Pairing: IchigoxBella
Fandom: Bleach and Twilight
Plot: Bella could feel herself switching affections. Slowly the thrill of a vampire existing began to fade. The new guy he was weird, hot, but weird. On the plus side, at least he didn't have a suicide complex. He was already dead.
Warnings: Major character death early on. Partly AU? If that's possible.
Plus, major major major major thanks to those that stumbled upon this fic and reviewed! Reviews make me super happy. *squee*
Disclaimer: I do not own the Bleach or Twilight fandom, or any of the characters they entail. They belong to their respective owners/creators.
A/N: Thank you to all that have reviewed/alerted/favourited me and/or this story. It is very much appreciated as I love hearing your feedback. Constructive criticism is always welcome, but no flamers. They will be deleted without reply. Thanks again!
On The Plus Side
Chapter 6 – Just Wishing
After having so much sun it was almost surreal to see the grey cloud blanket shrouding over Forks again. Bella had no idea that she could have been that happy to feel the sun warming her ever pale skin again. It gave the almost welcome feeling of nostalgia of her life in
Phoenix; of her Mom.
She never thought that she would be able to look back on those times without crying or feeling sad. Comfort had come from the most unlikely source; Ichigo.
Bella hadn't quite understood it at first. He had always been so withdraw, even around a crowd of people he always looked like he didn't fit in. Like he wasn't supposed to. Bella took great comfort in the fact that she wasn't the only one any more. Aside from Edward and
the Cullens she had never felt that anyone else could ... understand what it was like.
Which was totally insane because she still knew next to nothing about him. About why he was there in Forks or how his research was going. Sure she had asked, but he had the exceptional talent of diverting her thoughts to something else.
Today was one of those times. She hadn't seen Edward for about two weeks now and strangely she wasn't on edge about it. She wasn't in her usual panic about his safety or if it was her fault that they hadn't seen each other for so long.
Classes had gone back to normal so Ichigo just slotted in in Edwards seats, which were always next to her. Even though he looked bored during most of the lessons he would always pay apt attention during English, especially when they were talking about Shakespeare.
When Bella had asked why that was, he had turned to her with a rare smile and said, 'He's the person I admire most.'
Bella thought he heart stopped for a few seconds, it could have been an hour and she wouldn't have known - or cared for that matter. It hadn't been a big smile, it hadn't even lasted longer than his
sentence. She wouldn't even have described it as dazzling, like Edward's always were.
However, it did affect her. Struck her with a flash of surprise that she had never felt before. And that wasn't the only thing that was strange about him.
She never saw him studying and he always had an answer when he was called upon in class. He didn't even listen to the question half the time and he knew the answer, no hesitation at all.
Almost in the same way Edward always had. Being a 109 year old vampire, he had an excuse with the inability to sleep. Edward had said that he spent the extra time studying anything and everything that took his fancy. But what was Ichigo's excuse?
Bella had spent so much time comparing Ichigo and Edward that it made her dizzy. At one point she had even considered that Ichigo was a vampire in a moment of madness. That thought was quickly abolished.
For one thing Ichigo could go out in the sun and though his skin was magnificent under the warm rays, it wasn't pale and it didn't sparkle. His eyes were always a deep chocolate brown that she had to catch herself from falling into all the time. He despised the look and smell of blood, Bella couldn't be quite sure about that one. Though she was so sure that he had blanched slightly the time she had fallen on the porch steps and cut her knee.
Of all the times Bella had ever been scared, today was the most terrified she had ever been. She and Ichigo had taken to sitting away from the others so they could talk without Bella's friends annoying
either one of them.
Ichigo had once mentioned that his little sister - he had two - had always made him a packed lunch to go to school. He had called it a bento at first, momentarily forgetting that she couldn't speak a word of Japanese. That's how easily they had fallen into being comfortable around each other. Bella just hoped that Edward wouldn't feel like a third wheel when he could eventually come back to school.
So Bella made them something small like sandwiches for their lunch. It gave off a strange homely feeling that the people around her couldn't understand.
She knew about the rumours going round that she and Ichigo were dating and that was the reason Edward hadn't come back to school because he was heart broken. She corrected them every time but Ichigo didn't seem that bother about what other people said about him.
One of the few things she had learned about his past was that he had been bullied a lot for his hair colour. While red, orange in some cases, hair wasn't that uncommon here in Japan it was considered very abnormal. He had gotten into so many fights about it it was unreal. Though it explained his rippling muscles.
They were sitting on the usual bench and Bella lost her balance, it was a regular occurrence so she thought nothing of it. Ichigo had come to get used to her clumsiness, claiming he knew someone just as bad back home.
