Welcome my pretties :D
This is my brand new Bleach fic called Shy Away From You!
It's a Siren x Hisagi pairing, and it's also an AU fic, which I've always wanted to try!
This is dedicated to Arcee-chan, just because she's so damn cool :D
Disclaimer: Tite Kubo owns Bleach and such, not me. I only own my darling Siren!
Chapter 1 – Pleasantries
Ring ring.....ring ring....ring ring...
The sound of the phone ringing over and over irritated her every time she heard it. She was about to snap, but finally the person answered the phone.
"God damn, what were you doing that stopped you from answering the phone?" she said with anger that she couldn't completely muster into her voice. She hadn't spoken to him in so long.
"Sorry, I'm at work and I had to get out of the office to answer my phone." he said in his usual gruff voice, and he clearly couldn't muster any anger either and she could almost hear the smirk in his tone.
"Well, I was going to keep it a surprise, but it doesn't really matter since I was going to call you back because you left a message last night anyway." she spoke off-handedly as if she didn't have huge news, but she knew he would probably die once he heard it.
"Surprise? Well, you know I don't really like surprises. Especially yours..." he trailed off, clearly remembering good old times from the past.
"You'll like this one. I'm moving back." she explained simply, enjoying the shocked silence from the other end.
"Shit, really?" he asked, blatantly shocked by her statement.
"Yes, really. I'm actually just about to start the drive back now. I was just going to track you down and rock up at your place, but since you left a message last night, I just decided to let you know anyway."
"Do you have a place to stay and everything?" he inquired, wondering if she was just being impulsive and deciding to move back just because.
"Yeah, I bought a place and sold my old place up here. And I've got a good job lined up too." she assured him, letting him know that everything was sorted out. If she needed him for anything, he would already know it.
That was just the kind of relationship they had. If they ever needed each other, it didn't matter that she currently was 4 hours away. They would both without a second be there as soon as they could if they had to. It had always been like that. There was time when they were kids that they would sneak out of their window at 3am just to meet each other in the park because they felt the need to.
"Well, that's good. I was going to say that you could have just stayed at my place. Hell, you know that you didn't even need to move! I make enough money each week that would have supported us both if you had wanted to move in." he replied, sounding relieved that she had organised everything before leaving.
"And how many times will you tell me this before you remember that it's in the past now?" she retorted with a smile on her face, glad to know that he would have looked after her.
"Never mind that now. Just hurry up and come back! I'll try and leave work as early as I can. Text me when you get back, and tell me your new address." he said happily, knowing that he should probably be getting back to work, but not really caring at the moment.
"Sure, will do. I'll talk to you soon, Aka Pine." she bid him goodbye, making sure to use that nickname that always managed to annoy him, even though he still loved it at the same time.
"Bye Siren."
She hung up the phone after hearing him saying goodbye. With a deep breath in and out, she locked the front door of what was, as of now, her old place and got in her car to start the four hour drive back home, and back to her best and only friend.
After only stopping to drop off the key to her old place to the real estate and once for a quick bite to eat and to fill up on fuel, she had arrived back in Karakura Town within 3 hours and 56 minutes. She slowed down as she drove along the familiar roads that she hadn't seen for a very long time. Luckily enough, she didn't need directions to know where her new place was, since the building was just being finished when she had left.
The woman had taken the smart option and texted Aka Pine when she was about 20 minutes from arriving so he could have more time to get off work, and she saw his fancy new car and he was leaning up against the driver's door, looking a bit disgruntled.
She pulled up just behind his car, hers paling in comparison to his shiny, clean new looking car to her 6 year old one. He definitely was making some serious money off his job. Gracefully, she stepped out of the car, contrasting with her appearance consisting of black and white tribal print pyjama pants and a band shirt with bare feet.
His unhappy face disappeared instantly when he saw her, and a big grin replaced it. They walked towards each other, and she jumped into his arms and hugged him as tightly as she could.
"Renji!" she said loudly while she hugged him.
They laughed for a minute, just so happy to see each other and started talking about various things immediately as if they had been hanging out every day recently, when they actually hadn't seen each other for over 4 months.
"You look great!" she commented after he put her down, taking note that his spiky hair had grown a fair bit.
"And you look stunning, even in your pyjamas and a band shirt." he bounced right back at her, and followed her back to her car.
Without even realising it, he began helping her take all her things up to her new apartment, which luckily was only on the second floor. It didn't take them long – with his help – to bring everything inside, and he noticed that the place was already furnished.
