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Ichigo sighs as he enters his quarters, letting the lights rise and dim to something like a late evening glow, despite the time on the station being set to something like the middle of the day. He swaps his boots for room shoes, equipped with antigravity magnets just in case, but miles better than the work boots in terms of weight, and unzips his silvery uniform layer so his skin can at least breathe for a bit.
Supposedly, the planet everyone at the station was investigating for settlement was just filled with small rodent-like creatures that’s burrowed in the bleached sands, or the roots of the skeletal stone trees, but they’d found evidence of something larger and Ichigo was tempted to send at least one strongly worded email back to the initial team — but then Ginjo wasn’t likely to get any disapproval for it anyways so really he should just save the data space to send more to his sisters or friends.
At least Nel had perked back up after her run in with Nnoitra — he still wasn’t entirely sure if she was supervising him or the other way around, given that she was the one with assistants and more experience planet-side, yet he was the one who’s name was on most of the major forms, but he was more than happy to pull rank on the dick “security guard.”
He was also happy to make sure he was scheduled to spar with the other man, too — after all, xenobiologists had to be ready for anything out in the field, and he’d always been more than happy to knock some good old common sense into heads that severely needed it. (Nel’s kickboxing was good, but outside of a crisis she really hated in person sparing, and after a crisis, she always needed a good cry and ice cream.)
Whatever the actual hierarchy on the small team, he got the single room after Nel declared that cuddle piles were the only way to sleep and he’d turned that offer down flat — no matter how much of a closet it resembled when he took the photos and his guitar down.
It meant that he could finally stop ignoring the shadowy blond that haunted his peripheral vision, once a day when he wanted to in the field at least.
“We’re back, ghost of mine,” he thinks to himself as he crosses the bare two feet to grab his pajamas and take them to the actual closet/bathroom his room contained.
“Wonder what you’d actually say about those signs we saw today,” he thinks at the ghost as he brushes his teeth. “Seems like something you’d be interested in, if the dreams are anything to say about it.”
(That’s not something that they advertise when you spend enough time in VR and with implants — that after a while you start to see things, here and there, of past lives. It only really ever gets attention when it’s someone remembering something significant — apparently Joan of Arc had walked into some major French building and started reciting everything wrong with all of her portrayals in history and fiction. Then some other people had shown up and basically Ichigo had only really cared when he’d started seeing the blurry outline of a figure that’s seemed more than happy to lounge around and occasionally hover over gadgets (or prank items) or show concern when he’d been hurt.
By that point, though, he’d already had an idea that he wasn’t a new soul in this cycle — and been even more glad for the ability to stay quiet through nightmares when monsters, human and other alike, ran rampant in his dreams.
(At least his mom was still alive, this time.)
He never remembers the ghost’s name when he wakes, though, and no matter the number of dream journals he’s kept and histories he’s read, he’s never quite figured out who he is. Who he used to be.
And he’d be fine with that, if he could just figure out the blond’s name.)
So his ghost, his stranger, is his constant companion and if that means he’s always watching to see if there’s someone out there with blonde hair and a slouch; curiosity overflowing and with a certain sharp grace to every move, well. That’s between him and the walls of his heart.
And Yuzu because she’s just like that and nothing he says will convince her otherwise.
He sighs as he lays down on the bed, gives himself half an hour to finish syncing his files with the central storage for the station, which will then sync with the greater hub back home, and then asks the lights to shut off, and for an alarm to be set for seven hours.
Between the shifting data, the sands and shadows of the day, he lets his mind drift and eventually fall into dreams of banter and swords and blood.
Somehow, days (or whatever passes for a day when sometimes you have shifts longer than 24 Earth hours, which despite being centuries abandoned, is still the point of reference for stations if not the colonized planets) later Ichigo ends up at the station’s bar.
He’s never actually been to this stupid bar before now, but Nel, unfortunately, had decided that Yachiru was her new best friend. Given that Yachiru’s keeper/best friend/father figure was either able to be found in one of three places (and the field was out given that Unohana-san was still not impressed with how the man decided to test the solidity of the trees on the planet), that left Nel dragging Ichigo to first the gym, which was a bust, and then the bar.
They also had to ask for directions to said bar about five times but that was neither here nor there.
