I thought you were a lot faster than this.” Her voice brought him back to reality.

“Huh?”

“Your bankai.” She clarified for him. Something in her eyes left no doubt that she was seriously challenging him and something inside him couldn’t resist that.

He gave her a provoking look: “I’m just getting started.” Ichigo pushed her away with his sword.

“Finally.” Her smile didn’t fade.

The battlefield’s atmosphere changed, black and white flashes being the only thing that could still be seen. They were not really fighting against each other but rather fighting alongside, equally, synching their steps, their moves as if they were dancing. They were paying attention to each other but at the same time pushing each other to their limits. It would have probably continued like that a lot longer if Ichigo didn’t skip a step of their choreography for – payback time you could say.

Rukia found zangetsu only inches away from her throat, Ichigo’s body pressed against hers from behind.

“I got you.” His breath was touching her cheek.

Sode no Shirayuki was uselessly dangling in her right hand. She could have probably stabbed his foot, but… Rukia didn’t want to admit defeat, not yet, not now and certainly not in this position. That… was definitely too close and too… She paused – that could work.

Ichigo was damn sure she wouldn’t be able to escape him that easily. I thought you were a lot faster, huh? Of course he was he’d made that more than clear now. His pride would crumble only moments later.

She turned her head to him: “Don’t be so sure.”

Before he could realize what she was up to a sharp pain shot through his left leg causing him to drop his sword. It felt as if it had been frozen… Oh, that’s what she had done. He sighed trying to keep his balance but the leg gave away.

Rukia was about to declare her victory when Ichigo grabbed her wrist in the last possible moment pulling her down with him. If she didn’t let go of her sword she would have probably pierced his chest with it – again. Without it, it was only her unarmed-self landing on top of him. She propped herself up, one hand on the ground the other on his chest, furiously glaring at Ichigo: “What are you doing?!”

“What are you doing?! You just froze my leg!”

Wouldn’t it have been for their newly found argument she would’ve noticed a lot sooner that the position they were in now was a lot more indecent than the one before.

Instead of counter arguing Rukia looked to the side mumbling her retort rather to herself: “You didn’t leave me with another option…” Her eyes wandered around as if she was searching for the next thing to say, her right hand subconsciously travelling over his chest.

She wanted to put the blame on him alone for this but had to admit that it was at least halfway her fault as well. Then again if he didn’t have to prove his abilities then… her eyes caught her hand realizing the feeling of her skin on his.

Did Ichigo always have a muscular body like this?

Her eyes were still fixed on his chest questioningly tilting her head.

“No, actually that was a lot of training.”

Rukia nodded absentmindedly before it hit her in the face: “Wait! What?!” Her eyes shot up to him: “You heard that?!” She sounded a little hysteric, understandably so. Rukia watched him in shock a few seconds then rolled herself on her back next to him. That didn’t just happen. He was just making fun of her again and didn’t have the slightest clue what she’d… Wait, did she say that out loud? She was ruffling her hair trying to calm down her breath. Her heart was racing. Seriously, if this was a joke it wasn’t funny…

“I didn’t know you payed attention to this kind of things.”

She would’ve liked to kill him for this stupid grin his voice gave away. Rukia exhaled deeply, biting her lip in order to keep her anger contained: “Well, I didn’t. That’s the reason I didn’t notice until now.”

Ichigo folded his arms behind his head she could see it from the corner of her eye. He was taking this so casually. “I didn’t know you saw me like that.” His idiot smile was still there, as if he had just learned that his high school crush liked him back.

“Like what?” Her voice was indifferent, even a little annoyed. She wanted to get this conversation over with.

He turned to the side to face her. She didn’t do the same.

“Like a man.”

Now she did. She rested her head on her hand and looked at him with a sarcastic expression: “Uhm, as far as I remember you are one, right? Unless you are actually a woman and are just really good in disguising as a man and making everyone believe you were one.”

Ichigo repressed a laugh: “I take that as a yes.”

Rukia rolled back onto her back: “Do what you want.”

A moment of silence followed.

Then she suddenly heard his voice in her head:

Your bankai looks really good on you. It’s beautiful.

Rukia turned only her head, skeptical if she had really heard him say that.

It suits you.

His lips had not moved at all.

It’s even… a little sexy.

Her eyes widened when she instantly jumped to her feet trying to get a few steps away: “Okay, that’s enough! I don’t know what you’re trying to do here, but this is definitely going too far.”

He’d never seen her so close to panicking before.

We’re in the middle of war. We cannot. This is not about us. We have to…

“Rukia.” He grabbed her shoulder turning her around to him: “Don’t you see what just happened?”

She was frozen in her spot just like their surroundings had because of her bankai.

“It worked.” He declared in triumph when she didn’t react, another rare smile on his face.

She blinked at him a few times until it finally sank in.

“We did it.” Rukia murmured. He was right she did hear his thoughts – word for word. “We really did it.” She repeated, this time fully aware what this meant. They would be able to defeat him, to win, to end the war.

A few moments of silence followed. None of them really knew what to say or what to think. There wouldn’t be any way to hide from now on, would it?

Ichigo cleared his throat breaking the awkward moment between them: “Well, uhm… So…” He looked right then left, not sure how to tell her. “You know… now that… we are able to hear each other’s thoughts…” This time he did scratch the back of his head. “Well now that you will find out anyway... I can just tell you myself… I guess.” A deep exhale followed before he looked back into her eyes: “I really like you. Not as a friend, not as my partner in battle, not as the person who saved my life, but…”

“I know.”

A frown appeared on his face and he looked a little confused. Rukia just smiled one of her soothing smiles: “I mean it’s not like we had no idea about our feelings for each other until now.”

His frown deepened. “Weren’t you the one close to panic just a second ago because I hinted something like that? And now you are acting like this is absolutely normal?”

She rolled her eyes, a little sigh followed: “Well, now that you’ve actually said it… there’s no reason to anymore. When you’re set to do something nothing and no one can stop you, that’s how it’s always been. So… as you said – we’ll know anyway.”

I’d like to kiss you.

What’s holding you back?

I don’t know, isn’t this… What if you’re right and this is going too fast?

We’re at war, yes. Maybe it’s not the best timing.

Thought so.

But, maybe it’ll help us. Because there’s nothing left unsaid between us.

So you think we will win?

What do you think?

Well I can do anything, as long as you are right next to me. So, yeah we will.

We will.

We will win.

 And then he kissed her. And he would wonder why they didn’t do this earlier. And she would ‘say’ that he just didn’t ask.

They would fight the finally battle together. They would win. They would survive. They would save everyone just like the zero squad and Urahara had hoped. But most importantly in the end they would be happy. And Juhabach would never return.

 Because it was their story – a story where life and death would no longer be apart.

[tayman001]

GrimmIchi (post epilogue): Includes some Anime characters and an original character of mine also using Anime terms. 10

Taylor fixes the toilet and leave the house

Taylor: There its done.

Ichigo: Good. runs to the toilet

Taylor: I never saw him run that fast before.

Grimmjow: I have, lets just say him seeing chocolate getting vaporized gets him to run away that fast while crying.

Taylor: "Vaporized" as in eaten by someone else?

Grimmjow: No "vaporized" as in turned to ash.

Taylor: Well he has no worry about me doing that since I also go crazy for chocolate, especially factory made Chocolate Milk and Chocolate Cake. Though I've never ran away crying when seeing chocolate get vaporized, I have however ran as fast as him upon seeing any member of the family of bees which include wasps.

Grimmjow: So the new Head Captain of the 13 Court Guard Squads is scared of bees... You are just a wimp.

Taylor: I'm also scared of heights which doesn't activate if I'm walking on the air since then I don't have to fear falling and needles which ties into my fear of bees because what I fear most about bees is the possibility of being stung.

Grimmjow: At least you didn't say death.

Taylor: That goes without saying.

Grimmjow: You're a coward.

Taylor: Oh and I fear for my Fiancé Anthony's life.

Grimmjow: That is understandable since I fear for Ichigo's life.

Taylor: Speaking of Ichigo is it taking a long time on the toilet if its just pee since its been an hour.

Grimmjow: Should I go check on him?

Taylor, Rukia, Renji, Isshin and Masaki: Yeah we'd say you should.

Grimmjow: OK. proceeds to check on Ichigo

Grimmjow returns a moment later freaking out

Taylor: Please don't tell me he appears to be dead or that his bladder actually exploded before he managed to release it.

Grimmjow: THEN EXPLAIN WHY HE IS LIFELESS!

Taylor: Was he holding his Lieutenant's Badge in his hand?

Grimmjow: Yeah.

Taylor: Then it probably detected a Hollow and he went after it. proceeds to sense the area and then leaves when he senses Ichigo

Grimmjow: Well Taylor left.

Rukia: He probably detected Ichigo's Spirit Energy and went to his location.

Isshin: I'd go to but points to the gurney I have a patient.

Masaki: I have to take care of the house.

Renji: I'm not going if Rukia isn't.

Grimmjow: Well that means I have to go. proceeds to follow Taylor

Meanwhile at Karakura High School

Ichigo is fighting about 10 hollows with all 3 levels of Menos Grande

Taylor: Ichigo are you an idiot don't risk getting surrounded unless you knew I'd show up.

Ichigo: I knew you'd show yourself Taylor after all when we first met you were facing a group of Hollows.

Grimmjow: I'm here too, honey.

Ichigo: Grimm, try to attack using Cero or Gran Rey Cero so you and our unborn sons don't get hurt.

Grimmjow: On it.

Taylor: Ichigo, you and Grimmjow focus on the Gillian and the Adjuchas while I take on the Vasto Lorde and the lesser Hollows.

Ichigo and Grimmjow: Got it.

Taylor: Now, BANKAI!

Taylor says something inaudible and proceeds to fight using his Bankai

Grimmjow covers Ichigo by firing his Ceros and Gran Ray Ceros at the incoming Ceros

Ichigo defeats the Gillian and Adjuchas with ease while Taylor defeats the Vasto Lorde and lesser Hollows with ease

Taylor reseals his Zanpakutō

Taylor: There that's all of them. Now lets head back.

Ichigo and Grimmjow: Right!

Meanwhile at the Kurosaki Clinic

Rukia collapses at random

Renji: Rukia!

[wordsdrippinginink]

A bleach prompt, something with Ichigo can see zampukto spirits and for some reason nobody figures that out

Ichigo had stopped being subtle about it months ago, talking to Benihime when there was no one else he could possibly mean or exchanging looks with Senbonzakura, even if he couldn't see the faces that he made back. Last week, he had vanished for the better part of three days and stated that Ryujin Jakka had wanted to train.

"They think you're joking," Sode no Shirayuki states, shaking her head as Benihime snorts. "Something about a prank?"

"Why would I prank them about their zanpakuto?" Ichigo asks as he smacks Shiro's hands away from the sake he isn't even supposed to have. "How am I supposed to get the names of all their zanpakutos to do this?"

"They're being foolish, as they normally are," Benihime shakes her head. "Even my wielder hasn't noticed."

Sakanade’s tail lashes behind her as Zangetsu pushes a plate of cookies closer to her, “Even Shinji hasn’t noticed anything. The only people who might are the Shiba and they would speak to you directly.”

“They’re family and Kukaku isn’t gonna trust the Shinigami with anything. Probably never will, not after what happened to clan when Kaien died,” Ichigo says tapping the table as he checks over his homework. Just because there was a war going on, it didn’t mean that his grades were going to slip. “Anything new from the front?”

“Nothing worth noting,” Senbonzakura answers, appearing in the gap between Sode no Shirayuki and Benihime, looking worse for the wear. “The shinigami insist that they don’t need to truly call you in yet, even if you were the only one to put a dent in enemy forces.”

Ichigo snorts, shoving his homework into his school bag and shoving the tea pot towards him, “They’re still trying to pretend that they can get Orihime back on their own then?”

“Are you not worried about her?”

“Orihime’s not an idiot and she’s good at manipulating people, sort of. She’ll make a friend and they’ll protect her. Besides, just because her attack fairy died, doesn’t mean that she’s not able to protect herself.”

“I had some questions about that,” Benihime says, her eyes sparkling with something that Ichigo would almost call curiosity in someone else, a look that he’s seen on Urahara more than once. “Do you know anything about those clips?”

Ichigo frowns, “A gift from her dead brother. I think. She’s worn them since he died, the last thing he gave her. But as far as I know they weren’t specially made or anything like that.”

“I suppose that an easy answer would be too much to ask.”

“Are you talking to yourself again?” Renji asks, currently guarding Ichigo even though Ichigo had repeatedly told them he didn’t need to be guarded. “Why are you having a tea party?”

“I have friends over,” Ichigo answers, even if he can hear Sode no Shirayuki giggling and Sakanade cackling. “Was there something you needed?”

Renji looks like he thinks Ichigo is more insane than that weird mime captain, which is unfair, he knows where Urahara had dug that man up, but shakes his head, closing the door behind him muttering softly.

“I would have thought him more observant,” Senbonzakura states, his cup still in midair, where it had been since Renji opened the door. “Perhaps I should make a mention of it to my wielder.”

Ichigo shakes his head, “Byakuya hasn’t noticed either, best not to say anything. Which reminds me, I thought we had a deal about Muramasa.”

[bleach-your-panties]

So I made this. I stan Swae Lee and Izuru, okay? Leave me alone. Song: Unforgettable -French Montana ft. Swae Lee.

Unforgettable

~

Izuru shyly sat next to Shuuhei and Renji in a darkened corner of the shoddy bar in the 78th Rukongai district where Renji had grown up. In fact, it was Renji’s idea to come out tonight.

The pale blond wasn't a stranger to bar-hopping with his friends, but this bar, in particular, had a stage where different performers put on acts as free entertainment for the bar-goers.

So far tonight, the trio had seen multiple acts that were quite impressive. Renji had been intrigued by the fire-eaters; Shuuhei took a liking to the magicians and card-readers; yet, Izuru hadn't really found anything that was of interest to him.

"Come on, Izuru, you've been sitting there all night with the same bland look on your face. Are you even enjoying yourself?" The redhead piped up indignantly.

Shuuhei looked at his blond friend with slight concern, knowing how Izuru's moods tended to shift at any given moment.

Heaving a large sigh, Izuru struggled just a bit to put a smile on his face. He had a lot on his mind right now, and even though his friends meant well, he'd rather just go back to his squad barracks, take a soothing bath, and go to sleep.

His lieutenant duties exhausted him and honestly, he didn't even know how he was awake and alert at the current moment.

Renji scoffed, looking away from the blond and preparing to get out of his seat.

"I'm going to the bar to get more drinks."

Silence fell around the small table after Renji left, Shuuhei not really knowing what to say and Izuru not really in the mood to talk.

The current act finished up their set and exited the stage.

The stage lights went out for a second, cloaking the bar in near-total darkness.

Music with an African rhythm began playing, and the lights slowly began to light up the room periodically, in the same fashion as a pulsating heart.

Izuru, who was sitting with his elbow propped up on the table with his head in his palm, looked up curiously as a young woman walked onto the stage.

She stood no taller than 5'4" with a beautifully smooth, brown complexion with long, straight dark hair. Izuru couldn't really see the color of her eyes, but he could tell that they had a unique shape that he'd never seen before on anyone in the district.

Her outfit was the next aspect of her being to catch his attention: long, flowing white pants that were so long they covered her feet, flaring out at the ankles. The material looked to be chiffon, but don't quote him on that.

The top she wore was white as well, with no sleeves and material that covered her breasts crossing from one shoulder, wrapping around, and vice versa, then stopping above her navel. Her pierced navel was sporting a bejeweled belly chain.

