But his words died down when his arm fell on an empty spot next to him, the bedcover and pillow cold from lack of use.
"Rukia," Ichigo called out as he eyes opened again but he didn't see her anywhere. He was about to call out for her again but yelped when he tried to sit up. He looked down to see his body bandaged up and his muscles feeling extremely sore. "What the—" Suddenly everything came back to his head.
The cold demon inside their dark apartment.
His crazy followers ripping Rukia away from him.
The screaming and the punches.
Rukia.
"Rukia—" Ichigo gasped as he strained his body to sit up.
"DON'T BE FOOLISH MY SON!"
"AH!" Ichigo screamed both in shock and in pain when his father suddenly flew through his door and landed straight on Ichigo's abdomen, forcing his son back down on his back. "What the fuck—" he groaned as he tried to push his father off of him.
Isshin just grinned down at him. "You can't possibly move with that body of yours. So why don't you just lie down and let daddy take care of you."
Ichigo groaned as he strained under his father. "Bastard, I don't have time for this! I need to get to Rukia!"
"Sorry but I can't let you do that," Isshin shook his head as he jumped off his son and sat on the chair that was next to the bed. "You have to stay still until your injuries heal up. Luckily none of your ribs broke but several muscles have been pulled. If you move now you will only end up worse."
"I don't care," Ichigo groaned, "I need to get to her."
"She's not going anywhere," Isshin said, "So just wait a few more days—"
"I can't wait another second!" Ichigo yelled but gasped when his stomach started to spasm. He fell back on the bed and tried to keep his screams at bay.
Isshin remained still as he watched his son struggle in pain. He sighed as he crossed his arms across his chest. "I understand you miss her, but you're not helping the situation. If you go to her now…" he paused to look at his son who was looking back at him, "…You'll only put her in more danger."
Ichigo's body stiffened as his struggles came to a halt. Beads of sweat fell down his brow as he stared off into nothingness. His father's word swirled around his head, trying to make sense of it.
"Why couldn't you have waited until she graduated?" Isshin asked almost as if he was pleading.
Instead of answering, Ichigo fell back on the bed and the muscles in his face relaxed, though his eyes were void of any emotion.
"Ichigo?"
"You're right," he suddenly spoke up, "I was too busy thinking about being with her that I forgot my sense of logic."
Isshin frowned. "I'm not saying you did wrong—"
"But I did," Ichigo cut in, "I couldn't stop my hormones from getting the best of me. In the end I was so afraid of losing her that our relationship started too quickly. And now, she's gone."
A silence surrounded the room as Ichigo stared at the ceiling above him and Isshin stared at his son. The older man grunted as he stood up from his chair to sit on the bed, though keeping his back at his son. He folded his arms on top of his legs and stared at them this time. "I admit what you did was fucking stupid," he said and then smirked, "But you did it out of love. And I believe that's the most valid reason in this world."
"Enough to destroy the life of the one you love?" Ichigo asked.
Isshin paused to tilt his head back smiling at his son. "As long as you can get her back and love her forever." He quickly got up and left the dark bedroom, leaving Ichigo to continue thinking about what he said.
When Ichigo heard the door close, he finally turned his head to stare off to the opposite wall. On it was a smashed picture frame that was holding up a picture of him with Rukia and his family during summer vacation at the beach. He remembered the day she put it up…
Flashback
"When did you get that?"
Rukia looked at him and frowned. "The picture? We took it the last day we were at the beach. Don't you remember?"
Ichigo glared at her. "Dumbass. I know about the picture. I'm talking about the frame," he said as he pointed to it. "It's ugly."
"It is not ugly!" Rukia shrieked as she kicked his shin. "Chappy is really cute."
"How can you call this cute?" Ichigo snapped her as he hopped on one leg.
Rukia glared at him, pushing him off to one side so she could finish hammering the nail into the wall. "This is so annoying," she muttered to herself as she stood on her toes.
