Mended
Ichigo paced the floor of the Kurosaki Clinic with restless energy. They were late. He was alone in the main room of the hospital, his parents out for the night and his sisters staying over at friends' houses. Ichigo hadn't said a word to his mother or his father about who had scheduled a visit to the Clinic tonight, either— the fewer people who knew about this, the better.
And then he heard the knock on the door. He hurried out of the room and opened it, finding himself looking at the taut, nervous face of Byakuya Kuchiki. And next to him, the pale, wan and exhausted face of his wife, Hisana. The night breeze kicked up and Hisana shivered beneath her coat, but she still managed a smile of greeting for Ichigo.
"Good evening, Kusosaki-san," she said. "Is your father in?"
"No," Ichigo said, ignoring the shock and anger that flashed across Byakuya's face at the word. "It's just me. But I can help you, Hisana-sama. Trust me," he added, glancing over at Byakuya. The look in his deep brown eyes was enough to calm the other man, at least for the moment.
"Very well," Hisana said, giving Byakuya a pointed look and walking over the threshold into the hospital. After a few steps she stumbled, but Ichigo caught her and moved her gently back upright.
"Easy," he said, shifting her body against him and bracing her the rest of the way into the examination room. She was frail to an extent that made Ichigo's heart sink.
"When did this happen?" he asked as he helped Hisana into a sitting position on the examination table. "I thought Byakuya said Captain Unohana…?"
"She helped, yes. For a time," Hisana answered, moving to lie down on her back with a weary sigh. Her eyes were glassy, reminding Ichigo enough of her sister's that his hands shook. He forced them steady.
"The relapse was about a week ago," Hisana continued, while Ichigo took off his jacket, rolled up the sleeves of his button-down shirt, and focused. "Unohana-sama did what she could, but… well," she said with a weary chuckle, "here I am."
Ichigo nodded. He could do this. He had to. For Hisana, and the rest of her family.
"I know you took a big risk coming here," he said, placing a gentle hand on Hisana's forehead and slowly channeling his spiritual energy through it to put her to sleep. "Thank you for giving me a chance to help."
"Well, Rukia wouldn't stop talking about how you could, so…" Hisana said, her voice growing ever fainter as she drifted off.
Once he was sure his patient was unconscious, Ichigo got to work. Between his mother and his father teaching him over the years, he had become incredibly proficient at manipulating the reishi around him— the reishi both in the environment, and that coursed through every spirit and Shinigami in Soul Society. Controlling the latter was far more difficult than the former, but Ichigo had been given the good fortune of time, and two excellent teachers.
No matter how many times he did it, it still felt strange to close his eyes and shift his vision to physically perceive the lines and clusters of reishi around him. His mother had told him that most Quincy just manipulated reishi without thought, acting solely on instinct when they reshaped it to their liking. Knowing now how delicate the balance of the energy was, Ichigo shuddered to think at the damage his kin were doing, unintentionally or not.
It only took him a few minutes to find the source of the malignancy, a cluster of sickly green, nodular tumors fouling the blue reishi flow almost completely throughout Hisana's body. Ichigo hissed as he took stock of the infection's pervasiveness, thinking quickly through how best to eliminate it. If he simply ripped out the central cluster, there was no telling what would happen to the surrounding reishi. Hisana would probably go into shock, at best, if they were lucky. Ichigo carefully traced the flow of the infection out to its furthest extremities, slowly but surely developing a plan. It was risky, but it was the best option he could think of.
And then he saw it, and a shiver slashed down his spine. There was a second node of reishi, blue rather than green, resting in the lower half of Hisana's abdomen. It seemed to pulse in time with a heartbeat, and Ichigo knew at once what it was.
"Shit," he muttered, realizing how much more complicated this had just become. He regretted even sedating Hisana at all, but Ichigo told himself it would have been necessary regardless. Still, now he would have to work much more quickly than he'd originally planned.
