Mayumi sat in the café for her break, sipping the fourth coffee of the morning and reading something on her phone. She still hasn't had the chance to text Renji, too many patients coming in and out of the ER, she needed to focus. She didn't know why she was hesitating so badly to text back a guy who was just at her place a few hours ago. Her stomach did flips from what happened last night. It had been so long since she had gotten action like that, especially something that great.
"Where did you go last night!?" she looked up at the woman walking over to her in her pretty, tight fitting pencil skirt that seemed to be a size too small for the woman's hips. "You grinded on a dude all night and then you leave! You were our DD, Yumi." She whined.
"Fukumi, please, keep your voice down!" Mayumi scolded with furrowed brows, "Yes I left is that a bad thing?"
"No, but that made us have to get a cab."
"You're a lawyer, you can afford a cab in Tokyo." Mayumi grumbled into her cup of coffee, really wishing her pager would go off right now.
"He was cute."
"Hmm?"
"The guy you left with, tall with tattoos. So handsome." Mayumi snorts.
"I feel like you want me to tell you what happened last night too."
"YES! Tell me EVERYTHING!" her pager buzzed, finally.
"Maybe next time." Mayumi chuckled and picked up her pager as Fukumi whined at her before she started to drink her tea and scroll through her phone. Mayumi shook her head and threw away her drink before heading back to the ER.
She thought about sending him a text, but would that be awkward? He was meant to be a one night stand, but he was handsome and –
"No, focus, you're at work…" she muttered to herself as she shoved her phone back into her pocket.
It was about to be a long day.
She said she worked at the largest hospital in Tokyo.
She wasn't kidding about that one.
He looked down at his watch and wondered if she was still on her break. Maybe not, she does work in the ER. He kind of knows how busy something like that gets from the last time he was in Squad 4, especially after the war.
He didn't want to think about that right now. So many years of peace left him with simple jobs and no excitement and this girl gave him that back, or at least he thinks so.
"Renji? What are you doing here?" he looked over to see none other than carrot top himself.
He looked snazzy, all up in a two piece suit with a bag in one hand and his pea coat in the other. Renji stuttered, what was he supposed to say? He's here to see a girl he was with last night?
That's too much, don't say that… he thought to himself.
"I thought I would go explore the city. I only ever see the city from up high, I thought coming down to ground would be a good idea." Ichigo raised a brow.
"I guess I can't say that's a bad idea." He shrugged and smiled. "Why don't you come with me, I'll show you around, yeah? Rukia should be coming in soon to say hi as well." Renji made a face, and he didn't know if it was confusion, shock or surprise. Why was Rukia coming over?
"Isn't she on a mission?"
"She is, but I think she finished early so she's gonna come over." He shrugged. Renji didn't think that they were still trying to do that long distance thing. Can they really call it long distance if it's between two different realms?
Renji hums at him, keeping a note in his mind to talk to Rukia about it later.
"So, are you really here to explore the city or is it for something else." Renji stood ridged. He knew he was bad at lying but, he can't be that bad. "If you've hurt yourself I can treat you at the clinic you know. I've got no problem with that." Renji visibly relaxed and Ichigo seemed to have caught on.
"Why are you –?"
"Dr. Kurosaki! Can you come here and give me an opinion on a patie –?" Mayumi looked up from her clipboard to see Renji talking to Ichigo. Renji's face went a little red as he wondered; what are the odds of her and Ichigo working together. "He's not allowed back here unless he's family of a patient." She was eyeing him for a moment before looking at Ichigo. "Patient has a history of heart problems, but his symptoms don't correlate with anything to do with heart problems." She handed him the clip board as she watched Renji.
"Well, his EKG looks fine but let's order an MRI scan to see what's going on with him, yeah?" she nods and takes back her clipboard.
Renji lets go a sigh he didn't know he was holding.
"She was eyeing you hard." Ichigo looks at him with a condescending smirk on his face, "Is there something you're not telling me?"
"Shut up." Ichigo urged him to follow him to his office so he could drop things off.
"I'm gonna assume she's the reason you're here." Renji grumbled, "You're not exactly a closed book, Renji. This isn't the first time I've seen right through you when it comes to secrets."
"Okay, yeah, fine I was here to see her." He felt embarrassed and like his pride was just knocked down a few. Ichigo smirked at him.
"I can't wait to tell Rukia."
"NO!"
Ichigo laughed.
Lunch time was the best, after five hours of working on crazy to sick people, she needed a damn break.
She walked her way towards a table in the café and slumped into the chair with a loud sigh and groan. Oh her feet hurt, and her back, and legs, and everything else really.
She sunk deep into her chair and took a deep breath to relax herself. A thirty minute lunch would be enough to regain her strength. Hopefully…
"Long day?" she opened her eyes and saw Renji.