She was one of the most beautiful women that Izuru had ever seen and he currently couldn't take his eyes off of her.

It's not good enough for me Since I've been with you, ooh It's not gonna work for you Nobody can equal me (I know)

She stepped into the middle of the stage and it was then that Izuru noticed she was holding two thin sticks, each with a long white strip of silk ribbon attached to the end of them.

"A ribbon twirler…" he breathed out, sitting up straighter to get a better view. Renji had returned to the table with the drinks by this time and had sat down before Izuru even noticed he had returned.

"What's got him so enamored?" Renji asked, looking at Shuuhei. Shuuhei pointed at the stage, then grabbed a drink for himself.

Renji took a look at the stage and his mouth dropped open comically.

The ribbon-twirling woman was moving her body poetically to the beat.

I'm gonna sip on this drank When I'm fucked up I should know how to pick up

She brought up both of her ribbons up above her head and did a slow winding movement, only moving the lower half of her body.

I'm gonna catch the rhythm While she push up against me Ooh, is she tipsy?

On the word 'catch' she threw one up in the air and caught it when it came down, after twirling around in a circle.

To Izuru, everything was happening in slow motion. The swirl of her hips, the swish of her hair, and the flutter of her clothing.

He grabbed one of the drinks that Renji had brought back and took a slow sip.

I had enough convo, for 24 I peeped you from across the room Pretty little body dancing like GoGo, aye

She waved the ribbons above her head, one in a clockwise motion and one in a counterclockwise motion, then bent backward at the waist and made a circle. When she straightened up again she rocked her hips from side to side.

And you are, unforgettable I need to get you alone Ooh, why not?

"Izuru. Earth to Izuru. Hey!" Renji shouted close to the blond's ear. Izuru jumped a little and gave the redhead a sharp look.

"What?"

"You're zoning out, man."

Shuuhei smirked a little. "I don't think he's zoning out. I think he's zoning in. To her." He pointed to the woman on the stage.

Izuru's cheeks flushed while Renji laughed at him.

"Wow, I've never seen you interested in any girl this much, well except for Momo maybe."

"He's interested because she's making his…, ahem, " Shuuhei said cheekily before looking off to the side and taking another sip of his drink.

"S-shut up, Shuuhei!" Izuru's entire face was red now. His neck was starting to itch and his ears burned.

"I found an act that interests me and that I'm enjoying. Now you're making fun of me for that." He rolled his eyes, picking up his drink and leaving the table.

"Wait, where are you going?" Renji asked, watching the irritated blond walk off.

Izuru just gave them both a half-ass wave and continued walking to the front of the bar where the stage was located.

A fucking good time never hurt nobody I got a little drank But it's not Bacardi

If you loved the girl Then I'm so so sorry I gotta give it to her like we in a marriage

Ohh, like we in a hurry No, no I won't tell nobody You're on your level too Tryna do what lovers do

The tables near the front of the bar were more crowded, probably because the patrons were trying to get the best view of the entertainment.

The woman on the stage was winding her body seductively to the music. Many of the male patrons were whistling and cat-calling her, which started to irritate Izuru.

He managed to find himself an empty table off to the side and sat down at it. When he looked up, he was shocked to see the woman on stage looking at him.

Her eyes were the color of molten copper. Dark makeup outlined them, making them stand out even more. Deep red lipstick covered her lips, and when she smiled, he could see her straight, white teeth.

‘Wow, she is absolutely alluring. She’s probably not even looking at me though, there are so many people here, she may be looking at someone she knows.’ Izuru thought to himself sadly.

Although that negative thought had seeped into his mind, little did he know that the woman on stage was checking him out while she did her routine.

As the music continued playing, many people in the crowd abandoned their seats and began clearing away the tables so that they could dance.

Izuru just stayed put and bobbed his head to the music a little. He'd ordered another drink from the bar and was now working on it.

The woman from the stage quietly slipped away while everyone was dancing and distracted.

"Excuse me."

Izuru looked up and almost flipped out of his chair when he saw her standing in front of him.

"I-I...umm, h-hello. You startled me."

"I saw you watching me dance. What is your name?"

He stupidly pointed to himself. "M-my name?"

She looked to her right, to her left, then back at Izuru. "Yes. Your name, Blue Eyes." This time he heard an accent when she spoke.

He blushed. "It's Izuru. Izuru Kira."

"Very interesting name, Izuru. My name is Malaika. Would you like to dance with me?" She put out her hand for him to grab.

Hesitantly, he took her hand and pulled himself up from his seat. He easily towered over her short stature.

"I..don't know how to dance.." He mumbled in embarrassment.

Malaika smiled. "You do not need to worry about that. Just follow me." She walked in front of him, leading him by the hand.

Izuru couldn't help but look down at her; the curve of her hips and swell of her supple behind instantly turned him on. Ashamed of himself for looking, he quickly averted his eyes and focused on the lighting around the stage as they passed by it.

Malaika gently backed Izuru up against a wall close to the back of the establishment where the alcohol was served. They were in a small corner shielded from any prying eyes since they were behind the bar.

"Here, take my hand, Blue Eyes."

Izuru did as she said, mesmerized by her body and her eyes. She could've told him to jump off of a cliff right then and he would've done it.

She used his hand to twirl herself around and press her backside up against his front. Izuru's breath hitched in his throat; he wasn't used to being in close contact with women, even though he was friends with Rangiku and Momo.

"Relax and ride the wave…" Malaika guided his other arm around her waist as she began rocking her hips from side to side, just like she’d done on stage.

Ride with me Ride with me, boss (boss) I got a hard head But her ass soft (soft)

She want the last name With the ring on it 'Cause I pulled out a million cash Told her plank on it

The lights dimmed and Izuru's head began to swim. He wasn't drunk, no, something else was making him feel light-headed.

Lust.

With a tiny surge of confidence, (or primal instinct, perhaps), he put both of his hands on the sultry dancer’s waist and followed her movements. She raised a perfectly outlined eyebrow, smiling slightly at his sudden initiative.

Turning around and gently grabbing his wrists, she pushed him further against the wall with her body, then let go of him. Izuru looked at her questioningly.

“Ride the wave…” She whispered, putting her hands on his waist and slowly moving them up to his chest. Her fingers explored the smoothness of his burgundy, silk dress shirt.

“Hmm..” Izuru moaned lowly as she brushed over his nipples with her thumbs.

And you are, unforgettable I need to get you alone (Now you wanna choose Just pop bubbly in the ‘cuzi)

Their two bodies melded together in a titillating fashion on the dance floor. Pale hands grabbed at pristine, white fabric while bronzed ones slid against burgundy.

Izuru was enjoying this free feeling that Malaika gave him. With her, he was able to just let go. No excessive alcohol needed. Unless he was already tipsy?

It’s not good enough for me Since I’ve been with you, ooh

I’m gonna sip on this drank When I’m fucked up I should know how to pick up

I’m gonna catch the rhythm While she push up against me Ooh, is she tipsy?  

His hands gripped her ass and she slipped her fingers into his belt loops.

“Malaika...I..”

"If you are going to say that you do not usually do things like this and that you are a gentleman, I do not want to hear it."

"But I-"

She brought a finger to his lips, parting them gently. "I want you, Blue Eyes."

His eyes widened noticeably, but they shot open entirely when she put her hands on his cheeks and brought his head down to plant a salacious kiss on his lips.

His heartbeat quickened, and, surprising himself, he kissed her back.

Izuru wrapped his arms around her waist and hoisted her up onto his.

"Is there somewhere we could go?" He whispered, breath tickling her ear and neck.

I had enough convo, for 24 I peeped you from across the room Pretty little body dancing like GoGo, aye

And you are, unforgettable I need to get you alone Ooh, why not?

"Izuru..."

"Shit, Malaika...fuck.."

His shirt had been discarded at the door, buttons flying off as her impatient fingers ripped it off of him.

Belt snatched out of its loops only to be used to tie his hands to the bedpost.

They'd traded in the dance floor for the bar owners' bedroom in the very back. How Malaika had a key to it, he didn't know, but that was the furthest thing from his mind as she rode him.

Her breasts jerked deliciously in her scanty top, while Izuru kissed and sucked on her neck.

A fucking good time never hurt nobody I got a little drank But it's not Bacardi

If you loved the girl 

Then I’m so so sorry

I gotta give it to her like we in a marriage

Ohh, like we in a hurry

No, no I won’t tell 

You're on your level too Tryna do what lovers do

You ain't enough for me Too much for you alone Baby go and grab some bad bitches Bring em home

"Izuru...I think I am close…" Malaika whined as said blond drilled into her from behind.

"Just a little more...ungh…" Sweat dripped from his forehead onto her back.

The headboard knocked against the wall with a resounding 'bang, bang, bang.'  A thin sheen of sweat coated Malaika's back, giving her skin an ethereal glow. Izuru moved some of her sweat-slickened hair out of the way and planted a kiss on her back while still inside of her.

He sped up his thrusts, feeling his release coming soon. Never in his life had he done anything like this and it felt amazing.

"Oh, Izuru! Izuru...I-!" She was cut off by her orgasm rippling through her. All of her senses ignited and combusted at the same time, sending her into a spiral of pleasure.

"Malaika….! NNGH, FUCK! AH!" He released into the condom, breathing heavily before collapsing on the bed beside the chocolate goddess.

Too much convo for 24 hours When you stand next to 24 karats She left her man at home She don't love him no more

I want your mind and your body Don't mind nobody So you don't ever hurt nobody Baby girl, work your body, work your body

"Where were you? We looked all over for you." Renji asked Izuru as they were all walking home.

"I had to...go to the bathroom."

Shuuhei raised an eyebrow. "You were in the bathroom for three hours?"

"I was constipated." The blond said, trying not to laugh at the ridiculous excuse that he was giving his friends.

"Bull and shit. You were with a girl." Renji said with a cocky grin and a laugh.

Izuru looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

Shuuhei smirked. "Malaika, huh? That's a pretty name."

"W-wait, how do you guys know about Malaika?"

"Dude, first of all, you went missing for three hours. Second, your shirt is wrinkled and missing some buttons, lover boy." Renji snickered.

Izuru's face immediately flared up. He'd forgotten all about his shirt.

"Her name means 'angel' in Swahili, by the way." Shuuhei added. Of course he would know something like that.

"Wow, I didn't know…" He zoned out the rest of what they were saying.

Their jeering and fun-poking didn't bother him as he thought of Malaika, his seductive little angel in white.

He pulled a folded piece of pink stationery out of his pocket.

I had fun with you tonight, Blue Eyes. I hope it is not the last time that we meet. You are a great dance partner ;)

Come see me again sometime. I'll be waiting.

-Malaika

Tonight it definitely felt like he'd experienced a little piece of heaven.

And you are, unforgettable I need to get you alone Ooh, why not?

(Now you wanna choose Just pop bubbly in the 'cuzi) Why not?

Oh, like we in a hurry No, no I won't tell nobody You're on your level too Tryna do what lovers do

[feelingfredly]

The Fox Guards the Wolf

Chapter 20--Killing Two Birds with One Stone

Ichigo had been slogging away all afternoon.  His eyes burned and his fingers were considering committing mutiny, but he had to get to the end of this scene.  Coming back deal with a dead body was a bitch after you’d gotten past the high of killing them off.  Or at least it was when you were writing it.  He’d have to ask Kisuke if he wanted first-hand information.

He tried to imagine the look on the blond’s face as he answered. Would this be one of the answer-without-even-slowing-down questions, or one of the-just-how-much-can-I-actually-explain-without-making-this-weird questions? How long would they need to have been dating for him to start that conversation?  Three months?  Would they even get to three months?

Ichigo shook his head and forced away that train of thought.  One day at a time, Kurosaki, he told himself. You have to survive this mess with Okura before you start freaking out over relationship stuff.

Plus, he needed to focus on the very real need of getting his manuscript finished.  He’d had very little time to work on it lately, but the radio silence with Kisuke was driving him crazy and work was clearly his best escape, otherwise he’d just end up pacing the apartment trying to convince himself that waiting wasn’t a waste of time.

Kisuke was trained to deal with situations like this, or at least with people like Okura, and Ichigo knew his experiences dealing with low-level thugs didn’t qualify him for anything more than an occasional street fight; he’d long pushed past his skill parameters.

He kept telling Ichigo to wait, to stay safe, that he'd let him know when it was time to make the next move.  Maybe Ichigo had gotten to be too much of a handicap.   His position at the Onmi had never been anything but a joke to Kisuke, and now that they knew that the Director’s plan was to take the blond out of the equation one way or another, saddling him with a civilian ‘bodyguard’ was clearly meant to hobble him. Ichigo was supposed to be a distraction at best, and cannon fodder at worst. Kawasaki probably thought Kisuke’s bizarre knight-in-shining-bucket-hat routine would make him more vulnerable if he had to divide his attention between taking on Okura and protecting Ichigo. The fucker didn’t know what he’d done, though, because protecting the people he cared about was what Ichigo did. The fact that the Director didn’t mean for it to be real meant exactly nothing. Ichigo was going to protect Kisuke, damn it. Nothing was going to hurt him or anyone else as long as he was in the picture.

He was going to… knock, knock, knock. A quietly insistent rapping at the door broke into his mental diatribe.

He was going to answer the door, apparently.

His new apartment was technically in the same complex as the one he’d had with Renji, but it was an older building on the other side of the development, and they hadn’t gotten around to putting in much security. Kisuke had made up for that which was good because with his family still out of town there was no one who should be visiting him.  Ichigo reached up and pressed the tiny receiver button hidden in the shaggy edges of his hair.

One set of life signs in the hallway.   Female. Does not match any friends or family on file.  Running facial recognition subroutine.

The stripped-down version of the security AI Kisuke developed couldn’t do nearly as much as the original, but it was better than a peephole or a hackable video doorbell.

Facial recognition hit.  Maki Hideko.

Ichigo wrestled with the name for a moment before placing it as belonging to the woman he’d met at Okura’s office building.  His shitsuji.

“Just a minute!” Ichigo closed down his computer and disconnected it from the wifi.  He wasn’t exactly paranoid, but he didn’t want to run any unnecessary risks.

Once the humming stopped, he stood up from the desk, grimacing as his body groaned and popped in complaint at having been stuck in one position too long.

“If you’re from the NHK, I don’t even have a TV.  And I’m unemployed right now.” He grinned to himself at the absurdity of it, but there was no reason to let the butler know she’d been made, right?  He snagged his button-down from the back of the couch as he passed, slinging it around his shoulders as he opened the door.

“I told you,” he started, sticking with the pretense, and was gratified to see the look of consternation on the woman’s face.  “Oh!” He dropped a careless bow. “My apologies…  ah…   Maki-san…? I wasn’t expecting anyone.”

She was just as beautiful as Ichigo remembered, but something about the way she was dressed implied that this might be a less formal visit than their last had been.

“Please forgive me, Kurosaki-san.” Maki bowed much deeper than Ichigo had. “I hope I am not intruding.  It’s just that…” she turned her head to one side and lowered her lashes in a move that Yuzu had categorized as totally harmless look, number 3, and actually managed to blush. “Well, it’s just that Okura-dono has been worried about how things have been going for you. He was going to send someone over to check on you to make sure that you were settling in okay and that no one at the Onmi was giving you any trouble, so I volunteered.” She gave a little shrug, “You did say you were curious about shitsuji, and I thought I could kill two birds with one stone.”

Ichigo shifted his weight slightly on his feet.  Well, this was unexpected.   On the one hand, dealing with anyone sent by Okura was a gamble, but on the other...

