Summary: Starting a new life is hard...Try keeping pace with somebody who's lived it for years.
Notes: Almost totally AU - there are still elements of the Bleach story. Sorry for making some of the characters the way they are, but for the purpose of the story...yeah. Deal. XP And again, shounen-ai (this should be expected!). Renji+Ichigo (also expected!). Fluff. Major major fluff. So much fluff it'll make your teeth hurt. (Or not - my attempts at fluff usually go down in flames. Angsty angsty flames u.u)
Warning: Mild violence for now, OOC-ness (deal - it's AU!)
My Pace : The Beginning of...Something
The birds chirped noisily as the sky slowly turned from blue into deep reds and oranges. At the edge of a pond, a little boy sat with his pants rolled up to his knees, feet in the water, watching the ripples dissipate across the glassy surface. After a bit, he looked up at the sky and laid down on his back, watching the colors. A gentle breeze ruffled the boy's spiky orange hair and he sighed.
The sky's so pretty…
"Ichigo!"
The boy jolted up, recognizing the voice. "Coming!" he called back, grabbing his socks and shoes as he jumped up. He raced over to the group he knew as his family.
"I shouldn't have to call for you, boy," his stepfather growled.
"G-gomen nasai," Ichigo stuttered, trying to get his socks and shoes back on as fast as possible.
Isshin cuffed him on the back of his head. "You're too slow. Get in the car, we'll talk about this when we get home."
"Yessir," Ichigo responded, trying his best to keep the dread out of his voice. He climbed into the car his mother was waiting in.
"Are you alright, baby?" she asked him, smiling.
Ichigo nodded, but his stepfather got into the car before he could reply. He didn't want to anger him any more than he already had, not that Isshin would do anything drastic to him while his mother was there, but Ichigo was already in trouble and he wasn't dumb enough to make it worse.
"Thank you for taking us, dear," his mother was saying to Isshin.
"Anything for you, sweetie," he replied.
Ichigo wanted to gag. Why had his mother married such a disgusting man? It completely baffled him, but his mother had just told him that he would understand someday. Ichigo didn't really want to understand, he just wanted that man to leave his mother alone. It was bad enough that the baby in his mother's swollen tummy was his! That much Ichigo understood. He understood that his stepfather would never consider him as his child, just as he would never consider his stepfather as anything but the man his mother married.
Ichigo didn't have any memories of his birth father. His mother said he was an American, that's why he had orange hair. Ichigo wondered if Isshin hated that his stepson was half-American. Then again, Ichigo wondered a lot of things, which often led to daydreaming, which Isshin often hit him for, saying that he had to pay attention at all times. So Ichigo never wondered too many things around his stepfather – he got hit too many times to begin with.
Speaking of which, they were pulling up into their driveway. Ichigo got out of the car and followed his mother and Isshin into the house, bracing himself for whatever punishment his stepfather felt like dealing to him tonight.
Vocabulary:
Gomen nasai: "I'm very sorry"