Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or Harry Potter characters mentioned in the story, though I like Ishida Ryūken, he's not his son, but there's just something about him that draws me closer despite his repelling personality
Chapter One
"Harry's married."
I heard that you're settled down
That you found a girl and you're married now.
I heard that your dreams came true.
Guess she gave you things I didn't give to you.
A tall, fair-skinned man wearing thin and frameless glasses with narrow blue eyes and silver hair dressed in a plain grey suit with a light blue shirt and a tie with Quincy crosses all over it, stared at Isshin Kurosaki with what most would believe to be an impassive stare, but Isshin had known Ryūken for many years, and knew he was actually shocked, or as shocked as he allowed himself to feel.
"…Excuse me?" Ryūken murmured faintly, idly wondering if he was going into shock. An image of an ethereal man with messy black hair and empathic viridian eyes, his lean, subtly muscled frame wrapped around his own immediately came to the forefront of his mind. "I could have sworn you said Harry, as in Harry Potter, as in my ex lover, is married."
"Well, to be fair to Harry-kun, Ryūken, your arrangement while he was staying in Karakura Town was only temporary, and you're the one who insisted on a purely sexual relationship seeing as you refused to offer anything else, even though he offered to come live here." Urahara Kisuke said unusually serious, ignoring Isshin's warning to tread lightly.
"Ah. I see. So he came whining to you that night, and after all these years, he decides to do this in order to punish me for something I had no choice but to do…" Ryūken snorted cruelly, his voice in monotone and he was seemingly fine, but Isshin wasn't fooled.
"Watch your mouth when you talk about him like that!" Kisuke hissed, his eyes dangerous, murderous and faintly Ryūken recalled that the shop keeper/ex-Shinigami treated Harry as if he were family, seeing the pain in his gaze when he first arrived in Karakura, reminiscent of soldiers who'd recently returned from the battlefield and understood that war wasn't glorious or fun.
"And how, pray tell…" He placed a cigarette in his lips and lit it, taking a deep drag. "Should I talk about him? I could offer nothing to him, as I'd told him from the start."
"Oh, please, Ryūken." Isshin snorted, unamsued. "Get off your high horse and admit you made a mistake, a big one, when you decided to heed Sōken's threats and married Ai-san, tossing Harry aside like he was some common whore."
"I do not regret Uryū despite how much of a pretentious little bastard he can be at times." Ryūken admitted after a long pause and several more drags from his nicotine. Kisuke still looked unappeased and Isshin was looking a little sour, too, so he decided to yield fully to his old friends. "…But I do regret my callousness and I have no excuse except for the foolishness of youth and misplaced pride which did not permit me to tell him why I was ending our arrangement." As well as my behavior toward you both when I refused to call you friends anymore. Was left unsaid, but Kisuke and Isshin had known him long enough to read between the lines.
"Don't you just hate how smart and sophisticated he sounds even when he's in the wrong?" Isshin complained comically, Kisuke shook his head, hiding a smile behind his fan. "Let's get a drink. The kids are situated and it's a quiet night." He offered with a grin.
Flicking his cigarette away, stuffing his hands in his pockets, Ryūken began to walk to his car, between both Isshin and Kisuke, like old times. While things were still brittle in regards to their lost friendship, it was slowly being repaired.
After getting rip roaring drunk (Isshin), mild groping (Kisuke), and a pleasant buzz (Ryūken, naturally), they were all going to go home and call it a night when Kisuke slipped him a piece of paper in his breast pocket. He raised an eyebrow at the blonde, but Kisuke waved that stupid damned fan at him and had a mischievous twinkle in his eye.
"I have something there I need you to pick up, but I can't go."
The whole thing screamed 'SUSPICIOUS!', but he'd let himself be manipulated just this once and hoped it wasn't too embarrassing whatever he was supposed to get. His fears were proven true in the daylight when he drove in one of the more…classy parts of Karakura and knocked on the house door written on the note. He leaned against the stone wall and waited, looking at the cleanly cut lawn.
The door opened. "Yes. How may I help…"
Ryūken turned around, his blue eyes widening momentarily behind his glasses as he saw Harry, and there was no doubt that it was his ex. A little older and wiser, his black hair pulled in a ponytail, bangs falling into his shocked viridian eyes, an apron covering his body, specks of flour on his cheeks, and laugh lines around his mouth and eyes. Age made him even more alluring.
I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited
But I couldn't stay away, I couldn't fight it.
I had hoped you'd see my face and that you'd be reminded
That for me it isn't over.
"What are you doing here?" Harry asked frostily and Ryūken didn't blame him as their parting all those years ago was hardly idyllic, with Harry crying, begging him not to dump him, and he being unnecessarily callous, calling the then teenager all sorts of derogatory names. "Matter of fact, I don't care why you've come. Just as easily as you've come, you can get the hell off my property."
