Raven!Neil Au where Andrew and Neil meet for the first time at a banquet.
They sit across from each other and Neil smart-mouth Josten can’t help but go off at Kevin, still angry about being abandoned by him.
To his surprise it’s Andrew who answers him. It’s a bit of a match. Cutting remark after cutting remark, but…. it’s unexpectedly fun.
Both Ravens and Foxes watched in shock as Neil and Andrew somehow moved from insults to genuine conversation.
They lean closer to each other, no longer raising voices. Neil practically showed everything on the table to the side so he can lean almost half of his body across the table just so he and Andrew can talk freely.
Everybody moves subtly closer just to overhear even a snippet of what they are talking…
… they plan an apocalypse plan. Arguing about cons and pros of bunkering in the supermarket.
And they look like they’re having fun… or as much as they would let themselves show any kind of enjoyment in the environment they are in.
They lean close, talking in hushed voices… looking almost like they are flirting.
Or rather they are flirting, thinks NIcky, watching as his usually emotionless cousin lean closer to the redhead rolling his eyes with a shadow of a sarcastic smile on his lips, and he promptly shoves his entire fist into his mouth to muffle a squeal.
I just love to think that it infuriated Riko, that he isn’t the center of attention in the 100%. Riko trying to stop their conversion, to butt it, interrupt, only to be ushered by Neil or Andrew everytime.
Neil remembering how in Ferdinand’s show Andrew played with Riko by pretending to not remember his name and doing the same thing, looking straight into Andrew eyes, ignoring his captain having a furious meltdown at his side.
Andrew watches it all with his eyes burning into Neil.
(All of the foxes and Ravens stimulatingly wondering how the heck the most meddling one from their team suddenly found the most meddling one from the opposing team. What kind of cosmic justice is this?)
In the end Neil just takes a napkin and doodles something quickly on, His eyes smile with a fire that could only promise a disaster (Andrew knows better not to let himself get burned, and yet…) and before Riko has enough and pulls all the Ravens away, he slides it towards Andrew.
All the foxes are gapping.
Did… Did that Raven just propositioned Andrew? Like in the middle of a banquet??? did he just casually give him his number??? What is going on???
Andrew refuses to feed their curiosity in any way.
But when they are safe in the bus, Kevin drunk into oblivion, rest of the foxes bored with his silence…
He lets himself unwind the napkin.
There is a letter inside. Neatly folded multiple times so it doesn’t even look like it was hidden inside the napkin until Andrew could feel it in his hands.
Letter describing how Kevin is the son of Wymack.
And a little note on the napkin….
“Have fun with it.”
And Andrew can’t help but feel his interest stir inside him.
Since many people tagged thai as “i want moreeeee” but i don’t have nooo energy so sorry to write anything fully, have instead some loose info about this AU, warning it got quite long:
"Even before Laurent had hit the ground, the man had drawn his sword.
Damen was too far away. He was too far to get between the man and Laurent, he knew that, even as he drew his sword—even as he wheeled his horse, felt the powerful bunch of the animal beneath him. There was only one thing he could do."
-Prince's Gambit by C.S.Pacat
and a continuation of the same scene with more spoilers:
Don't know if you got same question as this ... But I want to ask can you explain why relationship between Rukia and Ichigo is romantic not friendly and show moments which actually shows how they have romantic feelings for eachother?
** you can ignore it if you want ... But I'm new here and in the fandom too so I had questions 😶 **
That’s the beauty of Ichigo and Rukia’s relationship! They love each other in many ways and since very early on. I think the Fullbring arc really cemented that they also love each other romantically because after having time apart we see just how much (and how fondly) they think of the other... and how nobody else comes close.
Chapter 424 is Ichigo telling us what’s been going on since the battle with Aizen and every panel is full with the calm life he’s living except when talking about not having powers. To me it suggests he has a lot of feelings about that fact and, given the size, he tries not to think about it too much.
But when we get to the panel about Rukia there’s so much empty space it takes up half the page. It’s presenting itself as the heaviest thing on his mind after the battle; not being able to see her.
Also, (this is just a theory) seeing this in color makes it look like the panels are connected up to this point... like if he thinks too long about what happened he’ll eventually think about her. “Now I don’t have any soul reaper powers” changes the subject to Karin. “It’s been 17 months since the battle” changes the subject to school. “Ever since then Rukia hasn’t come to KK once” the scene ends and transitions to one about missing her. It’s like Rukia is always in the back of his mind and after all this time it’s easier to avoid it.
Of course he misses her, but having an excuse for her ready proves how much she’s been on his mind, and outright denying it is so like him. I wouldn’t say this specifically is rooted in “romance” but with other moments we can see just how much he wants to see her again and it really goes beyond what he feels for anyone else.
Take for example when he only mentioned that Rukia hadn’t come to visit him despite having other friends from the SS, especially Renji. In the next chapter he dreamed of them and Byakuya but it’s Rukia that stands out.
