(Recap)
Ichigo gave a small tsk of disapproval before reaching for his coat that was in her hands. Draping it over her trembling shoulders, he tightly fastened the garment around her small figure, mentally smiling when she didn't resist the second time around, "well you seem to think that you don't like me-"
"I don't."
"-so I was thinking something like a trial period. Live with me, or date me as you so strongly stress, for a certain time, then decide whether you want to take me up on my offer." Ichigo lifted an eyebrow in amusement when he noticed the petite woman standing slightly more closer to him than she had been before, "I reckon it'd be fun."
Fighting the smile that was threatening to tug at her lips, Rukia reluctantly pulled the coat closer to her and almost, almost mewled at how warm it was, "you're way in over your head, Kurosaki."
"Aw, come on! We've had our first date now, you can at least call me Ichi-baby!"
The second Rukia walked into the front lobby of Tensho Corp. she immediately felt the glances of her colleagues from the corner of her eyes. Suspicious by the sudden influx of attention she was getting, as discreetly as they attempted to appear, she cursed under her breath when she recalled how Kurosaki Ichigo technically announced their little meet up to the whole office floor. Honestly, and quite sadly, Rukia was impressed at how word managed to spread so quickly, 'if this company is good at something other than hiring nosy people, it's the fact that nothing stays hidden for long… if at all…' She kept her head held high as she made her way stiffly to the elevator and pushed the button for the floor of her office.
Never to disappoint, she continued to get those curiously amused gazes from everybody on the floor as she made her way to her office. Some were daring enough to noticeably switch their eyes from her to the end of the corridor, where Ichigo's office was situated, with a sly twist of the lips. Slowly beginning to feel uncomfortable by the weight of their gazes, Rukia felt irritated at the fact that she was even bothered in the first place. It wasn't like anything grand happened! "Why is everyone gawking at me like owls! Get back to work!"
A little hesitantly, with the occasional grumble from here and there, the workers looked down at their desk to continue their task.
Shaking her head and opening the door, Rukia was met with another fatal obstacle that she initially hadn't calculated, "Kia-chan!"
Rangiku.
Bitterly walking in and closing the door behind her, Rukia wondered if she would get anything done today, "Rukia, is that Kurosaki-san's coat you're holding?"
Frozen in surprise, amethyst eyes trailed down to the mass of material hanging innocently in her left arm. There were many instances in her life where Rukia truly felt that a slap to the head was necessary at some of the careless mistakes she had made. Feeling the urge to smack her forehead, she instead settled for a face palm to hide her embarrassment, 'no wonder the whole building was ogling me. Great job, Rukia.'
Rangiku impatiently got up form her seat at the couch and walked over to Rukia. Taking the article of clothing from her arms, she gently draped it on a hanger next to them before suddenly pivoting to face the shorter woman, "Never mind that. How could you go on a date with our gorgeous boss and not call me up to tell me the details?!"
After a whirlwind of events, Rukia stayed silent to recollect her lost dignity and started to gather up some paperwork on the desk, "Kia-chan…"
She flinched at how her name was unbelievably drawn out, sugar-coated with honey like a child pestering a mother for a little puppy. The bustier woman hovered behind her more petite-framed friend; trying desperately to hear some juicy details on what kind of a man their boss was outside of work, "don't forget that I was the one who applied that lip gloss for you!" Rukia mentally rolled her eyes; Rangiku was scraping the bottom of the barrel with her excuse.
Thinking about it now, it was actually all Rangiku's fault… if she hadn't been so intent in meddling with her love life, Rukia wouldn't be suffering from migraine right now…
Shuffling the pile of papers in her hands, Rukia sat down at her desk and felt a vein finally twitch when Rangiku started to jump from her seat across the room, "will you stop jumping!"
Rangiku, though irritated at her friend's lack of enthusiasm to share, was smiling regardless and was starting to feel her mouth go numb at how big she was grinning, "I'm not." She still was.
From time to time, a small squeal escaped that managed to critically stab at Rukia's bubble of concentration and peace. Not even her cushioned chair was soothing her irritation. Sighing loudly, Rukia set down the paperwork in her hands haphazardly onto the desk, "alright, then stop fidgeting and maybe I'll spill."
Immediate silence followed.
Judging by the peace, Rukia wasn't even sure if her friend was breathing.
"Well… where should I star-"
"Did you go to his place afterwards?"
A look of pure horror flashed across Rukia's face at Rangiku's sly accusation. Of all the things to ask and expect! "Wha- of course not!"
