The Dragon's Queen

by Jo Terry

A/N: I do not own Bleach and its characters.

This fic has been hiding in my Google Docs for a year. I have not submitted anything on FFnet since Of Desires, Dreams, and Nightmares so I thought I'd put one up today… because it's my birthday.

If you've been following me, you'd know that IchiRuki is my OTP. But this fic was written at a time when I was really pissed off about the manga ending, and - this may sound quite illogical - also at Kurosaki Ichigo's character. So I started toying with a few ideas about other male characters of Bleach who would've deserved our Queen better than Ichigo. Among them, were Hitsugaya Toushiro, Hisagi Shuuhei, Grimmjow Jaegerjagues, and Ishida Uryuu. That's how this fic came about. I have to admit that at the time this fic was written, I had every intention of making this strictly IshiRuki. But as I read it through again, and being more forgiving of Ichigo's character a year later, I can see that there are other possible ways for me to expand this. If you're an IchiRuki shipper and you're willing to journey with me without knowing where this will take us (IR ending or not), come aboard. Otherwise, I'd advise you to skip this and read my older fics. Please don't think that I do not ship IR anymore. I still do. And I can assure you that I'll take it with me to my grave. But this fic is written from the POVs of Kuchiki Rukia and Ishida Uryuu.

Chapter 1

"Do you, Kurosaki Ichigo, take this woman, Inoue Orihime, as your lawfully wedded wife?" the priest asks.

It's the usual matrimonial ceremony dialogue, isn't it? Any groom who's prepared for this auspicious day should know what's coming, should expect the question, and should already have the answer at the tip of his tongue. Shouldn't he?

Obviously - to those who are observant enough, that is, Kurosaki Ichigo isn't one such prepared groom. There is silence in the entire chapel after the priest verbalised that scripted procedure. You could even hear a pin drop.

Standing behind Inoue, as her maid of honour, Kuchiki Rukia hears the orange-haired former Shinigami swallow. Yes, her keen ears catch his gulp. Her violet orbs widen discreetly at the movement of his Adam's apple.

The fucking Strawberry had better not screw this up, she thinks before narrowing her eyes at him. She hopes no one else notices it but right after that question, Ichigo has a look of alarm as his gaze shifts towards her instead of his beautiful bride that's standing not one foot in front of him. She sends him a 'Stop looking at me' glare, causing him to wince a little before he turns his attention back to Inoue..

Rukia cannot see the human girl's expression from where she is standing. And she does not want to see it if hurt is written all over her face. The petite fukutaichou of the 13th Division has warned Ichigo about this. Despite it being a stupid mistake, he has to take responsibility for the baby in Inoue's womb.

"Kurosaki-san

Ichigo blinks when he hears the priest's voice again. Heaving a long sigh, he stammers, "I do."

From that moment on, Rukia never shares an eye contact with him anymore, especially when he always tries to look at her pleadingly. He is someone else's husband and she has no intention of hanging around any longer because she knows she will be a huge distraction to Ichigo. They both have to move on. The only reason why she is here today is because Inoue has asked her to fill that special role.

After the ceremony, Rukia attends the reception as a show of her face for 15 minutes before she disappears to Soul Society for a long time.

Turning his wrist, Ishida Uryuu pulls up the sleeve of his shirt to check the time. His second shift has ended two hours ago and he has been in the hospital for the past 30 hours. Despite having been chided by the senior nurses on duty for 'nesting' in the hospital since the end of his first shift, he still does not feel like going back to his miserably cold and empty apartment. The hospital, to him, is ironically more vibrant with life compared to his home.

"Please rest, Yakimura-san. I'll check up on you again tomorrow," he tells the 89-year old man on the hospital cot he is attending to. He uses the tone he would use to speak to a child. It's funny how the mental ability of a human reverts to its childlike state the older one gets. "I promise you can go home if you're better."

The patient surprises Ishida when he lets out a scoff. "Why would I want to go home? There's no one there. It's always so lonely," he says, sinking deeper into the uncomfortable mattress as he turns to face away from the doctor before pulling the covers up to his chin.

Ishida stares at the back of the man's head for a moment before he leaves the hospital room without a sound. That makes two of us, he agrees mentally.

Ishida is almost disappointed when nobody stops him or pages him on the way to the locker room. He always wishes there were more work to do, more share of patients to attend to, and more time spent under bigger piles of work. He truly does not want to go home. If he had a choice, he would've moved into the hospital. The apartment is a waste of money, a waste of vacant space, and a waste of travelling time. Why would anyone want to go home to an empty house?

Taking his time, he goes into one of the shower stalls to thoroughly scrub himself clean. It is more to kill time than anything. The only thing he can do when he gets home is sleep, anyway. And that is something he has had trouble doing since the Quincy war. No matter how tired he gets, he can only sleep for a maximum of three hours every day. And he hates closing his eyes. Because every time he does, images of death come to haunt him. His mother, his grandfather, the Sternritters, and even Yhwach.