“Oh, that is very kind of you to offer!” He bowed again, this time a little lower and with a smile instead of his typical scowl. “As you can see, I’m fine, and everyone at the Onmi has respected my resignation, so Okura-san needn’t worry. But I really would like to ask you some questions about your training and experiences. Could we go somewhere?  Maybe talk over a cup of coffee?”

Maki gave him a slow smile—ah yes… Gotcha, look number 2.  Thank you, Yuzu!—and said, “Make it tea, and you’ve got a deal.”

Tea it was, then.

***

“Yes, and then Okura-dono tripped over the tray that I left and ended up on the floor.  I was so afraid that he was going to fire me.  I mean, that is exactly what a good shitsuji is supposed to prevent from happening.  You’re supposed to know what your master needs before he knows.  Provide everything before their request can even be formed into words.”

Ichigo laughed at the image of Okura Kagetaka falling ass-over-teakettle but couldn’t help but notice that the stories being spun for him had been carefully crafted to make Okura a sympathetic character. Kisuke might play the buffoon at times, but he would never simply stumble over an inanimate object.  Actually, he’d managed to navigate Ichigo’s bedroom—a room he’d never even seen—backwards, in the dark, and with Ichigo’s mouth all over him without bumping into a single piece of furniture or tripping over the books on the floor or the cords stretched from the wall to the bed where his tech was charging.  It was unlikely that Okura had that much less situational awareness; Kisuke would have taught him better than that.

Good thing no one expected Maki Hideko to be a reliable narrator in this story.

“So, do most people think of you as an assistant? A servant?  A member of the family?  You hear so many conflicting stories, it’s hard to know what’s realistic.”

Maki sipped her tea and looked thoughtful for a moment.

“They are all realistic in their way. You see, there are as many roles for shitsuji as there are masters.  Every employer has a different set of needs and it is the duty of the shitsuji to fill those needs.  I joined my first master when he was very young. He had inherited a fortune and a position within his family’s company but was lacking in the administrative skills necessary to run a household.  For him I was everything from an administrative assistant to a proxy hostess, making sure that gatherings went smoothly, and guests were happy.  I left his employ when he married because his wife had a long-term family retainer who filled that place for her, and she was more comfortable running things without my assistance.”

Ichigo could put two and two together.  The wife hadn’t wanted someone around who would make her look bad in comparison.  It was hard to blame her. Maki Hideko would be hard to compete with.

“Then, I worked as an assistant to the shitsuji of a family whose head was a member of the Diet.  One butler was not nearly enough to fulfill the needs of that family, but when I was offered the opportunity to move on to assist one of his associates, I jumped at the chance to run a household on my own again. That’s how I ended up with Okura-dono.”

So, Okura was an associate to a member of the Diet.  That was a little heavier than Ichigo had expected, but honestly, politicians were politicians no matter how high on the food chain.  Okura had money and leverage, two things that politicians needed more than blood or oxygen.

“The hardest part about switching employers is where you have to completely reprogram your responses to things.  You might have a master who is a stickler about your being silent until you are spoken to.  It isn’t unusual, honestly—there are lots of masters who prefer to think of their shitsuji simply as tools, efficient and always at hand, and they pay well for the privilege—but then your next station could require that you handle correspondence proactively, or handle telephone calls and invitations without running everything past your master first. It can be difficult to change gears like that.”

“I’m assuming that Okura Kagetaka isn’t one of the don’t-speak-until-spoken-to masters?” Ichigo asked.

Maki gripped her teacup tighter, and Ichigo noted that her fingernails were short and well-manicured, probably so they wouldn’t interfere with her work.  Or her fighting.

“No.  Okura-dono isn’t like that.  He is very…  progressive in his expectations. Not many women become shitsuji, and I must admit that a few have very misguided notions of how we are to behave. It has been refreshing to have a master that respects my skills and allows me to take on new responsibilities.”

Ichigo had wondered about the whole female butler thing. The Butler Café fad sweeping through the city had to affect people who wanted to be taken seriously in the role, especially women.

“He seemed like a very talented guy.” Ichigo tried to sound sincere but perplexed. “I still don’t understand why he’s so invested in this whole situation with me and the Onmi, but I’m not going to ignore kindness when I see it.”

Maki sat back in her chair a little and looked at him over her tea.  “A very wise decision, Kurosaki-san.  Kindness is a rarity in this world.”

Ichigo nodded.  “Still it almost always comes at a price.”

They sat like that in silence for a few moments before Maki set her cup on the table and turned her full attention on him.  Her eyes were dark and lovely and if Ichigo hadn’t recently developed a thing for gray eyes they might have made an impact.

“Kurosaki-san,” she said, gingerly stretching her fingers across the table’s surface towards him, never being forward enough to actually touch him, but the suggestion of it was clear.  “I know that Okuro-dono is very powerful and it must feel strange to have earned his consideration, but he wants you to trust him, to rely on him as a mentor, even.  He sees so much potential in you and feels very strongly that it is his responsibility to keep watch over you.  He has known Urahara Kisuke for more than a decade; knows how dangerous he can be.  Believe me, he will do whatever he can to keep you from Urahara’s clutches.”

Clutches?  Ichigo had to smother a laugh and hide his face in his tea.  Hopefully he just looked overwhelmed by the attentions of a pretty girl.

She was really good at this, he admitted.  Nothing she said was untrue; Okura would do whatever he could to keep Ichigo from Kisuke.  It was his motivation that was suspect.

“I don’t know what to say,” he dipped his head a little.  “I started out just trying to help a stranger, and now I’m in the middle of something that I wouldn’t even put in my novel it seems so farfetched.”

Maki shifted and suddenly her chair was a little closer.  “I’ve been wanting to ask—I hope it isn’t too forward of me—but how does someone who selflessly helps a stranger in a coffee shop have the connections that you do to the Yakuza?”

Ichigo thought about how he should explain.

“I don’t, really,” he said, and could see the disbelief settle on her face. “I mean, they’re from the neighborhood, and I’ve known a lot of them since primary school.  The guy with me the other day?  His little brother and I were in the same class.”

“My dad was a cop, so I knew better than to run with them, and my mom…  well, she died because of a turf war when I was a kid.  Total case of wrong place/wrong time plus a healthy dose of it can’t happen to me. But, between those things I ended up being the guy the local gang wanted to recruit but couldn’t.   They tried to beat it out of me a couple of times, but I just learned how to fight back, and after a while…  well, it was almost like I’d earned enough respect that they let me be.”

“But Masuda…” Maki stopped the name short, clearly trying not to call attention to the fact that she knew his name when there was no reason for her to, “the man you were with the other day.  He called you boss.”

Ichigo let her play it off.  “Yeah, Masuda calls everyone boss, except his boss.  He calls Mamushi kumichō-dono.”

That seemed to satisfy her on some level.

“I thought it was strange,” she started, and then started again.   “Okura-dono doesn’t approve of Yakuza, so it seemed a little odd…”

Ichigo smiled. “Why would a nice guy like him help out a bad guy like me?   Yeah…  not with the Yakuza.  I mean, I’ve had more than my fair share of dealings with them—you can’t ignore them—but your boss isn’t sullying his hands by helping me.”

Two pink spots appeared on Maki’s cheeks and Ichigo thought she might actually be embarrassed. “I didn’t mean anything like that, Kurosaki-san.  I apologize most humbly if it came across that way.”

Ichigo nodded. “I understand.  Believe me.  I know what I look like.  You should see how they react to me when I’m working in the wards at the hospital.  *gasp* That’s my doctor?  No!”

He held his hands up to his chest in a dramatic motion of denial, and a tiny smile quirked Maki’s lip.

“Surely not, Kurosaki-san.  I am convinced that you have the patients eating out of your hands.”

Ichigo sipped his tea and gave a mournful look.  “Oh, if only, Maki-san.  It would have made my decision to be a writer instead of a doctor much harder if that had been the case.”

“A writer,” she looked suitably doubtful, like every other person he’d ever told that to, “and how does that work?”

At this point he had no idea why they were still talking, but why not.

“Well, when I was working at the Onmi it was easy.  I basically camped out in the corner of the room and wrote all day while other people did their stuff.  Before that I had to carve out whatever time I could between class and the hospital and family time.  I spent a lot of time in coffee shops, which is what got me into this mess in the first place.”

He thought back to that day and shook his head.  “Feels like forever ago.  Weird that it’s only been what?  A month and a half?”

“Seven weeks.” The words were out of her mouth so quickly she couldn’t stop them.  “Ah, that’s what Okura-dono…” she looked like she was trying not to swallow her tongue.

Ichigo nodded, “Yeah.  That’s about right.  Time flies.”

And if that didn’t make it clear that he’d been on Okura’s radar the whole time, he was a natural brunet.

Maki sat up even straighter and smiled, all seriousness banished and her almost-flirtatious edge back. “Hopefully, because you’re having fun.”

Well, Ichigo thought as he watched her change gears, a little flirtation never hurt anyone, and returned the smile.

“Good company makes everything more fun.”

***

Good company, indeed, Kagetaka thought, as he adjusted the sound on the receiver a little.

He quickly skimmed through the notes he’d taken, pleased with the groundwork Maki’d laid.  He’d told her to take it slow because Kurosaki wasn’t as easily led as his father, but he was clearly not immune to the pretty girl’s charms.  She already had him talking about Kisuke’s work at the Onmi.

“Yeah,” the redhead was talking again, “he was always working on it, and talking to it.  He called it Yoruichi.  I guess he named it after a friend.  Maybe an old partner? I don’t know.”

Maki made a disapproving noise and Kagetaka could just imagine the delicate purse of her lips. “I don’t recognize the name, but it sounds like the program that was that was stolen from Okura-dono. The man has even less honor than I’ve been told.”

Yoruichi. Kagetaka’s lips twisted in a smile. That had to be the activation code that he needed. It was so obvious… he should have guessed. Kisuke had an enormous soft spot for the woman—but now he knew, and it didn’t matter. With the code he’d be able to activate the main routine as soon as he’d pried it out of Kisuke’s servers. Even better, his last message from Kawasaki said that the Shihoin woman’s partner was being set on a path to intercept any trouble with Mamushi.  It was going to be a lovely irony to use her partner against her. He could sow a tale of domestic troubles that would muddy the waters even more when he finally made his move.

The microphone picked up a faint noise, maybe Kurosaki doing something with his cup, and Okura waited until he started talking again.

“This whole situation is so strange.” He sounded almost defeated. Good. “After I met your boss, I went straight to Urahara and asked if what I’d been told was true. I expected denials and explanations, but he didn’t deny it at all.  He admitted straight out that he destroyed a project Okura had been working on.  Said that it was too dangerous for a private business, and that Okura should know better. But if he didn’t destroy it.  If he kept it….”  Kurosaki’s voice drifted away and Kagetaka wished he had more than just audio on the scene.  It would be nice to be able to gauge the redhead’s reactions better.

“Too dangerous?  That’s ridiculous. Okura-dono’s projects are all for the good of the people.  He wants to keep them safe.”  Maki sounded so righteous when she was defending him.  He’d clearly chosen the right person for this job. “The only people who want to stop him are the ones who lurk in the shadows and are afraid of his light. The Yakuza is afraid of him because he will expose their secrets, and Urahara hates him because he couldn’t control him or make him into a carbon-copy killer.  You are lucky to have gotten away when you did, Kurosaki-san.   The man is a menace.”

Kurosaki sighed and shifted noisily again.   “And here I thought I’d gotten better at judging people.  Maybe that’s why I like writing better than reality.  With stories I can just make things work the way I want them to.”

Kagetaka smirked.  He didn’t need to resort to fiction to have things the way he wanted them.  All he needed was time for the plans he’d put in motion would come to fruition, and Urahara Kisuke would be no more.

He picked up the phone.

“Chiaki-san,” he spoke crisply, “let Director Kawasaki know that I’ve gotten the information that he requested.  He can visit me in my office whenever he’s available, the sooner the better.”

He glanced at the clock and texted Maki-san.  Appointment scheduled.  Please adjust the calendar accordingly.

The mic crackled a little and Kagetaka heard the message notification on Maki’s phone ping.

“Oh, Kurosaki-kun,” she said, “this has been most enjoyable, but it seems my free time has come to an end.”

He could hear the shuffling as the two of them rose to their feet.

“No rest for the wicked, hmm?” Kurosaki teased and murmured something to their server.  “Thank you, then, for spending your valuable free time satisfying my curiosity.”

There was a minor scuffle as Kurosaki insisted on paying the bill, but Maki gave in with good grace.

Good girl, he thought.  Keep him on the hook a little longer.  It would be wise to keep tabs on the young man, even if he was just a pawn in the game.

“It was my pleasure, Kurosaki-san,” she said. Her bow was almost silent, only the sound of her hands whispering along the material of her slacks giving it away.  “Perhaps you will be able to use some of the information I provided in your stories.”

That was greeted with a short laugh and Kagetaka could hear the warmth in Kurosaki’s tone as he responded. “If there wasn’t a place for it already, I would make one.   It will be very useful.  Thank you.”

Kagetaka turned off the receiver and nodded. Very useful indeed.

[detachableteacher]

I decided to split the chapter

“Guys! What happened?!” I see the three students, pretty much beat up for some reason. 

Renji has his broken glasses on his pocket, Michio has scars that look like he tried to fight back, and Kyotaro is in the worst state, with the blood from his wounds staining his uniform. None of the injuries seem brutal but they’re in really bad shape.

“We were blindsided,” Michio speaks up. “Can you help us?”

“Of course, come, I’ll patch you up.” And I ask them to follow me to the door of the supermarket, making them wait outside to avoid making a scene. I quickly get some bandages and betadine, rush back to my students with the goods and little by little bandage every wound and bruise they got. “There, now let’s talk about this.”

“Thanks, sensei.” Renji winces a bit from the betadine but manages a smile.

“It’s nothing. What happened to you three?” We start walking to the park.

“We were about to go home,” Renji starts to answer. “Then suddenly these guys ambushed us.”

"What did you do to deserve this?”

“Remember that student Kyotaro had a run-in with?”

“Yeah.”

“He was part of a group in school, if I could say it like that.”

I look at Kyotaro, who hasn’t moved a bit. “Is it the one on the classroom next door?”

Renji nods. “That same one you went to. After all that we didn’t hear anything from anyone about them, then this happened, they approached us and let out.”

“Then they left?”

“Yeah. Kyotaro was badly hurt, so Michio and I helped him up and we were heading to the closest place we can get help, then I saw you.”

“Good thing none of your injuries are too serious. If they had any weapons that would be a different story. Are they Amakusa students, too?”

They all nod. Kyotaro finally speaks, “No way I’d let them lord over us.”

We don’t know how respond to that, but I try. “You sure do care about your friends.”

“They’re my only friends.” I turn to him as he talks. “I’ll hate myself if I can’t stand up for them, for us.”

“Don’t be too hard on yourself.”

“Of course there’s nothing fun with being pushed around. I won’t have any of it, sensei.”

And idea sprung up in my head. I ask. “You think this won’t be the last time?”

“Of course not, why are you asking?”

“I have something planned, I think.” He turns to me. “Don’t get too excited, no one gets hurt.”

“What’s it going to be then?”

“I’ll try to make a case, with the help of a few other students, of course. I bet the case against them will be stronger if they get caught.”

“Sounds great, sensei!” Renji exclaims. “How would you do it, though?”

I spitball whatever little plan I have written in my mind to them. “We’ll have to keep watch, or this this a regular thing?”

“They just do it whenever they feel like it.”

