AN: Hello fair and gentle readers. I know I've been on hiatus for a bit and I'm guessing you're probably getting fairly perturbed by my starting and not finishing a majority of the stories I've written. It would seem I can't help myself though. Too many ideas in my head… At any rate this is my first attempt at an AU style fic, so go easy on me… I actually got the idea whilst reading a fic by a writer DayDreamer-BleachLover(her story Acting The Part was the inspiration). She's a lovely writer with some cool ideas. So check her out! Another thing, the characters won't all be staying in the same "divisions/departments" as they were for the real Bleach… I'm also going to attempt shorter chapters as many readers have suggested it's too much to take in… Well I suppose we should get on with it then… Oh yea, and Disclaimer Time: **I don't own BLEACH, or any of it's characters.**
It was another dull meeting… Shunsui kept attempting to stifle his yawns but he simply couldn't manage it any more. All this talk of department reports and financial reviews bored him nearly to tears. He was ready to return to his office for a much needed nap. While one of the company's accountants Nanao Ise was quite cute, the topic of quarterly revenue held no interest for him.
"Mr. Kyoraku, for once could you please stay awake for this meeting…" Nanao scolded glaring at him. He glanced thoughtfully at her as a smirk formed on his lips; she was even more attractive when she was angry. She rolled her eyes at his look and continued on with her financial report.
"Thank you Ms. Ise, as always a very thorough report," President Yamamoto said nodding for her to be seated. "Now, Shunsui, your sales report…" Shunsui frowned as he stood and moved to the head of the table.
"We're doing fabulous, as always… This month alone we've exceeded expected sales, and as the ever lovely Nanao stated, we're in the red this quarter…" he said with a smile as he looked over at her. Her eyes immediately went down looking intently at her papers and hoping she wasn't blushing.
"I would like to see your full written report Shunsui," Yamamoto said with a disapproving sort of look as he told him to be seated. "Is there anything to report from the marketing department?" he gaze setting upon Jyuushiro Ukitake who stood and gave a gentle smile.
"We've been working very closely with the sales department to begin a new advertising plan. Considering how well our current sales have been I believe the next step will be well received," Jyuushiro started and continued to explain the details of their new advertisements and displayed the preliminary artwork.
"Very good. Is there anything to report from the research and development group?" Yamamoto asked his gaze falling upon Mayuri Kurotsuchi.
"Nothing that any of these people will understand…" he replied with a slight scoff. Yamamoto frowned but knew he would receive a highly detailed written report so he motioned for Kurotsuchi to be seated.
"Anyone else?" Yamamoto asked looking around the table. "If that is all then this meeting is adjourned." The group filed out of the conference room and headed back toward their respective departments.
"Oh beautiful Nanao…" Shunsui called out to her as she was walking back to her desk. She looked back eyeing him suspiciously. It could only be one thing… "Would you mind terribly helping me with that report the old man wants?" He flashed his most charming smile as she rolled her eyes rubbing her temples.
"What makes you think I would do that for you? I'm not even in sales…" she huffed as she turned around to face him.
"But dear sweet Nanao, you're wonderful with numbers… And I was hoping…" he started as he moved closer, really too close for her comfort. She could feel the heat in her cheeks as he stood within an inch of touching his body to hers. "Please… I would be eternally grateful to you." He whispered quietly in her ear.
"If it will get you to stop this nonsense fine," she said as she slapped him with her notes from the meeting.
"Ouch," he winced as the thick batch of papers connected with the side of his head. "Thank you lovely Nanao." She just sighed grumbling to herself about how she let him get away with this so many times as she walked off toward her desk.
"I see you're using poor Nanao again…" Jyuushiro commented as he caught up to Shunsui.
"That's so awful of you to say… I'm not using her! I'm simply helping her to showcase her fine attributes," Shunsui replied with a frown.
"I don't think her writing skills are the attributes you are interested in…" Jyuushiro said with a laugh. Shunsui simply shrugged giving a sheepish grin.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you, I'm hosting a little get together tonight for some of our larger clients… Why don't you stop by," Shunsui said as they made it back to the corner where their adjacent offices resided.
"The last 'little get together' you had didn't end until three in the morning… And then I had to practically carry you home…" Jyuushiro commented as the memory of the evening floated through his mind.
"But you had fun, didn't you?" Shunsui asked with a hopeful look. The corner of Jyuushiro's mouth turned up in a lopsided smile and he simply nodded. "It's settled then. Meet me at the Tenran Club at seven."
