Title: Draw thy heart closer

Style: Ficlet
Genre: General, Family (kind of...)
Rating: PG (threatening words and actions)

Spoilers for chapters 185+

Betaed by Lina of BlackMercifulFaerie.

The two stared at each other, only two twin layers of glass resting between their glares and a couple of metres of tiled floor seperating the neatly dressed director of Karakura hospital and his recently returned offspring.

"I see that you made it back in one piece, fairly unharmed." Ryuuken evaluated his son's appearance, taking in the dirtied costume and bloodstains, the faint smell of reiatsu saturated blood lingering in the air.

"Fairly. Kurosaki will be recuperating for quite a while, as will Kuchiki-san," Uryuu replied, almost conversational in his tone as the air froze with tension between him and his father.

"And the girl?" His calculating gaze was still sweeping over the boy, processing every single shift of weight, every involuntary twitch.

"Orihime was saved, although she played a larger part in it than we did." The dark head lowered in reflection, eyes shining in pride momentarily before they were flung into shadow by dark hair falling forwards. "I- We made sure she was safe after we met back up."

"You escaped from my care to rescue a girl." It was evident, from the light in his eyes, the soft tone in his voice and his accidental stumble, that he was besotted with her. It was a foolish thing to do, rushing off to rescue her when it appeared that she was worthy of her own escape. "You were being love-sick and chased after a girl simply because you thought you were doing the right thing." Ryuuken shook his head in disgust, mouth twisting into a scowl as he continued to berate his son. "Risking your life for the uncertain love of a flighty girl. You are more stupid than a son of mine should be." His voice coiled into a snake of disgust, twining its way from his mouth and slithering to his son where it bit deeply.

"Uncertain?" The younger Ishida's voice cracked, shrilly raising in indignation before returning to normal, throwing his disbelief at his father. "She knows that I only went for her, that she was the only reason I went along with this 'foolish' plan ­- which worked! She is now well aware of the fact that I have feelings for her!"

Ryuuken closed the distance in front of them, standing directly in front of his son.
"So, you abandoned your training for love?"

Uryuu looked outraged for a moment, almost blurting out a denial, but then his posture changed slightly, acknowledging the soft-hearted reason for his absence.
"Yes, or is love not enough?" He levelled his gaze at his father, challenging him with his brilliant blue eyes to question his judgement and heart.

"Love is never enough." Ryuuken looked coldly at his son, grey eyes sharp and glistening like an unscaleable rock face. "Never." His hand reached up as if to cradle the face of his son, the slap shattering the dignified graceful stance taken up by Uryuu, eyes metamorphosing into heated sapphires.

"And how would you know? You have always been cold, caring for nothing more than money!" The bright red mark on his cheek blazed as brightly as his indignation did, his stance as strong as his determination.

"You are nothing more than a whelp who knows naught of the world except what lies in your dreams!" Ryuuken's voice hardly raised in volume, but his anger was evident, eyes as heated as his son's. "You have no inkling of what the history of this family is. We are humans who have needs and wants and," he grabbed at his son's collar, grateful for once that there were no buttons to pop off, "one of those wants is to have your family close to you and," his breath fogged over those irritatingly square glasses, both Quincy's faces centimetres from each other, "for them to be safe and healthy and alive."

If there had been another word, they might have had their foreheads pressed to the other's, but instead Ryuuken's gaze simply doused his son's before pushing him back and turning around.

"We are the last two Quincies. Our pride means nothing if we truly are the last of our kind. Hollows should mean nothing to us; we are no longer fighters - we should be family." His voiced cracked before looking back to his son, eyes narrowed gently. "Please understand this." He turned again, as if to walk out of the room but stopped short, pausing at the desk.

"And if you did do it for love," he paused, drawing out something from his jacket and setting it down, hand lingering over it before finishing, "you can."

Uryuu watched his father swiftly leave after that, momentarily pausing himself before stalking over to the deposited object. It glinted, the silver ring gleaming roundly in his palm.

"Thank you - Father."