She's Like the Moon Chapter 10: Oath, a bleach fanfic

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She's Like the Moon, an xSilverWingsx fanfic

It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right.
I hope you have the time of your life.

–Green Day

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"Something stinks," Rukia remarked, crinkling her nose, "like stale French fries."

The pale young woman lay stretched out on her futon, one foot curled over the other, in a plain flannel nightgown and slippers.

"I wonder if it has anything to do with the French fries I'm eating," Toshiro said with the lightest seasoning of mockery, sliding another fried potato slice into his mouth.

He wore a black shirt and gray sweatpants, his small feet encased in knee socks. His snowy hair was oddly disarrayed for five in the evening. "By the way, have you heard from your sister?"

"No," she replied, but sat up. "Why?"

He shook his head. "I just have a strange feeling she's getting herself into trouble." His dark emerald orbs were thoughtful as he chewed slowly the French fry they'd been talking about. "But then again, this is Akamori we're talking about."

Rukia allowed a grin. "True." She waited with an outstretched arm for one of his fries, but his expression was solid and it seemed to be saying, 'I don't think so'. The elfin Kuchiki laid back down and looked for patterns in the ceiling. "Y'know, Toshiro, it's fun hanging out with you like this."

"Mm," he replied tonelessly, followed by more chewing noises.

She figured trying to establish a conversation with him was a moot point, and stared at her own greasy burger whose leaking cheese dropped on her nightgown. Luckily, Byakuya hadn't tried to cook in Hisana's place and had grudgingly sent her out for fast food. It normally made her sick, but today it was oddly appetizing.

"So, did you get the package?" she asked, the thought having flitted across her mind yet again.

"I did, we're on the same Team." His eyes darkened slightly. "I hear it's for... average students. How irritating."

"You're smarter than that!" she allowed, trying to quench his absentminded thirst for attention. "Can I see your schedule?"

The small young man uttered some angry words and dug around in his pockets, handing the crumpled piece of paper to her:

NAME: HITSUGAYA, TOSHIRO. GENDER: M GRADE: 10 DORMITORY #: 356A. DIVISION: GREEN.

Course Title: World Cultures. Instructor: Ochi, Arane. Room: 942
Course Title: Algebra II. Instructor: Ise, Nanao. Room: 327
Course Title: Literature/Language 10. Instructor: Madarame, Ikkaku. Room: 244
Course Title: Chinese Language. Instructor: Fon, Shaolin. Room: 574
Course Title: Physical ED, Health. Instructor: Shiba, Ganjyu. Room: Gymnasium.
Course Title: Lunch/Study Hall. Instructor: Madarame, Ikkaku. Room: 244
Course Title: Chemic Science. Instructor: Hisagi, Shuuhei. Room: 392
Course Title: Home Economics. Instructor: Shihoin Yoruichi. Room: 1000

"That's good," she remarked, a soft smile coming over her. "You're in almost all of my classes. Otherwise it would just be me and Ichigo." She handed it back to Toshiro, who slipped it quietly into his pocket and continued to eat – and there was over half of a carton of fries left. Man, he was a slow eater. "So, you don't want to be on the Green Team? It looks fine to me."

He let out a soft sigh. "I really don't mind which Team I'm sorted into, Rukia." He set his plate on the carpet and pulled a large black blanket over him. "And the only reason I stayed in here is because your sister's posters are... disturbing."

Rukia shrugged. "That's true, I suppose." She pulled her giant Chappy pillow toward her and snuggled into it. "But it is more fun to stay here, isn't it?"

Toshiro sighed. "Go to sleep, Rukia."

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"Ichigo, my oldest! Where are your glasses?!" Isshin demanded, his brown eyes huge and freaked out. "Don't tell me you gave them to that pretty little girlfriend of yours." One of his eyes closed in a wink.

Ichigo deadpanned. "Rukia is not my girlfriend, you perv. I broke the glasses."

He bit into the PB&J he had just made and felt the jelly slink through his mouth, brow furrowed and eyes closed.

Isshin sounded despondent, his voice a harsh rasp. "But... why?" he was whimpering in disbelief. Honestly, how old was he? Forty-something? Ichigo rolled his eyes and tore the crust off with his teeth. "Why are you so mean to me?" he whined.

"You're annoying."

Isshin made a doleful noise. "Well, go find your sister at least. She told me she was going out to play soccer but I haven't seen her in a few hours."

Ichigo's eyes slipped open. "Karin's gone?" he turned slowly to his father, who stood woodenly near the door.