Ichigo watched her straining her arms for several seconds but he sighed when she almost hit her thumb for the tenth time. "Give me that," he ordered as he took the hammer from Rukia's grip.
"What are you doing?" she asked him.
"I'm hammering in the nail for you," he said, "You'll end up hurting yourself if I let you continue."
"Are you saying I'm incompetent?"
Ichigo rolled his eyes. "No, I'm just telling you you're too short, midget."
Rukia kicked his shin again and left the room after getting a satisfying yelp from him.
End of Flashback
A small smile tugged on his lips as he thought about the smallest of things that was reminding him of Rukia. She had already become such a part of his life that he couldn't go or look anywhere without images of her cute face popping up. Even the fights they had were memorable. No matter what, even the smallest things he complained about would get her so mad at him that he would have bruises all over his leg from her vicious kicks. It wasn't that he liked those kinds of foreplay, but he just thought it was too cute when her eyebrows furrowed and her lower lip stuck out into a pout.
The smile quickly died when he thought about his current situation. The scared look on her beautiful face when she was being dragged away broke his heart. If his father hadn't stepped in the moment he did, Ichigo might have gone crazy and killed anyone who was trying to keep Rukia away from him.
A sigh passed his chapped lips as he rolled onto his stomach. He winced slightly from the pain but quickly relaxed when he grabbed Rukia's pillow and inhaled it deeply under him. The sweet lavender scent filled his entire body and made him feel light.
It was like a drug. And he was totally addicted to it.
Soon, the smell lulled him to sleep.
"So how's Ichi-nii doing?"
"Don't worry about him, my angel. Your big brother is a strong man, though not as strong as me—"
"I didn't ask about you!" Karin yelled.
Isshin threw his head back and laughed out loud. "My dear daughter, do not worry too much. Everything will be alright."
A sigh came from the other end of the phone. "Fine. Just call us if anything happens."
"Of course I will," Isshin replied, "After all, you so graciously agreed to help your brother by acting deadly ill. I'll make sure you're the first person Ichigo calls when Rukia-chan comes back to us."
"Still, I can't believe she's in high school. They sure did fool us," she groaned.
Isshin smiled. "I think it's kinky."
"Shut up! I don't want to know about that!" she yelled before slamming the phone down, ending the call. Isshin just kept his grin as he gently placed the phone back into its receiver. He took a look around the room and noticed how the rain hadn't let up yet. January was coming to an end but for some reason it didn't stop raining. Only two days ago it snowed for a while but it quickly melted away when it started to rain again.
It seemed Masaki was crying for her son in heaven.
Ichigo, who was finally able to get up after doing nothing but lying on his bed for several days straight, started cleaning up his room. It was still a mess from when Byakuya came and packed up Rukia's stuff. Thankfully neither his father nor his friends touched anything and left everything for Ichigo to clean up. Not that he liked doing this but it allowed him to keep his mind occupied while waiting for his body to recover.
He sighed as he rearranged the books on his desk. Everything felt like it was on hold with Rukia gone. And since he didn't have to go to school, it gave him time to think about what he could do once he got to the Kuchiki mansion…
Which was another problem since he didn't know where it was.
Frustrated with all the thinking, Ichigo pulled out his chair and sat down. He buried his head in his hands as he tried to remember anything Rukia might have said to give him hints on where it might be, but he was just drawing up blanks.
"This is fucked up," he muttered as he looked around his desk. After he and Rukia started sleeping together, she barely used the other room again. She pretty much moved all of her stuff into his room so maybe… "There's gotta be something here," he told himself as he started rummaging through his stuff again.
Ichigo looked between his books and his stack of ungraded papers. Nothing. He pulled open each drawers. Nothing. He checked the bookshelf. Nothing. He even looked inside and under the pencil holder. Still nothing.
A good thirty minutes passed when he sat back down with a more hopeless expression.
"That bastard did a really good job taking all of Rukia' stuff," he huffed. Now it seemed even more impossible to get back Rukia, no matter what kind of state he was in.
