ichirukiblessings

-

Rukia’s dark wide eyes search her brother’s broad figure. Byakuya Kuchiki humps, his knuckles white as he clutches his sword. “Where is he?”

She tilts her head and squints at him, “We’re training properly.”

“You better hope your little boyfriend is ready by the end of fall, or I’ll kill him with my bare hands.”

The short one tries to hide her nervous energy while watching his figure fade into the darkness. She heads out into the dark night and finds people still rushing around. Across the way she sees a couple with their baby strapped up and loved so dearly.

Rukia always wonders how a loving family will feel like. She has Byakuya but it doesn’t feel sticky and warm like a family. Even though she hides away in Ichigo’s wardrobe, she still smells the sweet love his family spread around. Then, the girl sees the couple press their bodies together. She wonders what that attachment feels like as well.

Slowly, she begins the walk to Ichigo’s house. It begins raining and she’s stuck without an umbrella. As expected, when she makes it back to the lonely closet, Ichigo is not there. She crowds herself in the small space and devours the writing in a manga book.

-

Ichigo sits at the family table, waiting for their breakfast. He twitches an eyebrow as his father begins complaining about how much food he’s been eating. Ichigo frowns, “What’s it to you? I’m a growing man.”

“Man?” Yuzu giggles with Karin.

The orange-haired one makes a silly face towards them. He gathers two portions worth and heads upstairs. Before opening his wardrobe, he hums, “Pstt…soul reaper.”

Grumpily Rukia opens the door with the manga close to her face, as if the boy interrupted her. “What…”

“Quite an attitude for someone who is invading my personal space.” He angrily retaliates.

She looks at his hands and suddenly perks up, “Give it.”

Ichigo rolls his eyes and lets her have the breakfast.

They both finish and leave for school, Rukia however jumps out the window to hide from his nosey family.

Ichigo’s eyes immediately hit Orihime. She’s sitting there sipping out of her orange juice. “Waa~”

He hears mumbles next to him, then suddenly feels pain. The boy rubs his arm where he felt the pain. Rukia’s voice hits his ears, “Get out of it!” She shoves her unopened orange juice container in his direction, “Open.”

He gives one last glance to Orihime and grumbles taking the container, “You’ll have to help me get her.”

Rukia snatches it and cocks her head, “Why?”

“A lot of people already think there’s something between us. I just need her to realize her feelings. We’ve kissed last year—”

“So why do you need me? Just ask her out.”

Ichigo glares at the shorter one, “It’s not that easy.” He closes his eyes, “It’s more complicated than that.” Rukia shrugs, “We kissed during a silly childhood game.”

She raises her eyebrows, “What do I have to do?”

Ichigo smiles, “Follow my lead.”

-

Orihime watches the pair across the classroom share sweet smiles to each other. Her heart cramps up and she quickly peels her eyes away. She was planning on asking out the grumpy one this weekend. The girl is shaken out of her thoughts as she is called on to answer a question. She has no idea what their professor is even saying.

After class, Ichigo and Rukia go train out in the field. Ichigo knows he will have to take a steamy bath tonight to relax his muscles. He finally gets the upper hand, and presses the staff against her neck and she falls to the ground.

“Fuck you.” She growls.

Ichigo is breathless as he keeps a strong grip on her arms, “Such foul language. Is that in your stupid soul reaper codes?”

“Ichigo….” She groans trying to fight out his grip.

The boy peers up and sees Orihime walking by.

“Kiss me.” He whispers in Rukia’s ear.

“I-I don’t know how to do that stuff!”

Ichigo grabs her face with one hand and leans down. He kisses her softly, wanting Orihime to see every movement. After the kiss, Ichigo immediately looks up to see Orihime briskly walking away.

He stands up and raises his staff, “Let’s continue.”

-

“What’s this?” Rukia grumbles, looking at the boat.

“A romantic boat ride.”

She turns to him, “Why would I do that with you?”

Ichigo takes out his phone, “For the pictures duh.”

Rukia squints her eyes at him and looks at the boat again. She doesn’t even understand why Ichigo feels the need to do this. He’s not that unattractive, he just needs to stop being such a mope. “You’re terrible.” She goes to the boat first, and as soon as her foot touches the boat, it wiggles and turns around.

She fights to bring her head out of the water. The girl sees flashes and notices how Ichigo takes pictures of her.

