Little lives,little joys.
Author notes:
Chapter 686 non-compliant. Alternate ending.
Bleach, of course, doesn't belong to me. If it had, we would know what possessed Chad's character to go into professional boxing of all things.
This is an IchiRuki fanfic.I do not hate Orihime. I am very put-off by the strange ending.I wrote this in a rush, in probably three hours, and there absolutely will be punctuation errors, etc. Please overlook those.I hope there aren't too many. Enjoy, and please leave reviews!
The wooden door slid open almost immediately.
'Yo!,' said a smiling Kurosaki Ichigo. His head was a complete disaster. He should have been a divorced man just for this reason alone, so much was it a travesty.
'Hello, Kurosaki.' Dignifiedly, Ishida stepped inside the house, so different from all the others he had seen around Seireitei. The inside was more like a house in the Living World than anything else. The furniture, the random objects brought back from trips to the other was just as he remembered it from last year.
Except that now his friend was kind of bald. He pointed this out. Kurosaki blew up.
It was a haircut accident, it wasn't his fault, he had decided to be nice to Ishida since it had been so long but he was picking a fight immediately, was he?
With an air of practiced boredom, Ishida ignored him. He would never admit that he was pleased at how familiar it all felt, how glad he was that Kurosaki was the same as ever.
'Come on in, if you're done with the insults,' his friend invited sullenly. Hiding a smile that came out of nowhere, Ishida followed him. Inside as well, little had changed. The TV was new, probably bought specially for today. Ishida had no idea how this TV thing worked in Soul Society of all places, and he was too tired from his long flight to ask.
'Yo, Ishida,' Arisawa Tatsuki greeted him from where she sat on the couch, legs stretched over the coffee table- another jarring addition that clashed with the traditional Japanese build of the home.
'Hello, Arisawa-san. It's been a while.'
'You're as proper as ever,' Tatsuki snorted, not without affection. She dug through the manga piled under the table, another thing out of place.
And yet, it was home, this place. Every corner of it was lived in and warm. Everything about it was cosy. It was as though Kurosaki and Kuchiki-san's love for each other was too big to be contained in their bodies, and it splashed and drifted out of them to douse the walls of their house so that those too shone with it. He had missed it, possibly more than he had his own apartment in its prime Tokyo area.
On the couch, Kurosaki and Arisawa-san were now having a heated discussion about something. This too, he watched fondly. It was a familiar sight in this home.
They had spent so much time here, all of them. Game nights whenever anyone had a day off and the others could squeeze it in their schedules. Anniversaries and birthdays celebrated in this very living room. Ishida with his first broken heart, crashing in one of the guest rooms for days with neither Kurosaki or Kuchiki-san ever intimating to his departure (He had actually had to beg them to let him go because they were convinced he wasn't feeling himself yet) .
The last time he had been here was for Kurosaki's promotion. A year ago. And then he'd left for overseas, and he had missed this so terribly. And he had been so lonely, even though he would never ever admit it.
You would think the Living World was just a bus away, the way they had abused the Kuchiki senkaimon. And no one said anything to stop them, because what would they say? They had saved Soul Society. They had saved the world, and they had paid the price for it in spades. They were to be left alone.
'Karin-chan,' he greeted Kurosaki Karin, who was busy on an elaborate gaming system she had erected in a corner by a window. Why in the living room? Why not in her own room, which he knew her to have permanently in this house?
He wasn't going to ask the other mercurial Kurosaki in the family anything of the sort. She nodded at him in return of his greeting, grunting once and sounding eerily like her brother.
Before he had even taken stock of the surroundings properly, Kurosaki and Arisawa-san's bickering match had started taking a dangerous tone. Physical violence loomed over the horizon. Karin was yelling at them to just shut up, couldn't they see she had almost won this impossible round?
'Where are the othe-'
'Ishida!,' Kuchiki-san chirped as she peeped out of the kitchen. It seemed very busy, with noises of pots on pans coming from inside. 'Welcome!,' she gave him a huge smile. Ishida found himself smiling back, completely charmed. Who wouldn't be?Though thoroughly aware of how deadly she was, now out of her captain's haori and her uniform, dressed in a lilac dress that he recognised with pleasure as his own handiwork, she was unbearably adorable. Once again, he wondered how Kurosaki had managed to bag her. Destiny really did work in mysterious ways, and it wasn't always fair to everyone. In this case, to Kuchiki-san.
'Ishida-kuuun!,'came a call, and Inoue-san's head had joined Kuchiki-san's to look at him. 'You're late!'
'But the programme isn't for another hour, I think…'
'I wanted to run some new designs I found on the baby website by you!,'she looked down at her yet-flat stomach, only for a while longer now.'Now I don't know if we'll get the time!,' she pouted. Her soft brown hair was up in a loose bun, and her hands were on her hips as she told him off.
'Why don't we do that now?,' Ishida offered, feeling guilty. He had promised to be here two hours earlier than now after all.
She shook her head firmly. 'We're busy!,' she announced, as Kuchiki-san's head nodded in agreement.
'We're making snacks for the viewing,' she confirmed. 'Now take a seat and don't you dare come in here!'
