My Life is a big "What If"
AU What if they lived a so called "normal" life? With a twist… hahaha… Did you ever think of what might have happened after years passed? A story of serendipity… The love between a girl who has never believed in love and a guy who once made her see its magic... Only to prove that years and obstacles are not enough to separate true love and that no matter how far apart you may be, you will always find each other… Ichiruki :D
Disclaimer: I don't own bleach :P ( I wish I did XD)
Chapter 4: All in a day's work
She went out of the taxi cab and went inside a really tall building—more like a skyscraper—and quickly nodded towards the guard who opened the main entrance for her. She quickly stepped inside the elevator and pressed a certain floor number and the elevator started to move up. After stepping out the elevator there were very few people in the hallway and when I say very few people I meant no one in particular. She darted towards a pair of very large glass doors. I t wasn't locked since the janitors must have known that someone will be entering this early in the morning and yes that person was her. She smiled and pushed open the door and went inside to find her desk. She flopped down her briefcase and started to browse the papers on her desk. She looked around. The windows are made of large glass which lets you have the pleasure of looking at the wide sky since she was at the 18th floor. The place was big with many desks separated by glass dividers. Hers was the closest to the corner and close to the window with a wall on the left and the glass window facing her back. She spun her chair around then closed her eyes when she stopped. It was quiet and sighed. "The classic Himawari Enterprises, well, better start working." She opened her laptop to start working.
The two were walking together. Momo smiled at the little kid walking beside her. "Did you get enough sleep Ken'ichi?" she said with a hint of humor on her tone. Kenichi didn't look up to hide his blush of embarrassment. "You could have woken me up you know?" He said with a pout crossing his arms around his chest. "Aww… and why would I do that? Besides little kids need their rest and you were really cute when your asleep." She giggled a little covering her mouth with one of her hands.
"I was NOT!" He yelled pouting even more. Momo remembered what happened before they went out. She carried Ken'ichi to the sofa. The little kid was so tired he didn't even budge as she carried him and put him gently down the big red sofa. The kid woke up with a "Wha!" when he realized he fell asleep. His surprised face was enough to make Momo giggle.
They stopped in front of the school's main gate. Momo squatted down and put her hands on her knees. She was facing Ken'ichi and he was facing her back. "I'm picking you up later so you have to wait for me here. Okay?" she said with a smile. He put his hands on the back of his head and sighed, "Yeah."
"Oh come on, don't be like that, you know that your mom's busy and besides—"
"I know." He said looking down.
After seeing his reaction she straightened up and put her hand on one of his shoulders. "Be good. M'kay?"
The boy nodded but still not looking at her. She took her hand away and turned around but was stopped. "Aunt Momo!" Ken'ichi yelped. She turned around.
"Yes?"
"There's a—um… m-meeting for—um…"
"hmm?" she looked down at the kid.
"The teacher wants to meet my p-parents." He said the last word like a whisper.
She gasped. "Did you do something wrong?" She asked frantically.
"Wha—N-no!"
"Oh…" She said with a relief.
I bet it's just a simple meeting about informing the parents about their kids' performance at school. She thought.
"Do you want me to come?" she asked with concern.
"Well, you don't have to."
"Okay, then what's your plan?" she asked confused.
"N-nothing" He turned around "I just wanted to tell you, that's all"
"Oh? Well, thanks for telling me" She smiled but still confused.
"And please don't tell mom about the meeting and about me falling asleep." He said not facing her.
"Sure thing" and with that, Ken'ichi ran inside the school.
"Poor kid—" she said to herself "Oh no!" she gasped "I forgot to ask him when the meeting was?"
The office has more people now. Rukia started to smirk.
I'm almost done with the paperwork which means I might be able to go home early today. She thought.
Suddenly a red haired man was staring at her over the glass divider in front of her. "You look happy today, Miss Early bird"
She gasped and looked up "Oi! Renji! How long have you been standing there?"
"Just now"
"Oh…" she looked back at the papers with a smirk.
"So… why so happy?" the man asked curiously.
She looked up again with a smile.
Meanwhile on some other side of the so called office there were two men arguing.
"Why do we have to do all these stuff?" said the first man.
"Yeah, I can't believe we have a lot of stuff to do?" said the second man.
"I heard Kuchiki Rukia is almost done with her paperwork."
"It's all because she goes to work really early."
"I'm so jealous… does she even have a life out of this boring office?"