“If that’s the case, this might take a while, but we’ll get them eventually.”

“Are you sure, sensei?”

I nod. “I’ll make sure it gets done.”

“Thanks.”

After a short pause, now that the air is less tense, Kyotaro asks, probably after looking at me a bit longer than usual. “Sensei, are you really wearing earrings?”

“These?” I take them out and show them to him up close. “Yeah, I’ve had these for quite a while now.”

“I’ve always wanted to wear an earring, but mom and dad don’t want me to.”

“Once you’re old enough, you can have them pierced, I didn’t have these earrings planned, actually. I lost a bet in college and had to get my ears pierced.”

“Oh, I expected something more awesome.”

“People get tattoos and piercings just for the heck of it, even stupid reasons count. Besides, what you should do for now is recover. Are your houses near here?”

“Yeah, sensei, we can manage our way home.”

“Alright, I should head home. You sure you can handle yourselves on your way home?”

“We’ll be okay, sensei.” Kyotaro nods at me with a slight smile.

“See you in class, then, stay safe.”

We wave goodbye and I get up, walking back to my apartment, finally making the dinner I went outside for in the first place.

-----

The next day arrives, just like any other. I guess they didn’t talk much about what happened yesterday, and other than the bandages they’re going about as usual as if they simply tripped on the sidewalk.

On my way to get coffee, Yu strikes up a conversation. “Good morning, Jun! Saw you buying groceries last night.”

“Didn’t notice you, I was focusing more on buying my things.”

“Have you heard about what happened to Yamaguchi and his pals?”

I act dumb, not sure how to react. “What happened?”

“Fistfight, really bad. Good thing someone helped out.”

I give him a stern look. “Were you...”

“Don’t look at me like that! I just saw those three while I was eating at the new restaurant.” From surprised, he gets questioning. “Wait, do you know anything about this that I don’t?”

“Yeah, they saw me on my way home, helped them patch up.”

“They told you what happened to them?”

“Their wounds would’ve told me, but they did.”

“Did they tell you who did it?”

“Yeah, apparently that other student had a posse at hand.”

Yu pulls out his cellphone. “I have some idea.”

“Who?”

“Check these out.” He shows a videos of fistfighting. “One of my students sent me these, and there’s always the same group in every case.”

“Are they from the higher classes?” None of these faces look familiar to me.

“Yeah, this, this and this.”

“Wait a minute... I got an idea.”

“Really?”

“They didn’t tell me what they looked like. If Kyotaro and his friends recognize him then we have a better case.”

“I should’ve thought that myself.”

-----

Classes are still going as planned, and everyone in the classroom I’m in is waiting for lunch to come. I’ve talked to some students and Yu on the plan and will get detailed over lunch.

Before anything, though, I immediately walk to 2-C and as luck would have it, the three friends are leaving the room.

“Ah, sensei!” Renji notices me first. “Were you looking for us?”

“Hey, I was just talking to Maejima-sensei, do these guys looks familiar?” I pull out a copy of the student pictures of the suspects.

Kyotaro’s eyes widen. “Yes. How did you-”

“Maejima-sensei and I will explain everything, follow me.”

We meet at the faculty’s small meeting room to detail what to do, with Yu bringing a few members of the student council and a couple other complainants. This surely won’t be done by today, but you can never be too sure.

“So Maejima-sensei and I have asked for your help to deal with this matter that’s happening under our noses.” I start.

“Is it Yamaguchi again?”

“No, luckily.” I answer while waiting for Yu to put up the slides. “I’m sure you’ve seen these guys.” I show some pictures.

“Isn’t he the one who had a fight with Yamaguchi?” Another student asks at the last portrait.

“That wasn’t the end of it, apparently.” I look at him, and he looks back at me. “After class this student here came back with reinforcements, these guys, and retaliated onto Yamaguchi and his friends.”

“Because of how things might happen, some of you guys will have to get the complainants to this room,” Yu continues. “And some of you will have to back us up for when we approach these guys and ask them to come here.”

And we lay out the game plan. Two teachers and four students, that should be enough. We wait on our positions and in just a few minutes, a student has cued us in to keep keep an eye on what might happen.

“Hey,” I approach the targets. “we need to talk to you about something, can you come with us to the faculty?”

“What?” Everyone’s looking at us at this point.

“Please, just come.”

With everyone looking at us, they grunt in annoyance, mumble “Fine.” and follow us all the way to the meeting room.

-----

As Yu was already tackling all this before I heard of it, I let him deal with the conclusion. While it’s just us two teachers, a couple of overseers and some students from both sides inside the room, there are others waiting outside for what will happen.

The room would otherwise be unassuming if we teachers didn’t make it a storage room on the side. A round conference table surrounded by ten chairs are the features still keeping this room a conference room. Every chair is occupied but I’m standing next to Yu who’s busy explaining the details.

The TV screen and whiteboard blend into the wall they’re on, but the TV is being used to show the collected evidence.

Each student involved gives their testimony about the incidents in question. It starts with the plaintiffs. Questions get asked, and Yu verifies if they’re in the collected footage.

“What were you doing before this?” He asks Kyotaro.

“We had ramen. At the noodle shop by the park.” He answers. “Before that, we went to the arcade.”

“The three of you?”

“Yeah, just me, Michio and Renji.”

“Then after that, how did they approach you?”

“From behind a wall, then one of them grabbed me by the collar and talked shit at me about my girlfriend before punching me straight to the face.”

“The same one as...?”

He nods.

“And you had to punch back?”

He nods again. “I can’t remember anything after that, only the pain.”

After him, his other two mates coroborate their events, and the other party seems to be more that they’re here and not somewhere else.

----

“Are these you in these pictures?”

“Fuck no!” They obviously deny the accusations, and this kind of deflection went on a bit until Yu stops halfway with the back-and-forth.

“Wait, what’s this mark here...” We all look for what he’s seeing. In one of the pictures, one of the arms has a noticable mark. “Roll your sleeves up.” Yu commands the three and after that, one of them has that same mark, what seems to be a scar on the same part.

“But that doesn’t look like anything! Maybe it’s-”

“No, none of these were altered, and we have something for comparison. Jun?”

I guess he means my own scar. After a surprised blink, I take my head off, remove my choker, and reattach my head, showing my scar for comparison.

“How long have you had that mark?”

“I got this two years ago in a knife fight.”

“That had to hurt. Let me just...” Yu checks the arm scar. “Yeah, that kinda looks like the one on this footage, and your hairstyles match.”

“Is no one going to point out that he barely got hurt in a knife fight?” A student interjects.

“Let’s not. One last question, though.Who was the one that Yamaguchi got into a fight with again?”

He slowly raises his hand.

“Did you ask your mates to get even with him last night?”

“I did.”

“You could’ve just left it between the two of you.”

-----

After filing the documents and setting the responsible parties to probation a couple of days later, some students want to celebrate this with us: Yu and me. From the looks of it we’re heading to the noodle place.

In total, a dozen people are going, and take up three tables by the time everyone gets a seat, counting us teachers on a separate table. One bowl for every one of us, each paying for his own.

“Jun,” Yu starts talking. “You sure about it?”

“About what?”

“Yamaguchi. I heard a bit about it, you’re planning to help him out yourself?”

“Yeah. I’m not saying I can fix him, but he can do better.”

“I can’t stop you, but lemme ask, why?”

I fall silent. Yeah, why am I doing this? You don’t exactly see a potential in Kyotaro at first glance, doesn’t scream out special. He fits every known stereotype about students like him, and he’s not the only one in school or class.

I muster an answer, a cliche one. “I don’t know, maybe I’m seeing something in him, as it always goes.”

Yu smirks. “I don’t doubt you, you did pull yourself up after that... thing.”

“But that’s me. Kyotaro’s different.”

“You can do it, you won’t stop, right? If a blast hasn’t, nothing will.”

-----

On my way home after that meal, someone approaches me, it’s Kyotaro, just by himself.

“Sensei,” He looks up at me after a bow. “I’m so sorry that I dragged you into this...”

“No, don’t feel too bad about it, it should be Maejima-sensei that should be apologizing to me.”

He looks at me in surprise.

“You did great, okay? Try not to get yourself in trouble again.”

He doesn’t say anything after that, only a nod before bolting off with his friends. 

“Look at him go.” Yu says as we get walking again. “I think I’m seeing what you’re seeing.”

“Obviously.”

“You know what I mean, Jun. I’ll just let you be with what you’re gonna do with Yamaguchi, how’s that?”

“Sounds good.”

“By the way, he’s already have a girlfriend and he’s like 18. How old are you again?”

That’s definitely Yusei. We laugh it off as we continue walking.

-END

[nerdsideofthemedia]

Should the term “Mary Sue” be retired?

The original. 

I didn’t have any intention of posting my non-RWBY, non-MHA blog posts here, but here’s this one seems to be becoming important with the rise of the claims that Arya Stark is a Mary Sue. So here it goes:

In my walks through Dan Olson’s twitter, I came across this:

Which got me thinking: is the term “Mary Sue” completely pointless?

Before I wonder about this question, let’s take a quick journey through time. In the 70s, Paula Smith noticed a character pattern among the Star Trek fanfic and created a parody to point this out, “A Trekkies’s Tale”, whose protagonist was called Mary Sue. During the following years, the “Mary Sue” wasn’t necessarily considered as something bad, instead it was considered as a phase every writer will go through as it was intimately associated with self-inserts and was only applied to fan-fictions1;2.

In recent years, the term has left the fanfic and began being applied to original fiction too, losing its meaning along the way and gaining a pretty negative connotation. In fact, nowadays, “Mary Sue” is such an extremely subjective term that even TV Tropes admits:

“TV Tropes doesn’t get to set what the term means, the best we can do is capture the way it is used.” 1

Hell, I’ve even come across with this subjectivity, as once I called Orihime from Bleach a Mary Sue, on youtube, and one person defended my use of it by explaining she was liked by everyone, which wasn’t the reason I considered a Mary Sue to begin with and consider that justification to be pretty dumb.

Why is being liked by everyone not a good parameter?

Have you ever read/watched a shonen? Most of the good guys are on good terms. Even when there is some animosity between a main character and another one, it’s usually because of the other, like Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z, who dislikes Goku because he’s better than him, not because of anything egregious the latter did. In “My Hero Academia”, Bakugo hated Midoriya mostly because of pride and arrogance (they are now on good terms).  Yes, the Avengers may have not loved each other from the get-go, but, by the end of the film, they were ready to live happily ever after. And when the sequels even stop (they never will), they will end up being on good terms.

Another definition of what is a “Mary Sue” is it’s a character that is overpowered/great set of skills + tragic backstory, (sometimes even without the latter). So let’s take a look at:

Superman: an alien whose planet was destroyed, adopted by 2 humans, and has a set of skills that would make Goku turn… Well, he would probably just find it cool, but Vegeta’s head would explode for sure as he threw a temper tantrum. His powers include flying, super speed and strength (to the point of almost completely invulnerability), X-ray and heat vision.

Bruce Wayne: a poor (not literally) orphan who was raised by his butler and whose riches go beyond Taylor Swift’s wildest dreams, let alone poor (far more literal) little us. Thanks to it, he has access to technology that has little to no limitations, yet his money never ends.

Goku: an alien whose planet was destroyed, adopted by an old man who was killed by him in giant monkey-form. Not only he can fly, he is particularly powerful even for his people even though he’s a low-level specimen according to the planet’s hierarchic structure.

Ichigo: a guy who turns out to be part-Hollow, part-Shinigami, part-Vizard, part-who-the-hell-even-cares-anymore, even though some of them are pretty rare.

Harry Potter: an orphan raised by his aunt and her family, who all treat him badly, finds out he’s a wizard and finds out his parents have left him a mountain of gold (literally). Everyone either admires him or feels jealous as he is famous for “defeating” a particularly powerful wizard as a baby, without any damages besides a scar. He’s also part of a prophecy.

What about those self-inserts?

I guess we could still use the term as just a self-insert, but considering that most of the time we don’t know the writers, then we can only know their self-insertion if they tell us.

It also doesn’t justify its negative connotation. Writers are people, I presume, which means they have flaws. So why is a character based on oneself bad? Provided the writers are realistic and self-aware, those should be some of the most realistic characters. Now, I know there’s a trap in here, which is the tendency of favoring ourselves and make us just a bit (or a lot) more special than we actually are, but 1) this doesn’t necessarily happen to every self-insert; 2) that can happen whenever writers begin to favor a character for whatever reason, even if it wasn’t a self-insert, leading it to become more and more special or less flawed.

They’re the personification of perfection.

OK, except perfection seems to be kind of subjective, since what I like isn’t the same as everyone else’s. I mean I may like active characters and some may like passive characters. You may think perfection is pizza without pineapple, while I say “you are objectively wrong”.

Jokes asides, being different human beings, usually we end up writing “perfect” characters with our definition of it, which may not correspond to someone else’s.

For example, Bella Swan is called “Mary Sue” a lot for being perfect, but she’s deeply flawed. She’s co-dependent and suicidal. Edward Cullen is the one “Gary Stu” that actually stuck, yet he’s manipulative and a stalker. Yet, there is truth to the claim they are perfect, not to me, but to Stephanie Meyers as they are both idealizations to her, regardless of our opinions of them.

I suppose a character can be drop dead gorgeous, have all sorts of skills and being loved by everyone, but, eventually, he/she will make something that many will consider to be wrong. If that doesn’t happen, then there’s probability not a good conflict, which reveals that, maybe, the problem is in the story itself, not necessarily in the character.

Speaking of subjectivity in flaws and virtues…

“So why did you used to call Orihime a Mary Sue?”

Well, because I thought her flaws were inconsequential with Bleach begging me to sympathize with her for awful reasons and smart characters being really stupid, meaning causing unnecessary plot-hole or plot-contrivance for her. The few most glaring examples I recall (and I’ve read/watched Bleach at least half a century ago, so it’s possible there are a few lapses in my memory) being:

Her almost kissing Ichigo while he was unconscious. That scene is framed as if I am supposed to sympathize with her, instead of what it actually is: creepy as hell and also falls under almost sexual assault in many countries.

Her having an obsession for Ichigo to the point of only thanking him for coming for her in her mind, even though Rukia, Chad, Uryu and Renji were also there to save her. This again is framed as I’m supposed to empathize with her, instead of thinking she’s being narrow-minded and has an unhealthy obsession with Ichigo.

About others acting stupid: Uryu takes her to where Ichigo and Ulquiorra are fighting even though where they were before, Ichigo was losing cause he was holding back to avoid hurting her. Yes, the other place was bigger, but their powers were huge and Uryu taking Orihime should have been a stupid idea (and he’s supposed to be smart).

Not to mention, of course, she resurrects Ichigo by crying and yelling his name which was also major bullshit.

And yes, it’s time to talk about the gender-thing and to admit to my own prejudices despite being a woman, because Orihime isn’t the only character I know who has her flaws not being acknowledged or being perceived as good. Many male characters have all of those yet, I still don’t call them “Gary Stu” or any other male equivalent.

Sun Wukong from RWBY has pretty much all the same problems as Orihime: he stalks Blake for months yet faces no actual consequences. And his actions were framed in the show as “needed”, even though they weren’t since the entire Menagerie arc could be written without him with only minor changes. Creepy actions being framed as right and sympathetic – check.