Cowed, he did take a seat on the couch. His silent question, Kurosaki answered.
'I don't know. For some reason, they've decided that they will be doing "the feeding" - Rukia's words, not mine. And I have also been threatened into keeping out.'
'Me too,' Arisawa Tatsuki replied from next to him. Both seemed desperate to appear relaxed, but kept throwing worried glances at the kitchen like ready for it to burst into flames.
Ishida slid his glasses further up his nose.
'I take it you two are the usual cooks in the house?'
'I think if I had let Rukia fend for herself, she would have just eaten plain rice everyday,' Kurosaki confirmed. But Arisawa-san just shrugged wordlessly at him, like she expected him to know her answer, as well as the reason behind it. To this, Ishida gave her a sympathetic nod.
Who among them had escaped Inoue-san's cooking? It was a wonder they hadn't lost somebody to it.
Yet, the night was young.
'So, Ishida. How was your trip to the fashion capital of the world?'
Trying not to reveal how eager he was to talk about this, he turned to Arisawa-san. 'It was wonderful.I learnt a lot, I think.'
'I heard about how you were the only one picked for the trip from your school,' she continued, impressed. 'You top your medical school for two years before dropping out, then go on to land a coveted spot at the top fashion school in the country, and then this, on top of all that!,' she tilted her head a little at him, and the the pride in her voice warmed him like only a friend's words could.
'Thank you, Arisawa-san,'he fumbled. 'But it's really not-'
'Yeah Ishida, you're always showing us up,' Kurosaki complained.
'Well, it isn't hard to show you up at all, is it!,' Ishida snapped.
'How dare you-,' Kurosaki started, but Arisawa-san's voice cut through the room like the sharpest knife.
'Shut up! I am here after completing double shifts at the dojo yesterday, just so I could get today off. I am tired, and my head is hurting. So if I hear another raised voice…,' she trailed off threateningly.
Sufficiently intimidated, the two men continued their quarrel in the corner of the room farthest from this irritated dragon, bickering in whispers.
Inoue-san popped over to "say hi properly", sweet as she was, and he told her he was surprised to see her already so hard at work. It seemed that none of them from the Living World had co-ordinated their departures or arrivals. Everyone seemed to have come whenever they pleased- something that couldn't have made Kuchiki Byakuya- tasked seemingly with keeping his private senkaimon open at all hours like a 24X7 convenience store- very happy.
'Oh, I arrived last night itself, Ishida-kun,' Inoue-san hummed happily. 'Rukia-chan and I happened to have our sleepover scheduled that way, so everything worked out even better!,' she smiled widely.
Why was she saying things like "scheduled sleepover" like it was a normal thing?Since when did she start calling Kuchiki-san Rukia-chan? What?
He looked around, lost. Arisawa-san took pity on him.
'For some reason', she explained to him, clearly as baffled by her fiancée as him but taking it in stride,' Kuchiki and her have mandatory sleepovers twice a month.'
'Mandatory?'
'Hime has the dates in her calendar and everything.'
'I'm sorry, is someone forcing them to have these sleepovers?'
Was he missing something?
Arisawa-san just sighed and shook her head. 'A lot has changed since you left, Ishida.'
'Okay, I was gone for one year, not ten.'
'They can't live without each other at this point,' Arisawa-san continued.
They watched Rukia help Orihime adjust her apron as they both conversed easily. The apron in question was flowery and pastel-hued. A huge "rabbit" that could only have been Kuchiki-san's creation, was embroidered on it. It wore two hairpins like Orihime's Soten Kisshun, and smiled manically.
A custom-made apron that looked well-worn. This was a regular occurrence then.
Had everyone just been waiting for him to leave to change everything about their lives? When he had left, Inoue-san and Kuchiki-san had definitely been very close, but this was something else entirely, this bizarre relationship that bordered on romantic. Yet, neither of their partners seemed worried, so Ishida guessed that maybe he wasn't going to end up getting involved in a divorce, a broken engagement, and a new marriage like he half-feared. Unless Arisawa-san was incredibly dense(Kurosaki, he already knew, was so)
Anyway, only time would tell.
'Wait, I didn't know Kuchiki-san embroidered,' he immediately began inspecting the rabbit with the eye of a professional.
A grunt behind him. 'It was me, actually. For some bizarre reason, this was at the absolute top of Rukia's birthday wishlist last year. She provided the design and I just had to-no seriously,I mean I honestly don't even get it, you know?… It's not even for her…', he sounded like a man truly at his wit's end.
'It's not bad work,' Ishida admitted grudgingly.
'Would have been better if the subject had been less horrendous.'
'I think Kuchiki-san is a fine artist, actually. In fact I think she's too good for you in general.'
'Wait where did that come from? Weren't we talking about embroidery? Oi, Ishida, you listen here-'
'That said,' Arisawa-san said, speaking smoothly over her childhood friend, 'It's very nice to see Hime bond with Kuchiki like this. For a while after that war…,' her eyes got dark and sombre. 'Hime was in such a state. Everyone was. I wish I could have been there with her, but-'
'Tatsuki,' Kurosaki interrupted. 'Don't take this the wrong way, but it was actually better that you weren't there. Inoue-no actually we all needed someone who hadn't been through all that and who was waiting afterward to tether us to reality.I kinda don't think any of us remembered how to live normally anymore.'