"Well it wouldn't kill you to put some effort in your work." The two men looked up to see a short woman with her black hair looking at them with black eyes and a smirk on her lips. She was holding a few papers in her arms. She was looking at them as if she was taller than both the two men combined.
The first man stuttered "Well… um… w-we were j-just t-talking about…"
"How far have you gone with your work?" she raised an eyebrow.
The two men both looked down. Soi fon raised one eyebrow and took one pile of papers from one of the men's desk. She browsed through it and shook her head.
"Such lazy imbeciles you are. You haven't even done half of it."
"We're sorry Ms. Soi Fon, we promise to—"
"Promise what? Che, I bet you can't even finish a quarter of these in one week, let alone finish it." Then her smirked widened. "But you're lucky I'm not that heartless." She took their papers, adding them to the ones she was holding on to and went off without another word. The two men looked at each other with confusion. Soi Fon walked her way around the office until she saw what she was looking for.
Rukia was smiling at Renji. She was about to answer his question when a voice of a woman cut her off.
"Ms. Kuchiki! Good to see you." Soi Fon went over to her waving one hand and holding a stack of papers on the other.
Shit. What does she want? Rukia thought and Renji looking at her but when he noticed that Soi Fon was approaching he sat down on his chair that was just in front of the glass divider he was leaning against.
"Oh, Ms. Soi Fon, what brings you here?" she said with a fake yet sweet looking smile.
"I heard you were almost done with the paper works assigned to you for the whole week. You must be very dedicated to work since its only Wednesday." Soi fon said which made Rukia twitch a bit but Soi Fon didn't seem to notice.
"Well, I'd be lying if I said no but I guess sometimes I just get too in to my work for me to notice time." She giggled but the irritation was building up inside her.
"Well then here." Soi Fon put the stack of papers on her desk.
Rukia's fake giggles stopped. Her eyebrows scrunched together as she eyed the stack of papers. "What… is this—?"
She was cut off. "Oh my Ms. Kuchiki, have you gone blind? Their unfinished paperworks." Soi fon replied with a light giggle. "I know that but what is it doing here?" Rukia looked up at her but she couldn't hide her scowl.
"Well you see some workers have been slacking off and we really need all the help that we can get in order to finish those before the deadline." Soi Fon said calmly as if not noticing Rukia's scowl.
"Yes but—"
"What's wrong Ms. Kuchiki? What happened to all your enthusiasm a while ago? I thought that you get too in to your work? Won't these be a piece of cake? Or is the newbie still incapable of doing a little extra work?" She said with a hint of intimidation.
Rukia looked through the papers and inner sighed. But then she noticed a certain pink envelope. She blinked and took it out. There's handwriting on the envelope: "From: Soi Fon To my beloved: Y—"
Before she could even finish reading it Soi Fon grabbed it from her and shoves it in the few files she was still holding.
"I believe that this is mine." She said with venom clearly heard from her voice.
After realizing what just happened, Rukia just smirked. "Oh I'm sorry; it must have fallen in with the other files accidentally. Anyways, I better get started with these I mean I guess that some workers just have a lot of OTHER things to do aside from slacking off." She said with a hint of sarcasm.
After hearing her comment, Soi Fon quickly retorted "Well Ms. Kuchiki, unlike you, some people have better things to do than just kill themselves with work."
"I bet they do" Rukia said with sarcasm still clear in her tone. The two women glared at each other but their glaring contest was suddenly interrupted.
"Ms. Soi Fon!" A tall and big fat man cried running towards them.
"What is it Omaeda?" Soi Fon replied coldly.
"I'm done with arranging the files in an alphabetical order" He said with a salute.
"Good… did you arrange them by category as well?"
"By Category?" He asked trying to hide his nervousness.
"Yes, by category. So, did you?" She asked again with a hint of irritation in her tone.
"I—um… no—"He was cut off by a folder slamming on his face.
"You worthless—must I do everything? What kind of assistant doesn't even know how to follow—" She stopped when she realized that Rukia was looking at her smirking as if enjoying the sight. She sighed and shove a few files straight at Omaeda's chest. He cringed a little because of the pain. "Here! Go to the storage room and check if the stocks are complete." She said trying to die down her frustrations.
"Y-yes" Omaeda stuttered and tripping a little as he ran out.
"You shouldn't be too hard on your assistant."
Soi Fon glared at Rukia. "I don't need you to tell me what to do, Ms. Kuchiki. I believe that how I handle him is none of your business."
"Oh I'm sorry but you know, before, I too wanted an assistant, but after seeing yours, I guess I prefer working alone." Rukia said with the sarcasm back in her tone.
