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darisu-chan · 5 years

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Through Your Eyes

Here I got y’all a treat for Ichigo’s birthday. A day late but what else is new.

You can also read it here.

Please enjoy!

Summary: “You really don’t see how you two look at each other?”

It was a typical day with his friends. That is to say that it wasn’t typical. Not at all. In fact, it was pandemonium. His human friends weren’t all that normal to begin with ─ and not only because half of them had some type of supernatural power he hadn’t yet grasped how they came to get, but since he, himself, was a weird combination of several beings that weren’t supposed to exist, long ago he had decided to drop the subject ─ but paired up with his Shinigami friends, it was as if an asteroid had collided straight into a house party filled with drunk, drugged and hormonal teenagers shooting fireworks up from their asses. Wow. Studying literature had truly made him more hyperbolic.

In reality, what was happening was that word got out in Soul Society that Ichigo had just turned twenty (he blamed Renji for that one), which meant that he had reached the official legal drinking age, aka he was old enough now to get plastered with the lot of them. Not that Rangiku-san hadn’t tried to get him drunk at some point. He still remembered that roughly a few days after turning eighteen, the older woman had spiked his otherwise non-assuming tea with sake. One sip and his face had become flustered as he stuttered and yelled bloody murder. The others thought it was funny. Ichigo was sure the situation would have escalated hadn’t it been for a very pissed off Toshirou who had crashed their little reunion with the express intent of collecting his lieutenant. The whole place froze over faster than on the coldest of winter days.

But, now, Ichigo wasn’t protected by neither the country’s rules and regulations nor Toshirou’s aid. (“Well it seems you’re finally an adult, Kurosaki. Take care of Matsumoto for me.” The young captain had told him briefly after congratulating him for his birthday. Ichigo didn’t have the heart to point out he had been an adult for two years already, and that he had always looked older than Toshirou himself, even when he was only fifteen.) Rangiku, sanctioned by the Captain Commander, had taken advantage of this and had dragged her drunk buddies plus Rukia to Karakura, where she had basically trespassed into his room. The rambunctious group had asked him for the best bar in town. Ichigo had no idea where that could be and here’s where he made the first mistake of the night.

He called Mizuiro.

His friend was older than him by about two months, and had been hitting the bars ever since. It’s the best way to meet ladies, he had explained. Though Ichigo was pretty sure he had been drinking since before his twentieth birthday. Now, though, Mizuiro, to his credit, did recommend them a nice place. It certainly didn’t look as shady as the places the Shinigami tended to frequent. The problem in itself was that after giving him directions to get to the place, he had added a cryptic “See you in 20.” And truth to his word, twenty minutes later, Mizuiro was at the bar… with the whole gang.

There was Keigo, who frankly already looked tipsy, Chad, as silent and calm as always, Tatsuki, who had just turned twenty as well two days before, Inoue and Ishida. Now, most of his friends were already twenty, except for Inoue and Ishida, who were the youngest ones, and weren’t going to be twenty for a few more months. That didn’t seem to matter to Mizuiro or the owners of the bar. Not that his friends were drinking alcohol or anything. Ishida was sipping what looked like a grey earl and Inoue was happy with her glass of lemonade. Tatsuki and Chad seemed happy with their beer pint. And Keigo and Mizuiro had gone all out, ordering two bottles of sake before they even could arrive. Rangiku-san’s eyes sparkled after noticing this fact and declared Mizuiro was the best human in the world. The other Shinigami cheered in return and from then on things took a wild turn.

First of all, even though Keigo had had his eyes on Rangiku-san ever since he saw her about five years before, the flirty woman seemed enraptured in whatever tale Mizuiro was spinning. His friend was still very much attracted to older women, and who better than a woman that was more than a hundred years old and that didn’t look a day past twenty five. That, of course, made Keigo insanely unhappy and had started to retell his woes to Hisagi-san, who was also not fairing any better at seeing a mere human flirt with the girl he had been after for decades. Needless to say, after a couple of sake shots, the two of them soon burst into tears and drunkenly sang their laments out loud. On the other side of the table, Ikkaku had become hell-bent on getting Chad drunk. He still couldn’t believe the gentle giant hadn’t once been drunk in his entire life, an outstanding feat for someone who got hammered almost daily right after work. He had, then, dared Chad to drink shot after shot of sake in the hopes he’d get more than a little tipsy. Tatsuki immediately jumped at the chance to defend her friend, her competitive streak appearing as she claimed Chad would never lose. This spiked Renji’s interest, who immediately backed Ikkaku up on his dare. As for Yumichika, although he had declared early on that betting on alcohol was ugly, he still seemed pretty interested in the outcome. And so it began the worst competition ever, in which the rest managed to get wasted before the challenger could even complete his shots. Even Inoue and Ishida, who legally weren’t allowed to drink anything, had somehow gotten roped into the whole affair. He had certainly never heard Ishida laugh so loud ever. Inoue was also a sleepy drunk, who had ended up snoring on top of Chad, who, by some miracle, was still very much sober and still doing all of his shots.

Talk about a fucking nightmare.

The only thing that could have made this any worse was if, somehow, Kenpachi and Grimmjow crashed the place, wanting to fight him then and there now that he was a grown ass man. Or Byakuya suddenly appearing, claiming he stepped on his pride one way or another.

Thankfully, none of that happened, but his friends were embarrassing enough for him to dutifully brood in the only hidden corner of the table, nursing his half-full pint of beer. There was no way he would get drunk. The only other sober, and dare he say it, sane person in the table was Rukia. She had taken a couple of sips of sake, but despite her small stature, she had a high tolerance for alcohol. “That’s what happens when you grow up in Inuzuri.” She had once told him, smiling even when the memories must have been painful to her. Currently, the small Shinigami seemed more amused than she should’ve been at watching the mess their friends had created.

“Your friends are so lively.” She suddenly said, in that annoying voice of hers.

Ichigo snorted. “I’d use another word for them.” He answered and waited a few seconds until his mind processed the whole phrase. “Hey! Whaddaya mean my friends?! They’re yours too!”

Rukia just laughed at his accusation. “I suppose they are. Although they definitely didn’t go all out for my birthday.”

Of course they didn’t.

Byakuya would kill them all if they somehow got his precious sister drunk.

Besides, they preferred messing with him for whatever reason. Rukia had once told him it was because he was easy to annoy. Ironically, her comment had annoyed him. Not like he would ever tell her that, anyway. It would only rile her up, and give her more reasons to pester him.

Scooting closer to her, Ichigo took a sip of his drink and then turned to look at her. “Next year, let’s do something fun.”

She raised an elegant eyebrow at that. “For my birthday or yours?”

He made a show of considering it for a moment, before simply answering, “Both.”

Rukia laughed at that, the sound tingling in his ears. Somehow, even with the loud music blasting from the speakers and their friends’ boisterous laughter, he had heard her clearly, as if the only people in the world were Rukia and he.

“Greedy.” She muttered as a reply.

“How’s that greedy? I’d say it’s rather generous.”

“How so? Isn’t that just an excuse to party twice?”

Ichigo shook his head, amused. “It wouldn’t be a party. Just the two of us.”

That got her attention. Rukia looked down, as her fingers fidgeted in her lap, and then right back at him. She bit her lip, as if contemplating something. Then her eyes darkened as she smiled coyly at him. “Oh? So you want me all to yourself, Kurosaki-kun~?” She said playfully, barely containing her own laughter.

“Tch.” He grumbled. What a tease. “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

“What did you mean, then?” She was unwilling to let all this matter go, not that Ichigo would give her the satisfaction of falling into her obvious trap.

“Well, it’s just you don’t really like parties that much, and to be honest they’re not my scene either.” He replied, gesturing at their table and the shenanigans their mutual friends were currently engaging in. Most were singing, very badly might he add, a birthday song for him.

Rukia giggled. “I suppose you’re right.”

“’sides, we hardly spend time with each other… just the two of us…like old times…”

Ever since the end of the Quincy War, there had been long periods of time in which he had hardly seen Rukia. And, make no mistake, Ichigo got it. He knew they were all busy picking up the pieces of their destroyed world, and trying to put it back together. In many ways, they were putting themselves back together. The horrors they had all gone through were enough to traumatize even the most seasoned warriors. He had tried to help as best as he could, but there were many things he had to take care of himself, back home. With high school ending and his college life starting, and Rukia pretty much becoming the whole leader of her squad, there was not much time left to just hang out together. And he missed that. He missed their adventures or just casually being able to sit next to her. He loved all of his friends, sure, but there was something special about his relationship with Rukia, and nothing else could ever compare to it.

Sensing his distress, Rukia leaned closer. She searched for something deep within him, and when she found it, she breathed intently. “So you really want me all to yourself?” She said the words so lowly he couldn’t have heard her with all the noise around them, but he had.

“Maybe…”

He left his words hanging as he stared right into her eyes. Under the bar’s lighting, they seemed to glow and burn. It might have been his imagination, but Ichigo could have sworn she had gotten closer. From this position, her hair tickled his jaw in a way which made him shiver. Their breaths mingled together and the temperature in the room skyrocketed. He was suddenly very aware of his heart beating ferociously as he noticed Rukia licking her pink lips. He imitated the gesture, and it was then it dawned on him that, if he moved down just a little bit, they would kiss. The thought wasn’t as frightening as he would have thought it to be. Had this been four years before, he would have pulled away immediately, denying what he was feeling in his very core. But Ichigo was no longer a boy. He was now a grown man, and he couldn’t ignore the magnetic pull he felt where Rukia was involved. He saw her close her eyes and he followed suit, the connection between them not breaking even once. He leaned down and he felt her breaths come faster and then slower. He was so close he could already feel her softness and the taste of her─

“Kurosaki-kun!” Inoue shouted from the other side of the table, swaying side by side on her seat, her right armed wrapped around Ishida, her left on Chad. “Sing with us!” She exclaimed.

The spell broken, Ichigo sat up straighter, but didn’t move far from Rukia. “No, absolutely not!” He refused his friend, praying they were far too long to see how red his cheeks looked. Next to him, Rukia also straightened.

“Too afraid to sing, Kurosaki?” Ishida taunted him, even though nobody could have taken him seriously, giving the fact his shirt was stained and his glasses were in disarray.

“Shut up.” Ichigo retorted without much bite.

Renji cackled. “He knows he can’t win against us!”

“Let’s show him!” Ikkaku exclaimed.

Next thing they knew, they were all singing again, except for Chad, who remained impassive, Keigo, who had long since passed out, and Mizuiro, who was recording the whole affair. Ichigo would have liked to feel mad at them, but he knew he couldn’t. At the end of the day, no matter how embarrassing they all were, his friends wanted to see him happy. That’s why they were celebrating his birthday to begin with. Next to him, Rukia chuckled at them and her laughter was contagious. Soon he joined in, followed by the whole table, his friends erupting in laughter all around him, even Chad cracked a smile.

To no one’s surprise, they were soon asked to leave the place when their impromptu singing competition got too out of hand. The chore of extracting their drunk friends and getting them home safely fell to them. Thankfully, Urahara had let the Shinigami crash in his store. The man had probably had a hand in orchestrating the party to begin with, so Ichigo had no qualms in dumping five wasted death gods at his doorstep. They were his problem now.

Now the problem was that they had to get his human friends to their respective homes.

“I’ll get Inoue and Arizawa home.” Rukia told them.

“You sure?” Ichigo asked her, feeling worried.

“It’s no problem. I’ve got this.” Behind her, Inoue and Tatsuki were giggling as they held each other. It seemed like a pain, but perhaps Rukia was already used to dealing with drunk people on a daily basis.

“Alright. Chad and I’ll get the rest home.”