After a beat, Arisawa-san smiled. 'I guess so. And of course, therapy helps. She's sleeping much better now-less nightmares.'
'What doctor is this that she can talk to about the war with?,' Ishida asked, surprised.
'Inoue helped set up a mental health wing in the Fourth Division,' Kurosaki said proudly. 'After all their losses, they were looking at a fresh start anyway, and she proposed adding the new department to it.'
'That Psychology doctorate coming handy in both worlds,' Arisawa-san chuckled, looking fondly at Inoue-san's distant figure. 'She started talking to one of the more experienced officers there, who was thankfully not part of the war and was not in as bad health mentally as everyone else. They have regular sessions now. That helps. The officer-'
Across him, Kurosaki mouthed to him the name of this person she kept calling only "officer",probably afraid of actively interrupting her. But Ishida couldn't read the idiot's lips.
'That officer has already had experience with this kind of stuff, so it's been very helpful.'
'Shell-shock. Almost everyone had it,' Kurosaki said quietly. 'And Rukia was- I mean both of us- it was hard for a while. But since Inoue got that department going, things developed very fast. Now we have also been able to avail of their services. And like Tatsuki said, it's really helped. You should-you should also-'
Ishida nodded silently. He really should. He meant to.
In the kitchen, Inoue-san, herself supernaturally clumsy, caught a falling Kuchiki-san- this woman who apparently could bring entire swathes of cities to absolute zero, could make herself temporarily dead as she unleashed hell upon her enemies. But a giant pot in her hands as she walked on some spill became almost her defeat.
Arisawa-san tried to look past their legs at what she also seemed to suspect was a spill.
'Ichigo, they're going to kill themselves like this,' she said a little desperately.
'What, you want to go intervene? Be my guest! I already got told off twice.'
'Kurosaki, you seem awfully put off by this beautiful friendship,'Ishida remarked severely. Surely even Kurosaki could appreciate it? Especially when it was helping Kuchiki-san. Always it came to Kuchiki-san with him. When it had come time for them to marry, he had gone so overboard in making clear his eagerness that, Ishida was sure, that if his friend had been told that the only way he could have Kuchiki-san was to become a servant in the Kuchiki manor, with her notoriously over-protective brother a fixed presence, he would still have agreed in a heartbeat. Always he was like this, desperate and hungry and weak, when it came to Kuchiki-san.
Ichigo grunted (then hurriedly spoke over Arisawa-san as she declared disgustedly "He just can't bear to share her with anyone, even Hime!")
'I'm the one that suffers the most from this weird relationship, okay?! It's like I'm the third wheel in my own marriage. They lock me out of my own bedroom! Yesterday they were whispering and giggling all night in there. And then at midnight, Rukia came out and took in hot chocolate Inoue had brought earlier. She didn't even offer me any', he told Ishida miserably.
'And why do you know that, Ichi-nii? Were you listening at the door? Aaah, how pathetic that you couldn't stay away from Rukia-nee for even a night!,' Karin's criticism of her brother was as scathing as ever.
'Shut up,' muttered Ichigo, but the burning tips of his ears made it clear that Karin wasn't wrong.
Ishida sighed and shook his head. How was it that every time he met this guy, he became more embarrassing?
'Well, they commandeered my bed. Where was I supposed to sleep? So I was awake,'he grumbled half-heartedly.
'My heart breaks for you, Kurosaki,' Ishida told him. 'It must have been torture to spend the night in one of the ten luxurious guest rooms in this house.'
'I-wait, Ishida, why do you know exactly how many guest rooms my house has?'
Kurosaki Yuzu emerged from inside the house then, making a stop by the kitchen to hug the diminutive Kuchiki-san like she was seeing her for the first time in months. Kuchiki-san, a little flustered and blushing, patted her on the forehead. She said something to her little sister-in-law in soothing tones. Kurosaki watched this happen with suspicion.
'It's not about some boy, is it?,' he asked his sister immediately.
'It's her periods, actually,' Karin told him bluntly.
'Oh,' their brother said stupidly.
'Ich-nii, why are you like this?,' Yuzu sighed, then started as she caught sight of Ishida.
'Oh, Ishida-kun! I didn't see you there! Hello!'
'Hello, Yuzu-chan,' Ishida greeted her. 'Both you and Karin-chan seem to be even taller every time I see you.'
'Oh, I stopped growing ages ago, Ishida-kun, come on! And why are you here so late? When we arrived this morning, we thought you'd left in the senkaimon before us,' Yuzu smiled. 'We ourselves were late because we had Sumire-chan and Akira-kun for the night and uh, there was a situation when the time came to leave … '
Ishida immediately suspected that this situation had something to do with their father. And sure enough-
'We had to physically pry them out of old baldie's hands,' Karin explained, and Ishida saw that picture very vividly and easily in his mind. Kurosaki Isshin crying dramatically, beseeching the aunts to not take his grandchildren away from a lonely old man like him, saying that Ichigo and his precious third daughter could just make more and to please leave these with him. Karin popping a vein as she fought him for her nephew and niece, their combat continuing even after Yuzu had safely retrieved the children.