She’s singled out from the guys and her panel is bigger, but what really separates her from them is the fact that it’s cropped sooo close to her face. There isn’t even a sliver of her shoulders, Ichigo is really concentrating here. Renji and Byakuya’s presence is enough but not when it comes to Rukia, he seems desperate to see her again.
Being a protector is literally in Ichigo’s name so losing the power to do so was hard on him, anyone could see that. Orihime was glad at first but ultimately had to ask Rukia to figure out a way to get his power back and Chad could barely look at him since he lost it. Chad goes on a little bit more about how wanting to fight/protect those around him makes Ichigo who he is, and while that’s definitely correct what comes next suggests that there’s something more important.
Love is subjective. Riruka drew her ability out through her love/adoration of cute material things and the happiness it brings her. Orihime persevered because of the love she feels for her best friend Tatsuki who always protected her. Chad manifested his ability because of the pride his family (his grandfather, who he loves) instilled in him. Fullbring can be activated with love that is familial, platonic, or even with a hobby/inanimate things.
Saving his sisters from the same monster that killed his mother wasn’t enough to activate his fullbring. Helping Orihime, Chad, and Uryu, his friends, also wasn’t enough. Being strong enough to hold back the equivalent of 100 thousand blades in the form of a ginormous, fiery bird wasn’t enough either. Apparently it doesn’t even slightly trigger it.
Remember when I said Ichigo was avoiding Rukia? She was present in each event he thinks about. Of course she isn’t the most important person in each scenario, but even in the moment he saves her life he doesn’t picture her face like the rest of them. Him doing that cements the fact that he’s trying to hold back thinking about her... until he can’t anymore.
The power comes all at once when he finally thinks of her. Just her.
At the end of the SS arc we figure out that what Ichigo wanted most when he saved Rukia was to see her smile again, and because of the power he gained for her sake he was able to do that; because of power he was able to save so many other people, too. The thing is, he remembers her in the moment he lost his powers; not one of the times he saves her or she saves him or the result of any of that. He began training for fullbring to protect the people important to him but it isn’t being activated by those bonds and instead by the pure desire to see her smiling again.
Putting everything together tells us that he loves her romantically; if his fullbring isn’t being activated by his platonic or familial bonds or the pride in having the power to protect them there is only one type of love that separates her from the rest.
We can keep going... with a liiiittle bit on Rukia, too.
Seeing her for the first time in 17+ months literally stopped the rain and put light back in his eyes after he lost his power AGAIN with the people he’s closest to turned against him. He was bawling his eyes out, more powerless than he’s ever been, and unsettled about his dad and Urahara’s sudden appearance, but she immediately put him at ease without any effort at all.
He believes in her right away just like she does in him. Like she always does.
When Rukia gets the chance to fully think about how special and strong Ichigo is, both in strength and heart, we see her in complete awe.
If she was simply proud and or amazed by him she could have replicated the smile she had at sokyoku hill when she felt his power “flowing into her.” The expressions on her face here (off the top of my head) are completely new and softer than ever. It looks like her own heart skipped a beat —
— It skipped just like time does when they’re seperated.
The arc opened with Ichigo wondering if he can keep up with the speed of the world without her and just about ended with this poem, “When the two that share destiny part and reunite, beyond the frame of time, the ceased clock will awake and start to tick once again.” Ichigo and Rukia are incomplete when they’re apart and are at their happiest when together.
When remembering her happiest moments during her fight with As Nodt, Rukia thought of Ichigo the most. When fighting Yhwach and remembering his most despairing moments, the night Ichigo lost Rukia to Renji and Byakuya comes second after losing his mom. The emphasis on their bond is consistent throughout the story and even until the last chapter.
If Ichigo and Rukia’s relationship was supposed to be strictly platonic the amount of content we were given would have to be cut in half. Cut down on the anime fillers/openings/endings, the movies, the musicals, the color spreads... the poems about the other person, the speeches about how one feels about the other, the emphasis on their shared trauma and the fact that they saved and helped each other overcome their misery, the overwhelming feeling of wanting to see the other person happy, Ichigo’s parents replicating his and Rukia’s first meeting, “The Love and Destiny Ichigo Inherited,” the partings, the reunions... Y’know, put all the ships on an even playing field, but that’s not what happened.
Ichigo and Rukia have the kind of relationship that was said to be “more than friends” since the second arc. 200 chapters later when they spend over a year without seeing or even speaking to each other we can see how they spent that time thinking of the other and more than anyone else. Time goes on but their bond will never break, and they don’t deserve anything less.
BLEACH EPISODE 342 • THANK YOU
You’re not in my way! If you get hurt, then I’ll support you. If you can’t move, then I’ll fight in your place. If you’re in pain, then I’ll bear your pain. We’re friends, aren’t we?
