"I slept with him."
All eyes fell on Izuru. The interns paused in their morning routines, be it changing into their scrubs, fixing their hair, or shoving granola bars into their ravenous faces. Jaws dropped, brows scrunched in confusion.
"Uh?" Shuuhei asked, looking around the room. "Who? Not.. ew, you slept with Renji?"
He wasn't able to duck the apple chucked at his forehead.
"Hey, it was a fair assumption," Shuuhei grumbled. Renji looked as if he was going to jump over the bench and strangle his colleague.
It was Rukia who was able to calm the chaos. "Wait, wait. What?" she asked, putting one hand on Renji's forehead to keep him from launching at Hisagi. "What did you do, Izuru?"
"...Let me start from the beginning," he groaned.
Two in the morning was the best time to get pancakes, wasn't it? The IHOP across the road was so convenient.. Coffee, wifi, food.. What more could he need? He had been reading a study.. Neuro-oncological reports, if he remembered. It was one of his fascinations. After all, he was a double-doctor. His first degree had been a PhD in Neuropsychology. Wasn't it only fitting that he continue his education through his surgical residency?
"Mind if I sit?"
Now, Izuru hadn't been the most confidence-inspiring person on the planet at that time. His scrubs were dripped in what he could only hope was syrup. His hair was sticking up, and he could have placed quarters in the bags under his eyes. He looked up at the source of the interruption, blue eyes wide…
It was like seeing a ghost. A chill came over him. It was like the happiness in the world had been drained away.
But he couldn't take his eyes off.
"...Sure," he responded, moving his plate and laptop.
The man who had spoken slid easily into the booth. He was pale-skinned, thin lips drawn into an unsettling smile. His eyes were open just barely- Izuru couldn't even make out the color. Izuru's eyes dropped- the man was in the scrubs of an Attending.
"Intern?" he asked, accent strong and southern.
"Y-yes," he answered. "Surgical."
The man seemed interested. "That's right. I've seen you 'round. Trailing Ishida, right? Good resident there," he nodded. "Would have been excellent in Cardio, if Kuchiki hadn't have snatched up from under me." He took a moment to stare into Izuru's soul.
"What about you, Dr. Kira. Are you interested in hearts?"
"That worked on you?" Rukia asked incredulously, hand on her chest in disbelief. "That's.. Izuru, I'm disappointed."
"I'm creeped out," Renji admitted, pulling a banana out of his bag. His apple had already been sacrificed, and he had to eat something if he was going to survive the next shift. Their stamina was building, slowly but surely.
The opening of the locker room door pulled them out of their not-so-quiet disappointment in the strength of Izuru's resolve. Dr. Ishida stood before them, clipboard in-hand, looking rather ready to just get the day over with.
"Dr. Kira, report to Dr. Ichimaru. You've been requested in Cardio today."
"Of course!" Izuru lamented, burying his head in his hands while the others snickered quietly.
Ishida wasn't amused. "Have I missed something?"
Izuru snapped up and ran out the door. "No, sir! I'll report right away, thank-" And he was gone.
"...I know better than to ask." He shook his head. "Anyway. Hisagi, you're on Neuro. Find Dr. Kuchiki. Other Kuchiki, Trauma with Dr. Hitsugaya." Rukia let out a breath. Great. She was 'Other Kuchiki' now.
"Abarai, you're on Pediatrics with Dr. Ukitake. And Hinamori.." Hm. "I'm so sorry. You're on Ortho with Dr. Urahara."
Momo looked more than concerned. "You're sorry? Why? Is he a bad doctor? Is he mean?"
Ishida couldn't hide his smile. "Don't worry about it. Just go find him."
There was no confidence in her step as she made her way out of the door. With just himself and Renji in the room, he couldn't help but chuckle.
"...What's so funny, sir."
"Nothing. She'll be fine, probably," Uryuu shrugged, pulling himself together as he waved Dr. Abarai along to follow him to the Pediatric ward.
The ER was chaos. She heard a baby cry. She heard a drunkard vomit profusely into a bedpan. She heard the faint wail of an ambulance outside. She heard the parents of the screaming child call for someone, anyone, to come help their baby. There was no visible starting point.
"Hey! Intern!"
Oh, thank god.
Rukia jogged to the voice. A doctor stood with a nurse, snapping on gloves and covering sweat-stained scrubs in an unattractively yellow trauma gown.
"I'm Dr. Matsumoto," the woman stated, helping the nurse secure her head, and massive amount of red hair, into a disposable scrub cap. "I'm one of the trauma attendings. Ready to get your hands dirty?" she asked, handing a gown to Rukia.