He sighed and then shivered. What a family.
'Speaking of which, Akira threw up, didn't he?,' Kurosaki spoke up, angry out of nowhere. 'Yeah that's right, Keigo told me! Why does he know that? I don't know!Anyway, that goat-chin gave him too much ice-cream again. I keep telling him that you can't trust a toddler to know how much they can eat-'
Suddenly, the subject of the conversation popped his head over the couch cushion to smile at his father, and Ichigo's frown instantly disappeared.
'Look who it is!,' he exclaimed as he gently scooped the little dark-haired boy into his lap. 'Did you have a good time looking for ladybugs in the garden? Found any?,' he smilingly wiped some dirt from under the boy's caramel brown eyes, and Akira giggled happily.
Ishida waggled his finger at the child, and he giggled even more, hiding his face in his father's shirt. A happy, curious child. A healthy child. A broad smile spread over the man's face; who could resist a kid so cute? How had Kurosaki been involved in making something so beautiful?
'Where's Sumire-chan?,' he asked casually. It was unusual to see the twins not together.
He hadn't expected this question to cause the reaction it did. Kurosaki sat bolt upright in his seat, his eyes wide.
'Rukia!,' he called. 'She's up to something! I can feel it!'
To Ishida's surprise, instead of calling Kurosaki out on his dramatics, Kuchiki-san immediately abandoned the hand-towel she had been wiping her hands on, and came running out of the kitchen.
'Kurosaki-kun has extraordinary dad-senses,'Inoue-san explained to him seriously. 'He always knows.'
'She's not here?!,' Kuchiki-san exclaimed. Akira watched his parents make meaningful eye-contact over his head, and then as both their faces turned white.
'This can't be good,' Karin muttered. It seemed to Ishida that he was being kept out of the loop of something everyone else- even Arisawa-san- seemed to know. Because none of the concern on anyone's faces seemed to be for the child. They seemed more worried about whoever or whatever she might be engaged with.
He'd been gone for ONE year. ONE. And suddenly everyone knew things he didn't. He didn't like this one bit.
'Wait!,'Inoue-san said suddenly, as she tilted her head right, listening carefully. 'Tsubaki-kun says Sumire-chan is near the Kuchiki estate!,'she gasped.
A deep horror seemed to set into Kuchiki-san's face.
'The clan meeting is today!'
'Oh shit!,' Kurosaki was on his feet in an instant. As he set down Akira, he accused, 'You knew, didn't you?Why didn't you tell us?'
Akira mumbled something in toddler-speak.
'You can't keep protecting your sister all the time, Akira,' Kuchiki-san explained as gently as an exasperated parent nearing panic could. 'She could get into big trouble one day.' Her scolding was undercut by the obvious note of pride in her voice. She hadn't raised a snitch.
Kurosaki frowned at her and she raised her chin in the air as if to say "I said what I said".
Kuchiki-san and Kurosaki's parenting priorities seemed to differ quite a bit.
'I'll go get her,' Abarai Renji rose from his seat before either parent could make a move. 'Sado's event should start any time soon and you two shouldn't miss it. Besides, someone has to make sure the Captain doesn't cause a repeat of the last time Sumire-chan met the clan. I doubt either of you would try to stop him. '
A simultaneous shiver seemed to run over him and Kurosaki. Kuchiki-san, however, simply declared, the pride in her voice now presumably for her brother, 'That man deserved it.'
'Yeah. He did,' Karin agreed darkly. Whatever things had happened to this man, worse would have happened had Kurosaki Karin got her hands on him.
Abarai-san disappeared in a blur of shunpo. Ishida turned to Inoue-san for explanation again. She seemed to have been expecting him to.
'A Kuchiki clan member made a remark about Sumire-chan's hair colour the last time, and Rukia-chan's brother … uh … lost control.'
Ishida stared at her. Was she just privy to everything that happened in the Kuchiki-Kurosaki household? Why did she know all this?
He guessed things must come up in the "sleepovers" these two fully-grown women insisted on having at least twice a month. He had no doubt Kuchiki-san would have a full report on the minuscules of Inoue-san's life too, if she were to be asked. After all, she had been the first person to have known about Inoue-san's and Arisawa-san's engagement. Kurosaki had groused about that for a week before Arisawa-san told him bluntly, with Inoue-san smiling gently beside her, that he" simply was several steps under Kuchiki in the hierarchy of the friendship group" .
'It's starting!,' Arisawa-san exclaimed, and everybody swarmed to the couch in front of the TV . Inoue-san curved into Arisawa-san's side happily as she sat next to her. Kuchiki-san dropped next to Inoue-san. To no end but to annoy Kurosaki, Ishida smoothly slid into the seat next to Kuchiki-san that her husband had been eyeing greedily. He regretted this a moment later when the seething man took the only remaining spot next to him, and he realised that indulging his spite had come at the greatest of prices - and that price was having to sit next to Kurosaki for the length of Sado-kun's programme.