Apparently the movers had already fixed this part up yesterday, before she had even got there. They ended up going out and buying a whole bunch of groceries to fill the fridge and cupboards, and before they knew it, they were sitting around watching a random movie after setting up all the electrical stuff in the house. Soon enough, it got late and Renji took his leave.
"Hey, how about I stay over tomorrow night or something, since it'll be Friday. We can have a few drinks, catch up some more, you know." he asked, hoping that she would say yes, even though that hanging out with him and drinks being involved was always a yes from her.
"Of course. I'll only be out for a while tomorrow going to check out this new job, then I'll be back here settling in." she confirmed, glad that he asked.
"Alright, well I'll come over after work then. Night Siren." he said as he gave her a brief but tight hug goodnight and walked down the hallway.
After he was out of her sight, she shut and locked the door and made herself a drink for a nightcap. She had to be up early tomorrow to go to her new job, but it was really only for pleasantries sake, so she could meet the boss and whoever else was in that day.
Quickly, she jumped in the shower and changed into some fresh pyjamas and set her alarm before curling up in bed, sighing loudly and eventually falling into a comfortable sleep.
At exactly 8.45 her alarm woke her with the sound of the local radio station. She turned it off and dragged herself out of bed, thoroughly annoyed with the morning already, just for the simple fact that it was morning. Mechanically, she made coffee and drank it whilst listening a CD of one of her favourite bands to drown out the silence of the apartment.
When she finished her coffee she started getting a nice tidy outfit consisting of long black pants and a white button up shirt with a light but fancy jacket out of her closet and slowly pulling it on. She had even decided to wear a pair of heels today, just to make sure she wasn't going to be under-dressed when she met the boss. Overdressed was fine, it just showed that she was prepared.
She did up her heels, and walked into the bathroom. As much as she didn't really want to, she applied a little bit of foundation and a light smudge of eye liner to enhance her shockingly green eyes. Lipstick was too much for her, and she didn't even own any anyway, so she just nodded when she was satisfied with her appearance, gave her shoulder length black hair a quick brush and by then it was time to go.
The woman walked through her house, making sure she hadn't forgotten anything and grabbed her glasses before walking out the front door, and checking to make sure it was locked. The door to the apartment two down from hers was open, and a man maybe in his 30's was standing in the doorway as if he was waiting for something.
He gawked at her as she walked past, mostly because she probably looked pretty good this morning thanks to all the extra effort she'd put in and partly because he hadn't ever seen her before. She could feel him looking even as she walked all the way to the end of the hallway and finally turned left to go to the elevator. Normally she'd use the stairs, but she was wearing heels for Christ's sake.
She walked to her car, and began to drive over to the address she had been given for the company. It was called Seireitei Graphic Design, and obviously enough, it was a graphic design company. One of the most popular in the region in fact.
Siren was quite the artist, so going for a job like this wasn't too hard to get once she had showed the boss, who's name was Ukitake Jushiro, her work. Apparently, he was a very kind and generous man, with quite a fatherly aura about him. She'd picked up on that the moment she had begun talking to him over the phone. He had been ecstatic to see that she was interested in working there since one of their previous employees had just moved overseas with their partner.
It only took her about fifteen minutes tops to arrive there, and the clock on her car said that it was 10.33am. Perfect timing. Ukitake had seemed pretty casual about asking her to show up then, but she wanted to be prompt. She got out of the car and walked up to the front door and saw who she assumed to be Ukitake waiting at the front desk for her.
He had long white hair, and a bit of a sickly appearance, but as soon as he noticed her, a very kind and genuine smile came over his face and she felt at ease.
"Tetsuya Ikazuchi, I presume." he asked in a statement, his voice sounding much smoother in person than over the phone.
"Indeed. It's a pleasure to meet you Ukitake-dono." she replied, trying to sound very respectful and professional at the same time.
"Oh, please my dear. There's no need for honorifics. We all work together closely here, and we all know that everyone respects everyone else. Most of us refer to each other by our first or last name, depending on our preferences. Do you mind if I call you Ikazuchi?" he asked kindly, not wanting to displease her after just meeting her.
"Well, I usually go by Ika, and I would only feel comfortable calling you Ukitake, at the least." she answered politely.
"Not a problem then. Let's go have a tour of the office, shall we?" he smiled at her, and she nodded in response.
