And it only seems fair that I warn anyone who reads this not to expect much in way of grammar because my skills are laughable. And not the in the "ha ha that was funny" way, unless you enjoy sentence fragments and the murder of language. Then it's a real hoot ain't it? But there you go you've been warned.
The entire idea for this little story stemmed from my listening to the credit song of the movie Tangled. For those of you who haven't seen the movie it's the story of Rapunzel, in a nutshell. There is a nice nod to it here though it's by no means the same plot as the movie by any means. While Uryuu could be as nerdy as Eugene he is by no means thief material. Also the story title is based on the ending credit song Something That I Want which is performed by Grace Potter. This is not a songfic, so for those worried...just don't be.
Also to be warned I know very little of the Bleach manga these days past the resolution of thing after the war. The SoulBring stuff...yeah I know next to jack. What little I can remember revolved around Ichigo being Ken doll sized. So maybe call this slightly AU. I didn't give a hugely accurate frame of time when it happened, so call it creative license?
Pairing ahead: Uryuu Ishida x Rukia Kuchiki, with a small implication of IshiHime.
Everything in italics is a part of Uryuu's dream or a flashback to the dreams he's had previously.
Something That I Want
Pulling another arm up and finding a handhold the man pulled himself another step up, foot catching another crack in the spire's side. The trip up to the tall window had taken longer than he'd expected but he could nearly reach up and catch the sill now. Pushing just a little more his pale fingers caught the lip of the window sill and his other arm went to pull himself up just that last way. And now he was hooking both his arms the entire way over the lip of the window and able to pull up his lower half. After his head went past the the previous line of sight that was filled with only off-white, cracking bricks and mortar he could only freeze at the small face so close to his own without notice. Large violet eyes looked at him with mix of amusement and exasperation, lips thinly tilted up in a slightly sardonic smile.
"Took you long enough there spinster." Were words from a flat voice that he registered with surprise. So much surprise in fact his feet slipped and he dangled by his arms hold until his grip slipped.
Dropping out of bed with a thump that had become familiar the past two weeks Uryuu looked blearily up at his bedroom ceiling. Without his glasses on it was little more than white with small darker blotches of shadows and orange-yellow light slipping in through the window from the bright morning outdoors. The haze of sleep remained and he half expected when he looked up to his bed to see a small head poke of the edge with long dark hair to look back at him. Closing his eyes again and raising his hands the quincy rubbed at his face in some attempt to wake up, not bothering to leave the floor just yet. Common sense filtered in and when it did all the teenager could do was groan. He'd had another one of those stupid dreams, dreams that had been crowding his mind for the past few weeks. Dreams that were getting more and more difficult to ignore in the face of his subconscious telling him, in a higher pitched voice than his own to take the hint instead of being an idiot. He must have angered some deity to have been having fairytale fanciful imaginings about his enemy, though the definition of "enemy" has changed drastically since a few months ago.
As much as his new dreams bothered him he had more than a few before, but the female lead appeared to have changed. Where were the good old days where Inoue would dress like some medieval version of Snow White and talk to animals? That had become normal, or normal compared to dreaming about Rukia Kuchiki. The name in itself was enough to make him frown. Why was he staying on the floor again? Picking himself up and picking up his glasses he pushed them on. It was time to forget this ridiculous business of dreaming. His subconscious had no idea what it was talking about. Or maybe he'd taken a few too many blows to the head recently. That would explain it all, something was just loose in his head.
A braid of long black hair was laying over the tower's stone, like a long line of ink over parchment. It was impossible not to touch it.
Shaking his head and roughly pushing the snatch of his dream aside, Uryuu turned to look at his alarm clock. When he spotted the time he twitched. He'd slept through his alarm, something he hadn't done in years. Ignoring his messy bed he just went to take a fast shower. It would have to be very quick and if he washed his hair it would be wet until it dried on its own. There was no time for him to dally about to make it in time before classes began. Hell he didn't even have the time to let the water warm up before he had to get in the spray, which did little to help his dismal mood. The morning was looking like it was going to be a start to a vexing day. Dreams about midget shinigami, late mornings, and cold showers was not the makings of a happy day for Uryuu Ishida. Tossing his clothes toward the hamper, and missing largely, he just got to his washing up. Scrubbing with perhaps a little too much force in his hurry he didn't pay mind to the way his pale skin pinked before he was already moving on. Hair got equally vicious treatment as his eyes closed to avoid getting any in his eye, it would be his luck today. The water was frigid but on the bright side it woke him up and distracted for the moment.