The older Kurosaki twins distributed big bowls of popcorn among the group before settling squeezed together on the single couch chair. It occurred to Ishida that the big cooking task that Kuchiki-san and Inoue-san seemed to have been busy with for a full two hours or so had just been popping popcorn. For the sake of the health of both these women who were very important to him, he thanked God that Arisawa-san and Kurosaki were in charge of sustenance in their respective households.
The TV buzzed with announcements of the award ceremony starting. The host entered the stage to a scattering of welcome applause. Kuchiki-san leaned forward in excitement.
'Can't we just do that forward thing with the button?I want to see Sado!It's been so long!'
'Rukia, it's a live programme, you can't skip anything.'
'What do you mean?'
'Well, what you're thinking of is the streaming stuff we watch back at the other home. This is live TV.'
'Oh, I see. So this is different from The Peter Rabbit Tales.'
'Yeah, that's OTT.'
'Will you two shut up?,' Arisawa-san interrupted. 'You're drowning out the anchor!'
After the lengthy prologue, the host finally started with the announcing of nominees and categories. Everyone cheered when the camera cut to Sado, handsome in his tailored tux, sitting serenely in his seat at a table with his peers. He was smiling as he accepted the announcement of his nomination, but seemed unaffected by the praise the host was showering on him.
How like Sado!, his friends all thought fondly. He hasn't changed at all!
'Hasn't he gotten handsomer somehow?,' Inoue-san giggled. A chorus of 'Right?!', and 'I thought so too!' went about the room.
Then the show went on to announce other nominees, after which there were performances that had absolutely nothing to do with Sado, and everyone started getting impatient. The popcorn Inoue-san and Kuchiki-san had toiled over for hours was long since finished- the fate of all popcorn at any viewing event, Ishida noted - and they had collectively lost it enough that they had taken to scanning random shots of the tables to see if anyone could spot any small part of their friend's person.
'I think I see the tip of his hair there ... ,' Ishida was saying.
This sad exercise was interrupted by Renji suddenly flashing into view. A small bundle was cradled to his chest, which Kuchiki-san immediately rose to retrieve.
'Sumire!,'she spoke, relieved to have her daughter safely back in her arms. 'Are you hurt? You're okay?'
Kuchiki Sumire made cooing noises. Her father had appeared at her mother's shoulder and was checking her worriedly for scratches or bumps.
'Yes, I know,' Kuchiki-san assured her, seemingly having the ability to decode the child's sounds. 'You went to see Jii-sama, I know.'
Sumire cooed some more, reaching for her mother's dark hair and smiling happily.
'Yes, I know you miss him,' Kuchiki-san continued. 'But you can't just go wandering off like that. '
'Yeah, sweetheart,' Kurosaki leaned down to tuck his daughter's flaming hair behind her ears carefully, leaving her face open except for the one distinctive strand of hair that fell between her eyes that would not heed to any amount of wrangling or styling. 'Just because you can shunpo doesn't mean you can keep wandering off. Akira-nii doesn't, does he? Even though he can too. You're supposed to stick to him and protect him, aren't you?'
Ishida had forgotten that the babbling boy who had now found a comfortable seat in Inoue-san's lap was a full three minutes older than his sister. Maybe not now, but it would definitely contribute to the power-structure between the twins once they were a older. Even as an only child, he was aware of the sword that seniority could be in the war between siblings.
Lost in these musings, he watched the two children, one in Inoue-san's arms and the other in Kuchiki-san's . They stretched plump arms out to one another, as if to reach each other across this immense expanse separating them. Not bearing to be parted from each other, already small whimpers filling the room as they resisted their captors. Prodigies that were shunpo-ing at an age where they could't even walk very well or not, they were still two babies who had held each other as they slowly came into existence together for nine months, and knew nothing better than each other.
Finally Kurosaki lifted his little girl out of her mother's arms, holding her above his head as he made nonsense-talk to her (high, high!Look how tall Sumire is, even taller than daddy!) and made a return to the couch, Kuchiki-san, now in possession of her son, right behind him. They walked like this with unconscious practice, leaning into each other so that the babies could touch hands, their shoulders brushing, their faces lifted to each other in smiles.
This time, Ishida moved from his seat and indicated to Kurosaki to take it, looking away when the man smiled at him in thanks.
Whatever. It's only for the children, he thought.
Kuchiki-san and Kurosaki settled side by side, squeezed against each other with the same familiarity. The twins immediately lapsing into peaceful silence as soon as they were close to each other. Even as the increasing excitement in the host's voice threatened to draw them back into the show, Ishida heard Kuchiki-san whisper, in a voice so soft and happy, 'You're in mama jail now,' as she playfully trapped Akira behind her arms. Kurosaki laughed softly, his own voice so different from his usual one, and Ishida knew he was looking at Kuchiki-san then.
Across the room, he saw Yuzu look at her brother and her sister-in-law with the happiest smile on her face. Beside her, Karin's expression was relaxed, her eyes soft as she followed her sister's gaze.