At the reply, Rangiku's own face contorted into an expression of absolute disbelief at how tactless her friend was. A person of sane mind doesn't just pass an offer like Kurosaki Ichigo! If it were anyone else, Rangiku would've understood. But this was Kurosaki-godamn-Ichigo! The two were already practically a couple in the building with all the fighting and flirting they did! Rangiku felt the urge to walk over to Rukia and shake some damn sense into the girl! "Then what the hell did you do?"
"You make it sound as if I'm some whore," Rukia raised a skeptical brow at how her friend was making a mountain out of a molehill.
"But Rukia-chan, this is Kurosaki Ichigo we're talking about!" As a clearly concerned and loving friend, Rangiku didn't want to see Rukia spending her nights alone for the rest of her life, but the fact that she was completely unfazed by her impending isolation tempted Rangiku to tear out her hair from time to time, "I even spent yesterday night drawing up similarities you both have!"
Rukia stared at her friend in disbelief, "weren't you supposed to be working on the contract yesterday night? Like you insisted?"
There was a cross between a cough and a laugh from her, "I had to pull an all-nighter for that one."
Sighing, Rukia rested her face in her hands on the desk. Despite being such a distracting individual, Rangiku made sure that work got done when necessary, that in itself made her a reliable colleague, "I can't say I know Kurosaki-san too well, but I hear things around the office."
Rukia mentally rolled her eyes, 'who the hell hasn't.'
Scanning the paper she had in front of her, Rangiku gave a small smile as she looked up at Rukia's expressionless face, "well, I eventually summed it up to: you guys are uncannily similar in the sense that you're both callous and ambitious… especially when you have something you want."
Firstly, that was a completely stupid deduction and secondly, no they bloody weren't!
"To put it simply, you're both assholes that look hot in suits and are highly respectable in what you do."
Rukia felt… flabbergasted. And she had never been in a situation where she felt it necessary to use that terminology, "I am not!"
"You are too, babe."
"Don't you start with me!"
"Rukia-chan, you are remarkably ambitious when you have a determined goal and use any means necessary to get to it. You callously disregard the problems of others if you deem it to be meritless—"
"No I—"
Rangiku cut her off with a sarcastic scoff, "remember the time you made me go to work with a hangover?"
There was a splutter, "when the hell have I ever-"
"I…" Rangiku slightly elevated her voice to rebuke Rukia's argument, "…was crying to you because Gin was being a jerk. You and I talked all night over some sake; so much so that I was piss-drunk afterwards… then, waking up from a bloody hangover, I, believing that you were a person with a shred of mercy, asked if I could stay home and you told me…" Rangiku cleared her throat. "A little hangover won't kill you, we have work to do.'"
Rukia only huffed at her friend and said nothing more.
Rangiku reasoned, "now tell me, dear friend, what did you do if you didn't glomp his sexy ass."
Rukia sighed irritably, "seriously, nothing spectacular happened… at least nothing that you're thinking about," recollecting the papers in her hands, Rukia started skim her eyes along the lined words, registering none of them in her mind in reality, "we just had pancakes and… talked."
"You just talked? What the hell, Rukia! This is when you're supposed to flash him your legs and lure him into your web! Kinky sex, girl! Kinky sex! "
…was what Rukia expected to hear. Instead, she got silence.
Which, coming from Rangiku on the matter of a 'date'… her 'date', was slightly worrying.
Looking up from her file, Rukia stared at the blonde woman sitting across the room and felt unsettled when she just… stared back, "pan…cakes…" squirming in her seat, Rukia couldn't bring herself to look away from the expression on her friend's face – absolutely blank.
A brow lifted on the vacantly beautiful face, "Mr. Gorgeous-Womanizer-Kurosaki-Ichigo took you to have pancakes on the first date… and… you're alright with that?"
Unexpectedly, yes she was. Rukia admitted to herself that she had felt downgraded at first. But Kurosaki… Ichigo had the ability of making things seem so… so simple. I wouldn't have been interested in you if you were someone so easily swayed by money and position…
Unknownst to Rukia, Rangiku wordlessly studied her friend's quiet expression from afar. Reminiscing into space with such a soft gaze in her eyes, excluding the times she'd lose herself thinking about Hisana, it was the first time Rangiku ever saw that kind of look before, "cute… so what did you talk about?"
"Nothing particularly interesting. We ended up talking about each other's siblings," Rangiku's brow rose in surprise as Rukia started to concentrate back on her work, 'Rukia already told him?'