With that said, they separated, Rukia gently pushing the girls in the direction of Inoue’s apartment, Chad carrying Keigo in his arms, while Ichigo put Ishida’s arm around his shoulder and helped him walk. The journey was mostly silent except for Mizuiro typing on his phone and Ishida saying nonsense.

“Oi! How come you’re not that drunk?” He turned to his friend.

“Hmm?” Mizuiro muttered, blinking away from his phone. “I don’t get drunk that easily. I just pretend to be wasted so that the others keep drinking too.”

Ichigo got goosebumps after listening to those words. “Man, you’re scary.”

The young man only smirked at him. “Well, my apartment’s that way. See ya.”

“Hey! You’re not gonna let Keigo crash with you?!”

“Nope. Happy birthday, Ichigo!”

Happy birthday his ass.

Groaning, he nodded to Chad and they decided to continue forward, in the direction of Ishida’s place. Thankfully, nothing remarkable happened on the way, except for his friend tripping once or twice. Using the spare keys Ishida had given him at one point, (“In case you mess up and need my help,” as he had told him) they went in and left the former Quincy sleeping on his bed. Sighing, he turned to look at Keigo, whom Chad was still carrying. Only one more.

The two friends resumed walking, this time towards where Keigo lived. Ichigo thought it wouldn’t be any different to all the other times he had walked beside Chad. There was always an amiable silence engulfing them, one Ichigo rejoiced in as his life was often more chaotic than not. Chad brought him this peace, not only because he was a quiet person himself, but because he understood all the disturbances Ichigo faced day by day. This time, however, Chad was the one to speak first.

“You really don’t see it, huh?” He wondered out loud, his voice resounding in the empty street.

“Don’t see what?” Ichigo asked, thinking that there was danger looming all around them.

“You really don’t see how you two look at each other?” Chad tried again, this time looking at Ichigo.

Bewildered, he blinked once, then twice. “Huh?” He said at last. “Who do you mean?”

“Kuchiki and you.”

“Oh.”

Silence was present once again, as Ichigo mulled over his thoughts.

“I’ve been observing you two for years.” Chad said, not pausing to let his friend speak. “At first, I was intrigued by your relationship with her. You’re not the type to open up to people in such a short amount of time, then again, you act different when it comes to her. You don’t treat her like you treat Arizawa or Inoue, or even your sisters. And then, when we went to Soul Society to save her, I think I finally understood.”

That made the two stop walking. Ichigo did not know what to say. He couldn’t deny what Chad was saying, because all of it was true. Yet, he didn’t know where he was going with this. What was it he wasn’t seeing?

“Through the years, I’ve wondered if you were aware of how you look at her when you think no one’s watching. Your eyes acquire this softness, as if she’s the most precious thing in the world. You’re soft with her. You smile tenderly at her only. Your eyes just light up when she’s next to you. Even when you fight, you end up looking at her in that same way.”

Chad’s words flustered him. He hadn’t thought he had been that obvious. No one had pointed it out before. His other friends could have used this knowledge as an opportunity to pester him, to embarrass him and admit things he didn’t wish to, and yet, they still hadn’t said a thing. Even his father had remained silent on this matter. Only now Chad was confronting him. For whatever purpose, Ichigo didn’t know, but he felt as if he needed to explain himself.

“I…”

“And you don’t even notice she looks at you in the same way.”

Ichigo stopped dead on his tracks and looked at Chad, wide eyed.

“Kuchiki’s more difficult to read, but I can see it. She’s just like you. Hard around the edges, but soft and tender on the inside. You bring out that tenderness. She looks at you as if she’s seeing the sun for the first time after a long winter. You can see how proud she is of you by how her lips curl up in a smile when she’s watching you. Even when she’s annoyed at you, the fire gives way to warmth. It’s like ice melting. And it only happens when she looks at you.”

He felt like he had stopped breathing, his throat drying. Was that how it was? He had never noticed, too preoccupied with looking at her, just taking in her overall presence, that he had forgotten to actually look at all the little details. Ichigo had never been the most observant, as his friends could attest, but now even he felt like an idiot for missing something as momentous as this. For how long had this been going on? Another part of himself, the darkest, most self-deprecating part, wanted to argue that this couldn’t possibly be true. That Rukia would never look at him in a special way. Surely, he would have seen it.

“But Ren─”

“It still amazes me how neither of you has noticed.” Chad interrupted him before continuing down that path. “All of us know.”

“What?!”

“Possibly even most of the Shinigami you’ve met.”

That left him gaping.

“While you two are clueless… Well, maybe not so clueless anymore.” Chad said as he scratched his beard. “You almost kissed tonight after all.”

Ichigo’s cheeks somehow grew redder. “You saw that, huh?”

“It was impossible not to see. I was sitting right in front of you.”

His words made him feel sheepish. “Sorry ‘bout that.”

“Don’t apologize. I’ve been waiting for some progress all these years.”

He sputtered. “Chad!” He yelped, feeling beyond embarrassed.

“Ichigo.” Chad called him, now growing serious.

“Yeah?”

“I haven’t said anything because I thought you’d sort it out eventually, but this has been going on for far too long and it’s bordering on being absurd.”

Ichigo laughed at that. Way to put it bluntly.

“I just… I’m scared, y’know? That it won’t work out. That it’s not what Rukia wants…”

“Believe me, she wants it. And after everything you’ve gone through together, I think it’ll work.”

“Alright, I’ll see what I can do.”

“Good, now go home.” Chad said, motioning towards the direction of his house.

“Wait, what? Don’t you want me to go with you?”

“No. I can handle this.” The man said. “And Kuchiki is nearing your house, you should probably go to her.”

Ichigo sighed, finally relaxing. “I’ll go then.”

His friend grunted, returning to his silent self, and continued walking with Keigo in his arms, still blissfully unaware of everything that had happened.

“Oh, and Chad?”

The man turned around.

“Thanks for the pep talk.”

“No problem.”

Waving Chad goodbye, Ichigo walked on the opposite direction, when he started running. He didn’t know why but feeling Rukia’s reiatsu flowing so close to him, spurred him on to go to her as fast as he could. He found her halfway, eyes widening at seeing his disheveled state.

“Is everything okay?” She asked, standing close to him, possibly to inspect his body for potential injuries. It was in that moment that he saw exactly what Chad had told him before.

He shook his head, laughing a little. “Yeah… I was just in a rush to get home.”

Rukia chuckled, rolling her eyes good-naturedly. They never lost their warmth.

“Then we should go.”

“Yeah. We should.”

They stared into each other’s eyes for a full minute, an inexplicable message passing between them. Satisfied, they pulled away and started walking back home, their hands brushing with each step they took.

“Happy birthday, Ichigo.” Rukia suddenly told him, bumping her shoulder with his.

“Thanks, Rukia.” He answered, his hand reaching to grab hers. She didn’t pull away.

With their fingers entwined, they finally went home.

#ichiruki #pro ichiruki #ichiruki fanfiction #my fanfiction #happy birthday ichigo

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sakura-warrior · 6 years

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Instead of Glass, There Was Ice: Chapter 3

So after nearly a year of not updating (yikes), I decided to work on the next chapter of this fanfic.

In case you need a bit of a refresher or are new to the story, here are the links to the previous chapters:

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3:

Hinamori barely got any sleep that night. Whenever she’d try to close her eyes, flashbacks of the last 24 hours would jolt her awake. Memories of the Aizen’s letter… the trial… and of her childhood friend, surrounded by a bunch of unconscious bodies with an indifferent look on his face…..

That last one hurt the most.

When it was finally time for her to get up and get ready for the long day ahead of her, she did so with little enthusiasm. In fact, her body seemed to move on its own out of habit, her mind elsewhere. She barely even heard the repeated knocks on her door, confirming if that she was ready for the day’s journey. And when she finally mustered up the courage to open the door and face the day, she was met with two unfamiliar faces who looked like they’d much rather drag her to the Maggot’s Nest then escort her to the world of the living. And Hinamori was pretty sure that they were only the first set of unwelcoming faces that she was going to have to face before the day was over.

Without so much as a word, the two guards abruptly turned around and began to walk back along the corridors of the 5th division. They didn’t even bother to look back once to see if Hinamori was actually following along behind them as they made their way to their next destination. Though the idea of simply not following them did cross her mind, the lieutenant was quick to shrug it off and join her escorts. As rude their behaviour was, at least they didn’t try to handcuff her like the criminal they assumed she was.

During their walk to the gate, Hinamori couldn’t help but notice the looks she getting. Although she tried her best to resist the temptation to look around, she still managed to catch the odd glimpse of people stopping and whispering to each as she walked by. And although she couldn’t hear what exactly they were saying, it didn’t take a prodigy to know that it wasn’t anything nice.

When the gate finally came into view, Hinamori was shocked to see two faces that she actually recognized, both of which were shooting reassuring smiles her way.

“Hinamori-kun, you’re finally here!” Kira yelled as he waved her over. “I was starting to think you weren’t going to show!”

“Um, Kira, I don’t think she had much of a choice” Abarai replied with a quick sigh before turning to face his newly arrived friend. “It looks like you’ve had one hell of rude awakening this morning” he added as he shot a quick glance at Hinamori’s escorts. “Don’t worry, you don’t look that terrible”.

Before Hinamori could respond, she was tackled from behind and pulled into a hug. “Don’t be rude, Abarai” a feminine voice said. “Even with only a few hours of sleep, she still looks much better than you.”

“R-Rangiku-san?” Hinamori stuttered. “You’re coming too?”

“Yup!” Matsumoto happily replied, giving the fifth division lieutenant quick squeeze before letting her go and facing her. “You didn’t think I was going to let you guys go on a trip without me, did you?”

Hinamori didn’t know what to say. For the last few hours, she had felt so utterly alone. Her world falling apart around her. And now, she was surrounded by nothing but warm and welcoming faces… Surrounded by people who truly cared about her and believed in her...

She then thought that maybe, just maybe, things might be okay.

“Oops, looks like we missed the heartful reunion, Kuchiki-san” a playful voice stated, breaking the loving atmosphere in the air. “And here I was so looking forward to it. Oh well!”

Hinamori suddenly felt a pit in her stomach. Turning around, she saw Ichimaru and the younger kuchiki sibling walk towards them. All it took was one look at the 3rd division captain’s face to be reminded of the situation she was in and how she had gotten into it. Out of all the available captains of the 13 court guard squads, why did their supervising captain have to be him? Could her luck get any worse?

“Looks like we’ll be relying on your human expertise for this one, Rukia” Abarai said with a smirk as he broke the tension in the air and greeted his childhood friend. “Try not to screw it up, okay?”

“Oh, please, Renji. We all know the only screw up here is you” the short girl quick replied with a smirk of her own. “Trust me, no one understands humans better than I do.”

“Alright, everyone, let’s get moving” Ichimaru stated as he ushered everyone towards the gate. “We have a long day ahead of us, after all.”

With one last look at the word she was leaving behind, Hinamori joined the rest of her comrades and stepped through the gate to commenced her journey to the world of the living.

Once they got their gigais at Urahara’s shop, Kuchiki informed them all of the cover story she came up with for their mission. In order to blend in with normal human society, she suggested that she, Kira, Abarai, Hinamori, and Matsumoto should pose as high school students at the school Kurosaki Ichigo and his friends attended. Ichimaru, due to his older looking appearance, would pose as the school’s new teacher. This way, not only would they be able to blend in, but it also meant that they would be constantly near the substitute shinigami, who Kuchiki assured would gladly help out if anything happened.

Hinamori wouldn’t have described Kurosaki as “happy to help” when the group of them dropped by his school unannounced, but that was just her opinion….

When the lunch bell rang to signal their one hour break, Hinamori was quick to try and get out of the stuffed classroom. With the chaos their busy morning getting settled into the world of the living, she needed some down time to herself. But when she tried to leave the classroom unaccompanied, she was stopped by a chilling voice.