"Always," she answered, unable to keep the small grin from spreading across her face.
"What's your name?"
"Rukia Kuchiki."
A smile. "Oh! We have a Kuchiki. Any relation?"
A nod. "He's my brother."
"...Bless your heart."
Rukia managed to force on her gloves, and her gown was drooping down a bit on her shoulders, but she followed Dr. Matsumoto out to the ambulance bay.
"What do we have coming in?" Rukia asked
"Auto versus man. We're getting the man. He's apparently 'not too bad,' but the last time they sent one to me with that description, Dr. Hitsugaya and I had to remove his hand from a damn meat grinder. With Dr. Urahara- uh, ortho guy, you'll meet him later- making a shit ton of meat-themed jokes," she rubbed his eyes despite the smirk on his face. "The point is, always expect the worst."
As if on cue, an ambulance came to a stop at their feet, the doors rushing open.
"Grimmjow Jaegerjacques, 31. Struck by automobile. Pulse is-"
"Wait, Jaegerjacques?" Dr. Matsumoto's voice held veiled panic as the paramedic launched out of the rig. The patient was fighting the backboard and neck brace, almost managing to break a wrist restraint. All Rukia saw were a couple of cuts and bruises, but there was a large, deep laceration on his leg, complete with what seemed to be gravel and bits of broken glass.
"Finding new ways to get to work, huh?" Dr. Matsumoto asked with a laugh, taking the stretcher from the paramedic. Grimmjow shot her a bemused look.
"Not quite, but I'll keep that in mind. Now can you get me the hell out of this thing? The people who hit me got pretty fucked up. That's what happens when you hit a goddamn post office," he muttered, trying to pull free. Rangiku laughed.
"Yeah, yeah. Just humor me. Let the baby work you up. And don't go all Exorcist on us and make this one piss her pants," she scolded.
"Wait, baby?" Grimmjow looked over. "Oh, fuck. I forgot today's the day they let the monkeys out of the zoo."
"They've been roaming the halls for what, a week now? Get with it, Jaegerjacques."
Rukia gave Grimmjow another once-over before helping him to the patient bed. She pulled her stethoscope from around her neck and got to work checking the patient's heart and lung sounds.
"Heart is strong, no murmur. Breath sounds are clear and equal."
"And what would you do if my heart sounded like someone put it through the spin cycle?" Grimmjow asked, hissing as Rukia's cold hands palpated his abdomen. "And if your hands go any lower, you're gonna feel more than my baby kick," he deadpanned.
Rukia drew her hands up. "In that case, I would page cardio and arrange for an emergency CT. I would suspect trauma to the aorta, especially with abnormal blood pressure."
Grimmjow gave a nod. "Right." He fell back on the bed. "Lemmie go, Matsumoto. I think I saw a dude's femurs get shoved up into his pelvis."
Rangiku laughed again. "Let the kid stitch you up. They won't let you into an OR with blood running down your leg. Go get a suture kit, Kuchiki. And can someone page Kurosaki?"
Rukia was gone for a minute. Literally. Suture kit in hand, she stepped through the doorway just in time to see Grimmjow, pants around his ankles, stapling the worst of his cuts with a skin stapler.
"You have to be shitting me," Rukia stated plainly. "That didn't hurt?"
"Of course it hurt," Grimmjow stated. "Irrigation was a bitch too, but I'll take that over getting crooked-ass sutures from an intern just because Dr. Meatboobs wants to let Kurosaki get his filthy hands in on my damn surgery. No offense."
Rukia stared. "None taken."
"Are you looking for someone, Dr. Abarai?"
Renji jumped out of his skin. Nemu Kurotsuchi was easily the creepiest nurse on staff. She didn't really have to do much to defend her title, though. All she had to do was sneak up on Renji while he was daydreaming at the nurse's station.
"Oh! Uh, yeah. I'm waiting for Dr. Ukitake."
"He's a Pediatric Surgeon."
Renji blinked. "Yeah. I know that."
"...The patient in that room is Dr. Kuchiki's. You're not on his service. You shouldn't be here."
She wasn't going to give it a rest. Subtlety wasn't Nemu's strength. Without another word, he hung his head and trudged off to the elevator. He had no idea who Dr. Ukitake was, but he could just about guarantee that he wasn't nearly as smart and attractive as Dr. Kuchiki. The man was a goddamned inspiration. He had the best surgical outcomes of any neurosurgeon that the hospital had ever seen, not to mention how good he looked in that cherry blossom scrub cap..
