Being Human

In this chapter I'm going to show a little bit of back story along with storyline, so keep alert XD

For those interested (and on Twitter) my username is KathHeubeck I am fast becoming addicted

This chapter did end up with more Ishida than I intended, but I'm showing the dealio with Orihime and giving some of his back story.

Unfortunately, Ichigo in no way resembles George from the BBC series, who I fell in love with xD so we won't get the fantastically painful awkwardness when he talks to people or the jittery nervousness... though I might transfer that quality to Ishida...

Rukia was sat on the sofa, but turned, staring at the staircase, which was bare wood, neatly sanded (by herself during life) and the slight stain in one corner that wouldn't quite come out, no matter what anyone did to it.

I was a smallish stain, and brownish. It might be a natural discolouration of the wood, or some food product spilled by her or Kaien during their short stay.

It wasn't there when they bought the place together.

It wasn't there when she was unpacking.

It wasn't there before she tangled her feet in something and fell... or before she hit her head against the wall (which Kaien had since wallpapered, but there was probably a stain there too) or before she had hit her head one final time on that very step, as her neck twisted violently and-

Knock, knock.

Rukia's head whipped round, and she moved slightly to see who the visitor was.

She fell off the chair in surprise.

Kaien!

"K..." She started, but choked on her own words, just staring at him through the window. He was wearing the shirt she'd bought him a while ago.

He said he didn't like it, it wasn't his colour.

In hindsight, of course, he was right (as always) Lime Green did not suit him.

But he's wearing it anyway.

Her heart swelled and she found the strength to stand, just as a hastily scrawled note came under the door, and Kaien walked away.

Rukia put a hand against the window, forming condensation as she sighed. "Oh... Kaien."

Ishida loosened his collar slightly and smiled encouragingly at the patient. "Not to worry, sir. We've topped up the blood you lost and used stitches with a bit of Clotting Factor to help seal the wound, but you should be more careful as a haemophiliac."

The man nodded wearily and laid back.

Ishida winced as some more blood seeped through the gauze. "Nurse, you can deal with this now." He strode away, ignoring the whispered "Never mind doctor know-it-all." And rushed to the men's toilet.

"Bloody Hell why's it so hard today?" He muttered, rinsing his hands and throwing water over his face. Supporting himself on the sides of the sink, he breathed heavily to regain some composure, before looking up at the mirror and gasping in horror. "What..."

Cold eyes narrowed. "What am I doing here?"

Ishida turned to face the person behind him. "You followed me."

"You need us." Aizen smiled. "You need the clan."

"I don't."

"To clean up your mess?" Aizen smirked as Ishida paled; he'd struck a nerve. "Such a pretty thing, too. Not bright... but a valuable addition to the clan... if only for something to look at."

"You-!" Ishida was slammed against the wall, with Aizen's hand over his mouth.

"Nice set-up here, haven't you? Your medical certificate used to help our... supply a great deal; some of the group are quite unsettled with you gone."

Ishida forced Aizen's hand away. "Still parading the streets in costume, I see." He spat.

Aizen looked down at his policeman's uniform. "This old thing?" He laughed. "It helps."

"Don't touch the patients." Ishida warned. "Or else I'll..."

"...What? Come on Ishida, rip me to pieces? Or will that destroy your new... human fantasy?"

"It's not a fantasy."

"Oh? You don't feel the urge to drain the blood from every patient? You don't feel the desire to have that hot warm liquid run down your throat? You're far from human, my friend. How long will you keep up this little... rebellion of yours?"

Aizen sighed regretfully, turning to leave when Ishida called out. "Tell Orihime..." Aizen looked back.

"Hmm?"

"Tell her that... I'm so deeply sorry for what I did to her."

Aizen laughed, and left Ishida with a freshly burning need in his throat.

Rukia looked up as the door opened, slamming against the wall hard as Ichigo strode in at a furious pace. "Ichigo?"