“Now, now, Hinamori-kun, where do you think you’re going?” Ichimaru called as he approached her with one of his infamous smiles. “Don’t ya know you’re not supposed to be on your own? We can’t risk anything bad happening to our lovely little hostage- I mean comrade, now, can we?”

“Ichimaru-tai- Err, I mean, Ichimaru-sensei is right!” Kira was quick to add in before Hinamori could reply. “What if he hurts you when you’re alone?! There’s no way I’m letting that filthy traitor get his hands on you, Hinamori, so don’t you worry about a thing!”

It took all the strength Hinamori had not to snap at Kira. How could he possibly suggest that Hitsugaya would hurt her!? Not to mention, last time she checked, Kira had nearly gotten himself killed the last time he faced the former tenth division captain. So what made him think he could possibly stand a chance against him?

“Hey, Hinamori, how about we grab lunch on the roof, okay?” Matsumoto chimed in with the hopes of diffusing the situation before it got any worse. “I know we aren’t supposed to go up there, but I’m sure we can find a way!”

Not trusting herself yet to speak, Hinamori could only nod in response before being dragged out of the classroom by voluptuous lieutenant. The 10th division officer seemed quite eager to get out of there before either of the 3rd division officers had a chance to object.

Once on the rooftop, the strawberry blond let go of her friend’s arm and commenced to walk towards the railing. Taking in the view of the sky above her, she let out a sigh.

“I can’t believe Kira…” she spoke with a shrug. “You’d think that with all those brains of his he would have an ounce of common sense, but I that’s just too much to hope for.”

“...What do you mean, Rangiku-san?” Hinamori asked as she joined her friend, choosing her words carefully along the way.

“I mean exactly what I said” Matsumoto replied. “Like taichou would ever hurt you of all people! God, ever since this whole thing happened, it’s like everyone has forgotten everything they ever knew about him… I mean, sure, he could have faked some of it, but I doubt he faked everything… Taichou is still the same person he always was. He’s just… Well…. Sigh, I don’t know...”

“So… You still believe in him, then?” Hinamori timidly questioned, shocked to hear that someone besides herself didn’t think that her childhood friend was a total monster.

“...I want to” the 10 division lieutenant replied with another sigh. “I want to believe that all those years together weren’t just lies, you know? You spend so much time with a person… It’s hard to believe that they’re suddenly not who they said they were…. That they never were who they said they were… I don’t know what’s going through his head right now, or even why he’s doing all this, but… There must be a reason. There’s no way taichou would do all this… Put us through all this… if there wasn’t a good reason for it. There’s just no way.”

Hinamori felt a single tear start to make its way down her cheek. Hearing someone else say the words she desperately wanted to hear washed over her as a tidal wave of relief. If someone else, someone who really knew him, also couldn’t think of him as a traitor, then maybe there was still some hope left…

Some hope that maybe, just maybe, her childhood friend would come back to her.

“Oh, Hinamori…” Matsumoto whispered as she rubbed the crying girl’s back in support. “It’s hard, isn’t it? Hearing people talk about him like that? They just don’t know him like we do… or, at least, how we thought we knew him.”

“R-Rangiku-san…” Hinamori muttered as she let out all the emotions she had bottle up in the last two days. “He wouldn’t just leave, right? Leave me… leave us… without a reason, right? There has to be a reason!... There just has to be…”

“There’s no way he would ever leave you, Hinamori. You should know that by now” Matsumoto said with a comforting smile. “I mean, if it was just me he left behind, then maybe… but… For him to leave you… Well, there’s no way he would do that willingly, that’s for sure. Hell, if the rest of the Seireitei thought he didn’t care about you, then they wouldn’t have us under constant surveillance, now, would they?”

“...Us? What do you mean us?” the fifth division lieutenant asked in confusion.

“Wait, you didn’t seriously think you’re the only one they’re keeping an eye on, did you?” Matsumoto replied. “Sure, you’re his closest friend and all, but I was his second in command. They’d be total idiots not to be suspicious of me. So by having the two of us along on this mission, they’re killing two birds with one stone.”

“So I guess that just makes us a couple of caged birds… huh?” Hinamori joked with a weak smile, her tears long since dried up.

“Looks like we’ll just have to flock together, Hinamori” Matsumoto answered with a laugh.

By the end of the day, Hinamori was exhausted and could have collapsed on the spot. She forgot how tiring it was to be in classes all day, especially when she was desperately trying to understand what was going on. Sure, it wasn’t as though she needed to pass the classes for her mission, but she had always been one who enjoyed learning new things regardless of how trivial they might be. And she also gladly welcomed the distraction the lessons provided her from the current situation.

It had been decided earlier that day that she, Matsumoto, and Ichimaru would be staying over at Inoue Orihime’s house during the course of their stay in the world of the living. Abarai and Kira were to stay over at Urahara’s and Kuchiki was to stay over at Kurosaki’s, despite the substitute Shinigami’s many protests. Although Kira had initially objected to the idea of them separating at night, which he argued to be the ideal time for Hitsugaya to make an appearance, Ichimaru was quick to silence him on the matter. And for the first time that day, Hinamori was grateful to the third division captain. As much as Hinamori liked Kira, she couldn’t handle another second of him constantly bearing over her like some sort of guard dog.

When she reached the Inoue residence along with the others, Hinamori was glad that the day was finally over and she could be alone with her thoughts. So when the opportunity presented itself, Hinamori was quick to exit out of her bedroom window to relax on the rooftop. She thought that as long as she didn’t go far, there wouldn’t be any harm. Besides, with the window still open, the people down below would be able to hear anything if she was loud enough. So Hinamori figured she’d be safe.

Having heard earlier that day that Matsumoto harbored the same doubts that she did was a huge weight off her shoulders. Even if she was no closer to uncovering the answer as she was the day before, just knowing that she had someone else she could confide in was enough. It was one more thing that she had that she didn’t have the day before. And maybe tomorrow, she would take another step forward in figuring out the secret behind her childhood friend’s sudden betrayal.

“Oh Hitsugaya-kun….” Hinamori muttered to herself as she stared at the starry sky above. “Just what are you doing?”

“I’m stood here talking to you, what else would I be doing?” a familiar voice suddenly spoke, shocking Hinamori to the core.

#hitsuhina #hitsugaya x hinamori #Instead of Glass There was Ice

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tappity-tap · 7 years

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FOREVER BElonging WITH YOU

PART V - THE DENIAL

<< PART IV || PART VI >> Story Rating: M Chapter Warnings: Illness, pregnancy, alcohol, and some sexual content. [This chapter is sfw for the most part with a little nsfw bit at the very end]

It took less than three days for everyone to know about the Abarai’s impending new arrival. “Everyone” being every single person within the walls of the Seireitei, plus a few beyond. Gossip tended to travel quickly when something unusual took place, as it had with their wedding, and two captain-class Shinigami expecting a baby was also a fairly rare occurrence.

Fielding questions, on the other hand, was quickly becoming a fairly frequent occurrence.

“It’s not even…it’s like this big.” Renji exasperatedly pinched his thumb and index finger together and cracked them apart by a few millimeters. “We’ve no idea who it’s gonna take after, or what the sex is, or what we’re gonna name it yet ‘cause it’s that tiny ‘an we just found out.”

Several expressions around the table fell in disappointment.

“Awww, that’s no fair,” Rangiku complained, plunking her face into her open palm to lean on her arm, “I want to know what it’ll look like!”

“Ah…well…it’s inside Rukia-san right now so no one’s going to know that until it comes out,” Hanataro told her apologetically. He said this so softly they almost didn’t hear him over the dull roar of the crowded restaurant.

Cattycorner from him, Ikkaku scoffed and took a swig of his drink. “Who cares what it looks like? We already know it’s gonna be strong as hell, look who it’s got for parents.” He grinned eagerly. “Can’t wait til the kid’s old enough t’spar. That’ll be fun.”

Visions of a cackling Ikkaku wildly brandishing Houzukimaru in pursuit of a terrified and crying miniature version of himself (tribal tattoos and all) suddenly popped into Renji’s head.

A shudder ran through him. “Please don’t fight my child til it gets at least as tall as Rukia,” he insisted while secretly praying the kid would inherit her short stature and stay small forever.

Ikkaku thumped his bottle down on the table and groaned in annoyance. “I agree with Rangiku-san. You’re no fair.”

“Feh. Who’s to say it’ll even want to be a Shinigami, Ikkaku?” Yumichika mused and chewed thoughtfully on a dumpling, “Look at Omaeda’s family…his father was the former vice captain of the second division but only one of his children decided to follow in his footsteps.”

Renji had been about to take a sip of his drink but this made him pause. “Wait, really? I didn’t know that.”

Yumichika plucked another dumpling from the dish in front of him. “Didn’t you? They’re listed one right after the other in the registry of 2nd Division officers. It’s not difficult to make the connection.” He dipped it into the accompanying bowl of sauce with an obnoxious air of superiority that made Renji seriously consider reaching across the table and pouring the entire thing over his meticulously groomed head.

Hinamori laughed softly and clutched her cup of tea with both hands. “I guess Abarai-kun doesn’t look through the records very often.”

“I-I do! I just…don’t look any more’n I have to,” Renji protested.

“Oi, Abarai, should you really be drinking that?” Hisagi cut in and motioned to the cup of sake still poised at Renji’s lips, “I thought you’re supposed to give that stuff up if you’re having a kid?”

Renji cocked an eyebrow. “Rukia’s the pregnant one. It doesn’t apply to me. Right?” He glanced down the table at Kiyone and Hanataro, who verified his statement with vigorous nods.

“All the more reason for you not to drink,” Rangiku responded sagely, “if she can’t have fun, neither can you. Oh, bring him a tea!” she called out loudly as a server passed their table.

Renji sighed and reluctantly set down his cup when the server returned moments later with his tea. His friends were paying for this baby celebration lunch (though they chose not to inform him of said lunch until he stepped outside to take his break only to be ambushed and dragged away) and as such, he felt obligated to graciously accept whatever they ordered for him.

Not to mention, this was the same group of close acquaintances he and Rukia had gathered together to announce their engagement to first…minus Captain Hitsugaya who, according to Rangiku, was “too wrapped up in his paperwork” to leave the office (Renji suspected a good portion of said paperwork was actually hers). Irritating as they could sometimes be, he knew they cared deeply and only wanted the best for his and Rukia’s marriage, and now their child.

Renji was about to take the first sip of his tea (which actually smelled delicious now that he was getting a good whiff of it) when Rangiku suddenly spotted someone by the restaurant’s entrance and jumped up to wave them over. “Oi, Kuchikiiii! Over heeere!”

Sputtering in surprise and nearly dropping his cup, he whipped around and sure enough, there was his wife weaving her way through the throng of patrons. “Wait, you invited Rukia?”

Rangiku dropped her hand and looked at him flatly. “Of course we did, it’s half her kid, too.”

“Right…yeah,” Renji agreed, setting down the tea with some reluctance. It was probably easier that he didn’t let on the real reason he was surprised to see Rukia. She was supposed to be busy in a meeting with the 12th Division’s Research and Development team, and it was supposed to take a lot longer than it apparently had if their friends had been able to seek her out and let her know about the luncheon.

Furthermore, Renji could tell Rukia was upset even before she reached the table, and from that alone he had a pretty good hunch as to why; the news she was about to give him would most likely not be positive.

When he got up to greet her she rushed into him and flung her arms around his waist, face nuzzling the section of tattooed skin exposed by his parted collar in an unusually open display of affection. Rukia’s comfort level when it came to PDA between the two of them normally tended to hover around side hugs, hand holding, and shoulder squeezes but he fully returned her embrace without question.

They stayed like that for a while until the “awww” noises their friends were making at them became too much and the two broke apart with matching blushes and annoyed frowns.