He dropped his head on his desk and merely let his eyes roam around the desk and the opened drawers. He grunted as he stretched to close the top drawer when a small glimmer caught his eyes. Ichigo lifted his head as his fingers reached inside and pulled out a random object.
"What the…" His voice got caught in his throat when he realized what he was looking at.
A Chappy the rabbit cell phone charm that he had picked up the first day he met Rukia.
Even though people would have called him unmanly, it didn't stop Ichigo from letting a tear slip out of his eye and landing on the desk. But seriously, who could blame him? Here he was, holding the very object that represented the very day he met his soulmate.
But it was also the day that they had signed their faith.
Knock knock
"Who is it?" Ichigo asked, his voice slightly choking as he continued to stare at the ugly rabbit.
Isshin gently opened the door and walked over to the desk. "I brought you some hot chocolate. Yuzu called and told me your mother's recipe. Here."
Ichigo merely nodded but didn't even accept the mug his father was holding out to him.
Noticing his son was entranced with something else, Isshin placed the hot beverage on the desk before sitting on the bed to stare at his son's still form. "What's that?" he asked.
"Rukia's charm," Ichigo smiled as he twirled the string in between his fingers. "She dropped it the very first day we met. Now that I think about it, I forgot to give it back to her and it just got lost in my drawer."
"Looks cute."
"Psch," Ichigo snorted, "I'm sick of seeing this ugly thing around the apartment. But Rukia won't let me get rid of anything Chappy related or else she would kick me."
Isshin chuckled. "I always knew you'd get a woman who could kick your ass. Just like your mother and me."
Ichigo nodded. "Yeah, I really thought I found the one."
"You did find the one," Isshin corrected him.
But Ichigo just sighed as he sat up straight and fisted the charm in his hand. "What makes you so sure? I don't even know where to start looking for her and there isn't much time left!" He turned around and looked straight into his father's eyes with lots of emotions: exhaustion, suffering, longing and desperateness. "What if I can't get her back?"
Isshin glared at his son. "Why are you asking such stupid questions? Do you doubt Rukia-chan's love for you? Do you doubt your own heart?"
"No, that's not what I'm—"
"Then stop stalling and go after her!" Isshin snapped at him with blazing eyes. "Do not question something when the answer is already in front of you."
"But how do I get to her?" Ichigo asked, his voice begging for some kind of help.
Isshin shook his head. "I don't know since I don't know much about Rukia-chan," he said, "But you do. So think. Who can you ask for help?"
Ichigo opened his palm and stared down at the charm in his hand. "Ishida already tried to get some info about the Kuchiki's but it was restricted. And Chad got absolutely nothing about transferring or whatnot. It seemed Rukia just…vanished."
"Well, that's not possible since you're holding the very proof that she was here and waiting for you somewhere," Isshin told him. He reached over and placed a reassuring hand on Ichigo's shoulder. "You just started. I'm sure you're overlooking something that's right in front of you."
As his thumb traced over Rukia's name on the phone strap he asked, "Why did you come here anyways, dad?"
Isshin looked at him before reaching into his pocket. He rummaged around for awhile before pulling something out. "Because I wanted to give you this." He grabbed Ichigo's free hand and placed a small box in his palm. "I wanted to give it to you as a Christmas present but I didn't want Rukia-chan to find out."
Ichigo blinked when his father removed his hand for him to look at the box thoroughly. It was a small black box, and when Ichigo opened it, he couldn't stop a gasp. "This is…"
Isshin nodded. "Your mother's engagement ring. I want you to give it to Rukia-chan."
"Dad—"
"I know Masaki would have wanted this," Isshin smiled slightly, "Give it to her and I promise you two will be as happy as we were."
Ichigo stared at his father before looking down at the glimmering diamond ring in the center of the box. He had to admit, his father had picked out a really beautiful ring for his mother, and it would look even more perfect if it was on Rukia.