"Good for you to join us! You must be Dr. Abarai! Come, come! Would you like a piece of candy? Dr. Ukitake has plenty!"
Renji's senses were assaulted with.. Cute.. the moment the elevator door opened. The doctor who greeted him was a jovial man, probably in his late forties or early fifties. His hair was wild, threatening to break out of the tie that held it back. His scrubs were overstimulating and bright.
"Easy on him, Dr. Kyoraku."
Renji's salvation came in the form of a mild-mannered looking man with such kindness in his eyes that could cure cancer. The whiteness of his hair made him look a lot older than Renji guessed he was. He placed his hand on Renji's shoulder and led him to the nurse's station.
"I'm Dr. Jushiro Ukitake. That is Dr. Shunsui Kyoraku, head of Pediatric Surgery," he said in a calm, soothing tone, gesturing to the man in the bright, flowery scrubs.
"Why don't you come with me? I have a very sick little boy that would be very pleased to meet you. Oh!" Dr. Ukitake ran behind the desk at the nurse's station and picked up a box. "Your tattoos might scare the children," he started, and picked up one of two scrub caps. "Butterflies or unicorns?"
And that day, Renji Abarai spent the majority of his shift in a rainbow butterfly scrub cap.
"I take this act of mutilation as a personal insult."
Rukia watched as Dr. Yumichika Ayasegawa dug the staples out of Dr. Jaegerjacques' leg. He threw each into the basin she held with extreme hatred.
"There is no way I'm going to prevent you from having a zipper scar along your shin," he snarled. "And you! Why didn't you page me?" He turned to Rukia, whose eyebrows shot up.
Rangiku waved her hand. "Now, Yumichika. She doesn't have to page Plastics for every damn suture," she grumbled, arms crossed. "Besides.. It's Grimmjow. He did it to himself to get a surgery."
"Which they still gave to Kurosaki," Grimmjow muttered. "You know I'm still here, right? I can hear you."
Rangiku ruffled his hair. "Yeah, but we gave you morphine. You don't count as present right now, sweetheart. Eat your popsicle."
Grimmjow shrugged. He wasn't about to argue with her, and the bomb pop he'd been given was consolation enough for missing out on a probably really cool surgery. Kind of. He was still going to kick Kurosaki's ass the next time that he saw him. He was being punished for being hurt. Wasn't there some kind of law against that kind of discrimination?
Rukia rolled her eyes, but was interrupted in her indifference by a flash of blonde.
"Izuru? What are you doing down here?" she asked. "Aren't you supposed to be on cardio with Dr. Ichimaru?"
Izuru looked like he really needed to lie down. "I can't do it, Rukia. He's just so.."
"Sounds like Ichimaru," Yumichika muttered.
"You slept with him, too?"
The entire room paused. Yumichika turned to Rangiku, both trying to contain their laughter. Grimmjow looked bewildered. Rukia was just going to implode from second-hand embarrassment.
"...No." Yumichika's answer was strained. "..I..? You know what? I really don't need to know the details. Some things are better left unknown."
Rangiku looked at Grimmjow. "Did you ever sleep with him?"
The sound Grimmjow made was between a gag, a bark, and a laugh. "I might be on the Boner Squad, but even I have standards," he scoffed. "He'd probably suck my soul out."
"Boner Squad?" Rukia really didn't like the sound of that.
Rangiku rolled her eyes. "Everyone in Ortho is a slut."
"Hey." Grimmjow shot her a look.
"It's true," Yumichika interjected. "It's a disease."
Rukia gasped and shared a panicked look with Izuru.
"Oh no, Momo!"
They didn't have much time to be panicked for their friend, though. Rukia went still as she saw an unfamiliar, unsettling looking figure in scrubs come closer. His hair was unnaturally silver, and he seemed to slither along the ER floor. It was almost terrifying. That was who had charmed little Izuru into bed with him?
"There you are, Izuru," he drawled. "Come on, we've got hearts to fix."
Izuru looked back at them as he followed Dr. Ichimaru, eyes wide. 'Help me,' he mouthed. Yumichika, Rangiku, and Grimmjow just gave tiny, faint waves as he disappeared.
"Ichimaru fucking anyone, let alone an intern, is really outside of the realm of what I saw possible," Yumichika noted, placing the final stitch into Grimmjow's leg.
"That poor, sweet baby." Rangiku tsked. "He better buckle up."