Trying to ignore the obnoxious cooing as they sat down, Renji lowered his head next to hers and muttered, “So…what’s the verdict?”

As expected, Rukia shook her head and pouted. “No go. I’m stuck here until it’s born.”

Unbeknownst to either of them, Rangiku had been listening closely and now craned her head to try and see Rukia, half hidden from her sight behind Renji’s much larger form. “Eh? What’s that now?”

“Well…er…” Renji glanced at Rukia, unsure if she wanted to divulge any information. With a shrug of her shoulders, Rukia sighed and peered around Renji to address Rangiku.

“Research and Development doesn’t want me leaving Soul Society. They don’t know what’ll happen to me or the baby if I cross through the Dangai or get inside a Gigai.” That was apparently all she felt up for disclosing, though, for once she finished saying this Rukia pulled back and folded in on herself without another word.

Renji picked up where she left off. “We were plannin’ on goin’ to the Living World tomorrow to tell Ichigo ‘an the others,” he explained while sympathetically patting his wife’s hunched back, “but Akon-san didn’t want Rukia gettin’ clearance til he ‘an the Department did some research to make sure it’s safe. Now…guess it’s just gonna be me.”

“I really wanted to see their faces when we told them,” Rukia grumbled, “especially Inoue’s.” She crossed her arms on the table and plopped her chin on top.

“I know.” Renji gave in to his husbandly urges and planted a soothing kiss near her temple. Rukia either didn’t notice or was too miserable to care.

“Why don’t they all just come here and you can tell them at once?”

Kira had been fairly quiet since they arrived at the restaurant but now he spoke up from the far end of the table. A murmur of agreement arose from the others at his suggestion.

Renji shook his head. “Too much hassle. They’re all doin’ their own things now ‘an since we wanna tell ‘em soon as possible it’s just easier pickin’ one afternoon to go ‘round.”

“Oh.” Kira nodded in understanding and went back to silently picking at his lunch.

“Well that’s disappointing. Sorry, Kuchiki.” Rangiku put on a melodramatic pouty face but they could tell she meant it sincerely. After a moment, she clapped her hands together brightly. “I know! Let’s get something to cheer you up! How about we split a bottle of momoshu?”

“Matsumoto-san! That’s alcohol! She can’t have that!” Kiyone leaned over and hissed at her, aghast.

Rangiku giggled sheepishly, “Oh, oops!”

Rukia sighed and shook her head. “It’s alright. I’m not feeling up for eating or drinking much right now anyways.”

“Ya gotta eat somethin’, Rukia,” Renji murmured and stroked her hair as gently as he could, “ya haven’t eaten much lately.”

“Oh, why don’t you try eating when you can barely keep anything down?” she huffed at him, annoyed. When their waiter came by, though, she did end up putting in an order for some rice porridge and a pot of ginger tea.

Once the waiter left them again, Rangiku leaned towards the two of them with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. “So…I’m curious, Renji. How’d Captain Kuchiki take the news?”

Almost everyone snapped their head in Renji’s direction, the only exception being Rukia, who was still moping at his side.

Renji shrugged. “He looked happy. A little happier than when we told him we were gettin’ married, actually.”

“Well, if you think about it, this makes sense, right?” Everyone looked over at Kira, surprised. He blinked and continued, with a somewhat melancholy disposition, “His wife died before they had children. Having a niece or nephew is closest he’ll ever be to becoming a father.”

Yumichika listened to Kira with rapt attention and thoughtfully rubbed his index finger under his lip. “That’s an interesting theory…I wasn’t under the impression Captain Kuchiki liked children very much.”

Under his hand, Renji felt Rukia stiffen slightly. “Nii-sama doesn’t dislike children,” she murmured, so softly he had to bend down a little to hear her, “he’s just never…really…” Suddenly, her eyes widened and her body made an odd lurching motion.

“Rukia…?” Renji reared back and lifted his hand from her hair in alarm as her face rapidly paled.

Without another word she stood up and bolted for the restroom, right past their confused waiter holding her food and drink, with her hand clamped tightly over her mouth.

“Uh…” After a moment of sitting there stunned and motionless, Renji turned and looked pleadingly to the three remaining women at the table. “Couldja…?”

Putting on her best big-sisterly airs, Rangiku nodded and swiftly took charge. “Come on, Hinamori, Kotetsu-san. Kuchiki-san needs us!” The other two rose and followed her lead in the direction where Rukia had run off.

Hisagi watched them go and turned back to Renji with an apprehensive look. “Yikes. That didn’t look good.”

Renji sighed and made a motion for the waiter to set Rukia’s order in her empty spot. “No. She’s been havin’ a rough time of it since we found out.” He thanked the departing waiter and leaned his head into his hands. “I hate seein’ her like this but I dunno what to do, honestly. I don’t even know if I can do anything.”

Hanataro’s face screwed up in concentration like he was trying to (unsuccessfully) come up with some sort of solution. The other men could only watch Renji with sympathetic expressions as he wove his fingertips through the pulled-back hair just above his bandana.

“But back to Captain Kuchiki,” Yumichika piped up, somewhat tactlessly for the situation at hand, “does he actually like children? I’m very curious to know what Rukia-chan was about to say.” Ikkaku grunted into his drink as a gesture of agreement.

“How the hell should I know if he likes kids or not?” Renji unraveled his fingers from his hair and let his hands bang down on the wooden tabletop. “I guess he can handle ‘em okay? He always knew how with Lieutenant Kusajishi, at least.” To be fair, it didn’t take much more than tossing of a bag of candy to keep her reined in, but no one was ever able to do it with the practiced ease that Byakuya could and Renji had sometimes suspected that given the chance, his captain might actually be pretty good with children.

At least he hoped that was the case now that his own was concerned.

Everyone else seemed satisfied with his answer and went back to their food and drink. Renji could only pick at his food (the tea was stone cold and far less appealing at this point) and stew in his worry while the minutes ticked by with no sign of any of the recently departed.

At last, he spotted a familiar flash of cropped sandy brown hair making its way back to them and immediately rose as she passed by him. “How’s she doin’?”

“Stable. She’s feeling better, but you should probably take her home.” Kiyone sat back in her seat and folded her arms very brusque and business-like, with an involuntary tug at the 4th Division lieutenant’s badge on her upper arm. “She’s had enough excitement and emotional stress for today, I think.”

Renji had figured as much and nodded in agreement. “Yeah, okay.” Turning, he scanned the area and motioned their server over once he spotted him. In a low voice he requested that his and Rukia’s food be boxed up to go. The man nodded politely and left.

Not long after, Hinamori and Rangiku came tottering back to the group, through the maze of tables and people with Rukia supported between them. Once the waiter had handed over their to-go boxes bundled up in a paper bag and Renji had profusely thanked (and apologized to) his friends for that afternoon, he gripped Rukia firmly under the arm and steered her towards the exit.

As soon as they were outside and away from the stifling atmosphere, he loosened his hold on her. “Can ya walk by yourself okay?”

“Of course I can, idiot!” Rukia snapped back irritably and snatched her arm away. Or tried to, at least; With the effects of her illness still lingering, the motion she employed ended up less as a single swift yank and more a series of pathetic tugs. Once she had done that, though, she realized her insolence towards Renji wasn’t at all justified and the regret set in. She visibly deflated. “Renji…I didn’t mean…I’m just so…”

With a sigh, Renji reached out with the hand that had just released her and gently grasped the top of her head. She lacked the vigor to do anything more than let out a feeble groan in protest when he drew her into his side, however in contradiction to her vocal reluctance she leaned fully into him.

“Hey…it’s okay,” Renji murmured so only she could hear, “no one’s blamin’ ya for bein’ upset with the ways things’re workin’ out.” He chuckled and kneaded his fingers through her silky black hair. “Least of all, me. Ya know that, right?”

He didn’t let her off until she relented and nodded in agreement.

They walked in silence for a while. Renji, with his long strides and full reserves of energy, had to work extra hard to make sure Rukia didn’t lag more than a pace or two behind. Every once in a while he glanced over his shoulder to make sure that yes, she was still with him, silently shuffling along and kicking up little clouds of dust under her feet.

“I’m so sorry, Renji,” Rukia said quietly, shortly before they reached their street, “this is supposed to be a happy time for us and we can’t even enjoy it when I’m always-“

Renji stopped right there in the middle of the road and spun to face her dead on with his free hand firmly planted on her shoulder. “Rukia…unless ya made yourself this sick on purpose, you’ve nothin’ to be sorry for.” He raised his eyebrows pointedly and poked the other shoulder as best he could while keeping hold of the bag full of food. “So stop apologizin’, okay?”

He’d never been more relieved to hear her laugh after a near minute of silence. “Yeah…you’re right.” Rukia sighed and reached up to squeeze his hand. “I’m being ridiculous aren’t I?”

“Not anymore’n usual, no.” He easily dodged her weakly thrown punch.

That night they cuddled together in bed under the blankets, warm and drowsy from a relaxing bath, Renji’s body curved around her back and his arms snugly encircling her tiny frame. With Rukia’s head tucked securely under his chin, he listened to her give him instructions for tomorrow while enjoying the feel of the absentminded designs she was doodling over every inch of his bare skin she could reach. In his own way, he was doing his best to make up to her for not being able to accompany him to the Living World the next day.

“Make sure you remember every word they say.” Rukia grasped his hand and traced her fingertip in rectangular shapes over the back of it. “I would ask you to draw their faces but…” she sighed sadly.

Renji kissed the outer edge of her ear with a grin. “Sorry. You’re the artist here.” His teeth grazed over the kisses he’d just left on her skin.

He felt Rukia perk up a little from the compliment, and also probably because he was now circling the tips of her breasts through her clothes with his free fingers. “Renji…mmmm…what if the baby… ohhhh…likes to draw, too?” On his wrist, the movements of her fingers started subconsciously mimicking his.

Emboldened and encouraged by her positive responses to his manual flirting, he abandoned her breasts and happily walked his fingers down the front of her body. “Hm…then we’ll have two artists in the family ‘an I get to brag twice as much,” Renji declared. He hadn’t thought about it before but now he was certain he’d be overwhelmingly proud if the baby inherited even half of its mother’s artistic talents.

Rukia stiffened and very nearly turned around to look at him. “T-two? But what about Nii-samaaa..aaahhh…” That last stutter was her reaction to Renji’s fingers “accidentally” passing over a certain spot during their migration from her breasts to her thighs. She clung onto him and he could feel her reiatsu pulsate from the budding anticipation.

“How ‘bout…” Renji’s hand snaked beneath the hem of her nightclothes “We don’t talk about your brother right now…” He slowly pushed them up her thighs, over her hips, until they bunched around her waist. “’An I do everything I can to make ya feel better about all this?”

Rukia shivered and tightened her grip on his arms when his wandering fingers slid under the waistband of her loincloth. “O-okay,” she panted eagerly.

By the time they actually got to sleep, Renji had made absolutely certain (several times, in fact) that she felt much, much better about having to stay behind tomorrow.

Author’s Notes: This was actually the chapter I finished last overall because it’s sort of what I like to call a “bridge” chapter in that it needs to tie things together from both halves of the story while keeping momentum going. Juggling 10 characters at the same time in one scene also made me want to rip my hair out at times. @_@ Honestly I’m not particularly fond of it but with so much necessary information and set-ups, taking it out was just not an option. Hopefully the character banter makes this a worthwhile read.

I felt bad having Rukia stay in Soul Society but honestly I feel like having two different spiritual energies inside one spirit body would cause a lot of complications with the things Shinigami use to go to the Living World. Would she need one hell butterfly or two to cross the Dangai? Would the Gigai have to have another Gigai inside of it for the baby? On top of that, would so much concentrated energy attract Hollows faster? Just...way too much uncertainty there and since it seems like weddings and pregnancies don’t happen often with enlisted Shinigami the12th Division really wouldn’t have much information on this. Test tube babies on the other hand... lol

Good news: IchiHime is in the story starting with the next chapter.