Rukia looked back up from her work and saw the visible lines of surprise etched in Rangiku's forehead, "don't worry, Ran-chan. It won't go any further than tomfoolery. You and I both know that the world isn't that easy."
"Sounds like you should be careful, Rukia. To have swayed you like this already, Kurosaki Ichigo must be a dangerous man."
Rukia sighed at the remark. Oh, indeed he was.
She didn't plan on advancing any further than what was necessary. Like moths to a flame, she had been drawn to the false sense of security surrounded by the warmth. However, she didn't want to chase after happiness that had no basis at the expense of her heart. Not this time. Not for somebody as… as immature as him.
'Sorry, Kurosaki. Serious or not, you're just not worth it.'
"So?"
Ichigo drummed his fingers on the black surface of his desk, a grin accompanying his ever-handsome face. Coming back from their little date, and even the morning after, Ichigo couldn't believe how elevated his moods were. He was definitely amused, "so what?"
Shuuhei rolled his eyes at the boss's play of ignorance; if anyone knew better of Kurosaki Ichigo's flirtatious endeavors, it was one Hisagi Shuuhei, and he was confident enough to assume that no one knew of the impressive number of well-sought after women crossed off on the ginger's list. To him, it didn't make sense that Ichigo would be pinning after Rukia; the woman was great at her job, but clearly, she wasn't anything like that girls Ichigo used to play with, "don't give me that, tell me what's with all this word going around 'bout you and Rukia."
"'Rukia'?" Unknownst to Ichigo, his eyes flashed a shade darker at how familiarly his friend was addressing his soon-to-be wife, "since when did you ever call her by her first name, Shuuhei."
The tattooed man bit back a scoff, "you're possessiveness is astounding, Kurosaki."
"Well, Shuuhei, apart from looking like a yankee, you have an impressive history of girls, would you blame me?" It was true; Ichigo noticed that there were girls who liked the whole yakuza-on-the-outside-but-teddy-bear-on-the-inside business that Shuuhei didn't even need to try to master. With tattoos and a scar decorating his rather roguishly handsome face, along with his rather lean, but well-built physique, Shuuhei was more often mistaken to be the company's alternative, violent, dispute resolver than an actual employee. However, he was more mature and stern than what his outward appearance let on, and the ladies seemed to love it.
Shuuhei looked at the man with a slight frown; he highly doubted that comparing the love lives of the two men were, in any way, sensible, "my relationships lasted more than simple one-night stands, Ichigo. You go through them like candy; I don't see what you're being so defensive about."
Shuuhei sighed and looked back down at the mass of papers sprawled around the table, "about half the building saw her coming in with your coat from yesterday, you can't say there's nothing going on."
There was no reply from Ichigo, "I advise that you pick anyone but her to play around with, Ichigo. She doesn't deserve you doing that to her."
By now, Ichigo would've come back with a playfully bawdy retort, but none did, and it incited Shuuhei to look up at him, "why aren't you saying any-"
And he stopped.
Because, though none knew of Kurosaki Ichigo's flings as well as he did, it was the first time he had ever seen such an intense, solemn look in those amber eyes. Shuuhei for once, in all his years of knowing the troublesome man, had nothing to say, 'he was serious...'
"You…you're not… joking… are you…" There was no crack of a smile, no lifting of the brows, no mischievous glint dancing in his eyes that would've suggested that he was anything but serious. And this troubled Shuuhei greatly, after countless one-night stands and shallow, materialistic relationships, he wondered if Ichigo even knew how to properly love another being who was not already related to him by blood.
"Shuuhei."
"Ichigo…" They had been together ever since high-school, and though Ichigo was a great friend, Shuuhei knew that as much as he loved women, he was also callous enough to hurt them without any regards. And Rukia, who he got to know during the years spent together as colleagues, just didn't deserve being some plaything to scratch Ichigo's little itch, "if you're going to play with her, then find someone else. Don't touch her."
In all honesty, Ichigo didn't know how to quite explain it to his friend that he was sincere in his actions. He couldn't blame the man for being cautious of him; he wasn't as ignorant as he played out to be. If one of his sister's were to date a man like himself, Ichigo would've opposed to it without a second thought. However, there was something else he wanted the answers to, "why are you being so cautious for her. You didn't seem to have a problem when I was with anyone else."
The other man hesitated for a moment, something that slightly bothered Ichigo – he couldn't let go of the thought of having any other man know Rukia closer than he did, even if that man was his best friend, "I was the one who guided her around the company system when she transferred from her original company. She's a good person who works hard in life."
Ichigo quirked an eyebrow at the revelation of new information, "she was transferred here?"