He nodded in response. "I told her to be back by five!"

With a glance toward the clock, Ichigo's eyes flared.

8:57 PM.

"She didn't say anything?" the sandwich went limp in his fingers, but he didn't care about a multi flavored pastry right now.

Where the hell was Karin?

She was always home when she was supposed to be.

Many different scenarios flashed through his head, none of them very pretty, and he tried the best he could to push them out. But it wasn't working. It wasn't working.

The scraping of the chair's legs across the linoleum it had already scarred, the thundering footsteps of his son, a rush of wind that came with the door slamming. These were the things Isshin heard, but didn't see.

"Hmfh!" he humphed proudly. "My son is so... forceful!"

It was balmy and moist this evening, but the weather didn't faze Ichigo Kurosaki in the slightest. Determined amber eyes probed the clinic's neighboring flora – after a moment, he concluded she wasn't climbing trees.

He knew she had gone out for soccer, but that wasn't the only thing she did. There was baseball. And softball too. His nervous system was shaky and numb right now.

Shit, Karin. Where are you?

Ichigo yanked on his jacket, which he had thrown over his shoulder in a hurry. The neighborhood was deserted, all but a small black dog that sniffed idly at the trash heap. He focused on his sister and wracked his brain for any other places she hung out. The sandlot? Empty.

Batting cages? Empty, except for a few teenagers he recognized faintly from school.

"Hey!" he called to them.

"Ichigo, my man!" Keigo Asano said, stepping into view.

He was smaller than Ichigo, with flipped out brown hair. "Want a drink? I've got Mountain Dew." He grinned.

"I'm trying to find my sister. Have you seen her today?"

"Karin, you mean? She went to the Mini Mart with Kunieda and Mizuiro for some Twinkies. Your sister's cool for a little kid, you know?" Keigo let out a laugh, and Ichigo considered it. Mizuiro was a seedy, slightly nerdy boy and Kunieda... she was a track star.

They didn't seem too threatening...

"You're sure they went to the Mini Mart?" Ichigo's jaw bucked.

"I just talked to them, like, a minute ago." Keigo shrugged and leafed through a porn magazine that made Ichigo shudder slightly. Naked women made him uncomfortable. "So, how's life?"

Ichigo shook the images from his mind. "It's okay, Keigo." He leaned against a nearby telephone pole. "When did you guys decide to start hanging around with a six-year-old?"

Keigo seemed slightly surprised. "Well, she was out here like, every day alone. Kunieda said someone'd try to take her if we didn't keep an eye on her, and since she was your sister it made sense." His fawn eyes were innocent, and Ichigo's chocolate ones simmered down a bit.

His stance relaxed.

"Want a soda?"

Ichigo eyed the carbonated beverage. "I... could go for one," he allowed, cracking it open with a refreshing fizz. The substance trickled down his throat, and the swallow was satisfying. He hadn't had soda in a while. "So, why are you hanging around at the batting cages?"

Keigo shrugged. "It's free to get into and it doesn't close. Plus, not many cops care about baseball." He continued flipping through his magazine. "Did you get your pack?"

"My pack?" Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "Keigo, what are you on?"

"Not that," Keigo laughed. "The school package thing." He yanked a piece of paper out of his pocked. "I made the Blue Team."

"You don't make the team. It has to do with your entrance score."

Ichigo took a look at the schedule.

NAME:

ASANO, KEIGO

GENDER:

GRADE:

DORMITORY #:

436A.

DIVISION:

BLUE

Course Title: Algebra I.

Instructor: Omaeda, Marechiyo.

Room: 284.

Course Title: World Cultures.

Instructor: Tetsuzaemon, Iba.

Room: 327

Course Title: Literature.

Instructor: Yadomaru, Lisa.

Room: 54.

Course Title: Chinese Language.

Instructor: Fon, Shaolin.

Room: 574.

Course Title: Physical ED, Health.

Instructor: Shiba, Kaien.

Room: Gymnasium.
Instructor: Tetsuzaemon, Iba.

Room: 327.

Course Title: Lunch/Study Hall.

Course Title: Chemic Science.

Instructor: Kurotsuchi, Mayuri, and aide Nemu.

Room: 13.

Course Title: Home Economics.

Instructor: Shihoin Yoruichi.

Room: 1000.

"Hm." Other than that, Ichigo handed it back wordlessly. The blue team's schedules were weird looking.

"Hey, have you seen Tatsuki lately? She, the lovely and yet androgynous femme fatale, has been absent from my life!" Keigo seemed to be deeply affected by this.