A smile came across Ichigo's face as he gripped the box tightly in one hand and Rukia's old cell phone charm in the other. "Thanks dad," he said. His eyes suddenly became ablaze with new determination as his brain started functioning properly again. Isshin could literally see plans forming inside.
Isshin nodded. "Anything for you. Now go get her and give me grandchildren."
Instead of retaliating like he usually does, Ichigo just nodded. "I'll be back," he said before grabbing his jacket and rushing out the door.
Isshin remained in his spot on the bed as he heard the front door click shut. A warm smile spread across his face. "See Masaki? I told you I did a good job with our son."
You sure did.
Ichigo quickly knocked on the door and waited as he heard noises from the other side.
"Just a second," someone called out before he heard the locks being undone and the door swinging open. The person on the other side of the door gasped. "Ichigo? What are you doing here this late? I thought you were in Tokyo."
Ichigo shook his head. "No time for that. Can I come inside?"
The person frowned before stepping aside. "You're lucky my parents are out right now."
"Thanks," he said as he went inside and closed the door behind him. "Tatsuki, I really need your help."
The young woman crossed her arms and continued to frown. "With what? It's a bit suspicious when your teacher suddenly comes over so late without warning."
"I'm not here right now as your teacher," Ichigo told her.
"What?"
Ichigo took a deep breath before he fell down on his knees in front of his old childhood neighbor.
"Ichigo?" she gasped. And she got even more surprised when he placed both hands on the floor and bowed his head.
"Please," he said in a small but desperate tone, "I need your help not as your teacher…but as your best friend's boyfriend."
Silence.
The two remained very still in their positions as the rain storm continued outside. Finally, after what seemed liked forever to Ichigo, she responded. "WHAT?"
Ichigo kept his head down. "I need you to help me get back Rukia."
Tatsuki's jaw fell to the floor and she was gaping at him like a fish. "R-Ru—Rukia? Kuchiki Rukia? MY Rukia?"
"Yes," he answered, not flinching even once as she shouted at him.
"WHAT THE FUCK?" Tatsuki reached over and grabbed his collar to pull him up towards her. "You mean to say you're involved with Rukia?"
Ichigo nodded.
Her eyes suddenly darkened with rage as she raised a fist and slammed it across his cheek. "Do you have any idea what you're doing?"
Ichigo groaned as the pain spread across his entire face with even more intensity since she punched the same spot Byakuya's bodyguards punched him several days ago. "I am aware. But right now, it's more important to save Rukia before you start lecturing me."
His words suddenly sent shockwaves through her body, freezing her before she could throw another punch. "What do you mean 'save her'?"
Ichigo looked up at her before saying, "Her brother found out. A few days ago he came and took her away."
Tatsuki's grip immediately came undone as she took a step back. "N-no way. That guy actually came here?"
Again Ichigo nodded.
"AUGH!" She ran her hair through her short hair as she started muttering incoherent words. "I can't—that dick—Ru—shit—"
Ichigo, who fell back on the floor, just watched as he waited for her to get it out of her system.
"Son of a—police—damn—mhmm—crap—prison—"
"You done?" Ichigo asked.
Tatsuki glared at him. "It's your fucking fault Rukia is back in that hellhole."
Another weight of guilt fell on his shoulders. Ichigo looked down at his fisted hands on top of his bent knees. "I know. That's why I have to get her back and make up for it all."
Another round of silence enveloped them as Tatsuki continued to glare at him. "How can I possibly trust you when you took advantage of my best friend?"
"I didn't use her!" Ichigo snapped at her, this time glaring, "I love her!"
Tatsuki was taken aback by his sudden confession. She gapped at him before clenching her fists again. "Yeah right! How can I believe—"
"Believe me," Ichigo said, staring straight into her eyes with every form of seriousness.
To say it startled Tatsuki to see her old babysitter looking at her with so much emotion would be an understatement. But she did well on concealing her shock by grabbing his collar again. "If you go back on your words, I won't hesitate to call the cops."