"Firstly, this is our secretary's desk. She isn't in today, but her name is Ise Nanao. Then here's my office right here, and you are always welcome inside." he said as they walked past the first door on the left.
"Next, we have our break room, which people usually spend most of their free time in." he commented with a smirk that said that he was one of those people. "And here is our first main area, with two of our employees who are very eager to meet you. Rukia, Rangiku, would you mind coming out here for a moment?" he said loud enough for the two women named Rukia and Rangiku to hear him.
A stunning, curvy, blonde haired, blue-eyed woman came out from behind her desk first, and she was much taller than Siren, even with her heels on. She smiled politely and the woman beamed happily at her.
"I'm Matsumoto Rangiku! Pleasure to meet you." she exclaimed with charisma coming out of her ears. This woman was clearly going to be fun.
Then, a much smaller woman came out from behind her desk, with black hair, shorter than her own and big, violet eyes.
"I'm Kuchiki Rukia. It's nice to meet you." the woman introduced herself politely, and gave Siren a small smile.
"Tetsuya Ikazuchi, but please call me Ika." she replied, glad to see that these two seemed to be nice and welcoming. Rangiku was almost buzzing with joy and curiosity.
"So, where are you from?" the blonde asked, wanting to know everything about their new work mate.
"I'm from here actually. I just moved back." Siren answered, getting happier and happier by the minute. If things kept going like this, she would just keel over and die that she found such an awesome job.
"Awesome! And by the way, you really don't need to dress up around here. One of the perks of the job. But I really do like your heels..." Rangiku trailed off with a finger on her chin as she checked out Siren's shoes.
It wasn't until then that she noticed the women were wearing pretty casual clothes. It seemed that in this work place, being comfortable and relaxed was the most important thing.
Abruptly, she noticed Rukia had an eyebrow raised in confusion but it wasn't at her. Following her gazes trajectory, she turned around to notice....him.
It was....Renji?
"Siren....What the fuck are you doing here?" he blurted out, but quickly covered a hand over his mouth after realising that he cursed in front of his boss. Ukitake actually laughed and didn't seem phased by it at all though.
"This is where I'm going to work, Aka Pine. What are you doing here?" Siren retorted sharply, also forgetting that her new boss was right behind her.
"I work here!" he said loudly.
"Well then. Now we'll be working together." she chuckled a little at the realisation that the world could be such a small place sometimes.
Renji suddenly realised that everyone was completely confused about what had just happened, and he quickly explained that they were old friends while scratching the back of his head awkwardly.
From behind the wall and behind Renji, a blonde man appeared, looking a bit gloomy, but confusion was much more prominent on his face.
"Ah, Kira. This is our newest employee, Tetsuya Ikazuchi, or Ika." Ukitake spoke up, gesturing to the woman standing on his right.
"Nice to meet you Ika. I'm Kira Izuru." he said, with his visible dark blue eye focusing on her, the other one being hidden by a long lock of blonde hair.
"You too." she replied simply, nodding in his direction.
"Hey, Hisagi. Come and meet the new girl." Renji called out, slightly exaggerating the 'new girl' part in mocking. Siren just quickly poked her tongue out at him in response.
Suddenly, a tall, dark skinned man, with hair as black as her own walked out and leant up against the wall. He had dark eyes, and two tattoos on his face, one being a small strip across his nose, and the other being the number 69, which made her eyes widened quite perceptibly when her mind immediately recalled the sexual side of that number. Even with all that, he looked very....very....attractive. And it seemed that he was checking her out.
"Oi! Don't you go checking her out without even introducing yourself." Renji mock-scolded, but he was giving Hisagi the look that said 'Go on, talk to her'. He had noticed Siren checking him out as well, even though she hadn't made it anywhere near as obvious, and he probably only noticed because he knew her so well.
"Tetsuya Ikazuchi, but call me Ika. Pleasure to meet you."
Hisagi chuckled nervously and scratched back of his head before he spoke. "Hisagi Shuhei. Pleasure is all mine." he said, just oozing so much charm and sex appeal that made Siren want to take him into the break room and have her way with him. At the same time, he seemed so sweet and awkward.
"Well, Ika my dear, you can either hang around for a while, or we can leave you to get settled in until Monday." Ukitake spoke up, quite amused by all these little exchanges.
"I would love to stay and get to know you all better, but I do have some things to do at my new home unfortunately." she said reluctantly, not a word of it being a lie, even though Hisagi's introduction did make her a little nervous. There was still so many boxes she had to unpack and furniture she had to rearrange. And she had planned to make a surprise visit to some other old friends.