"She and anyone else with a brain."

"Ah, c'mon! I made it into the Blue Team, didn't I?!" he brandished his schedule in a defensive way. Ichigo smirked as a recent fact came to mind.

"The Blue Team is for people who scored lowest or didn't get to take the exam, Keigo." He smashed the empty can with strong fingers and let it fall, disturbing much of the lot's dust. Keigo stared at it for a while and, for once being smart enough not to respond, got back to his magazines.

At that time, the tall Kunieda rounded the corner, followed by Karin and Mizuiro, who was chatting animatedly to the younger girl. Karin's blue eyes met her brother's.

"Ichi-nii." She sounded bored. "Let's go home, okay?"

"Yeah," Ichigo was more than ready.

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"Toshiro," Rukia said suddenly, sitting up in bed.

"Umnnn!" Toshiro growled sleepily.

"Oh, please. We both know you're awake."

Her white haired cousin's glare was solid and cold as ice.

"What. Do. You. Want?" he seethed.

"I heard noises outside."

"GO BACK TO SLEEP!"

She thought she had seen tiny flames in his eyes.

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Akamori was curled up on the bathroom floor, limbs cold and ductile. Her arms curled into her chest and her legs folded up to her torso. Her stomach jolted about every few moments, throat tightened.

This was both cliché and annoying, but for now she would have to deal.

Unruly black hair curled up in tendrils around her face, somewhat hard from her lack of effort to brush it.

"Hey, slumber party?" Renji's voice said from the doorway, to her surprise. Three AM, and he was awake? That was out of character.

"Renji?" her voice sounded hoarse.

You wimp.

"What are you doing on the floor?" he asked, a tattooed brow arched as he took a seat on the counter.

"Waiting for it to pass," she said matter-of-factly, clutching at her growing stomach through her nightgown. "It's something I've gotten used to –once every week, I need to do it."

"And you've been pregnant for how long?" he asked.

She blushed. "Four... months." It shouldn't have felt weird to tell him about this stuff, but it did. He didn't exactly have a soothing face.

"Alright." Renji looked up immediately. "Four months?!"

She nodded. "Why are you so freaked out?"

He was shaking his head rapidly. "I only moved in with you two weeks ago, Akamori. That's impossibl—" he broke off. "Oh, so you mean you got pregnant—"

"The night I met you."

Akamori gave him a wry smile.

"..." he scratched his head.

"Oh, c'mon, Renji!" she felt herself frown deeply. "Don't tell me you already forgot." If he had, there would be far worse than Hell to pay. There would be quadruple-duple Hell.

"Yeah, I was just imagining it over in my brain."

His eyes were glassy.

"Perv." She smiled. "I left my jacket in the … car..."

"Say it. CAR. The place where we…" he trailed off seductively, leaning forward a little. "Had s—"

"Yes, I remember," she said, meaning to cut him off. "I was just wondering what happened to that jacket. It was so warm and soft." She remembered its fluffy cashmere insides with a nostalgic sigh.

"I think it's still in the car." He looked down, as if trying to remember, but slid off the counter. "Want me to go get it?"

"Renji. It's July." She rolled her eyes.

"Okay, so we have to wait this out, huh?"

"Excuse me, we?" she felt slightly taken aback.

"Unless you're a plant, I'm pretty sure the kid's half mine. So, as punishment for you 'getting it' from me, you're going to have to sit here. With me." She felt one of his hands brush underneath her back and pull her up slowly into his lap.

"Renji, you don't have to do this. It makes you look … well, really dumb."

Her sorrel eyes were probing his.

"So what? No one's watching," he said with a smirk, biting the inside of his cheek. "And anyway, I can't sleep. Now that I'm fired, there's no routine for anything."

Something ebbed into her consciousness, contradicting her survival of the past few weeks.

"Hey, if you were fired, how are you paying the rent?"

It was weird.

There was food in the fridge, money in her wallet...

"Well, this is gonna be a little weird to say, but whatever. I've been getting a check in the mail from your dad every week." He seasoned this statement with a shrug, but her expression was that of deep surprise.

"Huh!?"

"Yeah." He nodded and stretched out on the floor.

"W—" suddenly, she remembered. They'd only been broke since before... she'd sent that letter to her father. But he wasn't that unpredictable. This was not a normal person with emotions. This was Byakuya Kuchiki, the King of Rules. This was not a man who was emotionally touched by a letter or anything stupid like that. She'd only written it to put herself at peace, not to beg for money.

"Well then."