“What? Little soul reaper can’t swim?”

Rukia begins to cough violently and flips over the boat climbing in.

After their boat ride they go into town. While walking she sees a stand with kids all around. She stops and gawks at the contraption attracting a lot of attention.

Ichigo continues to walk and sees a clothing store with a provocative piece displayed in the window, he grins widely “Oi, soul reaper, you should—” His eyebrow shoots up when he sees that she isn’t there. He walks back and turns his head, seeing the short girl staring at an ice cream stand.

“What’s that? It looks yummy.”

He looks at her mouth, watching her basically drool. “You ghosts don’t have ice cream in soul society?”

She looks at him, “Ice cream?”

“Come on, we have to go. There’s a party and Orihime will be there, so we need to be there.” Ichigo groans while she just stands there, “Soul reaper…”

“How much?” She asks the man running the ice cream parlor.

He holds up five fingers, and she then digs in her pockets. Rukia finds two crinkled dollars and frowns. Sad, she walks off expecting Ichigo to follow her. Once she realizes he’s not beside her, she looks around and sees him standing there holding a cone.

She gasps and grabs it.

Ichigo looks away, “Now let’s go. We’ll be late.”

They arrive to the party and Rukia is still happy about what she consumed. It was delicious and that angry boy gave it to her. She watches as he mingles around the house. He’s so angry and stubborn, but he does have his sweet moments. He saved that little ghost boy from being devoured by a hollow, and he cares for his family a lot.

She now understands why girls seem to float around him.

Rukia walks up to him, and tries to take his attention away from his friends. “Ichigo?”

“Eh?”

She presses her small hands against his face and presses a soft kiss onto his lips. “Am I doing well?” Rukia whispers against his mouth.

“We’re going to leave early.” Ichigo calls to his friends.

Across from him, Rukia hungrily eats burgers and fries. He’s treating her to a meal because of her quick actions at the party. As soon as she kissed him, he saw Orihime stare right in their direction.

“Ice cream?”

Ichigo orders her a sweet chocolate sundae, “You deserve it.” He chuckles, “She should be crawling towards me any day now.”

Her dessert comes and she immediately begins devouring the treat.

He looks up and searches her entire face. Ichigo notices how tiny this soul reaper really is. She has bushy eyebrows that threaten to form into one. Her moles decorate her chubby face, one coating her blistered plump lips. Rukia’s hands are small as they grip the metal spoon. Ichigo scoffs, pulling his drink closer, sipping on his soda.

“You look gross.” He comments. Ichigo reaches over and pulls her head up with his hand. He wipes her face, cleaning up the mess.

Rukia stops eating and lets him clean up. “What do you like about Orihime?”

He chuckles, “That’s random.”

“Answer.” She begins eating some more fries.

“She’s fun. Energetic, kind—”

“So, everything you aren’t?” “And pretty…”

Rukia grimaces, “What a dope.”

“How—”

“You’re so in love with her. So cheesy…”

They finish eating and Ichigo lets her know that she is very expensive.

“When we get home, you’ll have to skip on dinner. You eat too much, soul reaper.”

She crosses her arms, “I’m not going to your house tonight.”

He just shrugs, “Don’t die. I have homework to do, so I’ll be busy.”

Rukia begins walking the other way, “You’re weak.”

-

Ichigo finishes texting Chad and Keigo, expressing how he’s faking everything with Rukia, and his plan. He’s done with his homework and brushes his teeth, getting ready for bed. “That soul reaper is out very late.”

He heads back into his room and sees Rukia climbing through the window. His eyes immediately look at her knee and notices it is bruised. “They got you good.”

“There was a big animal outside. It was running after me, and I tripped.”

Ichigo thinks for a moment and chuckles, “You’re scared of the neighborhood dog? He’s incredibly friendly.”

Her eyes go wide, “Very scary.”

Ichigo looks at her school bag in the corner and tsks. “Your homework is unfinished?”

“Why should I care?”

“When you fail, and they find out you’re not a human because you don’t even have parents.”

She humphs and crosses her arms, “Help me with it.”

“Nope. I am going to bed.”

Ichigo does just that. He climbs in his bed and begins to doze off. Rukia sets up his lamp and crowds in the corner, squinting at the homework packet. She mumbles the word problems and scratches her head.

