Ngoc Chau does not own Bleach

I know I'm moving fast, but there's only like seven chapters... Anyway, any questions of comments?

God I'm just copping out by reusing my fanfic ideas... how dumb am I?

Nemu's eyes scanned over the monitor that the shinigami on shift was displaying. She nodded her head and complimented him on a job well done and that he should keep up the good work. The shinigami beamed and she moved onto the next shinigami to overlook his work. Suddenly, there was the sound of buzzing and an announcement asking for her to come to Lab 5 on Level 9 immediately. She was a captain and so rushing was beneath her. But the lessons and etiquette that had been beaten into her years ago incited for her to shunpo to the location.

Upon arriving, she was greeted with a sight that had her exclaim, "Mayuri-sama!"

Mayuri laid convulsing upon the floor, hives breaking out and appearing even through the white paint he painted upon himself every morning. His arms clutched himself as though he was cold. His golden eyes were hazy, the blue hair in disarray. A circle of shinigami surrounded him, not a single one doing anything but watching. The only one showing even an iota of concern was Akon. He crouched close to Mayuri and was injecting something in his arm. Despite the care that Akon was showing him, his expression was quite indifferent as though this was nothing new.
Nemu swooped in, gathering Mayuri up in her arms. She carried him with ease as though he weighed as much as a little baby out of the labs into one of her offices that were supplied with basic necessities and a cot. She felt his arms around her neck squeeze tighter like he was afraid she would drop him. She would never drop him, even if her arms were about to rip, she would fall before she let him. Akon and his entourage of shinigami followed behind after her, she distinctly heard him telling them that this was between him and the captain only.

Nemu laid Mayuri onto the cot and she so wished that she could've foreseen this is the future. She wanted to slap herself, she was always thinking about herself; why didn't she better prepare her office for something like this happening to Mayuri? She shushed quietly to him, telling him that she was there and everything was alright, that he was alright. His white hands gripped onto her captain haori and he would not let go. It almost broke her heart to see him so ill and holding onto her. He mumbled something but she could not hear it properly. The haori slipped off her frame onto Mayuri as he laid back onto the bed, beginning to sweat profusely.

Akon came in, a syringe in his hand. He gestured for her to not obstruct him as he moved in closer to her son, "He needs another dosage to flush the antibodies out of his system."

"Antibodies?" she asked.

Akon gave her a slight smile as he rubbed Mayuri's arm after giving him the shot. "He's been doing more than going through the Chief's old files."
Between them, 'the Chief' was always Mayuri and they both knew that she could never truly attain the status as 'Chief' despite her promotion. Despite the past between them, they called each other by their first names.
Akon continued, "He's been resurrecting every one of the Chief's experiments, even the ones that he…" failed, but it was not spoken because the Chief never failed. "Anyway, he's been adding his own touches to them - good ones - and just recently he found that antibody one."

The antibody! If she was not so worried about her son, she would've laughed at the irony of the situation. Like father, like son indeed!
"When did he start it?" she asked worriedly, rubbing her son's brow with the sleeve of her shihakusho.

"He didn't tell me when exactly, but I remember just a month ago, he was showing me results that the antibody was working. Truthfully, I thought he was going to surpass the Chief with this."

Oh… Nemu thought, he's trying to be just like his father.

The two of them sat upon opposite sides of the cot, watching the son of the man that had done so much for the two of them.

Akon told her that she should just proceed with work as usual, Mayuri wouldn't have wanted her to stop work for him and so would the Chief. Of course, whenever he brought up the latter, Nemu knew that there was no point in arguing.

She thanked him for his help.

He told her that it was no problem, it was lucky that Mayuri had already developed something in advance to flush out the antibody; but he did not know how long it would take because Mayuri told him nothing more than the fact that he was resurrecting the old experiment.

Still she thanked him for the help she gave him.

She heard choking from the invalid upon the bed and before she had the time to react, Akon had already pulled out a waste basket from somewhere. Mayuri turned on his side and promptly threw up into it an olive green bile. The sight of it was much like a tube of toothpaste being explosively pressed out of all its content. Finally when it seemed that he had expelled a quarter of his weight, he flopped back upon the bed, breathing heavily.

Her tone grew bitter as she mentioned that nobody else around him had bothered to help him, only watched him.

Akon placed a hand upon her knee. "It's this place, it's what it does to you. It makes you empathetic and apathetic: you need to be like that to survive here."

He was right. How many times in the past had all of them watched a dying specimen, seeing it only as an answer? How many times had she been left beaten and battered until the very next day?

She felt his hand move higher on her leg, "Nemu."