"Well then, I suggest you start working since you clearly have no time for dawdle and you don't have an assistant to help you work faster."
"Well, I suggest you go back to work as well Ms. Soi Fon since having an assistant like that leaves you with twice the work." Rukia retorted with a smirk. Soi Fon glared before turning around and walking away. At that moment Rukia had one thing in mind.
I win.
After hearing the clicks of shoes were far away, Renji stood up and leaned against the divider again to see a grinning Rukia.
"Hey, you seem happier." He said.
But then Rukia sighed and frown at the stock of papers.
"Woah! What's wrong now?" Renji asked surprised by her sudden change of expression.
"These!" She pointed at the papers. "It'll take me all day! Now I'll never be able to go home early." She sighed again."So much for finishing work in advance, it only got me more work."
"But knowing you, you can handle that" Renji said but upon seeing sadness written on Rukia's face, he decided to change the topic.
"So, how's Ken'ichi?"
The woman looked up and smiled "He's doing great."
He knew that one of the things that made her happy was her son and he smiled softly as he saw the smile on her face. Yup, he remembered that smile. It was the same innocent smile she wore when they were still in elementary school but then he missed seeing that smile since his family had to move. He had to continue his high school and his life somewhere else but now he was just glad to see that smile again after such a long time. "That's good" he simply replied.
"Oh am I interrupting something?"
The voice of a woman made the two look up. The woman has a shoulder bag on her right shoulder. She had long tangerine colored hair and her suit had an open button to give her big breast the privilege to show some cleavage. She was grinning on them.
"Your late again Rangiku." Rukia said with a smile.
"She's always late, what do you expect." Renji said looking away.
"Don't be mad Renji, I didn't mean to interrupt your flirting with Rukia." Rangiku giggled.
"Shut up!" Renji yelled trying to stop a blush.
"Well, I just wanted to say 'Hi'. Oh, and Rukia, how's your so—"
"Ssshhh!" Rukia and Renji both warned together with their fingers signaling her to be quiet.
Rangiku blinked at their reaction. "Oh right! Sorry, I forgot it was a secret." She whispered and smiled again like nothing happened. "Anyways, I really missed the little guy. Does he miss me?" She started to walk towards her desk which was the one on Rukia's right. There was no glass divider there which enables them to see each other while talking. Too bad for Renji, he still has to lean over the divider to see Rukia.
"Thanks for asking, he's fine." Rukia said. Rangiku sat on her chair and faced her chair towards Rukia's direction and finally noticed the stack of paper's on Rukia's brown table.
"So, what's with all the papers? You selling papers or something?" She joked.
"Geez Matsumoto, it's called paperwork! Figures you wouldn't know since you don't actually do yours." Renji said with a hint of sarcasm.
"Hey!" Rangiku pouted and crossed her arms over her chest.
"Cut it out you two, lighten up Renji, it was a joke." Rukia said turning back to the stack of papers. "And these papers are not for sale, Soi Fon assigned them to me since she found out that I'm done with my work for the week. Rangiku's face turned to a concerned expression. "You just took it? Honey, you can't just let her do that to you, she's just an employee here like us. She can't just dump you with work! Besides doesn't she know that your brother—"
"Ssshhh!" Rukia and Renji both silenced her again.
"Oh right! Sorry, I forgot it was a secret too. Geez Rukia, you have so many secrets! It's hard to tell what to say and what not to say." She pouted again.
"What do you mean? Those are the only two secrets that I told you about –more like she found out and the only thing left to do was to explain to her everything and trust her to keep it a secret—but you're still having a hard time keeping it a secret." Rukia sighed.
"Well I'm not exactly a very secretive person you know? But for you, I'll do my best!" Rangiku smiled brightly and clapped her hands together.
"I hate to ask but why are you late?" Renji said trying to change the topic.
"OH! Glad you ask! You see there was this guy…" Rangiku started. Renji groaned and went back to his desk leaving Rukia to listen to Rangiku's story. Rukia started working while she tried to half listen to what Rangiku was talking about.
A/N: Woah! This chapter was really long, FOR ME hehe since my target was only more than 500 words a day but less than a thousand. I guess I got carried away. Anyways, I wasn't able to update yesterday since I slept all day. I had the urge to cut this chapter but then I hesitated. I liked this chapter but not really since Ichigo wasn't in it hehe. Sorry for the OOCness of the characters and the grammar mistakes. Anyways I hope you guys liked this chapter. Please REVIEW! Thank you very much. God bless everyone.