Continued in [PART VI - THE RELAY]

#RenRuki #tapfic #tapart #FOREVER BElonging WITH YOU #Part VI will be up in an hour or so once final edits are complete

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recurring-polynya · 2 years

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Dear Polynya, First of all, your work is brilliant and delightful and has been bringing me joy during a rough and lonely time. For Rukia's birthday, if you feel so inclined I would absolutely LOVE to hear about Rukia and Ukitake being "upper management badasses" (fic or meta). You maybe tweeted about this? and now I'm so curious ... what is their office banter like? Are they efficiently chaotic or chaotically efficient? Thirteenth's workplace dynamic is mysterious and fascinating. Thank you!!

Thank you! I am sorry you've been having a rough time-- a lot of us have, I think and I hate this for all of us-- but I am happy if I was able to bring even a little bit of joy into your life.

Let's talk about Squad 13! (unfortunately, I didn't have any great story ideas, so here's some meta)

I think that preponderance of paperwork is a relatively recent development in the Gotei. It's not that Juushirou is... disorganized or anything but he just doesn't prioritize it. He makes sure the critical things get done, but he doesn't sweat the small stuff.

Juushirou also likes his officers to have a good work-life balance! The life of a patrol officer can grueling, so he likes to be flexible about desk hours to make up for it.

Sometimes, Juushirou can be... too... understanding.

Kaien was also a big fan of "just doing the important paperwork"

As a result, by the time Rukia comes on board, the level of entropy in the office is high.

It's not that Rukia likes doing paperwork, either, but she likes when things work well.

The first thing she does is survey the other lieutenants as to what administrative tasks really need to get done. She's aiming for a good middle ground, somewhere between what Captain Hitsugaya wants done and what Matsumoto actually does. Renji and Nanao turn out to be really good resources here (even though both of them do about three times more paperwork than Rukia considers optimal).

Rukia is extremely good at delegating (i.e. bullying people into doing what she tells them to).

Juushirou has definitely seen her put Sentarou in a headlock, but he pretends like he hasn't and glowingly extols Rukia's people skills at every opportunity.

Juushirou and Rukia probably have the most normal relationship of any captain-lieutenant pair in the Gotei. Momo and Shinji are second runners up and that says something.

At the captain-lieutenant annual retreat, they had a very bad showing at the three-legged race, but they built the tallest tower out of marshmallows and dry spaghetti (Kurotsuchi was McPissed) and they killed it at karaoke

Juushirou and Rukia have top tier communication habits. They have an extended tea and snack break most afternoons where they talk out everything that's going on in the squad. They disagree on a lot, but they are very good at talking it out.

Rukia thinks it’s important for Squad 13 to represent itself well at intra-Gotei activities (e.g. the futsal league). She feels this is good for morale and its important for them to be respected by other squads (and it's certainly not because she is an incredibly competitive person). Juushirou loves this for them, and will show up to the sidelines with banners and a giant foam finger one of his patrol officers brought back from the World of the Living.

The one thing Juushirou does not slack on is documenting lore.

Many people in the Gotei feel like it's the Twelfth's job to know how stuff works, but sometimes the R&D mindset tends to gloss over the more spiritual and metaphoric stuff, despite the fact that they live in a mystical realm that is "more than you have dreamt of in your philosophy, Horatio," etc etc.

Juushirou has kept detailed work diaries for his entire career, describing the Absolutely Wild Stuff he's seen. He's a guy who thinks in patterns, who knows how stuff works on what seems like an instinctual level, but it’s just that he has a vast amount of experience and takes the care to reflect and synthesize.

Modern kidou, as practiced in the Gotei, focuses nearly entirely on the standard set of hadou and bakudou, and leaves the weird stuff to the Kidou Corps. It's...useful, however, to have some of this capability within the Court Guards, which is to say that Juushirou and Shunsui know how to do a lot of elaborate, arcane shit using old forgotten methods.

Shunsui has low-key been teaching Nanao this stuff for a few years now, and Juushirou decides to do the same with Rukia, as well as telling her a lot of his old stories, and just generally brain-dumping to her and teaching her how to look up stuff in his diaries.

Kaien would have been a great captain, but he would been more like Isshin-- honorable, action-oriented, straightforward.

Rukia is, of course, her own person, but in many ways, she is much more Juushirou’s student.

#rukia kuchiki #jushiro ukitake #squad 13 #happy birthday rukia!#the other reason i didn't write a fanfic #is the stuff about doing obscure kidou already showed up in Ch9 of Call Me Back

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recurring-polynya · 3 years

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Once again, I am thinking about the dubious claim that people make from time to time that Renji would have gotten better character development in the TYBW arc if Byakuya had died. The thing is, though, that Renji did get excellent character development in this arc, particularly with respect to his relationship to Byakuya, it was just very subtle and I want to talk about it.

So, the first thing I want to point out is that the captain-lieutenant relationships is one of the major themes of the TYBW. A lot of this is sort of weird and awkward, but this is perfect, actually, because captain-lieutenant relationships are, for the most part, weird and clunky and awkward. Take for example, the part that I always make fun of, where the captains are told not to go to bankai, and Hitsugaya, Komamura, Byakuya and Soi Fon immediately go to bankai-- but they all do this on the assumption that they are luring their opponent into a trap to see how this works, and that their lieutenant will somehow ??defeat them anyway?? (well, except Soi Fon who seems to think she can one-shot her Quincy). There’s Sasakibe’s funeral, where we find out that Yamamoto cared far more for him than we ever imagined. Kyouraku returns Nanao’s zanpakutou to her and stands behind her as she defeats an opponent he can't. Iba carries Komamura’s body off of the battlefield as he loses the last of his humanity. Isane struggles to keep her head above her grief because that’s the burden Unohana left her with. Rose avenging Kira. Hitsugaya and Matsumoto fighting and (sort of) dying together. The Zaraki-Yachiru thing. The Mayuri-Nemu thing. Momo and Shinji actually got to have a relatively normal one, which they each deserved, but at least they got to have normal one together. Anyway, that could be an entire essay, but as usual, I only want to talk about Renji and Byakuya.

Renji’s introduction as a character happens in stages. Initially, he sort of appears to be Byakuya’s sidekick-- he's here to do the dirty work during Rukia’s arrest, while Byakuya stands by and calls the shots, but even early on, it’s clear that Renji’s a little hung up on Byakuya. He’s trying to impress him, and gets more embarrassed and self-conscious as things go progressively pear-shaped. When Byakuya finally enters the action, Renji’s thought bubbles reveal that he’s watched Byakuya for a long time, that he knows all his moves. When we get the Renji backstory reveal a few issues later, we learn that Renji’s goal is to defeat Byakuya, which he seems to feel is necessary to seeing Rukia again, even though there has never been any sort of causal link revealed between these two things. Don’t get me wrong, if Young Academy Renji had tried to continue to be friends with Rukia, I think Byakuya would have kicked him out on his ass, but it’s clear that a lot of Renji’s hang-ups are internal-- he doesn’t want to face Rukia again until he can stand against Byakuya. I think the origin of this is that he simply wants what’s best for Rukia, and he can’t stomach the idea of asking her to leave her rich, noble family for him, unless, of course, he’s somehow better than Byakuya in some dimension, and the only thing Renji’s ever considered himself good at is fighting.

Even more interesting is that he’s chosen to go about this by... studying the man’s every move and becoming his lieutenant. But for as much energy as Renji has put into learning Byakuya’s favorite combat moves, he doesn’t actually know anything about him as a person. He’s shocked when Rukia predicts that Byakuya won’t lift a finger to help her, and then horrified when this actually comes to pass. A few chapters later, as he’s running Hinamori through, Aizen comments that “Adoration is the state furthest from understanding.” I would probably classify Renji’s feelings towards Byakuya more as admiration or idolization, rather than adoration, but I think this statement is also very true of Renji and Byakuya’s relationship. Unlike poor Momo, Renji gets a little more time and opportunity to do something with this information. With a little Ichigo-forced soul searching, he realizes that he’s not going to come out the hero of this story no matter what, but if he doesn’t do something, Rukia’s not going to come out of this story at all, and even if he’s not really ready, he’s spent 40 years trying to figure out how to beat Kuchiki Byakuya, let’s hope all that was good for something.

The Byakuya-Renji fight has no direct impact on the events of the Soul Society Arc. It makes Byakuya show up to Rukia’s execution 5 minutes late and without his scarf. Renji gets healed, so it really doesn’t matter all that much to him, either. You could argue that they both wasted a bunch of energy (that they could have used to fight Aizen later) but it’s primarily a character-driven moment of them both drawing lines in the sand about where they stand, vis a vis Rukia. Byakuya wins this fight, and he wins it handily, but he’s wrong, as he comes to realize a few issues later, when Ichigo kicks his ass and tells him he’s a bad brother, a lesson that Byakuya will take to heart for the rest of the manga. Byakuya claims that the difference between Renji and himself is class, but the real difference between is the heart, and in the long run, Renji is the real victor of this fight.

The hospital scene is an interesting footnote to this. Byakuya defeated Renji, but Byakuya was the asshole and everyone knows it. There’s an expectation that perhaps Renji will quit or perhaps Renji will give him an earful and perhaps even Rukia will choose to leave the family, either to go to the Living World or to be with Renji (and Byakuya would deserve this), but instead, both Renji and Rukia give Byakuya another chance, which is not, I think, a place Renji ever expected to be.

Rukia and Byakuya building up a sibling relationship after this is fairly straightforward (although I’m sure it had its weird moments), but Byakuya and Renji now have this profoundly awkward relationship where Byakuya is obviously in charge, but he sort of depends on Renji as a personal compass because he’s shit at dealing with people and he doesn’t want to screw stuff up with Rukia again. Take for example, the part of the Hueco Mundo arc where Orihime is kidnapped and Rukia and Renji desert their posts to come help rescue her. Kubo takes to the panel-space to tell us that Byakuya has tacitly approved this. As a clan head and a captain, a person who is entrenched in the hierarchy of Soul Society, Byakuya couldn’t possibly go to Hueco Mundo-- but he can turn a blind eye while his sister and lieutenant scurry out through the Kuchiki family senkaimon. Renji, for his part, tried to go to Hueco Mundo through official channels and got shot down. We don’t know what Renji would have done if Byakuya had explicitly forbidden him from going, but it doesn’t matter-- Byakuya enabled Renji to follow his heart here, because Byakuya can’t. Rukia would have gone to Hueco Mundo regardless. She cares about Byakuya, but she doesn’t depend on him for validation the way Renji does.

I said this was going to be about the TYBW, so let’s get to that. Early in the arc, we’re shown several scenes where it’s clear that Byakuya respects and values Renji as a lieutenant, but he’s also pretty damn patronizing to him. Renji is the first one to engage As Nodt, and when Byakuya shows up, he acts surprised that Renji hasn’t taken him out yet, but then proceeds to take over the fight (real, “stand back, fives, an eleven has arrived” energy). After Byakuya then loses his bankai like a doofus, Renji wants to take point so that Byakuya can figure out As Nodt’s attack and Byakuya won’t let him... and then proceeds to get thrashed.

This has to be one of the most emotionally charged fights in Bleach. Byakuya is losing, and Renji jumps in, absolutely incensed that As Nodt would use Senbonzakura against Byakuya. Renji isn’t doing great, but he’s not doing terrible when Byakuya gets up and tries to help Renji, even though he’s a big bloody mess. As Nodt reacts by shredding Byakuya into chunks, and Renji just loses it, and if Mask de Masculine hadn’t shown up and kicked him halfway across the Seireitei, I daresay Renji would have killed himself trying to take down As Nodt.