Renji looked at her. "Thinking again?"

"Maybe." She shrugged and buried her head in his chest, feeling the sound of his heart beating – and quickly at that. "What's wrong?"

He let out a long sigh. "Damn, it's hard, Akamori."

His hand drifted across her dark, disheveled hair.

She looked up at his soft facial expression. "What's hard?" well, for them, everything. But specifically.

Renji's eyes darkened up a little. "It's tough to explain."

"I have time." She let her head drop into his lap and sighed, but felt him stiffen. "Renji. I'm serious. What's your problem?"

He dropped his hands to the floor. "What you're doing right now. Touching me. It's driving me wild." His eyes were serious, but Akamori tried hard to fight back a laugh.

"It's driving you wild? Renji. This isn't some convoluted novel about people who can't get together. This is life." She wrapped her arms around his waist, to which he responded with a desperate sounding moan.

"...Oh, that's not it either, Akamori. You've missed the big picture." His hand went to work again, touching each of her fingers.

"I see the big picture. It's of you and me," she reminded, eyes scorching. "I don't think you're shy. You didn't seem so shy... four months ago." She smiled devilishly, but his expression was grave.

"I'm not shy. When I slept with you, I … I felt guilty."

Question marks bounced around inside her head.

"…Guilty?"

Silence. Blessed silence.

"Hello? Earth to Renji."

Renji swallowed. "I made an oath when I was little … that I'd never use a girl. It sounds really stupid but I did it."

She deadpanned. "You made an oath you'd never sleep with anyone."

"No, I made one that I'd never … sleep with her before I really knew her. And I haven't slept with you since then, you see?" he sounded incredibly serious for someone talking about promises formed when they were little.

"Well then," she concluded. "Let's start again. Akamori Kuchiki." She held out a hand with a soft smile.

He returned it. "Renji Abarai. And now that I think about it, Akamori, I don't know much about you at all."

"Mm... well, there isn't much to tell. I was born in Shiki." Without thinking about it, she had lapsed into a life story.

"Shiki, in Saitama? Pretty small place." His brows were raised.

"That was before we had money," she explained, eyes clouding over with some long-forgotten memory. "Our first house was in Shiki –its flower is the azalea. Rukia doesn't remember it at all, because we moved right before she was born."

"Where was she born?"

"In Shizuoka. It was a big city, and I was jealous because she could call it her hometown and I couldn't. But I was young. A little while later we came here and lived in Omi."

Renji felt slightly surprised. He himself lived in Omi. "You grew up there?"

"Only until I was about seven. That was when the money started rolling in –Byakuya's boss, Sosuke Aizen, had stolen a lot of company funds and was fired. My father was given the job of President."

"Lucky. When a guy higher than me gets caught stealing they make him leave, and I have to clean his office."

She smiled. "Woe is you."

"Mhm." He grinned. "I'm from Nemuro, on Hokkaido. It's a port and there are a lot of boats. Its bird is the swan."

Akamori nodded. "Nice to meet you, Renji from Nemuro."

"Akamori from Shiki."

They were both trying not to laugh, and it was hard. Akamori's stomach pains had been merciful enough to leave her be, if only for the moment.

"Hey," she said softly.

"Yeah?"

"Renji from Nemuro, I'm tired. Can we sleep now?" her eyelids were getting heavier.

"Akamori from Shiki, thank you. I'm gonna pass out."

He pulled her up bridal style and trudged through the bathroom, nearly knocking over the trash can in the process but making it through okay. At last they were both lying in bed.

"Good night... Renji... it was nice to get to know you..."

Renji felt himself smile. "Yeah..."

"Will you be here when I wake up?"

"Of course..." his arm slipped around her as they both relaxed, and about five minutes later sleep rolled over them.

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I'm so glad to have updated She's Like the Moon! Gosh, it's been three months. This chapter was mostly Akamori/Renji, but I'm going through a phase with them right now... read my stories Akamori and Frenzied Shadows and you'll see what I mean. Anyway, the whole Karin thing wasn't planned, it just sort of came in the blink of an eye – like that time I just randomly wanted some cake, and I had some. Know what I mean, jelly bean? All right, well, I come bearing a question. The next chapter will be a filler (the canon chapter is in my laptop, but the charger's broken), so I want to know if it should be focused on a ByaHisa or RenMori flashback, because everything IchiRuki is canon and I don't want to disrupt the flow of my story. So, it's all in your reviews! The one with the most votes shall prevail... as seccaberry says... well, anyway, bye! –C

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