"Alright, well come in whenever you are ready on Monday. Just don't work too hard over the weekend, you should have fun!" Ukitake encouraged kindly, and walked her out after everyone bid goodbye to her and Renji saying that he'd be over when he finished up this afternoon.
She thanked Ukitake very kindly for being so welcoming to her and told him that she was very excited about starting on Monday. He seemed glad to hear that and bid her goodbye, and then she went on her way, planning to visit that old friend before going home.
Little did she know that back at the office, Hisagi was still leaning up against that wall, lost in his own thoughts.
This damn shop will never ever change...she thought as she parked her car next to the Urahara Shoten. The woman got out, bare foot since she took her shoes off as soon as she got in the car with a sigh of relief about getting them off and knowing that she didn't have to wear them to work, slid open the front door and walked in, casually, but cautiously as if waiting for something to pop out.
"Ika-chaaan? Is that you?" she heard the chipper voice from around the corner, that had a knowing tone to it. Damn perceptive bastard. He probably already knew that she was coming back and was expecting her to show up and say hi.
"It's been a while." she replied nonchalantly, totally used to him to not be phased by his ways any more, even though he always seemed like he knew more than he let on and he always had something up his sleeve...or hidden in his hat.
She waited in silence for his blond head with that damn green striped hat to appear from behind the corner. And only moments later, she saw his head poke out with a big smile on his face. Clearly, he was glad to see her.
He shifted his eyes to the left slightly, which was Siren's only warning to an arm swinging straight for her. She lifted her left arm up to block, which thankfully worked and yelped knowingly after seeing the golden-yellow eyes.
"Yoruichi! Do you have to do that every time I see you?" she drawled exaggeratedly, not being too surprised though.
"Got to make sure you haven't forgotten your training." the beautiful tan woman replied, and strolled further into the shop where Urahara was now standing only a few metres away from her.
"I don't think that's possible..." she muttered in quiet knowing, recalling those days when that woman would appear around random corners just to make sure she was on her guard. Even when she was walking home from school with Renji.
"Anyway, how have you guys been? I assume you both know that I've moved back." 'Ika-chaaan' asked politely, even though she knew that everything would be fine, Urahara would be doing his usual weird thing, and Yoruichi was probably still teaching hakuda to some of the local kids.
"Nothing's changed here Siren. So tell us, why did you decide to come back?" Yoruichi asked, her words rolling softly out of her mouth.
"Because she missed us! That's why Yoruichi-san!" Urahara interrupted and walked towards Siren to hug her, but just got a hard flat hand to the gut in response. You'd never know what happen to you if he touched you. Two weeks later, you'd find a tracking device on your jacket or something.
"I hated my other job, my other apartment was tiny, the neighbourhood was shit and I was just over it. So, I found a new place in those apartments next to the corner store and lined up a job at that Seireitei Graphic Design place. That's it really." she explained, her right hand turning from side to side as she spoke.
"Well, we're glad to see you back. And you'll have to come around and train with me again soon, the kids I'm stuck with now are terrible." Yoruichi said as she put her jacket on, ready to go and start one of the lessons since she also taught during lunch time at the local school.
The tall woman walked past, gave Urahara a quick peck on the cheek, which made him smile the tiniest bit making quite a beautiful moment, if only brief. She gave Siren a hug and went on her way after politely declining a lift from the smaller woman. Green eyes turned to Urahara, and she said goodbye to him before going out of the store, getting in her car and heading home.
Her inspiration from before when Yoruichi had kissed Urahara was buzzing and she dashed inside and up the stairs, opened her front door and rummaged through three boxes before finding the one she wanted. It was full of art book after art book and random pieces of paper stuffed into folder that were all drawn on. There was pencils, charcoals, inks, paint brushes, paints and almost every other art supply you could think of.
She found her newest art book, which wasn't yet full of random scribbles and doodles and pulled it out before grabbing a few pencils and setting them down on her coffee table. Before she got comfortable, she got out a beer, figuring that she didn't need to drive anywhere today, and the corner store was just next door if she needed food or anything like that.
And so it began. For the next few hours, she drew. She had this odd habit of drawing people that she had met, and that meant that she drew Ukitake, Rukia, Rangiku, Kira and finally Hisagi. Also, she drew that nice moment between Urahara and Yoruichi as well as Renji how she had first seen him yesterday, leaning up against his car, looking partially annoyed.