He also abandons his team several times, which, again, was inconsequential (even if he confesses to being an awful leader in V6) and no way in hell a combat school would interrupt classes for an entire year. He’s completely oblivious of the Faunus struggle, though he’s a Faunus and goes to school in one of the most racist territories. And Blake goes from super paranoid to so relaxed she doesn’t even believe him when he says he saw a WF member wearing a mask for no apparent reason. If I had to guess it’s because if she kept being super paranoid, it would stand to reason she would be the one noticing Ilia spying all by herself, rendering him almost useless and without interrupting her talk to Ghira, which would have made Sun completely pointless. At some point, Orihime became all about Ichigo, Sun was always all about Blake (until V6).

Like I said, I have criticized Sun for being badly written, unnecessary and the contrivances his presence demanded, but I have never ever called a “Gary Stu”. Looking back, I think it’s a combination of a few reason:

I know “Mary Sue” is a term too subjective to be used without an explanation afterwards;

We just don’t tend to hold the same standards for male characters;

Even when we use them for male characters, it almost never sticks.

And I know I’m not the only one doing this.

Once, I came across an article that accused several characters of being a “Mary Sue”, including Orihime, but because she’s too perfect (are you sure about that?) and Sailor Moon, yet claimed Goku wasn’t one.  It’s particularly funny, because Sailor Moon is written to be more flawed than Goku (even if I much higher tolerance for Dragon Ball and DBZ to Sailor Moon).

Goku is an absent father and husband, yet his family never really holds that against him. His wife may complain about it a few times during the anime, but there’s no real strife between them and Gohan never holds it against him either. He gives Cell a senzu bean so that he and Gohan can have a fair fight, even though the entire world is at stake. It still is mostly inconsequential, until Gohan’s arrogance gets in the way.

Meanwhile, Sailor Moon is stupid, coward and petty many times, and it’s clear the writers knew it because they acknowledge those flaws within the show. She is mocked because of them, and her lack of resilience even leads to the death of one of the Sailors in a season finale, if I remember correctly (admittedly, I watched it 5 centuries ago, so I might be wrong). Yes, I know they come back from the death.

This is not an argument that Goku should be called a “Mary Sue/Gary Stu”, rather that the term is heavily gendered. It’s much more applied to female characters and even when used for a male one, it almost never sticks. Even in the example I gave, Edward Cullen, which was successfully labeled as “Gary Stu”, still feels like it was gendered-motivated. Not because of his own, obviously, but for the target audience’s: the majority girls and women. So there we notice another double-standard: the sex of the target audience also affects the claims to “Sueness”.

Ultimately, I have to agree with Dan, with the term “Mary Sue” being too subjective to actually have any validity and is deeply rooted in sexism. Explaining why a character doesn’t work for us  and why we think they’re badly written is far more productive. Let’s keep in mind, we aren’t supposed to like every character writers make, even the ones who are meant to be likable and relatable.

Note: Yes, I watched Overly Sarcastic Productions’ video on the subject. While I like Red’s take, I’d say almost no character in original fiction fits the mold. That in itself wouldn’t be the problem, but the fact that it will remain extremely subjective, I still find the term to be counter-productive, heavily gendered and it needs to die.

1 – https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MarySue

2 – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sue

[kazashiniwielder]

Guest

Isshin sighed as he looked toward the door to their house. It had been just over a week since Kisuke had brought Ichigo to his home, unconscious followed by the boys friends. He had been expecting it, had known this was exactly what would happen. He had to pretend like he hadn't though. He pretended he didn't know who Kisuke was, that he didn't know what happened to his son, that he hadn't seen Rukia and the red haired Shinigami with them. There really was no need to pretend any longer since Ichigo knew, but for Isshin he wanted to keep this knowledge a secret for now. It wouldn't do for the Soul Society to know the former tenth taichou was also hidden in Karakura Town. However after he showed up on the battlefield he was sure that ship had sailed.

Each day after school, Orihime, Sado, Tatsuki, Keigo, and Mizuiro came to visit. Rukia and the red haired boy he learned was named Renji came too, but he didn't acknowledge them until they began wearing gigais. They would come over, visit with his comatose son for a bit, and then go home. Isshin didn't mind them there, and at this point they hardly even knocked. The one that bothered him was the final boy.

Ryuken Ishida's own son, Uryu.

Uryu came every day as well, but where the others would come in, Uryu never did. He would stand outside, sense out Ichigo's presence to make sure he was still alive, and then leave. He always hid his reiatsu and Isshin doubted the others even knew he was there. It bothered Isshin to no end. However what bothered him wasn't the fact that the boy came, but the fact that the boy never came inside. It was like he was afraid.

Knowing what he did, Isshin suspected that was exactly what was going on. He remembered the day Misaki had died. He had sensed it the moment her life vanished from the world. He was sure Ryuken had too. Isshin had ran across the street to get the Arisawa's to watch the girls, saying he got an emergency call, before running to the location he had sensed Misaki vanish. Misaki was lying in the rain, soaked in her own blood, and Ichigo sat beside her crying. Isshin was relieved that Ichigo hadn't watched her die, but rather was unconscious when it happened. He had called an ambulance for the hospital, already knowing there was nothing that could be done. He and Ichigo went to the hospital together and were told by a strange doctor that there was nothing to be done.

What had surprised Isshin was that it wasn't Ryuken that tried to save Misaki. For a moment he was furious and demanded to see the hospital director, but the doctor hurriedly explained Ryuken had a family emergency. Isshin had to bully it out of the man, but he found out that the family emergency was Katagiri suddenly falling into a coma. It was in that moment he put together that whatever happened was Quincy related. After talking to Kisuke he knew how this would end, and he knew Ryuken knew it as well.

Isshin was rather surprised when he got the phone call three months later from Kisuke that Katagiri had died. It wasn't the fact that she had died that surprised him, after all the holy selection that the Quincy King had used was meant to take her life. No, what surprised him was the facts that it took so long for her to die coupled with the fact that hers and Ryuken's son, a Quincy that should have been killed as well, was alive. He figured Ryuken had tried everything he could to keep Katagiri alive, but that only caused more pain for himself and his son. Isshin couldn't even imagine what it would be like to sit by and watch a loved one for three months, never knowing if that day would be their last. He thanked the small mercy that allowed Misaki's death to be painless for her and quick for them all. At least the prolonged suffering and the never knowing was something his family had been spared.

Now however Uryu was having to relive the same experience all over again. A person who was very important to him has suddenly lost all their powers and fell into a coma. Isshin knew Kisuke had explained it to them, the fact that Ichigo was in a coma so that whatever was left of his reiatsu could stabilize, and that he would wake up as soon as that happened. However he knew it did little to erase Uryu's fears and doubts. He had been powerless when he watched his grandfather die, had been powerless when he watched his mother die, and now he was powerless to do anything for Ichigo.

Isshin wanted to curse Ryuken, blaming all this on him. He knew Ryuken's way of raising Uryu was done in order to teach Uryu not to rely on others since they would not always be there in the future. Yet this made Uryu feel like he couldn't go to anyone and had to endure all the suffering alone. No one should have to live like that.

Isshin decided this was ending today. He had everything set up for when Uryu arrived today, and now he was going to act. Getting up he grabbed the full bag of trash sitting next to the front door, and walked outside like he was taking the trash out to be collected. Uryu looked at him in surprise, clearly not having expected anyone to exit the house.

"Oh, Uryu right?!" Isshin asked, smiling and acting like he hadn't been waiting for the teen to arrive. Uryu quickly nodded, turning a little red at a slight embarrassment. It was probably from being caught.

"Kurosaki-san. I'm sorry I was just passing by on my way home from school." he said. Isshin had to force himself not to laugh at that. He couldn't reveal to Uryu that he knew that Uryu's apartment was no where near his home, nor was any path between his home and school. Uryu had gone very much out of his way to come check on Ichigo.

"Is that so? Why don't you come in then? You haven't been here since Ichigo was brought in." he said. Uryu quickly shook his head.

"I wouldn't want to intrude..." he started, but Isshin wasn't about to let him come up with some bullshit excuse. He dropped the bag in the recycling container and walked over, grabbing Uryu's arm. He could feel Uryu tense up and pull on his arm a little, but Isshin held fast. This kid needed someone to watch over him and if Ryuken wasn't about to do it then it would be up to him. Misaki would beat his ass otherwise. Uryu also gave up on fighting him pretty quickly. Isshin wondered if it was because the boy could sense what he was hiding or he just didn't want to fight him. Either way Isshin was getting the result he wanted. He pulled Uryu to their home.

"Yuzu, we're having a guest for dinner tonight." Isshin yelled as he let Uryu's arm go in favor of closing the door. Uryu looked horrified at the idea.

"I couldn't possibly..." Uryu started, looking for some reason to give them, but at that moment Yuzu came around the corner.

"Oh good, I accidentally made too much again since I figured someone would be coming but when no one did I was starting to get worried." she said. Uryu stopped in his tracks and Isshin allowed a triumphant smile to show on his face. Uryu was the type that would go out of his way to keep from inconveniencing others, and the way Yuzu said that made it sound like it would be an inconvenience to them if Uryu left now. Uryu was trapped now by his own limitations and had no choice.

"I can only stay for a little while." he relented. Karin came around the corner too.

"Do you want to see Ichigo? I'll take you up." she offered. Isshin felt proud of his daughters. They were probably more worried about Ichigo then anyone else, but the two of them had been kind and gracious, taking care of Ichigo's friends and trying to lessen their worry. While Ichigo's friends knew exactly what was going on, what had happened, his daughters were in the dark. He was sure Karin suspected but Yuzu hadn't the faintest idea. Misaki really would be proud of them for putting others first even when they had every right to be a mess.

"Thank you." Uryu said, and Isshin watched the two go up the stairs before turning back to Yuzu.

"Need any help?" he offered. He wasn't the best at cooking and judging from the grimace on her face assumed she wasn't about to let him try improving any time soon. At least not when they have guests over.

"I've got it." she said quickly, returning to the kitchen. "I'm almost done anyway." she called behind her. Isshin looked back up the stairs and on a whim pulled out his phone. 'Your son is here today. He's staying for dinner.' he texted. He didn't know why he sent it, it wasn't' like Ryuken and Uryu even lived together. Maybe he was trying to force Ryuken's hand. On some level Ryuken always saw Isshin as the heart of all the problems they faced. It was his arrival that caused the hollow attack to move to Karakura Town. It was his lack of strength that caused Misaki to go rescue him and nearly get killed in the end. It was his soul being tied with Misaki that took her away from them. Maybe if Isshin made him feel like he could steal the man's son too he would actually make an effort to be there when he needed him. Instead his phone lit up with a received text that read 'This does not concern me. Do not use this phone number for useless information.' Isshin didn't know why he expected anything different.

"Dinners done!" Yuzu called from the kitchen. Isshin went to yell up the stairs but Karin called back.

"We're coming." Isshin went into the kitchen and helped Yuzu set the table. A few minutes later Karin and Uryu returned. Uryu looked a little uneasy, and Isshin wondered if it had to do with him not having a family dinner for so long. After all, even if he didn't know it, the Kurosaki's were an extended family of his.

"Sit here Uryu." Isshin said, gesturing to a chair that was typically vacant, next to Ichigo's usual chair. Uryu nodded and sat down, glancing at Ichigo's empty chair.

"Here you go!" Yuzu said with a grin, serving some BBQ strips. Dinner was as lively as it usually was in the Kurosaki house. Isshin was trying to steal Karin's uneaten food, Karin was beating him back with both chopsticks and fists, Uryu was looking unsure and uncomfortable as Yuzu just dismissed them by telling them there was more food before serving the vegetables.

"Is it always like this?" Uryu asked Yuzu softly. Isshin glanced over just in time to see Yuzu nod with a smile.

"Usually. Dad and Ichigo fight a lot too, but it's always full of energy." she said.

After dinner Uryu went to leave. "You sure? You can always stay the night. It's not a problem and you don't have school tomorrow." Isshin said. It wasn't like they didn't have enough cots either, being a clinic and all. Uryu nodded.

"I wouldn't want to intrude any more then I already have." he said. Karin and Yuzu came up to stan by Isshin's side.

"Hey, Uryu." Karin called. Uryu paused and turned to the girls. "You're going to come back with the others tomorrow right?" Karin asked. Yuzu nodded.

"Yeah, It'd be more fun with everyone here." Yuzu agreed. Uryu seemed to think for a while before slowly nodding. Yuzu grinned. "Great, I'll make sure there's enough food for you too." she said, and turned and left before Uryu could change his mind. Uryu took his leave and Isshin closed the door behind him.

"Did you know?" Karin asked. Isshin wondered if she was asking about him knowing about Uryu's daily visits. He wasn't surprised she knew, she was rather in tune with reiatsu sensing.

"Yeah." he said. Karin sighed.

"At least he's not standing out there by himself every day." she said. Then she turned and went to bed. Isshin watched her and Yuzu go up the stairs before glancing back at the door, sensing Uryu's reiatsu getting further and further away. He supposed the young Ishida would be a guest for quite a while now.

[recurring-polynya]

Hey, remember that metapost I did a week ago, when I joked that I was charmed by the idea of Renji and Rukia getting together immediately after the Soul Society arc and making out in the waiting room of the Coordinated Relief Station while waiting for Byakuya to get out of surgery?

Uh, welp, some fanfic fell out.

Fast Times at the Coordinated Relief Station [AO3][FF.net] (leave me some kudo/favs, you animals!)

Quality Assurance by @diademchiofthetripod

Rated T for salty language and make-outs.

Everything about this is just extremely disrespectful to Byakuya.

Rukia glanced at the clock over the nurse’s station. 1:17p.m. 

A little later than planned, but that was Ichigo's fault, as usual. She had wanted to check in with him and make sure he was actually resting and not destroying any beloved cultural institutions before she got tied up for the afternoon. He was not, as it happens, resting. He was mostly shouting, as was his way, but at least he seemed to be staying in his bed down in the recovery ward. She felt she had left him in good hands, between Chad and Orihime. Uryuu was there, too, although he appeared to be the proximate cause of the shouting.

“Has my brother been taken into surgery, yet?” Rukia asked the harried nurse on duty.

The nurse flipped through some papers. “Who is your brother?”

“Kuchiki Byakuya? Captain of the Sixth?”

The nurse didn’t seem to care whether he was the Soul King himself. She unhurriedly located the correct chart. “Yes. He was deemed well enough to have the surgery today, and they just took him in. It should be two hours at least. If you’d like to stay, go down to Waiting Area 4C.” She pointed down the hallway without looking up.

Byakuya’s head retainer, Seike, had offered to come down and wait, in case anything went amiss during the surgery, but Rukia had insisted on coming herself. It was probably the first time she had insisted on anything since she had come to live with the Kuchikis. Byakuya had been injured saving her, though, and this was something she wanted to do. To her surprise, Seike had seemed almost...charmed by her insistence.

Was it only two days ago?

Two days ago that Rukia had nearly been executed. Two days ago that Ichigo and then her captain and then Renji and then Ichigo again had come to her rescue. Two days ago that Captain Aizen had betrayed Soul Society and escaped with two other captains in tow. Two days ago that Byakuya had taken a blade through the heart meant to take her life. 

Byakuya’s condition had been dicey the first day, Captain Unohana hovering over him casting kaidou after kaidou, hesitant to do anything more disruptive that might tip him toward the worse. He had stabilized somewhat the next day, and Unohana had declared that, unless he took a turn overnight, he was well enough to undergo surgery to repair the damage and get him back on the real road to recovery. 

Brother will be okay, Rukia kept reminding herself as she walked down the hallway, eyes scanning the hallways for Waiting Area 4C. He’s so strong, he can survive anything. This was a bit of a new feeling. She was used to thinking of her brother as "intimidating" or sometimes "downright terrifying." Being proud of him was a nice change.