"I feel like you're stalking me." She teased and he sputtered.
"You're the one who gave me the description of the hospital!" she laughed softly, catching his attention. Her chest slowly moved up and down, trying to calm herself down in order to have a decent conversation. "If I'm bother you, I can leave."
"What? No! You're not bothering me. I'm just tired. The place is starting to fill up fast, I guess there was an accident on the highway."
"Any casualties?"
"There were a few that were dead on impact, but some of them died in my ER." She hummed before rubbing her face and groaning. "I've never seen anything like it. Some of the EMTs showed me a picture of the accident." She sat up and looked at him. "It looked like a monster had slashed the cars. Something with big claws."
Renji straightened himself out. A hollow. Or at least he thinks so, "Monsters aren't real, Mayumi."
Her stomach fluttered, and that was a first. "I know, but… if you saw the pictures you'd think exactly what I was thinking."
"I guess so." He leaned against the circular table and looked at her. She looked exhausted, with bloodshot eyes and bags under them. She could totally use a break after work.
"What time do you get off?" he wasn't really following anything at this point, and he was ignoring the weird pit in his stomach. Every time he talked to her, it was there but it seemed like it was making its way out.
"Um… I think seven or eight. Why?"
"Let me take you out to dinner." This was so unlike him.
She looked at him with surprise before looking down at her hands, "I honestly thought this was gonna be a one night thing…" she mumbled, hoping he heard but also hoping he didn't.
He heard it though, because his face fell. She was pretty and all he wanted to do was take her out. Was that bad, did he do something wrong?
"We don't – don't have to go out or anything I –." He started to feel that weird sinking feeling in his stomach again. He started to look down at his hands, hoping that he wasn't making her feel trapped or embarrassed.
"I'm not saying no…" she looked up, red in the face and twiddling her thumbs, "but it's not a yes." She looks at her watch and hopes that her timer will go off. "You know what, just let me think about it, okay? I mean –." She sighs and looks at him with confusion and uncertainty, "I really didn't expect you to come by my work…" she whispered before looking at her watch again. "Listen, I gotta go." She didn't really, "My lunch is about to end." It wasn't, she still had fifteen minutes but she felt stuck in a corner.
She rushed out of her chair and walked down the hallway and turned the corner before letting out the breath that she was holding. He meant no harm, she knew that, he wouldn't hurt her or anything but that situation was suffocating.
She walked her way back towards the ED, rubbing her face with her hands and thinking about what she can do about this situation. She didn't want to say no, but saying yes put her in a position that wasn't technically comfortable for her.
Her phone buzzed in her scrub pocket and she groans. Her head aches, but she still pulls out her phone and looks at the messages.
Ichigo: Find me when you're done with lunch.
She shoved her phone back into her pocket and walked down the hall watching her feet.
It was going to be a long damn day.
She was an hour over her shift, trying to fix some paperwork that someone didn't have time to finish and direct nurses and help them with their questions until the next person comes in. The man that covers the graveyard shift is always late, and she doesn't understand why. He has done this so many time to the point where it's fireable, and yet he still works here.
"Burning the midnight oil?" She looks up from her screen to see Ichigo ready to head home.
"I don't know where my night shift guy is. He's always late, but never this late. I don't know I'm almost…" She scrunched her nose and hunched her shoulders, "Worried."
"He'll show up. Hopefully. If not, it's not like your nurses can't handle without him."
"I guess you're right…" She sighed, "Yeah, I'm gonna finished up these sheets and I'll head out."
"Why don't you come out with me and Rukia? Were gonna go out to this new American food restaurant that opened up. Some of her work buddies are coming with us, too."
"Text me the address and I'll meet you there, okay?"
"Deal, see you in a few." She sighed, thinking that going out two nights in a row was a bad idea but it'll be nice to just hang out after today.
She tried her best to focus on finishing up her papers but ended up giving up halfway through with tired bloodshot eyes. The halls were strangely quiet, thought she'll never say out loud. She didn't want to curse her nurses.
Maybe it would be okay if she left… She had worked for nine maybe ten hours, and she was off tomorrow, so why not.
And she still needed to the lockers and change.
She dropped her head onto the desk, creating a soft thud.
"Why did I agree to go out…"
Her phone buzzed in her pocket.
She whined.
I am so sorry this took me so long to upload. I finally finished up my midterms and found little blips of time between work and school. This chapter isn't my best, but filler is great for getting things started for me. And I like building up the world through little things like this.
The next chapter might take me just as long to get out, but I am on a decent track when it comes to my ideas. Really though, I have a lot of things written out for this story.
I'm also coming out with another story for -Man, so if you're into that manga, look out for it I've put a lot of effort into it.
-Red