Ichigo didn't even flinch. "I'll hand you the phone."
With a nod, Tatsuki released her hold and went to the living room. "I don't know her address but I have an idea who might."
"Who? Matsumoto? Hinamori?" Ichigo asked, not liking the idea of having more people know about his secret relationship with Rukia.
Thankfully, Tatsuki shook her head. "Just hold on a sec." she said to him as she grabbed her phone and started to dial a number. She held the phone up to her ear and waited for the call to go through. "Hello? Yes, this is Arisawa Tatsuki. How have you been? Yeah, well, I actually have a question. I wanted to know his new phone number…yes…what was that again?" she asked before slowly walking off to her room to speak more privately.
Noticing there was nothing he could do but wait, Ichigo walked over to the living room and sat down on the black couch. He looked around noticing that much has changed since he last visited the Arisawa house. There were trophies and certificates of all the martial art competition Tatsuki and her family have won over the years. It sure did bring back memories…
"Okay, he'll be here in a few hours," Tatsuki announced when she came back.
"Who?"
She smirked at him. "You'll see."
-Few Hours Later-
"No fucking way."
Tatsuki rolled her eyes. "He's the only one who can help you now so suck up your stupid pride and listen to him."
Ichigo crossed his arms in front of his face, making an 'x.' "I don't care. He's the last guy I want to help me."
"Eugh, you're being stupid," she groaned.
"Leave him be, Tatsuki. I'm sure he's still angry with what happened a few months ago," the other person said.
Tatsuki looked up at him and before frowning at Ichigo. "Don't tell me you're still stuck up about that?"
"Maybe."
"Errr," she growled, "Ichigo, that was a long time ago! Besides, Renji didn't do it for no reason!"
"Then why did he do it?" he snapped back.
Renji scratched his head in irritation. "Well, what do you expect when you find out the girl you've been in love with since forever is suddenly going out with some other dude? Not to mention they live together."
Tatsuki nodded. "See Ichigo? He had a rea…son…" her voice trailed off as she looked at her friend, "What?"
"How did you find out about me and Rukia?" Ichigo asked his face suddenly serious from the unexpected information.
Renji groaned, knowing he was going to get hit again. "Well, that day when we went over to your apartment for a study group…when Rukia ran back to grab something, I decided to wait outside and walk her home. But…she never came back out."
Ichigo eyes widened.
"And since you lived only on the second floor, I could see things really clearly," he continued, "I saw you two kissing and suddenly the lights went off. After that, well…"
Tatsuki's eyebrows narrowed. "Don't tell me you were the one who started the rumor of Ichigo living with a student."
Instead of answering, Renji merely looked away. But that was enough to give the other two the truth.
"Tsk," Ichigo scratched the back of his head as he looked away, "I guess it could be seen as some sort of reason. Thankfully we didn't get caught by the school, so I guess I'll just let this one slide."
Now at this point a sensible person would have stop, but Renji couldn't get rid of Rukia's tear-stained face from his mind. If she wouldn't hit him like the scum he really was, then getting beaten up by her boyfriend would have to do. "There's more."
The two looked back at him. "What?"
Renji lowered his head and squeezed his eyes shut. "I was the one who told Kuchiki Byakuya-sama about you living with Rukia!"
Silence.
Then…SMACK!
"Eugh!" Renji groaned as he flew back, but he didn't land on anything when a strong hand grabbed his collar and pulled him back up.
"WHAT?" Ichigo screamed up at his face.
"Ichigo!" Tatsuki pulled back his other arm to stop the second punch, "Stop this!"
"Why should I?" he yelled at her, "It's because of this punk that Rukia got taken away!"
"But at least he's offering to help now!" she tried to reason with him but it wasn't working.
Ichigo growled again as he tried to deliver the second punch. "How can I believe him? He might be trying to lead me into a trap and separate me from Rukia for good!"
"But still—"
"Tatsuki."
The young woman looked over to see her friend, head facing down, talking to her with a cut lip. "It's okay. Let him hit me. I deserve it."