The young doctor looks at himself in the tiny mirror on his locker door as he gets dressed in a polo shirt and a pair of Dockers. There are dark shadows under his bloodshot eyes.

"You need to get that insomnia fixed before it turns into a psychiatric problem, Ishida-sensei," one of the midwives from the maternity ward tells him whenever they bump into each at the cafeteria.

Slipping into his boat shoes, the doctor sighs as he retrieves his backpack from the locker shelf and shuts the metal door. Going crazy is the least of his worries right now. What bugs him is that he finds absolutely no purpose in his life. He does not even know why he has to continue living. Every day, he moves like a goddamn robot, going through the rhythm that has not once changed since he started working at the hospital.

Ten years ago, he came back from Soul Society with a new set of resolutions after avenging his mother. He would start anew, put his Quincy power to sleep because he no longer needs it and he doesn't want to interfere with the soul governance anymore. That is the job of the Shinigami.

He never thought he would be a doctor. He never wanted to be a doctor. So he went to the same University as the woman he wanted to date but did not have the courage to tell her. He took the same culinary art classes as she did despite his father's warning about not paying for his fees if he didn't take up medicine. Two years later, he finally asked her out… only for his heart to shatter into pieces because "I'm sorry, Ishida-kun, but I'm still very much in love with Kurosaki-kun."

After all the fucking years, Kurosaki wouldn't even spare Inoue Orihime a second glance and still she was 'very much in love with Kurosaki-kun'. The orange-haired arsehole was still brooding over the fact that he and Kuchiki Rukia were separated yet again because he lost all his powers yet again after defeating Yhwach. It'd been two years and Kurosaki still couldn't get over Kuchiki, still couldn't understand why he and Kuchiki always came so close to being together only for fate to tear them apart, time and time again.

Ishida is pissed off at how their destinies are fooling around with them and he suspects that it is Yhwach's plan all along. He suspects that the Quincy with 'The Almighty' power had already stepped into their future to change it before they killed him. The dark-haired man curses at the stupid merry-go-round the bastard put them in: him going after Inoue who was in love with Kurosaki who was damn convinced that Kuchiki held the same red string of fate he was holding.

It's all so fucked up. Congratulations, Yhwach. You've won, he spits mentally. You could've just ended our lives right there and then but you found a better way to take us down. Well, fuck you, too!

Following the devastating rejection, Ishida took up his father's offer to enroll him into a medical school. Three years later, he found out that, in an attempt to comfort a pissed drunk Kurosaki (who still couldn't get over Kuchiki), Inoue had gotten pregnant with the orange-haired man's baby. The day the test turned out positive was ironically also the same day the Shinigami were allowed to return to the world of the living. Kurosaki drove his fists into the wall several times. (Ishida was unfortunately the one who had to fix those bloody knuckles for him.)

Kuchiki - thank Kami, she's a trained noble heiress - held her composure as she forbade Kurosaki from backing out of his responsibility just because she was back into his life again. She insisted that the former Shinigami did what was right: marry Inoue, and be the husband and father he was meant to be. Of course, he relented eventually, albeit with the heaviest of heart. No one defies Kuchiki Rukia.

The boy is five years old. It's been five years and still Ishida wakes up every day hoping that it is all a bad dream that his crush is married to his cousin and they have a child together - every single process aforementioned happened unwillingly. As soon as he realises it isn't a dream, he curses his own life. He had a plan when he first stepped foot back into the real world after the war. And that plan included courting Inoue, proposing to her after they've graduated culinary art school, and having a bunch of kids with her. But it all went down the drain because Kurosaki is an idiot.

Now, Ishida is just lost. No direction. No drive. No purpose. He is just an empty shell just like his apartment and the house of Yakimura-san.

Ambling out of the locker room and right through the hallways that lead to the entrance of the hospital, Ishida gives a silent nod to each staff that greets him along the way. He stops at the automatic sliding door and adjusts his coat before putting one foot out of the building that always helps take his mind off things. The almost-full moon is up ahead, lighting up the dark streets that he will take to go home. Another lonely walk back, he thinks before his feet carry him farther and farther away from the hospital.

No matter how slowly he walks, just like every other time, he eventually arrives at his apartment building. Ishida gives a nod to the security guard at the main entrance - just like every other time - who returns the gesture. He takes the elevator up to his floor, just like every other time, knowing fully well that he will soon be enveloped into the silence of his apartment.

However, as he rounds the bend and approach his door, unlike every other time, he is greeted by the figure of the person he least expects.

Right there, in a sleeveless purple dress that knots on the shoulders, she stands.

"Kuchiki-san?"

Drop me a line. Let me know if you'd like me to continue this. Thanks