Greetings, world of Fanfiction! For years I have read such amazing stories and left my own opinions as to what I thought of every single word I have read. Now, I hope to add to the community and share what my imagination gives me. This is a story that I hope will go on for quite a while, so please feel free to read, review and chip in your ideas! If I do use any, I'll be sure to give credit where it is due. This is only a prologue of sorts, so forgive me for such a short first chapter. Next one will be longer, promise.
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. Bleach is licensed by Madman Entertainment, Viz Media and Manga Entertaainment, and is owned by Tite Kubo, TV Tokyo and Studio Pierrot.
Now, on to the main story.
He had come home from another dull day of work, just as always. He carelessly kicks off his shoes, laces still tied, at the front door before making his way into this house. A place he couldn't bring to call 'Home'. And why should he? Ever since moving into this place he had nothing but trouble.
The roof leaked every time it rained, which happened a lot. The old oak floors and stairs were frail and splintered in places, a source of constant frustration and hospital visits for times when a splinter gave him an infection. As such, he had medical bills that kept stacking on his nearby desk that made for a brutal coupling with his rent which was way too high for the meager pay he made pumping gas. When his parents passed they left him nothing, dividing what little they owned to his cousins, aunts and uncles. He just couldn't understand why his parents loathed him so, that they would spite him even in death this way. Last family reunion he went to he heard of how everyone had their lives together, many were either in college or had their dream job, making a decent living off of what his dead parents had provided.
He doesn't bother slipping off his socks as he makes his way to the kitchen. He hated this appartment, but he took pride in this one room where he felt at ease. This was his studio, where he could spend an entire day working on his meals and never notice the time passing. Tonight though wouldn't show him toiling over a meal he could be proud of. Instead, he pulls out some leftovers; mashed potatoes and some seasoned corned beef, and sticks it into the microwave. He had a long day, and didn't have the time to properly cook this evening. After all, he had to head back out early tomorrow to repeat this drainig process.
He takes out his reheated food, grabs a fork from a nearby drawer, and shuffles his way across the tiled floor back to the rest of his dwelling. Dim lights kept the place illuminated, lights that he kept on even when away to discourage anyone from breaking in. He didn't have much that was valuable, but what he did have he didn't want to lose. A television, a lamp, an old Game Cube console and VHS player were all the technology he could claim to have in his 'Living Room', and a computer inside his bedroom. In his main social area was a single love seat sofa, two video tapes out from last night's attempt at a movie night. They were both Disney movies, oddly enough. Hercules and Mulan, his favorites. He remembers back when he was a kid these two movies got him through his less than pleasant childhood, the only two gifts he ever got from his parents.
They were what kept his imagination from dying, fueling his desire to keep going to one day realize his dream. He wanted to be strong like them. He was an adult, so of course he knew that nothing would play out in such a grand way like they did, but that didn't mean he couldn't hope and work his hardest. A small smile is brought to his face and a warmth spread through his chilled body that he had longed for all day.
He moves into his bedroom and sits himself down on the foot of his bed, where he starts to slowly eat what was left of last night's dinner. As he eats he looks up to the small calender hanging on his chipped pale wall. Today was marked April 3rd, and seven days from that held a special reminder, one he should know by heart but dreads the approach of.
"My birthday..." He never celebrated it. His coworkers would try to throw a small party for him, most likely. Unlike his family, they seemed to at least care a little. Every year though he managed to avoid it. Not because he wasn't thankful, but because he didn't want to celebrate something that had always represented a great source of his angush. He didn't want to be alive.
He would never end his own life, that would only cause problems for those around him that he had some sort of infuence in. However since the day he was born his parents made him feel like nothing, like a waste of space. To this day he felt just like that, a waste of what could have been a good life.
He finishes his meal and places the empty place on his ripped quilt, another one of the few things he managed to take with him when he moved out. The Disney quilt he grew up with as a child didn't cover him the same these days, now a fully grown adult. He moves over to his computer desk and powers the tower on, followed by the monitor. He opened the video site he was subscribed to and resumed the video he had left off on the night before last. Over the speakers he heard the fight scene that first pulled him in to this show. Episode 308 of Bleach, with the main character Ichigo Kurosaki fighting Aizen Sousuke within the Soul Society.
He had seen a clip of it on Youtube, at which point he decided to watch from the beginning. it had him hooked from the start. How he wished he could be part of such a fantastic universe. He wouldn't be some protagonist, but in worlds like these everyone's lives seemed just a bit better. Ichigo's parents loved him, and had siblings that adored him. He had friends that had his back, that he could go to war for. In the end, he even had someone who loved him enough to start a loving family.
He wanted that. From the very bottom of his soul he yearned for that. If he couldn't have a normal family life, he wanted to find one person that would treat him as another human being, someone who made him feel equal.
As the episode came to a close he closed out of the browser and hit the power button, setting the device to hibernate. He walks back to his bed, sets the dinner plate from before on his barely held together nightstand and slid himself under the covers. He didn't have the energy to remove his socks and he mentally told himself that he'd just take a rushed shower in the morning like always.
Seven days until his birthday, that was his final thought as he slipped into a sleepless slumber. He had prayed to whoever would listen that maybe this year he could skip that dreaded day. He didn't expect for anyone to have heard him, or to feel his desire.
And so, as what he would have seen as a gift from heaven in return for his poor lot in life, Lee Ross passed in his sleep. His dark brown hair framed his still, pale face through the night and unmoving into the morning. While he was now dead in this life, we readers know that this man's soul would pass in to something exceptional. So strong was his heart-felt plea and desire that the Soul King, in his transcendent state of being, pulled the man's soul of despare into this realm of Hollows, Shinigami and Quincy. He was pulled into the world he always wanted, but not in the way he could ever expect.