Chapter Text
vi.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Ichigo's voice flatlines, face scrunched full of comical deadpan.
“How the heck did you end up on this side?”
Abarai Renji scratches one foot with the toe of another, running a hand through red locks in that same old habit he has whenever he’s anxious, or – Ichigo would smile, if he isn’t so busy deadpanning at the other’s presence – when he’s showing off and trying to be cool in front of Rukia.
“Things…sort of happened, okay?” Renji heaves a sigh. An awkward look is aimed at Ichigo. “I died in war shortly after you. One of the arrancar bastards took me out. From what I heard, the others made sure to clean up our mess following our deaths. Your sis and one of my own are acting as captains right now.” He shrugs, making sure to look plenty the half-assed bastard he never was.
Ichigo scowls but nods in acceptance. Honestly, between all of them, no one has ever expected to die from old age anyways.
“So, who are you in this life?” Ichigo lifts a hand to brush against his own imprint well-hidden under his clothes. “A saber? A shinai? A tantou?”
Renji grimaces.
He looks up at the family of five.
“I’m…” Renji begins long-sufferingly. “Zi…dian.” Pain bleeds off his voice.
Ichigo has got a bad memory, so he cocks his head, trying to remember the short conversations he caught between Jiang Fengmian, Wei Wuxian, and Jiang Cheng on their way back from Jiang Huishan’s workplace. Zidian was a name that had came up once or twice during short teabreaks with an overworking Jiang Huishan. It was the name of a spirit weapon that their clan had crafted as a gift after being welcomed into the Jiang Sect, and it is passed down as an heirloom. Jiang Fengmian had made a clear request whilst he was with Jiang Huishan for a sword spirit that would go well with Zidian for his heir. And that same Zidian is currently……
Amber eyes trail over to the woman who clearly wears the pants in the family.
He spots the ring on her finger. Ichigo chokes.
“SHUDDAP, WOULD YOU!” Renji makes a futile grab at his master’s knife, hand ghosting through and finger jabbing in Ichigo’s direction.
“What the hell?! I never said a thing!” Ichigo defends, irked, but in spite of himself, his cheeks twitch upwards for a fraction of a second.
Ichigo tries to pull his usual scowl.
Too late. Renji has already spotted it.
“S-SO WHAT IF MY MASTER’S A WOMAN, HUH?!” Renji spouts, red-faced. “SHE’S FULLY CAPABLE AND THERE’S NOT ONE REASON WHY I OUGHT TO BE ASHAMED OF HER AS A MASTER AND—”
Renji is an engagement ring. More than that, Renji is a whip.
Ichigo tries to hold himself back, but apparently, Wei Wuxian might have rubbed off on him in the short fifteen minutes it took to return. The edges of his lips twitch upwards. There’s far too much to tease to refrain from doing so. And so, Ichigo lowers the bottom half of his face into his hand, looking critically at the other reincarnated soul.
He says only one word.
“Kinky.”
“HUUUH?!” The effect is immediate. Multiple other veins pop on Renji’s head. He's flaming red. “WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY, STRAWBERRY?!”
“HAH?!” Ichigo slams a feet into the ground, rising from his seated posture at once. The force would normally be so strong, the room would shake should he not be in an incorporeal state. Renji comes close. They slam their heads together, grinding thick skulls. “What the heck did you just call me, you tattoo bastard? I dare you to repeat that once again.”
“Strawberry. Aren’t you named anything now? Why aren’t you fine with anything, Anything?” Renji’s lips curl up in a taunt.
Ichigo snaps at the brush of his newest, sorest topic.
“DON’T CALL ME THAT!”
(Five blessed souls dine in relative peace, oblivious to the chaotic mess two spirits would otherwise have created.
Had Wei Wuxian been capable of seeing these souls, he would have rose to his feet and cheered them on in the fine battle of spirits.)
vii.
Renji (“I’m Zidian now, Dumbass.”) aside, Ichigo finds himself forced to concentrate on his new master that night (after only hours of trying to pretend like he’s fine with a child handling him).
Wei Wuxian is a strange child, is all Ichigo could say so far. Dark locks grown out in wispy curls framing sun-kissed face, greyish orbs large and bright though still dim relative to the cheeky grin that seems to always be present on his cherub features, his impression of Wei Wuxian thus far remains a mischievous child.
That said, it’s not like some things aren’t already beginning to change day one into their new partnership.
For one, Wei Wuxian claimed he wanted to be able to better protect his family back at Jiang Huishan’s place.
For another, for all that Wei Wuxian grins and teases when he’s around his younger brother, he keeps Suibian by his side as he sleeps, never letting his guard down too much even in the comfort of his own home.
It’s disconcerting, but at the same time, Jiang Huishan had divulged Wei Wuxian’s background under his insistence to know his future master. Ichigo knows of how Wei Wuxian is an orphan adopted by Jiang Fengmian off the streets. He has seen for himself, the animosity coming off in waves from Renji’s owner – even if Renji himself seems to be just exasperated by her agitation. (It’s not like that, in Wei Wuxian’s eyes.) It’s really no surprise that Wei Wuxian feels the need to keep hin close for protection.
Still, materializing outside his steel body, Ichigo can’t help but think it’s a pity as he bends over Wei Wuxian and attempts – to no avail – to pull the sheets up to tuck him in.
Yuzu was only learning how to cook, Karin defending them from only love letters and crushes back when they were ten.
Wei Wuxian is ten, and he has already lost family much like Ichigo did.
Even though Wei Wuxian earns his seal of approval, Ichigo can’t help but think it’d be better it’d been through other means.
viii.
Wei Wuxian talks to him, as though he is a living person.
“Good morning.”