It has been months since he'd even seen Kuchiki. The last time he'd seen her she'd left Karakura because Ichigo had lost his powers as Urahara had predicted he would if he woke from that coma of his. For weeks before her departure he had seen her off and on; sometimes alone, sometimes with company; in the Kurosaki household. Ichigo was of course there, they were visiting him as responsible friends did, but he did not count when his mouth and eyes were closed. The times they'd been alone had been a little awkward at first, but eventually something had breached the tension between them. He'd caught her crying by accident and had been unable to back out before she'd noticed him. The memory of how the shine of tears had made her eyes so much brighter was one that would not leave him. She'd been on the defensive after. He had stood there awkwardly in silence, snapping at him to do what he'd come to. There had been no escape after that. But he had left the room only to come back with a tissue which he'd pressed into her hand, acting like he'd never noticed a thing or that she had not even been crying to begin with. From the corner of his eye he'd seen the surprise for the action, the stare at the tissue like it was some foreign object of unknown origin, before hastily wiping at the tracks of wetness on her face. The whole time he'd been standing less than half a foot away from her too, just in case of something he didn't have exact words to happened. It had been a turning point because after that the petite shinigami had begun to stand beside him instead of to the far side, on her own. Uryuu had never said anything about it, he was too much of a gentleman or perhaps just too awkward to bring up the topic with someone like her. From then on when they were alone they had steadily begun to stand closer until they would sit side by side, sometimes quietly, sometimes exchanging words in soft tones like Ichigo would wake up if they were too loud in his presence. Neither had ever said anything about the tears, ever. But then she was gone when the idiot had woken up and Uryuu had felt strangely remorseful his friend had woken up.
Ignoring the trail of icy water turned tepid down his back he raked a hand through his wet hair until all trace of suds were gone. Water off shortly afterwards he wrung what water he could out of his hair to save himself some trouble. Toweling drying in a hurry while heading for his bedroom he wondered if anyone would notice if he didn't show up. They didn't have a student council meeting today so he'd only miss his classes. Was it worth the rush? While he may not have had to worry about missing lessons he did have to show up at Urahara's for his nonsense. Why he had gone to him he still questioned, but everything had been off balance after Ichigo had woken up again. The normalcy, the familiarity of hollows and Urahara's antics had been oddly reassuring that everything was not turning on its head. Now he was the man's new personal hollow attendant or errand boy. He had Ichigo's old job, only he really didn't want it.
He heard the occasional rumors from Soul Society via shopkeeper, but it was never anything too interesting. Training all around, some romantic gossip he had less than no interest in and the occasional talk of an opening in squads and who could fit them. Last week he'd heard that Ukitake had been considering finally filling the fuku-taichou position in his squad. Who could fill it had been something Uryuu had missed though because there had been another hollow to see to. Renji had stopped by once to see the blond ex-taichou and had been surprisingly happy to see him, and Uryuu himself had given him a hard time smiling. It was strange to miss faces of people he had always told himself he never liked.
Towel passing over his hair hurriedly he tried to shake out the thoughts of those black-clad morons as he referred to them. Now drier than he had been Uryuu began to pull on his school uniform. It was strange to have the third-year variation but the novelty had worn off after the first month of classes. With hollows and student council to worry about he had better things to spend his thoughts on that being a year older. Glasses back on he headed back into the steam free bathroom to straighten his tie and brush his hair quickly to at least remove any of the knots in the wet black hair. Once the comb passed through without any difficulty he was hitting the light on his way out and stuffing his cross in his pocket and looking for his bag. Strap over his shoulder he caught his keys and locked the door of his apartment behind him. He was on his way but he had all of five minutes to get to the school gate before he was late. He could run full on and be late or he could use his powers. While he tended to avoid such practices he could only ignore the unique advantages he had over the rest of the student body so much. Thus he rode a small cluster of reishi to the school and only jogged from the two blocks away he touched down on the bare street. It had taken less than two minutes to make it past the gate and his hair had dried somewhat from the speed he'd traveled spiritually. Walking across the school yard he glanced up at the building not certain why but when he did he stopped in his tracks. There was something on the roof, something mostly black, something small, something familiar. Thinking it little more than his imagination he shook his head but the black figure remained. Without thinking Uryuu felt himself run, on his own steam idea of his powers entirely forgotten.