A peace seemed to fall over the room, the focus of the adults the happy children, a collective love in their hearts that came as much from their love for the children's parents as the children themselves. They had survived the war, all of them. And Kuchiki Rukia had survived, and Kurosaki Ichigo had survived, and as expected, as destined, as divined, they had come together ( how could two halves of a whole be kept apart?), and had made a little life for themselves. And the rest of them, they had also made their own little lives, and had watched their friends make their little lives, and all across there was the relief and happiness of "we made it", and "all my friends are safe so my heart is unbroken".
Would any of the people here have survived losing even one amongst them? Ishida had had a lot of time to think about this during the war, and he didn't think so.
The TV chattered louder again. Now, the show got more interesting. A few of the gathered friends swore in kid-friendly swears (another thing everyone seemed used to that he wasn't) when Sado didn't appear for several more minutes. Then it was time. The"Actor of the Year"would be announced now.
Now there was silence. Cushions creaked as several of the group shifted in their seats or leaned forward anxiously. Inoue-san had both of Arisawa-san's hands in what looked like a very painful grip. Arisawa-san, her fingers bloodless, allowed it without complaint. Love, Ishida thought, smiling, revelling in how it filled this place. Love.
Kurosaki and him were neck-to-neck, having leaned exactly the same amount farther, almost equal in their heights. He could feel the nerves radiate off his friend in an intensity that matched his own.
Come on, he thought desperately, glaring a hole into the anchor and his irritatingly charming smile. Come on. Just say it's Sado-kun!
The next moment the room erupted in cheers, some of them rising clean off their seats to throw their hands in the air as they celebrated their friend loudly. On the screen, Sado made his quiet way up to the stage, smiling politely, collected and sombre to the end. The host raved about how he performed all his action scenes by himself, how he kept only a portion of his cheques to himself and gave the rest away to charities involving children. The words were lost in the uproar in the room as everyone cheered even more, even high-fiving each other. ("It's something you do when you're happy and something's been accomplished",Kurosaki explained to Kuchiki-san, taking the opportunity to place his giant palm against her dainty one. "Like this, he explained, but she had seen through his ruse. "Ichigo!," she complained, snatching hand away, her cheeks colouring) .
'I want to take this opportunity, as I stand in this place of massive privilege, with the love of so many…,'Sado was saying. The people in the room watched with eyes shining with love, cheeks hurting from smiling. Inoue-san sniffled loudly. Kuchiki-san put an arm around her to rest her head on her shoulder in a brief exchange of unspoken but acknowledged feelings.
'…this opportunity that so few get, to announce the second chapter of the Inko Foundation. We are halfway through our construction of our second orphanage, and hope to open its doors to welcome all the lost children by next year,' Chad continued seriously.
Applause rose around his stage, but it was drowned once again by the one in the room. Somebody whistled very loudly- Orihime. Dimly, through aching palms and hurting cheeks, Ishida wondered how neither of the children present seemed bothered by the ruckus, and glimpsed their way. Little Sumire was holding out a small, flat wooden object to little Akira, which he experimentally tasted before making a face. She took it back and tested her brother's verdict by performing another tasting herself. She reached the same conclusion on the matter, and off flying the object went, discarded cruelly due to its sin of not being tasty enough. Having glimpsed the writing on the object identifying it as the thirteenth division vice-captain badge, he wondered briefly if he should alert Kurosaki to what was happening to his very important official insignia. But the kids were so cute, and he wasn't nearly as fond of Kurosaki, so he stayed quiet.
The aftermath of the viewing was even more raucous. Here was lunch to be had-"real food", as Arisawa-san assured him. Apparently, she and Kurosaki had awoken at the crack of dawn, driven by the terror of what lunch would turn out to be in the hands of Rukia and Orihime, and pre-made a million things that just needed to be heated. They could handle that much, the two childhood friends assured him, not looking very reassured themselves.
It turned out they could handle heating pre-made food after all. Both Arisawa-san and Kurosaki looked way too impressed at this elementary feat. They sat around the low table, and passed dishes and swapped stories. The twins had long since fallen asleep on the couch, and occasionally one of the adults would get up to check on them before returning to their seat. Yuzu was in running for a scholarship. Karin was moving to Tokyo to purse her game design studies. Loads of praise was showered upon the younger girls, till Yuzu looked like she would combust, and even Karin had started to crack under the overwhelming emotions. Inoue-san and Arisawa-san were pleased with how the pregnancy was progressing. They had been lucky to find a perfect sperm-donor and an even more perfect doctor. She came highly recommended from Ryuuken, who was suddenly all-too-present in Ishida's life, to his great consternation.
The party moved to the couch after that. Drinks in hand, they declared that "they would do the dishes later!".
Famous last words.
When everyone was sufficiently tipsy (except for Rukia, who blamed her iron Kuchiki constitution), they video-called Chad. He was alarmed to see their collective inebriated state, but accepted their congratulations and their love happily. He would be back in Japan next month. Plans were immediately being made to make the next reuinion happen.
Halfway through the third round of drinks (you're all staying over, no arguments!No one is going home like this!,ordered Kurosaki) ,an instrument beeped, and suddenly Kuchiki-san and Kurosaki were at full attention, fully sober again. Kuchiki-san retrieved the small pager-like device from the kitchen, then shook her head at her vice-captain, who deflated in relief. Things were still tense. Everyone was still on call constantly, on standby.