Either way, that left Ichigo sitting at the bar, trying to ignore various attempts by Kenpachi to get Ichigo involved in a drinking contest and/or a bar brawl.
“Really, Ichi, you gotta let loose at some point! C’mon, one more round just you and me and we’ll see who comes out on top!”
“Unohana-san would tie you to a bed and then break every bone in my body if I said yes, Kenpachi.”
“So? It’d be worth it to break our tie!”
“What tie? I’ve won the last three times we sparred!”
“Yeah and you’ve lost all three rounds of the drinking contest tonight, looser.”
“Fuck you, I said I wasn’t gonna drink!”
“Yeah, cuz you ‘have an early shift tomorrow.’”
Ichigo will never be able to get the sight of Kenpachi using air quotes out of his head, now, and what’s worse is no one will ever believe him that it happened, because Yumechika is over on the floor with Ikkaku as Matsumoto cements her title for the millionth time regarding alcohol.
“Yeah and you lost to Matsumoto again.”
“And I ain’t a coward to not even participate — where’s your honor?!”
“Where it should be considering if Nel has to fight tomorrow she’ll cry. Or do anything with numbers.”
Kenpachi stares him down for a moment before bursting out laughing and clapping his back, “Keep telling yourself that Ichi! Imma pull ahead!”
Ichigo rolls his eyes and goes back to sipping his apple juice and ignoring the glare his ghost keeps giving the bigger man for the parting pat on the back, as he wanders back to the bartender to harass them for another bottle of sake.
“And this is why I’ve never come here before,” Ichigo mutters into his hand, and silently hopes that he’ll never have to come back, either.
Nel will just have to deal with playing with Yachiru in the gym and all the rest of the people using it at that time can just deal with the chaos.
A quick thought and his interface tells him he’s got another hour of this to deal with before Nel will accept him heading off to his room and taking her back to her own room, too.
He’s tempted to start going through some of the data he’ll need to work on tomorrow, but then again, the company isn’t paying him to work off hours so they can suck it.
Unfortunately, Nel had tossed his book back into his room and made him promise to leave his ebooks in storage for the night and he doesn’t want to deal with whatever prank she’ll come up with the punish him if she finds him reading instead.
So people watching it is.
Somehow the drinking contest has splintered yet again, with Ikkaku and Yumechika bowing out to challenge Kenpatchi together, while a purple haired woman slinks over to challenge Matsumoto.
Ichigo wishes her the best of luck — and considering how much Matsumoto has already had, the newcomer might actually have a chance.
(At least Matsumoto is doing this for fun now, rather than in mourning — how the hell Orihime pulled Gin out of his whole poison coma/various crush injuries thing Ichigo will never know because he really, really prefers his nightmares of blood remain of himself and not people he works with. It’s way easier to check that he’s still in one piece after all.
And the less said about the times the blond ghost has been injured and his state the morning after, the better.)
So, really, he’s fine with someone else pulling up and taking Kenpachi’s seat as long as they’re quiet and don’t talk to him.
Except…their hair looks really familiar, when Ichigo catches it from the corner of his eye.
Like, “his ghost doesn’t actually physically interact with the world around him outside of VR, why the hell is he sitting next to him?”kind of familiar.
“Uh,” he starts to say, and then he’s staring down familiar shadowed grey eyes and he’s pretty sure the entire world has, in fact, stopped, because what the hell.
“Ah, I’m sorry —“ the human version of his ghost starts saying, before Ichigo cuts him off.
“So, uh, glad we’re not bleeding out this time?”
His stranger, his ghost, chuckles and says, “I saw you from across the room and I meant to come over here and ask if we’d met before, you know.”
Ichigo is a little caught up in how his ghost’s face looks in the light and not made of shadow, how his voice sounds, and this is real.
“So I’m gonna kiss you now and if that’s not okay, I’m totally fine bleeding for it.”
Something flashes in his ghost’s eyes, and then a smirk crosses his face.
“I only bite when asked…mostly.”
Ichigo has zero shits to give that Nel is apparently shrieking in joy in the background as he spends the next few minutes putting that to the test in public.
(And then more back in his quarters, but he’s not telling her about that no matter how much she asks.)
And that’s a wrap!
comments and kudos welcome I swear I’ll answer eventually!
~Fin