Pushing his way through the brush and low tree branches he made it to the clearing that held the once upon a time white spire. It was just as tall and narrow as the first time he'd seen it, only he knew its secret now. Instead of hiding a beast or treasure, the high confines concealed a petite, sharp-tongued girl who he'd assumed to be half her actual age at first. So why was he going back again?
Rushing past the shoe lockers and ignoring one of the other student council members calling after him Uryuu made his way up the first flight of stairs. Dodging bodies in the corridor he turned and twisted, pushing a few out of his way even, rounding to go up the second flight. There just could be no way he had seen things right.
Now came the actual climb that was agonizing to his poor body. He was far more used to washing, mending and sitting then something so demanding. Waiting and looking up at the intimidating heights above he felt the hair drop on top of him. She was not leaning out to aim, but he would by no means put it past her to have done it on purpose.
The last flight was smaller and led to the access door to the roof. Bag trailing behind him came to slap hard against his back as he climbed the final set of stairs, pushing the door open with enough force that it went fully back on its hinges. The light was much brighter than it had been in the corridors that led to the roof so he squinted his eyes, looking around in a hurry. The fence around the roof was unobstructed by anyone. There was no shinigami standing around and if there had been it was likely only the patrol assigned to Karakura as a formality. Why was he disappointed? Not like he wanted to see any of those loud idiots. Renji would just annoy him to death, Yumichika would talk about all kinds of things he wanted no part of and any of the women would coo and fuss he was looking older like he had finally moved on from primary school. There was no reason for him to have just run up three flights of stairs like a madman. His image had suffered for such uncharacteristic behavior, but he didn't much care how he appeared to other people anymore.
There was a sound behind him and he turned suddenly to see what it was. Expecting a bird or even just the wind he looked up at the area where the access door came up and stared dumbly.
Hand over hand, foot by foot, he made his way up the tower ignoring the fact when he made it to the top he'd be insulted like every other time he'd come here.
Shrugging his bag off and letting it drop to the roof he took a few wide strides forward and jumped up. Like he wanted his fingers caught the slight outcropping and he pulled himself up, feet pushing him up to help.
First arm over the sill he pulled himself up. With no help like always he felt himself flop over and onto the floor of the tower room.
Arms over first he used his elbows and brought the rest of his body up. Standing after he didn't bother to dust himself off, straighten his uniform or run his fingers through is hair to sort out the clumps his hair had separated into while drying. Instead he looked down at the small black-clad figure that had chased him like some kind of dream phantom for weeks now.
The face leaning over his and the smirk directed at him only made him twitch, he was too tired after a climb a few dozen feet to bother being abusive.
Words failed him despite that he had more than enough he could draw from to say, not the least of which involved what the hell she was doing there. Even if he had to look down at her the way she gave him a tilted smile felt far more like he was looking up at her. She was just like that, as he knew well.
"You know staring is rude." He was the only one speechless it appeared.
"Can't stand little climb?" It was a taunt, but one he did not rise to though he did glower at her unhappily.
Uryuu could care less if he was being rude. In fact he couldn't care less about anything more than that at the moment. He wanted to yell, or accuse to save face somehow. instead his chest rose and fell more quickly than it should normally from the exertion of the past few minutes.
"Something I can help you with?"
"If you wanted a hand you should have said so."
"Yes." It was the only word he'd spoken the whole while himself. She hadn't expected an answer, or perhaps just not that one because she looked confused, uncertain and just a hint amused. But he never let her ask further.
Pale hands moved up and one caught in longer black hair than he remembered and the other cupped a small face. The widening of violet eyes came as no surprise to him, his own lips quirking up in a faint smirk to catch her off guard like this. He'd never gone across that boundary and touched her before, let alone in such a bold way. If she expected an apology she'd never get one, because doing so made his hands stop itching like he hadn't known they had been. Holding her head he tilted it just slightly and leaned down and kissed her, not quite soft but not quite firmly either. It was a steady, sure contact and his hold of her didn't release either. He was even less convinced to let go when she kissed him back, demandingly.
Instead of responding to her he just leaned down to kiss her, because he wanted to and he could.
Had he been listening to the floors below he'd have heard the class bell ring. But instead Uryuu was caught up in his infuriating phantom. A few dreams certainly did not compare to the reality, he decided when he finally pulled away and looked down at her to see a smile.
And they lived happily ever after. Eventually.