"I just wanted to see you, and your wife." Ryūken said calmly, not batting a lash at the hostility her received, hell, he got that enough from his own son, he was made of thicker skin.
"You must be deaf because I could have sworn I told you to get off my property." Harry almost snarled. "Ginny, you shouldn't be up…." His voice gentled automatically as a pretty red haired woman with brown eyes, obviously pregnant, came down the stairs slowly.
"I know, I know. But I was hungry. Oh, who's this?" The pregnant harlot, Ginny, looked at him from underneath her lashes, her eyes seeing all, making Ryūken uncomfortable. Harry married this woman? He wondered as he noticed the ring on her finger.
Never mind, I'll find someone like you
I wish nothing but the best for you too
Don't forget me, I beg
I remember you said,
"Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead,
Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead, "
"Nobody." Harry said flatly and in such a sure tone, Ryūken felt his heart twinge in pain, pain he had no right to feel. "Go in the kitchen, I'll be there to make your favorites in a second." He ordered, kissing her hair gently, a tender expression on his face. Ginny sighed good-naturedly, but left the room. "Whatever you've come for, you won't find it here."
"I'm sorry." Ryūken said quietly, but no less sincerely. "Sorry for what I said all those years ago, for what I did. I'm sorry."
"That's funny, because after all these years, I'm not sorry, Ryūken. If you hadn't said those things to me, had a son, gotten married, yes, Kisuke told me, I would probably still be waiting on you to love me, but things are different now. I'm stronger, better, and I'm not sorry we're not together."
Although those three words were on the tip of his tongue, Ryūken did not say them. He faintly recalled asking for permission before he kissed Harry. It was soft, but firm. A question and an answer, Harry's tears, or were they his own?, stained his shirt and felt hot against his skin.
You know how the time flies
Only yesterday was the time of our lives
We were born and raised
In a summer haze
Bound by the surprise of our glory days
Regardless, he wiped them away gently, tenderly, kissing the top of Harry's head, just as he'd kissed Ginny's minutes ago. "Be happy. Please be happy, promise me?" Ryūken murmured insistently, his hand lingering on Harry's cheek.
Harry chuckled waterly, half sobbing. "As happy as possible."
With one last lingering glance, Ryūken nodded, appeased. Back straight, face dry, he left Harry's porch, Harry's life, again, and he didn't look back. If he had, he would have saw Harry's face crumple with anguish and sorrow, but resolution, he didn't call out to the elder Ishida.
Nothing compares
No worries or cares
Regrets and mistakes
They are memories made.
Who would have known how bittersweet this would taste?
"Ryūken, Harry's moved back to Britain…" Isshin murmured sympathetically, sitting in the chair in front of Ryūken's desk.
"I know." Ryūken replied quietly, toying with a gold pendant, engraved was the Quincy bow & arrows, with he and Harry's initials, he'd had no reason to bring it out until recently. "He called me and told me that he was leaving a week ago." Isshin started in surprise and he smirked, only slightly sad.
"There cant always be happy endings, baka Shinigami, sometimes you have to suffer, get hurt, to understand and cherish the joys you do find in life. Cliché as it is, I'm happy that he's found happiness without me, and I wish him the best raising his son, and also my godson."
Never mind, I'll find someone like you
I wish nothing but the best for you too
Don't forget me, I beg
Isshin was baffled at how…accepting Ryūken was concerning the circumstances of how his love, his true love, had fallen in love with someone else. If it'd been him, he'd probably have fought harder, but then he shook his head ruefully, marveling at how resilient humans were.
'Oh, well. Kisuke'll be disappointed they aren't together, but as long as they're alright with their decision, it's really not our place…'
I remember you said,
"Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead,
Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead."
And that's a wrap. Wow. Usually, I try to make my characters have a moderately happy ending, seeing as reality has so few of them, but Harry wasn't cooperating for this crossover. I heard my little sister playing it on her cell phone and immediately, I began typing, finding the lyrics on the 'net.
I didn't forget Rum and Sake, and I'm amazed by the reviews, which is why I'm taking my time, making sure that Yōgosha plays a significant part in the Winter War, that we get a glimpse of how he, Yōgosha Kurosaki, as a Shinigami, scorned brother, and uncle feels about the circumstances revolving around, well, everything.
Unlike He Who Walks the Solitary Road, Harry knows his duties, he knows what needs to be done, and some of you may be shocked by how he attacks the system to get it done, he'll piss off old Yamamoto on more than one occasion, but seeing as he outranks the geezer, he'll hardly care.
Soul Society is flawed, just look at their bloodthirsty history and the victims: modsouls, Quincy's, Vizards, Bounts, etc. Most of this stuff could have been avoided and prevented in my opinion.