"Tenran? You're really going all out. Is that in the budget?" Jyuushiro asked laughing a bit as Shunsui merely shrugged, he never actually paid any attention until Nanao came yelling at him about his spending habits. The two parted ways and went to their respective offices. Jyuushiro worked further on his ideas and Shunsui closed his door flopping into his chair and falling quickly to sleep.
Nanao sighed heavily as she sat down at her desk. Somehow that smug jerk always managed to get her to do his paperwork. He was nice to look at though… She shook her head trying to remove the thought from her mind.
"What's wrong Nanao?" her friend Rangiku who worked with Shunsui in sales asked seeming to appear out of nowhere.
"Don't sneak up on me like that Ran," Nanao said as she twitched.
"Is Shun giving you trouble again?" Rangiku asked thoughtfully.
"When isn't he… That man is…he's…such a pain!" Nanao said not realizing her voice had risen as a few heads popped up over the cubical walls looking at her. Her cheeks flushed as she quickly returned her gaze to her computer screen and began typing away at the report Shunsui requested.
"He's not all bad… Oh, did you want to go out for drinks tonight?" Rangiku asked.
"Miss Matsumoto, haven't you somewhere to be?" Byakuya Kuchiki, head of the finance department asked as his cold gaze set upon her. She shivered slightly and gave him a pouting look. "Miss Ise doesn't have time to chat, as you can see, she's busy working. Please return to your department."
"Kill-joy…" Rangiku mumbled. "We'll talk later, bye!" she said to Nanao with a wave as she began to head back toward her desk.
Meanwhile on the ground floor of the Seireitei Co. building…
"Like hell you're going up to see the president!" a vehement Ikakku Madarame, one of the security personnel yelled at a young orange haired man.
"What is wrong with you! I have an appointment. Just ask the old man! For God sakes I'm a liaison here!" the young man growled angrily with his brow furrowed in frustration. They had been going around at this for thirty minutes now.
"Why don't I just call up and see if he has the appointment Ikakku… All your yelling is not beautiful at all," Yumichika Ayasegawa, the receptionist said not looking up from his mirror as he brushed his hair.
"Wow, what's going on out here!" the excited voice of a young girl called out. The pink haired girl bounded out of the back security office with a lollipop in hand. "You're making too much noise while Uncle Kenny is sleeping. You're going to get in trouble again baldy!" she scolded slightly and then began giggling. Ichigo took this moment to make a run toward the stairwell.
"Shit! We've got to go after him!" Ikakku yelled to Yumichika.
"Don't look at me. I just answer the phones…" he said drolly. Ikakku rolled his eyes and began going toward the stairs.
"What the hell is going on out here?" Kenpachi Zaraki said as he came out of his office.
"There's an intruder! We have to squash him!" Yachiru, his niece said gleefully. A gleam seemed to come into Zaraki's eyes and Yachiru hopped onto his shoulders as they made their way with Ikakku toward the stairs.
Ichigo ran as quickly as he could, taking three stairs at a time. Somehow they kept gaining on him. "Dammit… These guys are ridiculous…" he mumbled to himself as he tried to pick up his pace.
"Why don't we just shoot him boss?" Ikakku yelled with his hand on his weapon.
"That's too easy… Not enough fun," he replied with a smirk as he passed Ikakku on the stairs and kept catching up to Ichigo who glanced back and his eyes widened as he saw the large man gaining on him. Luckily he was just getting to the floor that the president's office was on.
Ichigo slammed the door open almost tripping into the hallway and ran passed a wall of cubicles and caused papers to go flying from the counters in front of the cubicles as he rounded a corner. A few people stood from their desks watching the commotion with confusion. Ichigo made it to the closed door of the president's office only to find the door locked. He began slamming his fist against it hoping that someone would get to the door before those goons got to him. The door opened and just as Ichigo was about to try and run inside Kenpachi grabbed his arm slamming him up against the wall putting a slight dent in the sheetrock with Ichigo's head.
"Got ya kid…" Kenpachi said and Ichigo could hear the sinister smile in his voice. He could also hear the jovial cheering of the little girl.
"That is quite enough Mr. Zaraki… Mr. Kurosaki has an appointment…" Yamamoto said as he moved from his desk muttering about how it wasn't the first time the boy had come to their offices. Kenpachi huffed a bit and dropped Ichigo who sent a glaring glance toward Kenpachi while dusting his jacket off. "Rukia, please get us some tea for our meeting." Yamamoto instructed his assistant who had opened the door for Ichigo. Rukia nodded and went off to make the tea.