It begins with tiny things like that. Then,
“I’m so sorry, my dear Suibian! Did that hurt?” Teasing lilts in his voice disguising the genuine concern reflected in guilty strokes over his scabbard.
“You’re so precious, aren’t you? Just the perfect sword that I’ve never known I’m missing till now.”
Wei Wuxian cooes, lips coming close to the hilt.
Ichigo’s disgusted.
Renji’s in hysterics over it.
“PFFTHAHAHA, YOU DESERVE IT—”
Ichigo silences Renji with a sandal to the face.
And Jiang Yanli, who has been observing with the most boggle-eyed look on her face, quietly turns to her other brother.
“Ignore him.” Jiang Cheng huffs, already used to the weirdness of his adopted brother. Ichigo prays he will never be acclimatized to this behaviour. “This is just him trying to get a rise out of his sword. Apparently, he’s taken by all that sword spirit nonsense Jiang Huishan subscribes to.”
At once, it makes sense. Renji goes quiet, even if his lips still tug up as he wipes a tear from his eye.
“That’s one fine master you’ve got there.” Melancholy taints the corners of the other’s eye. Renji’s been reincarnated far longer than Ichigo has.
“Yeah……” Ichigo begins, just slightly choked, because he might have lucked out more than he thought he did.
“Come on, my sweet beautiful Suibian,”
Wei Wuxian captures the corner of Ichigo’s hilt in his palms, as if cradling the tender cheek of an invisible entity.
Ichigo’s face darkens at once at his name.
“Aren’t you supposed to be a creature that goes along with anything? Why are you so prissy with me?” There’s the hint of a grin tugging at the edges of Wei Wuxian’s cheeks.
If Wei Wuxian truly believes in the rumours about Jiang Huishan, then he must truly want to piss Ichigo off to death.
Ichigo lowers his palm to the back of the brat’s head. A vein pops from the side of his head, face dark with a scowl.
“Who are you calling prissy—”
“Talk to me, my sweet Suibian. Otherwise,” Wei Wuxian grins. He whispers. “I might think you really love your name.”
Ichigo steps on the back of Wei Wuxian’s head. His sandaled feet goes right through.
Renji grips his centre and falls back in rambunctious laughter.
Ichigo storms over to take his anger out on the one person he can touch.
ix.
Wei Wuxian uses Ichigo as a pinata play thing to cut open a watermelon.
(“That’s scary!” All the younger children bawl and race off, frightened.)
Ichigo wants to strangle him.
Wei Wuxian volunteers Suibian for the local butcher to cut a strip of meat for him.
(“No no, that’s too big, Lil’ Bro.”)
Ichigo wants to strangle him.
Wei Wuxian carries Suibian into the washroom, and try as Ichigo may, he still sees things he’d rather not sully his own eyes with.
(“You have it better off.” Renji informs him with haunted eyes.
“How so?” Ichigo was about to ask, only to speechlessly remember Renji’s an actual engagement ring.
He props a hand piteously on the other’s shoulder. Renji covers his own eyes, highly distressed at just the mention of it. Ichigo can only imagine what traumas the other has to go through. He’s grateful in that instance, that Wei Wuxian is male and single but—)
Ichigo still really wants to strangle him.
x.
It’s not like Ichigo doesn’t understand the other’s desire to speak to a sword. After all, for all that it would have made Ichigo seem like a total nutjob in any situation but the one he was in, he had spent days meditating and enduring hardcore training to converse with an inanimate object.
(Peas of the pod, they both are.)
No, what frustrates Ichigo is that he does answer, but there’s just no way for Wei Wuxian to hear his voice.
“Good morning, Suibian!” Wei Wuxian cheerily calls out with long locks fluttering behind him at eleven in the morn.
“You look like shit.” Ichigo informs him brusquely. “I know you’re on the verge of being a teenager, but that doesn’t mean you’ve got to adopt the sleeping habits of one.”
And Wei Wuxian yawns and continues about his day.
“Do you miss Jiang Huishan sometimes?” Wei Wuxian lifts Suibian to the air amidst fluttering petals in spring. His grey eyes glint with an innocence not lost yet, much like Ichigo then.
“When I have time, should I drop by and visit him for a bit?” Wei Wuxian suggests with a cheeky smile.
“Just do whatever.” Ichigo rolls his eyes. “You’re the master here.”
Renji bursts out laughing in his face.
ichigo stares at his dumb mug for the whole of the next minute before what he said hits him.
He wrestles Renji to the ground, face flaming red the whole time.
(The jerk deserves it. To think Ichigo sympathized with his master plight too!)
And on the occasion, Wei Wuxian whimpers in his sleep like an injured puppy. He flails, as if running away from an invisible shadow, or chasing after the fleeing ones of his parents. And he’d jolt awake with a chilling gasp, teeth gnawing down on bottom lips, eyes watering before squeezing tight.
And Ichigo can do nothing but to look over him, even though protecting is his namesake.
Wei Wuxian would crack open his eyes in those moments. And he’d peer over at Suibian through Ichigo’s invisible form with dull eyes, unable to muster another attempt even as he curls in on himself. He reaches out nevertheless. Wei Wuxian cradles Suibian close to his chest, the gift of the one man who had picked him up and cared for him. Eventually, Wei Wuxian drifts back to sleep.
“Good night, Suibian!” Wei Wuxian smiles every night even when he doesn’t believe he’s real, patting down the back of his scabbard affectionately.
“Just get to sleep, kid,” Ichigo rolls his eyes even then. He ruffles the other’s locks, and Wei Wuxian blinks, dazed, at the light wind rumpling his hair that had come out of nowhere. “You’re enough of a shrimp as it is.”