"Renji…"
"It's okay really," he said as he looked up with a small sad smirk on the corner of his mouth. "I would feel a hell of a lot better if I get the light punched out of me. If he doesn't do it, I might ask someone else to do it instead."
Tatsuki bit her lower lip before slowly releasing Ichigo's arm. The moment it was free, Ichigo threw another hard punch, sending Renji out of his grasp and on the ground.
"Ack," Renji gasped as he tried to sit back up. He brought up a hand and wiped away some blood on his face before looking up at Ichigo. He didn't say anything but was silently telling him that he was ready for more.
Ichigo glared at his former student, sitting with a bloody lip and nose, waiting for him to deliver even more hits.
"He's my best friend."
A soft memory in the snow flashed through Ichigo's head.
"When I ran away from home he and his family quickly took me in and cared for me."
Ichigo continued to stare at the young man who was clenching his eyes shut, waiting for the next hit. His entire body was tense, obviously knowing the hits were going to be extremely painful. But he flinched when a hand lightly landed on top of his head. His eyes flew open and looked up.
"That's enough," Ichigo said to him, "If I continue, Rukia would get mad at me."
Renji just stared at him before looking down again. "You don't have to worry about that. I ruined our friendship the moment I told her brother. And things got even worse when I forced a kiss on her."
The hand on Renji's head twitched a bit as it slipped off.
"You what?" Tatsuki gapped at him.
He looked away. "I was kinda stupid and thought Rukia was being taken advantage by Kurosaki. But when she kept defending him…I kissed her to try and force her to see the 'light,'" he air-quoted.
"You're no help," she groaned, "You're just made this worse."
"She pretty much yelled at me that our friendship is now over." His fists tightened as he glared at the ground. "I know I fucked up but I want to help her before I fuck things up even more."
The other two remained silent for awhile before she snorted. "At least you noticed your wrongdoing."
"…Yeah."
Ichigo just exhaled a deep breath to calm himself, forcing him to repeat Rukia's words in his mind. "That doesn't matter since she really cares about you." He paused when Renji looked back up at him. "Besides, she makes quick decisions that she doesn't keep later on. When things calm down, I know she would want to fix your friendship."
Renji's eyes immediately softened as memories of the good ol'times flashed before him as Tatsuki ran over to help her friend up. "You're lucky," she smiled at him.
Renji nodded, also with a small smile. "Yeah, I guess I really am."
"So, how can we get to Rukia?" Ichigo asked.
Renji looked at him and smirked. "Easy. Through the front door."
A/N: …
The ending is not really up to my taste, since I kinda ended the fight between Ichigo and Renji really quickly…but I have to go meet up with my friends for some fireworks so I can't write any more! Sorry, but I hope this was good enough. Here, I wanted to show Renji finally getting back his senses by agreeing to help out Ichigo. Just like in the SS arc in the manga, he first does something wrong (because of a misunderstanding) but quickly tries to make up for it. I really liked writing this part but it just didn't end well...
It wasn't until a several chapters ago that I remembered I never wrote about what happened to the phone charm so I decided to use it here and I think it was a good thing. And for those of you who think it's impossible for Ichigo or Rukia to forget that phone charm, I came up with two decent explanations:
1) Ichigo is so messy that he just piled things in his drawer and the charm got lost.
2) Ever since Rukia met Ichigo, thing has been so hectic that she had forgotten about the charm.
Do these sound good? Hopefully.
And if anyone is curious, I added something sweet after Isshin's last words before he got cut off. I'm sure you guys already figured it out but that was suppose to be Masaki, whispering to him. The reason I put that in here was to show that her spirit is always with her family, watching over them and supporting them in silence. So I just included a sweet sentence to bring out some "awwww" from the readers. But it's not anything big so don't think it's going to play a part later on…because it's not.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to REVIEW!
Next chapter:
Breaking into the Kuchiki Mansion...and is Ichigo wearing a wig? O.o
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