This is where I usually make the point that if Byakuya had died to here, it would have broken Renji into little pieces, but that’s not today’s essay. Instead, everyone goes to the Royal Realm, and by virtue of the fact that Byakuya is injured worse than everyone else, Renji has to go forward without him or his approval.

In typical Renji fashion, the thing that motivates Renji here is not glory or heroism, but the desire to accompany Ichigo, the need to be with his friends in their times of trial. In fact his companionship here is absolutely essential-- at Hikifune’s, Ichigo expresses deep doubts that he’s doing the right thing, and Renji reminds himself that if he wants to protect others, he has to take care of himself first.

At Nimaiya’s however, Renji and Ichigo are split up because they must follow their own paths. The other extremely interesting thing that happens here is that Renji’s sword is reforged. Byakuya shattered one of Hihio Zabimaru’s joints the very first time Renji used them in combat. Renji brushed it off at the time, saying that he could get by without it. Even though Byakuya has long been his motivating force and his mentor, he’s also been held back by his connection to him. And at this point, it’s gone.

I really wish we got to see where Renji and Rukia meet up again, but we don’t. Unlike with Ichigo, though, Rukia doesn’t seem to need anything from Renji. They travel together, fight together as equals, wear matching outfits, like you do. Oh. Wait. After all this time, in the 493 chapters between Needless Emotions and Blue Stripes, Renji can finally see himself as an equal to Rukia. They get. bankai. Together.

I want to emphasize that it’s not really anything about Rukia herself that allowed Renji to make bankai, it’s the fact that he’s finally managed to move past the feeling that he’s not enough. Defeating Byakuya would not actually have solved this problem, and having Byakuya dying in front of him wouldn’t have either. Renji gets criticized for losing a lot of his fights, but that’s such a key to his character. He’s not always the strongest, he doesn’t always win, but he keeps fighting for what he cares about. He struggles with his need for approval, for external validation, but Renji is at his best when he doesn’t have time to think about that, when he’s just fighting by his friends’ sides against impossible odds, doing what he knows in his heart is right.

I think people tend to make a little more than is strictly necessary of the line where he tells Mask that he’s “a villain”, I think he’s most just making fun of Mask’s own self-aggrandizement. On another level, though, this is just Renji being at ease with himself. Byakuya typically enters a fight bloviating about the honor of Soul Society and “how dare you raise your sword against me, the 28th Head of the Kuchiki” and even Ikkaku had the whole deal about telling people your name before you kill them, but Renji is more like “you beat up my friends, so I’m gonna break your face,” like there’s no ego in it, just you’re there, and he’s there, and then you’re lying on the ground and he’s taking a nap somewhere. This is so different than the insecure, posturing young man he was at the start of this series and I love this growth for him.

Even after he eventually meets up with Byakuya again, something has changed about their dynamic. The group gets split up and rejoined two or three times, and Renji and Rukia always stay together while Byakuya ends up fighting alongside others, Hisagi and later Hitsugaya and Zaraki. This is cemented in their last scene together, where Rukia and Renji try to stay with Byakuya and he sends them off to fight with Ichigo by saying “your help is not needed here.” In some ways, it’s an echo of Byakuya sending them off to Hueco Mundo, but in other ways, it’s acknowledging that they are their own people, not just an extension of him.

Hitsugaya follows it up with this:

There’s more here than meets the eye, though-- Byakuya and Renji have maintained a pretty strict superior-subordinate relationship, because that’s the easiest way for them to make sense of the world, but the fact is, they do care about each other and are important to one another.

I know there would be a certain narrative satisfaction in seeing Renji make captain at the end-- he’s one of the hardest working people in Bleach, and it frankly seems weird to see Iba get the haori when he doesn’t. But Renji has never wanted to be a captain. Renji becoming captain would, in some ways, be a failure. He spends years pre-canon chasing rank and prestige because that’s what he thinks will make him worthy, and it didn’t. Instead, he found worth in being himself, in loving his friends and being there for them, in learning things from Byakuya and teaching him things in return. Renji doesn’t need to be Byakuya’s lieutenant anymore, he just does it because he likes it. It makes him happy. What better character development is there than that?

#renji abarai #byakuya kuchiki #tybwa #god i love to get up on a saturday and write essays about renji's character development #tldr: renji checks off all the gotei career milestones *except* making captain and then proceeds to lean in to his true calling: malewife #we stan legends only

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recurring-polynya · 3 years

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soul reapers to get paid and their salaries are even quite high! if i remember correctly, lieutenants make around $7k while a captain’s salary is almost triple(nearly $19k)

(cont) that is if my conversion was right, in a JET interview kubo said captains make 2million yen, lieutenants - 700 000yen and an unseated officer - 200 000yen. but then again, i think the living cost in ss is much higher, i remember matsumoto mentioning that clothes in the living world are much cheaper

I have to say this is one of the liveliest discussions on Bleach meta that I have ever participated in on this website. I feel like I can definitively report that is is both fanon consensus and supported by the creator himself that Soul Reapers do, in fact, get paid. For the record, my husband, who started this, conceded days ago and I am sure has not thought about it since.

In any case-- I was very surprised by these numbers, and at first I thought that maybe they were in kan, the fictional currency used in Soul Society, rather than yen. I mean, $19k/year is a terrible salary (for those of you who are not American it is roughly minimum wage). I attempted to figure out the conversion rate between kan and yen once, and at the time, came to the conclusion that kan were worth somewhat more than yen, but I no longer have my scratch pad, so I cannot show my work. Looking at it again, they seem pretty close.

Then, just to get an idea, I googled the salary of a four-star general in the American military, which I thought should be a rough equivalent, and the article I found reported all its numbers in monthly salaries, which I am not used to seeing, but maybe they are more common in other countries. In any case, according to the article I found, the highest salary you can make in the US military is $15,800/month ($189,600/year), which is pretty close to what a Gotei captain makes. I realize that is a lot of money on an absolute scale, but that actually seemed shockingly low to me, in the sense that there have only ever been 246 four-star generals in the history of the U.S., but this is the sort of salary that, say, a C-suite executive might make. A president of even a public university can make 2-5 times this. Now, a career in the military comes with a lot of other perks-- free room and board, free healthcare, etc, but I think this is going to make a much bigger difference to the people in the lower ranks.

The more I thought about it, I do think this tracks, though. Gotei captains are immeasurably valuable and basically impossible to replace. One of the more chilling moments leading up to the Winter War was the part where Hitsugaya is basically like “we don’t know how many Arrancar Aizen has, but if it’s more than 10, we’re screwed” and then it cuts to Hueco Mundo, and Aizen is just surrounded by guys. So, yeah, it honestly makes perfect sense to me that captains are paid a “good living” but it’s insulting compared to the wealth of the nobles that live around them. I don’t usually have a lot of nice things to say about Byakuya, but I do want to emphasize that this has to be chump change for him. This guy definitely works out of a sense of duty, he is not in it for the Benjamins.

The vice-captain salary (~$84k/yr) comes closest to an O-4, which corresponds to a major or a lieutenant colonel, and usually entails about 10 years of service. I guess years count for less when you’re immortal, so I guess that works out. One thing that doesn’t fit is that in another interview, Kubo states that Renji’s sunglasses cost half a year’s salary, but their price is listed in the Bleach Bootleg as 84,700 kan. If a kan is roughly equal to a yen, this is wildly off. I will get back to this later. In WDKALY, there was some mention of vice-captains and captains being given “mansions” to live in (if they chose to). I absolutely cannot accept this fact as canon. I can’t. I mean, there are numerous omake about Hisagi trying to score free food out of Omaeda, yet this man lives in a mansion? And do not tell me he (or Matsumoto or Iba) would pass up living in a mansion if they had the option, even if the commute were an absolute nightmare. Maybe he can’t afford the cost of utilities and furnishings. I don’t know. Please, someone write me a sitcom of Hisagi and Kira living in giant mansions next door to each other, but it’s just like the Bluths living in the sample house in Arrested Development. [Aside: Renji would take the mansion, but he would turn it into an indoor soccer field and continue to sleep in the barracks search your heart you know it’s true]

Back on topic! The unseated officer salary of 200k yen/mo works out to an E-3, which is what an enlisted service member makes after a year. Everyone in the Gotei is considered an officer, and unseating people are awful, so, once again, this seems fine. Well, it seems shitty, tbh, but consistently shitty.

To really answer the question of “is this shitty?” though, we need to consider buying power. Earlier, I mentioned that Gotei service includes free room and board, and that alone is equivalent to a lifetime of wealth for someone from the lower Rukon. I mentioned earlier that I once tried to calculate the exchange rate between kan and yen using a variety of prices for various items. I wish I had kept better notes, because my main takeaway was that prices for things were not very consistent. A copy of the Seireitei Bulletin is 380 kan. Using a straight kan to yen to dollar conversion, that’s $2.80 (I am using 100 yen = $1 because it’s close enough, in case anyone was wondering). Sexy photo books of the captains cost ~$25. The budget of the Shinigami Women’s Association is $2500/year, and the Men’s is $900/year, which is roughly the cost of one pair of sunglasses. I think it must have been the sunglasses that threw me, because I kept trying to peg the cost of a pair of sunglasses to a half year’s salary. The club budgets are just honestly confusing because I have no idea what a calligraphy club budget should look like. It seemed... fine... that a club budget should be equivalent to half a year’s salary? To be honest, I think a kan should be roughly equal to a yen and the sunglasses are just priced too low. (Not a statement I ever thought I would be making).

The comment about clothes being cheaper in the World of the Living makes a lot of sense! Cloth in Soul Society is probably hand-dyed, rather than mass printed, and sewed by hand, rather than by machine. On the other hand, if you wanted goods made in traditional ways, it would be a lot cheaper to get in Soul Society. A chusen-dyed kimono is a luxury good in 2021, because you have to option to order a cheap t-shirt and sweatpants from Amazon. Everyone wears hand-made kimono in Soul Society because that’s what there is, so the price is going to be relatively lower. I do think that cost-of-living jumps sharply inside the walls of the Seireitei, and that it’s very common to do your shopping in the upper districts of Rukongai, where there are lot of highly skilled artisans making goods for the city-dwelling market. I figure that one of the few opportunities for upward mobility, aside from selling your soul to the military is to make enough money to buy your way inside the gates (either through overpriced business licenses, getting a noble patron, or by arranging a marriage to someone who already lives inside)

That being said, I have thought a lot about importing items from the WotL--shinigami usually travel through senkaimon, which do not allow for matter conversion, so they wouldn’t normally be able to bring anything with them. I imagine that it’s sort of a perk of the job that when you go on a mission where you have to go through a matter converter (which would include any time you are bringing a gigai over) you could smuggle back whatever you can fit in your kosode. It’s very strange which technology is adapted from the World of the Living (washing machines, treadmills, urinals) and what isn’t (coffee). In fanfic, it’s common to see shinigami wearing Living World clothing in their off-hours, but I don’t think that’s supported by canon or filler in any way. For my own fanfiction, because it’s fun and world-buildy, I like to pretend that Ichigo is a very popular figure after the Winter War and that World of the Living fashion, music, etc becomes popular, starting during the two-year timeskip, particularly among the younger denizens of the Seireitei, and that there are special bars and such that specialize in that kind of thing. Shinigami who have done extensive stints in the Living World are considered cool for their knowledge of such esoteric subjects as “rice cookers.”

I am done now! I swear! Thank you, everyone for reading all the way down to the bottom of possibly the nerdiest and most boring post I have ever made on this website! (wait, no, I just remembered the one on senkaimon transfer protocols. Second most boring.)