She feels warmth next to her soon and looks over seeing Ichigo. He huffs, “This is so easy. Do you guys not have school in soul society?”

He’s so close to her as she examines his face. His eyes are so brown and contrast beautifully with his hair.

Ichigo groans, “And if you steal my shirts, at least pull the sleeves up so they don’t get dirty.”

She fiddles with the sleeves, so they aren’t covering her hands.

He helps her with her homework for another hour, until he gets extremely tired. He stretches and sees how she doesn’t show any sign of drowsiness. “You’re freaky, do you not sleep?”

“No.” Rukia answers, packing up her homework items.

“No wonder you’re always cranky.” Ichigo stands up and heads for his bed. “Shut off my light.”

-

Ichigo goes to class and doesn’t see Rukia there. He didn’t see her at the house either. But, today Orihime looks stunning. As if she’s reading his mind she walks up to him, “Ichigo? Can we speak during lunch?”

“Of course.” He replies, smiling softly.

During lunch he goes to the rooftop to eat and sees Rukia down in the training field. He sighs and goes down to meet her. Ichigo watches her swing a staff around. He stuffs his hands in his pockets. “Soul reaper.”

Rukia looks at him, “What.”

“I should ask you that.”

“You missed morning training.” She rolls her eyes, “This is a joke to you.”

“Forgot.” He growls, “Let me fucking live.”

She takes a break and stares at him, “Should you be arguing with me in public?”

Ichigo raises an eyebrow, walking close to her. “I—”

“Ichigo?”

He turns around and sees Orihime standing there. “Can we talk?”

Rukia feels the urge to grab his arm back.

“Sure.” Ichigo speaks. He glances back at Rukia before walking with Orihime.

“You don’t have to pretend anymore. My friends told me about the fake situation with Rukia.”

Ichigo’s eyes go wide. “Really—”

She kisses him slowly, tasting every crevice of his mouth, “I would like to go on a real date.”

-

Rukia walks into town at night, heading back to Ichigo’s place. She saw the kiss, she heard everything. Ichigo wouldn’t even shut up about it. It’s crazy because she looks across the road and sees the pair kissing against a light post. He finally got the love of his life.

-

Ichigo wakes up the next morning, happy as ever. He’s been going on dates with Orihime almost every evening, and he finally feels complete. However, he still goes out to train with Rukia, so he heads to their training ground.

He stretches his limbs while waiting for her. Ichigo waits for a while and sees her walking down the hill. He grabs his staff and points it at her, “You ready?”

She nods, “I think we’re done for now, though.”

“Really?”

“I’m heading back to soul society.” She says, “My powers have returned and it’s great because you hate training.”

He fiddles with the training staff, “So what are you going to tell everyone?”

“I’ll just make them forget me. You too.”

He scoffs, “I wish I could forget. You’re terrible.” Ichigo is quiet for a minute, “When are you leaving?”

“Ichigo!” They both turn to see Orihime happily running to them.

Rukia sneaks off before she gets stuck in between their cheesy scene.

-

Ichigo makes it home and sees Rukia placing his manga books up. He squints, “What are you doing?”

She ignores him.

“Rukia…” He watches her for a moment, “You’re leaving now?”

She still doesn’t answer, instead she jumps out the window.

Ichigo rolls his eyes and goes out the front door. “Oi! You can’t leave yet, you owe me for everything you’ve eaten. Rukia!”

She turns around and faces him, “I’ll be back and when I come back, I’ll pay you.”

“Fine.” He opens his arms, “You’ve always wanted one, right? A hug…”

Rukia twitches her nose and gingerly walks closer. She wraps her arms around his waist, and feels his strong arms hold her.

Ichigo scoffs and brings a hand to the back of her head, “You’re so cold.”

-

The next day, he sits at dinner with Orihime. However, something feels empty. He licks his lips while picking at his ramen. “Is something wrong with the food?” She worriedly frowns.

He clicks his teeth, “I miss that witch.”

“What witch?”

Ichigo stands up, “Rukia…”

Orihime tilts her head, “But…that was fake.”

He nods, “I thought it was too.” Ichigo glances at her and looks out the window. “I think I should see her.”

She huffs, “I don’t like that.”

“I don’t want to lead you on, but I need time to think.”

Ichigo leaves the restaurant and suddenly thinks about what Rukia told him last.

“I’ll leave tomorrow night.”