The way he had said it sounded so sad that Bella hadn't wanted to push it and make him more uncomfortable about it, so the subject was dropped. He often got this far off look in his eye whenever he spoke about himself, which was just as rare as him smiling. Bella had just
thought it was homesickness but she couldn't be sure about that. Ichigo was such a strong person that it seemed very unlikely.
When she had fallen, as usual, he went to help her up. He held out his hand for her to take with a small smile which disappeared in a split second. Bella looked at him confusedly a d noticed that was staring at her wrist with a fury she hadn't seen from him before. He had caught
sight of the silvery scar from the bite James had given her. He looked practically livid and grasped her wrist in his hand even more tightly.
There had been an overwhelming feeling of danger in his normally warm eyes.
'I'm not gonna ask how this happened, Bella, but if I ever find another one I will turn you into one of the undead myself.'
Bella froze in her spot.
What? How did he ...? He couldn't. He couldn't possibly know about vampires. How they did really exist
Ichigo didn't know what was running through his head as he gripped onto Bella's arm like a mad man. Its not like Bella was actually a vampire but the sight of the scar, however minuscule, made him so mad you could swear he wanted to rip the bastard apart that did it. But seeing as she had that Edward boy hovering outside her window every night he could safely assume that it wasn't him.
He let Bella's arm go with a soft teasing smile. To see the hurt and confusion in her eyes has stung his heart, he never wanted to see that expression on another girl, but he couldn't apologise properly without revealing that he knew about the vampires, and now the werewolves.
'Hey, don't look so serious. It's a old story from my town that when a scar turns silver, their supposed to have been from mystical creatures, weird right?' He laughed lightly. She didn't look in anyway convinced though, 'You don't believe in things like that, right? I mean, beings with super strength that feed on the blood of humans. It's ridiculous, just a way to scare kids into behaving.'
'Uh, yeah. Totally. They're just stories to scare kids.' She looked away with an expression Ichigo couldn't quite decipher.
She seemed to want to get off the topic as soon as possible. She became quiet, and if Ichigo had learnt anything about Bella it was that her thoughts tended to turn sour when that happened. As long as she was talking she didn't think about the bad things that she had experienced.
'I guess the good weather couldn't last, right?' Bella turned back to him. He held out his hand before him as the rain drops started to fall down on them. 'Let's go inside, get out of the rain.'
But this was just the start of their problems. The untimely return of the foul weather Forks had become accustomed to was about to rain far worse problems down on Bella's situation as she came to terms with what was supposed to be a very happy day.
Her Birthday.
It was coming up soon. She didn't want anything, well nothing that an ordinary human could possibly give her. Soon she would be 18, a whole year older than Edward, technically anyway as Edward never reached his 18th birthday. She hoped that Edward would come back soon as she was seriously starting to worry now.
'Ichigo Kurosaki, there's a phone call for you at the main office. That's a phone call for Ichigo Kurosaki.'
They had been walking down the corridor on their way to Biology at the time so Ichigo just nudged Bella out of her trance.
'Hey, Bells, I've got to go. I'll see you in a while.' She nodded at him, still not quite sure what to make of what he had just blurted out before by the bench. It had seemed so unlike him, yet she had the strange feeling that he was hiding something from her.
Not that she shouldn't be used to that by now. Everyone always had something to hide and she always had to be the one to find it out. It was never simple. Why did the world always seem so blurry and upside down? Wait ...
'Hey, Bella? Are you okay?' Ichigo got his answer when Bella fell into his chest. He caught her soundly but ducked into the classroom just to inform their teacher that he would take her to the nurses on his way to the office.
He had just finished his sentence before Bella was snatched out of his hands. Edward. So the blood sucker had decided to turn up as soon as the weather turned out the best for him.
'I'll take Bella. Thank you for looking after her in my absence.' Ichigo nodded but only he was close enough to here the vicious undertones the vampires voice held. Ichigo noticed that all eyes were now on them. The whispers had returned just as soon as Edward had. The crowd waited on baited breath for Ichigo's reply to the challenge Edward's presence presented.
By now the whole school knew that Ichigo was staying at Bella's and that they spent every day together. Ichigo doubted that Bella had noticed that he was with her all the time, even if she stepped out 'on her own', he was always there to ward off the disgusting leeches. But then again, Bella didn't know that his actual research project was about Fork's itself, its strange reiatsu situation. Which just so happened to all centre around her. She drew danger to herself like a magnet, and it was Ichigo's job to find out why and stop it.
'It's been my pleasure, Cullen-san. If I may ask, are you going to be absent again any time soon?' Edward looked like he wanted to drive daggers into Ichigo's body at Ichigo's over politeness.
'I'm never leaving her side again.'