After Mayuri's death, Akon was the first to comfort her. And Nemu knew what he felt about her, Mayuri told her once that that was what Akon harboured for her. He protected her from him, but could not protect her from himself. After Mayuri's death his body was not even rigid yet, she ran to Akon's arm. She accepted him because he only reminded her of her father: that they had both been in the Maggot's Nest, that they were men of science… Nothing more. She wanted the closest she could then get to her father and he was it at the moment before her son Mayuri came into the picture. She did not regret her interactions with Akon, but she thought it best to forget about it since she now had her Mayuri.
Mayuri was the only one important in her life now and she did not want him to be bothered. She recalled what happened to one new shinigami who had found himself infatuated with her, the next day a bomb had gone off in his room. Luckily he had not died because he was quick thinking to put up a shield. She knew it was Mayuri who had done it because he told her himself without her prompting. Even if he had not done it, she would not have become involved with the shinigami. She always told him that there was only his father. She had her Mayuri again, incarnated as her son.

Akon was once more the jilted man, cheated by the person he ought to be thankful to - a dead man. His desire for her was luckily slighted by the SDRI, he remained there as the head scientist, a rank just below the lieutenant. She sometimes wondered how could he have loved and hated her creator: loved him because he had guided him and incepted new beginnings for him and then hated him because she loved her creator more than not him. How could he then love the boy so much that he did the right thing to help him? And then hated him enough to still want her?

Nemu moved her leg out of his reach and bent over to tuck the haori up higher to Mayuri's chin. She thanked Akon again and told him that they should leave Mayuri to rest, she would check out earlier today and take him home later.

Throughout the day, Nemu could not work with the same liveliness that she had earlier. All of her thoughts reflected upon Mayuri. Why was she still working? Akon could handle it himself, he had covered the position for her while she had mourned Mayuri and until she had coveted the position herself later by being promoted to Captain. She was worried. Akon stayed by her side and she did not push him away, but she made sure to keep some distance from him. There was no need for the past to arise now, particularly with Mayuri's jealous nature(that bombing incident was the first of many to follow).

Finally at an appointed time, she carried Mayuri home, he was still sleeping and she was glad that his recuperation was going better than it had before for her creator. She set him in his own room, her haori still wrapped around him. He was perspiring a cold sweat and she thought it best to change him out of his clothes into fresh ones. As she undressed him, she felt stirrings rising up in her. It was definitely improper to be thinking such thoughts when he was sick, but she could recall something like this happening long ago. She tried to go at it quickly. She thought that she should wash the paints off of him, but reconsidered because the strain might not help with his recovery.

He began to toss around after she had just finished changing him into his hiyoku to better sleep in. His golden eyes opened and there was an odd expression in them that she did not recognize and knew it not to be like him. He was mumbling something that she could not hear and she sat before him upon this bed. She smoothed the blue hair out of his eyes and rubbed his head. She asked him if something was the matter, if he was thirsty or hungry.

Tears welled up in his eyes and he lunged out of his sleeping spot for her. She was startled by the action, but did not resist him. He trembled as he held her and it took a while for Nemu to realize that he was crying. His sobs compromised his words but she heard them clearly, she wondered if this was what he was saying then when she had first brought him to her office. "Muh… muh… muvver!"

He had never called her by mother before. Usually it was by Taicho and when he was especially upset or wanted her attention, he would call her by her name. But never mother. She smoothed his back, whispering soothing things to him and telling him that, "Mother is here."

There was a sudden turn and she did not expect it. He pulled away from her only to pull apart the opening of her shihakusho. This was moving too fast for her, but it was when she saw him clawing at the bra that covered her chest and his repeating cries of, "Mamma. Mamma. Mamma…" did she understand then what he wanted.
She told him that there was no milk there all the while slipping the shihakusho off of her shoulders and unhooking the bra to toss it onto the floor. His mouth eagerly sought her nipple and he suckled at it. It was different from the sort of thing that her creator had done in moments of passion, this was more like - and she regarded upon this moment with a tinge of regret - a mother and baby.

Since that day, she had never thought she would be able to hold any child of his and raise it. He had surprised her first with his death and then the gift of the boy in her arms. She didn't care if he was his own son, she didn't care if what she felt for him might be wrong; she only wanted to be with him again. Fate works in the most mysterious ways sometimes that it is often best never to question it. She thought heavily upon the extraordinary path of her life and existence, how it should differ so from everybody else. And she thought back on what Mayuri had said to her the night he achieved Bankai. They had not spoken about it. She wondered, did her creator feel this way with her, the same way she felt with Mayuri? Was he afraid of becoming too close with her? Strange that there were still unanswered questions about him that Nemu imagined that she would never knew despite the shared empathy between the two of them. He had always been a pillar of strength and confidence for her, her guidance into the world. Now he was gone and she could only depend on herself. But there was her son that made it bearable for her to go on without her creator. She briefly wondered what should happen to her son if the same fate befell on her as it did for his father.