He turned to look at her and Ishida, who had taken sick leave from work, and growled. "Renovation." Before storming into the living room. "I can't use the cellar anymore because they're renovating it... Security cameras and..." He looked up. "About half an hour until moonrise."

Ishida jumped to action instantly, pushing the TV into the kitchen. "Help me get all breakables out Rukia." He said as Ichigo grunted in obvious pain, clutching at his abdomen. Rukia stared at him.

"Ichi..."

"RUKIA!" Ishida shouted, "We have to secure him!"

"What?"

"Keep him locked up."

"The bedroom!" Rukia shouted. "He can stay in the spare bedroom!"

"It's not spare anymore, it's Ichigo's room." Ishida frowned "And besides, there's a window."

"Move a wardrobe to cover it then! There are windows in all the rooms!" Ishida nodded and ran upstairs as Rukia stepped closer to Ichigo. "Ichigo... come on... we need to get you upstairs..."

Ichigo scoffed. "I'm in pain, not deaf, midget."

"Carrot top."

"Dead Bitch!"

"Strawberry wolf!"

Ichigo blinked, and smiled. "What the hell?" He asked incredulously, before scowling and doubling over in pain.

Rukia put a hand on his stomach, half sunken into his body as her spirit form failed to make contact. "Get upstairs."

They struggled up, and Ichigo flung himself into the room, which was dark save a small lamp in the corner. Ishida turned to Rukia. "I need you to push the bed against the door to stop him getting out."

Rukia glared at him. "Are you so afraid that you'd lock your friend up to save your own skin?"

Ishida looked at her seriously. "I'm afraid of what he'll do to himself if he finds out he hurt anyone while in that form, be they human or otherwise."

Rukia said nothing, but stepped through the closed door and began to push at the bed, trying to ignore her companion's laboured, erratic breathing.

"Come on..." She muttered, pushing with her back to the bed as it slid across the floorboards until it reinforced the door. She sighed and went to go back through the door, but turned suddenly as Ichigo howled.

That howl was like nothing she had heard before.

And his body... joints popped and bones stretched as his form became more hunched and his face began to lengthen.

My God...

His hair rippled as though caught in the wind, and turned white. After several agonising minutes, a white wolf with yellow eyes was crouched to the floor, nose creased in a heavy growl.

"Rukia? Rukia!" Ishida called, and though she knew she couldn't die, though she knew he couldn't touch her...

Suddenly every word the two men had said about being a monster... suddenly she understood.

And as the wolf sprung for an attack, she screamed.

Ishida and Rukia sat downstairs at the kitchen table with their eyes closed, Ishida's fingers steeped together as they listened to the noises from above.

"Is he..." Rukia swallowed. "Is he like that every month?"

Ishida nodded.

"How long has he been like that?"

"I'll let him tell you himself." Ishida said, and Rukia got up abruptly, moving to the kettle to make yet another cup of tea. "What about you?"

"What about me?"

"How long." Ishida kept his eyes closed but he heard Rukia's sudden movement, knocking over the tea cup. "You're cleaning that up."

"I know."

"It can't have been long. If your fiancée is our landlord." He said coolly, and Rukia sighed.

"A year ago. You?"

Ishida smirked. "Many years ago." Rukia laughed.

"Evading the question?"

"We can talk about this when Ichigo's down. He'd probably appreciate being involved." Ishida sighed and Rukia looked away. "But why didn't you pass on?"

"There wasn't anywhere to go. No light, no nothing."

BANG

The pair jumped and laughed nervously. "Will he be okay for work tomorrow?" Rukia asked, setting a cup of tea down in front of Ishida, who glared at it.

"I think so. It varies depending on how badly he hurts himself."

"Hurts himself?" She gasped.

Ishida nodded. "He's throwing himself against walls... he heals faster in that form, but he can still end up in bad shape."

"Poor guy."

"Hm."

Rukia was silent for a moment, but, deciding that she needed to gossip, leant forwards. "Did you hear about that girl who got murdered?"