For a moment, reality crept into this abode of love and safety, but it was easily broken by Akira sneezing violently in his sleep, making them all jump.
'It's that damn ice-cream,' Kurosaki seethed. 'No matter how many times I tell that old goat-'
'Ichigo, will you relax?They're children. They get sick. Then they get better.'
'But Goat-chin-'
'You're being a mother-hen again.'
'Well, what's wrong with that!?'
A debate on the pros and cons of being a mother hen started immediately, with most in favour of it. Rukia and Karin, being the only ones against it, were overruled. They shared a wry look, and Karin, loosened by drink, leaned into Rukia's side like a child seeking its mother. Rukia absently, with an ease born of habit, stroked her head softly, humming low in her throat.
'I'm going to take her to bed,' she said, urging Karin up and waving off Yuzu. 'You continue. She's just tired, she's had a lot on her plate recently. Orihime, I'm counting on you to keep the party going while I'm gone.'
Kurosaki watched his wife take his sister away with a glossy look in his eyes, then looked away quickly as if overwhelmed by emotion.
'Yes ma'am!,' Inoue-san saluted, and, afraid that she was going to take this assignment too seriously and start bullying and or threatening violence(because Inoue Orihime had also returned from the war changed), Ishida immediately proceeded to have fun, followed by the others who had the same fear as him.
And then somehow he found himself on the couch facing Kurosaki, who sat protectively close to his sleeping children. The din had died down as the group split into smaller groups, and here they were, just two old frenemies sharing a drink.
'They're so small,' Ishida made this stupid remark. The drink had loosened his tongue, and he no longer had the barb he wielding around Kurosaki.
Kurosaki, equally unguarded, smiled.
'They really are, aren't they? It's frightening.'
Kuchiki-san returned then, sharing a silent, reassuring look with Kurosaki as she made her way to them.
'Mind if I join you gentlemen?,'she asked. 'That was a rhetorical question- I'm coming in.'
Ichigo passed her his glass, and reached out with his long arm to pull the bottle of sake towards him, pouring himself a new one.
'I meant to ask, only out of curiosity,' Ishida started. ' Are they Kuchiki or Kurosaki then?'
At this, both of them sighed in perfect unison. It was a sigh born out of a deep exhaustion and frustration.
'Don't even ask, man,' Kurosaki told him, scrubbing his palm over his face. 'Everyone here is obsessed with our children's names and have opinions on them except for us, the literal parents. '
Parents. What an odd word. It felt so weird attached to Kurosaki. But then he remembered that they were all of them here young but not young, yet old in a way that was too young to be properly old. Everyone including Kuchiki-san. Kurosaki's face was still youthful and unlined, unlike him or the others. Kuchiki-san and him looked way too young to be parents. But of course they weren't. Even putting their actual ages aside, how many battles had Kurosaki fought that Ishida hadn't been a part of? How many people had he had to cut down with his faithful blade? How many times had he looked death in the face and laughed? How quickly did that age the soul?
It's been a right mess,' Kuchiki san explained. Kurosaki had gone back to staring at his children and seemed to have forgotten about them.
'Isshin otou-san, very rightly, refused to revert to his Shiba name.' Her cold captain's eyes went soft, probably thinking of the great love that her father-in-law held for his wife like an eternal fire, refusing to let even a piece of her go, honouring her name, her everything. Refusing to budge when it came to her. Always when it came to her he was like that, Ishida had heard.
'And since Rukia is the default second-heir to the Kuchiki clan, her progeny must bear her name,' Kurosaki took over from her. 'Since neither of us would budge, they were forced to came up with a new law that made some very complicated things possible. Essentially, they made the Kurosaki clan a, um, a clan, and they allowed its merger into the Shiba clan.' He paused to scratch his head, concentrating on getting the information right. ' So now Kurosaki is the same as Shiba, and vice-versa, or something like that. All this for names. After the war, they've become, what Rukia tells me is extra-desperate, to preserve the noble houses,' he snorted, as if to express his opinion on that.
'Honestly, I couldn't give a rat's tail what name they have. They are healthy and happy and loved,' He drew a gentle finger over the little stubborn bang draped over Sumire's nose as she snoozed alongside her brother, then adjusted Akira tenderly so that his son wouldn't roll off the couch.' Isn't that enough?,' he ended.
Ishida decided it was going to take him time to get used to this new Kurosaki he saw now, one who expressed feelings so openly and smiled so widely, his once-permanent frown now only making appearances when he was pretending to be unhappy while being very pleased indeed. The "original Ichigo", as Arisawa-san confided in him. This is how he had been, she told him, before his life had been rend open and before the world had broken him. Now someone-his gaze flicked to Kuchiki-san, watching her Ichigo with gentle eyes-had come along and stitched him all together again. Now Kurosaki looked at the world like maybe there was sunshine trapped in everything, and he looked at Kuchiki-san like she was a dream.
'So it's a hyphenated situation?'