Her thoughts were interrupted as she felt a sharp pain at her tit. There was a small responsive grunt from her throat. She smoothed her hand over his neck, hoping that he would not bite so hard next time. He continued suckling greedily for nothing, she offered her other tit for him but he was content with the current one. His hands gripped her hakama. Oddly, there was nothing sexual about the situation, what with the age and feelings between the participants. This was simply an event between mother and child.

Not too soon after, he fell asleep, she was still in his grip. Carefully, she set him back down on his bed and tucked him in like a good mother, like when he was younger. She rearranged her shihakusho and made her out. She would prepare some miso soup for when he woke up.

The next morning as she came downstairs to the kitchen, she was greeted by the sight of Mayuri, healthy and well, at the table drinking tea and looking over notes. The smell of powder indicated to her that he had washed off the paints from yesterday and reapplied it, that he had also showered too. She smiled a small smile to him, he didn't smile back but she was still comforted when he put down his pencil.

"You're all better." she stated as she sat adjacently to him.

"Hmm, the only satisfying thing that came out of that ordeal was that my antibody lasted longer than his before it turned on the subject and that my medicine to flush it out was quicker than his." He appeared so serious and passive when he spoke but she knew otherwise.

"I was so worried about you." she began, "Why didn't you tell me that you were working on that experiment? Your father was put out for two weeks because of it. That was very risky on your health."

He scoffed, "It was one of his failures. I would've been one step closer to surpassing him if I could've remedied it. So, what was I like yesterday?"

She asked him to be more specific about his question.

"I want to know what I was like when I became sick. I want to know the effects of when the antibodies turned on me and when they were being flushed out of my system." he told her.

She asked him if he did not remember anything at all from yesterday.

He rolled his eyes, "If I did, I wouldn't be asking you about it."

She answered as best as she could, telling him that he began convulsing on the ground and lost use of his mobility. He suffered hives and chills. Then upon taking the medicine - besides noting the rather instant effect - he threw up a great deal, the hives were gone, but he continued sweating.

That's it, he asked?

She added that he slept very heavily and experienced some delusions.

At this, a non-existent brow rose. "Delusions?"

She only told him that he was not thinking correctly but it did not last long until sleep claimed him once more. Nemu did not feel that she should tell him of his uncharacteristic phase of calling her mother and acting quite infantile: sucking at her breasts and crying. She breathed with relief when he didn't probe more into it.
Then she placed her hand on his, "I'm so glad that you're alright." She blushed as he did, the rosy glow appearing below the painted block across his eyes.

He pulled his hand away and she was hurt by the action. But there was a reason for that; his hand slipped into the folds of his shihakusho and he pulled out something lacy.
Looking away as though embarrassed by the sight of it, the blush still remaining on his face, he returned it to her, "You left this on the floor in my room."

She took the lacy white bra from his hand.

As she headed up to her room to place it away, he asked, "Did that have anything to do with my delusions yesterday?" There was a sort of grin on his face that so reminded her of his father and the way he leaned forward, his cheek being supported by his propped up arm.

Though he did not voice, the two of them knew the question to be rhetorical.

Work was usual. Reader, there is hardly any more description needed to say what other sort of work was done other than that it was long and tedious and there were few explosions here and there. But this needs mentioning, certainly.

A particular occasion began spinning gears in Nemu's head. As they were leaving a certain lab, they passed by a reflective mirrored wall. She took her appearance into consideration. She did not look as she did years before. The sheen of her hair had diminished over the past years albeit she had taken good care of it, it was twisted into a winding braid to keep out of the way. Her green eyes were not so wide anymore and age framed them. Her body was not that of a young girl blooming into adulthood gracefully but was that of a woman, grown and adult. Her style of shihakusho had grown conservative, she could not get away with wearing a mini-skirt anymore now that she was a captain and a mother. Her zanpakuto that she had always kept away was by her side as it should be there. The white captain haori added years to her appearance.

She had changed, she had grown old.

She realized that it was nearly time, that her time would be coming soon and so was Mayuri's. It was time to open her creator's notes again and begin upon it soon. Nemu turned her thoughts and attentions to Mayuri. She was not witness, but she had seen photos of when his father was younger since the first days of the SDRI and the resemblance was uncanny: as though he had stepped out of the past into now. He had grown more in the past few months that she could not see the top of his head as easily as before.

It was a sort of blow to her perception of the world, seeing her and Mayuri standing together.

Not so long ago, it was he who stood proudly in front and she who followed behind him obediently.

The title could indicate, "Like father, like son/daughter" or as the verb used in an affectionate meaning.

Oh, what might Nemu be beginning again? What will happen next chapter?

I was glad to give Akon a roll in this chapter. I felt it to be important to let people know what happened to Akon after Mayuri's death. He's still stuck in teh same rut: same rank and still wanting another man's woman.

The motherhood scene... I forget why I left it in there... Damn...

So, what did you think?