Placing his hands against Hisana's stomach, Ichigo slowly, carefully threaded his own reishi through hers, amplifying its strength. He was patient, waiting until he had surrounded every bit of the polluting sickness before beginning to pull his net taut. The strengthened healthy reishi pushed the disease back further and further, until the whole sickness was writhing around the tumorous core. Tightening his grip around it and taking a calming breath, Ichigo prepared to extract the malignancy.
"Hang in there," he whispered by way of apology to Hisana.
And then he pulled upwards with every bit of strength he had, opening his eyes as he did so.
Hisana's scream was strangled by the effects of Ichigo's earlier sedation, but it still clawed at his heart to hear it. It reminded him of the first night he and Rukia had met, purely by accident, when she stumbled bleeding into his room through the window and had begged him for help.
Shaking the memory away, Ichigo looked at the mass of sickness, now suspended in the air and writhing above the table. He quickly moved it over to a box made of modified sekkiseki stone and slammed the lid shut, shelving it next to the rest of the dangerous materials his parents researched for vaccines or other cures.
That done, he turned his attention back to Hisana. She was sitting up, her breathing still slightly shallow but slowly returning to normal. One of her hands was resting protectively against her abdomen, but Ichigo focused on her eyes. They seemed alert, aware. No shock, then. That was a good sign. He let himself exhale at last.
"How do you feel?"
Hisana turned to look at him, and Ichigo could see life and fire in her eyes, as intense as Rukia's. Relief flooded him and his knees wobbled, so he shifted up to sit down next to her. Hisana smiled, closing her free hand over his.
"I feel wonderful," she said. "For the first time in decades. Thank you, Kurosaki-san."
"You're welcome. It was the least I could do. And just 'Ichigo' is fine, really. I'm not my dad yet."
He flashed her a flustered smile, adrenaline still playing with his emotions.
"Okay, Ichigo," Hisana said, a teasing lilt to her voice. Then she frowned. "But really, I owe you a debt. Without you, I…"
"Don't even think about it," Ichigo said quickly, not wanting anxiety to tip her over into shock. "It didn't happen. You're here. You're fine. You're both fine."
It took a moment before Hisana realized what he'd said, and then she stared at him with surprise that had nothing to do with post-traumatic shock.
"How did you…?"
"Accidentally," Ichigo said, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone. But the little guy is fine. I made sure of it."
Hisana lunged forward and gave Ichigo a fierce hug. He returned it gently, smiling.
"Thank you," she whispered into his ear. "Thank you."
"Of course," he said quietly, waiting a few moments before moving back. They nodded to each other and got up, Hisana walking ahead of Ichigo as they left the room.
"I'm fi—" Hisana began as she walked back out into the waiting area, only to stop short in surprise as she saw Rukia sitting next to Byakuya, each of them holding a beer. Ichigo dimly realized Rukia must have taken them from his father's private refrigerator, but that was the last thing on his mind right now.
"Rukia? What are you doing here?"
Hisana's sister beamed a mischievous smile.
"Did you really think you could sneak out without me noticing? Come on," she said, rising to her feet and putting her drink down on a nearby table. Then the laughter faded from Rukia's eyes, replaced by relief and a hint of fear. She hurried over to Hisana and embraced her, taking long, slow breaths as she assured herself nothing bad was going to happen now.
"I'm so glad you're okay," she said at last, taking half a step back. "I don't know what I would've done if…"
"I'm fine, Rukia," Hisana told her little sister, smiling wide. "Better than fine, actually. Ichigo cured me for good."
Rukia's eyes widened at that, and so did Byakuya's behind her. He was on his feet, his expression torn between uncertainty, happiness and disbelief.
"Are you sure, Hisana?" he asked. "For good?"
"I got all of it, Kuchiki-sama," Ichigo spoke up, moving his eyes away from Rukia for the first time since he'd seen her. "I'm sure. Hisana-sama won't have any more problems. I promise."
Rukia practically bounded over to Ichigo and gave him a crushing hug. He returned it with as much propriety as he could, for Byakuya's sake.