Ishida stilled and looked up slowly.

"Her name was Orihime Inoue. Apparently her body was stolen from the morgue, and no one knows how."

"Where did you hear about that?"

"Paper. It was on the front page of the local." Ishida cursed and stood up.

"I'm going out."

Rukia frowned. "You're leaving me with the werewolf alone? What if he escapes?"

"He won't." Ishida threw on a coat and stormed out of the house, leaving Rukia alone in a dark kitchen, with only the sounds of an angry werewolf for company.

"What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?" Ishida shouted, slamming his palms down onto the table, ignoring the disgruntled sounds coming from the other vampires in the room. "Don't you usually stop things getting public?"

"It was simply... a warning." Aizen purred, not ruffled in the slightest by Ishida's fury. "Just to let you know that we won't protect you anymore."

"...What are you talking about?"

Aizen shrugged. "You're not a part of the clan, are you? So why should the clan protect you? Any more of your... slip-ups, mate... we won't help to hide them. The police? The press? We have control over all of it, but we can easily step back and let them find you, and your little friend."

"The werewolf." Gin spat, smirking. "Your little dog."

Ishida stood up. "I see."

"Of course... we could change our minds."

Ishida sighed, "Now why would you do something like that?"

Aizen smiled. "For a clan member."

Ishida nodded thoughtfully. "I see." And without another word, he walked out of Aizen's office and into the main foyer of the funeral parlour, where a small old lady sat patiently on a seat as the receptionist typed onto her computer.

At the sound of Ishida entering, the receptionist looked up and smiled warmly. "Ishida." Momo greeted. "It's good to have you back with us."

Ishida shook his head. "I was just leaving." He said, and ignored the girl's downhearted expression and strode towards the door, as it opened to show a pretty redhead in a white dress. At the sight of him, she instinctively stilled, hissing quietly. Ishida stopped, eyes wide. "Orihime..."

The old woman looked up at the two in confusion, and Ishida quickly stepped forwards, past Orihime to get outside.

"Ishida." Orihime called, and he turned round, wincing at the sight of her freshly red lips, and stunningly cold eyes. "I was in the paper today, did you see?" She smirked, tilting her head to one side the way she used to when she was alive, but with a colder expression than she could have ever managed in life.

"I saw."

"Aizen thought you might worry about me, and here you are."

Ishida winced as she stepped closer to him. "You've fed."

"Every day." She agreed. "They never know what hit them..." Her eyes lost focus for a moment, and something like pain flickered in her features before the smirk took over again. "Aizen told me your story, by the way, how you sacrificed yourself to him." She bit her lip and stepped back, watching for his reaction to her bait.

Ishida turned and strode away.

It was during the First World War. The Great War.

I was in charge of a small group of men, and Aizen showed up in the trench, covered in the blood of our comrades.

He was going to kill us all.

One life in exchange for all of them? What a vain idea...

But he agreed.

The next morning saw Ichigo stumble down the stairs to the smell of a fry-up full English. "What's the occasion?" He grunted, seeing Rukia by the stove. She turned to him triumphantly.

"I can cook!" She stated with a grin.

Ichigo eyed her doubtfully. "If you're not sure about your abilities then neither am I. I'm not risking food poisoning from undercooked meat."

"Please." She scoffed. "Of course I can cook. Eat it." She threatened. "I was up early to make it."

"Up early?" He frowned. "Do you even sleep?"

"Not the point." She muttered sulkily. "Just for that, you're not getting any sausages."

"Oh some on! They're the best bit!" He cried. "And I'm hungry damn it!"

Ishida walked into the room to see Rukia running around as Ichigo tried to grab a sausage from the grill pan held in her oven-gloved hands. He sat down heavily and sighed. "Children."

"Aw, what you doing old man, have some fun." Ichigo laughed, and sat down. "God, my bones hurt."

"And you call me the old man."