The deadpan expression looked more closer to menacing when it was Shuuhei who was wearing it, "Jesus, Ichigo, you looked at her damn profile!"
That he did, however, Ichigo never thought that he was looking at a transfer application. Unfortunately, there were some things that he disregarded when it was associated with her - before she became the center of his little fixation; "I… wasn't really paying attention to her back then…"
'Of course he wasn't,' Shuuhei rolled his eyes and gingerly shook his head, "well, all I know is that she transferred from Kuchiki Inc.-"
"The Kuchiki Inc.? Are you sure?" Ichigo cut in, furrowing his eyebrows. She worked at Kuchiki Inc. and he was only finding out about it now? "I would've definitely picked up on something like that no matter how uninterested I was."
Kuchiki Inc. was one of the principle companies in the stock market, lead by the well renowned Kuchiki Byakuya. The company itself was around for several years now, only really beginning to excel when the current head stepped in to take the top seat in the house. In less than five years, the Kuchiki created one of the most powerful and dangerous companies to vie against for the big dollars.
"I know, but her previous company isn't listed on her profile for reasons unknown. I only found out through Rangiku-san during one of our company parties."
Ichigo slowly nodded as he processed the information, "does she ever go out with you guys?"
"No," Shuuhei leaned back into the navy blue coach that was situated in the middle of the room, "she rarely attends them, and when she does, she usually leaves early."
"That would explain why I don't see her around..."
Shuuhei gave a small chuckle at Ichigo's soft remark, "with how busy you get brushing up on women, I highly doubt you would've noticed regardless of whether she was there or not."
Ichigo gave a small pout at his friend's lack of usefulness, "you're not taking me seriously, Shuuhei."
The string of chuckles died down, "are you?"
Ichigo rested his sun-kissed arm on the desk and cupped his face, "would I have taken her out for pancakes if I wasn't?"
"You took her out for pancakes?" Shuuhei gave in to the temptation of the epic face palm, "what a way to make a first impression, Kurosaki."
"That's exactly why I took her there. Money isn't going to impress her, I know that, and she isn't even interested in what I can offer her materialistically," Ichigo crossed his arms in front of him with something akin to a baffled expression on his face, "I mean, that little she-demon-midget tried to bite my head off when we first met!"
Shuuhei laughed at the play of events, "you know, she fantasizes about drenching you in gasoline and lighting you on fire."
A neat brow lifted at the amused statement, "well, she did mention that she imagined me getting hit by a bus… but gasoline? Really?"
Seeing him going through countless of women, Shuuhei found it satisfying deep down when Ichigo finally found some one to chase after, who was just as stubborn and crazy as he was, "the entire floor has a betting pool going on, you know."
"Oh really? On what?"
Shuuhei shook his head again in amusement; this was going to be one relationship worth looking forward to, "on how she might ever kill you when she finally snaps."
A sly smile cracked across Ichigo's face, "well, aren't you just sweet."
There was a chuckle from the other man, "yeah, I betted fifty on her throwing a vase at your head."
Honestly, Ichigo wouldn't have been surprised if it happened, "I can really feel your love."
"Now," Shuuhei looked back at the list of papers in his hands, "enough daydreaming, what's you're next course of action, Boss-Kurosaki?"
Ichigo traced his eyes along the red skyrocketing line on the graph in front of him, under the capitalized heading 'SUIGETSU CORP. GROSS PROFIT OF 2012', "how about we finally give a reply to Suigetsu Corporation's little invitation?"
"Whoa, Ichigo," Shuuhei looked at the smirk on Ichigo's face; he was going to do something risky again, "don't you think Aizen's company is a bit too dangerous to attack? Come on, that's too high of a goal, even for you."
"Well, with the little product switch they did with their dirty mole, I lost a fair share of profit this year. I wouldn't be Kurosaki Ichigo if I sat here and did nothing, now would I?"
Shuuhei groaned, 'no… of course not…'
"If you're planning on covering up the loss, can you at least do it sensibly?"
Ichigo gave a look of I-have-no-idea-what-you're-saying at his slightly distraught friend, "sensibly?"
The tattooed man could almost relate to the annoyance Rukia would've felt every morning while having a discussion with this man, "like abiding by the bloody law, maybe?"
Looking at the lack of expression on the ginger-head's face, Shuuhei felt a vein beginning to throb, 'he is so not listening to me…'
"How are you even planning on taking the profits back? You heard what Aizen said, it just happened to be chance that the girl who was working on the product decided to quit our company, 'on the basis that a certain orange-haired Chief Officer was sexually harassing her', and migrated to his with all of our drawn up drafts."