'Not exactly,' Kurosaki told him. 'It's hard to explain, because to be honest no one really seems to understand it completely. There was just no precedent for it. Basically, they are both Kuchiki and Kurosaki. Either way you address them would be correct.'
'That must make official documents hell,' he responded.
Kurosaki just shrugged, gaze still fixed on his children.
But Ishida could see it. Who else could change Soul Society but Kurosaki? He'd been doing that since the day he had taken up the task of rescuing Kuchiki-san from her execution, and he had never stopped. And now, with Kuchiki-san by his side, it must be even easier. Who in their right mind would go against the family that had produced not one, but two powerful captains? The speed at which Kuchiki-san had climbed the ranks, the utter deadliness of her power (he had heard that even among the captains, few could stand to face her bankai) could only be a beautiful cherry on top. And then there were the Shibas-another noble family. One that had brought them Kurosaki Ichigo, saviour and protector. The one who had saved the world time and again, and was still willing to continue. Just as long as his Rukia was by his side. He would go to war again and again, and he would win to make sure he could return to see her face.
Who in their right mind would try to deny these two this trivial thing?
Later, as one of the only two people sober (though not a Kuchiki, he too had a robust tolerance for alcohol, something that everyone had expressed an insulting amount of surprise over),he took up this by now "tomorrow" task of cleaning up. He was rinsing dishes when Kuchiki-san came in, carrying a pile of dishes full of leftovers in one casual hand. It was so easy to forget how strong she really was. The sound of light laughter and overlapping voices carried in from the now softly lit living room behind her.
She gave him a greeting smile before setting the containers down on the counter. Then she began to sort them with an almost child-like earnestness.
'What are you doing?,' he asked, amused.
'Ichigo likes the leftovers stored a certain way for when he uses them to make breakfast the next day,' she explained.
Ishida hummed in response. One day they had been battling for the survival of the world, and they were spilling blood and hardening their hearts to be ready to lose nakama. And the other they were playing out a scene this ridiculously he didn't know what he would see outside the window, he could fool himself into thinking they were back in the living world.
'So…the Penelope Award, huh?'
Ishida's hands froze as he turned to gape at her.
'How did you know?'
She smirked and looked at him with mock-seriousness.
'I am a captain. I know everything.'
'No but really,I haven't told anyone yet- And I've only just been nominated!'
'Ishida, relax. I'm not going to spill this secret of yours. Nor will I make any mention of the beautiful professor you have been getting cozy with-'
'How? How do you know that too?'
'I cannot give away my sources.'
'Are you having me shadowed? Be honest.'
'Surely you think too highly of yourself.'
'But-but-'
She laughed softly. 'Ishida, every report from Karakura Town still lands on my desk, as per my request. Sometimes, a certain Quincy's comings and goings are interesting enough to make it into those reports. We do have to keep an eye on all that have or have had remarkable reiatsus, you know that.'
He was quiet.
'You weren't even listening, were you?,' she sighed. 'They land on my desk, Ishida.'
Realisation dawned on him.'So… '
'There are things others need not know. All of your private lives are your own to keep. '
'That's why you requested the town? So you could protect us from afar?'
'Would it be wrong if it were so?'
Ishida smiled widely, and that gave her her answer.
'I didn't know you were following my life so keenly, Kuchiki-san,' he remarked, almost teasingly, returning to his dishes with a lighter heart.
She smiled at him, dark, dark hair flowing like a night river over her shoulder.
'Ishida. We've fought side by side innumerable times. We have saved each other innumerable times. I can't speak for you, but now, both in war and in life, I treasure you immensely. So isn't it time we do away with the formalities? Just Rukia is fine.'
Ishida balked.' I can't call you that!,' he protested.
'Ishida, I insist!'
'Okay wait, how about Ru-Rukia-san? That's about as high as I'm willing to go!'
Suddenly it had become a negotiation, but neither of them noticed this.
'No, just Rukia!'
'I'll meet you in the middle! Rukia-chan is my final offer!'
To his surprise, she burst out laughing.
'I can't imagine you saying Rukia-chan, Ishida, I really can't!'
Ishida allowed himself a smile. 'Fine. I'll try. But it will take me time. And you have to call me Uryuu.'
'Uryuu,' she said without hesitation.
Ishida blushed furiously, which sent her into another fit of laughter.
It would take him time to get used to this too- this light, laughing Rukia who let her warmth and her light fill the room instead of hiding it fearfully. Someone had stitched her together again.
She wiped tears from the corner of her eye and smiled beatifically.
'Uryuu,'she said, 'Welcome back. Tell me all about your adventures, please.'
And maybe he had missed a lot, and maybe he did feel a little out of place, a little left out. But the war had ended, and the rain had stopped. And he could see now, so clearly, the place for him that was always here, an Uryuu-shaped hole waiting for him to return to.
Now here he was, and he was Uryuu. Not Ishida-sensei, and not Ishida Uryuu. He looked around the house, at all the noisy, familiar faces. He was just himself, and no one else, and he belonged.
'Well, first of all, the flight there was a disaster because they misplaced my luggage-,' he started, Rukia hanging to his every word as she continued her serious job of sorting. 'And then… '
And this was his little life, his little joys.
fin.