Ichigo dusted off his sleeves again and entered the office. Yamamoto motioned for him to sit and then went to sit in his chair. Ichigo sat down breathing a slight sigh, why did those psycho security guards have to chase him like that almost every time he came to this office…
"Your report Kurosaki?" Yamamoto asked wasting no time on getting down to business.
"I've been approached by a fellow at Vizard Corp. While they don't wish to rejoin the company, they do have mutual concern regarding Arrancar Inc. due to the fact that Aizen had attempted to sabotage one of their patents when they first started their business," Ichigo started.
"Let me guess, Shinji Hirako?" Yamamoto asked. Ichigo nodded in reply. He didn't get all the details on why the group now working at Vizard Corp had left the Seireitei Company but there seemed to be a bit of animosity toward Seireitei. "Have you found out any more on the validity that Arrancar Inc. is in fact attempting to replicate the Hogyoku program?"
"No, based on what I was able to find out, they haven't even figured out the functionality yet…" Ichigo replied and thought to himself that he didn't even really know what the program did. Rukia returned with their tea and they continued their discussion.
Rukia left quietly closing the door behind her. "What's that all about?" Rangiku's voice startled her as she seemed to appear out of nowhere.
"I wasn't really listening," Rukia replied as she headed back to her desk.
"Wha…? Boring! C'mon, how am I supposed to get any good gossip if you're not paying attention," Rangiku whined.
"You know I'm not really the gossip type…" Rukia replied as she sat down.
"Oh really? Well I heard you're going out with that carrot top in there…" Rangiku said as she pointed toward Yamamoto's office with a grin. Rukia's face flushed slightly as she attempted to maintain her composure.
"That's an outright lie," Rukia replied as she shuffled papers on her desk.
"But, didn't he save you from being run over by a car a couple months back?" Rangiku asked as she walked around the cubicle wall and sat in the extra seat at Rukia's desk.
"Well yeah, but so what? He seems like the type that would have done that for anybody," Rukia replied.
"Maybe so, but he did it for you. And haven't you two gone to dinner a couple times?" Rangiku asked getting into her gossip interrogation mode.
"We're friends, that's all," Rukia replied. "Don't you have any work to do?"
"You are no fun…" Rangiku pouted with a heavy sigh as she stood resigned to the fact that Rukia was not going to give any details. A devilish smirk began to form on her face then, perhaps primed with a few drinks Rukia's lips might loosen. "A group of us are going out for drinks tonight, why don't you join us?"
"Um, that's okay, I actually have plans…" Rukia replied hesitantly. Rangiku eyed her curiously.
"Oooh, you must have a date with loverboy in there…." Rangiku said egging Rukia on.
"That's not it at all!" Rukia said shaking her head furiously.
"Is everything okay over here?" Ichigo asked as he had just exited the president's office. Rukia's entire face turned bright red as she continued shaking her head. Ichigo raised an eyebrow glancing between the two women.
"So, are you…" Rangiku started and Rukia's hand clapped over her mouth making the rest of her words incomprehensible. Ichigo's looked became more confused as he slightly shook his head.
"Rukia, I'll see you tonight right?" Ichigo asked.
"Yeah," Rukia replied quietly.
"Okay, see you then," Ichigo said as he turned around and waved. After he was gone Rangiku's eyes were bright and looked mischievous as her gaze set upon Rukia.
"Shut up Rangiku…" Rukia grumbled noticing the glance.
"Miss Matsumoto, shouldn't you be with your group working on the new advertising project?" Yamamoto said as he walked up to Rukia's desk. Rangiku gave a look of surprise; she hadn't even heard him walk up. She simply nodded and made a quick exit.
The day went on normal as any other day. At the end of the day most were starting to pack up. Nanao was still finishing the report when Byakuya paused at her desk. "Miss Ise, is there anything that you need from me before I depart?"
"No sir, thank you. Have a good evening," she replied with an appreciative nod. After he was gone Rangiku approached her desk.
"So, are you ready to go?" Rangiku said as she leaned against the cubicle wall.
"I have too much work to catch up on, thanks to that manager of yours…" Nanao replied coldly.
"Oh c'mon, it'll still be there tomorrow!" Rangiku said as she pulled the smaller woman out of her chair and dragged her along.