Before she even realised it, there was a knock at her front door. She snapped out of her artistic daze and got up to open the door to reveal Renji, still in his work clothes. He walked past her, holding a bag of what looked like bottles.
Siren kept moving her head around as she followed him to her kitchen, trying to see what was in the bags. He put them down on the counter and brought out a six-pack of beer then put it straight in the fridge, only taking one out and chucking it in the freezer.
After he had done that, they started talking as usual and ended up in the living room, where Siren had almost 10 drawings scattered over the coffee table. He chuckled as soon as he saw them, knowing that she was still good old Siren.
Renji had always loved her art work and never failed to be pleased with how good she was. He wasn't surprised to see a drawing of himself and actually chuckled when he realised how annoyed he must have looked while he was waiting for her, even though he was only being impatient.
At the moment, she was half way through drawing a new one of what looked like Hisagi so far. The other one she had done of him showed him leaning up against the wall, scratching the back of his head with a nervous look on his face, which Renji found hilarious to see from Siren's point of view. He would have to file that mental image away for later and pick on Hisagi about it on Monday.
So far, she had only done the outline of his face and shoulders and it seemed that he was giving the viewer a sidelong glance and with quite an 'interesting' look in his eyes. She snatched it out of his hands before he could see much more and pouted when he started laughing at her.
"Don't laugh at me, Aka Pine!" she screeched loudly, only making him laugh more because she was getting defensive.
"Do you like him Siren?" he asked breathlessly after a minute of hard laughter that was starting to hurt his stomach.
"I don't even know him, Renji. He's just very good to draw, especially with the tattoos and his micro-expressions. Just like you." she retorted, and even though she did find him attractive, what she said was true. His tattoos made the perspective and angle look so much more different than he would look without them.
He rolled his eyes, knowing that she was telling the truth but seeing straight through her. "You think he's hot, don't you?" he teased, just waiting for her to get up and start punching him or settle for throwing something at him.
She glared and narrowed her eyes a little, but remained calm, not wanting to give him what he wanted. "Yes, I do as a matter of fact. But artistically, he's very good to draw."
"Fair enough." he decided to let it go before she rung his neck and got up to get his beer out of the freezer. Replacing that one with another, he got out a beer for Siren as well, since she had just finished hers and brought them both back, along with a packet of chips.
For a while, she got him back by teasing him about how much he ate, and then they started talking about work.
"Basically, it's the best job in the world if you've got some artistic and designing talent. When Ukitake isn't there, and we have nothing to do, we just sit around and talk. Even when he is there we do that, but usually we try to make ourselves look busier, although I'm sure he sees straight through us. He's the best boss you could ask for. He doesn't like us getting stressed out and feeling pressured, so he creates a relaxing and comfortable work place. You'll love it." Renji explained, finally remembering at the end that Siren was actually going to be working with him.
"Awesome. I'm really excited to start. Everyone seems cool there too. Rukia and Rangiku seemed really nice, and Kira and Hisagi seemed pretty cool as well. I'm sure I'll love it. It's perfect for me. No stress, and I can do art and design whilst getting paid for it." she seemed very pleased, and Renji was glad to hear that.
It would be really awesome having his old friend back in town, as well as being within walking distance. But being able to work with her as well would just be even more awesome. They would be able to hang out like they did back in school.
On the weekends, they used to stay at each other's houses and they'd train together with Yoruichi all throughout the week. Rukia used to be his closest friend, but after she left to join the Kuchiki clan after being adopted by them, Siren had appeared only a few weeks later and they hadn't separated until Siren had left last year.
Siren was also feeling really happy that she moved back, and was starting to wonder why she ever bothered leaving, even with everything that happened. She could have gotten through it with Renji around, and even Urahara and Yoruichi would have helped her out with anything that she needed as well.
Those two had been almost like parents to her and she really should have called them more when she was away. Renji had been like a brother to her the moment she met him. Some bullies had been picking on her at school and he told them off and had looked after her ever since. He was the one that introduced her to Yoruichi and Urahara. She was glad to have him.
And so far, things really seemed to be looking up for her. Later on, her and Renji fell asleep on the couch, both glad that Siren had returned to Karakura Town...
Ta-dah! The first chapter is done :D
I hope you'll enjoy it, and just to let you all know, I'll be gone for two weeks holiday in Bali on the 20th of this month, so two more days!
I'll be trying to write a little over there, but I can't guarantee anything.
Anyways...
Til next time!