Lunchtime came and everyone was exhausted. Hisagi munched mindlessly on a cafeteria cheeseburger. Rukia yawned around a mouthful of spaghetti. Renji was half-asleep in his turkey club. Only Momo seemed to really be chipper. Izuru was alert, but everyone assumed that it was out of anxiety as opposed to wakefulness.
"I don't know why Dr. Ishida was so concerned about me working with Dr. Urahara. He's so smart. Did you know that he's an expert on spinal surgery? It's his specialty. We're only doing a knee replacement today, but I can't wait to see him do something with vertebrae!"
Izuru and Rukia exchanged a look, but nobody opened their mouth. They didn't want to spoil her innocence or enthusiasm.
"Also, Renji, your scrub cap is really pretty. It's very flattering," she giggled. Renji ripped the colorful fabric off of his head.
"I need something hardcore," he grumbled. "Like Neuro. Hey, Shuuhei, trade?"
Shuuhei laughed. "Hell, no! I get to watch the master himself clip an aneurysm. I'm not giving that up so you can indulge your weird little.. Infatuation with Rukia's brother."
Rukia rolled her eyes. "He's really not that great. He's picky, he's hard to please, he's a perfectionist, a neat-freak, gives you the most disappointed glare you've ever seen in your life, and not to mention the stick in his ass.."
"I think Renji wants to stick something in his ass- hey!" He rubbed his head.
Momo pulled away with a smile. "It had to be done. But anyway. Izuru, how's Cardio?"
Izuru squeaked.
"Oh, come on," Rukia rolled her eyes. Again. It was becoming a constant trait of hers. "This hospital is full of debauchery. I've heard stories. You're not the first, won't be the last."
"It's still awful!" Izuru groaned. "He's just so.. He takes the air right out of my lungs. I don't know what to do."
All of the pagers at the table started to beep.
"You get the lead out. Let's move!" Shuuhei yelled, and the five of them dispersed.
There would be a day where Momo Hinamori would get used to the long shifts. It wasn't until she was sitting in the locker room that she realized that she was about to pass out.
"I can't move." She laid down on the bench.
"Hey, never leave a man behind. Or, er, woman," Renji shrugged. "Come on. I'm hitching a ride home with Shuuhei. You can come with us."
"You're riding with me because you live with me now," Shuuhei grumbled. Rukia and Izuru gave him a look. "What? My parents left me a six bedroom house."
The questions were immediate. "How many bathrooms?" "Is it big?" "Is there a yard?"
"Can I move in?" Momo begged. "I have mice in my apartment!"
Izuru's hand went up. "I'm still living at a hotel!"
"I live with my brother," Rukia snarled.
Shuuhei blinked.
"I'll pay you," Rukia offered.
"I'll feed you!" Momo volunteered.
"I'll clean!" Izuru cried out.
Shuuhei looked around the room. What the fuck was happening? What had he done to deserve this? But… he could make a killing from their rent payments..
"Okay," he shrugged. "Rent's.. Uh.. three hundred a month. No smoking. There's only four bathrooms, so someone has to share.. Uh, it's about a mile from the hospital.."
And just like that, he'd gained four new roommates. The people who were, in all technicality, his competition, were living with him. This was going to make it a lot harder to slit their career throats further down the line.
"Well, come on," he grumbled, waving for them all to follow him.
It wasn't just time for the interns to go home. Byakuya Kuchiki and Kisuke Urahara walked through the parking lot, idly discussing methods for spinal reconstructions. They were brought out of their pleasant conversation, however, by the approach of an obnoxiously huge SUV driven by an intern.. The one with the spiked hair and the scar on his face. Uhh.. Hisoka? Something like that..
But what really caught Dr. Kuchiki's attention was the very familiar face staring at him from the passenger seat. Red hair, tattoos, looking like he was about to vomit? Now that was Dr. Abarai. That one, he knew.
It took Dr. Urahara not even a second to analyze the scene in front of him. "You don't want no scrub," he warned lightly.
"Scrub?"
Oh, no.
"A scrub is a guy who thinks he's fly, and is also known as a buster," Urahara couldn't keep the grin off of his face. Byakuya looked to the sky, and gripped his keys harder.
"No, I don't want no scrub. A scrub is a guy who can't get no love from me. Hangin' out the passenger side of his best friend's ride, tryin' to holler at me," he sang, dancing badly and pointing at the passing SUV.
Byakuya ducked into the driver's seat of his brand new BMW and revved the engine as soon as he had it started.
This was going to become irritating, fast.