Ah, there it was, the placard proclaiming "4C". But as she slid open the door, she was surprised to find the room wasn’t empty. The first thing she noticed was a pair of long legs in black hakama stretched halfway across the little waiting area. The face of the other visitor was hidden behind a copy of the Bulletin.

“Oh, pardon me,” Rukia said, ducking head. “I didn’t realize anyone was--”

“Rukia?”

 1:28pm

Rukia blinked as the copy of the newspaper lowered to reveal a face that had once been more familiar than her own, now a little older and bearing significantly more tattoos than it did in her memories. “Renji? What are you doing here?”

Her old friend rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, a familiar gesture that flooded her heart with nostalgia. “Uh, same as you, I imagine. Waitin’ around to hear how the captain’s surgery goes.”

Rukia twisted her hands together. “Oh. That’s nice of you.”

“I’m his lieutenant,” Renji scoffed, as if this explained everything. 

“You’re still going to work for him?” she asked. “After all that happened?”

Renji pursed his lips thoughtfully. “Was plannin’ on it. If he’ll have me.”

Rukia glanced around the room. It really wasn’t very big. There were two banks of seats, almost like couches, on either side of the room, with a low table against the wall opposite the door, covered in out-of-date periodicals. She could either sit next to Renji or opposite him. His outstretched legs reached most of the way across the room. Self-consciously, he pulled them in, sitting up a little straighter. Gingerly, she sat down facing him. 

Why was this more awkward without a set of cell bars separating them?

He folded his newspaper and tucked it neatly in his lap. 

“How're you feeling?”

“Me?” she asked, surprised. “Fine. Tired, I guess.” Hanatarou had been by to see her the day before, and said that it looked like her body was finally starting to replenish her depleted reiryoku, which was a good sign, but it was also somewhat exhausting. “How about you? You were, uh, kinda busted up the last time I saw you.”

Renji laughed. “No kidding! All flesh wounds, though. I got to go home yesterday morning. It’s been over twenty-four hours now since I’ve been in a fight, it’s like being on vacation.” He paused thoughtfully. "At least until Captain Zaraki hears I made bankai. Then I'm really in for it."

Rukia swallowed. He'd made bankai, something only the most elite shinigami could do, and was sitting here talking about it as though it barely rated notice. Perhaps that was true, compared to everything else that had happened, but surely it was important to him. Abarai Renji, a boy of her acquaintance who once got a newt stuck in own hair, was now, strictly speaking, qualified to become a captain of the Gotei 13. She'd always known he'd be good at this.

She should say something. He helped save her life. He’d risked his career and his life for her. He’d...said some things, as well.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” she said cheerfully, as though he had merely strained a muscle instead of being slashed into large chunks by Aizen just a few hours after being shredded into small chunks by her own brother. Flesh wounds, indeed. "And congratulations on bankai. I'm sure no one's made the proper fuss you deserve over it, but it's a big deal." She wanted to say more. "I'm proud of you", maybe? But what right did she have, being proud of someone she wouldn't even talk to for forty years?

He looked at her curiously. "Thanks."

Rukia swallowed.  “I didn’t mean to interrupt, you certainly don’t need to entertain me.”

He looked at her, confused, then remembered his newspaper. “I’d rather talk to just about anyone than read a three-week old newspaper. And you’re not just anyone.”

Rukia’s cheeks colored. “I’ve been in jail. I don’t have anything interesting to talk about." She drummed her fingers on her knee. "You could do the logic puzzle.”

Renji laughed again. “I’m sh-- crap at those things.”

“Don’t!” she snapped.

“Huh?” He was taken aback by her sudden vehemence.

“Who do you think I am, Abarai Renji, that you would need to watch your language around me?”

He raised an eyebrow. “The lady of the Kuchikis maybe. The sister of my captain.”

“I may be those things, but I was your friend long before that, I don’t recall you ever holding back for the sake of my delicate ears. I would much prefer you continued to afford me the same respect.”

Renji’s mouth quirked up in a pleased smile. “Arright, m’lady. I’m shit at logic puzzles. You happy now, asshole?”

“They’re very simple if you have any brains at all.” She got up from her seat and sat down next to him instead, poking at his newspaper insistently. “Come on. I’ll show you how it’s done.”

 1:52pm

"There! Complete! I told you these were easy, when one is capable of basic reasoning."

She had spent a good ten minutes leaning over his arm and trying to explain how you used the numbers on the borders of the grid to determine which blocks should be blackened and which left blank, before realizing that he wasn't actually listening, just making approving noises and funny faces at her. Then she had stolen his newspaper and done it herself.

He scrutinized her work.

"What is that, a rabbit riding a skateboard?"

"It's very cute, I think. The author of the puzzle obviously has some real artistic talent."

"I think you gave up on trying to solve it and just drew a rabbit riding a skateboard."

Rukia gasped and made a shocked face. This was, of course, exactly what she had done. No one could solve these things, they were impossible. "Well, there's no solution in the back, so we'll never know shall we?" She tossed the newspaper to the side.

"Mmm," Renji agreed noncommittally.

Rukia sucked her teeth and put her hands in her lap. It occurred to her that she was sitting rather close to him.

She wondered if she should move back to the other side of the room.

There was a clock on the wall above the magazine table. They both looked at it at the same time.

 1:58pm

“Do you carry a spirit phone?” Renji asked, out of the blue.

Rukia looked back at him. “What? Of course I do. Why?”

“Well, if you didn’t want to wait around, you could just give me your number, and I could let you know if we get any news.”   

Rukia snorted. “He’s my brother and he got injured saving me. I know I’m not actually helping in any way, but it… I want to do this." She frowned. "You could go and I could let you know.”

He shook his head. “Nah, same. Also, he confiscated my keys, so I can’t get into the office, it’s not like I could get any work done.”

“He confiscated your keys?”

“Yeah. He kinda fired me. I don’t think he got any of the paperwork filled out, though, so I’m hoping he’ll either reconsider or forget about it. It was on the basis that I started a fight with Kurosaki Ichigo and lost and I feel like he doesn’t have a lot of high ground there.”

“Was this before or after he tried to kill you?” Rukia still hadn’t gotten most of the details of what Renji went through leading up to her rescue, although she'd heard about that part from Hanatarou. She supposed she could ask. They were going to be here for a while.

“Before, actually.” Renji sighed. “I probably should give you my number, in any case.”

“Why?” Rukia asked, suspicious of his motives.

“‘Cause your brother doesn’t carry a phone, so if you need to get a message to him when we’re out in the field, you can send it through me.”

“He doesn’t?” Now that he mentioned it, she had certainly never seen Byakuya with one. He also tended to use Hell Butterflies for even the most trivial communications.

“You didn’t know that?”

“He doesn’t talk to me. At least he didn’t used to. Things might be different now.”

“Mmm,” Renji agreed. He started reciting numbers.

“Hold on, hold on!” Rukia exclaimed, pulling out her phone. She had already started making a new contact before realizing that she hadn’t actually agreed to this. Not that she objected, his rationale made perfect sense. It just wasn't right, Renji tricking her into doing things. She glared at him over the top of her phone.

“1-1-3-8,” he repeated the last few digits, his face a portrait of innocence.

“Okay, I’m going to text you now, so you have mine. In case you need to reach him when he’s at home.”

“I wouldn’t do that.”

“He would love it. ‘Oh, my devoted lieutenant, Text Messaging me in his Leisure Hours,’” Rukia intoned over her typing.

Renji rolled his eyes, and glanced down at his phone. He blinked.

“Thanks for not giving up on me,” she had sent.

He looked back up at her and smiled. “No problem.”

 2:10pm

“They have tea down by the nurses’ station. I’m gonna go get some. You want me to get you one?”

“Yeah, sure,” Rukia agreed. 

She watched him stretch his back as he left, accompanied by an array of painful-sounding pops and cracks. Served him right for being so stupidly tall.

She wondered if he had ever learned how to make tea properly.

 2:16pm

“One tea bag makes one cup. They’re portioned that way.”

“We're not poor anymore, Rukia. We don't have to live like that.”

When he had returned, Renji had sat back down on the other side of the room, so they were facing each other once again. He took a sip of his tea, even though Rukia knew it was still brutally hot. 

“No. That’s not how it works," she tried once more. "More tea bags do not make it better.”

“If it’s bad, it’s because they don’t keep the water hot enough. Maybe you should leave the bags in a little longer to make up for it.”

“That’s not-- you know what? It’s fine. Thanks for the tea. It’s great.” Rukia blew on hers, icing her breath just a bit before she took a sip. It tasted the way a shakkahou smelled. This was exactly like being in jail again.

 2:24pm

Renji appeared to be checking his texts. “So, what are the rules for texting you?” he asked without looking up. “Byakuya pass-through only, or can I hit you up when I’m looking for someone to go out for a drink with?”

“I don’t go out much.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

He was no longer looking at his phone, but watching her with a look that she had never seen on his face before. It was appreciative, but nonchalant, with just a hint of Rukongai swagger. Was he… flirting with her? Impossible. The Renji of her youth had zero game. Had he acquired game? It had been forty years, he must have been doing something with his time besides lifting weights and getting tattooed.

“You can text me if you want. I can’t promise I’ll text back. I’ll tell you if you start getting obnoxious.”

“Deal.” He thought for a moment. “You aren’t seeing anyone these days, are you?”

She almost choked. “Me? No. Not even a little bit.” The only people who were interested in her were thirsty nobles trying to get into her brother’s good graces and Ichigo’s gross friend Keigo. She stared back at Renji, and very blatantly looked him up and down, keeping a stony scowl on her face the whole time. He’d always been good-looking growing up, but now he was downright hot. He’d finally filled out all that height with muscle, accented by those little glimpses of his tats you got around the edges of his shihakushou. “How ‘bout you?” she threw back.

He seemed to find all this very amusing. “Naw, not right now.”

“Why not?” She leaned forward and narrowed her eyes. “Look at you. Any girl in the Gotei would go out with you. Half the guys, too.”

He shrugged, and gave her a look that positively smoldered. “There’s someone I’m a little hung up on.”

 2:26pm

Rukia fisted her hands into the cloth of her kimono. “What the hell, Abarai Renji?”

He blinked and sat up abruptly.

“You are flirting with me, aren't you? Or is this just how you are with everyone, now? With all your… your… tallness and good delts and… and... strong jawline?”

"I dunno! You've been flirting with me this whole time!"

"What?! I most certainly have not!"

"Are you kidding?" He started ticking off on his fingers. "You showed off at something you aren't actually good at and then bragged about it, you invaded my personal space, and you criticized me when I did something nice for you. Just now, you checked me out in a weirdly aggressive way. I mean, that's obviously not how normal people flirt, but you might've well handed me a note that says, 'Do you like me? Circle yes or no.'"

Rukia took a deep breath and screwed up her face.

Renji leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees. “And before you start stammering out excuses, I'll just tell you: Yes. I. Do.”

They sat in a hospital waiting area, across from one another, leaning forward, in absolute silence. 

 2:28pm

“Um. Ummm,” Rukia managed. 

This wasn’t a surprise, not exactly. She could pretend that they hadn't said those things to each other as he carried her away from Soukyoku Hill, that she hadn't ended up crying all over his kosode like a dumb baby. That she hadn't noticed the hitch in his voice when he promised, to her and her alone, that he would never let her go, right before he tightened his hand on his sword and used what he thought was his last breath to scream his defiance at Aizen. These things had happened though, and they both knew it.

That's how things went between Renji and Rukia. They had a long history of keeping their feelings jarred up and left to ferment deep in the basements of their souls. Sometimes, one of them would say something just a little too heartfelt or there would be some physical contact that lasted just a bit too long and they would ignore it and go on with their lives , because what else were you supposed to do?

Talk about it, apparently, although Rukia didn't recall agreeing to this.

“I wasn’t real honest with you about my intentions when we were younger,” Renji was saying. “And I don’t think it turned out too good for either of us. Maybe this is a good chance to start things off on a different foot. I think you’re real cute and cool as hell and I can’t imagine anything better than being with you, if that’s something you’d be up for.”

Rukia’s mouth fell open. “You...and me?” she managed, trying to sound skeptical. It was a little bit difficult with her idiot brain flailing, 'He thinks I'm cute?' in the background.

“We used to be a pretty incredible team.”

Well, there was no denying that. 

“Things are different now. You’re a vice captain. I’m, uh, noble. I guess.”

“You guess,” he echoed, rolling his eyes.

“How would it even work?” she grumbled.

Renji shrugged. “I’ve thought about that. I’ve thought about that a lot, as it happens, over the years. It’s intractable. Nearly impossible. And in the last week, a human kid busted his way through Squad 11, your brother, and one of the most powerful magical artifacts in Soul Society. I committed treason. Three captains defected to Hueco Mundo. So my definition of 'impossible' has shifted a little, and uptight people bitchin’ about who I smooch doesn't cut it anymore.”

“Oh, you want to smooch now?”

Renji leaned back, stretching his arms up and resting his head on his interlaced fingers. "You act like you've never smooched anyone before, which I know ain't true. There's no reason to make a big deal outta this. It's not like I suggested we start coming up with combination zanpakutou attacks, I just asked if you'd like to get a maybe-more-than-friendly drink sometime."

"That's bullshit," Rukia snapped.

 2:32pm

"Excuse me?" Renji replied coolly.

"I know you, Abarai Renji! You don't even know what my sword does and you've thought about combo attacks, admit it!"

His ears turned a little bit red, and Rukia was pleased to finally have him on the ropes. "I do so! I read your file when I got sent to arrest you and your zanpakutou sounds rad as hell, do you blame me?"

"That's--" she started to exclaim, "--kind of sweet, actually."

Renji smiled hopefully.

"Ichigo says your bankai's big enough that a person could reasonably ride around on it?"

"Yeah, he was too busy to try, though, so you can have first crack if you want it."

"Stop trying to sucker me in!" Rukia protested, but it was clear from her voice that her heart wasn't quite in it.

"I'm not," replied, leaning back on his hands again and closing his eyes. "I just like you. When you're done being defensive and decide if you like me back or not, let me know, okay?"

Rukia was silent.

She considered some facts.

Fact #1: Young Renji, at his best, was one of the most excellent people she had ever had the privilege of knowing. 

Fact #2: Renji, in his Academy days, had been a real shit.

Fact #3: Rukia had recently had occasion to spend a bunch of time with some teens. It turned out that a lot of teens were real shits. Some teens even managed to exist as both a real shit and an excellent person at the same time.

Fact #4: Shithead Academy Rukia would have been absolutely over the moon if Shithead Academy Renji had told her he liked her. Utterly ecstatic. 

Fact #5: Vice-Captain Renji seemed to be a marked improvement over Shithead Academy Renji.

Fact #6: Rukia had spent a long time closing herself off from other people. Frankly, it had sucked.

Fact #7: Some jerks, some real shits, had recently wormed their way past her defenses and tricked her into being friends with them. Frankly, it had ruled.

Maybe it was time to let someone in again. Maybe Renji was a really good someone to start with.

 2:35 pm

Rukia stood up and strode across the room, which took all of four steps, even for her.

"Listen up, dumbass," she announced. 

He cracked open one eye.

"Here's how it is: I might like you. I haven't decided yet. You're kinda hot, and I respect that. You used to be a pretty good guy once in a while, so I'm giving you a chance, but that doesn't mean you get a free ride on past good behavior, you got that?"

He'd opened the other eye by this time, and they'd both gone a bit wide. He dropped his arms to his sides and sat up a bit straighter.

"None of this is because you rescued me, is that clear? You didn't even rescue me, really, more like ruined what was shaping up to be a pretty good execution."