Ichigo opened one eye. "If I wasn't so damn tired I'd punch your face you twat." He seethed and glared at Rukia. "Midget, sausages."

"All right, fine." She sighed, and threw two at his plate, one bouncing off and into his lap. "There you go, ungrateful bastard."

Ichigo sighed and put the sausage back on his pate, beginning to eat. Ishida winced at the display. "You really are an animal."

"I am not." Ichigo frowned, bits of chewed up sausage falling from his mouth as he spoke. His companions shuddered and reluctantly, Ishida sat across from him, sitting back to let Rukia put out the food.

"Thanks."

"No problem." She sat down on the third chair and leaned forwards, facing Ichigo directly. The orange haired young man stopped chewing and leaned his head back as she leaned in closer.

"What?"

"How long have you been a werewolf?"

"What?"

"How long? How did it happen and where are you from." She listed her enquiries with a straight face, deadly serious.

Ichigo looked up. "Isn't that a bit rude?" He said, voice climbing a couple of octaves.

Rukia thought about it. "I'll tell you if you tell me."

The room fell silent, and Ichigo watched her with narrowed eyes. Slowly, he lifted one hand out to her. "It's a deal, dead girl."

"Sure thing, wolf boy."

He took a bite of fried egg and stared at his plate. "I was... hiking in Scotland. Three years ago." He began to cut up his bacon slowly, pushing it round the plate. "I was with a friend of mine- Chad, and when it began getting dark we set up a tent and started to cook some food. The smell must have attracted the wolf... cause next thing I know there's this huge... monster... coming at us. Chad, the great bugger, tried to wrestle it, and was shouting at me to get a knife, his silver knife... but I freaked out."

Ishida quietly ate his breakfast as Rukia stared at Ichigo, transfixed.

"I came to my senses and got the knife, but it was too late for... for Chad. As the thing bit me I got the knife through his shoulder and scared it off. Then I fainted."

"How did you know... what you were?" Rukia pressed in a softer voice.

Ichigo shook his head. "Chad mentioning the silver knife, and the fact that the next month I woke up in the woods with half a rabbit next to me." He looked down. "I had to leave my family, my girlfriend, everyone... to keep them safe."

"Where are they?"

"Leicester, I should think." He looked out of the window. "I don't think they'd have moved." There was a long, heavy silence, until Ichigo's eyes flashed to life. "Your turn."

Rukia glanced at him in surprise, and shook her head. "Nothing interesting. I just tripped down the stairs, that's all."

Ichigo frowned. "You fell? That killed you?"

"I hit my head and broke my neck, if I'd fallen any differently I probably would have survived..." She said. "I'd just moved in with Kaien... we'd just gotten engaged and I tripped over some packaging one night." She shrugged, suddenly looking very small. "You know, there was only one other tenant before you guys."

"Oh?"

"Yeah... right after I... well anyway, I didn't really like them being around so I... got rid of them."

Ishida turned and stared at her, as Ichigo smirked. "How?"

"Just... moved stuff around. Made noises."

"That was you?" Ishida cried, throwing his hands in the air. "YOU knocked over my boxes? YOU threw my clothes on the floor? YOU rearranged all my books?"

"No." Ichigo said, smirking. "I did that." He glanced at Rukia. "Alphabetical order... it's like living with Rain Man."

Rukia laughed.

Ishida got up and went to rinse out his cup of tea when the pipe choked.

"What the hell?" He cursed. "Kaien was meant to sort this out!"

"He dropped by while you were out, left a note." Rukia said, voice trembling slightly. "He's coming by later today."

Ishida nodded. "I'll be at work but... Ichigo?"

"Not today." Ichigo slumped against the table. "I'm all wolfed out." Ishida nodded and stood.

"Be good."

"You too."

It was later that afternoon when the doorbell rang.

Don't hate me for the cliffie!!!

Being Human (BBC) fans will realise that this isn't exactly like the original (at all)

"Haruhi" fans will know thats the way I do things haha

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