"Might I have a word with my husband alone, please?" Hisana asked, and Ichigo was quick to nod and hurry a protesting Rukia out the front door.
It was a favor to Ichigo, to get both him and Rukia some privacy, but Hisana also had some rather particular news for Byakuya's ears alone. Ichigo grinned, wondering what fatherhood might do to the biggest stick in the mud he knew.
"What's so funny?"
He looked over and saw Rukia staring up at him, the moonlight catching her grey-violet eyes in a way that still made Ichigo's breath hitch.
"Nothing," he said, still smiling as he reached down and tenderly brushed one of Rukia's stray bangs off of her forehead. "Just thinking about how beautiful you are."
She blushed furiously, caught off-guard by the compliment.
"That was so unfair."
Ichigo chuckled, leaning down and kissing her. It was both loving and longing, wholly reciprocated.
"Kurosaki."
The moment ended abruptly as Rukia recoiled from Ichigo like she'd been stung. She looked over slowly to find Byakuya giving Ichigo a worrisomely unreadable look, and Hisana struggling valiantly not to burst out laughing at the expressions on Ichigo and Rukia's faces.
Ichigo said nothing as Byakuya approached him, unsure of how to react. But the older man just put his hand on Ichigo's shoulder, squeezing once and looking Ichigo square in the eye.
"Thank you," he said, the words as full of feeling as Ichigo had ever heard from Byakuya. "I owe you—"
"You don't owe me anything, Kuchiki-sama," Ichigo cut him off, gently insistent. "If anything, I owe you for what you've done for Hisana and Rukia. So keep it up, and we're even, yeah?"
Byakuya paused for a moment, then nodded solemnly.
"I would not dream of doing otherwise, Kurosaki."
With that, he turned and left. Hisana followed, but not before giving Ichigo one last look of gratitude. Rukia was the last to leave, her hand lingering against Ichigo's as she hesitated to take the last step in parting.
"Don't be a stranger, all right?" Ichigo said. He smiled again, and Rukia moved back to him for one last hurried kiss beneath the moonlight. And then she was gone, rushing through the clandestine senkaimon and back to Soul Society.
Ichigo stood alone under the moonlight, letting his thoughts run this way and that, until the sensation of a nearby presence drew his attention back to the present.
"You really should be over there with them, you know."
Ichigo shook his head.
"They'd kill me on sight, Ishida. Just like you."
The other Quincy gave Ichigo a strange smile, the moonlight obscuring his eyes behind his glasses.
"You sure about that, Kurosaki?"
Ichigo stared at him, eyes narrowing.
"What're you getting at?"
"Split something good with me from your father's secret stash," Uryū Ishida said, "and I'll tell you all about it."
One hour later, they'd finished a quarter-bottle of scotch between them, and Uyrū was telling Ichigo all about his secret trips to Soul Society, to meet with a member of the Shinigami's Fourth Division and share techniques on how to manipulate reishi. It seemed that this woman, Orihime Inoue, was almost as good as a Quincy when it came to reishi.
"Seems like you like seeing her for a bit more than technical reasons," Ichigo said, and was rewarded with a guarded blush for his efforts.
"Nonsense."
"Hey, I won't say anything. If you take me with you the next time you go, that is," Ichigo finished, a devilish gleam in his eyes.
Uryū resisted for a long moment, but then relented with a sigh.
"Fine. Deal."
That night, Ichigo Kurosaki slept deep and peacefully, dreaming of a certain Shinigami with grey-violet eyes. He'd be seeing her very soon indeed, and had a lot he wanted to say.
...
...
A/N: So yeah, I got super nostalgic for this series all of a sudden the other day, and then this happened. I wanted to write something upbeat and not plagued with melodrama, so of course the only way to do that was AU the crap out of the premise. Whatever works!
Also, Ichigo's a bit more courteous here to Byakuya than in canon because his mother raised him to be more polite. In case any of you were wondering.
Hope you enjoyed that, and thanks for reading!
— JP