#soul society #bleach worldbuilding #weirdly enough i have just been talking about a number of these topics in my latest chapters of a little in love #i took exactly (1) economics class and it made me a monster

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recurring-polynya · 4 years

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Apparently, if you send someone an ask, but then deactivate your Tumblr, the ask gets deleted. I got this from our old friend k-rukias, and fortunately, I already had it copied over, but anyway, that’s why this isn’t in the standard ask format. Anyway, k-rukias, I hope you’re still out there somewhere and there’s some way you can see this!

k-rukias asked:

you grasp byakuya’s character SO PERFECTLY it always makes me laugh out loud, especially your “Uncle B” stories. i’d love it if you could write more of the kuchiki-abarai family+ichika(maybe throw in some byakuya&toshiro being bffs) I SWEAR YOU DO THE DOMESTIC GENRE SO WELL one can tell you have kiddos 🥺💕

“Give Uncle Byakuya a big hug, Ichika,” Rukia instructed, stifling a yawn. “You’ll see him again on Saturday.” Despite the cheer in her voice, the second Ichika’s tiny face was buried in Byakuya’s chest, she shot her brother a thumbs up and a quizzical look.

Byakuya gave a very firm thumbs up in return. His inconsiderate adjutant was having yet another birthday, and Rukia had asked if they might hold a small family celebration at the manor this year. Byakuya wasn’t sure why. Surely the man would prefer not to see his commanding officer on his own birthday, but Byakuya loved his sister and had made the arrangements she requested.

Ichika finished rubbing her sticky cheeks all over the silk of his kimono. “Here, Uncle B,” she said, handing him a folded piece of paper. “It has to be just like this, okay?”

“Of course, my blossom,” he promised.

“No, it doesn’t,” Rukia mouthed to him behind Ichika’s back. “Okay, kiddo, you ready to go home and see if Daddy missed us?”

“I bet he fell asleep on the couch again!”

“We’ll find out! See you, Saturday, Brother!”

“Enjoy the rest of your evening, Sister,” Byakuya entreated her.

“If you have any questions, please call me,” she begged. “Or send a Hell Butterfly, or however you communicate with people these days.”

“I am very good at Text Messaging,” Byakuya assured her.

Rukia gave him an Extremely Disrespectful Look, which he tolerated, because she looked very much like Hisana when she made it.

“I will not have any questions.”

As his beloved sister and niece took their leave, he unfolded Ichika’s piece of paper.

He stared at it.

He had so many questions.

“I do appreciate that you texted before you came over,” Captain Hitsugaya informed him stonily. “But next time, could you text, like, more than a minute before you show up? Maybe wait for a reply?”

“Is now not a good time?” Byakuya asked. “Have I interrupted Squad 10 napping hours?”

“I just… would have picked up first,” Hitsugaya grumbled, trying to keep a stack of paper from falling off his desk. “And it’s always Squad 10 napping hours.”

Currently, Lieutenants Matsumoto and Kuna were sprawled out on the Squad 10 couches, snoring quite loudly.

“I have seen it worse in here,” Byakuya replied. “I am your,” he swallowed, “friend, and I accept your imperfections.”

Hitsugaya glowered at him. “What do you need?”

Byakuya spread Ichika’s instructions out on Hitsugaya’s desk. “Can you tell what this is?”

Hitsugaya’s eyes scanned the drawing: the lumpy creatures that might be rabbits, the crayon scribbles, the puddle of glitter. “Is this a test?”

“If it is, I am in danger of failing it,” Byakuya admitted.

“Ichika made this?” Hitsugaya guessed.

“I imagine the glitter gave it away.”

“Can’t you get Abarai to decipher it for you?”

“I cannot. I am hosting a ‘Surprise Birthday Party’ for him this weekend, and this represents Ichika’s vision of it. I need to identify the items in the picture so I can have them for the party.”

Hitsugaya nodded slowly. “Ah. These are probably balloons, then?”

Byakuya straightened up. “Balloons or lanterns? Or possibly the overhanging blooms of the wisteria?”

“You’re overthinking it. She’s five. It’s balloons. Can you ask Rukia?”

Byakuya’s mouth turned down at the corners. “Ichika’s art style bears a certain… resemblance to her mother’s. I am worried that if I ask for help…” he trailed off.

“Gotcha,” Hitsugaya replied brusquely. He sucked his teeth, and poked a finger at the page. “Well, this is obviously Abarai.”

“Yes, he is always distinguishable by virtue of the fact that she draws him three times as large as the rest of us.”

“Also, he’s the only one with pink hair and stripes,” Hitsugaya replied, raising an eyebrow. “Oversensitive, much?”

“I am only three inches shorter than he,” Byakuya grumbled. “The hair makes him look taller.”

“You are not getting any sympathy here, give it up,” Hitsugaya grumbled back. “He’s got a hat on, I think? A party hat?”

“Yes, I did get that far. We are all wearing hats.”

“Abarai also appears to either be wearing a lei, or he is in bankai.”

“A lei?”

“A flower necklace? We should have some around here, from the last time Matsumoto threw a luau.”

“Ah, thank you,” Byakuya replied. He had not actually expected Hitsugaya to be quite this helpful, and he wondered how he was going to repay the man’s patience in this matter.

“All this stuff on the table is… food, maybe? Gosh, I cannot tell what any of this is. These things look like fish, but they’re brown… taiyaki, maybe?”

“Oh, yes, I had figured that part out as well. Even I know that taiyaki is Abarai’s preferred celebratory food. I actually have a specially made mold--”

“You should make normal ones. Fish ones.”

“He likes Admiral Seaweed taiyaki.”

“It’s the man’s birthday, don’t make him pretend to like your weird taiyaki.”

“They have more crispy bits because of the arms and legs! He told me that specifically, in a complimentary manner!”

Hitsugaya gave him an Extremely Disrespectful Look. Unfortunately, the young man did not have the advantage of resembling Byakuya’s beautiful late wife.

Byakuya was distinctly Not Sure About This, but Hitsugaya had hit a wall and decided they needed to bring in ‘a bigger gun.’

Byakuya hadn’t actually set foot in the Squad 5 offices since Aizen’s departure. He didn’t have a lot of nice things to say about Aizen, generally, but at least the man had a classical taste in decor. Now, his former workspace more closely resembled the interior of an eclectic Living World coffee establishment for beatniks. One wall (but not the others) was painted orange, and covered in strange, stylized art that appeared to have been done by the captain and lieutenant themselves. The rug hurt his eyes. There was a beaded curtain.

“I don’t know why you thought I was going to have any insight on this, Shirou,” Lieutenant Hinamori grumped, squinting at the picture. “Renji’s the only one who can decipher these things.”

Byakuya could not help feeling the tiniest bit smug that he was not the only one who was sassed by his loved ones.

“Well, I figured you’d been to an Abarai birthday party or two,” Hitsugaya excused.

“Yeah,” Hinamori replied. “The grown-up ones. Unless this thing over here is supposed to be a tokkuri, and Captain and Lieutenant Kuchiki are arm wrestling, I can’t help you.” She frowned. “You’ve been to an Abarai birthday party, haven’t you?”

“They’re a little wild for my blood,” Hitsugaya excused. “And nobody likes drinking around their captain. I’ve been, but I usually leave before he starts bench-pressing people.”

“There are captains who come,” Momo pointed out. “And I doubt your presence would slow Matsumoto down, anyway, she’s impervious to that judgemental thing you do with your eyebrows.” She contemplated the paper. “What are these weird marks? Is this a speech bubble?”

“We couldn’t figure those out,” Hitsugaya admitted.

“Lemme take a look,” Captain Hirako, who was unfortunately present, announced. “Sometimes you gotta look at things from a different perspective.”

He turned the paper upside down. He turned it backwards. He turned it right side up, and turned his head sideways.

“I got nothing,” he replied. “Kid’s got good style though. And I think Momo may be onto something, actually. I went to Abarai’s last birthday party, and Kuchiki the Younger beat me at arm wrestling in an embarrassingly short amount of time.”

“It’s your noodle arms, sir,” Hinamori supplied. She stuck out her lower lip. “A different perspective, though, is not a bad idea. You know who you should go ask?”

Byakuya did not want to hear the answer.

“This is dango. This is katsudon. This is shaved ice.”

Byakuya was frantically taking notes.

“How… how can you tell?” Hitsugaya gaped.

Hachigou Nemuri regarded him with her serious, dark green eyes. “I have seen many of Abarai-chan’s drawings.”

Akon made a grumbling noise. “Abarai-chan’s drawing fuuuuu---udged up Nemu’s image recognition subroutines for months. I mean, it was a good thing, in the long run, I ended up implementing an entire art appreciation suite of dynamically created subroutines. It took me forever to figure out why she couldn’t recognize normal drawings of things, though.”

“What are these marks?” Byakuya asked, pointing to the funny squiggles hanging above everyone’s heads.

“Abarai-chan can’t write yet,” Nemu explained.

“Yes, I know that,” Byakuya replied.

“Writing is a form of communication that utilizes mutually understood symbols to convey an idea from one party to another,” Nemu recited. “Abarai-chan does not yet grasp the importance of a common dictionary in the delivery of information.”

Akon scratched his neck. “You’re saying Abarai-chan doesn’t know very many kana, so she just makes them up.”

“Correct,” Nemu agreed.

“Can you read them?” Hitsugaya asked hopefully.

“She does not employ a self-consistent character set.”

Byakuya and Hitsugaya’s eyes darted to Akon, who was unwrapping a piece of nicotine gum.

“She makes it up as she goes along,” he elaborated, cramming the gum in his mouth. “There is no translation.”

“Momo thought it might be a voice bubble, like in a cartoon,” Hitsugaya mused.

“Maybe it’s just a title to the piece,” Byakuya surmised. “Father’s Birthday Celebration’, for example.”

“Abarai-chan calls Lieutenant Abarai ‘Daddy’, not ‘Father’,” Nemu corrected.

“It was an example,” Byakuya bit off testily.

“This could be cherry shaved ice or strawberry shaved ice,” Nemu added hopefully. “Abarai-chan likes strawberry shaved ice, but I prefer cherry.”

“You are not attending this party,” Akon reminded her.

“I just thought Captain Kuchiki might be interested to know,” Nemu sniffed. “In case he felt like buying me a shaved ice. As a thank you for my services.”

Byakuya examined Ichika’s diagram and compared it to the celebratory items currently marring the beauty of his garden. He had the balloons. The hats. The dango. The taiyaki. Both strawberry and cherry shaved ice. “I think I have replicated everything,” he declared. “Have I missed anything?”

“You don’t have rabbit ears,” Hitsugaya replied dryly.

“The rabbit ears are symbolic,” Byakuya explained. “I am wearing the lei. You should put on a lei.”

“I am not putting on a lei. I am not in the picture at all, actually, so I think I should probably scram.”

“You could stay,” Byakuya replied, feeling a little odd about it.

Hitsugaya raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t this a family thing?”

Byakuya blinked. “Family gatherings are large, mandatory, and unpleasant. This is a small party and I am very fond of the Abarai.”

Hitsugaya just stared at him.

Byakuya squirmed. “The fact is… I am not good at things like this.”

“Of course you are. Ichika adores you. Rukia and Renji do, too.”

A normal person would have wrinkled their nose, or sucked their teeth, but Byakuya wasn’t really into making facial expressions, so he just made his usual one and stared off into the middle distance briefly. “Hisana was very good with people. At these times, I often think about how easily she would host a birthday party for a brother-in-law, how natural she would have been with Ichika. She loved children.” He contemplated the drawing. “I am sure she would have interpreted this perfectly, text and all.”

Hitsugaya, who did make facial expressions, blew air out of his cheeks. “If it makes you feel better, I can stay.”

“I would, very much, appreciate it.”

Seike, Byakuya’s chief retainer, shuffled out onto the engawa. “Lord Kuchiki, the Abarai are here.”

“Please escort them out here,” Byakuya replied, plunking a hat on Captain Hitsugaya’s head, and one on his own.