"Technically, Ichigo ruined your execution."

"That's absolutely correct, and I expect you to stick to that." She put one hand down on either side of his head, looming down over him as much as her four feet, nine-and-a-half inches would allow. "We are absolutely coming up with combo attacks, starting immediately. When we fight Aizen, I get to stab him first. I will never make you come to noble stuff, but I'll get you in if that's something you're interested in. I can't speak for what Brother makes you do. I get veto power over all nicknames. You will let me wear your pink bathrobe whenever I want." She thought for a moment. "I reserve the right to add more things later."

She stared into his eyes, waiting.

"Is that it?"

"That's it."

He nodded. "I accept."

 2:38pm

She kissed him.

 Still 2:38pm

He kissed her back.

 2:41pm

Rukia had expected to surprise him and then tease him for getting flustered.

She had not expected to kiss him long enough for her neck to start to get stiff. This was not a problem she usually encountered.

She certainly could have stopped kissing him. 

That seemed extreme.

Instead, she hitched up her kimono and hefted one knee and then the other up onto the chair on either side of his legs and settled down in his lap, moving her hands to a less threatening position on the back of his neck. Renji sighed contentedly and slid his hands to her hips.

 2:43pm

Rukia placed her hands onto his shoulders and slowly pushed herself backwards, until she could see Renji's face again.

The first time she had ever kissed him, under the old dead tree outside their squat in Inuzuri, he'd made a face like he'd just been whacked over the head with a tree branch.

The last time she'd kissed him, drunk, around the burned down coals of a bonfire celebrating the end of their first semester at school, he had gazed at her with such longing and affection in his eyes that she almost didn't recognize him.

He'd gotten some practice since then, that much was obvious. She liked the look in his eyes right then: It had a little of that boyish longing and affection and a little bit of being hit over the head with a tree branch, but it had a number of other things in there she didn't quite recognize, too. A little Squad 11 ferocity? The rampant self-esteem of a newly minted vice-captain? Just a dash of stone-cold lust, the look that a grown-ass man gave a woman he was enjoying having in his lap?

"I don't even know you anymore," she murmured. "How am I supposed to know if I like you or not?"

"I'm mostly the same," he promised.

"I might be into the new you."

"I'm very different. Whole new guy."

"I think," Rukia said, tilting her head to one side, "I might be interested in finding out."

 2:43pm

Kissing again.

 3:18pm

Whack! Whack!

"Ow!"

"There is no--" Whack! "--making out--" Whack! "--permitted in the Coordinated Relief Station!"

"Isane--ow!--stop!"

"Oh, Rukia, is that you?"

"Yes."

Kotetsu Isane, lieutenant of the Fourth Division, tapped her rolled up newspaper in the palm of her hand as the two disheveled shinigami before her sat up and adjusted their clothing. "Rukia, I would have thought better of you! Then again, you do hang out with my sister, whose bad habits-- Lieutenant Abarai?"

"Present," he groaned.

Isane looked at Rukia with wide eyes. "Well done," she mouthed, before clearing her throat. "You will both be happy to hear that Captain Kuchiki's surgery went very well.”

“Great!” Rukia chirped, casually fishing something out of her sleeve. She stared at it in befuddlement for a moment before recognizing it as Renji's bandana and thrusting it at him.

“Can we see him?” Renji asked, trying to grab the bandana back without actually looking at it. He kept missing.

“He’s still heavily sedated,” Isane explained. “It will be a while before he’s ready for visitors.”

“Gosh,” said Rukia. 

“How long we talkin’?” asked Renji.

 7:40pm

Rukia listened very carefully, nodding at appropriate times, as Captain Unohana explained Byakuya’s status and the details of his recovery regimen. Occasionally, on the topic of restricted activity, the gentle doctor would glance back and make steely eye contact with Renji, who would take over on nodding duty. They paused outside of Byakuya’s room. “One last thing. Due to his unusually high spiritual energy, we had to give him a...lot...of painkillers.”

“Ahhhh,” said Rukia. 

Renji looked confused.

“He may act a little strange,” Unohana clarified.

“I’ve been on a pretty heavy load of those a time or two myself,” Renji frowned. “Never had a problem.”

Unohana’s eyebrows shot up into her hairline and she rolled her eyes so hard that in another part of the Seireitei, Zaraki Kenpachi sat up a little straighter. Renji did not appear to notice. “Of course, Lieutenant.”

Rukia looked at Renji as Unohana went into Byakuya's room to check some of his vitals. “This is good actually. I’ve seen him on these a time or two before. He’s utterly cuckoo, but he thinks he’s fine, so if we can get him to agree to anything--like not firing you--he’ll remember it later and think he made the decision rationally.”

“That sounds...underhanded.”

“It’s how I got him to sponsor that Gotei 13 Eurovision thing the Women's Association put on last year."

"Squad 11 got robbed in that, by the way. You need to never mention it around my friend Ayesegawa."

It gave Rukia a bit of a warm feeling in her stomach, that he was already thinking about introducing her to his friends. She couldn't imagine how terrible his Squad 11 friends were. She couldn't wait to meet them.

 "I will remember that. But in any case, these are rare opportunities. We're basically obligated to take advantage of them. Trust me.”

Unohana reappeared, having finished her business. "He's all yours," she said, gliding down the hallway.

Byakuya was sitting up in bed, poking at a tray of food. His face was pale and drawn, his hair uncharacteristically non-silky, but he was most definitely making a very Byakuya facial expression.

“Helloooo, Brother!” Rukia said cheerfully, walking into the room. 

He looked at her, slightly lost for a moment.

“It’s me. Rukia. Your little sister.”

An extremely non-Byakuya-like smile spread across his face. “Kuchiki Rukia! My beloved sister!”

“How do you feel, Brother?”

“Horrid,” Byakuya replied. “Also, they have given me this slop. I would like to throw it out the window, but I cannot reach. Could you do that for me?”

“I’m sorry to say that you should eat as much as you can. You need to regain your strength.”

Byakuya made an extremely petulant face.

“Guess who else came to see you!” Rukia waved at the doorway.

A little hesitantly, Renji stepped into the room. “Hey, there, Captain. Glad to see you looking bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.”

“Abarai Renji! My loyal lieutenant! You may have forgotten, but I do not have a tail!”

“I did not forget, sir.”

“Kuchiki Rukia! Do you see this? Abarai Renji, my indomitable second, a man who fought by my side in the War for the 79th Bridge--”

“That was 800 years ago, neither of us was alive then.”

“--has come to see me! During his Leisure Hours!”

Rukia gave Renji a Look.

“Abarai Renji! If you are still the man you were when we stormed the Demon Realms together--”

“We definitely didn’t.”

“--you will throw this tray of food out the window for me!”

Renji walked over, grabbed the tray of food, opened the window, and hurled it out. There was a far-off thump and an indignant shout. Renji shut the window again.

“Renji!” Rukia hissed.

“He’s my captain," Renji shrugged. "It was a basically reasonable request. In the grand scheme of things."

“Truly, I chose wisely when I named you general of my armies and proclaimed that your family shall heretofore be a branch family to my own!” 

“You don’t have any--” Renji gave up. “To be honest, Captain, I really just want to know if I’m still fired or not.”

Byakuya lowered his voice to a stage whisper. “I will never fire you. You are my favorite.”

“That’s great news, sir. Thank you. At some point, I would appreciate it if you would give me the keys to the office back, but no hurry on that.”

“How fares the Manor, Rukia?” Byakuya asked grandly.

“Oh, it will run smoothly without you for a few days more, but everyone has been worried, Brother. They will be very happy to hear how well you are recovering.”

“I am counting on you to fill in during my absence,” Byakuya informed her. “If anyone does not afford you the proper respects, write their name down, and I will kill them once I am recovered.”

“That’s--" Rukia paused suddenly. "Do you mean servants, or other nobles? Because Lord Noragashi was by yesterday and he was very salty to me about you not being at home.”

“I will kill him,” Byakuya swore.

“Or you could… just not go to his next party or something.”

“Or I could attend and be handsomer than he!”

“Sure. Sure, that sounds good.” Rukia licked her lips and glanced at Renji, who nodded slightly.  “We have some other news for you, as well, Brother,” Rukia said gently.

Renji sucked in a deep breath and held it.

“Renji and I are seeing each other.”

Byakuya looked at Rukia very seriously, his eyebrows beetling. Then he looked at Renji. Then back at Rukia. “You are not seeing Kurosaki Ichigo, then?”

Rukia looked vaguely stricken. “Uh, no, Brother. Certainly not.”

“But you are seeing Lieutenant Abarai Renji? Vice-Captain of the Sixth Division?

“Yes, that one.”

“My faithful adjutant! Who has served me without question for over fifty years!”

“Six weeks. Sir.” Renji elected not to mention the treason.

“Come here, Abarai.” He tried to motion with his finger, but couldn’t summon the fine motor control. Renji came over anyway. “Closer.” Renji leaned down, glancing briefly at Rukia. “Attend me well, Abarai Renji,” Byakuya said in the same loud whisper that Rukia could hear perfectly clearly from across the room. “I have not always done right by my sister, but I have resolved to do so in the future.”

Rukia’s cheeks colored.

“It seems that she likes you.”

“She’s giving it a go, sir.”

“And it is self-evident that you like her.”

“That’s very true, sir.”

“And you are very much not Kurosaki Ichigo.”

“That is also very true.”

“So I shall accept this development and not require you to best me in combat. I suspect that, at this exact moment, you might actually be capable of doing so.”

“It’s possible,” Renji speculated.

“But I shall require your regular attendance at Sunday dinner.”

“With all the aunts?” Rukia asked, eyebrows raised.

“Withstanding the aunts is what it means to be a Kuchiki!” Byakuya proclaimed.

“For Rukia’s sake, I will do it,” Renji promised.

“Welcome to the family, my beloved son-in-law!”

“I’m not--”

“Let’s just count this as a win,” Rukia suggested. 

Renji smiled hopefully at her. It was, in Rukia's opinion, a very cute smile.

Rukia smiled back. She couldn't help it.

This was going to be an adventure.

 ~ end

[kodoku-no-maria]

“I Think I Wanna Merry You”

Ichiruki fanfiction.

@wonderstrevors it’s for you, love

Don’t know what length it will be, here’s a first chapter.

warning: obscene language and probable OOC of all the characters

Also fuck the canon after the last arc timeline.

CHAPTER 1

Kurosaki Ichigo. 24 years old. Eyes - brown, hair - orange. One night I met Kuchiki Rukia, a shinigami, and she changed my life forever. At the age of 16 I died but because of my haritage I could become a shinigami and technically I still can live inside my body. Loopholes, I know. After fighting afterlife beaurocracy, soul eating monsters and powerful psycoes, I went to university (like a normal person) to study Law and got a degree. I was looking forward to the rest of my life: protecting people as much as I can and then when the time comes passing onto the afterlife and protecting people as a shinigami. Which wasn't so far in the future according to the 12th division. You see, in order to beat all those monsters and psychos, I had to become strong, really strong. So strong, in fact, that now my physical body cannot contain my soul for long as it deteriorates at high speed. But I was content with the time I had left and the place in the Soul Society that was waiting for me. I thought I had finally found my peace.

And yet..why? Why do I find myself in this situation? Lying next to Rukia, who by the way looks so carefree in her sleep while I'm agonizing here! This little... being so calm on our....wedding night.

When did it all go wrong?

It all began three weeks ago when my body started to become very weak. To give my body a break from my soul, from time to time I would go to Soul Society and live there for a while. I would also use that as an internship to practice my legal skills and help the shinigami to modernize their legal system. Because they really-really need help with it. Thankfully, Ukitake-san is very good at studying. It took me only bringing him some of my law books (with Urahara's help) and explaining a few things and now he seems to even be better at it than some of the top students that I remember from university.

So it had come time to go to Soul Society again.

- Kurosaki-san, the gates are ready - Urahara-san said with delight

- Yeah, thanks again. I could have contacted Seireitei, but I don't want to inconvinience them more than I already do. And that would take longer....

- Oh, you're very welcome. You know you can always ask me if you need anything. And of course you would want to go there as soon as possible....

- Hm? Why?

-...you'll see - Urahara-san answered in his usual misterious tone so I didn't pay much attention to his words - Well, off you go. Have a pleasant stay...and good luck

When I arrived in Soul Society I immediately got greated by people from the 13th and 12th devisions

- Kurosaki Ichigo! You have finally shown your face! - Kiyone's voice rang through my ears, the strange looking people from the 12th division didn't say anything other than "Hello"

- Kiyone. You guys. Hi. You know you didn't have to come get me. I kinda learned my way around Seiretei a long time ago - that earned me a smile

- We just wanted to make sure you arrived in one piece...

-...Given you decided to go with Urahara-san's gates option - the thorny head guy commented clearly dissatisfied with my choice of "transportation"

- Well, we shouldn't keep you long. Just let the guys check you up and you will be good to go see Kuchiki! - Kiyone made way for the guys from the 12th devision and they for a few minutes surrounded me with some devices, as weird looking as they were. And then as suddenly as they had appeared before me, they were gone. And only Kiyone stood there smiling...beaming actually.

- You're in an awfully good mood today - I smiled at her. It was hard not to when she looked so happy

- Oh, of course I am! You have arrived! And that lifted a huge weight off my shoulders. I mean, I was sooo worried when I heard the news. But deep inside we all knew that it had to be you. Ooohh we're all so happy that it is you.

To say that confused the hell out of me would be putting it mindly

- Wait-wait, Kiyone. Were you expecting me? I didn't actually tell anyone I was coming. Even Rukia. That was kind of a spur of the moment decision... - and I could see her expression changing - What are you talking about? What's that about Rukia...Is she OK?

- Ahm...Haven't you come here...for the wedding?

- For what???

I saw red. I felt angry. And I knew exactly where I could pour it out. So I headed for the quarters of the 6th divison, leaving Kiyone stunned and robbed off her great mood for the rest of the day.

- Renji!!!!!!!

I found him in the training facility, shaping up some rookies.

- Ichigo??? - so he clearly hadn't been expecting me

- Oh, don't act all surprised. What the fuck is going on?

- I was going to contact you - he started - but we all heard about it only a few days ago...She kept it all to herself until it was final.. I was as shocked as you are

- Wait..it's not you? - if only it could get more confusing...it could

Renji looked at me with hurt in his eyes and a hint of disbelief

- Of course it's not me, dumbass. I have already been rejected, remember?

At that point I started to slowly cool off. It was strange for Kiyone to think it was me if it had been Renji, right? And yes Renji actually had much more courage than me in that respect. And he was turned down. Once, we had realized our feelings and promised to give each other a fair chance to confess. And the one who got turned down would step away and move on. I wanted to wait until I was a full fledged shinigami and had my place firmly in Soul Society. I had thought time was on my side.

And now there was someone else. And I felt my blood boil again.

- Why don't you go ask her? - he said, turning his attention back to his baffled rookies who were murmuring, probably trying to put my name and what they had heard together. And before I could embarass myself more(at least in front of young shinigami) I finally headed to where Rukia was.

At some point I had learned how to destinguish others' spiritual presence and with a little bit of practice to even pinpoint someone's location. And when I was in Soul Society, I could always tell where she was. Because I always felt her presence somewhere at the back of my mind. It's just out of all the souls hers feels painfully familiar. And finding her usually feels like..finding myself.

She was in her office. With Kiyone. And now she not only knew I was in Seireitei but could probably feel me standing right outside the door and gathering the will to face her.