The light blue office chair gave a small creak of compression as Ichigo leant his body back, tilting it slightly along with him, "just goes to show, don't trust pretty girls."
"I heard she had some kind of thing for Aizen, like a 'crazy-devotion' kind of thing." Shuuhei fiddled with a sleek, black pen between his fingers, "he's a manipulative bastard if you ask me, the sort of guy who has no problem playing around with people to get what he wants. Probably some kind of evil overlord."
A brow lifted at the string of curses, "sounds like me."
"Yeah," Shuuhei, not even bothering to take a glance at Ichigo, only grinned at the thought of comparing the two hotshots of the marketing world, "he just enjoys it more."
Scanning over the little summary piece underneath the graph, Ichigo scribbled down a couple of footnotes with arrows and underlines scattered all over the margins of the paper, "who even hired that girl anyway?"
Shuuhei shifted in his seat, "you did."
"I did?" A soft clatter of pen dropping on the metal desk sharply cut through the comfortable atmosphere of the room, making Shuuhei shift his attention to Ichigo from the paper he was analyzing.
Sometimes, Shuuhei felt the urge to repeatedly slam some sense into the man's head through the use of a sturdy wall. Right now, he felt more like weeping at how hopeless Ichigo was, "you hired her because she had, as I quote, 'a nice body for a cute face'. Do you even remember her name?"
"What ever it was," Ichigo nibbled at the tip of his pen, "it couldn't have been that important."
"'Couldn't have been that important'?!"A thick pile of paperwork was thrown down onto the wooden table at the opposite end of the room from the main desk, "Hinamori Momo was the mole that stole drafted product ideas from our company that took months to compile! The company lost millions of dollars from this incident with you standing in no-hope position!"
At the exasperated outburst, Ichigo merely shrugged, "I forget details that are insignificant."
Gently pinching the bridge of his nose, Shuuhei slowly got up from his seat and flexed out his shoulder blades, "you are such a simple creature, Kurosaki Ichigo. I hope Rukia says yes to you soon, having you this mindless to everything is such a pain."
"I'm asking for more of an… 'I do'."
"Yeah, or an I…"
Shuuhei swiveled his taught body around to fully face the seated man, his eyes wide and pupil narrowed, "'I do'!? You're asking to marry her!?"
Ichigo breathed a small sigh; "I told you that I took her out for pancakes."
The tattooed man opened his mouth before closing it tight. He couldn't even articulate the right words right now to express his utter confusion. As far as he knew, the two hated each other like a feral cat and dog; territorial of the specific field they worked in, never allowing each other to excel too far ahead. The last time Shuuhei saw them together in the same room was at a conference meeting, and even then, they practically sat at the opposite ends of the room! If the man was planning on simply playing with her or even just dating her, sure he'd understand; but marry?! Even if Ichigo was high on some weird illicit drug, there was no way Rukia would agree to any of these shenanigans!
"Ichigo… what's wrong with you? I thought you hated her existence?"
Yes, it was quite weird. Ichigo couldn't find the correct way to express the sensation that came over him the moment he hungrily devoured her lips; nor could he explain how his intense hatred for her very being turned into that of obsession he was very willing to pursue. He really had no idea.
But he loved it.
"Yeah well, things happened."
"But marry?" Thick, tan fingers combed through black tresses in an act of daze, "how did Rukia take all this?"
"Pretty well actually, she didn't try to kill me, so we're getting somewhere. Although, I thought she was going to stab me with the knife at some point… "
Shuuhei mentally shook his head in apprehension. It was official.
They were both crazy.
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To be continued…
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Read. Smile. Review.
(I mean absolutely no offense by using the name Jesus; if you have a problem with it, please notify me).
To me, Aizen will be the one and only, true badass villain. Hence why I chose him over my other candidate, Tsukishima.
ALSO, just as a little side story. I personally don't have any experience or knowledge of how a company works, it's dynamics or any back doors it has. So, me in trying to get to understand it a bit more actually researched around and asked on a forum site "how to steal profit from rival companies" and my question got deleted as a breach against the site terms and conditions XD! Now, my IP is probably gonna have a record of "this person tried to ask how to steal profits" xD.
This is the furtherest I pre-wrote my story up to, from here, my updates will be a little more slower. Luckily summer holiday's is coming soon!
Thank you so so much to all those who reviewed and enjoyed my story! Puts a smile on my face every time :D!
Regards,
M.