“It’s so unusual for Uncle Byakuya to invite us over on a Saturday,” Byakuya could hear Rukia’s voice before he could see her. His impression was that the ‘surprise’ involved in this party was a figleaf for Ichika’s sake. Abarai was a fool, but he wasn’t an idiot.

“What is this?” Abarai exclaimed as he and his family stepped through the doorway, although he did a genuine double-take at Byakuya’s flower necklace.

Ichika’s face lit up as she took in the decorations, the food. But then her expression turned to dismay at her uncle, standing still and awkward. He had missed something. It was the text. It was important after all.

Hitsugaya’s elbow jammed into his ribs. “Surprise!” the younger captain yelled. A voice bubble! Of course!

“Surprise!” Byakuya added, belatedly.

“Happy Birthday!” they shouted together, with Rukia and Ichika joining in a beat later.

“Well, I’ll be!” Abarai did his best impression of a surprised person.

“Were you surprised, Daddy!” Ichika asked, jumping up and down and tugging on her father’s hand. “Were you?”

“I was very surprised,” Abarai reassured her.

“Why is Captain Hitsugaya here?” Rukia asked, utterly befuddled.

“I heard there was shaved ice,” Hitsugaya excused very quickly.

“Uncle B did all of it, Daddy, just for you! Isn’t it perfect?”

“Of course it is,” Abarai snorted. “If Uncle B did it, how could it be otherwise?”

#my writing #byahitsu brotp #kuchiki-abarai family feels #this is over 2k words it's no wonder i can't finish out my drabbles #happy birthday renji!#it's renji's birthday until i say it isn't

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recurring-polynya · 4 years

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I hoped you would reblog that! :3 A fic after Aizen arc, where Ichigo DOES NOT lose his powers, and seireitei is in full party mode. Someone asks where Rukia is. Renji's like "she went to get snacks". and Orihime, tipsy as hell, just blurts out "Of course you know where she is! You're so cute together!!" and everyone is either like "yeah true" or "WAIT SINCE WHEN?". aka the dorks get peer pressured into realizing they should date already By Everyone. Feat. Women's Society paparazzi.

Hey, so you know how always spend a ton of time on my really long fics and don’t post them until I’m all the way done so that I can make everything internally consistent, etc, etc? What would it look like, as your therapist would say, if I just wrote some nonsense and posted it? And if I feel like writing more chapters later, maybe I will? To post something with a 1/? Also, what if was Canon, Never Heard of Her? and also full of things that do absolutely do not belong in Soul Society (like potato salad?) What would that look like?

Anyway, here you go @unohanadaydreams. I’m sorry it took me so long to do this and also I also messed up your prompt a bunch (I figure that everyone knows how bad Renji has it for Rukia and wouldn’t rag him about it, so I switched ‘em), but I think I captured the spirit of it, along with the spirit of that filler episode where everyone makes movies.

Enough! Enough intro! Here it is!

Heroes of the Hueco Mundo Invasion – In Love!!

“HELLLLLLOOOOOOOOO, SQUAD 10!” Inoue Orihime yodeled, flinging herself into the courtyard, where a barbeque of epic proportions was gearing up.

“Orihime!” Matsumoto screamed.

“YO!” Kurosaki Ichigo announced, stumbling in behind her, arms raised victoriously. “What has two thumbs and just saved Soul Society?”

“This guy!” Orihime squealed, trying to point her thumbs at Ichigo as he also tried to point his thumbs at himself.

Ichigo squinted at the hands waving around his general vicinity. “How many thumbs do I have? Hey, hey, Ishida?! Did I grow any extra arms while I was fighting Aizen?”

Sado Yasutora suddenly plunged through the gate behind them panting and out of breath.

“Are you two drunk?” Captain Hitsugaya demanded.

“My new best friend Captain Doctor Unohana Retsu gave me the good stuff, because I am the Hero of Three Worlds, possibly Four,” Ichigo explained.

“Painkillers,” Chad gasped. “He’s on a very high dose of painkillers. It’s…okay… I'm… keeping an eye on him. He’s still really fast, though.”

“What about Orihime?” Rukia demanded, from where she was trying to sculpt a bowl of potato salad into a diorama of herself defeating Rudabone. Or possibly Chappy. “She wasn’t even hurt.”

“She was very nervous about Kurosaki,” Uryuu explained, sauntering up next to Chad. “So Lieutenant Kotetsu gave her some of Captain Unohana’s home-brewed ginger beer, which was… allegedly non-alcoholic?”

“I feel so powerful right now!” Orihime chimed in. “Like my body is filled with thousands of dubstepping bees!”

“I literally cannot feel any part of my body, right now,” Ichigo chipped in, “but at least I didn’t lose my Soul Reaper powers while performing the Final Getsuga, like some sort of contrived plot hook.”

“Why is it called the Final Getsuga, then?” Orihime asked.

“Beats me!” Ichigo hooted.

“It’s because Europe had just released ‘The Final Countdown’ when I invented it, and that song slaps!” Isshin shouted from somewhere near the kegs.

“DAD!” Ichigo shouted. “Dad, I have something to tell you! Also, Rukia, you are like my other dad, if I had two dads!”

“I am not,” Rukia protested.

“Maybe Byakuya is like my other dad, then, which would make you my sister.”

“I am definitely not,” Byakuya protested. (Did you, gentle reader, think that Byakuya would not attend one of Squad 10’s infamous keggers on the occasion of Aizen’s defeat? You were incorrect. Byakuya is a great fan of Matsumoto’s guac.)

“Listen, Dads,” Ichigo insisted. “I defeated Aizen and I think that definitely means I should get to borrow the car on Saturday, but also, Orihime proposed to me and I said yes , we are now engaged to go to the movies the next weekend that we are back home. Which is why I need the car, you see.”

Orihime dabbed.

“My precious son, I am so proud of you!” Isshin announced, throwing his arms wide. “But you can take the bus to the movies like a normal teenager.”

“Way to go, Orihime!” Rukia congratulated, abandoning her potato salad to perform an elaborate handshake/high-five routine with Orihime.

“This is so exciiiiitiiiiiing!” Matsumoto wailed.

Ise Nanao sidled up to Kusajishi Yachiru. “Madam President,” the Vice-President of the Shinigami Women’s Association intoned gravely. “Are you thinking what I am thinking?”

Hisagi Shuuhei sidled up to the other side of Kusajishi Yachiru. “Are you thinking about a special Seireitei Bulletin feature, presented in cooperation with the Shinigami Women’s Association–”

“–'Heroes of the Hueco Mundo Invasion – In Love!!’” Nanao and Hisagi chorused in unison.

Yachiru blinked. To be honest, she had mostly been thinking about the red bean dumplings she knew Captain Hitsugaya had hidden somewhere earlier, and had not been paying much attention to any of the goings-on up until this point. This may seem to stretch belief, but you have to understand, gentle reader, that this amount of shouting represented a pretty typical day at Squad 11.

Yachiru bounded up to the former ryouka. “Hey, Pencil!” she demanded. “Are you and Muscles dating?”

“Chad!” Ichigo yelped, grabbing at his own hair. “You sneaky person!”

“Uryuu!” Orihime gawped, clapping her hands over her cheeks. “You sly dog!”

“No,” Uryuu corrected stiffly.

“You are mistaken,” Chad added.

“He’s way out of my league,” they said at the same time.

There was a long silence.

Uryuu looked up at Chad out of the corner of his eye.

Chad looked down at Uryuu out of the corner of his eye.

Ichigo was making tiny, excited claps.

Orihime was bouncing.

“Doooooo iiiiiiiiittttttt,” Captain Kyouraku said out of the side of his mouth, pretending like nobody could tell it was him. Everybody could tell it was him.

Rukia straightened up to her full height. “Do it, you dorkuses. The Women’s Association will pay for it. If these two dummies can get their act together, you haven’t got any excuse.” She glanced over at Ichigo and Orihime, who were gazing longingly at one another, and promptly did a horrified double take.

“Errr…” Uryuu waffled.

“I understand if you’re uncomfortable participating in a Soul Society-related activity,” Chad offered an easy way out.

Uryuu opened his mouth, looked at Chad, and closed it again slowly. “I’ll take their money and waste it frivolously. That is within my moral code.”

“YAYYYYY!” Orihime squealed. “Triple date! Can I be an honorary member of the Shinigami Women’s Association?”

“What do you mean, 'triple date’?” Rukia tried to interrupt.

“Yes,” Nanao proclaimed. “But it will be three separate dates, covered as a three-part series.”

“In the World of the Living,” Shuuhei broke in. “The readers are crazy-go-nuts for the World of the Living.”

“Who is the third couple?” Rukia pressed.

“Genius,” Nanao threw a finger gun at Shuuhei. “Matsumoto, you’ll do host segments? Pre- and post-date interviews and such?”

“Give me a clothing budget and you’ve got a deal” Matsumoto agreed.

“WHO! IS! THE! THIRD! COUPLE?!” Rukia demanded.

“You and Renji, obviously,” Orihime replied. “You two are sooooo cute together! I bet your readers would love that, wouldn’t they, Lieutenant Hisagi? If Rukia and Renji went on a date in the World of the Living? Rukia’s like a princess or something here, right?”

“They will go apeshit , Hisagi replied breathlessly. "You have to understand that Abarai is actual very well-known among the Bulletin readership for his incredibly popular column, 'Let’s Do Shikai!!’ This is essentially the Soul Society equivalent of David Beckham marrying Posh Spice.”

“I…. don’t know who that is,” Rukia stammered.

“How do you know who those people are?” Uryuu asked, perplexed.

“I read Living World newspapers,” Hisagi excused with a shrug.

“Rukia, do you have something to tell me?” Byakuya frowned.

“No!” Rukia yelped. “I’m not dating Renji! I have no interest in going on a date with Renji, even though he consistently moves Heaven and Earth for me and we have really similar taste in craft beers and he’s objectively, like, smoking hot. I refuse to go on a date with Renji. Don’t ask me any more questions.”

“Where is Renji, anyway?” Ichigo frowned. “I don’t hear him shouting, so he must not be here.”

“He went to go pick up a bunch of snacks for Matsumoto because he’s a sucker and I’m sure he stopped off to trade out his sunglasses for polarized ones because he says they’re better for late afternoon glare,” Rukia excused very quickly.

“Rukia,” Ichigo noted, suddenly sounding a lot more sober. “Listen to yourself.”

“Soooooooo cuuuuuuuuuuuute!” Orihime repeated, exaggerating her lip movements.

“She’s not wrong,” Uryuu pointed out.

Chad did Big Shrug Arms and nodded in agreement.

At this moment, the man in question strode into the courtyard, carrying several grocery bags and wearing a pair of polarized sunnies. “Hey, party people!” Renji greeted cheerfully, somehow managing to hold four overstuffed grocery bags in one arm while he fished something out of one of them. “Why’s everyone so quiet?”

“Hey, Abarai, will you do me a big favor?” Hisagi asked innocently.

“Yeah, sure,” Renji agreed. He found whatever he was looking for. “Oi, Ruki-Ruki,” he called, tossing a small paper packet to Rukia. “They had those melon-flavored gummy salamanders you like when you get hammered.”

Rukia caught them easily, her cheeks flaming red.

“'Ruki-Ruki’?” Ichigo mouthed to her, making the most judgemental face he could manage under the influence of Unohana’s Special Sauce.

“So, what’s can I do you for, Shuuhei?” Renji asked, trying to find an empty spot to deposit his bags.

Shuuhei told him.

“Oh,” said Renji. He looked over at Rukia, who managed an awkward, sheepish half-smile as she clutched her candies. “Well, shit.”

#renruki #asks #fanfic prompts #i am between medications right now and my brain has the zoomies #should i post this on ao3? i dunno #i am sure i will regret this later #i love you unohanadaydreams u r the best #my writing

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