The moment Kiyone registered my spiritual pressure she rushed out of Rukia's office, bumping into me. She gave me a sympathetic smile and whispered "Sorry" on her way out. I stepped into Rukia's office and shut the door behind me.

- What's the meaning of all this? - I demanded answers. Which was my mistake, I realize now.

- I'm getting married, what is there to explain? - she answered coldly. I knew those eyes. Those eyes were her "I have made a decision to sacrifice myself and please be so kind to fuck off and let me do it" eyes.

- Is this one of Byakuya's twisted ideas of honor and duty again??? Did he force you to agree to this? Is that's what it's about?

- Byakuya Nii-sama isn't forcing me to do anything! - her cold demeanor started to crack as her voice rose

- Making you marry someone you didn't choose is not forcing you???

At that point we were practically shouting at each other, all up in each other's faces.

- Idiot...I am choosing!

"Then why can't you choose ME?" 

I couldn't possibly ask her that....I wanted to scream at her "choose me". Everything in me cried for her to choose me. And yet words just wouldn't come out. I had fought monsters who were far beyond my level and had had no fear. But there I was at the mercy of a 144-cm-tall girl. Silence fell upon us.

- Have you calmed down? - she asked after a few minutes - Are you willing to listen? Or do I need to smack you? - She asked if she needed to hit me...and hit me either way. That did bring some sense into me though.

- Why are you doing this, Rukia, if no one's forcing you?

- Why are you here, Ichigo?

- Don’t change the subject. I came to talk some sense into you. Obviously, you need that!

- Kiyone was just here - she was not impressed with my lying skills. I should have cheated more in school - Ichigo...it hasn't even been half a human year... - I heard concern in her voice. She was about to sacrifice her happiness for the sake of her family and still found it in herself to worry about me. What an idiot...

- It's ok. Answer me. Why are you doing this?

- Is it so hard to believe that it's my own decision? - she looked at me, her eyes gave away sadness and exaustion. It looked as if she had been having the same conversation again and again. And was tired of explaning herself.

- No! That's the thing. You have this martyr complex that always pushes you to put everyone else above yourself. I believe it's your decision. What I don't understand is why it is your decision. You have never said anything about love...yet alone marriage...If you had, then...

- Then what? - she asked sincerely. It was so clear how oblivious she was to my feelings. I felt pathetic.

- Then I wouldn't...I wouldn't be so surprised. - I lied

She stepped closer to me. I could feel my heartbeat racing and ringing through my ears. I just hoped she couldn't. But she took my hand in hers. Her hands looked ridiculously tiny in comparison to mine. For a moment it crossed my mind that she hadn't changed a bit in all those years. She had cut her hair shorter and kept it that way. And still she looked exactly as she had that fateful night when I met her.

- Ichigo...You are worried about me, I understand. You are my closest friend after all - that stung... - But you have to trust me when I say I know what I'm doing.

- Can you..at least fill me in about it?

- Sure - she smiled at me and turned to her desk fussing with some papers - but first - I have work. I need to read through these..

- I'll help you. And while I'm helping you can tell me everything about... - I had to compose myself - your future husband

- Well - her smile faded one again - I don't know him yet. That what the omiai is for. I'm going to meet multiple suitable candidates, of course aproved by the Kuchiki family, and then I will choose one

- And...if none of them are to your liking, Rukia-sama? - tried to mock her to make her smile again and I succeeded

- Idiot - she laughed - I will choose one - she repeated herself.

I didn't like the sound of that. But I decided to leave it be for the time being. Like hell was I gonna let her get married to some noble prick with a stick up his ass. Over my dead body. Which was now probably possesed by Kon, hitting on girls all over the place. Somehow I found that that was the least of my worries.

So we continued working, never touching that subject again. The day was done and Rukia invited me over to the Kuchiki mansion. I usually stayed at Kuukaku-san's place, but sometimes Rukia would invite me for a few days with her and Byakuya.

Byakuya looked as composed as ever. Nothing about him gave a feeling that he was about to marry off his only little sister. And that pissed me off. But I had promised Rukia not to pick a fight with Byakuya, so I...tried as hard as I could.

When the evening was over, we all went to our rooms. I couldn't sleep, so I decided to sit on the veranda for a while and think about what I was going to do next. The moon was beautiful. It reminded me of the day long ago when I fought Grand Fisher on the anniversary of my mother's death. Rukia had been by my side. Thanks to Rukia I had been able to fight my mother's murderer. And to break the wall I had built between myself and my family. She had told me that day that she would respect my privacy and that was really important to me. And there I was...invading hers, imposing on her decisions. What was I doing... I just wanted her to be happy. And I just..had always thought that I would be the one to make her happy.

My train of thought was interupted by a knockon the door.

- Kurosaki? Could we talk?

- Byakuya? Yeah, sure...come in?

Nothing on Byakuya's face showed what he was about to say. Although he did look a little bit softer, dressed in a kimono and not shinigami uniform. He wasn't wearing his scarf either. It looked as if he had been ready to go to sleep when the urgent thought compelled him to pay me a visit.

- Were you able to change her mind? - Byakuya finally broke the silence

- No

Was he afraid that I could mess this whole wedding up? He sure was right to be.

- I apologize for burdening you with our family matters, but could you...try again?

- What? - Ok that I wasn't expecting

- I'm most certain it must have come as a shock to you when you heard about Rukia getting married. But that in fact has been a matter discussed for a long time in our household. My wife...Hisana, as you know, passed away. Long ago. We didn't have children, unfortunately. And since then I have been expected to find a new wife. I'm unable to do so. But what I will ask you to understand is that a noble family is not an ordinary family. One of us should continue the line and...have a successor.

- But why should it be Rukia? And why right now? She clearly doesn't have anyone she's in love with...Otherwise she wouldn't be so stuck on that stupid idea - I almost forgot where I was and raised my voice, but I checked myself immediately

- I share your frustration, Kurosaki Ichigo. The urgency comes from our elders having begun to search for a wife. For me. And Rukia took it upon herself to protect her late sister's place by my side.

- I knew it! - I exclaimed - I knew she was doing it for someone else! She doesn't want to get married to some snobby little noble boy. She never would - I couldn't contain my happiness. I was basically grasping at straws looking for a reason to ruin the omiai.

- Rukia feels that if she marries someone from a noble house that would ease the elders' concern. Unfortunately, the elders actually found the idea very appealing. And now they are adamant to marry her off. And, Kurosaki, my hands are tied. The only hope I have is you.

His voice sounded so desperate. Almost as desperate as mine was when I tried to persuade Rukia to change her mind.

- I tried. But she's so stubborn.

- I see. Am I to understand that you have given up?

- Hell no. I'm not gonna let her get married just because she feels she has to. Even if I have to beat all your elders' asses. Now that I know that's not what she actually wants, there's no way I'm letting her do this

- ... I would prefer you restrain yourself from assualting our elders, Kurosaki Ichigo. But I do hope you succeed. No matter what, don't let her marry someone she doesn't love. I will leave you now.

- Yeah. Don't worry. I won't let her.

And I would come to feel really guilty for lying to him that night.

[scribblles]

Mutual Pining

IchiHime Week 2017

Word count: 1605

Rating: T

Ichigo was staring at her hair. Orihime’s back was to him as she animatedly told Tatsuki and Chad about a customer that had come in to the bakery asking for a large order of her newest creation: mint and lamb filled steam buns. Her boss had told her she was crazy, but lamb was served with mint all time so why not put it in a pastry? She was sure this was the beginning of her great bakery empire, and she would be sure and remember her friends from her lofty position Queen Baker of the Land of the Rising Sun. Her hair was swishing and trembling as excitedly as the rest of her body. She swept back some her hair over her shoulder, and Ichigo seemed to lean in closer and close his eyes a little. Suddenly, she whipped around to say something to him, and with his battle-honed reflexes, Ichigo straightened and listened to her with calm and cool collection, answering her with only the tiniest of stutters and the slightest blush that could be mistaken for the heat of the day. Renji snorted and rolled his eyes. And as if sensing his disdain, Ichigo turned and glared suspiciously. Renji crossed his arms and glared right back. The human was an idiot. Didn’t he see how much bullshit he and Rukia had to go through because he didn’t have the guts to be honest with her? Waiting for the right timing and accomplishments and her brother’s approval and blah blah blah. What did any of that matter? Renji uncrossed his arms, and reached for his fiance’s hand under the table. She didn’t even blink as she continued to calmly sip her tea, but he grinned at the red creeping up the back of her neck and the way her fingers curled around his as his thumb gently stroked the back of her hand . Yep, Ichigo was an idiot. Of course, he was one to be talking, but he didn’t have an example of almost unrealized love right in front of his face like Ichigo did. There was no excuse for this – “Oh for pity’s sake,” Renji grumbled, as Orihime turned back and Ichigo went back to mooning over the back of her head like a sick puppy. “Hm?” said Rukia. “Your protégé is an idiot.” “Hm, only an idiot if it takes him decades and decades and decades to be honest,” she said. Renji cleared his throat and shifted at the steel hiding behind her velvet tone. “Right, well, I – he – he’s got me as a bad example, right? Right in front of him! But he’s been swooning for years now! He’s the savior of the world and legal and still hasn’t had a girlfriend.” “Kurosaki-kun has a girlfriend?” Orihime asked cheerily. Rukia squeezed Renji’s hand so hard he whimpered, and Tatsuki and Chad looked at each other in mutual exasperation. Only Ichigo, whose face dropped with disappointment, didn’t notice that her happy tone was a little too high and like she’d forced her very generous happiness for him through a very tiny needle eye. “N-No! I don’t…have a girlfriend, I…No, definitely don’t have one.” Ichigo was blushing hard and staring daggers at Renji. “What the hell are you two talking about over there?” Renji rolled his eyes as he shook out his hand. “I said, you can save the world, but your pathetic ass has the reached the legal human and age and you still haven’t had a girlfriend.” He looped his arm around Rukia’s stiff shoulders. “What’s the good of all that if you ain’t got a girl?” Orihime glanced between the two of them as Ichigo stewed and tried to think up an appropriate response. “Kurosaki-kun, he’s kind of right, you know.” Ichigo gaped at her, betrayed. “I mean!” she remedied, waving her hands. “You’re so busy and stressed with school, you should have…someone to relax with and have fun!” All the hearts around her cracked a little at her earnestness, except Ichigo’s heart that was cracking for himself. “Well, I…I don’t really – Hey!” he nearly shouted, startling her. “What about you? When’s the last time you had a boyfriend?” “Boyfriend?” she asked, pointing to her own chest. “Um…well, I’ve been busy with the bakery and…stuff…no time for boys, eh heh heh heh.” Rukia narrowed her eyes at the two. “Orihime, didn’t you go on that date a couple of weeks ago with a boy?” Orihime blinked at her, the blush at the apples of her cheeks beginning to spread. “Um, well…yes.” Ichigo’s face paled as his adam’s apple bobbed. Tatsuki nodded. “You guys are meeting again right?” Orihime dug her thumbnail into the edge of the table. “Well…yes.” Ichigo continued to stare at her, strain showing around his eyes. “What’s he like?” Rukia prodded. Renji turned to stare at her, but she elbowed him. “Well…nice” she said. The pale, carrot-topped statue next to her crossed its arms. “Well, why don’t you introduce us?” “What?!” she stared up at him with huge eyes. “Introduce you?” He grunted. “We’re your friends. We should check this guy out.” “I already ‘checked him out,’ Ichigo,” Tatuski said with air quotes. “He’s really nice.” “So, we’ve established he’s nice,” he glowered. “Any other qualities, or is he just a blob of nice?” Orihime frowned a little. “Kurosaki-kun, I appreciate you looking out for me, but–” “He’s hot,” Tatsuki stated. “Tatsuki-chan!” Orihime hissed. Her best friend shrugged and mouthed “what?” Rukia chuckled into her tea as Ichigo looked as if he was torn between throwing this guy into the river or curling into a ball of misery. “So,” he said when he found his voice. “He’s a…hot blob of nice.” Orihime choked. “Doesn’t mean he’s good enough for her.” Orihime stopped fidgeting and straightened her spine a little, her voice soft and calm as she said, “Thank you for concern, Kurosaki-kun, but I consider myself an excellent judge of character through my highly developed female intuition. If we…get more serious, I’ll introduce you.” With that, she stood, calm and smiling, but with a little something off kilter about her expression and stance. “I’m sorry, I have to get up early in the morning. See you soon.” She smiled broadly at the Renji and Rukia, the subject of their little gathering. “Congratulations again, Rukia, Abarai-kun.” They both nodded as Ichigo stared unseeingly at his beer. When she left amongst the chorus of goodbyes, Ichigo grabbed his glass and chugged until only bits of foam clung to the sides. “More serious,” Ichigo grumped. “What the hell does that mean, more serious? More serious than what?” He paused, his glassy eyes growing a bit large under his scowl. “Does that mean they already are serious? You can’t be more serious unless you’re already some serious, right?” He cursed into his empty glass. Renji and Rukia looked at each other and then simultaneously raised their fingers for more beer. “Aren’t you two just too adorable,” Ichigo said acidly. Renji and Rukia looked at each other and then simultaneously whirled their fingers in circles to keep them coming, ignoring the exaggerated gagging noises across the table.

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. After several minutes of watching Ichigo and his team practice for their next tournament, Orihime broke the blessed silence. “Tatsuki-chan,” she sighed. “Hm?” “Have you ever noticed?” “Noticed what?” “The way Kurosaki-kun’s hair changes to the same colors as the sky as the sun sets.” With a long, low grown, Tatsuki lowered her head to the soccer ball in her lap and stayed there. “Something wrong, Tatsuki-chan?” Her forehead still touching the ball, Tatsuki turned to look up Orihime’s concerned face. “How it’s going with the hot blob of nice?” Orihime started. “Huh? Oh, well, he…we decided not to see each other anymore.” “Oh?” asked Tatsuki, completely unsurprised. “What happened?” “Nothing, nothing. Just…the usual – oh! Did you see the pass Kurosaki-kun made? He’s getting much better about passing and not trying to win the whole game himself, don’t you think?” “Orihime,” she said, lifting her head finally. “What?” “What happened?” “Well he started to go for the goal himself, but then saw one of his teammates wide open and–“ “For the love of – no! I mean with the nice blob.” “Oh…you shouldn’t call him that,” Orihime said, managing to frown at her disapprovingly with her eyes still on the sweaty players. “Well, I can’t remember his name. What was it?” “It’s, um…aren’t name’s funny though? We should all refer to each other as poignant descriptions rather than names. Like Ishida-kun could be he-who-glints-his-eyeglasses-for-dramatic-effect and – “ “Oh my god, you can’t remember his name?” Orihime sputtered and glanced at her sideways. “What? That’s silly. We dated for…well for a bit. Why would I forget his name? I just think hot blob of nice is…a nicer name?” “So, what happened?” Tatsuki tried again. “You talk to nameless one too much about he-whose-hair-reflects-sunsets?” Orihime sniffed and twisted the fabric of her skirt around her fingers. “Oh my god.” “Well, I don’t think I talked about him that much. Honestly…male egos, you know? ” “Uh-huh.” “Anyway,” Orihime said, her attention back on the practice field as the college boys strode back to the side, shaking hands and clapping backs. “It was fun while it last – oh.” Orihime’s mouth remained stuck as a perfect ‘o’ as the stripping Ichigo pulled his shirt off the rest of the way. Sweat glistened off his naked torso that looked quite fetching in the low evening light, even to Tatsuki. She turned to her friend, who had leaned forward, her mouth still open. “Hey Orihime? You should probably breathe.”

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