Title: Nevermore
Pairing: Ichigo/Rukia
Genre: Romance/Hurt/Comfort
Rating: T
Summary: "I'm sorry I didn't protect you, Rukia." The little raven-haired woman trembled.
"Who ARE you?" she asked, voice quavering.
"For you, I'm anything, no matter who or what I have to conquer."
To save Ichigo from potentially dying, Urahara gives him a syrum with side effects wich evoke his feelings for Rukia. With no cure, Ichigo is forced to suffer the effects until they eventually wear off. And while Rukia copes with her partner's new attitude, she also begins to question whether her feelings for him are truly wrong.
A/N: Hello, my wonderful readers! To those who read Near And Yet So Far: yay! I finally wrote another Ichi/Ruki story! Aren't you happy? Thank you very much for reading, and please review! :)
Chapter 1
To say that Urahara was a jaded man was an understatement. He lay there on the floor of his shop, sprawled on his side with not a care in the world-well, almost no care. He was bored to tears with his lifestyle. It had been weeks and he hadn't made been the cause of any mischief of any kind, nor had he showed up out of the blue to save the day for some imperative other.
For the past few weeks, he had been selling merchandise to housewives with cheesy lines that would make any gullible individual indulge in his products. He had sold candy bars to a few teenagers and younger children, and when he was excessively fed up with loafing about, he snuck up behind his customers or employees like a ninja just for the amusement of scaring them half out of their wits.
However, tiptoeing around only got one so far before that, too, became a nuisance.
That was why Urahara reclined there on the ground on a particularly sunny Monday, in an almost catatonic state. His striped hat was slightly lopsided, covering most of the right side of his face, and the most of what could be seen of his visage was an unsettling sight indeed to those who passed him.
Mouth ajar, jaw slack, he stared off into space with all the enthusiasm of a carcass. A string of saliva dangled precariously from his bottom lip, his usually vibrant bottle green irises a dull, dead color.
"I think he's finally lost it," Jinta said, shaking his head as if in pity as he leaned up against one of the display cases.
"Yeah," Ururu murmured in agreement. Tessai didn't say anything, but made the effort of getting down on his knees and waving a hand in Kisuke's face to try and stir him from whatever world he was tripping in.
After a few seconds of this, it became apparant that the delusional shopkeeper wasn't going to react to finger-snapping or whistling.
Yoruichi, who had been sitting nearby, padded over to her friend and looked up at him, ears rotating to half-mast as she surveyed him for a moment, as if in assessment of the situation.
In a male tembre, she clicked her tongue and mumbled something before unsheathing her claws. "This should do the trick," she said intelligibly, and raised her paw.
That was about when Kisuke leaped up into the air without any sort of prior notice, causing a chain of reactions involving Jinta swinging his broom and smashing an array of glass figurines on display, and Ururu falling backward onto the ground, thus tripping Tessai, who'd taken a step back.
The well renowned former captain of the Department of Research and Development grinned, not once wavering even when Yoruichi, who'd been startled by his unpredictable behavior, yowled and launched herself into the air, landing on his head and effectively injuring him with her hind claws as she scrambled for something to grab on to.
Picking her up without the slightest of regards to the cuts on his face, which were bleeding profusely now, Kisuke startled to spin around, his haori billowing around him. "I've finally got it!" he cried. "I know what I want to do now!" Clawing Kisuke's hands in fear that he would fling her across the room with all his twirling about, Yoruichi turned apprehensive round eyes onto him.
"What?!" they all cried in unison. Giving them an "I-know-something-you-don't look", he smiled a smile so creepy and disturbing it defied the spine-tingling sensation that Gin's infamous grin induced.
Cackling, he left them to speculate and vanished to God knows where without another word or even a parting farewell.
Burying himself in the bleakest recesses of his domain, Kisuke began to go to work out of view of his loyal workers. So as to not forget his sinister plans, he spent the duration of the day writing out formulas on paper.
Yoruichi, who'd gone to take a shower after the Shoten had been closed, knocked on his door once or twice to tell him that dinner had been prepared and that Rukia had come by asking for supplies-somafixer and one kikanshiki memory replacement power cell, which was being used more and more frequently as days passed due to the recklessness of a certain orange-haired Soul Reaper.
Nevertheless, Kisuke didn't once stop to eat or sleep. He was in his prime. He was...a scientist; a genius; an absolute madman. He wasn't insane enough to do any of the things Mayuri would do, but still, he was creative at best.
He had a plethora of bizarre ideas that were just waiting to be developed and put on trial. All it required were the right chemicals and the correct balance of data to take this mass of modules and compile them into what would, with any luck, be a creditable specimen.
Of course, one's job was made a tad bit more difficult for lack of a test subject and 24 hour service from specialists.
Kisuke was practically on pins and needles just to get this right. Of course, it still eluded him as to what exactly he wanted to create.
To top that, he hadn't been in the field in forever, so he had to admit that the statistics were sketchy. But doing this again, doing what he loved what was made the whole process so thrilling. Kisuke couldn't remember a time since he'd been in the world of the living that he'd stood on the edge as he was now.
When he finally looked up from his work, he saw that it was noon, much to his chagrin.
His stomach grumbled in annoyance at being deprived of dinner, so he stood up and stretched out his aching back before turning off the lights and heading for the kitchen.
After eating a hearty meal and drinking as much lemonade as possible, he retired to his bedroom to fetch his toilatries for a shower. Yoruichi was there, apparantly having waited for him. She had fallen asleep in her cat basket in her feline form.
He thought it mildly cute the way she was curled up in the basket on her favorite cushion, her paws tucked up under her chin, her tail curled around her limber form.
Kisuke shrugged off the affection before he got too mushy on himself and crouched down to pick her up and carry her to his bed.
Yoruichi loved his pillow...The feline loved him period. Maybe, he thought, after he finished this experiment, he'd dedicate it after her or something. Just maybe. But he knew what she would say if he did. I think you're getting sappy in your old age, Kisuke. And Gods was she right.
Many nights and mugs of coffee later, it was ready...Kisuke was almost amazed at how it had turned out. He refrigerated it and labeled it so that nobody would touch it.
Ururu, Jinta, Tessai and Yoruichi knew better than to touch anything he put in the fridge, anyway. Ururu had learned the hard way after drinking a minor potion he'd brewed up for fun around Holloween and her hair turned pink. Luckily, he'd had an antidote, but they had learned not to repeat the mistake.
Besides, this chemical hadn't been tested and its effects were unsure. He would have to thoroughly examine it tomorrow and run more tests to see what componants could combat the effects to the drug-if there were effects. Right now, he needed some shut-eye. Tomorrow could wait. After all, he had all the time in the world.