'Oh, that's good, she was so worried about you. As you didn't call her once to say where you were. She'll be relieved to see that you are well.' Again with the over polite attitude. Ichigo knew that he was getting on Edward's nerves, even more so as it seemed Edward had not been able to pin point exactly what Ichigo was yet. It seemed that his pride forbade him from asking Carlise about one, Ichigo Kurosaki.
Though Ichigo had done that knowingly. Edward was far to prideful and certain in his abilities to read the thoughts of others that he hadn't got over the fact that he could only read the part of Ichigo's mind that he let Edward pry into. The part that showed a film strip of how happy Bella had been without him. Especially drawing on the amount of happy faces and smiles she had made whilst she was with either Ichigo alone or with Jacob when the mutt tagged along.
Ichigo had actually come to enjoy Jacob's presence, though the multiple voice in his head did get annoying after a while. Jacob had filled him on the Quileutes and the 'Cold One' story, about the treaty that had been made and how that had affected those with the 'gene'. Ichigo knew exactly how that felt. Just because of your heritage you got thrown in to a battle that wasn't strictly your own. Ichigo always mercilessly teased Jacob about liking Bella, which resulted in a playful wrestling match that Bella would always sigh at and leave them to it.
But now that he knew the wolves side of it, all that was left to uncover was the reason for Edward to cling onto Bella. Bella had claimed that she 'loved' Edward and that there was no one else for her, but Ichigo had the bad feeling that there was something else in it for the vampires. Something was just not right with the way Edward looked at her.
It wasn't strictly true that Bella hadn't seen Edward all this time. He had been there all right. Every night he hovered outside her window, getting more and more frustrated because he couldn't get into her window. And once again that made him even more mad at Ichigo as he was the only anomaly that had changed within the household to forbid him entry on the premises.
But right now Ichigo was just playing him up to be the bad guy, which he was. He walked along side Edward on the way to the offices at the main entrances. Ichigo felt a strange sense of loss as Bella left him sight as Edward carried her further to the nurses office. He turned into the administration office to see the lady hurry to bring him a phone.
'Mr Kurosaki?'
'Yes, Sorry I took so long. A friend fainted on my way here.'
'No problem. A Mr Urahara for you?' She sounded awfully concerned and he only furthered that when he snatched the phone away.
'What the hell do you want now?' He smiled gently at the woman who handed him the phone and continued to speak rapid, angry Japanese.
'Ah, Kurosaki-kun. How is your mission going?' His mentor's voice was annoyingly sing-song as usual. Even though he sounded like an idiot 90% of the time, Ichigo knew that wasn't the case. Even if the man sounded like an imbecile after 5 minutes with the guy and you would know just how intelligent he really was.
'I haven't got time for this Urahara-san. I think I know what the problem is, I just need more time.'
'Time for what Ichigo? Your not getting … attached are you?' Ichigo could hear the teasing tone in his mentor's voice and it irritated him to no end.
'Damn it! No, Urahara-san. I can't say this sort of thing over the phone. Turn up in whatever way you like, there are some people you have to meet for all of this to make sense.'
'Sounds like we have ourselves a bit of a problem.' His voice lost its sing-song quality, though Urahara still sounded some what dubious.
'Yes, an infestation. Leeches are riling up the wolves.'
'Wolves?' Kisuke's tone became more serious.
'Yes. I have to go. I have to pretend to be interested in High school Biology again, this seriously sucks, Urahara-san. I could be teaching the class myself.'
'Just bear with it a little longer, Kurosaki-kun. You'll figure it out, you always do.'
Ichigo paused for a few moments, knowing what he wanted to say next, it was at the tip of his tongue wanting to be let out so his heart may be eased a little. Just the act of saying it brought up so many conflictions in his heart.
'You want to know don't you, Ichigo?' Urahara's voice had lost it's formal tone, he knew how Ichigo's heart and soul ached as he bared with an unimaginable amount of guilt. 'She … she is on the mend, Ichigo. I don't know how long it will take, but she's not out of danger yet.'
Ichigo didn't know what to think. It was partly good news, but the ending was what he had been dreading. She had already been through so much … and now she had to suffer further.
'You have to believe, Ichigo. She's a fighter, she can make it through.'
'I just … I just don't want her to suffer any more, Kisuke.' Ichigo completely dropped the formalities. Something he never did around his mentor. ' May be if she had never met me …'
'Ichigo, I'm going to have to stop you there for you are getting far to depressing for my liking. Bye bye, Kurosaki-kun!' Ichigo didn't have a chance to return the farewell as Urahara had already hung up. Ichigo was used to his mentor wanting to pull out of a conversation if it got too heavy. Urahara ran on happiness it seemed, and any sign of sadness was avoided at all costs.
Ichigo just wished it was that simple.
A/N: next chapter is up! Reviews are welcomed and greatly appreciated, any comments for imporvements also welcomed.
FlamingOrangeRose -x